12 week ultrasound

Wednesday Ari and I got a sneak peek at the new little cutie. He/she looks pretty good. We got to see him/her stretch out! It was adorable. The HR was 167. In the last picture you can see baby's hands and most of it's little fingers. :)

12 weeks

WAHOO! We are almost done with the first trimester. Hopefully that leads to the relief of my morning suckness. (that's a type-o that I wont edit. haha) The nausea has been pretty hard on me the last few weeks. At my 12 week appointment Ari and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat on a Doppler. It was measured at 160 beats per minute, which is nice and strong. The appointment went well. I asked about the possibility of being anemic and the nurse showed me that my hemoglobin came back at 14, which is excellent. Anemia is another possible factor in preterm labor, so since I had some signs we wanted to be sure that I didn't need extra iron. My leaves should be tested again in a couple months. It's common for pregnant women to become anemic because their blood volume nearly doubles! On Wednesday I will go to St. Johns for the first trimester screening. This is a blood test and ultrasound that informs you of the possibility of defects such as down syndrome and trisomy 18/13. Not too much else has been going on, I feel like I've been sleeping alot of the days away to get relief from the morning sickness. So hopefully this is the end of it and I will be back to my normal energy level in the next week or so. (Sure this 100+ heat doesn't help any.)

In other news, Ari will have two new cousins in the next couple weeks. :) So we are on high alert for baby watch. Good luck Hannah and Kara, can't wait to meet the new cuties!

Present... Past... Future...

Present... today my son, Ari, turns 40 weeks old (those who aren't good with math that's just a bit over nine months)! He is nearly 21 pounds, 27 inches long and super active little guy. Ari is crawling around and getting into EVERYTHING, as I type this he is headed for my sewing machine *PAUSE*. :P

Past... Rewinding 40 weeks to Ari's birth. For reasons unknown to us Ari was born at just 32 weeks 0 days gestation (for those that don't know much about pregnancy that's 8 weeks early). At this point babies are not fully developed and can develop complications that can last a lifetime. However Ari was healthy and his tiny 4 pound 12 ounce body was (and still is) very strong! :) He spent the first 23 days of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Missouri Baptist Hospital.

Future... Ari is going to be a BIG BROTHER! I am now 10 weeks pregnant with Ari's little brother or sister( again those bad at math, that means the baby is due 30 weeks from now, so January 31st) . When I tell people that I'm expecting I'm often asked, "Is this baby going to come early to?". Unfortunately we have no clue, it is a wait and see sort of thing since we don't really know why Ari was born prematurely.  With a new OB (for those still clueless about pregnancy that's a 'lady' doctor that helps monitor your pregnancy), additional testing, and possibly shots of progesterone once a week from about 16 weeks until the end of the pregnancy, we are hoping to make it to term. In this blog I plan to write everything about my pregnancy to see if there are any signs or symptoms that may indicate Baby Bee wanting to come out before the end of January. (That and some updates and pictures of Mister Ari.)


So here it is... our fingers are crossed for a healthy baby and 30 more weeks of pregnancy...