Monday, March 25, 2013

Millie Jo!

A whopping 9 lbs and 2 oz, Baby Millie finally made her appearance this morning. She's so unbelievable and incredibly cute that I can't even stand it. This Thursday can NOT come fast enough.

Don't you just want to pinch those awesome little cheeks?

It's funny, this is the 11th time I have had the wonderful pleasure of being an aunt. For how excited I am, you'd think I was the one having the kid. Let's chalk it up to all these mommy genes developing inside me right now. ;)

But seriously, it's absolutely amazing how different and more exciting this feels knowing what a journey we are going to be embarking on in just 6 short months. Well, 5 months and 18 days, but who's counting. ;)


Realities that are settling in finally: None.
I don't know that it ever will set in. We got to hear the heartbeat again this week and it's just the greatest sound ever. I don't think I'll ever get over it. I want to make a recording and fall asleep to it every night. But even then, I still heave to remind myself that all these changes that are happening to my body are happening because there's a freaking human being in there!!!! So weird. 

Good News: The morning sickness (that's really all-day never-ending sickness) seems to be mostly over. Every other day I still feel a bit nauseous and get a headache, but other than that, I'm definitely not puking my breakfast up every time I brush my teeth. It's great!

Bad News: I've already got stretch marks. I had them before so it's not really that big of a surprise, but I haven't gained a pound so I'm absolutely baffled as to how it happened. Nonetheless, I'm just grateful there's a little avocado sized baby in there.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The not so scary bits of being pregnant.


So, I read a birth story not too long ago that made the idea of labor just absolutely AWFUL. I'll be honest, it scared me to death. Half of me wants to say, "Why in the world would you ever write that down?!?!?!?!" and then the other part of me is semi-sorta grateful that there are people out there who will tell you the truth.

Since I'll hopefully be blogging a lot about the pregnancy (I need to remember how much I hate/love it so that I can make an informed decision about whether or not I want to have a second child.) My goal is focus on the wonderful parts of being pregnant but also being truthful about the scary/uncomfortable/unpleasant bits as well.

For starters, (keep in mind I'm only 14 weeks at this point) I'm going to just make a list of all the unpleasant symptoms I've encountered due to pregnancy so far. Quick and to the point.
Nausea
Exhaustion(This differs VERY GREATLY from your run of the mill "tired")
Heartburn
Constipation
Random Cramps
Round ligament pain (I think that's what it is... feels like I'm pulling a muscle between my stomach and pelvis if I move the wrong way)

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but I'm absolutely certain that in the end it will be worth it.

Now let's talk about the cool parts about it so far.

Even though I'm still  in the awkward, "Is she fat or pregnant?" stage, It's REALLY fun to start to look pregnant. It's a funny feeling, but it makes me feel more beautiful and more womanly than I've ever felt before.

When I'm in the car and my music is up and I'm singing along, I'm secretly hoping for the day when my baby will be able to hear and will maybe start jumping around in there with me.

Every night as I'm going to bed, I try to sit reallllly still so that maybe I can start to feel baby moving around in there. I was just thinking last night that I'm certain I'll start crying my eyes out the first time Ben will get to feel the baby move.

Mostly, I'm loving the anticipation. The excitement of what our lives are going to be like after baby is here and the changes that are bound to come. Right now, I'm so very anticipating finding out the gender of our baby so that I can start buying adorable little clothes that are just going to pooped and peed and puked on a million times.

Pictured below:

Baby at 6 week ultrasound and me at 13 weeks. :)





Saturday, March 9, 2013

Knocked up!

So, hopefully everyone has already figured out that I'm knocked up. That's right, there's a "medium-shrimp" sized fetus with like fingers and toes and facial expressions getting bigger inside me every day. Since I haven't blogged in a while, let's start from the beginning.

In April, 2012, I went to the Gynecologist because I had a few concerns. (I won't list them to try and keep this as family friendly as a post about getting pregnant can be.) A few days later, the Doctors Office called me with my test results and I had been diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome. Essentially, It's a lady-problem that would make really hard sometimes near impossible to get pregnant. I cried a little that night. At this point, Ben and I were already planning on getting married and we talked about it and he told me that if we couldn't have kids, that we would adopt and it made me feel so much better.

On our wedding day, August 4, 2012, my darling husband to be was in need of some sprite and Pepto Bismol. So after we went to IHOP for breakfast, we stopped by Walgreens on our way to start with the wedding festivities. We grab our ill-stomach essentials and halfway back up the store I stop Ben and say, "OK, so... Here's the deal. Even though I have PCOS and it means it could take us a while to get pregnant, if I do ovulate (being the newlyweds we are) there's a good chance I'm gonna get pregnant. So if you aren't prepared to get pregnant right away, then maybe we should pick up some contraceptives." Ben stood in the middle of the isle for a minute and contemplated this information I had just given him. His Response: A shoulder shrug followed by, "We'll see what happens." Followed by him walking up to the front and checking out. I took that as him saying, "LET'S DO THIS!!!!" in his, I'm a way too cool man to get excited about anything kind of way.

Then... we were newlyweds. I won't really say much more about that.

On September 7th, I realized I had ovulated. I was stoked. I wanted to take a pregnancy test right then and there, but I refrained knowing it would be negative regardless.
So instead, I googled. EVERYTHING. From the "earliest signs of pregnancy to labor videos to everything you could possibly imagine. I'm sure that we paid a crap ton of data that month.

On September 15th, ( If you're doing your math right, you know that this means I was 8 days past ovulation) I was spending a Saturday with my mom and sister running errands. I mentioned to my sister that I was 8 dpo and she immediately exclaimed, "WHY HAVEN'T YOU TAKEN A PREGNANCY TEST YET!!!!!" Now, if you've done any googling, you'll know that most people don't get a positive pregnancy test until 11-13 days past ovulation. At this point, I wasn't sure I was entirely ready to accept that it could be a negative test yet and I hated spending $20 just to pee on a stick. She called my other sister and they were just both besides themselves that I was refusing to take a test. After offering to BUY the test, I finally told her that I would do it. We walked in the house and I went to pee. Without even looking at the test, I threw it at her and said, "I told you it was negative." She responded with an "I know" that was really sassy. Suddenly her eyes got really big and she said, "Mallory.....Mal.....Mallory! You're pregnant!" Uh... WHAT@$#&^$*%#@^&&#*^$*#^*(&$*#^#&!!!!! Sure enough, there it was, a tiny faint pink line right next to the control line. I immediately texted my husband a picture of the test. I forgot to include the part where it says two lines means pregnant, but I think he got the point eventually. We refrained from telling anyone besides close friends and immediate family, because in all my googling, I knew there was a chance we could lose the baby. My sister had just miscarried a few months prior. So we held it in.

If you're doing the math at this point, you're probably thinking I should be like 6.5 months pregnant instead of  just three months.

On November 1st, we went in for our first ultrasound to see how far along I was, and the doctor was unable to find a heartbeat. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to hear. Worst of all, was explaining to Ben that after all his excitement, that we had lost the baby.
A week later, I went in for a D&C and had everything removed. It was awful. My heart goes out to anyone who has had to go through this. :(

I'm going to skip most of the sad and jump to the happy. A couple months after the miscarriage, I was wanting to take these diet pills to shed a few lbs. I knew you shouldn't take them while you were pregnant and I hadn't even had a period yet, but I thought maybe I had ovulated. I took a pregnancy test while I was at work and it came out positive. at first I was shocked! Then Excited! Then freaking out because I though maybe it could be remaining hormones from the miscarriage. Then freaking out even more, because if it wasn't, then what if I lost the baby again. Holy ball of emotions, right?

Looooong story short, I went to the doctor they confirmed it was a pregnancy, we heard a heartbeat at 7 weeks, and again at 11 weeks. :) It's the best sound you'll ever hear in the entire world.

So here we are again. :) Knocked up with a little baby Coombs and I couldn't be more excited. I'm already trying to pick out names and buy stuff but my husband is making me wait until we at least have a gender. He's too smart for my good. ;)

We could potentially know the sex in about two weeks if we do a recreational ultrasound. My husband (of course,) doesn't want to pay the $80 for that, but I'm still working on trying to convince him. If not, it will be about 6 more weeks before we know. Either way, I'm just ecstatic there is a little baby in there, sucking the life outta me. :)