Seeing Is Believing

Having to wait so long from a second, slow rising beta until a 7 week ultrasound was kind of agony. I really wavered from day to day on how I felt about the odds of anything actually growing in there. Then this week I started to believe. Maybe part of it is just that after so many weeks of nothing to tell me otherwise, I had to start thinking that things just might be okay in there. Another factor is my increasing appetite. Holy crap. About an hour after eating, my stomach is growling and I AM HUNGRY. And then there's the physical evidence. My chest hasn't looked so marvelous since the early days of nursing. (4-5 months of exclusive pumping destroys your bosom ladies, no joke!) And then there's this.

What my stomach looks like after I get out of bed each morning...

...and what it looks like before bed (with a full bladder).
I apologize for the patch glue on my stomach. I am sick of rubbing that stuff off.

When I was pregnant with Noah, right around the 7 week mark I started sprouting my nightly "food baby" as I called it. And yes, I would say it's definitely back. So these few little things started to give me some confidence. But of course doubt still lingered. At some point with Noah I was gagging on phlegm and dry heaving in the mornings. I never puked and never had all day nausea, but I would feel pretty gross (or as Noah puts it, "Grossy!") if I was too hungry. These things have not really shown up, and I'm feeling like they're not going to anytime soon. I should just count my blessings that I've had it easy both times, but lacking major symptoms is not totally reassuring for someone who wants to feel pregnant!

Well, today was my ultrasound, and any and all doubts must now be cast aside.

For here is Baby #2! My little pumpkin seed!

He's got a strong heartbeat of 141bpm, and he measured a few days behind at 6w5d. This doesn't even make me blink. With my betas starting out so slow, I kind of figured we'd see something around 6w4d. The gestational sac is much smaller than Noah's, but no one was remotely concerned. The sonographer also pointed out a very small black spot which could be a small clot or hematoma, but again no one was worried. (My only worry was, "Oh my God, that's not another baby, right?!") I haven't had any spotting, so most likely whatever it is will dissolve on its own.

So there you have it. I am really, truly pregnant, and I am 7w1d as of today. My due date is June 13, 2013. Oh man, it feels so good to finally say that!