Quite a lot has happened on the baby front since we first found out we're expecting. For instance, we narrowed down our 4 possible due dates to just the official one, thanks to ultrasound. We're due March 30th, which I think would be a cute birthday (3/30), although Todd is hoping I deliver early so that I can get the birth out of the way and focus on finals. I tell him that he's just cursed me to go 3 weeks late and miss finals altogether, and it'll be all his fault. :)
Speaking of the ultrasound, my family arrived on the night of August 11th, my mom's birthday, for Todd's graduation, and I went for my ultrasound early the next morning. My mom and my sister came with Todd and me to the appointment so that I could share the first sight of Baby Jacobs with the future grandmama and aunt. The nurse was very good and quite efficient; we were in and out in 15 minutes. She told me that I was exactly 7 weeks and one day along, putting my due date at March 30th, which was only a day off from one of the original due dates we were given. Honestly though, the timelines are still really confusing to me and I need to nail down my doctor at our next appointment and get him to explain it to me in detail so I know if the dates describe how old the baby is, or how far along the pregnancy is: not the same thing, as it turns out. Anyway, the nurse found the baby in next to no time and zoomed in until it was actual size. She explained what everything was, even though the baby still just looked like a cocoon. We could hear the little heart beating, and then she zoomed in even more and focused on the heart itself. We could see the heart fluttering on the screen, and the sound of our baby's heartbeat filled the room, which of course made me cry. It was such a strong and steady sound, telling me that my baby was alive and healthy and developing right on schedule. Hooray!
So this is baby's first picture (the white oval inside the black oval):
See? I told you it looks like a cocoon. But a very precious cocoon!All of this happened about a month ago, so I'm now about 11 weeks along, trudging steadily through the third month and coming up on the second trimester. I've been asked by many people if I feel any different as my pregnancy progresses, and the honest answer is "no." I've had no morning sickness, no suddenly massive breasts, no constant bladder dances, no crazy cravings, no super smell sensitivity, NOTHING! I look and feel exactly like I did pre-pregnancy. Although, when Todd and I were grocery shopping last week, the evil Macey's bakery people pulled some DIVINE smelling pumpkin chocolate chip cookies out of the oven and we could smell them all over the store. In fact, I could still smell them as I walked down the stairs to our apartment. I don't think that counts as super smell sensitivity, though, since we live a couple of miles away from the store; I think the smell just insinuated its way into my clothes and hair to tempt me, so I made pumpkin bread a couple of days later. :)
On a more serious note, though, this lack of symptoms is starting to really worry me. Todd keeps telling me to be grateful I'm not hugging the toilet every morning, but I almost wish I WAS having morning sickness, just to assure myself that my baby's still alive and kicking in there. Especially because I've been hearing all sorts of horrible stories lately of women farther along than I am losing their babies, and the thought terrifies me. To me, the second trimester seems like home plate, and if I can just make it past the 14th week, we'll be ok. Although, Todd's brother Steve and his wife Tina came to SLC on Tuesday, and we went up to have lunch with them. While we ate, Tina told me that at my next appointment, they should do a Dopplar scan for the baby's heartbeat, even if they don't do a full ultrasound. This made me feel better, because as long as I can hear the baby's heart beating, I'll know that everything is fine. I know, I know: I worry too much. My mom tells me that I need to stop stressing or I'll die of a heart attack before the baby's even close to coming. I'm sure everything is just perfect, I'll just feel a little calmer once we're out of the danger zone.
While Steve and Tina were in SLC, we went to Build-A-Bear Workshop to make the baby a teddy bear. We chose the Coconut Cub, which has cream fur and a cute face. I'd stuffed it and cleaned off all the excess stuffing, and was trying to do the "birth certificate," when I ran into trouble. They ask you on the screen, "Is this for you or for someone else?" I said it was for someone else and they asked, "Is the recipient a boy or a girl?" I turned to Todd and said, "I can't even fill this form out completely for another 9 weeks or so! What should I do?" We decided to just buy the bear and come back to fill out the birth certificate once we know the baby's gender. So until then, we have this adorable bear just sitting in its box waiting for its owner to show up.
To keep my mind off of scary thoughts and focused on preparing for our baby, I've been working on a cross-stitch pattern that I've had for several years but only worked on during General Conference. It's a wonderful pattern that shows Noah with his ark filled with mythical creatures. He has dragons, griffins, unicorns, sea-serpents, and yeti, with a phoenix bringing the olive branch. At the bottom, it says "Not Forgotten." I love it, and I'm trying frantically to finish it before the baby comes. I've actually made quite a bit of progress on it. I pulled it out while my mom was here, and I only had Noah, the sea-serpents, and the sea itself mostly done. Since then, I've finished the second sea-serpent, the sea, both dragons, most of the rainbow, and parts of the ark itself. I'm working on the phoenix next, and I'm optimistically thinking I'll be done with everything I can by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, so I can have my mom help me do the outlining, and use her Whisper thread for the yeti, so they'll be fuzzy. The finished product will be amazing, and I'm going to frame it for the baby's "room." I'm thinking a Noah's ark/animal theme with monkeys (I LOVE monkeys, lately!!), lions, giraffes, etc, on yellow and green backgrounds will be super cute decor that I can use for all of our kids, no matter the gender. My mom has already volunteered to make butter yellow crib sheets for the little darling. Todd and I are also going to put up a shelf with some of our most beloved old toys, like the Raggedy-Ann doll my mom made for me, and our first teddy bears. I'm so excited, and just thinking about and planning everything is making me wildly impatient!!
In fact, I bought my first quasi-maternity shirt just a couple of days ago. It's technically not a "maternity" shirt, just a XL shirt that was cute, and only $2.50. Since I'm not really showing at all, I dragged Todd over to the sporting goods section so I could borrow a basketball. I tried the shirt on with the basketball underneath to make sure that the shirt would still fit no matter how big the baby gets, because I'm not a large person at all, and even a smallish baby could make my petite frame look like it's carrying twins. We're both excited for when my belly gets big, and Todd's looking forward to seeing little hands and feet poking out. It'll be fun!
One last interesting thing I've noticed lately: I think I'm the last person in the world to get pregnant. I keep hearing about all these people who are going to have babies and I think, "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if we were due around the same time?" Nope. They're all due in January or February or even December. I haven't heard of ANYone I know who's due in March, April, or later. Sometimes I think I got the last spirit still up in heaven, and I only hope I can live up to that spirit's huge expectations, because it obviously waited a very long time to be born, and I wouldn't want to disappoint it. (I really hate using "it" and can't wait to find out the baby's gender so I can nail down which name I can use of the absolutely perfect names I've picked out.) Tune in again in about 10 weeks to find out: will Baby Jacobs be a boy or a girl?
No comments:
Post a Comment