WEEKS 1-24

In the beginning....

We found out we were expecting on Saturday, January 26. We were very excited and called the parents and a few close friends right away. We decided to keep it under wraps until we could see our doctor and have it "officially" confirmed.

I (Lorien) was feeling so happy for about a week....and then guess what happened? The dreaded morning sickness began. Now why they call it "morning" sickness I'll never know. I was sick for 24 hrs a day....never tossed my cookies...just felt like I was about to...all the time. The doctor was gracious enough to prescribe me some anti-nausea pills that didn't work well, but did help me at least sleep most of the night.

We had our first ultrasound at 6 weeks. I had some spotting and the doctor told me to come in right away. They did an ultrasound. All was well, the baby was fine. Then at 8 weeks I had some bleeding...again, we went in right away and they did another ultrasound. All was well, the baby was fine. At 12 weeks we were able to hear the heartbeat. It was amazing. It was 160. The sound of it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

I suffered through morning sickness until my 15th week. Mark was amazing. He was quick to take care of things - including me - while I just laid on the couch feeling like crap. He would say to me in his most appreciative voice, "Thank you for carrying our child". People kept giving me "remedies" which none of them worked. I just kept telling myself, "this too shall pass...this too shall pass". And, eventually, it did. (thank you, Jesus!) It was in my 15th week that I felt the first kick too. For weeks the baby would tickle my insides. He/she had me jumping in my chair practically. It felt so funny. At 16 weeks, we went into the doctor and we got to hear the heartbeat again....140. I decided to record it on my phone so I can hear it whenever I want.

At 20 weeks we had our last ultrasound and the doctor asked the question, "Do you want to know what you're having?" Our answer was "NO". It's going to be a surprise, surprise, surprise. Our doctor told us our baby was gonna be a "bruiser". It seems it's weight was 15 oz. - 5 oz over the norm! I can't say I was all too excited to hear that. In my 22nd week the baby started kicking hard enough to move my belly. I love to watch it move now. The movements are less ticklish too.

And now, today, I am in my 24th week. I took my glucose test this morning. The orange liquid they gave me to drink tastes like orange kool-aid. They took my blood, weighed me and measured me....but my favorite part was hearing the heartbeat again...141. Baby sounds good. My vitals are all good. My weight gain is on track. And my measurements are right on target. If they see a problem with the glucose test I will hear from them by Thursday. So I'm praying everything is okey-dokey.

We started our baby registries but we haven't started putting the nursery together. We still need to head to IKEA to pick up the crib and changing table. Other than that, it's been fun figuring out which foods to avoid, the best position to sleep in at night, finding the bathroom door at 2:30am and making toast in the dark at 4:30am. I never knew pregnancy was going to be quite like this.