The Dot

So, you may have noticed that I practically did no blogging for 3 months this fall.  Hence the Halloween posts at Christmas time.  I had a very good reason.

At the beginning of the school year, I was walking Charlie to school one day and I realized that I felt odd.  And that the odd feeling was familiar, from a time that I was super confused about what was happening to my body... about two and a half years earlier.  And then I remembered that I'd been sick that weekend.  Suddenly.  And then it was over.

And I knew.  And the knowledge sent shivers up my spine... good shivers.

It had been three months since Andy and I had started to try for another baby.  We didn't know if it was possible, but we hoped.  After all, it took 10 years for Ephram to come along.

And here I was, three months later, sure that I was pregnant.  But the fact that I'd already been sick threw me for a loop and I started to wonder if I might be more than just a few weeks pregnant.  So, even though Andy was out of town for business, I took a pregnancy test the next morning.  I was not surprised, but really happy when it was positive.  I called Andy in California and told him right away.  And then I scheduled a doctor's appointment.  Because I wasn't sure how far along I was, they scheduled an ultrasound for me 3 days later.  Andy was still in California, and this is what I got to see that day...

My little one was very little - nothing but a little dot.  I was only 5 weeks pregnant... or so we thought at the time.  And, I'd already been sick.  More than once.  With Ephram I barely was sick the entire time.  Clearly this was going to be a different pregnancy.

Because I have high risk pregnancies, my OB wanted to see me right away.  I went in a week later and another ultrasound was done.  Nothing was seen in the sac yet, so they thought that it might not be a viable pregnancy.  But it was also on the cusp of when something might be there, so I was told to be cautiously optimistic.  I did my best and went back a week and a half later for a third ultrasound.

And there was our new baby!  They decided I was probably a week less along than my dates suggested.  I was thrilled and happy that all the nausea was leading to something real.  Because, yes I had a lot of nausea.  And this is when I stopped blogging.  We went to Disneyland and had a great time... although a large part of the reason we had to take rest days was to accommodate my morning sickness.  From early October through November the months are a complete haze!

At 12 weeks we had the fourth ultrasound of the pregnancy.  This is more ultrasounds then we had with Ephram!  This one was to test on growth and look for anomalies that could indicate birth defects.  The baby checked out perfectly, (and may I say looked really cute!)

A couple of weeks later, just days before Thanksgiving, my nausea finally began to subside enough that I felt like a person again.  We had a fantastic Thanksgiving that I may be blogging about soon.  And I started to enjoy being pregnant.  I first felt my little Dot move at 13 weeks.  I started trying to take quiet moments every day or two to really concentrate and try to feel my little baby.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.  Once I got to 17-18 weeks I could feel the baby move every day.  Christmas was wonderful.  I felt really good and enjoyed watching my two boys experience the Christmas magic.  I also kept thinking about how I will have a six month old, possibly crawling into the presents next year.

I marked the midway point of the pregnancy during the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Traditionally, this is when the doctor requests an ultrasound to check growth and to determine gender.  Of course, there were no ultrasounds being scheduled that week due to the holidays.  I had to wait until I was just a day shy of 21 weeks to see my baby again.  Once Christmas and the boys' birthdays were over, I had too much time to wonder about the gender of our newest addition.  The anticipation was almost too much for me.  I can't say that I wanted a boy or a girl more ... I just wanted to know and to start preparing for the baby to join us in a few months!

We went in for the big ultrasound yesterday.  The tech asked us if we wanted to know the gender before she started, and I told her we absolutely did!  The baby must have heard me, because as the tech put the doppler wand on me it hovered right over the important area first.  The baby's gender was 100% clear about 10 seconds into the ultrasound.

Yeah, that was a teaser.  If you received my email yesterday or are connected to me on Facebook, you already know anyway.  I just can't bring myself to post my unborn child's genitals on the internet.  What if it's still around when they are a teenager?  I will never hear the end of it.  So instead, there is my adorable daughter's profile.

That's right, we're having a girl.

The boys are all ecstatic.  When we told Charlie we were pregnant way back in Week 4, he told us that he was going to have a sister.  He has been very strong in that conviction ever since.  There has been a lot of 6-year old gloating in the house for the last day!

Our little girl will join us this May.  My current official due date is May 18.  But since it started out as May 11 and has gone as far out as May 22, I am considering that a loose prediction.  I can't wait to meet her.