1/3 thru my pregnancy...

Wow, can you all believe it? I actually made it! (by the grace of God for sure) Today marks the last day of my first trimester. I am 13 weeks 6 days pregnant. I wanted to post today to recap what the first trimester was like for me (so Tot will know one day). I feel so blessed that God has allowed us to conceive and EVERYDAY I cannot praise Him enough for this miracle.

The Recap:

1/21 transferred two embryos (5 days old at that point)

1/26 Told Paul there was a chance I was pregnant, something was different

1/28 tested positive on HPT

1/29 confirmed with doctors office that we were in fact PREGNANT! First spot on pink/brown blood

1/30 Spotted red blood, told most of our friends we were pregnant, asked for prayers

2/1 Spotted red blood again, sent email to Sunday School class really needing prayers

Spotted 2/2 until 2/6ish

2/4 Paul read from Mark in our devotional, Jesus stating "Do you still not have faith in me"

2/5 Bloodwork, everything looked great (relief)

2/11 first ultrasound, couldn't see heartbeat but everything looked great, one sac

2/19 Saw heartbeat for the first time (low 160s nurse guess), nurse noticed small amount of blood around sac, only one baby for sure

2/25 heartbeat great, blood around sac still present a little bigger

2/27 spotted red blood again

2/28 ultrasound revealed blood had doubled, stopped blood thinner shots. SCARED TO DEATH

2/28-3/4 Full blown bed rest

3/3 read in my study of Mark Jesus' words again "do you still not have faith in me"

3/4 ultrasound baby doing great blood still there, but taken off bed rest just on limited activity

3/11 ultrasound revealed blood around sac decreased by about 50%, released by infertility doc to regular OB

3/18 Regular OB visit, heartrate 165 on doppler, and 174 on ultrasound machine. Blood basically gone! Praise God!

3/25 no visit to doc, first week with out appointment, scared that I was going to start bleeding again b/c it had been almost four weeks. Read in my study of Matthew Jesus again saying "do you still not have faith in me" Finally getting the point to stop worrying that everything was going to be ok

3/29 NT scan revealed baby looking perfect, and most likely Tot is a boy

4/2 Regular OB visit, doppler revealed heartrate of 159 (i believe), got lab results back some genetic testing. Chances Tot has downs syndrome 1 in 16,000 (normal for my age is 1 in 800), trisomy 18 and 19 or 17 and 18 (i can't remember which) is 1 in 30,000. So excited and thanking God!

4/9 So happy and excited, more so than I have probably been in a long time. It's real! Paul and I will be parents.

More general recap:

Knock on wood, but NO MORNING SICKNESS AT ALL!

Nausea minimal but present at times

All meats gross me out, but I try to eat them still

I started showing around 8 weeks, but when I started walking around 11 weeks I lost some weight (see new belly pics below).

Overall gained around 5 pounds

Very gassy early on but getting better

Headaches off and on throughout the first trimester

Boobs have grown roughly a cup size (or atleast I had to buy a new bra a size up), but have been minimally sore

tiredness started to fade around 11.5 or 12 weeks

First sip of caffeine on 3/27, actual half of glass of Dr. Pepper on 4/1, allowing myself some caffeine but overall not drinking any

12 weeks

13 weeks

and today 13 weeks 6 days

Thank you all so much for riding along this journey with me. Knowing that you are all out there sending us well wishes and good thoughts are just overwhelming. I look forward to the next 28 weeks!

Much love,
Samantha

PS We never heard back about our foster care, not sure if they didn't think we could be a good fit or what. We decided to revisit that venture after we get settled with Tot. It is something we are still interested in but it might be through another route.