Steph's first post!

Ryan and I want to keep everyone up to date on all the happenings with Dragon Baby Phillips. I've always loved reading about and seeing pictures of everyone else's babies so I thought someone might be interested in ours (I don't want to know if you're not ;) ).
I'm almost 21 weeks pregnant now and already a lot has happened. Here's the story so far:

I first suspected that I might be pregnant at the beginning of November 2011. My doctor wanted to wait to see me until I was about 6 weeks along because that's when you can first hear the heartbeat. She made me an appointment for the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. I had always thought that I'd be bouncing off the walls at the first inkling that I was expecting, and tell close family and friends right away, but I had the complete opposite reaction. Both Ryan and I were in complete denial and were totally tight lipped. For some reason, a positive pregnancy test that clearly states it's 99% accurate was not enough to convince me that there was a baby growing inside me. I decided it wouldn't be real until I heard the heart beat. Of course I started doing all the right things like avoiding sushi, caffeine, and alcohol (which was pretty tricky considering we attended November Birthdays - an annual tradition we have with our college friends where we all drink like we just turned 21 and act like idiots. Brian Schafer even called me out on Friday night and demanded that I explain why I wasn't drinking. My lame excuse worked.)

By Thanksgiving, Ryan and I were getting pretty excited. The doctor's appointment was right around the corner and I had every reason to believe I was still pregnant. We hosted our first Thanksgiving which was interesting for several reasons but mostly because I was nauseous all the time and the last thing I wanted to do was cook and eat a turkey dinner. By Thanksgiving I was basically surviving on very plain crackers, hummus, mild cheese (even provolone was too much), apples, cereal, and ginger tea. My sense of smell was incredible - I could constantly smell the fridge from our bedroom (maybe that isn't a far stretch of the imagination but it's not normal). Thanksgiving turned out great and I knew my mom was on to me - it's not like me to skip wine at a great meal!

Friday after Thanksgiving was a great day - Aunt Inez and Uncle Jim were visiting and we all went up to San Francisco for our traditional Black Friday shopping (I was very successful by the way - brought home a great load). We ended the night at Scomas, also a tradition, and again I stuck to water so I'm sure my mom was very suspicious.

Saturday after Thanksgiving was not such a great day. I woke up at 6 am with terrible pain in my pelvic area that was unlike anything I had ever felt. I was convinced I was having a miscarriage but I wasn't bleeding so was very confused. I finally woke up Ryan after being in the fetal position on the bathroom floor for a few hours. He called the advice nurse at Kaiser and they finally convinced me to go the emergency room. I was in so much pain I didn't want to move at all. We arrived at the ER at about 9 and eventually they gave me morphine. By that time I was delusional but Ryan tells me I had to wait 2 hours before I got the drugs. Morphine helped but wasn't enough so they gave me Dilaudid. Finally I felt some relief. Then the vomiting started. Once I was drugged enough so that I could act like a normal person, the OBGYN nurse came in to do an ultrasound to find what they thought was a cyst causing the pain. The ultrasound machine was outdated and small but she immediately found my baby and asked how far along I was. I thought I was about 6 weeks. She said, "there's no way you're 6 weeks, you're more like 11 or 12." I was so drugged that I'm not sure I comprehended what this meant but Ryan was sure excited. It was so surprising I was that far along because previous pregnancy tests had been negative and cycle had been regular. After a lot more waiting, and drugs, an ultrasound tech did a full ultrasound with the good machine. It was amazing - we could see the heart beat, all the major body parts, and the tech even guessed it was a boy. I could tell Ryan was on cloud nine and I was too, but I was mainly focused on when I was going to puke again. We got some great pictures (of the baby, not of me puking).

Back to the cyst, the doctor thought it was about 10 cm in diameter and guessed it was attached to my ovary. The normal solution was to do surgery to remove it but since I was definitely pregnant, this was not ideal. They decided to admit me to the hospital to see if the pain would subside and perhaps the cyst would go away on its own.

I decided to call my parents. We were originally planning to wait until Christmas to tell everyone but I thought they would want to know that I was in the hospital. I decided to call my dad since I knew my mom would be shopping at the sample sale and probably wouldn't be able to hear me. Later that afternoon the whole gang came to see me in the hospital - Mom, Dad, Aunt Inez, and Uncle Jim. Ryan went home to say hi to the dogs (poor guys had been left inside all day). We stayed the night in the hospital. By the next morning I was feeling much better and was doing ok on Norco, an oral pain medication. I was released and went home Sunday morning. Ryan's parents came up to visit (we convinced them that they needed to come eat the left over pecan pie from Thanksgiving and watch the Raiders lose). Ryan handed the picture of the ultrasound to Deb and I think she asked something like "who's baby is this?!" of course she and Rich were thrilled to find out it was ours. Later that afternoon we Skyped with Ryan's brother Justin and SIL Adriana. We hadn't seen their son Dylan in awhile so convinced them that was the reason. Ryan held up the ultrasound picture to Skype and it didn't take long at all for them to figure it out!

One comment I have about strong paid meds is that they trick you into thinking you're okay when you're really not. I actually worked from home Mon, Tues, and by Weds I thought I was doing pretty good. Weeks later some of my co-workers were referring to conference calls that I had been on and I had zero recollection of them. I definitely learned my lesson - I was trying to be productive but sometimes it's important to take a break.

On Tuesday, Ryan and I went to see my regular doctor since I had already made the appointment to hear the heartbeat of the baby. Since the heartbeat was old news the appointment wasn't too exciting but she assured me that the baby was fine and there was nothing to worry about.

By Wednesday, I thought I was feeling pretty good. I stopped taking the pain meds since they made me so nauseous. All was well until about 7pm when the pain started again. It got really bad really fast. Off we went the ER again, I received the strong meds much faster this time. The doctor decided that at this point surgery was my only option. The pain was so bad that I agreed, there was no way I could deal with it without heavy drugs. I had laparoscopic surgery that night at about 11 pm and was done by 12:40 am. The cyst was attached to my ovary and turned out to be the size of a grapefruit. I also had a smaller one on the other side. We headed home at about 4 am, I was happy that the pain was gone. Ryan stayed home with me the next day, even though the pain from the cyst was gone, I had some different issues recovering from the surgery. I was moving around pretty well by Saturday.

I won't tell the story of how we told everyone the great news but Drew's reaction was definitely the most memorable. It was important to me to tell him in person so we waited until the Saturday after my surgery to share the news. He came up to visit and we were telling him about my ordeal in the hospital. The hospital provided us pictures of the cyst so I asked Drew if he wanted to see them. Ryan handed him the ultrasound picture and if you know Drew you can visualize his verbal dialogue of trying to analyze the picture. Eventually he said, "Wow Steph, this cyst looks like an alien baby. I'm glad that thing is out of you." I was cracking up and told him it wasn't out of me, then he finally got it.

My next baby appointment was a NT Scan when I was about 14 weeks. This is special ultrasound that specialized techs can do to measure the folds in a baby's neck to calculate the chances of conditions like Downs Syndrome. This was fun because firstly, I wasn't drugged, and secondly, it took awhile so I could get a really good look at my baby. We also have some great photos from this. Most noteably, there's almost zero chance of Down Syndome.

I saw my doctor again right before Christmas. Everything looked good but I had lost 10 lbs since the beginning of November. This wasn't surprising considering my food aversion and surgery issues, but definitely not my goal. By this time my appetite was getting better so my doctor gave me the ok to eat as much as possible over the holidays.

Ryan and I went to Florida between Christmas and New Years. We spent NYE at Magic Kingdom - I even rode Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Our baby already loves fun rides!

Fast forward to January 25, 2012, we had the ultrasound to check for all the essential body parts/ organs and hopefully find out the gender! We are lucky enough to have both of our families nearby so my mom and Deb were able to join us. Our baby looked so much more human. Everything was where is was supposed to be and we found out our baby is a boy! Almost everyone had already guessed this but it was still so fun so see those boy parts! Even my doctor had guessed it was a boy because the heart rate was 135, on low side of the normal range, and apparently the old wives tale is that boys have lower heart rates.

I've started showing a bit. No one has asked me yet if I'm pregnant so I still don't think it's obvious but I'm sure it will be soon. I'm definitely eating for 2 these days - it's so much better to be hungry all the time than nauseous at the sight of food! No particular cravings, just large quantities of my usual favorites. My energy is much better now, I was so tired in the first trimester. Now I can stay awake past 8 pm!

It has been so fun to tell everyone because everyone has been genuinely happy for Ryan and I. Our official Facebook announcement has been made so the whole world knows now. Apparently having a baby in the Chinese Year of the Dragon is very lucky so until our baby shows himself, he'll be known as Dragon Baby Phillips. :) His due date is June 18, I'm really hoping he's a bit early - I can't imagine that being overdue is any fun.

My next appointment is February 16th!