We're Going on an Adventure!

Well, we "went" on an adventure. Chana's been asking me to see the baby, so we took her and Dovid to our nuchal translucency ultrasound yesterday. We were a bit nervous because we didn't know if they would behave or not, but they did pretty well on the whole. They were quite interested in the fact that we were in a hospital (and one they had never been to before). Dovid kept insisting that we were at the dentist, though I'm not sure why.

At my hospital they have big TV screens on the wall so the mom (and anyone else in the room) can watch the ultrasound in progress without craning their necks to look at the tech's screen. So we encouraged the kids to watch on the screen, and they loved it! We got to see the little one bouncing all around (and causing trouble for the technicians). Heartbeat was around 160, as usual, and baby was measuring a few days ahead at 12w5d. Nuchal fold came in at about 1.5mm. She measured it several times and that was the absolute largest measurement she got - average was probably 1.2mm. So, that was well within the normal range. Yay! They also took my blood for that portion of the screening.

All in all it was a good visit, and they want me to schedule my "big" ultrasound for 18 weeks. So there's less than 6 weeks to go until then!

I think this baby looks a lot like Dovid's 12 week ultrasound. Baby was also bouncing around a ton and is measuring ahead, which also leads me to think it might be a boy. I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one. ;-) If you haven't already, don't forget to enter my baby pool!

Belly Pics #4

It is that time, again. Time to begin the belly pics! I've got such a cute little bump already. In looking at my comparison pics from last time, I think I'm looking pretty comparable to how I did at 12 weeks with Tzipora.  I can't tell if I'm a smidge bigger or a smidge smaller, considering I weigh more than 10 lbs less than I did when the 12 week pic was taken last time. What do you think? Click on my belly pic in the sidebar to look at the side-by-side pics.

Purim Carnival

It was freezing and snowing this morning. Not weather I would usually go out in, but I had sent Shmuel next door to help the kids pick out Purim costumes last night, and I wanted to make sure they would get worn...

The holiday of Purim is coming up next week, and my synagogue holds a little carnival every year for the kids. I never had any reason to go before I had kids, of course, but I always knew when it was, and it was just another reminder to me of how much it stunk not having kids and not knowing when or if I would be able to attend the carnival. And so it went for two years of infertility. The third year I was heavily pregnant with the twins at carnival time and not allowed to go anywhere. In searching through my emails today for the info about this year's carnival I came across an emailed conversation between myself and a good friend of mine. She had invited Shmuel and I for the Purim festive meal that year, and I had commented to her that I wanted to go to the synagogue to hear the megillah read but would need a ride. As luck would have it, I was in the hospital during Purim and was therefore unable to go to both her meal and to hear the megillah. But the rabbi of my synagogue actually came to my hospital room and read it for me. That was pretty incredible, since it was late at night, and I'm sure he was exhausted. By the next year the twins were almost one and crawling all over the place. I was beyond determined to get to the carnival, so I bought them costumes, dressed them up and went.

This picture is actually from the Purim party at the Chabad house at Brandeis, but it's the same year and the same costumes, so you get the idea. It's so funny to see Chana B small enough to actually fit on one leg of my lap! Anyway, they didn't get too much out of the carnival that year since they were much too young to play the games, but at least I could show them off and let them crawl around in their costumes.

The year after that, Tzipora was still quite little, I didn't feel comfortable taking all three out at once, and the twins weren't even 2 yet, so I wasn't sure they'd be able to play games anyway. The year after, I believe I was just being lazy and didn't get costumes for anyone. That's what nursing school will do to you! So we just didn't go.

This year I was going to get them to that carnival, because the twins are now definitely old enough to play and enjoy games, and even Tzipora is big enough to play! Besides, I knew the kids would love dressing up in costumes. But of course then it started snowing, and it's beyond freezing outside. We weren't even sure the carnival would still be on, but I didn't care and bundled everyone up anyway. We made it to the carnival (which was still running - this is Boston!), and the kids ran around playing games and having fun for almost an hour. My huge proud moment was Chana B telling me she had to use the potty and doing so. YAY! I might just say she's potty trained, but it makes me nervous to say something like that out loud...don't want to jinx it. But the fact that she stayed dry even outside the house was huge. We got lots of tickets to redeem for a whole bunch of prizes, half of which were broken before we even got home. LOL But Dovid got a little truck and a little airplane (big surprise there), Chana picked a fan and a pair of sunglasses, Tzipora got a strange pair of glasses and a spinning top, and I nabbed two pinwheels to give to the kids for being well behaved. They also all got pastries while we were there - chocolate cupcakes for the twins, a brownie for Tzipora. So all in all it was a successful trip. It cost me just over $20, but to watch my kids having fun at the carnival was priceless.

Flutters?

I may have felt the baby for the first time today. I know it's crazy early, but I got that buzzing feeling that I remember from being pregnant before. I know it was in the right place for where the baby is, because later in the day when I was at the midwife's office, that's where she found the heartbeat (in the 160's). We won't know for sure unless it happens again, but I figured I would just put this down here for posterity in case it is the baby. I can't remember the first time I felt Tzipora move because I didn't write it down anywhere. Oops. I learn from my mistakes!

Heartbeat Fun

For a few days I've been trying to see if I could get baby's heartbeat on the doppler, but I wasn't having any luck. Until this morning when I tried and found it almost immediately! I found it toward my left side, so I think that's where baby must have implanted. I listened for a while, calculated the heart rate (which was in the 170's), then posted gleefully on my Twitter about it asking if anyone wanted to hear. Of course people did! Ugh...that meant I needed to try to get it AND video. So I then spent the rest of the day trying to locate baby again. LOL Just because I could find it easy once didn't mean I would again. I tried like three times over the course of the day before finally getting it. Yay! So, I made a little video, and you can watch it. At the beginning I say it's "just for Sarah." I was going to say more, but then the baby moved, and I had to relocate the doppler, so it threw my attention. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Let it Snow

Winter Storm Nemo is upon us! It started snowing before I woke up this morning and has been coming down steadily ever since. You can still see the grass in some places, but in others it's covered over. They pre-salted the roads, so as of an hour or so ago it still wasn't sticking there. Boston sure knows how to do snow! Luckily I have nowhere to be today, and neither does anyone else in the house. We're in for the long haul.

The beginning of my semester has gone really well. We started off with learning about postpartum, labor and delivery, and newborn. Talk about the perfect start to something! lol We took our first test earlier this week, and I'm itching to get the results back. I've never felt so close to 100% on a test in nursing school before, so I'm really psyched to see if I pulled it off.

Other than that, I'm still suffering with the nausea and now the mother of all yeast infections on top of it. My nose is still running from the cold I got a month ago, too. I'm falling apart at the seams! lol But it's ok, honestly the nausea is the only thing that bothers me greatly. I'm not much good to anyone when I feel sick, which is difficult because I need to be studying, and I just don't want to do anything except sit and veg out. I forgot how weird first trimester is because you can't feel the baby yet, you can't get the heartbeat on doppler, and this time around I'm not even really noticeably showing yet. So the only thing I have that's cluing me in to the baby's well-being is this overwhelming nausea and exhaustion. At 10 1/2 weeks I'm getting very close to the end of the embryonic stage, so baby will look humanoid at the next ultrasound. I still have 2 weeks until then, but I'm really looking forward to seeing that. :-)