the ultrasound dr was right about anticipating more spotting. i've been spotting since last wed. i wasn't too alarmed until sat. morning when i saw some blood-clot like thing in the toilet after my first pee before dawn. this happened 3 days in a row for the first pee of each day. i wasn't too worried about the spotting but not too sure what that was... blood clot, tissue, the baby???? so i called the dr. office and the on-call dr called me back in 1.5 hr. she said there's nothing they can do now cuz the office is closed on the weekend and since monday was MLK, the office will remain closed til tuesday. she told me to call back on tues and come in to listen to the heartbeat. if i have heavy bleeding, i'll have to go to the emergency.

so on monday i called in sick (no holiday for me)... yesterday we went to see the on-call dr in the afternoon and she first checked the heartbeat. it was beating strong as before. she checked my cervix and it's still closed. so everything looks fine. she said the ultrasound report became back and it was noted that they found something called subchoronic hemorrhage... meaning there's bleeding between the placenta and the uterus. so i should anticipate to have spotting and even bleeding. it's not too serious and i can do my normal activities. but no formal exercise, no heavy lifting...etc. ... just take it easy, she said.

i hope i won't have more serious spotting for the next 2 weeks until i see my regular dr. for my monthly ck-up...

my evening sickness has tapered off a bit... haven't thrown up for almost 2 weeks... but i'm still quite tired and sleepy... i still don't have the 2nd tri. energy yet...

just had my 2nd dr. appt and ultrasound for the integrated screening on Wed.

the dr. appt was pretty fast this time. i deliberately set the 2 appt. 2 hrs apart so i have enough time. but after the first appt, we still had more than an hour to kill, so we had breakfast in between.

when i first ck-ed in, they gave me a cup for urine sample. they said that's what will be done everytime i come in from now on. then i had my blood pressure and weight taken. blood pressure was normal. according to their scale i gained 2 lbs. but i know i only gained 1lb since i weigh myself daily on the same scale at home and with the same outfit (my birthday suit :P ). the dr. said eventhough i have bad evening sickness, it's good that i still managed to gain 2 lb... i guess she's right, at least i didn't lose any weight. she said i should feel much better about my nausea in 2 weeks or so when i'm well into my 2nd tri. for the past week, i still have evening sickness which leads me to throw up my dinner almost nightly! :(  hope what she said it's true...

then i found out my blood test result from last time. everything seems to be fine. my blood type is A+. i am not anemic. i passed all infections test as well as cystic fibrosis.

then the dr. told me to lie down. i wasn't sure what she was gonna do since i was not told to undress before she came in. then i noticed what she had on her hand, a heartrate monitor. she placed that on my tummy and try to locate the baby's heartbeat! it was the first time we heard our baby's heartbeat... the feeling is indescribable. the dr. said that the baby was moving around so she had to chase the heartbeat. how cute... :)

even listening to the heartbeat was already touching to us, we couldn't wait to see him/her in an hour at the ultrasound appt. i was told to drink 3x 8oz of water an hr before my appt to make my bladder full. i was indeed full by the time they did the ultrasound. the tech kept saying, "i'll be done soon, i'll let you go in a min" but seeing my baby on the screen, i wanted to see him/her longer and didn't want her to rush. so i told the tech " i can wait, pls take your time!" the tech took lots and lots of picture of my baby. i was so happy to see that my baby is fully developed and not a bean anymore like last ultrasound! :) i did wonder if she was able to tell the sex when she was taking pictures around the bottom part. then i saw something, but wasn't sure. then she asked us whether we'll want to find out what the baby is. i said "yes, we'll want to find out. can you tell this early?" she said she's not supposed to say but then she thinks it's a boy since there seems to be a pee-pee between the legs! that's what i thought i saw!!! but still, she needed to cover her basis and said that it could still be his spine protruding out..... we'll see at our 20wk ultrasound!

from the ultrasound, they measured the heartbeat: 160 bpm. healthy! :) and the size is about 66mm. so it shows that i'm 13 weeks and not 12 weeks and 2 days!! i was sooooo happy to hear that since i'll have 1 less week to suffer!! :P now, the due date has changed from 7/21 to 7/16. i guess my first guess was right at the beginning. our baby is bigger than what they thought since i could detect it with the home pregnancy so early on! :) mama's instinct is always right!

i wasn't too surprise to know that it's a boy. it's more like a confirmation of what i've heard and felt. a lot of people we told about my pregnancy said that their gut feeling is that i'll have a boy. both me and my hubby wanted a girl at the beginning. but the more we hear, the more we feel that it'll be a boy. it's funny that after hearing the guesses from others, we both try to think of the good thing about having a boy, in case it'll be a boy. the more i thought about it, the more i want to have a boy. :) well, boys are less fussy. boys are more attached to their mommies! :) boys are not as delicate and fragile. boys will not take away my stuff toys and play with them! :P if it's a boy, he can play boy-stuff like robots, wrestling, basketball with daddy while i relax and enjoy having my own time and space! :) one more compelling reason: usually girls look like daddy and boys look like mommy, i think i'd want a boy to look like me than having a girl looking like her daddy! :P so when i saw his pee-pee on the screen, i was joyful! well, i shouldn't speak too soon in case it was really her spine!! :) i'll keep calm until the 20 weeks for more confirmation! :)

after the ultrasound, the dr came in and said everything looks fine from the ultrasound. they will have the final result after i have my 2nd blood test in 3 weeks! the dr did say that there was some blood found in the sac but it could be due to implantation. she said i might have more spotting. but it's no problem. 30% of pregnant women has it...hope it doesn't affect the baby...

uploaded the ultrasound pix, and will upload my progress pictures as well...

went back to work after 1.5 week off today.

over the holiday, we went to Las Vegas for the weekend before Christmas... it was not enjoyable. going in and out of the casino was a torture since i really couldn't stand all the smoking in there. i would hate to let my baby smell the 2nd-hand smoke. so i would rather walk in the cold then indoor- from hotel to hotel. there was not much to do besides walking up and down the strip... it was VERY tiring. we lived in Excalibur and it's a looooong walk to the popular hotels like Venetian, Wynn.... as soon as we went into Wynn, i felt like i couldn't take another step and had to take the taxi back to our hotel for a 2 hr nap. our most reward from the trip was that we got our first baby outfit for our baby from M&M co. ! :) ck it out in the photo album...

besides our LV trip, i spent most of my time in my pregnancy coma once again. it was sooooo good to be able to nap whenever i needed. usually, i get 8 hrs of sleep a night (2-3X bathroom break) then i get up in the morning for breakfast, as soon as i finished, i would take another 2 hr nap! i thought it kinda funny how i usually nap for exactly 2 hrs. then i read an article saying that the best and effective naps are 20min and 2 hrs!! :) i guess i got the best naps ever during the holiday.

for the past few days, i have been having more energy and no need to nap. i guess it's becuz i'm well into my Week 12 this week... so just in time for going back to work! i thought it would be hard to stay up all day at work today but it wasn't that bad at all. i actually had energy to have a 40 min walk after lunch! i hope my nausea will leave me soon as well....

next wed (1/9) will be our next dr. appt as well as the ultrasound appt! can't wait...

i'm staying home today for another day of rest at home. yesterday, i left work around 2pm feeling nauseous and i wanted to get home and sleep since i am still having my persistent cold. so i went home and had a 2 hr. nap. this morning, as i drove to the freeway entrance, i thought to myself, why not stay home for another day since i was ready for another nap at that time, which was only an hour after getting up. so i made a U-turn and headed home.

it's good that the Christmas holiday is around the corner and after this Friday, i'll have 1.5 week off from work. my boss has been very understanding. she knows i have my "all-day sickness" plus the cold, so she told me that i can feel free to go home. things are slower at work this week since most ppl are on vacation already and it's not really a good time to start any project. so i'm just planning to wrap up my existing projects for the next 2 days.

my cold has gotten better. i was having mostly coughing at night which prevents me from sleeping. so since Sunday night, i have been taking Robitussin before bed. i have been worried that being sick would make my baby sick as well. i guess i'm already having the motherly love for my baby cuz i wish that the viruses only attack me and not my baby. hope my baby is safe and healthy in me, eventhough my body seems to be defeated... :(

gotta take a nap now. will write more later.