13 Weeks Belly Update

I know you like my belly updates, so here's another picture I took this morning.

I'm truely expanding in an unimaginable pace. It's very early for this, normally pregnant women are not supposed to show before their 4th month (week 16) but I guess bellies come in all sizes. I'm not of those mothers who freak out about putting on a lot of weight during their pregnancy, but I have to admit seeing my pictures makes me laugh  nervously. This week, I had to buy myself maternity clothes, just tops, I can still fit in my pants if I don't zip. Thank god!

It seems to me that I will have a hard time hiding my pregnancy from friends in Strasbourg that we have not told yet. Maybe it'll make our job easier: instead of telling them, we'll just say "hey look!"

Mamie and Papi know about you!

On Sunday, we finally got a chance to call Mamie and Papi, Tata G and Gw. They were all very happy to find out about the news and to know that the family was getting even bigger. Of course, Gw being himself, got very excited. Tata G. wholeheartedly supported our decision not to wait to find a job to have a baby. On Monday night, we called your tata E., who was also very happy.Your tata G. is waiting for her third son already. She said she was hoping you would be a girl.

Are you a boy or a girl blueberry??? I guess we're going to have to wait a little longer to find out. In any case, when you will be born you'll have 4 very adorable boy cousins in France. And no matter what you are, we will love you :)

We'll see all of them in St Malo next Sunday. It's going to be really nice to celebrate the good news face to face with the family.

Left Preference

Last night, when I was sleeping, I noticed I had a big, very obvious lump on my left abdomen and nothing on the right.  I got worried (of course, as usual, why can I not be a cool mom?). I woke Claude up and made him touch my abdomen. He also thought it was weird. So we went online and tried to find more information in the middle of the night. What could that mean?? Why the bump was only on the left?? Was something not right? Looking back, it's funny how easily we freak out over little things, although I couldn't see the humour at all at that point.

It turns out that right now blueberry you have plenty of space in my belly to move. You can go left, right, or disappear completely in my abdomen. And apparently, last night you were really on the very edge of my left side. It was funny to feel you like that. Doctors say that babies might have a preferred corner where they feel more comfortable. So it seems like, you prefer the very edge of my left side :) That's good, you're already choosing the right political side ;)

12 Weeks: First Belly Update

I know a lot of people will not be able to see me pregnant :( But Claude and I will try to regularly update you on my belly progress. Here's a picture of my belly at 12 Weeks. Yes, I know it looks like there's something but calm down, I think it's my usual belly. Having said that, it's true that at nights, especially after I eat, it gets HUGE!

So I don't think I'm gonna be one of those sexy pregnant chicks who wear mini skirts throughout their pregnancy. I think I'm gonna be BIG!Oh well!

What a happy day it was!

I told the good news to my family and a few very dear friends (Petek tantik, Arpi yev Baydzar).

Blueberry, you are one lucky baby. You are already loved and impatiently waited by so many, it's amazing!

Sarkis was very excited, happy and surprised, surpik shouted on the phone, sera and babu almost cried of happiness, nartu and arev were exctatic.

It was just such a happy day October 14! I felt very good because all these people I loved so much were so happy. As Arpi tantik said, there will be another person in our lives and it's so exciting.

Today or tomorrow, we're gonna give the news to mami and papi.

And to crown that happy day, Claude and I went to Charles Aznavour's concert at Zenith. What an amazing voice he has, what an impressive performance despite his age (he is 87!!!)
La Bohème gives me the chills everytime I listen to it...And it was something else to listen to it alive.
La Bohème, la bohème, ça voulait dire, on est heureux!! :)

Yaya and Dede Know About You!

Yesterday night, I finally skyped my parents to tell them the news. I was so nervous and excited before telling them. I knew it was going to be a big shock since they didn't even know we were trying.

So I talked to them normally from daily things at first. Then I told them that I was going to send them a picture of us in Barcelone. And I sent them yesterday's ultrasound's picture. Of course, there were technical issues in between but finally they received it.

You had to see their faces when they opened it. They didn't understand. My mom kept on asking "bu ne neda?" (what is this?) and she was like "senin mi bu??" (is this yours?). And finally they both broke in tears.

Now it's time to tell sarkis dayday (moryegpayr), surpik yaya, babu, sera, nartu and arev medz-horaks :)

nb1

Success!!!

So today we had our second appointment and it went really well. From the ultrasound the blueberry looked something like this.

We had a number of good news: 
1. Blueberry was still alive (yay!) and very active again. To the point that the OB was like "hey calm down so that we can measure you". I think that's definitely not from his dad :)
2. He is right on curve in terms of his growth. In 10 days he grew from 3.8 cm to 5.7 cm (not including legs). He seems to have very long legs. His head grew from 1.4 cm to 1.85.
3. His nuchal length(!) was very low. So the doctor said we could rule out down syndrome by 80%.
4. My décollement healed itself. So no more scars, nothing to worry.
5. The doctor said that the chance of having a miscarriage after this point is minimal ( I so want to believe it is true!)

So I asked all my questions and many more. I love my OB (did I mention this before?). She is letting me eat fish as much as I want (INCLUDING SUSHI!!!!That's right!). And when I told her that the emergency OB asked me to stop running, she was like, yeah, he is old school and affraid of all. You can run for as long as you want :) Yayy!!

Claude seemed very proud of his blueberry's activeness. He was holding my hand throughout the ultrasound and we were smiling at each other. Since he had to run to work right after, we couldn't really talk.  Oh we also tried to capture his kicks through the video of the I-Phone. But I'm not sure about the quality.

More pix to come very soon.

Tomorrow: Our second appointment

I love my OB. If you live around Strasbourg, I highly recommend Dr Catherine Gay. She is very knowledgeable, laid-back, and trustworthy.

Tomorrow, it's our second appointment. It's exciting and stressful at the same time. I'm hoping with all my heart that everything is well, that the blueberry is still alive (hello, are you there?) and that he is growing as fast as he should. I sometimes wish I had a device to monitor him every second to make sure that he is fine. Claude will be coming with me for the first time. I wonder how we'd feel.

We also have to declare my pregnancy officially to the Sécu and CAF. I'm sure it would feel weird to officially declare that.

I prepared a list of questions that I should ask my oB:
1. Discharge: Is it normal?
2. Do I need to stop running/yoga?
3. Should I take more iron pills? (my nails don't look healthy at all)
4. What are the chances of miscarriage after this point?
5. sleeping: I often sleep on my belly, I'm wondering if it's not a good idea.
6. Can I travel/take the plane/bus as much as I want?

I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out. Maybe Claude would have more stuff to add.

Tomorrow, I'll let you know how this appointment goes.

Fingers crossed,
nb1

Barcelona

Last week, Claude had to go to Pamplona for a conference. So I joined him. After 2 days of staying at Pamplona, we went to Barcelona to spend 3 days, from Friday to Tuesday. And we stayed at our friend Anne's place who very happily moved to Barcelona from Strasbourg a year ago.

What a beautiful city to visit!!We did so many things in those 3 days, we met maybe 5 or 6 of Anne's friends, we had delicious food and tapas, we went to I don't know how many bars and restaurants, we visited the Pedrera, Parc Guell, and Sagrada Familia. We even spent our Sunday on the beach at Gava. Yes, that's right, in October, we went to a beach to swim, that's Barcelona for you. Up there is a picture of us in Gava (note the bathing suits and sun glasses).

Knowing that there would be many drinking occasions, we decided it would be simpler to tell Anne about my pregnancy. So just like that, she became the first person that we announced our blueberry face to face.

It was very bizarre to talk to somebody about it. I felt like both claude and I needed it. Claude kept on talking about the ultrasound, and how his legs and arms were moving. Proud papa :)

nb1

Finding the perfect template for this website

I have spent I don't know how many hours to find the perfect template for this blog. The blueberry photo was from a website, the template from blogger, I played for days with the settings. I even wrote the HTLM for a favicon (that's the little icon you seen on the page, instead of the ugly Blogger logo).

Despite all my efforts to make it gender-neutral, it's a little too pink for now, but I kind of like it like that.

I needed something to work on, something that would make me happy, something that would give me hope for the future,so I made this blog my project.

It was therapeutic.

My first post

Today, we were a little scared. I had some bleeding and we found ourselves at the ER of the Clinique de la Robertsau on a Sunday. Sitting there, waiting for the doctor to come, not knowing what to expect, not knowing what this all meant was a terrible feeling.

Then we saw our blueberry in the ultrasound, who was constantly kicking his legs and moving his arms, as if wanting to get out of there.It was quite funny to see it. The doctor was impressed by how active the baby was, and so were we :)And we found out there were 172 happy heart beats per minute.

So there was nothing to be scared of, just a little décollement of 1 cm, he told me to rest for a while. Poor Claude, after he found out that all was fine almost fainted. He was under so much pressure. He's cute :)

And we got our first baby picture :) We can't stop looking at it.

nb1