11 Weeks!

Hi everyone!

So I turned 11 weeks yesterday. Less than 2 weeks till I'm out of the first trimester and as of Monday there will be less than 200 days till the due date. I can't really say that it's flying by, but we're making progress.

The baby is as big as a lime, but that can be deceiving because next week it'll be as big as a plum, so by lime they mean Key Lime I think. Regardless it should be just over 1.5 inches long and weight a quarter of an ounce - or 7 paperclips. I just counted out 7 paperclips and weighed them in my hand and let me tell you, it doesn't weigh much. :) The developemental highlights this week are fingernails and toothbuds. Maybe that's why I'm craving all this cheddar cheese. The calcium. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it.




The intake appointment with the midwifery practice was a joke. They had us fill out all this paperwork on our family medical history (that we'd already filled out for the fertility clinic) prior to our appointment, and then when we got into the room with the nurse, we had to repeat all the information so she could put it in the computer system. Dumb. I think the only reason they didn't do everything on the phone was so they could get me in the office and on the scale. It was a waste of 3 hours of sick time.

I scheduled my nuchal translucency scan - or NT scan - for Monday February 22nd at 2:30. It'll be just after Chris gets off work so I'll just meet him downtown. (The NT scan is the down syndrome/trisomy18 screening. We're not too concerned about either, but we more just want to make sure everything is progressing alright instead of waiting till the 18week gender scan). The scan measures the fold in the back of the neck and has to be done between 11weeks and 13weeks6days. I'll be 12 weeks 4 days so right in the middle of the timeframe. I'll also have a bunch of bloodwork done at this time.

Then I have my first real appointment with the midwives the following Monday - March 1st (13w4d). I'll get a physical and whatever else.

We're working with the midewifery group at OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University). They're the same hospital we did all the fertility treatments with. If I have to be transferred to an ob later on it won't be so disruptive and they have a level 3 NICU right there if anything goes wrong. So hopefully there will be less interventions, but it's still a hospital.

In other news, Caesar is at the vet getting fixed as I write this email. I'm sure he'll be fine, but I'm taking the afternoon off to spend with the boys (and to elongate my already 4 day weekend. Thank you Presidents Day! Shopping sales AND and extra day off? How kind!)

We're going to a Valentines couple party thing with some of Chris' coworkers on Saturday evening. It's a cocktail party with wine tasting so we'll probably tell them then so
(1) I can get out of being offered yummy wine all night and
(2) so I can get cut some slack for the bump that refuses to be hidden in a cocktail dress.

On Sunday, we're going to one of our favorite restaurants for Valentine's dinner. Unfortunately it appears to be everyone else's favorite restaurant and, even when booked well in advance, the only available reservation was at 4:45pm. We expect a to be eating with a rockin' senior crowd. The restaurant is a fondue place- the appetizer is cheese pot based - obviously - the main course is raw meat that you cook in the heated broth and desert is, well, sinfully chocolatey. Before you get concerned about undercooked meat - I plan to bring along the iPod touch with its stopwatch feature to make sure everything is WELL done. :)

I think I'm gonna go down to Lebanon on Monday to see the parents and hopefully tell Ashley. I'd like to tell her in person so I can then shout it out on Facebook. I've known for 7 weeks and I'm ready to start telling people. So until you see the news of facebook, please continue to keep it quiet. Thanks!

Chris told his boss on Wednesday but I still have to sit down with mine - which I am dreading. I don't think anyone has dropped this bombshell on him in decades and the agency definitely doesn't have a standard operating procedure in place for handling my shift in workload. My coworkers are going to hate me. No, I'm not being dramatic. They're really going to be upset all my work they're going to have to do while I'm out on leave and I'm gonna hear ALL about it from them. Meh.

I hope everyone has a nice Valentine's Day this weekend!