25 weeks and Paranoid

The last few weeks have been a fun kinda busy as Andrew and I have begun to prepare our house for baby. I spent 2 weeks in California shopping with my mom for furniture and picking up our bedding. Then yesterday Andrew and I emptied out my former office to make room for the crib and dresser we ordered. Everything seems to be coming together for our little bundle, everything that is, except my mind. Each day a little piece of my memory, coordination, decision making, and calmness unravels. Shopping lists have become a must. Holding onto wet dishes proves trickier than what I remember...or is that just my memory going? Forget making a decision on what colors to paint the nursery. And investing in orange juice seems to be a wise choice since I lose all sense of calm if I don't feel the baby move at regular intervals throughout the day. How I long for the day when I can hold her in my arms and find the peace of mind that I've lost...hey stop laughing, a girl can dream, can't she?

Pregnancy Stats: 25 weeks
Mood: Who cares? mixed with paranoia
Health: Discovered I have allergies now. Yay for Claritin!
Food: Sweets yes! Protein, if I have to. Veggies..gotta have had a V8.
Energy: It's too hot in Arizona for energy.

25 Week Picture


Our bedding


The Nursery


Nursery from another angle

What the what?

In the early stages of my pregnancy the concept of being pregnant escaped me. Don't get me wrong; I knew I was pregnant, I just didn't believe it. I thought the doctor had super-imposed an image of another woman's womb when I had my first ultrasound and saw our bean. As time goes on, I'm starting to believe that what I saw on the screen wasn't a tape of A Baby Story, but a sneak peek at my future daughter.

It's odd how one can know and not know something, all at the same time. Take for instance my thought process on Sunday night. Andrew had fallen asleep on the couch watching the Tony's. As I looked at him and my belly I couldn't help imagine what it would be like to see him holding our little girl for the first time. I imagined his gentle arms cradling her delicate body. I imagined seeing the emotion overwhelm him. Then I imagined I was seeing all this from the hospital bed after delivering her. And POW, it hit me. I have to deliver this baby and she's coming out of where? Wait...what?! I mean, I knew I would have to do that and we'd talked to our doctor about our delivery plans, but the full realization hadn't hit. Why hadn't I thought this through? My panic lasted momentarily as I heard the voice of reason (Andrew) in my head: "Well it's too late to go back; there's nothing you can do about it now." True. My husband is so wise.

Pregnancy Stats: Week 22 (that's approx. 5 months)
Mood: Mixture of euphoria and panic
Health: Discouraged to know that of the 10 lbs. I've gained, baby is only 1 pound.
Food: Yes please!
Energy: I've been walking every morning while in CA and that's helped a lot!

Fun Memories

Here are a couple of pictures of some exciting adventures we've had since February.

Here we are at Disneyland on my 27th birthday. We left and came home all in one day. Although you can't tell, I'm about 5 weeks pregnant there (no Splash Mountain or Space Mountain for me!).


In February an old friend from Sacramento came to visit. He works as a part of the President's Marine 1 team and had come into Phoenix a little early to scope out the surroundings before President Obama's arrival. As a perk (and super cool favor) he took us out to look at the President's helicopter. We even got to sit inside!

21 Weeks...I've Popped!

I know we started our blog quite late in terms of my pregnancy, so I haven't been able to post much about my early pregnancy until now. So please take this as a quick recap of the last 21 weeks.

As many of you know, Andrew and I had a little trouble conceiving. After a perfectly timed trip to the fertility specialist, I started clomid. According to Andrew, I was saving all my eggs for Easter. Hey, I can't help it if I'm a pack-rat!

So here's the timeline...

January 9, 2009...trip to West Valley Fertility Clinic
January 10, 2009...start first (and only) round of clomid
January 15, 2009...test to see if clomid worked (never got those test results...hmmm)
Jan. 29 to Feb. 2...trip to Sacramento to surprise Mom (Kate) for her 60th birthday (had stomach cramps all day Superbowl Sunday; pregnancy sensors on full alert.)
February 3, 2009...took a pregnancy test; results left me standing in my bathroom, perplexed, staring at a stick I had just peed on. Was that a <+>?
February 5, 2009...woke up at 4:30 to pee and took another pregnancy test...no guessing this time with a digital test; it said PREGNANT. My only question now, "Should I wake up Andrew?" (I do. His response: "Yea! Will you judge me if I go back to sleep now?)
February 6, 2009...get blood work back, we're definitely pregnant (Well, I'm pregnant, Andrew, not so much.)
February 12, 2009...our baby's first trip to Disneyland on my birthday. We did a round trip in one day.
March 3, 2009...saw our little bean for the first time. You can see the ultrasound pics in our first post.
March 3, 2009-somewhere around May 15th...normal pregnancy stuff. I've had a heavenly pregnancy compared to many. I was super tired during my first trimester, but had no morning sickness as long as I ate. The only time I threw up was when I had the stomach flu (I used the reverse "eating" philosophy on that one, but I still ended up in the ER for fluids). Without any outward signs, no one would know I was pregnant by looking at me.
May 15, 2009...I have my 18 week ultrasound and find out we're having a girl!
May 15-June 1, 2009...I guess our little girl lost her shyness at our 18 week ultrasound and has started making an appearance. I can't pinpoint when it happened, but my belly has gone convex!
May 29, 2009...finally felt our little girl move for sure; it wasn't a kick, but more of a stretch.
June 1, 2009...updated our blog with information about my pregnancy; people are reading and catching up on us...still reading...they're still reading...you can keep reading but that's all the information I have for now...wow, you're really persistent...still reading...okay, check out the belly pictures below to see my progress.




10 Weeks Pregnant


14 Weeks Pregnant


20 Weeks Pregnant


Today

It's a Girl!



We had our 18 week ultrasound on May 15th. Andrew and I were happy to hear that everything looked healthy and that our baby was progressing nicely; selfishly, however, we really wanted to know if we'd be shopping for pink or blue. After what seemed an eternity of looking at parts I couldn't recognize (they put the TV across the room and with poor vision, lying at an angle, it's hard to decipher what is what), I couldn't wait any longer. When the technician pointed out the legs I had to say, "Oh, how great...now what do you see between those legs?" Without even a chuckle, she breezed pass my comment. Finally after much anticipation she asked if we'd like to know what we're having. Duh! Did my previous question not clue her in? Moving the cursor, she showed us the "hamburger," as people call it, and told us we were having a girl! Because everyone, including myself, had been convinced it was a boy, I asked if she was sure. Her response, "Well, there's no penis." I guess that's pretty good evidence.

So our plans for blues have now changed into pinks. We've had a blast registering for all things girl and I've already begun praying for the teenage years. I'm super excited and terrified at the same time; Andrew, on the other hand, will be an excellent daddy to a little girl. She's not even out of the womb and she already has him wrapped around her finger. Needless to say, the excitement and anticipation for her arrival has heightened. We cannot wait to meet our daughter!

First Post

Hey y'all...It's Andrew. Wanted to let you know this will be the official site of all things AndrewRissa related. Larissa will be doing the posts from here on out, but I thought I might put our first ultrasound up here as a start.



More to come as I teach Larissa how to do this.