Our first "doctor's" appointment

I have a lot of things to write about last week, so I’m going to break it into several chunks. I was really excited by Monday. We had decided we were going to tell our families on Friday, so we only had four more days! Halloween was on Wednesday. The week was fairly busy -- we had a lot to do, and the time passed quickly. Dad dropped off his black poodle Woof Wednesday afternoon, who managed to escape from his cage and tear up most of the paper products in our house. We bought a padlock to prevent that from happening again. We had our first doctor appointment on Thursday, 11/1/07 (the day before Betsy’s birthday). It was at Medical Center East at Vanderbilt at 3:15, and Betsy wanted us to leave our respective work places at 2:45. I made it to the lobby around 2:55 – Betsy came a few minutes later. When she arrived, she gave me a fake Gummy eye to play with. This was probably a mistake – when I’m excited or nervous, I mess around with the contents of my pockets, and a fake Gummy eye that looks fairly real can be really distracting, as you’ll see below. The clinic itself was scorching hot! As an aside, Betsy is predisposed to be cold. Since she’s been pregnant, she is cold nearly all the time. Despite this, even Betsy had to move away from the heater. The waiting room was older than most areas of Vanderbilt, and not the most beautiful place (brown carpet and white cinder blocks – bleh). We waited a very short time before being whisked away into the back. The room they took us to had a computer desk in the front, and a bed in the back, with a partition in between. The partition reached about ¾ of the way to the ceiling – to prevent everyone but very tall people from seeing over it. A little while later, a nurse, Tammy, came in to ask Betsy some questions. She also asked if a nursing student could be part of the interview. Tammy warned us, though, that Betsy knew this person. Interestingly, it was one of Betsy’s friends, Karen, from Early Reading first! The secret was out! They promised not to spread the secret around (some sort of confidentiality clause, I think). Tammy then asked Betsy to put on a robe in order to get ready for the ultrasound. I think they gave her around 30 minutes to change, which is a considerable amount of time. We were fairly bored. Betsy sat on the bed. I stood behind the partition and looked over at her with the fake gummy eye she’d given me ☺. We played some more while we waited. Finally, Tammy came back with a technician and they did the ultrasound. When they found the baby, it was around 3 cm long. (Our blog last week mentioned that the baby was the size of a kumquat, but what the heck is that?) The heartbeat was very strong. The nurse snapped a couple of shots and said that the baby looked great. After the ultrasound, the nurse sent us to do blood work over in a different building. We left for home around 5:30. Overall, a very exciting day! I’ll post a 10 week ultrasound picture below.

Since the last entry-

I think I started to “feel pregnant” after Oct 5^th when I gave my second year research presentation. Evidently, the stress leading up to that kept my mind off of all things pregnant. Because I haven’t felt anything, I have continued to take the leftover pregnancy tests each Sunday morning, just to make sure. Now I’m out of tests, but I don’t need to do that anymore. I woke up really queasy on Monday the 8^th. We were supposed to go swimming, so we got up early. I made myself eat breakfast and drink hot tea. But, I just couldn’t get it together. So, I told Joseph I was going to lie down for four minutes. Then, I would be fixed. He was so wonderfully nice about it. He came and snuggled me and reminded me that we read that there would be days when I felt queasy and it wouldn’t last forever and maybe I just needed to rest, but probably longer than four minutes. So, I went back to sleep for about an hour. I felt a little better when I woke up, but still yucky. All day Monday I felt bad, but never bad enough to throw up. I tried eating dry cereal. I just couldn’t shake the queasiness. I was better on Tuesday, but had a few moments of yucky. Somehow, I figured out that drinking cold water helped a lot. Normally, I drink tons of water, but it’s all room temperature. I am so glad that I figured this out. So far, it still works well to make me feel better. I haven’t thrown up yet, so I’m glad about that.

By the way, Joseph is still pregnant, too. He still gets in the car some afternoons and says he extraordinarily tired. And, some mornings his stomach is queasy, too. He took a Sunday afternoon nap with me last week (which he hardly ever does). We are just two peas in a pod! I’m thinking about starting him on prenatal vitamins soon. J He is still insanely cute- turning to me about five times a day, saying, “I’m just so excited! Aren’t you excited! What are we going to do?”

Entry for Wednesday, October 10, 2007

On Wednesday, October 10, we went for our early ultrasound, as part of the Right From The Start study participation. This is a study at Vanderbilt that we found out about a few weeks ago. I don’t have to take any medications or change anything I do, they just want to ask me some questions as I progress through the pregnancy. I’ll do an hour phone interview in a few weeks, and then I’ll fill out a survey at seven months. They will have access to my medical records as data, etc. Not a big deal. We were excited to do it because of the early ultrasound.

We went to the Center for Women’s Imaging at the Crystal Terrace building on West End. The office was nice and the woman who consented us was so friendly. The procedure was a transvaginal or endovaginal ultrasound, so they put a probe inside me. Joseph looked a little unhappy when he saw the probe, but it didn’t hurt at all. It was harmless, but they had to do it that way in order to see anything because the embryo is so small. We could see the yolk sack and our little blueberry! (Each week, we get a web update about what is happening and there is analogy of size. We started these updates at week 5. First it was a sesame seed, then in week six it was a lentil. This week, week seven, is a blueberry.) The sonographer said that we were between seven weeks and two days and seven weeks and five days. On the ultrasound, we could see the yolk sac and the embryo. We could even see the heart beating! The sonographer said the heartbeat was 135 bpm, and the normal range is 120-185. She measured everything and we are right on target.

I just couldn’t believe what we could see on the screen! When I called the people to sign up for the study, they asked me some questions and told me when our appointment for the ultrasound would be. They told me that the ultrasound would just be data for their study. We wouldn’t get any information at that time. So, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Joseph, of course, was so excited, and I couldn’t keep him from getting his hopes up. Luckily, we had a really “nice” sonographer who explained a lot to us. She printed three pictures from the ultrasound for us. Then, she made a dvd with two images in it. She was just exceptionally nice.

She was training another sonographer to do the scan, so there were two people in the room with us. They joked with us a little bit about being so excited because it was our first pregnancy. One of the sonographers asked us what week and day we thought we were, and Joseph answered immediately, “Well, the day of the last period was August 20, so that would put conception at Sept 3 or 4, so we think we’re on day 52 or so.” Both sonographers just stared at him! They couldn’t believe he knew all that. They were so impressed! I told them he was an exceptionally wonderful husband. They said most husbands don’t know those things. It kind of upset Joseph. He said he didn’t see how you could not know that stuff and that he thought most of his guy friends would know that. Either way, the sonographers were very impressed.

It was such a great experience! We’ve looked at the pictures about 700 times since then. We’re sitting on Caroline’s couch at Lake Martin as we write about Wednesday (it’s Friday morning). Not telling Caroline when we went to her house to get the directions and key to the lake house was the hardest one yet, especially since we have pictures now.

We are taking a three day break at my cousin’s lake house in Alabama on Lake Martin. It’s a wonderful place. We will put some pictures on the blog so you can see. It’s just gorgeous. While I’m sitting on the couch, I can see the most beautiful view of the lake. I took a walk yesterday and saw one deer running into the woods with his white tail pointed up in the air. I’ve just been reading, napping, walking, and…. napping. Joseph is overdosing on his Playstation Portable.We played scrabble together after lunch. Scrabble is only really, really fun if I get to make up a few extra rules, but Joseph wouldn’t let me. So, it was just sort of fun. It’s SO QUIET here; I never want to leave. I finished the second “Bourne” book. I brought the third one, but I don’t know if I’ll start it or not. I’m still angry that the books are so different from the movie.

Well, let’s see what happens next….

Several weeks in and still here...

Friday, 10/12/07

I’m writing this from Caroline and Steve’s lake house on Lake Martin. We arrived late Wednesday night, and we’ve been relaxing ever since. The view is breathtaking (see below). The weather is perfect (~70 degrees) and the sun is shining bright. We’re leaving tomorrow, but I’m not going back to work until Tuesday. I love vacation!



Anyway, the past few weeks have been agonizing. We’ve made the decision to keep the pregnancy to ourselves until the beginning of November, near the end of the 1st trimester. We’ve read that the risk of miscarriage goes down significantly at that time. But it’s difficult, I tell you. The pregnancy is always at the forefront of my mind. I don’t really know who I want to talk with about it, but it’s just hard to keep it in. Betsy is doing a better job than me. She continues to pretend that she’s not pregnant, despite developing morning sickness and soreness. Monday was really bad for her. But everything has been fine since then. She’s definitely a trooper.
We finally did something related to the pregnancy on Wednesday. Two weeks ago, I noticed an Advertisement on my paycheck for an organization called ‘Right from the Start.’ It was just a typed blurb, but it said that they were conducting a study on early pregnancy. Anyone less than 45 days pregnant was encouraged to join. We definitely qualified! I sent Betsy an email with a link to their website, and we joined the study. We will receive a small amount of cash some day, but the interesting thing is that they’ve provided us with a free early pregnancy ultrasound. Wednesday the 10th was our appointment, and we were so excited! The setup for this operation is in Crystal Terrace, which is on West End near the 440/40 interchange. We were just barely on time, so I dropped Betsy off at the front door and parked the car. By the time I got to the right floor, Betsy was moving into an area in the back of the office for an interview. I followed her, and we talked with a lady who was completely obsessed with Clarks shoes. We spent about half of our time talking about the procedure that Betsy was going to undergo, and the other half talking about shoe comfort. After Betsy signed several consent forms, the lady dropped us off at the ultrasound room. This ultrasound was invasive, so the setup was different from a traditional ultrasound. The technicians had a screen set so that Betsy and I could watch. The scan showed two blobs, but one of the blobs had a heartbeat! Our baby’s heart was beating at 135 beats/minute. It was so exciting! They used these scans to determine the age of our baby (7wks, 2 days to 7 wks, 5 days) and gave us an estimated delivery date of May 29th, 2008. We have a few images saved on CD. I think we’ll share all of this with our parents on November 2nd and 3rd, just after our first real doctor’s appointment. I so wanted to show the ultrasound images to Caroline, but Betsy wouldn’t let me (you parent types get to see them first, don’t worry!). We’re still very excited. I’ve included the ultrasounds below. Is it Herman? Or is it Cheyenne?

by Betsy- Sunday, September 23, 2007

September 23, 2007
Day 19

We said we wanted to write about our feelings as soon as possible after finding out we are pregnant. We started the blog tonight and plan to keep it a secret until at least 8 weeks- until my birthday, if we can do it.
We didn’t get pregnant the first month we tried. So, I was nervous on Thursday morning when it was time to take the urine test. I didn’t want to go in and see another negative line. I know that some people have to try for months and months. I can’t imagine the mounting disappointment that they must feel from having negative results time after time. We didn’t expect it to work. We were trying not to get our hopes up, if that is ever possible.
I woke up at 4:50 am and couldn’t wait any longer. So, I went in the bathroom and did the test, but I didn’t look at the results window. I set my watch for five minutes and lay back down in the bed. Joseph prayed that we wouldn’t be disappointed. I prayed for increased faith and to remember that following God’s plan for our life is the best life we could have, even if that means not having our own children. When the timer went off, we crept down the hall and peeked around the bathroom door. We were both surprised to see +!!!!! I started crying and my teeth chattered. We hugged and prayed again a thank-you prayer and that we would continually give our child and our lives to God’s service.
Then, we walked around the house for an hour like crazies. Joseph kept muttering “Well, what are we going to do now?” To date, he still says that about ten times a day. I just feel that the wheels are in motion now, and (for the time being) we just wait. We looked up the online pregnancy calculator and found that the due date will be May 27, 2008. Sounds perfect to me.
On Friday we went to Student Health to see the nurse practitioner. The intake nurse had me prepare for a urine test, but the nurse practitioner said that the home tests are accurate enough, no sense to pay for another one. I kind of wanted her to do a test. Honestly, I wanted a grown up to confirm it. But, I took another test this morning, and we’re still good. The nurse practitioner gave us our referral form for the obstetrician. I will call tomorrow morning and make an appointment. One funny thing is that I’m usually the person who has a million questions about the simplest things. Now we’re about to embark on the most exciting adventure of our lives, and….. I’m questionless. I really can’t think of anything important to ask the doctor. I’ve wondered about a few things- like when we can find out the gender and when the first ultrasound happens, but I can look all those things up online. It will be interesting to see how long I remain questionless and when I revert back to my old self.
Now it’s Sunday night. I’ve been pregnant for 19 days, but I’ve only known for 3 days. I have to be honest and say that I don’t feel any different. Other than obsessing about my food and weight, there’s not much to do. We’ll go swimming in the morning, as usual. Tomorrow I’ll work more on my dissertation proposal and get ready for the October 5th presentation and the Wayne County trip on Thursday.
Mostly, it just doesn’t seem real to me yet. Compared to how I thought I would feel, I’m a little ambivalent. I have waves of pure excitement, especially when I think about telling Mother and Daddy. Joseph is the cutest thing on the planet. We have this private joke between us. Around the time we got married, my cousin had a baby. The baby’s name is Herman. It’s an old family name, and it makes sense that they named him that. But Joseph was baffled that someone would name their baby Herman in 1999. He just couldn’t let go of it. So, he has always joked that someday we would name our baby Herman, too. Well, about two months ago, I had an extremely vivid dream that I was standing in our kitchen holding a baby in a pink blanket. Joseph came in and pulled back the blanket to reveal a baby who was the same color pink as the blanket. Her name was Cheyenne. So, since then, our baby’s name has been Herman-Cheyenne. We’re always talking about things we’re going to do with Herman-Cheyenne. I guess we’ve got about 15 weeks to go to find out if it’s Herman or Cheyenne.
That’s all I can write tonight. Hopefully, around this time our wonderful friends, Saori and Acchi, are having their second baby in Japan. We are anxiously awaiting an email from them!

How exciting is that!

Hello everyone! We've created this blog to try and keep everyone up-to-date on the Watson family happenings. Betsy and I have been married for ~8 and 1/2 years now (May 1999). On Thursday, September 20, 2007, we discovered we were pregnant (See below)! The due date is May 27th, 2008, roughly 9 years after we married. We had an appointment with Kathy Jantz, a Vanderbilt nurse, on Friday. Betsy wanted a specialist to see a positive and confirm that yes, indeed, she was pregnant, but the nurse felt that wasn't necessary. They did provide us with the forms we need to meet with a doctor at Vanderbilt. We used some of Saturday to look at Pregnancy books. On Sunday, we went to Toys 'R' Us and checked out baby clothes and toys. The delivery date is so far away that it just doesn't seem real. I'm fairly nervous -- how do you take care of a baby? I have no clue. Well, at least we have 9 months to develop a strategy. Betsy is hard at work finishing up her dissertation. We hope that she will be finished by March 2008. I'm searching for a post-doc and enjoying my time in the Miller lab. I'll post more as we discover new things about our newest family member.