Update on baby

Tony and I went to the doctor yesterday to meet our new ob and to get our first ultrasound. It was amazing. The picture below is sideways......why I don't know and I can't seem to get it to flip. As of yesterday, we are 8 weeks and 4 days. The heartbeat was about 170 beats a minute and we got to hear it. I cried and Tony was just trying to figure out if it sounded okay. The ultrasound technician said that everything looked completely normal. If the picture was rotated to the right it would be right side up but you can start to see little arms and legs starting to form. It is the most amazing thing to hear your baby's heartbeat for the first time. My next visit is at the end of next month. The doctor told us they will try and hear the heartbeat with the doppler. The doc says if you can hear the heartbeat with the doppler the chances of miscarriage drop to about 1%. So far so good. We really like our doctor. He's got a great sense of humor and answers questions really clearly. He told me not to worry about things I can't control and really put my mind at ease about things I had been reading. By the way, I do not recommend What to Expect When You're Expecting. There's a few things I have found that totally conflict with what the doctor and all my other pregnant or have been pregnant friends have told me. I'm getting less and less paranoid everyday about something going wrong. I've gained 7 pounds already (yes I cried but I can't loose weight right now so I'll get over it). I still gag when I smell something bad and threw up the other day because our damn lab puppy of 6 months who is supposed to be potty trained, pooped in his crate. Thank God I made it next door to my parents to see if mom could get the dog and the crate outside as I kept throwing up everywhere. I'm still really tired and even fell asleep during a great movie a few weeks ago which has only happened one other time in my life....while watching Matrix 3 which was one of the most boring movies I've seen because I didn't understand what was going one. I'm trying to take naps when I can as I'm waking up almost every 2 hours to pee or because I can't stay asleep. Tony is excited and yesterday really confired for the both of us that we are indeed pregnant. We are doing wonderfully and I'm embracing every good and bad symptom of pregnancy as I am so grateful to get to experience this.

And no, I am not going to blog about the health care bill. I know most of you know how I stand and I'm just going to leave it at that ;)

Exhaustion

I alway thought that if I were to get pregnant, I would be the one throwing up all over the place. I had a few weeks were I'm nauseated and have only thrown up a handful of times. Once in a while I will get wave of nausea but it goes away fairly quickly.

I can say that my exhaustion is getting worse. I'm getting up every hour to pee (I didn't know it started quite this soon) and I have NO motivation. I'm usually a clean person. Slowly the house is becoming messier. Thank God Tony has been helping some around the house. Plus, I am working 36-40 hours a week at a fairly stressful job. Last night was an er shift. After 4:30 I am the only social worker for the whole entire hospital. I had six referrals on the floor which is A Lot. I was running between floors, getting paged constantly, and then had to run frantically down from the 4th floor back to the ER because we had a patient code (meaning they were brought into us in cardiac/pulmonary arrest) and I have to respond to codes.. I wish I could multiply myself at times like this but I can't. If anyone finds a way to clone people, let me know. I'll be the first in line. Its exhausting not pregnant but worse when you are!! Does it ever stop??

I'm not nearly as paranoid as I was at first about the cramping. My new paranoia: having a positive pregnancy test and finding on our first ultrasound that I have an empty sac. I didn't know this was possibe and I should probably just stay away from reading anything on the internet and only reading my What To Expect book. I so want to have my first ultrasound to make sure baby is alright but I have to wait until the 23. It's killing me.

By the way, if anyone knows of any additional reading that is helpful during pregnancy, please let me know. What To Expect is a great read but its always nice to have additional resources.

There's No Place Like Home

Hi everyone!

Well, I just arrived back from Rocky Point, Mexico which is only about 4 hours away from Phoenix. The resort we stay at is absolutely beautiful. Here is a pic of me standing out on the beach in front of our hotel.As you can see, its absolutely beautiful. We spent 3 nights there. However, there is nothing like coming home and being back in your own country. I love experiencing different cultures and traveling. If anything, it has made me appreciate the things I have and makes me remember how lucky I am to be born in this country. It's nice to come back to a place where people speak your language (although many people do speak English in Mexico) and you know when you order a cheeseburger, it will be a cheeseburger your eating. I ordered a cheeseburger in Africca one time.....I don't know what the heck it was but it did not taste anything like a cheeseburger.

I think that if a person gets the privilege to travel to another country then they should take advantage of that. Its a wonderful learning experience and its very interesting to see how other people live.

In more news:

Here is the proof I am pregnant.

Yes I know 4 pregnancy tests are a little extreme, but just wanted to make sure. I took another one 3 days later too :) I guess because I'm still so early its hard to believe that I am actually pregnant. Here is a picture of me at 5 1/2 weeks. Obviously you can't tell I am pregnant but I wanted to remember what I look like with all the weight I have recently lost so I can keep this picture in mind as my goal for post baby :)

My ob gyn practice that I have been going too is "dissolving". I have asked quite a few people left about the only ob gyn that is left at the practive and people tell me that the guy is a big jerk and not to go to him. So Tony and I are switching to a different practice and will have our first ultra sound on March 23. We do not want to wait that long but I also don't want to be stuck with a doctor that I can't stand for 9 months either. I did get my first set of labs back from my appointment with the medical tech and I am healthy as a horse. We are upset because they refused to check my hcg level to confirm my pregnancy and so we woud know exactly how far along we are so we are still going by what they are estimating right now I will be 6 weeks tomorrow. I am feeling very tired still. I have some cramping which scares me a bit but the triage nurse at my new practice says this is normal as long as there is no bleeding or spotting. So far so good.