Pregnancy - Weeks 19 & 20

Halfway there! 

Weeks 19 and 20 were fairly good. My energy level is way back up for the most part. I do still have some nights where I'm just too tired to get off the couch, but most of the time I feel like I can do my normal routine and be just fine. On the food front, less things seem to be bothering me as much. Still can't do much sugar, but have found a couple things that I can have and be fine - Rice Krispy Treats (cannot. stop. eating. them.) and Peanuts M&M's are alright too. Most other sweet stuff is still yicky though. I guess I'll just stick to fruit.

All the baby books I have keep going on and on about "all the movement you are feeling now"... um, yeah, not so much here. I do feel really super light random pops and taps, but most of the time I honestly can't tell if it's the baby or not. I have a feeling it will still be a while before I feel a big thump. I'm trying not to let it get me down or worried, but lets face it, that's hard. However, my belly is growing like a weed right now so I can only assume things are going well in there. For the most part I'm exclusively wearing maternity clothes. My wardrobe is beyond limited right now. I really should start writing down my outfits because I spend most mornings trying to remember if I've already worn that shirt to work this week. I just can't justify spending a boat-load on clothes for myself right now.

I've started work on gathering things for the baby's room! I'm not big on "themes" but have always wanted to do something with the Alphabet. Something they can grow into a little bit. I found a ton of inspiration pictures and was determined to make it happen. Luckily Hobby Lobby was a gold mine of letters! Here's what I have so far. Some of them need to be switched but I needed to get it laid out before I could tell what all I had thrown in my cart. I'll be painting and possibly mod-podging some scrapbook paper on a few of them soon! Colors TBD!

Now that we are halfway there I'm starting to feel like I really need to get on some things. Namely, daycare. I've been pretending it doesn't exist for too long. I seriously need to start calling places. It's so hard to even know where to start.  Oy.  I'm also really starting to feel the nesting bug kick in. I found myself rearranging a kitchen cabinent while also trying to make breakfast before work one day. I just couldn't help myself.  Oh and the hormones have really kicked in this week. I will cry for no reason at the drop of a hat.  Last night I saw a commercial for the new Winnie the Pooh movie and totally lost it. How random is that!  Haha!

So that's about it for weeks 19 & 20.  Only two more weeks till my next apppointment and ultrasound. Lets hope I'm feeling some bouncing around in there by then! 

Picture time!  Ugh. These always turn out so bad. Especially when I try to do them myself with the self timer. What a fiasco! Haha! I should post the rejects sometime, most of them involve Ted getting in the frame and hamming it up. He cracks me up.

Snoozaroo

Zach took this picture several weeks ago, just as I was exiting the first trimester. The exhaustion I experienced was more than I ever could have imagined it would be. I spent most of my weekends curled up in bed with one or both of the dogs. Luckily they seemed to understand I just needed to rest. It's kind of amazing because before I got pregnant, that wasn't always the case. Much of my energy has returned for the time being, but sometimes a good ol' snoozaroo just sounds perfect.

Pregnancy - Weeks 14-18

...and we're up to date! My goodness, I'm almost half-way done!!!

Well, week 14 wasn’t so magical. Neither was week 15.  I was still tired, felt sick constantly (but still never actually *got* sick) and was just a general pile of blah.  I was starting to think I’d never feel better when week 16 rolled around.  Suddenly, I was staying up a few minutes later each night, playing with the dogs more and actually getting things done around the house!  I even worked out a few times!   Around the same time food gradually stopped making me feel ill every time I ate it and I was able to function in the morning like a normal human!  Hooray for the second trimester!  I still can’t eat sweets, but sometimes try to anyway... you know, just to see…   Shamefully, my favorite food is McDonald’s French Fries. I swear I could eat them every day (but I don’t). Luckily I still love salad and fruit too. 

The last couple weeks have been pretty good!!  We’ve been really busy so far this summer and it seems like we have something planned every weekend, which I’m loving because soon we won’t have such freedoms to go wherever, whenever. 

We’ve made a couple trips out to Babies R Us to check things out and we have a pretty good list of stuff we want to buy and/or register for, which is really exciting. Zach has been totally into it too. I wasn’t sure if he’d be up for all the baby gear decision making, but he’s really interested and totally helpful.  He definitely has been keeping me grounded! 

We’ve gradually started working on the baby’s room too.  It was our spare bedroom, but mostly it was "George’s Room" (our cat). One Saturday I went to the pool with my friend Kristy and came home to the spare room being completely cleared out and our office now a very functional office / spare room!!  I was so excited, however George has been less than amused.  He’ll adjust. I spent last Sunday cleaning out the closet, so other than moving a few more things out and down to the basement, we are ready to start the nursery!  Planning is in full swing!

Our “BIG” ultrasound was today (19 weeks 1 day). Oh, was I ever nervous.  I still haven’t felt anything I can definitely call movement so I was a little nervous, despite my rapidly expanding middle.  Thankfully, everything was great! Perfect, if you will.  Baby is currently doing quite the headstand in there and was partying it up big time the whole ultrasound.  SO active!! I still couldn’t feel anything, but found out I have what’s called an “anterior placenta” meaning that the placenta is in front of the baby, when it is typically in the back. It’s no big deal or risk, but it just means that I will feel movement a little later than normal since  baby’s going to have to get a little bigger and stronger for me to feel it through the extra padding.  As long as the wee one is ok in there, I’m ok with it.  I should start feeling things soon enough…. 

So that’s where we are at! I’m ready to start putting the nursery together and buying all sorts of little baby things. Basically I’m going to really try my best to enjoy this second trimester and summer! So far, so good!



And because I think I've put it off long enough... Here are some pictures.  Oofta!

 (apparently I like pink??... ha! Just noticed that!)

Pregnancy - Weeks 7-13

I just realized I never posted Weeks 7-13.  Here they are...

How on earth is it possible that I haven’t updated this in five weeks?! I don’t even feel like I’ve been pregnant five weeks! Well, sometimes I feel like I’ve been pregnant for years, but mostly it’s gone fast.

So what’s been happening?  I moved up a week.  I’m now due November 8. So I pretty much skipped week 10 all together.  I’m still not exactly convinced my due date should be the 8th, but that’s what the doctors chart said and that’s exactly what the baby was measuring at our ultrasound, so I guess I’m going with it.

Oh yes, we had our first ultrasound.  It was so fast, but incredibly reassuring.  I had never been so nervous in my whole life.  She put the wand up to me and immediately said “see baby moving around?”  I was so stunned that I could hardly focus on the screen and nearly missed it.  Zach said he saw it, so that made me feel better.  We got to see the heart beating and hear it for a few seconds, which was pretty awesome!  We got our couple of pictures headed to the waiting room and just stared at them the whole time we were waiting. Definitely helped it all feel a bit more real.

We told our family Easter weekend.  We had to call Zach’s family since they are out of town, but they were definitely trilled.  I bought my mom a book called “Easter at Grandmas” and barged in on her while cleaning to give it to her.  She got it pretty quick and my family is very excited.  We told the extended family the next day and I told work and friends the following week.  It’s good being “out of the closet”.

I still haven’t been feeling too great.  I have a good day here and there, but mostly I come home from work, force myself to eat something for dinner then retreat to the couch to watch stupid TV and moan.  It seems as though everyday there is something new that my body doesn’t agree with. At first, all I wanted was Mexican, now it makes me sick.  Hot food used to be delicious, now the colder-the better. I still haven’t been able to go near anything sweet.  Cookies, cake, ice cream, candy, kool-aid, most cereal, granola bars, yogurt… NOTHING!  It is probably one of the most frustrating things.  Although today, on the eve of my 14th week, I ate a fun size pack of skittles and two mini Hershey’s bars and didn’t feel like curling up on the floor and dying.  So…. Progress!  Now fruit? I could eat that all day long.  Zach’s mom sent us an Edible Arrangement as a congrats and I kid you not, I ate the entire thing in one weekend.  And pickles. Yes, it’s stereotypical, but man alive I love pickles right now.

I’m still pretty much exhausted. I could easily sleep in until 9 and go to bed at 8.  Easily.  Unfortunately that is not an option and I spend most of my day trying not to yawn during meetings.  But again, some days are really good and I feel alright!

Everyone keeps telling me that the 14th week is some magical week where I *should* start feeling better. We’ll see.  I did go to the gym tonight for the first time in…. well…. Too long. 

As far as the belly goes - well it’s definitely there.  I’m now officially wearing only maternity pants (which, are seriously, from the heavens. All pants should have elastic waists!!!!) Most of my normal flowy shirts still fit though.  I tried on some maternity tops and they just looked ridiculous.  Soon enough though.  I’ve been taking weekly “belly shots” since week 12 and really can’t see much difference. I think I feel bigger than I am at this point.

My mom bought the baby his/her first outfits.  She got a few gender-neutral sleepers and plain onesies.  Zach said seeing them made it more real that the ultrasound.  For me, it was crazy hanging them in the closet!  Speaking of closet, I need to start clearing out baby’s room.  Right now it’s the guest room slash “hmm, where do I put this” room.  We are condensing the office down and making it a combo office/guest room. It will be quite the challenge. I’m leaving it up to Zach.

So there you have it!  On to the next trimester....

Thirty Years

Tuesday was my 30th Birthday.  Yep, 30.  I will be honest, I was really, really, really not looking forward to this birthday, at all.  Until I got pregnant.  Then I kind of forgot all about it...  So, when the day got here, I was mostly just kind of "whatever" about the whole thing.  I have bigger things to worry about right now :)  However, everyone around me really made it a super special day(week).  

I took the day off work and Zach surprised me by taking the day off as well.  The morning was a bit rough because I had a minor hair-tastrophy. I tried dying it on my own the night prior (as I have many times before) but this time the results were, um, orange.  YIKES!  Luckily a quick re-do did the trick and a major crisis was averted.

 

Zach and I then spent the day out shopping for my gift - a treadmill.  Now before you all start sending my husband hate mail for buying his pregnant wife a treadmill, let me tell you that I've wanted one FOREVER and was beyond thrilled to get one!  It will make getting back in shape after baby far less stressful! I am so excited! Then I treated myself to a pedicure, which was so nice since painting my own toes has become a little difficult these days! That night Zach took me to dinner at Skies on top of the Hyatt.  I love the views of downtown up there and the food was excellent! We had a great time!

I got back to work the next day to a fun birthday treat day and a whole slew of cards. So many they didn't even all fit on my desk! That's one of the best things about working for Hallmark, you definitely feel the love, no matter what the occasion is. My cabinet is always full of cards for some reason or another most of the year.  My admin also left me this teeny vase with some flowers from her garden. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever. 

Friday  night we celebrated with my family.  Originally my parents had been threatening me with a giant 30th birthday bash at their house. Lucky for me those plans changed once I got pregnant.  Apparently I'm really boring when I'm not drinking. Ha!  No really, it's true.  Anyway... So we decided to have a big family dinner at Garozzo's instead. Oh man, it was good! 

After dinner we went over to my parents house for birthday fruit.  Yes, fruit. The baby still doesn't like sweets or baked goods of any kind so a birthday cake was out of the question for me.  I requested fruit instead.  However, at the Anello house having fruit for your cake does not get you out of the obligatory "Happy Birthday" sing-a-long and photo shoot.  The fruit was EXCELLENT by the way! 

 Then it was time for gifts.  I got some lovely things, a new dress, cardigan, gift cards, earrings and worn out place-mats! You see, my parents have had these place-mats since I can remember eating. We used them practically every night.  They are country themed and I could never get enough of looking at all the little pictures on them. I loved them. I recently mentioned how much I loved them to my mom and she totally surprised me by giving them to me! I am SO excited to use them for our family dinners now.  Hopefully our kiddo loves them just as much as I do.

The weekend was chock-full of more time with friends and much more food.  A friend even made me a faux margarita and I am dying for the recipe because that sucker hit the spot!  Next weekend we are headed to the lake for some fun in the sun.

18 weeks pregnant... 30 years old. Life is pretty good!

Pregnancy - Weeks 4-6

(I've been keeping a journal about my pregnancy since I found out.  Thought I'd share..) 

Written Week 6

Oh pregnancy, what a funny thing.  My entire life I’ve dreamed of being pregnant. No really, my entire life.  Now that I’m here, well, let’s just say reality is a wee bit different than what I had painted in my mind.

The first week was pretty ok.  I definitely felt “weird”. However, I think a lot of that was nerves.  Oh my, the nerves. I was so paranoid. I took a pregnancy test approximately every other day just to help calm myself down.  But other than that, I was good. Bloated beyond belief, but good. 

Around week 5 all the symptoms started to hit and have remained. The first was exhaustion. Holy lord, the exhaustion.  Just the simple act of walking from my bus stop to my office took every ounce of my willpower and strength. I seriously have not been this tired since I had mono in college. I currently go to bed around 9 or 9:30 (after probably dozing a few times on the couch) and have to force myself out of bed at 6 (or 5 if I'm feeling up to taking the bus).  On the weekends, I get up and feed the dogs then go back to bed until at least 10 and take a good two or three hour nap sometime during the day.  Getting through the day at work is rough.  I gave up caffeine cold turkey when I found out (which is why I had been trying to wean myself off it for the past few months) so without my fizzies I had nothing.  I frequently have to get up and take little walks just to keep my wits about me.  I’m so tired at the end of the day I have been known to stop mid-walk and break down in tears. Totally cool.

Next up, nausea! While I have not full on puked, I constantly feel disgusting. So gross. The thought of food is just not something I care to think about, however if I get so much as the tiniest bit hungry, it gets a thousand times worse! I do my best to snack throughout the day, but it’s a chore and I hate it. Mostly I feel bad from about 7am until 5pm.  So, my entire work day. How convenient! I feel alright once I get home and have dinner, but then start feeling a little queasy again around bedtime.  I’m managing though.  Mints and lemonade seem to help.  Oh! And guess what my ONE aversion is so far?  Sugar!  SUGAR.  Can you even believe it?!  The girl with the worlds biggest sweet tooth doesn’t want sugar?! Honestly, it’s rather upsetting.  I just want to take solace in a slice of cake or cup of ice cream. However, the thought of it makes my mouth taste bad.

Then there’s the bloat.  It. Is. Ridiculous.  NONE of my pants fit correctly. None of them.  However I am so afraid of jinxing myself that I flat out refuse to go buy a belly band or heaven forbid, maternity pants until I have heard a heartbeat and know for sure that this is really happening.  Oh yeah, did I mention, we don’t get an ultrasound until 10 weeks! TEN WEEKS!!  I had my first appointment at 6 weeks and it was just the standard work-up. Four weeks of waiting and praying and hoping and worrying.  It’s awesome.  So yeah, I look super fat.  People at work are definitely giving me the side-eye. We don’t plan on sharing our news until 14 weeks, but I honestly have no idea how that’s going to happen.  Someone is going to figure this out!

Mostly though, it’s the worry.  I try my best to stay positive.  I make it a point to tell myself daily that  the odds are in our favor, my doctor sees no reason to worry. So far everything is pretty normal and status quo. So I just have to believe that my body is doing what it’s supposed to do and in three excruciatingly long weeks we’ll see the bambino and know for sure what’s going on.

I thank my lucky stars every day that I'm pregnant and I am so happy to be having a baby. I would do all of this a thousand times over for a little one. I know this whole entry seems complain-y but I really am so thankful right now.