As I’ve mentioned, Emily was the only one to know the gender in advance… I really wanted everyone to be surprised at once but she insisted, and frankly, it made it easier for us because we had one less thing to worry about!
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Meanwhile, in baby land… on Monday, I was so uncomfortable. Clearly, the baby was trying to make room inside of its cantaloupe-sized home (yes folks, my uterus is the size of a cantaloupe. You’re welcome for the visual.). It must have worked because come Tuesday morning, there was a definite difference in my bump size! It’s still small, obviously, but it’s much bigger than it was!
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Baby is still growing, though, since my belly is still relatively small, I do find myself wondering when he or she is going to POP!
Speaking of POPPING, Baby got to meet lots of great aunts and uncles this week for the 4th of July! My Uncle Tim and Juanita, and Aunt Cindy and Uncle Guy were all here to celebrate – or just spend time together. đ My extended family of lots of aunts and uncles on both sides of the family have been so important to me throughout my entire life. I feel so fortunate that my baby will feel the same love from his or her great aunts and uncles.
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This was an exciting week: I felt the baby move for the first time! On Thursday morning, I was laying in bed, really early, and I felt a tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap on my belly! The funny thing was that the night before, I was telling Shane’s mom and grandma that I know it’s a concern to the doctor if you haven’t felt anything by Week 20 or so, but how do you know what it feels like? What if you mistake it for gas bubbles? What if you miss it entirely? Well – there was no mistaking this! I’ve heard that it feels like butterfly wings…this felt nothing like that, so of course I Googled it to see if anyone had experienced anything similar and I found this:
Yep! That’s the perfect description! Another milestone in the bag. Yay Baby B!We also – finally – set a date for our gender reveal party. Between vacation schedules and Shane’s new work schedule, there was literally one day available in July or August! July 15 it is. We convinced Emily to host – the night before she leaves for her vacation (oops) – and it will be small, but regardless, we are anxious to find out who will win – Team Pink or Team Blue?
Otherwise, the belly is growing slowly but surely. I’m officially in maternity clothes and man are they amazing! Who knew? Al stretchy, all the time! đ
Baby is the size of an avocado at approximately 4.6 inches and 3.5 ounces!
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When I go to write these posts, I always feel like nothing happened – boring week. But as I start writing, more and more comes back to me and I remember that we did have a few things going on. đ
Last Sunday was Father’s Day – technically Shane’s first, although I’m sure next year, with a 6 month old in tow, will feel like a much bigger deal. We stayed at his mom’s house the night before in celebration of her birthday. I drove Shane and his mom and Hank around the Madison/Geneva area to various wineries and watering holes. They sampled the wines, I sampled the snacks! Yum! (The winner was the bruschetta at Old Mill Winery, in case you were curious!) We also played cards and ate deep dish pizza, courtesy of Giordano’s, when we returned from our outing and I learned a lesson – Mama can’t hang with the late nights anymore! I was exhausted the next day!
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This was a fairly uneventful week in the pregnancy world â thank you God for that! My symptoms seem to be disappearing. Unfortunately, that means I canât seem to get in an afternoon nap at all! I kind of liked being able to sleep at the drop of a hat! The better news is that the exhaustion is completely gone. đ The nausea is getting there â sometimes it still pops up, usually when I havenât been drinking my water, but generally itâs gone too.
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The most important news of the week is: itâs summer! đ
This was the last week of my first trimester â hooray! The biggest news is that I had my first appointment with Dr. Gretchen Fisher at the Cleveland Clinic. I saw her on Tuesday morning. Auntie Emily came along again â what a champ. It definitely wasnât an exciting appointment but I was glad to have another set of ears at an important appointment. Iâd heard this was a long one â but was amazed at just how long! My appointment was at 11âŚwe walked out at 1. We were called back almost immediately and only waited for the nurse then doctor for maybe five minutes each. At most! Dr. Fisher was excellentâŚvery very thorough â obviously! I have a large binder of stuff to read about the pregnancy, delivery, etc. Summer homework? Rude! I have some blood work and other tests to take care of before my next appointment â which, by the way, seems so far from now! Iâm so used to seeing the doctor biweekly or weekly or every few days â this monthly business is going to take some getting used to.
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What a busy week! I (almost) ended it with graduation, so that was the primary focus. I was pretty exhausted going into the week but thankfully, by Thursday night, my exhaustion turned into just tired (there is a definite difference!) and I made it through the night! I crashed as soon as we got home of course, but thatâs â dare I say it â normal!
The nausea was back again in Week 12 too, which really stinks. Iâll be very happy to unload that symptom! I was thinking that Week 12 ended the first trimester but we still have one more week. Iâm looking forward to the promised relief it should/better bring!
We also, probably most importantly, graduated from RGI. We had our last appointment with Dr. Nash on Tuesday the 30th. One final ultrasound for a while, and one final appointment with the doctor who lead us through some very dark times to this happy place. (Well, probably not final appointment â we do have a sibling waiting on ice!) It was quick, like all of our appointments have been, and it was certainly bittersweet. Exciting to move on, strange to do so after being there (for what felt like) all the time for 51 weeks. Ironically enough, we will meet our new OB exactly one year after we first joined RGI as infertility patients.
Baby is the size of a plum this week!
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This week we had another ultrasound! We had the nuchal translucency scan on Tuesday⌠Dr. Nash did a transvaginal and external ultrasound to measure the babyâs neck, looking for extra fluid in the babyâs neck (according to BabyCenter, âBabies with abnormalities tend to accumulate more fluid at the back of their neck during the first trimesterâ). If you watch the ultrasounds below, youâll see that the baby was not cooperating, which is why he had to go external as well! (Daddy couldnât come this time because he was teaching, so Auntie Emmy surprised me by taking the day off and coming along! Youâll hear her on the videos.)
Ultrasound: May 23, 2017 (Part 1)
Ultrasound: May 23, 2017 (Part 2)
This was a super busy week at work, so as a result, I was super tired. Pretty much every other symptom is gone except my exhaustion. That doesnât seem to go anywhere! I also have to be really careful of what I wear on my feet. I have these flat sandals that I wore all last summerâŚnow if I wear them, my feet are swollen for the whole day. Luckily, I bought some Birkenstocks when we went to Germany two years ago, so Iâm good to go for supportive summer footwear. I had my seniorsâ last day (which means finalizing grades), Senior Awards night, and Senior Checkout, all between Wednesday â Friday. I also transported my dad from UH to a skilled nursing facility on Friday for him to continue to get better. Needless to say, I slept in until 10:30 on Saturday morning. So needed! And I still fell asleep in my dadâs room on Saturday afternoon. I will not miss being this tired, thatâs for sure! Come on second trimester!
Baby is the size of a lime this week!
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The biggest news this week is that the nausea went away! I got a cold on Sunday and with it went the nausea! My dad was admitted to UH the following day and with his lowered immune system I stayed away for a few days. I also finished my credits at Ohio Dominican University (18 MA in English credits to teach College Credit Plus courses) with a 13 page paper on Jane Austen and put together a presentation to finish up my work in the First Ring Leadership Academy. It was a busy few days! Once all of that was done I was able to shift my focus to Dad and supporting him and getting myself to the end of the year.
My tummy is also getting harder, though not necessarily bigger.
Baby is the size of a strawberry! (and probably un-ironically, we ate a lot of strawberries this week!)
The Brennens... 