Helloooo Second Trimester!

Hello Second Trimester! It is so nice to FINALLY meet again.  I can't believe it's been so long.  7 years....did you know it's been 7 years since you and I have been friends?  Can we never, EVER, take that long of a hiatus from each other again?  Do you think since First Trimester has finally stopped keeping us from each other that maybe in about 13 more weeks you could introduce me to your friend Third Trimester?  I would really, REALLY love that! 7 years ago you abruptly ended our friendship three weeks short of letting me meet Third Trimester.  Will you please never, EVER do that to me again?  Can't we all just be friends this time? 

So here we are. 14 weeks pregnant.  Starting the second trimester.  For the second time in my life.  I couldn't be more amazed with this precious baby growing in me.  It's starting to feel like maybe, just maybe, this baby is meant to be born into this world, with me and Alex as its parents.  I'm starting to actually allow myself to complete our baby registry (I know it's still early....but I'm a planner by nature), and get excited about how we could potentially find out the gender of our baby, and imagine a successful birth of our little miracle.  But even though me and Baby M have escaped the "danger zone" of pregnancy....there will always been some anxiety, minor now compared to several weeks ago, that we are going to be told the worst news a parent can be told at some point before we get to the point of bringing our baby home and rocking our baby to sleep.  I can't help it.  The image of giving birth to our stillborn daughter 7 years ago at 24 weeks will forever be ingrained into my brain.  You can't just make that disappear.  It happened. And the unfortunate part is it can happen again.  But, the good and relieving part is that we know so much more about my body now than we did 7 years ago and we are treating and trying to prevent issues that are within our control this time.  And we know genetically Baby M is healthy, with less than 1 in 10,000 chances of having a chromosome abnormality! We never did any genetic testing on Riley because she was born with her cord around her neck, so we can't say for certain that she didn't die because she had Down Syndrome like we know two of her younger siblings died from or Trisomy 13 which we discovered several years later is a possibility with my own eggs.  So with all the information that we have now, and with everything we have done differently this pregnancy compared to my pregnancy with Riley, the chances of this baby coming home with us in less than 26 weeks (HOLY CRAP!!!!) is more of a possibility than ever before! And that is what I will focus on repeating to myself over and over.

Today we had another successful appointment with my OB.  The nurse got to use the doppler on my belly for the first time and Baby M still has a strong beating heart.  Even though it looks like I'm carrying high already, the little nugget is still hanging out down lower on my left side. The OB nurse is still very intrigued about our little donor egg baby and tells me how sweet and awesome my sister is for giving us this opportunity.  I can't wait for our next ultrasound on February 24th when I get to introduce my amazing sister to the staff at my OB's office and share another amazing moment with my sister when she gets to sit in on the ultrasound with her daughter:)

I hope everyone enjoys Valentine's Day with their special someone (a spouse, boyfriend/girlfriend, best friend, or kids) this weekend! My husband and I will be spending our day cleaning and fixing up our second home in Columbus so we can put the For Sale sign in the yard and then will be spending our night at a hotel and going to dinner at a Japanese Steak House.  We were supposed to go to Columbus last weekend to get the house done but I was stuck in the bathroom all day Saturday with a stomach bug that was tearing me apart and stuck on the couch all day Sunday because my body was so sore from Saturdays puke fest.  So I'm hoping the bug is gone and stays away so we can celebrate Valentine's Day AND our entrance into the Second Trimester! OHHH....and we are getting our wedding rings redipped and cleaned since we are going to be in the area of our jeweler.  Sounds like a perfect Valentine's Day to me!

I will leave you with these pictures of our first trimester (12 weeks) photo shoot! Enjoy:)