Saturday, March 31, 2012

BR Weeks 1-13: 1st trimester



This post is going to be long, I have a lot to cover :)

Alright so a little background first that will answer a lot of questions for all of you. I first noticed something was different about a week after school had started back up in January. I was extremely tired all the time. When I say tired, I mean sleeping whenever I had the chance to. Some of you may be thinking " that doesn't seem different for Jennifer, she sleeps all the time anyways) But let me tell you, I would come home from work and take a nap until JR woke me up for dinner. I would eat dinner then go right back to sleep about an hour later. I was suppose to get my period (we are all adults here)the weekend of Jessica and Daniel's wedding (Jan 14). I had a feeling that it wasn't going to come ,but I didn't want to get my hopes up. That same weekend, JR has a dream that I am pregnant. The following week I took two at home pregnancy test and both came out positive.

At home pregnancy test are not as easy at peeing on a stick. There are very specific instructions on how to hold the stick when you pee on it and how to hold it after you pee and how to lay it down while you wait for the lines to appear. It was actually quite stressful. I immediately make a doctors appointment for the following week. As I am sitting in the doctor's room waiting to hear the results of the test I took there, I had a gazillion things run through my head. I pictured my doctor coming in with a huge smile on her face with balloons and all this crazy fan fare to let me know I was indeed pregnant. Instead, the nurse walks in to tell me that she is dropping off a prenatal care bag for me. and that was it. That was how I found out for sure that I was pregnant. The breaking of the news wasn't exactly how I had imagined it.

I call JR to give him the great news, then go home and ...sleep. And so the first trimester morning sickness begins. I had true early morning nauseousness. I would throw up maybe once or twice a week. Our morning routine became quite tired some. I would wake up around 5 am. JR would wake up let the dogs out and then come ask me what I felt like I could eat. He would fix me breakfast and I would sit in bed eating and get out of bed around 6:15 if I was lucky. After about a week of this, I had to tell my bosses that I was pregnant. Getting to work on time was extremely difficult. I didn't want them to think that I was slacking or anything. So the first people to know I was pregnant weren't my closest family members or friends, but my bosses.

About the second week of February, JR and I go in for our first ultrasound. We were slightly nervous that we could have twins. It runs in JR's family. When flickering kidney bean came on the screen, I was overwhelmed with emotion inside. JR and I didn't cry, but I definitely teared up. The doctor measured BR and calculated that he/she was 7 weeks and 6 days along (1.5 cm in length) She then moved around to make sure there was only one :) and indeed, only one.

As the weeks progressed, I continued to be nauseous and throw up occasionally, I actually lost a few pounds. I snacked all the time, gave up a lot of food I liked, and continued to sleep. At about 9 weeks we began telling our family, and at about 11 weeks we told all of our closest friends. By the last week of my 1st trimester, the tiredness and the nauseousness calmed down. The snacking did not :)

The last downside to being pregnant is how often I have to pee. My record is getting up 3 times in one night to use the restroom.

We also had a sonogram around week 12. We heard the heartbeat after a little scare because the nurse couldn't find BR.

Here are a few questions that weren't answered above:

When are you due? September 23

Were you two trying? We weren't not trying. I had been off birth control for about 3 months.

When and are you going to find out the gender? Any one that is reading this knows me well enough to know that I am a planner. Which means of course we are going to find out the gender. I am not one to be surprised on the day of delivery. We will know at the beginning of May if it is a boy or girl.

Do you care if it is a boy or girl? Like all parents-to-be, we just want a healthy Guatemasian baby, but a boy Guatemasian would be pretty awesome.

Do you have names picked out yet? We have a name picked out for a girl: Ava Mei Reyes. Mei is after my grandmother. As for a boy name, we have nothing! Picking out a name is extremely stressful. BR will also have a Chinese name, but will be given that by my parents after he/she is born.




<3 Jennifer

Reyes News and Updates! Read all about it!

Hey Friends and family! The last entry in this blog was about my grandmother. So I guess I will begin with my grandmother. About a month ago, my grandmother passed away. I am honestly still grieving and think about her often. The last time I saw my grandmother, I was able to tell her that she was going to be blessed with her
13th great grandchild. My last memory of her is filled with love and lots of joy.

So here goes the rest. I received a promotion at work this semester. I am the 10th grade level chair at my school. This essentially translates to an assistant principal type job. The transition has been a bit overwhelming but welcomed with more responsibilities, accountability, and trust. I get to use the school credit card quite often :)JR is still working with USA but no longer works with the shuttle program. He works with the station now and does a lot of planning and programming type stuff. That's about as detailed as I can get with his job description.

Here is the real reason I am blogging again. A lot of friends have asked JR and I to blog about our Baby Reyes (BR) experience. This is the best way for us to keep everyone updated on how things are going. I hope you all enjoy it, and I will try not to forget all the ups and downs about pregnancy. Hopefully JR will get in on this and blog a little about what he is feeling through all of this as well! Please please feel free to call. email and comment. Don't be afraid or embarrassed to ask questions.

<3 Jennifer