Baby Bump Denial?

You be the judge: Baby bump or not?

I think it's there, Kristin still denies it. Despite the fact that she can no longer button most of her pants, she still insists that she's not much bigger than before she was pregnant. I think it's maybe a phobia or something. I might have to take her to Motherhood Maternity for some exposure therapy.
We're at 16 weeks and counting. About a month and we get the big ultrasound and find out the sex. We'll keep you guys all posted.

It's official -- we're moving!

Match Day was last Thursday and after many months of crossing our fingers, praying, and wondering about our future, we found out where we will be spending the next three years of our lives. For those of you who are lucky enough not to be immersed in med school culture, "Match Day" is the day that 4th year medical students across the country find out where they are being sent for residency training. The day is filled with parties, luncheons, speeches, and strange traditions but, eventually, you do get to find out what your future holds.

Jon matched into Emergency Medicine at Palmetto Health Richland in Columbia, South Carolina! This was his first-choice program so we are very excited for what the next three years will bring. We will be moving to Columbia towards the end of June - right after the school year ends for me here. Our Winston-Salem townhouse is for sale so hopefully it will sell in time for us to move :-)

Everything with the pregnancy is going fine. I should have a new picture up this weekend. I'm still not really showing but you may be able to see a little bit of a bump!

Kristin

Match Day Pictures:

Pregercize: My Kind of Workout

I've decided that I want to be pregnant, at least for the workouts. When I work out, there's a lot of grunting, sweating, and testosterone involved. There are typically pulled muscles, pain, and (if no one is watching) tears. My workouts are manly. Occasionally, I will find that after working out, I have actually grown more chest hair. That's a workout.

Kristin, however, is now doing pregnancy workouts. This typically involves medium-range walks, but this week it has been raining enough for Noah to float an ark. So she decided to do her pregnancy workout video today, and I was lucky enough to watch. It was quite a riot.

For starters, pregnancy workout videos are very lenient. The most common phrase I overheard was "If you feel like it, you can sit down for a little while". Or "Don't do anything you don't feel up to". Love these phrases- you would never find them on six minute abs.

And in case you thought they might be driving these women way too hard (which is why they would need all the breaks), don't worry. It seems that pregnant women are capable of walking in place, arching their backs, and breathing in and out. Mash together a combination of those moves, and you've got a workout video. For extra challenge, you can raise your arms up and down.

I've decided that tomorrow, instead of jogging, I'm going to do pregercize. And I'll take breaks when I need to.

Moving Right Along

We've hit the 14 week mark and things still seem to be going well. We had a doctor's appointment last week and got a good report. Everything is right on track and I've gained two pounds in the last five weeks. The doctor was very happy about that. I still pretty much look the same but some of my pants are getting harder to button and Jon swears he can see a "bump." :-) I'm sure it won't be long before I have a full-fledged baby bump though. We got to hear the heart beating at a healthy 147 bpm which was very exciting. This was the first time Jon got to hear the heartbeat since he missed the 7 week ultrasound appointment (pesky medical school rotations....) so he was excited. He's just holding out until the baby is big enough for him to be able to hear the heart with his stethoscope!

Check out the 14 week picture below. Oh, I'm also putting in a picture of the cookie cake our friends John and Lisa got us to celebrate the pregnancy. John is also in medical school with Jon and, of course, wanted to be accurate by calling the baby by it's proper designation of a "fetus." He did say the man at the store gave him some strange looks when he asked for "Happy Fetus" to be written on the cake but we got a kick out of it. :-)

12 weeks and still hot!

Hey all,

Kristin is now 12 weeks along, and as evidenced by the picture, still skinny as a post. I swear, I've gained more baby weight than she has.

We are officially in the middle of a blizzard, and Kristin has a snow day tomorrow. Good day to stay in and sit by the fire. See ya'll later.

Pregnancy: A Little Like Tuberculosis?

So let's play mystery diagnosis:

26 year old white female, presents with night sweats, irrational behavior, food cravings, sensitivity to smell, and increasing abdominal girth. Exam non-contributory except for distressed affect (she yells a lot when I mess with her) and some bruising about the knuckles where she has beaten her husband for not cooking dinner quickly enough. Labs and images: not available (this is a townhouse and a cheap blog- you get what you pay for). Differential diagnosis includes:

(Here's a hint)

Could be: (Isn't this fun?)

tuberculosis

syphillis (unlikely)

Sarcoid with neurologic involvement

Atypical seizures

or PREGNANCY!

Osler once called tuberculosis the great pretender, because it could mimic any symptom. I'm starting to think pregnancy could do the same thing. Weird things happen during pregnancy, and I can't even begin to explain some of them. My stock answer is "hormones". This becomes increasingly difficult to use as the pregnancy progresses. Such as: It is difficult to answer hormones when Kristin says, "Why am I so hungry that even the cat is looking appetizing?"

It's kind of fun being on the medical side of this pregnancy, but sometimes I wish I didn't know as much. I kind of wish I got to be the dad who was like "Is that normal? Shouldn't there be two feet instead of three?". It's kind of no fun knowing exactly what should be going on. I'm sure it's just going to get worse as we get farther and farther. That baby is going to get listened to with a stethoscope more before it gets born than after. I half-jokingly looked up portable ultrasound machines for sale today.

I never realized how nerve-racking this could be. I'm sure it's worse on Kristin than on me, since she feels every twinge and pang. I guess the point of this whole post (and you thought it didn't have one) is to ask you guys to continue to pray for us, and just pray for peace throughout the whole pregnancy. I'm so antsy, and we've barely gotten started. I just want to see a happy, healthy baby. Oh well, six more months. Oh yeah, for the curious:

Tuberculosis

Pregnancy

~Jon

P.S. Kristin would like to direct everyone's attention to the disclaimer under the "welcome" section of the blog. :-)

11 Weeks!

We've made it to 11 weeks and believe it or not I'm starting to feel a little more like my old self! I'm feeling a little less tired and able to get more done. My nausea is also decreasing everyday and being steadily replaced by more and more hunger :-) I've never been much of a big eater before so this ravenous state is definitely new for me. Jon finds it pretty funny, too. I just never can seem to get enough to eat! We went out to one of our favorite mom and pop pizza places for dinner on Friday (to make up for the fact that I was too tired and sick to go out on Valentine's Day) and I don't think I've ever eaten so much in my life. I made Jon agree to order the extra large veggie pizza instead of the medium or the large (there are only two of us after all) and I insisted on getting a big salad to eat before the pizza came out. Jon was sure that my eyes were bigger than my stomach but.......no such luck. I ate the whole salad and three very large pieces of pizza. And of course, I had to have a snack after we got home. Last night we had a nice, normal sized dinner at home which would normally hold me until breakfast but not now! I was hungry again almost an hour later and then again right before bed. I actually made Jon get out of bed to go downstairs and get me a snack because I couldn't fall asleep with a rumbling tummy :-) Jon now says that I have a new eating pattern: breakfast, second breakfast, snack, snack, snack, lunch, snack, 2nd lunch, snack, snack, dinner, snack, snack. I'm not sure I'm quite that bad but it's probably not too far off the mark! Hey, at least I am mostly eating healthy foods like fruit, veggies, pretzels, and cheese. I still don't have much of a taste for sweets but, now that girl scout cookies are here, that might be changing soon :-)

The baby has also been very busy using all of that extra food this week! He or she now has fingernails, toenails, and hair follicles. The body is starting to straighten out a little and the skin is becoming less transparent. Baby's kidneys and liver are now functioning which means he or she has started to urinate (what!? No one told me this was part of the deal!!) and now has about 3 tablespoons of amniotic fluid to swim around in. And swimming does seem to be part of the little one's activities now. According to all of the books I have read, the baby now kicks and moves his/her arms and little body around although I won't be able to feel it for another month or so. I also read something interesting in my pregnancy journal just this morning. According to the book, each baby has a unique muscle structure (based on inherited patterns) and shows a "distinct individuality in behavior by the end of the third month." This means that the facial expressions of the baby are already similar to the facial expressions of the parents. Cute! :-)

Love,

Kristin