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!