I probably consumed nearly a gallon of water during the flight, so it wasn’t too bad again.  I did get up a lot and had a stewardess ask me why I am standing, to which I answered “Doctor’s orders”.  That did not provoke any more questions.

Once we landed at the Salt lake city, we had to walk a lot to get to the car rental place.  Dragging the bag behind me completely exhausted me.  I was a bit worried that was doing something wrong.

Because it was so hot, located on high altitude and nearly not enough shade, I had to drink a lot of water.  That introduced a new funny problem – finding a restroom.  I must say, I have marked the mid-western territory pretty well.

The park was amazing, the terrain ranging from forest to a dessert.  The geisers are the best fountains I’ve ever seen!  The smell of the volcanos was not pleasant, I called it egg-mcMuffin, but didn’t bother me too much.  We are hoping that our next trip there will be very soon and with our little one outside of my womb!

Eating was a bit of an issue as us, pregnant women, are forbidden to eat deli meats.  We made our sandwiches with cheese and humus at home and brought the cooler with some snacks.  I did splurge one day and stuffed myself with junk food like never before.  I felt very guilty afterwards and I guess that was my first “I am a bad mother” moment.  My husband kept making fun of my food cravings, especially when I requested a clam chowder in the middle of US and then found it in the camp store

I felt quite lucky not to feel so sick in my first trimester, the food aversions were my only major complain.

I have had my first prenatal appointment and first ultrasound.  We were only able to see the sack, but no fetal pole yet.    The nurse told me to come again a week later to confirm that it is developing.  Unfortunately they also found blood in my urine and ordered a more detailed test at the lab to confirm that I have an infection.

Needless to say i was a bit worried about the results.  Early next week I had to go on a planned business trip.  I survived the plane ride with no problems, no nausea.  I drunk tons of water and got up often.   I did have to come up with a few excuses on why I didn’t drink or eat sushi, I blamed it on stomach ache, which actually was the truth  Meanwhile I kept waiting and waiting for the nurse to call me with the urine test results…

Finally she did call and surprisingly the lab showed no blood whatsoever, very strange, especially since they can see blood at the doctor’s office in the urine stick test at every appointment.  Maybe they should switch the brand of test strips?

Once I got back home I was all geared up to see the doctor to confirm that my poppy seed is developing.   The ultrasound found the embryo and the little flutter of a heartbeat!  I was so excited, – the making of a little one is in progress!!!

In other exciting news, we put an offer on the house and had it accepted!  We should be closing in the next couple of months!

I had light nausea all day and my back and leg are hurting since Friday.  I have had herniated disk in the last year and the pain might be due to standing too much and not exercising.  I really need to get the prenatal yoga DVDs.

Only one day left till my first obgyn appointment.  I am excited and nervous.  Hope that Ultrasound will be able to show something.

By now we told our immediate family and close friends, they are so delighted.  I keep worrying, especially since I feel pretty good.  Maybe its a sign that I am having a girl?

We already short listed a few names, I am sure our list will change as the next few months go by.  We will probably pick out a couple and not tell anyone the exact one until our daughter or son is born.

I am getting tired earlier, but I did start waking up early as well.  I am a night owl and this schedule is very new to me.  This whole year been very new to me.

The bad – On tuesday I stood on the semi-direct sun for about 10 minutes and got very hot.  Although I drunk a lot of water, it took me almost an hour to cool down.  Hope this didn’t do any damage.  I got a major bruise from the blood test – 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide with couple of little cloud bruises on the side.  I am getting tired of wearing long sleeve clothes so no one gets suspicious.  I had a major stomach ache an couldn’t sleep for a few hours last night, have to be careful with beans and corn moving forward.  They say that your digestion majorly slows down during pregnancy.  Well, they are not kidding.  Waiting for the food to pass through my intestines is like watching the paint dry…  Of course, everything is googled and checked against multiple sites that it’s not too damaging to the sea monkey.  Had a first meltdown at work, just couldn’t stand anything, left and worked from home for the remainder of the evening.

I have an appointment with my OB next week, she will brief me on everything, calm down my worries to date and do an ultrasound!!!  She is fantastic.

My parents are thrilled, they already offered to babysit at least once a week so me and my beloved can have time to ourselves.  I feel very blessed.  I hope to enjoy the pregnancy and the motherhood as much as I can.  I know a lot of people who are also immigrants but don’t have their family here, it is very difficult not to go mad.

My sister already started to talk names.  I don’t mind, I just hope everything goes well as we are all growing attached to the little poppy seed.

Well, it’s time to go to work and pretend that I care more about them than the life that is growing inside of me.

Meanwhile, feeling pretty good, nausea didn’t bother me today at all, if it wasn’t for tender breasts, I wouldn’t even think that I am pregnant.   I had very uncomfortable cramps for half an hour yesterday, made me very very tired.  The odd thing is that I am liking that I have at least one symptom – keeps me sane.  I heard that this is what all expectant mothers go through.  Thank god for babycenter.com!  I also have a pretty good sex drive, according to the symptoms, pregnancy may increase or decrease it.  I hope it stays on a positive side .

Hoping that no one at work will find out until I am ready to tell, which won’t be for another 2 months.  I highly doubt that no one will guess though, I always drink at parties and dinners, this will look suspicious right away.  I also am already blessed with nice 34D cups, If I am looking into getting double Ds in the near future, I am sure it will noticeable!

The doctor prescribed me OB complete prenatals, very confused about the ingredients and when to take them.  Decided that maybe 30 minutes before bed time will be optimum for me.

Stocked up on the healthy foods, veggies, low fat dairy, fruit, meats, beans.  I am generally a healthy eater, but I doubt I eat enough for myself and the little poppy seed.  I need to make sure I exercise.

Keeping fingers crossed for the blood test results.  Then I can tell my immediate family.

I had been known as a vehemently child-free woman, but somehow I doubt that anyone will be surprised after they learn that I am expecting.   Yes, I had expressed my desire to remain childless throughout most of my twenties, and joked on more than occasion about my biological clock being broken.  And then suddenly I turned 32.  I learned that the clock is not only not broken, but is becoming very very loud.  I don’t think there was exact moment when I changed my mind, it came over slowly and reached the point that I am surprised that I ever wanted anything otherwise. My husband seemed to go though a similar experience, so when I was finally ready to approach him, he approached me himself.

We were still dating at that time, and just got married a couple of months ago and agreed to start trying for a baby at the end of the summer.  Meanwhile, I went off the pill to get ready, started to take vitamins and exercise more.  Well, it appears that the nature took its course sooner than we expected.

Since going off the pill, my cycle became pretty regular, I would first get a few days of pre-period spotting, then real period, about 29 days, my cervical mucus appeared to be in-line with the standards.  After my last period, I started to chart my cycle based on my body basal temperature, I had done this before and pretty much knew what to expect.  Well, on 6/13, my temperature went up, CM was textbook, the cycle day was correct, so we had a very fun day without any protection.  Then next day, my temperature was low again which made me very confused, but the temperature did go up and stay up 2 days later.   Since then I had been telling myself that there is only 20% chance that I can become pregnant.

Now, fast forward to Thursday (the day when Michael and Farrah died) I suddenly started to feel nauseous and my breasts started to hurt around nipple area.   This feeling continued through Friday.  I have also not gotten my usual pre-period spotting which I had documented for several months.  My period was due on Saturday.  On Friday night I left work on-time (a first for me) and went straight to the local pharmacy.  In all of my thirty three years, I had never suspected a pregnancy and never taken a pregnancy test.  I was nervous, so I did all my research on-line, went straight to the isle, picked up the box, went to the cashier and left the store.

I was too impatient to wait a few hours for the stale urine to accumulate, so I took the test right away.  I chose the 1st response early results and peed in a cup instead of midstream.  The results showed one bright pink control line and one pale pink line within a couple of minutes…

Next day I woke up very early and repeated the test – the pale pink got brighter.  I went to the dollar store later in the day and picked up a few more tests.  You guessed it, I took one right away and it also showed a very pale test line.

I had never been so excited and scared at the same time.

I know this still can be a false positive or it’s to soon to call it what it is, but it feels very real or surreal.  I will use another test tomorrow morning and call my doctor on Monday morning to confirm with the blood test.

Of course with all this excitement come some worries: my job, the timing will be very bad – but it’s always bad; we haven’t bought a house yet – but a lot of my friends did this in parallel; I have to take four flights in the next month, is that safe for the baby – seems besides morning sickness it shouldn’t be a problem.  With all that, I am still hoping that I am indeed pregnant.

We haven’t told our families yet, my husband wants to wait until we know that the poppy seed is healthy, or at least till I have a formal blood test and tell our immediate family.