Great News!

We received a phone call on Thursday from our genetic counselor-- everything looks great! We knew that the measurements looked good at the NT Scan, but we were thrilled to get the results of the bloodwork back. This suggests that our baby has a less than 2% chance of chromosome abnormalities such as Down Syndrome. I'll have one more round of bloodwork at 16 weeks.

Hopefully our nurse next round will be as funny as the one we had this week. While we were waiting for her, Rob was sitting on her stool, pretending to be the doctor. As she walked in, he was saying, "During your pregnancy, Mrs. Blakely, you can expect to experience--." She started laughing and I said, "Don't mind him-- he's just playing doctor." She looked at him and said, "I'll bet that's what got you here in the first place." HA!!

We're listening to the heartbeat every night before bed and as Baby Blakely grows, the heartbeat is easier to find & seems to get louder each day. Last night it sounded like a train was coming!

Sometimes, during the day when I get caught up with work, I forget that Baby Blakely is even in there. I love taking a few minutes together each night to remind ourselves that this is actually happening.

Because we just couldn't help it.

(Don't worry-- we kept all of our receipts, just in case!)

Can you tell we like monkeys & blue and brown?

It's official-- as of today, we are 1/3 of the way through this pregnancy!

NT Scan

Our NT scan today was so much fun-- the baby has changed so much since our last ultrasound at eight weeks. We weren't allowed to make a video of what we saw, but we did get some pictures. First, let me say that the fluid at the back of the baby's neck measured perfectly-- right in the middle of the normal range. Looks healthy!

The baby slept through most of the scan, but the doctor jiggled my stomach several times and the baby woke up and moved around. So cool! We saw flips and arms and legs moving around. Seeing the baby actually look like a baby made everything seem more real.

We also got some other news-- Can you guess what it is by the pic below?

We asked the ultrasound tech if it was possible to tell the sex of the baby at this point and she told us that if she could see anything that indicated one or the other, she would let us know. When she took this shot, she said, "I think it's a boy." A few seconds later, the doctor walked through the door and before she could even say hello, she looked at the screen, pointed and said, "Boy."

Boys and girls look really similar at this stage, so I asked the doctor how she could tell. She explained that while boys and girls start off looking the same, generally by 13 weeks the Genital Tuber has started to shorten, if it's a girl. Her guess that it's a boy was based on how far it seems to be protruding in this picture.

When I asked her how sure she was, she said 90-95%.

While we obviously still want confirmation of this at our 18-20 week ultrasound (mid-April), we are over-the-moon excited about the idea of having a baby boy! But, of course, we are most excited about having a healthy baby!

13 Weeks!

13 weeks! I'm slowly but surely starting to feel better. Still tired, but that may be the work schedule I have right now, just as much as the pregnancy. Food aversions, thankfully, seem to be going away!

This week, baby is the size of a Nutter Butter (Mmmm....):

And looks like a real baby! (With an old man face!)

Baking Baby Blakely

"Your baby can make a fist and even suck his or her thumb this week—both skills that are über-cute during infancy ... and not so much at the age of 9. If you're really lucky, you might catch a glimpse of baby's thumb sucking on an ultrasound photo. That's a framer!

Other exciting developments include:

Your baby's eyelids are fused shut to protect his eyes as they develop. His bones and skull are solidifying and soon itsy-bitsy ribs may appear. (Baby ribs! How cute is that?!) Baby's intestines are finally right where you want them—in his or her belly instead of poking out into the umbilical cord. Baby's tooth sockets are all loaded and ready to pop out baby teeth six or seven months after baby is born (causing baby a lot of pain and you a lot of lost sleep).

Who's that singing? Elton John? Could be your baby: His vocal cords and larynx are completed now.

Your baby-to-be now weighs about 20 grams and is nearly 3 inches long, or about the size of a Nutter Butter, covered in chocolate. OK, it doesn't have to be covered in chocolate, but isn't everything better that way?"

We're really looking forward to seeing Baby Blakely this afternoon-- we have our NT Scan today and we're so excited to see our baby look like a baby, instead of a gummy bear! I plan on drinking something sugary before we go so that we'll (hopefully) see some movement. Pictures (& possibly a video) to follow tonight.

New Toys

We've invested in a few new toys over the past few days and as we test them out, we had a little something we wanted to share.

Rob and I did some test shots with the dogs last night with our new video camera. (Don't judge the quality by this video-- we only had a small lamp on, so it was very dark.) I'm excited that we have something to potentially capture the baby moving on our NT Scan next week. And obviously, we'll have much bigger things to film in September.

Today, the doppler arrived and I was so excited to come home from work and try it. Rob wasn't home from work yet, but I laid down and tried it. I was easily able to find my own heartbeat but I was unable to find Baby Blakely. I was so disappointed. When Rob came home, we tried again and he was instantly able to find it!! It was so much fun to hear it and it's reassuring to know that we can listen whenever we want. The sound was very faint, but I know that it will get louder and stronger as baby gets bigger.

It's amazing-- not only the technology that we have available, but also the baby growing inside me!

Milestone: 12 weeks!

It's such a relief to make it to 12 weeks, or what many people consider the end of the first trimester. If you want to get technical about it and do the math, the second trimester actually begins at 13 weeks and 3 days, but who's counting? 12 weeks is generally considered the "safe" period to start telling people, which we would do today if we hadn't already outed ourselves to family and friends several weeks ago!

This week, baby is the size of a vienna sausage (I just gagged):

And looks very similar to last week, but with better ears:

Baking Baby Blakely

"Baby's face is looking more human as his eyes have moved to the front of his head and his ears are in place. Hooray!

Other amazing fetal highlights this week:

Your baby is able to swallow this week and practices on the amniotic fluid he or she floats in. (And you thought baby food was kind of nasty!) And in case you're wondering how your kid can breathe in all that fluid, here's your answer: Fetuses get oxygen from the blood pumped into their bodies by the placenta and don't breathe with their lungs. Mystery solved!

This is kind of gross, albeit fascinating, so feel free to skip ahead: Your baby's intestines are well under way, but they aren't all where you'd expect them to be. Instead of all being locked away in the body cavity, some are dangling on the outside, in the umbilical cord. Ewwww.

Don't forget to put a baby nail file on your registry—your little nugget's finger- and toenails are forming this week. The chin and nose are also becoming more defined. Junior has doubled in size over the past two weeks and now weighs almost ½ ounce. He's also now around 2 ½ inches long, about the length of your pinky finger or a Vienna sausage, which, in a few months, will be indistinguishable from one another."

I haven't been doing any sort of survey from week to week, but a few things to note:

Food Aversions: Anything with tomato sauce. Yuck.

Cravings: Chinese Food, aka anything with soy sauce. Also, any kind of fresh fruit. I'm loving fruit smoothies (peaches, strawberries, mango, papaya) and watermelon.

Symptoms: Headaches and more headaches. Trying the Fioricet today.

Weight: Down 6 lbs pre-pregnancy weight (It's amazing what giving up Starbucks and soft drinks will do! I let myself indulge occasionally, but the days of Venti coffees & 2-3 cokes a day are over.)

Baby Bump: Nahh, not yet. My tummy is definitely bigger and I'm loving my maternity jeans, but I just look heavier than I did before, not pregnant. When I have a distinguishable baby bump, I'll post a picture, but it will be a while! Definitely looking forward to the baby belly!

Relief.

I had my 12 week appointment with my ob this morning and I was unbelievably nervous. On a day to day basis, I rarely consider that things might be going wrong-- but when faced with a doctor who needs to confirm that they are going right? Well, I'm a mess.

It's been a month since we've seen or heard from Baby Blakely and I'm obviously not far enough along to feel anything. It leaves a lot of time to wonder, "Are you still in there, baby?" When the doctor walked in this morning and she asked how I was feeling, I answered honestly. "Nervous." She assured me that she felt the exact same way during her pregnancies and that there's this scary void between your first few ultrasounds and seeing/hearing/feeling the baby later in pregnancy.

She warned me as she got out the doppler that it was still early and we might not hear anything yet--but, the minute it touched my skin, I heard it. Baby Blakely was quite active this morning--swimming all over the place as she tried to chase the baby all over my tummy. We kept losing it, then hearing it again. Heart rate is still in the 160's! She mentioned that it was really good to be able to hear the baby at 13w1d-- But wait, I'm only 11w6d! (She then remembered that we had to calculate my due date based on my O date, because of my long cycles.) She then said she was really surprised that we were able to hear it so early and that we must have a baby with a very strong heartbeat. I couldn't wipe the stupid grin off my face.

Unfortunately, Rob was out of town for work today, so he didn't get to hear it, but he will soon, because I bought a doppler this weekend. I said I wasn't going to, but I just couldn't help myself. I want to be able to ease my anxiety when there are four long weeks between appointments. I want Rob to be able to hear what he missed, and I want my parents to be able to hear it, too. I bought the same one that Kate has and I hope I have as much luck finding the heartbeat as she did!

I talked to the doctor about the terrible migraines I've been getting for the past week, that Tylenol just doesn't touch. She said that it's very common to get these in late 1st trimester/early 2nd trimester, especially for women who struggled with migraines prior to pregnancy. (Raises Hand.) She wrote me a prescription for Fioricet and I'm hopeful that this will work. (My dad's taken it before, says it's good stuff.) I'm a little nervous that this is a Class C drug, but my doctor says that it's safe and I really need some relief.

Our next appointment is scheduled for March 29th-- we'll be one day shy of 16 weeks. I asked the doctor if we'll have to wait until 20 weeks to find out the sex. She said that she really likes to do it before 20 weeks, sometime between 18-20 weeks. So, we'll go back in between 18-19 weeks. 6-7 weeks seems like so far away, but I know it will pass quickly. There are so many things around the house that I hope to have done by the time we find out, so that we can start decorating the room! The nursery is a disaster right now (it's my sewing room) and I have my work cut out for me between now and then! My nesting phase hasn't exactly kicked in-- I'm more in the sleeping phase right now.