First Toy!

Man, our baby isn't even out of the womb yet and they have their first toy! That's right - it's baby's first cell phone! It even emits radiation like the real thing! Yeah, I have mixed feelings about our society when we think our babies need to have a cell phone like Mommy and Daddy do. But I'm thankful for the gift nonetheless.

You won't catch me letting our kid drink starbucks either until they are of a normal, coffee-drinking age, and I'll still make them get decaf.

Aimee had another OB visit and this time she got to meet one of the doctors and he's a nice guy. The doctor doesn't know the age of the baby either, so she is scheduled for another ultrasound on June 18. We are probably about 9 weeks or so, at least that's our guess. Hopefully we'll find out a real due date sometime soon!

First Ultrasound!

Aimee had her first ultrasound bright and early this morning. Normally from what I understand, an ultrasound is not usually needed this early in the pregnancy. However, because Aimee's hCG levels were previously low (though they are normal now) the Nurse wanted to have an ultrasound to make sure everything was okay and to try to get an accurate age of the baby. Here is the picture!

We are so excited! We could see the heartbeat and everything! Aimee calls it 'her little peanut' because its so small.

One thing that was unexpected is that the nurse said Aimee was only 6.1 weeks pregnant, even though we thought she was about 7.5 weeks. It's hard to argue with a professional using an ultrasound machine, however since Aimee tracks her cycle pretty meticulously, I'm not completely convinced the nurse is right. For the nurse to be right, conception would have had to occur around day 28 of her monthly cycle. For those of us that don't know (guys...), the ability to conceive is usually around day 14 and it is a short window of about a day.

If I'm right (assuming the baby goes full term) we'll have a baby between Christmas and New Years. If the nurse is right, the new estimated due date is January 9. Really though, we don't care, we just want a happy, healthy baby!

Heave, Ho!

Just a quick update - Aimee was hoping to escape the evil clutches of 'morning sickness', but that might be a pipe dream. Yesterday after work was her first 'incident' in the parking lot in front of our place. Today she had to run a meeting for some bigwigs at work so I told her she should make sure of the location of the nearest garbage can! Thankfully it went smoothly.

Aimee is mostly over her cold, and now I finally got it. I've missed two days of work, but I worked from home so I don't really feel like I got much rest. What was I thinking?

Tomorrow morning is our first ultrasound to make sure things are moving along swimmingly, so we'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading!

hCG Level is OK

Aimee stayed home from work again today, still sick, but it appears she is past the worst of it. Thankfully she was able to pick up a few hours working from home. The Nurse called and informed her that her hCG levels were rising properly, so that's good. To find out how far along she really is we are going to go in for an ultrasound next Thursday morning. We won't be able to find out the sex of the baby yet of course (which will be a boy :) but we should find out what week we are really in.

Mommy is Sick!

Aimee came down with a cold and has missed some work. Hopefully she'll be all patched up for Monday. She isn't missing the rest she's getting though! Some bug is going around, several people were out at work today.

Aimee got a call from the Nurse Practitioner on Wednesday and they wanted her to come back in to take another blood sample, as they said her hCG levels seemed low. This doesn't seem to be cause for alarm necesarily, but the nurse seems to think Aimee may not be as far along as originally thought -- maybe only 5 weeks. We still think she is 7 weeks though. We hope to find out Friday as the blood test results should be in and will at least tell us if the hCG levels are rising properly. If we still can't tell how far along she is, we can schedule an ultrasound soon.

Keep us in your prayers -- for the baby and for Mommy's health!

Health Insurance Update

I made a few phone calls today to BCBS and our company's benefits department, and we got the answers we were hoping for. We should be able to have a smooth transition between Aimee's insurance and my insurance when the time comes, which means that aside from the deductible and copayments, we should be pretty fully covered.

The discouraging news of course, is the increased cost of the health insurance... family coverage doesn't come cheap!

We appreciate your continued prayers and support.

A Healthy Report

Today was Aimee's first doctor visit. They confirmed the pregnancy and estimate that we are on track for a Christmas/New Year's baby like we thought. The Nurse Practitioner said everything looks good.

Our church had a meeting Sunday night and so we let everyone know. Being congratulated on being a 'daddy' was nice. Everyone was so happy for us, and I know we'll have tons of support going forward, which is a good feeling. That, and we found out that another person that we know at church is also expecting, with almost the exact same due date!

Everyone keeps telling us we'll make great parents, so I hope we can live up to that. It's a strange thing to hear when you don't have any kids yet. If someone already had 3 kids, I could see telling them that, since, you know, it would already be obvious! But really, we appreciate the encouragement.

My mom just got her Mother's Day card with the news in it today, and she was happy too. Although she's planning a trip down next month, she's already planning a second trip for early 2008 to see the baby.

The Cat's Outta the Bag!

Well, Aimee couldn't hold out any longer. She was hoping her Mother Beth would get the surprise in her Mother's Day card, but its been 4 days and the card still hasn't made it to its destination (a small town in Colorado). So after church today she broke down and called to give her the news, and she was ecstatic.

We have been excited about it and of course we want to tell people, but I wasn't sure how to handle it. You hear so much about pregnancies ending in miscarriage, especially in the first 12 weeks (80%), so part of you wants to spare people of those extra roller-coaster emotions if the unfortunate were to happen. I guess this is why I've heard its typical to wait 3 months, but 3 months is a long time!

So we're letting our family know first of course, then our friends. Our biggest challenge is our co-workers though (we work together at the same company.) This is mainly because our office is like one big family, which is great, but they don't want Aimee to go anywhere anytime soon, so they probably won't take the news well that we are planning to have her stay home. Needless to say we need to be careful how the news comes out at work, because even though Aimee may have the capability of working from home, that's not something we want to agree to before we even know how this baby thing is going to work for us at home!

So for all who are reading this, please pray for a healthy and normal pregnancy for Mom and baby, and please also pray for our finances to stretch to accommodate trying to live off of one income, along with the extra expenese of course.

Our Baby - Week 6

The embryo is about 1/5 of an inch in length. A primitive heart is beating. Head, mouth, liver, and intestines begin to take shape.

A lot is going on with our little embryo this week! Their brain is still growing remarkably fast; miniature hand plates are starting to develop and the early formations of their individual fingers are visible. The lower limbs do not develop quite as fast, so they’re pretty much still flippers. Up until this point, our baby has been very curled up with the head and tail in close proximity, but this week their trunk and neck are beginning to grow and straighten as their tail recedes into its resting position in the back. Even though our little miracle is only 6 weeks old, they’re already demonstrating reflex responses to touch!

Being Pregnant - Week 6

So far being pregnant has been going rather smoothly. I thought that if I were pregnant that I would have morning sickness, but thankfully I have not. In the beginning before I knew that we were expecting my emotions were so strong and so low. I often felt moody and sometimes sad.

Now my emotions are becoming more stable, but in week 6 I have noticed two new symptoms - fatigue and sensitivity to taste. I feel so tired. When 3 in the afternoon rolls around I feel like its 10:30 and time for bed. As far as eating, everything tastes so rich and sweet. Fruit and sweet teas are too sweet, candies are not quite as tempting and even the sandwich meat at lunch is too rich. Even though I feel hungry water is the only thing I can't get enough of.

Being fatigued and realizing that I'm pregnant has left me so distracted. Sometimes I stop and think, "There is a baby growing inside of me! Oh thank you God!". I can't believe it! And I have a hard time bringing my attention back to the task at hand.

The Big News...

Well, it's official... Aimee is pregnant! At the time of this writing nobody really knows yet. In fact, we've put the news in our Mother's Day cards which are in the mail, so our Mom's don't even know yet. Aimee's monthly visitor was later than usual (she normally has a long cycle) so we took a pregnancy test on Sunday, April 29. At first, the 'positive line' was very faint -- so faint that we weren't even certain she was pregnant. The line became much more clear after 10 minutes, but you aren't supposed to trust the results after that long. So we waited a few days and took two more tests (thankfully they come in two-packs) on Wednesday, May 2, and both confirmed a positive result. Plus, she had some minor cramping, and has been lethargic lately, which are also symptoms.

Because we practice natural birth control, we track not only her cycle but also our times of intimacy, which means we can actually pinpoint the day we believe conception occurred. The most probable day was April 1. Since doctors use a 40-week gestation time (although it is actually 38 weeks), this means she is in week 6 already! This means we will likely have a Christmas or New Year's baby! Just in time for a tax break, LoL! God is so good!

Now, before you get hung up on the mention of 'natural birth control', and say 'I told you so', please don't. Aimee and I have been talking more and more about having children lately. The natural birth control method worked extremely well for almost two full years of our marriage. It has helped us understand Aimee's reproductive cycle like clockwork, even though she is irregular. So, the reason we are having a child is that, admittedly, we have been a little lax about following all the rules (which, again, is why we can pinpoint the day it probably happened.) And part of the reason we have been a little lax was leaving room for God to do His thing if He wanted us to have a child. I am absolutely confident that this method is superior to any other, and we will not only continue to use it, but counsel others about using it. There are far too many risks associated with certain methods of birth control. This method, when used correctly, can help you both achieve and prevent pregnancy. Since we plan to have more children eventually, it can be on our timing.