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:
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