Week 6

Today is the start of my sixth week. I think that makes it a good time to talk about me :-) So far, pregnancy is agreeing with me. No real morning sickness (yet). From what I understand, for most women it tends to kick in between five and nine weeks. It's still early, but I'm hoping I'll be one of the lucky ones with minimal morning sickness. While I'm glad to not have the nausea to deal with, I am EXHAUSTED!! The fatigue is knocking me out. I'm pretty much ready for bed by 9:00 pm these days. It makes it hard to get too much other stuff done, and I'm still trying to finish my Christmas knitting. Going to work and coming home seems to be about as much as I can handle...dinner is whatever I can throw together that's fast and easy...of course, then there's no guarantee I'll be able to eat it! I've found I have a very distinct lack of appetite. Even when I'm so hungry my stomach is growling at me, nothing really sounds appetizing. I might start dinner, but about half way in, suddenly realize that I feel like if I keep eating, it might not stay down. So I'm doing my best to get in small portions more frequently through out the day. This seems to be the best way for me to get the calories and nutrients I need.

Yesterday, the pregnancy books we ordered came in. One of them has "actual size" pictures of the growing embryo during the first trimester. As of today, the baby is about the size of a sesame seed. One week from today, it will be about 3-4 times that size. After another week, it triples in size yet again, and at least doubles again the next week. When Bryan showed me these pictures, his comment was "No wonder you're so tired!!" It's amazing to think that it grows so quickly! Even more amazing is that right about now is when the heart and circulatory system start forming. There's a possibility we'll be able to see a heartbeat at our first sonogram on the 18th!

Ok...time for a nap!

"Medically Confirmed"

We visited Sara's OB/GYN office yesterday. We didn't actually meet with the doctor, instead we had a nice chat with one of the nurses, which I guess is pretty typical for a pregnancy confirmation visit. They basically performed the same test that Sara had already done at home (checking hormone levels in the urine), but somehow its reassuring to have a medical professional confirm the pregnancy. Sara and I walked out of the doctor's office with an extra bit of confidence that this really is happening. And we're so excited!

The visit was pretty brief. We asked a few questions, but it sounds like there's not too much for us to worry about just yet. In a couple of weeks (Dec 18) we will return for an appointment with the doctor where they will do the first ultra sound. In the mean time, we've got some books coming in the mail today so that we can read up and learn what we can.

The other detail that we learned yesterday is that the baby will be delivered at Emory's Crawford Long Hospital. This happens to be the place that works with our insurance, but it's also very close to our home (it's located right in midtown, 3.8 miles from our house). And it looks like a great facility in general. Check out this picture of one of their rooms:

And I must say that we are generally just very lucky to have Sara working at Emory right now because they do offer such great health benefits (esp since grad students like me don't really get benefits at all!). Sometimes things just work out nicely that way.

A New Beginning

We have created this blog because in a few short weeks, we will be giving our family the good news: we're expecting a baby! We think this will make a great Christmas present to our parents! We decided to start chronicling our thoughts, ideas, and feelings sooner rather than later, to give ourselves and our families a glimpse into our life as we prepare for the wee one.

Just about one week ago, on Wednesday November 21, I took my first home pregnancy test, and was delighted to see it come back positive! We decided only a few weeks ago that we were ready to start trying for a baby, so you can imagine our surprise and excitement that we met with success so quickly. In fact, surprised enough that I could hardly believe it was true and had to take another pregnancy test a few days later, just to convince myself it was true!

Tomorrow morning, we have our first appointment with the OB to confirm the pregnancy. While I'm sure we won't set the record for most/dumbest questions asked, it wouldn't surprise me if we come pretty close :-) But that's ok. We just want to make sure we do what's best for the wee one.

I have to admit to being excited, nervous, scared, euphoric and several other things all wrapped up in one. I know our life is about to change in ways we can't even begin to imagine. But I think we're ready.

We hope that when we give you the URL and username/password for this blog, you'll take the time to read past posts, as we will be chronicling this adventure for a few weeks before anyone else even sees this page. This will also be where we can share sonogram pictures, nursery ideas, and perhaps even my growing bump. We'll see. And welcome to our growing family.

Welcome To Our Blog

Greetings! We thought that this would be a nice way to keep our friends and family informed about the pregnancy. If you're not familiar with a blog, don't worry because it's really simple to use. You can think of this blog as a virtual journal that both Sara and I will be contributing to over the next year or so. To stay informed you can simply return to this web page and read our new posts. If you would like to be notified whenever there's a new post, then you can use a blog reader, which is just a program that will check the blog for you and tell you when there are new posts. And, as always, if you have problems then feel free to contact me (aka family tech support) and I'll try to help. We look forward to sharing this exciting time of our lives with each of you!