To be continued...

This will not be my final pregnancy blog entry, but I’m sorry to announce that it is the final entry for this specific little coffee bean. A miscarriage began on Friday evening and last night my pregnancy came to a complete end in the Operating Room at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
I can see the bright side of this tragedy; I’ll be able to work when I get to Ft. Myers, my hubby and I will be able to move into our own apartment and I can have more of a hand in the set up of our new home, and maybe we can celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary on a roller coaster at Islands of Adventure.
I understand that “these things happen for a reason” and “it’s more common than you realize”, but for now I’m unbelievably sad.
We’ll be trying again soon, and maybe next time I’ll get those twins.
Thank you to everyone for sending us your love and support. Stay tuned for the next episode – TBD.

Pregnancy Brain

According to the daddy-to-be books my husband has been reading, a woman's brain miraculously shrinks during pregnancy. Apparently all brain functions work normally and there is no real noticeable side effect... except for one - memory. This is referred to as "pregnancy brain". At first I was skeptical. I would jokingly throw the shrinking brain excuse in his face when I’d misplace my keys, or repeat stories I already shared with him. But now, I’m starting to give this theory a lot more credit. I’ve always been proud of my elephant-like memory. Before I got pregnant I would always know where the car was parked, and I would never need to write a grocery list, it was all stored away in my impeccable memory. Well, see ya later, Horton! This elephant doesn’t have a clue.

Every single day this week I’ve added more than a few steps to my morning walk by heading out in the opposite direction of where my car is parked. It’s not because I’m trying to get more exercise, it’s because I can’t remember where I left that little PT Cruiser. I live on Miami Beach and I don’t have the luxury of parking my car in the same spot everyday. Most of the time it’s not on the same street, occasionally it’s not on the same block, and sometimes on the weekends it seems like it in a different zip code. The funny thing is that I get to the corner of the street where I’m sure I left my car, and when I realize I’ve done it again, I try to play it off like I meant to go the wrong direction (kind of like when you trip and stumble on the sidewalk, so you do a little jog like everything was intentional). Yeah, so I just stand there for a moment like I was supposed to meet someone on that corner and they’re running late so I head back in the other direction to see if I can find them or something. Lame!

Lost parking spots aren’t my only symptoms. We went grocery shopping the other day and I reluctantly brought a list – I had to make sure to buy all the necessary ingredients for my smoothies and delicious pregnant lady snacks. Well, when we got home I was furious to find that my husband had left the gallon of orange juice in the bottom of the cart at the store when he was packing the car. I distinctly remembered picking up the container, checking the expiration date, and placing it in the cart with my own hands. After some discussion, I realized that an apology was in order. I’d picked out the orange juice and put it into someone else’s cart. D-oh! Smoothies will have to wait.

So, I’m suffering from “pregnancy brain”. I dial wrong numbers, I type like a dyslexic, I forget why I walked into a room, and I have no clue where my car is. Let’s just hope that I remember making this blog entry and don’t try to type it up again tomorrow.

Month One

The moment I found out I was pregnant:

• Excitement - we'd been talking about trying later this year for a family and made the decision to move to closer to my parents, but we weren't expecting it to happen so quickly.
  
• Almost disbelief - we'd only tried one time, and we weren't really "trying", we just had a really amazing night together and it felt right.
• I took 3 home pregnancy tests to be sure...and I still didn't really believe it until I heard it from my doctor, 6 days later.
• Blabber mouth. We were trying to keep it a secret, but by the day after we got confirmation from the doctor, we'd told everyone we could think of to tell. My husband even told a few total strangers.

Reaction of the grandparents:

• I called them on the phone to tell them of the good news and in less than two weeks my parents had already bought a crib for their house. This action speaks louder than words when it comes to expressing their excitement.
• We gave his parents and brother cards from "the baby". His mom cried and hugged, and his dad was elated - hugging and shaking hands with everyone around. His 17 year old brother immediately began to lecture my husband on the hazards of second hand smoke...very sweet gesture.

Was it a memorable conception?:

• There was nothing particularly special about the night. We were our usual snuggly selves in bed, and snuggling led to kisses, which led to an unexpectedly passionate and deeply connected expression of love. We knew in our hearts, almost immediately, that the result would be our first child. It just felt so right, like it was meant to happen.
  

Symptoms:

• Exhaustion, mood swings, size D breasts - yikes (very very tender and sore), an aversion to sweets (very uncharacteristic of me) and cravings for Italian subs, but - keep those fingers crossed - no Morning Sickness so far.

Seeing is believing:

• Today we had our second doctor visit and walked away with a souvenir.
•