15 Weeks

I can't believe 15 weeks today! This pregnancy is really flying by! Baby now measures 4 inches long and weighs 2 1/2 ounces - about the size of an orange. Baby is now moving amneotic fluid through their nose and upper respitory track, which is helping the air sacs in the lungs develop. Legs are now longer than the arms and they can move all of the joints and limbs! Eyelids are still fused shut but the baby can now react to light - if I put a flash light to my tummy the baby would move away from it, that is so cool! Taste buds are forming, even though there isn't much to taste at this point.

Bob and I had a mini-vacation last week! It was so relaxing. We stayed at an adorable Bed and Breakfast in South Haven, MI. The food was SO good for breakfast each morning. We slept in everyday, went to the beach in the morning, had lunch and shopped a bit, then came back for our daily afternoon naps and went to dinner. Absolutely perfect! We bought the cutest onesies for the baby - one says "I'm a Miracle", so true-I had to buy it! And the other one has Christmas holly on it and says "The BEST present ever", again so true! I can't wait to see our little one in it.

Dear God,
Thank you for your continued blessings!
Love,
Alicia & Bob

Dear Baby,
Mommy & Daddy bought you lots of stuff this past week! We can't wait to put you in the outfits and read you the books we got. We actually want to start reading you some books soon every night. We love you so much!
Mommy & Daddy

Our Sweet Peach

As of yesterday I was 13 weeks, baby is now the size of a peach. Fingerprints have formed on the baby's tiny fingertips and their veins and organs are clearly visible through their still-thin skin. Baby's body is now starting to catch up with their head - which makes up just a third of their body size now. If baby is a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries! Baby now weighs nearly an ounce.

Dear God,
This miracle you have given us is so awesome! What a blessing and we are so grateful!
Love,
Alicia & Bob

Dear Baby,
I miss seeing you already and it hasn't even been a week! Mommy is going to have major withdrawls from seeing you, next time we do we will know if you are a boy or a girl! This Sunday is Father's Day, don't tell Daddy but I got him a little card from you, it made Mommy cry in the card store. You are going to be so lucky to have such a great Daddy! He is going to be such a fun playmate for you and will probably act like a kid all over! So Mommy will have 2 kids to look over now but I can't wait. Daddy will be your best friend and will give you lots of great advice like he does for Mommy when you need it. Daddy is so patient and never loses his temper. And best of all Daddy is a really good cook so you won't starve since Mommy isn't too good in that department. I can't wait to see Daddy's big arms holding your tiny body, just the thought of it brings tears to Mommy's eyes.
We love you so much!
Mommy & Daddy

Appointment Results

The OB appointment went great. I had the ultrasound first and I love the tech at the office. She took her time explaining everything and pointing things out. I think that baby was sleeping because he/she didn't move much at all (except to rub their eyes at one point). They were in the exact position they needed to be in to get the measurement of the neck. Our measurement was 19, which is a great number anything over 30-35 is cause for concern the tech said. I still have to wait to get the 1st set of blood work results back but the tech said she wouldn't worry about a thing and it seems that we have a perfectly healthy baby in there. She didn't try to even get a gender shot so I'll just have to be patient! I did post the profile shot of the baby on a website I go on and there is a way that you can get a really good guess at the gender by looking at a nub in that area and people seem to think by the nub it looks like we are having a girl but who knows! So we'll find out for sure in 8 weeks! That is when my next ultrasound is, I am going to have major withdrawls by then! I have an appointment on July 11th for the 2nd set of blood work and just a check up with the doctor. I think the best part of this appointment was hearing the beautiful sound of the heart beat! Oh my goodness, that was so unbelievable! Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to call Bob so he hasn't heard it yet but he will definately get to hear it on the 11th.
Here's a couple of profile pics from the scan. I told Bob I think it looks like my nose from the profile shot :)

First OB Appointment

Tomorrow is my first OB appointment. I wish Bob was in town to go with me because I have a feeling I will hear the heart beat for the first time! We haven't heard it yet because the RE office we went to (they have 5 different ones) didn't have the correct machine to hear it with. So that is something that I am still waiting for. My mom told me that hearing the heart beat is the neatest thing and makes it seem a bit more realistic. I was telling her how it is still hard for me to comprehend that the baby I see on the ultrasounds is actually inside of me. It still doesn't seem real sometimes. I will have another ultrasound tomorrow too, I hope we can get a peek between the legs and get a guess at what it is! I know that this will probably be my last ultrasound until the 20 week one, so sad! I just loved seeing the baby every week. I also have a ton of questions for the OB. The first one will be if I can have an epidural even though I have scoliosis!

Tomorrow after my appointment my mom, aunt, niece and I are driving to St. Louis to surprise my grandma for her birthday. She has no idea we are coming and I am so excited to see her face when she opens the door. I also haven't seen a lot of my family in St. Louis since I found out I was pregnant so I can't wait to see them all, especially since I have a bit of a bump now! I am also really looking forward to seeing my best friend! I miss her so much! Her son is turning one this weekend! I can't believe she has been a mommy for one year now already, it seems like just yesterday I got the call that she was even pregnant.

Dear Baby,
Mommy is so excited to see you again tomorrow! I hope you cooperate and give us a nice shot between your legs, I really want to know what you are. I am also so looking forward to hearing your heart beat, I wish Daddy could be there to hear it too. Maybe Mommy will just have to find a recorder to bring for him.
We Love You!
Mommy & Daddy

No More Meds

I took my last dosage of progesterone this morning! I am officially finished with all of the meds from the IVF. I can't believe that it is time to close the book on that part of this pregnancy. I can still remember when the doctor told us that would be our only option for us to get pregnant. I remember crying my eyes out for days and days thinking that was something we would never be able to afford or do. But I guess there is always a way. I just have to Thank God everyday for allowing us to be able to do this and for truly blessing us with having this work (and at the first try for that matter). We are so blessed and so lucky! My heart still aches for all of those women who I know and don't know that are out there struggling with infertility. It really is one of the hardest things to have to go through. I just hope that everyone gets their baby one day soon!

So I am so confused about the weeks and figuring out trimesters. On one website I go to it says that you are in the 2nd trimester starting at 12 weeks but some other places I am hearing now that it is on the first day of your 13th week that you are in your 2nd trimester. I'll have to ask my OB about it on Friday when I go.

Dear God,
Thank you so much for watching over us during this whole IVF process and holding us in your hands. You were a constant source of calm for me during all of this.
Love,
Alicia & Bob

Dear Baby,
Mommy finished her progesterone today. You are now getting the progesterone on your own. Keep growing strong and healthy in there.
We Love You!
Mommy & Daddy

Second Trimester

Today is the start of my 2nd Trimester! I can't believe it, maybe now I will relax a tad bit. Baby is now the size of plum. The most dramatic development this week are the reflexes! Baby's fingers will soon begin to open and close, toes will curl, eye muscles with clench and mouth will make sucking movements. If I were to push on my abdomen now, the baby will squirm in response, although I can't feel it yet. Intestines are now starting to move from the umbilical cord to the abdominal cavity and kidneys will begin excreting urine into their bladder. Nerve cells are multiplying rapidly. Baby's face is starting to look unquestionably human-eyes have moved from the sides to the front of their head and hears are right where they should be! Baby weighs 1/2 an ounce now.

My mother has been bugging me to register for neutral items (think she's excited) and so finally I did end up doing some things this weekend so she would quit bugging me. It was so much fun, Bob said he even had a good time. We just have the basics such as stroller, high chair, car seat and pack 'n play on there and I will fill out the rest when we find out the gender. But I already have gender things picked out. I don't feel as silly looking at these things now that I am in the 2nd trimester. We got our nursery furniture too this weekend! My parents generously told us that they wanted to purchase the furniture! We tried to talk them out of this but there was no reasoning with them. So we looked at a ton of baby furniture places and I found a crib and changing table I fell in love with. They were offering a sale this weekend so my mom just bought it. I have a chest of drawers from my bedroom set that doesn't fit in our guest room so we are going to use that too - the woods almost match perfectly! Hopefully it takes a LONG time for these things to come in so that we don't have huge boxes sitting in our garage for a while.

Dear God,
Thank you so much for your blessings and helping us get to this awesome milestone!
Love,
Alicia & Bob

Dear Baby,
We have a crib for you to sleep in already! Can you tell that Mommy and Daddy are so excited to meet you and can't wait for you to get here.
We Love You!
Mommy & Daddy

I Graduated!

Yesterday was our last appointment with the RE. It really was kind of sad to leave the office. The people at that office have been so wonderful to deal with and they have made our dream come true! They made us promise to come back with the baby and let them know when we find out what we are having. Bob and I are going to send something to the main office for everyone to thank them for everything!

The RE (not a tech) did our ultrasound yesterday. It was so great because I think we were the last people there for the day and we had a 30 minute ultrasound! Usually it's just long enough to get the measurements that they need, so about 10 minutes and it's early in the morning (so I think the baby is always sleeping then). Well, not yesterday afternoon, that little sucker wouldn't stay still! It was absolutely amazing to just sit there and watch him/her! They were moving so much that the RE was having problems getting the measurements she needed. Bob's face was the neatest thing, I could tell that this was all starting to seem a bit more real to him. It was hard for me to believe that this tiny person that was moving so much is inside of me! I really, really can't wait until I can feel those movements! The doctor tried to give us her opinion on the gender but the little one wouldn't cooperate. She started to say what her guess was by saying "I don't see anything there", which now makes Bob and I think girl but then the baby moved and the umbilical cord went right between the legs and she couldn't get the baby to move again so we could get a clear shot, she tried for a long time and then we just gave up. I guess this baby wants us to wait.

I have my first appointment with the OB a week from today, I am really looking forward to that because I have SO many questions for him. I am having an ultrasound that day too. This ultrasound looks for the chances of the baby having Downs Syndrome. Some people opt not to have this test but I figured it was a chance to see the baby again and I always liked to be prepared for what is to come as much as I can be.

Dear God,
Thank you so much for watching over our baby while I was sick! Please continue to bless us!
Love,
Alicia & Bob

Dear Baby,
Wow, you were an active one yesterday! Daddy and I could have spent all day just watching you move around! I think Daddy really realized that you are a little person now and will be with us soon! We cannot wait to meet you!
We Love You!
Mommy & Daddy

Don't Mix...

So the stomach flu and pregnancy do not mix well at all! I got extremely sick on Sunday night, which continued throughout the day on Monday. I couldn't even keep a sip of water down. So my doctor suggested we go to the hospital or an urgent care facility around 4:00 p.m. on Monday. So in we go and sure enough I was dehydrated and had to have IV fluids. Unfortunately, the urgent care place we went to did not have a working doppler so we couldn't hear the babies heartbeat to make sure everything was ok, but the doctor we saw didn't seem concerned. On Tuesday I still felt so weak from not having had eaten a thing the day before so I stayed home from work once again and slept all day! I did manage to drink water and Pedialyte and have some dry toast and crackers so at least it was something in my system! I thought this morning I would be ok to go to work. I just was so nervous about taking another day off of work when I don't know what I am going to need off for in the future with this pregnancy. I took off a whole week during my IVF egg retrieval and egg transfer already so I have very limited days left. After being at work for a couple of hours I knew I couldn't stay there. So now I am at home reclining in our comfy chair, trying to stay awake! I must look terrible because on my way to the train from work I had a complete stranger stop me and ask me if I was ok because I looked so sick like I was going to pass out any second - geesh thanks!

Dear God,
Please watch over my baby! I don't care if I have to feel sick like this for weeks on end just make sure my baby is ok!
Love,
Alicia & Bob

Dear Baby,
Sorry if Mommy isn't doing such a good job of nourishing you right now - I am trying to get something in my system for you. Please stay strong. I really hope that when we have our ultrasound tomorrow you are just moving around like crazy!
We Love You!
Mommy & Daddy