Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A truly wonderful day

Today my beautiful, bright, inquisitive, strong-willed, joyful, imaginative E turns two years old. It seems unbelievable that time could have passed so quickly.

We celebrated with a trip to visit his aunt at work and then took cookies to our Gymboree class, where they sang him happy birthday. Later tonight Mr. M. and I will give him a couple of presents and then take him out for his favorite meal (chicken and French fries) and ice cream.

E also made the trip to the doctor with me for my first checkup since becoming pregnant. He sat very nicely in his jogging stroller and ate his lunch and drew in my notebook while completely charming the nurses.

There was a very tense moment for me when after about five minutes of trying, the nurse still couldn't find the heartbeat. My retroverted uterus definitely does NOT help with things like that. So she wheeled in the ultrasound machine and spotted the heartbeat pretty much right away. And I got to see Baby again! Baby was lying on his/her back with one leg extended out, and we also saw the arms, some fingers and even a hint of a nose. She printed out the picture for me to take home.

I showed the picture to E, telling him it was the baby in Mommy's tummy. He looked at it quite seriously for a moment, then said, "Baby sleeping." It totally melted my heart.

The best part of the appointment (besides seeing the baby) was at the end, when the nurse, who I love dearly, gave me a big ol' long bear hug of congratulations. They all know me and genuinely care about me and it is such a comforting and reassuring feeling.

I go back to meet with the doctor in about three weeks. I will be 14 weeks along then and will get the go-ahead to schedule my anatomy scan ultrasound for about 18 weeks. EEP!

The other awesome news? NO MORE PROGESTERONE! I am SO glad not to have to mess with that nasty stuff anymore.

I'll probably be absent for a while as I try to relax and enjoy E's birthday and the Christmas season. Sending you all love and hoping for a joyful holiday season for all of you.

-DJ

Monday, December 9, 2013

I don't have breast cancer!

WOO HOO!

Went for my biopsy last Tuesday, which was a pretty scary process. They numbed me up good but I didn't realize that when they take the samples, they don't just draw them out with a needle. They like shoot something down into your b.oob with a loud SNAP and it's very intense and startling. They also left a little metal marker in the area to let future testers know it had been looked at.

I wasn't expecting to hear results until Thursday, but the awesome nurse at my OBGYN's office called me on Wednesday afternoon because she had been watching for them. The biopsy was negative for cancer and the mass is basically just denser, more fibrous tissue that they think might have been caused by the radiation I had received for my lymphoma treatment.

I'm sorry I've been so lax about posting, but with cancer scares and Christmas and planning E's second birthday party (that's right, my son will be TWO on Wednesday), things have been more than a little crazy. I'm also on deadline for the magazine that I copy edit, so once that is finished I would really like to just relax and try to enjoy the holidays.

I was supposed to go in for my first "official" doctor's visit last Friday, but it got canceled due to a snow storm in our area. Now I'm going in on Wednesday, and am very excited to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler! I am also hoping they will give me a date for my anatomy scan.

I am 11 weeks today and baby is the size of a lime. I got on the scale this morning and hadn't gained nearly as much weight as I thought, which was a huge relief. My pants have been getting pretty snug but I guess that's just partly baby bump and partly bloating from the progesterone. I'm not sure exactly what I weighed when I got pregnant, but at my best estimate I'm up 4-5 pounds, which is probably mostly just holiday weight gain anyway. My mother-in-law did tell me last night that I have a baby bump (not in a mean way), which made me kind of happy.

Well, that's all for now. Back to my editing (and listening to the dulcet tones of my son NOT napping) I go.