13 weeks

How far along? 13 weeks!!

Baby is the size of a: Peach

Total weight gain: 4 pounds

Stretch marks? Just the one on my boob!

Maternity clothes?  No, but my jeans are getting pretty snug around my waist. 

Sleep: Pretty decent this week, only waking up to go pee!

Best moment this week: Seeing our baby on the 31st! 

Miss anything? Nope!

Food cravings: My normal appetite is starting to come back, so fresh fruit and veggies have been on my list. Fresh fruit smoothies, V8 tomato juice, still loving pickles and cereal.

Anything making you queasy or sick? Nope! I'm so thankful that baby has treated me well and not given me horrible morning sickness. I've felt nauseous less than a handful of times. 

Gender: No idea! I really want a boy, so it's probably a girl! 

Labor signs: Hopefully not for a very long time! 

Symptoms: Hungry, bloated, gassy, burpy, still getting those sharp pains inside my hip bones if I get up too fast, turn a certain way or sneeze hard and my back has started to hurt if I lay certain ways. 

Belly button in or out?  In.

Wedding rings on or off: On.

Happy or moody most of the time: A mixture of both, but I have been getting pretty snappy lately. 

Looking forward to: Finding out the gender on the 23rd!!!

I feel like so much has happened this week. First off, Happy New Year! Thank God 2014 is over and we're turning a new page. 2014 was probably, by far, one of the most emotionally draining and stressful years for us as a couple and individually. We realized how strong we are, recognized our weaknesses and dealt with some pretty tough things in 2014. While 2014 brought us the biggest blessing ever, we are happy so say good riddance to 2014 and move forward. 2015 is going to be an amazing year filled with many more blessings and we cannot wait! 

On Wednesday, I had two doctor's appointments and thankfully Chris was able to go to both with me! My first appointment was with an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor to have a lump I've had on my left tonsil looked at. My left tonsil has been enlarged for over a year and I've seen my regular doctor for it. We thought it may be enlarged due to the sinus infections I was getting, so I went on a couple of rounds of antibiotics in January 2014. They didn't help the lump and since it didn't hurt and wasn't causing any difficulty swallowing or anything, I kind of just ignored it. Well, over the last month it started to change. I decided I needed to see an ENT and have it looked at, especially since I'm pregnant. I'll leave out the gory details and pictures, but it turned out to be a cyst on my tonsil. The ENT doctor drained it and sent a sample to pathology to make sure there's nothing else going on. My tonsil went down significantly and didn't even hurt afterwards. Maybe I have a high pain tolerance. I go back in 2 weeks for a follow up to make sure all is well. There is a chance the cyst could come back and if it does, it'll get drained again. If it becomes bothersome, I may need a tonsillectomy after baby comes. 

My second appointment was with my OB GYN. It was my first pre-natal appointment with him and I assumed all that would be done was a pelvic exam and the doppler to hear the baby's heart beat since the receptionist told me they wouldn't do an ultrasound. Well my doctor definitely did the pelvic exam, gave me orders for blood work and then told me he was going to do an ultrasound! We were so excited and I was so thankful Chris was able to make it. The last time we saw baby was at 10 weeks and my has it grown since! It looks like a baby and not a gummy bear! The doctor tried doing vaginal ultrasound, but the pictures weren't that great so I had my first ultrasound done on my belly. Baby was moving around sooooo much it was hard for the doctor to get the heartbeat. When he did, baby's heart beat was 153 which has gone down since 10 weeks when it was 161. We were able to see baby's spine and developed arms and legs. It's hard to believe it's only about 3 inches long and almost fully developed. During the ultrasound it looked like baby was sucking it's thumb already. It was truly amazing. 

Another thing we talked about at my appointment, and Chris and I have talked about since we found out we were expecting, is pre-natal screenings for genetic abnormalities and disorders. When we were with Dr. Norian he wanted us to get the Panorama Screening done to test for things such as Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida and Trisomy 13 and we decided not to. My OB GYN also talked to us about these tests and we have opted not to do these tests for several reasons. The first being that these tests are not 100% accurate and could give you a false positive. Second, Chris and I have no family history of birth defects or genetic abnormalities and we had genetic screening done on us prior to starting IVF. We are not carriers for the same recessive genes which pretty much guarantees our children will not have those specified disorders. And the last and most important reason for us is that we tried for so long to have this little blessing, that no matter what we will love it and care for it. If the screenings came back with abnormalities, so what. We do not believe in aborting the pregnancy just because there "may" be an abnormality. A life is a life and we will love our baby no matter what. 

My next pre-natal appointment is on January 29th. I think my OB-GYN said I'll see him every 2 weeks in my 2nd trimester and then once a week in my 3rd trimester.  Around the 20 week mark, I'll have the anatomy ultrasound done and a test done on the baby's heart. My doctor said studies have shown that baby's conceived via IVF have a slightly higher chance of having abnormalities with their heart. I don't really know why and my doctor didn't give an explanation. So, that's the latest and greatest! My energy is starting to come back so now I have no excuse to not be active and go to the gym more often! 

Alissha