An update...

Will and I went to the doctor on Thursday. We were there FOREVER, which I expected, because I haven't yet gone. Thank god for health insurance finally kicking in! I was weighed (found out our home scale is off about 5lbs!!), peed in a cup (I hate doing that! It always goes everywhere!), had a ton of blood drawn, a pap smear (ugh!), and a long talk with the doc about medical history and whatnot.

Now for the not so fun part. Sherry (doc) said that I feel small, which leads her to believe that I may not be as far along as we initially thought. My due date is set, right now, at July 30th, but we go in for an ultrasound on Saturday, March 14th, and she feels I may end up measuring 2 weeks behind. Now, after doing some research, I'm seeing that it COULD be due to that... or it could be that my smoking is affecting growth. Yes, I am still smoking, albeit a lot less, but I'm feeling more guilty about it now that we've had a doc's visit and things are much more real. That, and smoking now causes the baby to move, and I'm starting to get a mental picture of my baby smothering inside me. So I think this is going to stop soon. Sadly, I needed something like this to really encourage me to stop.

The next fun part - I won't have appointments every 4 weeks like I thought, but every 3. Scheduling is going to be a pain, since I'm trying so desperately not to take too much time off work - they've been wonderful so far, and I don't want to jinx things by being off all the time. I'm up for a raise soon too, so I want to do everything I can to get the most I can, haha.

Also, my next appointment was scheduled 2 weeks out instead of 3. Sherry wanted it soon after my ultrasound so we can discuss the results. If I AM measuring behind, then I will still be within the window for the quad screen (for those of you not in the baby-know, it's a blood test, done on me, to determine the risk of having a baby with down's, spina bifida, and other birth defects and whatnot). However, if I am NOT measuring behind, and my uterus is just sitting low, then we will have missed the window for the test. What does that mean? Well, the tests only give an indication of the risk, but we will be giving birth regardless, we've decided, so more or less it would give us forewarning on any problems. Which would be nice, but we don't plan to abort or anything like that, so not getting the test isn't a huge concern for me.

Let's add on another stumbling block, shall we/ I am, obviously, overweight, and thus at high risk for gestational diabetes, so instead of waiting until about 28 weeks or so, I will have my 1 hour glucose screening on March 19th, I'll be between 18-20 weeks at that point. Basically, you drink a flat glucose drink they give you, wait an hour, and then have blood drawn. Testing to see how your body metabolizes the sugar. If I don't pass that, I will have to do a 3 hour test, and if I don't pass that, then I will have to monitor my sweets and whatnot. There might be more involved, it would depend on the severity though. Luckily, they gave the the drink to bring home, so I just have to make sure I drink it at a point so that by the time I get there, I'm close to my hour mark so they can draw the blood on time. Again meaning not as much time off work (thank god!).

But, of course, the most exciting parts were.... 1) we got to hear the heartbeat! It was amazing! Will says it sounded like a racehorse, haha, Sherry says it's strong and within a perfectly normal range (150's) which, if you believe old wive's tales, it's a girl, lol, but I'm still sticking with my boy theory. She also said next time if we want we can record it on a cell phone or something, which I am planning on doing, and then trying to transfer the recording on to one of those little players you get in a recordable card, to put in the scrapbook.

And, most of all, we go for our ultrasound in less than a week! depending on if I am measuring behind or not, I'll be between 18-20 weeks, so as long as baby cooperates, we should be able to find out the sex! So exciting!

And then there's the awesomeness that is.... we're tentatively planning to move on June 1st! So baby should have his/her own room, and mommy and daddy our own space. THANK GOD!

As far as the other updates, well, I am thanking my lucky stars every single day that I am having a pretty easy pregnancy. No morning sickness (except for a day here or there), no weird food aversions or cravings. A lit of back pain, and a moderate amount of TAILBONE pain, and of course I still pee constantly, but i know I could have it so much worse, so I keep my mouth shut.

And let's not forget I have the mott amazing husband and mother in the world, who between the two, keep me happy and healthy and sane. I thank my lucky stars every day for those two.