Question 9: Have you had any weird cravings?

For the most part, aside from food aversions & things that taste differently than they used to*, my eating has fallen into a several categories:

• things I eat because they make my stomach feel better (mashed potatoes, crackers, toast-- anything carb-heavy)
• things I'm supposed to eat it more because I'm pregnant (spinach, berries, nuts, eggs & anything else with protein)
• things I eat because the alternative sounds awful or I can't have whatever the alternative is
• things I eat because it sounds delicious-- in other words, things I'm craving

Cravings haven't been too strange-- mostly I just want salt or salty things. And when I say salty, I mean so salty you're licking the salt off your fingers, then using your still moist finger to pick up the salt in the bag. (It's embarrassing to admit that, but oh well, it's the truth.) There have also been random days where I can't stop thinking about pineapple, baked potatoes, toast with butter, quesadillas, or anything with BBQ sauce. But none of those are things that seemed strong enough or strange enough (for me) to be a true stereotypical pregnancy craving.

Then, we went to Costco the other night, and knowing there would be no time for making dinner at home, we ate at Costco. Lacking other options that I felt totally confident were pregnancy safe, I opted for a slice of the combo pizza. Then, when walking to our table, I passed by the condiment stand, and inspiration struck:

That is my pizza with deli style mustard squeezed all over it.**  Kenneth was horrified and took pictures on his phone. I realized how odd it was and took a picture myself and sent it to Sara. But let me say this: The sour and spice the mustard added to the pizza was AMAZING! Delicious! So much so that after I took this picture, I went back and squirted more mustard on.

I'm not sure that I would ever put mustard on pizza again, because it does seem pretty odd. But at least I won't be marveling at my own cravings next time as I do something like pour ketchup on scones or BBQ sauce on birthday cake. 

*Butternut squash... I miss you so much! But you're much too sweet for me now. I just can't handle it. 

**I could have doctored it up a little so that it wasn't quite so horrible looking (I know, who wants to see a half-eaten slice of pizza?), but I think the picture as-is makes the bizarre condiment all the more pronounced.

Question 7 & 8: How are you feeling? Have you been taking care of yourself?

How are you feeling?
So far pregnancy hasn't been terrible. I've had nausea, but for the most part haven't had any real morning sickness. I had my first (so far only) bout of put-you-out-of-comission-all-morning morning sickness at 11.5 wks, and the nausea has been stronger since then, but still mostly manageable. I've been tired a lot, but it seems to be more related to not sleeping well than pregnancy. (Maybe it's both?) I try to be thankful because I know it's been a lot easier than the pregnancies of other people I know.

Have you been taking care of yourself? Have you been taking vitamins, etc?
This one has been coming from parents, mostly. Tempting as it is to answer this one sarcastically ("You betcha.  I've been taking my vitamins with some really runny eggs benedict and a bloody mary every other morning..."), I actually have been doing all those things you're supposed to do. Which, I've come to discover, is a lot. Just to get my head wrapped around it, I wrote everything that I've had to change or continue doing (even if I'm too tired) since baby, and it's a pretty hefty list:

• Take prenatal vitamin, DHA supplement, calcium chew daily.
• Drink at least 64oz water daily
• Exercise (really hard to do daily; usually 3-4 times/week: Zumba, yoga, walking. Also hard because my heart rate is higher than usual and I've had a hard time getting/staying in the right zone)
• Also on exercise-- before, never cared about things like overheating or rehydrating. Now I do. 
• No alcohol, runny eggs, artificial sweeteners (except those in my calcium chews), deli meat, cured meats (I don't entirely remember what the rule was on this one, so I've been avoiding it altogether for now), moldy or unpasteurized cheese, big fish with high or even moderate mercury/other toxin levels, or caffeine (ok, I never have caffeine anyway). 
• Limiting my intake of fish in general (not that I consumed tons before, but now I actually have to pay attention.
• When buying processed foods, (because I don't have the energy for as much from-scratch cooking as I used to) I've been choosing the option that has the shortest ingredient list and fewest number of chemicals and substances I can't pronounce.
•  Eating way more protein, fruits and veggies, rather than my favorite carbs, and when possible I buy organic if it fits our budget.
• Eating more in general, because I'm supposed to, but also because it's the best way to keep my nausea under control. But also not eating too much because I know I'm not actually eating for 2. 

Frequently heard comment: You don't even look pregnant

Besides asking about cravings (which took a sudden change for the weird this week, I'll explain in another post), one surprisingly common reaction from my coworkers, upon finding out about my pregnancy, is "But you don't even look pregnant." Seriously-- heard this 4 times yesterday! I've been feeling for weeks like my pregnancy was OBVIOUS just by looking at my belly, but apparently there are some who disagree. This I'm chalking up to one of several things:

1. My coworkers being super nice and trying to make me feel good about the changes my body is going through, which is dishonest, but kind of them.
2. My coworkers being utterly honest -- they really don't think I look pregnant. And if my coworkers can't tell that I've gained weight or that that weight is concentrated in one particular area of my torso, who am I to complain?
3. I just haven't spent enough time showing off my changed profile at work and when people tell me this, they're looking straight at my belly rather than my profile. 
4. My coworkers see me during the day, not at the end of the day, when my belly and bladder are full from a full day of eating and drinking.

I think it's the last one.

Exhibit A:

April 25/Day 1 of Week 13, just before heading to work

Exhibit B:

April 27/Day 3 of Week 13, just before bedtime.

Trust me, my belly didn't become that much more prominent in the space of 48 hours. It's the same story every single day. Nice little baby bump in the morning... "Whoa, that belly is large and in charge" in the evening. 

Is this normal?

Question 5 & 6?: Are you hoping for a boy or girl? & What names are you thinking about?

Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?
Not to be a smug pregnant woman, but we really didn't care whether baby is a boy or a girl. We just want a healthy baby. Everything else is secondary. That said, we had a hunch that the baby was a boy. Since we we had those genetic tests done, they were easily able to see baby's gender. Baby Hanks is a boy!

What names have you picked out?

We're strongly leaning towards naming him Xavier, but we're still taking bids from anyone who would like to give him his middle name. Currently, the highest bid is from Kenneth's brother with $100 for Ezekiel. Other bids have been Ruprecht (at $50) and Manuel (at $0) ... get it, X-man? Any other ideas for Baby X's middle name?

Question 3 & 4: How far along are you? When is baby due?

How far along are you?
By standard measurements, we're 13 weeks as of today. That's the short, standard answer. The more accurate answer is somewhere at the end of the 1st trimester or early in the 2nd trimester. (My friend Dana explains why figuring out the whole weeks/months of pregnancy is confusing here. Basically, pregnancy isn't 10 months, or even 9 months, but should actually be calculated as somewhere in between.)

In the end, I think development milestones and due dates are ballparks. Baby will develop at the pace baby is supposed to develop at. Baby will come out when baby is ready, which will hopefully be sometime at the end of October or early November.

(12 wks shot again... because I'm writing this while resting Saturday (STILL!). And come Monday when this post goes up, I'm probably going to be too busy to have uploaded and edited my 13 wk picture from this morning, let alone replaced this filler shot with it.)

When are you due?

"Ok," you say, "that's all well and good, but I like concrete facts. All this talk of 'ballparks' and subtleties of calculating due dates is too much for me. I'm asking you how far along you are because I want to know when you're going to be HUGE and when baby is likely to arrive."

Alright then. Due date is officially Halloween 2011. Here's hoping baby actually comes then, because I think Halloween would be an AMAZING day for a birthday. The kid will have the most incredible birthday parties!

Imagine...

 

Question 2: Why didn't you tell me sooner?!

We kept it a secret for a long time because we wanted to know baby was going to stick around before we announced. I have a genetic condition that doesn't affect me, but basically makes me a carrier for a very serious genetic condition that usually results in miscarriages in the 1st trimester. (This condition isn't something minor like Down's Syndrome or Cystic Fibrosis). We wanted to be sure baby was ok before we announced.

We had genetic testing done last Wednesday. The test (called CVS if you're curious) was pretty brutal, painful, and uncomfortable, and they had to do it twice... I could go into details, but let's just say it was a lot like what I imagine birth to be like, except I know birth will probably be 10x worse. I was put on bed rest for 24 hours, and then had to stay off my feet as much as possible for another 3 days. And when they say stay off your feet, they mean it. (I got a little talking-to by a nurse when she found out that around hour 50 post-CVS I took the dog for a .5 mile walk around our apartment complex and made dinner.)  

 Anyway, we got results 24 hrs after the test was done. As for results:

What we were hoping for/great results: 46 chromosomes

What we would be happy with/good results: 45 chromosomes 

What we were afraid of /very bad, scary results: 47 chromosomes

They called Thursday after the test with the results... these aren't them, but they look like this. 46 perfect chromosomes.  Yay!

You may be asking...

Or, as Michelle called it, Baby FAQs.

But since some questions are more complicated than others, I'm going to break this up into a few smaller posts. Maybe as more people find out we'll get some more questions I can throw out there. 

Question 1:

"Wait!? You're pregnant!? When did you find out?" (Also known as "How long have you been keeping this a secret from me/us?" and sometimes accompanied with "Are you sure you're pregnant?"): We were shocked when we had our first sign that I might be pregnant February 18, when baby was just a wee little thing at 3 wks 4 days. I took a test a couple of days later to confirm, and even that early the tests were positive. So, we have been keeping this a secret for about 9.5 wks. As for the "Are you sure you're pregnant?" question-- Between having every symptom in the book (to varying degrees, mostly not too bad) and 3 ultrasounds at 9 wks, 10.5, and 12.5 wks, yeah, we're pretty sure there's a baby in there.

Anyway, here is Juniper helping me tell her dad that she's going to be a big sister, and he's going to be a dad (to a human child, not a furry one.... we hope.):

So, the rumors are true...

Good news travels fast it seems. We "went public" with the exciting news just yesterday, so we haven't had a chance to tell everyone yet, and mom kind of "scooped" us on facebook (fair enough though, we told her it's not a giant secret now).  So here's confirmation... the rumors are true.

February 20, 2011

April 18, 2011

"Pshaw," you might say. "Brianna's just getting thicker around the middle. I develop food babies all the time and you don't see me posting pictures on my blog" 

Well, here's some month-old proof that that isn't just a food belly I've been developing:

(As this child's mother, I'd like to mention again that this is a month old picture. We saw evidence on Wednesday that baby has, since the time this picture was taken, developed long arms and legs, a bladder, lips, a nose, and according to the doctor, a very impressive diaphragm that was visible across the room.) 

More details later...