16 weeks OB appt.

Here are the pics from this weeks appt.

checking in

We just got back from a week long "vacation" at my parents house in Miami. I have vacation in quotation marks because it really wasn't a vacation. We originally booked the trip several months ago. My little brother was graduating from high school, so our plan was to attend his graduation and then R and I were going to take a little vacation and maybe head down to the keys or some other nearby beachy location for a few days. Our plans changed when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had her schedule her mastectomy for the day after my brother's graduation so that I could be there for her. Instead of a beachy location, we spent our time in Miami in a hospital. My mom however is doing great! It doesn't look like the cancer spread to her lymph nodes (still awaiting the final path report but the prelim report was negative), so she won't have to undergo chemo! I'm so grateful for that - she was petrified of chemo. She could care less about having to have a mastectomy but really didn't want to have chemo. I brought her home the day after surgery and within 2 days she was almost back to herself - even wanting to clean the house. Her 2 sisters are also visiting from South America and she really needs to milk this and have them clean the house but that's not my mom's style. Seeing her back up and around the house (and not taking pain meds) made our departure yesterday much easier on me.

It feels so good to be home. Because my aunts were visiting, they had my old room (bigger bed) and R and I slept in my brother's room (smaller bed). His bed sucks. Not only is it small (some weird size where most full sheets are too big), but it's hard. Sleeping on our king size deluxe pillow top bed last night was so nice! R was such a trooper throughout the entire trip. For the most part, she had to hear my aunts speaking Spanish the entire week (my aunts do not shut up - and I'm one who talks a lot but OMG, my aunts were driving me nuts and I could understand what they were saying). She also sat in a hospital all day, without internet access and with a very pissy me - I was being torn in all directions - my aunts, my mom, my mom's cell phone (which did not stop ringing - I think half of Miami and all of Colombia called) and then there was R. My dad's way of dealing with things is to not deal, so he decided to work on the day of my mom's surgery. Thus R's English speaking partner wasn't there. I think R might have been the only person in the entire hospital who didn't speak Spanish.

In better news, I only threw up twice and only had 3 bouts of nausea during the entire week! My belly also grew (and not just from my dad's cooking - he's a chef, a damn good one). I had packed for Miami on Thursday night - I tried everything on before I packed it. We arrived in Miami on Saturday and half of the clothes that I had packed no longer fit. I was very amused!

I will be 16 weeks on Wednesday! OMG, that's 4 months along! I'm really starting to believe that we will be having a baby this year. Congratulations to all the recent "take home babies" - Jennifer's girls, WTF's girl and little baby Riley!

I'm still here

I have sucked at blogging more than usual lately. I'm sorry that it's been over a week since I've last posted. Things are going well with the pregnancy. I'm starting to feel better, although I still have occasional barfing sessions. Here are some random thoughts and happenings of the past week:

We used the Doppler several days ago and I found the heartbeat right away which was very exciting. Usually it would take me 5-10 minutes to find the heartbeat by which point I would start to get panicky and freak out which somehow would come across as complete bitchiness to R who is always next to me while I Doppler. The heartbeat was also a bit higher up on my belly so it was nice not to have to get the slimy goop all over my pubic hairs.

I have a bump now and am very excited about it. I know most of it is fat and not my actual uterus but to me I look pregnant (to others I probably look fat - like I have one hell of a poochy belly). I'm all about cute little dresses and clothes that show off my bump. I even had someone touch my belly - granted she knows I'm pregnant, but none the less, someone besides R touched my belly. I'm sure that will eventually get annoying but for now, I'm thrilled.

I felt I needed to buy new underwear because my old ones are ending up up my ass all day long (and they're not thongs, so they really shouldn't be up my ass). While at target last week, I bought a 2 pack of Haines cotton bikini's. They seemed comfy looking and I figured they would do the trick. To me the term bikini implies that there is anywhere from an elastic waistband to up to maybe 2 inches of fabric on the sides. I swear that's what the picture on the packet showed. Needless to say, I'm now sporting Bridget Jones underwear. As soon as I put these on, I wanted to speak in a British accent and write in a diary. For the love of god - these things are huge and look absolutely hideous. For being this big and ugly one would think that they would be the most comfortable underwear on the planet and I'm sorry to say, they are only moderately comfortable - although they are certainly not up my ass.

1 in 10,000

Today was just so amazing! We had our first u/s this morning at my OB appt (that's 1st u/s of the day but 5th over all for the pregnancy). Everything looked great. The baby is actually measuring 2 days ahead which is great (my first m/c always measured behind).

The much more exciting part came this afternoon with our second u/s of the day. It was done at a diagnostic center and it was the nuchal thickness u/s. Their equipment is so amazing - way better than anything at the RE's office or at the OB's office. They had a big flat screen up on the wall for us to watch. The doctor took all the measurements and showed us all sorts of baby parts (stomach, kidneys, heart chambers, feet, hands, brain, umbilical arteries, placenta...) and then he switched over into 4D. OMG - it was fucking amazing. The baby is only 6cm big (lime size) but seeing him/her on the big flat screen was beyond cool. I'll definitely be doing one of those 4D u/s at the mall later on. So with the nuchal fold thickness measurement (he took several - I guess they average them out but he measured 1.1, 1.36 and 1.44) and the blood work, the genetic counselor we met with afterwards said our risk of a child with DS or trisomy 13 or 18 is 1 in 10,000. I'm thrilled. After yesterday's big news, I could not handle any more bad news.

The 2 pictures above - the one on the left is a head on of the baby (both eye sockets are visible and it's arms are up). It looks like a little alien. The one on the left is a profile shot.

And from the fancy doc -

Falling apart, just a little

Not to worry, everything is OK with the pregnancy. I hit the 12 week mark today and tomorrow I'll have an OB appt in the morning and my nuchal fold u/s in the afternoon.

However today I got some devastating news. My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer today. She had a biopsy last week after something was seen on her mammogram. My mom is not the most doctor happy person, so the fact that got a mammogram is remarkable. (She's very healthy. She's 63 and she runs several miles per day, plays tennis several times per week, rarely drinks and has never smoked and thus feels that she doesn't need to see a doctor). We have no family history of breast cancer (as in not a single person on my mom's side of the family - not any of my mom's 9 siblings or my grandmother's 8 siblings or any of their children). This came as a complete shock.

My mom called me at lunch today. She's actually doing ok. She said, "it is what it is and we must face it head on". I of course wanted details - like what kind of breast cancer. Not surprisingly she couldn't remember the name of it or any major details, other than her surgeon told her he recommends a modified radical mastectomy. Luckily she did manage to tell her doctor that her daughter is a doctor and he gave her his cell number and told her to have me call him so he could explain everything to me. I did speak to the him later and got the full scoop. I agree with him about the mastectomy and want him to do it soon. My mom lives cross country, so I'll be there later this month for my little brother's high school graduation. We're hoping he can do the surgery during the week that we're there so we can take care of her.

So I know I'm rambling but I did want to share with you a bit about my mom. My mom came to the US in her late 20's when her company opened a branch here (she's from South America). She met my biological dad (aka sperm donor) and they were together for several years but he split when she got pregnant with me (I've never met him). My mom raised me on her own. While looking back, I know that she struggled for many years to make ends meet as a single mom. She managed to start her own company and made something of herself. It was just my mom and I for many years - she met my "dad" when I was about 10 1/2 and they married when I was 12. My brother came along a year later (she's one of those super-fertiles who us infertiles love to hate - she got pg naturally at age 46). Through everything, my mom has been my number one supported and one of my best friends. I know she'll beat this but I'm scared. I don't like thinking about my mom's mortality. I'm carrying her first grandchild and I need her to be around for many years. Our baby needs her to be around.