Disneyland in the Third Trimester

Since I am having serious Disneyland withdrawals waiting to hear when it will reopen I figured it was time to write about my last trip to Disneyland. Who knows when the next time I will be able to go but I know it will be at least a year and a half between my last trip and my next trip!

Last July (2019) at 31 weeks pregnant I went to Disneyland with a couple of my girlfriends. I had thought my trip in the beginning of my second trimester would be my last before baby girl arrived but when the opportunity presented itself and I was still feeling fine I decided to go for it. I kept an eye on the weather in the weeks before the trip because I knew if the weather report said it was going to be 100 degrees while I was there I knew I needed to not go. The weather was supposed to be in the low to mid 80's while I was there so that was fine. For the first time I got to pre-board the airplane which was kind of cool.  I didn't really need the extra time to get on the plane but it allowed me to sit in the bulkhead seat which was way easier to get in and out of with a big ole belly.

We stayed at the Best Western that was right at the crosswalk to Disneyland and it was super convenient.  Breakfast was included and you can't beat the location unless you are staying on property. I would definitely stay there again. Our first night we just walked over to Downtown Disney to have dinner and do a little shopping since we all got there in the late afternoon. 

While we were there Galaxy's Edge had only been open to the public without a reservation to enter the land for about a month so it was still very new. You didn't need a reservation to get into the land but at this point they were still doing same day only reservations for Olga's Cantina so I logged on first thing in the morning and made us a reservation to check it out. Our reservation was for sometime in the late morning but we still ordered a cocktail.  We got the blue milk, the fuzzy tonton and something else. They were all good and the fuzzy tonton did actually make your lips tingle so that was kind of fun. 

While my girlfriends rode Smugglers Run without me (not pregnancy approved) I decided to take advantage of the PhotoPass photographer and get my picture taken in Batuu. I have been to Disneyland enough times that I pretty much know where everything is so going to Batuu and having no clue where anything was was kind of a strange feeling. Don't worry I found the bathroom which is a necessity when pregnant to always know where the bathroom is.

That afternoon we headed over to the Disneyland Hotel for Alice in Wonderland tea. Taking a break from the parks for a little while in the afternoon is always nice but when you are very pregnant it becomes a necessity. I knew I would need more breaks than normal so I was glad that when I suggested tea my friends were all for it. All the food was good but my favorite thing was the little cups with fried basil on top.

We decided we were going to try and stay for the fireworks so after dinner I took another break while my friends went on a few non-pregnancy friendly rides. This time I went and sat in the lobby of the Grand Californian and had a grapefruit and ginger ale. Despite the break I didn't exactly make it to watch the fireworks but we ended up getting stuck in the Haunted Mansion for a little while so I saw the beginning of them on my walk back to the hotel. 

Our second day in the parks we rode the double decker bus down Main Street which is not something I usually take the time to do so that was nice. 

I didn't get a good picture of me wearing it but my teal shirt said snacking for two and was from Blushing Mimosa Co on Etsy though it doesn't look like this exact shirt is available anymore. 

One of my favorite ways to take a break during the afternoon is to go and sit at the bar in Carthay Circle Loung, have a cocktail, a snack (or late lunch) and chat with the bartenders and whoever else is sitting at the bar. Many of my Disney trips are solo trips (though those might be a rare occurrence now that I have a child) so it is usually pretty easy to get one seat at the bar. This time I didn't get a cocktail (obviously) but I did sit at the bar and rest while my friends rode a few things I couldn't. The bartenders are great at making up drinks (both alcoholic and non) so of course my drink was fabulous. 

 

One last story from my trip: My friends went off to ride Big Thunder and then had Fastpasses to Indiana Jones so I decided to see what I could ride in Fantasyland before meeting up with them again. I rode a couple of rides and then ended up on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride since it is one of my favorites.  I made it almost to the end of the ride and then the ride stopped. I am sitting in the dark in the train crash room right before Mr. Toad goes to hell and then the lights go on and an announcement comes on saying to stay in your cars and someone will come lead you out of the ride. When the cast member gets to me (with a group of people from the previous dozen cars behind me) I get out and we head forward towards the next room. There is a car stopped right in the doorway between the room I am in and the next room and so everyone walks along the side to get past it. I try and can't get past it because the widest part of the car is right at the height of my big baby belly.  I start laughing and tell the cast member I don't fit.  He looks worried for a sec but then realizes I am not offended about not fitting and has me wait while he takes everyone else out.  He comes back and gets me and we go backwards towards the entrance to the ride and I got to see all the rooms of Mr. Toad with the lights on. Makes for a pretty good pregnant at Disneyland story!

Now I just have to wait for Disneyland to reopen so I can take my daughter!

The Birth Story

So as promised here is the story of our little lady's birth. Warning it is very long!

I stopped working a couple of days after I was 36 weeks pregnant which just happened to make my first day of maternity leave Labor Day weekend.  Thankfully there was no labor on labor day for me. My last couple of weeks of work were fairly uncomfortable so I just figured this was what I was in for for the rest of my pregnancy but once I was on maternity leave most of the uncomfortableness subsided due to the extra rest I was able to get. That was a nice surprise.

She was due on September 25th but that date came and went with no signs of labor. I wasn't super uncomfortable so I wasn't in any rush for her to make an appearance but the just waiting was a little bit stressful for the planner nature in me. I went to the doctor at 40 weeks and they said everything looked fine and I was not dilated at all though I could go into labor at any time. They set me an appointment at 41 weeks to see the doctor and do a non-stress test and then said hope we don't see you. They also had us set up a tentative induction date just in case it came to that.

Went back at 41 weeks and everything still looked fine and still no signs of labor.  Set another non-stress test for a couple days later and if I still hadn't had the baby by then and the tests still looked fine then my induction would be on the date we chose. We chose Sunday October 6th as our induction date which would make me 41 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Since we knew inductions usually took some time we picked this date knowing it would give us the best chance of her being born on October 7th which also happened to be my husband's birthday. All the tests were fine so on Sunday October 6th we got up nice and early and headed to the hospital for my 7 AM induction.

We got all checked in and since they were pretty full in labor and delivery we had to be in a triage room for the first few hours of the induction. Triage rooms can have 2 people in them but we were the only ones in the room. I got all checked out, monitors hooked up and my IV was set up but not hooked up to anything yet. They did a check and I was still not dilated at all and was not having any contractions so they gave me the first dose of a pill to help start labor at 10 AM and at this point they hooked the IV up too to some saline to keep me hydrated. If I had been dilated at all there would have been some choices/options as to how to proceed with the induction but since I was not dilated at all there were no choices to be made at this point.

The pill can be given every 4 hours up to 6 times so at 2 PM I got the second dose of the pill. Sometime before the second pill I was moved to our actual regular delivery room. All I felt during those first two doses of the pill were some cramps that just felt like period cramps. Not super bad cramps but enough to feel them. Since nothing exciting was going on my husband left for a little while to go get us some food since I was still allowed to eat whatever I wanted. At 6 PM I got another does of the medicine and continued waiting for labor to start or really just anything besides a few cramps to happen.

The cramps with the third dose of medicine were a little more noticeable but still nothing more than period cramps.  They can give up to 6 doses of the medication but when it was time to give the 4th dose at 10 PM the midwife came in and told us they couldn't give me any more of the medicine because during the 3rd dose the baby's heart rate had dipped a little bit.

We were told that the two options at that point were to either have a balloon inserted to help dilate me and start a low level of pitocin or just starting the pitocin with option 1 being the preferred option. I had not heard good things about the balloon option so I was not exactly excited that it was being presented as the next best step. To do the balloon you have to be 1 centimeter dilated and when they checked I was still not even at 1 centimeter so there was again no decision to be made.

They started the pitocin and I tried to get some sleep without too much success. The beds are designed for labor not really designed for comfortable sleeping so my hips were killing me.  We tired to make it better with lots of pillows and towels and eventually one of the nurses said they had egg crate mattress toppers we would use and that made it much better.  My IV was also bothering me quite a bit so in the middle of the night they took it out and moved it to my other hand.  It was rough night but eventually I got a bit of sleep.

The next morning they checked me again and while my cervix was softening I was still not at 1 centimeter dilated so they just continued to slowly up my dose of pitocin. The contractions were starting to be a bit uncomfortable but nowhere near unbearable.  Sometime in the early afternoon they checked me again and I was finally 1 centimeter dilated. This meant I could get the foley balloon inserted.

After talking to a different midwife than the one we had talked to the night before and telling her our concerns with it often not being very effective and the pain associated with the insertion she was able to give us options/solutions that made us more comfortable using the balloon as the next step.  She confirmed our thoughts that the insertion and first hour or so of having the balloon are really not comfortable but that they could give me some pain medication before starting. I got a dose of fentanyl before they inserted the balloon and I was very happy with my decision. Funny thing about this is that during my childbirth class fentanyl was the type of medicine that I thought I probably wouldn't want and it ended up being the first pain medicine I had.  I didn't think I would want it because it can only be given early in labor because it relaxes you and makes you sleepy which can also make the baby sleepy. Just goes to show that you can have all the plans you want but need to keep an open mind.

After giving me the fentanyl they put the ballon in and said it usually takes 6-12 hours for it to dilate you to 3-4 centimeters and once it does the balloon will just fall out.  Since the fentanyl just basically makes you feel very relaxed for an hour or so I decided to take advantage of that feeling and sleep while the medicine was in my system while the balloon did its work.  My husband and I both took much needed naps for about an hour and a half and then I woke up and needed to use the bathroom though my husband was still asleep.

I called the nurse and they helped me get to the bathroom with all my cords and such. Not sure if it was due to the ballon or the pain meds or just labor but my bladder felt full but my body wasn't letting me empty it so I decided ok I will just go back to the bed for a bit and try again later.  As I was walking towards the door of the bathroom the balloon (and a bunch of blood) fell onto the bathroom floor. I got to the bathroom door and called out to wake my husband up and told him to get the nurse. I also told him don't come in or look into the bathroom because it looked like a crime scene in there and I wasn't sure if it would freak him out. It took less than 2 hours for the balloon to fall out so after all the negative stuff we had heard about this procedure it actually worked really well and really quickly for me.

Since I was now presumably 3 or 4 centimeters dilated the nurse said I could be unhooked from all the machines for an hour or so to take a shower and then eat dinner before getting all hooked up again. A shower sounded great so I got unhooked, put a glove over my IV port and took a nice long shower.

After the shower I got all dried off and was about to put a clean hospital gown on when there was a big whoosh of water on the floor because my water broke. It happened exactly how it does in the movies! Again I went to the bathroom door and told me husband to call the nurse. From the time they put the balloon in until the time my water broke was less than 3 hours so things were moving along. At this point it was about 5 PM or so on the 7th so I had been in the hospital a day and a half already.

I didn't get to stay off the monitors once my water broke but I did get to eat dinner. After dinner the pain started to get pretty bad and I decided to have another dose of fentanyl to help with the pain. Around 10 PM I decided to get the epidural. We didn't know how long it would take the anesthesiologist to get there so I opted to get one more dose of fentanyl to tide me over until the epidural since they work differently and can be used at the same time.  The anesthesiologist actually got there a few minutes after the last does of fentanyl so I probably didn't need it but it made getting the epidural painless.

The epidural took effect and it was much more comfortable.  I was still only about 4 centimeters dilated so I had a ways to go. We decided to try and get some rest before the main event and by 2 AM I was dilated 6 centimeters and by a little before 7 AM on Tuesday the 8th I was 9 centimeters dilated.

Finally mid morning it was time to push.  At this point I had been in the hospital over 48 hour and it had been right about 48 hours since they started the induction process so I was excited it was time to meet our baby girl.

I pushed and pushed and pushed some more and still no baby. After 3 and a half hours of pushing (at the time I had no long I had been pushing) they said the baby hadn't made any progress in the last hour so my two options were to keep pushing and use either suction or forceps to see if we could help her or to have a c-section.

At this point I was absolutely exhausted since I had been pushing for 3 1/2 hours and was also totally over people touching and checking me so my husband and I decided it was time for a c-section. As soon as I made the decision I signed paperwork and they started prepping me for surgery. I would have liked to have a few minutes to catch my breath and stop crying but everything from this point on seemed to be rush rush rush.

I went into the operating room to be prepped for surgery and my husband couldn't come with me until I was all ready for surgery.  It seemed like I was in there forever before my husband was able to join me. I was still having contractions even while they were prepping me and my back was killing me so much that I couldn't even lay flat on the table so they had to give me some pain meds during the prep. Near the end of the prep they were putting up the curtain to block me from seeing the actual surgery and it was so close to my face that it was against my nose. I always had seen it kind of at chest level but they said this is where it had to be. Fortunately my husband came in right after that and was able to hold it so the curtain wasn't actually touching my face.

They started the c-section and while I could feel it I didn't feel pain at the beginning. They got my baby girl out and I got to see her for just a minute before they took her to the other side of the room to do whatever they do. At this point I was starting to feel more pain and they had to up the dose of medicine which started to make me dizzy and almost like I was hallucinating. All was fine with the baby so she and my husband headed off to the recovery room so he could do skin to skin with her while I was getting sewn up. I was so full of medicine during this part of the surgery that I don't remember exactly what happened but I remember thinking I was dying though they finally finished sewing me up and I started to feel better as the medicine started to wear off.

I got wheeled to the recovery room where my husband and baby girl were waiting for me and I was so happy to see them and hold my beautiful girl. I had to wait just a minute before I got to hold her because they were taking her footprints but soon she was in my arms. As expected she was the most beautiful little thing I had ever seen and I was so in love.

So 56 hours after we got to the hospital we had our little girl at 3:10 PM. She was happy and healthy which is all you can ask for. She was 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long so even at almost 42 weeks she was a petite little thing.  We sent out a quick text to our families while we were in the recovery room since they knew I had gone in for the c-section and we thought they might be getting worried but other than that we just soaked up our time with our little girl.

After we were moved into our room we got settled and gave our families the okay to come visit.  My sister in North Carolina was actually the first one to "meet" our little girl since we had to Facetime her instead of her getting to visit in person.  Everyone arrived and ooood and ahhd over her. That first few hours was a blur but I was so happy.

If you made it to the end of this congratulations!

Second Half of the Second Trimester

I am solidly in my third trimester now but figured it was time to do a little recap of the second half of my second trimester.  

Right around week 20 I went in for my anatomy scan. Other than the first couple of appointments at this point I had gone to the prenatal appointments by myself but this one my husband came along.  We obviously already knew the gender but it was still so fun to get to see lots of different angles of our little girl and try to see if we could tell who she looked like. This was the first ultrasound that she actually looked like a baby!

Right after I hit 20 weeks I hopped on a plane and flew to the east coast to see one sister graduate from med school and then the other one graduate from law school.  They graduated 9 days apart in 2 different east coast states so I just stayed on the east coast rather than fly there and back twice. On the flights I just made sure I drank lots of water and got up to walk frequently but I really didn't have any problems with the flights.  More details on the whole trip in a later post!

After I got back from my trip I just kind of laid low for the next few weeks. I did lots of product research and worked on figuring out what to put on our baby registry. I was still sleeping pretty well at this point and only getting up once in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I was going to the gym 3 or 4 days a week but sometime around the end of May I stopped using the water rower and started using the strider instead. 

I had another doctor appointment at 24 weeks and again took my husband with me. He di dn't really need to be there for any reason other than I wanted him to meet my OBGYN since the appointments he had been to had all been at the IVF clinic instead of with my regular doctor. Everything was looking good and the baby and I were checked out all good. At this appointment the doctor put in the order for me to go and take my glucose test sometime before my 28 week appointment. I went that weekend to just get it over with.  It was still orange and nasty but this time it didn't make me feel horrible for the rest of the day so that was an improvement. I got the results a few days later and I passed with flying colors so no gestational diabetes for me.

Somewhere around 25 or 26 weeks my husband and I flew to New York City to attend a wedding in Brooklyn.  Due to all of our other travel commitments this summer we didn't really have time to go on a relaxing babymoon so we decided to kind of make this trip our babymoon. Again more on this trip in a separate post. We took a red-eye flight and again I made sure to get up and walk often and while I was definitely not comfortable I was okay on the flight.  The flight back was less fun because due to the heat and all the walking my feet were already kind of swollen so flying just made them even more swollen.  I wore compression socks but I don't know if they actually did any good.

Somewhere right around the end of the second trimester I started to worry about outgrowing some of my maternity clothes. Not in the belly but in the chest! I was up to either a 36G or 34H and I still had 2 or 3 months to go. I got some hand me down maternity clothes from someone at work and the main reason some of them didn't fit me was because of the chest. 

Near the end of the second trimester some nights I was still waking up once a night to go to the bathroom and others I would wake up twice. The most annoying part of that was if I woke up a second time it was always like an hour before I would have to get up anyway!

Overall I am definitely having a smooth pregnancy and I am very thankful for that!

Disneyland in the Second Trimester

Right as I entered my second trimester I took a long weekend trip to Disneyland. My annual pass expired in November last year but I decided to take one more trip to Disneyland to celebrate my pregnancy.  I thought this would be my last Disney trip for at least a year or two but there is actually a chance I am going again this summer. More on that later if it happens.

Even though I know I will get her this pin again the first time I take her to Disneyland after she is born I still wanted to get a pin to wear on my belly.  The pin lasted about half an hour because it was awkward when I sat down and I was just scared of it coming undone and poking me in the stomach. Cute idea that just didn't work out very well

I knew this trip was going to be a little different because I couldn't ride all the rides and had to account for some extra tiredness.  Each stage of pregnancy comes with their own special circumstances but by this point the constant nausea had gone away and I only got nauseous if I let my self get hungry so there was lots of snacking. My food aversions were much better than they were even a couple of weeks before my trip but I still was mostly wanting carbs, fruits and veggies and not too much meat.

I always love tea at the Disneyland Hotel so I booked that for one of the days I was there as a good way to take a break in the middle of the day and rest in the air conditioning. The food was delicious as always and it was a good break in my day.  

Another good break in the middle of the day is sitting in the Carthay Circle Lounge.  Normally I stop in there for a break and have a snack and a cocktail or two but obviously that later part was out for this trip. One day I tried there non-alcoholic wine soda and it was a fail.  It just tasted like grape juice and not even very good grape juice.

After the grape juice incident I learned my lesson and just asked the bar tenders to make me something yummy and non-alcoholic. I took a break there on two different days and had multiple delicious mock-tails. One was sort of like a mojito and one had grapefruit juice.  The Food and Wine Festival was going on while I was there and they had this non-alcoholic watermelon drink that was so refreshing and just fantastic.  I may have had that one more than once it was so good.

While I couldn't ride anything with the word mountain in it or basically any of the "thrill rides" there were still plenty of rides I could ride.  I love Fantasyland so I was perfectly happy taking the time to ride all of the rides there as well as multiple trips on Buzz Lightyear and Midway Mania. I also enjoyed going to the Animation Academy and seeing shows.

I was a little bit concerned about nausea and rides but actually there was only one ride that bothered me. Surprisingly it wasn't the tea cups! Totally fine on the tea cups but nauseas if I rode sideways on the Disneyland Railroad.  Some of the railway cars have passengers face sideways and some have them face forward. I quickly learned I needed to only ride on the ones that faced forward.

Even though I couldn't ride most of the "E-Ticket" rides I still decided to get MaxPass to take advantage of not having to walk extra to get Fastpasses to the ones that I could ride.  The Fastpass rides that I could ride at 14 weeks pregnant were Buzz Lightyear, Roger Rabbit, Haunted Mansion and Small World in Disneyland and Midway Mania and Soarn' Around the World in California Adventure. There are 17 rides with Fastpass and I could ride 6 of them plus MaxPass includes PhotoPass so it was worth it for me for the convenience factor and because I planned to take full advantage of getting photos taken.

One day while I was there my sister-in-law, who is also pregnant, was able to come so we took full advantage of the photographers to document the first time these cousins met and their first trip to Disneyland!

This bench will always hold a special place in my heart and on this trip to celebrate being in my second trimester of pregnancy it felt appropriate to take a picture of it. After our first round of IVF before we began our second round I took a trip to Disneyland to relax and get away. I was having lunch/cocktails in Carthay Circle Lounge and my phone rang.  It was the doctor calling to say they had the PGS test results for the one embryo that had made it to day 5 had been biopsied for testing. We were told it took about 2 weeks for the test results so I wasn't expecting the call for at least another 3 or 4 days but I answered the call and came out to this bench to take it because the reception is in the lounge is notoriously bad. The doctor told me that the embryo passed all the test and was healthy and viable. After I hung up with the doctor I sat there and called my husband crying from happiness that we had an embryo to implant. I was in the happiest place on earth and I was just so happy and hopeful sitting there. 

Overall I had a wonderful time in Disneyland and would recommend going in the beginning of the second trimester as long as most of your morning/all day sickness has passed.  I came in with realistic expectations of what I could and couldn't do and made sure I planned plenty of time to rest in my day.  I could have gone back to take a rest at the hotel but I decided to just rest in the park. I knew I wouldn't make it late into the evening so I had in my head that I would just try to make the fireworks one night and not worry about trying to see any of the nighttime shows. My sister-in-law and I wanted to try and see Fantasmic the day she was there but neither one of us made it that late so we just called it a casualty of pregnancy. As long as someone is willing to have reasonable expectations and listen to their body I think a Disneyland trip is totally doable.

The first half of the Second Trimester

As I am nearing the end-ish of the second trimester I wanted to go back and look at the first half of the trimester.  From the time I was 10 weeks along and decided to take weekly pictures all the way through week 13 and the end of the first trimester I was good about remembering to take weekly photos but I managed to miss week 14 and 15.

Not quite a week 14 bump picture but I did go to Disneyland at around 14 weeks pregnant and have tons of photos from that trip.  I have a post all about my thoughts and experiences about going to Disneyland in the early second trimester coming soon.

During the first trimester the only actual maternity clothes I bought were workout leggings because my regular high waisted ones got uncomfortable really quickly.  Actually the first new piece of clothing I had to purchase was a larger bra almost immediately and my chest hasn't stopped growing since.  I went from a 32DDD to a 34DDD within a few weeks of being pregnant and by the time my mom and I went shopping for maternity clothes around week 15 it was already time to size up in bras again...My actual bra size was at 34G at that point but I opted to get a 36DDD and just wear it on the tightest hook to give myself the option to wear the bra looser if I wanted to or if my rib cage spread. Spoiler: I am still wearing a 36 on the tightest hook so my ribcage hasn't spread but my chest continues to grow and by the time I am about 21 weeks I am wearing a 36G.

From the start of the second trimester through about week 16 or 17 I didn't feel like my bump was growing that much because I had kind of gone from puggy to small bump at that point.  Between IVF residual puffiness and the fact that I have pretty much no torso I got the original bump pretty quickly because she had nowhere to go but outwards. 

I went for a checkup around 16 weeks and while I didn't get to see the baby on an ultrasound at this appointment I did get to hear her heartbeat.  Everything was good with her and I had to have some blood drawn for my second trimester tests.  They tested for spina bifida and something else that I can't remember but all the tests came back negative and I continued to have a normal healthy pregnancy.

Somewhere around week 18 I started to notice my bump growing again and I started feeling "pregnant". Around this time I started to not be able to sleep on my back when normally I go back and forth between my side and my back. I could still lay on my back for periods of time but after about 10 or 15 minutes on my back it was time to move! I also started using an extra pillow to help support my torso but in all reality at this point it was supporting my chest as much as it was supporting my belly.

By the time I got to the second trimeter pretty much all my nausea was gone but the smell of curry and chicken were still not appetizing.  I could eat chicken as long as it didn't smell like chicken so if it was cold or covered in some sort of sauce it was fine.

Despite my exhaustion during the first trimester I tried really hard to make it to the gym at least twice a week especially once I was cleared to go back to full workouts around week 10 or 11.  During the second trimester as the exhaustion had lessoned I made it to the gym between 3 and 4 times a week which is what I was doing prior to IVF and pregnancy. I don't do any of the full abs and I do go slower on the treadmill but for the most part at least at the beginning of the 2nd trimester I was able to do most things without too many modifications.  Getting into the later part of the second trimester that was a different story...

Once I am in my third trimester I will come back with all my thoughts on the later half of the second trimester.

Gender Reveal

We have known the gender of our little baby since very early on but decided to wait until I was out of the first trimester to tell anyone.  Part of the reasoning was that I wanted to make sure everything was all good with the pregnancy and part of it was that because we had so many people invested and supporting us during IVF that we told a lot of people about the pregnancy very early so I wanted to have something to reveal at a more traditional time.

While a lot of people knew we were pregnant I didn't actually post anything on social media until the gender reveal. When I was 10 or 11 weeks pregnant I decided that I would use shoes for our official social media gender/pregnancy. As I have mentioned before I have fairly small feet so I thought it would be cute to buy the baby and I matching little shoes.  I am all about glitter and love Sam Edelman flats so the shoes I picked were perfect.

My original plan was to have a little gender reveal party at our house the weekend after I was 12 weeks pregnant but pretty much everyone we wanted to invite was busy that weekend and couldn't come.  I was going to Disneyland the next weekend (more on pregnant at Disneyland to come) and a couple of my cute shirts were gender specific so I didn't want to postpone the reveal. We ended up driving down to my parents house and my aunt and uncle came over too.  I bought some silly string and we went out in my parents driveway to reveal. We linked my sisters in via FaceTime and sprayed away! My dad took a video of the reveal, my uncle was holding the phone for the FaceTime and the rest of us were spraying silly string so this aftermath picture is the only one I have.

It's a GIRL!!

The First Trimester

Since I am now solidly into my second trimester I figured I better write about my first trimester before I forgot.

After our initial blood work to confirm the pregnancy at 4 weeks pregnant I had to go get more blood work done again two days later to make sure my levels were going up like they should.  All the levels more than doubled so all was good. 

At around 6 weeks pregnant I went in to the doctor for my first official prenatal appointment.  They did more blood work and an ultrasound.  I knew we were having an ultrasound so would be able to see the baby but I wasn't sure if we would be able to hear the heart rate quite this early so I didn't tell my husband that it was a possibility. We heard the heart beat loud and clear and it was the best sound ever. I cried when we heard it and my husband just had the biggest smile on his face. 

During all this time I was still taking 3 pills, 2 suppositories and 1 shot in the lower back a day to help my body keep the pregnancy. At 8 weeks I went to my final appointment with the IVF doctor. I had another ultrasound and more blood work to determine when I would stop my medications. It was determined I would start weening off the medication later that week and would be done with them by a little over 9 weeks pregnant. 

I didn't actually take a picture of it but by the end my back was quite a sight with the shots.  Between the actual shots, the numbing cream, the alcohol wipes and the massaging the oil once it was in to prevent it from clumping my back was really red, peeling and just plain angry.  It took weeks after stopping the shots for my back to heal and even now if you look closely you can see the skin is still slightly discolored.

After my 8 week appointment with my IVF doctor I was cleared to go back to my regular OBGYN at Kaiser.  Since Kaiser usually sees pregnant patients at 8 weeks to confirm the pregnancy and run all the first trimester tests I actually saw her the same week as my last IVF appointment.  It was A OK with me to see the baby twice in one week! The made me run a bunch of blood tests, a urine test and the ever fun pre-test glucose test. The glucose test wasn't fun but I passed everything with flying colors so I can't complain too much.

At 10 weeks I decided I had enough of a bump to warrant taking weekly pictures and have managed to remember to take them most weeks. 

Now let's talk about all those fun first trimester side effects.  From about week 6 to about week 10 of the pregnancy I was nauseous pretty much 24 hours a day. I was never actually throwing up but it still wasn't fun. The only things that I could stomach eating were carbs.  I pretty much lived on mac and cheese, bean and cheese burritos and various crackers for about a month. I was super sensitive to smells with the smell of curry and spices being the worst. 

The IVF medications can have similar side effects to early pregnancy so when I started stopping those around 8 weeks I hoped it would help with the nausea but the nausea didn't really stop being a 24/7 thing until around 10 weeks.  Somewhere around 10 weeks I started being nauseous only if I was hungry or smelled something the baby didn't like. 

Somewhere around 11 weeks I went back to the doctor for a checkup and everything was still all good with me and the baby.  This was my first appointment since I had stopped all the drugs so I was nervous but at this point I was officially just a pregnant woman not an IVF patient anymore which was very exciting and reliving.  I was cleared to do whatever physical exercise felt comfortable which I have taken full advantage of. While quite a few people already knew we were pregnant this was when we started telling more than just our family and my work since I was just about done with my first trimester.

While the nausea was no fun it was actually less than it could have been but what took me by surprise a bit in the first trimester was the level of exhaustion.  I knew I would be tired but didn't expect quite the level of exhaustion I had.  Since eating wasn't really high on my priority list often I would come home from work and immediately get in bed. Slowly by week 12 or 13 I started to notice while I was still tired I didn't need to get in bed at 6 PM.  

Random Thoughts: 

The only craving I had in the first trimester was one day I really wanted pancakes.  My husband and I went out to dinner at IHOP and after that meal I wasn't nauseous for the rest of the day. Lesson learned: listen to baby and all will be fine.

By the end of the first trimester I wasn't able to wear any of the pants I had but could still fit most of my dresses. I am planning to do a full post on what maternity clothes have been my favorite but most of my everyday work clothes are just the dresses already have. 

I feel like I got a bump earlier than a lot of people I know but I think that was partially due to being already puffy from all the IVF meds and the fact that I have a very very short torso.  There was nowhere for the baby to go except out.

So happy to be pregnant!