28 weeks

So here's my bigggooo belly shot for 28 weeks. Today I went to a prenatal yoga class and hit the gym to run 3 miles. It felt good to have a productive workout day as they have been few and far in between! I also made an attempt to get out of the grocery store for under $100, but was $27 over, oops. The $5.95 Fit Pregnancy magazine probably didn't help :) The trip to the grocery was miserable. It was jammed packed because of the super bowl and I got all hot and sweaty and then had to wait in line for like 20 mins to checkout b/c I picked the slowness checkout person possible. I was fuming by the time I left! But I came home and took a little nap and felt better. Gary and I are watching a netflix now - Live Free or Die Hard. I'm sure it will be amazing (insert sarcasm here). Tomorrow I am either going to try the Bootcamp or Iron Pump class at my gym. I am trying to vary up my workouts in hopes I will get better about hitting the gym 5 times a week.

Third Tri

28 weeks! I made it to the third trimester generally unscathed! Woohoo. In reflecting back over this pregnancy I must say I have enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I thought I would absolutely freak as I gained weight, but haven’t felt so bad about it. I do regret that my eating has been less than stellar, as have my workouts since Nov. I really thought I would be this healthy, active perfect pregnant woman, but I haven’t been. And that’s okay. I can’t go back and fix it. I am making a conscious effort to cut back on junk and trying really hard as I have pretty much eaten any sweet within a 3 foot radius of me for the last 20 weeks. I’m unfortunately very confident that at least 10-15 lbs of my weight gain is surely fat as my thigh and hip measurements are up several inches and I’m sure I’ve lost a lot of muscle mass. But I could get sad, I could blame it on the pregnancy, but I have no one to blame but myself. I ate like a crazy woman for the last 4 months, not eating for 2, eating for 5 and I went from working out 10 hours a week to maybe 3. So, it is what it is. I am up about 30 lbs, but don’t feel like I look too enormous. Most of it is belly. I will probably be up over 40 before this little girl comes into the world. But I am confident I will get it off and look forward to the challenge. I have never had much willpower, but have always been into working out. I hope I can find that spark again. Especially sleep deprived! I am already planning and dreaming of what my workout routines will be and the “diet” I will be on. Now don’t worry I am not stupid enough to really diet when breastfeeding, but there will be a cutback on the carb/sugar orgy, that’s for sure. Back to my morning smoothies! It feels so foreign to not be working on my race schedule, but I have no idea how I am going to feel, what to expect. I also don’t know that I will want to spare the money for race entries. Maybe this year will just be running and biking for the enjoyment of it, not to get a PR….maybe.

I got my shot this morning, it was in my butt, it hurt!

I will take an updated belly shot this weekend. I love looking back over the belly shots, I can’t believe I thought I was big at 8 weeks, 12 weeks, look at me now! I love my belly and love to feel the baby moving around al the time. I am sad b/c I know soon that will slow down as the baby gets bigger and runs out of room. Still thinking about names as I lay awake at night, names that I like are below, some are a bit too common for my taste, but I may still use them in the end b/c I can’t land on anything I love:

Magnolia (Maggie)
Isabelle
Elanore (Ella or Nora)
Adelaide
Ruby (vetoed by Gary though…he may change his mind)
Vivianne (vetoed by Gary)
Piper (my fav, vetoed by Gary)
Sky
Stella
Linde
Lydia

Pokey morning

I had a doc appt this morning and had to do a glucose screening, so I had to get my blood drawn before the appt (after drinking the nasty ass sugar drink). So, then I have my appt with a different doc and after looking over my chart, she realized my normal doc had not prescribed a very important test that you have to do in the 28th week. Basically I have 0- blood, which means my baby likely has + blood of some type b/c most people do. If any of the babies blood gets into my body, my body would produce antibodies to try and kill the baby. Nice, so they take your blood around 28 weeks and confirm your blood type and then give you some sort of special shot that protects the baby. So, I had to go back and get my blood drawn AGAIN, so now I have bruises in both elbows. What a way to start the day for someone who is scared of needles. I'm also a little (okay a lot) miffed that the doc I normally see missed this.

Friday is 28 weeks. Can't believe I am already at the third trimester. I've started having a lot of dreams where the baby is out and about with us. I can't wait to meet her.

27 weeks and change

So I am part way through week 27. Tomorrow I go for my glucose test. The past few weeks have really seen a lot of changes in my body. For one, I am now full blown peeing on myself if I am not careful. Whereas before it would just be the occasional dribble after going, I find that now I once I think I might have to go, I better go b/c in a few mins I'll be wetting my pants. Good times. The other thing is I am having this really wierd sensation under one boob, above my belly, it feels like that area is falling asleep. It's really annoying and never happens on the other side. I'm sure it has something to do with my little girl's positioning or something, but please make it stop. Sleeping is getting harder, my biggest problem is now that I sleep on my side and I'm not resting any weight onto a sprawled out leg or belly, my shoulder is taking the brunt of it and they are really bothering me. I've always had issues with my shoulder one one side, the rotator cuff b/c I sleep with my arm shoved up under my pillow, but can't seem to change the habit. Oh well.

In good news though the baby moves a lot and I love watching my belly dance around. I have tried to start talking to her when she moves, but then just kind of feel like a wierdo!

Whose the lucky person that gets to raise my child? Is it me?

Gary and I looked at our first daycare center last night. It’s absolutely perfect, but at $215 a week a bit pricey for the area. But all of the rooms were nice and clean, the children all looked happy, it is less than a quarter mile from our house and it has come to use highly recommended. If I was for some reason to go back to work fulltime, this place would be perfect. They don’t have an opening until Sept though.

I think about my job and going back to work constantly. It keeps me awake at night. I hate that I really can’t talk to my employer about part time right now. From what I have been advised by 2 of my friends that are in HR, I must wait until I am out on maternity leave. If I don’t I have no leverage. If I bring it up and they tell me no now, they might just go find someone else to take my place. If I bring it up when they are expecting me back in 2 weeks, they are kind of stuck and if I give them an ultimatum, they might have no choice. However, that being said, no one at my company works part time except for 2 people who were grandfathered in when our company was bought out. We do not have flex time, all new employees have to work the same hours. I was grandfathered in to an earlier schedule so I leave at 5, as opposed to 5:30 like a lot of people. The company that bought us out has slowly taken away any employee perk that existed here, so I have maybe a 25% chance of getting part time. What I have going for me is that my bosses love me, my clients love me and I truly believe they would hate to see me go. Corporate isn’t here though and doesn’t know me from eve. One other thing is we are bare bones skeleton crew right now with a hiring freeze, losing me would really put a hurt on my team. So part of me wonders with the tough economy if I can’t score part time for at least 6 months b/c they don’t want to lose me and don’t want to hire someone new. I just don’t know…I wish I did! Ideally I want to come back to work part time after my 12 weeks off. If I had my choice, I would work part time for 3 -4 years until my daughter was in preschool. But we live in a country with few choices for moms. If this job tells me that I cannot have part time, then I will have to decide if I am quitting. I will cross that bridge when the time comes. So, anyway in my mind when I am looking at daycare I am thinking that I will be working part time b/c it’ll probably be that or I am staying at home, in which case I don’t need daycare. So, if that’s the case $215 a week is steep. I’ll need to find something $100ish, which from the people I have talked to is do-able.

I circled 15 daycare centers in the yellow pages that are in close proximity to our house. I guess I will drive by them first and take a peek. If they seem okay from the outside, I’ll then call them and ask a few questions – how many infants do you have at once, teacher/infant ratio, sick child policy, pricing. Most won’t give pricing over the phone, so I guess we’ll have to visit the ones that look okay from the outside. But really should I be judging based on the looks of the building? Probably not… but I have little to go on! This is such a big decision and I am totally lost I hate it. I wish I could just stay home. My mom stayed home with us and it was the best. But my dad ran his own lucrative business and my mom did all the books for it. Finding a stay at home job is next to impossible. But I certainly keep my eyes and ears open.

26 weeks, 3 days

So as I said the last few weeks I have been having some big changes. This is getting me even more nervous about all the things that need to be done. Hubby is working away though. He has the basement done and is working on the guest room now. After that, it's the linen closet, then nursery, then downstairs bathroom. Tomorrow we go visit a daycare center. I know it's probably too pricey for us at $215 a week, but it comes highly recommended, so we're going to check it out. We could only afford it if I go back to work full time, which I really hope to not have to do!I do believe we have a pediatrician lined up, just need to go meet them face to face.

Here is a new belly shotThat bulge on my back is just the lovely belly panel from my pants thank you very much :) Now for a few shots of some of the baby stuff I have so far!

My sister Melanie got me this lovely bear for Xmas. She wanted to be the first to get the baby a teddy bear and she was.

My sister Tina got me this adorable set off of a store on Etsy. I love Etsy, I could spend hours on there a day.

My mom just had this bird sitting around her house, but I loved it and plan to put it in the nursery.

This isn't necessarily for the nursery, but wanted to post another cute find Tina got me off of Etsy. I love owls! Right now this cute guy is sitting on our mantel, safe from the clutches of the evil Fonzi.

Alien

Okay this belly moving thing is out of control :) Now everytime she is on the move I can see it. So bizzare. I mean I love it, but it really is a freaky thing. It's amazing the difference a week or two makes. I can't imagine what it's going to be like as she gets bigger.

I got in 2 good workouts this weekend, which I am very happy about. I have been so lazy, I hope to keep up the momentum for the next 14 weeks and now let the third tri drag me down!

Things are changing

I have been able to feel the baby for awhile now. I think the first time I thought I was feeling it was around 16/17 weeks. I am a few days shy of 26 weeks and over the last 2, boy has she gotten stronger. Last night for the first time I literally saw my belly jump. So neat and the kicking feels more like a strong rolling around sensation. It's so neat in an alien invasion creepy way. And last night I had a visible bump on one side of my belly, like the baby was curled up on that side. I find that when I lay down on my bed and put my knees up and put the computer on my knees, so the bottom is resting on my belly the baby goes crazy and kicks around. Very odd. I love it though.

Car is in the shop. We have to pay the deductible which blows. I probably could have fully furnished the nursery for the amount of money that took. The last issue is repairing the garage. Some guy came today and was able to get it to close, but warned that our garge door moving parts are so old they are going to break soon, but he wanted $800 to replace. sheesh. Not right now.

I am playing hooky from work today, too much stress yesterday. I felt like laying low today and not dealing with anyone! well besides my bad puppy. Who was bad when I went to the grocery and broke out of the kitchen. Little butthead.

When it rains, it pours

Wow. What a F-ing week I am having and it’s only Tuesday. On Monday Gary got home from work to find out that the puppy had had a party in our house. He had gotten into a basket of magazines and proceeded to tear them to shreds across the dining room and living room, he pulled the table cloth and items on the table down into the floor and started to chew on the folder with our ultrasound pics in it (luckily no damage done), he went in the kitchen and chewed his piddle pad to shreds (they are hard to clean up b/c they leave dusty fluff everywhere), then he peed on the rug and went upstairs and ate my DKNY glasses. I am not a brand name type of person, I don’t buy nice stuff, but those glasses were nice and I wear them a lot and with the baby coming and me getting up and down during the night I knew I would need them as I can’t sleep in contacts. So, I was fully expecting that I would have to buy new glasses this week for a couple hundred. Then I get up this morning and I can’t even explain what happened, I will blame it on my pregnant brain, but I was backing out of the left side of our garage, with plans to pull my car over to the right side and park in front and leave it running to heat up, I wanted to open the left side of the garage for the lady I carpool with to pull into b/c it’s easier to back in and out of….so I pull out and I cut it funny and ram on the gas for whatever reason and hit the garage and demolish my car. I mean demolish. I am going to have to get a whole new bumper, quarter panel, there is going to be body work involved, etc. I just stood in my driveway and cried. 2 seconds of stupidity for thousands of dollars in damage. That’s not even counting the fact that I messed up the garage door. So, the lady I carpool with pulled up and I’m like I don’t know what to do and she’s like put it back in the garage. So, I did and I got in the car with her. I couldn’t even close the garage door. Sigh. I am so sad. We soooo don’t have the money for that right now. I was supposed to take a trip to visit friends this weekend, but now I wonder if I can justify the money it’ll cost in gas and food? Gary is taking my car to the body shop right now and getting a rental car. I am so furious at myself. Our deductible is high and I’m sure our insurance will go up a good bit. This is the last thing we need at 6 months pregnant with a ton of home renovations going on. Okay I think I need to go to the bathroom at work and cry again.

Wow I really am pregnant

On Sunday I worked out, went to lunch/bookclub with friends, went to a museum exhibit with a friend, followed by starbucks. When I got home I felt absolutely clobbered and I still do. I guess I am really getting to that point in pregnancy where many naps are necessary and you can't put much into 1 day. Sigh. I can't believe I over halfway there. I will be 26 weeks on Friday. Eek. That means that in as little as 10 weeks I could have a baby. Hopefully not that early, but it certainly happens.

Gary said he really doesn't like the name Ruby. Sigh, so what about these names, any you love:

Zoe
Chloe
Magnolia (maggie)
Norah
Adelaide
Lila
Lilly
Any suggestions??? Picking a name is hard yo.

Boob confessions

I had to buy a new bra. It was a C cup....um hello. Do you realize this means I could very easily go from a A to a D cup during this pregnancy. That's messed up ya'll. Luckily no stretch marks on the tatas just yet.

I'm sleepy, what's your excuse?

Okay sleeping whilst pregnant officially sucks. I have been such a zombie the past few weeks. I seem to fall asleep fine. For some reason I can’t get myself positioned correctly to sleep on my left side. So, I usually start the night on my side like a good girl, on the right. Arm shoved up under my pillow. That lasts maybe an hour or two, I usually wake up with aching hips and an achy rotator cuff (this shoulder thing has been an issue for years, can’t seem to sleep without my arm under my head). So, I flop over to the other side and sleep more on my stomach than my side, I normally shove a pillow under one leg and sleep in the shape of a K. Maybe I should get a body pillow, but I really don’t see it working for me. I never sleep long with the pillows propping up body parts of hugging the pillow. It just feels so hot and cumbersome. I hate it. I normally sleep until Fonzie gets up to go potty, which for the last week has only been once a night! Somewhere between 2-4. But once I get back in bed with him my mind wanders and I am pretty sure I lay awake for 1-2 hours. Maybe I fall in and out of sleep, but I know most nights I see another number at the front of the time before I finally doze off. So, when it comes time to get up at 6:30 am (so I can workout before work) I don’t. I push it and sleep until 7:30 or 7:40 and I have to leave for work at 8. That leaves me groggy and running around like a madwomen. I hate it, it’s such a bad cycle. What to do, what to do. All I know is I am not working out enough and it’s driving me CRAZY. CRAZY, people. I mean it when I say that I will never be pregnant in the winter again if I can help it. At least if it was summer, it would be light out and I wouldn't get into bed at 8pm!

Also, does anyone else find it impossible to worry about what you are supposed to be doing at work when you have such fun things to think about like names and nursery motifs? Or such important things as daycare and if you are coming back to work ? I am pretty much useless anymore! Oh vey.

It's a girl!

They were able to tell this time and we are having a little girl. Which I already thought, but it's good to know for sure. Now I can pick a name. Which do you like better? Ella or Ruby?

Also the placenta previa sorted itself out. SO everything looked good and baby looked great, the heart, kidneys, bladder, brain etc had everything it was supposed to. Or so the tech told me. I'll take her word for it!

24 weeks

I got another good workout in this weekend, an hour of cardio and a 2 set on the circuit I like a the gym. But I did have a bit of a hormone emotional rollercoaster weekend. I started reading a book that Mamma Simmons recommended and now I recommend it too - BabyProofing your Marriage - I think it's a must read for any expecting couple. I also finished Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy and really liked it. She's not the best writer our there, but it was so relatable and funny and I was so glad to hear that all that tasted good to her was junk food and she always wet her pants too! I'm not alone :)

Oh and new symptom! Bloody noses, ugh. Anyone else having that problem? And please tell me someone else out there always wakes up from sleep on their backs or their stomachs? Eek.



So, here is the 24 week belly shot, again ignore the ridiculously mismatched outfit, I sleep in whatever fits damnit. Not really any change in weight over the past 2-3 weeks. Which I am fine with!!! Today at 11:30 I go to the doc to check my placenta and hopefuly they will tell me what gender this little monkey is.

6 miles in the bank

I started the new year off right – with a 6 mile run with Sara! Goooo me. I haven’t run much at all lately, and honestly didn’t think I could manage 6 miles. But the stars aligned. Nice sunny cold day, clear roads, and enough sleep and I made it through without much discomfort. I was certainly feeling the lower belly heaviness that makes it uncomfortable to run, but it got better about 2 miles in. We kept an easy pace and didn’t push it. I felt pretty good the 3 we ran out to the Polo Fields (started at south Chagrin Miles parking lot) but was worried I would run out of energy and have a hard time getting back. But I felt pretty good the entire time. One potty break at the polo fields and one short walk break for a cramp, and that was it.

When I got home hubby was in a freak thorough house cleaning mood, so I left him alone as he sorted cabinets and dusted things that haven’t been dusted in years. I decided that I wanted to get moving on some of the home renovations, so I taped and painted the baseboards in our office, that will soon be our guest room. I know, I know, I shouldn’t be painting. But if you google it, most agree that you can paint with latex paint in a venilated room. I was just doing the baseboards and it didn’t smell too strong. I decided to wait a day to do the second coat so the smell would die down. I probably won’t mess with painting the walls and ceiling, but I figured I could do a little bit to help. Unfortunately after the long run and the crouching to tape/paint, I was left with a horrible back ache and crawled into bed at 7 not to get out for the rest of the evening.

Today I will finish the painting and maybe do a little exercise, the paining might just have to be it as I am still pretty achy.