Lots of Pants!

 

Ok, so I wore some maternity jeans today for the first time today.  I was cracking up when I put them on.  My belly is not really big enough to wear them, but all my other jeans are way too tight to be comfortable in!  I took a few pictures but I was laughing so hard when I took them, they are a little blurry!   Please tell me they are not that bad!  LOL.  Who needs a shirt when your pants come all the way up to your neck?!?!

9 Weeks and Christmas

Well, time is rolling right along and the Holidays were filled with a lot of fun and excitement.  We told each of our family member about our new arrival through various Christmas gifts and everyone's reactions were great.  I have attached a few pictures of some peoples faces when they found out!  Everyone is very excited and of course has their own opinion about things. (which is to be expected.)  It feels great to be back home and to start to settle in after traveling for 5 days.

Grammy B looking at the ultra sound picture of her 3rd Great-Grandchild.  She needed a little help determining what the picture was of!

 Mom solved her puzzle first!  My mom, Gregg, Lauren, and Greggy were each given an ornament with letters in it.  They had to unscramble them to figure out the puzzle. 

 Mom was so excited she was dancing in her seat.

 Lauren working to unscramble her letters.  Her's spelled (You are going to be an Aunt.)

 Greggy working on his puzzle.

 Gram  (who found out the day before) was so excited when Sue, Ria, Ben, and KT finally figured out the secret.  Lauren and Greggy were both wearing pins that said Aunt to Be and Uncle to Be.  It took them at least 10 minutes to notice they were wearing them.  Everyone was very excited!

 Aunt Collette was just as excited to see the button that Greggy was wearing!


As far as the belly goes, my jeans are getting tighter when I sit down and I am more uncomfortable at night when I try to sleep.  My sickness has all but subsided (as long as I'm not in the car).  I usually start to feel tired and get a bit of an upset stomach around 7 at night, so I usually snack a little and put myself to bed.  Trying to take advantage of sleep while I can.  Knock on wood, but my bleeding as stopped for the last 4 days, so I hope the sub-chronic hemotoma has resolved and that we will have all good news the next time that we go to visit the doctor.   I ordered a fetal doppler to have a home, so we can hear the baby's heartbeat whenever we want.  I have a feeling that will calm some of my nerves in between doctor visits.  We are very excited, but sometimes I get overwhelmed with all there is to get ready before baby comes.  The upstairs in our house is going to take a full transformation to make room for baby.

8 Weeks, Again!

Well, we had our 2nd appointment yesterday and everything is looking good with baby Schieck.  However, they did change my due date back to the original date of July 28th.  We got to see our little munchkin on an ultrasound again and even got pictures this time!  He/She looks like a little gummy bear with a distinctive head and trunk and even a little arm sticking up!  (Yes Dad, it is the left arm!)

However, they did find the cause of my bleeding.  It is something called SCH or Subchorionic Hematoma.  SCH is a gathering of blood between the membranes of the placenta and the uterus. A more technical name is the chorion. The doctors made me feel as this is something that will take care of itself.  Either with more bleeding or my body will absorb the blood.  However reading some of the side effects of SCH is kind of scarey, so I'm going to try and trust what the doctors are telling me.  We will have another ultrasound in 4 weeks, to see if the area of blood has decreased in size.  Many prayers please! 

8 Weeks!

Well week 8 came with some everyday challenges.  Mostly managing some mild morning/all day sickness, and still teaching.  Also, fatigue.  This time of year there are so many things going on, Christmas parties, school meetings, shopping, cleaning, etc... trying to manage all of that, while still eating/drinking right and getting enough rest has proven to be more difficult than I thought it would.  During the week, I am usually in bed by 8 and asleep by 9, but with many things going on, that is not always possible. 

We have been busy trying to decide how we are going to tell all our family member at Christmas, and the best approach to let the greater community of friends and relatives know.  So many adventures are sure to come our way.  We have another doctors appointment this Friday with a follow-up ultra-sound and the nurse educator visit.  I will post more updates after that!

6 Weeks... Well ACTUALLY 7 Weeks!

This week was filled with so many emotions.  Not even sure how to express all of them in writing. 

Last Thursday we had a scare because I started bleeding heavily at work.  After called the doctor, Joe came to pick me up and we rushed to the ER to get everything check out.  After 4 hours, a urine test, blood work, and IV, and an ultrasound, the doctor came in and said everything looked normal and I was good to go home.  No answer to the question of why I was bleeding!  It felt good to know everything was good (we were not given many details) but I guess we will trust what the doctors say.  (Even though it was under scarey conditions, we did get to see the baby's heartbeat!!!)  It was like a flash light the size of a grain of rice turning off and on really fast!  No pictures from that ultrasound unfortunately. My nerves were calmed but rest assured, I was still scared.  The ER doc wanted a follow up visit with my OB scheduled within 72 hours.

I stayed home from school on Friday and had another episode of bleeding and plenty more crying, convinced that the ER doctor didn't know what he was talking about, and sure that I was loosing the baby.   I immediately started blogging with other moms who were about 6 weeks along and found out that it is very common to bleed during your first trimester and they assured me not to think the worst.  Easier said then done!  Saturday was a good day with only light spotting.  (Oh yeah and my master's presentation!)  But when Sunday rolled around, more bleeding again!

It felt like forever to wait the weekend to get in to see my doctor, so needless to say, I didn't sleep much last night!  When we met with the midwife today she reviewed all of the hospital tests with us and she was very optimistic.  I didn't have any further tests done today because she felt that my HCG levels were at a very good spot 41,000!  Woo hooo!  She said she expected that I would go on and happy and healthy pregnancy.  All great news.  Even better news, I am actually further along than I had originally thought. 

Sooo.... Baby Schieck is expected to be here July 21, 2012! 
Continued prayers are always welcome!

Traditional VS. Centering Pregnancy???

So I have been thinking a lot about choosing a doctor.  Do I choose a small practice so that I more personal contact with the 1 doctor and nurse, but then take the chance of delivery being done by a doctor I don't know?  Or do I choose a larger practice equipped with 4 doctors and 6 midwives and see many people throughout my pregnancy, but not as often and not form relationships as closely with them.  The decision brought me to tears today because I want to make a choice that is going to allow me to cherish and enjoy the eight months. 

Then another choice came up.  Traditional visits for prenatal care, or a new approach called centering.  I love this idea and think it would be something great for me, especially as a first time mom.  The idea behind it is you have all your prenatal visits with the same group of women due in the same month as you.  You spend the whole visit with him, discussing and sharing about pregnancy, along with midwives.  I don't know yet if I am 100% sure if this is the thing for me, but I'm prayerfully considering it.
Here is a video about centering.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VKjpzqJ3RIE&noredirect=1

5 Weeks

Well Baby Schieck had a lot of firsts in the last week.

First.... vacation, airplane ride, Disney trip, swimming pool fun, rocket launch, and meeting Grandma and Gpa Schantz.

Since we were in Florida for the last 4 days visiting with my dad and step-mom, we decided to share our news with them.  They were so happy and shared in our excitement for the new member in our family.  I felt pretty good for most of the trip considering how much we were walking around and how late we were up eat night.  However, on Saturday I think it all caught up with me.  We were at Kennedy Space Center for the day to see a rocket launch and I was just so tired all day long and didn't feel very well.  Also, this morning on travel home, I felt pretty sick as well.  So far (knock on wood) I have not thrown up at all.  In all the reading that I have done, is stays that morning sickness gets bad at week 6, so I'm bracing myself and hoping for the best.

When we got home, we started putting up some more Christmas decorations including the tree!  No lights or ornaments yet, but the tree is standing!  :)  It's crazy to think that this time next year we will have another member of the family here with us.  We are so excited and anxious.  We pray for safety and health over the next 8 months!  :)  It's going to be a wild ride, but I can't wait!

Here is a picture of Edison checking out what is in my belly.... he is my guard dog!

4 weeks

Well there is not much to speak for as far as a belly in week four but here we are!  Dad and I had a little photo session this morning playing around with the pregnancy test and the dogs and the camera.  Gotta love it.  This little poppy seed might as well just get used to the camera. 

As of right now, I don't feel like I'm pregnant.  I get a little nauseous when I smell food being prepared.  (For example... last night I was craving a chicken cheese steak from Italian Touch, but when it came and I smelled it, I felt so woozy.  I just ended up eating crackers for dinner.)  Oh well, besides that not much else.  Some occasional forgetfulness.  Oh yeah and no aunt flo this month!  Awesome!  

November 18, 2011 (for real)

The talk of getting pregnant was easy to do.  It was fun to plan in this idealistic world how everything would turn out.  We could plan when you would be born, what we would name you, even which room in the house would be the nursery.  But now.... it's real.  The test this morning said, "pregnant."  So we are going to do this, for real.  So we really do need to look at what is going on in our lives on July 29, 2012.  We need to think about a name that we want to call you for the rest of our lives.  And that room across the hall from ours needs to transform from relaxing guest room, to warm and cozy nursery.  Wow.... and that is only the beginning.  Doctors appointments, a growing belly, and what my brain just can't even imagine yet... delivery.  Yikes! 

For now, I'm a ball of emotions, just want to explode and tell the world, but we are going to wait.  So here I am, letting you know Little Schieck that you are going to be loved to the moon and back again.  Although you may only be the size of a poppy seed, I love you already!