Baking a Baby

End of blog

2009-05-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hello bloggy friends. I started this blog to chronicle my journey to motherhood. When I started the blog I thought it would take some time to "get knocked up", little did I know...now that Harper is here it is too hard to maintain 2 blogs. So, I am going to stop updating this blog and go back to my tri blog (although I'll just be running this year probably). I hope that you will all update your links and follow me over there, there will be plenty of Harper updates as I now work on becoming a marathoning mamma.

http://www.trainingtotri.blogspot.com/

tips please

2009-04-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

Okay ladies I need a few tips on this breastfeeding. How in the world do you control the other boob when she's feeding on the opposite one? My milk squirts everywhere and we are making such a freaking mess. Also, do you have to use breast pads in your bra forever or does this milk eventually calm down? If I so much as look at my nipple it comes squirting out, which is great for parlor tricks, but no so much for day to day life! I feel like we both need a bath by the end of feeding time. Also, do any of you have lazy suckers? Harper does great for about 5-10 mins and then loses interest. I know I am making enough milk b/c it is dripping out everywhere. But she is still hungry after the boob and will drink about 2 oz supplemental (either breast pumped or formula) in a bottle. My doc has me cutting back the amount of supplemental, so do I just have faith that once the bottles are totally gone she will be hungry enough to pay more attn to the boobs?

Here's Harper fine tuning her thumbs sucking skills:

Get ready for some cuteness

2009-04-27T11:50:00.000-07:00

Today we took Harper on our first family outing to the holden arboretum. It's a big old garden for those of you who don't know what an arboretum is. It was a little hot, so we didn't stay long, but got some great shots. She did really good, but didn't eat for me at the park, I think she was just toooooo sleepy from the heat.

1 week old

2009-04-26T13:32:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's already been a week. This time last week I was just starting to get ready to push! In the first week Harper has figured out how to suck her thumb, is getting pretty good on the boob, has pooped way more than I thought possible and is way cuter than I could have ever imagined. She still has not cried one time since we brought her home, she sleeps like a champ and loves water. Her cord fell out today, so I washed her bottom off in the sink after a huge butt explosion and she loved it! So, bathtime should be easy enough.

Here's a video for her aunts:

Doc recheck

2009-04-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

We had a follow up with our ped today and the jaundice is gone. Yahoo. Also she is just an ounce below her birth weight. I've been supplementing with the formula, but the doc and I discussed and he gave me a plan to get her off the formula/bottle/pump cycle. Basically I will boob first until she loses interest, then give her 2 oz of follow up milk (breast or formula), every 4 days I will drop that follow up milk an ounce until it is gone completely. Right now I can only get her to latch with the nipple shield, but starting Tuesday I will go to the boob circle group and hopefully the lactation consultant can help get me past that, but I'm much more interested in getting off the pump cycle than I am worried about the shield. I hope to get her just exclusively on the boob, then do that for a few weeks before I re-introduce bottle of breast milk, I mean I am not going to be the one to feed her everytime. Ahh it's all so complicated! Good thing I am such a big fan of lists and plans!

Home sweet home

2009-04-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah we are home. We got home Wed night around 8 pm. Harper has a mild case of jaundice, so they made us stay a day after the neurologist to getting her eating, pooping, peeing, etc. I guess they thought we'd just go home and stop feeding her, sheesh. They had me start her on some formula since my milk wasn't in and they were concerned with how much she was eating. So, we did a day of that and whatever I could pump and got our walking papers. We went to her pediatrician on Thurs morning and her jaundice is getting better, we go back Sat for a recheck. She only has a mild case.
Everything is right with the world. She is such a little cutie. I just adore her. She loves starting and me and Gary and makes the funniest faces when she is awake. Mostly she is asleep. We are doing tummy time right now and she went on her first walk today. I walked a mile, it was fine, but I could feel that my core aches when we got back. Oooh the work I have to do. Don't even want to think about it. Today I start cutting out all the excess sugar I have unfortunately allowed myself.
My milk is in, but she's a lazy eater. I can only get her to latch on with a nipple shield at this point. Our eating routine is boob first, usually she'll do that for about 20-30 mins then lose interest, then on to a bottle of pumped breast milk ( I usually have about 1-1.5 ounces in that), then on to these little similac 2 oz bottles they gave me from the NICU. Its such a lonnngggg process. But I am glad she'll take the boob even if it's with a shield. I will worry about breaking that habit later. I plan to attend a breastfeeding group at the hospital starting next Tuesday until we are just boobin it. She has a really good latch, she just doesn't eagerly got at and she can't seem to get my nip without the shield.
I also plan to go to a new moms group starting next week that they have near my house.
Tired, I will blog more in the coming weeks I am sure, but for now even though we do nothing, it seems like we're constantly busy. You all know how it is. I have to make sure to blog though so my sisters can see all the updated info on their newest niece!

All clear - yahoo

2009-04-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well after 48 hours of hell the neurologist saw her and declared her perfect. Thank goodness, but man oh man the stress. I mean I know they have to be better safe than sorry. She is off the IV now and she can be in the room with me, but I still have to take her back, she can't stay in here for good, so when I go to sleep she goes back to the NICU and I hope they will discharge her tomorrow. It's now all dependent on how they think she's eating. I think she's eating pretty darn well, but it's not up to me!

Random thoughts

2009-04-21T07:46:00.000-07:00

Just some random thoughts on Harper's birthday that I don't want to forget.

When I first came into the hospital I spent time watching stupid movies like "Bring it on" and "Enchanted", it was great to have such mindless fluff to watch.
Popsicles are only good to a point, after about 4 of those I was tired of them. Being hungry was one of the worst things about the labor process. I had eaten at 8pm and wasn't hungry when we left for the hospital. I wish I had eaten something, by 10am my stomach was growling. By 3 pm with the extreme hunger and sleep deprivation, I could have killed someone. However I was surpised that I really didn't get snippy at all and G and I got along all day.
The first nurse was really condescending and I didn't like her, I was glad her shift ended. I really liked the nurse I got after that. She and the Resident who helped when it was time to push were awesome and having nice staff I think really helped the day go by.
I was surprised how little I saw my doc. I only got checked internally 3 times the whole day and he only did 1 of those. Then he came back to catch the baby basically. I was fine with that, just not how I thought it would go.
At one point early on Gary and I were watching my contractions on the monitor and they were going about half way up the chart and I remember saying to him that I wondered if they ever went all the way to the top. Ummm, they do and it freaking sucks. How anyone gets by without an epidural is beyond me, you ladies are rock starts.
Once I wanted the epidural and couldn't get it, it was excrutiating to have to wait. I mean I understood b/c the lady got paged, but that was a really bad hour or so while I sat with monster contractions and they really drained a lot of energy out of me.
The last time before it was time to push they checked me and I was 5-6 cm and 100% effaced. This happened really quickly from the previous 3cm check beforehand. Anyway I was sitting there and heard this awful gurgling noise between my legs. It happened a few times and I called the nurse, who got the doctor. It took awhile for the doc to come and it kept happening. It ended up being the baby moving down and pushing air out, it was so gross. But this is what got the show on the road. I knew something was off and they checked me and said I could go ahead and push or let her head come down a little more, she was at -1 station. So, we let her slide out a little more on her own.
When it was getting close to time to push, I got really really nauseous and couldn't stop crying. I guess I just got a big surge of hormones, it was all so overwhelming.
I pushed for about 1.5 hours. I was scared of that, but it didn't hurt as I thought it would. It was really awkward to try and hold my legs though b/c they were so dead and my right hand was dead to the world from the RV. A nurse held one leg and my mom held the other leg most of the time. Everyone was right, modesty is out the door, I never thought I'd go for that.
Gary was great the whole day. When I was pushing, he rubbed my shoulder and told me to push push push and reminded me to keep my chin down. He did manage to stay up above and don't think he got sight of anything too nightmarish, lol.
It was a total nightmare after she was out. Sitting there waiting to pass the placenta and get my stitch, with everyone running around her and not really knowing what if anything was wrong. Waiting to hear her cry. Minutes turned into hours. It was not fun. And only getting to spend like 5 mins with her literally after she was born, it took me awhile to really absorb that I had a daughter. I felt bad the first visit or two, like I didn't really feel like she was mine. It was weird, but it changed at some point and I started to feel the fiercely protective bond. But it did not happen right away at all.
Being the world's biggest wuss, I can definitely say, that with an epidural at least, labor is really nothing to be scared of.
Gary has been so good with Harper. It really is lovely to see them together. She totally knows his voice and looks for him when he talks. He's going to be a great daddy.
It's really freaking annoying how often you get woken up when you want to sleep at the hospital. Last night they came to check my vitals twice while I was trying to finally get some sleep.
Nothing prepares you for the mess that comes out of you over the next few days after vaginal birth. Yuck. But I am sooooo happy that I didn't have to have an episiotomy, I'm sure that makes it 10 times worse. I have one little stitch and it hurts enough. I can't imagine dealing with a serious tear.

Sleepy Harper

2009-04-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Harper Danielle is here

2009-04-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. Yesterday at 6:06 I gave birth to our daughter. Harper Danielle, she is 6 lbs 14 oz and 20 inches. long.

My water broke a little after midnight on Sunday morning. I got up thinking I had to pee and I thought I'd pee'd myself a little bit. I went to the bathroom and it didn't stop. But it wasn't all what I would have expected. So I danced around the bathroom for a bit and then gush. So, I knew at that point and promptly freaked out and woke Gary up. I couldn't remember for the life of me if we went to the hospital when my water broke or not. I called the answering service and never got a call back. So, I waited an hour and got put on hold and got pissed an hung up after about 5 mins. At this point I was starting to get really hot and thought I might be getting a fever. I knew that I was positive for strep B and needed to be on an IV of anti-b's well before baby got here. So, we decided to go to the hospital.

I got checked in right away and we were in our room at about 1:30. At this point I was having random contractions and they weren't that bad at all. Over the morning, after my first check up, they scared me a few times telling me if I didn't get into active labor on my own soon that they would give me petocin. The first thing I had to get was an IV. I was very nervous about this, I am not good with needles. The gal doing it was nice, but she put it in on the left side and after a few sticks my vein rolled, so that was far from pleasant. Then she moved to the other side and got it in, but it was in a really funky spot and left me without control of my right hand pretty much and bothered me all day. But the last thing I wanted was to be stuck again, so I just left it alone. Alllllll day long it bothered me and my right hand swelled up, so it was pretty much useless for me to grab my legs with later in the day. Around 3:30 Gary ran home to let the dogs out b/c our dogsitter wasn't coming over until 7 or 8 and we were worried about our first babies. While he was gone things really got going and I started having regular contractions and they hurt. At this point I still had the illusion in my head that I could probably make it w/o an epidural. Tuttttt tuuttt. That lasted for maybe 30 more mins, then they really kicked in and I was only about 2 cms dilated, so too early for an epi. I asked the nurse for a little something to take the edge off and they gave me Nubane (sp?). Loved it. It took the edge off and doped me up and I really wanted to sleep, I wanted to sleep soooo bad. And I totally could of on this stuff, but people kept coming in. First the docs for another check, then the anesthesiologist to tell me about that and give me forms to sign, then the cord bank stuff, then the nurse and by the time this parade of people was over around 7/8 am the Nubane had worn off enough that it still numbed the contractions a bit, but not enough to sleep over.

At some point I decided I wanted an epi, the contractions had gotten so much worse. Boy that is some serious pain there! I knew I was a wuss, but sheesh. I called for the epidural and they told Gary to leave. They started to clean off my back when the person administering it got called to the ER. So, just like that I was left in a lurch with contractions going OFF the chart on my bedside monitor. I was left like that for about an hour and by the time Gary came back into the room (they told him to get lost for 20 mins) I was pretty much crying and hyperventilating through each one. Poor guy looked so scared, but what could he do. So, I had 2 hours or so of the big contractions. But eventually the nurse found a doc to do my epi, I think it was around 2pm. I was scared I wouldn't be able to sit still, but I did. It wasn't a great feeling by any means, but I didn't think the epi hurt nearly as bad as the IV and I got through it relatively calm, except that a contraction hit and I had to work so hard to sit still. I only had like 2 more painful contractions after that and felt fine the rest of the time. By the next check I was already between 5-6 cm (previously had been 3 and threatened with petocin again). Those 2 hours of major contractions did their job. The epi was great, but also awful b/c I was now bed bound, not that I had been up and about nearly as much as I would have envisioned. With the belly monitors and IV it's hard to go anywhere. But by the time it came time to push I realized that my legs had swollen to gargantuan proportions and I could barely bend my knees, which was really gross.

I started pushing around 4:45 and it was hard b/c I just couldn't tell if I was pushing effectively. My right leg was like a dead weight I could do nothing with it. But I could feel my feet and my leg leg pretty well. I had a really great resident gal who sat with me the whole time I pushed and massaged my perineum internally and would coach me to push her fingers and was really great. I didn't think I wanted resident around, but she was awesome. I only saw my actual doc for like 20-40 mins the whole day, including when he caught the baby. So, I pushed for a little over an hour, maybe like 10 sets of pushing. It didn't hurt at all really, was just tiring. I had been up for like 18 hours at this point and was just exhausted. My mom, Gary and his mom were in the room. I had thought I only wanted Gary there, but I was so tired I just didn't care anymore and you guys were right my modesty was right out the window. No episotomy, no hemorrhoids popping out! I got by with one stitch from a teeny tear. I would say overall labor was horribly tiring and the worst was really being tired and hungry.

On that final push they put her on my belly and its just shocking how blue and waxy they are. It scared me to death. She was wiggling around and I got to take a look, but then they snatched her away. And all kinds of people came in and long story short my little Harper is in NICU. It sucks sooooo badly. I only got to hold her for like 5 mins before they took her away. The main reason being that she never cried. She was breathing, just not making a sound, not a peep and I heard several conversations asking how far along I was, they seemed to think she was exhibiting the motor skills of a preemie....so there are some "tone" and "reflex" issues as well. The whole thing was a whirlwind and everyone was really very nice, but it's the worst feeling in the world to see your baby over in the little warmer with like 5 people gathered around trying to make her right. The docs took her away and came back to talk to us at like 7:30. They brought her back to me around 9 and we tried to feed her, but she wasn't having it. She just wanted to sleep. So, they took her away to the NICU to stay overnight and unfortunately put her on an IV. So sad for her. Gary took my mom home around 10 and while he was gone, they moved me to postpartum. He got back around 11 and went and spent some time with Harper. I slept for a few hours, then went in there around 1. She finally cried while I was in there, thank god. But we are not out of the woods yet. I spent some time with her, but they put her in one of those incubators with the arm holes, I couldn't deal with it. So, I came back and went to bed for about 4 hours.

I got up at 6 this morning and went to try and feed her again. She's kind of getting it, but I'm not making anything right now. I thought I was, but after she refused to eat, I came back to use the pump and nothing is coming out anyway. I don't know anything right now. I spent some time with her and am waiting for breakfast, then I am going to shower and go back to the nursery and spend some more time with her. I know they won't let her off the IV until she eats and I don't seem to be making any milk, so I don't know how all of that is going to work out. We may be here longer than the normal 48 hours, at least she might. I don't know if I will stay here or go home since we live close. So, the worry and the wait continues. It sucks.

Please excuse the grammatical errors as I am exhausted.

Grounded until she's on solid foods

2009-04-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

I am grounding this baby until she is on solid foods, whats that about 7/8 months old. I can't believe I am at work on Friday. If you had told me last Friday when I was doubled over in the mall from back spasms/contractions that I would make it a whole another week at work I would have laughed in your face. I knew this baby was coming out. Yet here I sit. Yesterday was almost pain free aside from some nauseating heartburn, and so far today I got out of bed and ready for work a lot easier than I have earlier in the week. Bah. I'm also sleeping pretty solidly, only getting up twice the past 2 nights to hit the bathroom. Crazy. I am staring my due date in the face, I have 5 days to go. Yes I know that most people are overdue with their first. I'm fine with that, I am just scared to death of being induced and every day I get closer to my due date that's an inch closer to the doc saying we should just induce me. And b/c I am so sick of this I doubt I'll put up much fight. Or he might want to sweep my membranes, which aside from the possible health issues, just grosses me out and I don't look forward to that pain. I know I am over thinking all of this, but I'm sure all of you did too, you just might not have journaled as neurotically about it :)

Maybe Harper/Magnolia/Elise/Elanore/Ruby will make her debut this weekend. If not, I think I am just going to work through the 22nd, which is my due date... I have a doc appt that day, I'll get an internal and unless nothing has changed; I think I'll just throw in the towel as far as trying to save my days off. I don't want to be here, I am not being productive and maybe if I lay around at home things would be more likely to get started.

The calm before the storm?

2009-04-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

I feel weirdly okay today. I got out of bed with little effort, I was wide awake and had little back pain. What the heck. After being miserable for so many days why am I getting a reprieve? Not that I'm complaining, but I can't help but wonder if its the calm before the storm. My little gal has barely been moving the last day or so. She's okay I'm sure, there have been hiccups and a few big moves, but not active as I am used to. The MIL told me that you'll know its time b/c everything gets really calm and still in the belly. Maybe there's something to it. We shall see.

I walked a mile yesterday with the dogs and I spent an hour last night while I watched America's Next Top Model (how bizarre is Tyra Banks!, love it) bouncing on my yoga ball. I really enjoyed it, I am sad I waited so long to sit on it. It really does take pressure off and let you sit in a comfy position and I can totally buy why it would help move birth along. From what I read online the bouncing, helps bounce the baby's head gently against the cervix helping to open it up. Sure, why not, I buy it.

Memo to coworkers

2009-04-15T13:30:00.001-07:00

Dear co-worker -

It really isn't funny to constantly ask/tell the pregnant woman

"Are you still here" When obviously I am, you're looking at me and I must hear this 10 times a day
"When are you going to have that baby already" Yeah as if I know
"When's your last day" Again as if I know
"You look like you've dropped" When I dropped weeks ago
"Are you sure your not having twins?" Kiss my ass
"How much weight HAVE you gained" nunya biz
"Can't you take the rest of the time off?" Don't make me cry about how sucky maternity leave rules/pay are

39 weeks

2009-04-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

I made it another week. I made it to 39. I guess I should take another belly shot, but the belly is pretty unremarkable since she dropped. It is much smaller than before. It's really freaky though when she moves a certain way some part of her, I believe it's her little toosh gets right under my belly button and sticks out so far it hurts. I don't like that. She doesn't move much anymore, but when she does, it's definitely big sweeping changes of position and it doesn't feel so great. She seems to like (or maybe hate) bath time, the position of sitting or the warm water in the tub seems to rouse her. I am not a bath taker. I hate baths, something about sitting in dirty water and I never feel like the tub is clean. Anyway since the back pain started last Friday I have been taking baths like its my job. It's the only time my back doesn't hurt. I did break down and take some tylenol last night b/c after taking the dogs for a walk I just wanted to cry b/c of the back pain, it helped.

So, obviously no baby yet. I did lose part of my mucus plug I believe. At least I finally saw some darker discharge that came out in little chunks (sorry Josh :) ). That was on Monday night. On Tuesday I was at work and I went to go pee....and I stood up and I am used to a little trickle so I am prepared for that, but instead I got a huge gush, it was awful. For a minute I of course thought my water broke (searching for signs aren't I!) b/c you read so often about people's water breaking when they were going to the bathroom. But I had to run to a meeting. The whole time I sat in the meeting trying to figure out if I was still leaking or if it was just my soggy underwear :) It was awful. Ahhhh the indignities of pregnancy, aren't you glad I share too much! In the afternoon around 2 I had another pretty intense contraction and then another about 20 mins later and then another! I though oh maybe maybe please let this be it. I'd say I had 4-5 over 2 hours and I was feeling very nauseous and kind of spaced out. So, I figured just in case I'd head home, so I left work about an hour early. Got home and snuggled down with the dogs in bed had another 2-3 between 4 & 6 and then nothing, nada. So frustrating. I never understood how people turned to home remedies like nipple tweaking and raspberry tea and sex with their hubbies (the horror!), but I get it now. I am so ready for her to make her appearance.

We've been talking about names more and more. Gary really like Harper, I really like Magnolia and Eleanore. I can't wait to see her little face and get the name figured out. I sat in my glider in her bedroom last night, I really love our nursery. I am so thankful my sister is so talented and we were able to make such a lovely little room.

Update

2009-04-13T07:27:00.000-07:00

Another Monday at work. Maybe my last, well at least second to last I hope. This weekend was pretty damn miserable. I definitely had hours of relief where I felt semi normal, but then would have these horrible random contractions. I saw my doc this morning and he said it sounds like false labor. Good times. Since I woke up this morning I have felt okay. He did an internal though, so now I am feeling extra menstrual crampy. I am 2 cm,50% effaced and the baby is at a -1 station. He could feel her head, that’s kind of gross! So, it could still be awhile, or it could be tonight, who the heck knows. All I know is that I can deal with this, I know I need to quit worrying about, but being at work is going to seriously blow this week. Mostly b/c I am so on edge and irritable and no position is really comfortable thanks to the horrendous back pain that started on Friday. Sitting on the edge of my work chair though isn’t too bad, but I know at some point I will have to put my feet up today.

On a positive note. I did have a relaxing weekend. We watched several movies over the course of the weekend that I picked up at the library. In an effort to save money I cancelled our Netflix subscription. I was surprised to find so many newer releases at the library. We also went to G’s dad’s house on Sunday for Easter and had a nice meal. And then to his mom’s house and she loaded us up with chocolate. G and I came home and cuddled on the couch and watched a stupid movie – What Happens in Vegas. Not a bad way to spend our possible last weekend as a childless couple. Tonight we must go to the grocery store and get stocked up, we are out of everything.

Oooh boy

2009-04-10T18:07:00.001-07:00

Does my back hurt! Sheesh. Yesterday at work I was feeling funky so I decided to call in sick today. It was a great day. I laid in bed and watched reruns of Arrested Development and the Office allllll curled up with Mushi. He was in a super snuggly mood this morning so there was lot of good dog spooning :) Once I was bored of laying in bed, I took the dogs for a mile walk. The walk didn't feel great, I was waddly and uncomfortable, but forged forward and made it the whole block. After that I did the last thing on my task list and that was reorganizing the downstairs bathroom closet. That bathroom will be the baby bathroom, so I needed to put the baby towels and wash clothes and baby wash, etc in that closet and throw out a bunch of junk. Once done with that I did a quick run thru house cleaning, got cleaned up and headed to the mall. I was planning to walk both floors of the mall to get a little exercises in, but after one level my back started hurting really really bad. Bad enough that I had to sit down and relax for a bit. I had come to the mall for a bra and a pedicure, so I quickly got the bra and then got my pedi. When I got home I basically collapsed into bed and have been fighting the pain ever since. Gary and I did go out and have some pizza, but it wasn't very comfortable for me. The pain comes and goes, but a dull ache stays put. Either she is sitting on some sort of nerve and pinching it or I am having back contractions. It hurts like a son of a bitch and the only time I can make it not hurt is if I stand up and bend over my bed and kind of stick my butt up in the air and rock back and forth. Good times. This pre labor stuff is no fun!

False alarms

2009-04-10T06:27:00.000-07:00

No more contractions since late yesterday afternoon. I decided to take the day off work today. I have a long list of things to do, but there will be much laying around watching tv in between! Or I may go see a matinee movie. I think I will get a pedicure though. Happy Friday, have a great holiday weekend.

Practice labor perhaps? Early labor? Who knowssssss

2009-04-09T12:37:00.000-07:00

I'm sure it's nothing. But I'm bored at work so why not blog about it ( I am sooo checked out at this point, sorry bosses). I don't think I ever really had braxton hicks contractions. If I did I confused them with the baby moving, it's possible I thought her wiggling was actually a BH from time to time. Last week though I had what had to be a contraction. It hurt so bad and stopped me in my tracks. I was in a meeting, my whole stomach froze up and I just wanted to scream out. But I was on a call, so I kept on with the meeting. The call ended and I got up to walk back to my desk and I felt like I couldn't even really stand up straight and I was sore for a bit afterwards. Maybe baby just hit some weird nerve and caused that to happen, but it was exactly what I thought a contraction would feel like. I had 2 of them I think, close together, but then nothing else.

Nothign since. So fast forward to today. I am on a conference call and sitting with my feet propped up when I am again gripped by pain. I can visually see my stomach seize up, I got all hot and sweaty and not to be gross thought I may just poop my pants. This happened a few times over the hour call. It hasn't happened since, but my stomach feels odd. Not quite right, it's sore like maybe I did 10,000 sit ups or menstrual cramps. That ache is residual, its not going away and my back aches. I will also add for the ick factor that there has been an upswing in discharge (ewwww) but its not looking bloody at all. Stay tuned, maybe just maybe we'll be getting this show on the road! LOL, or maybe just maybe I will be pregnant for another 3-4 weeks.

Twenty Second Percentile

2009-04-08T13:25:00.001-07:00

That sounds better than 15% right? We had the follow up u/s today and it went fine. She has gained weight, estimated to be at 6.4 lbs right now and is in the 22.8% range. No need to induce. Sheeww. Not that I really thought it would come to that, but its good to know for sure. We got to see her face, not a great clear shot, but the u/s tech pointed out that she had chubby cheeks.

So now I just sit and wait. Ugh. I hate this. 14 days until my due date. This is literally torture to me. Anyone who knows me in real life can appreciate that. I am horribly impatient and hate surprises. I am very punctual and like everything to be on a time line. Hey I'm a project manager for a living. If I could force this pregnancy into a Microsoft project plan format I would. Yes, yes, I know this will have to change after baby. But this right here, the sitting around and waiting for my vagina to explode, I don't like it one bit! I'll say I loved the first 8 months of pregnancy, this last one can suck it. I am hobbling like an old lady b/c every morning my left knee and hip and shoulder hurt so bad from the weight of sleeping on them, I am second guessing every twinge and pain in my belly and nether regions expecting labor to begin, I am constantly peeing and pooping and checking my undies for some big mucusy surprise that may never come, I can't concentrate or even pretend to care at work anymore. I hate this! I just want to be done, I want her here and I want this over. But then again....dreading labor. So I know I should just take it slow and try to enjoy these last few weeks. It's just kind of hard when everything pretty much hurts and all you want to do is lay around and watch tv with the dogs. That gets old after a few hours. Although I did succesfully organize my closet last night and pack my hospital bag and Gary put together the baby swing. I also have washed both dogs over the course of the last few days. So, some items are coming off my to do list.

Its finally happened

2009-04-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

i have a double chin! Oh no :) I knew it would happen eventually. I couldn't get away with a pregnancy that didn't affect my face. I did make it almost 38 weeks though!

Tomorrow is my follow up u/s. I am not too concerned. My non stress test was perfect. I saw my regular doc on Monday and he basically said he didn't bring it up b/c measuring 2 weeks behind is so common. He also pushed around on my belly and said if he was a betting man he'd say she was already over 6 lbs. The only reason they would induce me is if she has gotten below 15% or the amniotic fluid looks to be running low. So, hopefully neither of those will be the case. Although I am sooooo ready to be done.

Ladies - how about some advice on what I need and don't need in my hospital bag. So far I have flip flops, slippers, 1 pair of lounge pants, 2 tshirts, a massage thingermerbob and 2 magazines in my bag. I plan to also put in there my robe, ipod and toiletries (including scope and chapstick), a few snacky items, need to get a nursing bra too. Anything else? I have in my head that we'll take the laptop, but is that just stupid? Am I stupid to thing as I sit there for hours waiting to have the baby I might actually send an email or dictate one to Gary?

Weekend countdowns

2009-04-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

I have so few weekends left it's mind boggling. It's so wierd to be in such a hurry for something to be over, yet so scared for the day to come. I cannot say that I am the bit excited about giving birth. Of course I want to meet my baby, but pushing it out of my vagina scares the bageesus out of me. Anyway, I had a productive weekend and got a lot of stuff marked off my to do list. I got up early on Sat and ran a ton of errands, which translated into spending a ton of money, ugh. The dogs and I took 3 half mile walks, it was really nice and sunny out, but a little cold. I went iwth a friend to do a home visit for the rescue group we work for, that took up a good chunk of the day. That night G and I ran some returns from the baby shower to Kohls and got chinese carryout and lounged around watching tv. I slept in both days. Well stayed in bed until 9 at least, but Fonzie had us both up around 7, that little shit is sure on a schedule. Today we went and rejoined Costco and bulked up on paper goods. It looks like diapers will be a lot cheaper there too. Of course I am trying the whole cloth diaper thing, but you can get 200 disposable diapers for $40 at Costco. Good to know. This afternoon we went to an easter party at one of his relatives house. I ate way too much and am now exhausted. There will be nothing more than watching tv in bed tonight. Ohhhhhh just a few more weeks of that.

Update

2009-04-03T09:25:00.001-07:00

Hi bloggy friends. Due to concerns over my tiny baby, I went for a non stress test this morning. The results of that were great. The baby decided to be hella active and her heart rate did everything it should. So, what does this all mean? Nothing really. I am happy to know her HR is good and the midwife said I seem to have one really active baby on my hands which indicates she shouldn’t be in any stress in there. But until I go back Wed and we find out if she has grown, I won’t know if I am getting induced. I am not really stressing too much over all of this. I did for a few days, but I know we are more than likely fine, so why waste the energy. The midwife went back over the u/s findings with me and although she is in the 15% she was estimated at 5.5 lbs, so I have to imagine she’ll be at least 6 when she gets out into the world.

Boy am I tired today. For the past 4-5 days I have been waking up at like 3 or 4 am just totally wide awake. I lay there not wanting to move b/c I don’t want to rouse the dreadful sleeping puppy who will surely want me to take him outside. I keep thinking I’ll fall back asleep and then I don’t And then I keep thinking maybe I should get up do something, but then I never do. So I fall back asleep around 5. Gary gets up at 5:28 (yes 28) so that doesn’t do me much good b/c his alarm goes off and I am up again. Then I snuggle back down, but toss and turn and don’t really ever go back to sleep when my alarm goes off at 7. Such a lovely cycle. Could this be the nesting instinct telling me to organize my closet at 3 am? If so, why can’t it hit at 5pm!

On another pregnancy related note. I think I had some contractions yesterday. I haven’t had Braxton hicks that I know of. Although I wonder if what I think is the baby moving is really BH sometimes. But yesterday morning I just was feeling weird and off and my belly was doing funky things. The I was in a meeting and it was like everything seized up and my belly got hard as a rock and boy did it hurt. Then I went to stand up and walk back to my cube and it didn’t stop and I was all hunched over b/c I didn’t feel like I could stand up straight. After the bad hurt, it kind of faded, but took a little while. This happened twice. But then it hasn’t happened since. Weird huh?

I am so glad it’s Friday. No matter how you cut it I only have like 2, 3 MAX full weeks of work left. I am so ready to be out of here.

And the worry continues

2009-03-31T17:13:00.000-07:00

So I had a doctor's appt this morning, but got stood up b/c the doc was running late. Okay, it happens, no biggie. But of course now that I actually have something to address I have no one to talk to. I was too busy at work to worry about it. I talked to the midwife when I got home. Can't say it made me feel very good. I have to go in for a non stress test Friday morning. She's still pretty worried after looking over the results I guess. Again, it is what it is and there's nothing I can do at this point. I tried to do a little research on what my worse case scenario is here, but it's too hard to really figure it out. So, that's it again I am done worrying about it. Non stress test Friday, ultrasound next Thurs. Then if I have to get induced, I'll worry.

Hibernation

2009-03-30T07:14:00.000-07:00

I slept a lot this weekend. I actually felt much better on Sat & Sun than I did last week. I wonder if it's psychosomatic, being at work makes me feel worse. Computers and florescent lights make me sick. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel great, but I do feel better than last week. I haven't had any crampy feelings since Friday evening. But my boobs and back are still killing me, my stomach is still a rotten mess of diarrhea and heartburn and I am soooo tired. I slept a lot this weekend. Naps both days and I went to bed at 9:30 last night and got up at 7:20 am today, one trip outside with Fonzie around 4am. I did however go to prenatal yoga and walk 2 miles on Sat and walk 2 miles on Sunday. I asked the doc if it was okay to still walk a few miles despite baby's low weight and he said yes, so I guess I will just shoot for 1-2 miles of walking each day and leave it at that until baby is here. I have a doc appt tomorrow at my OBGYN's office. Same doc I saw last week, different doc than I've seen all along. She doesn't like to do internal's b/c she figures the baby will come when it comes, so I don't know that I'll get any update on if things are moving along or not. She has a point, but oooh the wait is killer (and I still have 3.5 weeks to go!).

I am hoping/waiting for that nesting urge to kick in. I have the desire to clean out my closet, but not the energy. I really want to get that done before baby gets here, b/c it will be the last thing I will think about and its time to pack up all the winter clothes. I couldn't wear them anyway, I've been wearing the same 6 shirts forever. I need to do that and the front porch needs to be cleaned off. That's it for my task list. Gary is currently repainting the kitchen and fixing the windows in there, the rope mechanism doesn't work in 2 of them, we use wooden spoons to keep them open :) Not the safest thing! Downstairs bathroom never got painted :( and likely won't since we are out of time.....but hopefully he can do it when he is home for 6 weeks with me.

My friend Jenni from Cincinnati is likely having a baby today, so sending her positive vibes and lots of good luck. It was looking like the baby was breech and she had an appt this morning and they decided to go ahead and send her for induction/csection, she's due in about 2 weeks. So, she will likely be meeting her son today! I can't wait to see pics.

Oh and I sent Gary a list of names and told him to mark off ones he hates, and bold ones he likes, here is what we've got going now. The non bold ones are ones he can live with. I'm surprised he likes Harper and sad he hates Zoe.

Elanore
Lillian
Maisie
Harper
Violet
Norah
Iris
Lyla
Lilla
Mallory
Ruby
Elise

He vetoed:
Chloe
Zoe
Quinn
Rowan
Roxy
Stella
Bliss
Opal
Delilah
Lydia
Lenore
Claire

belly shot - 36 weeks

2009-03-27T04:52:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted one for a few weeks. Here is the 36 week belly shot. Oh and on TMI pregnancy news my boobs have decided to start leaking. Lovely. I didn't realize that would happen so soon, but sure enough there's yellow liquid coming out. Greeaaattt. Also for the last 3 days or so I've noticed that I am extremely achy. My whole back, not just my lower back is killing me and my hips, if I move my legs to the side too much I feel like they are going to pop out, plus my knees are aching. Do you produce more relaxin towards the end? It didn't really occur to me until just a few minutes ago when I moved oddly in my chair and I literally thought my hip popped out of socket. Welll, maybe that is normal, since they will have to pop out soon.

And check out cutie patootie Nils, my friend's 9 month old son. They came to stay with us last weekend. Nils is loving standing up by pulling up on anything right now, he's sooo ready to walk.

Fonzie is doing a diaper check in that last one. Good boy. He'll come in handy.

my tiny baby

2009-03-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

Well I had my ultrasound today and I can't say it was the most comforting appointment ever. I will now be a worry wart for the next 2 weeks. I have to go back in 2 weeks for yet another u/s. So the baby is measuring 2 weeks behind. She is in the 15% and just a smidge over 5 lbs. As the doctor told you only have to worry when they are under 10%. Great, a whole whopping 5% over. His advice to me was to eat nutritious meals, not lay on my back and drink lots of water. Okay....I will work on that. Of course I am now convinced my baby is tiny b/c I ate a ton of junk and watch tv on my back every night. Just my luck. On a positive note, the spine is formed, the kidneys are working, the lungs are working, the heart has all the chambers. She is exteremly wiggly and the nurse said she could tell she had a head full of hair. Hmmm, maybe those old wives tales about heartburn are true. Of course I am going to try not to worry, but it's not a very good feeling to know your baby is in the 15 percentile for anything. All this time I have been worried about having a giant baby.

Worse case scenario is I go back in 2 weeks and baby is still under 6 lbs, then I have to get induced b/c they will decide she's not getting the proper nutrition in there.

All of this really makes me not like my doctor. I've seen the same doctor for 90% of my appointments. I have seen a different doctor 3 times. 2 of those were midwives. The first midwife caught that my doctor didn't order me to get the RH- shot that can only happen during a certain timeframe. Then this new midwife I saw last time told me I have been consistently measuring small. Well, if that were the case, why did he never mention it? Maybe if he had told me a few months ago I could have been better about my vegetables and watching tv sitting up and it would have made some difference. Grrrrr.

Again, I know everyone is going to post not to worry, but I will. I'm her mom what choice do I have! LOL.

Whine

2009-03-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

Can I whine for a little bit? I am miserable today. I woke up this morning and had a sore throat and was all stuffy headed. I just couldn't pull myself out of bed and didn't get up until like 7:30 to leave at 8. I almost called in sick, but am trying to save my days and I had a few meetings today I really couldn't miss. Fonzie decided that this morning would be the morning he totally went wild child and he ran off after a bird and I had to go chase him through multiple yards. Thank goodness I had shoes on. I normally trudge outside in Gary's size 14 flip flops, not the safest i know, but I usually just stand in the driveway while he pees and runs right back in. Anyway I got him back to the house, but knew I was in for a bad day.

I just feel like total crud today. My head hurts, my back aches and I feel like I might just crap my pants at any and every minute, although that hasn't happened. I also think I might have started having braxton hicks contractions. It's not how I would have imagined them, but I am definitely having some stabbing random pains that I can only liken to extremely bad period cramps. Everything combined has made for a very irritable monica today and I had like 5 meetings on my schedule. And after work I have agreed to sit in on a study group a my hospital to discuss prenatal screening. We get a $30 gas card and free Caribou coffee and pastries, why not. But I'd love to just go home and curl into a ball with a heating pad. I have such a hard time believing I will make it to my due date, but if the baby is small as it is, I sure hope I do.

I knew the end would kill me with anticipation. Patience is not a virtue I have. I like to plan, I need to know when things are going to happen and not knowing when this baby is going to get here is going to torture me for the next month. I thought I might get by without braxton hicks, but looks like they are here to torture me too. Although I can't say thye hurt that bad, it's just combined with the back pain they are making it very unpleasant today.

On a more happy note. My coworker knitted me a really pretty afghan for the baby. I have lots of fun plans for the next few days - meeting Sara to walk after work tomorrow, Sat morning meeting friends at the park for them to run, me to walk, then brunch afterwards, movie with Sara Sat afternoon, Sunday I have book club. Good stuff. I am trying to fit as much time with my friends in as I can over the next few weeks. Within reason of course, I am absolutely resting plenty!

UPDATE: Thanks for the concern ladies, but I don't think there's anyway this is real labor. The braxton hicks or whatever they are don't hurt bad enough and have only happened like all of 5 times today.

36 weeks

2009-03-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I am 36 weeks. Wowza. I had a doc appt this morning and met with someone I hadn’t seen before and I really liked her! I wished she’d been my doc the whole time, she’s actually a midwife. But again the chances of her, my normal doc or any of the other 2 people I have seen being there the day I give birth is just luck of the draw. I had my first internal in forever, ahhhh I had conveniently forgotten how sucky those are. I am 70% effaced and 1 cm dilated and the baby is completely engaged. Things are ripening as she put it. She measured me and kept getting that I was measuring more like 34 weeks. Then she looked back at my doc notes and it seems I have been consistently measuring small. He never indicated that. She said she’s really not worried since the head is already so low and the baby is active, but she is sending me for an u/s anyway. Of course this scares me a little bit, but I am also so excited to get a look at her so close to being here, I am so curious as to how she is shoved in there. I have thought my weight gain over the last few months didn’t seem quite right. I have basically been more or less the same weight since Feb, but the belly shape has changed and baby is definitely larger. Anyway. I’m sure it’s fine. More time off of work, joy.

This whole lightening/engaged baby thing, whatever you want to call it is so uncomfortable. I can’t even believe the difference in how I feel since the baby has “dropped”. I certainly can’t pinpoint when it happened, but boy do you just know. I feel like she is going to fall out and all the pressure on my bladder and perineum is insane. Who knew you could even feel your perineum. I kept trying to figure out how to describe it, then looked up lightening and on the description it says you will have increased pressure in the bladder and perineum. There you go. I guess webmd doesn’t use the term ‘taint. So, I am totally oompaloompaing down the halls at work now. I have still been trying to walk the dogs 2-3 miles a night. It is tough, at least for the first mile, but they enjoy it and I know it’s good for me and baby. 29 days until due date!

Birth plan

2009-03-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Well I figured I'd go ahead and do a birth plan, there's not much to it. If you are dead set on natural childbirth then there are a lot more boxes to check!:

Birth Plan for Monica
Due Date: 4/22/09
Patient of / Hillcrest

3/20/09
We are looking forward to sharing our birth experience with you. We have created this birth plan in order to outline some of our preferences for birth. We would appreciate you reviewing this plan, and would be happy to do so with you. We understand that there may be situations in which our choices may not be possible, but we hope that you will help us to move toward our goals as much as possible and to make this labor and birth a great experience. We do not want to replace the medical personnel, but instead want to be informed of any procedures in advance, and to be allowed the chance to give informed consent. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or comments. Thank you!

Please Note

My bloodtype is Rh- (Rhesus Negative)
I would like to wear contact lenses or glasses at all times when conscious.

Labor

I expect that doctors and hospital staff will discuss all procedures with me before they are performed.
I would like to be free to walk, change positions and use the bathroom as needed or desired.
So I can stay as mobile as possible, I would prefer to have a heparin lock adminstered instead of an IV.
Please do not administer an IV or heparin lock unless there is a clear medical indication that such is necessary.
Please limit the number of vaginal exams.
Please do not permit observers such as interns, students or unnecessary staff into the room without my permission.

Labor Augmentation/Induction

I would like to avoid induction unless it is medically necessary.
If my pregnancy progresses past 40 weeks, I would prefer to base the decision to induce on the results of my baby's biophysical profiles, not on my own personal discomfort or impatience.
I would like to try alternative means of labor augmentation, like walking or nipple stimulation, before pitocin or artificial rupture of membranes is attempted.
Please do not rupture my membranes artificially unless medically indicated.

Anesthesia/Pain Medication

Please do not offer anesthesia/analgesia unless I ask for it.
I prefer an epidural to narcotic pain medication.

Cesarean Section Delivery

I feel very strongly that I would like to avoid a cesarean delivery
If a cesarean is necessary, I expect to be fully informed of all procedures and actively participate in decision-making.
I would prefer epidural anesthesia, if possible, in order to remain conscious through the delivery.
If conditions permit, baby should be given to Gary Nowac (my husband) immediately after the birth.

Perineal Care

To help my perineum stretch, please help guide my pushing efforts by letting me know when to push and when to stop.
I would rather have an episiotomy than risk a tear.
Please administer local anesthesia when repairing any episiotomy or tear(s).

Delivery

Please allow the umbilical cord to stop pulsating before it is cut.
I have made arrangements for donation of the umbilical cord blood.
Please remove my IV/Heparin lock/catheter as soon as possible after delivery.

Newborn Care

I would like to hold my baby through delivery of the placenta and any repair procedures.
If possible, please evaluate baby on my abdomen.

Postpartum Care

I would prefer not to be catheterized until I've had some private time to attempt urination on my own.
If available, I would prefer a private room.
I would like to have my baby room-in with me at all times.

Breastfeeding

I plan to breastfeed and want to nurse immediately following the birth.
Please do not give my baby supplements (including formula, glucose, or plain water) without my consent, unless there is an urgent medical necessity.
Please do not give my baby a pacifier.
I would like to meet with the staff lactation consultant.

35 weeks

2009-03-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh I am going to be a mom in like 36 days. Shit. It could be sooner. Two people at work have told me I look like I have dropped. I feel like it too. My walking has totally changed. I waddle and over week or so can really feel a difference in the amount of pressure down below. But she is still kicking and moving around like crazy. I’ve been told that they get really still when you are close. I certainly don’t think that I am going to 5 weeks early, but 2-3 maybe? I’m sure I’ll still be sitting here typing a week late, but you just never know. I am such a type A personality. I knew the anticipation at the end was going to drive me bonkers. I am leaning towards stopping work on April 17. That’s the Friday before my Wed due date. What did you ladies do? I just can’t see myself sitting in my office that last week waiting for the baby to come. I’ll drive myself crazy and not be very effective. But then again if I go a week late, I hate to lose it. On the other hand, to have that week of relaxation and house preparation and lounge time with the dogs might be worth it. I guess once I get a few internal exams I’ll be able to make a better informed decision. If at my appt on April 13th they see some dilation it might be worth having a stop date. I don’t know what to do.

I need to take some more pictures of the nursery. We hung this adorable felt bird mobile from Pottery Barn over the changing table and got the window blinds up. The mobile will probably end up coming down eventually though b/c it’s going to get in Gary’s way, I fit under it just fine. I am very much looking forward to going to babies r us and taking some items back from the shower and getting a few odds and ends we need. Actually I think I will make a list of what else I need to buy to be totally done, I love lists!

* 2-3 more covers for changing pad (is 3 total enough?)
* A secure trash can for diapers/liners
* A secure hamper to put cloth diapers in
* A wet bag for the cloth diapers
* A few of the Johnson & Johnson products (surprisingly I got none at my showers)
* A few large storage containers that are cute, to go underneath the crib to store the million blankets, burp clothes, and other items I have no place for

Not too bad! Mother in law is buying us the pack and play and excersaucer, so we don’t have those yet, where will I put them! We didn’t get a swing or stroller, so I might get those with our exchanged money and gift cards… I don’t know what to do about a stroller. My friend was kind enough to hand me down a car seat with 2 bases, but unfortunately she didn’t have the stroller on hand. She thought she did, but it turned out it was at their parent’s summer home. So, she wouldn’t be able to get it for me until sometime in June. So, I have a free stroller, but won’t have it for about 1.5 months after baby’s arrival. Will I need one before then? The only other one I have is an umbrella stroller and a running stroller. I imagine we will need a stroller from the start, right? So, that being said, since I have a car seat, I don’t need to buy a stroller travel system. What kind of stroller should I get that I can use off the bat??? Suggestions? Brands?

Baby Shower #2

2009-03-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Gary's mom threw me a lovely baby shower at her church reception hall. It was a lot of fun. I am definitely getting to the I'm uncomfortable, irratable now leave me alone stage. So, of course I had fun and I am so lucky/blessed to have such wonderful family friends, but boy was I wooped afterwards. I am pretty much finding that I can really only do 1 thing a day. Most days that's make it through the work day. On Sunday I woke up to magical spring weather and walked the dogs 3 miles before heading to the church at 1 to help set up. People got there at 2 and then we were there until 4:30. So, by the time we got home after 5, I just wanted to curl in a ball and die. Well, okay sleep. I can't believe all the great stuff we got, how can one little baby need all of this! Some of the gifts included a boppy newborn lounger, Rainforest jumparoo, Boppy pack n play, Graco high chair, infant sleep positioner, sheets for the crib and sooo many cute outfits. Girl clothes are so much fun! I put all the cute little dresses and bloomers away and it was so fun going through them all. Will she really wear all this stuff! I feel like we are in pretty good shape, not much else we need.

How cute is Gary's cousin's baby trying out the bopper lounger!

The business of being born

2009-03-13T06:18:00.000-07:00

Have you seen that movie? It's a documentary by Ricki Lake? It's very informative. It definitely gives you the side of people who prefer natural birth. If you haven't seen it and are preggo I think it's definitely worth a look see. I can't say it changed my mind, I still wouldn't be brave enough to try an at home birth, but as far as all the info on hospitals and drugs and how your day coul go, it was very good. Ricki is a brave woman showing herself totally naked giving birth in a bath tub. I am way too much of a prude for that, but then again that just goes to show you that I have something wrong with my body image! LOL!

I was very shocked when the Anesthiaologist who gave the talk at our hospital said that 99% of their patients get epidurals. To me that didn't seem like something to brag about...he said the national average is 80 something %.

34 weeks!

2009-03-11T08:01:00.000-07:00

34 weeks today! 6 weeks to go. Wow. I am this __ close to being ready to be done. I still enjoy watching her move around too much and am not horribly uncomfortable. But I am definitely waddling and feel fat. Can’t breathe when going up stairs and have to pee constantly. I have started to retain water in my hands and feet which hasn’t been an issue up until this point. My sausage fingers and fat ankles totally gross me out. I have little to no energy and can’t sleep worth a damn (but that may just be the puppy). So, yeah if this was over tomorrow there would be a lot of relief!

Last night Gary and I went to “ A night with the Anesthesiologist” which is a meet and greet with the head of anesthesia for our hospital. It was very informative and I am glad we went. I am pretty sure I am going to get one, I’d say 90% sure. Part of me wants to try without, but part of me just really doesn’t see the point. No offense to those of you who believe in all natural. The only reason I am 90% sure and not 100% sure is it would be nice not to have to deal with everything that comes along with the epidural, the fear of it, the initial bee sting shot that numbs your back, the catheter and IV. But I am also the type of person who crys when giving blood so the chance of me going natural is pretty darn slim. I did think that there was good reason to put the drugs off as long as possible so I could be up and about, which I thought would help move the baby along, but this guy said there is no truth to that once you are in active labor. I don’t know, there are a million opinions out there. Bottom line is I am glad we went. Afterwards we got a tour of the birthing area. That was eye opening. It was nothing like I was expecting, kind of janky really! It is an older hospital. I just expected everything to be shiny and metal and very sterile looking, but it’s more like a hotel room with a crazy looking bed in it! I know people who have delivered here though and it has a great reputation. We also got to see 5 little babies in the nursery. Oh one was only 3 hours old and they were doing his footprints. Just wanted to eat him up! They gave us a flyer and the hospital holds mom and me groups for people with infants. I think I may try to go to those, it’ll be nice to meet some other people with little ones.

On Monday I had a checkup. The doc said the baby is pointing down and ready to go. Starting at my next appt which is in 2 weeks I will start getting internal’s again. I don’t get anymore ultrasounds, that was disappointing news. I would love to see how big she is. He wasn’t able to make any sort of guess about her size, just said I was measuring on target, so she’s probably around 5ish lbs. But boy am I in countdown mode, not so much b/c I am ready for baby, I mean I am, but it’s totally scary. But work is a constant headache. I am a project manager with 8 busy accounts. I will have 4 different people divvying up my accounts. So I am starting to copy them on everything now, and include them in meetings, etc. It’s annoying for me and annoying for them b/c something I include them on today might not be an issue in a week, but if I don’t include them and something happens, they are out of the loop. It’s a hard balance to keep. I have been working on an enormous project that goes live next Tuesday. That will be such a huge weight off of me. It’s been horribly stressful and then that account won’t be quite as high maintenance and it’ll be easier to keep my backup involved.

I am thinking more about names and keeping a short list, right now here is what I have on it:

Elanore
Ruby
Adelaide
Mallory
Lillian
Violet
Zoe
Sky

Oh and I have an absolute new favorite food. If you see this in the store, you must try it. It was on sale at Giant Eagle for $1 a pop, usually cost more. I have the lemon verbane and cucumber dill, both were fantastic.

Owls

2009-03-03T04:29:00.001-08:00

As an afterthought last night we decided the tree needed an owl, so my sister made me 4. 1 for the tree and 3 to over the closet. I have an owl theme going, I also have an adorable owl nightlight Tina got me at potterbarn and a bookend I got at TJ Maxx for $8.

The nursery

2009-03-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

The nursery has been like a dark cloud hanging over my head for many a month now. I wanted it done so badly, but we were in no place to start due to other household projects we were working on (well Gary was working on). But finally I have a nursery people, with 7 weeks to go, the baby could come now and I'd have a room with a changing table! Okay I know I won't really use the nursery off the bat, but whatever. My amazingly talented sister came up this weekend to paint a tree on my wall, then we made leaves out of scrapbooking papers and ran them through an adhesive machine and voila a gorgeous mural. Big thanks to her, she really worked her butt off painting the tree. It took a few coats of paint and she had to do the outline with a little tiny brush. Here are some pics of the tree and my nursery in general, I am changing the bedspread on the bed eventually. I just need to find a solid color one I like, I think there is enough going on in there with out a pink swirly bedspread. The colors are a little skewed in the pics, my room is more purple than gray.

While my sister was here, we also went to Pittsburgh (about 2 hours from Cleveland) to go see Fleetwood Mac in concert. It was an amazing, wonderful concert. I wasn't as miserably tired as I thought I would be, I even drove home. But it was a long day and I've felt pretty wrecked today.

32 weeks

2009-02-25T18:18:00.000-08:00

Alright, offically 8 months preggo today.

And some pics from my shower. My mother in law, her mother and Gary's little sister:

My mom and sister Tina and me
My lovely friends
And remember forever ago when we ran that half marathon in OR? Well I finally got pics from that day from my sister in law. I can't remember I thought I was big!

Baby shower #1

2009-02-23T09:08:00.000-08:00

I had my first of 2 baby showers this weekend. It was thrown by Gary's step mom and her mother. It was at a lovely little tea shop in Medina OH. I think there were about 20 people there total. The weather didn't cooperate, it ended up snowing, but it wasn't too bad out. We played a few games, the one with the pin where you can't say baby, guess how many bibs I would received and guess how many m&ms in the jar. We had some prizes from bath and body works, so the winners of those games took home a prize and then for the ones left, I just drew names so pretty much everyone got a prize. There were also cute tea bag party favors for everyone to take home. I had a really nice time, I wasn't feeling very well and being the center of attention really tired me out. It's hard making the rounds and trying to make everyone feel included. We got a lot of great stuff, mostly clothes and accessories like bibs and socks. But there were also several key registry items like the diaper bag, baby monitor, booster seat and changing pad. It was overwhelming coming home with all that stuff. I really need to buy a dresser soon as we have no where to put all the little clothes. I don't have a good idea of if I have enough newborn clothes, I need to fold them and get them into a drawer and separate everything out by months! It's clothing overload right now. Oh one unexpected treat was a little rocking horse my great aunt got for us. It is too cute and I can't wait until she is old enough to rock on it. My mom also got me this neat little digital picture frame that holds up to 4000 photos and I can keep it in my purse, she got G one too for his desk at work. And this pendant that has my baby photo on it and I can put my baby's photo on the other side. I'll try and take a pic of it as it's really neat, but hard to explain, it's like set in crystal, it's not metal. All in all it was a really good day. I have one more shower on March 15th, then we'll be able to take stock and see how much left we have to buy. It's so easy to say babies really don't need that much, but when you don't have one everything seems like a necessity. I am really trying to keep things to the minimum. We have a small house and don't have room for tons of jumpers and swings, etc. Any advice on things you can't live without and things you thought were necessary and sooo aren't; would be much appreciated.

I had a doc appt this morning. I talked to him about my heartburn and he pretty much said I can take any over the counter medicine. So that is good.

Heartburn is a Son of A Byatch

2009-02-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

Prior to being pregnant I never had heartburn, not once in my life. I'll admit, it seemed silly to me, something that only people who wolf down their food are plagued with, people who frequented buffets. I didn't get that it was a real ailment, that might just ruin your life. Mercy, I get it now, I call uncle. Please heartburn gods leave me alone, I am sorry I laughed at the weaklings with heartburn in the past. I have had it off and on throughout my pregnancy, but I have had it pretty much non stop since I got past the stomach bug I had last week. So, since Wed I have been burping what feels like battery acid. It is way worse than it has been over the previous months. It burns and it make my eyes water and makes me want to hurt someone. I am completely on edge because of it. I have just been taking chewable things like Tums Smoothies, but I am going to stop on the way home from work and get something else, soemthing stronger b/c Tums ain't cutting it.

I guess I can't complain too much, the only issue I've really had through this pregnancy is heartburn and a heck of a lot of cellulite. Ugh, that's for another post. That's for the cottage cheese genes mom.

Love it

2009-02-18T12:38:00.000-08:00

I don't think there is a more wonderful feeling in the world than your baby moving. I wish there was a way to bottle it and remember it forever. I know once she is out I will never be able to truly remember what it feels like. It reminds me of when you get to the top of a hill on a roller coaster, or how I imagine I would feel if I was a lava lamp. I wish there was a way for the husband to get how neat this is. My baby girl definitely had a lull in activity for awhile there, but she is making up for it tenfold. She has been staging a revolt for days now and I can feel her on both side of my stomach. I imagine she has inherited my husbands long legs and is trying to stretch out in there. I am starting to definately see shapes jutting out and can tell when she is balled up on one side of my belly. I wish hubby found it as enthralling as I do, he doesn't have the patience to keep his hand there for very long. I am 31 weeks today. I will take an updated pic. I really need to get the video camera out and try and capture some of this belly movement.

Gary finished painting the nursery last night. It is the greatest shade of purple ever, it's called Lupin if you want to see it at the store! It't not a pastel purple, it's deeper than that without being dark. I also found some great potterybarn crib bedding on craigslist and I picked it up last night and it matches perfectly and is in good shape. Score! I can't wait to put the crib and changing table together. But I think I will wait for next weekend. My sister is coming up specifically to help me get the nursery in order and we'll need things to do. Plus Gary still has to pain the closet in the nursery, so its not 100% ready to go. He keeps his clothes in this room and I think we will keep it that way and just keep baby's stuff in the dresser. So much to organize.

I am mostly feeling better. I think I will do my excercise DVD tonight b/c I need to go to target too and don't want to be away from the house all night. Have to spend some time with my boys.

Monday blahs

2009-02-16T10:05:00.001-08:00

Sooo I think I am on the mend. Knock on wood. So far today no real stomach trauma. Just feeling weak and tired from lack of eating and dehydration. My little girl must have read my worry and has been a kicking ninja the last few days. It’s been great. There was definitely a lull in activity there for awhile.

Gary started on the nursery this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited. He painted all the woodwork and the ceiling. So, next step is the walls. We picked out a really nice purple color. This color does not go with our bedding from Target at all. So it is going back. So, I am back in my never ending circle of hatred of crib bedding. I found something I think will work on craigslist though, it’s from pottery barn and really cute. Just not sure the purples will match. I think I am going to take a leap of faith and buy it, the worse case scenario is I have to turn around and sell it myself on craigslist. Since it’s potterybarn, I don’t think it’ll be too hard. I was a little skeeved to buy used bedding, but we’re just talking the bumper, skirt and quit here, not sheets. The quilt is just for decoration. I’m cheap, what can I say.

This weekend I have my first shower. I am so excited. I can’t wait to have them both so that I can figure what is left that we need to buy. My next one is March 15. After that I can get all nesty and finalize the nursery. Can’t wait!

Stomach bug

2009-02-13T09:45:00.000-08:00

Oh boy did I get sick this week, get ready for a TMI post. I woke up yesterday at about 3 am and realized my stomach was bothering me. I got up to get ready for work at 7 and realized I didn't feel well, but really thought I just needed to go to the bathroom and it would pass. I carpool on Thursdays and I contemplated calling the lady I carpool with and telling her I'd drive solo in case I had to leave. But stupidly I did not and I went to work. BY the time I got there I felt totally funky I didn't know if I was going to puke or crap my pants. Long story short, I had to call Gary to come get me at work and take me home. I was laid up in bed all day just feeling miserable. I kept thinking I was going to have to puke, but only did once. I only ate a cup of soup though, so there wasn't much to work with I guess. The worse was that my bones were aching soooo badly. It felt like someone was trying to crack my knees and my back in half. I had a throbbing headache too. Tylenol helped a bit. Towards the end of the night I got the most horrible gas pains I have ever had in my life and was just sitting in bed bawling. Gary wasn't quite sure what to do to help me! I think it must have been so bad b/c I have the baby stuffed in there too, so the pressure was just too much. Every time I moved around it was like I was going to burst in half. I was able to get in a hot shower and rub my belly and work some of the pressure out :) I literally thought I was going to die, how am I going to handle labor!!!! I was up all night going to the bathroom, but feel much better today. Just horribly dehydrated and tired of course. I stayed home from work today to. I hate to take sick days right now b/c I really need to save them, but I figure if I am contagious, it's not very nice of me to go to work. I am just glad the worst of it seemed to be a 24 hour bug, but I haven't been that sick in a loonnngg time, hope the baby didn't mind too much.

30 weeks

2009-02-11T09:09:00.001-08:00

30 weeks today. For some reason that number really scares me. It’s not that I’ve been ignoring my pregnancy, but it just doesn’t seem very real some days. I’m sure when you are horribly sick it seems a lot more real, but I have been very lucky. Just tired and gassy J It’s normal to get all paranoid now and be convinced something is wrong right? I just keep thinking the baby isn’t moving much anymore. A few weeks ago I was getting crazy movements and could see my belly moving, but now I get maybe once or twice a day of some strong kicks. How do I know if she is moving enough? I asked the doctor, but he wasn’t a ton of help. The heartbeat was good on Monday, so we’re probably fine, but I just miss the baby going crazy at night while I lay in bed.

29 weeks

2009-02-07T06:11:00.000-08:00

My belly shot for week 29 is totally sloppy b/c my undies are all hanging out and bunched up in my maternity pant panel, so here's one covered at least. I know I don't look like I have gained all that much, but I am already up like 33 lbs, ugh. Egads, eek. Also a shot of our newly painted guest room. I love how the color turned out, although it's a little more greenish than this picture shows off. How oh how do you get a true picture of paint?

29 weeks

2009-02-05T12:11:00.000-08:00

29 weeks. Eek. That makes me very nervous b/c that means next week is 30. Seeing a 3 in the front makes things all too real. This baby is coming out people and it’s coming out soon. I am of course excited to meet her, but mostly a nervous wreck! Too much to do around the house and too much to worry about work wise (the whole coming back to work, staying home dilemma) and then there's the whole going through labor thing.

The baby seems to have found a way to sit on both my bladder and colon. Fun, fun. So I find myself in the bathroom about 20 times a day. I should just start wearing a diaper myself. She has also stopped moving as much. But then again I have been making a conscious effort to cut back on my sugar intake, so I imagine that might be related! Eeek. Bad monica.

By the end of this week we should have our guest room done. We just need one more coat of paint in the closet, then the furniture can be moved in. I love the paint color we used, I hope I can take some pictures that actually capture it accurately. I tried to take some when G was painting, but they didn’t come out well. After that it’s time to start on the nursery. I can’t wait. I have so much I want to do but can’t b/c the nursery is a mess. For instance, I want to wash and organize all the baby clothes I have so far. I want to set up the crib. I want to put together my changing table and fill the little baskets that go under it with stuff! I want to put together a kit for bath time and an area to deal with diapers as I am probably going to do cloth diapers. Yes cloth diapers. If you want to read some great info on them check out http://babyrabies.com/. She has me convinced and I am going to order a starter/trial kit and give it a try. Why not. I just need to have a little prep area on the changing table. She recommends keeping a spray bottle of clear on the table and some dust for the diaper pail, etc. If I can pull it off it’ll save us a couple hundred a month! I mean once you purchase the diapers up front, the only cost is the washing of them, so water and detergent. I still plan to use disposable when we are out and about. Gary is not in to it at all, so I am just going to tell him to use the disposable if he wants, but I am going to give it the college try. I may find it’s too much work, but I really think I can pull it off with a little prep work. If I can do that and breastfeed I should be able to stay home from work. Maybe….who knows. I may find after 6 weeks of crying baby that I want to go back.

I watched a good video series called Laugh and Learn. One was about birth/delivery, one was about breastfeeding and one was about newborn care. I learned a lot of things. I'm sure it's all just opinions, but at least from what I watched, the lady said you shouldn't use soap on newborns, not to start using soap until you are actually giving them baths. Just use a little baby shampoo on their head and use water to wash the rest (aside from their butts obviously, but you clean those a million times a day). The video also recommended you give you baby a sponge bath from the neck up while still swaddled and to use cotton balls to clean their eyes, ears and noses. I learned a lot from the breastfeeding video, like that babies are born with pug noses so they don't suffocate on the boob. I must admit the whole breast feeding thing still really grosses me out. I can't help it, I'm immature. But I definitely want to do it. I hope it doesn't hurt too bad. I am going to prepare myself a little breast kit to have on hand for when we get back from the hospital with nippy cream, hot and cold compresses, etc. Organizing things is something I really enjoy doing, I can't wait to put together my boob kit, baby bathing kit, cloth diaper kit, etc. I'm going to have little stations all over the house! Oooh that means I get to buy some more baskets. I also really need to go and buy myself some decent pajamas and lounge wear, that's on the to do list for sure. I need sweats that I can wear to the store w/o feeling like an idiot. You would laugh so hard if you saw the ratty sleep pants I sleep in every night. I have one pair where I tore the leg on one and cut it so I would quit stepping on it, so it's about 3 inches shorter than the other leg :) I feel too bad to wear them around the house all day and none of my yoga/workout pants really fit well right now.

As you can see my mind is all over the place. But at least I have made it to 3:18 today without peeing my pants yet.

Bootcamp bad or not? Opinions please.

2009-02-02T06:05:00.000-08:00

So I went to bootcamp class yesterday and boy was it a hell of a workout, but I'm not really sure if I should be doing it or not in my third tri? It started off with just a ton of fast paced activites like squats and lunges and jumping jacks of various types. She did a lot of jacks that involved jumping up and clapping under your knees, etc. I just modified and did normal jumping jacks. When I felt like what they were doing was too tough, I just went back to squatting or jumping jacks. But should I be doing jumping jacks? I figure running moves the baby a lot, some jacks shouldn't hurt right? Then from there we did some weights, which was fine, then a circuit that involved about 30 steps set up in rows, we had to do things like hop over them or shuffle sideways over them. So, again hopping up and down, but not very high at all. We also skipped on the track, ran on the track and did side shuffles on the track. My heart rate was definately high the whole time, but I took a few more breaks than everyone else and drank a lot of water. Today I am sore as hell! Which feels good honestly, it's been awhile since I had a hard workout. But I don't want to be stupid, I know if I ask my doc, they will just tell me to take it easy. I'm thinking I will probably not do the class again until baby is here and switch to the weight lifting class that is afterwards, as it shouldn't be so jarring....thoughts?

Also if my due date is a Wed, is that Wed supposed to be 40 weeks on the nose? Meaning shouldn't my weeks change on Wed, I've been changing them on Friday. Picky I know, but I like to be exact when someone asks me how far along I am :)

28 weeks

2009-01-31T16:56:00.001-08:00

So here's my bigggooo belly shot for 28 weeks. Today I went to a prenatal yoga class and hit the gym to run 3 miles. It felt good to have a productive workout day as they have been few and far in between! I also made an attempt to get out of the grocery store for under $100, but was $27 over, oops. The $5.95 Fit Pregnancy magazine probably didn't help :) The trip to the grocery was miserable. It was jammed packed because of the super bowl and I got all hot and sweaty and then had to wait in line for like 20 mins to checkout b/c I picked the slowness checkout person possible. I was fuming by the time I left! But I came home and took a little nap and felt better. Gary and I are watching a netflix now - Live Free or Die Hard. I'm sure it will be amazing (insert sarcasm here). Tomorrow I am either going to try the Bootcamp or Iron Pump class at my gym. I am trying to vary up my workouts in hopes I will get better about hitting the gym 5 times a week.

Third Tri

2009-01-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

28 weeks! I made it to the third trimester generally unscathed! Woohoo. In reflecting back over this pregnancy I must say I have enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I thought I would absolutely freak as I gained weight, but haven’t felt so bad about it. I do regret that my eating has been less than stellar, as have my workouts since Nov. I really thought I would be this healthy, active perfect pregnant woman, but I haven’t been. And that’s okay. I can’t go back and fix it. I am making a conscious effort to cut back on junk and trying really hard as I have pretty much eaten any sweet within a 3 foot radius of me for the last 20 weeks. I’m unfortunately very confident that at least 10-15 lbs of my weight gain is surely fat as my thigh and hip measurements are up several inches and I’m sure I’ve lost a lot of muscle mass. But I could get sad, I could blame it on the pregnancy, but I have no one to blame but myself. I ate like a crazy woman for the last 4 months, not eating for 2, eating for 5 and I went from working out 10 hours a week to maybe 3. So, it is what it is. I am up about 30 lbs, but don’t feel like I look too enormous. Most of it is belly. I will probably be up over 40 before this little girl comes into the world. But I am confident I will get it off and look forward to the challenge. I have never had much willpower, but have always been into working out. I hope I can find that spark again. Especially sleep deprived! I am already planning and dreaming of what my workout routines will be and the “diet” I will be on. Now don’t worry I am not stupid enough to really diet when breastfeeding, but there will be a cutback on the carb/sugar orgy, that’s for sure. Back to my morning smoothies! It feels so foreign to not be working on my race schedule, but I have no idea how I am going to feel, what to expect. I also don’t know that I will want to spare the money for race entries. Maybe this year will just be running and biking for the enjoyment of it, not to get a PR….maybe.

I got my shot this morning, it was in my butt, it hurt!

I will take an updated belly shot this weekend. I love looking back over the belly shots, I can’t believe I thought I was big at 8 weeks, 12 weeks, look at me now! I love my belly and love to feel the baby moving around al the time. I am sad b/c I know soon that will slow down as the baby gets bigger and runs out of room. Still thinking about names as I lay awake at night, names that I like are below, some are a bit too common for my taste, but I may still use them in the end b/c I can’t land on anything I love:

Magnolia (Maggie)
Isabelle
Elanore (Ella or Nora)
Adelaide
Ruby (vetoed by Gary though…he may change his mind)
Vivianne (vetoed by Gary)
Piper (my fav, vetoed by Gary)
Sky
Stella
Linde
Lydia

Pokey morning

2009-01-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

I had a doc appt this morning and had to do a glucose screening, so I had to get my blood drawn before the appt (after drinking the nasty ass sugar drink). So, then I have my appt with a different doc and after looking over my chart, she realized my normal doc had not prescribed a very important test that you have to do in the 28th week. Basically I have 0- blood, which means my baby likely has + blood of some type b/c most people do. If any of the babies blood gets into my body, my body would produce antibodies to try and kill the baby. Nice, so they take your blood around 28 weeks and confirm your blood type and then give you some sort of special shot that protects the baby. So, I had to go back and get my blood drawn AGAIN, so now I have bruises in both elbows. What a way to start the day for someone who is scared of needles. I'm also a little (okay a lot) miffed that the doc I normally see missed this.

Friday is 28 weeks. Can't believe I am already at the third trimester. I've started having a lot of dreams where the baby is out and about with us. I can't wait to meet her.

27 weeks and change

2009-01-26T06:11:00.000-08:00

So I am part way through week 27. Tomorrow I go for my glucose test. The past few weeks have really seen a lot of changes in my body. For one, I am now full blown peeing on myself if I am not careful. Whereas before it would just be the occasional dribble after going, I find that now I once I think I might have to go, I better go b/c in a few mins I'll be wetting my pants. Good times. The other thing is I am having this really wierd sensation under one boob, above my belly, it feels like that area is falling asleep. It's really annoying and never happens on the other side. I'm sure it has something to do with my little girl's positioning or something, but please make it stop. Sleeping is getting harder, my biggest problem is now that I sleep on my side and I'm not resting any weight onto a sprawled out leg or belly, my shoulder is taking the brunt of it and they are really bothering me. I've always had issues with my shoulder one one side, the rotator cuff b/c I sleep with my arm shoved up under my pillow, but can't seem to change the habit. Oh well.

In good news though the baby moves a lot and I love watching my belly dance around. I have tried to start talking to her when she moves, but then just kind of feel like a wierdo!

Whose the lucky person that gets to raise my child? Is it me?

2009-01-21T07:46:00.001-08:00

Gary and I looked at our first daycare center last night. It’s absolutely perfect, but at $215 a week a bit pricey for the area. But all of the rooms were nice and clean, the children all looked happy, it is less than a quarter mile from our house and it has come to use highly recommended. If I was for some reason to go back to work fulltime, this place would be perfect. They don’t have an opening until Sept though.

I think about my job and going back to work constantly. It keeps me awake at night. I hate that I really can’t talk to my employer about part time right now. From what I have been advised by 2 of my friends that are in HR, I must wait until I am out on maternity leave. If I don’t I have no leverage. If I bring it up and they tell me no now, they might just go find someone else to take my place. If I bring it up when they are expecting me back in 2 weeks, they are kind of stuck and if I give them an ultimatum, they might have no choice. However, that being said, no one at my company works part time except for 2 people who were grandfathered in when our company was bought out. We do not have flex time, all new employees have to work the same hours. I was grandfathered in to an earlier schedule so I leave at 5, as opposed to 5:30 like a lot of people. The company that bought us out has slowly taken away any employee perk that existed here, so I have maybe a 25% chance of getting part time. What I have going for me is that my bosses love me, my clients love me and I truly believe they would hate to see me go. Corporate isn’t here though and doesn’t know me from eve. One other thing is we are bare bones skeleton crew right now with a hiring freeze, losing me would really put a hurt on my team. So part of me wonders with the tough economy if I can’t score part time for at least 6 months b/c they don’t want to lose me and don’t want to hire someone new. I just don’t know…I wish I did! Ideally I want to come back to work part time after my 12 weeks off. If I had my choice, I would work part time for 3 -4 years until my daughter was in preschool. But we live in a country with few choices for moms. If this job tells me that I cannot have part time, then I will have to decide if I am quitting. I will cross that bridge when the time comes. So, anyway in my mind when I am looking at daycare I am thinking that I will be working part time b/c it’ll probably be that or I am staying at home, in which case I don’t need daycare. So, if that’s the case $215 a week is steep. I’ll need to find something $100ish, which from the people I have talked to is do-able.

I circled 15 daycare centers in the yellow pages that are in close proximity to our house. I guess I will drive by them first and take a peek. If they seem okay from the outside, I’ll then call them and ask a few questions – how many infants do you have at once, teacher/infant ratio, sick child policy, pricing. Most won’t give pricing over the phone, so I guess we’ll have to visit the ones that look okay from the outside. But really should I be judging based on the looks of the building? Probably not… but I have little to go on! This is such a big decision and I am totally lost I hate it. I wish I could just stay home. My mom stayed home with us and it was the best. But my dad ran his own lucrative business and my mom did all the books for it. Finding a stay at home job is next to impossible. But I certainly keep my eyes and ears open.

26 weeks, 3 days

2009-01-19T17:13:00.000-08:00

So as I said the last few weeks I have been having some big changes. This is getting me even more nervous about all the things that need to be done. Hubby is working away though. He has the basement done and is working on the guest room now. After that, it's the linen closet, then nursery, then downstairs bathroom. Tomorrow we go visit a daycare center. I know it's probably too pricey for us at $215 a week, but it comes highly recommended, so we're going to check it out. We could only afford it if I go back to work full time, which I really hope to not have to do!I do believe we have a pediatrician lined up, just need to go meet them face to face.

Here is a new belly shotThat bulge on my back is just the lovely belly panel from my pants thank you very much :) Now for a few shots of some of the baby stuff I have so far!

My sister Melanie got me this lovely bear for Xmas. She wanted to be the first to get the baby a teddy bear and she was.

My sister Tina got me this adorable set off of a store on Etsy. I love Etsy, I could spend hours on there a day.

My mom just had this bird sitting around her house, but I loved it and plan to put it in the nursery.

This isn't necessarily for the nursery, but wanted to post another cute find Tina got me off of Etsy. I love owls! Right now this cute guy is sitting on our mantel, safe from the clutches of the evil Fonzi.

Alien

2009-01-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

Okay this belly moving thing is out of control :) Now everytime she is on the move I can see it. So bizzare. I mean I love it, but it really is a freaky thing. It's amazing the difference a week or two makes. I can't imagine what it's going to be like as she gets bigger.

I got in 2 good workouts this weekend, which I am very happy about. I have been so lazy, I hope to keep up the momentum for the next 14 weeks and now let the third tri drag me down!

Things are changing

2009-01-14T11:08:00.000-08:00

I have been able to feel the baby for awhile now. I think the first time I thought I was feeling it was around 16/17 weeks. I am a few days shy of 26 weeks and over the last 2, boy has she gotten stronger. Last night for the first time I literally saw my belly jump. So neat and the kicking feels more like a strong rolling around sensation. It's so neat in an alien invasion creepy way. And last night I had a visible bump on one side of my belly, like the baby was curled up on that side. I find that when I lay down on my bed and put my knees up and put the computer on my knees, so the bottom is resting on my belly the baby goes crazy and kicks around. Very odd. I love it though.

Car is in the shop. We have to pay the deductible which blows. I probably could have fully furnished the nursery for the amount of money that took. The last issue is repairing the garage. Some guy came today and was able to get it to close, but warned that our garge door moving parts are so old they are going to break soon, but he wanted $800 to replace. sheesh. Not right now.

I am playing hooky from work today, too much stress yesterday. I felt like laying low today and not dealing with anyone! well besides my bad puppy. Who was bad when I went to the grocery and broke out of the kitchen. Little butthead.

When it rains, it pours

2009-01-13T06:58:00.001-08:00

Wow. What a F-ing week I am having and it’s only Tuesday. On Monday Gary got home from work to find out that the puppy had had a party in our house. He had gotten into a basket of magazines and proceeded to tear them to shreds across the dining room and living room, he pulled the table cloth and items on the table down into the floor and started to chew on the folder with our ultrasound pics in it (luckily no damage done), he went in the kitchen and chewed his piddle pad to shreds (they are hard to clean up b/c they leave dusty fluff everywhere), then he peed on the rug and went upstairs and ate my DKNY glasses. I am not a brand name type of person, I don’t buy nice stuff, but those glasses were nice and I wear them a lot and with the baby coming and me getting up and down during the night I knew I would need them as I can’t sleep in contacts. So, I was fully expecting that I would have to buy new glasses this week for a couple hundred. Then I get up this morning and I can’t even explain what happened, I will blame it on my pregnant brain, but I was backing out of the left side of our garage, with plans to pull my car over to the right side and park in front and leave it running to heat up, I wanted to open the left side of the garage for the lady I carpool with to pull into b/c it’s easier to back in and out of….so I pull out and I cut it funny and ram on the gas for whatever reason and hit the garage and demolish my car. I mean demolish. I am going to have to get a whole new bumper, quarter panel, there is going to be body work involved, etc. I just stood in my driveway and cried. 2 seconds of stupidity for thousands of dollars in damage. That’s not even counting the fact that I messed up the garage door. So, the lady I carpool with pulled up and I’m like I don’t know what to do and she’s like put it back in the garage. So, I did and I got in the car with her. I couldn’t even close the garage door. Sigh. I am so sad. We soooo don’t have the money for that right now. I was supposed to take a trip to visit friends this weekend, but now I wonder if I can justify the money it’ll cost in gas and food? Gary is taking my car to the body shop right now and getting a rental car. I am so furious at myself. Our deductible is high and I’m sure our insurance will go up a good bit. This is the last thing we need at 6 months pregnant with a ton of home renovations going on. Okay I think I need to go to the bathroom at work and cry again.

Wow I really am pregnant

2009-01-12T07:55:00.000-08:00

On Sunday I worked out, went to lunch/bookclub with friends, went to a museum exhibit with a friend, followed by starbucks. When I got home I felt absolutely clobbered and I still do. I guess I am really getting to that point in pregnancy where many naps are necessary and you can't put much into 1 day. Sigh. I can't believe I over halfway there. I will be 26 weeks on Friday. Eek. That means that in as little as 10 weeks I could have a baby. Hopefully not that early, but it certainly happens.

Gary said he really doesn't like the name Ruby. Sigh, so what about these names, any you love:

Zoe
Chloe
Magnolia (maggie)
Norah
Adelaide
Lila
Lilly
Any suggestions??? Picking a name is hard yo.

Boob confessions

2009-01-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

I had to buy a new bra. It was a C cup....um hello. Do you realize this means I could very easily go from a A to a D cup during this pregnancy. That's messed up ya'll. Luckily no stretch marks on the tatas just yet.

I'm sleepy, what's your excuse?

2009-01-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

Okay sleeping whilst pregnant officially sucks. I have been such a zombie the past few weeks. I seem to fall asleep fine. For some reason I can’t get myself positioned correctly to sleep on my left side. So, I usually start the night on my side like a good girl, on the right. Arm shoved up under my pillow. That lasts maybe an hour or two, I usually wake up with aching hips and an achy rotator cuff (this shoulder thing has been an issue for years, can’t seem to sleep without my arm under my head). So, I flop over to the other side and sleep more on my stomach than my side, I normally shove a pillow under one leg and sleep in the shape of a K. Maybe I should get a body pillow, but I really don’t see it working for me. I never sleep long with the pillows propping up body parts of hugging the pillow. It just feels so hot and cumbersome. I hate it. I normally sleep until Fonzie gets up to go potty, which for the last week has only been once a night! Somewhere between 2-4. But once I get back in bed with him my mind wanders and I am pretty sure I lay awake for 1-2 hours. Maybe I fall in and out of sleep, but I know most nights I see another number at the front of the time before I finally doze off. So, when it comes time to get up at 6:30 am (so I can workout before work) I don’t. I push it and sleep until 7:30 or 7:40 and I have to leave for work at 8. That leaves me groggy and running around like a madwomen. I hate it, it’s such a bad cycle. What to do, what to do. All I know is I am not working out enough and it’s driving me CRAZY. CRAZY, people. I mean it when I say that I will never be pregnant in the winter again if I can help it. At least if it was summer, it would be light out and I wouldn't get into bed at 8pm!

Also, does anyone else find it impossible to worry about what you are supposed to be doing at work when you have such fun things to think about like names and nursery motifs? Or such important things as daycare and if you are coming back to work ? I am pretty much useless anymore! Oh vey.

It's a girl!

2009-01-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

They were able to tell this time and we are having a little girl. Which I already thought, but it's good to know for sure. Now I can pick a name. Which do you like better? Ella or Ruby?

Also the placenta previa sorted itself out. SO everything looked good and baby looked great, the heart, kidneys, bladder, brain etc had everything it was supposed to. Or so the tech told me. I'll take her word for it!

24 weeks

2009-01-05T06:35:00.001-08:00

I got another good workout in this weekend, an hour of cardio and a 2 set on the circuit I like a the gym. But I did have a bit of a hormone emotional rollercoaster weekend. I started reading a book that Mamma Simmons recommended and now I recommend it too - BabyProofing your Marriage - I think it's a must read for any expecting couple. I also finished Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy and really liked it. She's not the best writer our there, but it was so relatable and funny and I was so glad to hear that all that tasted good to her was junk food and she always wet her pants too! I'm not alone :)

Oh and new symptom! Bloody noses, ugh. Anyone else having that problem? And please tell me someone else out there always wakes up from sleep on their backs or their stomachs? Eek.

So, here is the 24 week belly shot, again ignore the ridiculously mismatched outfit, I sleep in whatever fits damnit. Not really any change in weight over the past 2-3 weeks. Which I am fine with!!! Today at 11:30 I go to the doc to check my placenta and hopefuly they will tell me what gender this little monkey is.

6 miles in the bank

2009-01-02T10:52:00.001-08:00

I started the new year off right – with a 6 mile run with Sara! Goooo me. I haven’t run much at all lately, and honestly didn’t think I could manage 6 miles. But the stars aligned. Nice sunny cold day, clear roads, and enough sleep and I made it through without much discomfort. I was certainly feeling the lower belly heaviness that makes it uncomfortable to run, but it got better about 2 miles in. We kept an easy pace and didn’t push it. I felt pretty good the 3 we ran out to the Polo Fields (started at south Chagrin Miles parking lot) but was worried I would run out of energy and have a hard time getting back. But I felt pretty good the entire time. One potty break at the polo fields and one short walk break for a cramp, and that was it.

When I got home hubby was in a freak thorough house cleaning mood, so I left him alone as he sorted cabinets and dusted things that haven’t been dusted in years. I decided that I wanted to get moving on some of the home renovations, so I taped and painted the baseboards in our office, that will soon be our guest room. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be painting. But if you google it, most agree that you can paint with latex paint in a venilated room. I was just doing the baseboards and it didn’t smell too strong. I decided to wait a day to do the second coat so the smell would die down. I probably won’t mess with painting the walls and ceiling, but I figured I could do a little bit to help. Unfortunately after the long run and the crouching to tape/paint, I was left with a horrible back ache and crawled into bed at 7 not to get out for the rest of the evening.

Today I will finish the painting and maybe do a little exercise, the paining might just have to be it as I am still pretty achy.

Seriously, 2009, already!

2008-12-31T11:26:00.000-08:00

A new year….wow. 2008 flew by. I am one of those people that really cherish the beginning of a new year, a fresh slate, a clean start. I think those of us that are planners to a fault (I freaking love making list and filling out calendar) get a little giddy around Jan 1. This year is no exception. When I look back on 2008, it is filled with mixed emotions. The year got off to a horrible start with the unsuspected, premature death of my father. My father and I were did not have the type of relationship where we talked every day or even month, mostly he just answered the phone when I called and we exchanged small talk, but we were undeniably close as I was always daddy’s little girl. We were so much alike that it was hard to not feel like he was part of my cloth. I go many days without thinking about him and then BAM it hits me – my father is dead, I am 29 years old and have no father. It is usually something little a white Explorer will drive by (what he drove) or a box of chocolate covered cherries will sneak up on me in a store (his fav) and my insides will be reduced to mush. It’s almost been a year, but it doesn’t sting any less. The months that followed I was very numb and I don’t recall many particulars, but I had some definite fitness highlights. I was training for the Cincinnati marathon and was very proud of myself b/c I got out there in many a snowstorm and ran my butt off, many times alone. I had my 2 best 30Ks ever in Feb and March. My running pace was finally coming down and I found in 5Ks that I could easily hold under a 9 min pace. This was new for me! On my long distance runs I was constantly well below a 10 min pace, giving me hope of being well under my goal of 4:20 for Cinti. Unfortunately a foot injury got a hold of me with a vengeance and I opted to sit Cincinnati out and took a whole month off of running. In May I had an awesome trip to Lake Placid with my friend Kim and her training group to ride and run the IM Lake Placid course. That was lesson in humility! But I was able to get through 1 loop biking and 13 miles running. The summer was full of lots of training. It seemed that every Sat & Sun were ruled by running, biking or bricks. I enjoyed training with some people from the tri club like Beth, Jen, Tracie, Janet, Gina and Laura P! As well as my normal running companions Sara, Sherri, Ilana and Karen! I felt good and strong. I only did 2 sprint tris b/c I found out the hard way that I am absolutely terrified of open water swimming, yikes! My tri future is uncertain at this point as I have only swam a handful of times since July. Not good! But I found that I really do love biking and running, so if those are the races I stick to next year than I am fine with it! Gary also got a road bike in June and we started riding together weekly, which was great. I look forward to getting back on the road with him in 2009! In late summer I started training for Akron and my times on my long runs were even better. I markedly upped by running miles and was averaging around 30ish miles running a week and 50 biking. All the biking helped and I saw my times on my long runs continue to come down. I thought I might have a shot at getting near 4:00 for the Akron marathon in Sept….until I got pregnant!What! Yes, just like that. Gary and I had talked about it, but I thought it would take us awhile, but I was wrong. I knew I wasn’t feeling well in Aug, but thought there was just no way I was baking a baby, but I was. I continued to run 10-15 miles for my long runs for the first month or so of pregnancy to keep Sara company on her marathon training.

But come Oct, I was slowing way down. In Sept, I did a marathon relay with 4 other pregnant women and we finished in under 4 hours! That was great and we even got to be in the paper. In Oct Gary and I went to CA & OR on vacation where the baby and I did a half marathon. But that was about it, I knew from that race that the running was coming to an end as I was sick for a few days afterwards and my feet and belly ached. Since then I have been trying to keep up the exercise, I have good weeks and bad. The loss of my beloved Taiko in November was just awful and led to a horrible month. Ugh then we got a really bad puppy! 2009 is scary people. I am having a baby! Hold the phone. I am going to be responsible for keeping another human alive. Eek. And I turn 30, double Eek!!! All joking aside, I can’t wait to meet this little monster and work hard to get back on my feet. I think I won’t be setting any big goals for 2009. I would like to see myself at least ready for half marathons by the fall. I want to concentrate on getting the weight off and getting back under 9 min miles before I worry about another marathon or endurance event. If I can get myself back in the pool soon, I’d like to think I could do the same 2 sprint tris I did last year and they were in small inland lakes and I didn’t have much issue with those. I would also like to do Eddy’s Sweet Corn challenge, at least the 50 miler. I think that is enough to think about. I do know that 2009 will probably be the best year yet.

Is it 2009 yet?

2008-12-29T16:15:00.000-08:00

Okay holidays are over...well we still have one more visit with G's mom. I am honestly not a very big fan of the holidays and am glad to have them behind me (just too much rush, money and chaos). It was wonderful to see my family though. I always love to get to spend time with my mom and sister Tina and her hubby Tim, but this year was extra special b/c my other sister Melanie and her hubby and kids were in town. They moved to SC awhile back and we just don't see each other enough. So, it was awesome to see them and spend time together. But back to reality. I am glad we have a short work week this week, that will be nice. I have a monthly doc appt on Wed. I plan to talk to him about any ideas to help with the fact that my back is killing me. Hopefully he will have some ideas on some things to try to alleviate the low back aches. My eating has been out of control lately, so I am going to make a conscious effort to cut back on sugar starting tomorrow. Holiday junk be gone!

23 weeks

2008-12-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

Yay, I am almost in my 6th month. Exciting. I hope you all had a fun Xmas and to all of you with new babies, I'm sure it was just the best Xmas ever. We went to Gary's aunt's house last night and her cousin had her 5 month old there. She is just so cute and smiley. I can't help but think how fun Xmas will be next year. This year is tough b/c it's the first year without my dad. It's hard not to focus on that. I haven't thought much about it, but we are heading to my mom's today and we will do Xmas & Stockings tomorrow. My dad really liked to open presents. Oh well, next year we'll all have the baby to focus on and I'm sure it will be much more fun.

Nursery Decorating

2008-12-23T05:38:00.000-08:00

Can I just go on the record and say it's absolute bullshit how expensive crib bedding is!?! It's for an infant for goodness sake. Every time I find something I really like I then find it's $200+, sometimes $400 or $600. Who spends that kind of money on something that is going to get pooped, peed and puked on? Not me. I am starting to plan out the nursery. I am going to go with a tree/bird theme. And I am going to make the main focal point of the nursery a big tree with different colored paper leaves, it will look similar to this:

I found a cute set of bird bedding at baby supermall on sale - babysupermall.com. Ultimately I will probably end up going with it b/c it's only $99 for the whole set. Granted I don't like all 6 pieces, but I love the bumper and skirt, so I can just get plain sheets and blankets for the rest. If I don't do that, I found this lady who makes custom bedding and her prices aren't too bad, here's one I like: http://babylovin.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22&products_id=62

I like the idea of buying from an independent person as opposed to a store. She has some beautiful fabric selections. Again if I just got a bumper and skirt from her it would be under $200. But then I found this! It's not available until 2009, so I don't know how much it is, but how stinking cute.
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/droolicious/archive/2008/09/16/abc-kids-expo-2008-crib-grass-crib-bumper-from-boon.aspx

Unfortunately it doesn't indicate where the sheets are from, they are too cute.

This is my favorite bedding, but I can't spend this much: http://www.allmodernbaby.com/DwellStudio-Charlotte-Series-DWL1139.html

And just for your perusing pleasure here are some great etsy shops:
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5696519&section_id=5661011
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=18654793
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6949939

I spent all last night searching the web and am sick of it. So, like I said I will most likely end up with the baby super mall set. Then use the tree to plan the colors of the room around. I am thinking purple or aqua. We have 3 rooms upstairs, we already have an orangish bathroom and a green bedroom, the hallway is eggshell. I'd like a bright color that isn't too obnoxious b/c we do plan to sell the house as soon as I go back to work full time and the house market looks a little better. Whenever that will be!

On the baby front....my belly button is starting to kind of change. Ugh. It's flatter, not as inverted as before. When does that thing start popping out!

Pic update

2008-12-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

Here is a 22 week belly shot and to join the crowd, I will include a covered belly shot too. It looks so much smaller with a shirt on.

Still feeling pretty good. I worked out 4 times last week and worked out yesterday, so 1 day so far this week. My goal is 6 times a week, but I will likely not be able to get to that until after the holidays. It is bitterly cold outside, so I don’t think I will be doing my outside run I had planned after work today, but hope to make it to spin class. I have also included a ridiculous picture of our dogs from last night, I couldn’t resist. Seriously who sleeps like that? Fonzi is such a brown noser. And lastly a pick of this adorable diaper caddy I got at TJ Maxx/Home Goods. I filled it up with goodies, including the softest little sheep I got for free at Bath and Body works, score. I love the pattern on the basket. Too stinking cute.

22 weeks

2008-12-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, today the ticker turns over to 22 weeks. I can't believe I have under 20 weeks today. If I say 18 weeks it sounds like nothing, but if I think of it as 4 + months, all the sudden it sounds like an eternity. I am curious how much do your babies kick? I swear mine is crazy active. I feel it constantly throughout the day when I am at work, I think its the position I sit in. Then I don't feel it much in the evening, but as soon as I lay down in bed the baby goes crazy. Last night I got up to take the dog out to potty at about 3 am and laid back down and the baby was going crazy. It was kicking so strongly that I lay awake for awhile just feeling it. I contemplated waking Gary up b/c I am convinced it's strong enough to feel on the outside now, but you know you can't really tell if you're feeling it inside and out very easily until you literally see the stomach move. I had Gary try to feel the other day and he couldn't. There's another question - when could people feel the baby kick on the outside?

21 weeks

2008-12-14T16:45:00.000-08:00

21 weeks, woohoo offically over half way through! Lol. Current belly shot to the left (notice the gnarly veins! I am like a roadmap!). I had a great day. I joined a new gym and started the day off with a nice workout, weights and cardio. Running and I really aren't getting along right now. It's just already so uncomfortable for me to run. I feel like my belly is going to fall out my hoohah or something. Also I have to pee the whole time. I wonder if it has to do with my placenta pervia? For those who don't know, that means my placenta is below the baby, so it's lower than normal. The pressure when I run is just so distracting. I did 2 miles on the dreadmill and then jumped on the ET for another 20 mins.
I also went to a Xmas party today of my tri/running girlfriends. I got to meet my friend Salty's (blog is the LIttle one) 3 week old son. He is just gorgeous and she looked great. It was nice to get out and do something and so nice to talk to someone who just went through what I'll have to soon enough!

My baby is kicking constantly, it's so fun, but just odd to me how freaking active she is. Also, my back is really killing me. By the end of the day I just have to lay down, I can't stand it. I think I'm having sciatic nerve issues...I think? I have a prenatal massage this coming Sat. I can't wait.

Look how big little Fonzi is getting!

Check out my rack

2008-12-11T07:45:00.001-08:00

Being pregnant is an amazing thing. Full of good and bad all mushed together to just equal a weird time in life. Take for instance my boobs. At this point in time I have an amazing rack. I myself can’t keep my hands off of them, poor Gary is defenseless. If I want something done all I have to do is flash him. I can’t imagine how my life would have been different had I had these puppies in my early 20s where I mostly just drank and waitressed and then drank more. Probably a good thing I am getting them now at the ripe mature age of 29 and know how to use them properly. Oh you don’t want to paint the basement tonight…well look at these BAM! I am used to being a flat as a board gal who had to wear a nearly B bra. NEARLY B, I repeat, I'll let that sink in (it's a nice way of saying i need an A cup bra). Now all of the sudden I am overflowing the 34B I picked up a few weeks into the pregnancy. It’s time to move to the C cup I think. Oh vey. So, I have these great boobs, my clothes look so much better from the 1st rib cage up. But then again my stomach is now equal to my boobs in how far it sticks out, so really, the boobs don’t really do my body outlook a whole lot of good. On top of that they are absolutely covered in a map of veins that you could see from New Jersey if I was standing outside topless. But nonetheless I have boobs! And they feel weird. Just this morning I bent over the seat to get something out of the back of the car and I smooshed my boob and holy shit batman it hurt. So, I have these great boobs, and as long as I have a shirt on they look pretty good.
So, score 1 point for something more attractive going on.

But then you move on to fun pregnancy symptom #2. I fart like crazy. Gary can attest. I spent the entire night last night stinking up our room so badly and so loudly that I laughed until I cried. The dogs looked at me in shock and Gary had to watch the Cavs game with the covers pulled half way up his face. Now prior to pregnancy I was someone already obsessed with farts. Farts = damn funny as far as I am concerned. So I will lump this new super power into the positive developments of pregnancy category.

However, the excessive sweating, urination, snot and weight gain….those can go into the bad category. That and the out of breath feeling I am plagued with most of the time. I must say that overall I really do like being pregnant. Of course this is coming from someone only 21 weeks along. And a bitch who never had a day of morning sickness. So, my tune will likely change when I am all of 5’2 and weighing so much you can roll me to my cube at work and covered in stretch marks on my new fantastic boobies. But I love feeling the constant flutter of the baby, reminding me I really am doing something great here. Going from someone who was pretty ambivalent to children. I get it now, before the baby is even outside of me. I get why people are obsessed with their kids and act like they are little gifted wrapped packages that were dropped from the heavens. I used to get so annoyed that people acted like if you weren’t having children you were missing out on something great. Half way through this little science experiment, I think they may be right. I always thought that pregnancy would be the worst, I didn’t want to ruin my body or put all my workouts on hold. But really in the scheme of things who cares if I spend my weekend biking 5 hours and running another 2. I’m not winning any races, I’m not even placing in any races…so taking a year off it really not going to make a difference. Baking this baby is a lot more fun!

daycare

2008-12-10T12:46:00.000-08:00

Is $215 a week expensive for daycare? I have no idea how much this should cost. There is a small baptist church within walking distance from my house. 2 people recommended it to me and told me they love it and the staff are awesome. They have a waiting list, but happen to have an opening for July, when we would be needing daycare. I just don't know how much daycare normally is.

Let the nesting begin

2008-12-10T09:04:00.001-08:00

Thank you for the comments ladies! But the fact of the matter is that I have gained 20 lbs already! For someone my height (5'3 on a good day) you really don't want to see me gain more than 30 lbs. So at this rate I probably will. Which is not the end of the world. I think my doc was okay to tell me to watch it, it just stings to hear.

I ordered some new DVDs from the lovely Netflix so that I could work out at home. I did one last night that I liked, it was some ballet lady and it was yoga/pilates fushion. My belly is sore in a good way today. My plan is to keep a DVD for 2 weeks and do it 2-3 times a week, and then do my standard Slim in Six (lunges, squats, weights) 2-3 times a week. Then send it back and get a new one. I also think I need to join the gym sooner than I was expecting. Getting outside in this weather is just not going well which means my cardio is null and void. So after Xmas off to Urban Active I will go ready to give them a large sum of money. Yikes.

Seriously could we get some more snow and rain here in Cleveland? What a wet 2 months we have had. On the good news front, my lovely husband has been busting his ass the past few weeks getting our nasty unfinished basement finished! He repaired the drywall damage on one wall and the ceiling. He repainted the ceilings white and the walls a bright yellow we agreed on. We were going to get carpet, but after getting a quote for a looottt of money we got paranoid that it would get damp down there eventually and ruin the carpet. So, we opted for this flooring made out of recycled tires, how green of us. It comes in big puzzle pieces and it looks like a floor you would see in a gym. Which is pretty appropriate b/c one side of the basement will have a weight bench and all the free weights and then the middle of the room will have our cushy futon and a tv/xbox setup and then our 2 bikes on trainers in view of the tv. I hope it will be nice enough down there that someone could sleep and not feel like they are in our gross basement. It will also become a much needed storage area for all things baby I am sure. Baby things are so stinking big – excersaucers, pack and plays, swings, high chairs, who has room for all this stuff! I expect our basement to be sleep ready by Jan 1. I will take some pics. Next room after that to get a makeover is our office, it will be turned into the guest room. It’s tiny so it will be minimalist at best.

Pics

2008-12-07T17:30:00.001-08:00

Here is a week 20 shot of meh big belly(please ignore the monkey pj pants) and G and me from Turkey Day and Mushi being ever so handsome and the pup.

20 weeks

2008-12-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

Officially, no really I did the math right this time. This is it folks, 20 weeks down. Where has the time gone. I cannot believe I am half way through this pregnancy, maybe more than half way I guess! I will take a new belly shot tonight, so you can see my buddha belly in all my glory. I think I am going to get that line the runs down your belly vertically, not sure what it’s called, but I seem to have a faint line starting near my ribs down to the pubes. Odd. It’s not dark yet, I hope it doesn’t get dark, I am a very pale person. Oh well. Refelecting back on the last 20 weeks I must say pregnancy has not been so bad. It’s different for sure and can be very trying. I think for people who were really active it can be a bit of a rude awaking at times. My get up and go must have got up and went…what song is that from? I am now officially starting to freak out! Not in a bad way, there is just soooo much to do and soooo little time. The countdown begins. I like making lists, so here are my immediate concerns and the order I (well mostly Gary!) plan to do them in:

Fix drywall in basement, paint basement yellow, install flooring
Move area rug and futon down to basement
Buy tv, tv stand and lighting for basement
Arrange weight bench area and bike/trainers in basement
Get new CycleOps Fluid 2 trainer as a congratulatory you now have a finished basement gift! Basement done by Jan 1
Pull all furniture junk out of office and move to basement temporarily
Paint office auqa and baseboards white
Bring queen size bed and bamboo rug from upstairs down to office along with desk from our room and Gary’s nightstand, arrange in room, computer set up will now be in this room, along with cat food stuff. Office done by Feb 1.
Remove door from our bedroom and get crib into our room where desk used to be
Paint downstairs bathroom and closet in some complimentary color to the office
go through towels, wash cloth heap and get rid of nasty ones, clear off shelves in this bathroom for baby bath stuff, start buying baby bath stuff! Bathroom done by March 1.
Now it’s nursery time, move all remaining furniture from this room to the basement temporarily
Paint nursery purple with white baseboards, use rug from office
Set up crib (get from G's dad's house), try and arrange twin bed in this room as well if it leaves enough room (figure I will be sleeping in there sometimes)
Buy glider and dresser from Craigslist, maybe changing table?
Order decals for the walls – trees and birds off of etsy, just need to pick
Await buying anything else until after shower
Showers in Feb and March, Nursery done by April 1
Last if there is time, paint linen closet upstairs and arrange, clean up big closet in bedroom and Gary’s closet in nursery to make room for baby storage/items

Sheesh. Now I am even more freaked out!

Who got my early bird worm?

2008-12-04T08:45:00.001-08:00

Why oh why oh why can’t I wake up in the morning anymore? Not so long ago bloggy friends I was a morning person. I have been struggling with morning workouts since sometime this summer, well before I got knocked up. I recall making a go at 5:30 workouts again at some point, but I was so thrashed from my weekend warrior ways that I never got back to it. Now my dear hubby is off of night shifts after several months of working 8pm to 7 am. He is not getting up at 5:30. He takes the pup out and puts the pup back in bed with me. Pup does not go to sleep and I no longer fall asleep as easily as I used to, that I believe it baby related. It’s harder to get comfortable for one thing and the other is I just lay there with my head a jumble. Anyway, so I wake up at 5:30 too, and lay there half awake until 6:45 – 7ish. Why oh why don’t I just get my ass out of bed and work out? I am so tired when I get home from work that it’s not happening often. So, since I’m not getting quality sleep during this 5:30 to 7 window, wouldn’t it make sense just to get up??? But alas I just can’t seem to muster the willpower, any ideas bloggy friends? I think my real problem is that I have an hour or two in the middle of the night where I lay awake. As I said I can’t fall asleep very well right now, so when puppy wakes me around 2 or 3 to go out, I drift in and out of conscientiousness until 5am sometimes. I do go to bed at like 9:30 though… But regardless b/c of this mid night wake up I am just totally woozy when G gets up and can’t seem to get it together.

I have firmly decided that all those people who say that being pregnant in the winter as opposed to the summer are dead wrong. If I do this again, and it’s planned, I will be getting pregnant shortly after the new year. Being pregnant equals feeling tired and lazy all the time. Winter’s short days equals feeling tired and lazy all the time. Not a good combo! Now I know some will say you don’t want to have a newborn in the winter, but I don’t care, they are wrong J Being most pregnant when it’s warm also means you get to wear flowy little dresses and flats. Being pregnant when it’s cold means I have to have jeans and tops and coats and ugh. Okay rant over.

Classes

2008-12-04T06:20:00.001-08:00

Oh vey we are going to be busy over the next few months. I just signed Gary and I up for the following classes that our hospital offers. It might be overkill, but we know nothing:

Breastfeeding 101 – Sat, Jan 10, 9-12
Baby Basics – Sat Jan 31, 9-12
Fast Track Lamaze/Child Birth Prep – Sat, Feb 21 & 28, 9-12
CPR for infants – Sun March 8, 1-4
Night with the Anesthesiologist– Tues, March 10, 6:30-8

Plus throw in puppy class on Sat for the next 5 weeks, 2 showers sometime in Feb & March and I'm going to visit my friend over MLK weekend in Bloomington. Shewww. Time is going to fly.

Tuesday doc appt

2008-12-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

I had a doc appt at 8:45 this morning. AS usual they made me wait forever. I got irritated after 20 mins and went and asked to be rescheduled at which point, they had another doctor see me. Sheesh. For all of 10 mins. It's hard to be excited for the appt when you have been stewing in the waiting room thinking about how you are going to be even later to work than you anticipated. This was my shortest wait yet at 25 mins, normally it's 45-60 mins. I have contemplated changing practices, but this one is 5 mins from my work and delivers by my house. So, que sera I suppose. But I am so impatient, nothing makes me more upset than waiting.

This new doc pretty much told me I have gained too much weight, which makes me sad. I have struggled with my weight for years and always been a little chunkier than I should have been considering the level of working out I did, training for marathons, biking 80 miles a week, etc. I was about 5-7 lbs overweight when I got preggo, so if you take that into consideration I weight 23 more lbs than I would want to weigh otherwise and I am only 19 weeks along. Yikes. I think I may end up in that 40-50 lbs weight gain category. I really wasn't too upset about the weight gain until the doc said I needed to watch it. Booo. In the scheme of things I know it doesn't matter, but for someone who has to fight to keep a lb off, this just scares me even more about what will come when it's time to get this weight off. I got back Dec 31 for another routine checkup and then Jan 5 to the hospital to see if my placenta moved and hopefully find out the sex!

They opened a new gym by our house, Urban Active. It's not far from our house, but is part of an outdoor mall, so the getting in and out and parking would be a pain in the ass. But get this! If you are a member, it's only $3/time or $15 a month to bring your baby (6wks and up) to the daycare at the gym. Now granted, who the hell knows who is watching your baby, but the guy said everyone who watches the kids is CPR/first aid certified and I'd be in the gym. I thought that was an amazing deal. I said to the guy, what if I want to work out for 3 hours! And he said 2 hours is the limit. I was just joking, I would have thought an hour was. So, I think we will join, it's $800 for the both of us for 18 months, which is pretty cheap. $10 a month cheaper than our current gym, but you have to pay it all up front and cash is a little tight right now with home renovations going on.

We have a lot to do to get our house in order. First piece of business is carpeting our basement, which means hubby has to repair the ceiling drywall and we have to paint the walls first. He started on the drywall yesterday, I hope he gets it finished this week. I am so ready for the basement to be done, so I can move everything out of the 2 bedrooms into the basement while we work on painting those rooms and figuring out what furniture will go where.

Week 19

2008-11-30T16:19:00.000-08:00

Yes week 19 again. I am not very good at keeping track of this baby's growth. I keep wanting to get ahead of myself. Before my week changed on a Thurs. I would take my pic on a Sunday and just jump to the next week, but I got myself ahead. When I had my u/s last Monday, they said I was 18 weeks a few days. So, I will change weeks on Friday now and take my pic on Friday as well. So, not half way through quite yet. Officially my body is no longer mine. The first 17 weeks I would say were really no big deal I didn't even realize I was pregnant most of the time. But over the last 2 weeks I've had some big transformations. It no longer feels okay to lay on my stomach, when I squat or bend down the pressure is uncomfortable. There's a baby in there ya'll!

My running isn't going so swift. I ran 6 miles twice this week, but the whole time my bladder aches. It feels just like I have a bladder infection, that I have to pee but then I go pee and barely pee feeling. I don't like it! But such is life. I am so slow now an 11 min mile is good for me and that's really hard to deal with. The effort to do my 6 mile trail run is a solid 8 when it should be a walk in the park. I haven't been consistent at all with my exercise and that's probably a large part of the problem. I am going to focus on running 4 times a week, and do my Slim in Six DVD (mostly lunges, squats, push ups, kind of a bootcamp) 2-3 times a week, just keep it simple. I really need to get on my bike trainer as well, but the puppy is putting a kink in that as I know I cannot use it in the living room with him loose as he will just run right into the pedal, but I guess I just need to confine him and do it anyway. I don't want to lose my entire biking ability over the last 4 months.

Shy baby

2008-11-24T11:54:00.001-08:00

Well we have a modest baby and it didn’t want to show off it’s stuff today. So, we have no idea what we are having despite an hour long u/s today. Oh well, I can’t be too disappointed, all the limbs and fingers & toes were there. Baby opened its mouth and closed it for us and the brain, spine and organs look good. The baby sure is crammed in there. To me it looks like it has really long legs and big feet, just like daddy, but what do I know! It was fun to see the baby for that long, but frustrating that we didn’t get to find out.

My placenta is low, which could be an issue. If it doesn’t get itself situated correctly it means I’d have to have a c-section. I got back in early Jan to have the placenta checked and they’ll try again on the sex. I hate not knowing, I was ready to register for all kinds of girly stuff. Guess we’ll have to stay neutral. That’s okay. I saw some turquoise and brown bedding I really like, that’s neutral. And I want to do a bird theme anyway, so that is neutral too.

The baby is low, and right on my bladder, which explains why I have to pee every 2 seconds when running.

Sat Snowy run

2008-11-22T16:54:00.000-08:00

Well I've been trying to get back on track with my workouts. I lifted weights Monday, did an Aeorbics DVD on Thurs and ran 5 miles this morning. I am going to run tomorrow morning too. It's not the 5 good solid workouts I wanted weekly, but it's a start to getting back on track. The puppy is making it really hard to get anything done. We're having issues crating him b/c he craps on himself everytime he's left alone...seperation anxiety, greeeaattt. It's been a really bad week, but I'm hoping he gets better, we're just not making much progress. Aside from this big issue, he's doing good. Mushi and him play and get along and he's very sweet and loves to snuggle and give kisses.

I'm having a wierd symptom. I'm not hungry at all. It's very wierd. I'll go all day and realize that I haven't eaten in like 7 hours. That's unheard of in my world. Is it stress or pregnancy? Also when I run now my bladder kills me within a mile. It's really frustrating. Anyone else deal with that? I guess the baby is right on my bladder. We get our gender ultrasound on Monday at 11:30. I cannot wait!!!

Tell me honestly what do you think of the name Magnolia?

Finally comfort

2008-11-17T09:23:00.000-08:00

I have been shoving myself into the same 2 pairs of jeans with bella band and 1 pair of maternity jeans I got at old navy, for weeks. I knew I needed some pants, but I hated everything I tried on. I did get some cute corduroys from Target, but they must be hemmed. After having an extremely stuffed sausagey feeling kind of day on Thurs I decided enough was enough and I was going to have to go shopping. But I didn't head to any maternity store, nope I headed straight for New York & Co. I remembered getting these extremely comfy knit dress pants there a few years ago and was praying they still make them and they do! They are called City Knit and they have an elastic waist, no buttons or fasteners of any type. So, if you are looking for some comfy pants that are nice enough to wear to work head to NYCO, they are even on sale right now. They are much cheaper than maternity pants at only $29. I bought a pair of black and a pair of brown for now. As I am not sure if the Medium will fit for too much longer. They are plenty roomy for now. One warning though, don't dry these things, they get really pilly, I remember from the pair I had a few years ago, that's why I never bought more.

19 weeks and Fonzi Nowac

2008-11-16T15:44:00.000-08:00

Well we had horrible weather here this weekend, rain and snow and sleet. So what did we do? Go get a puppy! Smart huh. He's being a very good boy so far, introducing Fonzi Nowac. And then a 19 week belly shot.

I hate veggies

2008-11-13T10:56:00.000-08:00

I used to be a really good eater. I liked veggies. I liked fruit, I very rarely ate processed garbage and prescribed to the whole foods movement for the most part. Ever since I got pregnant it's like nothing tastes good to me but junk. Now that's not to say I am eating McDs for every meals, I am not. But I have eaten so much cereal and balony sandwichs and trader joes frozen thingies that I can't remember the last time I ate a leafy green. Not good for a pregnancy. Is it totally bad that my baby during it's formative first 12 weeks was growing on McDs soft serve ice cream and cheetos? I try to eat veggies at dinner but they just don't appeal to me anymore. I will eat a salad no problem, but my old standbys of squash, asparagus and green beans taste gross to me now. What the hell.

Gag me

2008-11-11T11:31:00.000-08:00

Seriously, ugh. A friend of mine has been losing her mucus plug and I am so excited/anxious for her that I decided to google how long you can go after losing your plug before delivering (answer up to 2 weeks) and am so thoroughly grossed out right now. After reading all the descriptions of this giant piece of bloody snot I just want to lose my lunch. Seriously I know some people think of all this is so beautiful and amazing, but I just find it all really disgusting. I am now having visions of walking into the bathroom one day and finding a huge bloody slug looking thing in my undies. Can you imagine that happening at work, sitting in a meeting and then all of a sudden you feel that working it's way out. No thank you. Please let me be one of the lucky ones who never even sees their bloody show (seriously what the hell does that term mean, I am too scared to further google) and just go into labor and lose it at that time. Blech.

Week 18

2008-11-09T18:18:00.000-08:00

I'm going into week 18 this week. Crazy. I can't believe in 2 short weeks I will be half way through this pregnancy. In reflection I can say that the first 13 weeks or so were really hard as far as just being thoroughly worn out and tired, but I have felt great since then. I have had a totally text book pregnancy and other than a few reminders such as being out of breath quicker and heartburn, I forget I'm pregnant most days. I hope the second half of this pregnancy goes as smoothly. The countdown starts for the anatomy ultrasound, 15 more days! I cannot wait!!!!

I think you can tell from the picture this week that I am showing. I am still fitting into my jeans, but they are starting to get too uncomfortable when I sit down. I got a really cute pair of maternity jeans at old navy and I have a few pairs of khakis I got off of ebay, none of which i

like that much. I do like the pair of khakis a bloggy friend sent me (thanks Claire) but they are still too large, so all of this means that I need to get some more pants. I just want to be comfortable. I hate to buy maternity clothes, but I am not going to be pulling at my clothes for the next 4 months.

Getting my butt in gear!

2008-11-06T12:57:00.001-08:00

The week of vacation was very active. I ran a half mary and did a ton of walking and hiking. Since I got back from vacation, I have ran once and that is it! AHHHH. I hate to even say it out loud. It is beyond time for me to get my ass in gear. It’s more important than ever that I stay in shape now that I am preggo. I have some very inspiring ladies blogs that I read that have worked out their entire pregnancies. I need that to be me! I want to be able to rebound from this baby quickly and be back on my bike and running within weeks. In order to do that I must keep up my workouts. But lets face it I am pregnant and it’s harder to get moving, plus the gray and gloom of winter will be setting in soon, so I am making a schedule for myself and my goal is to hit 5 of these workouts. As long as I hit 5 I will not feel bad, if I hit more, awesome. I think I can always make Sat & Sun and it will be more enjoyable to run those days b/c I will see daylight, I hope to always make all 3 of the runs (2 around 4 miles, one at least 6) and then at least one spin and one swim. I haven’t swam in a REALLY long time and it’s time to get my toosh in gear with that. I want to get back up in the yardage by end of Nov and then hopefully hit a masters class in Solon once a week. I will do weights after spin class & also try and get one weight session in weekly while watching tv. I am going to keep a tally in my sidebar starting next week to keep me honest. So today is Thurs, think I will hit the pool if I can fit into my bathing suit!!! I need to order a new one online stat.

Mon – AM Spin class/weights
Tues- Run & swim
Wed- Run
Thurs- longer swim
Fri- Spin class/weights
Sat- long Run
Sun- Run & yoga

Last year over memorial day weekend I went to Lake Placid for a weekend workout on the Ironman course. The same group is going back next year, but this time in June. I really want to go, really bad. But is it crazy to think that 2 months post partum I could be ready to bike the 56 mile course of Lake Placid??? I really want to be able to do a fall marathon and be a kickass buff mom. I look at people like TriSaraTops and know it is possible. I tend to border on extreme working out and no working out. I don’t have much of a happy medium. I need to find it until this baby is out!

Sad times

2008-11-04T06:51:00.000-08:00

Sad times at my house right now as my beloved dog is dying from Kidney failure. You can read about it on my other blog - trainingtotri.blogspot.com.

But I have some baby updates. My mother and I went to babies R us this weekend and did my registry. That was fun, but horribly overwhelming. Those of you who already have babies, if you can comment any things you can't live without, I'd really appreciate it. There are so many unnesseary items out there. And I know a lot of it is just preference. I have some friends that love their boppy, some that hate it. Some that think bottle warmers are a waste of money, some who use theirs everyday. I didn't register for any bedding, etc. I'll wait until we know the sex. Which is only 20 days away! Woopee.

I think I am starting to feel the baby kicking. It's like a wierd butterflyish feeling in the pit of my stomach. So that is new and exciting. I can't wait until you can feel the kicks on the outside. I think it'll help make all of this more real for Gary.

Ouch

2008-10-30T10:59:00.001-07:00

I had a doc appt today, nothing exciting, just a check up. I am u/s spoiled and wish I could have gotten one, but I did get to hear the heart beat. They also gave me a flu shot, ouch. I am such a baby, I want to cry whenever I get a shot or my blood drawn how will I ever have a baby?

My mom is in town for a few days. I think her and I are going to go to Baby's R Us and do the registry on Sat. I am looking forward to that. I got opinions from a few friends on the must haves. I am getting a lot of hand me downs so we are lucky in that sense. My in laws are giving us their crib, my mom has an awesome cradle. My friend Jane who had a baby in June is giving me some stuff that her child doesn't like, that hopefully mine will (swing!!!). So, I hope to keep my registry list streamlined and only get what we need. I think I will just register at BRU for now. Once i know the sex I will probably register for bedding at Target b/c they have the cutest stuff.

Back to reality

2008-10-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

Hi Bloggy friends. Back from vacation, you can read a recap over at http://www.trainingtotri.blogspot.com/. We had fun and I made it through the half marathon 14 weeks pregnant. Not bad right?!? I felt totally fine most of the time, but I did have some tenderness at the bottom of my stomach afterwards, I'll definately be cutting the long run distance down now.

Feeling pretty good. I have a check up on Thursday. My mom is coming to stay with us for Halloween so she is going to go with me and meet my doc. I am for sure out of the first trimester fog now, thank god. But everynight I wake up around 3ish with the most painfully full bladder. So I get out of bed and got sit on the toilet and nothing happens! I have to push and a little stream will come out and then eventually I will be peeing. Is that normal? It hurts a little at first and once my bladder is empty it still feels a bit sore. I had a bladder infection around 8 weeks and took some antibiotics, so I don't think it's that....wierd though.

almost time to get away

2008-10-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

One more day of work and then freedom! Gary and I are going on a week vacation starting Sat. We are flying into San Francisco and then taking highway 1 up the coast to Humbolt CA. We’ll stay there Sat night, then Sunday we will wake up and run the half marathon at the Ave of the Giants marathon. That should be pretty, or really boring, trees might get old after 30 mins or so, I hope not! Running has been slow, slow, slow, but I’m still getting out there, so I think I will be fine. We’ll then grab some lunch in northern CA and head to Medford OR where my sister in law now lives. We’ll stay with her for 3 days. We are going to go to Crater Lake, other than that I’m not sure what we will do, but we’re planning on lots of hiking. On Thursday G and I will head back down to San Fran and stay there for 2 nights. We haven’t been on a week vacation since our honeymoon 4 years ago. I am going to miss my dogs L But luckily a good friend is going to stay at our house and sleep with them so they don’t get lonely.

Last night I met Salty and we ran about 3.5 miles, it started to rain and got too dark. But we had fun. After that I power cleaned my house in prep for my friends stay. I still have some work to do. Nothing feels better than a really clean house. Tonight I am meeting some friends for dinner, but when I get home I have to finish up and tomorrow I will worry about packing.

Oh and get this the AKron marathon sent the members of team speed bump onesies and a thank you note. How freaking thoughtful is that. I will definately run at least the half there next year. What a great race.

Monday

2008-10-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

It's a Monday for sure. I ran twice this weekend, lifted weights and made it to spin/ab class this morning. Although I just learned that after your first tri mester any ab work on your back in a big no no. Glad to read that b/c I hope to get back to spin class now 3 times a week and we always do abs afterwards. It's a no no b/c you can block the blood supply to the baby. There are other ab exercises I can do though and the 2 articles I read said crunches on the ball are fine as long as you put it higher up your back.

I am trying not to let it get to me but things are so bad at work. We work in teams and we just lost our best developer and best quality assurance analyst. Both had been here for over 5 years and had invaluable knowledge. The developer is already done with his 2 weeks and the QA gal just put her notice in. Our team was already down about 4-5 people and now we are really going to be hobbling by. It makes it hard to want to come to work. On top of that, one of our team members who worked from home and has been sick for awhile finally lost to her cancer last night in hospice. She was a wonderfully nice lady with a beautiful family and she lived on a farm full of animals that I'm sure will miss her too. I wish I had gotten to know her better. It puts things into perspective that's for sure. Life is too short.

The first 3 months

2008-10-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

So, I've made it throught he first 3 months Munchkin. I must say I had my doubts the whole time that I could do this. It just seems like some wierd science experiment. I just kept expecting to go to the doctors and you'd be gone. But I've gotten to see you 3 times so far! You've gone from a little round sac to a full blown baby that wiggles and sucks it's thumb. The doctor said a wiggly baby is a healthy baby. That's good to know since I've been doing pretty much the exact opposite of what I should be doing. Instead of feeding you leafy greens and fruit, I've been filling up on wendy's chicken sandwichs and mcdonalds ice cream cones! I haven't had any real cravings, but eaten way too much junk food b/c I just don't feel like cooking. I did give up coffee though and have had only a few diet cokes along the way.

You came on like a sleep filled tornado from day 1. I cannot get enough sleep and I am really getting sick of that! Due to this my workouts have been sporadic at best. I went from the best shape of my life while training for a half ironman (I was biking 40-50 miles on the weekend and running for an hour after!) to about 15 lbs overweight (Mamma was already 7 lbs up from where she should be before you even came around! oops). Surprisingly I am not freaking out. I don't mind my gut, now that it's getting more round and everyone knows I'm pregnant, not just getting fat :) The big boobs are interesting as well. I kind of love being pregnant, I don't mind it for a moment. 6 months will fly by I am sure and I cannot wait to meet you. I have been very lucky to have no morning sickness, although I've felt fluish for the past several weeks. Hopefully as I step into our second trimester that will ease up a bit.

In just a weekMunchkin you will take your first cross country flight. Probably your last for awhile. We're going on vacation and we're going to run a half marathon surrounded by the redwood forest. It's going to be great!

12 weeks

2008-10-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

Okay so today I am officially 12 weeks along, time to start telling people. Haha. Considering I started showing so early I don't know how I would have made it to this point w/o telling people. Seriously in clothes from the side, you can totally tell. They say short people show sooner, I guess its true.

I have felt like ass this week, sick to my stomach and dragging, I've been asleep by 9 every night. I have clients on site and also a bunch of work fires, so I have been going non stop and horribly stressed. I try not to get stressed out, but it's so hard when your job is dealing with angry clients all day. Which is unfortunately what my job has become. I cringe everytime the phone rings. I almost cried 2 times already this week. I am so ready for vacation. In 9 days I will be landing in San Francisco. Thank you!

11 weeks 5 days actually

2008-10-06T10:46:00.001-07:00

Well I thought I was through the first trimester, but today the doctor told me I was 11 weeks and 5 days. So, on Thursday I will be at 12 weeks. But does that put me through the first trimester, or do I have to get to 13 weeks first? My brain can’t figure that sort of thing out.

Today I had a nuchal translucency test. It was fine, an u/s and a bloodtest. The measure the neck folds on your baby and you don’t want to be near 3mm, my baby was at 1.2. So, my risk for downs, tri 18, etc should be pretty low, but I have to see what the bloodwork says. I had my first successful belly u/s. It was really neat b/c they had a flat screen on the wall in front of you and you could see the u/s there. It was long b/c they took all kinds of measurements, so I got to watch my baby wiggle around for at least 5 mins, it was great. The doc said my baby was very wiggly and that’s a good sign. It was sucking it’s thumb and moving it’s arms and legs and twice it just kind of bounced up in the air like on a trampoline. I got some big u/s print outs, like 8 x 10! That was fun. One has the hand waving and the u/s lady put some text on there that says hi everyone. Too cute. I can’t wait for the sex u/s on the 11/24. I have another doc appt on 10/29, but don’t know if I will get another u/s or not.

I am very nervous about my insurance. The doc just told me that he usually has his patients get the test and asked if I wanted it and I said would my insurance cover it and he said most of the time they do. So, I decided why not, the more info the better I figure. So, I called my insurance and the first lady told me it was covered, but I didn’t get her name and G told me I should call back. The second lady thought it was covered, but wasn’t really sure so she sent me a page from their handbook. I asked her if in her interpretation it was covered and she said yes. So, I went ahead and got it. I sure hope we don’t get stuck with the 2500 bill.

12 weeks, yikes

2008-10-05T16:19:00.000-07:00

Big difference since last time!

Phew I did it

2008-10-04T15:11:00.001-07:00

I ran 12 miles today. I wasn't sure I could do it. I haven't ran over 8 miles in about a month. So, I was able to get through it and felt pretty good. I have a half marathon in 2 weeks and I have been pretty worried I wouldn't get through it. But I did. We started at Station Bridge this morning at 8:30 and it was COLD and foggy and kind of surreal, but by the end of the run it was a gorgeous day. I got a kick out of seeing all the wooly worms that have come out. Fall is here.

I ran 6 miles on Wed night, but I was pretty sick Thurs & Fri and just took it easy. So, my tally for this week is one spin, 2 runs and 1 ab DVD. Not quite what I was looking for, but better than nothing. I will run or spin tomorrow, but I didn't get the weights in. This week was pretty tough. I didn't feel good and I was a bit of an emotional wreck due to some work stress among other things. I am through my first trimester now and I am ready for that supposed burst of energy I will getting soon.

2008-10-03T05:49:00.000-07:00

Ugh I felt so so sick yesterday, well and the day before and still do today. I think I am sick, I don't think it's just pregnancy. But I was feeling very lazy and got in bed at 6:45 and stayed there. I was asleep by 9, but didn't wake up feeling super refreshed or anything. I was on youtube and watched some slideshow videos of pregnancy belly progressions. They were so neat, I can't believe I am going to get that big. I watched a few birth story videos too, those made me teary eyed. Starting this week I will take a belly shot every Sunday, I want to have a record of this, it is so amazing when you patch them all together to see how much you change! The videos totally made me cry, just from the baby stuff, but also b./c I miss my dad (he died in Jan). Well he died the funeral home put together this great video of all these photos of him with music behind it and one of the songs was this stupid country song by Rascal Flats about Jesus and it was on one of the progression videos, so now every time I hear that song (as well as the other songs on his video, I am totally ruined now by Fire and Rain) I just bawl like a baby. So, I sat in bed and cried and missed my dad and got really angry that he's not here for all of this. Then I watched Sara Silverman videos and got cheered up. Then I tried to watch the debate, but got depressed by that, so I decided I better just go to bed!

Hide and Seek baby

2008-10-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I had another checkup with my doctor. The last 2 appts I have had to wait between 45-60 mins before they got to me, so I scheduled this one late in the day so as to not impact work. I set it for 4:15 and just skipped lunch. Well, the doctor took an hour again to get to me! I scheduled my next appt for right after lunch, if the same thing happens I am getting a new doctor. I don’t adore the guy, but he is nice enough and answers all my questions and likes to give me an u/s every time I go, which I love. Well, so after sitting for an hour he comes in with a med student in tow. He was just going to check for a heartbeat that day, so he tells me to pull my pants down a bit and they put this microphone thing on my pubic bone. They move it around, but can’t find a heartbeat. The doctor keeps telling me it’s hard to get it sometimes and not to worry and since I have a tilted uterus that makes it worse. I wasn’t worried. So, he takes me to a different room and tries to do a stomach u/s. He again can’t find anything, I’m still not worried, I’m only 11-12 weeks along, so I just figured it was normal. So, at this point he decides to do an internal u/s, still not worried. He moves it around for awhile and tells me it takes time to find the baby sometimes. Then he does and the baby has it’s back to me, so I don’t get as good of a view as last time, but you can totally see it has arms and legs and it’s moving them all around and having a good old time swimming. Then the doctor says – shewww you had me worried. I couldn’t believe it, I had no idea he was worried, I never got worried at all. Kind of funny. I got another u/s pic and you can tell the baby is much larger, but it’s not a great picture. I have my first scan test next week so I will get another u/s. Then I don’t have another appt until the end of the month. I was really pissed for having to wait so long b/c I had plans to run with a friend at 5:30 and I wasn’t able to make it. But I found her and joined her for the rest of the run and got 6 miles in.

I’ve really been feeling pretty shitty for the last 2 weeks. Just extra worn down and I don’t look well. Bags under my eyes, I feel like my hair is just hanging on my head and nothing I put on looks right. It’s great! Such is life. All in all I really like being pregnant, but I hope to feel better soon. I’m running 12 miles on Sat, which will be interesting. I hope I can do it. I have a half marathon scheduled for 10/19, so I am doing the 12 miler to give me confidence I still can. I haven’t ran over 8 miles in over a month.

New pants already!

2008-09-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

Speed Bumps, 5 woman pregnant relay finishing in 3:57! How about that! I only ran a 5K portion so I didn't contribute too much to that kickass time, but I did manage to come in a little under a 10 min/mile and that was my goal. For the most part I didn't feel very good for my run. The hand off section was very congested and confusing so I took off like a bat out of hell and was running at between a 7:56 and 8:30 min pace and trying to slow myself down. I did of course and then had a hard time getting under 9:50ish and I stopped and took a sip at the 2 water stops. I kept trying to get my breathing under control, but for the most part I felt like crap! Oh well. After my run Gary was waiting for me at the hand off area and he and I and Janet (whose team kicked ass!) headed over the the stadium to watch the finish. I found one member of my team and we hung out for awhile while we waited for Laura to finish. Laura's my hero, she is 7.5 months pregnant and ran the 7.6 mile last leg in under 1:10. How amazing is that! I'm glad she organized this it was a lot of fun. If you've never done a relay before, give it a shot, it's very well organized and easy to pull off.
I ran 5 times last week! On Tuesday 3 miles with Gary, Wed 4.5 with Ilana, Thursday 4.5 with Sara and Sat the 3.1 mile leg of the race and Sunday 5 miles with Ilana! I also did my ab DVD twice and my pushups most days. Woohoo. Now if I could get 1 spin class and 2 weights sessions in there (probably drop 1 run) I'd be golden! That's my goal this week, 4 run, 2 bikes, 2 weights.
I had to go buy new pants this weekend, already! I'm not even out of my first trimester yet! I have one more week. It was a truly depressing shopping event. But I did walk away with some good steals on a pair of maternity jeans (although I can still wear some of my jeans!) and some clearance capris and some regular long sleeved tshirts from old navy. I just want to be comfortable right now, I am sick of tugging and pulling on clothes.
Gary and I were walking the dogs on Sat. There is a little trail that runs a few blocks in my neighborhood called the cinder path. There is this little old lady with a wheeled walker who walks up and down the path for 2 blocks and we always stop and say hi to her. Her favorite joke is to say that Taiko looks like her b/c of the wrinkles. So, we're talking and I look down and you know what? Taiko peed on her walker. Seriously, how embarrassing is that? Good thing he's so dang cute!

TV debut

2008-09-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

To keep extending my 5 mins of fame, hahah. Here is a link to a tv spot we did, I'm the redhead.

http://wwwphp.10tv.com/vplayer.php?clip=2008_09_25_Pregnant_Moms_Form_Relay_Team.wmv&site=ONN

Oh and I ran on Thursday too! So I got 3 workouts in a row this week. So far, we have 1 ab workout and 3 runs. I really need to get back into weights asap.I really wanted to go to spinning this morning and didn't. I think I am getting sick. Ugh. The past few days I have just felt really run down and funky. Boo. Not good for the relay race tomorrow, I really want to run well. So, i thought I'd take today off.

Workouts 2 days in a row!

2008-09-24T10:29:00.001-07:00

I finally having something to blog about on my workout blog! Imagine. I worked out! 2 days in a row! So, last night I got home from work and cleaned the house and took the dogs for a walk while Gary worked on grinding up more sticks from the storm. Then we headed out for a 3 mile run! And I actually ran it in under 30 mins. Now to most of you that's nothing. But I have been running a steady 10:30-11 min mile since this pregnancy started. I've also mostly been going out on 6 & 8 milers with my friend who is training for a marathon, so we ran slow and steady. I knew I was only going out for 3 so I tried to kick it up a notch. It was gorgeous out and perfect running weather. We ran from our house up to Shaker Lakes and back. The second half is a steady incline that really got me out of breath. It's amazing how quickly I end up panting now when running. I read it's actually b/c I am taking in more air and my lungs are working more efficiently and harder. Who knew! I was able to do some strides around a 9 min mile. This gives me hope that maybe I can do my 5K Sat in 27 mins. That would make me really happy. I finished the evening off with one of my favorite activities - watching The Biggest Loser! I freaking love that show.

Then I got up this morning at 6 and met my friend Ilana for a 3.5 mile run. This one didn't feel quite as great. I was having some stomach issues though so I will blame it on those. I had to take a few walks breaks near the end b/c I was feeling light headed, I think I will have to eat now before morning runs. When I got home I took Taiko to the vet, he's having kidney problems, which I haven't blogged about, but it's a huge grey cloud in my life, kidney problems usually only get worse and once a dog has kidney problems you pretty much know what will be the end of them. Hopefully we can eek out a few more years with some herbal supplements that were recommended to me. But onto happier subjects. After the vet appt. I drove out to the towpath and met 3 of my other Speed Bump team members and the Ohio news Network did a spot on us. It's supposed to be on tomorrow night for the evening news. Fun! I will get a link to it when I can.

5 mins of Fame

2008-09-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

You can read the article on Team Speed Bump here -http://www.ohio.com/news/29204974.html

I haven't even read the article myself yet b/c of internet filters here at work, grrrr. We all met up for the first time on Thursday night and met the reporter. I hear he took some liberties with the quotes, but all in all it's a good article. It was nice to finally meet my teammates, as I only know one of the other runners - Salty, her blog is in my blogroll, the last one. I think the relay will be a lot of fun and it'll be interesting to see what our time is. I am only running a 5K and am worried about it, I really hope I can pull off under a 10 min mile, it's been so so so long since I've only ran 3 miles. I tend to always run at least 5 or 6 and haven't tried to run fast since I got pregnant, and really not for a long time before that b/c I was marathon training. Not like our time Saturday matters, but it would be nice to have a solid 26 min 5K instead of a 33 min one! But I'll just see how I feel.

I went home this weekend and helped my sister work a booth at the Constitution Square Festival. You can see her wonderful jewelry at www.thefriskyfeather.etsy.com. I beleive she has everything off of her site right now b/c she didn't want to double sell, but check back later. Her booth was a hit, she sold so many scrabble tile pendants and everyone was just raving over her. She really is amazingly talented, I have no crafty skills at all, but she can make cards, scrapbook, knit, make purses, jewelry and so much more. Me? I run! And I read a lot, I can't make anything with my hands! Oh well. I can live vicariously through her and hope to make this an annual event. Next year I will have a baby in the booth with us!