Pregnancy Diary – Week 9

We made it to week 9! Yay! In case you missed week 8 of my pregnancy diary, you can catch up here.

My only signs of pregnancy are still very sore breasts and occasional cramping. And I am completely overcome by exhaustion, I want to be in bed all the time! Nap, eat, repeat – that’s what I want these days. Still no morning sickness. I know I already bragged about that before, but I am so relieved I do not have it. I am sorry if this is something you are going through. 

This week I really have been craving sweets. It’s not surprising at all as both my husband and I have a sweet tooth. I did cut down on chocolate and sugar way before I got pregnant, so I guess my body is asking for extra dosages now! 

Chocolate is the hardest to give up, cause I am really addicted to it. But I know it contains caffeine, so I need to control myself very hard when it comes to chocolate!

Luckily or not, but it is now extremely hard to find my favorite chocolate! My absolute favorite is Chocolate Covered Raspberry Jelly by Rocky Mountain Chocolate. I am obsessed with it! However, they closed 2 stores in proximity to our home, they do not have this chocolate in stock in the downtown store, and the only place you can get it these days is at the factory store in Burnaby. But, they do not always stock them! And I just found out this week that they reduced the size – instead of a long stick of chocolate-covered jelly, it now comes only in half size! How can they do that to me? 

My husband had to place an order for a dozen of jellies for me this week to satisfy my craving. What a man! I have been trying to have only 1 a day (struggling but still trying!). So, I think I need to figure out if I can make these treats myself at home! I have never made chocolate before, maybe it is a sign that I need to start doing that!

My second favorite was (I say “was” because I cannot find it anywhere for a few months already!) is Mango Coconut Crisp by Brookside. I must have a weird taste in chocolate since the chocolate manufacturers discontinue everything I like.

Okay, enough venting about the lack of chocolate already!

We had our scan at 8w2d and our little bundle of joy is now looking more like a baby instead of an alien. He or she has grown to 16.26mm and the heart rate was 176.47bpm.

The doctor says that the baby’s development is going very well, and based on this there is only a 5% chance of miscarriage. We both heaved a sigh of relief but we are still keeping it a secret. We may surprise my mom and my husband’s parents next weekend when we will be at 10 weeks. It is hard to hide this news from them!

We got to meet our midwife this week, Abby. She is so nice and calm, I loved her energy right away! The first appointment is more like an introductory meeting, where you get to know each other and ask questions. Since I am over 35, she says I need to go through genetic testing. Our first option is the test that consists of NT ultrasound in the first trimester to measure the nuchal translucency (thickness of a fold on the baby’s neck), and two blood tests, at 11-13 weeks and 15-20 weeks. This testing has a false positive rate of 3%. 

Our second option is another screening test which is highly accurate and you can do it after 10 weeks by bloodwork. It is Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) and has no risk to the pregnancy. It checks for Down syndrome, Trisomy 18, Trisomy 13, and fetal sex (this one is optional). The false-positive rate for this test is 0.1-0.5%. This test is not covered by provincial healthcare and costs C$550. 

We decided to go with NIPT since it provides more accurate results. And I want to protect our baby from the 3rd ultrasound in the first trimester. 

Abby also gave me a requisition for some bloodwork, so I will have to go and give a lot of blood this weekend. Ouch!