Wait...no....Wait...Yep, I've got to pee!

When you get ready for pregnancy and beginning the amazing journey of becoming a parent you of course do your research. By research I mean you google "pregnant" and talk to your family to get the low down on what will be surely the most amazing experience of your life. I have found that though limited research gives you warm fuzzies as you picture tiny little toes and a perfect little round bump that you and your loved ones touch and oooo and ahhh over, that it is in fact limited. Let's go over a list of items I have learned about being pregnant that I didn't know before. Headaches and brain mushiness ( technical term): I have learned that as your precious little one grows that it will need more and more of your resources, in this case your nutrient rich blood. The miraculous thing about your body is it actually starts producing more blood about 20% more! So thats good! Except all that blood and then some needs to circulate down to the placenta to nourish the baby. No biggie right? Wrong, no one tells you that you will actually be having less blood traveling to your brain and it will actually affect brain cell production. WHAT? Pregnancy makes you dumber? Ahhhh yes you have just learned mushy brain 101!Write that down before you forget!  The same blood loss culprit can also trigger lack of oxygen to the brain which can cause some nasty headaches. Lovely! Constipation and hemorrhoids? Don't want to go there, me either. How about incontinence? I never thought I would fear sneezing....I literally panic when I feel a sneeze coming on. Because you never know how full your bladder really is, you never truly know what the damage will be! Oh yea, bladder...that's another one! Please read on for my first hand account.

 So, I go to the doctor with myself and the doctor believing I have contracted a UTI ( urinary tract infection, oh yea...thats another one). I go in she asks if I can pee in a cup...I laugh and ask if she can give me a backup cup. I mean hello I'm there cause I have a going problem not a stopping problem? Can I pee...sheesh, silly question. So test comes back negative. Perplexed look on your face? I had one too don't worry. Back in the examining room I met with the doctor and he ( Dr. Herr was out Dr. Gupta is my backup Quarterback....get the reference....no? ok so picture the quarter back.....now I'm the center in the delivery room....still nothing? well go talk to a male then) anyway he said that he was surprised I did not have a UTI but said with his 15 or some odd years of experience that he bet he knew what the culprit was. Relief was around the corner! Katie he knows the problem and is going to fix it so we can stop camping out in the bathroom! Not so fast inner  dialog.  Dr. Gupta starts mushing on my tummy and says," hurt here" I grimace, thats the spot! He grabs the Doppler mic thing-a-ma-bob and places it right on the ouchy spot. "hear that" he asks me? Oh my god I have a tumor on my bladder and it has a heart beat! Or more logically my precious little baby has decided to camp out on top of my bladder. Wonderful. So he says with your round ligament pain (thats another one) and the fact that when you pee the baby compresses your bladder and you quickly will feel the urge of a full bladder again that explains why you are going to the bathroom so often. Ok, so when does it go away? Let's just say the doctor laughed. Apparently unless the baby shifts a little to my right we are bathroom bound for the remainder of our little belly journey together.

On another note. Who is super excited to soon be able to say he or she with knowledge of baby anatomy behind them!?!  Yep, me too. 2 more weeks, hang in there.

On the move

Guess who kicked mommy today for real! Though the doctor said it would be awhile before I could be sure I was feeling the baby she also said baby is big! I guess when you are suppossed to be averaging around 3 inches and instead you are 6 it would make sense momma would know when you were playing the air guitar in her belly. Though baby measures big the doctor did ensure us according to other developmental factors that she can tell baby is indeed on track with initial calculations and no further.

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Who's a Healthy Growing Baby???

Baby Ashley that's who! Today was a great day seeing baby even though it tried to not happen a couple times.
When we first arrived at the doctor's office for our 4 month checkup the desk attendant regrettably stated that our appointment had been cancelled. I told her that no one had cancelled the appointment and in fact we had both taken off work to be there. She checked the schedule and the day was fully booked. Keep me from seeing my baby? I think not! I asked to talk to the nurse who immediately said of course we can squeeze you in we are almost done with lunch anyway. What sweet hearts! So Shawn and I got back to the room and I looked around...where's the ultrasound machine? When the nurse came in she pulled out the dopler and I frowned at her, " no pictures"? She laughed and patted me on the leg, "aw, no hun your baby is healthy and out of the danger zone we just need to check the heart from now on".  The news was good and bad. Good was that me and baby were NORMAL! HA! NORMAL! who would have thought. Bad news was that I had lost my window to my little one until the sonogram at the end of the year. Well....thats what we thought. When Dr. Davis came in I whined of course and we laughed and talked about how I was feeling (good) and how my test results came back from last visit (great). Next the dopler. We listened....and moved.....and listened.....and moved....nothing. She put the dopler down and said, "well since baby is being difficult looks like we need to move next door to the ultrasound". Baby must have heard mom complaining! Shawn laughed, "geez! Baby and momma already in kahootz"!


Hi Mom and Dad!!!

Shawn and I scheduled our sonogram for December 23rd.....hopefully the day we learn if baby Ashley is a she or a he!

The Loss of an Old Friend

It was a sad morning in the Ashley household. I woke not so eagerly from my slumber and  rolled over in bed. My view of Shawn was partially blocked by the mound of pillows I had used to barricade myself in with beaver like skill. As I peeled back the layer I saw him there browsing on his phone most likely making trades for his fantasy football team. "Hi" I yawned at him, stretching gently as to not strain my aching belly. My greeting must have been received by my 3 fur children as our bed was quickly invaded by 2 heat suckers masquerading as felines. Mau and Cheyenne quickly assumed their position on my chest and legs purring and twitching their tails in delight. Zuruck's good morning message came through as a squealing high pitch whine-bark that echoed in the hollow chamber of our dining room. "Is the dog locked up?" I asked Shawn as I rolled over receiving unhappy glances from my now displaced fur babies. Shawn slowly lowered his phone, " yes, he was a very bad dog". Great, what of my non edible items did the dog decide to eat, would there be dismembered toys, sole-less shoes, gnawed chair legs....I shuttered thinking of the havoc he could have created as he waited for us to wake. Shawn looked at me as if he dare not even speak of the horror that he had witnessed this morning, " he chewed through your heating pad cord". Silence. How could this happen? My heating pad, my old friend that had nursed me through countless back injuries and sore muscles. Lately it had soothed my aching back after long days on my feet keeping me from tears as I felt the joints in my back move and stretch. I'm left now with the painful decision  of what to do with the heating pad that is possibly older than me. Can you throw away such a thing? Such a sad sad morning.

Baby Dreams


I dreamed of our baby again last night it was a girl and she was already 3. We were walking down main street window shopping and she was just adorable. A daddy's girl. She was holding Shawn's hand asking for something or telling him a story I can't remember but I remember her little face, she had dirty blonde curly hair that was pulled back with a hair pin, big brown eyes and long eye lashes. She had a little button nose and she was working those big pouty lips against her daddy. She looked so much like her daddy, what a beautiful little girl. It was a great dream.

Week 13

 Not much new on the baby making front. Backaches and headaches are about the sum of my baby blues. I stopped taking progesterone at week 12, Dr. Herr said at that point the placenta should be taking care of the progesterone production. We go in for our checkup on the 29th of this month which is exciting I've been anxious to peer in on our little one. Already a nosy mom! We will have more pictures after the appointment which I of course will post. Let's just hope that baby poses for the "camera" a little better this time.



See you again soon !

The Maternity Fairy comes to town

What a great weekend! Shawn and I are so lucky to have my cousin Melissa and her husband Adam so close (Texarkana, TX). They drove up Friday with their two precious sons and stayed until Sunday afternoon. Melissa  was awesome enough to bring me two huge bags of maternity clothes, several little items that her boys had out grown, mommy materials and of course the beautiful family bassinet. I got teary eyed looking at the bed that held my mom as a newborn, my uncle, Melissa, my brothers, myself, Landon, Tyler and now would be the first bed of our little one. What an awesome blessing

Zoo Day


What fun we had at the Fort Worth Zoo!  Gorillas, penguins, trains! It was definitely a full day. We had perfect weather  it wasn't to hot or to cold which made it comfortable for us and also meant the animals were all out moving around. Melissa got lots of great pictures and I will post some once she gets them all downloaded onto her computer.  We even stopped for a little snack ( mainly because I was complaining about being hungry! ) .  We chowed down in the audience of some pretty big alligators and a couple curious turtles. Melissa and I spent a while ooing and awing with our noses up against the glass in the primate nursery where a newborn chimp was snacking on some lettuce.  Lots of fun! Shawn got help pushing the stroller from Landon which was adorable and yes of course supermom was on hand to snap the shot, I'm glad one of us had a camera handy I have a lot of training left!  After a train ride and hopping down the path to be disappointed by the tiny sharks the whole crew was looking for a nap. We packed up and headed home where this mommy in the making took a 3 hour nap! 3 hours! I must have been more tired than I thought. 


Melissa is also to be attributed with my new favorite saying. Shawn was picking on me last night for wanting to go to bed at 9pm. True it is a little early but heck I was exhausted! Melissa quickly chimed in, "Katie made a liver and a kidney today. What did you do Shawn?" I died! How funny was that! Shawn laughed and kissed my head...."ok you girls win, goodnight" . 


It was a great visit and wonderful to see my big sister and her awesome clan. Did I mention how cute tyler is. Because that little guy is just dang cute! I can't wait to share some pictures of the trip till now I will share a awkward photo of me from today on the way to the dog park, wearing one of my new shirts thank you Sissa! I will have to get Shawn to take the next picture because the phone in the mirror with the crooked smile is kinda weird! 

10 Week Checkup

Praise God for a healthy baby!!!!


 Today I attempted to simply keep busy. That was my goal once I woke up, keep busy don't stress. I shuffled around attempting new food combinations and every now and then I would tiptoe upstairs and peak into the office at Shawn. Once at the doctor's office I immediately tapped on the glass window and stated that if they wanted to inspect my pee now was a good time since I was about to wet my pants.  I returned to find Shawn leafing through pregnancy magazines.Luckily he now knows  how to handle the stress of being a single working mom. We were called back and began to answer the endless list of questions on family history and our history and the history of other people that we may not even know but that somehow could have an impact on our unborn child.


Now comes the fun part, the window into our babies world. A little maneuvering around and there it was our little alien. We smiled at each other when we caught a glimpse of our baby in all of it's big headed glory. Then the moment that all parents to be live for, that perfect mechanical heartbeat chugging away. Dr. Herr gave us a quick tour of the new additions to our developing baby; little fingers and toes, nose, ears and eyebrow ridge. Just as she was pointing out baby's  big ole brain we got an amazing wave from one tiny little hand right into the screen. She tried to snap a quick picture but baby was to quick. My heart melted and I wanted to reach through the screen and grab that little hand. I  looked at Shawn with a huge grin and we both started laughing at the whole awesome moment. Apparently baby loves mom's laughter and immediately began doing punches, kicks and rolls. The rest of the ultrasound baby just wouldn't pose for a picture and kept on the move. Maybe next month we can get a better profile for the photo albums!

In the picture you can see to the far left that baby is sitting Indian style at this point its legs are just slightly whiter than the surrounding line of the uterus. That pretty little torso has a healthy heart that was beating steady through the whole ultrasound. Baby was in mid jig so it's arms are barely viewable but you can see it's little clinched fists. then of course the dome and yes that is a jaw line, nose, brain and even ear. Oh what a difference two weeks makes. Check out the slideshow in the top corner of the blog for other fuzzy pictures of our active little one! 


Shawn's Baby Picture

Alright so may the guessing begin.....all you experts out there start comparing the pictures and deciding what baby Ashley will come out looking like. Full head of hair?? big head? little head? long nails? have fun !

Witching Hour

Halloween. The day when goblins, witches and human hot dogs come out to play. When grown women trot around shamelessly sporting tiny outfits that if seen on another woman any other day of the year would surely bring clouds of gossip so thick you couldn't cut through them with a knife. Oh, lovely Halloween.

This year is special in the Ashley house. This year will be the first Halloween where both Shawn and I will be present and our first one spent in a real house in a real, true blue neighborhood. Welcome to Suburbia! Shawn and I decided that as probably the youngest couple in the neighborhood that we had a responsibility to the local kids to have the coolest candy on the block. Our mission took us to Walmart where we toured the aisles of candy reminiscing about  trips trick-or-treating back in our hay days. Candy cellphones, bazooka gum, m&m's, snickers, gummie spiders, marshmallow ghosts! Sugar heaven. The children of the US will surely not sleep for a week hopped up on these goodies. They say go big or go home, Shawn and I went big. Jaw breakers and snickers, bazooka suckers, lemon heads, smarties and airheads, skittles, nerds.....! We were proud dumping those goodies into that big orange bowl.

Calculation error. Dumping candy into an open air bowl a day before those kids were coming around was a bad idea. Definitely not a good idea in front of a pregnant woman who can't keep her grimy little paws off anything that resembles food. Wax fruit would even tremble in this household. Now Shawn's excuse for gnawing on nerds? Well when your 6'2 with virtually no body fat I guess you don't really need excuses or  food guilt for that matter! Speaking of food for those of you have taken the opportunity to vote on whether you believe we will be blessed with a boy or a girl will enjoy this little old wives tale. According to the ladies back in the day if you were more hungry than most then they said that you were expecting a boy which is also why they claim little boys are usually larger at birth. So there ya go.

Tomorrow will be our big doctor's visit. I am putting together a list of questions to ask our OB. All you mom's out there if you have suggestions of important questions to ask please comment below with them, any input is always welcome from those who have "been there done that"!

Changes

A Penny For Your Thoughts...

As our second....well kinda our first real appointment quickly approaches my mind is filled with a million questions. What questions should I ask, how big will the baby be, will the baby be healthy, when would we know if the baby isn't healthy?As my worries fade and the hormone levels drop the what if's of baby growing slowly fade into a happier set of what if's. Will our baby be a girl or a boy, have my eyes, Shawn's nose? Will it love to dance and sing, sit in quiet reflection, what will it want to be when it grows up? Though most of these questions will be answered way down the road in life one thing is already certain our little baby will be loved and hugged and kissed to death.


Mommy's World...

Crazy hormones, walking into my world and turning it upside down. Yesterday I was asked what it felt like to be pregnant. I said it was awe inspiring how God created our bodies to change in such amazing ways to carry a child and that i wake up everyday excited to see how me and our baby our changing and growing together. What I was really thinking is can you move I realllyyyyy need to use the bathroom! After using the bathroom I inspected my pimple covered face and tried to do something with my oily hair. Oh and can we talk about veins? I'm like a walking road map! Biggest pregnancy downer is literally a downer,  as in I always want to lay down. Lucky for me though all of my biggest concerns and "symptoms" if you will can be explained and analyzed constantly by complete strangers. It is amazing what someone who has never met or talked to you in their entire life suddenly feels comfortable saying and doing to you. One lady I worked with walked straight up to me and put her hand on my tiny bump and asked me if I was hoping for a girl or a boy? I told her, "shhh...I don't want to put that kind of pressure on the baby." she stared at me confused and stated that she had 3 kids...ummm.... ok? Is this were I ask you a bunch of questions or marvel at your motherhood? yes people will force their opinion on you without shame, you shouldn't drink that, what are you trying to do stunt your babies growth, you should be more careful. All frustrations aside it has been a relatively easy ride for me. I haven't experienced any true morning sickness the whole time, a little headache here and there, some abdominal cramps but I tell you baby is being quite easy on mom. Fingers crossed!!

They say your children will look like a mix of you and your husband when you were born....Here is me, next post will have Shawn's baby picture!

Welcome to the World....Well my belly

World domination. Saving the last of the human race. There are surely many noble reasons to procreate. We didn't have any.
    I always wondered what it would feel like to look down and see a plus sign on the pregnancy test. I  made fun of the women that took multiple tests, I mean if it says pregnant you're pregnant right! Nine pregnancy tests later, strung out over a week of obsessing, and I was told by my loving husband that if I continued to spend tons of money on tests that we soon wouldn't be able to afford the baby. Point taken. 
    So I'm pregnant. No one tells you that once you take that test you can hurry up and wait because no one really wants to talk to you until you're close to eight weeks along. Considering my first positive test came a whole week before my expected period I had plenty of time for relaxing and quiet reflection on this life changing event. Yeah, that's what I did. I spent a majority of my days googling every itch, cramp, headache, craving, lack of craving, mood, lack of mood. Other hours were spent staring at my belly button. Can we talk about prenatals? Who would have thought there were that many prenatal vitamin brands; more importantly who would have thought you would ever be standing in the pharmacy staring at a row of vitamins like it was a red wire, blue wire situation. They are vitamins, literally a  multivitamin, just a big dang vitamin. Anyway, so you walk up to the pharmacist. Surely they will know which wire to cut, They stare at you like a dumb first timer and sigh, "they are really all the same; talk to your doctor". Doctor! I haven't seen my doctor yet. So you grab the most expensive one because surely that means it is the best and make your way to check out, should i get a test....no...no test. 
   I've been lucky in the way of morning sickness as in I really haven't had any. Sure I wake up sometimes and feel like I'm walking through the bow of a boat but nothing too severe. Another symptom of pregnancy no one tells you about but that will surely scare the snot out of you, cramps. Constant nagging, aching cramps. Talk about walking on egg shells; every cramp was followed by a hand on the stomach and a whisper "you ok in there?" Needless to say while all these things are happening you can be sure in the small amount that you actually sleep through the night that you are sure to experience some odd dreams. My favorite is the one where the do the ultrasound and I'm pregnant with a puppy, not just any puppy, the Blues Clue puppy. In the dream Shawn gets upset and says "thats not mine" and we all cry and then the puppy leaves a paw print on the screen. Worst of all is every morning after I would wake up humming...blues cluesss.....bluesss cluesss.... blues clue.
     I went in for some standard blood work after I called the nurse to complain of cramps. Blood was taken Wednesday and then again on Friday. Friday when I went in I was told my levels looked great HCG was at 89,000. The next Monday though I received a concerning call, the doctor wanted me to come in for an ultrasound. Oh God, something's wrong. 
    Mustering my best I'm ok voice I called Shawn and said guess what it's time to meet the baby.....then I cried. Come on I got hormones coming out the wood work, I can't even listen to commercials much less country and you expected me not to lose it? So we arrived to the doctor and got the talk; my HCG was fine but my progesterone was low and not rising, a typical miscarriage red flag. A few seconds later and Dr. Herr said, "well good news, that's a little heart beat" and then she turned on the sound. Wow. The most beautiful sound in the world. Of course through the tears I giggle as I remember that I forgot to tell Shawn that the heartbeat would be very fast. His concerned voice cracked in, um it's really fast. The doctor and I reassured him that it was perfect and I grabbed his hand, we were officially parents.

We left the office with ultrasound pictures and progesterone prescription in hand, oh and a prescription for prenatals because I asked my doctor. The reassuring words of Dr. Herr were ringing in my ears, "your chances of miscarriage just dropped below 5%". Staring at the pictures Shawn pointed out that we appeared to have created a turtle, great I will be sure to remember to tell our child that its father thought it looked like a turtle. The turtle head Shawn was seeing was actually the baby's yolk sac, a great sign for a healthy baby. I personally thought that the baby looked like a gummie bear, it was even doing a little jig for us on the ultrasound. 
    So now we wait and try not to second guess every symptom and lack of symptom that comes along. November 1st is our next visit with our baby. I will update my blog as often as possible with thoughts, happenings and of course more pictures. I hope you enjoy this journey with us and follow along. 

      All our love, The Ashley Clan.