9 Weeks, 2 Days - 215 Days to Go!

Dear Gremlin,

You're 9 weeks, 2 days today! You should only be about the size of a grape, but you are definitely making sure I know of your presence. So far, I know you don't like white cheddar popcorn or broccoli and cheese soup. Sometimes you like applesauce - but not always. You do seem to enjoy oranges and donuts, and since those are tasty, I can let some of the others stuff slide.

Your daddy and I are already having to make some hard decisions about you. I've had to be on a lot of medicine the past few years, for things like heart problems and asthma. We talked to both genetic and high risk pregnancy counselors before deciding to have children; we wanted to make sure that if any of my medicines needed to be changed, we would have time to find new medicines that were safe for you as well. The problem was - and is - that there are either no controlled studies or the studies (or registries) contradict each other about the safety of the medicines during pregnancy. The comforting thought is that the medicines have been around for a long time and are widely used, so if there were any high risks, they should have shown up by now. Ultimately, we have to make the decisions that we think are best for you using the information that we have.

You'll soon find out that your daddy and I don't do much without a lot of research and careful thought; we aren't exactly spontaneous or ones to jump into anything without looking. We've already been researching the best cribs and car seats for you so that we can find the safest and best of everything that we can afford for you. Your daddy has been joking about ordering a plastic bubble for you to live in to keep you safe and building a roll cage for your car seat. At least, I hope he's joking - sometimes, it's hard to tell.

I'm hoping that in a week or two, things will settle down and I won't feel as sick any more. Just a few more weeks and it will be your second trimester! I'm sure you are looking forward to it as much as your daddy and I are.

9 weeks, 2 day