April 1 marked the beginning of your 25th week of growth. It also marked the last week of year end and my busiest time at work ever. Needless to say, you really threw us for a loop this week. I had my regular scheduled Dr. apt on April 6th and they told me that I have single umbilical artery.   This means that in your umbilical cord, there are supposed to be 3 vessels. 1 that brings nutrients in, 2 that bring waste out. Well, you only have 1 bringing the waste out, so your little tiny body has to work harder to get rid of the waste. From what I can gather, 75% of the time, there are no problems and you will come out happy any healthy. However, there are risks and so they referred me to the high risk clinic at the hospital. The WORST thing is that they do nothing until 28 weeks…. so we wait. 

We have found it good to know that this is pretty common and we know people who have had the same risk and they have lovely awesome healthy kids! So all that to say, you are just going to start getting special attention again and we get to see you more often due to increased ultrasounds to make sure you are growing and gaining enough weight, especially while we go through the last 12 weeks together. They scheduled a bunch of blood tests for week 27 and then an ultrasound and an apt with the high risk Dr during week 28.   
Needless to say, this was a pretty stressful week for all of us but we made it. I kept my mind off of this by working, A LOT. I also slept, A LOT. The best part of the week was that my heartburn seemed to go away or at least subside a great deal. We did not go back to ice cream and chips, but instead we ate more salad and fruit. We drank more water and you continued to get the hiccups and to attack me from the inside. You have also started to have your own opinions about my sleeping positions. You have no problem letting me know that I need to move….. and although my feet are still VERY swollen, the weather is becoming much nicer and sandals are an option now. Overall, we got this. 

Well, these past few weeks were much like month 4.  They were pretty uneventful. A few very exciting things happened though, I got to feel you moving and kicking me from the inside.  Something I didn’t really feel before.  The first time you got the hiccups I almost peed my pants cause I had no idea what was happening.  It was a very exciting time for me.  We spent a lot of time at work, A LOT.  Let’s just say, it was a really good thing that you were not making me exhausted and sick this past 4 weeks because I probably could not have handled it.  I mean, you did give me some of the worst heartburn I have ever experienced but we got through it, not without a bottle of tums and couple of trips to the bathroom but we did get through it.  They say it means you will be a very hairy baby…..  we will just have to wait and see.  I will have to ask your grandmother is your dad had hair when he was born, but I can tell you that I popped out with a  full head of hair, ready to take on the world.  I can imagine that you will be much the same!!

You size and growth started to show more and it became clear that I was preggers and not just getting fat!  Our love for ice cream and cereal was replaced with the constant desire to eat Lebanese food or Greek food and we started to like vegetables again.  Not a lot of them but at least we able to stomach them and got back on the healthy food train.   We even tried fish again and it didn’t work…. I am sure at some point it will but we are just not ready yet.  Seafood on the other hand is still one of our top 5 foods.

It was around week 21 or 22, when I realized I had only about 17 weeks to go and this whole growing an infant thing was more then half way done.  I think it was around the same time when your dad, who is still not smoking, also realized that we need to get this house ready for you!!!  We started talking about plans and what we needed to do and how we needed to clean and de-clutter so that we could get contractors in to do some of those things.  We also started to talk about what color we should paint your room.  We created a baby registry so friends and family could help up buy all the stuff we needed and wanted and your Aunt Malou started to organize a super fun baby shower in Ottawa for you!  I might have pushed her a little….. I think I said, “So when is the baby shower you are hosting for me??”

As people will tell you, month 4 is normally a pleasure and I would agree with that.  It was mid January and the weather was not that bad, work was still relatively calm and we were planning a trip to Florida to see your Grandmother.  The best part was I had SO much energy, especially in the morning.  We went to the gym often and we even took Phil out a few times, even though he hates the cold as much as I do.  Napping became less important and eating become more important.   It was a pretty uneventful month.  We went to Florida, it was a fantastic little getaway.  The weather was beautiful, we swam, we sunbathed and we read a few books.  It was just what the Dr ordered.   We also go to see you, according to your dad you waved at him, “Nice to meet me!” was what he told everyone.  We didn’t know if you were a boy or a girl, we didn’t care.  You were healthy and growing like a weed.  The Dr told us we really didn’t have to worry anymore, everything was going to be fine.  Deep down inside, I was still terrified but I started to believe that this was possible.  I even started to look at babies clothes and things online, we started to tell people who were not our immediate friends and family, the news that we were having a baby became something we shared.  Your dad, could not help himself, we wanted to scream it from the mountain tops.   He told all the regulars at the restaurant, he was so happy.  He wanted to show your picture to everyone too but I managed to convince him that he didn’t need to show my insides to everyone!!

Towards the end of Month 4, your dad sent me an email, it is one that I will keep forever.  In it, he detailed his plan to quit smoking.  You see, your dad was a smoker for most of his life, since he was way to young and he smoked a lot.  When we first met, he told me that he loved cigarettes and I believed him.  I nagged him every once in a while about smoking and quitting but my nagging wasn’t going to be what got him to quit.  That was something he was going to have to decide to do on his own and one day, I knew he would.  It just needed to be on his own terms.  You will learn as you get older, you pick your battles.  Anyway, on February 8th, he detailed to me, his plan to quit smoking.

There were 4 reasons, the first two are listed below in your dad’s words:

“There are many reasons I am doing this.

#1 – Our baby.  I don’t want baby bean to be raised in a smoking household, or to ever start smoking.  Not even casually.

Alright everyone, including you little bean, those first 3 months were not easy.  The best part was that every week from 6-10 we got to see you grow, we have the little pictures to prove it.  The day your dad first saw your heartbeat, he was so happy.  He cried.  Your dad, as you will find out, is a sensitive man but he does not cry often.  We knew it was still going to be a battle but for the first time, there was hope.

You reeked havoc on my body, in ways I did not know were possible.  I was hungry, ALL THE TIME, except every time I ate, I was terrified to throw up.  Pretty soon I just gave in and realized, that it was a chance I took, it could go either way.  In the end, the decision on what to eat, normally came down to what was easier and less gross to throw up.  I won’t bore you with those details but if you want to know, one day, you can ask me.  When I wasn’t thinking about what to eat, I was thinking about when I might get my next nap and how many hours I could sleep at night.  I went to the gym 3 mornings a week, I kept up with my 10 KM run/walks and I went to work as much as I could.  The easiest thing was not drinking, for some reason, your little growing body made me think that alcohol was the most awful smelly thing ever.  Unfortunately, that only lasted to week 14.  The weirdest foods made me feel nauseous.  You see, I love Salmon but you didn’t want me to have any, you didn’t want me to have any fish.  Seafood was delicious but there has been a boycott on fish for weeks now.  Vegetables have been hit or miss… some days we like them, some days we don’t.  We love fruit and we eat a lot of bananas! Salads only taste good if someone else makes them for us and pasta, we love pasta.  I have never even really liked pasta.  One night, your dad came home and I was making mac & cheese, the worst and most unhealthy of all things, he just started to laugh. We ate a lot of pasta those first 3 months.  We also ate a lot of tomato sandwiches, ice cream and pickles.  We never fully gave up coffee, it tasted so good but we sure decreased the amount of caffeine we ingested.  Oh and chips, we ate a lot of chips.  I know, it is a lot of information but the important thing is that we made it though and that we didn’t gain to much weight, only about 4-6 pounds.  The constant fear of barfing probably helped with that!

The change, it happened over night.  Shortly after the new year, as I went from week 12 to week 13, you decided to lighten up a little and let me enjoy eating.   I stopped feeling nauseous, I had more energy and we entered the second trimester.  Stay tuned for more!