Week 23 (photo catch up!)

I can't believe it's already week TWENTY THREE!  Less than 4 months to go!  Our due date feels so close now.  I know time will continue to fly this next month with the holidays and the trips we have planned.  We're off to Vegas for Thanksgiving to see Aron's family and off to Seattle to see friends and then Moscow to see my family for Christmas.  The Christmas trip will most likely be our last big trip before the baby is born.  We may do a babymoon in January, but we'll probably stay close to home...a Bed & Breakfast in Julian or a fun weekend in LA.  We'll see how energetic I feel at that point.  So far everything is going along great so we've been cleared to travel/fly right up until the end of February.  Knock on wood that nothing changes and everything continues to progress perfectly.

The best thing to happen in the pregnancy the past few weeks is the start of little baby Lum's belly acrobatics!!  I feel him kicking all the time now and it's still thrilling me each time!  He usually gives me a nudge or two hello right when I wake up, and then he's quiet until after lunch, when he starts his afternoon exercises.  Then there will be another lull, and he's really active in the evening and after dinner.  This is the window when Aron's been able to feel him kick quite a few times.  Which is soooo cool!  I love watching Aron's reaction and seeing the surprised and amazed look on his face when he feels the baby.  Because the pregnancy is going so smoothly right now, there are times when I forget I'm pregnant and I'll feel baby boy kick and be momentarily surprised.  As I type this baby just kicked (or punched, or elbowed) me twice!  I think he can feel my happiness.

A not so fun part of the pregnancy the past few weeks is the heartburn.  I only get it at night, usually right before bed.  It's like my body knows I'm winding down and wants to give me a little kick in the chest to top off the day.  I've taken Tums a few times, but mostly it hasn't been too awful and I've been able to ride it out.  Some nights I fall asleep propped up a bit but that's about as inconvenient as it's been.  More inconvenient to my sleeping is the body pillow I'm sleeping with.  I've been a back sleeper for as long as I can remember and having to sleep on my left side now has been horrible.  I got one of the big u-shaped pillows to keep me wedged in on my side but I still fight my way out of it most nights and end up on my back.  I've never been a restless sleeper so waking up 2-3 times a night is annoying.  Oh well, I'm sure soon enough baby will be keeping me up or I'll have to pee all the time and it'll be the norm to wake up that many times anyways.

Aron and I have been really bad about taking pictures with all of the exciting things that have been going on the past few weeks, but we did manage to snap a few shots.  This is our Week 17 produce picture...the last one we took!  And it's kind of blurry; I blame the mint green walls in the background (yes, this is the color of some of the walls in our new house!).  The camera has no idea what's in the background and can never focus...and this color is impossible to match, decor-wise.  Believe me, I've been trying!

Week 17 and baby is the size of an onion!  A lot of the websites say turnip, but I was not buying a turnip just for the sake of photos.  I found one site that said onion, and an onion we will always eat.  Spanish tortilla, baby!!

Here's my Week 18 belly photo:

And here's the Week 21 belly photo...where I am QUITE a bit bigger!  

Holy cats, my belly looks BIG!  I'd say it's officially "popped."  It also might have something to do with the jump in weight gain this past week.  I finally managed to put on a few more pounds, putting my total weight gain at 9 pounds now.  I can tell some of this weight is going to my arms and face though...argh. :)  Time to start the push-ups!  Side benefit - stronger arms to haul around baby boy!  Overall I'm pleased to be up 9 pounds.  In the next 17 weeks I hope to gain 11 more pounds, 6-7ish of which better be all baby!!  According to the books, little baby Lum is only just over 1 pound now.  But already a foot long!  It's amazing that I can already feel something so tiny moving around inside me.  I can't wait for baby boy to put on more pounds so I can really see his baby kicks and punches.

Aron and I went to a gala for my work last week and luckily I still had one dress from party season last year that fit me and my new belly.  Courtesy of my friend Michaela, who gave me awesome maternity clothes, now I have a few more options to wear to the two other holiday parties we have on our calendars this year.  So I don't have to rock this same dress all December. :)  I do love this dress though, even sans the cute belt that normally goes with it!

In case I don't get around to adding a few more updates this week, I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!!

We're halfway there!!

And boy (oh boy!!!!) do we have a lot to catch up on!  Ok, so now we're technically at 22 weeks and past the halfway mark.  I've been very slow to update the blog with all the exciting things happening the past few weeks so this is the first entry of 3 or 4 that need to happen.

First up, because I know everyone's curious, I'll tell you about our anatomy scan and our big gender reveal dinner.  We don't have our printer/scanner unpacked so no ultrasound pictures up here yet (and I've been too lazy to take them to work and scan them :); I'll post them later.  For now, I'll just try and explain how UNBELIEVABLY awesome it was to see our baby on TV!!  The scan took about 45 minutes and we watched the whole thing except for when our tech got to the sex-revealing part.  We looked away and it seriously took some willpower not to have her just tell us.  And we only had to wait until dinner!  I can't imagine how some people go the whole pregnancy without knowing.  The rest of the ultrasound was so neat, getting to see baby's heart beating and pumping, see the brain, the lungs, and every little bitty limb wiggle around.  Baby was super active during the ultrasound, starting out by laying down flat in my belly, then curling up into a cute little ball and then turning head-down, facing my spine.  I was in awe watching this little person come to life and then settle back down.  Aron and I held hands throughout the whole scan and just like our first ultrasound, the whole appointment felt perfect and right.  The way I felt when Aron and I were looking at our baby onscreen is possibly the happiest I've ever been.  I can only imagine what it will feel like when we're looking down at our actual baby.  On the medical side of things, our baby checked out perfectly!  No red flags, no issues to be on the alert for.  Everything looked so great that we didn't even talk to a doctor the day of the scan.  When we had our appointment with our OB last week she confirmed that everything looked awesome and baby is healthy and happy!

After the scan, Aron and I went to our jobs, where I only halfheartedly completed my urgent tasks because I was so anxious to know what we were having!  I ended up getting to leave early to go meet the cable guy at our new house.  Which was a waste of time, because the cable guy ended up not being able to show.  Aron came home and we waited around for an extra hour past the specified time-frame before finally getting a call that he was hung up at the appointment before us.  ARGH!  All the waiting and extra anxiousness for nothing!  After rescheduling for the next day, off we went on our dinner adventure!  We had originally planned to go to this place called Best Pizza and Brew, which we'd never checked out in person.  Turns out, it's a tiny little place and more of just a quick bite and drink restaurant.  Not really the vibe I was looking for to find out what we were having.  On to plan B - Pizza Hut!  Which turned out to be the most awesome choice ever because they so enthusiastically embraced our plan!  So this pizza hut is a good old fashioned eat-in Pizza Hut.  Which I haven't seen since Moscow!  That fact alone already made the dinner special, because I had nostalgia and the memory of many family pizza dinners on my mind.  When the waitress got to our table, we explained our plan that we wanted the cook to put a "B" or a "G" on the pizza, depending on what was in the sealed envelope we were about to hand her.  She was on board and so were the cooks!  The 10 minutes it took to make our pizza were the longest ever!!  Finally...it was here!  Our waitress volunteered to snap some shots and she got some great ones!  I'll let the pictures do the talking for the next little bit.

Me: Oh! Um, what is it?

Aron: Ohhhhhhhhh!!!!

Me: I still can't read it! I'm blind! I never learned my letters!

Aron: It's a BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB!!!!

Me: Oh! A boy! A boy!

Aron: Yeahhhhhhh a boy! A boy!

Me:  Oh...a...boy. Huh. Well. What the hell am I going to do with a boy?!

Aron:  I'm way happier than you right now, huh? :)

Our "B" pizza!












Me and the B

Aron and the B














After dinner, the Pizza Hut crew brought out a surprise "boy" dessert! This totally made me cry because it was so thoughtful and sweet.

And then Aron got a little too creative with the baby boy news.  If there's been any question about whether our child will play with his food...yes, yes he will.

When we got home, the pets were eager to find out what the sex was!

 

Mom! Mom! What is it?! What is it?!

      WHAT?! Another BOY?! It's already 3 against one! NOT FAIR.

A what? Is that a food?

Ooh let me see, let me see...what?! He better like dress up.

I won't tell you what I think until you get this balloon off me. 

Finding out the sex of the baby was definitely the highlight of week 18.  I was so nervous before the ultrasound that we wouldn't be able to find out because baby would be crossing it's legs or something and it was such a relief to KNOW.  I was a little ambivalent about the baby being a boy at first...I just couldn't absorb what that meant.  Aron was very excited though and that rubbed off on me and all the congrats and well wishes we got made me really pretty happy that we were having a boy first.  We got a few adorable baby boy outfits over the next few weeks which made the whole pregnancy seem so much more real.  Not only was there a tiny baby in my belly, there was a tiny baby boy who would one day soon fit into these very cute baby outfits.  To repeat our blog title...holy crap!!

A lot more has happened in the past few weeks (the house! engagements! meeting new babies! my belly popped! visits with friends!) but those stories will have to wait for the next few blog posts.  

The week of my favorite number! 17!

I started this blog entry yesterday but never got around to publishing.  Now that's its Tuesday, I'll fill you in on the baby appointment we had today!  It went very well.  We finally met the OB we chose, Dr. Erin Gross.  We liked her a lot!  She seemed very calm, didn't act rushed at all, and actually seemed to care about the things I was telling her.  All good signs for the rest of our appointments.  Baby is doing well by all appearances/sounds.  My uterus is in the right place, just starting to raise up towards my belly button and baby's heartbeat was a strong 160.  What a rush it still is to hear that quick swishing sound!  It made me all the more excited for our anatomy scan next week.  Eeee!  I weighed in at 164 again this appointment which reinforces my thought that my weight at the last appointment wasn't correct (because I know I've actually gained a few pounds this time).  But whatever, as long as I'm tracking it on my own I feel pretty good about it.  I would like to avoid becoming a total blimp during this pregnancy!

Here's the entry I wrote yesterday.  Keep on scrolling for the pictures!  :)

Written Monday, October 14:

Week 17, friends!!  And what an exciting week it is!  The next 9 days are going to be awesome.  Tomorrow we have our baby check-up, on Friday we get the keys to our new house, next Monday the movers come, and next Tuesday is our anatomy scan!!  For some reason, I'm nervous for tomorrow's appointment but just plain excited for next Tuesday, which makes no sense.  I should be nervous for both at this point!  Only nervous because the past week has again been a totally chill one, filled with lots of activities and going out.  This can't be normal!!  Haha.  I can't wait to hear baby's heartbeat tomorrow to be reassured that we made it safe and sound through another month.  It's hard to believe it's been 4 weeks since our last appointment and 8 weeks since our first ultrasound.  On days like today I feel like the time has flown by.

This past weekend I got to hang out with THREE of my pregnant friends!  One of whom is due this Saturday!  After we ate out, we went back to her place so she could show me her nursery.  It's ADORABLE and really made me hope for a girl!  Of course a boy's nursery could be adorable as well, but girls have the edge there I think.  Hers was done in white furniture with purple and butterfly accents.  So pretty.  I think we're leaning towards darker furniture, but we aren't too particular which is good because we're getting a lot of items loaned to us!  I can tie anything together with cute bedding and decor. :)  My weekend was also filled with baby shower bliss and gave me lots of good ideas for either my shower if I get to help or for the first shower I host for one of my friends.

Speaking of gender things, I've been doing some gender predictions online!  The gender prediction quiz on parents.com says we're having a girl.  The chinese predictor says we're also having a girl.  The quiz on babymed.com says girl.  Should I stop while I'm 3 for 3 and keep hoping for a girl?  No, it's too fun!  The quiz on childbirth.org says girl!  Common themes that point to a girl so far are spreading horizontally instead of more in front, craving sweets, feet feeling warmer than usual, no nose change, baby's heart beat is over 140, my skin has gotten worse, I'm not extra hairy, and my urine is brightly colored even when hydrated (tmi?).  There are a few "boy" signs though, like craving cheese and the old wives tale about the husband/partner gaining weight along with the woman (sorry, babe!).  And I feel like I'll carry my baby low, but I can't really tell yet.

We're still behind in posting photos, so here's week 16.  Baby is the size of an avocado!  I tried to find an avocado bigger than the apple from last week.  Doing these produce pictures really brings home the fact that there is a HUMAN this actual size inside my belly (or fairly close to this size).  Some days I just have to say "seriously?! I'm making a PERSON?!"  It continues to amaze me.

The cats are in box heaven while we get ready for the move! They'll be so sad when they no longer have entire obstacle courses in the living room.

The puppies were just plain uncooperative for their avocado baby pictures!  Neither would sit still; Diva had to be perched on the cat tower, where she immediately freezes because she's afraid of heights.  And then we accidentally forgot about her up there for about 5 minutes.  My god, how are we going to be parents?! 

My pets are the cutest pets!  The baby is gonna have to be super cute to compete with all this going on!

I forgot to post this pic a few weeks ago.  My sister got us this adorable frame for our ultrasound picture!!  That's Little Baby Lum in the frame!  I just packed up all of our frames so baby had to go away for a week.  The nice thing about procrastinating most of our packing until this past weekend is only having to go one week without our things.  Well, depending on how long it takes us to unpack at the new place.  Only a few more days until big house, tons of storage, real garage, fenced-in yard bliss!!

More week 16 fun!

I've had a thought in my head all day that I've wanted to get down in the blog, and as soon as I opened the new entry, the thought flew away!  Can I blame baby brain yet?  :)  Since I can't remember what I wanted to write about, I'll just post some pictures!  These are from last week, when baby was the size of an apple.  Once again, when I'm pregnant, everyone's pregnant!

 

Rory and Hank! I don't know how long they're going to put up with these fruit shenanagins but they're both pretty darn cute!

Stripes and Diva!  Our big kitty and little puppy.  Stripes has the funniest face!  It's cracking me up how tiny Diva is behind the apple.

I like to think my skin looks better and my hair is bouncier in this photo!  Something is definitely happening with my hair.  It's almost becoming coarser, which I think is giving it some volume.  Can't complain about that!  But it's also frizzier, so I've been experimenting with different types of hair products (all of which I've always had because I'm a beauty product junkie!).  The skin part has been a bit of a battle.  For the first 6 weeks (basically the entire first trimester) after finding out I was pregnant I stayed away from all of my acne products except benzoyl peroxide, which was the only one on my doctor's "approved" list of topical creams.  After staying consistent with that and my TimeWise moisturizer, my face skin cleared up quite nicely.  However, my chest and back have been another story.  I've always struggled with body acne and in my mid-20's I finally discovered the perfect balance of products that kept my skin clear.  One of these things was salicylic acid toner.  I cut it out of my regimen per my orders, and my skin freaked out.  It has stayed freaked out ever since so last week I finally caved and started using the toner again.  10 days later, already better!  I did a bunch of reading and while there's definitely some controversy, a lot of sites deem it safe for topical use once or twice a day.  I'm only using it once a day, and fairly sparingly...so hang in there, baby!!  Once I get all cleared up I'll go off it again and wait until my skin freaks out the second time around.  I also have a call in to my derm to see about getting my prescription for clindamycin renewed.  This is safe for pregnancy use, although I'm not entirely sure it'll work this time around since I'm sure the problems are more hormonal/internal rather than bacterial/external.  Worth a shot though!

Ok, long paragraph about my skin!  But everyone knows how much I love to talk about skin and skin problems and skin solutions.  There's a reason I became a Mary Kay consultant!

These are my week 16 clothed-belly photos.  I'm slightly angled forward because let's be honest, my belly isn't ALL baby.  Ha!  I've had a little bit of the preggo bump going for the past year. :-p  But I do think the lower part is starting to protrude a teensy bit more and my belly is starting to feel a lot harder.  Which is very bizarre!  Less flab and more solid stretch I guess.  I can't wait for it to really start taking shape in the next few weeks.  Then I can break out the maternity tops that have been loaned to me!

Here I am in the same tank top as the first pictures I took .  I think it'll be fun to keep this one going the whole time.  This is a tank top from Target and they're super soft and stretchy, so I'm sure it'll be around the whole 9 months.

Same day as above (10/9), I wore this sweater dress to work.  Because it was raining and finally felt like fall!  Today it's back in the 70's and sunny. Pfft.  Anyways, it's very nice to be pregnant and not have to suck in when wearing form-fitting outfits.  In this outfit I got a few comments like "aww you're starting to show!" which I enthusiastically agreed to.  Today I'm back to a flowy printed top, which is very high in the comfy ratings like this dress was.  I'm gonna be all about comfort!  BUT I've promised myself I will be in heels until at least December, unless my balance issues/clumsiness really get a hold of me.  I managed heels 4 out of 5 work days last week, but I'm only 2 for 4 so far this week.  Tomorrow I'm planning to wear heeled boots with my Friday casual outfit.  I love Fridays!!!

New pregnancy symptoms to welcome Week 16

Today is Week 16, Day 3.  So hard to believe!  Friday I got my very first heartburn.  Is that how you would say it?  I've never had heartburn before in my life so I wasn't sure what was happening.  Achy pain in the top of my chest, constantly feeling like I needed to burp.  I took a few Tums and it seemed to help.  Even though it was annoying I was also excited!  More pregnancy symptoms!  As this week has been pretty devoid of "pregnancy" things I was happy to have the chest pain.  I'm starting to love all these little pain-type things that come with being pregnant.  Like when I jump up and get a stabbing pain in my right side and I think "ow! Oh! Round ligament pain! Fun!"  I mean, of course I've done all the research on the random aches and pains, and once I've determined everything is quite common, then I'm secretly happy about them.  Somehow all the little bumps in the road make me feel connected to all the other women who have ever been pregnant.  Of course there's those women who sail through all 9 months without a hiccup, but I don't need to connect with them.  Just envy and admire them from afar!

Aron is making me laugh on a daily basis when he jokes about the pregnancy and the future baby.  I was going to write about a few funny stories but I think they're all "guess you had to be there" moments.  Suffice it to say that I'm so very thankful I have the funniest husband in the world!  I love that nothing is off limits between us so we can laugh about everything, inappropriate or not. :)

A few people have left work early this week feeling "flu-y."  I hope I don't get sick!  I was actually battling a cold a few weeks ago, which I blame on getting my flu shot and having a weakened immune system for a few days.  The cold never got too bad and I only missed a few hours of work when I was really rundown.  I should be safe from the flu since I got my shot.  I'm glad the nurse asked me if I wanted it at our last appointment, rather than waiting until October 15.

Tonight I'm headed to my Mary Kay meeting for the first time in a few weeks.  I'm happy to see my girlfriends again!  I've bailed out on any evening activities for the past 3 weeks to make sure I was rested for my day job, but now I have the energy to go out at night again.  The black pencil skirt I always wear still fits, although its a bit snug.  Luckily my red jacket has a bit of peplum flair so any bulges are fairly covered.  :) In a few more weeks it might be time to find a stretchy skirt I can wear to work and MK.  Tomorrow night I'm going to a Passion Party that Joelle is hosting.  Time for some fun with my friends again!  Too bad I won't be able to participate in the "wine Wednesday" part of the evening.

What else can I share from preggo land...not too much happening these days, but every day is still a new experience!

Baby Name picked

It's almost 100% certain that we're going to have a boy since Cassie keeps using "she" and "her" when talking about our child's future.  So we've recently been going through baby boy names and we found a winner.  Can't wait to welcome him to the world!  There's nothing wrong with naming your kid Wolfie, right? We could go with Wolfgang, but everyone's going to call him Wolfie anyways.  Cool?  cool.

Week 15 (am I still pregnant?)

Hello blog world!  We're about to make this blog public, so now it will actually feel like I'm writing for all of our friends and family.  So far it's just been for us and the animals.  The pets pretend like they've been reading the blog, but I know they haven't been.  They've shown no interest since we broke the big news!  Although I'm pretty sure Diva knows something is up in my belly because she zeroes right in for my stomach when jumping on top of me when I'm in bed or laying on the couch.  I can't tell if she's trying to comfort me and baby or trying to ensure she stays the baby in the family by eliminating any threats to her status!

The past week and a half I can't say that I've really felt "pregnant."  It's a very strange phase to be in.  I'm not getting nauseous or sick (although I have puked a handful of times over the last 2 weeks) and I'm not really showing yet.  I almost feel like my old normal self!  Although I am super tired by 8 pm still.  Almost every night I fall asleep on the couch watching TV.  All of our programs are back this fall (Revolution! Nashville! New girl!) along with some good new ones (Hostages, The Blacklist) so I've been trying to watch one a night but sometimes its pretty hopeless.  Usually my dear husband will notice I've fallen asleep and he'll stop and save the show and then attempt to rouse me and get me to bed.  He's been getting a lot of quality time with the internet in the evenings!  Luckily he hasn't seemed to mind...yet.  Pretty soon it will start to dawn on him how little he's seen me and how little he's gotten lucky over the past few weeks.  Crossing my fingers my energy is back before he starts to notice!

We had our second appointment, and first appointment with the OB (although this was just a fill-in OB, the one we chose was unavailable, but we'll have her for the next gazillion appointments), on September 17.  It was a very quick appointment but we did get to hear the baby's heartbeat again!  I wasn't expecting to hear that, so I got pretty emotional again.  It's just so freakin' incredible that there is a baby inside of me!  There are times when I'll get teary eyed just thinking about all that's been happening and what's yet to come.  Happy tears, mind you.  I'm so excited to be a mother.  It's something I've wanted for a long time and it's amazing that my time is finally here.

Our next appointment is October 15th...13 days away.  I wish these first few appointments weren't 4 weeks apart!  I feel like now is when I most need reassurance.  On Sunday I took another pregnancy test, after all the "not feeling pregnant" for a week.  And of course, still pregnant.  I need to calm down and enjoy this phase!  When I can eat, go to work, walk the dogs, and see friends like a normal person.  Although late-night activities are still pretty hard since I get so tired.

So far our scale at home is telling me I've gained 4.3 lbs.  Not that much, but not surprising since I spent so much of the first trimester getting sick and not eating any real meals.  I might have gained a bit more according to my OB's chart, since the nurse said I'd gained 4 lbs. just between our appointments on August 19 and September 17.  I'm more confident in my at-home numbers though since I weigh in at the same time each week and I'm always in the nude.  At our next appointment I'll wear a light, floaty dress to see if my number and the Dr's number come a little closer.  With the weight gain, that puts me at 163.4.  I was told to gain the recommended amount of 20-25ish pounds putting me at 179/184ish by the end of the pregnancy.  That means about a pound a week from here on out, so I better keep my sugar cravings under control!  And keep up with the walking and swimming.  My goal is to start incorporating a lot of arm exercises, because there's no way I'll be able to carry a baby around all the time with my currently very weak arms!

Although probably not obvious to everyone, I've definitely gained the weight around my middle (although I'm pretty sure its just my love handles growing for now!).  I can no longer button my dress pants, but I still fit into my jeans and all my stretchy workout pants.  I had to go out and buy one of these sweet belly bands (see pic below) to wear with my work pants.  I was wearing it folded in half the past few weeks but this week I've been leaving it up because it already feels too tight when folded down.  The awesome thing is that this band is super smoothing...like a very comfortable spanx for my back fat!

Now that I'm keeping food down, I've been better about my fruits and veggies.  I'm still not eating quite enough veggies, but I'm working on that.  I've also been better about getting in my full 80 ounces of water every day.  I've never been very good at drinking water, so this has been a huge adjustment for me.  I'm letting myself have a diet coke a few times a week, as well as V8 juice and OJ, to break up the boring task of drinking water all day.  I've also been big on lemonade.  I know it's packed with sugar, but the payoff of getting extra "water" ounces in makes it okay with me.  Speaking of fruit and veggies...here is my first produce picture!  Week 14, baby is the size of a lemon.  This week baby is the size of an apple; I'll be taking that picture soon.

Just for laughs, Aron took pictures of the lemon with all the pets too.


Hanky's pregnant! "Why do I put up with this?!"

Diva's pregnant! And also more interested in getting to the camera than posing with the lemon.

 Stripey's pregnant! And cute as a button.

Rory's pregnant! Sitting on top of one of our packed boxes. The cats love their boxes!

I've been getting told a lot to take belly pictures during the whole pregnancy, so I may start up again with some good profile shots.  All of my friends and lots of random people have been offering me great advice for the pregnancy!  Some women are very hesitant to share, but I want to hear it all.  I might not take all advice to heart, but I like hearing how everyone handled their different symptoms and any good tips they've gleaned from their pregnancies.  I've also been sneaking in a lot of baby-blog reading while at work.  Next up on my to-do list is to buy a good body pillow.  I have a tough time staying on my left side (I sleep most comfortably on my back, in mummy position), so I want to get one of those pillows that wraps around the back to keep me propped on my side.

I also want to get our baby registry started!  But I'll refrain for a bit longer...we get to find out the gender in 3 weeks!  If I remember to book that ultrasound appointment...I guess that's up next on my to-do list. :)

13 weeks!

Oh man, where has the past month gone?!  So many exciting things and fairly average, but still exciting in pregnant land, things have happened over the past 5 weeks.  The most exciting thing of all was having our first appointment.  We met with an ARNP for this first appointment (we'll meet our OB at the next one).  After the routine gyno appointment (very enlightening for Aron. Apparently speculums are frightening), we finally got to the first ultrasound where we got to SEE AND HEAR BABY!!!!  Nothing in this world had prepared me for that moment.  It was beyond amazing and I felt like the whole world was perfect and I was being rewarded with the most beautiful gift ever.  Little baby Lum was right there on the screen, wiggling around with a very very fast heartbeat.  As I was obviously very excited and emotional, so was baby.  Her heart rate clocked in at 193 beats per minute.  Hopefully baby L has calmed down a smidge since then, since the high end of the heart beat range is typically 180.  Here's a few ultrasound images we were able to bring home with us.  (Eeee! Our baby!!)

Seeing this very real sign of life was so incredibly mind-boggling.  Ever since that appointment (August 19) the pregnancy has felt so much more real.  Other pregnancy symptoms have continued to also remind me every day that this pregnancy is real.  I spent the entire month of August very nauseous, and each day at work felt like an eternity.  I couldn't wait to get home and crawl into bed.  An 8 pm bedtime was not unusual for me, even on the weekends (no, not the weekends!).  There were some days I felt like I might not survive.  This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.  Looking back on August, I'm very surprised how fast it passed.  Things are looking much more optimistic these days.  I'm much less nauseous during the day; it really only sets in around 6 pm.  I've been actually vomiting more often, but that's not so bad, compared to the constant nausea.  I'd rather know what my triggers are than be stuck in all-day misery.

Here's some fun pictures we took last month.  I've been steadily stealing ideas from pinterest and other friends' preggo blogs.  There are so many fun ways to document the pregnancy!  This week, I may start taking pictures with produce.  What the heck did she say?!  Yes, produce.  Every week, all of the baby books and websites compare your baby's size to a fruit or vegetable (pea, kiwi, peach, grapefruit, etc).  I saw these cute pictures where the woman posed with the appropriately-sized fruit each week.  Aron's not on board with these pictures, but he has to do what I say!  He's obviously the volun-told photographer for the next 6 months.

  

If the second line looks a little faint on this test, that's only because I left it sitting on the back of the toilet for 3 weeks before I remembered I wanted to do these photos. :) I think the ultrasound pic above should quell any worries that this pregnancy might not be legit.  Including our own worries.

Here's a picture we took of me at 7 weeks.  I realized after this photo that I might not want to take any more until I start showing, so we didn't do any more these past few weeks.  But that was before I stumbled across the produce picture idea.

If you're thinking my boobs look more awesome than ever in this photo, it's because they are! (Sorry to any family that might not want to be reading this part.)  I've gone up almost a full cup size in the past month, but not without a price.  There has definitely been a lot of pain and tenderness, and I've had to start sleeping in a sports bra to be more comfortable.  But really, these issues do not bother me because I'm getting boobs for the first time in my life!

Other fun "pregnant" things that have occurred over the last month are frequent peeing, occasional dizziness, overwhelming exhaustion, ongoing bloated belly, and a lot of emotional ups and downs.  Besides being tired all the time, these things have been minor.  Although Aron might disagree.  He might kill me if he hears me ask "babe, can you do me a teeny favor?" one more time!  I'm starting to get a lot of my energy back, so hopefully I can start helping out around the home more.

Speaking of Aron, he has been absolutely wonderful these past 7 weeks.  He pampers me and takes care of me and lets me rest and eat junk food if that's all I can keep down.  He's put up with my crazy meal requests and endures me yelling at him when the food wasn't what I wanted in the end.  He's already finished his "Dude, You're Gonna be a Dad" book and has put a good dent in our "What to Expect When You're Expecting."  He's going to be such a good father!!

Outside of pregnant land, but equally exciting in our lives - last week we closed on a house!  We bought a house!!  We get the keys on October 18!!  Now that we're about to sail into the second trimester, I'm going to put all of my renewed energy into packing.  I'm so excited to move out of this condo and into a house!!  A house with a fenced in yard!!

Mac and Cheese..week 9 isn't so fun!

It's been 2 weeks and 2 day since finding out I'm pregnant, and 1 1/2 weeks since my first blog post, and I already feel like a million "pregnancy" things have happened.  I just haven't been very good at blogging about them!  At least once a day, I'll think "oh, this should be in our blog! I should remember this!"  Unfortunately, exhaustion kicks in at the end of the day and blogging does not happen.  So time to catch up on the past few weeks.

First of all, a big hello to morning/daytime/evening sickness, constant nausea, gas, bloating, and cramps!  The week of my first post, I was suffering from the worst gas cramps of my life.  I tried every natural remedy I read about online, and finally found relief with drugs, specifically GasX.  As someone who has never struggled with this particular issue, it was slightly embarrassing throwing that on the check-out counter.  But, I should probably get used to that feeling as I'm sure I'll be purchasing a lot of other private-type things over the next 8 months.  As for those certain meds, the little chewable tablets helped me so much I'd do a commercial for the company.  I'm keeping them in my desk at work (outer packaging noticeably absent) and by our bedside for emergencies.

While I was still saying thanks for the gas/bloating relief, I was struck by even worse pregnancy symptoms.  Last week, nausea and sickness hit full blast.  I was getting sick in the morning, the evening, and occasionally in the afternoon, and dealing with all-day nausea.  Which brings me to the title of this post.  Nothing tasted right or settled my stomach until I tried mac and cheese.  It was a miracle food!  I've had it more than a handful of times this past week.  Not exactly "healthy" for me and baby, but at least I'm able to keep some calories in for a few hours.

The getting-sick part really is horrible.  I feel like I'm constantly hung over!  I was so miserable last Thursday at work that I ended up spilling the beans to a few of my female coworkers.  I don't know how people keep it a secret for 12 weeks!  Or even 8 weeks, after finding out.  How long can you use the excuse "oh, I just ate something that didn't sit well with me"?!  I was crying at my desk mid-morning, exhausted from throwing up my first and second breakfasts, when a worried coworker asked what was wrong.  Rather than come up with a good lie (when is it appropriate to pretend someone has been hurt?), I told the truth.  I really only admitted it because this particular coworker is also pregnant so I knew she'd be the most sympathetic!  But after telling her, I realized I needed to tell a few other people.  I'm still trying to keep it a secret from the rest of my coworkers, so I really hope no one says anything for 5 more weeks!  It will be nice having some people in the know, so when I'm feeling miserable I don't have to work quite so hard to hide it.

In addition to my coworkers, we also told a close group of friends and Aron's family this past weekend.  That all came about because one of our friends asked me directly "are you preggers yet?"  I really need to work on my lies for the next few weeks, because all I could do was smile and nod.  It's just so exciting to share the news!  When I told the ladies at work, I was met with a round of screaming and congrats and hugs.  Exactly the reaction every girl wants when she shares the news!  And when we told our friends, there were more congrats and hugs and excited questions.  I'm glad Aron got to experience that, because its so nice to feel loved and supported.  Of course, there were a few accusing "I can't believe you didn't tell me sooner!" statements, but that's fair.  It is so strange keeping something like this from our friends!  Hey, they're all lucky I can't keep my mouth shut and they're finding out 6 weeks earlier than planned!

Telling Aron's family was also really special, although I wish we could have done it in person.  Instead, we facetimed.  Everyone was very happy at the news, except for his niece and nephew, who were indifferent and just wanted us to put our cats on the screen.  Aron's sister Charlotte had saved some baby stuff for us, which I'm excited to pick up the next time we visit his mom in Vegas.  Our first baby things!  So very crazy to think about.

This past weekend we had a lot of festivities for Aron and Ed's birthdays, but even with all of the activity, the weekend was relatively nausea/sickness-free.  So much so that I actually got worried I wasn't pregnant anymore.  Aron echoed my worries by uttering "man, I hope you're still pregnant."  He's now banned from saying those words after the spiral he sent me into!  Luckily, I woke up sick again this morning!  For how awful being sick is, it is sort of a nice reassurance that everything is still okay.  And maybe the old wive's tale will be true...you know, the one that claims that more morning sickness = having a girl!

Off to eat my Monster's Inc-shaped instant mac and cheese!  Yes, having a baby has turned me into a child myself.

Ummm, what?

I'm still not sure what's going right now.  How am I supposed to be a dad?  It's been so long since I've worn shoes with laces that I'm not sure I can tie my own shoes!  I guess our kid's footwear progression will have to go Crocs, Velcro, Flip Flops.  Which, frankly, seems perfectly viable since we live in Southern California.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited to see what the next 40 weeks hold.  From limited research, it sounds like I'm pretty much going to have to learn on the job.  I am pretty superstitious and don't want to jinx anything by telling my family until after the first appointment.  It'll be hard, but I think it'll put my mind at ease a little.

As for this blog, given the first post, it sounds like Cassie will be doing the play-play and I'll just be doing the color commentary, which means I'll maybe post a picture here and there and maybe do interviews with our other kids and let you guys know what their reaction is.  I asked each of them "What do you think about having another brother or sister?"  Here are their responses:

Hank

What's a brother?  What's a sister?  What do they taste like?  I hope they taste good.

Diva

Brother?  Sister?  I'm going to lick your face.  I'm going to lick everything.

Stripes

I know I said it when you brought home the black one.  And I said it when you brought home the brown one.  But this time I'm definitely going to eat this next one you bring home.

Rory

Stripes is just kidding, he's just a big softy.  I hope I get a sister so we can play dress up.  But make sure this sister is better than that last one.  All she does is try to smell my butt and lick my face.

Cool.  Now I sort of know how to insert pictures and format pages within this blogger framework.  I'll continue to post inane things with pictures to see what other things we can do with this page.

Week one...or is this week four?

If you're reading this first post I'm going to assume you've also read the title of the blog.  WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!  This blog will chronicle 9ish months of my (our?) pregnancy.  At times I'll attempt to talk about things other than the zygote/fetus/baby.  I'm sure there will be mentions of the hubby, the four pet children, the jobs.  But mostly it will be all baby, all the time.  Like my what my brain and body have already become.  Oh, and I'll probably switch between past and present tense all the time.  I like to storytell in present, so bear with me even when I'm telling tales from long ago.

So, we're pregnant!  At least we think we are.  We won't know "for sure" for another 4 weeks.  But we're 4-pregnancy tests sure.  That's a lot of double pink lines.  Although anytime I mention baby or baby future I still want to say "I hope!" at the end of my sentence.  What kind of optimism is that?!  Maybe it hasn't sunk in yet, not all the way, not really.  I'm eagerly awaiting week 8, when we go in for our first appointment.  I've chosen UCSD Women's Health Services for now, and they don't bring you in until week 8.  I had to refrain from begging to let me come in for a "confirmation" test.  Instead, I'll probably just keep taking at home tests every week until the appointment and I see that first flutter of a heart beat.

Here's a little back story on how I knew I was with child.  I took my first test last Friday, July 19th.  I was three days late and about to burst thinking of the possibilities. (Side note - we had sort of been "trying."  Like, making sure we jump each others' bones at the right time of month, among all the other times!)  So I took a test.  I was up in Moscow for my high school reunion, and Aron was still in San Diego.  I was staying with my parents, and my sister was also visiting them.  I hesitated to take the test alone but ultimately decided I couldn't wait.  I took the test, then brushed my teeth, then brushed my hair, all the while keeping one eye on the clock for the slowest three minutes ever to pass (this was not my first pregnancy test, but it was the first in which I was actually hopeful for two pink lines!).  FINALLY, I take a look.  And, ohmygod, two pink lines!  I throw open the bathroom door and yell "mooo-ooooo-oooommmmmm" down the hall.  Before my mom can even get to the bathroom I'm shaking uncontrollably, because even though I was hopeful, it was the last thing I expected.  Happy shakes, mind you.  While waving my pee stick at her, I tearfully say "I think I might be pregnant," and next thing I know my sister throws open the bedroom door and goes "WHAT?!"  She has superb hearing!  So then we get to be in a happy little women bubble for a few minutes, and I realize it was probably the second best way I could have found out I was pregnant (first being if Aron had been by my side!).  Sharing that moment with my mom and sister is something I'll always remember; it was such a feminine, powerful moment.  The things our bodies can do!

 After the initial joy settled down, I was immediately skeptical.  So I chugged some water and took a second test.  Even with not-first-morning-pee, it was positive.  Hot damn!!  Preggers!!!  How was I going to wait 3 days to tell Aron in person?!  I spent most of the weekend thinking of a cool, sweet, funny way I could tell him.  After all, I couldn't go through with my initial Moscow plans - drinking all weekend long with old friends!  So, I plotted.  I had taken a third test on Saturday morning (still positive! OMG!!!), and had accumulated pictures of all three tests (I know I'm not the only one who did this!).  The pictures gave me the idea to first tell him through technology, with a sort of backup plan.  I drug Randi and my BFF Emily to Hastings with me to buy baby books, which included the classic "Dude, you're gonna be a dad!"  Then Randi and I went to Walmart and I bought some onesies that said "Daddy" on them.  This completed my "I'm telling you some really awesome and kinda scary news" package.  With all this scheming and anticipation, the two plane rides home to San Diego were the LONGEST.EVER.  Finally, after a long, crazy airport pick-up due to the comicon folks leaving SD, we were home.  I immediately go into action.  I tell Aron I want him to look at some photos on my phone (they start out being general ones of the weekend).  He scrolls through and gets to the first test picture.  He's confused (later, he tells me he was confused because he thought it was a photo of a non-pregnant result test. WTF. Why would I have a picture of that?!  Turns out he couldn't see the 2nd pink line very well).  I yell "keep scrolling!" while frantically grabbing the "dad" book and shoving it in his face.  All of a sudden I'm laughing and crying and yelling "we're having a baby!!"  The moment didn't go quite as well as planned but it's one I'll never forget.  The incredulous look in his eyes as he kept repeating "reeaaaalllyyyy?!" was priceless.  And no passing out or panicking!  The rest of the night consisted of "what?! really?!" and all sorts of excited random pillow talk.

It's been four days since I told Aron and I already know the next few weeks are going to be excruciatingly long as I attempt to keep this a secret from even my nearest and dearest.  I'm not opposed to telling people, but Aron thinks it's bad luck and wants to wait at least until week 8.  We've known a few women who have had miscarriages lately at weeks 10 or 12, and it's hard not to keep that in the back of our minds.  But, I reason that telling our closest friends could be okay, because then we'll have a much larger support group should anything go wrong.  But I'm respecting my hubby's wishes, and keeping mum.  Which is very hard for me because I have quite a few girlfriends in my life that I'm dying to tell!!!  Apart from my family, only my two besties in Moscow know.  And that was only because I had to bow out of drinking plans and was too excited about the news to come up with a lame excuse.  Instead, it was right out with "I'm not drinking because I'm pregnant!"  I'm secretly betting Aron doesn't wait until week 8 to tell his mom.  I can tell he's already getting anxious to share the good news.

Ok, enough ramble for one night.  This blog thing is going to be hard - how do you reel yourself in?!  I'll heave to learn the art of keeping it short and sweet.  But seeing how this is my only outlet for the time being, expect lots of words trying to express how excited and nervous I am that WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!