It's a BOY!

It's been a couple weeks since we found out, and probably everyone reading this already knows the good news, but on May 22nd, Russ and I found out that we are having a boy!  Calvin William Cammann will be joining us this fall. :)

We had a 45-minute ultrasound, so we got to see Cal in amazing detail.  Everything looks great!  I had heard that having a glass of orange juice before the big ultrasound will get the baby moving, and WOW, was he moving!  He was being a little feisty; when the ultrasound tech was ready to take a picture of something, he would quickly change positions!  We saw some cute images of him laying with his ankles crossed, and waving his hands up by his face.  We also saw a couple bones in clear detail - we saw the humerus and femur, and saw every single bone in his spine!  That was probably the coolest part, besides finding out he's a boy!

Since he was moving around so much, there were several images that couldn't be captured that day, so I am going back for another ultrasound in a couple weeks.  I'm gonna skip the orange juice this time!

After the ultrasound, we registered at Babies R Us and Target, and we even started turning the guest room into Cal's room.  His room will be sports-themed, which Russ has already been enjoying decorating. :)

We're looking forward to spending time with family this summer, Cal's baby showers, and bringing on the BLUE! :)

Just a little 16 week update

Tomorrow I will be 17 weeks, and have an appointment scheduled for Thursday to take some measurements.  There's not a whole lot going on right now, but we received some good news a couple weeks ago, and today we're 16 days away from finding out whether Baby Cammann is a he or a she!

At my 13 week appointment, my doctor did a nuchal translucency test to find out if the baby is at risk for any genetic disorders.  We received word that everything came back normal!  Obviously this is great news, but it's even better because if we would have gotten abnormal results back, Russ and I were gonna have to do some thinking about if we wanted to do an amniocentesis or other 2nd trimester tests.  So we're in the clear!

Russ also found out a couple weeks ago that he will be working in my school district next year!  This is amazing news, because it puts him closer to home, in a nicer district, and we'll have the same schedule/holidays off!  We're very excited he got this job; he will still be teaching elementary school, just not sure of the grade level or subject yet.

As we've been creeping closer and closer to finding out what Baby Cammann is, we've been narrowing down boy and girl names, and getting ideas on how we want the baby's room decorated.  When we find out what we're having, we'd like to not only let everyone know of the gender, but also announce the name.  I've been given advice to wait till the baby is here and decide the name...but I just don't think I can!    We'd like to embroider/engrave some things, as well as use the baby's name somewhere in the room decorations.

There's nothing much else to say, so I'll leave you with these pictures we took yesterday. :)

13 Weeks!

Again, picture of a picture, but Baby Cammann actually looks like something other than a bean...even though it's an alien!

Russ and I just had our 13 week appointment yesterday, and obviously got to see the baby and hear the heartbeat again, which never gets old!  I'm still not really feeling the baby much (I know it's early still), so I love hearing the baby's heart beating, and knowing there's definitely a life in there!  Heart rate was still at 150 bpm.  We also had a nuchal translucency test done, and the fluid levels at the back of baby's neck looked good!  There is blood work that goes along with the test, and it takes about 10 days to get the results back.  

After the ultrasound, we met with a PA (physician's assistant), and we answered (again) a bunch of questions about family history, plans for after the baby is born, etc.  She asked, "If it's a boy, are you going to get him circumsized?"  WELL, I thought she said "It's a boy...", and about fell off the table!  I totally didn't hear the "if" part! :)

I highly doubt I'll be mentioning my weight gain throughout the next 6 months, but I will say now that I LOST 3 pounds in the first trimester!  My Dr. said it wasn't abnormal for a woman to lose weight in the first trimester, and that I will definitely notice big weight gains in the second trimester!  I'm thinking it might have something to do with my thyroid medication really kicking in and balancing out my pre-pregnancy skewed hormones and metabolism.  We're not too worried about it, but Dr. said she'll keep her eye on it.

We're SOOOO excited that we're almost out of the first trimester and can FINALLY announce the good news to the world!  I have been selective about who I've told, only letting close friends, my principal, and obviously family know what's coming.  Now I am looking forward to telling my co-workers and ALL friends, and anyone else who comes in contact with me, for that matter!  A couple great friends have lent me bunches of maternity clothing, and I'm already enjoying the stretchy goodness of maternity jeans!

May 22nd is our 20 week appointment (which is actually 19 weeks for me), and if baby is cooperating, we'll find out if it's a boy or girl!  Needless to say, we're SO looking forward to that day, and I'm already thinking our summer will be spent preparing the baby's room!  Once school starts up again in August, I'm HOPING (but I've heard it's the slowest time of your life!) that time goes really quickly, and that Baby Cammann will be here before we know it!  We can't wait to meet him/her!

Baby Bean Cammann!

I know this picture isn't very clear, because it's a picture of a picture, but this our baby's first photo!  We had our first ultrasound on February 28th, and that's when everything became really real.  We saw the "baby" (more like lima bean) and heard the heartbeat, which was the coolest thing I've ever experienced in my life.  When the tech zoomed in, you could see the heart beating, and then we got to hear it.  It was so weird to hear that little heart pumping away, but not being able to feel a thing happening in my body.

150 beats per minute!

I was measuring in my 7th week, making my expected due date October 15th.  I asked my Dr. where about the baby had implanted, because I had been nervous due to the whole bicornuate uterus thing.  She told me that the ultrasound showed NO signs of a bicornuate uterus, and that the only real way to diagnose one is through an MRI.  So we're keeping our fingers crossed that we won't have to deal with that at all!  

Several days after my appointment, I got the results back from my blood tests and urine test, and EVERYTHING came back normal, even my thyroid levels!  I'm supposed to keep taking my medicine every day, as it appears to be working!

Since the appointment, we've told our great news to more family and some close friends.  We had our closest Lexington friends over for dinner the night of the ultrasound to tell them the news, and they were so happy.  I already have people offering to let me borrow baby items and maternity clothes, which is very helpful and nice to have.

Everyone who knows we are expecting always asks me how I'm feeling.  I'm experiencing what I like to call nighttime nausea.  Around 5 or so, I not only get really tired, but I also start feeling sick.  It helps if I eat 2 small dinners instead of 1 normal meal, so I'm trying to do that regularly to cut back on that sick feeling.  I feel amazing in the morning and all throughout the day, so it's not so bad when I start feeling gross at night.

Right now, I'm just finishing my 9th week of pregnancy, which means (as I've learned from thebump.com) that my embryo is now officially a fetus!  It's the size of a green olive, and probably weighs .07 oz and is .9 inches long.  We're really excited for our next appointment on April 11th, because I'll be 13 weeks, officially at the end of my 1st trimester, and we'll be shouting from the rooftops that we're pregnant!

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!

January 30, 2012 - Russ had come home from basketball practice, we had dinner, and he started working on something online.  I told him that I wanted to give him his birthday gifts that night, so I went into my closet to gather them up.  I had to go to the bathroom, and considered taking a pregnancy test.  I was supposed to get my period that day, and I didn't...which is completely normal for me.  Since I stopped using birth control, my periods haven't been regular at all...not even close.  I figured I would take a test anyway, just to see, because how cool would it be if I could actually tell Russ we were pregnant on his birthday?!

I took the test, didn't really think too much about it, and started getting his gifts ready to take to him.  I glanced at the test - it was a digital test that actually spelled it out if you were pregnant or not...and on the stick, I saw for the first time ever - PREGNANT!  WHAAAAAAAAAT?????  I was almost shocked.  I started tearing up - this is what I had been waiting for for so many months! - and scrambled to get Poochie.

Let me back up - when Russ and I first started trying, he told me he wanted to be surprised when I found out I was pregnant.  He didn't want to know I was taking a test or anything.  So back in June, I decided I would let Poochie help me tell him.  I bought her a shirt that says "I'm gonna be a big sister!" on it, and had planned to put it on her and let him discover it that way.

So of course when I need Poochie to come, she WON'T come!  I was in the bathroom with tears in my eyes and stick that says PREGNANT calling my dog to come see me.  I didn't want Russ to see that I was crying, but since she wasn't listening to me, I had to go out into our main room and get her.  I grabbed her, struggled to get her in the shirt (she was really fluffy at the time), and then I called Russ into our room and told him to come see Poochie.  He noticed she was wearing clothes (probably thinking it was just another dumb outfit I was forcing her to wear), then got a closer look at what the shirt said.  He looked at me with a cautious look - he was thinking the shirt had meaning behind it, but wasn't exactly sure.  That's when I showed him the stick that said PREGNANT.  Both of us had tears in our eyes now...but then I started thinking...what if I'm getting a false positive because of my medicine?  I had only been on it for 2 weeks, and I was already pregnant????  What if the medicine contained some chemical that skewed the results of a pregnancy test????

I started searching online to see if the thyroid medicine could make that happen.  I found that as long as it didn't contain HCG, then I really was pregnant.  So, my next frantic Google search was it the type of medicine I was taking contained HCG...NO!  I really was pregnant!  However, we decided that I would take another test the next morning anyway.

We woke up the next morning, Russ' 29th birthday, and I took the last pregnancy test that I had.  This time, Russ got to see the results before I did.  It was another PREGNANT on the stick!  We took some pictures and called our moms, who both knew we had been trying and were having problems.  It was a great morning and great day!  That's when I received the call from the nurse who works with my Dr., who told me that I in fact had ovulated (duh) according to my latest blood test, and I told her that I got a positive pregnancy test that morning!  She set me up for an appointment at 8 weeks, which is February 28th.  This concerned me a little, what with all the crazy stuff that had been going on with my body the past month, so she said I could get two more blood tests done to measure the amount of progesterone and to check that my hormone levels were doubling like they should.  When those results came in, my progesterone was right where it should be during the 1st trimester ("high enough to sustain a pregnancy" said my nurse), and my HCG levels went from a 74 to a 193 over the course of 72 hours, which more than doubled!

Which brings me to where I am today.  I am currently at the end of my 6th week, and feel pretty good!  I've been more tired than normal (sometimes I go to bed at 8 and sleep all night!), and I have felt a little queasy here and there, but overall great!  I can't WAIT for my first appointment - which includes an ultrasound! - in about a week and a half.  That's when we're planning on announcing the news to more family and close friends...it's gonna be tempting to tell everyone at that point, but we'll see if we can make it to the end of the first trimester before making it public.

The Lesson and The Reason

Wow.  After reading my two posts from last year, I feel older and wiser.  I've had to learn a big lesson for myself, and had to dig deep to find patience and trust.  I've had to change my attitude and belief about working hard for something and expecting it to happen.  Things don't always go as planned (even if they seemingly have your ENTIRE adult life), and that was a big pill to swallow for me.

I foolishly believed that things would work out just as I had hoped they would in my first blog post.  It would be PERFECT:  getting pregnant in 2011, having a baby in 2012...following my trend of cool things happening to us every year.

Except that God's plans are MUCH bigger than mine, and are more perfect.

The first couple months we started trying and ended up empty-handed, I wasn't too worried.  I figured it would take a little time.  When October hit, and still nothing, I started freaking out.  As in, "Why is this not happening yet, what are we doing wrong, I can't believe it didn't happen this month, it would have been PERFECT timing, we need to have a baby in the summer" etc., etc., etc.  And of course, when you want something so badly, it seems like every person around is getting that ONE thing.  Sigh.

Sometime in October/November, I calmed down.  I HAD to accept that this wasn't going to happen on my time at all, and there was nothing I could do about it.  I no longer had control over this.  I actually never had any at all.  I started to believe that I was bound to have children, but had to wait for the most perfect time, even if it didn't follow my "perfect" timeline.  It was helpful to think that after a year of trying had passed, I would get the opportunity to see my Dr. and seek out her help.

Thankfully, I didn't have to go a whole year.  Strange things started happening to me in December.  I ended up having a period/bleeding for almost the entire month.  I made an appointment with my Dr., who prescribed me some pills to take for a week to stop the bleeding, and who also, after hearing about my trying to get pregnant for 7 months, scheduled me for some preliminary blood work in early January.  I was happy to get the pills and be taking the next step toward conceiving, but at that appointment, she also found what felt like a lump in my right breast.  I went on Christmas break not really knowing what all this could mean.

The month of January was filled with Dr.'s appointments.  First, I had to have a mammogram and an ultrasound to find out if I did have a lump in my right breast.  Luckily, it was absolutely nothing.  And I'm glad I (hopefully) won't have to have another mammogram for another 10 years!  I started to get a lot of blood work done.  After my first appointment, they noticed one of my hormone levels was elevated.  It was my thyroid.  Did this mean I had hyperthyroid?  That's what I assumed "elevated" meant.  Needless to say, further testing needed to be done, and I was put on a synthetic hormone to balance out what was going on in my body.  I had more blood work, plus an ultrasound on my thyroid, to make sure there were no growths.  When those results came back, I learned that my thyroid antibodies count was EXTREMELY high (normal is from 1-9...mine was over 1300), and that my antibodies were attacking my thyroid, causing what I think of as beyond hypothyroidism.  I was told that I have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, and that I could expect to be on medication and monitor my hormone levels for the rest of my life.

MEANWHILE, my Dr. wanted to monitor if I actually was ovulating or not, so I went in for an ultrasound and appointment to check if any follicles were present around the time I expected to ovulate.  Luckily, there was a healthy sized follicle at each of my (ovaries?  fallopian tubes?  I really don't know) that should be released at ovulation, and hopefully fertilized.  My Dr. told me theoretically I should conceive that month...then she told me the ultrasound showed something else that they hadn't been looking for.  It appeared that my uterus is heart-shaped, which is called a bicornuate uterus.  She told me that a bicornuate uterus can't be corrected with surgery; it's just something you live with.  She said it would put me into the "high-risk" category if/when I became pregnant, because there are higher odds of miscarriage.  Sigh again.

I left that appointment feeling hopeful, but still pretty discouraged.  When you're not even pregnant, it's hard to hear that one day you might miscarry because of something you can't change within your body.  However, Russ and I went along through January like normal, still trying to conceive, with me thinking that nothing was gonna happen anytime soon.  Russ was more optimistic, and convinced me we should keep trying that month.  My Dr. had actually said at the end of our appointment that I should give my thyroid medicine three months to kick in, and that I should come back and see her in April.  She actually said I would be pregnant by then and was extremely hopeful sounding, so I didn't worry about things too much.

I had one last appointment to get blood drawn.  The purpose was to check if I had actually ovulated in January.  I received a phone call that my progesterone levels increased, which showed I did ovulate. :)

Since this post is already extremely long, I'll start another post right now.