growing baby

There’s a baby growing inside me. It’s all incredibly exciting and crazy and odd and wonderful. I keep telling the little one to hang on in there. I know it’s still early and anything could happen, but I’m staying positive and optimistic.

I had been expecting my period last Friday or Saturday. Sunday rolled around–nothing. Monday afternoon I convinced Ilya that it was time to pee on a stick…the two lines turned pink and I was pregnant! We had already tried for 2.5 years to have a baby with no success and had undergone several infertility treatments, so seeing the pregnancy test turn positive felt utterly unbelievable. I reread the instructions several times to make sure I really understood what was going on. I had to convince myself that I wasn’t hallucinating, somehow wildly imagining a second pink line into existence. But, a second test the next morning confirmed the pregnancy again–this time with Ilya as my witness. That morning (Tuesday), I went in to the fertility clinic where they did blood tests for hcg (the pregnancy test hormone) and progesterone. Both looked great. Next Tuesday (in a few days from now) I’ll be going back for an ultrasound–the doctor will be looking for an egg sack.

In the meantime, I just started my 5th week of pregnancy. (This is my third week after conception; doctors actually count the two weeks before conception as the first two weeks of your official pregnancy.) The baby should be the size of a sesame seed! It’s crazy to think that it’s already visible to the human eye. It’s early for pregnancy symptoms…the biggest thing I notice so far is constipation (what fun!). But I’ve been eating extra veggies to compensate. Oh, and I keep waking up too soon, usually after about six hours of sleep. And the drinking more and peeing more.

In the meantime, Ilya’s been super cute about the pregnancy. He’s expressing his excitement in all ways technological–browsing the web, making a blog, researching video cameras… Plus lots of belly rubs of course!