Home again, home again, jiggity jig

We are back at home after our annual tour of Pennsylvania. It was great to spend Christmas and Stan's Birthday with Stan & Beth Briczinski in Philly. Then onto Pittsburgh to spend the weekend with Diane's family, where everyone was very excited to hear the pregnancy news. Next onto State College to visit with the Zucketts, where I got to find out what it was like to hang out with a one year old for a few days (and eat doughnuts and get my first batch of loaner maternity clothes :). It was wonderful to see so many people, but after all that traveling, it is always nice to return home.

A new look for the blog

Thanks to Amy for helping to make the blog prettier.
There are some new features, including the blog followers (too bad this doesn't mean much more than putting your name up on our blog - but we like it anyway), a countdown to July 16th, links to my favorite sites (babycenter.com, behindthename.com, and Max's blog), and a RSS subscription feature.

Week 11 belly picture

Here I am at the end of Week 11.
My belly is popping out a little more.
Oh, and I don't need a belt anymore. :)

Clothes are getting tighter

Well, I've officially outgrown my first pair of pants. One pair of my work khakis will have to be retired. I haven't gained weight, but I guess my belly is changing shape. I still have pants to wear, but I might have to hit up the sales after Christmas to get some pants and bras.

Telling the Kambics

My mom's side of the family is having a big family holiday party on December 27th. We've actually managed not to tell them yet (I can't believe that my mom has been able to hold out), so we can tell them all together at the party. Be prepared to hear screaming from Pittsburgh no matter where you live! :) I'm excited to tell them - it's going to be nuts!!

10 weeks and counting...

This morning, we had our normal every 4 week visit. It went well - I actually switched to a midwife from my original OB. Steve and I thought that the OB was competent, but we couldn't really seem to connect with him. The midwife seemed more relaxed and friendly.
I guess there were 2 things of note from this visit:
1) I didn't gain any weight in the last 4 weeks. Truthfully, I don't really care one way or another, but I consider it a small moral victory, considering all of the Christmas parties that I've been going to! I also started back at the gym and yoga. I am tired afterward, and I'm way out of shape, but I feel good while I'm exercising and not just vegging out. Plus, all of the ladies at my yoga studio and gym (an all ladies gym) are super supportive. One teacher at my gym is now 23 weeks along and HUGE (it's her 3rd), and she's still teaching - she's amazing!
2) We got to hear the baby's heartbeat. The midwife estimated it to be ~160 bpm, which is right on track. It took her a little while to find it, since the baby is only a little over an inch long! As Steve says, "coming in at a combined height of 5'5" (I'm 5'4"), it's Diane and the baby!" :)

About a week and a half ago, something clicked, and I'm feeling a lot better in general. Maybe my body is starting to accept the hormone fluctuations better. Whatever the reason, I seem to be feeling almost like I did before I was pregnant. I still get tired easily though.

babycenter.com is great!

I'm so glad that I found www.babycenter.com - it's now my favorite website! You can highlight a certain gestation week, and it tells you what's going on with the baby, with me, and it shows a diagram of the baby and its development. Here's what's going on with our baby at 9 weeks:
http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-9-weeks_1098.bc
and
http://www.babycenter.com/fetal-development-images-9-weeks

How exciting - it's actually starting to look like a baby now, and not a larvae!

Thanks to the Zucketts

Thanks to Mike, Amy, and Maximus Zuckett for the fantastic idea to blog the pregnancy. (They've even kept it up during Max's first year!) I hope that they believe that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, since my blog is using theirs as a template. Thanks again! :)

We're going to have a baby!

We found out on Veteran's Day with a home pregnancy test. It came up "+" right away.

On November 26th, I had my first visit with my OB, Dr. Rojas. Six weeks is a little early for a first visit, but we wanted to talk to him before we told our parents.

On Thanksgiving, we casually told our parents to mark their calendars for July 16th, because that's the day that they would become grandparents! :) Needless to say, everyone was very excited!

On November 29th, I had a little bit of spotting, so we went to the ER at Howard County Hospital (where I will deliver). EVERYTHING IS FINE. We were there for 9 hours, and they insisted on doing a lot of tests, but at least I got the following as a souvenir:

The big round thing is not the head - that's the yolk sack. And at this point, they call it a fetal pole, which is a nice was to say that it looks like a larvae. ;) We could see the flicker of a heartbeat, and they said the baby's heartbeat was 138 bpm (usually 140-160, so pretty good).

I revisited Dr. Rojas, and he said that everything was fine. I feel okay most of the time, although I have had the general crampy feeling, exhaustion, and slow digestion (I feel full hours later). But no morning sickness - YEAH! :)

Here's a picture of me at the end of 8 weeks.
I think I've just put on a few pounds, since the Dr. wanted me to take it easy. I don't really look pregnant yet! If my mom is any indication, she only gained 17 pounds with me, and I was out in 4 hours! I was easy!