12 Weeks & The "Snow Storm"

Yay!  Today marks the official end of my first trimester.  Unfortunately, my morning sickness doesn't understand that :/... BUT, I was put on Zofran last week and its helped tremendously!  I've taken my "real" prenatal vitamins (versus Flinstone chewables) for about 5 days now, and I've definitely had more of an appetite.  The sicky feeling still creeps up on me now and then, which is annoying, because it seems to happen during meal times (maybe because the smell of certain foods?) for the most part though, I feel like I've turned a corner.  YAY for that!

On top of my 12 week mark, today was also the uh, "Snowpacalypse."   All week, we (Jacksonians/Michiganders) have been warned about this insane snow storm.  People were nuts at Meijers- stocking up on water and canned foods- like we were going to be stuck inside for a week or something.  I am SO glad I didn't really give the storm much of a thought... because we got a whopping 4 inches.  Ha :)  I will admit that the winds last night freaked me out- and I was a tad concerned we were going to lose power, but all was good.  Ryan took work off and feels like a complete idiot.. but that's okay :)  I'm excited to have him home for the day.   To give the weathermen out there some credit, I believe there were certain areas of Michigan that got a good amount of snow... so they were semi-accurate I guess.

This morning, we (okay, Ryan) made a huge breakfast.  There is absolutely NOTHING on the agenda for today and I'm good with that.  I do wish that my kids owned some snow gear... it would be fun to get some pictures of them in the snow.  For now, we're watching it from inside...

Tell me there are not some scary similarities!

And me.... at 12 weeks :)

 

And for good measure, lets look at how the lobster is growing :)

11 Weeks On This (not so) Wordless Wednesday

This week has been much of the same.  Lots of good ol' morning sickness.  I don't feel like I'm getting bigger... maybe because I'm losing weight?  Hmmm...  other than the pukes, its been pretty uneventful around here. 

Here is what the lobster looks like at 11 weeks:

And here's how I'm looking these days... (I hid my face, because its really not something you want to see at this point ;)

In other news, I got some new actions for photoshop that I'm completely addicted in love with.  They are so beautiful... and have the most yummy names.   

  This picture of Mr. Man (fresh out of the bath) was edited with summer wheat... yummm....

And this picture, which I took at the beginning of last week, originally for Ashley Sisk's Scavenger Hunt Sunday, is edited with Honey.  :) 

Alright... I think that's about all for now! :)  Have a fabulous Wednesday!

1 MORE WEEK!

That's right- one more week (or 6 days to be exact!) to go before I am OUTTA the awful, most dreaded first trimester. Unfortunately with Maeve I was sick until about week 14/15. I am hoping its not that way with this one... although things seem to be pretty much the same so far: morning sickness has been the same (if not worse), headaches, fatigue, breaking out in zits like I'm 16 again (UGH)... The good news is, once you've made it out of the first tri. the baby is done forming- now its just gotta grow! Something about knowing that your baby is developing and forming all these critical organs and body parts freaks me out- so I'll be happy when that's all done, and all that's left to do is bake the turkey! :)

An old "friend" visited me this morning- my lovely bleeding gums. YUCK. I haven't experienced that since last time I was pregnant- I forgot how gross it is! I get the whole bleeding gums thing BAD. I think I posted a pic from my pregnancy with Maeve a LONG time ago, just to show how bad they bleed. Its pretty crazy. Literally I spit out mouthfuls of blood- its pretty sick :(

On a totally different note, I think miss Maeve might be hitting a growth spurt. She's been sleeping soooooo much- what a blessing :) She goes down for bed around 8 or so and has been sleeping in until 9!!! WOAH!!!!!!! It's been very exciting! :) She's also been eating a ton too- for breakfast this morning she ate an entire banana, a waffle, a cup of milk and then mooched off of my cereal. That may not sound like a lot, but coming from a kid who normally throws 99 percent of her food on the floor, it was a truckload! Maeve also has a new fave. word: No. Surprise, surprise, huh? Actually she doesn't say it to me very often- like if I ask her to do something, she normally does it- she doesn't say no. But she DOES use the word "no" when SHE'S doing something naughty. So its kind of cute :) She'll start pulling a bunch of books of the shelves and before I can say "no" she says "no,no,no!" Or we'll be driving in the car and I'll hear the velcro on her sandals go "RIIIIP" and I'll look in the mirror- again before I can say "no leave your shoes on", she says her cute little "no, no, no." I told Ryan I feel kind of bad because she must hear the word "no" a lot.... hmmm.

Cramping & Cooking...

Oh my. I truly can't remember if I had cramping with Maeve or not. It seems like I did- because I vaguely remember asking some friends and my mom if they had it too. In general, from what I've read, cramping is pretty common, normal and sometimes a good sign- it means the uterus is stretching to accommodate the pregnancy. But like I said, I just don't remember with Maeve- so yesterday when I was having some mild- but consistent achiness/soreness/cramping sensations, I kind of wrote them off as ligament pains. By bedtime though, it definitely felt like period cramps. I am SO paranoid- so I facebooked my dear midwife, asking her what to do. She said as long as there isn't bleeding (there wasn't- THANK GOD!) that its okay... just to increase my fluids and try to go #2. (nice...) Well, I did both... and it worked! I feel way better today. Actually, I haven't had a single ache or cramp. I'm assuming that's good... I just have to remember that pregnancy is 10 months filled with weird, "NOT NORMAL" things. Someone once told me, if its not normal, its normal. :) And that seems to be true!

Now onto cooking- not sure if any of you noticed that my menu stayed exactly the same for about 5 weeks and has now completely disappeared, but yes, it did. The reason? Pretty simple: morning sickness. I couldn't really cook much of anything without getting sick. So most of our meals consisted of sandwiches, soups (from the can) and take out. Luckily Maeve and I are pretty easy going eaters now a days; I'm usually happy with water and some sort of bread product and Maeve could live off of mac & cheese and chicken noodle soup. I have felt pretty bad for Ryan though- he makes do- either heating up leftovers or running out to McDonalds (sad...yes). Thankfully I think I can see the light at the end of the morning sickness tunnel- today, I've actually felt pretty good- I ate breakfast, lunch and COOKED, yes COOKED dinner. Ryan came home for lunch and I had just finished cooking the meat and I'm pretty sure he thought he was witnessing a miracle- ME, COOKING!

Hopefully I can get back on track with the cooking...

"Wow, That's a Lot of Lettuce."

I'm not really sure what has been going on with me- I thought I was getting a cold or a flu or something over the weekend... Friday morning I woke up with a sore throat; Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat, slight fever, the chills, etc. OH yeah- PLUS morning sickness. :( I pretty much took advantage of Ryan being home on Saturday and wallowed in self pity in bed... complaining about how its bad enough to have morning sickness, but to have the flu on top of it- well that's just cruel! I was supposed to go to the Rose Pageant with Angela that night, so all day long I was trying to will myself to drink and drink and drink... if I couldn't eat anything, at LEAST I'd be well hydrated. Right before the pageant I started to feel super dizzy- "duh" I thought, I haven't eaten anything all day! Subway sounded the least disgusting... so I got a veggie sub- loading up on all those yummy veggies! I thought it had settled okay, because I really was feeling better at the pageant. Later at home though I started feeling suuuuuuuper queasy. Deciding that I always feel better after I take a shower, I hopped in at midnight (waking Ryan up...). As SOON as I got out of the shower, I lost it. This is about my 1000th time puking, but normally I don't get sick at night- so Ryan was there to witness it this time. To show his support he came up behind me and was kind of rubbing my back- it was nice... but then he said "WOW. That's a lot of lettuce." I just started cracking up- and of course, cracking up/puking is not a good combo. Without getting into the nitty gritty, it was quite the scene. Anyways, that's a line that will go down in the baby book. Oh- and I'm not sure I can ever eat Subway lettuce again.

UTI #1

BOO! The doctor called me yesterday and when I saw the name pop up on my caller ID my heart about stopped! I knew they were reviewing the ultrasound and of course I was hoping for no news, as we all know, "no news is good news." Fortunately it wasn't about the ultrasound at all, she didn't even mention it- which I'm assuming is a good thing? She just informed me that my urine test came back with an infection... BLAH. Now I'm on antibiotics and praaaaaaaying that this is my one and only UTI this pregnancy. I have had a real problem with bladder infections in the past. They got so bad that it got to the point where I couldn't drink dark pop, take baths, wear certain underwear, use certain soap... YEAH- it was bad! But during Maeve's pregnancy I didn't get one until I was 24 weeks- more than halfway through the pregnancy. THIS time around I've got one right out of the gates. :( Things could def. be worse though; I am thankful that the call was JUST about the stupid UTI and not about the turkey.

All the Gory Details... AND Florida :)

because I'm sure you're all dying to know, right??? First off, this pregnancy was a huge, huge, huge surprise. And I'm going to admit this- it took a LONG time for it to sink in and become "okay." I feel like a brat saying that but I am such a planner and this just wasn't in the plans. But a good friend of mine (ANG!!!) reminded me that we don't really control our future or make plans- God does. And its totally true. So with that said, I began adjusting- the first week of the pregnancy everything was going great- but I'm pretty sure I jinxed myself. I was bragging to anyone who would listen (who knew about the pregnancy) that I wasn't sick a bit! AND my boobs didn't even hurt! WOW! This was going to be easy peezy japanease! :) HAHAHAHA. Around week 5 everything, and I mean EVERYTHING hit like a train. Its like someone turned on a switch- nothing sounded good to eat- just water, water, water. My head was constantly pounding, I couldn't get enough sleep- DURING THE DAY- however at night, I was an insomniac... and yes my gigantic boobs have grown even more... I didn't realize that was possible... but yeah they hurt. :( Good ol' pregnancy stuff!

Something that was even more of a bummer, that I just couldn't shake out of my head, was our wonderful FLORIDA trip that had been planned for months and months. All I could picture was me holed away in the hotel room- puking and sleeping. Luckily, my midwife suggested a concoction of B6 & unisom... WHAT A LIFE SAVOR!!!! The unisom is awesome for 2 reasons- it helps me sleep at night AND pretty much knocks out the really bad nausea. In fact, I was able to gain 3 lbs. on vacation- (at this point in my pregnancy with Maeve I was down 10 lbs. due to puking). So yeah, we had a pretty good time- there were definitely moments of "BLAH" but the majority of the time I just tried to stay as busy as possible and out in the sun. I think those two things helped... Not once on vacation did I even gag!!! I did take naps every day with Maeve though :) Let me just make a quick suggestion for you mommies or soon to be mommies out there- do not fly/drive/plan a trip to Universal/Disney if you are pregnant. It is just not that pleasant. Actually the flight down to FL was okay- it was the flight back that almost did me in. And the time we spent at my grandmas and at the hotel in St.Augustine was wonderful and relaxing- but Universal? That's another story. Yes, yes I participated in everything I could possibly get away with at Universal... that means I went on all the spinning stuff, Jaws, Earthquake, ET, the 3D movies, all that junk. I just refused to miss out on it- especially since Maeve was experiencing it all for the first time. Of course I got the okay from Laura (my midwife)- she said I could ride anything that Maeve could. So even though I felt like caca, I went on the spinning fish (One Fish, Two Fish) and the up and down ET ride. YIKES. It actually kind of ruined my day because I was feeling so crappy but I kept pushing it and pushing it and then by the end of the night I was worthless... I could barely keep sprite down at- MARGARITAVILLE, let alone eat a" cheeseburger in paradise." :(
Moving on to my grandmas (Gigi as she is now referred to- Great Grandma)- my grandma is the best! She pampers me like no other! And I was soooooooo milking it! :) I laid by the pool reading and watching Maeve and Ryan swimming and my grandma would make me smoothies, bring out trays of fresh fruit, ahhhh. It was really nice :) After my grandmas, we headed to St.Augustine. We stayed in "our" inn, as we call it- (Ryan and I have stayed there for years and years...) and really had a great time. It was super relaxing and awesome to have Ryan around 24/7. Even though some lunches/dinners had to be eaten at our little table in our hotel room (because sometimes being at restaurants and seeing/smelling other food makes me puke) it was still really nice. One night I was sweating and burning up (not from a fever or anything- I was just HOT) and I was begging Ryan to find me something cold to drink... turns out right behind our little inn was this ice cream/coffee/smoothie shack and it creates the most delicious drinks ever!!! My favorite was the frozen mint lemonade... the lady would pull fresh mint leaves off a bush thing and grind them right up with the lemonade... it was sooooooooooo good! It turned out to be a nightly/morning/afternoon ritual! :) OH how I wish I could have a frozen mint lemonade right now!!!
So yes, all in all, it was a really good time in FL. But I was glad to be home- ready for all the preparation that goes into having a baby... I'm already scoping out the Gymboree baby stuff :)
WELL my ultrasound is tomorrow morning... I will update after that. Hopefully all will look good- and I can FINALLY have a due date!!!

Lovely picture... I know. But there are actually like 40 equally disturbing pictures of me with no makeup, crazy beach hair, drinking my gallon of lemonade. I chose this one because its least hideous (hard to believe). And of course, there are a zillion other pictures from FL but all of you have facebook and have probably looked at them on there...

LONG Overdue For An Update!!!! Forgive Me???

Oh my goodness has this blog been neglected! But really, I have good reason for it! There has been a TON on my mind and millions and zillions of things to write about... but I was holding off on posting for one pretty big reason: I'm preggo! Surprise! haha I think half of you know this by now... but for the other half, there ya go!

Sooooooo where to begin? How about 2 months ago when I decided to take that test- I was feeling fine, just thought I should test because I hadn't taken one in awhile and you never know... sure enough it popped up positive. I don't think I slept for the next week. The emotions for this one have been SO different than the emotions I had with Maeve. This time around, instead of having pure excitement, I am really concerned about life with two kids... yikes! I was just getting a handle on being a momma to Maeve... now everything has flip flopped and we've got to learn how to juggle a 2 year old and a newborn. Needless to say it took a LONG time to get adjusted to the big surprise of having another baby.

I am happy to say today was my first OB appointment and everything went BETTER than expected. I am actually measuring 2 weeks ahead (which according to my midwife means I'm either 12 weeks or havin' twins! haha) AND we heard the beautiful sound of a heartbeat- in the 170's. I still don't have an official due date... I have an ultrasound tomorrow morning (tuesday) and they're going to date the pregnancy. SO tomorrow I should be able to say officially when I'm due. Anyways, that's the big news around here! And now I will be able to update you all with my lovely stories of morning sickness and stretch marks! Hopefully you guys will forgive me for abandoning the blog for a few weeks!!!

9 Months and counting

March-April, 2007

By the time March rolled around I was well on my way to becoming a mommy... I was about 7/8 weeks or so when I woke up one morning and started to gag. I ran into the bathroom and spent the next 10 minutes dry heaving over the toilet... "Was this morning sickness?" I wondered. Indeed it was. For the next 8 weeks, YES, 8 WEEKS, I woke up every morning, got out of bed, went into the bathroom, was sick for about 10 minutes or so, brushed my teeth, got dressed and plopped down on the couch to moan and groan about how nauseas I was. I was so nauseated by smells it was unreal. Coffee triggered my gag reflex like no other- I remember one morning I awoke to the smell of coffee and I ran out of the bedroom to find Ryan brewing some. After a huge blow up about how insensitive he was being and about how the only person who cared about this baby was me, I relented to my room and cried under the covers, while, yes, gagging. Haha, that is one of my favorite memories of my 1st trimester. The morning sickness was unbearable- I lost around 12 pounds in my first 2 months of pregnancy because of it. I remember I kept thinking "get through these first months and the rest is easy breezy."