Weeks 0-12

Baby Week Day 1!

First of all....I have to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the outpouring of love this past weekend! To have so many people to share this wonderful news with was just beyond what we could have ever imagined. Texts, comments, emails, tweets, voice mails... I have to say Friday was really special for me and Jon and we know it will get even better!

I am forewarning you that you will probably get sick of baby related posts this week but I have been bursting at the seams to share all of the wonderful details of our sweet baby Hart! We have been taking weekly pictures ever since finding out we were expecting and I am compiling all the photos up until now for you today.  I plan on documenting each week of pregnancy for my own record to look back on but also it is something I love reading on other blogs so I hope you follow along! 

Before posting the fun stuff I will say that pregnancy has been rough for me but absolutely, positively, 100% worth it. Baby Hart has been a little difficult on mama so I hope that means he/she is getting their misbehaving out before August. Morning sickess was all day every day sickness and I have been on prescription Zofran since week 10 and it has been a life saver (a little regression at week 13, more tomorrow). What's funny is anyone in my situation may feel like it is the end of the world and never want another baby but I can honestly say I have really enjoyed it. God's way of showing me my baby is healthy and growing! I just pray future Hart babies will be easier on their mama!

I will definitely be sharing our "getting pregnant" story but for now I will tell you that it did not take long at all (praise God!). I am SO glad we decided to take a picture pre pregnancy because knowing my body will most likely never look the same, I can have something to look back on and be somewhat proud of haha. We took this picture on October 21st, 2012, we had been off birth control for 2 weeks so anything was all fair game. I love watching my belly grow and don't get sad looking at these pictures except for the fact that I am a paper white ghost compared to October! Well either I am super tan at the beginning or pregnancy sickness has taken all color out of me! 

(also, I have two 2nd degree burn scars on my left forearm from a show down with the oven earlier this year... they are 100% healed but still plainly obvious)

4 weeks, taken November 25th, 2012. The finding out we were pregnant (11/24/12) story will come later this week. I was also rocking a sinus/cold funk which made the first week of pregnancy not so enjoyable! I remember thinking, am I really holding a positive pregnancy test?! Baby are you in there??

5 weeks, taken December 2nd, 2012. Still in shock that my son/daughter is inside of me! Feeling blessed as ever and happy to be over the cold funk (and without pregnancy symptoms yet!)

6 weeks, taken December 9th, 2012, is when we noticed the belly really starting to change! I love it! I basically wanted to have a 6month bump right away. Bye bye abs, see you....??

7 weeks, taken December 16th, 2012 with our very first sonogram (12/10/12). We got to see our baby the very day the heart started beating! God's providence people! Oh and this week we started suspecting it was twins...look at that belly! (it is only one baby though!)

8 weeks, taken December 23rd, 2012, the day before we told my family. This week morning sickness all the time sickness caused the belly to shrink (sad face, I love my belly!) and major weight loss. Despite being sick as a dog, I was giddy with excitement to tell our families on Christmas Eve about baby Hart!

9 weeks, taken December 30th, 2012. Unfortunately getting sicker and the belly is disappearing... I am also super pale! We saw our little baby the day after Christmas and he/she was perfect! The changes and growth in just 2 weeks is unbelievable! Our munchkin looked like a little gummy bear and we cried seeing how strong the heartbeat was. 

10 weeks, taken January 6th, 2013 after the worst morning all the time sickness week thus far. I dropped to my lowest weight ever and finally got prescribed Zofran which changed my life! I was also battling a nasty cold/sinus thing again.

11 weeks, taken January 13th, 2013. I am definitely rocking the ghost tan and boy is that belly growing! After a few days of solid eating and keeping food down...poof, the tummy was back. And I love it! It's definitely bigger at night when I've eaten 3+ meals and I am finally gaining some weight.

12 weeks, taken January 20th, 2013. So you may be able to tell I am wearing a maternity tank top. I bought a few from Old Navy and wore it because I couldn't find my other (that was getting pretty tight anyway) but my pregnancy brain found it a day later! Feeling good, some cramping here and there but for the most part lots more energy.

13 week update to come tomorrow!

Since we waited a long time to share the news on my blog, there is a lot of detail I want to keep track of. 3 months and lots of changes!

Weight: all over the place! I lost a significant amount of weight getting off birth control (6lbs, even though I didn't gain weight getting ON the pill 3 years ago) so I wasn't sure of my starting weight. I was the lowest weight I have been in probably 10-12 years at my 6 week appt but then getting sick caused even more weight loss. I am going to use my 6 week weight as starting and on Friday at my 12 week appointment I was up 3lbs (still about 3lbs below my normal, still on birth control weight, but doctor is just happy I am gaining). 

Symptoms: I felt great from the day we found out until 6 weeks, that's when our little baby started really growing (aka getting me sick and tired). Nausea & vomitting would wake me up in the mornings and stay strong until bedtime. There were days I would throw up 3 times and days where I wouldn't at all. At week 10, I would vomit 5-6 times a day and threw in the towel and got prescribed Zofran. What a help! I take it first thing in the morning and supplementing with Vitamin B6 twice daily. More on this tomorrow but at the end of week 12, vomiting started up again, despite being on Zofran. Tiredness- honestly I couldn't get enough sleep! I work full time in an office and it was to the point where I would sleep in my car on my lunch break. 14 hours of a sleep wasn't enough...growing a baby is hard work! Around week 9-10 I stopped naps during the day and could survive on 9-10 hours a night. Sore boobs- wowzas! I literally had to hold my chest walking up the stairs (even wearing a bra) for weeks 5-7. They were sore to the touch, sore to movement, and sore just existing! Now the soreness comes and goes. Metallic taste- this is 100% normal and was on and off for the first couple of weeks. Using the bathroom- it wasn't extraordinarily bad at the beginning because I used the bathroom a lot before but around week 10-11, I noticed myself getting up in the middle of the night 3-4 times. Or I will empty before I go to sleep and in 20 minutes I am full again. I know it will just get even worse haha. Constipation- TMI but it is bad. My pregnancy has been so textbook as to when certain symptoms start. It has been super glamorous let me tell ya! Cramping- starting at about 10 weeks, I started having period like cramps which is totally normal, especially for smaller women, because your uterus is growing and ligaments are stretching. At times it feels like I just did a million sit ups and need to stretch my tummy. I know this is 100% normal.

Sleep: like I said above, first trimester I couldn't get enough of it! I savored our winter weekends that we had nothing planned because I'd wake up after 12 hours of sleep, have some breakfast, do some things around the house and then go back for a nap. The first week of my pregnancy I had the flu funk (didn't get tested but it was something) and couldn't breathe so it's like my body was prepping me for NOT sleeping on my stomach, which is the only way I knew how to. So since the day I found out, I have attempted to sleep on my back and side (I only have a few more weeks where it is safe for me to sleep on my back). Jon got me a body pillow for Christmas and I have been using that but it's hard because Ernie wants to cuddle between my legs. I am good without a nap during the day but try to get 9 hours of sleep at night, I am pretty wiped by 9 or 930p.

Cravings/aversions: nothing too extreme but food has to sound really good to me to eat it. It has been hard because I bring my lunch to work and sometimes what I brought just sounds disgusting. I have had some aversions to meat, specifically chicken, but enjoyed a few Chick Fil A sandwiches :-). Random things I've been wanting are mac and cheese, cheese sticks, anything carb-y/salty, red meat, cereal. I am normally a big fruit person and there would be days that the thought of fruit would make me wanna throw up. I laugh because I would come home from the grocery store with the most random things... white cheddar popcorn, 3 cans of pringles, fig newtons...hungry pregnant women shouldn't be allowed to grocery shop!

Workouts: pre pregnancy I taught Zumba, did yoga and hit the weights 3 days a week and I assumed I would have to modify just a bit during pregnancy (yeah I was wrong!). The first 2 weeks of pregnancy I felt great and continued my workouts, sans abs or flat on my back moves but then I got struck with a terrible sinus/allergy/flu thing, tiredness, and all the time sickness, I took lots of time off. It's crazy because I know part of the weight loss was due to vomiting but also because I wasn't lifting weights. When I do have the energy to work out, I do less weight and less intensity than pre pregnancy because I get very winded! I try to do something active most days of the week (at least a walk with Ernie) but sometimes I don't feel like it. I am proud of myself for getting on average about 3 workouts in a week (minus the sick weeks). 

Doctor's visits: we thought we were farther along at the beginning so we got to go at 6 weeks and then again at 8 weeks and got a sonogram both times. Our doctor does sonos at almost all appointments and last Friday (12w5d) we had a 3d sonogram which I will share with you tomorrow! 

What a difference 2 weels can make! The baby went from a little Pac Man to a gummy bear with little arms and legs. All the nurse could say at the beginning was "look at that strong heart beat!". Cue tears and hand squeezes between me and Jon. 

Tomorrow you'll get a peek at our 3D sonogram in my 13 week update! Later in the week I have the stories of why we started trying when we did, how we found out we were pregnant, and telling our family. Hope you stick around!

P.S. I am going to try to respond to comments an emails in the next few days, we were so overwhelmed with love and support that I am anxious to start responding! Sorry if it takes a few days.