Wednesday, June 26, 2013

A bit of a scare - but we are okay!

Last night I had a little bit of a scare, I was going to the bathroom and I noticed some blood when I wiped.  I wasn't sure exactly where it was coming from but quickly realized it was coming from my vagina.  I was so scared, but thankfully it was just some pink blood.  I went and laid down and went to check again and it was much less until the millionth time I went to the bathroom and it was finally brown. 

I called the on call doctor which just so happened to be MY doctor and she asked a few questions and said to call back if it continued or got worse.  So I made it through the night and had some more brownish blood this morning and called to make an appointment.  The doctor was pretty sure everything was okay, but you never know so I wanted to go in to calm my nerves.

Everything was okay!!  I may have "strained" a little too much if you know what I mean going to the bathroom and that may have been the reason for the blood, but the heartbeat was in the 140's and I got a short video of the ultrasound!!!

The baby isn't moving much but you can see the heartbeat and a little movement in the babies hands.
 
Other exciting news I found out yesterday I get to be an OB model for GE on August 14th so they will have some doctors using the 3D/4D equipment and I will get a CD of pictures and video of the ultrasound. 
 
Hopefully no more mid-week updates of this sort!  I don't want to see any more blood!!
 
Julie
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, June 24, 2013

17 Weeks

Happy dreary Monday everyone.  As I sit here I am debating whether I should be writing this or running to the pharmacy ... or bathroom.  I ran out of Zofran as of yesterday and I was supposed to go pick it up yesterday.  I forgot.  I'm kind of trying to see how the morning goes, but already it is starting to not feel so promising. 

Anyways, here we are ... week 17!  I can't believe it.  We had a nice weekend visiting the in-laws, but somehow being away from home gave me the itch to "get nesting".  So as soon as we got home I went to work cleaning.  We have a big task because remember weeks ago when I was so tired I couldn't clean.  Well apparently so was the Mr. because nothing got done.  Well I was cleaning away when the vacuum starting acting up and wasn't working properly.  Dick checked it out and I was right, the suction was poor.  So he pulled it apart and couldn't figure out how to fix it.  We decided this was the perfect opportunity to get a new one.  We have had that less than below average vacuum since we have been together, actually he had it long before and it got the job done...or so we thought. 

Being in the mood that I was in I couldn't hold myself back from running off to the store to scope out a new one.  Having a wonderful recommendation from my sister-in-law had me set on the brand I was going to buy.  A SHARK!  Well I found the one (that was on sale) and I had 30% off so I got it. 
Since I had just finished vacuuming it was the perfect opportunity to do the before and after test with the new one!  So here are the results:
This was after vacuuming just the area (one room and a rug) that had already been vacuumed.  Gross!!!  What an odd blessing in disguise.  With two dogs it has always been difficult to keep the carpet clean and knowing that this much extra filth was sitting in our carpet at all times makes me so happy we got this figured out before we have a baby crawling around on them.  This morning I finished the hall and other two rooms and the dirt pile was 3x as big.  I was never a big believer that different vacuums would make much of a difference.  I'm converted!  With the discount and sale price I picked up this bad boy for just around $140.  Well worth the investment!

Next topic, ...the time my Grandma was explaining our IVF.  Ohhhh Grandma...I went for a visit this week and she has been moved into an assisted living facility.  She was introducing me to her roommate (which ended up being a surprise that it was her maid of honor from her wedding and best friend...how cool right right?) and she was explaining to her that I was pregnant, but went on to explain. "Julie got pregnant because she had an implant put in....AND IT TOOK!"  My mom looked at me in horror and I just kind of shook my head.  Later I asked my Mom to explain to Grandma she can tell whoever she wants that I am pregnant, but maybe to just leave it at that.  Oh well, she is excited!

Anyways, I decided to do my picture today which is my work from home so you get to see me in all my no-make up, hair a-mess glory:
Julie

Monday, June 17, 2013

16 Weeks and the noticeable belly

4 months!  Now if you ask me I have had noticeable belly since post retrieval (before being pregnant) but now it seems as though others have started to notice and I'm pretty sure that I am loving it.    I've always been pretty self conscience of my weight and so feeling like I was looking heavy but not noticeably pregnant was honestly kind of difficult for me.  Is that something all first timers go though?

Let's see...still on Zofran as of today, but I feel like more and more each day I may be getting closer to not needing it.  I'm not ready to try to go without it quite yet though.  It has been nice not having to see my breakfast twice.  I also feel like much of my energy been slowly returning however, every time I feel good I think I start to abuse it and overuse my energy plus some and return back to feeling tired again. 

Yesterday was Father's Day and we had a nice day out at my Mom & Dad's.  We cooked lunch for them and my brother's family and then sat around in the afternoon and played cards on the deck since it was such a nice day.  I quickly learned that sunblock is going to be a must this summer.  In a very short time that my shoulder was not covered by the shade I got sun burnt!  Overall it was a really nice day and had little moments of excitement with others wishing the Mr. a happy Father's Day as well!

I can't believe in 4 weeks we will be 1/2 way!  I still keep wavering on my feelings of whether I think it is going to be a boy or girl.  Up to this point I was almost positive thinking it is a boy, but then this weekend I got thinking ...hey maybe girl.  Last night then I had my first dream that it was a BOY.  Who knows!  Only 24ish more weeks until we really find out, but so exciting to think about in the meantime. 

In case you are wondering we do have names picked out for both, but sorry we are not sharing :).  I figure we never really got to do the pregnancy surprise thing so we want to get to have the gender and name a surprise!

Julie

Picture to come tomorrow :)

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

15 Weeks

Yesterday marked 15 weeks!  I have a feeling with how busy it is going to be this summer the next few months are going to fly by.  Today I have my check up with the OB.  I'm hoping I might get another U/S since the Mr. couldn't make my last appointment and she mentioned she might do a quick one so he can see the baby.

I have been feeling really great!  I'm still on Zofran and need to be after doing a trial day without, but it is working and I will wait probably another week to try without it again.   This past week I thought I might have felt a little "something".  We were at our bean bag league last Thursday night and I was standing for awhile leaning on one leg and shifted to the other I felt a little flick right where my uterus would be.  I know that it would be really early to feel something and I haven't felt anything since but whether gas or baby movement I felt it and it made me happy!

This weekend I went to visit in Chicago!!!  My friend flew in from PA and the other lives in Chicago.  We had a great time.  Between eating fabulous meals and desserts I think I may have gained 50 pounds.  (I guess I will find out at the OB..eeeks!)  It was a little different than normal trips, I had to take it a little easier and took a few naps, but overall I was feeling so great that it didn't bother me.

Here is what we did:

Friday I picked Colleen up at the airport and we arrived mid-afternoon.  Our hostess Keely let us know there was a new place that just had opened up Parson's Fish and Chicken and that was where we were going to go for dinner.  The girls had "boozie slushies" and I held one up for show.


Next, we did some wondering around and stopped in at the most fancy Walgreens I have ever been to.  Apparently it had been converted from an old bank.  We found some yellow nail polish to help us with our theme color we had picked for the weekend.  YELLOW!
Saturday: We planned to dress in maxi dresses and accessorize with the color yellow!  We headed to a neighborhood festival called Bellwhether and had a lot of fun walking through the craft tents and what else but having snacks!





 




That afternoon we came back and decided to stop at a rooftop bar that we had stopped at on our last trip to Chicago Gene's Rooftop.  Here is an overview and in the mustard colored sweater you can see Keely's fiancĂ© Derek.  He was onboard with the color theme too!
 
 The girls enjoyed this fun grapefruit flavored beer and I had a lemonade.  I thought the can was cool!

 
Next we headed to Garcia's which was just a couple buildings down for dinner and Sangria.  The girls had to have 2 each.  One for me and one "for the baby".  After we headed back to relax for a bit and then headed out one more time to a bar called Ricochet's.  We watched a little bit of the hockey game that was going on and I enjoyed listening to the "post-sangria" conversations.
 
 Sunday we decided to head out to brunch to a place called Gather.  I guess I didn't get any photo's here, but I had a delicious soup called Ramen that included homemade noodles, beef broth, an egg, pork, jalapenos and radish.  It was a pretty unusual brunch item for me, but I liked it!

In the afternoon the girls decided I needed a mocktail!  So while I napped the girls headed to the store to pick up things for dinner and mocktails.  Don't they look beautiful?  While Derek cooked us chicken and asparagus on the grill we played rummy as we drank our mocktails.  That night we stayed in and watched the movie DJANGO.  I myself had to look away quite a few times in order to prevent myself from vomiting from some of the violence, but overall it was just kind of an odd movie.  At least there was some male nudity :).
 Monday was my final day.  We woke up and our hostess made us some wonderful French Toast for breakfast.  Then we headed off to the train to go to the Lincoln Park Zoo and have a picnic.  It was fairly cloudy, but the weather was so nice.
 This was a neat photo I got of the Lion while walking through the zoo!
 I guess I cannot fail to mention our stop at a Doughnut place in honor of (national doughnut day ---3 days late) called Glazed and Infused.    I was so full I ended up eating mine on the drive home and the samples we had shared with each other.  Can you see why I think I gained 50 pounds?! 
 
It was so worth it and we had an absolute blast!  We couldn't leave without starting to plan our next adventure which is going to be a little more difficult in the future planning around having a baby!  I'm sure it will work out though because it always does!
 
 
I will also try and update later today with baby's stats from todays appointment and not to get your hopes up, but I will try and get a video if they do ultrasound!
 
Update: No Ultrasound until 20 weeks, but did get to hear the heartbeat at 155bpm! 
 
Belly update:
 
 
Julie


Monday, June 3, 2013

14 Weeks - Second Trimester

Woah!  Here I am already in the second trimester.  This week it felt like things really moved UP internally.  Breathing is a little more difficult and the top of my belly has really started pushing out.  I think now I am really starting to look pregnant!  I had such a great weekend.  I have some pictures to share:

My Mom, Sister-in-law, a few friends and I had tickets to the musical Wicked!  We went a little early to hit up the Madison Farmer's Market and also to get a new pair of "summer" Toms.  So we hit up the farmer's market and enjoyed many of the cheese samples and then had lunch.  Before we had to head over to the show we hit up a store called Shoo and I found these!


Then we headed to the musical and I had already read the book, but most of us had not.  I wasn't sure what to expect because while I didn't hate the book, I really didn't care too much for it.  However, I had heard from a lot of people that the musical was awesome, and it was...


We had front row balcony seats which were great, but also a little scary since the aisle was pretty tight and the railing was low!


Overall, I LOVED the whole thing!  The singing was awesome and their take on the book was pretty accurate to the story line, but cut out so many of the things in the book that made it drag and boring.  I would definitely recommend seeing this if you get the chance! 

I've also been meaning to update some landscape/gardening work we have been doing around the house and I've got new pictures up!

Finally here is the 14 week picture update.  Like I said I can feel my "upper" belly starting to really push out and I really am looking pregnant and am starting to really enjoy it!


Haha...Bosko wanted in on the photo this morning :). 

Julie

The Chickee La La's

It took us years of discussion to finally pull the trigger on being "Chicken People".  Let me tell you why, our dog Lady has Cock...