baby z -- revealed!

this morning we went for the nt scan and bloodwork. the facilities were really nice, as was the staff. we watched baby z for at least 20 mins during the ultrasound and it was incredible! she was bouncing up and down and very active for the first 1/2 of the scan or so. her arms were moving all over the place--that's when kenny determined that baby z must be a girl b/c she seemed to be practicing playing with her (imaginary/undeveloped) hair. See the third image for a nice arm shot.

towards the end of the scan, baby z turned her back to us a few times--i think that was when she was getting sleepy. the woman performing the scan was getting a little annoyed by baby z's stubbornness to work with her and commented that baby z must be a boy. kenny quickly chimed in: "or maybe she's just like her mother." :) he could definitely be right!

kenny asked the woman performing the scan if she had any guesses on baby z's official sex. the woman took a moment and looked VERY quickly and said that she didn't see anything there, so her guess would be a girl, but that we shouldn't paint anything pink yet. i agree that it's still too soon, so i compromised by "painting" my personal info pink on the ultrasound pics! :)

13 wks

{{189 days to go.}}

so here we are at 13 wks (and 1 day technically). i added a 3rd shot. this is my view of 13 wks. notice how my belly is no longer symmetrically flat (or round for that matter)! and notice how my feet aren't in the shot when i look down! VERY SCARY for only 13 wks (and 1 day).

_________________

how far along: 13 wks 1 day
total weight gain/loss: well, i started out at 120.2. yesterday (when the photos were taken), i weighed 123.6--so an overall gain of 3.4lbs. but i just weighed myself a minute ago and it said 122.8. so the point, i guess, is that my weight fluctuates. hourly.
how big baby is: about the size of a peach--0.81 oz and 2.9 inches long!
maternity clothes: just the cute shirt in the pictures from a few posts ago, a pregnant lady cami, the sleep shorts in the pictures and a shirt to go with those shorts
stretch marks: nope
sleep: still the same
best moment this week: will be after we see baby z for the first time tomorrow morning at the nt scan!
movement: still none
food cravings: not so much lately
gender: still a mystery...maybe the person doing the nt scan will have an educated guess tomorrow ::fingers crossed::
labor signs: none
belly button: still in
what i miss: not being able to have a cup of regular coffee and a glass of sweet tea from cracker barrell in the same day :(
what i am looking forward to: the nt scan tomorrow! hopefully we'll get a picture of it too that i can post on here...and maybe facebook...and hopefully getting an "all clear" that my blood and the fluid in baby z's nuchal fold is normal!
weekly wisdom: that aetna covers BASIC fetal anatomy ultrasounds but NOT DETAILED fetal anatomy ultrasounds, so i must be careful what i ask for at my next appt when the 18wk ultrasound will be ordered.
milestone: seeing baby z's heartbeat and body and everything at the nt scan tomorrow! i'm SOOOOO excited! hope it all goes well! ill let you know asap!

we have an nt scan appointment!!

after NUMEROUS phone calls this morning, we officially have an appt for our nt scan and bloodwork! we go wednesday at 8:30am! and, the procedure SHOULD be covered by aetna! woo hoo! two good news bits today!

i can't wait to see baby z and make sure all looks good!

to scan or not to scan...

13wks 6days is QUICKLY approaching and thus we must schedule the nt scan and bloodwork if we are, in fact, going to go ahead with the scan.

my vote: yes.

kenny's vote: i see why you want it done and if it's under $xxxx, then yes, do it.

the pros...
1) it's the least invasive genetic screening currently available. it will tell us if baby z has a high risk or low risk of being born with trisomy 13, 18 or 21 (down's syndrome).
2) i will feel much better after getting the results and seeing that things look "normal", as it would be our first look at baby z.
3) it would give us plenty of time to have further testing done if we were high risk. we would have more time to make a decision and have more options.
4) we would have time to prepare ourselves mentally and financially for a special needs child if baby z has trisomy 21.
5) if baby z has trisomy 13 or 18 and we terminate the pregnancy, we will be ttc sooner and potentially pregnant again sooner.

the cons...
1) i'm not sure that the procedure is covered by insurance, so potentially $600+ out of pocket for us. YIKES! i could think of A LOT of things that that amount of money could buy.
2) if i don't get it done, i will wonder and wish that i would have had it done up until the moment that baby z is declared healthy after s/he comes out of my vagina--which is still a LONG TIME from now, as this pregnancy isn't even half over yet.
3) the scan could give us a false negative. WHICH WOULD BE BAD! and i'll probably still have that in the back of my mind until baby z is born.

i'm going to call aetna tomorrow to find out if the procedure is covered. i'm really hoping it is, then we can go ahead with it and i won't have any worries that we're wasting money on an unnecessary procedure.

BABY Z HAS A HEARTBEAT!!!

yesterday was our 2nd appointment! we saw the same midwife that we saw the first time and she was able to find baby z's heartbeat immediately with the doppler! baby z moved a little when she first found it, but then she found it again for a longer period of time. she said everything sounded and felt normal. i should've told kenny to count the beats so we could calculate the heart rate, but i think i was just expecting for it to not work again. i guess i tend to look at things negatively, but i don't have a negative attitude. it's weird, but i think i just prepare myself for the worst and then i can be excited when it isn't as bad as i originally anticipated. that's how i've been my whole life, so it's not just my thinking about baby z. anyway, while we were listening to baby z's heartbeat, i started laughing (i've read on thebump where some pregnant ladies cry) but my laugh+the doppler=horribly loud sound! it was just SO NEAT to hear that there is indeed something beating in my belly!

after the appointment, we headed to the mall. we started at international, but didn't make it past the restroom at dillards. i decided i wanted to go to westshore instead. "pea in a pod" is nice, but it's TOTALLY a splurge store in my opinion. my thoughts: im only going to be wearing maternity clothes for a few months (hopefully) so why spend so much on a shirt? "motherhood maternity" and "old navy" seem to be better choices for everyday, casual maternity clothes.

we went to MM first and we found some stuff. i tried on everything we'd picked out BEFORE the helpful saleswoman explained what the funny shaped pillow on the bench in the dressing room was for. maybe i'm just dense or am just SO not thinking baby yet, but i made kenny take a photo because it was so flipping neat. the saleswoman said i probably wouldn't be this big until my 7th or 8th month, but that it's good to get an idea of what the clothes will look like at that size.


i was too lazy to take off my capris to try on the sleep shorts, so my white capris are in the photo. kenny picked out the shirt, but i won't be able to wear it for a while. who knows if the shirt will even fit when i'm that big. i think that when i'm at this stage (without the pillow), strangers will just feel sorry for me--they won't even read the shirt. lol.

here's one more pic. notice the lumpiness of the pillow baby. i hope that my actually tummy will not look like that. EVER.


after we did some damage at MM, we went to old navy. ON turned up nada. i did try out a possible jacket for when we go to vegas for thanksgiving. i think it may be cold while we're there, but it's hard to know how big i'll be in that time. maybe i won't need a maternity jacket. i'll keep my fingers crossed!

after the mall, we stopped by the "once upon a child" in south tampa. we didn't see anything we needed right now, but kenny did find a crib for $50. but i shot him down because i'm a little leary about buying a crib that i have no way of knowing what brand it is. i want to at least know whether the thing has been recalled before i drop $50 on it. i know $50 for a crib is a fabulous deal, but i haven't completely decided against the $500 ones i've seen elsewhere. is that wrong? it's like i go back and forth. there's nothing wrong with buying things other people have used, but if it was originally only $150, then i'd rather spend the original amount and get a brand new one. i guess the deal needs to be AMAZING for me to go for it without taking some time to think about it (and take the risk of missing out on the deal). plus, we don't know whether baby z is a he or a she (and frankly my strong feeling of baby z being a she dissipated after hearing the heartbeat), so why rush and buy a white crib when baby z may, very well be, a he.

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appointment 2 updates:
weight: the scale at the office said 126! yikes! 4 lbs gained? really? the scale at home said i weighed 124.6 before i left (with the same outfit and shoes on). maybe i'll use the scale at home so i can provide weekly updates with weekly belly pics.
edd: still 4/6/2010, which probably won't change until/unless we get the nt scan which we are definitely considering (more on that later)
next appt: wednesday, october 21st; the midwife will order the 18wk ultrasound to determine fetal anatomy! yay! we should know before thanksgiving whether baby z will be a he or a she! the midwife will also order the AFP if we want it (which i think i might, but i haven't done enough "research" yet)

i can't wait!

i'm SO excited about our appointment today! it sucks that we have to wait so long! it'll be forever before 3:30pm gets here! and what's even suckier is that the only thing we MIGHT experience at the appointment is the heartbeat! the suckier part is that we might only hear it, in case that wasn't clear. :)

i have to remember to:
1) weigh myself with clothes on before the appointment to compare my scale at home with the scale at the doctor's office
2) bring a book for myself and a book for kenny because appointment times are merely guidelines and it takes FOREVER to be seen
3) pack a snack and a bottle of water in my gigantic $7 target beach bag that also functions as a purse since my hunger will be in FULL THROTTLE at 3:30pm...although i did hear that there's a mcdonalds in TGH...hmmm....maybe i'll intentionally NOT pack a snack...

okay, that's all for now. more on the appointment, after the appointment. :)

i found this on someone else's blog and thought it was great! from now on, i'm going to update it each time i update my belly pics.

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how far along: 12 weeks
total weight gain/loss: i'll let you know after our appointment on wednesday
how big baby is: about the size of a plum--2.1 inches in length and 0.49 oz!
maternity clothes: just the bella band we bought a few weeks ago
stretch marks: none yet and there better not be after all the $ spent on that cream!
sleep: sleep is good. i could do without the getting up to pee part though.
best moment this week: i guess this means of the past week, so technically week 11, since week 12 just started. hmmm, taking 1-3 bites of kenny's tuna sandwich from panera!
movement: not yet
food cravings: it just depends on the moment. right now, i could go for those guava bites publix makes in the bakery. mmmmmmm. i hate thinking about cravings, because then i want them really bad!
gender: mrs.az: definitely a girl kenny: it's 50-50 right now, but i'll say 60-40 girl
labor signs: nope
belly button: in! is it going to be going out? is this another pregnancy change/symptom that others have failed to mention???
what i miss: getting to have my OWN tuna sandwich from panera bread!
what i am looking forward to: our appointment this wednesday! we should hear baby z's heartbeat with the doppler (if we really are 12wks and all is going well). yea! :)
weekly wisdom: um...nothing comes to mind really...
milestone: none yet...hopefully hearing baby z's heartbeat in two days!

12 wks today!

{{196 days to go.}}

so i don't know that there are any noticeable changes from wks 10-12 to the outside world, but i can see a difference when i look at my body! kenny says it just looks like i'm "rocking the beer gut," which REPULSES me. i hate feeling like people are thinking 'wow, she's getting fat,' instead of, 'oh look, a cute pregnant lady.' i just don't want people to think, 'wow, she looks like she's gonna pop,' but that's what they will say one day (hopefully, if things go well and baby z is developing normally) and that will be a good thing.

i'm still trying to figure out which shot i like best for the belly pics. actually, i take it back, i KNOW that I like the one that just shows my belly (the image below), but kenny insists that my face has to be in the photo! we've reached a compromise-- i will post both each time. :)

the ladies on thebump say that around 16wks is when they "popped." i hope it takes me that long. the longer i can go without maternity clothes, the better!

our first purchases for baby z

we picked up this beautiful mirror for twenty bucks at "once upon a child" two saturdays ago! even though we don't officially know what sex baby z will be, i'm pretty positive that baby z will be a she. even if i am wrong, we just couldn't pass up the mirror! maybe we'll get to use it one day and if not, we could always sell it back to "once upon a child."

while we were out shopping, we also picked up this set of books that i knew that i wanted for our baby even before we knew we were pregnant. i had the same set of books when i was small and it was mandatory for this set of books to be a part of our child('s/ren's) library. the best part was the set was a quarter of the price that i saw online and the books look BRAND NEW! i was SO excited about the books--maybe even more excited than the mirror!

we also picked up a few more other books--a few by Dr. Seuss, Peter Rabbit, and a book of songs and short stories. i absolutely love shopping for books! and i love shopping for baby z! i can't wait to start working on the bedding and curtains for the nursery with my grandma! my plan is to start with the baby girl nursery even before our sonogram at 16-18wks. then, if we find out it's a boy, i'll switch to the baby boy nursery. if we finish the baby boy nursery before baby z is born, i'll go back and finish the baby girl stuff. that way, i'll have made one set for each sex. :) we'll see how it goes though. kenny always says, "it's good to have goals." :)

belly pics!

one of the things im most excited about is taking belly pics as the weeks go by. im planning on taking a pic every two weeks or so, but i didn't take my first pic until 10 wks, as there wasn't much of a change prior to then. and, considering the facts that, at 10 wks, baby z is weighing 0.14 oz and measuring in at 1.2 inches long (think prune), all that is seen is baby bloat.

{{210 days to go.}}

appt 1

we had our first appointment with the midwifery practice on september 2nd. i was 9 weeks pregnant at the time and we were very excited to have our first glimpse at baby z. however, i found out the day before we went that we would NOT be having an ultrasound done until 16-18wks! i was so disappointed and angry! SO MANY other women on thebump have ultrasound pics from as early as 4-5wks and it just didn't seem fair that i would have to wait until week 16 to get my first glimpse at the thing in my belly. i was so upset the night before our appointment that i didn't even want to go anymore. what was the point in going if they wouldn't even be able to tell us if the thing was alive?

surprisingly, i felt a lot better after the appointment and i learned more than i anticipated. the midwife was super nice and answered every single one of my questions (i only had 13), including, why must i wait SO LONG for an ultrasound when other women earlier in their pregnancy already have 2 or 3? it turns out that since im not high risk and im not having any bleeding, etc., there's no medial reason for the procedure. it all makes sense, but i still don't think it's fair and i still really want a pic of baby z.

the midwife did recover some points during the appointment by attempting to locate baby z's heartbeat using a doppler (keyword: attempting). she gave a disclaimer that it would be early to hear the heartbeat at 9wks w/a doppler, so we weren't too upset when she couldn't locate it. she said we should definitely hear the heartbeat when we come back for our next appointment at 12wks (september 23rd).

after the appointment, we went to international mall to look at "pea in a pod." it was premature, but fun nonetheless. the sales lady talked me into this stretch mark prevention cream that costs 35 bucks per 4 oz. and this boob sagging prevention cream that costs even more. im not sure how or why i got suckered into the boob sagging prevention cream since im not sure that my boobs are or will ever be big enough to sag (without augmentation of course), but the stretch mark cream seemed like a wise purchase. little did i know that it'd only take a week to blow through the first 4 oz tub. based on that rate of use, it will cost us $35 x 29 pregnant weeks remaining = $1015 for stretch mark prevention alone! it would be cheaper to just get the stretch marks and have them treated later! with that being said, i've still since purchased one more tube. :) oh, and we also bought a bella band. most of my pants were already feeling a little tight, but the hair tie through the loop trick was still working. it's only a matter of time before i need to use the band though, sadly.

stats from appt 1
WEIGHT: 122 lb
EDD: 4/6/2010 <- according to their calculations. im still saying our due date is 4/5/2010 because kenny's sister and nephew were both born on 4/6! i figure if baby z is gonna share a date with anyone, it should be with us.
...
well, i guess that's all the stats for now. that was a little anticlimactic.

finding prenatal care

after making an appointment at my "regular" obgyn, i discovered that i would have to see EVERY doctor in the practice prior to delivery, as they have no way to know who will be on call the day (or night) i go into labor. i decided that i did NOT want to see the doctor that i saw the very first time i had a "women's checkup" (i was 16 at the time and do not have fond memories of the experience), so i asked around and got some recommendations of other obgyns in the area.

one night, after i had already made an appointment with a different obgyn, kenny and i watched the movie "the business of being born." as you might've guessed, after viewing the film, what we wanted in the delivery room changed. before the movie was even over actually, kenny grabbed my laptop and began searching for local midwifes. he found a group of midwifes that delivered at TGH and i scheduled an appointment with them.

part ii

...when i took the test. i was NOT expecting to see a "YES+" so i was pacing around the bathroom, waiting for the verdict. i made it over to the test just in time to see the "YES+" pop up.


it was as though time stopped. i covered my mouth and looked at kenny. he was doing a dance i'd never seen him do before--almost like the rays the roof dance, but with his hands in the shape of fists. i kept repeating "oh my gosh, oh my gosh" over and over as i ran away from the test. i could NOT believe it. i so could not believe it that i took test two when i woke up the next day, and you guessed it, it was still "YES+".

better late than never, right? - PART 1

so...where do i begin? i guess i'll start with we're pregnant. we're 11wks 5ds pregnant to be exact. that makes baby z due on our second wedding anniversay (april 5th 2010).

i'm not gonna lie, when i plugged the dates into the "due date calculator" on thebump, i was VERY upset to see that the baby was due on OUR anniversary. seriously, what are the odds? so i did what any wife would do, i immediately opened a new tab and found a different due date calculator and plugged in the dates. 4.5.10 AGAIN! now i realize how selfish this sounds, and baby z no offense, but our anniversary is supposed to be the time of year that is reserved for us. we're supposed to celebrate our wonderful marriage and how much we love each other during these days. these aren't the days to be planning our first child's birthday parties for the duration of life. but apparently my planning skills are lacking, but i'm getting ahead of myself.

....how i ended up here....
i toyed with the idea of popping my blogging cherry with the topic of my first pregnancy for about six weeks (yes, that would be from the time we found out we were pregnant), but i finally made the decision to do so tonight. here's how it (baby z) started...

on june 27th, 2009 we decided that i would take my last birth control pill. we'd been home for a few weeks after visiting greece and frankly, i'd run out of time. i'd promised kenny that i would consider babies if he took me on another international trip, and he'd obviously held up his end of the bargain. plus, i'd heard so many stories of how difficult it was to "get pregnant" and i (like most females i know) had this horrible feeling that it just wouldn't happen to me--that i was broken in that way. i was planning on the whole process taking months or maybe even YEARS to work for us (maybe we'd get to see another country before it all went down). that was the extent of the "planning" i did. wait, i take it back, i did peruse the ttc boards on the thebump. maybe that's where i "messed up". :)

tuesday, august 4th, 2009, after feeling a little weird on and off for a few weeks and no return of my regular monthly womanly thing, we decided on a whim that it might be fun to take a home pregnancy test to spice up our tuesday. we ran out to cvs and looked for the clearest possible test we could find (that had more than one stick, in the event that i did something wrong or it appeared to be inconclusive). we decided on a digital one that would display either "YES+" or "NO-". kenny had some work to do, so we decided to wait until we took a shower before bed to take the test. i chose this time of day on purpose. i knew from my psuedopromiscous teenage years that you should take the test in the am, with fresh pee. i didn't think i was pregnant, so i figured i'd just take it when the LEAST amount of hormones should be flowing. it was about 10:30pm...

...to be continued...