Baby #3

I had my first ultrasound on Friday. There's nothing like seeing that little heartbeat to make the pregnancy feel more real - and provide peace of mind that everything is coming along normally - and that there's just one baby :)

For both our previous kids, my first ultrasound was much earlier - 7 & 6 weeks. There was much less to see then... just a blob with a flutter in the middle (the heart). But for this baby, I was further along - 9 weeks. It's amazing how much change happens in that short amount of time! (Somewhere, I once read that if the baby continued to grow at the rate he/she does in the first trimester, the baby would be the size of the sun at birth!)

At 9 weeks, I was able to see so much more than I expected. Because the baby is still so tiny (the size of a grape), the ultrasound couldn't pick up the details. But I got to see a clear silhouette of the baby's head and body. And, of course, the heart - beating at 182 beats per minute - absolutely perfect!
The nurse gave me two photos to keep. I'll never understand why images print out sooo much less clear than they appear on the screen during an ultrasound... These photos are not great. So I guess you'll just have to trust me that I got to see the baby's head and body clearly, and a beating heart :)

Told ya... pretty crumby pic... But #2 is a little better:

Baby #3's official due date is December 31, 2011.

Any guesses on what year he or she will actually be born in?? :)

The most common question I get is, "how are you feeling?" Fine. Most of the time.

I'm still getting dizzy alot - where my vision blacks out for a second when I stand up from a seated or laying position. But that's not pregnancy related, it's been going on for months. And meds the doctor gave me are slowly making that go away.

Related to the pregnancy is another kinds of dizziness - the kind where if I'm standing for a while, I start to feel like I'm moving (when I'm not) and the room is standing still. That is thanks to baby. For a while I thought it got better when I ate more often. Now I'm convinced it doesn't matter if I eat or not. Although it does tend to turn to nausea if I don't eat... Learning to feed nausea is tough! But I've never actually gotten sick. And a friend recommended those "sea band" motion sickness bracelets, since they're drug-free. They do seem to work. At least I made it through a 2 hour trip to Walmart without feeling sick or dizzy once! :)

  

That's about the only thing going on to make me feel pregnant. Well, that, and seriously weird, vivid dreams - which was true of both past pregnancies, too. But they happened every night when I was pregnant with Nathan, and just sometimes with Faith. So the dizziness and dreams make this pregnancy pretty close to how I felt when I was pregnant with Nathan at this point...

With Faith, I was only sick in the afternoon for 1-2 hours and it was MISERABLE. I literally couldn't do a thing during that time some days... I was so grateful for Baby Praise to keep Nathan happy! And, with Faith, my taste buds were different starting at just 3 weeks of pregnancy! Foods tasted weird and everything smelled stronger. In fact, those were two signs that made me wonder if I was pregnant, before I got a positive test. But they aren't the case this time around...

So... if pregnancy symptoms are any sign, maybe it's a boy?? We'll try to find out in August. And, as I've learned from friends who were surprised at their child's birth, we won't know for sure if its a girl or boy till late 2011 or early 2012 ;-)