May 17th, 2009 - Happy 15 weeks!

Our fetus turned 15 weeks-old on Sunday the 17th and Paul brought the baby georgetown cupcakes, balloons, and his/her first pre-birthday card! The balloons and card are pictured above, along with the first picture of my baby bump on record. The shirt I'm wearing in the picture is a maternity shirt, so we'll take a couple of pictures in it over the next 5 months to show the progress.

I had to spend the day working and then we headed up to Baltimore to see Flossy. I stayed there for two nights because of a workshop in the area.

Paul here... Shonna and I have talked about celebrating our pregnancy for 15 weeks. I was looking for a "woo hoo we're pregnant" theme, but believe it or not, that stuff is hard to come by. My idea morphed into the ever popular "happy 15 weeks in mommy's tummy" decor.

May 15th, 2009 - The "four month" check up

We had our"four month" chec kup on May 15th. We were actually just under 15 weeks, but our appointments are a little head of schedule. It was the first doctor's appointment that Paul had to miss. He started his new job (Ezenia!) on Monday and had meetings starting less than an hour after our appointment was scheduled to begin, so he had to head to work while I went to the doctor.

I had my monthly weigh in and had gained 0.4 pounds - surprising since I was sure it was going to be at least 3 or 4! I saw Dr. Crowther again this time. There was quite a wait because one of the other doctors was out sick and she had to cover both sets of patients. She was very sweet, as usual, but clearly rushed, so the appointment was pretty short.

She reported the results of my blood test, saying that I am A- and will have to have another blood test at 28 weeks and get an injection in case the baby is rh positive. I knew I was rh negative, but my entire life I'd been told I was O (rather than A) negative. Very odd! I got to hear the heart beat again (156 bpm) and we got the order for our next sonogram. I told her that we wanted the 3D sonogram, so well be heading back to Fairfax to go to Washington Radiology. The sonogram is scheduled for June 18th (just a few days before Father's day!) when well get to fnd out the sex!

Paul's input: I've always said "it doesn't matter if its a boy or girl", but the more crap I see on TV and the more "sexting" news I read, a boy seems much easier! I just heard a story of a 12 year old girl sending a "friend who is a boy" pictures of her in her underwear... and the father found out. I don't know how I would handle that. I still don't care what it is, I just realize one will most likely be a little more mentally stressful than the other...

May 3rd, 2009 - One down, two to go!

Today marks our 13th week - the end of our first trimester! As we said, on Friday I ventured into prenatal yoga. Later that night, I ended up with a horrible muscle strain (might not have been from the yoga though - I'd been having trouble, I think it just aggravated it) and couldn't sleep. I also started thinking I had a fever, but my temperature was still normal. On Saturday, we went to the baby's first Capitals playoff game (3-2 CAPS!) and went afterwards to Leesburg outlets for some maternity clothes shopping. We trekked out there because they have a Motherhood Maternity Outlet. It ended up being worth the trip! We got a pair of Seven for All Mankind jeans for $28! They sell for $245 at Pea in the Pod and would have been $106 at the outlet, but the saleswoman was a sweetheart and cut us a deal since only designer jeans were long enough for me. They had a strap on pregger belly in the dressing room. Apparently most women hate the fake belly, but we got a kick out of it because it was our first preview of what I might look like in a few months.

Paul's Take: WOOO HOOO C A P S CAPS CAPS CAPS! What else did we do on Saturday?

Reflections on the first trimester:

Symptoms - Overall, I was lucky, but the worst symptom was definitely losing all of my energy. Especially in the first few months, getting through the day was sort of a struggle. I had mild nausea, but it usually went away if I ate something (hence, I ate virtually all of the time). I frequently got the hiccups and definitely had a heightened sense of smell. Overall, my emotions were pretty stable, but I definitely had a couple random crying spurts (usually preceded and interrupted by laughing at myself).

Paul's Take: I was shocked at Shonna's lack of symptoms throughout the trimester. As the guy during pregnancy, I definitely lucked out considering everything I've read regarding mood swings, sickness, and unreasonable requests. As a matter of fact, the biggest concern we had during the first 3 months was due to LACK of symptoms. "Is everything normal with the pregnancy?" "Is the baby still there?"

The only time I/we freaked out is when Shonna had a 100.3 degree fever for all of 45 minutes Saturday May 2nd. 2 Tylenol did the trick! Shonna's goal was to go the entire 3 months without any form of drug (including any medicine, caffeine, etc) and she missed out by less than 12 hours. Regardless, how great is that?!?!? Pretty amazing for someone who took Aleve/Tylenol and an occasional prescription drug for a bad back, and who consumed at least 2-4 servings of caffeine per day.

I'm so proud of her!

May 1, 2009 - Limbering Up

Today the baby and I went to our first prenatal yoga class at Sun and Moon Yoga Studio. We read that it can make labor a bit easier because of the increased strength and flexibility, breathing, and awareness of your body. It's been YEARS since I tried yoga. I'd decided that yoga was too slow for me. I'm not very patient and tend to prefer higher intenstiy workouts. I walked into class and faced a room of five other women laying down doing some relaxation breathing. All five were VERY pregnant. The Sesame Street song "One of these things is not like the other" immediately started running through my head. 

I really liked the relaxation in the beginning and at the end of class. The room was clean and quiet, the music was soothing, and I felt very still. It's definitely going to take me a few more classes to learn how to relax. I kept noticing myself being tense because I wasn't sure if I had my blankets set up correctly or if my head was in the right position. Mood lighting and soothing music isn't sufficient to counteract my type A tendencies. 

I found that although the poses and stretches were pretty simple and they offered a lot of modifications, they were hard! I was pretty tight from my other workouts this week, but my old ailments like my back, neck, and wrist problems made some of the moves challenging. While everyone else was using the wall, I had to use a chair to take the pressure off my wrists. The modifications wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't the LEAST PREGNANT PERSON IN THE CLASS! My concern must have been apparent because after class the kind woman next to me said she too has chronic back problems and had been terified that pregnancy would make it worse. She said that it actually got better during pregnancy. She thought it might have been because your body starts to loosen up. Here's hoping!

I think I'm going to continue to go. Hopefully some concentrated stretching each week will do my body some good. Plus, it's kind of fun to be in a room full of women who understand the aches and pains, even if we are breathing together in lieu of talking. I only wish there was a co-ed version so that Paul could come to prenatal yoga with me!