The first bee report...I am so excited!
While cleaning over the weekend I found myself thinking of baby and what to call him/her until we find out the gender. At 8 weeks (our first prenatal visit) we named Harrison our Teddy Graham. Now pregnant again, baby number 2 needed a name. Then it came to me..."What would Harrison name the baby?" Wait, that's simple, "Baby." Well as much as that has a ring, I think we needed something with a little more spice to it. The end of the word baby---has a bee sound so it was the aha moment and baby number 2 became our baby bee, simple & sweet (as honey).
I am a blog reader or stalker, however you want to look at it... I follow some pretty amazing bloggers and their families. Most recently I have been following 3 pregnant moms throughout their nine month journeys. I had a hard time deciding if I was going blog weekly about this pregnancy or blog monthly. I've seen both and this a tougher decision. With Harrison I blogged sporadically throughout our 29 week pregnancy. This pregnancy I want to keep a better timeline than I did with Harrison as Baby Bee will be completing our family. You can prepare yourself with monthly Bee Reports until week 30 when Bee Reports will make more frequent appearances. Harrison and I are going to have blast as he will take part of each and every Bee Report bump update beginning with the first glimpse at the growing bump at 12 weeks. Yes, you have to wait 4 whole more weeks!
Before I go much further, I need to fast forward back to March 9th, the day I found out we were pregnant! Harrison happened to be at daycare and Doug was down in the basement cleaning it up (at my request). I wasn't feeling right all that day, not at all...I was upstairs lying down when suddenly I had an urge to take a pregnancy test, just to rule out what could possibly be making feel this sick. I managed to get out of bed and take the test...I waited a minute, negative. I just remember thinking, "OK, well it's not that, must be a virus or something." I picked up the test to throw it away when I thought I saw a second line on the test. I went over to the window and held it up to the light and the first thing that came to mind was, "No way...really?" I should probably clarify that the "No way" was a positive reaction, baby bee was very much a planned bee. I came down stairs to kitchen to tell Doug, still in disbelief...I called downstairs to the basement and said, "Doug, I think I am pregnant," then silence... and he said, "What? Did you pee on a stick?" Yep, not quite the reaction I was looking for, but hey, this is real life, can't always sound like a fairy tale.
The following days I took 3 more tests....you know, just in case the first one, then second, and third tests were wrong. Amazing all 4 were positive...so I must really be pregnant, right?
At 6 weeks we saw the doctor for the first time. This pregnancy we switched doctors, the doctor of this pregnancy is the doctor that delivered Harrison. I don't know this doctor well, but he was amazing with Harrison's delivery. I don't have anything against the first doctor I had...but our kids go to the same daycare and frankly it would be a little weird to see my OBGYN daily when we pick up our kids. At this initial appointment we discussed being high risk, what it meant and what we were going to do. Right now, we can't do much in this first trimester but monitor the baby. After 12 weeks I will be seeing a specialist who will likely follow me in conjunction with my doctor during this pregnancy. There is a few new advancements since Harrison's pre-term birth that can be done to help monitor the pregnancy and help determine if prematurity is suspected. I will get into the specifics in another post.
The reality of the positive didn't come until we saw the beating heart on a regular ultra sound last week. With Harrison they couldn't see anything on the regular ultra sound at 8 weeks so I had a trans vaginal ultra sound with him. At 7 weeks the technician was happy with how clear she could see Bee, she even shared some 3D glimpses, which she said she can't usually see at 7 weeks. I guess it was an impressive ultra sound for everyone!
Doug and I decided to share the news with our parents on 3-29-12 and the rest of the world on 3-30-12. Thanks to my friend Jenna, who captured some wonderful pregnancy announcement pictures we were able to share our news with photos.
Now that I have rewinded back to the beginning a bit, we can move forward with the meat and potatoes of the bee report (yep, there is more...so get comfy and put your feet up)
size of baby: 4 weeks: poppy seed, 5 weeks: apple seed, 6 weeks: sweet pea, 7 weeks: blueberry, 8 weeks: raspberry. Right now Bee is growing about a millimeter per day. The size of the uterus has went from the size of a plum to the size of a grape fruit. Bee can move his/her arms & legs and taste buds are forming at 8 weeks already, this process is so amazing.
cravings: Nothing in particular... with Harrison I was downing a pound of pretzels every few days and practically eating an apple tree, trunk and all at this time. Though I don't have anything now with Bee, I anticipate there will definitely be something.
what I love: Being able share the good news... I have a terrible time keeping secrets about myself, so it out there...I AM PREGNANT.
what I am looking forward to the most: 1. ten week appointment (hearing the heart beat for the first time) 2. feeling Bee move, my favorite part of pregnancy.
worries: If I listed all the worries I have right now I wouldn't finish this blog entry for days. It's better left forgetting the worries.
what is different this time around: A lot. I am not having nearly as horrific pregnancy dreams as I had with Harrison's pregnancy. I have only died a couple of times during these past two months, which is a vast improvement to pregnancy number one where I had nightmares all time. This time around I am much more sensitive to smells, VERY MUCH. Nothing smells that great (except for an air freshener I smelt today)---almost all smells are a turn off. The other day I about lost everything while driving in the car when I passed a dead skunk. In fact certain smells actually make me gag, but I haven't tossed my cookies yet (but there are times I sure felt like I could have). I have given myself pep talks while leaning over the sink saying, "I am not going to throw up, I am not going to throw up." I also get these weird waves of queasiness. One minute I am OK, the next I get chills and feel absolutely horrible---sometimes it only lasts for a few minutes, sometimes it lasts for hours....tonight it lasted for hours. I am also much more fatigued than I was with Harrison, I feel like the house/yard and getting neglected, but I just don't have the energy most days. I had some fatigue with Harrison, but very mild in comparison to Bee's.
symptoms: Strutting my stuff with the return of the girls on my chest, now that is a pregnancy perk! If you got them, flaunt them! I had the metallic pregnancy tastes from weeks 4 to 6, thankful that has subsided. Frequent headaches is a symptom, check. I am finding myself a bit more moody---which I am sure my wonderful husband would up that "bit" just a bit. I was a little more emotional a couple of weeks ago, but the last couple of weeks I have noticed that evening out to normalish (for now anyways). In the last week my bladder has kicked into overdrive (yep, that happens in early pregnancy, did with Harrison too) and I get the nightly baby bloat that disappears by morning. I think I am about 3 weeks a head of showing than I did with Harrison. I am positive by the 12 week Bee Report there will be a notice-able bump.
maternity clothes: not yet, I made it through my entire pregnancy with Harrison without buying a single piece of maternity wear or a belly band. I am anticipating this will not be the case with Baby Bee.
sleep: I don't sleep well. I have a toddler that doesn't sleep well---this makes for a LONG day. Night wake up calls have been left to Doug lately. Once I am asleep, don't you wake up this girl. Though I haven't been having bad dreams, I still can't sleep well. The night after the ultra sound is the first night I felt like I slept in a month. Though I am not sleeping well at night, for the first time in my life, I have been able to lay down and nap when an opportunity arises. Usually when I try to lay down I can never fall asleep.
the belly: I feel my belly getting tighter and gaining that pregnancy hardness (yes, all this at 8 weeks)---it's not only baby, but the rapid size increase of the uterus.
movement: none yet, still too early. I am excited that most second time mom's feel movement 1-5 weeks sooner than they did with baby number one.
boy/girl: Either way, we just want a healthy, full term baby. Something tells me that Bee is a girl though... I just don't see us having two boys, but if Bee is a boy I wouldn't be any less excited. At 8 weeks pregnant with Harrison I told him I knew Harrison would be a boy. At 10-12 weeks we are taking the at home gender test again to see what it reveals. With the Harrison's pregnancy it revealed that I was having a boy; it's going to be fun to see if the test matches up with the gender on the big ultra sound.
milestones: Revealing the pregnancy. Next week (9 weeks) Bee will officially become a fetus.
comments from the general public: positive! After announcing our pregnancy we were flooded with congrats and positive thoughts.
best moment of the month: Being pregnant each and everyday.
Here is a glimpse at Harrison's ultra sound at 8 weeks (or really nine corrected at his birth) and Baby Bee at 7 weeks 1 day according to the ultra sound and 7 weeks 2 days according to our own calculations.
1. Harrison (8-9 weeks via trans vaginal ultra sound)
2. Baby Bee (7 weeks via traditional ultra sound)
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