Another Check-Up...

Today I had to go to the doctor's by myself, which I always hate. But I was meeting with Sarah, so I knew I had a shot of getting an ultrasound so I was pumped.

I got to the doctor's and signed in. When I was at the front desk, Sarah saw me and said she was going to see me in the ultrasound room (sweet!). I did the pre-appointment stuff, got called back, got weighed, and waited in the room.

And waited.

And waited.

I waited over a half hour for Sarah to come in to see me. Kate has told me before that since Sarah is so popular and is a talker, you have to constantly wait on her. It got so bad for Kate that she actually stopped seeing her. But I couldn't complain at the moment because I really wanted that ultrasound.

She finally came in and immediately revved up the machine. Because of how big the baby is and how smooshed she is in there, she couldn't get a lot of good pictures. I really wanted to see her face, but she could only see the top of her head (which is frighteningly huge) and kind of a side picture.



It's hard to see, but this is the bottom of her head (she's looking to the left), neck, shoulder, arm, and hand.

This is her heartbeat. If you look at this picture compared to past ones, this one is all baby, where the last ones, you can actually see space around her.



Sarah didn't have her measuring tape, but she felt around with her hands and said I'm right on schedule. I asked if the baby was big for how far along I am, and she said she's really long, which isn't surprising, since both Mike and I are both tall. She also said at our next appointment, they would be checking to see if I was dilated yet, and that she would be the one checking, so it will be cool to see if I'm progressing at all.

Although I had to go by myself AND wait forever, it was still a good appointment since I got to see my little (well...maybe not so little) baby!

Well Hellllooooooooo Dr. Bermeo...

Today we had another check up appointment, and we were scheduled to meet with yet another doctor. This time, we met with Dr. Miguel Bermeo. I had seen him once before when Kate had Sonny, but only in passing when he came in to check on her. But Kate said he was really nice, although she also said that about ManBearPig.

I did the usually pre-appointment stuff and we waited in the room. He came in and right off the bat, had a much more friendly approach then ManBearPig. He asked how we were doing, asked how the pregnancy was going, asked background questions. It was really nice. Then he gave HIS back story. Where he went to school, why he moved to Spokane, etc. He joked around with us a lot, which was awesome. He even cussed. Hilarious!

He made fun of me for writing on my hand (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but if I need to remember something, I always write it on my hand. If I don’t write it down, I’ll forget. If I write it on paper, I’ll lose the paper. It’s a vicious cycle) and listened to the heartbeat. He read my hand and answered all my questions. The main one I had was about the mice infestation we are having at our house.

It’s getting pretty bad. I’m constantly finding mouse poop, and I’m now finding it on our clothes and I found some in the nursery. They’re basically in every room in the house except Mike’s office. I made the mistake of reading on the internet about a virus that if pregnant women get, it can cause mental retardation among other deformities in the fetus. For those that know me, I over think everything and was super freaking out by the time we got to our appointment.

Anyways, Dr. Bermeo explained that although I shouldn’t be freaking out quite as much as I was, I shouldn’t be around the droppings and shouldn’t be the one cleaning them up. Also, we’re having an exterminator come out to the house this weekend, and I can’t be in the house for 2 days after, so I have to stay in town until at least Monday. But I’d rather do that then run the risk of hurting the baby and/or myself.

After putting my mind at ease a little bit, he told me that I need to be drinking more water so the baby stays hydrated and I don’t go into early labor (dehydration can cause contractions) and told a couple funny stories of him getting buried in the snow by snow plows. He also told me signs of when to call the doctor, when to call 911, and when to go straight to the hospital. All that talk made me freak out and realize that this baby is actually coming and we have NOTHING ready.

I liked him a lot, as did Mike. I definitely want to book my appointments with him from now on and I hope he’s on duty when I actually go into labor. We tried to get him for our next appointment, but he’s on vacation for Christmas, so we are seeing Sarah again. I really hope we can get the ultrasound she promised us. I want to see our little baby now that she actually has some fat on her :)

Like a Ton of Bricks...

At almost 8 months along, I think I’m about due for another complaint blog.

Like I said in my “7th Month: Into the Final Homestretch…” blog, things up until that point were pretty smooth sailing. But I swear to God, as soon as I hit 7 months, everything went down hill, and fast.

Let’s go over how sarcastically awesome the past few weeks have been:

1. Boobs: These things are starting to get ridiculous. I am now growing out of my sports bra. They not only are killing my upper back, but they are now starting to fill up with colostrum (the stuff that comes in before milk) so they are super sore. Oh and speaking of colostrum, I am now sexily leaking.

“That must’ve sucked when YOU figured that out, Jamie”, you might be saying.

But oh no. It wasn’t me who discovered it.

It was Mike.

We were cutting the dog’s hair and I had been leaning on the counter. I stood up to hold the dog and Mike says, “Ummm you’re lactating.” I look down and there are two perfectly round wet spots on my shirt. On my LIGHT YELLOW shirt. I say, “Oh no. It’s just water”, since I had been leaning on the bathroom counter (although secretly, I was praying it was water to save me the embarrassment). I went in the other room and checked things out, and it HAD been coming from me. Great. Yes, it was Mike and not some stranger in public, but I think it was more embarrassing for me for him to see it.

My friends who I see every once in awhile always comment on how huge they are getting. Even friends and family that see me almost every day say something. I don’t blame them either. They’re huge. And when I tell them that I’m actually in a sports bra and not a regular one, they freak out even more about how huge they are. Did they really expect me to wear a regular bra when they are already up to my chin?


2. Back (and Front) Pain: This is the worst. The front hurts because everything is stretching out/how she is positioned, and the back hurts because she is knudged right into my sciatic nerve. So not only my back hurts, but it shoots down my entire right leg. It gets so bad, that by mid-morning, I literally can barely walk. And you can forget about nights. I’m holding onto everything from the edge of the bed to countertops just to weeble wobble around the house. I actually stayed home from work one day because I couldn’t move.

The mornings are great though because I’ve been laying down all night. But as soon as I start the process of actually moving around, it all goes to heck.

The front pain isn’t as bad, but it progresses throughout the day like my back does. The pressure she causes on my hoo-ha is almost unbearable. I feel like she’s trying to push her way out, but can’t get through. My doctor gave me this belt thing that I’m supposed to wear to help with that. I waited forever for it, and later found out that it had been sitting in our front door for almost a week (we go through the back door to get in the house). I went into the bedroom and tried this thing on. When Sarah first told me about it, I thought it was going to be like Spanx, where I put it on like underwear and it just holds everything up, but no.

First you have to put this belt thing on that velcros around your waist. Then you put this thing that looks like an ace bandage around your back that velcros to the initial belt you put on. THEN you put a band on that velcros to the back strap that goes across the top of your belly. I got all this on, and thought for a split second (literally) that this thing might actually work. And then it happened.

The back strap flipped over because no matter how straight you stand, the curve of your back causes it to flip in half. Because of this, the Velcro rubs against your skin. And since the Velcro is now on your skin and not on the strap that goes across your belly, the strap then came undone and hit me in the face. Officially done with this torture device.

Here is what it looks like:



See how she's cheating and holding the back part up? That's because if she doesn't, it will flip over and she will get smacked in the face!

I’ve tried it 3 more times after this fiasco, and I last maybe 5 minutes in it. The Velcro on my skin causes a horrible itch, and it just squeezes me way too tight.

I’ve talked to both Sarah and ManBearPig about this, and basically all they say is that it just gets worse from here. All I can do is just enjoy it now, since this is the best of it.

3. Peeing: I expected this to get worse. With the baby growing and constantly kicking my bladder, plus drinking a gallon of water a day, I’m not surprised that I go to the bathroom as much as I do.

But one day, I went 16 times. IN ONE DAY! I go back and forth so much at work, I basically count it as my walk for the day since the bathroom is all the way down the hall. It’s guaranteed that if I have been sitting down for more than 5 minutes, when I stand up, I automatically have to go pee. I now know my pee schedule.

4. Feeling “Stuffed”: With how big the baby is getting, I almost constantly feel like I’m really full. Don’t get me wrong…I get hungry. But when I do eat, even if I’m starving, I can only eat a little bit because my stomach is so small now. I’m constantly taking deep breaths and blowing them out like I’m walking out of a 3 hour visit to Golden Corral. It’s just really uncomfortable.

Speaking of uncomfortable…

5. Baby Spreading Out: She spreads out as much as she possibly can. She digs her feet into my side and her head into my ribs. It’s too the point that I’m breathless even when I’m just sitting.

The cool thing about this is that when she pushes really hard, we can feel the outline of her feet and exactly where her head is. I just wish it didn’t hurt so bad.

7. Heartburn/Nausea: This has only recently gotten bad. For a few nights now, I have been feeling nauseas as I lay down in bed. It usually passes long enough so I can fall asleep. But the other night, I woke up at around 2am and threw up. I talked to my doctor about it, and they said that it's caused by heartburn, which I thought was a little odd, but after they explained it, it made sense. They still want me to take OTC Prevacid for it, but I'm fine with my Tums.

6. Being Gross: This is probably my biggest complaint about pregnancy. I feel unbelievably gross. I’m as big as a house. I know being pregnant, you’re supposed to gain weight, but it’s not like I started off this process small, so it’s just been straight down hill. I try to look sexy or at least nice, but then I get out of the shower or catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and my confidence is just deflated. I can’t wait until I can start working out. Not just for my sake, or my child’s sake, but for Mike’s sake. I feel dumb for this, but I actually feel bad for him that he is with someone that is so huge. I just want to be pretty again. He’s never said anything, and I really doubt he ever would. And maybe it’s all in my head. But I’m really looking forward to being able to exercise and get to the size that I should be.

That’s it for about now, although that seems like a lot. I’m just grumpy today. But I feel better now that I vented. I know when she’s here, I’ll miss being pregnant, but definitely not the things I listed. No no no.

An Experience with ManBearPig...

This had to of been THE shortest doctor’s appointment we’ve ever had.

We waited for the doctor for at least 20 minutes, while the actual appointment lasted less than 3 minutes.

No exaggeration.

Complete let down.

We didn’t really expect to have a long appointment, since usually they go through the usual routine (weight check, blood pressure check, answer any questions I have), and then Sarah comes in, b.s.’s with us for little bit, and checks the heartbeat, but with this being our first appointment with Dr. Silverstein, we expected something a little longer than 3 minutes.

The nurse brought us in, and like usual went through the usual stuff and told us the doctor would be in shortly. A short 20-25 minutes later, Dr. Silverstein came in.

Here is a breakdown of the appointment:

Doctor comes in.

Says hi.

Tells me to lay down.

Measures my stomach.

Feels around and tells us where her head and butt are (which was actually pretty neat).

Sticks the sonogram on my stomach for about 3.5 seconds to hear the heartbeat.

Asks us what we are doing for Thanksgiving.

Tells us to take my file to the front desk and says goodbye.

Doctor leaves.

She says nothing about who she is, asks nothing about who we are, doesn’t even say “Nice to meet you.” It was exactly what I thought it would be with her. Super rushy, because that’s exactly how she was with Kate’s delivery.

Ulgh.

And to top it off, Sarah didn't write in our chart that we were due for an ultrasound, so we didn't get one. They said they would talk to her about it, but they didn't see a reason for us to have one. Maybe I want to see my baby? Hello?!

A funny thing that came out of this appointment though is that Mike calls her ManBearPig because she had a mustache. Hilarious.

Oh well. Next time we meet with Dr. Miguel Bermeo. Hopefully he’ll turn out better and actually have a little bit of a conversation with us.

7 Months...Into the Final Home Stretch!...

Or for all my nerdy Sci-Fi friends, Into the Final Frontier.

Any way you look at it, I’ve hit the 3rd, and final, trimester. So far, every thing has been going pretty smooth. Baby and I are both healthy, I’ve had only a few bumps in the road, but nothing that is out of the ordinary in pregnancy, so it’s been great.

I have heard from multiple books and friends that the 3rd trimester is the worst. Basically everything bad that was experienced in the 1st trimester comes back, along with stuff that I haven’t had the joy of experiencing yet, like major heartburn, hemmoroids, hip pain, insomnia, etc. Hopefully I’ll just skip right past all that stuff, but we’ll see.

Another bit of good news…

I actually have a belly now! It’s not just a roll of sexy, sexy fat. It’s an actual baby belly!

Check Up!...

Today we had our regular every-two-week check up. It was nothing really special. We did find out the results of the glucose testing though. Everything is great! Sarah said that I’m still gaining weight at an awesome rate, and to stick with my water. We were hoping to get in for an ultrasound, but she said that we’d have to wait another half hour, but Mike wanted to get home for the Steelers game and I didn’t really feel like sitting in that room for another half hour (at least), so she said she would just schedule it for next time. We aren’t due for one until next week anyway, so it worked out.

When we went to schedule our next appointment, the appointment lady asked who we would like to schedule it with. Of course, we said Sarah, but she thought it would be a good idea to start meeting with the actual doctors since Sarah is just a nurse and wouldn’t be delivering our baby. So for our next appointment, we will meet Dr. Silverstein, who is the same doctor that delivered Felix for Kate. We’ll see how that goes I guess. I felt she was a bit rushy with Kate, but that could also be because Felix basically fell out of her. I’m hoping she’ll be different in an doctor’s office setting.

Glucose Testing...

At my last doctor's appointment, Sarah informed me that I would be doing a glucose test at my next appointment, and that day was today.

I had talked to a few friends about this glucose test, and they had nothing but bad things to say about it.

"Oh my God, it's so gross."

"It's so thick and disgusting. You literally have to choke it down."

"You just have to make sure not to throw up after you drink it, or you have to go back and do it again. It's horrible."

Oh joy.

After these words of encouragment, I was NOT looking forward to this testing.

I got to the doctor's office, and when I went up to the counter, they handed me a bottle of what looked like orange soda, so it wasn't really that thick. She told me I had to drink it within 5 minutes and bring the bottle back up when I was done. I took it back to my seat, with all the expectant mothers in the waiting room watching me. They would whisper to their significant others, telling them exactly what it was I was doing. One lady actually said, "I wonder if she'll puke." Thanks, Lady Wearing a Tiger T-Shirt from 1984.

I looked at the bottle, wondering if I was going to win this battle that was put before me. I took the cap off, and started chugging. Once I tasted it, I realized that it tasted exactly like orange soda from McDonald's, but with a few 10 extra spoonfuls of sugar thrown in. It was definitely sweet, but nothing that I couldn't handle. It actually made me crave a happy meal. Yes, yes. I am a fat girl. I'm well aware of this.

I drank the orange drink pretty fast, and took the bottle up to the desk. The lady behind the counter actually said, "You're already done? Wow." She wrote the time down and said they'd call me back in a minute. I didn't really know how to take what she said. Do I take it as I should be proud of myself for drinking something so disgusting? Or should it make me worried that I could handle something so sugary?

I got called back and met with Sarah. It was a pretty quick appointment. I didn't have a lot of questions, just mainly freaking out about this test. I asked her if I could take baths, since the house we are moving into has a kick ass huge tub. She said it was perfectly fine and I could take them as hot as I want. I talked to Kate about this later, and she said I shouldn't stay in the bath for too long though.

Sarah told me that I had to be in the lab in exactly an hour, since it's basically a timed test, so they could draw my blood. Again. I made my next appointment and went out to my car. I wasn't there too long, since I didn't know how long I would be waiting at the lab after I turned my paperwork in.

I walked down to the lab, and of course there was a wait, but I had like 20 minutes, so it was no big deal. Time kept creeping closer, and this girl a few years younger than me was talking to the Check-In lady. But she wasn't just giving her her information. She was bullshitting.

Time kept creeping closer.

She's still blabbing away.

Tick tock.

Blab blab blab.

Finally she goes into the room to get her blood drawn and I have 3 minutes to get my blood drawn. I talk to the Check-In lady and she realizes that I'm on a time draw. She tells the ladies drawing blood, and they try to rush through Blah Blah Ditzy Girl, (who I will forever be bitter towards if my test results didn't turn out because she wouldn't shut up) and finally get me in, almost 5 minutes past when I was supposed to get my blood drawn.

I sit down, and OF COURSE, there is a student doing the blood draws. She takes forever setting up, and once again, OF COURSE, can't find my vein. Instead of getting the actual tech, she tries anyway. Now you know how much I hate to get my blood drawn, especially when it's done by idiots. So she stabs me and realizes she misses. Instead of taking the needle out and trying again, she takes the needle out a little, shifts it to the left, and stabs it back in. WHAT?!? AND she missed again! So what did she do? Her little "Take the needle a little ways out and stab it back in again" move. And did she find the vein? NO!!

Finally, she called the tech over. By this time, I'm super uncomfortable, I have been stabbed multiple times with no blood, and time is quickly running out to do this test. I asked the tech if she has enough time to get this test done, and apparently she had a few minutes to spare. Within 10 seconds of her coming into the room, I had a needle in my arm, in a vein this time, and blood was filling up the capsules. Never trust students.

They had to take 9 capsules full this time, 7 to test against the first round of blood draws that I did when I first got pregnant, and then 2 for the glucose test. It was so much fun! Not.

The Big Move...

We finally got all settled into our new house! It’s really beautiful out here. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house on 5 acres, for less than what we were paying for our one bedroom apartment. The only drawback is that it’s way out in Ford, WA, which is an hour out of town. But for awhile now, we have been saying that we wanted to get a house out in the country so we can actually see the stars at night, and now we can.

Although I’m not sure how stoked I’ll be about the drive when we have to fill up the gas tank.

The move itself was exhausting, even though I never lifted a thing. Oh believe me, I wanted to, but Mike would never let me. (I love how protective he is of me.) I DID do a lot of “pick a couple small things up, walk them over to a box, go back and pick a couple more things up, walk them back over to the box”. I swear I walked back and forth across the kitchen and into the living room of our apartment 1,000 times. Elizabeth was PISSED by the time I got done doing that. Even I was getting a little disgruntled with it. At one point, I was getting so frustrated with our crappy packing tape, I threw it and started crying. I tried my best to hide it, but Mike could tell I was frustrated. He was a very good boyfriend and came over and gave me a big hug and told me to relax for awhile.

Overall, it went pretty smoothly. I’d say the only other hang up was having to drive Mike’s parents’ truck so far in and trying to find people to help us with the huge stuff since I can’t lift anything. But now that we are getting settled into the new house, it’s nice. We just have to get my couch from my parents, a bed for the guest bedroom from Mike’s parents’, and the crib from Kate’s house, and we’ll be ready to go :)

Here are some pictures of the house. I took them before we got stuff set up, but I will post some soon…

Here is the guest bathroom



Our awesome kitchen



The living room



Master Bedroom



Master bathroom



Mike's man cave (all that stuff is cleared out of there now. It's Mike's cousin's furniture)



The future nursury



Our house!

Another Doctor's Appointment...

Today I had another doctor's appointment. It wasn't anything really special...or was it?

It was the usual routine. Wait in the waiting room. Pee in a cup. Get called back. Wait in the room. Doctor comes in. Listens to the heartbeat, which was great. Ask if we have any questions. Blah, blah, blah. Enter the awesome part.

Sarah was looking at my chart, and had a look of concern on her face. I asked if anything was wrong, and she looked at me and said, "Do you know that you've only gained 9 lbs. since you got pregnant?" I told her no way, because the amount that I'm eating, there's no way that I could've only gained 9 pounds. Plus, I see myself in the mirror. I'm not blind.

She showed me the chart, though, and low and behold, I've only gained 9 pounds. So she says this to me, "You need to eat more fat. Like ice cream."

Aaaaand I love you.

Could words more awesome than that ever be uttered? I submit that they cannot.

So after the appointment, Mike and I stopped by the store and picked up some ice cream.

This pregnancy just went from awesome to super FANTASTIC.

Mike finally felt the baby!...

Mike FINALLY got to feel the baby today! He’s been getting really frustrated, since I’ve been feeling her move and shake for awhile now, and he still couldn’t feel her. He’s tried pretty much every day to feel her, and still came up with nothing. This morning, I had him lay his head on my belly, and he finally felt her move. She wasn’t moving at first, but he said, "I don't think she's going to move for me", and she kicked him right in the head. I really think that she recognizes his voice. He laid there for awhile and felt her move again. He was really excited. I love whenever I feel her. If she doesn’t move for awhile, I pat my stomach and start talking to her, and she’ll give me a little kick or flutter. It gives me such a motherly feeling that she knows my voice and responds to it. And now Mike gets to experience it too! :)

Another measurement appointment...

We had another ultrasound today! This one was a follow up to our first appointment when they couldn’t get all the measurements they needed because she was still a little small. We went into the ultrasound room, and, once again, she was moving like crazy as soon as she came up on the screen. You could see instantly that she had gotten bigger. I was hoping to see her face a lot, but the ultrasound tech was focused on getting the measurements she needed for the doctor to see, so we didn’t get to see a lot of her close up. I asked the ultrasound tech to make sure that Elizabeth was in fact still a girl, because ever since we found out the sex, women had told me MULTIPLE stories about how they were told that their baby was one gender and then popped out the other. She chuckled, and was happy to double check for us. Elizabeth is definitely still a girl!



The tech did some 3D pictures as well. While I was watching on the screen, I really had no idea what we were looking at. But every time the tech moved the little wand thingy, she kept saying, “Oh how cute! Oh my gosh that’s adorable! Awww, look at that!” Seriously, I saw nothing. Just blobs. I just kinda smiled and nodded like I knew what the hell she was seeing. When she printed out the pictures for us, I finally saw what she was talking about. I still think Elizabeth looks like a gummy bear, but that’s just because she doesn’t have any fat on her yet. It’s still all clinging to me, which is sarcastically awesome. Although we didn’t see a lot of her face, we did see a lot of her body. They took really great pictures of her legs and her hand. And by the one picture she took of her face, you can tell that she has Mike’s chin and nose. Mikey thinks she has my ears, which is cool, but I don’t think Mike has big ears at all, so either is fine by me.







This one she really looks like a little gummy bear.





This is the one that she really looks like Mike. That is totally his nose.

The Most Lamest Doctor's Appointment...

Today we had another checkup appointment. After our last appointment, which was awesome (see “The Most Awesome Doctor’s Appointment”), we thought that we were going to have another great appointment. Wrong. This appointment was your classic Lame-O.

First, we found out that our regular cool doctor (Sarah) doesn’t work on Thursdays, which when we made our appointment and requested her, you would think that the scheduler would’ve told us that she has Thursdays off. So we had LeAnn, the first lady that met with us. This time she was very rushy-rushy. She came in, was very formal and straight to the point, listened to the baby’s heartbeat for like 2 seconds, measured my stomach, and asked if there were any problems. I mentioned that I had been having really bad cramps, and she asked how much water I had been drinking. I said around 4 glasses a day, and she made a disappointing sound. She told me that I need to be drinking a gallon of water a day. That’s right, a GALLON.

After getting over the initial shock of the amount of water I was now required to drink a day, I asked her some other questions I had, like when to make the birthing plan, when to do the testing for spinal bifida/down syndrome, etc. Because of that last question, she then sent me to the hospital to have blood drawn. Oh joy. There are few things I hate more than to have a huge needle stuck in me. And this one hurt a lot. We have to wait for our next doctor’s appointment to hear the results, so of course, my mind has been racing. But Mike says no news is good news, which I hope is the case.

Overall, this appointment was way lame. We were rushed through, it was really impersonal, I now have to drink a butt load of water every day, no surprise ultrasound, AND I had to get blood drawn. Dumb dumb dumb.

No More Nickel!...

Today we had our appointment to see if our little baby was a boy or a girl. After the ultrasound tech looked for quite awhile (our baby’s a mover), we found out that it’s a girl! She is officially Elizabeth Katie Marie Roberts.

While the ultrasound tech was looking around, she had to take some measurements and make sure all the internal organs were in order. She took a TON of pictures (which is always great!).

















This one is my favorite. You can really tell she has Mike's chin and nose, and you can see her little eyelashes.



She went to show the doctor her findings, but he said that our baby was still a little too small to make any judgments, so we have to go back on October 1st, which is fine by me since that just means we get to see our little girl again :)

Halfway There...

Today I have hit the halfway point! 4 1/2 months down, 4 1/2 months (hopefully) to go.

So far, so good on the baby homefront. Not TOO many things to complain about, but there are some:

Cramps - still going strong. But they are much more painful at this point. I had to actually call my doctor this week just so I wouldn't freak out more than I already was. She asked if I had been bleeding or had any fever or chills. I said no, and she said that it was more than likely something called Round Ligament Pain. It's from the baby growing and my stomach 'muscles' (c'mon...we all know I barely have any of those) stretching out to make room for him/her. But it's ridiculously painful. Sometimes 'make me hunch over and make a noise' pain. And my back isn't any better. It feels as if the baby stretches as far as it can from hip to hip, then shifts around and stretches from front to back, just to make sure it's covering all areas.

Emotions - ask Mike about this one. He LOVES it. (Sarcasm font) Seriously, anything slightly sad/emotional/tug at my heart strings makes me cry like crazy. The other day at work, I was reading something on Yahoo! about this documentary called The Cove (so good. Watch it) and about how all these dolphins are getting slaughtered. Could not stop crying. And I sit right in front of the office, so no matter who comes in, they see me, and whenever anyone needs to walk to anything in the office, they walk past me as well. So all they can see is this blubbering pregnant lady. I literally had to think about baseball to make myself stop. It was like I was a 12 year old boy in English class with a boner.

Boob Pain - This is almost as bad as the cramps. Sometimes the pain in my boobs doubles me over and I'm left clutching them, begging them to stop throbbing. Then I stand up straight and realize I'm in public, looking like I'm molesting myself. Ca-lassy.

Lack of Energy - This only happens near the end of the day. At work, I'm 'Go-Get-Em' and ready to take on the day. Then I get home and just want to sit and do nothing. Maybe paint a bit, but ulgh. Exhausting.

Weirdo Dreams - These are insane. Sometimes they will be awesome, where I'm rich and can fly and can be invisible. But most of the time, they are indescribable and a bit scary. Like I'll dream that Mike got hurt, or like one time, I dreamt that I was trying to hold the baby, but couldn't because my fingers were made of forks, so I was doomed to a life of never getting to hold it. Horrible. And very odd.

But with the bad, come the very good:

Baby Movements - Whenever I have a bit of caffiene, or milk, or lay down in bed at night, I can feel the baby moving around. I love that feeling. It makes me feel like such a mom, but Nickel's not even here yet. I try every time to see if I can feel it on the outside, but my doctor said that probably won't happen until 23 weeks. I feel bad mentioning it to Mike, because he is a little jealous that I can feel Nickel and he can't, so I'm counting down the weeks to when we can both feel the baby.

Hard Belly - This last week, I felt like my belly grew overnight. And not just from the enchiladas I had. My lower stomach had definitely hardened up a bit from the baby, and I love it. I can't stop pushing on it. I was laying on my stomach on my bed the other day and it felt like I had a rock in my belly. And at night, it now kinda hurts to sleep on it, so I have to adjust and learn to sleep on my side (which I hate). I had my dad feel how hard my stomach was getting, and he said, "Maybe that's just some muscles that you didn't know about." I proceeded to laugh for 20 minutes, and then high-five my dad for being such a comedian. But Mike likes to put his hand on my stomach when we're laying in bed about to fall asleep. There are few things I love more in the world then when he does that.

Although it seems that the bad outweigh the good, I absolutely love being pregnant. We have our appointment this Wednesday to find out the sex of the baby and we are both extremely excited for that. We are also moving into a house mid-October, so we can actually decorate a nursery for the baby :) I can't wait to decorate and get everything ready to welcome our little baby into the world.

The Most Awesome Doctor's Appointment...

Today we had another doctor's appointment. It was supposed to be just a regular check up, but it turned into something much more awesome. We got called back, and I got weighed. I had lost 3 pounds. The fat girl part of me was STOKED, because that is how I react any time I lose any amount of weight. But the pregnant girl part of me was nervous if that was bad or not. We got back to the room and waited a few minutes. Sarah, our RN, peaked her head in and said, "I've had a bunch of no-shows today and want to see a baby. You guys want an ultrasound?" Uh, hell yes. We got moved to a room with an ultrasound machine and Mike and I got super excited. Any time we get to see the baby is great! She came in and started the ultrasound. As soon as the baby came up on the screen, it was dancing and moving around like crazy! She took a bunch of pictures for us:







This one, the baby is looking right at the camera. I love my baby, but it's kinda creepy in this picture. Very alien-ish.



And this one you can see it's little hand



After looking around for about 20 minutes, she said, "well, you know, don't put money on this, but this looks like a girl." At first, we were a little disappointed, because we would both like a boy, but we are both getting perfectly ok with having a little girl run around.

She got me cleaned up, and asked me if I was still throwing up. I said no and that I was feeling fine. She said she was wondering since I had lost some weight, and that I need to eat more. Ah, music to a fat girl's ears. Then we talked about the headaches I had been getting, and she suggested that I drink more caffiene. Ah, music to a Starbucks junkie's ears. She then told us that we could make our next appointment, which will be to find out the sex of the baby! It's on September 8th and we can't wait.

All in all, this was a great appointment. We got to see our little baby, I get to eat more, and drink more caffiene. Totally awesome!

14 weeks...The End of a Trimester...

This last Saturday marked the 14th week of my pregnancy, and the end of the first trimester. And I honestly couldn't be happier about it. I have no more nausea, except when I see, hear, or think of chicken. Also, I have most of my energy left. Not all of it though. I'm still pretty exhausted by the end of the day. We have another doctor's appointment on the 12th, and I'm excited to hear the heartbeat. Plus, it means that we are only one month away from finding out the sex of the baby, and both Mike and I are BEYOND excited for that!!

But I need to enjoy the energy and the 'normal' feeling while I can. I have heard that it all comes back during the third trimester. The only bad thing is that now that my nausea is gone, I feel like I could eat a horse. I'm trying to keep that under control, but I do love my chocolate.

**SIDENOTE**
Do not be confused by the picture. The bottom bump is the actual baby bump. The top "bump", however, is just fat. Before getting pregnant, I was a fat girl, so it makes me look further along than I am. But alas, it's just the cookies that I enjoy so much.

The best vacation ever...

This weekend, we had our last vacation without baby. We decided to go to the lake for a long weekend of sun and relaxation. We headed out to the lake on Thursday night, and after stopping by the store for supplies, we got there around 8pm. There was a big thunderstorm building up, so we sat on the dock with our feet in the water and watched the lightning show. It wasn't as spectacular as the clouds made it look before it got dark, but there were a couple good ones. We went back to the cabin and sat on the deck for a few hours and just talked and looked at the stars.

The next day, Mike woke up early and went fishing. He caught a couple big fishes and a lot of smaller ones. After realizing that we were on vacation and could enjoy some coffee (Mike gave it up since I can't have a lot of caffiene), we headed into town (Newport) and saw that they had a Starbucks! It was awesome. We sat on the deck all morning, enjoying our coffee, reading, and enjoying the morning sunshine. After awhile, we went down to the beach, where Mike continued fishing and I read with my feet in the water. Mike's parents came out around 1pm and we took turns fishing off the dock. His mom actually caught a little baby fish



and Mike got to swim with Rosco



That night, we had the best dinner ever. Huge steaks, sauteed mushrooms, broccoli salad, and garlic bread. For dessert, it was banana splits :) Mike, me, and his dad took the boat out in the evening and did some swimming and fishing. Mike caught a pretty big fish



The next morning, Mike and his dad woke up really early and went fishing...again. Mike caught a big brown fish



I, once again, spent the day with my feet in the water and reading. Mike's parents were leaving that afternoon, so Mike and I took the boat out to do some swimming in the middle of the lake. Mike decided to try to do a flip off the boat



look how cute he is :)




and we took some pictures before they left





On Sunday, we went fishing again and I caught a few fish! One big one (notice how I'm actually holding it in it's mouth)



and a little one



The rest of the weekend went perfectly. We spent our days in the sun and our nights under the stars. It was very romantic and the perfect last vacation. Plus I finished two books!

Grandparents' Names...

Both Mike's parents and mine have decided what they would like to be called by Nickel. Well, to be truthful, Mike's mom picked hers, Mike picked his dad's, and I picked my parents, but hey, who's keeping track.

Mike's parents will be 'Grammy' and 'Pop Pop'. Mike's mom picked 'Grammy' because it rhymes with 'Tammy' (her name), and Mike picked 'Pop Pop' because Mike and his brother call him 'Pop'.

My parents will be 'Grampie' and 'Nonnie'. I picked those because that's what I call my grandparents on my dad's side. Mom's not so pumped about being called 'Nonnie', but I gotta push Nickel out of me, so I get to say what she's called. So there.

Baby Names...

We actually have tentatively decided on some names. If it’s a boy, it will be Nicholas after my dad. If it’s a girl, it will be Elizabeth because I have always loved that name, and it is also Mike’s sister’s middle name. Mike gets to pick the middle name for the boy, but he’s still trying to think of one. I think he is waiting to find out if it actually is a boy, because if it’s not, then he wasted time thinking of one. (Not that he said that…that’s just my opinion.) If it’s a girl, her middle name will be Katie Marie. Katie after my best friend, and Marie because it’s both mine and my mom’s middle name. Since the name will either be Nicholas or Elizabeth, I decided to start calling the baby Nickel, until we find out the sex in September. That way, I can stop saying ‘it’, and you won’t think I’m crazy when I keep saying ‘Nickel’ over and over again.

Second Doctor's Appointment/Ultrasound...

Today we had our second doctor’s appointment. I had to change our time and day a couple times because Mike was leaving for Superior, MT for a softball tournament earlier than he expected, so we had to schedule with a different nurse practitioner. Mike was hesitant about this, but I thought it was good since Women’s Health is a practice with a bunch of different nurse practitioners and doctors, and you never know who is going to be on call when you go into labor. So it’s good to get to know as many of them as you can so a stranger isn’t delivering your baby. We got to the office, and it was the typical routine. Pee in a cup (which I have down to an art form), wait for them to call you back to a room, and sit in the room and wait forever. The room they took us back to was different this time, and we were a little worried that we weren’t going to have the ultrasound as promised. But there was ultrasound goo in the room, so we were confused. We were in the room awhile waiting for our new chick, named Sarah, so we had time to look around the room. They had a little table set up with different testing and poking and proding instruments on it. I didn’t want one of ‘those’ appointments again, so I was hoping that stuff wasn’t for me. One of the testing things on the table was something called Colonscreen. I prayed to GOD this wasn’t for me. Of course, Mike was giggling like a little kid. Also in the room, there were what I like to call vagina action figures, but they are just the 3D version of a vagina for educational purposes. The purposes of these vagina action figures were to show the different types of birth control. I explained each of them to Mike, and he didn’t like the idea of any of them, especially the IUD. Sarah finally came in and joked around with us. Mike was wearing one of his Steelers shirts and she told him she can’t be our nurse if he’s a Steelers fan. I liked her a lot. She told me to lay back so we could hear the baby’s heartbeat with the doppler (which explained the ultrasound goo), but I stopped her. I told her about how during our last ultrasound, LeAnn saw what could’ve been another baby, so Sarah immediately moved us to an ultrasound room. Mike and I were excited to see our baby again, but nervous to see if we did in fact have twins. Sarah came in and lubed up my belly. She couldn’t get a very good picture, so she started to undo my pants and said, “Bet you’ve never had a girl undo your pants before.” See? Funny. Anyways, she got a better picture and we saw our little baby jumping around, but she still couldn’t be sure if it was another baby or not. She decided to send us to a super-duper ultrasound place so we would know for sure. They couldn’t get us in until later that afternoon, so I just took the rest of the day off. We ran some errands and went back to Deaconess. It was in the same place that Kate had to get her gallbladder looked at a couple of years ago. The girl doing the ultrasound was very sweet, and even said she was going to try to the 3D ultrasound (awesome!) She started through my stomach, which meant that I couldn’t use the bathroom forever and the extra pressure on my bladder almost made me explode. She said that she could get a clearer picture if she used the vaginal probe, so she had me insert it (which was odd) and instantly we saw our baby clear as day. It was wiggling around like crazy, which made me cry. Mike was asking a bunch of questions, and it was then I realized that Mike thought the baby was just floating around inside my uterus all willy nilly and didn’t know about the umbilical cord. I thought it was very cute.

She tried to do some 3D pictures, but they just looked like a little blob. The 2D ones were much clearer. We could make out its entire body, including its huge head, which scared me. Mainly because I know how big Mike’s head is. She told us that there is definitely only one baby in there, and as far as they could tell they couldn’t see anything else, which was very good news, but she said to call the doctor tomorrow after they had reviewed the ultrasound just to make sure. She put the pictures on the disc
for us and sent us on our merry way.

I called the doctor’s office the next day, and they told us everything looked perfect. They said that the blood clot probably just dissolved on its own since it didn’t show up on the super duper ultrasound. We were both very happy about this, and got some cool pictures in the process.

Complaint Department...

This blog entry is my complaint department. Although I absolutely love being pregnant, and can’t wait to be a mom, there are some areas of pregnancy that are a bit annoying. Yes, I am grateful for the position I’m in, but there are just a few things that get on my nerves. Mainly because I can’t control them. So here, for your reading pleasure, is what I like least about being pregnant:

1. Cramps – like you wouldn’t believe. It feels like I’m about to start my period any time now, but way worse. Being on birth control, I never really had cramps. The day I was supposed to start, I’d get a minute of cramps then start my period later that day. But this is an every day, almost all day thing. Especially if I move the wrong way or lift something. It feels like my uterus is tearing, even though my doctor says it’s normal and that it’s just my uterus stretching. Oh yea, JUST my uterus STRETCHING. No big deal. I call b.s.

2. Breakouts – I have been breaking out like a 12 year old girl. And only in certain spots. Every other week, I’ll have one in the middle of my forehead (awesome). Then I have a huge cluster of zits on my chin to the right of my mouth. I catch people looking at them while they talk to me. I want to say, “Yes, I realize that I have a huge pile of zits on my face. YOU need to realize that I have a baby inside me causing this. Eyes up buddy.” Once they start going away, then a cluster of mountains start again. They don’t start small either. They are instantly huge.

3. Beyond Gigantic Boobs – now for those that know me, you know that before I got pregnant, my boobs were not small by any means. How do you think I got pregnant in the first place? (Thank you! Thank you! I’ll be here all night. Tip your waitress.) But now, it feels like I have two VERY large bean bags sitting on my chest. When I lay on my back, they almost hit me in the face. I thought that I would have some leeway on my boobs getting bigger, but it happened almost as soon as the positive sign came up on the pregnancy test. I can’t hide them or tape them down, because they hurt so much. Nor can I lay on my stomach because they actually hold my upper body up. I’ve grown out of the very pretty bras that Kate bought me for my birthday and have already had to buy a new sports bra. God help me when I get into the 3rd trimester and the milk really starts coming in.

4. Backaches – this comes from a combination of my crappy chair at work and my huge boobs, neither which I can do anything about. Joy.

5. Constant Peeing – I am ALWAYS going to the bathroom. I counted the other day while I was at work, and I went 9 times. That’s more than once an hour. I get up at least twice in the night, and that’s after I stop drinking water an hour before I go to bed and go right before I lay down. Kate’s husband Jesse warned us to invest in toilet paper. He wasn’t kidding.

6. Highly Emotional – before I got pregnant, I would always give Kate a hard time about crying about pretty much nothing. Mainly commercials (but Kate didn’t need a baby in her belly to do that.) Now, it takes a baby on tv or a slightly sad moment for me to cry like someone just died. I watched an episode of Deadliest Catch the other day, and I was sobbing. Not just crying, but shoulder heaving, making weird noises sobbing. I’m just glad I got to the bathroom before Mike saw me.

7. Fatigue – as annoying as it is to be tired all the time, I don’t really mind it. I get to nap without guilt, go to bed early, and sleep in super late on the weekends. Actually, now that I think about it, cross this one off the list. This one is pretty awesome.

Cravings and Aversions...

So far in the pregnancy, I’ve had more cravings then aversions (shocking, coming from a fat girl, I know). I’ve always been a little weird when it comes to craving food. Instead of craving taste, I always have craved HOW to eat the food. Like if I’m craving a hamburger or a sandwich, it’s because I’m craving holding the food in my hand and eating it. If I’m craving spaghetti, it’s because I need to twirl the fork. Super weird, I know. But now, I definitely crave tastes. Sweet, salty, whatever.
Here is a list of the things I can’t live without:



1. Ho Ho’s - yes, these chocolatey logs of Heaven were my first real craving. Mike had a softball game at Franklin Park, and I was asked by one of his teammates to get some water from the concession stand. As I was standing in line, I saw the glorious Ho Ho’s and they sounded good, so I got one. After about 15 minutes, I went and got another one. 20 minutes after that, I got another one. The count is now at 3, but it doesn’t stop there. 5 separate times I went to the concession stand and bought a Ho Ho. Thank God I am friends with the guy that works there and he knows I’m pregnant.



2. Olive Garden Salad - Although I haven’t had the chance to get this yet, I want it so bad I can taste it. As those of you who are Facebook friends with me well know, I could kill someone for this salad. The mixture of dressing, red onions, tomatoes, cheese, and those wonderful croutons could drive anyone crazy. Especially me.




3. Brownies - I told Deborah (who I like to call my Work Mom) that brownies sounded delicious one day, and, magically, the next day, she had some brownies for me (she takes very good care of me…hence the nickname). I am not joking when I say that these were the best thing I have ever eaten in my life. Not just because they were baked perfectly, but just the chocolate and the crumbliness…sweet Jesus. Soooooo good.

And here is the one thing that I absolutely cannot stand:

1. Chicken - yes, chicken. I used to love chicken. Now just the thought of it makes me sick to my stomach. I don't even want to post a picture of it, just because it will make me gag. It happened over July 4th weekend, when we went out to a lake cabin with Mike’s sister and a bunch of her friends. It was a super blast, and each couple took turns cooking meals. One of the couples made macaroni and cheese and bbq’d chicken. I don’t know if it was the way it was cooked, or what it was marinated in, but it instantly turned me off to it. Icky.

That is all the cravings and aversions I’ve had so far. If any more come up, I’ll be sure to let you know!

The Joys of Morning Sickness...

Morning sickness for me hasn’t really been that bad. I feel bad complaining at all, knowing what my best friend Kate went through with both of her sons. I’ve dry heaved a lot. And by a lot, I mean A LOT. But I’ve only really thrown up once. On the softball field. Because I’m classy like that.

90% of my sickness has been just super-strength nausea. It feels like I have puke right in my chest, ready to spring at any moment, but it just never comes. And it doesn’t limit itself to just the morning. It did at first, but now, I can wake up feeling awesome in the morning, go through my day, then at about 2pm, it hits me like a brick wall. I stand over a toilet or lean over the trash can at my desk, just waiting for it to come, but it never does. I find that 7up and saltines are my savior. I felt crappy one day before a softball game, and ended up drinking an entire 2-liter of 7up during the course of the game. And honestly, it made me feel better.

I really thought at first I’d glide through this pregnancy with zero morning sickness. My mom never had any with either me or my sister, but all it took was Mike making a pineapple marinade, and BOOM! Hello morning sickness! So, to sum up, it’s all Mike’s fault :)

First Ultrasound!

Today was our first ultrasound!

We went to the doctor's office and sat in the room for what felt like forever. All the poking and proding instruments were laid out, but I didn't see the speculum (the "wonderful" instrument that spreads ladies open during their OB/GYN visits), so I got excited because I thought it meant that I didn't have to get poked and proded. I was also very excited because the ultrasound machine was in the room, and I was stoked to see my little baby. I changed into my gown, and while I was finishing putting it on, the door swings open and Mrs. Pupo was standing there with a huge smile on her face. (Mrs. Pupo is the mom of a girl I coached at Gonzaga years ago, so I was a little shocked to see her) She was very excited for me, told me congratulations, and left. I was just glad she didn't open the door 2 seconds earlier and seen me in all my glory.

LeAnn came back in, and she had me lay down on the table. She turned the lights off and had Mike come stand next to me. She first tried to see the baby through my stomach, but it wasn't coming in clear enough, so she decided to do it vaginally. They have this probe looking thing, so she went to the cupboard and grabbed, of all things, a condom, slammed it on there, and issued this following statement:

"Now this doesn't have nerve endings, and I don't have a penis, so if I slam it around to hard, you need to let me know."

How reassuring.

She inserted it, and a picture popped up on the window. Almost instantly, we could here a heartbeat. And almost instantly, I started crying. She pointed out my ovaries, and miscellaneous girly parts, and then she said the magic words. "There's your baby!" I wish I could play that moment over and over again. Mike grabbed my hand and I looked at him. He had the biggest, proudest smile on his face, which made me cry more. I looked back at the screen and couldn't look away. LeAnn kept looking around, which she was definitely right about not knowing how hard she was moving that thing around, when I asked if there was only one baby in there. Long pause. "Weeeeeeeeeellll...there's definitely something else there, but I can't tell if it's a blood clot, or another baby." A-what? Now twins run like crazy through my family, but hearing it said aloud by a doctor is mind boggling. She said she would keep an eye on it and if it was a blood clot, it was nothing to worry about. Mike ignored this, and asked a ton of questions, which I thought was very sweet. She said that at our next doctor's appointment, we would have another ultrasound to see if that little speck would turn out to be just a blood clot or another baby. I'm excited because it just gives me another excuse to see my baby (or babies...yikes!)

After she was done with the ultrasound, she was super sneaky, and pulled out that damn speculum, and proceeded to poke and prode me. It was odd having someone else in the room while this was going on, as it is usually just my doctor and me when I have my annual. But it's nothing Mike hasn't seen before, I guess. She got done, and told me to get dressed. She left, and as soon as the door clicked shut, Mike bum rushed me with the biggest hug and kiss he has ever given me. He said that none of this really sank in until he heard his baby's heartbeat. I love him so much.

I scheduled my next appointment and was instructed to go downstairs and have my blood drawn, which I hate. The girl was extremely nice, and tried to be gentle. I had NO idea they had to take that much blood. 7 VILES!! And with every one, she pushed the needle in more, as if the location of the needle wasn't deep enough, so she had to dig it even deeper into my skin. She FINALLY got done, and then I had to pee in a cup. Oh joy. I figured out that I am NOT good at this.

My next doctor's appointment is July 15th, and I can't wait to see my baby again!