First Trimester with Baby K

We're having a BABY!! The current due date is December 1, 2017. We are so excited. Check the blog post below to see how we announced it to the public (i.e. social media). It seems like most moms mention how they wish they had documented their pregnancies better, so I am hoping to post how our little baby is doing at least every trimester, maybe every month. Hopefully future posts will not be quite as long as this one, haha. In my defense, so much is happening that I don't want to forget!

Month One

Dustan and I had agreed that we would always have me take a pregnancy test when we were together, so we could be elated or slightly disappointed together, haha. I had only taken a few negative ones so far. On March 22, Dustan needed to go to campus late to get some work done in the lab. He left around 7 pm that Wednesday night while I lazed around the apartment, watching my shows and vegging. About an hour after Dustan left, I got the impression that I should take a pregnancy test. I immediately brushed this thought away--I didn't take tests without Dustan and I had just gotten a negative test a few days beforehand. I continued my laziness. But, this impression just kept coming back to me again and again. So, eventually, I gave in. I peed on the dumb stick then hopped in the shower while I waited. And what did I find when I got out! The faintest line ever indicating I was pregnant :)

Dustan: I had been on campus working on King Louie (the robot I do most of my research with) trying to get a demo working for the next day. Well, 3 a.m. hit, and I wasn't getting anywhere, so I decided to call it a night and head home. When I got home, I found a note on the lightswitch from Ellen asking me to wake her up when I got home. This isn't that unusual as she usually likes me to wake her up when I get home if I'm working late on campus, but for some reason, the first thought that I had was that she wanted to tell me she was pregnant. When I got into bed and woke her up, she asked how everything went with my research, and then we rolled over like we were going to go back to sleep. Then she whispered that she was pregnant!! I was/am so excited! I immediately hopped out of bed so that I could see the faint line on the cheap pregnancy test. I'm so excited to be a dad! Needless to say, it was hard to get back to sleep despite it being almost 4 in the morning.

Signs/Symptoms:
 - Days before we even found out I was pregnant (so very early on), I had very slight and intermittent cramps and nausea. Only enough to be annoying to me though.
 - Extra acne. Yay. The first "symptom" of all!
 - No aversions or cravings yet!

Month Two

This was an exciting month, even with all the nausea! First, we told our families on Easter Sunday :) Unfortunately, my family is in Washington and Dustan's is in Colorado, so we couldn't tell either of them in person. Instead, Dustan and I took a cute and simple little picture revealing that I was pregnant (below, we didn't have a cute ultrasound pic yet) and sent it to each of our families while we were Skyping them. Both families were SO excited, though mine seemed to be a little more surprised, haha. We were excited to finally have someone in the loop that we could talk to! And SO FUN, when we told our Kraus family that I was pregnant, Taylor (Dustan's sister) and her husband Bryson also announced that they were having a baby! Just two weeks ahead of us! We are so excited to be doing this together.

With month 2 came the dreaded "morning" sickness. During week 5 of the pregnancy, I just started feeling a bit worse every day. By the time week 6 was in full swing, I was throwing up every day, usually multiple times a day. It became very difficult to work (substitute teaching is not a good profession for when you are sick, in case you were wondering). I felt a little bit better when sitting or laying down, but still so crappy. I called my OB (I hadn't had my first appointment and wouldn't until week 8), and she told me to start taking Vitamin B6 and Unisom (an anti nausea and sleeping agent) each night. Unfortunately, I just threw this up in the middle of the night and it tasted horrible. My all time record was that I threw up 18 times in 24 hours. This was definitely more than the norm though. And that happened the night before and day of my first appointment, yay haha. I even threw up at the appointment. But good news, my OB prescribed a new medicine (Diclegis) that helped. I didn't throw up for about 5 days! It was awesome. Still feeling very crappy, but an improvement. The barfing unfortunately returned the next week, but more like twice every few days. So I'll take it.

Our first appointment was during week 8 of the pregnancy, on April 24th. As I just mentioned, the night and morning before was one of the worst I'd had, so my excitement level wasn't as high as I think it normally would be, haha. We had been a little overwhelmed at first on how we would choose an OBGYN with the plethora there are here in Utah, all covered by my insurance. So, we went to the hospital where I would eventually be delivering the baby and asked the nurses in the birthing/mother center who we should choose, and they were pretty unanimous with their top pick. So off to Dr. Emma Miller we went! She was awesome at our first appointment, we think we will really like her. The nurses were very sympathetic about my nausea (as I mentioned, I threw up in their office haha) and gave lots of advice. Of course, the most exciting part about the appointment was seeing our baby and hearing the heartbeat :) The heartbeat was at about 160 beats/min., and the baby looked like a little gummy bear. Doc showed us where the heart was and we could even see it fluttering while it was beating super fast! So neat. She also pointed out the head and body, which were very difficult for Dustan to discern, haha. And we got a cute, black and white picture to take home!

Week 9, very end of month 2!

Signs/Symptoms:
 - As mentioned in more detail above, nausea. And a lot of it. ALL DAY LONG. Definitely not a fan.
 - Lost 3 pounds since the start of the pregnancy.
 - Slightly more tired than usual, but not too significant. It probably doesn't help that I'm up in the middle of the night sometimes throwing up.
 - Not having to pee any more than normal. Weird? I keep expecting to experience this, haha.
 - A little extra emotional, i.e. crying a lot. I'm not sure if it because of the extra hormones, or because I just always get more emotional when I'm sick. Which is all the time.
 - Continuation of acne.
 - Aversions: meat, warm foods, wheat thins (threw them up too much in the beginning), dry foods, anything strong smelling, most veggies
 - Cravings: cold fruit, french fries (specifically waffle fries from Chick-Fil-A with their special sauce), ice cream, pizza--basically all the healthy foods, haha

Month Three

Week 11, no noticeable difference yet!

We started telling a few close friends this month that I was pregnant, and it was so great to be able to actually talk to some people about it and not be afraid to invite people over even when I might throw up, haha. Even more exciting though, we told Dustan's brother Garrett! He just got off his mission in the beginning of May, and both my sister-in-law Taylor and I kept it secret until we visited them in person for his homecoming talk in church. Anyway. We went to Red Robin as a family and Taylor followed our waiter after he took orders to ask him to bring out something special for Garrett when drinks came around. As our waiter was placing all our drinks, he casually placed two baby bottles in front of Garrett. He was SO CONFUSED, it was hilarious. We had brought two baby bottles and Taylor and I each taped an ultrasound picture to one of the bottles. He understood that Taylor and Bryson were having a baby girl first (their last name was on their ultrasound picture) before finally understanding that I was pregnant as well. It was so much fun!! It was definitely a highlight of month three with our baby.

We also had our 12 week checkup with the doc this month. We were so happy to hear that everything is okay with baby :) My OB was awesome, and we not only heard the heartbeat--which was down about 10 bpm from last time--but got a second ultrasound! Baby was pretty chill until my OB started poking him/her with the wand, then he/she started getting super wiggly! It was really neat to be seeing our baby's different body parts so clearly (we could even see the spine, how cool) move as the baby squirmed around. We really regret not taking a video.

Signs/Symptoms:
 - Continuation of the nausea. With the meds my OB prescribed, it is more manageable because I'm able to get a better start to my day with breakfast, snacks, etc. I have found though that if I have a bad morning, I tend to have an okay evening and vice versa... Towards the end of the month though, only been throwing up a couple times a week and some days I feel almost normal!
 - More exhaustion and lethargy. Energy levels are pretty low. I get out of breath so easily.
 - Lost 5 pounds since the start of the pregnancy around the beginning of month three, but by the end of the month I was back up 3 (making me 2 pounds below pregnancy starting weight).
 - Towards the beginning of the month, it is getting more difficult to suck in my stomach, and I'm feeling bloated 24/7. Towards the end of the month, I could actually tell that I am starting to get a little bigger, especially right between my hips and my pants are definitely getting extremely uncomfortable, though most are still wearable.
 - Occasional but strong cramps, usually at night and when I drink less water.
 - Aversions: meat (especially in leftovers), smell of bbq sauce/chips/flavor (Dustan's favorite chips are honey BBQ Frito twists unfortunately), most veggies
 - Cravings: cold fruit (still, especially grapes and oranges), cheese quesadillas, fruit and cream cups from Fruta Crush in Provo (I've only ever had these once, but now want them every time we pass the shop), smoothies, ice cream

Awkward phase of starting to look chubby, but definitely not pregnant (Week 13)