Quad Screen

I am 15 weeks pregnant which means I am in the window for getting the Quad Screen done, if I so choose.  The Quad Screen is a blood test that is done between weeks 15 and 18 of pregnancy that screens for certain abnormalities such as down syndrome, spinabifada and trisomy 18  It checks for these abnormalities by analyzing four specific substances in the mothers blood, hCG, AFP, Estriol and Inhibin-A.  The levels of these substances in the mothers blood combined with other factors, including age, ethnicity, and health determine the probability of the child being born with special needs.

 I am sure that making the decision on whether to get the test or not is hard for parents.  The test does have a risk of a false positive causing unnecessary distress, but there are certain risk factors that could put parents minds at ease if the results of the tests come back negative. Some of the risk factors that would cause such abnormalities in children are: Mother over 35, excessive exposure to radiation during pregnancy, viral infection during pregnancy, use of harmful medications during pregnancy, and a family history of birth defects. Since I have had none of these risk factors Ted and I decided to skip the testing.

 This was the right decision for us because we both know that weather our baby is born with special needs or not we are going to love it just the same. We knew before becoming pregnant that there is always a risk that something like that could happen to our child and we were willing to take that risk. Although our baby is only the size of an apple and I can't even feel it moving yet we still love our child and we chose to be positive and hope for a healthy baby!

Pregnant Brain

 I have had many friends and co-workers who were expecting that worked  through their pregnancies, and I never understood why they kept saying it was so hard. I totally understand now. It turns out that growing another human life take A LOT of energy. I find that my brain no longer functions at full capacity and I am no longer as efficent as I once was at my job or really any aspect of life (actually I am better at sleeping that I was before).

Working while pregnant is a real challenge. My company is growing at a very rapid rate which means that I am putting in 10 or 12 hour days pretty much every day, and before I was pregnant that was no big deal. But now I am grouchy and my brain shuts off long before i really need it to. For all of you out there reading, pregnant brain is REAL!!!! I just hope that one day my brain will go back to normal and working will not be such challenge and I can begin to enjoy it the way I always used to.


 I desperately  wish that having both Ted and I working was not financially necessary, but in this day and age most people rely on two incomes to pay the bills.Before I became pregnant I never imagined a future where I didn't have a career, and now I imagine it all the time. Raising children is a career in itself, the most important job there is. But I wonder does the idea of a stay at home parent really exist for my generation?

First Try

     I have have recently started reading friends blogs, which got me interested in the idea of creating my own. I never felt I really had anything special to write about it, and maybe I still don't. But I figured if growing and raising a child isn't special enough to write about then what other major event in my life ever will be?
     So to start off I'll just let every one know who the heck I am. My husband and I have been together for almost 6 years, married for 3 years and I am thankful everyday that I have such a wonderful man in my life. From when we first got engaged we always knew we wanted to wait a little while to have children, and really thought we would wait longer than we did. But eventually we just said to each other "What are we waiting for?" and baam 3 months later I had a bun in the oven!!!!!!
     I am now just entering my second trimester of pregnancy and damn am I glad the first trimester is over. While trying to conceive it never really crossed my mind that I was going to have morning sickness because neither my mom or grandmother ever did, but guess what? I did. I was sick every time I ate especially in the evenings and I barfed so much I actually managed to lose 10 pounds during the first trimester (which is probably a good thing, I definitely had the weight to lose). Now that i am in my second trimester the anticipation of finding out if this baby is a boy or girl is killing me. I just love this baby so much and I can't wait to learn more about him/her.
     To conclude my very first blog ever, all I can say is that being pregnant and beginning my journey towards motherhood is the most thrilling, exciting, scary, overwhelming and joyful thing that I have ever experienced. I am sure it will only get crazier from here.