The Keene Family

We had our third ultrasound yesterday in Bellevue. It was amazing! The baby was very active - kicking and moving its arms and head. The ultrasound tech said she rarely sees babies so active this early. We got to see lots of profile shots, like the one above, as well as feet, legs, arms, and even a great hand shot with all the bones. The purpose of the ultrasound was the nuchal translucency test to measure for our risk factor for birth defects. We will get the official results in about two weeks. The tech said that based on my age and what she saw today, she would guess our risk factor is very low. Highlights: Baby's heart rate was 168 bpm S/he is 45 mm from crown to rump S/he measures 11 weeks, 3 days (4 days ahead of before) We also went maternity/baby scouting at BabyStyle, Mimi Maternity, and Babies R Us. I got another Bella Band. It turns out, the one Sarah got me fits great and makes life soooo much easier for my 28.5 inch waist. It is no longer uncomfortable to sit down in ...

Even though we said we wouldn't get anything for the baby until after the New Year (and our families have had great self-control!), we ended up with just a few things. The baby got a little Harley t-shirt in his/her stocking. Then our god-daughter, Aly, got the baby a whole bag full of bath essentials, including a police officer floating duck. Aly will turn 1 year old tomorrow, so it's kind of hard to get upset at her for wanting to get our baby a Christmas present. :) The most tech-fun present is a new Flip video camera . Oddly enough, Jim and I both got one for each other "for the baby"! It is a tiny camera (about the size of our digital camera) that takes upto 30 minutes of video. Then it plugs straight into a computer with a USB connection, and the editing/sharing/uploading software is all built in. The best part of this is that family and friends near and far will be able to see video clips of baby's first day, first smile, and more without a lot of work. Si...

Twice this week I've put on pants that are too tight in the waist now. Mostly it's things that sit right below my belly button and were snug to begin with... So I stopped by My Second Closet , a consignment store right by my house that I've heard sells maternity clothes. I was just curious if they'd have anything good. It turns out they have one rack of maternity tops and one rack of pants/skirts, and a lot of it is size XL, but the prices are really good. I looked through the racks and tried a few things on. I ended up getting a pair of Old Navy cords and another pair of Old Navy jeans, plus a pretty blue V-necked sweater, all in my size. The whole shopping trip cost me about $15, so Jim was happy. :) I'm excited to wear all of it because they fit now and will stretch to fit for awhile. I'm hoping to borrow a lot of maternity clothes, but it was fun to get a few things today.

Tonight we took the first of many pregnancy pictures. Look, I have a little bump! My waist has grown two inches (28 now) and I weigh 125 pounds. I realized that what I thought last week was morning sickness was actually just being too tired. This week I've been sure to get eight hours of sleep and have felt great every morning. I'm still making sure to eat breakfast first. I also bumped up my number on our Sleep Number bed, and now I only wake up to go to the bathroom once a night. Ah, the glory of the Sleep Number bed. I had a short check-up this week. My labs last time were great (good news, I'm HIV negative... duh) and all the results were normal. Our next ultrasound is scheduled for December 28th. It is for the neural translucency test to check for abnormalities that may indicate a disability. It is pretty standard procedure. It's at Overlake in Bellevue, so Jim and I are going to go maternity clothes shopping afterwards at Bell-Square. I think I might get a Bella B...

Yep, that's right, I think my body has officially decided to be pregnant. Last night I woke up every three hours to go to the bathroom, and couldn't go back to sleep for awhile the second time because I felt gross. Every morning I eat a few Cheerios in bed and then shuffle downstairs to make breakfast, which smells disgusting (even though it's yummy food). I gag my way through part of the meal until my stomach remembers how hungry it is and lets me eat in peace. Then I feel fine for at least three hours... when I get hungry again, and the whole thing starts over. Today my friends Sarah and Kim brought me some yummy Pad Thai for lunch on our way to Seattle. It tasted sooo good in my mouth... but my stomach didn't like it. So I couldn't even eat half of the meal. Bummer! This all sounds pretty dramatic. Okay, so it's probably not nearly as bad as some other women get, and it's not so bad. I've only had to eat breakfast with my head on the table twice. :) I...

Finally, we have a due date! Today we had a second ultrasound. It was more in-depth; the technician looked at my gall bladder, kidneys, and all sorts of other things. She also measured the baby. It is almost 1 cm long. We were able to see the heartbeat again and measure it, too. The baby's heart rate was around 120 bpm today. Based on the size of the baby and the gestational sac, the radiologist placed me at 6 weeks, 6 days - which means we were only one day off! The measurements are accurate +/- 3 days, so that's pretty good. This means our official estimated due date is July 19, 2008 . Mark your calendars!

We had our first ultrasound today. It was awesome! We got to see the little heart beating away. Sometimes the picture was so clear Jim saw the two flaps of the heart beating one after another. I can't describe the feeling of seeing that tiny being living inside me. We are reminded of God's amazing creation. We get to go in tomorrow for another ultrasound to specifically measure the baby and get a more accurate estimated due date. You can see the miniature lima-bean of a baby inside the black tear drop. I circled it just in case you're wondering. :) Jim voted on this picture (we have four) because you can most clearly see the head (top right) and the bottom of the body (lower left).

It worked out just perfectly that Jim's parents, my parents, and my brother and his family were all together for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. We were pretty excited to share the news with all of them! (We were only missing Jim's sister, who was in eastern Washington with her boyfriend's family.) After we were finished eating but still at the table, Jim sternly called Madi and Ali, my nieces, to come see him (he was around the corner and no one could see where he was). Jim was actually giving them each a rose that was hidden in the bathroom with a poem attached. Each girl walked out and gave one rose to each mother. My mom knew what it meant as soon as she saw the rose! Jim's mom was so surprised that it took her a moment. They read the card and both got very teary. They hugged each other and said "Congratulations, Grandma!" Everyone got up and started hugging and saying congratulations. We shared the story of how we found out I was pregnant and talked about ...

On Monday I visited my friend Emrie at Mill Creek for work. At the end of my appointment with her, she mentioned that she'd like to get her book back if I was done with it because someone else wanted to borrow it. What book? Taking Charge of Your Fertility , an amazing book about natural birth control and getting pregnant. She said, "Do you still need it? How is it going?" And I answered, "Well, I'm pregnant." She was so excited! We walked out to the parking lot and I told her the whole story. Emrie said it was the best news she'd heard in an long time. She is a great friend! At Thanksgiving Eve service at church Wednesday night, I told Pastor Mark. He came up to say hello and he keeps in touch with us and our prayer requests. I asked him to keep our baby in mind when he prays for us. He said, "What a blessing!"... and we agree! Tomorrow is the BIG DAY when we will tell Jim's parents, my parents, and my brother's family in person since ...

Nurse Nancy called today to let me know that my hCg levels are "appropriate" for how far along I am. That is good news. I looked on the American Pregnancy Association website, and I'm actually at the high end of the week 4 range. (Yes, I'm a total data nerd.) We get to go in and get our first ultrasound on November 29th!

This morning, Nurse Nancy called and confirmed that my blood test results from last week were positive for pregnancy. My hCg levels were a little low, but she wasn't surprised since I was so newly pregnant when I took the first test. She asked if I would come in and get another lab done to make sure the numbers went up, so I did. I'll find out the results tomorrow. Today I bought Mama Bee belly butter by Burt's Bees. My belly is already oddly firm (or at least the muscles under there are), so the sooner, the better.

Today when I pulled into church at Antioch, Jen Shuck was in the car right behind me (no husbands: mine was at home asleep since he works nights right now, and hers is in Hawaii on business). It was a sign! She was headed to her Sunday School class and I was walking into church service, but I called her over anyway. I told her that Jim and I had something we'd like Brian and her to pray for us about... that I was four weeks pregnant. She gasped and hugged me, and started crying! I told her that was because she's pregnant too, and probably extra emotional. :) We ended up talking in the parking lot at church so long that we missed service. So we bought tickets to the Ladies' Christmas Dinner for us and our moms, and took off to Babies R Us instead! The brand new store just opened on Friday in Bellevue (what luck!) and Jen has been looking at some things online that she wanted to see in person. We spent a couple of hours testing out strollers, gawking at the amount of things y...

Jim just couldn't wait to tell someone, so we picked our good friends Adam and Sarah. Actually, we told their daughter (our god-daughter), Aly, first... but since she's ten months old, she couldn't tell anyone else. We babysat Aly on Friday night and when we took her home, Jim broke the news that she would have a new little god-sibling soon! Adam and Sarah had to think about that for a moment, but pretty quickly they realized what it meant. We had fun sharing our story with them. Commonly heard phrases include, "That's so crazy!" and "It's just weird." Sarah and I are thrilled that our babies will only be three months apart (since she's pregnant, too). We are excited to tell our parents, but want to wait until we're face-to-face if we can. We'll wait to really spread the news until the baby is twelve weeks, which falls right about New Year's 2008.

After I got off the phone with Nurse Nancy, I felt really disappointed. I had told her on the phone, "I just wish I'd seen it [the positive test]." Then I remembered that I had one here at home! So I marched myself to the bathroom and took it. Less than the required two minutes later, sure enough, the little line made a positive sign in the window. I don't know why, but that really helped. Jim wasn't home, so I took a picture so he could see it later. I weigh 121 pounds, and I have a 26-inch waist. I wonder how fast that will change? :)

When we went to PacLab in Issaquah to get the blood work done, they hadn't received the work order from the doctor's office. Jim said, "Can't we pull the pregnancy card?" So the nice man at the front desk made some phone calls and decided that we could go ahead and get the blood drawn without the order. So I got the blood drawn (all seven vials) on Thursday after work. Jim held my hand, talked about random things to keep me distracted, and kept feeding me Jolly Ranchers to keep my blood sugar up. We went out to dinner - Mexican - and got ice cream at Marble Slab in Maple Valley before returning home. Jim really, really wanted to tell someone, but I wanted to wait until we got the blood work results (even though in-office pregancy tests are very rarely false positive). I started reading What to Expect When You're Expecting that night, since my mom had bought it for me about six months ago "just in case." Waiting all day on Friday for THE CALL turned ...

I had already called Jim and told him a little bit about the appointment, including that I had taken a pregnancy test and that it was negative - just as we expected it to be. Erin had joked that now I could find a really creative way to tell him, since he wasn't with me to find out. So I went to two stores and a library on the way home, trying to find a nice pregnancy book for dads. It turns out those aren't very common. I ended up getting a Pilates pregnancy book (I don't know why, but I felt like I needed something!). When I got home, Jim was on the phone and getting ready to change into work clothes. I had to wait until he got off the phone before I started. I gave him a hug and asked him, "Will you still love me, no matter what?" He groaned and said, "Oh no, what did you do to the Explorer?" I looked him right in the eyes and said, "The pregnancy test was positive." He looked startled, but he quickly recovered and said, "Yeah, right....

What a surprise! I went to the doctor for a routine check-up on November 8th. The nurse had me take a pregnancy test. I laughed and said, "I don't think I'm pregnant." Sure enough, the urine test was negative. I had a great visit with my new ARN-CNM, Erin. A few hours after I left, I got a message on my cell phone from Erin. She asked if I could call her back. My first reaction was... oh, no, what's wrong? When I called the office, the receptionist put me right through to Erin, even though she was eating lunch. I felt my stomach drop. Erin was very cheerful and said that after I left, the nurse was cleaning up the room and noticed that my pregnancy test had a light second line on it. She continued to say that any second line at all is a positive test, and asked if I would like to come in to do a blood test just to be sure. My entire body broke out into a cold sweat! I had to ask her to repeat herself, and I started rubbing my head. It was all so unexpected! Erin t...