Wednesday, July 22, 2009

No Problem

We scheduled our big ultrasound for Friday, July 24th, thinking it would be the perfect start to our vacation -- spend the morning ogling at our baby then the afternoon en route to Arizona for our babymoon. Well, fate had other plans. We got a call from the MW office's ultrasound tech. She's going to be at a conference the last half of this week and simply wanted to reschedule to Monday, July 27th. Well, I'll be half-way across the county. I asked if we could do it earlier, rather than later. She would've been available to do it at 19w3d, but she said that was too early for a 20 week ultrasound. By the way, I don't believe this because I see people all over getting their 20 week u/s that early.

Anyway, we had to look at the week after our vacation, but the ultrasound tech's on vacation the first half and the midwife's out of the office that Thursday, so the 20 week u/s is now scheduled for Friday, August 7th. That's right, a full two weeks after the originally scheduled date. I'll be 21w6d at that time.

I'm trying not to be too frustrated by this. We weren't going to find out the baby's sex anyway and part of the reason it is so late is our vacation, but I was really looking forward to seeing him/her. I did strike a little deal with the MW's office so that I could come in yesterday and hear the heartbeat over doppler. It seemed like they owed me that after moving my appointment two weeks later. The heartbeat was solid and strong. She didn't calculate the bpm, but Brett always records it on his phone, so we used that to calculate the heartbeat at 170, which is pretty high.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Anxiously Awaiting

This Friday, Brett and I are leaving for an entire week of vacation in Sedona, Arizona. Neither of us have spent any time in the state, so we are thrilled to have a week to explore, just the two of us. We've done plenty of traveling lately, but it's all included extended family, so we are very ready for some time away just the two of us. I'm so looking forward to some time along with my husband. Our five-year wedding anniversary is two weeks after my due date, so I doubt we'll be up for much celebrating. Perhaps we can count this trip as part of our celebration.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Times are a Changin'

Last night I went to visit my 88-year-old grandmother in the nursing home. She's only been living there since the end of May, so she spends most of our time together complaining that her kids put her there. It's pretty unpleasant, so I'm constantly looking for ways to change the subject. Last night I asked her what rules there were for pregnant women when she had her five children. She said they recommended she not drink alcohol and they told her not to lift her arms above her head. The doctors especially cautioned against hanging laundry. Bizarre, huh? Of course, she thought it was insane that today's restrictions included coffee, turkey, and some cheeses.

I also asked her about her deliveries. She got the cutest little look on her face, like when a kid asks you if Santa is real and you are torn between telling the truth and lying. She hesitated a few seconds and said, "Um, well, it hurts pretty bad." Which, of course, wasn't news to me, but maybe she thought she'd be the first one to break the news to me that it hurts like hell to push a watermelon-sized object out of my hoo-ha. She followed quickly with, "You forget about the pain, though," which is something I hear over and over again but refuse to believe.

It was nice to bond with my grandma over the process of becoming a mom.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

It Pays to Be Neurotic

One of my pet peeves when I tell people we aren't finding out the baby's sex is when they say, "I could never do that.  I'm too much of a planner."  Granted I'm an oversensitive pregnant lady, but it seems like the implication is that I have no desire to plan for my child, but will wait 'till it pops out, look between its legs, and shoddily slap together a nursery.  In fact, I'm the planner to beat all planners.  It's just that I can plan around knowing the baby's gender.  Sure, the nursery's going to be green and the newborn onesies will be solid colored, but that's okay with me.

My obsessive planning is totally paying off for us as we begin to hunt for child care.  First off,  I've made an elaborate spreadsheet of 18, that's right 18, providers that we are going to interview over the coming weeks.  Secondly, this past August my coworker was raving to me about her child care center.  They are affiliated with a local university, have great ratios, highly educated staff, and a waitlist that goes on forever.  At that point, we weren't even trying to get pregnant, but being the planner I am, I called to get on the waitlist.  I was slightly embarrassed, as the conversation went a little something like this.

Me: "Hi, I'd like to sign up for the waitlist."
Them: "OK, how old's your baby or when is your due date?"
Me: "I don't know either of those things yet.  I'm not pregnant.  Can you still put us on the waitlist for once I am?"
Them (reluctantly): "Sure.  I think we've done that before."

Cut to this past Monday when we toured the facility.  Afterwards, I met with the administrator and told her I was on the waitlist, but could update them with a due date now.  She pulled out my card and said, "Oh, if you're actually pregnant now, that puts you at the top of the community waitlist."  See, people, it pays to be the crazy lady who calls before she's pregnant or even trying to get pregnant.

Brett and I loved the center and really hope to get off the waitlist.  They give priority to siblings of older students and university faculty, staff, and students.  After all of those people have care, they dip into their community waitlist.  She assured me that they always take at least some people off the waitlist, although they sometimes pick based on gender if their classrooms are getting too imbalanced.  They only start new kids in September, so we'd still have to find alternate care from mid-March when I go back to work to September.  Thus, we'll go ahead and check out the other 17 options.

And now for the rant portion of my post...My dad is pissing me off!  I sent him a link to my baby bump video and he replied that I'll look my grandma soon.  Yes, my grandma who is 4'11" and weighs 210 pounds.  My grandma who has always been obese.  My grandma with uncontrolled diabetes.  Some of his other gems included, "Your breasts are huge and your face is getting rounder."  Yeah, thanks Dad.  It's not challenging enough to consistently puke every three days while knowing that I am gaining weight and girth every second of every day.  I'll try not to let it bother me, but it just seems like horribly insensitive comments.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Oddities of Pregnancy

There were many things I knew were going to happen once I got pregnant...the gas, bloating, morning sickness, weight gain, etc. were no surprise at all. What did sort of shock my was Sunday afternoon when I was changing clothes and my husband said, "What's with that line?" I looked where he was pointing on my belly and, sure enough, I have the beginnings of a linea negra. It's really faint right now, but I can see clearly where it will be as it darkens.

There's an old wives' tale that a line that stops at your belly button means you're having a girl and one that extends above the belly button means you're having a boy. Mine definitely stops at the belly button, so we've got about 5 months of waiting to see if that old wives' tale is true.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Way to Go, Honey

We decided long ago not to share our baby name ideas with any of our family and friends. A couple of weeks ago we finally settled on a boy and a girl name. We've occasionally referred to the baby by one of these names, but mostly keep calling it Cashew. Until last night, that is. My mom is in town and we were in the car on our way to my cousin's baseball game, when Brett exclaims, "I bet (insert fabulous, but secret baby name here) is going to be pretty good at baseball."

We both freeze, stunned that he's let it slip. My mom (who was crazed to figure out the name anyway) says, "I know you wouldn't let the actual name slip, but that is a great name." I am not terribly surprised that we spilled the beans, but I am surprised that it was Brett rather than me. I'm a blabbermouth, so I really expected to be the one to slip up.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Heaven in an Hour or Less

Tonight was my second prenatal massage of my pregnancy and it was divine.  I went in after a fairly stressful day at work (which I refuse to recap because it'll stress me out just to retell it).  I am amazed that an hour of someone rubbing on my back can result in such an improvement in my psyche.  I have turned the Blackberry off, am getting ready to go out to dinner with the husband, and then will be curling up on the couch with our newest Netflix.

Have I mentioned that I am going to the local restaurant that has the BEST baked potato soup ever?  I know it's the heat of summer, but I just can't get enough baked potato soup.  I've found a recipe that is supposed to be phenomenal, so I'll try that this weekend.  Off I go, I hope all of you are having fantastic evenings.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Photo Updates

Here's my 16 week belly picture, which means it's a week old.  
The beginnings of our nursery, including our stellar deal on a changing table.  We got it for $150 at a garage sale!


Did I mention in any of my previous posts that I am somehow still puking every few days?  I really thought this would be over by now, I'm 17 weeks along!!  And yet, it continues.  It's okay, Cashew, you're worth every ache, pain, puke, and tiredness.

Proof of Placenta Head

I have somehow misspelled my first name multiple times today. That's right, the first word I ever learned to spell and I can't manage to put the letters in the right order anymore. Thank God Outlook knows my name enough to correct me repeatedly.

Jsesica

Long Time, No Blog

And no great excuse either, other than me being a tad lazy and also pretty busy at work. I'm still waiting for this bump of mine to grow. I actually wore my non-pregnancy jean shorts this past weekend, buttoned all the way up and without a Bella Band. This either means that I'm not showing much or that those shorts were way too big for me to have worn pre-pregnancy.

We had a check-up last week and heard Cashew's beautiful heartbeat. I'm up 8 pounds, which the midwife says is right on track. During this appointment, I had my annual well-woman exam. She also checked the size of my pelvis and described it as "generous." That sounds good to me.

We are close to starting in on the nursery. I'm the biggest roadblock to getting started. I keep on changing my mind about what I want. I really just don't like any of the baby bedding out there. It's all too over the top for me. You can't get a simple patterned set, it's all too overdone with characters. Don't get me wrong, I get the need for a "theme" in a nursery, but can't it be understated, rather than plastered across everything?