6 weeks, 5 days

A whole heck of a lot has happened in this past week - to say the least. Starting with our first holiday celebration (minus drinking for me) with friends. We used it as an opportunity to tell our closest the good news. Everyone seemed a bit shocked, but the news went over well. Another first this past week was the first feelings of morning sickness. And they are right when they say it's not just in the morning. I can't complain too much, because I really only dealt with it for 3 days and now it's just an off and on sort of thing, but it certainly wasn't enjoyable. Full of dry heaving and waves of nausea; hopefully that's not to stay. Other than that, I haven't gained any weight at all, which I attribute to eating well and staying in the gym. I also don't have many of the other "common" symptoms anymore. It left me with a weird un-pregnant feeling.

This all led to Saturday night.... TJ was on shift that day and I was just exhausted. So tired that after sleeping till 10 I laid back down at 1:30 and didn't wake up till 6. For a baby so, so tiny, it sure does take a lot out of me. I got up had some food and went to the gym for a 1/2 hr or so. When I got home and used the bathroom I noticed I had some spotting, which absolutely terrified me. I immediately grabbed my baby book and the information is just so sporadic. Apparently this happens in 1/3 of all pregnancies (great. normal), but 1/2 of those pregnancies end in miscarriage (completely terrifying). I didn't really fall apart till TJ got home the next morning. All of that fear just came pouring out, and the worst part was that there was nothing we could do about it till the morning. We both got up early Monday (today) and started calling the doctor's office. They had us rush in for a check up, as we expected. After 8 viles of blood, and a quick doctor's check-up, they set us up with an appt. for our first ultrasound.

We had the ultrasound today, which was the upside of a stressful two days. And what an upside it was! We got to see and hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time!! I was actually surprised at how emotional it made me. I'm not sure if it was just the relief of seeing the heartbeat and seeing that there wasn't a problem, or just the amazingness of the experience alone. Probably a bit of both. TJ and I were both in tears with grins plastered across our faces. We'll have the doctor's version of the results tomorrow, but the ultrasound tech said everything looked normal and healthy. I really can't begin to explain the relief I felt and am feeling now. The tech took exact measurements and it looks like I'm actually 6 weeks and 5 days along. Our new due date is February 25. We're getting closer and closer to having this baby on our wedding anniversary :)

Little sprout is about the size of a blueberry this week and is (appropriately) "sprouting" it's arm and leg buds, which are starting to develop into their indivual parts (knees, feet, elbows, etc.). The babe is also something like 10,000 times the size it was at conception and it's developing 100 brain cells a minute. That's a busy little bee.