If you want to be a Badger...

Baby was officially welcomed into the Badger family on Tuesday! T gifted us a generous goodie bag of Wisconsin baby garb (thanks, doll).

As proud alumni, Ben and I are pretty thrilled to outfit our offspring in red and white. Plus, football season starts one week after the baby is due. Go Bucky!

P.S. Let's all take a moment to mourn the Las Vegas trip that never was. For years, Ben and I wanted to get a group together to go to Vegas when the Badgers played UNLV in 2010.

Soldier on without us, friends. Tear.

Random

Today I'm craving wilted fresh spinach with salt.

That is all.

UPDATE: I went to Noodles for lunch and got the Pasta Fresca with extra spinach. It gets all wilty from the heat of the pasta. Devine.

Cuter

So much better. I feel like a new person.

However, it appears that the pregnancy is majorly thinning my hair. I've been blessed with ridiculously thick hair since birth, so the stringy, thinning mop I'm dealing with now has come as quite a shock.

Wendy, my hair stylist, said some women get crazy thick hair while pregnant, and others lose volume at rapid rates. My hair should go back to normal within a year of having the baby (thank god).

This must be some kind of cosmic payback for not having any morning sickness.

Not cute

Those are some truly glorious roots.

I last had my hair highlighted on November 7. That was 16 weeks ago. Just to put it in perspective, I typically color my hair every 8-10 weeks. But it's not safe to get your hair highlighted in the first trimester. So like any good mother-to-be, I waited. And waited. Luckily I'm tall, so most people can't see the top of my head.

But my doctor gave me the go-ahead at our last appointment. So I'm booking it to Salon Panache in Winona this weekend to have Wendy work her magic.

I believe I'm allowed to be a hot mama. And for this mother-to-be, that includes highlights.

Bump Watch

This is essentially a non-bump picture (13 weeks). The little bit of roundness you see on my belly is my otherwise unoffensive tummy fluff being pushed outward by the growing baby.

The only way I can describe my growth so far is that I'm very full between my pelvic bones. It feels round, but you can't really see anything bump-worthy yet.

I gained about 2 pounds in my first trimester, which is considered normal. Weight gain should pick up pretty rapidly in the next few months, then taper off the closer I get to my due date. Provided Ben and I stop ordering celebratory desserts whenever we're out to dinner.

P.S. Don't you just love my t-shirt? It has three pink cupcakes on it. Fabulous!

Say cheese!

According to the baby book, the baby starts smiling this week. Smiling. Isn't that crazy?

Speaking of baby books, I'd be remiss not to pass on my suggestions...

Loves It

"A Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy" (funny, honest and practical, but doesn't include any information on your baby's development week by week)

"The Pregnancy Bible" (Ben and I read this every Sunday for updates on how baby is growing; has great full color pictures and interesting facts)

"The Complete Organic Pregnancy" (good suggestions on how to be your healthiest while pregnant, without convincing you that everything around you is harming your unborn child)

Hates It

"What To Expect When You're Expecting" (comes off as preachy and condescending; I have no idea how it's the #1 selling baby book)

I'm just now venturing into the books on birthing. But contractions and cold packs are still really freaking me out, so I may give those books some time.

To screen, or not to screen?

We had a first trimester screen scheduled for tomorrow. And I cancelled it.

A first trimester screen (also called a nuchal fold screen) is a non-invasive test to check for chromosomal abnormalities in your developing baby. Basically, they do an ultrasound (fun!) to measure fluid behind the baby's neck. Excess fluid can be an early indicator for certain problems, like down syndrome or trisome 18. But it can only be measured before week 14 of pregnancy.

My doctor (nurse midwife) didn't personally recommend this test, but supported our decision to pursue it. I learned about the test from M, who found it really reassuring in her first trimester.

The test doesn't definitively diagnosis a problem, but rather estimates your risk. If you're deemed high risk, more invasive diagnostic testing is recommended, like CVS or amniocentesis. Unfortunately, these tests come with a slight risk of miscarriage (1-2%), which I personally feel is completely unacceptable.

Ben was all for the first trimester screen. He wants to know our risk factors for a special needs baby. And admittedly, it would be nice to see the baby again before 20 weeks.

But I started getting really anxious about the screening last night. If we're deemed high risk, I flat out refuse to have a diagnostic test that presents any risk of miscarriage. So while a low risk reading might be reassuring, a high risk reading would cause undue stress and anxiety throughout the rest of my pregnancy. False positives aren't common (only 2%), but they do happen. And if I'm not willing to do the diagnostic testing required to know for sure, I don't want to open myself up to that kind of stress.

Plus, I'm quite sure our baby is perfectly healthy. And if he's not (I think it's a boy, in case you're wondering), we'll take it one day at a time.

It's hard to explain how much I love this baby already. I talk to him all day long, and rest my hand on my stomach at night when I can't sleep. Every decision I make is influenced by the fact that I'm pregnant. And he's ours whether he's medically "normal" or requires special care. He's perfect either way.

Blech

Not feeling well today. A bit sick to my stomach and light-headed.

I might be dehydrated, so I'm trying to drink lots of water. And I didn't eat the best yesterday (hello Super Bowl food), so I'm eating lots of fruits and veggies and trying to avoid anything processed.

Is this how most people feel throughout their first trimester? Yuck. Here's hoping this is an isolated incident.

Welcome world!

We're finally coming out to our friends and extended family with the big news! Since you're just joining me, let me catch you up:

August 2009: Let's have a baby!
September 2009: No baby
October 2009: No baby
November 2009: No baby
December 2009: Aha! Success, baby.

Ben was pretty much bursting to tell everyone the moment we found out, but I really wanted to wait until we had confirmation of a heartbeat. We told our parents in January, and friends, well, just yesterday.

For those those who have been suspicious for a while, check out posts on December 19 (Bridesmaid Bar Crawl) and January 1 (New Year's Eve).

And if you want to see a picture of baby Zinth, there's an early ultrasound posted on January 9. Fair warning, it pretty much just looks like a planet. Or a small space alien. But the doctor promises he/she will get cuter.

What's so funny?

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Whoa.

We heard the baby's heart beat last night! It was super incredible, and made baby seem much more real than when we listened via the internal ultrasound. Like this little growing person is now significant enough to be heard through my stomach. So cool.

Unfortunately, I started laughing everytime we heard the heart beat. An excited, nervous, holy crap, I-can't-believe-I'm-hearing-this sort of laugh.

With every laugh, my stomach muscles would contract and we'd lose the sound. But we listened three different times for a few seconds each. And for those few, brief seconds (before I broke into nervous hysteria), it was awesome.

Prediction

My grandpa thinks the baby is going to be born on his birthday. That would be pretty sweet.

Not only for the baby to share a birthday with his/her great-grandfather, but also because the birth date would be 8/9/10. How cool is that?

Coming out

Despite the fact that my mother-in-law is super excited about the baby (Welcome to the Roxy, I'm going to be a grandma!), very few people in our inner circle know that I'm pregnant.

We told friends J + T a few weeks ago, simply because having a baby in August will make it difficult for Ben and I to stand up in their August wedding. But we wanted to wait until the 12 week mark to tell everyone else. Just in case.

We see the doctor tomorrow, and provided there's heartbeat and everything looks OK, we're coming out to our friends this weekend.

I'd say the baby's out of the bag, but that sounds like a suffocation hazard.