Week 5

Tomorrow morning Baby Von Bauer will officially enter Week 5, which means (s)he is the size of an apple seed!

My symptoms this past week have been constipation followed by two days of diarrhea. Fun times...notsomuch. I haven't gained any weight, but due to the constipation bloat there was a day I had to use a pony tail to keep my pants together. Other than that, I have been a little tired and my boobs hurt worse every day. I guess if morning sickness is going to kick-in, it should start in the next two weeks. I do NOT enjoy throwing up and I am deathly afraid that I am going to be forced to do it during a presentation at work. I have seriously thought about all the rooms I give presentations in, how close the exit is, and the location of the nearest restroom. Also under consideration: Will I have time to get to the restroom? What should I say if I need to run out in the midst of a speech? If I get sick in the Executive Conference Room and need to puke, will it seep out of the trash can because it is wire and has little holes?

1st Doctor's Appointment

My first appointment was yesterday and it just reaffirmed my feelings about going to Lakewood, so I am really hoping my appointment on St. Patty's Day with the midwife goes well and I don't have to go back to this doctor again! First of all, they drew 12 vials of blood from me and almost made me pass out which wasn't very nice. The lady said, "Girrrl, one mo' second and you woulda been out!" Um, okay, maybe that means you should stop!?! They had to flip me over this shelf on the chair and put a fan on me. NOT FUN! I hope I don't have to give that much blood every time. Second, they don't give your first ultrasound until 18 weeks, which I know is probably somewhat standard but I do not want to wait that long. And third, they want us to start paying $106 a month until the baby is born and that does not cover the hospital stay or any ultrasounds or labs. I think free Lakewood is sounding better and better.

A couple other weird things that happened:

1. They made me sign a waiver saying that I would not take Bradley classes, and if I did, they would not see me anymore.

2. I asked the lady when my second appointment would be and she said at 11 weeks because, "That's when the baby's heart forms and you can't hear it before then." Okay, I'm no medical professional, but even I know that is just plain not even true! A little concerning.

AWWW! Thanks Jenn!

Jenn sent me her Bella Bands in the mail along with two of the cutest lil t-shirts! They are adorable! And thank you for the Bella Bands. I haven't gained any weight, but was still forced to resort to a pony tail holding together my smaller sized dress pants today. Grrrreat. So yay for Bella Bands!

[Edit: As a follow-up to this post, turns out I just needed to poop. My pants fit fine yesterday. Whew!]

What The Hell Happened to Plain Ole Lamaze?!?

Invention Lets Women "Practice" Giving Birth With A Balloon
By Margaret, 2:30 PM on Wed Feb 25 2009

An invention filed with the U.S. Patent Office allows pregnant women to partially insert a balloon in the vagina and push it out, in order to practice giving birth.

According to the patent, when inflated in the vagina, the balloon tapers conically toward the waist, which "causes the orifice of the birth canal to dilate in a manner similar to that caused by the emerging head of a baby." Pregnant women can then "exercise by pushing the balloon out of the vagina in preparation for giving birth." Supposedly repeatedly birthing the balloon will make the real thing easier and less painful, but is better to just do it once and get it over with?

We're Having a Baby!

I decided to start a separate, private blog to use as pregnancy journal and as a way to keep family and friends who are far away involved and up-to-date. We found out Friday night that we are expecting November 1st! After three negative pregnancy tests as recent as Thursday night, we decided to go to Target and get one more test since Aunt Flo was still nowhere to be found. I got a 2 Pack digital test that said YES+ or NO- since I thought this would be a lot more definitive. I took the test after going out to dinner with my cousin Brady, who was in town for work, and as I waited for three excruciating minutes I never really once thought that it would actually say YES+. I looked down and saw that it had stopped blinking, so I picked it up and my mouth immediately fell open and I probably stared at it for a good minute or so in complete shock. [Note: As you can see, I proceeded to return to Target and buy more tests before finally believing I might actually really truly be pregnant after the third YES+.]

I then flung open the bathroom door and ran into the living room where Derek was sitting and said, "I'm pregnant!" He immediately jumped up to look for himself and was in complete shock. We have been talking about this since December, but we never REALLY thought it would actually happen on the FIRST try!!! We are very excited and can't wait for our first real doctor's appointment, which will be March 17th. I should be seven and half weeks by then, so hopefully we will be able to hear the heartbeat at that time.

I have a meeting with my regular lady doctor this Friday to discuss my maternity benefits with a nurse practitioner, but after much thought I think we have decided to have the baby at TMC-Lakewood, which is part of the hospital system where I work. The Lakewood campus is about 30 minutes from our house and is a nice, quiet, suburban hospital with nurses and doctors I really trust. Also? It's completely free if I have my baby at one of our hospitals, so I think that would be a good idea, mmkay? However, I'm going to go ahead and go to my appointment this Friday just in case for some reason things don't work out with the woman who I would like to deliver me at Lakewood.

Being in charge of patient satisfaction, I have the advantage of knowing right away which doctor I want to see...and in fact, she is not a doctor, but a midwife. She has the highest satisfaction rating (97%...and that exceeds the next closest doc by 10%) of any doctor/midwife in the entire organization...and not just OBs! She is who I will be seeing on 3/17 and I am really looking forward to finally getting to meet her.

I plan to post things like belly pictures (when I stop just looking fat) and updates on doctor's appointments, how I'm feeling, how the baby is developing, plans for training Helix and Ava that Baby von Bauer is not a snack or play toy, and other random Bauer fun-facts of course! I hope you'll check back often and share this experience with us...we are extremely excited and a touch scared shitless!

Derek and Ashley