3d/4d ultrasound

We had our 3d/4d ultrasound this past Saturday!! I loved the pictures we got of our darling little girl (yup, it is confirmed that it is definitely a girl!).

Here are a few of my favorites:










Now for the fun stats!
She has HAIR!!! Her hair measures about 1cm long already! I'm not sure what is average at this point though...
According to the measurements, she is measuring 28w6d, so a little small. She weighs 2lbs.12oz which is the 47%ile.

She is still breech at this point, curled up between the uterine wall and the placenta. Her head is a little under my ribs on the right-hand side. Her bottom is sitting on my bladder ( ), and her feet are still against my cervix... It was hard to get decent pictures because she would NOT move that little hand away from her face (except to hit me when we would poke at her to get her to move )! Of course, I sleep the same way with my hand curled up by either my cheek or chin, and it looks like that is exactly what she's doing!

It was a great experience and it was amazing to see Kaylee again! Now just 11 more weeks till I can see her in person!

Closing Date coming soon...

The closing date on the new house is approaching (but not quickly enough!). We close on Tuesday, October 21, so about 2 more weeks.

We've been at my parents house since the end of August, and commuting an hour each way to work every day! It has been sooooo hard! I am exhausted all the time, I hate riding in the car, and am stuck at work each day until Brian gets off work (which has ranged anywhere from 4:30 - 10pm due to some unfortunately-timed overtime that he has no choice about).

Two more weeks and we will be in our own QUIET house with a 15 minute drive to work... Just 10 more work days left...
For those that have tried to email me, my email will be working again after we get in the new house (jschear@schear.homeip.net)


All is still going great with the baby. We have our elective ultrasound this upcoming Saturday, and I am soooo excited about it! I'll post again after our ultrasound to update the page with the pictures!

Sept. 20 -- 26 weeks

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile!

We were out of our house at the end of August (a day after school started). And with all the commotion of starting the school year, movers coming to get our stuff in storage, and moving in with my parents, it has just been crazy!

I started feeling baby moving around about a week after my ultrasound (20 weeks). So that has been a nice reassurance! I am scheduled for an elective 3d/4d ultrasound on October 11! I'm so excited for that! We will get a 20-minute ultrasound, dvd set to music, 1 color pic, 6 b/w pics, and a CD of all the color pictures to print out as we desire :) I can't wait to see her again!

It's a GIRL!

My ultrasound was moved up a few weeks because of some pain that I had last week. I was feeling a sharp stabbing pain in the cervix area, and the doctor wanted me to get in ASAP so that my cervix could be checked for any shortening.

My scan was at 8:15 this morning. The Ultrasound Tech was WONDERFUL! She described every detail that was going on :) We got to see the brain, the spine, the heart, kidneys, bladder, face, arms, legs, feet, etc! Then she announced that it is a GIRL!! She even let us watch the 3-D ultrasound for a bit.

I just can't believe it! I truly thought it was a boy, and never imagined that it could actually be a girl!

Little Katelyn (nicknamed Kaylee) is currently laying mostly on the left-lower side. The placenta is on the back wall of the uterus and she is leaning up against the placenta, as if it were a chair! Her little feet are kicking low, against my cervix (hence the pains I was feeling). She measures 18w6d and is approximately 9oz! And of course, she is absolutely adorable in black n white ultrasound :)

16 weeks

During this past week I have been focusing so intently on trying to feel movement...but have not felt anything that I KNOW is baby yet. :( At night, I lay on the couch before bed, reading quietly, and just focusing on that area trying like crazy to feel ANYTHING! Did you know you can actually feel your own heart beating in the pelvic area if you concentrate hard enough?!

In other news, our offer was accepted on the lot and house building last Thursday afternoon. Our house went on the market this past Monday. And we have an appointment to go to the Design Center tomorrow morning at 8am to pick out design options for the new house! Everything is going too quickly (except the actual building of the house!). We had a "realtor open house" yesterday morning so we were cleaning like crazy Monday night. Then, we got a phone call at 5:15pm to ask if our house could be shown at 7pm last night! The people were in and out in about 10 minutes, so I'm guessing they weren't interested...

2nd prenatal appointment

I had my 2nd appointment this past Thurssday (7/3/08). It was a real quick appointment involving a urine check, blood pressure, listening for heartbeat, and asking if I had questions. The heartbeat ranged between 165 - 168, so that was great! My blood pressure was down to normal again which is wonderful! And I had LOST 4 lbs!

Second Trimester

I think I am officially moving into the 2nd trimester! Even though I truly didn't have very many symptoms, the past 2 days I've been feeling even better. I'm not sure if it is just coincidence, or the fact that I've eaten more fruits/veggies and less carbs, or if it truly is the 2nd trimester easing the symptoms.

These two days I haven't had heartburn, I haven't had that extremely uncomfortably full feeling after I take just a few bites. I think I've had more energy as well!

Heard the heartbeat with home doppler!

I FINALLY heard baby's heartbeat with my home doppler! I picked up the sound first, then the display latched on and showed a steady beat that ranged from about 157 - 160. That is a little lower than at the doctor's office, but I don't know how accurate my machine is...

I can't wait to find it again and hook it up to the computer to record the heartbeat!

Floods of 2008

We seem to be right in the middle of the floods, and thankfully our house is completely dry! Downtown Cedar Rapids has been flooded for a few days now, and travel is not advised in Cedar Rapids.

This is getting scary because they are limiting our water usage to drinking ONLY. They are advising people to have supplies on hand in case water is turned off completely for up to a week! I just went out and bought 7 gallons of water, plus I filled all of our containers with tap water and put them in the fridge. So hopefully we are set, and I suppose worse case we would need to go stay with mom and dad if we don't have drinking water. I've been drinking 60 -80 oz of water each day, so I HAVE to have drinking water...

First Prenatal Appt

I had my first prenatal appt last Thursday, June 5th. I can't believe I didn't post immediately! I was going to be so good about keeping this blog updated...

Anyway, Dr. Zhang did an internal exam, a pap smear, went over the various tests (which we said we didn't want) for Down Syndrome, cystic fibrosis, etc. Then she got the doppler out and found the heartbeat almost immediately! She barely put the doppler on my lower stomach, held it in place for a few seconds then said, "Oh, there's your baby". The sound was clear as good be, and was the best sound in the world :) The rate was 167 bpm, which she said is great!

I still can't find the heartbeat with our home doppler :( I so desperately wanted to try listening to it at home, and get a recording of it on the computer...


Well, on other news, we are thinking about moving! We are having the realtor come over tomorrow evening to look around our house and give suggestions for what to improve. We are hoping to move before the baby comes in December. It will be WONDERFUL to have a larger house by then!
I am SO excited about moving, but I wish I could just ignore the "selling this house" part of it. I HATE cleaning and have been so tired, I don't know how I'm going to do it.... I just pray the house sells quickly.

OB History appointment

We had our OB history appointment today. It took awhile, but it wasn't even with the doctor. We sat in an office and went through our families medical history, etc. Then she gave us a sack of information (including a free pregnancy book!) and went over what will be happening. We see Dr. Zhang on June 5 for an internal exam, pap smear, and to listen for the heartbeat. Then I will see the doctor every 4 weeks until I get to 32 weeks. WOW....4 weeks between appointments seems like a LONG time! We won't have another ultrasound until 20 weeks...

Not much else going on. I have had a lot of heartburn recently, but still not much for nausea and no vomiting.

First ultrasound!

We had the first ultrasound today at 4pm! I was sooo worried ahead of time though. Everything went perfectly :) The baby measures about 7 weeks (I think I am 7 wks, 4 days based on ovulation though). The baby is 9mm from crown to rump. We even saw its little heart beating away (146 beats / min). It was just amazing! I wish I could have laid there watching that screen all day!

Morning Sickness

I think the morning sickness is starting to hit, though I haven't thrown up yet. Yesterday I felt a little nauseas after getting up and had to lay down and rest for awhile after eating breakfast. Today I felt the same after breakfast, then I started doing okay. I got up and folded laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, etc....then I was just hit with wave after wave of nausea. I thought for sure that I was going to get sick. Laying down seemed to help....but that's not going to work tomorrow at school!

Right now I can't stand the thought of any food. But I did eat some dry crackers and I made a fruit smoothie (vanilla yogurt, orange juice, and frozen fruit) that tastes okay and isn't upsetting my tummy yet.

I keep reminding myself that nausea is a GOOD sign that everything is going okay! I WILL get through this for my baby :)

Feeling better...

I'm finally feeling better. My fever broke this morning, and now my throat is only mildly scratchy. I'm still tired, which could be still not feeling well and/or the pregnancy. We'll see :) I did stay home from work today, though, just so I could rest up.

I'm starting to get a bit of heart-burn. Not sure if its a one-day thing or a new symptom. I'm hoping to get more real, true symptoms, just to prove to myself that this is real! I took my last Dollar Tree PG test this morning (since I finally slept all night and figured the urine was concentrated). It was so cool to watch as the test line showed up SUPER DARK before the urine even reached the control line!

Fever and sore throat

I have really felt ill this past week. First, last Sunday I started with a runny nose and lots of sneezing, lasting a few days. Then, it turned into a chest congestion cough for a few days. Yesterday morning I woke up with a bad sore throat, and by last night had a fever ranging between 99.8 and 100.5. That scared me so much because I know a fever isn't good while pregnant. I went to Urgent Care Clinic this morning, and they prescribed Amoxicillin, assuring me that it was completely safe during pregnancy. I sure hope so! But, its probably a good idea because I am so miserable...and that can't be good for the baby either :(

I have not had any new pregnancy symptoms...
~ Extremely tired (though that is probably due to the illness)
~ Sore breasts (noticed primarily last night and today...not sure if that is just being achy with the illness)
~ Going the bathroom frequently (of course that's probably cause I'm drinking 60 - 80 oz of water each day)
~ Occassional pinchy, stretching feelings in the uterus area and the left ovary area (hoping that doesn't indicate an ectopic!)

I'm looking so forward to my ultrasound scheduled for 5/12 to see the heartbeat. That will be added reassurance that all is progressing normally.

We haven't decided when to tell everyone yet though... I've told mom, Carrie, and a handful of people at work (Holly, Lindsey, Megan, Jackie, Carrie, and Gayle). Mom wants us to announce it after Tiffany's graduation at the end of May, since grandma Rutan and Marlene will be back. I guess we'll see if everything looks good. That would put me at about 9 weeks.

Second beta test

The second beta blood test result is in! 769! They wanted it to be in the range of 700, so it has slightly more than doubled! Hopefully this little baby continues to grow big and strong :)

Dr. Zhang will also be having me do my first ultrasound on Monday, May 12 at 4pm. I should be about 7 weeks at that point. But it feels sooooo far away! Nearly 3 weeks from now :( I am just praying that our baby stays strong and continues growing...and that we see a great heartbeat on the ultrasound!

I still can't believe this has happened! At least the spotting seems to be not as bad, just a tiny bit today. I feel a bit more relaxed as well. Over the weekend, I just felt like if I so much as moved I was going to hurt the baby....now I still worry, but I go about my usual day at work.

I'm trying to take it easy in the evenings since I am on my feet all day. I have been pretty tired during the evenings as well.

So far my symptoms include:
brown, creamy spotting
aches and twinges in the uterus area
no appetite
food aversions (right now the only things that sound good are water, cheese sticks, fruit, and veggies) I tried eating a casserole the other night and nearly gagged...
fatigue during the day/evening
insomnia during the night (I am tossing and turning a LOT, as well as waking up and not being able to fall back to sleep). This started that first night after finding out I am pregnant...

After 4 years...

We have been trying to conceive our first child for 4 years, 2 months, with not even a hint of a positive test. We have had some amazingly pretty evaporation lines, but nothing with color.

Friday morning I was sure my period would start. I had a bit of spotting the night before, and was just certain it would start. It hadn't so just for the heck of it, I took a pregnancy test. There was a second line!

I yelled for Brian because I didn't believe what I had seen. He came up and said that yes, it IS positive. He went out to Walmart (this was at like 6:45am) to get a digital test. Within a minute of taking it, it said pregnant!!



We were both in shock! I called the doctor's office as soon as the opened at 9am, and they agreed to get me in for a blood test and an appointment at 2pm that day.

I wasn't thrilled with the nurse. She basically made it seem like urine pregnancy tests aren't very accurate, and although she HOPED I was pregnant, I might not actually be. She kept saying it was way too early for a blood test to show positive. She had me soooo nervous!

Dr. Zhang came in and did an exam. She didn't seem overly concerned about the spotting I've been having. She said they would call with the beta blood test results and that she wanted me to come back on Monday for repeat blood work.
My HCG levels are 238 (which was on cycle day 27, 15dpo). The nurse that gave me the message said that that indicated a definite pregnancy.

I have been soooo worried this whole weekend. I keep wanting to just be happy and enjoy it, but everytime I notice the spotting (brownish) I just get freaked out. If I could put myself on bedrest for the first 12 weeks, I would in an instant...