Double Digits Baby!

We've reached 10 weeks already! Whewwwwwwwwwwwww that was hard work, well not really.  Little baby Castro has been hard at work since day 1! He is now considered a fetus! How exciting. His nickname now is Fetie, short for Fetus :)

He also lost his tail! Can you imagine that we all had tails at one point? How cool would it be to have a tail? I think if I had a tail right now, I would use it to hold an ice cream cone while I typed away.  

According to WebMD, the baby looks a little like a medium sized shrimp, measuring 1.25 to 1.68 inches from crown to rump, and weighing a little less than two-tenths of an ounce.

Every Monday, I get emails in my inbox about how the baby is doing and his size.  Every week it's been a fruit, ranging from a grape to this week's shrimp.  Honestly, it kinda bothers me and I told Nelson this and he thinks it's pretty funny but I was not trying to be funny, just thinking rationally.  One week (in a previous post) they mentioned that he was a size of grape.  Guess what fruit I didn't want to eat or think about eating that week? Grapes! Grapes also have that gooey consistency that you would find in your body.  I understand what all these websites are doing though. They want to give you an idea of what size the baby is inside of you, but couldn't they find more of a clever way to describe it?  Like for example, instead of using a shrimp this week, can you say the size of a large paper clip? and also include the inches? Or how about a picture of a rules with the size highlighted? Just an idea!

Here are some examples of the fruits that they use to describe the growing being inside...

Poppy seed (ok I can handle that)

apple seed  - not a food that you would eat so I'm ok with this too

 

 Week 6 - pea or lentil

 Guess who LOVES lentils - this pregnant chic!

 

 Blueberries! Really? Especially this time of year while they are in season? 

 I'm not a raspberry fan so it's ok with me :)

 Week 9 - Grapes. I love grapes!

 

Week 10 - Cumquat according to another site.  This week according to Webmd, I have a shrimp! 

The list goes on and on and you can imagine what types of fruit they have towards week 40! WATERMELON!!! Wow I can't imagine how that's gonna fit inside there.  Soon enough we will be able to see!

Our hearts melted a little this weekend...

Friday the 20th was Nelson's birthday and we both couldn't ask for a better bday weekend together.  We went out for Sushi with Mike and Brian King on Friday night (don't worry I didn't eat anything raw!).  Then Saturday morning we had an 11:30am appointment to see the doc and our baby. 

I have to say that we were both really nervous before going to the doctor.  I felt like it was my first day back at school with the nervous jitters, but even a little worse.  I was nauseas (partially due to morning sickness) and very quiet.  On our drive there, we listened to relaxing music and we were both hoping for the best.  

Got to the Dr's office EARLY (when are we ever EARLY) and I first had to pee on a protein/glucose stick.  That turned out fine.  I'm really not sure why I had to do that but apparently every time I go there, I have to pee on the stick.  Just a quick side note... I find it very difficult to pee in a cup, gross I know.  But I know that there are plenty of women out there, that either pee on their leg or on their hands before getting it in the darn cup.  Ok Sorry. 

The sonogram lady called us in and the time was up to see our baby.  Gulp!  The lady stepped out so I could undress and it felt like she didn't come back for an eternity, but it was only a minute or 2.  She was so nice.  Within seconds, we saw this beautiful little creature on the screen and his heart was pumping away! Then a few seconds later, we heard his heart! She said that he had a very strong heart beat.  Oh how great that was.  This is now real!

 You can see his head on the bottom right, then his body on the left.  If you look closely you can see his little feet too.  I think he looks like a jelly bean. 

After that wonderful experience, we then met with the Dr to go over any questions.  She examined me and said that I'm 9 weeks.  She also said that I'll be due around 12/27.  She even said 12/25 at one point.  I'm betting that he'll come 12/26.  My Bday! What the best present that would be! If that would be the case, Nelson said that my I won't have much attention on my bday.  Honestly once any baby is born, there's no room for me to be thinking about me me me, so I'm all for baby to take 12/26.  Usually due dates are never accurate, so who knows baby Castro may not even come out until 2012! 

We went shopping after the Dr's appointment.  We bought Nelson's  coworker a wedding present, I bought a boppy sleeping pillow that I love....

It looks like it goes around the entire back but it doesn't.  It curves around.  It's very comfy and so far my back feels great.  So hopefully when the belly grows more, this will come in handy.  

We also went to Lowe's to pick up some cilantro and tile for our 1st floor bathroom.  We will finally be able to set some time to work on the house (well Nelson work and I cook for his breaks) and I am looking forward to the bathroom being on the 1st floor bc I've been going a lot lately.  Going up and down the stairs is good exercise but it would be more convenient just to be on the first floor. 

That is all for now.  A great weekend!

Week 8: He's a Grape and I'm feeling it

So according to WebMD, the little growing guy inside is the size of a grape. How cute is that.  Nelson said that "he's definitely a red grape not a green one. He has lots of flavor."  Personally I think green grapes have lots of flavor too, but I hear what he's saying.

So today's Monday and it's a crappy day outside. It kinda matches how I'm feeling right now.  I didn't sleep well last night at all.  My stomach hurt before going to bed and I believe it was just indigestion.  So that in addition to sleeping on my side, and peeing every hour, was a recipe for a not so great night sleep.  However, I did still wake up at 6:30 and did a very light work out of the elliptical downstairs.  It's hard for me to drag myself out of bed, but I always think about the little person inside and that motivates me to get moving.

Plus there are so many benefits to working out while preggers:

#1 - You don't have to overexert yourself.  I have my heart rate monitor and make sure that I'm under 140 BPM

#2 - Boost your energy.  I normally feel so much better after exercising.  The days I don't exercise, I feel more nauseas and sluggish.

#3 - Sleep better.  I hope this stays true throughout the next few months!

#4 - Reduce pregnancy discomfort. This helps certainly with back pain and helps with the wonderful constipation. Bleh

#5 - Prepare for childbirth

# 6- Get your body back faster after childbirth.  This is a motivation in itself to stay exercising.

Now in addition to exercising, I'm on a mission to find the perfect pillow for me to sleep with.  I know a friend of mine used a Boppy pillow.  I never really saw it, but I heard she loved it.  Here are some photos of pillows I've been looking at:

This pillow seems like it would take up more than half of our kind size bed, so I don't think i need this. Also what a struggle it would be to get in and out of! 

This is something that might be up my alley.  I wish I can test this out without committing. 

They are about 60 bucks!

This is called the cuddle pillow.  Looks comfy but I feel like I can do that with my king size pillow.

The wedge.  This supports your growing belly.  I can wedge other pillows there too.

Now this lady looks the most comfortable of them all! I may need to invest in this one.  She looks so peaceful.  

My friend who has the boppy said that when her husband tried to cuddle with her, he would have this huge poking pillow in the way.  Sorry Nelson! :)

Looking at all these pillows has me feeling sleepy! Good thing I have a couch in my office.  I will sleep during my lunch time and dream of our little grape.

Sleepiness sets in

So it's about 7 1/2 weeks in and I'm starting to feel sleepy during the day! 

  I wish I could be sprawled out on my office floor like this

Last night I went to bed at 9pm and I never go to sleep before 10pm.  This baby is working hard for his money down there.   I also find myself getting up to go to the bathroom A LOT more often now too.

You know what also sucks? Not being able to talk about this with my friends at work.  Just earlier today, we got on the subject of how women have to endure so much more than men when it comes to our bodies, especially in pregnancy.  Then we talked about the food you can't eat during pregnancy and the subject of wine came up too.  Someone else joined in the conversation and they were asked, "Did you drink wine during your pregnancy? No one in this room is pregnant, we just started talking about this."  I didn't ask this question, but boy did I want to shout out - "Actually I am!"

Well soon enough they will all know!

The Cat's out of the Bag...to just a few

Nelson and I decided that we would tell our immediate family that we were preggers before the 1st trimester ends.  At first we thought we could wait until mid-June to tell our parents and siblings, but it was way too hard to keep up with the lies. 


Last weekend, we went to my parents for a NY Mother's day and we decided to spill the beans then.  Before we told our family that day, we played in the backyard with our niece and nephew, Erin and Jack and I learned a parenting tip.  Erin just got a scooter and Jack got a little bike.  So of course I wanted them to race around and they both enjoyed doing that as well.  

On your mark, get set, go!

 And they're off!

 Parenting tip #1 - Do not ask your niece for a high-five when she is passing you on her first lap. It doesn't lead to anything good.

 Losing balance after the high-five.

 She's going down.

 The aftermath. She was fine, but did cry a little. No cuts or bruises but boy did I learn a lesson!

Jackie feels for her sister and wonders what happened.

So after all that excitement, Nelson and I decided to take out our Turks & Caicos photo book to show my parents and Jeff.  Luckily they all sat next to each other while they were looking at the photos.  In the photo album we planted in photos of the pregnancy test that we took in Turks and Caicos.

Looking at the beach photos. They took too long looking at the photos.

 Still looking through the photos.

 They are on the right page and Jeff notices the pregnancy test right away. "That's a pregnancy test"

 "Are you pregnant?"

"Yes" :)

 "Really, you are?" my mother asks.

It sinks in and the water works come through.

Pop's excited too.

Later on that day, I went to pick up Kerry from work.  I didn't tell her that I was pregnant when I picked her up. I wanted her to look at the photos. Her reaction was pretty awesome.

 It was really funny to look back at these pictures.    

 Then this past weekend, we were able to share the news with our CT family.  On Saturday, Nelson and I went to a Boston Red Sox game.  We took a limo on the way there and of course everyone was drinking.  I pretty much lied and said that I was taking anti-anxiety meds and I couldn't mix alcohol with the pills. Also, my allergies were bad too.  It didn't stop from people asking, "Are you pregnant?" I had to flat out lie. Sorry! 

On mother's day, we decided to ask everyone to dress in either black or white so we could do a family portrait.  Our idea was to get some nice photos and during one of the photos we were gonna say, "Say, Kat's Pregnant!"

Here are the photos :)

Castro and Sweeney Clan

Say, "Kat's Pregnant!"

Elaine said, "No she's not," and kept smiling for the camera.

Wait, you're serious?!

Hugs all around

It was a lot of fun sharing our news and now we can share our pregnancy highlights with our loved ones.  

Be Careful What You Wish For

Just last week, I was saying to Nelson that I was nervous that something was up because I didn't really feel any symptoms.  I just have the typical increase in boobie size but they haven't gotten any bigger.  I am not extremely fatigued like most pregnant women feel.  I have slept through the nights but I haven't been passing out at 8pm like a lot of other stories I have heard.  

Well since this past Tuesday, I have been having slight morning sickness.  Luckily for me, it's just been in the mornings and early afternoons. And just this morning I had my very first dry heave.  My goal is not to spew anything up, so I'll take the dry heaving.

To curb my morning sickness, I eat saltine crackers.  I stocked up on crackers yesterday when I went to BJ's.

I also find myself not wanting to eat salads. Actually on Tuesday, I brought a nice, healthy salad with romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, tomatoes, olives, and artichoke hearts.  

The texture of the hearts just made me want to gag.  Just looking at the picture above makes me queasy.  So I stopped eating the salad and ended up getting some pizza. That did feel much better. The crunchy carbs was what I needed.  Can't eat pizza everyday though! My butt can't handle that yet!

I noticed that brown rice and beans will work.  I brought in some soup today with some kale so hopefully i can get more iron/calcium in that way. 

Another annoying symptom is the HEARTBURN!

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo and I brought in chips and guacamole.  I had crazy heart burn after that. I asked those who ate it to see if they had heart burn, but nope i was the only one.  

This is why heartburn is so prevalent in preggers:

During pregnancy, the placenta produces the hormone progesterone, which relaxes the smooth muscles of the uterus. This hormone also relaxes the valve that separates the esophagus from the stomach, allowing gastric acids to seep back up, which causes that unpleasant burning sensation.

What Can I do to Avoid this ugly sensation? 

• Avoid food and beverages that cause you gastrointestinal distress. The usual suspects are carbonated drinks; alcohol (which you should avoid anyway during pregnancy); caffeine; chocolate; acidic foods like citrus fruits and juices, tomatoes, mustard, and vinegar; processed meats; mint products; and spicy, highly seasoned, fried, or fatty foods.
• Don't eat big meals. Instead, eat several small meals throughout the day. Take your time eating and chew thoroughly.
• Avoid drinking large quantities of fluids during meals — you don't want to distend your stomach. (It's important to drink eight to ten glasses of water daily during pregnancy, but sip it between meals.)
• Try chewing gum after eating. Chewing gum stimulates your salivary glands, and saliva can help neutralize acid.
• Don't eat close to bedtime. Give yourself two to three hours to digest before you lie down.
• Sleep propped up with several pillows or a wedge. Elevating your upper body will help keep your stomach acids where they belong and will aid your digestion.

 I will try to make sure I follow the steps above.  I have plenty of tums on me at all times.  

Regardless of all these annoying and gross symptoms, I know it's part of a wonderful journey!

Want To Make God Laugh? Tell Him Your Plans

So from one blog to another...

For those of you who read our Turks and Caicos blog (http://travelingcastros.blogspot.com), you could say that we were having a pretty good time down there.  We absolutely loved it there and I think that you should visit the island at one point in your life and hey, maybe we will go down there with you! :)

I have a confession to make... I lied a lot lately, especially on our blog.

Confession #1

Day #4

The above link goes to our Day #4 trip.

"Nelson went on his crazy long run this morning and I just relaxed on the beach and in our room."

This is a partial lie.  Nelson did go on his crazy run and while he was doing that, I paid 10 dollars for the supermarket shuttle to bring me to the supermarket.  Next to the supermarket was the pharmacy.  I went in there to buy some sun tan lotion and uh hem, a pregnancy test.  Now why did I buy the test you ask? Well to see if I was pregnant for one, but also because we wanted to rule it out before we went scuba diving the next day (day 5). 

You see, not to be too TMI, I didn't get my period when I was supposed to.  Actually now I will be TMI, I did spot when my period was supposed to come (which was the monday before our trip) so I automatically thought that was the beginning of the dreadful period and that I was going to experience the full blown period on our anniversary trip in T&C, great!

***Side note***

Since January, I've been tracking my cycle to see if I was regular.  I was fearful that my cycle would be out of whack because when I was sick back in 2000, I lost my cycle completely.  After tracking, I realized that my cycle was normal and I knew how many days my cycle was and when my lovely periods were expected to rise.  I used my trusty old ovulation calendar and luckily I brought it with us to T&C.

***Another longer side note***

When Nelson and I discussed when we would start trying to have kids, we thought end of April and after and we also discussed this a few months prior.  So in my mind, back in January, and every month after, I was thinking subconsciously, "Ok baby making in April, be ready, be ready."  Well subconsciously, I put a lot of pressure on myself and in addition to that, I was working full time and taking a full load of classes.  With that additional stress, I lost the ability to sleep peacefully throughout the night and it really took a toll on me.  I would not wish insomnia on my worst enemy.  It's the worst, most debilitating experience that I have gone through and I feel badly for those that have it worse than I did.  I've even said that dealing with Hodgkin's was easier because there was a known cure and specified treatment.

With the lack of sleep, I felt horrible at work, called out A LOT, and it affected Nelson as well.  Because of all those factors, I decided to drop my graduate class, which I really enjoyed and was hesitant to do. We both decided that my health comes first before school, work, and uhhhh baby making.  I won't get into the details about that, but knowing that our "April plan" was not gonna go smoothly, I really was upset at the situation and myself.  Eventually I snapped out of it (EVENTUALLY the key word), and I accepted the reality that April wasn't the month.  We would try in May if I was feeling better.

So let me just recap:

 January 

- booked our anniversary/spring break trip to T&C 

- started tracking my lady cycle (fun detective work i may say!)

February 

- started grad school

- 2nd week of Feb started losing sleep

- went to the endocrinologist thinking it may be my thyroid (was put on sinthroid)

- started taking Ambien 

March    

- continued horrible sleeping patterns

- quit grad school on March 21st (which was a very big decision for me)

- continued with Ambien (even though I was fearful of getting addicted to it)

- tried accupunture

- started meditation (i would say this worked the best) 

April      

- became horribly sick on Friday, April 1st 

- continued ambien

- saw horrible sleep doctor that didn't help me (will not get into this)

- came to grips that our plan was changing

- week of 11th - attempted to sleep without ambien (worked for some nights)

- april 15th-22nd - trip to T&C

Ok back to the story in T&C... I was supposed to get my full blown lady friend on Friday or Saturday (April 15th and 16th).  Well when nothing came those days, I went to GOOGLE and asked "Can traveling mess with your menstruation?"  A few pages said that it really wouldn't but it could mess with your ovulation.  Gee, that didn't make me feel better!  Then I looked up, "Is it safe to Scuba dive while you're pregnant."  I read this off a message board:

 "Do NOT go diving. Even if you are trying to get pregnant diving should stop. It is possible for you to me 4 to 6 weeks pregnant before you know your are pregnant. During that time the baby starts to develop. Think about how you off gas nitrogen. You exhale it out of your lungs. If you are pregnant and diving the baby absorbs the same amount of nitrogen the mom does. How does the baby get rid of it since he does not exhale? They do not know exactly how it works through the umbilical cord, but studies show it may off gas differently. I have heard of neurological problems such as blindness occurring. Although not a major study and could be coincidence, I know of only three women who dove while pregnant and all three miscarried. Including me. I did not know I was pregnant yet. Might have happened anyway. Who knows?"

GULP...

After sharing that information to Nelson, he suggested to get a test just to rule it out.  First question in my mind: Do they even have pregnancy tests on Turks & Caicos? Well yes, yes they do.  $30 bucks though!

Got back to the hotel room.  Nelson was all showered up after his long run.  I took a few minutes and then went into the bathroom to take my test.  I laid it flat on the bathroom counter and Nelson was there with me looking at the test.  I must have said something like "Shit, that's 2 lines." Nelson didn't know really at first what that meant.  I think women instinctively know how to read pregnancy tests, plus the answer key is right on the test to figure out whether it's + or -. I think men are not wired to read those things, but they can put together surround sound.  

Nelson can attest to it that I was a little upset at first.  It was a combination of feeling like I was in trouble for getting knocked up and also not going along with our plan.  Again, I FINALLY accepted for trying for a later conception, and now I was pregnant?! It just didn't make any sense! 

I even had a plan to how I was going to tell Nelson how I was pregnant.  A man has the opportunity to come up with a romantic set up for an engagement and a woman has the opportunity to tell her husband that they are expecting another addition to their family.  I said "This wasn't supposed to happen this way! I was supposed to surprise you!" Nelson's response, "Oh, I am surprised!"

We were both surprised.  Crazy surprised. And we couldn't tell anyone! However we had to tell Al, the resort excursion coordinator.  I needed to get out of Scuba Diving bc I could not go forward with breathing in Nitrogen knowing there's a fetus growing inside of me. Al congratulated us and said that Turks & Caicos will be special for us for the rest of our lives.  That is why we will name our son Turks.  Just kidding, just Caicos.

Here are some fun photos we took after realized we were expecting:

What do you mean?

This was not part of the plan

 Nelson triumphed

 

It is now sinking in...

 

Nelson playing the baby flute

 So happy to play the baby flute

 Ok now I'm excited

 This baby is light so far

 Burping him!

Confession #2 & #3

I didn't go scuba diving.  Nelson did and I lied and said I did.  I did go snorkeling though and if it wasn't for this baby, I wouldn't have seen those beautiful dolphins.  

I did drink the first couple of nights we were there (margaritas & wine) not knowing that we were preggers, but the very last night that we were there, I posed for a picture with a beer, again another lie... 

Without really drinking it, I didn't know how to hold it. 

Well there you have it.  Our very special surprise of how we found out!

Oh wait, are you wondering how could we be surprised? Obviously the birds and the bees must have happened, right? Well, on Friday, April 1st, the day I was HORRIBLY sick in the bathroom all day,  I ended up taking an ovulation test in the morning.  The smiley face popped up and when you take one of those, you are supposed to do <a hem> it,  24 - 36 hours after the smiley face appears.  Well late on Sunday the 3rd, we did and that was after 36 hours.  We thought we were in the clear bc you know what? We've done that before and we were in the clear back then, but I guess you can't trust ovulation tests to be your birth control!