February 1, 2024

On this date, we will have our first planned and official in office prenatal appointment. The wait for this date seems so far away. This appointment was scheduled during our first prenatal telephone appointment on January 3, 2024. Which seems like ages ago,

Since, our first telephone appointment, we have already visited the emergency room THREE times since then.I have been a bit anxious and have had some interesting pregnancy symptoms. Constant hunger being number one. I feel as if my stomach is a bottomless bit for food... anything.. except bean and cheese burritos. I have learned that Baby Speed dislikes those. All burritos must have rice in them.

Our first emergency visit was a, let's see what's going on in there visit. I felt a little mild cramping. Why not use those great benefits that we pay for?! Well, sometimes it is just best to follow directions. Against our best judgment, we agreed to see Kati Nauss, DO, instead of our assigned M.D. for the prenatal appointment. Kati was nice, but we did not really connect. Although, I felt like she was reassuring and wanted to make sure that I was fine both emotionally, mentally, and physically. This is not my first rodeo with Paige being 10 years old, so I also noted that she did not order the test that actually confirm a pregnancy's timeline, like an HCG levels test. During this visit we discovered that I was a week or so earlier than we thought. Again, our love was too powerful (Adrian's words) and I conceived the very first time that we... yeah. But, I did not ovulate until the following week, so our conception date was a little further ahead. I guess some parts of Adrian are able to wait patiently. lol... All of that to say, we left the doctor's office kind of terrified that there was a gestational sac and not a baby flipping around in there. The D.O. repeatedly stressed that if I felt any bleeding to come back immediately. I felt fine.

The next morning, I took the walk of fame and there it was, blood. No cramping, really, just some light pink spotting as I wiped. Me being me, I had to get Paige to school and allow Adrian to make it back home from taking the Range Rover to the dealership. (Ugh, that's another story!) So, about the time he made it home, I was about 2 minutes away from arriving too. I explained to him that we needed to go back to the doctor, because I was now bleeding a little. He was not too shaken, or at least he did not show it much. He has a way of putting all of his fears and worries aside for everyone else. When I arrived home, we made the appointment and this time, we were able to be seen by our regular OB/GYN Aisha Taylor, MD. I was asked to provide a urine sample to confirm my pregnancy. It was positive. We talked a bit about activities, symptoms, and what to expect at this stage during pregnancy. Doctor Taylor ordered me to do a blood HCG test and to retest two days later at the same time. In conclusion of our visit, everything was fine....must limit rough sex?

I nearly made it to February 1! But.... I was finishing up some work on my computer when I stood up and almost passed out. My feet went numb! Pins and needles! I was shocked, because I had never felt anything like it before. So, to the hospital we went. Adrian has no idea what he has gotten himself into. lol jk jk. The visit was with Julie Kelly MD. The first thing that she said when she walked in the room was, "Ah, I see someone is a bit anxious." with a smile. I was most certainly guilty and begun pleading my case. Doctor Kelly was really great at answering all of my questions and explained that it could be due to my spine narrowing. She expressed that it was common and not to worry. As we prepared for the ultrasound, she called her assistant back in. WE SAW OUR BABY! There, on the screen was our tiny, little, precious baby. We were able to hear the his heartbeat and even record it too! Adrian missed the first take, but got the second recording with his voice at the end. Our pregnancy was confirmed to be moving along on track and was a wonderful 6 weeks and 6 days with a due date or September 12, 2024. We were encouraged to keep our regular scheduled prenatal appointment for the upcoming week.