Week 5: Called up Andrew from work told him that I might be pregnant! His reaction? "Why do you have to tell me in the middle of the work day? Now my day just got longer waiting for you to come home!" :P On my way home, bought the home pregnancy test, not too anxious about getting home quick as we have been down this road before and it had always been negative... but ALAS it was POSITIVE! The very next day I called my OB doc, scheduled me the SAME DAY! Blood test confirmed so he had to start me on progesterone pills being that my hormones were low and progesterone is in charge of making the baby 'stick' to the uterine wall. So off I go with good news. WHAT WAS REALLY GOING THRU MY HEAD? I wasn't sure if it was too early to tell my family yet given my history of miscarriage. But I figured, if something were to happen I will be needing my family's support again like they have given before. So, called up our parents and gave them the good news with special instructions to wait for a few more weeks before telling the extended family.
Week 8: Nausea has set in and fatigue was definitely getting in the way of work! And... we got to see our lil peanut this week! I was sent for my first ultrasound to check for heartbeat. WHAT WAS REALLY GOING THROUGH MY HEAD? Fear and anxiety, this was around the time last time we found out that the embryo did not survive. But behold, I cried seeing the lil heartbeat on the ultrasound :)(Click for bigger pic)
Week 12: Another routine appt with the doc, around this time you may be able to hear the heartbeat with a doppler. We went in and we didn't hear it, I was scared. The doc reassured that it's not always the case at 12 weeks but I was still a little worried. I was planning on telling the family at our family reunion in Canada about the little one on the way but I wanted to make sure everything was ok. My sweet OB doc sent me for an ultrasound anyway after telling him about my plan. And again, we saw our little one! We were ecstatic and couldn't wait to tell everybody! Here's our first peek of our active lil one:
Week 16: I was eating my breakfast, watching TV while Andrew was at work and I thought "Man, this cereal is going down pretty quickly!" Throughout the day, sporatically with or without food it felt that way! And it was always on the same spot! And I went back and read my pregnancy book and it was suggested that it may be the baby moving that I'm finally feeling! Sure enough it went on for days and it was a great, absolutely indescribable, blessed feeling :) It was also a week before that I stopped feeling nauseous! (yay!)
Week 20 The long anticipated week! We were going to find out what we're having this week! And it's a girl! She was breached and sitting indian style and the tech made a comment "well, I'm pretty sure it's a girl" So we asked what she meant by that and she just said that it was ok to buy 'girl stuff' but "save the tags" So we called up the family to share the news :) But then...
...a couple of days after, my OB doc called me with some news. He said that the latest ultrasound showed a Choroid Plexus Cyst in the baby's brain. The concern with this is that the cyst is normally linked to Trisomy 18 or 21 which are chromosomal abnormalities that is indicative of Edwards Syndrome or Downs Syndrome. We didn't know how to take the news because, like everybody, we were expecting a healthy normal baby. After much thought and talking with Andrew, we figured we were going to love our girl all the same, if it were meant to be that we have this baby and it was for a reason. There are some women out there who can't even bear a child so we were truly blessed. The doctor assured me though that my blood test that screens for this syndrome was negative and most cysts (not all) go away by the 28th week. He referred me to a perinatologist and for a level II ultrasound in 4 weeks to re-assess and get a better picture of the anatomy. Here she is again at 20 weeks :) (Click for bigger picture)
Week 21: Labor Day weekend! Andrew and I planned on telling the rest of the Floridian family the sex of the baby... plus... a little surprise! Here's a video: (you might have to press pause on the music player at the bottom of this page to hear this video)
My sister and I are 10 weeks apart! Our immediate family have known for a while and Marie just wanted to wait a few more weeks before telling the rest. My parents are ECSTATIC to expect their first grandbabies, 10 weeks apart, in 2010!
Week 24: We have expected this week for quite some time, we were to meet with the perinatologist to have a level 2 ultrasound to assess the baby's anatomy again. We were excited that they can finally tell us for sure the gender of the baby. We were also on the anxious side, hoping that everything was ok with the baby. The ultrasound images were definitely more defined. 4D images also were done and we saw our little girl (yes, that's right it's definitely a girl!) trying to move the cord away from her face and eventually frowning because she couldn't and ended up holding on to her cord. It was so cute! Also, some good news is the cyst is gone. It was a sigh of relief that everything was ok! We were on our phones and delivered the good news to our families :) And so here she is at 24 weeks and where my belly is at 24 weeks! (click for bigger image)
We are a little over halfway done and there may still be a few surprises on the way. We are just enjoying this journey and I'm glad you guys can join in with us and we're able to share it with yall. On a different note, with all these good news with our little family comes with an unexpected one. Andrew's mom got diagnosed with breast cancer 4 weeks ago. It is definitely unexpected at her young age and she is being such a trooper. She starts chemo tomorrow, and we asked if it was ok for us to tell people about this news. For her, the more people know the more prayers will come. So please help us with this journey and with your support she has something to hold on to and continue on with her positive atttitude :)
