Week 8 already!

Time has flown by this week!!!  Nausea has come back with a vengeance, and the heartburn...oh Mt Vesuvius in my chest...I can finally feel the hard spot that is my uterus, which is really cool.  I'm just waiting to hear the heartbeat.  I'm hoping to figure out how to use the Doppler later this week so I can see if I can catch it on video...

By the end of this week Baby Fish will be about 2" long!  You can see the brain through the skin on the back of the head, and he is moving a lot...I can't feel it yet, but he's moving!  You can see the fingers and toes!

His or her heart is beating strong and steady now.  Bones will start to form during this week as well.  Right now there is only cartridge and it will take a few weeks for the tiny skeleton to fully form.  This is the week that the things that make a boy or a girl will start to form.  It will still be weeks before we are able to find out...late November is the time frame.  Either way we are super excited for our little Guppie!!

Where I'm From

I have been lucky enough to be subbing for the last few days. In one of the classes the assignment was to read the poem "Where I'm From" by George Ella Lyon then to use a template to create your own version of this poem. I loved it so much I created my own.

I am from art supplies,
From pontoon boats and stained glass.
I am from painted walls, messy rooms and barking dogs.
It smelled like a home-cooked meal.
I am from the lilac bush,

The irises, 

Fragrant, vibrant and full of memories.
I am from summers with Grandparents 

And nonsense poems 

From JoMama and JoPapa and Travis.
I am from throwing the penalty flag at the Tv and Christmas scavenger hunts.

From hence and I love you.
I'm from faith, family and country.
I'm from Kansas City and across the globe, 

Peggy Rolls and buttermilk cookies.
From the grandfather who played the organ for the St. Louis Cardinals 

And learning to touch my tongue to my nose.
I am from helping neighbors and impromptu dinners.
Smithville, MO

Lucky 7

Week 7.  Baby fish looks less like a sea monkey, and more like a baby human!  There are stumps for the arms and the legs, and little buttons where the hands and feet belong!  By the end of this week the palms of the hands will be visible.  He is about the size of a blueberry, .25 inches long!

Baby's heart is larger and the brain and spinal cord is almost developed, no where near the right size or place but it's there.  Muscles are present and coordinated enough that Baby Fish can move on its own.  He may have a huge head, but he also has nostrils!  This is what he should look like by the end of this week!

Some of my symptoms have all but disappeared...odd cravings have started, which has spawned my Instagram series #BabyMadeMeDoIt   but you have to follow me to be able to see any of my photos...too many creepers.  There are other symptoms...I haven't really been able to use the bathroom in almost a week...

Thump-thump, thump-thump

7:20am - We are in the car, driving to the appointment where we should be able to see Baby Fish's heartbeat. To say I'm nervous is an understatement. I'm excited and terrified. We haven't had the best luck with pregnancy and my fear is that today will be a repeat of the past. I hope my fear is wrong.

My symptoms have all but disappeared. Only occasional nausea! I am still fatigued, and oh buddy don't touch my chest....and the little cramps, still there....

Appointment is at 8am...we will know then!

Well we couldn't record it, but we got to see Baby Fish, and the heartbeat was around 127 bpm.  Growing right on target!!!  My next appointment is 5 weeks from now...

Week 6!

I wanted to blog this adventure because I can...and because it will be fun to look back years from now to see what I went through to get the miracle I have been praying for.

My symptoms were expected, and some unexpected.  I expected the nausea, the tiredness, but I wasn't expecting to feel full all of the time...a heaviness in my stomach.  It's completely normal...I have read a lot of books over the years, to prepare myself for pregnancy, and to try to understand what was going to happen...they never mentioned this.  It's doable, just wish someone had told me to expect it!

As I got closer to Week 6 my symptoms came and went, the nausea is not near as bad as it was, now it's just triggered by intense smells...like cigars...ewww!  I also haven't been able to take my allergy medicine so I'm sneezing a lot.

Baby Fish will look something like this by the end of this week:

Ain't he cute?!?  No longer a sea monkey with a tail and looking more like a baby every day!  In a few days we get to go to the doctor again for another scan and we should be able to see the heartbeat!  He also has his own blood supply, which may be different than my own!  If we see the heartbeat and they will let me, I want to record a short video!  We'll see!

On another note I will be subbing again soon, so I spent part of today in the stained glass studio working on a project for Baby Fish!  I can cut glass, grind and foil, but I will have to wear a respirator and wear gloves to handle the solder and other chemicals that are necessary to finish stained glass.  Or I can trade duties with someone I trust to make the project pretty...

Lists

I was cleaning out my purse so I could switch to a smaller one that is cross body...and I came across the list that I wrote last Sunday.

At that point I was three days late, and I thought, well if I haven't started by morning then I'll take a test just to see...Little did I know what was in store for us!

Five Weeks into a new adventure

Wow, time flies!  As of today I am officially in week 5 of my pregnancy!  I still get giddy when I think of the little miracle God has given us, that is growing inside of me!  I have a ton of people thinking and praying for us, it is truly amazing!!!

A new adventure!

8/3/15 Oh how life changes in a moment!  Two years ago I never thought I would wake up one morning and get a positive pregnancy test!  And oh boy was it positive!!!  Usually as early in as I was at that point the test should have been the opposite, with the first line being faint and the second bold...as you can clearly see the test is Super dark pregnant and a faint control line...wowza!

I told a few people but wanted to wait to tell most until I saw my bean on ultrasound. Ectopic pregnancies are rare, only 2%, but I have had two already, and I want to make sure we are on the right track before shouting our news from the rooftops, or blog about it!  So I called the Dr, and went in for blood work, the pregnancy has been confirmed and my levels are high!  HcG is 1927 and progesterone is 20.73; right where it should be!  They rescheduled my appointment on Wednesday so they could do an ultrasound as you can generally see something when your levels reach 1000.

I'm so excited to see my little bean growing and to blog about it!!!  I beat infertility!

8/4/15 Yeah, nausea and super sniffer right here! Not to mention I need a nap...  and yes I am loving it! The "morning sickness" is really mostly at night...whatever made me think it was smart to eat a chili cheese dog for dinner....

8/5/15 I finally slept well...my neighbor told me that I shouldn't take my prenatal at night, the vitamins were most likely giving me energy and keeping me up...lol...whoops...And my addiction to coffee...yeah, I can at most stomach one cup and I'm done.  So that will be a habit that I can drop pretty soon.  I have been fortunate so far that the lack of caffeine has not given me any headaches!!  Well we are headed off to the Dr soon!  We being my mom, and my neighbor's daughter who I am watching until school starts!!!

And it is official!!!  There is a bean there, you can only see the sac right now, but it tells us that we are in the right place!  So far, so good.  We will be going back on the 18th to do another scan that should show us the baby, and we will get a better estimated due date...right now they are saying April 10th based on my LMP...

I know that it is fairly early (I'm only 4 weeks) but with my past history I want all of the prayer warriors I have to be praying for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy mom!!!

Photo Challenge - Photo 55, Selfie! My final photo!!!

And it's finally here!  My last photo challenge photo!!!  We are back where we started with a selfie...

I have already started my list for next summer's photo challenge, but you'll have to follow me on instagram to see it.  I will post there and it will also post to facebook and twitter instead of a blog post.

Photo Challenge - Photo 54, Minions

Finally!  The picture I have been looking forward to all summer!  Minions!!!  Those that know me know that I have a small minion obsession...ok it's huge.  During glass camp this year I decided that I wanted to make a minion sun-catcher.  I couldn't find a pattern so I drew one up!  And was able to give him to my bestie sister today as a housewarming gift!  He's so cute!!!