Week 15: The First Time I Saw You

When I went to the doctor's office today for my sonogram, I was expecting to see a grainy little picture of a rockstar baby. But what I was not expecting was for the sonographer to ask me if I wanted to know the sex! We have the "official" sonogram scheduled in another five weeks, and that's when I was planning to drag Matt along, telling him that he did not want to miss this! But today the sonographer explained that sometimes she can identify the sex this early on. So after showing a little disappointment that my husband was absent, the woman said, well, I don't have to tell you what it is...

HA!! Like I was going to fall for that one! Of course, I still wanted to know. I just wished Matt wasn't going to have to live vicariously through my beaming face.

As the sonogram started, I was expecting the usual sonogram picture where the mom points to a couple geometric shapes and says, "See?! See my baby?" And you're all like, um, mm hm, yeah, I see it. Then you clear your throat and quickly change the subject to baby names!

But when I saw the baby on the screen moving around, to my surprise it was actually pretty easy to decipher. I was amazed at how easily I could identify its head, arms, body, spine, eyes, mouth, etc... it was precious!

For some reason, even though my stomach is starting to pooch out and I've gone through some morning sickness, indigestion, uncomfortable nights of sleep, I still have this question in the back of my head that says, is this for real? And since I can't just take a quick peak, see that it's wilting, move it into the sun and give it a little water... there is always this relief when I go to the doctor and she doesn't say, you know, you really don't have much of a green thumb, do you? So maybe precious is an understatement... awesome? amazing? astonishing?!! I think those are more like it.

Finally at the end of the sonogram, one more surprise was delivered... the sonographer told me that she was 90% sure it was a girl! All this time, even though I'v been wanting a girl, Matt has had me convinced about this theory of his that we would only have boys. The Georges have produced only males for the last three generations. Well let me tell ya, I couldn't wait to go home and burst his little bubble. Of course, he says he is still holding out for that 10% chance. But that doesn't seem to stop him from asking at least twice a day, how is my girl going?

Week 14: Positives and Negatives

So this week's entry has a bit of medical jargon, which may or may not be of interest to the reader. I wanted to add it to my journal for family medical history.

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On February 25th, I had my monthly check up with Dr. Partida. It was actually the first time I had met her since I only met with her nurse on my first appointment. It seems that everything is progressing as it should be.

I did, however, learn some interesting information. Evidently, I have a rare blood type of B negative (only about 2% of the population has this blood type). But even more interesting is what I learned about having negative blood (which only about 15% of the population has and probably only half of those are women). If a woman has negative blood and her baby ends up having positive blood (due to the father having positive blood, which is the case with Matt), there can be complications if the baby's blood enters the mother's blood stream (such as through miscarriage, some sort of accident or delivery). The mother's body will start to produce antibodies to kill the positive blood, thus killing the fetus. To hinder this, there is a fairly simple solution, which is to take a shot at 28 weeks and then again right after delivery to keep the body from producing antibodies. If the body were to learn how to produce antibodies, then during any future pregnancies it would immediately start to produce them, terminating the pregnancy. (This is not a concern for women with positive blood, because positive blood can be mixed with either positive or negative blood types.)

All this was a bit disconcerting to hear at first. But it seems that it can be easily handled if one is aware of the situation. Luckily any daughters that I may have, should not have to worry about this since they will inherit positive blood types from Matt.

On another note, Dr. Partida wants me to come back next week for a sonogram to definitely date the baby and confirm my due date. I can hardly wait to see my little one up on the big screen!

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The envelope (with the buttons glued on it) on the right hand side of the journal will include a print out from the internet with some more information on negative blood type for pregnant women as well as info on my parents' blood types. As soon as I learned this about myself, I was curious as to what blood types my parents had and whether my mom had faced the same thing. Evidently both my parents had positive blood types, and occasionally this can result in a baby with a negative blood type (me!). So it was not a concern for my mother.

Week 13: New Duties

Much to Matt's chagrin, he is now assigned to cleaning out Dash's litter box. We had heard rumors that pregnant women shouldn't change litter boxes, but the doctor confirmed that there is a chance of transmitting toxoplasmosis to the fetus (even though adults generally develop immunity to it). When I first explained these new duties to Matt, he quite frantically exclaimed, "You're sh#!!ing me!" I'm not sure whether the double entendre or his disbelief was more funny; evidently cleaning his "stepcat's" litter box is the ultimate sacrifice.

Guess I won't get much sympathy for carrying our child for nine months!

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FYI: We learned this info a while back, so Matt has had this chore for a while now. I am just now getting around to giving him credit for it. Additionally, Dash thought he deserved a little credit too, so he stuck his head in front of the camera as I was trying to take a picture of this page. Cats have little humility.

Week 11: Telling Friends

This page is  a little busy, but there was a lot I wanted to convey. On the left hand side, I took messages that people sent me on Facebook and made a little list of their comments. It actually ended up being two pages long, so you can lift up the first page (from the bottom, lifting out of the photo corners) and read the second page. On the right, I journaled about spreading the news. It reads:

We finally decided to start spreading the news about you this week. Technically, we should have waited two more weeks (completing my first trimester), but we were getting too excited to wait. Almost all our friends live out of town (it's been a year and a half since we left Dallas), so spreading the news required many phone calls. Only after that did we post our news on a popular networking website called Facebook. Matt's status read: Matt is Stephanie's baby daddy. And mine read: Stephanie has a bun in her oven. Soon we were flooded with well-wishes and congratulations!

Week 10: Doctor's Appointment

Today I had my first OB/GYN appointment. Everything went smoothly besides filling out and answering 100 questions about my family history and health. The nurse did all the normal poking and prodding, but none of that seemed to matter after she let me hear your heartbeat. At first, I thought it sounded like a noise maker, like those wave machines you turn on to help you sleep. But then as I got used to the noise, I started to hear the sound of your tiny heart beating. It beat fast, 170 beats per minute. And according to the nurse, that is the rate of a girl's heartbeat! Of course, there is no way to know for sure, but I have to admit, I wouldn't mind one bit if you did turn out to be a girl (is that why I have been so attracted to the color pink lately?). Don't worry, if you turn out to be a boy, Daddy will be happy to keep you!

Week 6: Telling the Georges

I'm so thankful that it worked out for us to get to tell Matt's parents the news in person! I had secretly hoped that it would happen that way, but since we had only started trying the month before, my hopes were not very high. But, it must have been meant to be. It was hard waiting a whole week to tell them, but knowing that we would get to see their faces was enough to make it worth the wait. Matt was especially excited to get to India... to see his parents and to be home, and I think knowing that he was going to get to share such life changing news made the reality even more golden.

We agreed to wait until we got home from the airport and were sitting at the kitchen table, which would inevitably happen. As we all sat down, Ammachy (grandmother) included, Matt told his parents that we had a Christmas gift to give them. With that said, I looked at Mamma and told her that she was going to be an Ammachy, then at Dadda telling him he was going to be an Appachan and finally at Ammachy saying she was soon to be an Amammachy. I think Dadda was the first one to get it; Mamma may have been thinking that I didn't know the meaning of these Malyalam words I was using! But then Dadda explained what I had said, and big smiles formed on everyone's faces.

The last time we saw Mamma and Dadda was at Manoj (Matt's brother) and Leanne's wedding in September, and the whole time Mamma was subtly (but not so subtly) letting me know that she was ready to be a grandmother. After breaking the news to them in India, they all got up and gave me a hug, telling me congratulations. Mamma said she wished she would get to see my belly grow bigger, and I assured her that I would send her email updates and pictures.

It's a hard reality knowing that your in-laws are on the other side of the world. So many people don't get along with their in-laws, but I feel like I can't get enough of mine. They are such sincere, warm, loving people who delight in our happiness and success. I can't wait to share each step of the pregnancy with them, and to see them hold their first grandchild in their arms.

Week 5: Belgium

We spent the week in Brussels during a layover on our way to India. It was the first time either of us had been to Belgium, and we had so much fun exploring the city together. We took a one hour train ride to Bruges, which was the most romantic city I have ever been in with its cobblestone streets, magnificent medieval buildings and quiet canals. And everything seemed all the more romantic, just the two of us, together, knowing we were pregnant.

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I was talking to one of my friends, and telling her how nice it was for Matt and I to take a vacation, just the two of us (he and I haven't travelled much together alone). Then she pointed out... we weren't really alone... there were actually three of us on that trip! Guess it's true, Baby G has now been to Belgium and India. Hopefully that will give him/her the travel bug in the future. As soon as this kid is born, I'm going to start him/her on chores to earn some money so he can pay his own way to India! Anyone need some dishes washed?

Week 4: Telling the Hersleys

Matt and I contemplated telling my parents our news on Christmas day. But we would then be in the Brussels airport, and we weren't sure that the conditions would be ideal with expensive per minute charges and sound delays. So we decided to let the cat out of the bag a little early.

I thought it would be fun to let Jarrett know first, and he did not disappoint. He was on his way home from work at Ticketmaster when we called. While on speaker phone, I asked him if he would like to be an Uncle, and he confirmed with great excitement. He then told us to hurry up and call mom and dad before he did! He couldn't wait for them to hear the news.

Next we called mom and dad Hersley and ended up telling them separately while on speaker phone. They were both ecstatic (I think they had been waiting for this day for the last year!), and they couldn't wait for us to tell Matt's parents. It must have taken the rest of that evening for the news to set in, because mom called me the next day with a shaky voice and said, "I just wish I could give you a big hug!"

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Purple strip on left hand page reads: All the windows of my heart I open to the day. -John Greenleaf Whittier

The picture was taken over Thanksgiving 2008 (just before I became pregnant). I wanted to show a family picture of us, and how we looked before the baby came. "See 'Baby G', mom and dad and Grandma and Grandpa used to look at lot younger!"

Week 3: Discovering the News

The typical pregnancy lasts 40 weeks (I know, I know, the annoying pregnant woman jargon, "I'm 28 weeks along." When all you want to know is if she is due next month, in two months or in twenty months... who talks in weeks?!). We are forced to use this speak because our doctors do it, and every single thing you read about pregnancy refers to the different stages in weeks, so before you know... weeks it is! 

So, I'm starting this journal at Week 3, because technically week one and two are before you are pregnant, and I didn't figure I needed to go into the birds and the bees in this journal. I'll probably go back and add a few pages at the beginning as an intro, but for now, moving forward is what I call making progress.

The journal page reads:

(Front)

Today I took a home pregnancy test, and I think it turned out positive!

I say, "I think", because the line is very faint. But last month when I took the test, absolutely nothing happened; so I think even a faint line must be a good thing. I'm a little hesitant to get excited just yet though (what if I'm hoping really hard that the line is there and am therefore making it faintly appear only to shyly disappear when I try to show it to anyone else?). So just to confirm that I wasn't crazy, I got the pregnancy test out of the trash four different times over the next several hours (digging through the trash = definitely not crazy!) to double, triple, quadruple check. Every time however, as faint as the line was... it was THERE!

(Back)

This morning I woke up and immediately took a second home pregnancy test, and again, it was positive, but still VERY faint. I was a little frustrated that the line wasn't screaming, "YOU'RE PREGNANT!", because I think that is about what it would take for me to truly be convinced. I do have to admit though, a little smile came over my face as I crawled back into bed. Surely two tests couldn't be wrong, even if they were whispering!

After laying in bed and not being able to go back to sleep (how could I?!), I called the doctor and made an appointment. (There was one way to put this faint line business to rest!) I felt a little sneaky going to the doctor without even telling Matt, but I also wanted to surprise him with the news if it was in fact positive.

We're Expecting!

Yep, it's true. We found out in mid December 2008 that I am pregnant. We discovered the news three days before leaving for our (nearly annual) India trip. The timing worked out perfectly actually, because we got to share the news with Matt's parents in person!

Since we started sharing the news with some of our friends, I have had several people say that I need to start a blog so they can keep up with us for the next nine or so months. So I dug up this old blog I started (and never shared with anyone) when we first moved to Seattle! Hopefully this time, I'll be a little better at keeping up with it.

My plan for now is to upload pages that I have been working on in my pregnancy journal. It's a pregnancy scrapbook actually, and I have been writing in it weekly... so you can check back regularly to see what all three of the Georges are up to!

Can't wait to share all our news and feelings... thanks for reading!
Steph and Matt