Pregnancy
Shhh…
Sep 30th
Ryan and I have an ultrasound coming up on Monday, where we will hopefully find out the sex of this little baby. I am beyond excited for this, and yet a little scared about what it means. I don’t know anything about being a parent, other than what I read. And I’m pretty sure any parent will tell you (or me) that reading is not at all the same. Time seems to be flying by…it’s already October 1st tomorrow, and in just a few weeks we are going on vacation, and then it will be Thanksgiving, and then Christmas and then it’s already January and the baby comes in February! And we aren’t ready. We don’t have most of the stuff that we’ll need (like a place for the baby to sleep), and the one thing we already have isn’t put together (the dresser for the baby’s room). Although hopefully that will be remedied by this weekend.
I know, logically, that we have plenty of time, and that it will all come together and be fine. But there’s a difference between “knowing” something logically will be ok, and feeling ok about it. You know? Plus, I like to have things done. And it seems like there is so much we can’t do yet. We have been offered a lot of hand-me-down items from my sisters, which is great. But we won’t have them at our place until Thanksgiving, which seems like it is so far away. And since I don’t know what exactly is included in the list or what they look like it’s hard to get my head around decorating.
I guess I am just feeling a little overwhelmed today. Don’t get me wrong – I am actually really enjoying pregnancy. I feel really good most of the time, and I’ve been very lucky to not experience some of the more miserable parts of pregnancy that many women go through. And now that my belly finally popped a little I actually look pregnant instead of looking like I don’t go to the gym often enough (well, I probably still look like that – who am I kidding). I just wish there was more I could do or already had done.
Ugh. I’m sure I’ll feel better later on today. I think Ryan and I are going on a movie date tonight (I got a gift certificate to the local theater for my birthday from my coworkers). That will definitely cheer me up. Now if we can only decide on a movie!
Actual Conversation
Sep 18th
Between Ryan and myself:
me: Do you think there’s room in our budget for me to hire a small child to walk around behind me pushing on my back? Because that feels good (the pushing on my back, not hiring a small child)
Ryan: hmmm
me: We’d have to find a genius child though, so it would be ok if they missed school
Ryan: Ooh, that might push it beyond our budget
me: Dangit. I never get what I want!
Ryan: Maybe an above average kid??
The Big Day
Sep 2nd
We had our 16 week appointment today. The baby’s heartbeat is still a healthy 150bpm, and he/she is hanging out on my left side. We also were able to schedule our anatomy ultrasound, which is extremely exciting, as we are hoping to find out what we are having at that point. The “big” ultrasound is scheduled for October 5th, and I’m sure time will fly until then.
There are a couple new pregnancy things I’ve noticed. I have been having trouble sleeping because my hips have been aching pretty badly. I asked the Dr about it, and she said that it is round ligament pain – all my ligaments are loosening up to make room for the baby as it grows. And it hurts. I’m glad to know what it is, though – hopefully it will be temporary, and she said some extra strength Tylenol should help a little.
The other thing is that I am pretty sure I’ve felt a couple kicks (or maybe they are elbows). They are really light, but they are centrally located right around where the baby is, and I don’t count anything that I feel when I’m “gassy” or whatever. It’s exciting, but I’m nervous that I’m fabricating it just because I WANT to feel the baby moving. But I’m 99% sure that’s what it is. It should get stronger and more regular in the next few weeks, so I should be able to confirm for sure soon enough.
I’m almost completely grown out of my regular pants. I have one pair of jeans that still fit, but they won’t stay that way for long. Shirts are mostly ok, although I’ve noticed the few maternity shirts I have are much more comfortable because they are longer, so I don’t need to keep pulling them down over my pants. LOL.
Ryan and I are staying in town and dog-sitting this weekend, and I’m hoping to use the free time to get what will be the baby’s room mostly cleaned out. There’s a desk, bookshelf and tv stand in there that need to be taken out, and the dresser we bought needs to be assembled and put in there. Here’s hoping we have the motivation to get it done!
Holy Ikea, Batman!
Aug 31st
Ryan and I put the truck to good use this weekend. On Saturday we helped our friend Sam haul a bunch of garbage and yard waste (4 trips in all) to the local waste disposal sites. It was fun to do “yard work” stuff, even though we were just picking up from all the work he had already done. And now we told Sam he’ll have to invite us over for a bonfire in his yard before winter comes! It was very smelly out at the composting site, and so we all smelled a little when we went for lunch afterwards (we had to make it to our favorite Chinese restaurant before their lunch special ended, so no time for showers). But it was a fun afternoon.
That evening we had a fantasy football live draft party at the casino in Hinckley. Last year I took second place in the league (the only other girl in it won the whole thing), but I have a feeling I won’t do as well this year. But, it’s fun to participate, and I like football anyway. After the party we went down to Ryan’s parents’ place for the night.
On Sunday we drove down to Ikea. And holy cow, did we get a lot of stuff. Ok, maybe not as much as the guy who bought like 5 pieces of furniture, but we did get a bookshelf, a dresser, 2 frames for photos for the livingroom to hang on the wall, some baskets for storage, and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff. It was an expensive trip, but it’ll be nice to have the extra storage, and something for the baby’s room (that’s what the dresser is for). I’ve been itching to start putting stuff in there. Thankfully we had the truck, because that stuff would have never fit in the Echo we usually drive. LOL. Tonight’s project is to assemble furniture and move things around to get it all to fit where we want it.
So yah, we had a great weekend, but it was very busy. Not real relaxing. Luckily, we will have a nice long weekend here to make up for it. We’ll be dog sitting for Sam, but otherwise I think the plan is just to hang out around the house. Sounds fabulous to me!
Remember the time our apartment revolted against us and it ruined Monday?
Aug 25th
I have more pictures to upload of camping with my family and the awesome and beautiful and super-fun wedding we went to last weekend. But in the meantime…
Holy crap! Week 15 already. Apparently the baby is the size of an apple (are we talking big granny smith or little red delicious? Because there’s a difference, you know). And if we shine a flashlight on my belly, supposedly the baby will move away from it (which would seem like a mean thing to do, if the baby doesn’t like it, so we’ll probably skip that one). Our next appointment is next week, and should just be a basic one, but the one after that is the BIG REVEAL. Well, hopefully it will be the big reveal. Babies are known to be stubborn creatures, and we might have a shy one. Who knows? But it’s exciting to look forward to anyway. Unfortunately, I don’t think the appointment will be before we head up north for Oktoberfest, so we won’t be able to tell people that weekend. But shortly after that, hopefully!
“Morning sickness” has mostly gone away. I can eat food, and there are more and more things that sound appetizing, so that’s a plus. Of course that means that I’ve started to gain some weight too. That was a little frightening when I stepped on the scale (I only check every couple weeks or so), but acording to BabyCenter I’m about on track, so that made me feel better.
So, you are probably wondering about the blog post title, huh? We’ve had quite the interesting last couple days in regards to our apartment. First, let me say right out front that I like where we live, and these are the first real issues we’ve had there. So I’m not complaining about the building or anything – it just seemed to all pounce on us at once.
We got home on Sunday from a great weekend in Bemidji, and came into the kitchen to see that the stuff on the table was damp and a couple things sitting on it had standing water on them. And the floor had obviously been wet recently but was mostly dry in the open areas. “Hmm…this is odd,” we thought. So then I walked into the bathroom, and one of the ceiling tiles (we have a dropped ceiling in there) had fallen into the bathtub, and another one is buckling, but still up at the ceiling. And the rug is sopping wet. Um…great. So Ryan called the property manager (who is a friend of ours) and told him, and he told us that apparently the people upstairs from us had some water backup issues over the weekend. The water must have leaked in the floor and then gotten our apartment all wet. So we have that mess to clean up, although I guess it really isn’t that bad. I just whine a lot/am lazy.
So then we came home from work yesterday and the fridge door was open. And MAYBE Ryan didn’t push it closed enough when he grabbed his breakfast out of there, but we both think he did (although we weren’t watching that closely). But combined with the fact that a couple weeks ago we woke up and our freezer door was standing open and we KNOW it was closed when we went to bed it seems suspicious. We felt bad about bugging our friends again, though (did I mention they are due to have a baby TOMORROW? I’m so excited for them, and it definitely makes me feel even worse about saying anything about the apartment. LOL). So, we didn’t call then. I think Ryan’s going to talk to him today at work.
Anyway, after the water mess and then not knowing if we need to throw anything in the fridge out (it all LOOKS ok, but who knows – I told Ryan that’s his job, to go through and check things), I just did not feel up to tackling it all last night. So we went out for dinner instead. And then went home and went to bed. But it’s just waiting for us to tackle it tonight. Ugh.
On the plus side (???), I’m glad we didn’t scrub down the bathroom yet because then the toilet overflowed last night. Yuck. At least we already decided to toss the rug that had been in there, and that didn’t get all toilet watery.
So yah…it’s been a rough few days for our place. Hopefully it will be feeling better/in a better mood towards us after we take everything out of those two rooms and scrub them down. Anyone want to come for a cleaning party? ;-)
How long…
Aug 18th
Am I obligated to wait on hold for someone that called me and put me on hold before I was able to pick up the phone? And does it make a difference if I don’t like their hold music?
Also, why are people who are supposed to be professionals of some sort so webinar-stupid? When you call in to a webinar there are going to be a lot of people. Make sure you mute your phone if you don’t have a question. And if you can’t mute your phone make sure you are somewhere quiet (although EVERYONE should have been able to mute their phones – they even told you when you called in what key combination it was). Finally, if you aren’t able to get the website portion working, you need to call the help desk or something and not waste everyone else’s time asking the moderator to walk you through your computer issues (which are probably your own fault anyway).
Sorry. I’m a little pissy today at people. I’m otherwise in a good mood though. I started the 2nd trimester of pregnancy today, and the last week or so I’ve been feeling better (a little more energy, being able to actually eat food if I can find something that tastes good). I’m still in the “I look more fat than pregnant” stage, but that should *hopefully* be changing soon. And the Doctor and my pregnancy books all say that I should be able to feel the little baby kicking and moving around soon, so that’s exciting!
How are your respective weeks going? Any annoying coworkers (or people in general that you have to deal with)?
Hungry for nothing
Jul 23rd
Everything I read says that pregnant women eat tons of food. That they are hungry a lot and that aside from a couple things that might make them sick they will eat almost anything. This has NOT been my experience.
It is almost lunch time, and I’m dreading it. I’m hungry, but nothing at all sounds good. I’ve been making myself eat breakfast each day, and I’ve been trying to find things that sound good for lunch, but it’s a struggle. First of all, what sounds fine in the morning might not sound fine by lunch time. And if I want to go out for lunch, the immediate choices are pretty limited. There are a couple greek style restaurants, a few sandwhich shops an Indian restaurant and one Chinese place (OK, so now it sounds like there’s a lot to choose from). But none of that sounds good, or if it does I’m not supposed to eat it. For instance, a Narmer from Erberts & Gerberts used to be my favorite “eating lunch out” go-to meal. And it doesn’t sound totally repulsive right now, which is a big plus over most other stuff. But it’s got lunch meat on it. And sprouts. Both of which I’m not supposed to have. And PROBABLY the baby and I would both be fine. But what if we weren’t? What if I got listeriosis or e-coli? The chances are very low, but they are there. And I feel like pregnancy is making me worry a lot more about this kind of stuff, and I don’t know if it’s rational or not (I am not normally a worrier over these kinds of things). My doctor did mention the don’t eat lunch meat thing, but I didn’t ask her if that meant never or only rarely or what.
Ugh. I think I’ll just get the darn sandwich without sprouts (although I LOVE sprouts – or at least I think I do…who knows any more). This is all too stressful. Which is just silly. There are much more important things to stress over if I’m going to be stressed, I know. It’s just that it’s extremely frustrating to go from being someone who likes most foods to being someone who doesn’t want to eat ANYTHING that is available. I don’t like being so picky. And actually, even if it was being “picky” it would be better – at least then there would be stuff that I did want to eat.
Whine, whine, whine. I know. I’m sorry. I’ll try to come back later with a cheerier post. My 10-year reunion is this weekend, and we are going to the demolition derby at the fair on Friday. I’m super-excited for all of that (and at the moment fair food actually sounds kind of good, so maybe I’ll get to eat something this weekend!). I’ll try to get some photos, but I’ll probably be too busy gabbing with people I never see, so no promises!
The first appointment
Jul 17th
We had our first doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, and I think it went really well. We really liked the doctor, and she answered the couple questions I had, and even though I know I started off this pregnancy overweight she said that she doesn’t like to see anyone lose weight during their pregnancy (I’ve lost about 5 pounds), which as odd as it might seem was reassuring – I didn’t feel like she was judging me.
She called with the test results today, and everything looks good, so that’s awesome. I do have to take some antibiotics, but it’s nothing serious, just some bacteria in my urine (yay, pregnancy oversharing!). Anyway, it’s apparently really common in pregnant women, and nothing to worry about as long as I take the medicine. From what I recall my sisters had similar issues with their pregnancies, and I told the doctor that, so she said we’ll be keeping an eye on things.
I was telling friends of ours today that while I was fairly certain I was pregnant even before the appointment (the positive test and no period for a couple months were pretty good indicators ;-)), having the appointment done and the test results back make it feel that much more real. Because I’m pretty sure they would tell me if they got the results back and I wasn’t pregnant. ;-)
Anyway, things are going well. I have my appetite back (although that’s not exactly right…it wasn’t really my appetite that was gone, so much as my capacity to actually eat anything solid for a while). I’m still a little picky about food – things that I used to enjoy just don’t sound good and other stuff that I only kind of liked sounds fabulous.
In other news, we are going to work on the brakes on the car tomorrow morning for a while, and then on Sunday if needed. Luckily, the guy that is helping us out has a vehicle we can borrow if we can’t take our car tomorrow morning (we are a 1 car family at this time). Hopefully it will be a relatively easy job, but we haven’t worked on them before. Any tips for working on the rear brakes of a Toyota Echo?
Questions
Jul 14th
Our first doctor’s appointment is tomorrow, and all the articles/books I’ve read say that you should write down all of your questions for the doctor so that you don’t forget them. Which is a fabulous idea, if you can think of questions in the first place. I mean, I have a couple (Should I be taking a fish oil pill in addition to my prenatal vitamin? Is the prenatal I’m taking a good one? Are there any activities/foods that I should avoid that wouldn’t seem to be common sense?), but not many. I feel like maybe this is unusual…other people seem to be full of questions. And usually I’m one of those types. But I feel like between all the reading I’ve been doing and all of the pregnant women I’ve known (or know who are currently pregnant) I have a wealth of information at my fingertips. And most of the information says “Don’t do anything you know is stupid, rest when you can, and eat as healthily as you can.” So I don’t have any super-pressing questions. Is this weird?
Don’t get me wrong – there are lots of things I wonder about that will come later in the pregnancy, about labor especially. But I want to do more reading about it so I feel more informed before I start asking specific questions. Does that make sense? It’s not at all that I feel pressured to be so informed by anyone else, it’s just that I don’t want to waste time by asking questions that I could have answered on my own with a little research ahead of time. And while I’m sure the next 8 months will go by quickly there is still plenty of time to ask about that kind of stuff.
So yah…that’s where I’m at right now. If you have kids, what is the advice you wish someone would have given you about being pregnant? What kinds of questions do any of you think I should be asking?
ps. WHAT is the DEAL with feeling like I’m hungry and then only being able to eat a couple bites of whatever is in front of me? We had grilled chicken salad last night, and usually I can eat a big plate of the stuff. I love salad and I love chicken, but I seriously think I had maybe 5 bites of it yesterday and couldn’t do it anymore. Sad! The only thing I seem to be able to eat regularly is ice cream, and even that is in small portions. I love ice cream, don’t get me wrong, but I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t be the staple food of my diet right now.
pps. I know I said I would post pictures, and I will – I promise! I’ve just been EXTREMELY lazy tired lately. I’m totally pulling the pregnancy card on this one, although if you look back I have kind of a bad habit of taking FOREVER to post photos. But I will get to it – I promise!
