12 week Scan

We took some video of the scan but I'm having trouble uploading it so here are a few photos in the mean time. The first one is a profile of our baby. If you look on the left hand side you can see a little foot (it looks to be floating in mid air but I assure you it's
attached to a leg).
In this shot baby is looking directly at you. You can see both hemispheres of the brain and the eye sockets.


This last shot is our wee alien child giving you a big old wave hello!


Between 11 and 14 weeks they can measure a fold on the back of the baby's neck and tell if you have an increased chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome or other chromosonal abnormalities. The fold on our baby was so tiny that she had an awful time getting a measurement. She got me in there three times over the course of the day hoping the baby would be in a better position. It seems our baby is on the small size, only measuring 11 weeks 3 days. According to the midwife dates (which she bases off of my period) that makes the baby 5 days small, but according to when I know it had to have happened ;) it is only 3 days small, and that is within the range of normal, small...but normal.

12 weeks and 2nd trimester names

Wow - tiny feet!




Our our little bean sprout is pretty much fully developed now and looking far more like a real person than a tadpole, although the head still makes up about half of the body. Many of the vital organs are already working and the baby can swallow and pee.

I am noticing that my tummy no longer goes back to normal when I wake up in the morning and at times I catch my reflection and think - wow, I might be starting to look pregnant. If so, then that is far earlier than I began showing with Ayva.

Tomorrow we go in for our 12 week ultrasound. I am very excited to see the baby jumping around in there, since it will still be a few more weeks before I can feel it.

I've put up the new baby names. Feel free to cast your vote. If you don't like any of them then I suggest you pick the one that you think you can best tolerate! We're actually so desperate for a boys name that we're willing at this point to take suggestions. Go ahead and give us what you've got! :)

Emergency Room Visit

(Don't panic - not for me or our growing bean sprout).

Ayva and I were playing this morning and she was crawling all over me so I grabbed a hold of her two hands and was swinging her backwards to which she was responding with a fantastic grin when all of the sudden her face changed and she gave me this look of "how could you - your own daughter!", dropped to the floor holding her arm and began to scream. In walks awful pangs of guilt and I am left wondering "what just happened?!". Ayva is very upset for the next hour at which point she proceeded to pass out in my arms and sleep for the next hour. Bruce is fairly relaxed but I am not. When she wakes up and still seems to be in such a terrible amount of pain, we decide it's time to head to the emergency room.

When we arrive she is still whimpering like a beat dog and I carry her in, cradled in my arms, looking very pathetic, and explain that we need to see a doctor, my daughter is in an enormous amount of pain, we think there's something wrong with her arm because she hasn't moved it since the incident.

"uh huh, yes, and how did she hurt her arm then, Dear?"

"ah, well - ruff housing with me, Mam"

"Hmmm...(sceptical child beater face)...I see. Take a seat then and we'll be right with you."

I'm pretty sure the nurse took in the bump on Ayva's forhead and the fresh scratches down the side of her face (she had a cat run in this morning...!).

We sat down to wait. Naturally, as all children do when they're brought into the emergency room by their frantic parents, Ayva begins to perk up. Then she crawls off my lap and starts waving at the passing cars (with her good hand). She proceeds to cradle the sore hand - but that's a marked improvement since every time Bruce or I went near it she started to scream. Bruce and I start to giggle as she starts wandering around the emergency room, cradling her arm, and looking at all the other patients like "what's up with you?" The nurse flashes us a "it's not a laughing matter when you abuse your kids" look. We put our heads down and went back to our trashy waiting room magazines (like that would somehow make us look like more respectable parents!)

After about an hour they finally called us in and the nurse ushered us into the kids room, at which point we commented to Ayva - "you've been in here before, haven't you love?".

"Have you really? (So you beat your children often then do you?)" asks the nurse, arching her child abuse eyebrow, as we quickly start stuttering out a story about food intolerances, and a colic reaction.

Once we explained what had happened the nurse looked quite relaxed, stating "I think I know what it is, it's quite common for children this age to dislocate their elbow." (DISLOCATED HER ELBOW?!?) Before we even register what she's done, Ayva is in tears, and the nurse is dusting off her hands stating that she'll return in 15 minutes to check on us but that Ayva should be fine and using her arm again in minutes.

Well I'll be damned, that's exactly what happened. Ayva was fine within a few minutes, wrapping her (both!) arms around Bruce's neck for a hug and then jumping off the examination bed to deliver the same to me. Fine. She was absolutely fine. It was as though it had never happened and she hasn't mentioned it since.

11 weeks 4 days

It has recently come to my attention that the little person that I am carrying is the very LAST chance to carry on the George Paterson line, that since Bruce's parents have had 3 girls before finally conceiving Bruce, he is the only child carrying the Paterson name and so regardless of how many sons their girls have, his would be the only one that would be a "Paterson".

Sheesh, no pressure Kristin!

I'm thinking it's a little girl, simply because it seems too "perfect" to get one of each, and also because not one of my friends in Nelson has managed to have anything but the same sex of child for number 2. This could just be a matter of water you know- nothing to be done about it...

It would not disappoint me in the slightest to have a girl, I think that the sister relationship is one of the most wonderful and unique. Ayva will be a very lucky girl if she gets a sister out of this. I will have my work cut out for me in about 14 year if Ayva gets a sister out of this.

That said my very initial gut feeling when I first knew I was pregnant was that it was a boy - but it was a fleeting moment and may have been swayed by the fact that I was rather excited about having just found the name Orion.

Speaking of names, I am very excited to reveal the new name lists. We've been working very hard on picking some great new names for y'all to vote on (Wednesday is the big day). And looks like we'll be saying goodbye to some of our beloved favorites, Pacey, Gwyn (bruce never really liked that one), and Sylvie.

11 weeks

(Sorry to steal ;) your photo this week Katy but it seemed to be the only 11 weeker I could find - neat shot too!)



Our babies skin is still see through and will be for a lot longer yet but it's hair and nails are already starting to grow. If born now, you would be able to tell whether we were having a boy or a girl, but I think we'll keep cooking and see what they have to say at the 20 weeks scan. The little kidneys begin to function this week, and our baby is already practicing swallowing and can get the hiccups (cute!).

We are already a quarter of our way through this pregnancy! Over the next 9 weeks (which will see us through to the halfway point) our baby will increase it's weight by 30 times and will triple in length, so needless to say - I have a lot of work to do!

I am feeling better on and off now. I haven't thrown up in 3 straight mornings but am still just as tired. I can't wait to start feeling a little more like myself. The size of my stomach seems to fluctuate throughout the day from pretty much normal (maybe a little extra pooch at this point) to I'd say around 4 months pregnant. Since the uterus is only now growing out of my pelvis, I know that all that "baby belly" is actually the massive amount of food that I've consumed that day. :)

A sigh of relief (10 weeks 6 days)

Our second midwife appointment was this morning. I have been anxiously awaiting it as I knew that she would be looking for the heartbeat. They say that once you've heard the heartbeat, the chances of miscarriage are greatly reduced. So needless to say, I was very very keen to hear that little ticker!

Our first appointment with Sonya when I was 10 weeks along with Ayva was when we first heard her heartbeat and I remember Sonya was able to find it so quickly. So I'll admit I did have expectations for this time around.

I let her know in advance that I was nervous and that I was really expecting to hear the heartbeat today...or would be needing a scan to confirm that all was well so that I didn't give myself a hernia waiting till next week.

To cut a long story short, she found it. But let's just say that by the time we heard that swoosh swoosh of baby's beating heart we both had beads of sweat perspiring from our foreheads. It took a really REALLY long time. I don't think she was going to give in though until she found it!

Ayva's Growth Chart

A Poem of Thanks

My beautiful castle and birds,
put up by my Mum in a cinch

greets me each glorious morning
to measure every last inch

So thanks to Great-Grama and Grampa
- now I finally know

With just one glance I see
I still have SO far to grow!

10 weeks 2 days

I didn't throw up this morning! YES!

And I almost didn't throw up yesterday morning.

I am still very very tired but when you consider what I'm brewing up in there, the exhaustion makes nothing but perfect sense.

And I do still feel glowingly happy about what we're doing...despite my eating us out of house and home :)

10 weeks

Today our little jumping bean graduates from "embryo" to "fetus", the classification it will stay in until it is born.


Pretty much everything is there now and we are entering a period of rapid growth (good-bye waistline!). I am too afraid to report on how I have been feeling for fear of jinxing myself again but if I were to report I would say that overall I have been feeling quite a bit better with mostly just morning nausea (occasional evening) and with very little (but some) improvement in my energy levels. Of course, I'm not going to report on how I'm feeling, so I won't be saying any of that. That's just what I would say if I WAS going to report.

In just 2 short days

Counting down currently to the 10 week mark when our wee one officially becomes a fetus and the placenta begins taking over some of the hormone production. From that point on the nausea, emotional chaos, and fatigue should start to slowly fade away (at least by weeks 16!) at which point I will be entering the honeymoon phase of the pregnancy.

Yes, please!

9 weeks

Our little embryo is not really a bean anymore. Rather, 1 to 1 1/4 inches (2.2 to 3cm) from head to butt. I am noticing now that my stomach is no longer returning to it's nice flat shape in the morning but rather there is a bit of a bulge :) Our baby is also starting to dance around in there and if it happens to connect it's hands with some other part of it's body, like one of those skinny little legs, then baby can wrap it's little fingers, already marked with it's own unique fingerprints, around it. Amazing.
(sorry the image isn't very clear, I had a bit of trouble finding a good one this week)


My cravings have really changed again. Protein is OUT and fruit/vegetables are IN. (Milkshakes are still okay though!) This baby is way more of an "impostor" than Ayva ever was. I didn't have many cravings while pregnant with her and certainly not these huge swings in preferences. I can't even look at chicken right now without heaving. Last week it was all I wanted to eat! I keep going out and stocking up on my latest craze and now there is all of this food sitting in the cupboard that I can't even look at! Thank goodness Bruce is a big eater...

Monty

Here's our beautiful little boy enjoying being home (and the chaos!) -


As a side - After I blogged about how much better I was feeling, things quickly turned south and I have returned to suffering from fairly debilitating all day nausea. But, as my (very Southern Kiwi) Mother-in-Law said - "Oh well, you'll get over it". :)
And she's right, just 3-4 more weeks. ugh - counting down to the end of the first trimester!