The patriotic carb overload

We had a lovely, fairly low-key Thanksgiving with my parents and Colby yesterday. While I love making massive amounts of food for massive amounts of people, I just haven't had the energy to do so. I did try out a few new recipes this time: AllRecipes' sausage, spple, and cranberry stuffing, Smitten Kitchen's salted brown butter krispy treats, and Rachael Ray's cranberry-orange sauce. Dad brought key lime pie and pumpkin pie, and Colby brought (and made) fruit salad.

Today we're just avoiding Black Friday madness, lounging in our own filth, watching movies (thus far, Crank and The Runaways), and attempting to conquer the mountain range of leftovers in our kitchen.

Heartbeats

Today we had our first official prenatal visit. We chose to get care through Swedish Ballard's Midwifery clinic, and after today's visit, I think I can safely say that I'm going to be very, very happy with my choice. The student CNW and the CNW that we saw were both wonderful, kind, empathetic people who made both of us very comfortable and we weren't afraid to ask questions or be open about concerns.

Neither of us knew what to expect from the visit-- I'd heard different things from different women, but everyone is a special snowflake and you never know what you'll get. I had my blood drawn for complete workups, I peed in a cup (they test for protein in urine to make sure my kidneys are functioning), and they did a physical exam to make sure everything was progressing as normal. I'd heard that they might be able to hear the heartbeat on the first appointment, and we asked the CNW about it. They did a Doppler scan, which is the surface wand thing (obviously, I'm not a technical expert). We were told that it was unlikely but possible.

We got very, very lucky and were able to hear it! It was a quiet fluttery thing but it's there, and now everything finally feels real. The constant desire for naps, the sudden distaste for meat (or almost any other food except for Babybel cheese), the aches and pains all feel like they're pointing towards a goal instead of just, you know, making studying and focusing on grad school that much harder.

Speaking of graduate school, it's progressing, both too slowly and too fast. I'll be thankful when this quarter is over and I can take next quarter's classes (specifically, Young Adult Materials: Evaluation and Use). As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I spoke with my adviser (Marie is amaaaazing!), who was very sympathetic and understanding and suggested that for spring quarter, I take only online classes in case I need to do bed rest. I'm also due during finals week (because I like to make things difficult!), so I'll need to e-mail my profs and ask about possibly taking Incompletes until I can finish the remainder of the work over the summer.

In conclusion, I'm going to be using this space for the extended updates on the pregnancy and our family so that I don't clog everyone's Facebook feeds with crazy pregnancy/mommyblogging.

Pregnant with antici........

pation!

We decided to start trying to get pregnant in September, after we'd thrown our Last Great Party and life had settled down for work and grad school. Intellectually, I knew there was only a 24% chance of conceiving each month, AND I'd only been sans IUD since July 28, but I was still hopeful that we'd conceive sooner rather than later.

Be careful what you wish for, because you might get it. "It", in this case, is rampant fatigue, nausea. At first, I chalked it up to the stress of adjusting to grad school-- not just intensive study, but it's all online so I'm never really not at school. Classes started on September 29, and I didn't pay much attention to how I was feeling for a couple weeks.

Then I started doing the math and realized that it was the week my period was due. I managed to hold off on testing immediately and decided to wait until it was October 13 (one calendar month after the first day of my last period), and then I couldn't wait any longer. I'd stopped at Barnes and Noble and picked up a book on slow-cooker cooking and on a whim, What To Expect When You're Expecting.

My hunch was correct-- we tested that Friday night (twice!) and got two positives. Because I have a physical inability to keep my mouth shut on secrets, I told Audrea and Hannah, we told our parents, and then I had to tell the girls next door because they'd invited us over for wine. Josh wanted to keep it somewhat quiet until I'd gotten it confirmed by a doctor, so on the following Monday morning, I went in and tested at the doctor's office and confirmed that yes, I am pregnant.

Our first actual pre-natal appointment will be November 24. We're going to be using the midwifery clinic at the nearby hospital, and I'm excited to go. Once everything is confirmed as okay and working correctly, we'll make the news more public (aka Facebook official).

Meanwhile, I'm eating every Babybel cheese that crosses my path, nauseated by the idea of pizza, and ready for a nap at any time.