Was that a movement?

Hmmm, who knows. The books say that I should/could feel the baby moving now. I think I felt something the other day, but I can't tell. It seems hard to distinguish if it is just gas or my stomach or an actual movement. Since I really can't determine what it was, I have decided not to 'count it'. I hope to feel something soon, that will be so surreal!

Life is good. We had a busy & fun weekend, even relaxing. The baby went to its' first game at Yankee Stadium and even got a gift, Yankees Baby DVD. Unfortunately, the Yankees lost, but we still had a blast. Then last night we went to Shea to see the Mets, that was a fun time too. On the way to the train my stomach really hurt and I got cramps, but I think Chris was just walking too fast for me. Once we sat on the train I was fine.

Unfortunately for some, I still have my irritable moments. Thank goodness the one's I love, love me too. Good thing it comes and goes, but I apologize to Chris & my mom (now even my sister) because them all seem to get the brunt of it.

Today at the library I had one of those almost fainting spells. I was waiting for the librarian to renew my library card (who knew these things expired) and all of a sudden I felt dizzy & nauseous. I started sweating, despite the fact it was cool and the ac was on. I felt so sick, I had to sit down for 10 mins before it passed. Afterwards I had to go get a strapless bra for my sister's wedding. I went to a store where they measure you, the girls have grown a full cup size! At least the back size remained the same. Boy these things are huge!

Lookin good...

Yesterday I saw Dr. L again, all is good with me and Baby Fuffs. The heartbeat was strong. We got our test results back. Chris is normal and doesn't have thalassemia minor, which is great so no worries about the baby having blood disease issues associated with thalassemia major. The AFP genetic tests came back all find, so no worries there. I am scheduled for a Level II sonogram on the morning of June 6th. Since I will be 20 weeks, if we were going to find out the sex, this is when we would, but we are opting to wait it out. My next appt at the dr is June 13th, I will see Dr. R (Dr. L is out for 2 weeks).

After doing much research about the pros & cons, as well as talking to other parents we have decided not to do the Cord Blood Registry. If available I would like to donate my Cord Blood to the public bank, but not sure if Winthrop participates in that program. At this time we don't see a need to store ours privately.

Not much else going on. Looking forward to the long holiday weekend. The weather is supposed to be nice & warm. We are hoping to make it to the beach. Also, we have Nana's 85th Bday Party and hope to check out BRU for the baby registry.

Second trimester bliss

When I announced I was pregnant anyone who had recently been pregnant (in the past 3 years) handed me a stack of books. As a result, I have acquired a huge library of pregnancy books, baby books, and even 2 for expecting dads. In all of these books it says that the highlight of your pregnancy is the second trimester, months 4-6. Well let me just say, this is sooo true. Not that I have much to complain about from the beginning, my 1st trimester wasn't bad at all. I didn't have 1/2 the symptoms that some women complain about. But during the beginning of this blessed pregnancy I was dizzy/light-headed, battled bouts of nausea, completely gassy/bloated, constipated, and exhausted (tired like you can never ever imagine, this type of exhaustion was nothing like pre-pregnancy tiredness). And so now we are in our 5th month (I will be 19 weeks in 2 days). It was like the sun rising and a bell rang, what a difference from night to day. Pretty much all of my earlier symptoms have disappeared and I feel great! Besides for my growing little tummy, I wouldn't even know I was pregnant. Supposedly during the third trimester the exhaustion comes back and as you get bigger you become more uncomfortable and less mobile. Thus I am taking advantage of feeling good and really enjoying this time.

Yesterday I went to Behr's and started looking at some furniture for the nursery. This place was recommended to me and I saw a few beautiful sets. I am torn between white and dark cherry. Chris doesn't have a preference. Since we aren't sure what we are having it doesn't make it any easier, I am not sure how I feel about white furniture for a boy. Chris and I will probably go again in a few weeks, the gentleman at Behr's said it could take 16 weeks for it to come in. We have a very busy 6 weeks coming up, so I am not sure we will order it right away. However, I want to get an idea of costs and see what we like. Tomorrow I will be in Connecticut. My mom and I are going to spend the morning shopping & then going to lunch. I am really looking forward to it and while I am there we are going to hit Babies R Us, might even start the registry. Can't wait!!!

Pregnant women should NOT bake

I have heard the stories of when you are pregnant you forget things and are flighty, but oh my. I tried baking that blueberry crumb cake, which I have made before, but I don't know what the heck happened. The 1st problem was I used Splenda for baking instead of sugar and thought it measured cup for cup for sugar, but nope you use 1/2 the amount. I was already doubling it so now I had to quadruple it. Well now I didn't have enough flour, so back to the store. Well at least 3 times I lost my place in the recipe (which isn't long or complicated) and had to rethink what I just did. So we ended up with one cake which I frosted with chocolate icing and a large blueberry crumb. Both tasted good, but it wasn't cake consistency and was soooo dense. Obviously I made some other mistake along the way, ohwell - everyone ate it.

Otherwise it was a lovely mother's day and although I am not a mom yet, my SILs got my flowers & a card, my MIL got me a bag full of Bath & Body stuff, and my mom got me a great shirt:

Chris surprised me with a gc for a pregnancy massage! Plus since I made a big brunch, Chris made me dinner (he never cooks) and cleaned up. It was really a special day :-)

Back from the tropics

Chris, baby Fuffs, and I just got back from a long weekend in the Bahamas. We had a wonderful time, it was of course too short, but it was so relaxing and really fun. The weather was beautiful. The hotel was nice, we had thought it would be more like a resort, but it wasn't. I guess we are used to more of a resort-type. The pool & beach were really nice and they had some nice restaurants, so that was good. The staff could have been more helpful & friendlier though. The hotel was located downtown by the shopping but when we want to do anything outside of shopping or the beach/pool at the hotel we went to Paradise Island. We spent 2 days at Atlantis which was really nice (but expensive). The facilities are great there, the pools are beautiful, many restaurant choices and we had a ton of fun there, including watching the Derby and some time at the casino. We took a boat excursion one day to a very remote island, went snorkeling, had lunch, and spent the afternoon reading & napping on a hammock. Chris and I just had such a nice time together, relaxed and had fun! It was a much needed vacation.

During the trip I felt pretty good. No complaints, even the gas & constipation that have been plaguing me seemed to take a hiatus. We did go on a boat ride to a remote island and spent the morning snorkeling and then had lunch. During lunch I got sick, but that might be because I ate too quickly, who knows. As a result, we spent the afternoon reading & napping on a hammock. Another day I got sever gas cramps out of nowhere, that had me hunched over. We were actually at a timeshare presentation so in some ways it was a good thing, because we used that as an excuse.

The trip was great and like I said I felt good, the one bad thing was I got some rash on my legs - who knows what it is. I thought it was heat rash, but it spread all over. I tried to let it pass, but it itches like hell. So yesterday I called my ob/gyn (Dr. L) and she said she wanted to see me. She looked at it today and has no idea, I can't take Benadryl so she told me to put cortisone cream on it and referred me to a dermatologist. I am going to see if it goes away on its own and if not by next week, I will call the dermatologist. Hopefully it goes away soon, so I can stop scratching and looking like I have bugs (lol) and so I can shave my legs again!

While I saw Dr. L she had me take the 'AFP' test, aka Triple Screen Test. They do this by just drawing blood from me. For more information about this genetic test you can see the particulars here: http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/afp/a/afptesting.htm . Dr. L definitely pressured me into taking the test, but she had some strong arguments. Had I met with her before the window of my other genetic test, we probably would have done that one too (but she was on vacation and I saw Dr. R). Anyway, she said she had wished I had taken that one because it had less false positives and it is better to have more information. I see her again on May 21st, so I will get the results then. My concern is I am a worrier and if something does come back wrong, I know I will get stressed about it. She assured me not to worry. So we will see.