As previously mentioned, this past Thursday I had my 28 week OB appointment which included blood tests for iron & glucose. I prepared for the blood draw like an athlete: woke up early, had a good breakfast, then began preparing my body for the big event. In this case it meant making darn sure I was VERY well hydrated so that the lab tech could successfully draw my blood. Between the hours of noon & 4pm I drank 60 ounces of water! Yes, that's nearly half a gallon of water in just four hours. Yes, that's 24 hours worth of water in 4 hours. And yes, the tech actually got the blood she needed on the very first try. :-)

I got the results back the next day:

* The ideal iron count is 35-40. Mine was 35.2. PASS! Although just barely. The nurse did say that if I started feeling tired I might want to begin taking an iron supplement.
* The ideal glucose count is under 140. Mine was 113. PASS! And by a good margin! Despite not having done anything too different with my diet. Finally having a salt-tooth instead of a sweet-tooth pays off. :-)

Oh! And I only gained 2 lbs between the last two appointments. I'm only at about 15 lbs so far for my entire pregnancy and have only about 10 weeks left so I'm still very hopeful that I won't gain the 30+ lb average, but I guess only time will tell.

In other news, I am having a LOT of Braxton-Hicks contractions. Part of this is due to increased activity & stress on my part as Peter and I have been house-hunting and just yesterday moved into the offer & negotiation phase. Yup - we're currently negotiating a house sale. A house I want VERY badly but is really at the top end of what we can afford. Getting it will be incredibly sweet, but will require that we're very careful with our budget for a number of years. It'll also mean that certain areas of the house will be empty for awhile until we can afford to purchase furniture to put in it.

Of course a certain amount of furniture we'll need VERY soon after moving in. All the furniture for the baby's room (before baby is due in mid-Aug) as well as guestroom furniture (before my in-laws arrive in early-Oct). The only rooms that we already have furniture for is the dining room, master bedroom & bonus/media room. This leaves the following rooms completely empty: formal living room, dining nook, family room, & one additional bedroom.

I guess that just means that we'll have room to invite more people to the housewarming party since there won't be any furniture taking up space. :-) See, I CAN be an optimist!

I've been INCREDIBLY remiss in keeping this journal up-to-date. It's been two full months since my last post.

First thing first. Since I never reported the news from the 20 week ultrasound, I really ought to make it known that BABY BAER IS A BOY!!

In other news, I'm currently at week 27 - week 28 coming up on Friday. Overall, everything is going well. Of course, there are pretty normal frustrations & excitements, which, because this is MY blog I'm going to list for posterity:

Excitements:
Feeling baby kick on a regular basis!
Finding out that friends are throwing me a baby shower!
Taking baby classes at the hospital - meeting other women due near my time is so reassuring!

Frustrations:
The baby kicks waking me up at all hours of the night & morning.
I've had the joy of nightly heartburn.
(this one's rather vulgar) - I really miss the relief of a good long urination. I think I *really* have to go and then there's nothing but a tinkle!
Stretchmarks - enough said.
Trying to find the perfect name that both of us agree on.
Having such an awkwardly shaped body - never being comfortable and not having much balance
The overwhelming task of picking out items for baby for the shower registry.
PAIN - the pubis symphysis disorder still acts up and I'm now getting a variety of other pain at my S-I joint, leg cramps, & shoulder/neck cramps.

My frustration list is much larger than my excitements list, but overall the pregnancy is going well and I generally feel pretty good. I just hate being pregnant. I also *really* miss working, yet I'm grateful that I have the luxury & time to get the sleep my body needs no matter what time of day it is.

My next OB appointment is next week and that's the one where I'll be tested to see if I have gestational diabetes. Since that involves drinking a nasty glucose drink followed by a series of blood draws, I'm sure I'll have something to say about it. In the meantime I'll be spending a lot of my time researching baby items and slowly adding them to my registry. I'm also in the process of putting together lists of homes for sale that I might be interested in. And, I'm doing hotel/motel research for the visit of my in-laws in October. So, I'm keeping myself fairly busy on the computer these days.

More to come. . .

x-posted to book_fairy

So, I figured I would do a baby poll along the lines of those done by chtitroll & jrstraus before their little ones were born.

I'm only at 20 weeks so it's a bit early for some of the questions, but it's the PERFECT time for the first one since we have an OB appointment one week from today that will (hopefully) tell us if Baby Baer is a boy or a girl.

And that brings us to the Baby Baer Quiz - Part 1:  Gender

1)  Will Baby Baer be a boy or a girl?

What do you think?  Answer to be revealed on Tuesday, March 31st.  :-)

Possibly the worst thing, in my opinion, so far about pregnancy is that sense of becoming a crazy & possessed creature that I've gotten from being so hormonal and physically stressed out.

I've always prided myself on being a pretty emotionally stable person. The "normal" Martina has an emotional crying fit once to twice a year, if that. The pregnant Martina has one about every other freakin' day!

These fits aren't simple things either, but the result of a complicated series of emotions. I usually start out feeling peckish in some way - possibly hungry, possibly in pain, but always frustrated and therefore bitchy. I vent to Peter to release steam and within moments of finishing, I'm innundated with guilt that: 1) he has to do x,y,z for me b/c I can't do it myself anymore, 2) I've burdened him with something that he didn't need to know and will now stress about himself, or 3) he has another 20+ weeks to deal with this strange irrational creature so unlike the person he married.

This side effect was originally one of my biggest fears about pregnancy and motherhood and it seriously sucks to have it come true. All I can say is thank the stars that I didn't have morning sickness throughout the entire pregnancy and that so far the babby is completely healthy.

As mentioned in the previous post, I called the doctor's office today to discuss the possible Pelvic Girdle Pain I'm having. They decided to send me to physical therapy. Apparently they've had a good response in other patients after a few sessions, so I'm cautiously optimistic. The downside is that this is typically something that if unchecked almost always gets worse farther into the pregnancy.

So, in a couple days I'll have my official referral and can set up my first PT appointment. :-)

For the past three days I've been experiencing a new type of pain. At first I thought it was round ligament pain, but it's been more consistent and has different symptoms than I've been reading about in all the pregnancy books.

So, after a bit more research, I'm pretty sure I'm having Pelvic Girdle Pain instead. I'm having consistently mild to moderate with occassional severe of the following PGP related symptoms:

Difficulty lifting leg
Pain pulling legs apart
Unable to stand on one leg
Unable to transfer weight through pelvis and legs
Pain in hips and/or restriction of hip movement
Transferred nerve pain down leg
Struggle to sit or stand.
Waddling or shuffling gait

The first night it was AWFUL! I got up from reading in the couch, took a step, and literally cried out in pain because it hurt so badly! It was already late, so I managed to hobble to bed hoping it would be better in the morning. Yesterday it was better! Only mild discomfort . . . until evening. It slowly got worse and worse until I was once again in significant pain (although not quite as bad as before) by bedtime. Today was much the same as yesterday. I was fine most of the day, but as the evening progressed I'm finding myself in more & more pain.

For now I'm going to self-medicate with Tylenol (the only medication a pregnant woman is allowed to take!) and hope for the best. Then tomorrow I'll call the OB's office to get a confirmation on the diagnosis and see if there's anything else I can do. I did already get a bunch of helpful ideas from the wikipedia source and my knowledge of anatomy from massage school certainly helps a TON, too! I'll just avoid activities & positions that stretch my pubis symphysis either directly or via my adductor muscles.

Hopefully this is a somewhat temporary thing and my joint stabilizes a little bit so that Peter and I are able to enjoy our upcoming vacations. We have a little weekend trip to Sunburst Retreat in Oregon (it's owned & operated by a massage school friend) in two weeks and a 10-day trip to Hawai'i scheduled for mid-late April.

I had my 16 week obstetrician appointment today. Unfortunately, there was no ultrasound with this appointment, so I don't have any fun new photos or video to show you this time. :-(

However, the doctor did listen to Baby Baer's heartbeat using some sort of audio-only mini-ultrasound device. Heart rate was between 150-158 during the time he listed, but the best part was the *thud* sound when Baby Baer kicked! :-) So, all in all, we've got a healthy baby and everything is proceeding as planned. We even got the go-ahead for a short road trip to Oregon at the end of this month.

I also finally had my bloodwork done today! The doctor's office sent me to a different lab this time and even called ahead to see if they had an "expert" on hand since I've been such a notoriously hard draw. The girl over at the lab really took her time looking over my arms, wrists, & hands. She even made a little hot water balloon out of one of the surgical gloves to help my veins stand out more. Even better - she got me in just ONE stick! Granted, the vein got sluggish really quickly so it took a long time to get just the 4 vials she needed, but she got them! So, bloodwork is done . . . for awhile, at least. :-)

Our next appointment is exactly 4 weeks away - on March 31st. THAT will be the big exciting appointment as we'll have the ultrasound that will finally reveal whether Baby Baer is a boy or a girl!

The next OB appointment is tomorrow afternoon so stay tuned for more details!

Good news on a couple of fronts today. First of all, I got the results back from last week's NTS (nuchal translucency screening) ultrasound. This is the one that was going to test for chromosomal abnormalities such as Down Syndrome as well as major congenital heart problems. And the results were all negative meaning that Baby Baer has none of these problems. Whew!

Secondly, I THINK I felt Baby Baer kick or punch me today! I was stretching on the bed in a manner that had my abdomen rather twisted and was just relaxing into the position when I felt a little *thunk*. I became very still and while I was trying to figure out what just happened a felt another softer *thunk* in the exact same spot! Now, I'm used to feeling gas rumble through my belly, but this wasn't a rolling, rumbling feeling - it was a single thump, thunk, or knock. So naturally I rushed to my baby books to see if I *should* be feeling anything yet and most of the books said that it was right around 15 weeks that the expectant mother may start feeling a little movement. And, lo and behold I'll be hitting week 15 on Friday so I'm pretty much right on target! Woo-hoo!

I called Peter at work within 20 min just to tell him the exciting news. Now I can't wait until he can feel Baby Baer from outside my abdomen. And, of course, by the time that event rolls around I'll likely be downright sick of having the little one poke around at my insides. :-)

Oh! And I forgot to mention that this past weekend I bought my 1st REAL maternity outfit. A pair of jeans with the stretchy belly band built right in and a pretty green short-sleeve top/tunic with the super-stretchy side seam. It's a cute outfit but since it's my only one I haven't worn it yet. I'm basically saving it for a public outing of some sort. For now my regular t-shirts are fine. My regular jeans are long gone but I've been wearing my stretchy yoga pants, although even those are starting to feel to constrained against my belly if I wear them too long.

Hi everyone, Papa Baer here. We had another ultrasound the other day and this time we got it on DVD to take home! I could watch our little one squirm and fidget around in there all day (I love the part where it stretches its arm above its head, like it's waving hello). Before the pregnancy I'd always imagined the fetus as this basically inert thing floating peacefully around in the womb, but instead it's all stretching and kicking like crazy. It's amazing to think that not too long ago this was just a blob of cells and now there's muscles and bones and nerves and everything. Apparently even all in the right places! Biology is cool.

With the morning sickness I really haven't felt good enough to get any designated exercise lately. However, my morning sickness is finally getting somewhat better. I'll have a couple days in a row when I feel almost back to normal all day. So, I've been thinking about adding exercise back into my life again.

The first thing that I've noticed is that my resting heartrate is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than it was pre-pregnancy. Even overweight, a few months ago my resting heartrate was about 65 bpm. I measured it the other day and found that it's closer to 80 bpm now. The other thing I've noticed is that my heart feels like it's racing at a much lower rate. The doctor told me that I should be working out at a heart rate of 111-130 bpm and I scoffed a bit. After all, I'm used to my trainer telling me that I should be working out at 150-170 bpm. The big difference is that 120 FEELS like 160 these days! It's downright bizarre!

Apparently the rationale behind this is a combination of the extra blood in my body due to Baby Baer and the fact that I've been extremely sedentary for the past month.

So, I've gone walking for the last three days. Luckily there's a beautiful park - Downtown Bellevue Park - just across the street from my apartment. It's got a half-mile circular promenade so it's easy to measure how far I've walked. It's a great place. It's a lovely park, it's entertaining with a good view, ducks to watch, dog-walkers to watch and more.

Unfortunately, it's raining and nasty outside today, so no walking for me.

I did some research lately looking for some kind of organized pre-natal fitness programs in the area and was VERY disappointed to find that there's nearly nothing here in town. I found ONE pre-natal yoga class, but I'm not so keen on yoga. Not to mention that the description of the class sounded like it was for experienced yoga practitioners who happen to get pregnant - not for beginners like me. I searched websites for all the local sports clubs I could think of: the ProSports Club, 24-Hour Fitness, L.A. Fitness and NONE of them had any organized pre-natal exercise classes.

So, I have a request for my readers: if you hear of any pre-natal exercise programs in my area, please let me know. I'm particularly interested in something in downtown Bellevue, within walking distance, but at this point I'd be willing to drive . . . I just need the socialization with other mothers-to-be. :-)

Last week I purchased my very first maternity clothing item. It's nothing very spectacular - just a tummy tube from Mimi Maternity.



As you can see, it's a band of stretchy, spandex-like material that is designed for belly support while pregnant. It's a little early for me to use it just for belly support, but it works perfectly to smooth and hide the gaping spot in the front of my jeans where I've been leaving them unbuttoned & unzipped. I'm still more comfortable in either sweatpants or yoga pants, but the tummy tube allows me to wear my jeans when we go out in public.

As for any additional clothes, most of my shirts will fit for awhile yet thanks to last summer's fashion of very long t-shirts. I do also have a couple of stretch cotton skirts which will be nice when the weather gets warmer. So, the first "real" purchase I'll make will likely be a true pair of maternity jeans . . . unless I can't resist buying one of the super-cute girly shirts I saw in the store the other day. :-)

This past Thursday was my first "official" obstetrician appointment. It started with an ultrasound appoinment. I'm only at approx 11 weeks so it's still too early to determine Baby Baer's gender. However, this one was significantly cooler than my 7 week ultrasound - mostly because Baby Baer was moving around like a little jumping bean. I kid you not - our little cub was turning somersaults in there! I guess it's gonna take after its Daddy in that case.

And, of course, we enjoyed seeing that Baby Baer actually has a baby-like profile now instead of looking like a little blob. :-)



The appointment went a tad bit downhill from there. The doctor got called into delivery so my appointment time got pushed back. I used the first 25 min or so to fill out my medical history on the PC in the waiting area. Then there was just enough time for a snack (multi-grain bar from Peter's backpack) before we finally got to see the doctor. He did a quick pelvic exam, pronouncing that I had a "lovely, large pregnant uterus" which I believe is the strangest compliment I've had to date.

Then was the really fun part. Apparently they need to draw a whole bunch of blood for various tests. I'm VERY hard to draw blood from - deep & teeny veins. So, rather than trying in the OB office, they sent me to PACLAB the people who specialize in drawing blood and running tests. They tried to get my blood - they really did. But, after three tries they had to send me away without a single vial. So, today I have some absolutely lovely bruises 1) a quarter-sized spot on my right inner arm at my cubital fossa 2) a nickel-sized spot on the back of my left hand 3) a 1" strip running around half my left wrist.

But, they still need the blood, so as soon as my current batch of bruises heal, I'll be going back for round 2. The funny thing is that they gave me a lecture about being dehydrated, but I wasn't THAT dehydrated - I had to have an ultra-full bladder for the ultrasound so I'd had a ton to drink prior to the appointment. It's just the way I am!

So, I expect my next post will be mid-week after a (hopefully) successful blood draw.

We've been keeping the news about Baby Baer pretty much to ourselves for the past few months, with a handful of notable exceptions.  However, yesterday's OB appointment went well (I'll post about that appt shortly) so we decided to finally go public with the news!

Today I posted the news both on my regular LJ site book_fairy, as well as on FaceBook.   Now that we're public, the comment sections might finally start getting some action as other friends on LJ decide to monitor my postings here. 

So, note to the grandparents-to-be:  make sure you click on the "X Comments" link below each post to read the comments (if any) as, knowing my group of friends, they ought to be interesting.  :-)

That's it for now, but a post about yesterday's OB appt is forthcoming!

Last evening at 6:30PM we had our first appointment with a possible obstetrician.  Technically it was more a meet & greet than an appointment.  It was with Dr. Patrick Morell who practices out of Evergreen Womens Care in Kirkland.  The meeting was only about 20-30 minutes or so, but we left feeling like we had our bases covered.  

What we liked:

• Once shown to the treatment/meeting room, we waited less than 5 minutes before Dr. Morell joined us.
• He gave us a little introduction to himself (background, etc.) and then let us ask as many questions as we wanted.
• He spoke to BOTH of us (although perhaps to me a bit more than Peter).  I hate when doctors ignore one party or the other.
• He had a pleasant, relaxing, but confident manner of speaking - his general demeanor didn't rub either of us the wrong way.
• His office is actually attached to the hospital and is literally < 2 minutes away from the Evergreen Hospital Birthing Center, so there will be no wondering if the doctor is stuck in traffic between his office and my impending labor.  
• Because he's in an office full of other competent obstetricians, there's ALWAYS a doctor on call for labor.
• He wasn't annoyed by my "odd" and possibly superfluous questions.  And I was annoying.  I ran through an entire list of "active ingredients" in products that I use - everything from my shampoo & anti-perspirant to the ingredients in a few over-the-counter medicines that I'd like to use.  Then, I asked exactly what layers get cut during a C-section.  He answered everything calmly and didn't make me feel like the questions were stupid or untimely. 
• On issues where we had a difference of opinion, his side was rationally explained in a manner that made us comfortable with his decision:
  • For instance:  we wanted a doctor who we could email with questions & concerns.  His response was that he does not email clients because he doesn't always find time to check email frequently enough and because he feels that a conversation with an actual person can be more informative than email.  What he has is a triage nurse available by phone.  She fields questions - answering what she can immediately and taking care of the rest as she determines the issue needs.  She might have you immediately come into the clinic for an appointment, she might ask the doctor in between his office appointments then get back to you, or she might let the doctor call you back when he has a moment.  It all depends on the urgency of your situation.   This solution completely works for Peter and I.

What I didn't like:

• No bathroom in the waiting room itself - you have to go back out into the hallway or into the treatment room area.
• No water cooler/dispensor in the waiting room.  Seriously?  A bunch of waiting pregnant women and no water? 

That's about it!  Peter and I both felt confident enough with Dr. Morell that we have our first "official" appointment next week, on Thursday, January 22nd.  I'm pretty sure this one will include another ultrasound and full pelvic exam, but I'm not sure what else.  Since I'll be at approx week 11, it's likely still too soon to determine our baby's gender, but at the very least I should have a new ultrasound picture or video to post for you to view.

Increasing morning sickness symptoms since Christmas Eve have finally forced me to take a leave of absence at work. 

The short story is that I've been missing a lot of days.  I'll be sick in the evening to the point where I can't sleep well at night and then I'm too tired in the early morning to do much but catch up on the sleep I lost overnight.  So, after missing four out of five days of work last week, I finally asked the manager to take me off the calendar until further notice.

Naturally, this brings about a whole new set of stresses in my life.  How long will it be before I can go back to work?  Will they still have a position for me when I do?  Will my relationship with everyone at work be the same if & when I finally go back?

On the flip side, I no longer have to make a phone call at 7:00AM every morning reporting that I'm really sorry but I'm just feeling too sick to come into work today.  Now I can just sleep until my body wants to wake up, which is much less stressful.

So, for now I'm just rolling with the punches.  I'm about 9 weeks along which makes Baby Baer about the size of a large green grape.  Most of the time, the extra hormones from baby leave me feeling like I've had a hangover (minus the headache) for the past three weeks straight.  Thankfully I'm still not vomitting much, although I wish I was able to say I haven't done it at all.  :-(   Mostly, my problems are intestinal.  The extra progesterone causes smooth muscle to relax and the entire gastro-instestinal tract is made of this smooth muscle.  Add to that my pre-existing diagnosis of IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) and you can begin to imagine the extent of my trouble.  The more innocuous symptoms that I've been having are as follows: 

*  A feeling of a "lump" in my throat that makes it hard to swallow (maybe also caused by progesterone relaxing the smooth muscle)
*  A rocking feeling like my head can't quite equalize itself to the horizon - feels like being on a boat
*  Exaccerbated motion sickness.  I've always had bad motion sickness but now I feel it even when riding in the front seat of the car on fairly straight roads.
*  Complete loss of appetite.  And I usually LOVE food, so this is the really telling factor about how bad I've been feeling.  I'm definitely not eating the way all the books say a pregnant woman should.  Basically if I think I can eat it without feeling ill then I will.  I'm eating very small amounts - around 1/4 what I usually do - but am trying to eat every 2 hours during waking hours.  Unfortunately I REALLY don't want veggies or meat or even dairy so I'm finding myself eating small amounts of comfort food.  So far my most common food items are:  cinnamon toast, mac & cheese, fried-egg sandwich, chicken noodle soup, fresh melon, soft beef taco from Taco Time, Saltine crackers, and tea - lots and lots of either peppermint or lemon ginger tea.  Technically the tea is a tisane since there aren't any tea leaves in it but close enough.

I'm beginning to get random so it's time to wrap this post up.  We've got our first appointment - a meet & greet - with our obstetrician later this week on Thursday so I'll try to post again then.

The last few days I have not been feeling well at all. 

My morning sickness, which had so far been fairly manageable, has been out of control.  I've been nauseous at all hours of the day with spikes at various times throughout the day.  I was so sick on Christmas Eve & Christmas that I couldn't make any meals at all.  That's right - no Christmas dinner - we just snacked lightly throughout the day on whatever we could find in the fridge.  Isn't that sad?

The day after Christmas I went to work at 9AM, as usual, but by 10AM was feeling (and looking) so terrible that they decided to send me home early.  Since my symptoms had escalated, Peter and I decided that I should see a doctor again just to make sure everything was okay.  So, we scheduled an appointment with my primary care provider for 4:00PM that same afternoon.

Linda (my PCP) asked a bunch of additional questions about how I was feeling:  any cramping?  yes - occasionally, but it's mild.  Any bleeding?  Yes, occasionally, but not consistently  Any pain when I press here?  Um, a little.  What about when I press here?  Ouch!  Yes, definitely.   Then she did some additional bloodwork to test my levels of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG is produced when a woman is pregnant) and told me that she wanted me to have an ultrasound to make sure there wasn't an ectopic pregnancy (when the embryo implants itself in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus).  Unfortunately, none of the offices where I can get an ultrasound done are open, so they'll call in the morning when they're able to find someplace that can take me for an ultrasound.

So we go home and wait . . . .

At 10:30AM this morning we receive a call from the doctor's office.  She says that none of the medical imaging offices are available so if we want an ultrasound done today we'll have to go to the hospital as a "walk-in" patient.  Naturally, we're eager to have our minds set at rest about this issue, so we jump at the chance.

By 12:00 we're picking up the proper documentation at the doctor's office and by 12:15PM we're at the hospital filling out my admittance forms.  We wait just over an hour before they can fit us in.  And, apparently they need you to have a full bladder for a pelvic ultrasound so I'm almost literally dancing around the waiting room the entire time because my bladder is so full I'm sure I'm going to explode at any moment.  Peter, of course, is a little sympathetic, but I think mostly amused by this. 

Once in the ultrasound room we're subjected to another brief wait as our technician steps out to confirm the tests she has to run.  It turns out she's going to do a normal ultrasound where they rub the device around the outside of my belly.  AND she's going to do an internal examination where she sticks what is essentially a speculum with a camera attached to the end of it inside me for a closer look at my cervix, uterus, & ovaries.  *gulp*

She does the standard ultrasound first as that's the one I need the full bladder for.  She checks my kidneys first before getting to the good stuff - my uterus - where it's quickly apparent that there's something in the middle of my uterus with a very fast little fluttering heartbeat!  It doesn't look like much - just a little dark blob with some fluttery motion for the heartbeat, but it's very clearly in my otherwise empty uterus - exactly where it should be, thank God! 

Yes, I cry as I watch the screen and reach out to grasp and squeeze Peter's hand.  We're both completely transfixed.

But, there's more tests to be done.  Thankfully, the technician lets me up to use the bathroom as the internal test actually requires an empty bladder.  She checks my ovaries and then goes back to the uterus so we can get another - much clearer - look at Baby Baer:



*sigh*  Of course, it was much clearer on the screen than you see here in the printed, then scanned photo, but as I mentioned before - what is completely obvious is that there's a teeny little baby (just under 6 millimeters) in that otherwise still empty space.  :-)

So, after speaking with the doctor who reviewed all the data & images we learned that they've ruled out an ectopic pregnancy.  There is a little bit of bleeding from the uterine wall, but that's still normal at this stage of the pregnancy as the embryo continues to firmly attach itself to the wall.  The good news is that the baby is in the right place and has a healthy heartbeat of 130-140 beats per minute.  They're unsure what's causing my abdominal pain, but suspect it's something as benign as gas (how embarrassing!).   They recommend that I eat carbs every two hours and take additional B6 vitamin supplements to help keep my nausea at bay. 

So, for now it looks like I'm taking it easy - maybe working a little less for a few weeks until my body adjusts to the extra level of hormones that are making me so sick.  Another blood test on Monday will let the doctor's office compare my hCG levels to make sure they're multiplying at the correct rate.

For the last few days I've had a very low-level of nausea, but nothing I would normally even really notice.  This morning, though, was a slightly different story:

I was in the bathroom doing my hair & make-up as I was getting ready for work.  The door is closed, the bathroom fan is on.  Suddenly I'm assaulted by this HORRIBLE SMELL that has my eyes tearing up while I swallow convulsively to keep from gagging.  I finish up and open the door (because what choice do I have - I can't stay in the bathroom all day?) and walk through the apartment to the kitchen to find that Peter has made himself a nice fried egg-substitute sandwich for breakfast.

I LOVE eggs for breakfast!  Normally this would have me salivating with hunger, but this time - even with the fan going over the stove and in the bathroom, it made me completely nauseous.  Yup - I do believe it was my first real sign of morning sickness.

Strangely enough, I'm having absolutely no problem swallowing my horse-pill sized prenatal vitamin lately even though two weeks ago I had to hold my breath to get the awful smelling thing in my mouth.  And even then I gagged on the aftertaste every time. 

Weirdness abounds.  I can't wait to see what my new raging hormones decide to surprise me with next. . .

When using a home pregnancy test, the directions say that the first thing you should do if receiving a result of "pregnant" is to schedule an appointment with your doctor.   I tend to follow directions (mostly) so, of course, that's what I did!

The appointment was at 4:30PM today, Tuesday, Dec 9th.  I worked until 3PM as usual, but was running late getting out of the clinic, so when Peter called just before 4:00PM I decided to have him pick me up at the clinic rather than walking home in the cold only to hop directly into the car.  The clinic is literally three blocks away from my doctor's office so we were there by 4:15PM.

We checked in and sat in the waiting room playing video games on our cell phones while we waited - such typical geeky parents-to-be.

We were finally called and led to our treatment room.  The nurses aide came in to take my vitals - blood pressure (a bit high at 120/80 eep!), temperature (completely normal at 98.6), and my pulse (surprisingly normal at 68 bmp).  She asks why we're there and I somewhat spastically get out, "Well, I'm pretty sure that we're pregnant and want to have it confirmed!". 

She nods, then leads me to the bathroom so I can leave a urine sample to be tested.  Peter, of course, got to wait in the room.  :-)

A few minutes after I returned to our room, my doctor (who is really an ARNP - Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner), Linda, comes in and proceeds to ask me what symptoms I have.  I list them:  my period is now five days late, my breasts hurt like hell and I swear are even larger than usual, and I'm waking up every three hours in the middle of the night to pee, which I never did before even when drinking substantial amounts right before bedtime.

Linda doesn't even wait for the urine test results.  She gets out the little calendar wheel and based on the date of my last cycle (Nov 7/8) figures a rough due date of August 14th, 2009.  After which she immediately proceeds to tell us that babies make up their own mind when to come so we might as well throw the date out the window.   After a little more talking, including whether or not we have an OB/GYN yet (we don't), she wishes us well and sends in a phlebotomist to take some blood samples. 

I hate giving blood.  Not because the blood bothers me or the needles bother me, but rather the NEEDLES don't like ME.  Apparently I have very small veins making it very difficult for phlebotomists to get even a teeny butterfly needle into one.  My thought on this is:  if one part of me HAD to be very small, why on earth did it have to be my veins!  Why couldn't it have been my waist or my butt?

They need four vials of blood - two larger red ones and two of the smaller purple ones.  The first person, Max, actually does a pretty good job.  He finds a spot on my right arm and manages to get the first two larger vials before it dries up.  The second person stuck me in the left arm, but got no flow whatsoever.  The third person looked me over but was afraid to try anywhere.  The fourth one decided to try the top of my left hand and finally got enough to (mostly) fill the other smaller vials. 

I don't think Peter ever really believed me when I told him how much trouble I had every time the doctor's office tries to draw blood from me, but after watching the antics today, I don't think he'll doubt me again!  :-)

The nice thing is that my four blood-suckers . . . er . . . phlebotomists . . . were all quite apologetic, but I'm so used to it that it was just a comedy of errors to me.  I had a smile on my face and cracked (extraordinarily lame) jokes the entire time.

They'll be sending the blood in for further testing and should have it back by Friday or Saturday at which point we'll be able to pick up a copy to take to our OB/GYN . . . whenever we find one.