Ultrasound day! I couldn't sleep last night... I kept waking up, worrying that I was going to miss the appointment. DH and I left super early, and I showed up 30 minutes before my appointment time. The wait wouldn't have been so bad, but the doctor was running late, and I had to wait an additional 45 minutes AFTER my 2 pm scheduled time until I was seen! That was not a good time to make me wait. I don't think I've been that antsy in a long while.

Sooo, I went in to the room, got weighed, blood pressure, etc. Then came the questions about family history (again), and the nakedness, and the speculum. Dr. did a feel of the uterus, told me it was a "nice size", and that I didn't have any weird growths (like fibroids) or bony protrusions that would make for a difficult birth. Whew. The less difficulty, the better. She told me everything felt good, my labs were good, and it was time for the ultrasound. Yay! Oh, a transvaginal ultrasound. Well, you already violated me, and I'm up for another go!

So I got to see the baby, and WOW, it was cute. I mean, not in the sense that ultrasounds are really that cute, per se, but because it's *my* baby, that automatically made it cute. When it fidgeted I got to see its little hands (with defined fingers!) and little legs kicking... ooh, it was so cool. Definitely the most fun I've had looking at a grainy blob. And she's told me to call back in about two weeks to be scheduled for my next appointment, and then an ultrasound at 20 weeks (I didn't know I'd get a second one!), when I'll be able to find out the gender. All in all, I'm over the moon. She said that the baby looked really great, and there was no reason to worry. I'm a low-risk pregnancy. And I really couldn't be happier.

Pics were included in the seperate first tri thread, but here's a couple again (I can't resist):





On a side note, she measured me at 10 weeks and one day, and though it's not 100%, that's what I've changed the ticker to. So baby is officially a fetus, and over a big hurdle.

Grr. Grr! Yesterday was awesome, but today has been seriously grr.

So I had to get up about 6:30 to drive a half hour to take some upgrade testing for my job. A little backstory -- I have been studying for this test for about five or six months now, and have been waiting about two months to actually get a good date to test. Mostly this is due to the training supervisor over at my office. See, he didn't really know much about where to test or how to get it scheduled, despite that it's his friggin' JOB TITLE. Anyway. So after jumping through tons of hoops, I finally got my test scheduled. And I studied last night for something like five hours, just prepping my mind.

Woke up this morning tired, but determined. Despite that it was my day off (I decided to take the rest of the afternoon off as a kind of "hurrah, the test is finished" thing), I got up early to finish the damned thing once and for all. So I drive down, take FOREVER to find parking (which sucked, and was about a mile away from the building), and find the room I need. The people at the testing center seem very nice. The first question they ask: "Did you bring your answer sheet with you?"

I blank. Answer sheet? "No, I was never given one." And then a worried look. They go back to search for my answer sheet, and can't find it. I'm then informed that the friggin' moron training supervisor needed to give one to me before I took the test. I get on the phone with said moron, who says that perhaps someone from the office can drive one down. Me: "I have no problem with waiting if someone will bring the sheet to me." Him: "Okay, so we'll reschedule you." Wha?! Ummmmmm, sure then. I am given a new test date of Thursday.

So I get back to the car and drive another half hour back to work to see the training supervisor. He informs me that he must have forgotten to tell my supervisor that I needed to pick up the test booklet before I tested. Whoops! But if I come back at 3 in the afternoon I can get it from him. So I am still pissed. This is my day off, for goodness sake, and now I have to come back to the office in a few hours for another time to pick up the thing I was supposed to have recieved a week ago.

But whatever, I let it roll off my back. I get back to the office at 3 and make a B-line for the training supervisor's office. As soon as I get in he smiles at me and says, "I don't have the training sheet. WHY DON'T YOU COME BACK TOMORROW MORNING?"

No problem. No problem except that TOMORROW IS MY DAY OFF, JERK!!!!! Grr, I am so mad right now! Not only did he eff me over in the first place by sending me out for an hour's drive without the proper test supplies, but then he tells me to come back for the test sheet and decides to blow it off because he is just too effing lazy to pick the damn thing up! And it's not a matter of the sheet not being ready for me -- he just has to drive ten minutes and get it from one of the other buildings. But I guess it's not his fault, he probably had too much work... after all, he only had FIVE HOURS to do it! God, he makes me so mad!

Sigggghhhh... okay, needed to vent. I feel better now.

On the plus side, DH and I went shopping for some baby stuff. We just got a few things -- a couple of unisex baby gowns (my mom loved these things and cannot stop recommending them), some baby mittens, and a baby sleeper that swaddles. I kind of feel like a total fake shopping for baby stuff so early. Like if I'm not sporting a big, pregnant belly, security is going to escort me out of the store or something. It was the same way at my appointment yesterday. Every woman there had this massive, beautiful, third-trimester bump, and I had nada (my only bump comes from my love of pizza and Cheezits). I'm sure I'll feel better at my 20 week appointment, when I'll hopefully at least be sporting something preggie-looking. Though because I'm tall (6'), my mom is convinced I won't show 'til the 5th month. God, I hope not. I swear, it's the only time I've been sad that I was the thinnest woman in the room.

Sorry your boss jerked you around like that.

Wont be long till you start showing I noticed a change about 13 weeks but this is my second.

xx

The test went okay today, I think. I'm positive I passed it, but I'm not sure it was with flying colors... ah, well, I'll know in a few weeks. Right now I'm just happy that aggrivation is behind me!

Baby's heartbeat has been coming in SUPER STRONG on the doppler, lately. This morning DH had a listen and honestly thought it was my own heartbeat ('til he compared my pulse to the pulse on the doppler) because it was so loud. I'm still a little baffled as to why I'm able to hear it so early and so strong. I figured it would take me some time, mostly because of my height. So I wonder if I was able to hear the heartbeat early, does that mean I might start 'popping' earlier, too? I wonder if the two things have any correlation... or if I'm just wish-dreaming.

I can't believe next week I'll be at 11 weeks. I am so close to the second trimester, I can taste it! Mmm. Tastes like victory.*




*Please excuse the corniness.

Eleven weeks! I don't know why this seems like a milestone, but I'm happy, so I'll just roll with it.

Morning sickness definitely seems better, so I'm getting more of my sex drive back. I even initiated on Saturday (I know, TMI), so DH is happy about that. I think he's crossing his fingers that my "I don't want sex" attitude is in the past. Hey, I'm sure we'll have enough of that once the baby is born, anyway!

So lessened morning sickness has led to increased need to pee, and that sucks. I was always the person who could down a bottle of water right before bed and not need to go 'til the morning. Well, not anymore. I got up twice last night to relieve myself... the latest one I remember was 4:45 in the morning. Not fun. This has been happening every night for the past week or so, and I KNOW that I'm not drinking a crazy amount more than I used to, so I'm completely blaming the bean.

So yesterday I took a pic on my cellphone to compare my stomach to when I was at the 6-week mark, and I swear it's shrunk since then! Ha, maybe I'm just less bloated. Well, I just felt positively thin this weekend, which was so odd. The girls are definitely getting bigger... I'm up to a full D cup now, which DH absolutely LOVES, but which are kind of annoyingly big to me (they seem to get in the way a lot -- more so than when they were a C). And it's weird, but my nipples have been bugging me; they just seem to tingle a lot, and I have to avoid the urge to scratch at them in public -- I've heard public breast fondling is frowned upon in today's society, but it could just be rumor.

Oh, to be showing. I am so insanely jealous of the girls who are outgrowing their pants, which I realize sounds ridiculous. But all of my pants still fit just fine, and it's annoying me. Other than a bigger bust, it's all nada. Though I'm hoping to take after my mom in the pregnancy department -- absolutely NO stretchmarks on her tummy and super fast labor/delivery. Of course, this will probably mean that I'll have more strechmarks than normal skin and I'll be in labor for 36 hours, or something.

im glad everythings going well. enjoy the thinness youll get a bump in no time. your scan pics look great!

Glad everything is going well and YAY you made it to 11 weeks!! Only 2 more weeks and you'll be scooting off to 2nd tri!!

Thank you guys for your sweet comments!

Things are going pretty well so far. I have had a few bouts of mildish cramping which, because I'm a paranoid freak, worry me... but I always go and check the hb with the doppler afterward, and it's always beating as strong as ever. I figure that I'm not going to REALLY stop worrying until my 20 week scan. Or until I've delivered. Or until it's 18 and off to college. You know, one of those.

Ugh, work has been super slow and terribly boring... and though it does give me the time to peruse pregnancy sites, I can't help but feel like my time would be better spent at home, on the couch, watching TV. I have been counting down the days, and I can't believe it's only Wednesday! Two more days 'til the weekend? Oh, dear.

So next Monday I will be setting up my 16 week appointment. The clinic only books 4 weeks in advance, so I figure if I call exactly 4 weeks before the date I want, I'll be set! This is mostly exciting to me because I know at the 16 week appointment, I'll be able to book for the 20 week scan, which is what I'm really dying for. I'm praying that LO won't be shy, because I really want to know if I should decorate in blue or pink!

Speaking of decorating, DH has been sweetly cleaning out the spare bedroom for the bean. Just seeing the empty space makes me want to buy all kinds of baby stuff to fill it up, even though I know it's a little too early. Still, sometimes I just look into the room and picture what it would look finished... just makes me happy, I guess.

What doesn't make me happy? A few of my coworkers have taken it upon themselves to give me unwanted advice about my dietary habits. I have now found out that I'm "not eating enough" and "not drinking enough water". I think if I came to work eating a big sandwich they might feel better. Can I help that I do my snacking at home? It just makes me grr to be told by people I never see outside of work that I'm doing things wrong, when they have no idea! I guess that once you're pregnant everyone feels like they need to give you advice, whether or not you ask. I know they're trying to help, but I wish they'd just keep their criticisms to themselves!

Had a series of crazy, crazy dreams last night... one was so weird that I just have to share it. Hopefully it will make some sort of sense written down, because it had a kind of crazy logic in my dream.

I'm arriving at work for the day and I sit down next to a colleague. I ask him how he's doing, and he tells me that his wife is having a baby. Then he gestures to a small, plastic flowerpot on the desk at his side. Inside the pot is some potting soil, and poking out in the middle of that soil is a baby's head, in miniature (about the size of the tip of your thumb). It is giggling and moving about. I put the palm of my hand over it, and suddenly its arms -- which are two large, colorful flowers -- come out from the soil, and they start waving about. When I remove my palm, its arms are normal baby arms, though still very small. So now you can see the head, torso, and arms.

I tell my coworker how cute the baby is, and he thanks me.

Later I am strolling with my family, and I mention that my palm hurts. I look down and see a large, slightly bloody wound in the center of my palm. That makes sense, I say, the baby must have stuck its head through my hand when I put my palm over it. They do say that it hurts when you're having children, after all. But, I add, I didn't know that my unborn child was in a flowerpot... I thought it was in my womb!

It is, my dad says, but there's another way to have children. You can buy the seeds. There are a few brands but one, called Golden Tiger, is very expensive because it implants early, my brother adds. During this conversation, I can't help but wonder if maybe I was a sucker to not just buy the seeds.

And then the dream veers off into a whole other, non-baby direction. Hopefully it is not too weird to understand, but it was just so BIZARRE and vivid! I wonder if it means anything... other than that I should stop watching TV right before I go to bed. I think that tends to effect my dreaming.

12 weeks! Only a few weeks 'til the second trimester... umm, not that I'm counting or anything.

So I keep dreaming about this baby as a girl. I think it might have something to do with the fact that DH and I went bowling with his work last Friday, and his coworker's wife was there with their gorgeous baby girl, Sophia. Ohh, so cute. At one point she had found a plastic lid and was gripping it with one hand and banging it against the table, just giggling in sheer glee... which was so adorable. When DH and I got home, I told him how seeing Sophia made me want our baby NOW, and he agreed.

And then today I just thought of my bean as 'she'. Probably because of all those dreams, and the recent encounter with a baby girl. All of this gender wondering has me impatient for the 20 week scan. I want it noooooow!