something new...

I don't feel like I have much to say, however I am not 18 weeks!!! Scary! Its almost half way over and I feel like it was just the other day I found out! I barely feel like I have a pregnant tummy, but I know its there, I feel it when ever I turn from my side to my back when I am sleeping. A huge weight gets dropped on my bladder and makes sleeping even more uncomfortable until I finally drag myself out of bed to use the bathroom! Its no fun. And sometimes I can't go back to sleep.
Last night I did have a dream that I was in labor.  At first I thought it was just braxton hicks contractions but then the doctor confirmed that I was having this baby that night and I was only where I am now, 18 weeks and barely looking pregnant! He assured me the baby would be just fine and that coming early was not a big deal.  Well I never made it to the end of that dream, so I don't know what happened or what the sex was of that baby!!! Anytime I dream about my baby, I can't figure out what the sex is!!! Its frustrating! BUT all is well, I find out on tuesday!!! I have been calling it 'she' and occasionally our girl name, Trudy, and I have been told that mothers know what they are having.... we'll see if I am right!
The bump that I do have is big enough to be causing me plenty of wardrobe issues.  I have bought a couple of maternity jeans and tops, but the tops all look like tunics on me because they are so long, and once I have a big enough belly to fill it out, they will look good on me!! Can't wait for that day! I did get a belly band, you wear it over your jeans so you can unbutton them and well for me I have to half unzip them too, which then if I don't have a long enough shirt... well it looks like my fly is down all day and I am just some fat girl who can't fit in her pants!!!! And most of my 'normal' clothes do not cover my zipper... thank you washing machines and dryers that alway make my clothes shrink up!
So that is where I am with pregnancy right now.  I am no longer super tired, I have plenty of energy through out the day, just don't wake me before 9am!  I need my sleep.  The baby controls my hunger, I am almost always hungry and my stomach will growl only after a couple of hours of just eating! Its annoying! But I guess over everything, I LOVE IT!!!

My Little Gummy Bear

I finally had my first appointment with a doctor, Dr. Saunders.  It was such a relief to finally go and know for sure there is something growing, its not just my imagination!  This being the first visit and having read that they are usually the longest, I was surprised it was no longer than a half hour.  The begging of the visit was actually pretty comical.  The nurse took us to our room, pulled out some sheets for me to 'drape' over myself and then she left.  I took my time getting changed into these sheets and not really knowing how to wear them, sorta just played with them.  One was the bottom, which literally was just a sheet off some ones bed and then the top had arm holes at least but really you just draped them all around you.  Charley was getting worried with how long it was taking me to just figure out what to do with these sheets.  He was worried the doctor was just going to walk right in and I would still be half naked.  I assured him that doctors always knock and then wait for you to say, "come in" and then they enter.  Not 2 minutes later of me saying this and finally taking a seat on the bed, our doctor walked right in and while walking in knocked.  I was shocked! I had a huge smile on my face and so did Charley.  Dr. Saunders looked at me and said something along the lines of how big my smile was thinking I was so happy to see him!! I was happy to see him, but more than that both me and Charley were busting up laughing inside.
We got to know Dr. Saunders, talked about any questions we had and how I have been doing up until now.  He also said today would be a great day because we would get to hear the baby's heartbeat.  So he squirted out some jelly and put his little microphone looking thing on my tummy.  There was no heartbeat.  I was getting nervous.  So he brought in the ultrasound stuff and took a look that way.  Thankfully there was our little baby inside with a heartbeat that we could see but can't yet hear.  He said that because the baby is measuring at 9 weeks and 6 days, that is the reason we couldn't hear it yet.  According to my bodies calculations I was estimated at 10 weeks and 2 days, so a mere 3 days is why we couldn't hear it, but I am sorta grateful we couldn't because now we have pictures of the baby! It pretty much looks like a gummy bear right now, you can tell all the body parts but they just look like stubs so for now its a gummy bear!

Morning yuckiness... ALL DAY!

Who ever titled it 'morning sickness' is a big fat liar! True it did start one morning and mornings are worse than the rest of the day but, its all day! I first started feeling sick last Wednesday morning, it might have even started the night before when we had friends over (Jo & Zac) I couldn't eat, well I ate but just not like I usually do, and then started to feel worse as the night went on (don't feel bad Jo, I know you are starting to think that).  It was also the first night I took real prenatal vitamins.  I was taking a supplement drink until then.  The next morning I could barely stand at work, I felt like I could fall over and hurl at any moment but really nothing would come up. I ended up leaving work early, I was starving too. So I came home and had some ramen noodles, put on a movie and laid in bed.  Laying down doesn't help but the food did.
I ended up only taking that horse of a pill for 2 nights.  The third night I got wise, I know I have read that they make you feel sick or worse on top of your crazy hormones that are having a wicked party in your tummy.  So I didn't take it.  I still felt sick, but not nearly as bad.  I also learned some tricks.  I now have saltines on my bedside along with a glass of water at all times.  I haven't eaten a lot of the crackers but they are there just in case.  The water I consume like crazy and yet I am still dehydrated.  Actually, the other night I dreamt about drinking water, that is how thirsty I was.  I also learned that if I have keep something 'fresh' in my mouth( ice water, gum, candy) I tend to feel better.  Your saliva is the stuff that makes it all worse, thats why the morning is the worst.  Nothing has been in my mouth for like 8 hours but saliva... yuck.
On top of all this, smells drive me crazy.  Right now I don't think I will eat chili or any pasta dish for a long time.  They are smells that have lingered in my kitchen and now every time I smell them I want to gag.  The other day it was so bad I left my house through my front door and walked around the house to the car because our back door is through the kitchen and I just couldn't do it.  But its not just scents in my house, today I went over to the Nordstrom Cafe at the mall and I love the smell of coffee, I had to breath through my mouth.  I could smell someone cooking something with pasta sauce from outside their home today while walking.... I walked a little faster.
The funny thing is, I was sorta looking forward to getting 'morning sickness' because it would be this true sign that I am pregnant and I am progressing.  Don't ever wish for it. And from what my Mom told me it usually lasted for 2 to 3 months for her, I was hoping for just 2-3 weeks!  What was I thinking!

Doctor Dilemma

Literally the day I found out I was pregnant I called my doctors office.  I asked if it was too soon to come in and the receptionist kindly let me know, its never to early to come in, so I asked to see my doctor.  She informed me he left that office, which was 'ok' because I was going to switch to a female doc anyway.  Then she told me they would have to set up a billing appointment with me first. OK, that I can do. The first possible appointment would be a week from the day I called.  THEN after that I can schedule something with a doctor. So much for trying to come in as soon as possible.

I now know, from preggy friends that most doc's will ask to see you no earlier than 10 to 12 weeks.  Well this whole 'billing appointment' was not going to work out.  Charley has a class right at the time we would need to go in for this appointment and since I would be looking for a new lady doctor anyway... I cancelled the appointment and found someone else.  Its really hard to know what I need to be looking for in a doctor at this point, especially since its my first, and on top of that its been over 10 years since my mom was pregnant and any friends I have that are pregnant don't live in the same state.  I went with my gut feelings on the doctor I chose.  I made an appointment with her and its not for over a month away!  But I did go get my blood tested yesterday for them and now I am stressing.  The office hasn't called me. Isn't it like a rule that they have to call you for any tests you get done and the nurse who took my blood said they would know the next day.  I just really hope its positive!  Other than all this doctor craziness (and now that its typed out it doesn't sound like it was a huge dilemma but let me tell you, IT WAS!) the only major symptom of pregnancy I have is that my boobs are killing me!!!

My "exciting" day

     Intro
Part of my reasoning for starting this blog is so I can journalize my adventures through pregnancy.  You could even say the movie 'Julie and Julia' inspired me.  Well its here! It came a lot sooner than I thought. I have had fears for the past years that I was going to be infertile... so not true! To be honest, we started trying in July(which would be the first month of me not taking my pill and I didn't think it would happen that month for that reason). Then last week in church some gals got up and talked about how long they tried until they got pregnant and how the Lord has his plan for us.  I started to wonder if maybe it would take us longer because its just not the right timing even though we think it is.  Well I guess it is the right time and we got pregnant on our second round!

     The Day I found Out
Monday, I started to get cramps.  I knew then that it was over, next month I would buy an ovulation kit and I would pin point out that 12-24 hour window of opportunity.  The cramps came, they stuck around too,  but the vital part of those cramps never came.  I told myself if nothing happened by wednesday then I guess I could take a test, but I knew it would probably leave me disappointed.  Wednesday morning after Charley left for work I decided to take that test.  I peed on the stick and set it on the sink, thinking and knowing it was going to be negative.  The first line showed up, it is always going to be the negative one and the other line in the square box showed up(that means I peed on the stick enough and its working... just incase you didn't know : ).  THEN the other line started to show! I just kept saying, "Oh my gosh!!"" Oh mY GOSH!" "OH MY GOSH!" Well then the tears started coming, I didn't know what to do, Charley was already at work so he missed my panic/excitement/shock! I am pregnant! I called Charley once I was a little more composed and told him the news followed by my parents and close friends! I am thrilled that I am pregnant and this adventure is starting.

I am right and you are wrong

On Sunday Charley and I went over to Saul's apartment and we all got to talking and chatting about him and his girlfriend and then how long he is planning on waiting to propose and so on.  Well Saul asked us how long we dated, or what was our full circle of time together before we said 'I do'.  I clumsily said, "Oh three hundred and sixty TWO weeks! I was way proud of myself.  Charley then fell to the ground laughing.  I got my days and weeks mixed up, big time.  Once we got that all cleared up and I was told there are only 52 weeks in a year, and I just told everyone we dated for like 7 years, Charley said we went out on our first date in like May or something.  I said it was the end of March.  I didn't recall the exact day but I knew that we were 'together' for just about a year total, before our wedding day, give or take a couple weeks, hence the 362 weeks(not 365 days, or say like 50 weeks).  So then that led into this whole thing about how he was so sure it was May-ish, and I was like NO!
Here is what happened: He texted me for our first date.  I kindly said yes even though I wasn't sure about it, and I hadn't been on a date in like 6 months, so I said YES.  We went to a Colorado Mammoth Lacross game. And of course I kept the ticket. So we actually have proof of when our first date was!  Anyway a couple weeks later from that mystery date I went away for about two weeks to London.  How can someone forget the timeframe of a trip like that.  I went in May. He didn't believe me.  
For whatever reason today I thought about how he was so sure our first date was in May.  I quickly got up from dinner and started searching.  I knew I had to have written it down in a journal or I know I had that ticket! I am so lame, I never wrote it down and Charley beat me to it with finding the ticket.  He started to do a little victory dance, doing a little "WooT WOo" and I was like, "WHAT???!!!" There is NO WAY I am wrong.  He barely showed me the ticked and what did it say... MARCH 30TH!!! I AM RIGHT AND YOU WERE WRONG(this doesn't happen often) And who is in the kitchen cleaning up... sigh... my husband.

My favorite Pictures of us...