First Trimester Officially Done...for Reals This Time!

I *thought* that the first trimester ended at 12 weeks, but it actually ends at 14 weeks! So, let the celebrating begin because today marks the start of week 14 and the beginning of Trimester #2! 1 down, 2 to go! haha :) The picture at the top is showing how big our little lemon is this week!! Someone's getting bigger!!

Everything is going fine except for the fact that I'm sick...not morning sickness sick, regular, non-pregnant person sick. Sore throat- Check. Achy feeling- Check. Sleepless Nights- check. The worst part of all of it is that I can't TAKE anything for my ailments BECAUSE I'm pregnant. I have a list of medicine that is Ok to take, none of which does ANYTHING for sore throats. And this sore throat is a beast- one for the record books. It probably feels so bad because I haven't been able to get any relief, and haven't been able to get much sleep because of the lack of relief, omigosh it's brutal. I've been out sick for the past 2 days and unless something dramatic happens, I don't see myself going back tomorrow...not fun. The only good thing about sick days is that these days are not cutting in to my maternity leave- starting January 1st, I get 10 new sick days that I need to hold on to so I can take as much maternity leave as possible.

On a happier note, this past weekend Jason and I were in the bay area with his family for Christmas, and we were finally able to spill the beans on our baby bump news!! Everyone was *THRILLED* with our announcement, and had some pretty fun reactions! I think Jason's Dad's side of the family was the loudest and most animated with their reaction, probably because this is the first baby in the family for 11 years, and the first Grandchild, Great-Grandchild, Nephew etc so everyone was overjoyed to say the least :)

I also told my HR department this week, and will finally get to tell my team this coming Monday and then EVERYONE will know! YES! Finally!

Well, I'm on throat lozenge #7, and my throat is coated enough to take a nap so that's what I'm going to do!!!

Thank you everyone for your love and support as our news becomes more public! We are so looking forward to the day when we can meet this growing baby and say HELLO!! We've got some busy months ahead before we can get there...here's a preview:
January:
Jason's Cousin visits
Ash's Mom visits
Packing up our "old" apartment
Moving into our new apartment

February:
Possible trip to Seattle for Ashleigh to see Family

March: Hawaii!!

April: Birthdays GALORE

May: Staying close to home

June: 3 weeks till Baby!!

Get In My Belly!!!

So for those of you wondering how the the pregnancy is physically progressing...take a gander at the pics below! The first is from our 7 week mark, and the 2nd was taken this past weekend at 12 weeks- things are a-changing! See that nice oblique definition in the first picture...then see how it's absent in the 2nd? Oh sad day...I'll get those abs back again though! Just wait and see! I had to buy my first maternity shirt last weekend. It's not that I'm not fitting into my clothing anymore, but when we met up with some friends for lunch, they knew right away that I was pregnant because my mid-section was a little thicker than it normally is. Given that we're finally telling the family this weekend, I didn't want to give our secret away as SOON as we step foot in everyone's house. So I've got a nice, NORMAL looking shirt that doesn't cling to my waist that I'll wear to Jason's Dad's side of the family...hopefully it holds off the snoopers until we present our GIFT!

I spoke to Jason's Mom today (I'd been somewhat avoiding her phone call in case I sounded too tired, or she caught on some other way- as Mom's tend to do!), and I don't think she suspects anything...though she did mention a couple of times how she would like to have a crystal ball so she could know WHEN we're going to have children and WHAT we're going to have- looks like we'll be giving her a crystal ball for Christmas this year! haha. I'm chuckling though because she's had quite a few run ins with the name Catalina this week (Very weird, I know!) she has always thought that Jason would have a little girl first (As did Nana), so we'll have to wait and see if our Dr's prediction was incorrect- whatever the gender, i know she will be thrilled with the news!

Ok...on to the photos!!

Bad Chinese Food...

For the most part, most foods haven't really bothered me too much during the pregnancy. I can handle the smell of most food, the thought of most food, and even the site of most food. I haven't had any of those experiences where I see a food commercial and immediately make a bee-line to the bathroom...except when it comes to Chinese Food. On a few rare occasions, Jason has brought home Panda Express and the smell of the food sends me into a gagging convulsion (Jason's favorite part of all of this!). Some nights Jason will call me on his way home and ask if I want him to bring me home some Panda...the thought just makes my stomach flip (Even now, as I type this- I can smell it and my gag reflexes are in full effect).
For the most part, I've been able to avoid having to be really close to any Chinese food, and I've definitely been able to avoid having any of my own...until today.
For a couple of weeks now, my team has been dying to take me to this one Chinese restaurant in China Town...I keep saying that Chinese food doesn't sound good, or that they can just go without me- but they wouldn't give up. Finally I came up with a response that they seemed to buy; I told them that "Chinese food is Dinner Food, not Lunch food." Apparently wtih an Ashleigh-Answer like that, they figured they had no room to persuade me. But today, they were relentless- they all were craving food from this restaurant, and one of the guys even offered to pay for my meal if I agreed to go. My stomach was feeling pretty strong, so I gave in. Bad idea. BAD idea.
We arrive in Chinatown and as soon as we get out of the car, my tummy is doing flips. I can smell things that my pregnant nose is NOT liking. We make it to the restaurant and the guys just start ordering their usual items (They order family-style so we can all share the food). They order Hot/Sour Soup (*gag), Slipper Shrimp (*gag by the name alone), Steamed Rice (Phew), Lemon Chicken (*gag). I think my face must have been green the entire time we were in there. The Hot & Sour soup came first- and this was not good. Those of you who know me well know that under normal circumstances I have an issue with soup so being that this soup looked as though it was just a mixture of every dead or leftover thing they'd found in the kitchen did not help. I made the mistake of asking the guys what was IN the soup, and they pretty much confirmed that it was all of the scraps from the kitchen. Yum. Brian suggested that rather than eat the items in the soup, I just concentrate on the broth- that actually helped, if it hadn't been so dang spicy...and hot for that matter. Luckily, the rice came next and I grabbed a LARGE helping of that and dove right in. I was hoping that as long as the guys noticed food going into my mouth, they wouldn't notice I wasn't eating anything else. Not the case. They kept asking "Do you want some Slippery Shrimp? It's SO good!" Gag, Gag...gag. I did try 3 pieces, and yes it was good, but I couldn't enjoy it because I was concentrating so hard on keeping everything else down. Next a huge plate of BEEF showed up- that probably would have made me gag even if I wasn't pregnant, luckily they were all ok with me passing on that. Last, the lemon chicken came which actually looked really good. But, my nose was smelling SO many horrible smells by this point that i couldn't fathom putting ANYTHING else in my mouth...except more rice. Garrett shoveled a piece of lemon chicken on my plate and just sat there, waiting for me to eat it. He could tell I wasn't digging this meal, and he actually felt bad- but he wasn't giving up on me trying that damn chicken! Finally, at the end of the meal I took 1 bite of the chicken- and after chewing it for a good 5 minutes, it stayed down.
It's now 4 hours later since that meal and I'm still fighting back the gags and anything else my body is trying to make happen. Ugh. I am SO glad that this big secret will be revealed to my team in 2 weeks. Not that i want them to change their minds about where they want to eat on my account, but at least this way I have a WAY better excuse for NOT wanting to go to their crazy restaurants for lunch.

Blgh!

Boy oh Boy!

Today was a GREAT day for several reasons!

First of all, before our Doctor's appointment this afternoon, Jason and I met up in Santa Monica and headed off to the apartment complex we've been wanting to get in to after we move out of our current home. We'd been calling them a couple times a week for the last 3 weeks trying to get an idea of when an apartment would be available in mid-January. The office staff was less than helpful over the phone, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and just go to the leasing office! It turned out to be a great idea, because an amazing unit had just come available! Top floor, overlooking the community park, and an awesome layout. 2 Bed/ 2 Bath (Enough room for the latest addition!)- and just a great area! We are SO excited. So we put down our deposit, filled out the application, and will get our keys on January 2nd- this is about 3 weeks SOONER than we actually needed to move in, but with all that's been going on, we wanted to just have it down and know that we have a home to move into once our current lease is up!

Second of all, we had a big doctor's appointment today. We were doing our 1st trimester screening for birth defects. From what I understand, our doctor will take the results from today's test and then will do a similar test during our 2nd trimester, and will take those results and average them with the results from today and THAT should tell us our chances for having a child with chromosomal birth defects (Such as Downs Syndrome). The doctor came in and started the ultrasound and within 3 seconds he was done! Always the efficient baby, little Laubster was in the PERFECT position for the Dr. to gather the information he needed! It was great- I was such a proud Mom that our baby did so well!

The third thing that made today so great was the extra information the doctor gave us! Because the actual test went so quickly (And because the doctor really liked what he saw) he decided to reward us by doing an extra long ultrasound complete with a 3D view of our little one! It was so cool to see the baby in full form! Hands, feet, body, head! Very cool! But what was the COOLEST thing is that the Doctor THINKS he may have seen a baby penis on our little one...which of course, would mean that we are having a BOY! Some of you may be shocked because it's too early to tell, but actually- the fetus has already determined what gender it's going to be, it's just not usually well defined enough to see it in a typical 12 week ultrasound. The fact that we got to do a 3D ultrasound and the fact that our little one was in a good position let us in on the big reveal! Granted, nothing is for sure YET- I've had several friends be lead down the wrong path with an early reveal, so we're just kind of taking it all in as some fun information, but not really seeing it as a fact yet. Here's the photo the doctor took that showed HIM we were having a Laubster Jr. instead of a Laubster-ette! What do you think?


The FOURTH thing that went well today was that the Dr. was absolutely THRILLED with what he saw in terms of the test results. He said the development of the babies nose was encouraging, the brain size and development was encouraging, the translucency of the fluid behind the neck looked great and the development of the limbs and fingers/toes also looked great. The Doctor (Who was a bit of a character) kept saying "I love your Baby" "I am very happy with your Baby" "I like what I'm seeing" I figured he said that to all of his "Mothers" but I quickly realized, that more often than not, he probably does NOT get to say those things...so I was VERY happy and VERY relieved to get the doctor's approval!

At one point in the exam, our little one got a little tired of being LOOKED at, and started kicking off the side of the womb (No I didn't feel it) as though he was kicking off the side of a pool! It was hilarious! It was as though he was trying to say "Get that thing off of my head!" Meaning the ultrasound wand! And I believe that next, the little one turned on his side and had his butt to us- he was just done with being on camera!

The whole thing is jut amazing- getting to SEE our little one growing, getting to see a portion of a personality already- that this creature has enough say that he/she knows when hey are annoyed and wants to get out of a situation is just amazing! Every time we go to the doctor we feel more and more connected with our little one. Andi n turn, Jason and I always feel closer to each other as man and wife after each visit- it's just a really great feeling.

One thing I have realized this week, after the migraine incident, is that I need to take better care of myself in general. I think that because I've been feeling BETTER in general I've kind of put my pregnancy needs on the back burner- I haven't been going to bed as early, i haven't been eating as much or as frequently as I should (Which is why *I* think I had the ocular migraine)- so I'm changing all of that so i can keep gaining weight and keep this baby kicking and impressing doctors!! So even though I'm feeling more like "myself", I need to remember that my new SELF is still a pregnant-self and that requires a little extra care and attention (more food, more sleep, less activity!).

Alright, dinner is on the stove, and I've got a hungry family to feed!!

Little Update on How Today Ended Up...

As Murphy's Law would have it, once you say something is going GREAT, it usually turns around quite quickly! Everything is fine now, but at 11:30am today, things were a little...uhhh...weird.

I was sitting at my desk at work when all of a sudden I noticed my vision getting VERY blurry out of my right eye. It wasn't necessarily SPOTTY, but I couldn't focus and I couldn't see out of my peripheral vision. If I held my right had in front of my face, but off to the side a bit, I couldn't see it. If I held my hand at a certain angle, I could see part of my hand, but maybe not my fingers- like there was a black hole off to the side taking up my hand- creepy to say the least. After sitting there for a few minutes I convinced myself "Ok, this is NOT normal" and I headed out to my car to call Jason (Whenever I have to make a personal phone call, especially regarding the pregnancy, I have to go to my car...I share an office with a teammate, so obviously it doesn't work to talk about that stuff in his presence). I called Jas and we both agreed that i needed to call our Doctor. I called Dr. Morris' office and explained the situation and that i wasn't sure if I should be calling THEM or my General Practitioner- without hesitation, the woman on the phone said I should come in to see THEM at 2:30 that day (I LOVE this Dr. Office- they didn't make any issue about the situation, totally validated my concerns and made room to see me at such a short notice!), the suggested I have someone drive me to the appointment in case my vision got worse. So I called Jason and of course he said he would be right there to pick me up. Ever the one not to make a scene, I assured him I was fine enough to drive to Santa Monica and have him pick me up from my main office...really? He reluctantly agreed, and I went back into the office. As soon as I sat down, my vision got worse- both eyes were blurry and i couldn't focus on anything. I called Jason back and told him he should come pick me up- he agreed and said he was leaving right away. Over the next 20 minutes, my vision began to clear up but I was shaken by the whole incident. The weirdest thing about it all was that I felt NO PAIN. I, of course, was thinking the worst things- am I not eating enough? Am I not getting enough oxygen, and therefore the baby isn't getting enough oxygen? Oh jeez, this parenting thing is synonymous with WORRYING!

Jason picked me up and we grabbed some lunch, which made me feel a bit better, but I still felt pretty sick. By the time we made it to the Dr. Office I was feeling pretty close to fine. I explained my symptoms to Dr. Morris's and she said that it sounded like a migraine and that I she would refer me to a neurologist.

The best part of the whole appointment was that we got to do ANOTHER ultrasound and see the baby again! While "he" wasn't being very active, his little heart was fluttering and the doctor explained that he was laying there with one arm above and behind his head, and the other hand was in front of his face- too cute! She printed us another ultrasound, but you literally can't see anything- so no point in posting it.

We still have our big appointment on Thursday where we'll be taking a video of the ultrasound and will post that somewhere for you all to view. They'll be prodding around the baby in that appointment, so hopefully he'll be a little more active than he was today...and that will give Mommy some reassurance!

So I'll be calling the neurologist tomorrow to make my appointment. After doing a little research, and hearing input from friends who have had migraines, it sounds as though I may have experienced an Ocular Migraine- which is a harmless migraine, that doesn't necessarily cause pain, but does cause vision problems (Including zig zag lines, which is exactly what I saw).

Hopefully it's all nothing, and this was the last of my migraine experience!

Sorry if this freaked anyone out, but I figured everyone would want to be MORE informed than Less informed!

Love you all!

Love,
Ash & Jas

12 Weeks with a Twist of Lime

Well today marks a HUGE milestone...Jason, myself and our little growing Laubster have made it 12 Weeks! We are officially in the 2nd trimester! YAHOO!!! Actually, I'm not sure if week 12 is the END of the first Tri or the beginning of the 2nd...either way, I know it's all good that we've made it this far and that everything has gone according to plan!



Per our Babycenter.com weekly update, today we learned that our little one is the size of a LIME...just over 2" long from head to toe (Adorable little toes I'm sure). I think it's quite fitting that our little one is the size of a lime this week, because I will be using a lime tomorrow night to fend off suspicious, observant and nosey minds at my companies holiday Christmas Party tomorrow. How, you ask? Well, the last company function I went to, I thought that by NOT drinking I could just blend in with the crowd, and no one would be the wiser, but apparently when your recently married, feeling maternal and in your mid to late 20s and a female- any time you are spotted withOUT an alcoholic beverage in your hand, suspicious minds start turning into gossiping mouths! Blatant rumors started flying AT the function that I was pregnant (Which I was, but I didn't want anyone ELSE to know that!)...so, rather than go through ALL of that tomorrow, I'm going to work a deal with the bartender...I'm going to order my signature drink (Captain & coke) minus the leader of the ship (Mr. Morgan) and just have coke, in a cocktail glass...with a LIME. A lime will make all the difference in convincing my co-workers that I am operating business as usual at a party. I'm sure my plan will fail miserably, but I definitely get a gold star for trying!!

Sometime last week I started feeling like MYSELF again (much to Jason's relief! he got his wife back...finally!). I was pretty sick on Sunday night, Monday all day and Tuesday morning and was beginning to think that my morning sickness was getting STRONGER day by day (Which scared me!)...but then by Tuesday evening, as I was driving home I noticed something...I was actually alert! I was so alert that I was SINGING along to the radio, and I was changing lanes (A MAJOR improvement to the last 5 weeks in which I silently drove home in the slow lane the entire time, just trying to avoid exerting any more energy than necessary). It struck me as being so odd that I realized, I didn't feel sick...AT ALL! From then on I've felt pretty fantastic! Sometimes the morning can still be rough (I was really light headed all of this morning, and had to keep sitting down while trying to get ready), but overall, my health has vastly improved from the past 5 weeks (YESSSS!).

This past weekend, Jas and I joined some friends of ours out in Las Vegas at our favorite place; The Red Rock Resort. It was a great weekend for all, but I've definitely learned my lesson- no more Vegas until AFTER the Laubster hatches! haha. It was a lot of fun being with everyone, but I was constantly faced with things I could NOT participate in- drinking, eating sushi, being active (After 2 games of Bowling, I almost fell asleep in the lanes!), and getting the massage that I wanted! Everyone else had an amazing time, so that was good enough for me; but I'll definitely take a weekend at home the next time Huy and Jason plan a trip to Sin City!


TTFN (Taa Taa For Now for all of you Non-Poo bear fans!)

Word of Advice...

...If you are pregnant, don't fall asleep as soon as you get home (6pm) and sleep for 7 hours (1am) then feel sick because you didn't eat dinner and have to pee. It is now 2:45am and I am so wide awake, but feeling like crap (yes Mom, I've eaten since I woke up)...oh this is going to be an interesting weekend!

Good Night....Good Morning...Taa Taa for Now!

1 Announcement Down, 2 More To Go!

Since Jason and I were home in Seattle for Thanksgiving, we took advantage of that opportunity and decided to announce our BIG news to my family!

We made some sweet shirts the night before we left, Jason's said "WE ARE" with a picture of our 1st sonogram and mine said "Pregnant" with a picture of the Clear Blue Easy Prego stick (And yes, that is a picture of the actual stick).




We told my Mom on Wednesday night, when Jas got in from the airport, we ran upstairs to put our shirts on and set up the camera. Then we called my Mom upstairs to help us with something- we just stood in the room and let her realize what we were up to...after 2.5 seconds she SCREAMED and put her hands up in the air and shouted "YAAAAY!!" It was perfect- perfect reaction! Unfortunately, our camera didn't capture ANY of the perfection for some reason. Oh well, we got a cute shot of the 3 of us posing together after the announcement. Good enough for the scrapbook!

On Thanksgiving Day we were set to tell the rest of my family (Those that were coming to Thanksgiving dinner that is). We waited until after dinner and everyone was winding down at my Mom's place, then we put the shirts back on. We told my Brother Nathan first, because he was randomly upstairs when we were going to head DOWN stairs with our shirts on, then we called our Dad upstairs and pulled the same stunt that we did with my Mom. Same great reaction- so far everyone has been happy! Ha! Next, we headed downstairs where Gretchen, Luke, Uncle Rod, Aunt Kathy, Cousin Erin and Cousin Michael were hanging out...we just walked in the room and let their observant minds do the figuring out! Again- screams, cheers and lots of "I knew it!" coming from the crowd. Erin guessed we were prego because I didn't have any alcohol at dinner and she thought I seemed very tired. Rod and Kathy guessed it as well, though I'm not sure why- possibly the lack of alcohol or the discussion we all had about my hair right before we made the announcement (My bangs have decided to stray in formation from the rest of my smooth and lovely hair...and they are crinkly and annoying right now...everyone has guessed that it's due to hormone changes).
The rest of the night was spent hearing stories from the women who have been in my shoes in past years- crazy and interesting stuff!

On Friday Night, Jason and I headed to my friend Jen and Main's home in Burien for a Left-Over Dinner Extravaganza. Jen is my good friend from my Freshman year of college- Elizabeth and Lindsey and Lindsey's husband Jason also joined in on the fun. So we got to tell Jen that night as well (I had told Elizabeth on Wednesday night while hanging out with Lindsey, and Lindsey was the VERY first person to find out, since i called her at 6am the morning after we took the test!). Jen was asking Jason and I about The Newlywed Game and when we were going on our trip, so I told her "We're thinking about going in March, because I won't be able to travel in my 3rd trimester" she looked at me blankly for a second and then screamed! Jen was so excited for us. Jen has 2 adorable little ones, so she's all for more friends becoming Moms! haha.

Overall it was a great trip! The family knows our big news and everyone is very excited. In a few weeks we get to tell Jason's family and then after New Years I will tell my team at work. Having all of this be out in the open will be SUCH a relief! Of course, I will be in the 2nd trimester by then, so I'll probably be feeling better and have less symptoms so it'll probably be weird for the team to know when really nothing is NEW, but oh well! At least the cat will be out of the bag!

I'm still feeling relatively good. Being home and on a different schedule, different bed and having different food over the Thanksgiving Weekend really wore me out. I was completely out of it and tired all day on Sunday when we got back, and on Monday I was sick all day- the worst I've been by far. Tuesday was a really good day and I was even able to run an errand after work, Wednesday and Thursday were back to being Iffy, so I just kind of play it all by ear. The 1st Trimester is almost over, and I'm really hoping that I'm one of those women who just wakes up one morning in the 2nd Tri and feels energetic and refreshed...I'll keep you updated!!