The Journey to Ruthie: 5w2d

Today I am 5w2d, the exact gestation when we found out we were pregnant with Ruthie. Looking back, I must have been totally naive about early pregnancy symptoms, or maybe I just didn't have them with Ruthie. Maybe since we've known about this pregnancy since before I was even 4 weeks, I was more aware of my body.

So far things are going well. I went in for my third beta last Monday, when I was 19dpo. I was hoping for at least 600, since that would have been the minimum to double from the last draw. It was 581, but the nurse was very happy with that. She had no concerns and said in truth, they really only want it to go up 66% in a minimum of 72 hours and I had well surpassed that. It went up about 93% in 49 hours - had I had my blood drawn at 10am instead of 9am, it would have been there.

That's about all we know for now. Still super early. I've been feeling SO tired the last few days - I thought I was going to pass out from exhaustion at work one day....too bad they won't let me nap when the kiddos nap. ;)

Our first ultrasound is scheduled for February 16th. I will be 7w5d and we should see baby and a heartbeat, Lord willing. It feels strange to write all of this knowing that nobody will be reading it until well after that ultrasound, since we aren't making it public for awhile.....and I'm only saving these posts as drafts until then. ;) (Sorry!)

Ruthie is very excited about being a big sister. Every day she waffles back and forth about whether it's a brother or a sister....and some days she thinks she's getting both. (She's not....I don't think.....boy, will I stick my foot in my mouth if that ultrasound shows otherwise.) She wants both because she thinks that's what we need to have a "family," though I've convinced her that SHE is the one that MADE us a family. :)

Speaking of the princess, she is doing SO well! Her speech is pretty much age-appropriate...and there is a lot of it. A lot. She loves going to school every day (she goes to preschool where I work) and playing with her friends. She does Happy Feet, a soccer program, on Thursdays at school and I think we might look into putting her into their spring soccer. It's helped a lot with her coordination. She has two very wonderful teachers who are working patiently with her on learning to be quiet at naptime. ;)

She has been potty-trained since the week before her third birthday, with only a handful of accidents since then. She eats pretty much whatever is in front of her, with the exception of sweets - she still doesn't care too much for those.

She is so stinkin' smart - she can count to 100 by tens and count by 2's. She's spelling a lot of 3-letter words and has about 30 sightwords memorized. She loves to be read to, though the thought of sitting still through a book is still unappealing to her. She likes to sing, and it's a little scary how much she sounds like my grandma (whom she's named for) when she sings. (As much as we all loved Grandma, we tended to cringe when she started singing...)

Here are some recent pics of the princess to catch you up: