gender prediction

just for fun i've been trying to see if i can find anything online about gender prediction. Here are some old wives tales about being pregnant with a boy:
* you are carrying your baby low
* the baby is very active
* you are craving salt
* a wedding ring suspended on a string over your belly rocks back and forth and not in a circle
* the baby's heart rate is less than 140 beats per minute
* you didn't have a lot of morning sickness in the first trimester
* your feet are cold
some of these don't apply to me because it's still too early in the pregnancy. i haven't tried the ring thing either, seems kind of hokey?? so i guess i'm craving salt (more than sweet at least), not much morning sickness, and my feet have always been cold!! so a boy could be very likely.

but there's also a chinese astrology test which just uses your age when you give birth and the month of conception to determine the gender. according to that, i'm having a girl.

for some women, they have dreams about their baby and the gender is usually correct, but so far i haven't had any baby-related dreams. j had a dream last night that we were having a girl, so we'll see if it comes true or not!!

5 more weeks until the ultrasound. i don't really believe any of those old wives tales or the chinese astrology test, but it was fun to look them up. one is saying i'm having a boy and one is saying i'm having a girl, no help at all!!

freakouts

i think every pregnant woman has these freakout moments where she thinks "omg what have i done??" it's definitely a life-changing event to have a baby, one i'm not sure anyone can really prepare for. yes you hear all the stories, but it's not really "real" until you actually experience it yourself. i've been reading up on what to expect in the last trimester, the labor & delivery, and the aftermath. wow, it's quite overwhelming and very scary. but it looks like there's no turning back now!! i mean, a woman's body is made to handle having a baby, but imagining something approximately the size of my dog coming out of me?? it's hard to wrap my brain around it. and of course there's the whole body image thing. seeing your weight on the scale in numbers you've never seen before is not cool. i'm just hoping i don't end up weighing as much as j!!! i'm really hoping to keep it to a modest 30-35 lbs. i also don't look forward to the mommy badge of extra skin/fat that i'll have on my mid-section after birth either. ah well, i'm sure once the baby comes i'll say it was all worth it, but as of now, i don't think i can say that yet =P

i have ~6 months before i have to say goodbye to my life. as everyone says, once you have kids, you can kiss your own life bye!! everything you do will now be for your kids. i think there will always be a part of me that will wonder if maybe we should have stayed DINKs to be able to travel whenever we want, spend our income on ourselves instead of college funds, and not have the huge responsibility of shaping someone else's life. but i've always wanted kids and i think i'm up for the task, so time to live it up until the baby comes!!! and brace myself for the craaazy rollercoaster ride i'll be on for the next 20 years..........

sigh of relief

well, i had my appt today and it sounds like the baby is still alive in there because we heard the heartbeat using the doppler! i think at kaiser, if you don't have any complications in your pregnancy, the only ultrasound you get is the 20 week one to check the sex and it's done at the santa clara facility. (at my first appt i had a vaginal ultrasound-not the tummy one- which was used to date the pregnancy) i had to take another urine sample, i tried to drink as much water as possible after i woke up (my appt was at 9:20am) and managed to squeeze some out. the dr also took a pap smear and whatever else they usually do during a normal gyno exam. she also went over my lab work that i had done last fri and everything checked out ok except I have an UTI. i don't have any symptoms, but i have to take antibiotics for 7 days.

so everything looks to be going well. no noticeable weight gain, maybe 2-3 lbs so far. not showing yet, just bloated for the most part. throughout the day my stomach seems to get bigger from the food/water, but after going to bed and waking up in the morning, it's back to normal. i can still fit in my normal clothes with no problem and the dr thinks i probably won't show until 6 months. i don't really have an increased appetite or real cravings yet, i actually don't really feel pregnant at all except for the fact i get tired very easily!

looks like i've breezed through my first trimester without too much suffering and can probably start telling people that i'm expecting, whee! next appt is not until april 1st for the ultrasound.

prenatal class

I had my early pregnancy class today, it was pretty uneventful. The teacher just gave some pretty basic information. We had to get some blood drawn and give a urine sample, so I was stressed about the pee test the whole time. I bought a bottle of water and finished it in 30 minutes haha. I still only filled up about 20% of the cup but hopefully that was sufficient. I finally have my next few appointments lined up though. Every appt from now on will have a urine test, so I'll have to prepare myself each time. Getting a urine sample is no fun...ugh.
2/13 is my next appt, if everything checks out ok then i've made it through the first trimester. i'm hoping and praying there will be a heartbeat!! i've been worried about it lately because the few pregnancy symptoms i had are gone, eek. plus i'm not sure if this is good or bad, but i haven't gained any weight. so i guess we'll see how it goes. it's only 5 days away.
4/1 is the ultrasound appt where i can hopefully find out the sex (if the baby cooperates!!).
4/30 is my mid-pregnancy class, but i just realized that is the day we're leaving for puerto rico so i'll have to reschedule it.

WARNING!!! Too Much Info post ahead!!!

since i've been preggers, my bowel movements have been few and far between. i think i go every 5 days or so??? i've been trying to increase my fiber but it doesn't seem to really help. i might have to start eating prunes ew. i really wonder where all the food is going, i'm hoping the baby is absorbing it all hehe. coffee works really well on me as a laxative, but i'm trying to limit caffeine and all that. ugh ugh. i'm also retaining a lot of water. even when i drink a lot of water, i don't go to the restroom very often. it's quite odd since an early symptom of being pregnant is having to go to the bathroom a lot, but for me it's quite the opposite. i guess my uterus is not putting pressure on my bladder yet. anyways, so the result of these two lovely symptoms of constipation and water retention have me feeling bloated all the time. fun fun.

tick tock

time is moving soooo slowly....i'll be sooo relieved once my first trimester is over, argh. i keep reading all these stories of miscarriages happening in week 11, 12 etc. i'm totally freaking myself out. there's not really much you can do to prevent it, but it's just the fear that it *might* happen. there's still a little more than 5 weeks left which seems like an eternity. my worry is having one of those miscarriages where you don't have any outward signs (like heavy bleeding or cramping) but your baby no longer has a heartbeat and just stops growing for whatever reason. i am anxious for my next appt which will check for the baby's heartbeat, but it has yet to be scheduled. i have to first attend a prenatal class on feb 8th where you fill out a bunch of forms regarding prenatal tests, patient history yada yada. so supposedly i schedule my next appt at the class and most likely it'll be around the end of first trimester/beginning of second. it's kind of driving me nuts not knowing what's going on, you know? i think other women are usually so sick during their first trimester, they are too miserable to even worry about miscarriages!! oy.

8 weeks

6 more weeks until i'm officially out of my first trimester. my due date seems so far away and the first trimester seems to draaaaggg. i don't really "feel" pregnant because i don't really have any too many symptoms. it's very strange. most of the time i'm wondering if i actually am pregnant?? i'm definitely not complaining though, i know i'm very very lucky that my first trimester has been pretty pleasant. i start to feel queasy/sick in the afternoons but nothing too horrible. i've actually lost my appetite for pretty much all foods. i eat cereal for breakfast, a pb&j sandwich for lunch, a random snack, and then a few bites of dinner. i'll eat an apple if i can stomach it. i mean, i can still force myself to eat stuff, but the thought of eating is just not appealing. and my sweet tooth is completely gone!! j ended up eating ALL of the choc chip bundt cake we got from vegas plus the little lemon bundt cake that I wanted..i would eat a bite and get grossed out. how sad. we also have a bunch of cookies that i got from friends for christmas and i haven't touched those either. i'm really hoping my appetite will return in the 2nd trimester. i can't wait until the next ultrasound and i'll finally be able to tell people i'm pregnant! it's so weird to keep it a secret.

first appt

i had my first prenatal appt today and everything looked fine. i saw the heartbeat! the "baby" is tiny still (like 2-3 inches i think). i have a picture but you can't really see much, if i ever find access to a scanner i'll try to scan it in. i had some spotting yesterday so i was a little worried but the doctor said it was ok, as long as it's not like period bleeding. i won't have another ultrasound until 6-7 weeks from now, so i'm crossing my fingers the next few weeks will pass by without any issues. still no morning sickness, thank goodness. estimated due date is Aug 29 =)

i got me a babby momma!

w00t!

so far so good

so i'm in my 5th week and so far not too many symptoms yet. no cravings, increased appetite, aversions to certain smells, or nausea. another symptom is supposedly fatigue but i feel as tired as i was before i got pregnant. the only symptoms so far are mild cramps and slightly sore breasts. morning sickness supposedly starts in week 6 so we'll see how i'm doing next week =P