Week 26: Looking pregnant

January 31, 2010 · Filed under Pregnancy

I think it has finally become fairly obvious, even to those who weren’t already in the know, that I’m pregnant. Part of this is because I’ve had to succumb to wearing maternity shirts which are somewhat designed to accent your stomach. I bought maternity running pants a few weeks ago but I’m still wearing my regular running shirts/jackets, except now it’s getting harder and harder to zip my jacket. And while I was running yesterday, I caught site of my reflection in a storefront and realized that I have a noticeable stomach. I suppose a stranger might just think I was very oddly shaped, but they would have to be pretty clueless. You can even kind of tell through my regular winter coat, which is also becoming slightly difficult to fit into. I think all of this is good because I go on my first fellowship interview next week and there is no way I’m going to spend $200 to buy a maternity suit to wear so I want it to be very obvious that the reason I’m not in a suit is because I’m pregnant. Plus, I suppose if they deny me a spot because I’m not wearing a suit then that’s probably not a place I want to go anyway…

Of course, the human mind being what it is, now that I actually look pregnant, I’m starting to wish I was my old shape again. It’s very odd not having much of a waist. And, somewhat ironically, being pregnant makes me feel very unfeminine. I can’t even imagine how I’ll be able to get back to my old shape again (especially given how much bigger I’m going to get) but I have lots of friends who’ve had kids and now look great so I suppose it’s possible.

I start elective in a few days, and I’m planning on spending it (mostly) getting ready for the baby. This means we need to talk with our contractor about when/how to start demolishing part of our kitchen to install a washer/dryer. We’ll need to move our fridge out of the pantry (along with everything else), take down part of a wall and then install the washer/dryer and then put the fridge back. Ack. And we need to get rid of Eddie’s computer and his desk and our armoir to make room for a crib and a changing table. In addition to all the work this will involve, I can’t even begin to figure out where we’re going to put a) all the stuff we currently have, and b) all the stuff we’re going to have to get for the baby. I think we’ll be throwing a lot of stuff out or donating it. We also need to figure out what crib we’re going to get and finish doing our registry. And we need to make a final decision about childcare. Phew, wish us luck!

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Week 24: Viability

January 20, 2010 · Filed under Life, Pregnancy, Running

I have to admit that as a pediatrician I’ve been waiting very anxiously to hit 24 weeks. Do other non medical people feel this way as well? Not, of course, that I want to deliver at 24 weeks because the chance of survival right now is still only about 50% but 1 week ago the chance of survival was almost 0. Pretty crazy to look down at my stomach and realize that our daughter could possibly survive outside of there. Makes me very glad that I’ve already finished my NICU rotation this year because I think being there right now would be very difficult. I can’t believe that I’ve seen babies born at 24 weeks and now that’s how far along I am.

Thinking about the NICU makes me very happy that the pregnancy has been going well. We actually had a brief scare the other week when I had a few days of spotting. I was pretty convinced it was nothing but after two days, I decided I should probably call the ob. Of course, I didn’t think to call them until 8 pm when I was getting ready to leave work, and I was completely surprised when he insisted that I come be seen. Thankfully, since I was still at the hospital, this just meant having to go down 3 floors to the maternity floor. I was seen impressively quickly and got an ultrasound and an exam and everything was fine but I had brief visions of being on bedrest for the next 16 weeks. I can’t even imagine!

In other news, I feel like I’ve emerged from some other world because I’ve been on a very busy rotation for the past several weeks and haven’t had time for much of a life. I’ve currently had 1 day off in the past 23. Phew, no wonder I’m exhausted. Despite this, I’ve remained determined to keep running, and I’m actually finding it easier now than earlier in pregnancy. It’s much better since I managed to find some maternity running pants. Definitely a necessity now that my stomach is getting noticeably big. I’m already starting to have a little trouble bending over easily. I made Eddie put a pillow under his shirt and try to bend over to tie his shoes so that he could have some sympathy. :)

Oops, I meant to talk about things other than pregnancy but apparently I have a one track mind these days. Not surprising given that I constantly feel my daughter kicking. Very cool. And Eddie can feel her now too. Makes me a little worried for how much stronger it’s going to get!

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Week 20: Baby registry

December 27, 2009 · Filed under Life, Pregnancy, Running

I’ve been very fortunate to have the past 5 days off and decided I should take advantage of this free time to set up our baby registry. Thankfully, I have several friends who already have kids and are very happy to give advice. My husband and I also read through most of “Baby Bargains.” We used the same series for our wedding and found it very helpful. Despite all of this, I still find the whole process very confusing. One thing that’s very annoying is that there is a lot more available online than in the store. I went ahead and looked up most stuff we wanted online and then went to the store so I could look at in person and make sure it was what we wanted, but then about half the time, they don’t have that particular version in store. The more impressive part is when very similar items (even the same brand and with the same name!) differ in price by about $30 but have no explanation of why. For example, the Graco SnugRide infant car seat seems to actually have two versions. One of the versions costs ~$90 but does not have a feature in front to allow you to just adjust the straps from the front (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2957938). An item with the exact same name but selling for ~$115 does have that feature (http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3680231). And neither one has any indication of this feature on the specs. You can only tell by seeing it in person or looking very closely at the picture. Fascinating.

We initially registered at Target but then I found that they had a pretty poor selection of stuff in the store and a lot of it was on the cheaper side (in terms of quality) so we ended up registering at Babies R Us which had a much larger selection and a much nicer web interface. I was kind of hoping to avoid Babies R Us because I feel like they are an evil corporation trying to take advantage of pregnant women but they are also much better organized. Of course, they did manage to lose the list of stuff I initially registered for and although they found it again after I called them, there are still problems with the registry. For example, it won’t let me delete certain items. very bizarre. So, all in all, registering has been rather a frustrating process but I’m glad I got do it now when I have plenty of time rather than at the last minute when I’m sleep deprived and cranky.

Running is still going pretty well. It’s actually starting to feel a little easier but I suspect that won’t last much longer. The cold weather in Boston has also made it a little more difficult lately to get out the door. Plus the fact that it’s getting to be difficult to fit into my regular running clothes. Anyone have good advice on places to find pregnancy running clothes?

Having the past 5 days off has been very nice. We visited my husband’s mom and some of the rest of his family in Mississippi, and it was so nice to be able to relax and get plenty of sleep. I’m definitely not looking forward to going back to work, especially since I feel like I have the stress of fellowship interviews plus preparing for the baby hanging over me. And I won’t have another break until the baby is born. Phew, it’s going to be a rough few months.

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Week 19: First kicks?

December 16, 2009 · Filed under Pregnancy

Sometime last week (I think perhaps on 12/6) I was lying in bed post call and decided I should figure out if I could feel the baby. So I concentrated on being very still and thinking about my stomach. I felt a few brief fluttery things on the left side, but then I fell asleep. Yesterday I was lying in bed (again post call) and felt more definite movement, although I’m still not entirely certain it was the baby kicking. And now today while I was eating dinner I felt it again. A part of me is very excited, and a part of me wonders if I’m actually feeling her move. Oh, and that’s another thing, we found out on 12/4 that we’re having a girl! Yay!

Now I’m also starting to struggle with not fitting into my regular clothes. I can still put on my pants but they’re pretty uncomfortable. Luckily, I have some great early pregnancy jeans from Elena but she didn’t really have any work clothes so I’ve been looking for those. So far, though, I can only find pants for later in pregnancy. I ended up buying them because I’m not sure I can face another day at work in pants that are too tight, but they fit a little oddly because my stomach isn’t that big yet. Hopefully they’ll stay up at work tomorrow with my pager on…

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Week 17: Running while pregnant

November 29, 2009 · Filed under Pictures, Pregnancy, Running

I’ve been pretty determined ever since I got pregnant that I was going to keep running. Of course, this was pretty difficult at the beginning because of my horrible nausea but I did manage to keep it up a bit. I remain surprised by how difficult running is even now that my nausea is mostly gone. I find it much more tiring despite the fact that I’m running at a slower pace. I didn’t think this would happen until I got much bigger.

I was initially only going to keep running until Thanksgiving and then switch to walking but I enjoyed the two Turkey Trots I ran this past week so much that I think I’ll keep on going. Here I am finishing the Breakheart 5K the Sunday before Thanksgiving:

And here I am with Eddie after the run:

Thanksgiving morning we got up early to pick up our packets for the Gobble Gobble Gobble 4 miler. We run this pretty much every year since the start is about half a mile from our house. The course is pretty hilly, and it’s generally a good mix of fast people and slower people dressed as turkeys. It’s pretty well organized with nice T shirts and accurate mile markers. And this year they even had chip timing (although no mat at the start so it was gun time). My previous races have all been run around a 9:30 pace but this year I was just hoping for an 11-12 minute pace. I’d been doing some of my training run/walking and initially planned to do that for this race but then felt so great that I ran pretty much all of it. I ended up finishing in 42:44 which was well below my goal time of under 45. Excellent!

Here I am mid-race:

And here I am with Eddie after finishing:

After having such a good time at these two races with no obvious ill effects, I figure I’ll just try to keep running for as long as I feel comfortable. I’m still a little miffed as to why it’s so much more tiring now that I’m pregnant. I lost a good bit of weight with my morning sickness so I’m still not even about my normal weight so it’s definitely not that. I know I’m supposed to have a larger blood volume now, and I guess that must be the cause. I just find it a little frustrating to be so much slower when I’m barely even showing yet. Oh well. In general, I’m happy that I’m still able to run and have a great time at races. Now if only my daily runs were a little less painful.

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Week 16

November 22, 2009 · Filed under Life, Pregnancy, Running

I thought my morning sickness was pretty much done a week or two ago but apparently that was just the baby having some fun with me. It’s come back with a vengeance ever since I started taking call again. Given, it’s still nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I haven’t thrown up in 3 or 4 weeks but I have felt extremely nauseous and uncomfortable. This weekend has actually been great. I’ve finally started to feel hungry and can actually eat a reasonable amount at meals. I’m on call again tomorrow so we’ll see if this lasts…

Amazing to think that I was actually starting to get a little worried by the fact that I hadn’t gained any weight, but this week I’m definitely starting to get a little stomach. You still can’t tell when I’m wearing regular clothes, but I definitely notice that my jeans are tighter. I’m sure I’ll eventually be very annoyed by my large stomach, but at the moment I’m very excited.

In running news, I had a great time running a turkey trot today at Breakheart Reservation. We run this race every year, and I highly recommend it because a) it’s free and b) they raffle off turkeys at the end. The very first year I ran it, I won a turkey so now I’m hooked for life. I do not, however, recommend this race for setting a PR. It’s a 5K and extremely hilly. I can’t emphasize that enough! Very hilly! Given my pregnancy, I knew there was no way I’d be setting a PR this year, but I was still very pleased with my time of 34:28 since my non-pregnant time last year was 32:48. Not bad at all given how slowly I’ve been moving lately. Plus, it felt really great to sprint at the end and pass a bunch of people. Definitely makes me more excited for the official turkey trot we’ll be doing on Thanksgiving day.

Now that we’ve finally told pretty much everyone about our pregnancy, I decided I could make public all the posts I’ve written as we’ve gone along, so feel free to go back and look at them. Not that I know who’s actually reading this. Lately it seems to be a forum for people who a) are dizzy while running or b) have had trouble with knee replacements. Speaking of which, I haven’t been dizzy at all while pregnant, and my mother continues to struggle with her knee replacement. She recently went back for a “check up” but the surgeon was totally unhelpful and told her everything looked great even though she’s in terrible pain. hmm. The other scary thing is that now her other knee is starting to really bother her, but she’s not sure she can face another surgery given how much trouble she’s already had. I think she’s worried that she won’t be able to keep up once the baby’s born. If anyone has any good recommendations for orthopedic surgeons in Boston, please let me know!

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Week 15: Playing it by the numbers

November 14, 2009 · Filed under Pregnancy, Running

After what seemed like interminable waiting, we finally got the results of our early risk assessment. I was actually post call from Northshore when my phone rang but I knew it was getting near the time of the results so I answered it. Luckily, it was very good news. Our risk for trisomy 21 went from 1:600 to 1:10,000. And our risk of trisomy 13 and 18 went from 1:1200 to 1:10,000. Excellent.

Despite our good results, I wonder if I would do the early risk assessment again. I never really considered when we first signed up for it the possibility of “bad results.” I just assumed everything would be fine and this test would help confirm that. But after thinking about it more, I’ve realized just how stressful (sometimes needlessly) it can be if the results are ambiguous or “not so good.” First of all, you have to wait several weeks before you can do amnio and then you have to wait another few weeks for the results. And all the while, you’ve seen this very cute fetus inside you and are continuing to bond with it. Makes me realize how extremely difficult abortion would be, especially so late in the pregnancy. Even though I’m officially pro-choice, being pregnant and thinking about these decisions, makes me questions my beliefs a little.

Eddie and I had talked beforehand, and I think we both felt fairly certain that we would not abort for trisomy 21, but neither of us was quite sure what we do for trisomy 13 and 18. Prior to being pregnant, I was fairly sure that I would have an abortion for both syndromes but now I’m not so sure. Thankfully, this is not a decision we have to deal with, but it makes me reconsider the early risk assessment.

In other news, we’d been waiting for the results of the ERA before announcing our pregnancy to the world, so it’s been very nice to finally tell everyone. We still have a few people left to tell, but that’s just because we haven’t had time to call them.

I’m also very pleased that I’ve managed to keep up with my running, at least to some degree. Before the pregnancy, I was running about 20 miles a week and now I’m down to about 10 per week (and much slower!), but it feels good to still be staying in shape. Plus, I’m sure it will help with weight control now that my morning sickness is subsiding. Interestingly, we went to the ob yesterday, and she said that I still haven’t gained any weight. I was hoping she would prescribe a diet of ice cream and milkshakes but no such luck. I have noticed a very tiny bit of a belly but it hasn’t started to affect how my clothes fit yet. I sense the next few weeks could be a little awkward as I outgrow my regular clothes but am not yet big enough for maternity clothes.

We’ve been starting to research daycares lately. I’ve compiled a list of several near us that take infants, and we went to visit one today. I was impressed by how nice it seemed. I’ve also been surpised by the fact that there are relatively few that are close to us. The one we went to today was only 4 miles away, but 4 miles on Mass Ave during rush hour can mean 30 minutes each way. ugh. We’ll be looking at a few more over the next several weeks, and we’re also going to join a variety of “parent lists.” We have a lot to do over the next 5 months but I think most of it will be fun.

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Pictures!

November 2, 2009 · Filed under Pictures, Pregnancy

We had our appointment for the early risk ultrasound today. I had been looking forward to it for weeks but found myself getting kind of nervous as the day approached. We checked in at 8:45 am and waited a bit to be called. I was a little surprised when they took us right into the ultrasound room. I figured we’d talk with a doctor first or something. The set up in the room was pretty cool because they had a screen facing me and Eddie so we could see exactly what the ultrasonographer was doing. I couldn’t believe it when they put the probe on my stomach and there was the baby! Despite all the nausea I’ve been having and despite hearing the heartbeat a few weeks ago, I still didn’t quite believe there was a baby inside me. In fact, even with these pictures, I’m not sure I’ll really believe it until I actually feel the baby kick.

The pictures were amazing. The baby is only 3 inches long but we could see everything: brain, beating heart, stomach, arms and legs, and even fingers and toes. The baby kept moving its arms and legs around. And we could even see it opening its mouth and swallowing. Unreal. I kept looking at the screen and then looking at my stomach and trying to reconcile the two images. I can’t even describe how cool it was to see the pictures. And how cute our baby is! Even the 3D images didn’t look too alien. I really liked our ultrasonographer. She explained what we were seeing and seemed to share some of our excitement. Unfortunately, the ob who came after her was very off putting. I can’t even quite figure out what she did, but she seemed very unwilling to share any information with us and kept giving off the impression that something was wrong. Very annoying. I was pretty upset after that even though we knew the nasal bone was fine and the nuchal translucency was less than 2. Silly doctor. Hope I don’t do that to any of my patients!

I started to feel better after I got home and talked to Elena. She reassured me that she had been examined by both an ultrasonographer and an MD. And she said her doctor said any measurement less than 2 was great. Plus, it was fun uploading all the pictures and talking with Eddie about how cute our baby is.

I think I’ll wait until I have the results of the bloodwork before I tell everyone in the residency, but we told our parents they could start telling people. I get a little smile on my face every time I think about the pictures and how active our baby was.

Here’s a picture of our baby in profile. I swear it looked even cuter on the ultrasound screen.
Profile

And here’s the cool 3D picture.
3D

And here is its foot!
Toes

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Week 12

October 24, 2009 · Filed under Pregnancy, Running

Have finally been able to tell a few people: Dave and Janice, Shilpa and Jack, and Elena and Todd. Elena was probably the most excited and has already given me all of her pregnancy clothes. Extremely useful. I think she’ll also be great to go shopping with. She has lots of great places for buying used baby things and used maternity clothes. Excellent. As much as I know that maternity leave is not vacation, I’m seriously looking forward to it. Imagine 2 months of no work!! I can’t wait. At the moment, I only have 1 more call on the wards and then I start adolescent. Phew. Sadly, I’m paying Smitha back by working 8a-8p in the ED next Saturday but at least I’ll have Sunday off. And then that Monday we get to have ERA ultrasound!! I can’t wait to see a picture of the baby. Since I’m still not showing at all, I still can’t quite believe there’s a baby inside of me.

My nausea is definitely getting better but it’s also definitely still there, and I can’t wait for it to be gone. Imagine being able to eat an entire meal without feeling nauseous. Imagine being able to look forward to eating again. Hopefully that day will come soon.

I’ve been trying to keep up with my running with the goal of running the Gobble Gobble Gobble 4 miler on Thanksgiving. So far the best I’ve managed is to run the 3 mile run out of the Old Magoun Saloon. Other than that, all my runs have been 2 to 2.5 miles. It’s unbelievable how tiring it now is for me to run 2 miles at a 12 minute pace. Crazy that it’s so much more effortful, and I don’t even have a tummy yet. I guess that’s what increased blood volume will do to you.

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Week 10: Heartbeat!

October 11, 2009 · Filed under Pregnancy

We had our first appointment with the ob on Friday. I was slightly delirious from being post call with only about 15 minutes of sleep but it was still a great appointment. Toward the end, she mentioned that it’s probably too early to hear the heartbeat but that she was willing to try. It was so cool when she put the doppler on my stomach, and I could hear the little woosh-woosh. I almost started crying. It somehow made everything seem so much more real. After that, she went and got Eddie so that he could hear it too. And the really good news is that apparently the risk of miscarriage is very low once you can hear the heartbeat. It was so exciting. Despite all the nausea and everything else, I still can’t quite believe that there’s a little baby inside of me. Even though so many other couples go through this, I somehow feel like Eddie and I are undergoing this unique experience that no one else can quite understand.

After the appointment, we started talking about telling other people now that the risk of miscarriage is so low. We decided to tell a few people. We figure we’ll tell pretty much everyone after the early risk assessment. So exciting!! Now I want to go buy a book on baby names. :)

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