This morning was our first ultrasound and I’m thrilled (and relieved) to report that it went well. The doctor was pleased, we saw the baby (well, as much as you can see) and we saw the flickering of a heartbeat. And what was the very first thing I said when I saw all this? “It’s so cool to finally see something in there and not a big ol’ empty space!” Maybe not a phrase you’d see in a Hallmark card or embroidered on a pillow but that was the first thought that came to mind.
We go back in exactly two weeks from today to hear the heartbeat. Yes folks. I’m in yet another two-week wait! It’s like the universe WANTS me to keep writing on this blog and not start a whole new one! 🙂
Last week, I told my niece and nephew that according to the Baby Center, the baby (then at five weeks) was the size of a sesame seed. I told them that that very morning, I had a sesame seed bagel, grabbed one of the seeds, showed it to Sam and said, “Look! It’s our baby!” They found this utterly hilarious. I’m so pleased they find their Aunt Jay’s warped sense of humor amusing.
According to Baby Center this week (6 weeks), the baby is the size of a lima bean. When Sam and I saw the ultrasound today, we confirmed to one another that the baby does, in fact, look like a lima bean. Not only can we now not stop ourselves from calling the baby lima bean but we can’t dare eat any legumes anymore.
I promised myself I would not give a nickname to the baby. I know many do and that’s totally fine if that’s what you feel comfortable with but for me, I just didn’t feel right doing that until we were at least past the first trimester. I’m not buying anything for the baby, I’m not changing my twitter name and I’m not telling the public at large until we’re at least past the first week of August. Of course, I’m already emotionally attached so none of this will necessarily make things any easier if something were to go wrong but still, I feel the need to wait until we’re in somewhat safer waters.
Also, if I’m being honest, despite being someone who named her uterine polyp, Jackson Polyp, I was never very comfortable with the overwhelming cutesy-poo factor of naming your fetus something like “sugar kitten or “lil’ angel muffin” or something like that. I say that with the sincerest respect to my fellow pregnant friends who have come up with nicknames for their babies. I promise – I’m not saying that all nicknames are bad or nauseating, I’m just saying that there have been a few that have been so sweet that the mere mention of them have given me a cavity.
Now that we’re calling it lima bean (at least this week), does that mean that I’m going to start calling the baby whatever noun, fruit or vegetable the Baby Center sends me from week to week? I sincerely hope not. That seems too fickle and strange. “I’m so in love with our little cumquat!” Or “Our little baseball is getting so big!”
I’m either going to have to resign myself to just calling our baby “the baby” or coming up with a nickname that doesn’t make me feel like it’ll induce eye rolling or gagging every time I use it.
And speaking of gagging, I asked my doctor if using deodorant/ antiperspirant was ok as the organic Tom’s Deodorant has been making me gag from how bad I smell. She said I should really try to use “aluminum free” deodorant. Dammit. I’m going to have to start looking into other brands… and I have a feeling I’m going to go through a whole lot of them before I find something effective.
I’m warning you now – don’t be surprised if pretty soon, I write a blog entry called, “The Many Smells of Jay”. Oy.
I called our baby BK until I found out the name. It's short for Baby Kasun. I am not really creative, obviously.
Now I just call her by what her name will be.
But you do feel weird referring to your baby as it all the time.
Good luck in the two week wait.
I am so glad all went well!!!!
I did name my fetus – but we called it Pat…as in, "it's time for androgyny…it's Pat!!!" so that wasn't too nauseating?
I am so excited for you and the lima bean!
Try Lanvanila The Healthy Deodorant from Sephora. It is expensive, but, you are worth it. It lasts a long time, and works. For me anyway.
My first comment at my first ultrasound was "is there anything in there?"
After years of nothing, it seemed like a logical question. Nothing quite throws you for a loop as that first time you see a heartbeat. Totally surreal.
So glad the ultrasound went well! And you saw the heartbeat–fantastic!
Congratulations again! I'm so excited for y'all!
Each of my potential pregnancies had a name based on what what happening at the time. When I was on jury duty and doing IUI, I called the non-existent baby Deena (judgment). The pregnancy that resulted in Janet, I called "Misha" short for "Mishpacha" (family) because the day before the IUI, we went to the cemetery and laid a stone on my grandparents graves and then had dinner with my cousin and his wife and her sister. Then, shortly after finding out we were pregnant, we went to Las Vegas for a family wedding (They live there, so it's not what you're thinking. It was a normal family wedding.
I feel like by naming in a non-native tongue, it's kind of a ward against the evil eye in a way naming in the vernacular would not be. But I realize that's lame and stupid. 🙂
I'm calling our little fetus RockStar, simply b/c s/he was conceived while my husband was out of the state. The miracles of modern medicine. 🙂
SOOO happy you saw the heartbeat and a healthy little lima bean. Wonderful wonderful news!!
Seeing (& hearing, we're lucky) the heartbeat at 6 weeks was major for us, because the heartbeat in our first pregnancy was slow, hard to find, and a problem from the beginning. So DH and I didn't really say anything, we just started crying!
We came up with fetal/embryonic nicknames that essentially described what the baby looked like. So the m&m was a small circle. And Smudgie was a smudge. Does the creativity astound you?
Coming up with a name was important for us, because it was something that I really clung to after losing the first pregnancy. (Second pregnancy never got a name. I guess that's what happens when all you "look like" is an incredibly faint line on an hpt). But the things we do to protect our hearts might not make sense to someone on the outside, and that's okay. I didn't buy anything until 16 weeks or tell even our parents until 10 weeks.
First tri after loss or IF is just about survival. So do what you have to to survive (mac & cheese for breakfast lunch and dinner is a-okay) and don't let ANYONE make you feel like you're too anxious/unhappy/hopeful/optimistic/fill in the emotion.
I am SO glad that this morning's ultrasound went well, and I can't wait until you get to hear the heartbeat. 🙂
The nickname for our fetus was "The Bagel" which stemmed from when it was the size of a poppy seed and my husband's love for poppy seed bagels. We never told anyone IRL our nickname; it was just between the two of us.
So glad everything went well. Here's to another two week wait! We never named our baby, just called it "the baby". Not really creative, but like you I wasn't into those cutsie names either. Even though I know it is a girl, I still can't name her… so I will wait until she is born and then when I can't wait any longer she will get a name. Congratulations.
Yay!!! So glad you got to see the heart beat….that was the most amazing thing for me and my husband. now every 2 weeks when I go in I wait for that flicker…and pray it's still there.
I hadn't planned on nicknaming the baby, but the picture we had of the blast before transfer looked like a coffee stain. Since I love Starbucks, people suggested using my favorite drink from there, but "venti, decaf, nonfat, iced, white chocolate peppermint mocha, no whip" seemed a bit long. So we decided on Buckie, short for Starbucks and it just kind of stuck.
I wish you the best in you pregnancy….good luck for the next 2 weeks 🙂 I can't wait to hear more!
Hooray for happy ultrasounds!!! As somebody who has a nauseating name for her wee one, I hope you won't stop talking to me over the next months. A lima bean sounds awfully big to me, considering that the good doctor said that ours measured 6.8mm today…is Baby Center running on the Americans Are Obese model? Hold on, going to get a ruler…Okay, maybe uncooked lima beans are smaller than cooked ones? Looking around to see what measures around 6.8mm…the head of a gel pen that's on my bedside table. Hm. You can come by and check it out. Aaaanyway, so delighted for you. xoxo
We called the baby "Sticky" for the first trimester for good luck… then the name stuck. So he was named Sticky the whole time. My nephew even called him Sticky for a while after he was born because was so used to it that he couldn't convert over to his real name
I'm so glad the black hole of your ute is gone. Let there be baby! We did nicknames but I don't think they were overly cutesy-poo because that isn't my personality either. Ours were, um, Lima Bean (sorry), Ant, and Carlos. And I named my niece Dottie… I figured the least sis could do for torturing me with her ill-timed (for me) pregnancy was let me name her fetus 😉
Glad everything went well today. Congrats! I'm going to second the Lanvanila suggestion. I love their stuff.
Yay for a heartbeat! That's so exciting! And another 2 week wait… I love that the uterus is telling you to keep your blog – I completely agree.
I agree with you on the nickname thing. Not that I'm completely opposed to it, it just sounds so made-up and contrived. So we call our baby by its name: Baby. And yes, when we talk about it, you can tell it's capitalized. And sometimes Baby's a he, and sometimes Baby's a she. Whatever!
Hello from ICLW! I am so happy you got to see the heart beat. Hearing it is an amazing feeling and I can't wait for you to experience that. Sending lots of good thoughts your way!!
In our first pregnancy we named our fetus 'peanut', and then we had problems and we were never able to see the sex. We didn't find out until our baby was born (and died 54 minutes later) that he was in fact a boy. He immediately became Aidan. The boy's name we loved.
In our second pregnancy I very conciously chose the 'nickname' Acorn. I figured 'peanut' for our first pregnancy wasn't a strong enough name. Peanuts are small, don't get very big and get eaten because they are tasty. Aidan kind of was like that…small and never got the chance to get big.
Now we've had similiar problems during my 2nd pregnancy as we did with Aidan and once again have not been able to figure out the sex. The name Acorn has stuck. This baby will be Acorn until he or she is born. But I'm hoping this 'stronger' nickname will eventually pan out in a tough baby…because what do Acorn's grow into? GIANT FREAKIN' OAK TREES!!! It's stuck so well that everyone on my blog calls my baby Acorn.
Nickname or no nickname it doesn't matter. We called our son "Flipper Flopper" because he moved around so much in the second trimester, but before that we called him "Sweet Potato" after one of the baby websites said he was that size. This one has gotten the nickname of "Popsicle" or "the baby" from me, my mom calls it "freezer pop" all because it was frozen at one point. I think popsicle may stick, LOL.
So awesome to see something besides a naked uterus isn't it? So glad you saw the flicker of the heart, everything seems to be going as it should for now. Praying all of this goodness continues and that darn 2ww (I swear it's just as bad as the real 2ww!) goes quickly, and lima bean is doing just great!
So glad the scan went well – it feels unreal, doesn't it?!
My husband has always called a fetus "belly monster"…he wanted me to suggest this to you. He would also like you to know that it's gender neutral! 🙂
Congrats! I am so glad that everything looks good so far!
DEODORANT:
Try "Earth Science" natural deodorant in "Liken Plant" (Hippie!) has worked well for me. I get it at whole foods and it has a lime green and orange label. GOOD LUCK and CONGRATS!
All sounds really good. We are very close together. Im 6 weeks on Tuesday. Are you feeling sick yet?
Congrats on your pregnancy.
Our first son got nicknamed woo-woo in utero because the heartbeat sounded just like the trains in the old western movies.
Hope you can find a nickname that works for you.
ICLW #10
I swear my body odour smelled different during my pregnancy, but I also wanted to go "organic". I like the BodybShop's aluminum free antiperspirant, but I still smelled. After the first trimester I went back to the good stuff Kiehls, not sure whether theres aluminum in it or not. So happy your ultrasound went well!
Congrats on seeing your first u/s! It's so amazing. I didn't want to give my LO a nickname in utero…my husband kept trying them out though. Luckily, none of them stuck because they weren't very good! I was also a little superstitious about it until the 2nd trimester. Once we knew his gender though, we started referring to him by name and that was just perfect.
ICLW 33
Congrats on your ultrasound. I'm about a week behind you and still waiting for our 1st U/S. We just turned 5 weeks today. We call our baby one of two things. Squishy because as Dory says, "I shall call him Squishy, and He shall be mine, and He shall be my Squishy." The other name which my DH came up with is Dragon baby. I've wanted nothing but spicy food and then he found out our baby is to be born in the year of the dragon. He firmly believes this baby will come out breathing fire. 🙂 BTW, do you ever feel like life is now a series of 2 week waits?
Yay congrats on the heartbeat 🙂
Congratulations- it's a big milestone! I am in the midst of taking IVF meds – in fact, was just in the process of googling, "are progesterone butt shots painful?" when I remembered I would rather check your site for any updates than find out! 🙂 Re: what to "nickname" the baby, I couldn't agree more that I kind of want to scream when someone I know calls their new pregnant belly, "sweetpea." Yarf. And I'm not just saying that because of my fertility issues (I swear…). It is the same knee-jerk reaction I have to people who post their U/S pictures as their facebook profile (really, people? sigh- at which point I am forced to block those people from my news feed. Wait- who am I kidding? I block all pregant people from my news feed).
G'luck and keep the updates coming!
Congratulations on your scan, so pleased that you heard that hearbeat and that everything is on track!
Congrats on your U/S! You really made me laugh about the nicknames. Whatever you decide to call him/her, I am sure it will be cute anyway 🙂 Best of luck to you and I will be looking forward to hearing about the next scan in 2 weeks!
I had to laugh at your line about seeing something other than an empty uterus! I think we can all relate!
I hope the next 2ww flies by and you are back for the heartbeat soon!
happy iclw!
Yeah!!!! Great news on the ultrasound! I nicknamed my fetus "the Whitney" as in the museum, esoteric enough for ya? Long story I won't go into but partly the name came from the fact the fertility clinic is 2 blocks away from the Whitney.
So happy to hear the ultrasound went well! As crazy as it may sound I went through soooo many brands of deo while pregnant just because the smell of them made me vomit. Even the unscented ones I could smell. The husband thought I was insane! I did use one though, of course. 🙂
Very happy to hear that your ultrasound went well.
Sorry for the delayed blog post – I'm finally posting on all the entries I read while traveling. 🙂
we call our little one whatever his size is the current week. Right now it's a grape (I am 9w3d). And it was raspberry, blueberry, and so on… New name every week 🙂
congrats on your first u/s! Just so you know, you'll be in constant 2ww for the whole duration of the first trimester. I am currently waiting my 3rd u/s a week from now.
Good luck!