SHE'S HERE!!!!!

Please welcome to the world Brielle Marie. She made her arrival on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 5:09pm. She weighs 7 pounds 12 ounces and is 20 inches long. We are completely in love!

The End Is Near

Less then a week till my due date. Wow! It's hard to believe that I've managed to get through a pregnancy. It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be....but then again, I haven't gone through labor yet.

The last few weeks have been crazy! First off Kita has been ill. We thought she had a digestive track blockage. Well we got things "moving" in her and she still wasn't right. Last weekend things got worse. My girl who always greets visitors with a bark wouldn't even lift up her head to look at anyone. No playing. No waggles. No eating. Just sleeping. After thinking of all of the horrible things that could be wrong with her and crying a whole day, Monday finally arrived! As soon as I could I took Kita to the vet. We talked about what could be wrong and all of them were not good news. The doctor decided to do a complete workup on her. I agreed and left with instructions to come back for Kita in an hour. I managed to waste time hanging out at Panera, sipping hot chocolate. That had to be the longest hour ever!!

I got back to the vet's an hour after I left. The put me in the consultation room were the doctor, thankfully, did not leave me waiting for long. After a sigh he told me that the blood work showed that Kita was diabetic!! I could have kissed that man! LOL! My reaction of "that's it!" was greeted with a laugh by the doctor. Yes, it sounds crazy that I'm happy my dog is diabetic. You have to understand that this is something we can control. We honestly thought she was going to have cancer or something else we wouldn't be able to do anything about. After talking about her blood work numbers we talked about treatment - Two insulin shots a day. No problem! Thank goodness I took that diabetes class back in the summer. Giving the shots to Kita is VERY similar to giving a shot to a person.

So with Kita feeling better (within an hour of her first insulin shot she was outside chasing squirrels again) it was time to concentrate on me.

On Monday before I took Kita to the vet I went for my last ultrasound. Brielle is doing great! She's still in the 50ish percentile for size, my placenta is holding up and the umbilical cord is doing it's job!

On Tuesday I went to my regular doctor (Dr. K). They took my blood pressure and it was a little high. The nurse then hooked me up for my weekly non-stress test (NST). After the required 20 minutes Dr. K came in. We talked about how the NST looked fine. Then I asked if she had the ultrasound report. She hadn't seen it yet. So she flip through my chart. Then she stops and looks at me with a sad expression. Then the word I never thought I would hear came out of her mouth: "We have to induce you". I was shocked, scared and disappointed.

My first question - Why? The high risk doctor doesn't want me to go over 39 weeks (yesterday). After telling her I don't want to be induced she agrees to check my progress. There was no real change in a couple of weeks. So we talk more about an induction. Dr. K is torn on what to do. So we come to an agreement. I'll do a 24 hour urine collection to check for preeclampsia. The doctor's office will schedule the induction for Monday (go in Sunday night). I have to come back on Friday (today) for another blood pressure check and to see how I'm feeling.

So on Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday I did everything I could think of to induce labor. I woke up this morning feeling like Bri was sitting a little lower. I went and had my hair trimmed and then headed to my doctor's appointment. My blood pressure was still a little high. After consulting with a doctor in the office the nurse agreed to ask Dr. K to put off the induction for me. While I was talking to her about other things (namely Kita and her dogs) the nurse asks me "how long have you had those contractions?" Come to find out she could see my abdomen contracting! She was the second person in 24 hours to tell me they could see the contractions. So things are moving along.

This afternoon I received a call that Dr. K was not changing her mind about inducing me. So I have to head to the hospital Sunday night and will get the full on induction Monday morning. I'm hoping that the contractions I've had along with the feeling that Bri is sitting lower and the cramping is signs that I'll go into labor on my own. My dad is SOOO hoping I have her on his birthday....tomorrow! We'll see though.

I'm pretty sad that I may not have the birth experience I wanted. I'm trying to move things along and I've even thought of excuses to not go in on Sunday. After talking with Ben though I think I just need to make peace with the induction. I'm working on it but I flip back and forth on being o.k. and being sad. I guess that's to be expected. Just about everyone else around me is excited. I'm getting on the bandwagon slowly but surely. The fact remains that I'll get to see and hold my daughter sometime on Monday at the latest!! How awesome is that?!?!!

So I may not have another post until after Bri's arrival. I will be sure to post pictures of her here as soon as I can. Yes I know I still owe everyone pictures of the nursery. It's still not done though! Bri will be "bunking" in our room for a week or so. As soon as I can I'll get those pictures up too.

I'll take any and all labor vibes and wishes I can get! I'll admit I'm greedy and want to do this my way! LOL!

Buying Maternity Clothes

This week I finally received an unemployment check. After paying bills I decided I could finally use some maternity clothes. After all, I am 7 months pregnant and my regular jeans were starting to get uncomfortable. Since my mom recently lost her job too (she worked at the same place I did) I figured it would be fun for the two of us to go shopping together.

So there we are. I'm a first time preggers and my mom hasn't been pregnant in over 30 years. We're standing in the maternity section at Kohl's. We pick out a bunch of tops, a few pairs of jeans and head to the dressing room. While trying on the clothes nothing really feels right. After a small discussion we decided to head to Motherhood Maternity. We figure there we'll be able to get help with how things should fit and what size I should wear.

When we walk into Motherhood we are promptly greeted by three very nice sales women. They ask what I'm looking for and I tell them some warm tops and jeans. The sales girl explains that the sizing goes based on your size before you were pregnant. Just get the size you were before in maternity clothes and they'll fit. Then my mom asks the question we've both been thinking "How large do your sizes go?" The answer isn't what we were looking for. They only carried up to XL which is a size 16/18 pre-pregnancy. My reaction was "Oh. I guess I won't find anything here then." The sales girl looks at me and says "what size do you think you need? What size were you before you got pregnant?" So I tell her I was a plus size. She then asks how far along I am. Once she hears I'm 7 months she says they'll have plenty there for me to wear.

So my mom, two of the sales girls and I walk around the store picking out jeans and tops for me to try on. All of them in size XL. They set me up in a dressing room and I walk in fully expecting to not be able to fit into anything that I've picked out. My heart turned heavy at that thought because I had some really, really cute items picked out. I take a deep breath and step into a pair of jeans. They fit! OMG they fit!! I quickly pull on the adorable sweater that I really want. It fits too!! Needless to say I'm beyond happy. I step out of the dressing room for a little fashion show. My mom loves the outfit as does another mom helping her daughter shop. The sales girl comes over and asks what I think. "I love it! It fits!" I say. She loves it too but she doesn't think it fits. She points out to me that the top is in fact too big!! The shoulders hang way to low on me. So she goes off and gets me a size Large.

As I'm getting ready to put on the smaller sized sweater I remind myself that if it doesn't fit the larger size does. I slip on the sweater and it fits! It looks even better on me then the larger sized one! I practically ran out of that little dressing room to show off. Everyone agrees that the sweater looks much better. Then they ask if I tried "the pillow". What pillow? Well there's a pillow in each dressing room that adds 3 to 4 months to your belly. By putting it on under the clothes you know how things will fit down the road. So I go in to put the pillow on. I about died laughing right then and there! I looked so funny! Granted the pillow puts me at over due it was so amusing to see such a big "belly" on me. The good news is the clothes still fit.

After trying on clothes for about an hour I narrowed down what I was going to buy. I decided to buy the tops in size Large and the pants in XL. I was a happy camper leaving the store. Not only were the clothes cute and comfortable but I actually looked pregnant!! When I wear my other clothes I just look fat. I was very excited to wear my new outfits and finally look pregnant.

Today I wore one of my new outfits. I started getting annoyed with my new jeans. They kept sliding down. It looked like my butt was suddenly on the back of my thighs. Since Ben and I were at the mall doing some Christmas shopping I decided to stop into Motherhood to try on a smaller size. I said to Ben before we walked in "They'll probably be too tight but I would rather find out for sure." The girl that helped me the yesterday was working. She immediately greeted me and asked if I needed help. I told her the problem I was having with the jeans. She gave me a few suggestions but I had tried them already with no luck. Into the dressing room I went with a size Large jeans. I pull them on and they fit! Holy. Cow. I go out and ask Ben if they look too tight. His answer "nope". He asks the sales girl what she thinks. "They look like they fit" she says. I think they fit pretty darn good too. So I go in to get my other jeans back on. I can hear Ben ask the sales girl "So is the large a size 14/16 pre-pregnancy?" "No" she says. "They're 12/14 pre-pregnancy." I was over the moon hearing that!

Can you believe it? In January before I got pregnant I was wearing a size 22 even some size 24. Now I'm pregnant and buying size 12/14 clothing! It just goes to prove it's NEVER too late to get healthy. Plus it's a great boost to my ego

When life hands you lemons....

make lemonade.

Today life handed me a big bag of lemons. I was let go from my job. I kind of saw it coming hence why I was looking for a job before. For some reason I was hoping that I would be able to make it through this pregnancy with my job. Apparently life had other plans for me.

Everyone goes through these hard times....right? I'm just paying my dues as an adult. I have no room to complain about this set back. Yes I don't have an income. Yes that means our family income has been cut in half. Yes that means I won't have health insurance in a few weeks. Yes that means I may not have the lovely new furniture I wanted for the nursery. But all in all this should be a new start for me. I'll work at temp jobs if I need to. There are plenty of ways to cover having a baby. If I need to I'll take advantage of those government programs I've been paying for for the last 15 years. I'm sure I'll be paying into them for many years to come so I may as well use them if needed.

Yes things will be rough. I will miss the wonderful friends I have made. But there are plenty of ways to keep in touch. When one door shuts another one will open.....eventually. It's scary to think of going through this pregnant but it will work out. Life is funny like that. Just when things seem so dark and horrible there is a light to lead you through it all.

Yep, there's a baby in there

And it has arms, legs, a head and a very, very strong heart! I'm not sure what I'm feeling exactly. I'm more excited and more scared all at once. Ugh! My doctor is amazing though! She was very reassuring that everything I've been feeling is completely normal. She also took the time to make sure DTB was comfortable, involved and had all of his questions answered. She did not make us feel rushed or that any of our questions were dumb. I'm very happy we decided to go with her.

We decided that we'll be making our announcements now. We have a good feeling that everything will go fine. So we start telling people.......soon! So hello to all of you that just found out about our big news. We hope you enjoy the trip!

OMG! We're Pregnant!

I can hardly believe it! Tonight we took a pregnancy test and it came up POSITIVE! (O.k. I'm them one who had to pee on the stick but this is a joint venture.....right? LOL! At least for now it is). It's such a shocker even though we have been trying. I don't think anything can really prepare you for such a HUGE change in your life. Part of me wants to jump around and dance while another part of me is just sitting there....in disbelief! We actually did it! Our third try and we're pregnant! How in the hell am I going to keep my mouth shut about this? LOL!

The best way to get through the first trimester without blabbing to too many people is this blog. Look for updates All. The. Time!