8 Weeks

Baby's now the size of a raspberry!
Baby is growing like mad, putting on about a millimeter every day and continuing to straighten out in the trunk. Though you can't feel it yet, baby is moving those little arms, legs, and (now only slightly) webbed fingers and toes like crazy.

Playing host to an ever-growing embryo does take a toll. Heavy fatigue may be setting in, along with abdominal cramping and tender breasts. Treat yourself gently, and it doesn't hurt to remind your partner to do the same. Though it's not showing yet, you're growing a little person in there!

How far along? 8 weeks
Weight gain/loss: Up 2 pounds, 147
Maternity clothes? Not yet, but I am rocking the bella band and the rubber band through the button hole trick.
Stretch marks? Too early (thank God)
Sleep? It's all I want to do, all the time.
Best moment this week? A friend told me she knew before I told her because I was glowing. :) I still think it's just grease, but it was still nice to hear, lol.
Food cravings: Carbs, carbs and more carbs. Biggest one this week is waffles with butter and maple syrup. (syrup also seems to be a natural laxative, nice bonus)
Gender: Too early
Belly button in or out? Too early
Movement? Too early
What I miss? Real coffee
What I'm looking forward to: Hearing the heatbeat, my (hopefully last) appointment with my RE this Friday.
Weekly wisdom: Hmm, I might have to get back to you on that, I don't feel very wise.
Milestones: 8 week u/s 5/28.

7 Week Belly Pic

I think I'll start posting these on my ticker change day, so long as I manage to look presentable on Monday morning. If not maybe Tuesday. ;) Anyway, this is a super cute (and cheap) dress I bought a Target, it hides the bloat pretty well, but as you can tell it's still huge. I can't wait to have a real belly, I feel so awkward knowing that it's just jiggly fat & water right now.

7 Weeks

Baby's now the size of a blueberry!
Baby's brain -- both hemispheres! -- is growing fast, generating about one hundred new cells every minute. Arms and legs are emerging as joints start to form, and a permanent set of kidneys (baby's third!) is now in place.

This is my first week without an u/s. I have mixed emotions about it. I know my RE thinks things are going fine and while I believe things are fine, it still makes me nervous. Keep growing strong Stevie!

Belly Pic Friday (2 days late)

Still 145 lbs. I don't see a huge change in this picture, but I absolutely need new work pants. None of them button, and I've had to think of creative ways to hide that. So far belts and longer shirts have been helping, but I can't keep wearing the same few outfits every single week. Hopefully today I'll find some cute and cheap stuff to help get me through until a real belly starts to show.

6 Weeks

Baby's now the size of a sweet pea!
Growing like crazy, baby is starting to sprout eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, and chin. Those little hands and feet -- still webbed like paddles -- might wiggle by week's end, the heart is beating (almost twice as fast as yours!), and blood is starting to circulate.

• Only new symptom so far has been round ligament pain. That settled in at the end of last week. It was accelerated by a 3.5 hour car ride followed by a bad nights sleep at my parents house on a blow up mattress, then my little sister's college graduation on bleacher seats. 5 hours long. Ow!! I was so nauseous and in so much pain, it was not a fun time.
  

• My first mothers day was nice, considering I was so so sick, we drove home on Saturday rather than spending the rest of the weekend with my parents. My mom totally understood though, and before I left she gave me a "mother-to-be" card that made me cry. It was really sweet. :)
  

• We had our second ultrasound at 6w 1day, and Stevie is doing great! We saw the fetal pole and the heartbeat, which was really awesome. Confession time: I youtubed 6 week ultra sound until I was blue in the face on Monday night so DH and I would know what to look for Tuesday morning. (Man there are a lot of shitty u/s techs who can't focus in on utes for shit out there) Well anyway, the research paid off I guess. I saw my baby's heartbeat right away and I almost cried, DH was really excited but he had a freaked out look for a second. It was suddenly real for him I think. He's been excited but he's also the voice of rationality when it come to this kind of stuff. So he's been cautiously excited. "Expecting the worst while hoping for the best," is how he usually puts it. We're down to a 15% chance of m/c, and if everything is fine 2 weeks from now we'll be down to 5% and graduate to a midwife!

So, I guess it's about time for a weight post.

I got on the scale the morning of my BFP to see 145. Eww, easily the heaviest I have ever been. I hadn't weighed myself in weeks, and I was not expecting that. Since then the number has been fluctuating anywhere from 139 to 145 again. Water weight and constipation much? My RE usually recommends that his patients with PCOS try not to gain weight in the first trimester if they are already overweight. At 5'3", it looks like I fall into that category. This is not going to to be easy considering I'm shoving anything down my face to keep from feeling nauseous. Here's my baseline belly pic, please enjoy my beer gut/bloat:



Work clothes are already pretty tight and uncomfortable once the bloat sets in for the day, (notice the bootyliciousness going on in these pants anyway? yeh...) and I'm not really sure it's appropriate to wear spanks while pregnant. Or a bella band to work. I'll have to think of something before I split my pants.

5 Weeks!

Baby's now the size of an appleseed!
Your embryo, which doesn't look like much more than a tadpole right now, is actually starting to form major organs (heart, kidney, liver, stomach) and systems (nervous, circulatory, digestive). Baby's presence in your uterus triggers production of HCG (the hormone detected by pregnancy tests), which triggers the production of other hormones like estrogen and progesterone, which triggers all those great symptoms you've probably been noticing!

Eleven days since I saw that first and faintest of lines, and I still can't believe it. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do blog wise, so here goes:

• DH has decided to name our in utero babe "Stevie Z" after Steve Zissou. Because he's "living the life aquatic! He's swimming around in there!" I've tried to tell him a fetus does not swim, but to no avail. Stevie Z it is.

• Friday after my fourth beta RE called to tell me my beta levels are still rising very nicely but my progesterone has dropped, so I'm now on prometrium, aka vaginal progesterone suppositories. I was seriously overwhelmed and freaked out on Friday and all I wanted to do was cry. I realize that low progesterone is not the worst thing that could happen, they have medicine to hopefully fix it right? They don't have a pill to make your betas double. But it was a lot to handle when we planned on telling our families the same night. I felt like I was telling them with strings attached. But they were so excited for us and we had them promise not to say anything because it is so early and this is now considered a higher risk pregnancy.

• Guess who couldn't keep her big fat mouth shut? Yep, my MIL. We went to a wedding on DH's side on Saturday, (one of the big reasons we told Friday night, I usually drink a lot at weddings, not to mention any time I have to spend time with my ILs) and she literally announced it in the parking lot to her family members I had never even met before!! I wanted to strangle her, she just kept going! Luckily, DH and SIL backed me up later when they got her alone. He explained that we're excited but we obviously don't want to have to un-tell everyone. I wanted to scream at her "I HAVE TO TAKE PILLS VIA VAGINA TO KEEP MY BABY ALIVE YOU TWIT! CAN YOU NOT TELL THE WHOLE WORLD I'M KU?!?!?!" He probably handled it better.

• I feel like I'm under a lot of pressure. I was nervous enough without the news of the low progesterone. Now, it's regular nerves x2, since I actually have something real to worry about. Add telling people, and my stupid MIL telling everyone DH's entire family, and here comes more pressure. UHG. I just keep hoping and praying and trying my damnedest to be positive.
  

• Lets move on to symptoms, those wonderful things that make me feel pregnant, and reassure me mentally by making me physically sick. Cool! Disclaimer: I don't want to say I had "symptoms" immediately after O, because I don't now for sure if I can actually attribute those to pregnancy. But either way this is what I felt. 1) Right after O I had cramps for a few days. Not regular cramps that I get when I O or when AF is on her way, but what felt like a combination of ute cramps, sore abs, hip pain, and having to poop cramps. It was literally a cramping I had never had before. It started up again around 7DPO and since the BFP I still have odd crampy feelings off and on. 2) I had to get up to pee in the middle of night almost every single night since O, and still do. This was definitely out of the norm for me, I rarely if ever have to get up and pee at night. 3) Around 9 and 10 DPO I was so tired, had a headache that felt like I had hit my head on something (like when I'm hungover) and I started having waves of nausea and lightheadedness. Most of those are still going strong, especially the nausea and fatigue. No actual puking yet though, which has been nice. 4) Boobs are sore, slightly bigger, and my nips are huge and a little darker, that also started around 9-10 DPO.

And last but not least, the BFP chart: