12 Weeks

Well, a day late but better than never!  It's been a long week with lots of nausea and throwing up again. I thought the worst was over, but not yet apparently.  We had our first appointment with Dr. Deka on Friday.  She was wonderful and I'm really happy Megan recommended her!  She told me that hopefully I'm only a week or two away from the worst being over.  I also found out that my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) from my last bloodwork was a 5, and in pregnancy they want you anywhere between a 1 and 2, hence my hypothyroid diagnosis.  I just heard back today after my second round of bloodwork that I was at a 2.2, so can just continue taking the same dose of meds.  I'm glad that's all regulated.  We had a quick ultrasound at the doctor's appointment, and saw little baby Turner press its foot and then its hand up against the ultrasound.  It was pretty emotional and really made the whole thing seem real, and made all the sickness and feeling horrible (almost) seem worth it.  Ask me again in a few weeks! ;)

Later that day (Adam took the whole day off to go to the appointments with me) we headed in for our Nuchal Translucency test to test for Down syndrome and other genetic abnormalities.  This is an in-depth ultrasound that measures the amount of cerebrospinal fluid at the back of the neck (baby measured 1.5 mm, anything under 3 mm is good!), followed by a blood test (just a prick on my fingertip and a few drops of blood).  We'll find out the official results in a few days, but the tech said everything looked good.  We got a ton of pictures and heard the heartbeat (172 beats per minute).  I was definitely crying and Adam teared up too (sorry buddy ;)).  The tech made a guess about gender but cautioned she could only guess with about 70% accuracy.  We're going in on Dec. 21st to an elective ultrasound clinic to hopefully get a good look and an official gender!  Here are a couple pics from the screen.  It's crazy that it's a real baby in there!  I just learned all about how the bones of the face and facial structures form in my craniofacial class, so it was pretty cool to see everything all coming together!

Little baby Turner hanging out.

Hiding the little baby face..No pictures, please!

Holding the shirt tight so you can see my bloat/bump.

Weekly update.

How far along:  12 weeks (measured a few days ahead the ultrasound but she said that wouldn't change the due date)

Maternity clothes:  I bought some maternity shirts that are nice and baggy and COMFY.  But they basically look like what I wear normally, so that's nice.  Also got some maternity leggings, but I don't think I quite need the maternity pants yet. 

What I miss:  Still miss feeling well.  I keep holding out hope that I'm so close to feeling better!

Exercise:  Adam and I took Jiggs on a walk yesterday around the neighborhood and it was ROUGH.  I felt so nauseous by the end and had to walk so slow, but I guess it's better than nothing.

Cravings:  Keep changing by the minute!  The past few days it's been pretzels (I bought a box of frozen pretzels and ate almost all of them in 2 days).  Also, frosted pop tarts.  Yum.

Aversions:  Chicken!  Salad.  Really anything healthy.

Symptoms:  Still nauseous and throwing up.  Had a pretty bad migraine last week.  Still really tired (But maybe it's getting a little better?).

Labor signs:  None

Best moments of the week:  Seeing this little baby I'm growing. Sharing that with Adam.  He's going to be the best dad. :)