Dear Baby Pacheco,

You are almost 5 weeks along now! I am starting to notice more symptoms come and go… one of which is sore boobs. I’m sorry, because I know the last thing you want to read about is your mother’s boobs, but for the sake of completeness I thought I’d mention it. I also felt the slightest & briefest wave of nausea yesterday morning, but it passed so quickly that I’m wondering whether that was really a symptom or just in my head. 😉

My blood test results from Monday showed my pregnancy hormone (hCG) levels at 362, so my doctor asked me to come in again yesterday for another blood test. Since hCG levels are supposed to double every 2-3 days during early pregnancy, they were looking for my level to be at least 800ish. I went in, not as nervous about getting my blood drawn since it went so well on Monday, but it ended up being such a nightmare! I went to my normal doctor’s office and the nurse poked me three times (right wrist, left hand & the back of my right arm) but was unable to find a good vein to get the blood from. She sent me to their special “blood draw center,” which luckily was close by, and the nurse there poked me twice more– once in the left wrist and then was finally able to get it from my right hand. By the end of it all I felt like a pincushion!

Dad took this picture of me with all my “battle scars” last night. That is supposed to be a sad pouty face, but I was trying so hard not to laugh! Anyway, we were praying for better results this time so that I wouldn’t have to get yet another blood test next Tuesday (honestly I’m so bruised up now I don’t know where they could get it from at this point). The doctor called me this morning and said the results showed my hCG levels at 1,317– almost triple what they were on Monday! Dad & I are both so happy and relieved that everything’s right on track, and that so far you seem to be a happy and healthy little bean in there! 🙂

This weekend we are going to West Virginia for our annual reunion with Nana’s side of the family. They are the only branch of family that doesn’t know you’re on your way yet, and Nana came up with a really great way to tell them! When we open up our packages with the reunion shirts in them, there’s going to be a little card with this poem inside:

The Pacheco family is expanding by one
Shane and Laura are having a daughter or a son.
The family grows and the name will carry
The little one should be here in January.

Nana is so creative! Anyway, we can’t wait to share our happy news & see everyone’s reactions. 🙂 I’m sure they will all be so excited and looking forward to meeting you come January.

All my love,
Mom