Week 10

The doppler arrived and.....drum roll please....I heard June Bug’s heartbeat!!  It took about 10 mins of searching as I started off WAY too high and too far left and right. (Which resulted in nothing but a symphony of bowel sounds and the thundering beat of my femoral artieries.)  Finally I found the whooshing of the placenta (matching my heartbeat) and used that as a target to hone in on my June bug.  I estimated his/her heart rate at ~140 last night (sleeping?) but used a stopwatch to count this morning and got a reading of 174.  Right on target.  Best $50 I spent for the peace of mind I just received.  Such a long time to wait for reassurance between the dating Ultrasound at 6 weeks, until the IPS screening ultrasound at 12weeks.  Now I can reassure myself any time I like!!

Bryce is pretty excited to be a big brother.  He keeps telling Daddy that there is a baby in my tummy. (He also thinks there is one in his!!) Bryce said he wants to “pet” the baby and that he/she can sleep in his room.  I bet that generous offer will be revoked once he hears how loudly his sibling can cry!  Lol  For some reason he thinks baby will be orange?!  I said “he/she will be pink like you”. He said, “I not pink, I yellow”.  Alright fine...but you are definitely NOT orange?!

What’s happening with baby this week? “By the 10th week of pregnancy, your baby’s crown to rump length is 1.25 to 1.68 inches long. All of her major organs and systems have begun to develop; now comes the growth spurt. Currently at 10 weeks of pregnancy, your baby's head makes up half her length; during the next few months, her body will catch up, although her brain will still be developing rapidly. Now that your baby's liver is funtioning well enough to make all of her blood cells, the yolk sac, which performed this functions, is starting to disappear. This 10th week, or next, the placenta will begin to function, providing nourishment to your baby and filtering out the waste. During the next 3 weeks, your baby will double in length. Her webbed fingers and toes start to separate; she will begin to develop peach fuzz, fingernails, toenails, and all those little details that make us all more human-like in appearance. Her eyelids are fusing together in the 10th week of pregnancy so that they can develop, starting with the iris. Her arms bend at the elbow and her hands meet up by her face.

What’s happening with Momma?  Morning sickness?  Yup! Fatigue?  Yup! Oh and my uterus has doubled in size and now resembles a small melon! ;)

206 days to go!

Week 9

Strange how this pregnancy is so different from the first.  This time around, it has been nausea 24/7  from the get go.  Ugh! And so much more tired now.  I can hardly stay awake past 8pm!  Every everning it’s the same battle. Me trying to coax Bryce to come upstairs to “mommy’s bed” to watch cartoons while I lay down! :s  Gonna be a long 9 months!

I read an interesting study about nausea/vomiting and pregnancy.  It suggests that the more sick a woman is in pregnancy correlates to a higher IQ in her child?!   Something about the hormone responsible for nausea, builds more neural pathways?!  Given that theory then, neither of my children may be genius’s  but given the nausea with this one, he/she is gonna be the brains of the family!  Sorry Brycey-Boo.  At least you have your good looks!

I did it! I bought a Baby Doppler. I hummed and hawed about it the first pregnancy, but think I may actually be more neurotic this time around. It’s a Sonoline B and medical grade.  Apparently you can detect a heartbeat as soon as 9 weeks.  It’s shipping from the States so may take awhile to arrive. Hopefully I’ll have an update for the next post.

I’ve been hesitant to purchase anything baby related....like desperately needed maternity clothes, for fear of jinxing this pregnany.  Same with telling people at work, even though I’m walking around with my uniform shirt untucked which  is THE tell tale sign of a Paramedic being preggers! I know that’s totally irrational but pregnant, hormonal, moody women ARE irrational.



Not our Ultrasound! But neat to see!!



What’s happening with baby this week” “Your fetus is now about one inch long, the size of a medium green olive (but no martinis, please). The head has straightened out and is more fully developed, the ears are much more prominent, and some new organs (the liver, spleen, and gallbladder) are forming. Your fetus is also making spontaneous movements of his or her arms and legs now that minuscule muscles are beginning to develop. Your baby's heart is developed enough — and grown large enough — so that its beats can be heard with a Doppler, a handheld ultrasound device that amplifies the lub-dub sound the heart makes.”

*Think I'll start posting baby bump photos next week.  It's just that I feel and look like a train wreck, and am hesitant to have that documented on film!! ;)

Week 8

Well I was going to moan and complain about how awful this nausea has been but I just finished eating lunch with another pregnant colleague who said her morning sickness was so violent, it caused her nose to bleed.  She was literally throwing up on calls and had to be put on Zofran.  Sooooo, I’ll take my “non-throwing up nausea” over that any day!!  Good old Google says that nausea is a very good sign as it means the body is producing all the necessary hormones to maintain the pregnancy. There is also an old wives tale that states nausea most often occurs when carrying a girl...and/or Multiples!  Wouldn’t that be something? To find out at the next ultrasound that another bean was hiding?!  My OB said the nausea should start to subside in the next couple of weeks as the placenta takes over.  She offered a prescription for some sort of medication (wasn’t Zofran) which I graciously refused.  She said it was safe....but that’s what they thought about Thalidamide!

As with my first pregnancy, I have been offered the Integrated Prenatal Screening (IPS) test to look for chromosomal abnormalities.  Basically the IPS test just gives you an “odds of” something being wrong.  Like 1/100 chance based on proteins found in the blood and “soft markers” seen on the Ultrasound.  (Like white spots on the heart, no nasal bone, thickening at back of neck ect) Unfortunately the risk of problems has increased exponentially from age 37 to 41.  Sigh.  In fact my OB suggested skipping the Ultrasound & blood work, and going straight to the amniocentesis.  She did mention the risks involved with the procedure and said I should really ponder what I would do with the knowledge anyways?!  Why risk a miscarriage if I would never terminate a pregnancy to begin with?!  There is also a new blood test, I think it’s called “Harmony”.  Apparently there are fragments of fetal DNA in my blood which can be assessed for abnormalities with 99% accuracy.  I believe the cost is $800 and out of pocket UNLESS the IPS test comes back with a positive. (Positive means anything less than 1/40 I believe.)  Then the Harmony test is covered by OHIP.  Anyway, my IPS scan is scheduled for Dec 1^st unless I change my mind an decide to skip right to amnio.  (The bonus of amnio is sex determination before 20 weeks.)

What's happening with baby this week? "Most of your baby's joints are formed now and he is using them. Baby is flexing and stretching, but it will be a couple of months before you can feel it.  Your baby is now almost one inch long and weighs just .07 of an ounce, about the size of a grape. Growing more human like from his early embryo days, your baby has finally lost his embryonic tail.  This 8th week of pregnancy, your baby is being nourished by the placenta, rather than the yolk sac. The placenta is an amazing structure, as it provides nutrients to your baby, along with providing a filter for your baby’s waste. Your baby is now fascinated with his hand, and he actually has a grip. If you were to place a very small object in his hand, he would wrap his little fingers around it. Speaking of fingers, your baby’s fingerprints are also forming, and they are like nobody else’s. Your baby’s eyelids are now fused together at 9 weeks of pregnancy and will remain that way until about 27 weeks. This gives his eyes a chance to do some developing of their own. Your baby’s ears, nose tip, and tongue have also formed. All major organs are now present, but need a lot of further development to function properly.