Yay for the Doctor's Office!

Today I finally spoke with someone at the doctor's office who was very pleasant and polite. The woman checked my chart, spoke with the doctor and confirmed that the visit was coded incorrectly. She said the billing company would void the charges, and it will be all taken care of.

BUT, she also said that while they were voiding the charge, they would still not code the visit as prenatal. Apparently, you get 2 ultrasounds per normal pregnancy. This way, I will still have another ultrasound covered by the insurance. That was a nice surprise to hear.

Hopefully my insurance woes are over for a while.

Week 16

This week Baby Grover is about 4.5 inches long. During this month, Baby Grover's weight will increase SIX times!! In other news, Baby Grover's tiny toe nails are just starting to grow.

I've been doing yoga back stretches in the mornings and evenings before I go to bed, which seems to be helping with the back pain I've started to feel. I guess it's good practice to get used to backaches and not sleeping through the night ;)

While I am definitely growing fast, I have to put a little disclaimer out there because I took this picture right after dinner, so it might look a little bigger than usual. Although, last night I even noticed a difference in my belly button. It's not pushed out, but it's definitely stretched and doesn't have all the little creases it did before.

Thanks, Sarah Crawford!

So our friends Sarah & Ben, back from the days of San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly, are having a baby too. They are due on Valentine's day, so Sarah is much further along than I am. She has been awesome at letting me in about cool products for pregnant ladies. Thanks, Sarah!!

First, I am loving my Snoogle pillow. It's a big huge C shaped pillow that works wonders for staying comfortable throughout the night.

Sarah also told me about the BellaBand, which I just got in the mail yesterday. It's going to be a wardrobe saver. Weeks ago I had to put away all my pre-pregnancy pants, but everytime I stand up I have to hike up my saggy maternity pants. The BellaBand is this elasticky band that you can wear over your pre-pregnancy pants (unbuttoned), and it just looks like you have a cute tank top under your shirt. I also put it on over my maternity pants and they didn't budge! They stayed right on, it was awesome. My little package says they help keep your pants up later when your big ol' belly is pushing them down, and then you can use it again after the baby is born with the too-loose maternity pants and too small pre-pregnancy pants.

Okay all you mamas out there. If you have any tips for awesome mama or baby products, now's the time to dish 'em out!

Venting.

One of my newfound pastimes, now that I’m regularly going to the doctor and getting prescriptions, is disputing charges with pharmacies and doctor’s offices. The other day after several phone calls to both my insurance company AND the pharmacy, I was finally able to get reimbursed after I was charged more than double what I should have for my prenatal vitamins, due to an error of the pharmacy’s (who swore up and down that they entered everything correctly, and that the problem was with the insurance company).

Two days after resolving this, my next insurance woe came in the form of a bill for one of my recent doctor appointments. Remember when I went in a week early because I was having pelvic pain? Well, at that appointment, the doctor told me to cancel my appointment later that week since we’d already done everything that would have been done at a normal 1st prenatal appointment (ultrasound, exam, answering questions, what’s okay and what’s not in pregnancy). When I called the billing office, they said the visit wasn’t classified as a prenatal visit because I was complaining of pain, and as soon as you do that, it’s considered an “office visit” and not a prenatal visit. It’s ridiculous! What am I supposed to say when the doctor asks how I'm feeling at a prenatal appointment, if when you say you’re having pain it’s no longer a prenatal appointment? Is that supposed to be a trick question?! I haven’t gotten this issue resolved yet. My next steps are talking to the doctor’s office, and if that doesn’t take care of it, I will speak directly with the doctor at my appointment next week.

It’s a hassle. And I really like the doctor’s office, it’s just a pain dealing with their billing people. Grr.

Squirming Around

I am determined to feel this baby moving around. Some books I read say you should start to feel movements between weeks 16 and 22 or so, but that if you start out extra slender before pregnancy, it's likely you'll feel the baby on the early side. That's me!!!

I have my hands all over my tummy all the time and I feel little flutterings or whatever, but how the heck do you tell the difference between little stomach gurgling and babies squirming around?

I'll keep you guys posted.

Week 15

This month, Baby Grover is pumping 25 quarts of blood through its tiny little body (about 4 to 4.5 inches long) every day. That's like 25 jars of spaghetti sauce!! It sounds like a lot, but after being born Baby Grover will get serious and start pumping 300 quarts of blood per day.

Baby Grover is busy practicing hand and arm movements - making a fist, moving its thumbs, bending the wrists and grasping. As if this weren't enough, Baby Grover is practicing all sorts of other things like swallowing, sucking movements, turning its head, opening its mouth, and pressing its lips together. What a busy little bee!

I spent most of yesterday doing baby related things. I cleaned out my entire closet and put away clothes I knew I wouldn't be wearing anytime in the next 9 months or so, and cleared some space for the cutsie baby clothes I am slowly starting to acquire. I also spent lots of time on the Babies R Us website picking out registry stuff.

Unfortunately, I woke up this morning at 2:30 and didn't really get back to sleep until about 10 minutes before it was time to wake up. My back was bothering me. Since I was up all night and don't feel so hot today, I decided to stay home and rest up.

Boy or Girl???

I have always believed I was destined to have a boy first. It's really kind of a silly reason why. I am basically a freak and find weird patterns in everything. For example, in my family (and not just my immediate family), boys usually have girls first and girls have boys first. Let's take a look at some case studies: David had Christianne, Tim had Mina, Theresa had Andrew. My cousin Steven had Ruby, Michael had Nicolette, while Suzanne had Teddy and Melissa had Adam. I could go on, but I think you get the point. And of course, not *everyone* has followed this pattern.

I still think we just might have a boy first, but the other night I had a strange dream. I was going through all these elementary school pictures and toddler pictures of a little girl who I thought was me at first. But I realized they couldn't have been MY school pics, although they were of a really cute little girl who looked strikingly like me. weird.

It's anyone's guess.

My Boxing Coach

If you've voted on the Baby Grover Pool, you may have noticed that one of the guessers identified himself as my former boxing coach. If you haven't voted yet, now's your time to make your guess! http://www.expectnet.com/games/Baby_Grover_Pool

So yeah, my boxing coach. When I was about 4 years old, and my cousin Justin was 3, our loving older brothers had the brilliant idea that we should have boxing fights against each other. We'd go down in the basement and basically punch each other. I don't remember so clearly, but I think the coach role involved convincing us not to cry, to keep boxing, and probably to not tell our parents.

Blah.

Blah. That is how I've been feeling all weekend. Tired, not really wanting to move around too quickly and so much for the headaches going away. It's kind of a bummer, since I thought that madness was supposed to decrease or go away in the second trimester.

On the plus side, I did get a lot of rest this weekend, and I even did 40 minutes of prenatal yoga today. The prenatal yoga is a 2nd trimester video, and is more challenging than I thought it would be. At one point I decided that the instructor was only pretending to be pregnant, because how else could someone power through it like that?

Even though I've been feeling yucky, my appetite hasn't gone away. In fact, I want to eat everything I see cooked on the Food Network. This resulted in me concocting my own version of Shepard's Pie after I saw Rachael Ray make one. I also wanted to eat soft tacos and numerous other dishes that looked delicious on tv, but succeeded in only making the shepard's pie.

My Birthing from Within book has some techniques for dealing with pain that you're supposed to practice while holding onto ice cubes. We tried some of those this afternoon. For one, Lane was supposed to time me holding the ice cube for 60 seconds, and the end, he actually timed it for 2 minutes and I didn't even realize. Of course, it's nothing like the pains of labor, whatever those may be like, but it's good to start practicing dealing with unpleasant and painful sensations.

Wowwa Weewa

This month, Baby Grover is supposed to grow faster than it ever has or ever will!! This growing must be starting already, because I've started to feel little pains in the sides of my stomach, which I'm sure are growing pains of stretching ligaments. I've noticed that around 4 pm or so, even when I eat a nice big lunch i am absolutely famished. I am going to need to restock on snacks at work. My afternoon headaches are largely a thing of the past and I am even sleeping through the night without getting up to pee. Ahh, the simple pleasures in life!

Week 14

Today I am exactly 14 weeks pregnant, and exactly SIX months away from our due date. That doesn't sound like enough time to do everything we need to, but we're going to have to make it work!

Baby Grover has been practicing facial expressions. At the end of last month, Baby Grover was about 1 inch long and weighed 0.4 ounces. Now, Baby Grover is more than 3 times that size. That's some serious growing!!

Still feeling (mostly) great.

The scale was RIGGED.

The more I think about it, the more messed up I think the scale is at the doctors office. How could I possibly have gained 9 pounds in 4 weeks?! We have a scale at home, which we have tested to confirm it was calibrated correctly and, according to that scale, I weigh like 5 lbs less.

I'm not worried about gaining weight in pregnancy, that's what's supposed to happen. I was just shocked to hear that I had gained so much in such a short period of time. I've decided that it's time to start getting myself in shape for a number of reasons, like having more energy, being more prepared for giving birth, and carrying a baby (and car seat and diaper bag) around with me everywhere I go.

So working out started this week. Let's hope it lasts.

Make your guess on the Baby Grover Pool!

So, I stole this idea from the other Baby Grover's parents (at http://www.babygrover.blogspot.com/). This is your chance - Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunties & Uncles, cousins and friends of all ages, take your best guess about Baby Grover's arrival stats. Come on, everyone. If you are reading this, you better guess :)

Here's the link and happy guessing!

http://www.expectnet.com/games/Baby_Grover_Pool - the link doesn't work in FireFox, but works fine using Internet Explorer.

p.s. Just so you know, I made Lane make his guess before he could see mine and I didn't say ANYTHING about what my guess was. It's really funny to see our guesses next to each other.

Week 13 (my, how time flies!)

It seems only yesterday I was barely 12 weeks pregnant, yet today I am a whole week more pregnant. I asked the Dr. what was going on at my appointment today, since according to my last ultrasound, I was 13 wks 1 day preggo, while I believed I was 12 weeks. Based on the two ultrasounds, they are switching my due date to July 15th, so change your calendars, everyone! This means everything is happening sooner - when I'll start to feel the baby, when we'll find out the sex, when I'll be off of work... wow.

I also discovered that since December 11th I have gained NINE pounds!! This is crazy talk. Sure, I’ve been eating a lot, but a lot of blueberries and tangerines and sugar snap peas, not a lot of chocolate cake, lard, and other crappy junk. The Dr. also said not to be surprised if I didn’t gain much between now and the next appointment. I’ve been trying to work up the motivation to do my prenatal yoga more often. I think I just found it.

Week 12

This week Baby Grover doubled in weight to a whopping 1/2 ounce!

In other news, I found out one of the girls at work is 12 weeks pregnant also. She even has the same due date as us! While she is in Indonesia right now, I look forward to her return so we can talk the preggo talk together.

Last night, we went to a happy hour organized by one of Lane's co-workers in honor of his leap into daddyhood. We had a good time with lots of friends.

I was supposed to have a Dr. appointment yesterday. When I tried checking in, they let me know that they'd been trying to reach me because the Dr. had just left to deliver a baby. I turned around and walked right back. And sure enough, I had missed calls from them. At least it gave me the chance to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather (73 degrees!). My appointment is rescheduled for tomorrow.

One of our preggo friends recommended that I get this C-shaped Snoogle pillow. It is totally rad. It helps me stay in the most beneficial sleeping position (on the left side), and is just super cozy.

And just for comparison, people, this is my stomach less that two months ago:

Baby Grover is Growing!

Lane and I had our appointment today for routinely recommended Down Syndrome testing. A blood test along with a specialized ultrasound in which they measure the thickness of the skin in the back of the neck is a good indicator of whether or not the baby will have Down Syndrome. They said the skin measurements are perfectly normal. We don't get the blood results back for a week or so, but we're sure everything will be fine.


I'm so glad Lane was able to get off of work so we could attend this appointment together. We saw so much of Baby Grover - little fingers, arms, toes, some ribs, a spine, legs and little feet, and we could see Baby Grover move its tiny arms around. It was amazing. Here are the pics so you can see for yourself. Of course, they aren't as detailed as the live images on the ultrasound. But you can see the little spine :)




Lane said that he's sure the baby has my cheek bones.

It's True!

I finally told my co-workers we're having a baby. They were super duper excited. This one lady says she could tell because of how I walked differently. I have a sneaking suspicion that she really just overheard Habiba and me talking about it one day, since she sits right behind her. Another girl said she wanted to ask me, but thought maybe I was just enjoying the holidays. As some people congratulated me, about three other people or so came rushing over to find out who was being congratulated and what for. I swear, this news is spreading like wildfire!!

At Lane's work, Ben the guy who spilled the beans for Lane, spilled them even further by sending a meeting scheduler for a congratulatory happy hour. Sounds sweet, right? Well he didn't include Lane on this scheduler, but DID include Lane's boss, who Lane had not yet shared the news with. She had to ask him why she had to find out from some other guy about his news. She was cool, but still! Wildfire I tell you.

Tomorrow is 12 weeks. Today we had to buy some storage bins to put away the many, many pairs of pants I can no longer wear. While we were at Target, we browsed some of the zillions of baby products out there. It was a little overwhelming to say the least.

I've been reading a book about the Bradley Method - an all natural childbirth method. We'll see how that goes. Lane is reading his dad book I got him and learning lots.

This weekend we got a sweet card in the mail from my Aunt Annie and Uncle Dave. My mom also sent us a card saying we couldn't have given them better news over the holidays. yay :)

Week 11

Baby Grover is now the size of a large lime. It is swallowing and kicking too, although I can't feel the kicking yet, and probably won't for 6 more weeks or so.

Starting this week, I'm supposed to gain 1 pound per week. Wowsers. Lately I've been getting really tired in the afternoons, headaches, and feeling a little queasy in the evenings. They say these symptoms are supposed to go away around the beginning of the second trimester. I hope that's the case for me too, even though they're just starting toward the end of the first trimester.
I found the best book for me - a book TO-DO LISTS for moms-to-be! If you know me at all, you know I'm an insane planner and list maker, so this is perfect. I also got a couple other books, so I have lots of reading in store for me.


About 5 minutes after we took this picture I was sound asleep in bed, which explains why I look so fabulous here.

We've been taking pictures in the evening and thought recently that it probably wasn't the best idea to take them after dinner, that my tummy might look extra big...but we forgot until after we'd already eaten dinner that it was picture day again.

Even *more* people in the know!!

This weekend we told our neighbor friends our big news. They were both super excited for us. Jess & Sean immediately started putting all the pieces together - how I haven't been drinking at all at our recent get togethers, how I just bought a SCALE, and why I was eating an orange and a hippie fruit bar during the movie we saw yesterday.

I also told my boss. She congratulated me, asked how I'd been doing, and gave me some tips for getting in touch with the right people to discuss the ins and outs of maternity leave.

One of Lane's former co-workers stopped by his work to say hello today, since he had a meeting at the Pentagon. He told Lane he had a bone to pick with him (quite loudly), and asked why Lane never told him I was pregnant. Everyone gasped when Lane responded that he hadn't told anyone yet. It was an interesting way to tell people at work. At first, I thought Ben was just trying to play a trick on Lane, but he read about it on the internet - aka my myspace pic/profile.