11 weeks, 1 day - My little Limey

Well, baby, you're allegedly the length of a lime or a beetroot or a fig this week.  I feel like those are all dramatically different sizes, but that's what the different sites say.  So weird.  think I said I'd post the baby center pic of what you look like this week, so here goes:

Allegedly, your fingers and toes are no longer webbed, which is pretty cool.

I don't know if it's because I've been feeling better so I've been eating more or if I'm just bloated, but I was horrified to step on the scale this morning and see it ring in at a whopping 4 lbs more than it did when we went to the doctor 1.5 weeks ago.  Not good.  I'm hoping that I'm just retaining water or it's because I ate a lot or something because really, nobody -- regardless of whether they're pregnant or not -- should gain 4 lbs in 1.5 weeks.  I was hoping to not gain any at all in the first trimester.  Oh this baby.  I figured for sure you were a girl, little one, because I was very sick at first and I wasn't at all with your brother.  Also, the old wives tales say that girls steal your beauty and I haven't been looking particularly beautiful lately.  But lately, sweets taste bad in my mouth.  Like really really bad.  Chocolate leaves the most disgusting metallic taste in my mouth and I can't even finish hard candies that I start.  Which is really weird for me because I love hard candy.  Oh, this is relevant because the old wives tales say that if you're craving sweets, it's a girl.  Anyway, sweets taste bad to me and I've been eating a lot of fatty, salty foods like ham and cheesy potatoes and cheese.  Lots of cheese.  So maybe it's a boy?  Goodness.  Those old wives are enough to drive a girl mad!

It doesn't really matter if you're a boy or girl.  We'll love you so much regardless.  We're hoping that you're happy and healthy.  Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Melonie have requested a girl, but I told them that it's not really up to me.  I think they'll be pretty happy regardless, too.  I think it would be awfully fun for Henry to have a little brother, but then again, a little sister would round out our family nicely, too.  We'll be so happy either way.

11 weeks, 0 days - Oh what a day

Oi vey.  Seriously.  Oi.  Vey.  Today has been a truly amazing day.  It started off by me getting up 20 minutes late.  Not a big deal in and of itself, but it set the tone for the morning.  I got ready to go with no problem and was sitting in the car at 6:22 as opposed to my normal 6:02.  Backed up out of the garage into the pouring rain with no trouble.  But the garage door opener didn't work.  So I got to get out of the car -- in the pouring rain -- to close the garage door.  Annoying, but not that big a deal.  Fast forward to 8:25 when I'm finally pulling into the parking lot at work.  Ugh.  Two.  Hour.  Commute. That doesn't make anyone happy.  Especially when they've got an 8:30 meeting that everyone else was complaining about and you've gone and told them to grow up and get up a few minutes earlier.  Whoops.  Anyway, I get out of the car to rush into the building, only to find that my yogurt had fallen out of my bag, rolled around and had somehow gotten itself impaled on a shard of firewood that I hadn't been cleaned out of the car yet.  Yogurt everywhere.  Annoying.  But whatever, I grabbed my bag and darted into work.  As I was walking into the building, the strap on my bag broke.  Really?  Come on.  It's an old bag and I knew it was going, but today of all days?  Goodness.  About 200 yards later, the other frigging strap broke.  Seriously.  Both straps.  At that point, I looked around to see if I was on Candid Camera or something.  How can that many things go wrong before 8:30 am?

Let's just hope that we got all of the annoyances out of the day early and I've got a great rest of the day ahead of me!

10 weeks, 6 days - Worst behind me

I suspect that the worst of the nausea is behind me now.  I still don't always feel great, but I haven't felt that all encompassing, can't do anything, want to cry nausea for about a week now.  At first I thought it was because of the vitamins my doctor gave me or because of the pb I'm eating at every opportunity, but now, I think it's just  because I've gotten over the hump.  Egads and what a hump it was.  I cannot believe people deal with that on a larger scale.  How could you ever get anything done?  So awful.

In other new, I'm 10 weeks, 6 days today and my Lillypie ticker says that baby TB is the size of a strawberry.  Baby Center says a kumquat.  Why would you say kumquat when you could say strawberry?  Who on earth knows how big a kumquat is but doesn't know the size of a strawberry?  So ridiculous.  I also think it's funny that, as of tomorrow, baby will be a different fruit size.  I know that baby is growing the whole time and it doesn't flip over on a certain day, but all of my tickers and trackers say that so it makes me laugh a little.  Here's the pic that Baby Center says TB looks like today:

Weirdly alienish, no?  Tomorrow, I'll post what development has apparently happened over night.  Fetal growth is so cool because it changes so rapidly week to week.  So amazing.  It would be really neat to be able to get a camera in there and do a time lapse photograph of the entire 9 months just to watch baby TB grow and develop.  Such amazing miracles these bodies of ours are.

10 weeks, 5 days - We told

We had the Terlizzis and Matt's parents over for brunch yesterday and made our special announcement.  It was hilarious.  Henry had his big brother t-shirt on underneath a collared shirt he wore to mass, so toward the end of our brunch, when things were winding down, Matt took the collared shirt off of him and let him run around in the bright red big brother shirt.  Nobody noticed.  So Matt picked him up and carried him around.  Still, nobody noticed.  So Matt brought him over to his mom, faced Henry straight at her and started pulling down his shirt, straightening it.  Over and over again.  And she didn't notice.  I'd say he had Henry right up in her face for about 5 minutes before she finally started laughing and got the picture.  Her face turned red, she started laughing, and she looked over at Grandpa to get his attention to point it out to him.  Once Grandpa got it, he yelled so Aunt Amy wanted to know what the big deal was and it was all hugs and congratulations from there.  :D  We had a good chuckle over how long it took them to notice, but I'm super pleased with the way we told.  I thought it was super cute.  I don't know how they felt about it, but I thought it went very well.

It feels so good for them to know now.  Matt emailed his bro and sis after brunch to make sure they knew.  So hooray!  Another big milestone has passed!  Now, to finish up the first trimester and tell the rest of our loved ones!  I don't think I'm going to tell work.  Maybe not ever.  Well, obviously, at some point I will but I think I might just see how long I can go without mentioning it.  If I stay as small as I did last time, I bet I can get almost to 30 weeks before I have to tell.  But I doubt I'll stay that small.  I need to make sure they know with enough time to get a replacement for me before maternity leave plus there's a conference in July that I REALLY don't want to go to.  Might be nice to use this as a reason not to go.  We'll see.  We'll just have to see.  I told last time because I was having so many dr. appointments that they got worried.  This time, most of our project travels and I can work from home on Thursday and/or Friday, so there's no real reason they'd even need to know if I'm out for a dr. appt.  They don't arrive on Mondays until 10 or later and they leave on Thursdays at 3-4, so I can schedule appointments on Fridays or Monday mornings and nobody needs to be the wiser.  Again, we'll see.

10 weeks, 2 days - Sticking with my doctor

I looked up the doctor down south of Atlanta that my current doctor, Dr. Lawson, recommended to me online.  She met this other doctor during med school and thought I'd like her a lot.  After doing some preliminary research, I think I'm going to stick with Dr. Lawson.  Here are their respective profiles:

Dr. Dean (recommended by Dr. Lawson):

Biography

Dr. Neely B. Dean received her medical degree from Mercer University School of Medicine in 2003 and completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency training at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia in 2007. She obtained her Bachelors of Science in Biology from the University of Georgia. Dr. Dean is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Prior to joining Piedmont Physicians, Dr. Dean was in practice in Newnan with PAPP Clinic. She is a Georgia native and moved to Newnan after completing her residency in 2007. Dr. Dean is a Fellow of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a member of the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecology Society. Her practice is focused on general Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as adolescent gynecology.

In her free time, Dr Dean enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with her husband and daughter.

Dr. Lawson (recommended by my favorite doctor ever in my whole life, Dr. Lashgari)
Dr. Lawson returned to her home state of Georgia after practicing medicine in the Arlington, VA/Washington, DC area for seven years. She earned her medical degree from Mercer University School of Medicine and is a 1998 graduate of Georgia Tech. Dr. Lawson completed her Residency at Georgetown University Hospital, where she served as Chief Administrative Resident and received top honors for clinical excellence in Gynecologic Oncology. During her Residency, she participated in several research projects and is published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. In her free time, Dr. Lawson enjoys reading, traveling and running with her two dogs.

Those aren't long biographies and they don't say a whole lot, but what I took from that is that Dr. Dean has done all of her schooling, work, research, and education in Georgia without any input from the world outside.  She may have done great things and published great articles, been given high accolades and won great awards, but there's nothing on her bio that says that to me.  Dr. Lawson, on the other hand, was educated in GA and DC and VA, has had prestigious honors and publications, and has done a number of things to expand her world view.  I get uncomfortable with the idea of people learning everything they know from the same place and all I can think is that if something went wrong with this pregnancy/baby while I was seeing Dr. Dean, would I always wonder if it would have been different if I'd been with Dr. Lawson?  I think the answer is yes.  And, since I'm already a higher risk pregnancy due to my <ahem> advanced maternal age <eye roll>, not to mention the complications with delivery of Henry (low amniotic fluid), I don't want to risk anything.  Actually, I didn't even realize that the low amniotic fluid was considered a complication until I was doing some reading about complications for THIS pregnancy.  I knew they wanted to get Henry out quickly, but they did a really good job of not panicking me.  In fact, such a good job that I had no real idea that anything was wrong.

Anyway, a small world view may be fine for a family practice doctor, but when it comes to the health and delivery of my baby, I want the best I can get.  And I don't feel like that's Dr. Dean... whom I've never met before and have made that judgement solely on her online biography.  But I really like Dr. Lawson.  And I like that she came so very very highly recommended by a doctor that I know and trust so very very much.  So.  It's a long drive.  It's very inconvenient.  It's frankly a big pain in the butt.  But a big pain in the butt in order to have the peace of mind that I'm giving my new baby the best care that I can is reason enough for me.  After all, I stayed in DC for an additional 6 months just so that I could deliver Henry with people I trust and it's not like that was a cake walk.  In fact, it was extraordinarily inconvenient.  But I stand by that decision as the right one.  And I think I'll come to decide that it's the right one for this baby, too.  Maybe after I have this baby, I can go to Dr. Dean as my gyn and see what I think of her then, if I like her, I can use her for our NEXT baby.  But for this go around, I think I'm sticking with the known entity.

Oh, plus Dr. Lawson said that she doesn't start rotating through docs in her practice until you're 30 weeks along plus she said that, since I live so far away and my baby came so quickly last time, that we might want to consider scheduling an inducement at 39 weeks just to be sure we have time to get to the hospital.  And that way, we could ensure that she is the one who delivers for us.  I'm not sure I'm really into scheduled inducements, but we'll see.  We've got a long time to go between then and now.

10 weeks, 1 day - Spilling the Beans

Well, I just sent out a message to Uncle Geoff, Aunt Stevie, and Uncle Eric that should spill the beans on baby Teddy Bear.  It went a little something like this:

Subject: Guess what

I'm interested to see what they write back.  Once they do, I'll note that he seems to be pretty happy about it and send back this photo:

I wish so much this pic wasn't so blurry and that you could read his shirt.  So cute.  There are some other kind of sassy ones, but these are the best so they're what we went with.  We're going to tell Matt's family on Sunday.  We're having them over for brunch after mass so we'll take off Henry's dress shirt to show this one underneath.  I wonder how long it will take someone to notice.  Ha!  We don't expect Uncle Andrew and Aunt Allie to make it on Sunday, so we'll send the same pic we sent to Aunt Stevie, Uncle Eric, & Uncle Geoff over to them as well as Aunt Melonie and Uncle Bernie after we tell the rest of them.  It'll be so nice for everyone to know!  Well, not everyone.  We won't tell the greater population until after the end of the first trimester.  But then, hurrah!

10 weeks, 0 days - Huzzah! and Sonogram Pic

"Looking good, Manda Ray!"  "Feeling good, Mandis!"

I don't know if it's the different prenatals my doctor gave me (she gave me ones with ginger and vit. B6 to help with nausea) or if it's that I'm eating more protein or that I'm further along now, but I'm feeling fabulous.  Absolutely fabulous.  No complaints.  I mean, sure, I'm tired and what not but ugh, I just feel soooo much better!  Hooray!!!  I'll post the Teddy Bear pics later today or tonight.  They're on my phone which is in the car and I don't feel like walking out there right now.  It's 1/2 mile from my desk out to the spot I parked in the parking lot and that's just a long walk for right now.  I'll do it in a bit.

Other news from the appointment: I may not be changing doctors.  I talked to her about our new situation and how funny I am about OBs and how  I stayed in DC because of Drs Lashgiri and Elliot and that I like her so much but that since she's over an hour away, I'm not sure it makes sense but if she doesn't have anyone she'd recommend, I wouldn't change because I don't like the idea of finding someone online.  Anyway, apparently, she has a good friend from med school who is down there somewhere (she couldn't remember which hospital) and she assured me that I'd like her.  I need to look her up and make sure she takes my insurance and that she's at a hospital not too far from our place, but that sounds promising.  She also said that we could consider scheduling an inducement at 39 weeks (provided everything looks good for it) so that I could be sure to deliver with her.  So that's an option, too.  We'll see.

We talked to her about all of my questions, from my diet last time to Henry being so small to me not gaining the recommend amount of weight to my low amniotic fluid to whether or not I can have coffee.  It was really great.  She's a really fabulous doctor.  I can see why she's good friends with Dr. Lashgiri.  They're very similar.  She took her time with me and I didn't feel rushed for a second and I felt like she listened and explained and... I just like her so much.   So so much.  Also, if I do stay with her, she said that she starts to rotate you through all the doctors at about 30 weeks so I'd end up seeing her most of the time.  Basically, she made me want to stay with her.  We'll see.  She mentioned that second babies usually come faster and she seemed to think it might be an issue since my last labor was so fast, but I don't really know if that counts because I didn't go into labor naturally.  Who knows?

Anyway.  Sonogram pics to come!
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UPDATE:  Here they be!  All fresh and shiny.  The first one is the one she called our Teddy Bear.  You can see the little arm and leg buds sticking out to the sides.  You can also see the yolk sac above TB's head, which I think is a little weird.  Yolk sac.  Sounds very... chickenish.  Anyway, very cool.

This one doesn't look like much other than a kidney bean, but I included it because it show's TB's size.  I think that's pretty cool.  He/she's just over an inch long.  Which is just what everything says he/she would be at this point, but it's still kind of cool to see.  Hooray!  There's a baby in there!

9 weeks, 5 days - First Dr. Appointment

Today's the day.  11:00 am.  I'm so very scared.  Scared maybe isn't the right word.  Worried.  Nervous.  Anxious.  Please say a little prayer for us today.
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UPDATE: Got back from the doctor.  All is fine.  There's one baby in there with a heartbeat of 174.  Hooray hooray hooray!!  The ultrasound tech called it "our little teddy bear" which I think is awfully cute since my mom calls Henry "Teddy Boy."  So we now have a Teddy Boy and a Teddy Bear.  :)  I'll post pics tomorrow and you'll be able to see why.  One of the pics she gave us looks very much like a teddy bear, with the little arm and leg buds sprawled out to the side.

We were petrified when we first got to the ultrasound waiting room because shortly after we sat down, there was a woman in there who started sobbing and left.  All I could think was that she got bad news and I couldn't help but remember when that was us.  And trying so hard not to cry coming out of the ultrasound because I didn't want to scare other women.  But it wasn't us this time.

And Dr. Lawson gave me a prescription for morning sickness meds if we want them.  And she gave me prenatals with extra ginger and B6 to help combat morning sickness.  And she also gave me a sheet with a bunch of over the counter remedies we could try if we wanted.  That gave me a lot of hope for feeling better in the future.  I've also decided that this little Teddy Bear is a girl.  Must be.  Why else would she be making me so sick and have a heartbeat of 174?  Henry's at 9 weeks was 170.  Almost the same but this is a little higher.  Must be a girl.  :D

Next appointment is on 3/7.  Whoopie!  Now, to tell the families.  Surprise, Aunt Stevie!

9 weeks, 2 days - Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh man, I don't know where it came from but I suddenly got this insatiable craving for Gramma Marcia's cut out cookies.  It's probably because I was talking to my partner in cookie crime, Shirley, but I can hardly stand how much I want one.  A big, pink, heart-shaped cut out cookie.  Since I couldn't find my cookie cutters at Christmas, I have little hope that I'll find them now so we may end up with Valentine's Day feet, moons, and fish again.  Unfortunately, I don't want to make them.  I just want to eat them!  I really really want to eat them!  Blerg.  I wonder if there's anyone I can strong arm into making them for me... :)  Just kidding.  I think we'll likely have Valentine's Day circles but they can still be pink and delicious.  Mmm...

9 weeks, 0 days - Light at the end of the tunnel

I was home yesterday because of this crazy weather we're supposed to be getting: up to an inch of ice, snow, wind, and then lose power for days at a time.  So far, the trees are covered in a thin/beautiful layer of ice but I haven't been outside to check the ground.  The worst of it is supposed to be today.  Anyway, I was home yesterday and I just felt... normal.  Great.  I wasn't tired.  I wasn't sick.  Not once at any point.  I just had energy to keep going all day long.  Yes, I worked so it's not like I was unpacking boxes and doing active things all day, but I did unpack boxes and do laundry and play with Henry and make dinner all after working a full day.  I didn't even realize what a change from normal that was until 8:30 when I started getting ready for bed and noticed that I wasn't tired.  Then I got to thinking about it and realized what an AMAZING day I had!  I've got to tell you, if I have days like that, I'm going to be able to do this.  Monday was so bad that I was beginning to wonder if I could.  It's been so long since I've felt well that I was... well, I just wasn't sure I'd be strong enough to make it through another 32 weeks.   But yesterday.  Yesterday!  I'm hoping it's just a preview of the good things to come.  I'm back to not feeling particularly well today, though it's still nothing like Monday.  Monday was so bad that I wasn't sure I'd make it home from work.  Henry didn't get a nap that day and played really hard at Aunt Amy's house, so he was an exhausted disaster and literally SCREAMED from the time I tried to strap him into his car seat until about 15 minutes after I put him down.  He didn't eat dinner.  Wouldn't read a story.  I didn't even try to give him a bath or brush his teeth.  I felt so tired and nauseous and had such a headache that I basically put him to bed and then fell into bed myself.  As I was laying there, I came close to crying wondering what I'd do if this is what the next 32 weeks would be like.  How could I go on?  And then, I got the beautiful gift of yesterday.  As if just to show me that it's not always going to be like this.  I really needed it.  It's funny because I would have thought that I'd be more confident about how things were likely to go after having been pregnant once before, but I wasn't ever this sick with Henry so I was just starting to worry that it would never end.  I super hope it does.  My friend, Simi, told me that she never really got badly sick, just felt like she had a constant hangover for the entire 9 months.  Since I haven't thrown up once, I was thinking maybe that's what I was experiencing, but if that was the case, I don't think I'd have it in me to make it through.  But again, then I got yesterday.  It's funny how, after you've been so sick for awhile that you kind of forget what it feels like to be well.  I'd forgotten what it was like to want to make dinner.  Or have the energy to unpack a box that I didn't FORCE myself to unpack.  Or to do laundry without feeling like crying.  I simply cannot wait for more days like that.  Cannot wait.

You know, come to think of it, Holly told me that when she lets herself get too tired, her symptoms were way way worse.  I was absolutely exhausted on Monday so I went to be at like 7:30 and then, because of the weather, I didn't have to go in so I got to sleep until 8:30.  So maybe Monday happened because I got too tired and then Tuesday happened because I got so much sleep.  I would like to figure out the formula to make Tuesdays happen more frequently and to avoid Mondays all together.  We'll see if I can figure it out.  Oh, also, I ate an entire box of cookies and 1/2 a pork loin.  Ha!  One of the downsides of feeling better may be that I gain WAY more weight than I'm supposed to.  But I was just so hungry!! :)

8 weeks, 6 days - "Maybe you're pregnant..." whaaa???!!!

I was in the break room the other day, making a cup of tea and a coworker approached me to ask what I was doing.  We had some tea small talk about what kind and if I like it, you know the drill.  Then he asked if I was pregnant.  What?!  I laughed and he smiled then said, "no, I'm serious."  He's been giving me a hard time about it since.  This was last week and he was back on it yesterday.  I get up at 5 am to go to work and am very tired by the time I'm there so he's decided that's because I'm pregnant.  And I'm drinking tea because I'm pregnant.  And what else... I can't remember, but he's been hitting it hard.  I think he's kidding but I kind of want to tell him just so that he'll stop going on and on about it.  During meetings.  In the hall.  Goodness.  I'm confident I don't look pregnant.  I haven't gained any weight and I'm pretty sure there's no "glowing" going on.  It's just... funny.

8 weeks and 5 days - Just more of the same

Remember the crippling TWO inches of snow we got a couple of weeks ago?  Well, they're calling for it again.  Except this time, it's supposed to include ice.  Ugh.  We've got a winter storm watch starting tonight at 7 and ending on Thursday at 7 am.  The worst of it is supposed to be on Tuesday night.  So what do I do?  Tuesdays are my big meeting days and we have our big, important, bi-weekly "PMO" meeting tomorrow until 5.  Hmm... watch the weather, I guess and make sure that I have a good roadside assistant kit.  My friend, Kevin, who was stuck on the road for 23 hours last time decided that, while his kit was good, he didn't have the materials he'd need to deliver a child in case it came up, so he's rethinking his packing.  Ha!  There's a true boy scout.  He really said that.  No foolin.

As planned, I went back in on Friday to have my blood drawn.  I saw the same nurse and, like on the phone, she told me that my results reassured her and that she felt like things were going to be fine.  So I'm waiting on the results of that blood draw to make sure that the numbers aren't going down.  I guess they don't need to go up at this point, but they shouldn't be going down.  I'm REALLY glad I went in because I've still been having quite a bit of spotting and even MORE cramping than I'd been having so if I hadn't, I think I'd be freaking out.  I'm still a little anxious, so I'll look forward to her call telling me unequivocally that things seem to be ok.  She stuck me funny, though.  I remember that my mom gave blood once and afterward, she had a lot of pain in her arm that lingered for a long time.  That's what happened to me this time.  Mine isn't nearly as bad as hers was, but I had and continue to have pain not only in the spot where she stuck me, but radiating up and down my arm.  On Friday and Saturday, my arm was weak and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to hold Henry.  I was and it was fine, but it's a very interesting sensation.  They must have hit a nerve or something.  I'm not sure what happened but it was weird and I hope it doesn't happen again.

One week until my ultrasound.  It cannot come soon enough for this mama.
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UPDATE:  The doctor's office just called.  My numbers went up, not by much but they did go up a little bit.  She said that I'm far enough along at this point and my numbers are already so high that they don't expect them to go up by much.  So we should be clear.  Thank goodness.  So, on to see a heartbeat next week!!  Woo-hoo!!

8 weeks, 1 day - Initial test results

The nurse I spoke with at my doctor's office yesterday just called.  She got my numbers back. Apparently, they look great and, while she still wants me to come in tomorrow to make sure they're going up instead of down, she said she's very very reassured.  My progesterone is high average for this point and my HCG level is dead center of where they want it to be for 8-9 weeks.  Sooo... hooray!  Great news!  We're not totally out of the woods, but it gave me enough reassurance to stop worrying.  :D :D

8 weeks, 0 days - kidney beans and raspberries

Eight weeks today!  Depending on the site you use, baby P is either the size of a kidney bean or a raspberry. A week and half left until our ultrasound.  I'm still nervous and worried because I'm regularly having light cramping and spotting.  The spotting is never heavy and the cramping is never painful, but it's still so upsetting and nerve racking.  I'm trying to prepare myself for the worst while staying positive.  I think I'll call the doctor.

Aside from that, though, I think I've found the charm.  I was reading back through my old blog and saw that last time, if I kept something on my stomach at all times, I didn't get sick.  So I tried it.  And lo and behold, I felt good.  So, I've started eating 1/2 a cracker every 2 hours.  It keeps something on my tummy and is super manageable throughout the entire work day.  No matter how busy I am, I can slip away and jam a cracker in my mouth.  And for the record, my crackers are the size of graham crackers so 1/2 of them is still a decent sized snack.  Bigger than a saltine.  Anyway, hooray for feeling better!
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UPDATE: I did end up calling the doctor and was able to talk to the same triage nurse as last time. She was a bit incredulous that I was still spotting and cramping but only called back today. I reemphasized how truly inconvenient it is for me to get in there. Anyway, she recommended that I come in for blood work because my appointment is still a week and a half away and, as she so rightly put it, that's an awfully long time to worry. So I did. She'll call if my results are in before I go back on Friday but otherwise, I'm to come in on Friday at 1:30 to have more blood work done. They'll compare my hcg levels between the two to make sure they're rising enough. She'll also look at my progesterone level to make sure it's high enough. So. That's where I'm at. If my levels aren't rising enough, they'll have to take a look or something so maybe I'll go in sooner. Who's to say?  If they are rising enough, then it's just a way to ease my mind. Either way, it should be good that I went in. I just wish I wasn't still spotting. It's been almost a month and it's been pretty consistent with both the spotting and cramping. :(

7 weeks, 5 days - Moving on up!

Well, it's official!  We live in Newnan, GA.  In our giant, echoy, cavernous house.  It's funny that I didn't think it was giant or cavernous before we moved in but the bedroom felt very different last night when I trying to sleep in it and the living room felt very large yesterday when Matt was coming in from the foyer and my bathroom felt ridiculously large this morning as I was getting ready for work.  It still doesn't seem real.  It still feels like we're sleeping over at someone else's house.  Maybe it's because I don't know where anything is or that living out of boxes feels like living out of a suitcase and I just had to make do (or is it due?... I've never thought about that before) with what I could find.  I'm sure as we unpack and stay there longer, it will get to feeling more and more like our own.  But for now, it feels like we're squatting in someone else's house.

As far as baby news goes, I'm still spotting.  Not sure whether or not to call the doctor back.  I'm beginning to think it happens most when I've over done it a bit.  I probably won't call the doctor.  Maybe I should.  Ugh.  I just wish I had my appointment sooner.  I'll be 8 weeks on Wednesday but my appointment isn't until two weeks from today.  Also, I don't know if it's because I don't remember well the early days of being pregnant with Henry, because now that I have Henry, I can't just do whatever I want whenever I want, or because these symptoms are genuinely worse, but I just... I can't believe how I'm feeling these days.  I'm SOOO tired, it's nearly indescribable.  I get a little tired of hearing how exhausted I look.  I feel sick pretty much all the time.  Sometimes it's nausea but mostly, it's just gross.  Like a hang over.  I get really winded and short of breath after doing things like going up a flight of stairs.  I have to rest at the top frequently.  Just bizarre.  None of it actually is bizarre; they're all very normal pregnancy symptoms, but I just don't remember any of it with Henry aside from some mild nausea.  Oh, and I have a stuffy nose all the time.  Why is THAT a pregnancy symptom?  So weird.  This pregnancy may end up being a lot more like a normal pregnancy than Henry's was.  I felt like I missed out on stuff with his because it was so easy, I gained so little weight, and I never got very big.  I sure would like to stop feeling so yucky, though.  Blerg.  I took a nap when I got to work this morning because I was afraid I was going to fall asleep on the way here.  It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half to get here this morning and let me tell you, it was a STRUGGLE.  I made it and I'm safe and sound, but I'm just so tired that I don't know how I'm going to make it through the day.  If only I had an office, I'd shut the door and take a 5 minute nap every hour.  Hopefully, once things get going, I'll wake up and be fine.  Otherwise, it's going to be a looooong day...