Long Posts and Piggy Flu

I have another friend who is also pregnant right now (Just a few weeks ahead of Jason and I) and she also has a blog (She's had hers for awhile, and since announcing her pregnancy has been using that outlet to let friends/family know what she's going through) and I realized while reading a few of her posts the other day...that I am one long winded blogger! Not that that's surprising to those who know me well, but sheesh! Maybe I should just start getting to the point and call it a day! I'll try...but that's all I can promise...normally, when I think I've edited something down, it could still go for another 20 page deletion!

So on Sunday, Jason decided that I needed to get the swine flu (H1N1) vaccination shot. We tried to get it a few weekends ago, but the line was wrapped completely around the high school that the shot was being administered in! "No Thank You!" Said the Laubster family and away we went...back to bed! But, Jason realized last week that in a few days, I'm going to be flying on an airplane, which is probably an EXCELLENT way to contract the piggy flu! So with that logic, we decided to brave the crowds and head over to the lease ghetto area that was giving the shot (seriously...I was not about to stand in line in Compton...not gonna happen). I woke up feeling pretty sick that morning, and was worried about standing for a few hours, and what that would do to me...so I packed a huge bag of snacks...oranges, fruit leather, string cheese, cookies, fruit cups, popcorn- the works! We drove 20 minutes to our spot and sure enough, the line was pretty long. It wasn't as long as it had been when we tried earlier, but there would still be at least 150-200+ people in front of us. So we get in line, grab a form from the "form-giver-outers" and then hear an official person say "Is anyone pregnant in the line?” Immediately our hands shoot up and I yell out "Yes! I am!" the official person walks over to me and says "You're pregnant? OK, you need to head to the front of the line." What? Really? Awesome! So Jason and I march through the ENTIRE line, trying to keep our smiles to a minimum and approach another official person and tell them that we are pregnant and were told to come over here. After checking our forms, they sweep us past MORE people, and get us RIGHT to the people with the drugs! It was unbelievable! We got the shot, and were back to doing what we wanted with the rest of our day!
Immediately after taking the shot, I kind of got worried about what we had just done and I asked Jason "Did we really just inject some chemicals into our growing and developing fetus? Sheesh...I hope that was a good idea!" I'm normally not someone who gets freaked out by vaccines...maybe it's because my Grandpa was a doctor and a lot of my family has a lot of medical knowledge, but I’ve never bought into the whole "Vaccines are bad, they cause Autism" hoopla. There isn't enough scientific evidence to convince me NOT to vaccinate my child- it just seems irresponsible to me. Jason has expressed some concerns about the issue, but I believe there are ways around it- instead of giving the baby a lot of vaccines all at once within their first couple of months, there are not schedules that allow you to give your baby 1 or 2 vaccines every couple of months- that seems like a compromise we can deal with. But the idea of giving a fetus, who is in the initial stages of growing and developing a vaccine was just kind of freaky...but I'm sure it's all for the better, and assuming it went well, our newborn will be protected from the H1N1 virus after he/she is born, so that's good!
The only downside to all of it was by Sunday night, I was definitely feeling symptoms of the flu. I started feeling EXTREMELY nauseous that night, and even got sick before I went to bed...not fun! The next morning I woke up still feeling awful and stayed in bed ALL day, trying to get over it. Today, I'm back at work and feeling better, but not amazing...though my body did allow me to eat a piece of Pizza for breakfast, and I cannot tell you how amazing that tasted!

Well...so much for not being long winded!! Ayy Yiii Yiii.....

8 weeks down!

First a disclaimer...as you've probably noticed if you've been following this blog, the author tends to get a bit confused in terms of which person to write this blog in...first person, third person- it's all very confusing! So, since I (Ash) am going to most likely be the main blogger on this blog, I'm just going to write from my perspective...if Jas chimes in then he'll do the same...it's just too darn confusing doing it any other way! SO! With that said, on to the next blog....


On Tuesday, November 17th, we hit our 8 week mark. According to our weekly babycenter.com updates, the little Laubster is the size of a kidney bean (however big that is!), the baby has webbed fingers and toes (I swear we're not having an amphibian, but with the tail and the webbed-ness going on...I'm beginning to worry!) and the little eyelids are starting to cover the little baby eyes! Adorable! It's been really fun getting the weekly updates and learning what new and exciting things our little one is experiencing...it's mind blowing to think that just 8 short weeks ago there was nothing but a few cells hanging out together and now a PERSON has formed! Its absolutely amazing...and a miracle by all definitions of the word!

While we were very excited to learn about all of this technical growth mumbo jumbo, what Jason and I were REALLY looking forward to was our Doctor's appointment on Thursday because THIS was the appointment where we would get to SEE our little guy or girl and see their heartbeat beating away!

We met our doctor (Dr. Lillian Morris) again on Thursday afternoon in another exam room. She is such a nice doctor. I feel so safe and secure with her, and I just love that she has kind of a funky personality but is obviously very caring and loving and cares for ME as a patient and for Jason and I as soon to be new parents. She is gentle, patient and just a great fit for Jason and I. I am really excited that we made the changes that we did to our health insurance so that we are able to have her as our doctor. On a related note, in the past month I have spoken to TWO women who have both had their babies with the doctors at the Women's Health Association of Santa Monica...that's pretty impressive in my mind considering hte size of Santa Monica and the number of doctor choices there are! Both women loved their experiences with the doctors and the affiliated hospitals....all the more reason to feel great about the decision we made to move to this doctor's office.

So, after doing a full on exam, it was time to meet whoever is chilling inside me! I was a little nervous going in to the appointment, just due to common nerves. Those of you who know me know that I am a worry-wart by nature, and being pregnant has brought all of that to a whole new level. I am consciously trying not to think that way for the pregnancy because I don't want to stress the baby out, but it is very difficult at times. Especially when one of those times is when you are supposed to see a glimpse of your baby! the whole time on the exam table I was just thinking "What if we're not pregnant. What if this is just a mistake?" of course all of my fears were put to rest when the doctor came in and assured us we WERE indeed pregnant. As Dr. Morris pulled the ultrasound screen closer to her so that she could access the keyboard, I started to get sad because I thought I wouldn't get to see the screen (This happened last time, she pulled the screen close to her and I couldn't see anything...she did this on purpose because there was nothing to see, it was too early)- but then I noticed a small screen, exactly at my eye level for ME to have my own little viewing party on! Jason had to skew his neck so he could see the Doctor's screen, but he managed alright. In no time at all, an image came up on the screen and the Dr. said "There's your little peanut!" I couldn't believe it. It took me by complete surprise. I don't know if technology has advanced in the past 6 months since I've seen an ultrasound, but normally I can never see ANYTHING but gray on those pictures...but when she brought our image up on the screen it was as clear as day that there was a baby in there! It was absolutely breathtaking...next, she showed us that the heart WAS in fact beating! Again, breath taken away by this little creature! I stopped breathing at first and then giggled, which jiggled the screen and the image was lost, but it was SO great to see it up there for a few seconds! Next she looked around at my ovaries, did some measurements and then went back to the Bean! Heart was still beating and baby was still there! She said that everything looked absolutely perfect- from the size of the baby (1.81cm which Jason figured out is about 3/4") to the placement of the baby. Good news all around for baby Laub! It finally feels REAL that all of this is happening. It's been really hard the past couple of weeks because on the outside I don't look any different to anyone else, and as far as strangers are concerned, I don't even feel an y different. And it's not that I want this pregnancy to be an excuse for any slacking I may be doing in my life, but it would just be nice to have everyone know so that it's not some big thing that doesn't actually exist. So seeing the baby and it's heartbeat has just absolutely solidified that this is happening and it's going to be an awesome ride.

Next up for the Laub's is making some pretty big decisions. We have another appointment set up 4 weeks from now (12/17) at which time we are scheduled to do some prenatal tests. I believe we are set up to do some basic birth defect/chromosome tests on the fetus- they'll test for things like Downs Syndrome. There are more tests that we also have the option to take, but we're not sure what we want to do. These are genetic tests which will test Jason and I for specific genetic disorders that we COULD pass on to our baby. Our biggest issue/concern/dilemma with doing these tests is that they aren't diagnostic tests- meaning even if both Jason and I are carriers, it does not guarantee that our baby will have that particular disease. That, paired with the fact that even if we find out our baby DOES have something wrong with it, we would not terminate this pregnancy and these tests are ridiculously expensive, it just doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. The birth defect/chromosome tests that are diagnostic would at least either give us piece of mind that the baby is fine or let us prepare in any way that we need to if there is something abnormal with the baby. There is so much to know already in all of this, it's kind of scary! I'm just praying that our baby is healthy and without any major health problems...please pray with us!

We're very excited because we *FINALLY* get to tell my family next week during our Thanksgiving Day vacation. It has been absolutely killing me that I haven't been able to tell my Mom yet, so having that weight off my shoulders will be SUCH a relief! Our plan as of now is to make T-Shirts that say "We're" and "Pregnant" and then stand side by side as we present ourselves to the family (Hopefully we can figure out who to put where so it doesn't come out looking like "Pregnant We're" because that wouldn't make any sense at all!). We still have to wait an entire month before we can tell Jason's family and my work, which is just awful, but it'll be here before we know it! And we'll have a new set of ultrasounds to show them when we announce it to the Laub's, Blakeman's and Irwin's. We know everyone will be THRILLED with our news :)

That's all we have for now...no new health updates for me, Monday I was very nauseous and actually threw up for the first time (not fun!), and I'm just ridiculously tired every day and every evening when I come home. Apparently some people wake up on a day in their 2nd trimester feeling completely refreshed and ready to take on the world...I am so hoping that I am that lucky!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! I definitely know what *I'M* thankful for this year:

Blgh.

Well, the 6-week mark has proven to be a difficult one...for Ash's stomach. Her only symptoms before were a larger appetite and being exhausted all the time....now, along with that, she's feeling queasy most of the day. She's discovered that the cure (for her at least) for this nausea feeling is eating...ya...weird right? What is the LAST thing you normally want to do when your feeling like you're about to lose your lunch- eat right? Well, apparently prego ladies are the exception to the rule, because eating is exactly what Ash needs to do to hold off the gagging...yes, gagging. She's not so much puking, just walking around gagging every 30 minutes...she sounds like a cat with a hairball...pretty attractive! So every day, whether Ash packs a lunch for her and Jas or not, she packs a whole bag of *SNACKS* to munch on ALLLLLL day...yes, all day...she can go about 30 minutes or an hour without having food in her, but by the time she feels hungry, it's too late and the gagging starts all over again. She's been munching a lot on String Cheese, yogurt, dried fruit strips, baby carrots, cookies, popcorn and triscuts. And while there haven't been any overwhelming food-specific cravings yet, the one thing Ash desires all the time is to be FULL. Which is again, kind of weird. We think that it may be because normally, Ash eats a little bit throughout the day, but never engorges herself with a large food amount....and realistically, she probably wasn't getting enough food to begin wtih, so what her body is telling her NOW is to just EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT until you can't eat NO 'MO! SO what does that mean? Well, it means eating 3/4 of an entire box of Velveeta Mac N Cheese by herself, it means going to In N Out and ordering a cheeseburger meal w/ fries a drink and an EXTRA order of fries...and eating it all. True, this isn't the healthiest stuff to be eating, but Ash's breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day are pretty well balanced so it's dinner time when she lets loose. Poor Jason, has tried to be so helpful and he cooked some chicken and squash up the other night- gave Ash a piece of squash as she was running out to do an errand and it almost came right back up....Jas has learned pretty quickly that if it doesn't sound like a good idea to the Mamma To Be...it isn't. Every day Ash takes a Pre-Natal vitamin and a DHA vitamin (The prenatal vitamin is basically a multivitamin that has all of the vitamins that Ash needs to help the baby grow and develop, while a DHA pill is full of Fatty Omega-3 which is very important for a pregnant ladies diet). Ash is going along with the philosophy that as long as it sounds good, and relieves the gagging then it's Ok to eat. Even though it's not all super healthy food, the vitamins are hopefully counteracting most of that and getting the baby what it needs. Most of the books we've read say that while the first trimester is a crucial one for brain development and the overall initial growth of the fetus, as long as the mother is GETTING food (And not throwing it all up) then everything should be fine.

That's the update on the Laubster's so far....our next Dr. Appointment is on November 19th. We should get to see the heartbeat and get a picture of the little bun in the oven- we're very much looking forward to this appointment! Ash is also getting the H1N1 vaccine on Sunday at a free clinic in LA...pregnang ladies are strongly encouraged to get both the regular flu vaccine and the H1N1 flu vaccine so that the baby is protected as much as possible since Ash's immune system is compromised by carrying the baby...hopefully it all goes well.