The first 12 wks

I consider myself very lucky as far as pregnancy is concerned. The first 9 weeks it was as if someone was slipping something into my drink everyday and causing me to live in a foggy and exhausting state. The couch became my favorite part of our house and my bed as well. I was nauseous every day for the same period of time but realized quickly that if I ate, I didn't feel bad. This meant that I was eating every 2 hours and while I gained a lot of weight in this time frame, I never threw up. :) Not exactly a nice trade. It was as if I woke up out of a daze around the 9 week mark and started regaining my energy and losing that need to eat so frequently.

Because I was considered "high risk" I went to the doctor every 2 weeks for a sono and lab work to make sure all was well with the baby. My first sono was shortly after we arrived back home from Christmas in Cincinatti. It was January 7th and I would go see the baby for the first time and without Derek, who had to travel for work. I will not forget it....there was this feeling inside of me that perhaps they would discover that it was a mistake, a false positive, and I would be told I wasn't really pregnant. Afterall, we had been trying for 727 days to concieve and been told repeatedly "not this month", "let's try again next month" etc. and honestly, I was scared.

The sonographer started the sonogram and low and behold, there was something there this time I had never seen, a large black area that had the tiniest little spec inside if it, the baby. She investigated all areas and found that the second embryo that was implanted had not developed and we only had one baby. I was so excited to see the one baby it didn't even seem sad that the other had not developed. She told me it was very unlikely that we would be able to hear the babies heartbeat but she would give it a try. I heard this very loud beating of a heart almost immediately and turned to her and asked, "is that my heart?", she laughed at me and said..."NO, that's the babies heartbeat!" It seemed absolutely amazing because at this point, the only thing I could see of the baby was this mass of something that was moving in a beating motion, the heart. The baby was only as big as the heart it seemed to me. How could this little thing have a heart that was able to beat already? Amazing.

I went back two weeks later, this time with Derek. I was so excited that he was going to see this little creation for the first time. This time, it seemed the baby had grown so much to me. What was only two weeks ago this tiny little thing that you could barely see was not much larger and now had these 4 little things protruding from the sides of its body, the beginning of arms and legs. What a sight!

While I was happy to be pregnant and excited about the baby, it wasn't until the week 10 sonogram that it all hit me. The development of the baby from week 8 to week 10 was unreal. I looked into the screen on week 10 and saw this tiny human being. The baby had a profile, full arms, legs, hands, feet, tummy, the list goes on. This was what looked like a complete yet very tiny little person. It changed the way I think about so many things in just that one moment. I had a different view on life.

Week 12 sonogram marked our final visit to the clinic in San Antonio. Derek and I were able to look at the baby together again and they even made a video for us. The baby was bigger and stronger it seemed as he was jumping around in the little space provided. So cute!! We were told we had "graduated" from the high risk group and could now proceed with a regular OBGyn in Austin. What a wonderful first 12 weeks!