Week 9 – Officially a fetus

BK is now officially called a fetus.  It is about an inch long and is the size of a green olive.  The muscles have been forming to allow BK to start moving those tiny arms & legs.  The fingers/toes are longer and the pupils have begun to form.

This week Trevor and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary of being together.  We kept it simple and just went out to dinner at Maggiano’s.  This will be our last anniversary with just the two of us.  However, between figuring out what to do with Bailey and saving up to buy a house, dinner was more than enough.  Speaking of Bailey, while we were at dinner she decided to tear up some carpeting.  She looks all sleepy & innocent below, but it's an act, I swear :)

 

We’ve been getting ready to go look at properties this week as well.  We spoke to a realtor, searched through listings & compiled a list of places to go see.  Earlier today we finally went out and saw our first 6 possible homes.  The first few places were a little disheartening due to the tear-down condition they appeared to be in.  Then there was one nice town-home but the HOA dues bumped the price up a little too much.  The last property required a bit of cosmetic work (super bright red carpet throughout and heavy use of primary colors on the walls) but the yard was really nice and it wasn’t very expensive…probably due to the carpet burning the retinas of everyone who walked into the place.  This already feels like it’s going to be a long process.  We’re able to see past how it’s decorated/styled, so that’s a plus, but I think we’re going to end up seeing our fair share of dumpy places before some nice ones come our way.

Oh, and we also announced the pregnancy to our first group of people today.   It wasn’t by choice, but we had our dentist appointments this morning and I had to tell the hygienist and dentist so that I wouldn’t have x-rays taken.  Not terribly exciting but if anyone ever asks, technically the first people to know were them, haha.  Oh oops, and the Realtor knows.  I guess we suck at keeping secrets :)

Trevor's Note: If I may make one suggestion to anyone out there.  Try to avoid buying a house and having a baby at the same time and certainly don't do it under the time crunch of a lease expiring.  I'm actually a little worried that this is too much stress for the baby.  It isn't good for Ashley and me.  It certainly can't be good for the baby.  I've always had buying a house and having a baby as life-long goals of mine, but so was being financially secure. I guess I'll take two out of three, since it appears to be impossible for all three to happen at once.

Week 8 – Heartbeats

  
Okay, no more denial.  There’s really a baby in there.  The first thing I saw when the ultrasound image was put up on the screen was not the baby (honestly there’s just varying degrees of gray waves).  It was the bright white dot in the center of the screen flickering—the heart beating.  My thought process went something like this: Wow, this is very cool to actually see…to heart-warming (no pun) accompanied with a big smile…to thinking how it was just a little creepy.  I mean there is something living inside of me, so weird.  Little Baby Kershaw’s projected date of arrival is August 25^th.  If he/she has a sense of humor, it will time its arrival with the first day of school for Trevor.  Personally the naïve side of me is hoping it will arrive a couple weeks early or even a week late, pushing it to September 1^st…because nobody wants their birthday to be on the first day of school.  How much of a bummer would that be?  We’ll just have to wait and see.  :)

We’re at the end of 8 weeks so developmentally, BK (Baby Kershaw) has already gone from a zygote to a blastocyst to an embryo.  Week 4 it was the size of a poppy seed.  Week 5 it was the size of an orange seed and its heart started to shape along with the circulatory system becoming functional.  Week 6 it was the size of a nail head (apparently the books couldn’t find a suitable food for comparison).  BK’s face started to take shape in this week as well as its organs.  Oh, and there is still a tail.  I guess it’s not an over-exaggeration when people call them “little monsters.” Haha ;)  Week 7 it was the size of a blueberry and started to develop arm and leg buds.  

This week, BK is the size of a large raspberry (take that average-sized raspberries) and has started to look less reptilian.  Yay for being a human!  The heart rate also picked up, BK’s registered at 181 bpm, and it can start to spontaneously move (which I swear I saw in the sonogram).  Eye lids have also started to develop and the beginnings of toes/fingers can be seen.

So far I haven’t really had many of the normal pregnancy symptoms.  Give me a second to go find some wood to knock on.  Shoot, all we have is imitation wood in the house.  I hope that was good enough.  I’ve been extremely tired and have been since probably week 5.  Also in the beginning of January I tweaked a nerve in my lower back and after 3 weeks it’s still torturing me.  I’ll take sciatic pain over nausea & vomiting any day, but I wonder how much longer this is going to hurt.  And why is this happening now?  I thought back pain was a 3^rd trimester sort of thing.  I miss bending down to pick up something and not feel a shooting pain go down my left leg.  Also sleeping for more than a few hours at a time would be pretty cool too.  Waking up every so often because the pain is reminding me to change positions takes its toll after a few weeks.

Trevor's Note:  I noticed the heartbeat first too.  It was pretty incredible and certainly makes this whole thing a lot more real.  The pressure really feels on now to get a house.

Still Week 7 - Stressed with a capital “T”

Yes, I meant “T”. Or rather that’s what I said out loud the other day.  Obviously I meant capital “S”.  I’m so stressed I can’t even spell anymore, haha.  Buying a house is so freakin’ complicated.  There is an entirely different language I’m trying to learn, and after a while my brain simply cannot absorb any more mortgage jibberish.  I don’t know if it is too early to blame it on pregnancy-brain or if I am just incredibly stupid; I’m leaning towards the former for my ego’s sake.

Our lease is up in two months and we’ll either be:

1)      Moving into a new house

2)      Moving into a cheaper apartment because we couldn’t find a house

3)      Staying here and paying a much higher rent than we are now because we’ll have switched to a month-by-month lease hoping we will soon be moving into a new house.

It’s just a tad unsettling not knowing where I’ll be sleeping in several weeks.  Trevor has been simply amazing with all this though…forcing himself to read through things he doesn’t understand, setting up mortgage lender appts, searching though sketchy websites trying to find foreclosures and the like for sale.  (Huge bummer that the average cost of homes throughout most of our county is about 100K over what we can afford lol!)

The second source of stress is everything that comes with having a baby.  I know I just found out “officially” a few days ago so you’d think that would be the main thing that is overwhelming me.  Maybe it’s because I don’t feel pregnant…no morning sickness or any of those other lovely symptoms most women experience, just fatigue.  I still think I’ll really believe it when we get to see Baby Kershaw in an ultrasound next week.  Until then I’ll just let shock or surprise or thick-headedness guide me through the next several days until the “proof” comes, haha.  Even though it hasn’t really sunk in doesn’t mean there aren’t a few things to stress a little over. Like…

-Making sure I’m not only getting enough protein, Vitamins A & B, and iron every day from being a vegetarian, but now I need to also pay attention to zinc, folic acid and all that good stuff.  I know all this will become second nature once I get into the habit, but for now it’s just annoying tracking that many things when I just want to eat a sandwich. 

-Trying not to get whipped around too much from this crazy dog when I exercise her.  Bailey is still a terrible puller on the leash.  Several times I’ve ended up with pain in my abs and sides from tensing my entire body in order to remain on my feet when she’s getting ready to lunge after a squirrel or an interesting blade of grass.

-Not knowing.  Not knowing what foods I should be staying away from.  Not knowing what I can take for migraines/headaches.  Not knowing what types of exercises I should not do.  The OB/GYN was a little less than helpful.  I mean I know I’m new at this but during the first prenatal visit shouldn’t they be giving you at least some information?   Especially when your mind goes blank and you can’t remember the things you should be asking?  The books say this should be your longest appointment but I think I spent more time waiting in a room for the results than I spent face-to-face with the doctor.  I scheduled the first sonogram for next week when Trevor can be there, and I changed to a different OB/GYN within the practice.  Hopefully she’ll be more forth-giving with information.

Trevor's Note:  I'm not sure I would qualify as "amazing" through this.  I kind of feel like I did as a first year teacher-I'm just B.S.ing my way through it.  If it were just Ashley and me, I'd be fine.  Now there is so much more dependent on me:  Ashley, the baby, the dog.  I'm not sure what is going to happen but I have faith in God that we're not going to end up homeless.

Week 7 – It’s a….Future Bears fan!

I managed to catch someone’s something over the holidays and by the end of Christmas Day I was beginning to feel like death…awful sore throat (thank you smokers), slight fever, chills, nausea, and the inability to climb out of bed for several days.  By the end of the week, the flu subsided into a nice sinus head cold.  Also by that time I began to realize something else; I was late.  Trevor’s family came up that weekend to visit us and my head cold was creating so much pressure that a wicked migraine set up camp.  I was kind of worthless that whole weekend because I couldn’t take my beloved Excedrin, just in case, and had to wait for it to go away on its own.

By New Year’s Eve/Day I finally started to feel better…the flu had taken its course, the sinus cold was on its way out, and that awful migraine finally stopped trying to kill me.  I also noticed that I was definitely late.  Still in a little bit of denial, I waited another week to take a home pregnancy test.  Of course they came back with the faintest positive possible.  I wasn’t sure if that even was a second line (side note: EPT, you kind of suck for how much you cost).

I made an appointment with my gyno yesterday to find out for sure.  If you read the title of this entry you can guess what the result was.  She came in after a while and said very casually, “Hi, I’m Doctor So-and-So.  The results came back positive.  That puts you at about 7 ½ weeks.  Do you have any questions?”  I’m sure I did but I couldn’t remember at that moment.  She was so nonchalant about it all and didn’t offer any information of her own nor ask anything of me.  Then she proceeded to do an exam and was getting ready to do an ultrasound.   That’s when my mind came back to me and I said I’d like to wait until my husband can be there.  I was sent to the phlebotomist to take some blood and then sent along on my way.  How strange.  My normal gyno had stopped practicing all together so I got this new person.  I’m definitely going to switch to someone else within the practice, because I don’t think I should have to pull information out of someone…especially in a situation when my brain might not be operating on all cylinders.

Anyway, I stopped at Target on the way home, bought this onsie and gave it to Trevor when he got home from work.  He was a little confused why I was giving him a random wrapped up present, but it wasn’t hard to figure out once he opened it.  None of this quite feels real and I don’t think I’ll really believe it until I see & hear something next week at our first sonogram.  Oh goodness, we have an actual sonogram scheduled.  Yep, I’m going to need something tangible to see, lol.

Trevor's Note:  Being told you're going to be a dad is...overwhelming.  I am happy, terrified, stressed, nervous, or just about any emotion imaginable.  Personally I am really looking forward to the first sonogram.  Maybe like Ashley it will feel more real then.