Cuddle Bug

Christmas was hard this year. We had to say goodbye to Harrison. We hadn't even had him for a year, but he crept into our hearts the very first day we took him home, it was hard not to fall in love with him despite how annoying he could be. We had to kick him out to the barn a couple months ago because he started pissing all over everything we owned. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, and so I took him into my work to check if he had a urinary tract infection, even though I was pretty sure he didn't since he would stand up and flick his tail as he peed all over the wall. Anyways, the results came back, no UTI, damn it! A UTI would have been easy to fix, but a behavior problem, not so much. I tried a nurture calm collar, which is a pheromone collar for cats that is supposed to help calm them. I swear by them for a couple of our other cats, but they didn't work for Harrison. So out to the barn it was. This was a sad moment as well since he was my cuddle bug. He was a good cuddle bug too. Things around the house became much calmer. He was no longer inside to run around the house like crazy at night knocking stuff down and no more Riley screaming in the middle night because of Harrison torturing her. It was kind of nice, but I still missed my baby boy. 

He would sit on the front porch and meow and meow and jump up on the windowsill  outside and stare in continuing to meow and meow. I would feel so bad for him and let him in, but after a little while he would go over to the wall and piss all over it. His favorite spot being the wall mounted heater that is right over the heating duct, which was the worst spot he could have chosen. The pee would go all over the heating elements and I would have to take the whole thing apart to clean it, but the worst part was the heating duct right below that all the urine would inevitably drip into. Mike had to get down on his stomach and reach his arm as far down in there as he could with a rag dipped in bleach and hot water to scrub it out. Thank goodness we were able to get the smell out of there, none the less Mike said no more letting Harrison inside. I felt bad for the guy, but I also didn't want our house reeking of cat piss, so there was no more letting Harrison inside. I made a point of it to go outside at least 3 times a day for at least 5 minutes each time just to hold and pet him, it was our "cuddle time". Eventually the meowing at the window got better, and I felt less and less bad for him. 

Then a couple of weeks ago I noticed he was breathing kind of funny and would sneeze and cough sometimes. I was a little worried, but I figured it wasn't anything serious since he was only a year and a half, and that it must have been that he wasn't used to the cold. About a week ago he no longer wanted me to hold him like a baby when I would spend our "cuddle time" together and thought nothing of it really, now it dawns on me that he probably had a hard time breathing in that position. Anyways, Christmas morning I went outside to take care of him and the other outside cats and the chickens, when I noticed him under the front porch coughing and screaming. That scream sounded like he was dying. This is when I knew something was wrong. He didn't want to come out from under the porch, but when he finally did I grabbed him and noticed how bad his breathing was. I took him inside, wrapped him in a towel, and sat by the wood stove with him trying to warm him up in hopes that it would help, and it did... a little. I sat with him for hours waiting for his breathing to get better, and contemplating what I should do. Normally I would have rushed into emergency without a second thought, but since I've been out of work for 20 weeks and have no pet benefits left I was in a pickle. Mike tried to convince me that he was getting better, which he was, but only minimally, and wanted to wait until the next day so we could take him to my work so we could pay less and be able to do more for him as far as how far our money would go. But I knew something was seriously wrong. Whenever I'd move or he'd get stressed out because of the dogs running around he would cough and turn a light shade of purple around the mouth and do a little bit of open mouth breathing. I talked to one of the Vets at my work via text message and she reinforced what I already knew, that I had to bring him in. So we got in the car and took him to emergency. He got so stressed out in the car he started open mouth breathing like crazy and I started to worry that we wouldn't make it in time. We did get there though, and they took him straight back to stabilize him. I hate emergency. Don't get me wrong, they do great work there and they are always very nice and caring, but you never take your animal there unless it's something serious. We were there almost exactly a year ago with Dexter when we had to put him down, and it just brings back horrible memories of that incident. I also have to work there 2 times a year to fill in on holidays, and I absolutely hate it. It's crazy and hectic and there are sick and dying animals all around. I could never work there full time, I can barely make it through an 8 hour shift! Anyways, we waited in the lobby for awhile and then they took us into the same room as last time with Dexter, which didn't help the situation, and we waited for the doctor. When she finally came in she told us that they were able to stabilize Harrison and that to do so they had to drain a bunch of fluid from his chest that they found with an ultrasound. She said that they had pulled off at least 200 mls of fluid from around his lungs, and that the fluid was sticky and had a lot of protein in it which lead her to believe that it was FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis), which is a a disease that most cats have come into contact with, but it is referred to as feline coronavirus unless it mutates. Most cats have no problem with it, but in a small percentage the virus mutates and becomes deadly, which is what happened to Harrison. There was nothing we could have done to prevent this and nothing we could have done other than to put him out of his misery. It was hard to say goodbye to him though since you could tell he was feeling much better without all the fluid around his lungs and with the pain medication they had given him, but we knew we had to. So we said our goodbyes to Harrison and put him to sleep. I held him and he purred the entire time, which made me happy to know he wasn't in pain anymore.

It won't be the same around here without you buddy. I will miss your meows at the window for attention and our "cuddle time". I am glad you got to spend your last hours inside where it was warm and I am glad I got to spend those last hours holding you. I am mostly glad that you are not in pain anymore, and am sorry it took me so long to realize there was something seriously wrong. I love you buddy, and hope you can forgive me as I try to forgive myself. I will never forget you. 

Love, Mommy. 

He loved boxes, but what cat doesn't?!

Look at those big eyes, who wouldn't fall in love with him?

My sweet boy

Merry Christmas

I've been going a little crazy the past few weeks getting everything ready for baby's arrival, I guess I'm nesting. I made Mike help me take everything we got for Audrey out of the boxes and put it all away. It felt like there was no room in the nursery with all the boxes, and I want the nursery to be ready when Audrey gets here (even though she won't be sleeping in there for at least the first 3 months). Anyways, the boxes stayed in there for the next week since we couldn't get rid of them until trash day. This drove me absolutely crazy! I was trying to make more room, but the empty boxes seemed to take up just as much space as when they had things in them, so I avoided going into the nursery at all costs until the boxes were gone. Mike has been trying to keep me calm and has been reassuring me that everything will be fine. He told me the other day that he wants to put a light up in the upstairs closet and to do so he needs to move everything into the baby's room, but that he didn't want to because he's afraid I might try to kill him in his sleep! I guess better now than when Audrey's here, so I'll just have to grin and bare it and avoid her room once again. You just never know when you're going to go into labor, and I want everything ready and in order before Audrey gets here, plus I'm a little OCD ;)

Speaking of never knowing when you're going to go into labor, I hope it's soon. Apparently Audrey has run out of room in my belly and is kicking me in between my ribs and causing some pretty painful muscle spams. I wasn't sure what I was experiencing, but Audrey was moving around normally so I wasn't too concerned, but after 18 hours with no relief I called my OB. They were concerned that it could be placental abruption so they had me go to the OB Triage at Strong and get checked out. After being hooked up to fetal monitors, a bunch of questions, and lots of uncomfortable poking and prodding from the attending residents they concluded that Audrey was fine, and that she must have just kicked me in my ribs causing a muscle spam. The nurses joked that Audrey needs to stop treating her mother so badly, that she needs to get out now, and that she deserves some spankings when she gets here (my mother-in-law agrees). Anyways, they told me I could take Tylenol and use heat for the pain, but since Tylenol does nothing for me, I just used heat, which just took the edge off. Three days later I was finally feeling better; I could breathe, bend down, and twist sideways without pain. That didn't last for long. The next day I was on my way to my Chiropractor and I could feel her do it again. It felt like she was flicking me in the ribs with her foot or perhaps more like she was playing the xylophone with my ribs. NOT AGAIN! As if the hip, SI joint, and round ligament pain was't enough, now we have to add muscle spams in my ribs to the list, ugh! I have decided the nurses are right, she needs to move out!

Mike and I waited until last minute to do pretty much everything this holiday season, so no holiday cards this year, but here are some Christmas pictures we took last week:

By the tree (our first artificial Christmas tree, we got tired of the cats trying to climb the real ones)

In front of the tractor with Harrison in the background pissed off we wouldn't let him inside to piss all over everything we own

Me at 34 weeks 4 days

6 more weeks to go

I am 34 weeks pregnant today. I only have 6 more weeks to go, and boy am I ready to be done being pregnant! Mike and I have been getting everything left that we need for Audrey over the past few weeks, so we are pretty much all set for her arrival. I convinced Mike that I needed a comfortable glider with the shape my hips and back are in, and so I found a gently used one on craigslist in Watkins Glen and we made a little day trip out of it and picked it up. It is very nice and extremely comfortable. I also sewed a window valance for Audrey's room, since the bedding set we got didn't have one that came with it and I couldn't find one that fit what I was looking for, which was for it to be nice and bright and colorful, so I decided to make my own. The only things we still need are: the baby monitor, the Ergo Baby Carrier, the fancy forehead thermometer so Mike and I don't have to stick a regular one up her butt, and more diapers (we're always going to need more of those!).

The Glider 

The Window Valance

I picked out Audrey's coming home outfits the other day; one in newborn size and one in 3 month size, just in case she's giant (if you know what's best for you Audrey, you better fit into those newborn clothes!). Now I just have to wash all her newborn and 3 month clothes so they're all ready for her when she arrives, and install the car seat, but I figure I still have some time for that. I also have to pack my hospital bag, which won't be hard. I've looked up tons of different lists of what you should include in your hospital bag, and to be honest some are just ridiculous. Some of them tell you to bring music and candles to relax you, some your own gown to wear during labor, others your own pillows and towels. Honestly I think it's just too much stuff to remember to bring and to remember to bring home with you. You're going to have a newborn baby to bring home with you, isn't that enough? Also I am not going to buy a gown specifically to wear during labor which is just going to get covered in tons of different bodily fluids and have to be thrown out anyways (who wants to bring that home to wash?!). I guess I kind of understand the bring your own pillows and towels because the hospital ones kind of suck, but why not just ask for more of them instead? Anyways, this is what will be in my hospital bag: shampoo and conditioner, body wash, a hair brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, a clean change of clothes to go home in, baby's coming home outfit, and obviously the car seat, which will already be installed in the car, Ta-Dah!

Newborn

Newborn

3 Month

3 Month

The Shower

One week ago today was the co-ed baby shower. I went a little crazy about getting the house clean for the shower. I scrubbed the walls and the floor panels, the stairs, the windows, the counters, the toilets and sinks, anything there was to scrub, I scrubbed it; and boy did I pay for it afterwards! BUT the house was pretty much spotless and the party was a great success. The decorations turned out great (I would have been pissed if they hadn't with all the hard work and time I put into them), and the party favors were a big hit; especially with the kids. There was plenty of food, and enough seating for pretty much everyone. Everyone got to see Audrey's room, and everyone kept telling me how much they loved it. We got lots of gifts to help us out with getting ready for Audrey's arrival; thanks again everyone! There were a lot of people though, and I felt as though I didn't and couldn't socialize well enough with everyone, so I apologize for that and hope I didn't offend anyone by not socializing enough with them. 

The Party Favors

The Decorations

The Presents

The final stretch

I've finally made it to the third, and final, trimester; only 12 more weeks to go! Per usual, Audrey continues to grow and thrive as I continue to suffer (only 12 more weeks, only 12 more weeks, I have to keep telling myself that, keep counting down). I've started seeing my chiropractor again. I held off as long as I could for financial reasons since being out of work since 16 weeks, but I just couldn't hold off any longer. There hasn't been much improvement yet, but it's only been a couple weeks. He says that my SI joint is pretty messed up mainly on my right side due to compensating for the pain in my left hip, along with the pregnancy. I admittedly haven't been doing much because of the pain, but he has strongly urged me to do some prenatal yoga. Mike and I have mentioned it before, but I just never got around to doing it. So now I am. I've just been looking up prenatal yoga on YouTube and doing those videos. I've looked at the store and they want $20+ for a prenatal yoga DVD. Sorry, but I need that $20 for gas to get me to my chiropractor appointments, so the videos on YouTube are going to have to do, and for the same reasons classes are definitely out. Man do I miss work and not being broke all the time! Only 12 more weeks. Well only 12 more weeks plus 8 weeks after Audrey is born before I'll be back to work, so it'll actually be 20 weeks before I'm back to work and making some money; and that's as long as my hips and back cooperate (great!). My orthopedist can't be sure if the pain I'm having is just pregnancy related or if I need surgery after Audrey's born to get a couple screws from my hip surgery taken out since he can't do x rays while I'm pregnant. So I guess we'll see how I'm doing after I deliver. I hope that it's just the pregnancy because I do not want to have to have surgery when I have a newborn. 

On a brighter note, I passed my glucose test this past week, and have 2 baby showers to look forward to this month. One on the 10th that is a couple's shower just for our closest friends and one on the 30th that's going to be your more traditional baby shower just for family. Mike and I have been working like crazy on the party favors and decorations for the couple's shower, which I am going to reuse for the other shower and every birthday party Audrey has until she complains! Those decorations have been a pain in the ass and they are going to get reused like crazy! I know most people don't RSVP to parties (myself included most of the time), but I'm starting to freak out a little because I still don't know how many people are coming to the shower since only maybe 1/4 have RSVP'd. Mike is trying to keep me calm and tells me not to worry about it, but if you know me you know I'm a worrier. I just hope there will be enough food, and then I hope that there won't be too much food, then I worry that there will be enough seating for everyone, and then that there won't be too much seating. Thank God Mike's mom is planning the other shower, because I wouldn't be able to pull off another one! 

Movement

So we had our other ultrasound to get the rest of the views of Audrey's heart and to recheck the placenta location on September 23rd. They were able to get all the views they needed and it looks like the placenta has moved up away from the cervix along with the uterus so that shouldn't pose any problems. I'm relieved that I don't have placenta previa, I was a little concerned about it even though they say it's totally normal for the placenta to be close to the cervix early on.

On another note, Audrey has been super active recently, or rather I've been able to feel her more recently. I first felt her move at about 18 and 1/2 weeks. Then it just felt like I was going to be sick. I swear she was doing somersaults in there or something! Now she likes to do flutter kicks and roll around. It's the weirdest feeling and watching it is pretty freaky! In the ultrasound she was kicking field goals, I have the pictures to prove it! Warning before you scroll down to look at the ultrasound pics some are in 4D and are a little creepy. Our ultrasound tech switched it to 4D without telling us and I was like what the hell is that!? But I think she was looking at the placenta or something because once she got the view of Audrey's face I felt much better. Although the 4D is kind of creepy, it was really cool to see what she looks like. I think she's adorable, but of course I do, I'm her mom! I love her so much already, it's crazy. I can't wait for her to get here; only 15 and 1/2 more weeks!

I swear she's smiling in this picture :)

Holding her hand to her face

Kicking a field goal!

The Nursery

After looking at what felt like thousands of nursery sets when I found out I was pregnant, Mike and I finally found ones that we both liked for a boy and for a girl. So now that we finally know the sex of the baby we went to buy the bedding set. The only problem? It was going to cost us a whopping $300 plus! I'm not sure why, but back then it didn't seem so ridiculous, but when we got our pocket books ready, it did. So it was back to looking at hundreds of nursery sets. Mike and I agreed on trying to find one that was no more than $200. So I looked and looked and surprisingly there were new options that I hadn't seen before. I finally narrowed it down to two and had Mike help me make the final decision. The amazing thing about the set that we chose was that it was only $65! Of course it didn't come with all the things the other set came with, like a window valance, and a diaper stacker, and a mobile, but who needs all that stuff anyways? I am going to make a window valance with help from Mike's mom, and my mom got us an even nicer mobile than what came with the other set, and who really even uses a diaper stacker anyways? So in the end I am very pleased with the bedding set we chose, and Mike is very pleased he only had to dish out $65 for it!

The bedding set

I also found this great idea on pinterest (naturally) and copied it, but put our own little twist on it. 

From pinterest

And here's our spin on it:

The whole thing

It doesn't look all that hard to do right? Wrong. It took a lot of hard work to make that, but I'm pretty sure most people probably don't make it themselves. Mike and I made it out of scrap pieces of wood he had out in the barn. First we made our measurements and then we cut out quarter inch plywood in those dimensions and put three coats of white paint on it. Then we taped off equal sections and painted two coats of pink and waited for that to dry so we could tape off equal sections for the purple and then we painted two coats of purple and let that dry. Once everything was dry we took measurements for the trim which Mike cut out of some Cherry hardwood that we had leftover from another project. Then we cut those pieces and put angles on the edges of them, which was hard to cut. Then we sanded the crap out of them, stained them, varnished them and waited for them to dry. Once they were dry Mike planned down some old teak, which if you or I looked at would think was no good, but once Mike stripped off a couple layers it looked amazing. Then we traced the letters for the name that we picked out in the font that we both liked onto the teak and Mike cut those out. While he cut them out I sanded them down and once we were done with that we varnished them as well and waited for them to dry. Then we put the trim on the plywood and centered the letters in the white and glued them down. Then Mike put the hardware on the back of it so we could hang it up and we hung it above the crib in Audrey's room. Most people wouldn't be able to do all of that on their own, but since Mike is into woodworking he had all the tools and machines we needed. If we didn't have all those things I'm sure this project would have costed us a lot of money, but the only thing we had to buy was the pink and purple paint, so all in all it cost us roughly $10 to make. 

It's a...

So we had our little gender reveal party today and it went very well. We had pink and blue balloons, drinks, table clothes, plates, and plastic ware. 

Balloons

The cake

The final votes

The girls

The boys

The boys won the vote 14 : 9, but in the end the girls won! 

And it's a girl!!

The drinks

So, throughout my entire pregnancy I've been thinking it was a boy and so has Mike, but that changed after our ultrasound. The ultrasound tech had us look away while she was looking in between the baby's legs, but when she told us that we could look back I was pretty sure she was still focused in there and I didn't see anything in between the legs, so that's when I thought that it must be a girl. Now I'm no ultrasound technician, but I was pretty sure that's what she was looking at, but who knows, she was looking at the upper lip earlier during the ultrasound and I had no idea what in the world she was looking at. But I was right!

I never really cared either way, but once it came time to cut into that cake I was nervous. I had spent the past 9 days since having the ultrasound looking at little girl clothes and getting so excited; and I knew that if I cut into that cake and it was blue I was going to be a little disappointed. So I'm glad that when we cut into that cake it was pink. Now I can get the nursery ready and start buying those little girl clothes!

Pregnancy Sucks

Although my pregnancy has been a healthy one, it still sucks. I had a little bit of nausea in the first trimester, but never threw up. I had the arms and legs falling asleep at night during the first few weeks of the second trimester, but that didn't last long. Now I have severe insomnia, which medication helped with for the first week or so, but not so much anymore; my hips and lower back have been killing me, which I've always had problems with so I figured it'd get worse, but I didn't realize it would get so bad so early on; and maybe this is too much information, but my IBS has also been acting up, which I also expected since most pregnant women suffer with constipation. Not to mention the headaches which I can take nothing for, well that's not entirely true, I can take Tylenol, but that does absolutely nothing for me. So just add all that up, and what you get is that pregnancy sucks.

Yeah, yeah, I know pregnancy is supposed to be this wonderful, miraculous experience that I am supposed to be honored to be a part of, and it is, and I am, but it also just plain sucks. I've always wanted multiple children, but after this experience I don't know if I could put myself through this again. So maybe we'll adopt next time, who knows, I guess we'll see how we feel after we have this baby. 

Anyways, we had our anatomic ultrasound today, which is the one where you find out the gender of the baby (as long as baby cooperates) and where they look at all the internal organs and measure everything to make sure everything is healthy and baby is where he/she should be. Although baby was moving around a lot, he/she did not switch positions, so we have to go back for another ultrasound to get a better look at the heart. I guess baby had to be spine down for them to get the proper readings and baby was spine up the entire time. Also I guess the placenta is very close to the cervix, which is not really a big deal, it just means that if it doesn't move by the time baby is ready to be born they would have to do a C-Section, but I guess it usually moves as the pregnancy progresses. So anyways, they also want to recheck that. Other than that everything went well and baby is measuring right where he/she should be, but we'll find out more when I see my doctor next, which is in about 3 weeks. Also, the ultrasound technician was able to determine gender, but like I said before we are not finding out until the reveal party, which is September 1st. So what we did was Mike wrote boy and girl on a piece of paper and folded it up and put it in an envelope, so we just had her circle one or the other, fold it back up, and put it back in the envelope. So we will be giving that envelope to the lady that is baking our gender reveal cake and we'll see what color the cake ends up being on September 1st. It's a good thing I am going to see her tonight, because I don't know if I could resist the temptation to open that envelope if I had to hold onto it for awhile. 

Profile

Hands

Feet

Feeling like a Zombie

Pregnancy, at least for me, has been exhausting. You're making a human being, and that's tiring. So why when you're already exhausted, does your body make it impossible to sleep? It's just not fair. Maybe it's because I've had insomnia since I was 13; but I had stopped my medication all together when Mike and I started trying to have a baby and I did fine up until a week and a half ago. Even before that I had gone from taking 150 mg of Trazodone to 25 mg and was sleeping fine. So I think it probably has something to do with both the fact that I've had insomnia for the better half of my life and the fact that I'm pregnant.

So after a week of only getting 2-3 hours of sleep a night was followed by three nights of getting absolutely no sleep at all I called my OBGYN. I talked to a nurse and she talked to a doctor who prescribed me 5 mg of Ambien. So I took it that night hopeful I would finally get some sleep. No such luck. I called my doctors office back and scheduled an appointment with a different doctor for the next day (that was the soonest they could get me in). The next day I had Mike drive me to the doctors (I didn't think I should be driving with how exhausted I was) and we met the nicest doctor yet. She was kind and understanding and wrote me a note for work since I had missed three days so far. Anyways she thought that I should go back to Trazodone since it has worked in the past for me. She also thought that it was safer than Ambien to take while pregnant, although it is also a class C drug, which pretty much means they don't know a ton about how it affects the baby since you cannot do drug studies on women who are pregnant; but from women who have taken it while pregnant there have been no adverse effects on baby. Also every doctor is different and has different views on different drugs. Any how she advised me to start off with 25 mg and wait an hour and if I'm still not asleep to take another 25 mg, and so on and so forth. Since I was there in the office she took a listen to baby's heart beat. I wasn't really worried about baby, but it's always nice to hear the beating of your unborn baby's heart. Still holding at 156 beats per minute :)

Anyways, last night I got to 75 mg and finally fell asleep for a couple hours, but, like all pregnant women, I had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. Well at least that's better than no sleep at all. So tonight I shall start off taking 75 mg and hopefully that will keep me asleep even through getting up to go to the bathroom, but if not I guess I'll take another 25 mg.

Nesting

So I know I'm not even 15 weeks yet, but I can't help it. I just want everything to be ready for the baby. Mike and I already bought the crib and the mattress; I know, I know, it's super early, but I don't care! We're excited, so what?! Having a baby is only the biggest things to happen to us in our entire lives. I think it's the biggest thing that can ever happen to someone. It changes your entire life, or so I've heard. The next step is to buy all the bedding and nursery decor, but we have to wait to find out the sex of the baby first, only one more month, I can do it. It's so hard not to go out and buy all the stuff on our registry. Like I said before, I just want everything to be ready, already! We still have a bunch of crap in the baby's room that needs to be cleared out. I told Mike I want that done shortly after we find out the sex of the baby so we can have the nursery ready at least. I know, again I still won't be that far along even then, but who says you have to wait until your third trimester to get all this stuff done? I'd rather do it now while I'm not huge, and while I still have some energy. We already had the dressers we wanted to use for the baby's room, now we have the crib, the only other piece of furniture was the rocker/glider that I wanted to nurse the baby in. Mike's grandfather got us a nursing rocker for the baby, and we have other rockers in the barn, so we have options. They're not the nice comfortable glider that I wanted, but the deal is that I'll see how they work and if they're not working out he's buying me the glider I wanted to begin with and the other rockers will be for sale on craigslist if anyone's interested ;)

Here's the crib all set up :)

And here's the nursing rocker from Mike's grandfather

Week 13

I'm finally done with my first trimester, only 27 weeks to go. I had my second prenatal visit and I got all of my blood work results and first trimester screening results back. All the blood work was normal, and the first trimester screening took baby's odds for having down syndrome and trisomy 18 WAY down. It took the chances of baby having down syndrome from 1 in 750 to 1 in 11,500 and the chances of trisomy 18 from 1 in 1,870 to 1 in 138,000! I am definitely glad we got the testing done. In a few weeks I can get the second trimester screening done, which is just blood work. Also I got to schedule my anatomic ultrasound scan which is when you can find out the sex of the baby. The ultrasound is on August 23rd, but we won't find out the sex until September 1st when we have our gender revel party. It's just going to be close family and friends, but don't worry we will post pictures of the cake to let everyone know what sex the baby is. I'm already super excited! 

Warning, massive bitching ahead (don't read if you don't want to hear it): 

New (not to mention, lovely) development on the pregnancy symptoms front: arms and legs falling asleep in the middle of the night and having to wake up every hour and a half to switch positions. I love being pregnant... not! I am already exhausted all the time, oh you know making a baby and everything, loosing sleep over this is just what I need. Oh also this acne that is way worse than anything I've ever experienced is also lovely. Whoever said pregnancy is wonderful and makes you glow is full of shit. I don't even have it that bad, I've had friends that have had it way worse during their pregnancies, hats off to them. The only good thing that is coming from this whole experience is the end result: my very own flesh and blood baby; and I can't wait to meet him or her. 

Week 12

So we had our second ultrasound today for the 1st trimester screening which looks for risk factors for Down Syndrome, Trisomy 18, and heart defects. They measure this fluid filled space that lies on the back of baby's neck called the Nuchal Translucency or Nuchal Fold and the measurement gives them a good indication whether the baby is at a higher risk for these problems. The normal range for the Nuchal Translucency or Nuchal Fold is lower than 3mm, but usually closer to 1-2mm. Our baby's nuchal fold was right in the middle of that range measuring at 1.5mm. The specially trained ultrasound technician told us almost as soon as she put the probe on my abdomen that the nuchal fold was thin and that she was sure it was within normal range, but she had to wait for baby to get into position to measure accurately. When she first put the probe on me baby was sleeping, but he/she started bouncing around in no time. The ultrasound technician said that they sleep and wake about every ten minutes at this stage. So they're awake for about ten minutes or so and then they sleep for about ten minutes or so. Anyways, we got to watch baby move all over the place until he/she was finally in the right position for the measurements. We got to watch baby wave at us, kick his/her long legs as the ultrasound technician called them, stretch out, and attempt to put his/her hand in his/her mouth. It was amazing. We also got to hear (and see) the baby's heart beat again today. It was 156 beats per minute this time. The normal range is between 120-180 beats per minute.

Like I said before, even if the test today showed that the baby was at a higher risk for having down syndrome or other nural tube defects it wouldn't change anything, it would just be nice to be prepared for that chance. Also, it's nice knowing that baby is perfectly healthy and that his/her chance of having those defects is low. I told Mike after the ultrasound that it was nice to have that additional ultrasound just to see that the baby is still there, still healthy, still growing. It just put me at ease. You know me, I'm a worrier.

The ultrasound technician was very nice and took about 10 pictures of the baby for us without me even asking. Here are the best two:

I apologize for the pics being sideways (I don't know how to fix it)

Week 10

So obviously writing every week became a little cumbersome, so I will not be doing that. Instead I'm just going to write whenever I have something to write about instead of sitting at the computer trying to think of something to write.

Anyways, last week on Friday I had my first prenatal appointment. It wasn't anything exciting really, just going over what to expect (which I've already been studying way before my appointment, so I kind of already knew all that) and all the different screening tests. Mike and I have decided to have the extra couple ultrasounds that look for markers of certain diseases, not that it would change anything. We are going to have this baby regardless of if the probability of the baby having down syndrome or trisomy 18 or neural tube defects. And that's just it, it's just a probability. They have no way of telling you 100% whether your baby has these diseases, it's just a probability. We're not about to end the life of our unborn child based on a probability; it'd just be nice to be prepared.

On a happier note, we had our first ultrasound that day. Mike came and we both got to watch our "break dancing baby" as the ultrasound technician called him/her. We saw his/her heart beating and got to listen to it :) 180 beats per minute. I immediately thought "it's about the speed of a cat's heart" and Mike thought "about three hertz" we were both right. We even got  pictures of the baby, which are kind of hard to make out unless you know what you're looking at, but once you know amazing. I can't wait to see what baby looks like farther along in the pregnancy. My next ultrasound in on July 12 and it's for the prenatal screening, but I'm hoping I can get some pictures then as well.

This one's my favorite (he/she is upside down in all of the pics)

Week 7

We just finished painting the nursery. It's blue, but it's a blue that can go either way sex wise. We used this awesome paint Valspar that's paint and primer in one so we only had to put one coat of paint on the walls, also we used just a little shy of half a gallon for the entire bedroom!

This is what I want to do above the crib (colors would be different depending on if we have a boy or a girl)

I love Pinterest (that's where I got the picture from above) they have so many great nursery ideas.

This is the color of the nursery

We also bought a camera the other day. We had a camera already, but it's really old (like 10+ years old), it doesn't take video and it's really bulky. The one we just got is small enough to fit in your pocket, but is just as good as it's more bulkier counter part. There are lots of things I like about it, but probably my favorite feature is that it can take 10 pictures in like a second. It also takes HD quality video, which is important for me because I want to be able to take lots of videos of the baby.

This is the new camera we bought :)

Week 6

Yesterday was the first day I experienced the wonderful pregnancy symptom of nausea, yay! I've found, at least today, that if I eat a small amount every hour or so I do alright. Hopefully it won't get worse. I absolutely hate vomiting! It is the worst thing ever, do you hear that baby?! No making mommy vomit! I am also exhausted all the time now. I feel drugged. I'm not sure, but it seems like this will only get worse as baby grows, another wonderful symptom to look forward to. But it'll all be worth it in the end when I am holding a precious little baby Mike and I made ourselves. I can't wait to see what he/she will look like :)

I already have the baby registry done (it was done before we even started trying to conceive). I've done all my research on cribs, and diapers, and bottles, and such and chose the very best ones (only the best for my baby!). Of course now Mike is getting more involved and we've already had some disagreements over cloth diapering vs. disposable diapers and what else to add to the registry. I should have expected this to happen, he is part of this, he will have to change the baby's diapers, and he will have to help buy whatever's left on the baby registry after the baby shower. I guess I should get used to it; I'm sure we will have many disagreements to come.

Week 5

You must bear with me, I am new to this blogging thing and am having a hard time figuring it out. My first blog post was actually May 17th 2013, but I saved it instead of publishing it (ops!). So this is actually May 28th and this is my second blog posting (hopefully it goes better than the first):

I wanted to write every week on Friday (since that's when my weeks end), but I didn't get around to it until today. So I guess this week will have two posts. Anyways, Mike is so excited about the new news, he's pretty much told everyone that he knows that we are having a baby! I am a little more conservative and have only told our families and a few close friends. Everyone's very excited :) I guess that just leaves everyone at my work then, and I don't want to tell them quite yet. I don't think anything will go wrong, but just in case, I'd like to keep it more hush hush at least until I'm 12 weeks. 

I am doing well so far. No nausea... yet! I hope I didn't just jinx myself. Smells haven't really been bothering me much, except for today at work was pretty bad, but everyone thought it smelled bad. I guess the garbage in the treatment room at work hadn't been changed since over the weekend and there was feces in it, so it had been sitting around all weekend brewing. So when someone opened the stool bucket (as we call it at work) it stunk up all of treatment. I had to get out of there it was so bad. I took the bucket and bleached it in the tub in kennel; I couldn't stand it. Anyways, I haven't had any food aversions, at least not yet. I have been wanting cheese like all the time though. It's still pretty early on, so I guess we'll see what evolves. 

I found out today that my due date (January 24th) is my supervisor's birthday. I found that funny. The odds of me actually delivering on that day are slim to none though, so she shouldn't have to worry about sharing a birthday with him or her.

Veggies and hummus (trying to eat healthier)

May 17th

Mike and I just found out today that we're pregnant! I never thought it would happen so fast (we were only trying for 2 months).  When I read the results on that pregnancy test this morning I had mixed feelings. I was ecstatic, but at the same time I felt unprepared. Are we really ready for this? Can we actually afford this? You guys know me, I'm a worrier, but in all honesty I know we will never really be ready for this and people that live in poverty have children all the time, they make it work. We will make it work. Everything will be fine (I have to keep telling myself that). Besides all of that I am happier than I have ever been in my entire life. Today was the best day of my life, soon to be replaced by many other milestones as the pregnancy progresses. I made my first prenatal appointment today and the nurse told me that my due date is January 24, 2014. Mike and I are looking forward to the next step in our lives :)

They have these fancy digital pregnancy tests now 

Mike bought me flowers when we found out :)