Ultra-sound

What a feeling! I can’t believe we’re halfway through already.  On Monday the 14^th we had our big ultra-sound day. The papers we were sent said to show up 20 minutes early, so even though our appointment wasn’t till 8:30am we left for the hospital at 7:50. By 8:10 we were sitting in the waiting room in Diagnostic Imaging, and good thing we were early because five minutes later we were called in by the technician.  As she brought up the image (I had a terrible view, the screen was close to my head but perpendicular to the bed I was on) and began getting shots, she said “Have you felt movement yet? Because your baby moves like crazy.” I suppose having a small athlete can only be a good thing, meaning it’s healthy and energetic! And I sure have felt the movements.  Ever since last Monday when I first felt that bubbly feeling, the little kicks and punches have continued to get stronger and more frequent.  The baby seems to move more after I eat, which I find cute.

And speaking of cute, it is just the word to describe the little baby we saw on the computer screen. I was totally relieved to see it looked like a normal baby human silhouette snuggled in there, with a little face (on which I could actually notice some features that look a little similar to my own), a sweet little belly, and lively arms, legs, hands and feet.  What a crazy feeling to finally see your baby’s picture after feeling it and hearing its heartbeat but still insatiably wanting more confirmation all these weeks!

Everything seemed to be fine, although the technician wasn’t really disclosing any information, per protocol. From the measurements she took, they came up with the same due date as we had figured out with my mom, off by only one day! They said the baby measured 19 weeks and three days, which was completely bang on.  

As for the sex… ‘Tis a boy! For awhile she couldn’t get any shots to help determine the gender, as she needed it to flip over. She sent me to the bathroom in hopes that it might be inspired to do so. As much as it was moving around, though, it stubbornly stayed in its spot.  After turning me on my side, she told us she was pretty sure it was a boy. I asked again later for confirmation on this, which she couldn’t give, but she said she’d be very surprised if it was a girl. I guess the strong male genes in Patrick’s family win out. I, as I said in the last post, honestly couldn’t care at all what the gender is. I am starting to get very excited to meet this tiny babe whom I feel so attached to emotionally and –obviously- physically.  I have to watch my thoughts, though, or I get too emotional and start to feel run down.  My thoughts start to wander way into the future and I have to just stop thinking or I stress myself out. I can’t invent any of this before it happens; being in the future or the past is my most potent source of unhappiness.  All I have to do right now to feel peaceful is rapturously enjoy the fact that my baby son is still in my belly right now, in a state of pure innocence and unable to be cared for by anyone but me. Oh, geez, I am crying just writing about this so I have to change subjects.

I am starting to feel tired at work most of the time now. I worked an extra-long 8 hour day today, 9 on the clock counting my lunch break. It actually wasn’t too bad, considering it’s a full two hours longer than all my other shifts, which I feel pretty wiped by the end of.  

I am also succeeding in gaining weight now, as I am ten pounds heavier than the first trimester when I didn’t gain anything. That seems to be pretty much right on target with how it should be. Not too fast, not too slow. Go vegan diet!

Think I’ll leave it there, as the news of the tiny one’s gender seems important enough to have a post to itself.  We are more excited than ever, and my belly keeps getting bigger. Absolutely no denying there’s a new life in there anymore.

Soon to be more than just an "It"!

Approaching 19 weeks on Friday and all is well. Our prenatal appointments at my family doctor remain uneventful. Yesterday we had an appointment. The doppler lets us hear the heartbeat more reliably every time, and yesterday's attempt also showed that the baby is moving around a lot, as we kept losing the sound of its tiny heartbeat. It! I may only be able to call it "it" for another couple of days, as Monday we will very likely discover the sex! Although I'm excited to find out the news, I have grown to love feeling this little androgynous "it" in my belly and am very fond of its ambiguous identity. When it comes down to it, I have no particular feeling on which it is. When I try and think of names, girls' names come to mind the most easily. When I look at clothes, I am drawn to the boys' items. I can honestly say (and I wouldn't have predicted this- I used to strongly prefer the thought of having a girl) that although I have always gotten along well with little girls and have often dreamed of raising one, now that I have a baby in the works I am completely neutral in my desire for one or the other. The few dreams involving infants I've had so far usually didn't indicate which it was as I was still pregnant, and I've had one dream each of giving birth to a boy and a girl. In both dreams, I might add, I was unable to muster the brainpower to take care of either baby. Very bad dreams, and so I don't take either of them seriously.

Going back to the Dr.'s appointment, here are some stats, for anyone's comparison: The belly measurement she took was 17.5 cm this time, and was 14.25 or so last time (four weeks ago; 14 weeks). The heartbeat was 144, fluctuating from 156 last time.  This makes my mother suspect it could be a girl, as it is said girls have faster heartbeats than boys. Who knows!? I am getting very excited indeed, especially to witness the babe in all its glorious activity on the screen.

Other than that, I have been eating quite well. I have not had as much time or energy to cook as I'd like though. Today on my day off I baked some Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies from Sarah Kramer's Vegan a Gogo. Not as healthy a dish as I could have made, but what the heck, they tasted fabulous. We've been going out to top up groceries really often, so we are eating good food. This morning Patrick brought me breakfast in bed with tea, fresh pineapple chunks and a "McMuffin" sandwich with vegan sausage patties and melted Daiya cheese. I have been making veggie fried rice lately, a mixture of onions, veggies, jasmine rice, sesame oil, olive oil, and Braggs in a frying pan, and sometimes some World's Best Meatless Chicken Breast thrown in. Delicious indeed. Hummus and pita chips got me out of a few desperate hunger pangs this week, bought at the farmer's market.

The one vegan pregnancy book we've invested in is "The Everything Vegan Pregnancy Book". While quite a bit of this information is stuff I've already come across before, either from reading on vegan nutrition or pregnancy, it is nice to have a resource that contains both in one. With info on how much of each important vitamin I should be getting and listing food sources for them, it definitely reassures me that my diet was fine to begin with, and with a bunch of recipes at the back it gives me some great new food ideas to punch it up.

While everything is going fabulously, there is one small issue we have started talking about. Since I have an RH negative blood type, I have been told I need to get a shot of RhoGAM, an Immune Globulin treatment that would prevent my bloodcells from creating antibodies against a future baby's potentially RH positive bloodcells (not this baby). I was told by my doctor that I will need to get a dose of it at 28 weeks, and then again after the birth. We began wondering yesterday about this drug and the possible side effects, and it turns out there is a lot of controversy surrounding RhoGAM and its possible side effects on the internet, and some RH- women opt to not get the shot during the pregnancy to protect the baby. This is what we are leaning toward, but we need to do more research before making a decision, which I will cover in the next post. 


Until then, sleep tight and keep kicking, tiny one! You are now the length of a mango.

Fetal Movement!

I am very happy to report that I can now feel the movements of our li'l vegan, who is now about the size of a mango. I felt some little bubbly, fluttering movements in the baby spot last night when I was reading, and it's just like all the books say- it happens all of a sudden and catches you off guard. My heart started pounding, of course, obscuring the feelings for a minute, but they picked up again in the same spot. I've never felt anything like that before so I know it's the baby!
So nice to finally know you are in there from your movement!
Very exciting week coming up, approaching 19 weeks and the ultrasound on Monday.
Off to work with my hot chocolate almond milk. :)

18th week

17 weeks and counting! Wish I could have been more constant with writing but there’s been a lot going on.  We moved into a new apartment two weeks ago and I spent a week or more of that furiously unpacking, cleaning, and attempting to get some cooking done, both on days off and work days. It’s left me feeling pretty tired! Slowly, we are on our way to settling in here, i.e. having a place to sit down in the living room.  And the baby keeps growing, even if I don’t notice it. Sometimes a few days go by and I feel a little desperate to look up what stage the little thing is at in its development. 

Two weeks until the 2^nd trimester ultrasound! So two weeks till we find out whether it’s a boy or girl.

Perhaps a little cliché, one of my biggest symptoms so far has been forgetfulness. I am more than a little absentminded these days. Yesterday I was enjoying a day off, not knowing I was actually on the schedule at work, until an hour into my shift when I got a phone call (yes, I cried a little). I have had every Monday off since I began working there, though, so who knows if that mistake is really related to the pregnancy. I will walk out of the house with my keys, though, or my wallet or my phone, at any given time.  At work I will start one task and quickly abandon it for another task, remembering later on what I had originally set out to do.  And if you gathered from the above comment that I frequently get weepy, then you are bang on.  It takes almost nothing to make me cry these days.

Appetite wise, I’ve continued to be really hungry very frequently, although I also seem to get full pretty quickly.  I can’t really say I have strong cravings right now, only a very strong urge to just eat something! I do love juice these days, though, and I’ve probably had more juice (100% fruit juice or unpasteurized apple cider) while I’ve been pregnant than I drank in the last couple of years.

I have been eating pretty simply this month, without using many elaborate recipes. Usually once I need to eat, it has to be ready fast, so we’ve had rice and veggies just thrown in a frying pan a few times. I’ve also made a few different soups, and also eat a lot of sandwiches with Tofurkey and vegan mayo, which are very convenient for taking to work.  I’ve been mindful of protein (not that I usually think about that but just to make sure I’m gaining enough weight) and a few times I made this very delicious side dish using beans:

1 serving canned black eyed peas (refrigerate the rest in a container)

1 tsp coconut cream, rehydrated with a little hot water

½ garlic clove, minced

Pinch thyme

Little splash of Braggs

You just throw the garlic in the frying pan, add the beans a minute later, then toss with the coconut cream and thyme. Let simmer in the pan a bit till the liquid absorbs.  The coconut and black eyed peas taste very Caribbean together!