Approaching the end of the Second Trimester

Wow! It's hard to believe that I'm almost two thirds of the way through my pregnancy. I really am baffled. Where has the time gone? I feel like I just looked at that positive pregnancy test last night!

While time is flying we're doing our best to get ready for the arrival of Brielle (hehehe! I love using her name). Ben is working very hard on the room. It will be done before you know it! Last night he was on a roll and didn't want to stop. I keep reminding him he needs to take a break every now and then so he doesn't burn out. I think the excitement is keeping him going.

We've had two doctor's appointments in the last week. The first one was with our high risk doctor. We had an ultrasound and an echocardiogam to check Brielle's growth and heart. She is doing wonderfully in both areas! As of last Tuesday she weighed about 1 pound 13 ounces. They say she was a few days ahead but nothing to be worried about. Her heart is looking wonderful as well! They tell us everything is looking perfect.

The second doctor's appointment was with my OB yesterday. She is very pleased with my weight and my blood pressure. She did mention I am measuring about 2 to 3 weeks ahead. Since we know Brielle isn't overly big there's nothing to worry about. I was having an overly emotional day yesterday. Every little thing was bugging me. The problem is I'm a freak about being prepared. Unfortunately somethings don't go on my timeline and it's hard for me to handle. Since it was my first day of being in tears we chalked it up to hormones. I'm going to keep on top of it though so things don't get out of control. At my next appointment I'll receive my Rhogam shot. That's one thing I'm not looking forward to.

Today I called and signed us up for our birthing classes, a tour of the hospital and a car seat class. Talk about being slapped with reality! All of the sudden things seem really real! Wow! From here on out I have a feeling time is going to fly!!

I must admit - I made a mistake

Yes, it's hard to believe but I made a mistake. In my sleepy, cold induced haze I said that no one had guessed the correct name in the hint #2 thread. Well looking back through the guesses last night (I'm writing this on Thursday afternoon. It will be posted Friday evening) I caught the proper guess. I scanned right by it twice!! So I apologize for missing it. Congrats to Jennifer on the proper guess. I have a slight feeling that a "little monkey" may have told you of a few ideas we were tossing around but that's what I get for sharing ideas. LOL!

We have a plan on how to inform our families of the name so that is why I am delaying the posting of this entry. I'm actually adding a picture of myself so you can see for yourself how the announcement is being made. What do you think?





Brielle Marie. We talked and talked and talked about her name for a long time. We have known for a little over a month (or two) that this would be her name (her middle name was decided on well before she was even conceived). We wanted to use it ourselves and make sure we were OK with it. At this point we are. Will things change in the future? I sure hope not but I do know plenty of people who have changed their minds at the last minute. I truly hope this doesn't happen to us.


So thank you all for your guesses. There were a few beautiful names thrown out there that I really liked as well. I was impressed on how many of you probably looked at a map to get name ideas! Happy Halloween!!

Job update

I received news today that I did not get the position that I've been interviewing for. It's been over 6 weeks since I started the interview process so it's been a long road. While it sucks not getting this job, I'm sure it is for the best. There is obviously something else out there for me. I've also been contemplating making a career change for some time. Maybe this is the kick in the butt I need to make the change.

So I'm going to keep looking and thinking about what to do. Like I said before Ben and I have made some great decisions in the past. I'm sure we'll receive clarity on what to do from here on out soon.

Thank you to everyone for your support and well wishes. Without them I'm sure this bump in the road would be horrible!

6 months! (and name hint #2)

Wow! Wow! Wow!! On Thursday we entered week 24 of the pregnancy. Holy cow! That's 6 months! I've been growing a little person for 6 months! That means I have as much as 16 weeks or as little as 12 weeks left. Wow!

Thankfully the little person I'm growing has been good to her mom for the most part. She did assert her hold on me with wicked heartburn not too long ago. It was the most horrible heartburn I have ever had in my life! Thankfully a late night trip to the store and 2 Rolaids Soft Chews later I was alright. I'm not never far from those Soft Chews. (Yes this is the same story from a week or so ago. Can you tell how much it affected me?! LOL) I've also learned not to leave my house without snacks. You never know when an uncontrollable hunger is going to hit!

With these new "accessories" I had to upgrade my purse to a slightly larger one. I now always have the aforementioned items along with my glucometer and a bottle of water. It's hard to think in a year from now my purse will more then likely be filled with toys and baby snacks!

We've had some great guesses of the little girl's name. So far none of them have been correct. It's been a lot of fun to read the name ideas. Some have been very beautiful, some have been pretty common and others have been, uh, unique. Since we don't have a correct answer it is with great pleasure I give you baby name hint #2!!

Her name is the same as an east coast city.

Happy guessing!

P.S. No new news on the job front.

Staying Healthy While Gestating

I've been doing my best to be a healthy gestator. I would say so far I'm doing good. I have lost about 20 pounds since getting pregnant (I was down a little more but in the last few weeks I've gained a little). I wasn't trying to loose weight but when you change your diet to stave off gestational diabetes that's what happens. Also I've kept active all through my pregnancy. I've done a variety of activities including kickboxing (no contact of course), zumba, water aerobics, walking and working with my trainer Erin.

Out of all of these activities I have to say that the biggest help to keeping me healthy is working with Erin. I know if I don't keep up with my exercises and diet my workout will not be easy at Erin's! Not that Erin will "come down" on me but in order to keep up with what she wants me to do I need to be healthy (or at least well on my way to being healthy). As my pregnancy progresses my workouts with Erin have evolved. I no longer do much on the floor and we are concentrating on balance a lot right now. We have fun talking about being pregnant, babies and future goals. I always look forward to heading over to see her.

Today Erin and I updated my measurements. While it may seem silly to take measurements while pregnant it actually makes sense. After all when you gain weight while pregnant you should gain a little fat and all the other weight should be due to the baby. This means your arms and legs should still be fit even though your abs give away. I am happy to report that since I've been working with Erin I have lost a total of 12 inches (6.5 of those in the last 10 weeks)! Yes people that's right. I've lost 12 inches while pregnant (we got our positive test back shortly after I started working with Erin).

The most amazing measurement to me was my hips. My last set of measurements I definitely didn't have a baby belly. I'm starting to get one now. That posed a challenge for measuring my hips this time around. There really is no way to measure my hips right now without the baby getting in the way. I was completely ready for that measurement to go up. Well my hip measurement did not go up. It actually went down 2 inches!! That's with the baby in the way! WOW!

Needless to say I'm very excited! I'm a busy girl on the health front. I'm growing a little girl for us to love and I'm becoming a healthier person! How awesome is it going to be when I finally have my little girl to hold and I'll be a healthy mom!! It's an exciting time for me and I couldn't be happier!

Ben and I were talking tonight about how we are going to stay healthy to be a good role model for our daughter. I always tell him stories about Erin's son Grady and how he knows that exercise is good for you. Grady has great role models in his parents. I want us to be great role models for our daughter. So Ben and I are making plans to start running together when I can run. Admittedly I hate running. I don't think many people really like running when they start. It's something that grows on them. We're talking of adding a running stroller to our registry. The best way to show our daughter how to be healthy is to have her involved from the get go.

So thank you Erin, Geoff and Grady! Ben and I hope to one day have the healthy family that you have. Who knows maybe in a couple years we'll run one of those marathons with you!

Hello new friends!

I've noticed that I have some new followers. How fun! I never thought anything in my life would be interesting enough to actually blog about. Then when something did happen I never imagined I would have so many hits on my blog. It's fun to share this journey with new friends and old. I hope you're enjoying this trip with us. It's hard to believe there's approximately 17 weeks left! Where has the time gone?

Tomorrow is the start of week 23 of my pregnancy. Wow. Just....wow! Every day I'm so happy to feel our daughter "have a party" inside of me. She's so predictable that it makes me laugh. It also gives me hope that she will adjust to a schedule when she arrives. I may have just jinxed myself!

Since my last blog entry a few things have happened. I went to a second interview at the company I really want to work for. It was very promising and I left there with confidence that I would be working soon. Here I am a week later and I'm not working. I'm not sure if I'm putting too much hope into this job prospect or what. I called to follow up on the interview and it sounds like they are close to deciding but it may be another week yet. Lovely. I just want to jump into this job and get as much done as I possibly can before I have to take leave. And how the heck do you tell someone "Thanks for the job offer! I need an extended amount of time off in 17 weeks or less."? Everything I read says I should inform them before I accept any offer they give me. That makes me worry that the offer would be rescinded. Legally they could say that I require special arrangements and they can't accommodate me. I know that if they did that I wouldn't want to work for them but deep down I can't blame them. And if they don't rescind the offer I'm in no way covered by FMLA. That means they can replace me when I go on leave. So much to worry about.

If I don't get this job I have to give serious consideration to how hard I should search for a job. I need a job but is it worth it? Should I just wait? Should I work part-time? Can we survive if I don't work? All things I have to think about. All things Ben and I are tossing around. I guess when the time comes we'll know what to do. We've some how been lucky enough to make sound decisions up to this point. Hopefully our streak continues.

On to baby news - Her room is coming along. It's completely down to the studs! We've been taking pictures along the way. I'll try to share some with everyone soon. Right now it looks like a tornado went through there! It's exciting to think about how it's going to look when it's done. I was just saying to Ben last night that I wished we had some more money. The ceiling could be a lovely tall ceiling that slopes towards the windows. I could add some beautiful pendent lighting that would hang so nicely from the slope. While those thoughts are nice her room will still be absolutely wonderful! Her closet will be widened by a whole foot!! What a lucky girl! It's already a huge closet. Needless to say mom is slightly jealous!

Last night was my first experience with baby induced heartburn. Let me just say this is the worst heartburn EVER! Seriously I could not stand it! Since I didn't have anything in the house that is ok for me to take I had to head out to the store.....it was almost midnight! Of course being so late there was no way Ben was letting me go alone so he took me up there. I bought some Rolaids soft chews. Two of them and a bath later I was able to sleep comfortably. I was thinking that maybe it was the food I had for dinner but I had the same thing for lunch today with no problems. Apparently she was just letting me know who is in charge. LOL!

I'm taking an idea from my friend Amy. We have decided on a name for our little girl. We have not shared it with anyone yet. While it may be a while before we share the name I thought I would give hints to what it could be. I know there are some people who read our blog that are super sleuths so this could be fun! If the name is guessed I'll have to get permission from Ben to confirm the name as we haven't decided when we'll share the name. In the mean time everyone can have fun trying to figure it out!

Baby Name Hint #1: She will be the only member of our house (that's between myself, Ben and the furkids) that won't have the letter "a" in her first name. (LOL! Yep! I even did the same hint as Amy!) Happy guessing!

Registery DONE!

Over the weekend Ben and I finally had some time to go and register for the baby. We had a TON of fun doing it! At times it was a little overwhelming but we took our time and talked our choices over....mostly. I can't tell you how many times I heard the scanner go off while I was looking at something. I think I asked Ben "what did you just add?" about 100 times! LOL! The best add has to be the bib that reads "My mom is hotter then your mom". I about died laughing! If you know me I'm NOT hot. It's nice to know that my husband thinks so though.

We do have one or two more items to add but we'll do that soon enough. For now we can check this task off our list!

Oh! This weekend we also had the new windows installed in the baby's room. Oh my goodness! They are soo much better then the old windows. Ben said when they removed the trim from the outside the only thing holding the old windows in was two small finishing nails! He could actually spin the whole window! So it sounds like the new windows are safer, more quiet and more energy efficient! YAY!

A job hunt update

This job hunt it like a new relationship: All of the good signs are there but no commitment!

I didn't update after the assessment because there wasn't much to update. I took the test on Monday. I didn't hear anything. I called on Friday and they said they needed to have a meeting and would get back to me.

On Tuesday of this week (yesterday) I received a message that they were sending out an application. They said to fill it out and send it back in. I called back and left a message offering to go down and fill out the application. I didn't hear back from them.

This afternoon I receive a call and it's the HR guy. He wants to set up a second interview with me. So now I go in on Thursday October 9 for an interview with 4 people. From the sounds of it I'll be meeting with each person separately.

So that's where I'm at. Still waiting for that commitment

Little girl kick your dad!

Last week I noticed that the bumps I was feeling on the inside seemed to be getting stronger. Sure enough I notice that if I placed a book on my belly it would get bopped. So I decided to see if I could actually feel my little girl from the outside. While lying (grammar police: is it lying or laying? I can never get those right*) on the couch I put my hand on my belly. Sure enough I got a good thump! The question was did I know it was a thump because I could feel it from the inside too?

On Friday I was POSITIVE that I was feeling the baby from the outside. Excited I hopped into bed and woke Ben up. "Put your hand here and press down" I told him. Of course the party that was going on in my belly ceased to exists. After waiting a while I apologized for waking Ben up and started went to bed. Of course Ben didn't care that I woke him up and said to wake him up again when the party started back up. Just as I was drifting off the sleep it felt like the party was starting back up. I waited a minute or two to make sure there was plenty going on. Of course as soon as I woke Ben up and he put his hand on my belly the party stopped.

The next night was a similar night. This time I was feeling the bops but poor Ben wasn't. It doesn't help that she is most active in the middle of the night! We aimed for Ben to hopefully feel her within the week.

Last night I had some chocolate milk before bed. That usually gets the baby moving within a couple of minutes. It didn't work last night though. So off to bed we went. Ben kissed me goodnight and went to sleep. I watched a little TV. While laughing at Leno the party started in my belly. I pressed my hand to my stomach and promptly got kicked (or punched or perhaps head butted). I waited for a couple more bops to make sure they were nice and strong. They were. I woke Ben up and grabbed his hand. On to my belly I put his hand......nothing! Ugh! Seriously! Come on little girl! Kicky your dad!

After a few minutes of sitting there I told Ben I guess she wasn't going to kick him. Just then there was a nice strong bop and an "Oh yeah!!" coming from Ben. She FINALLY kicked him! Just for good measure she bopped him again.

Needless to say dad went to bed a very happy dad!

*Edit: With the help of this great website I found out that lying was the proper word I was looking for......I think. LOL!

Seeing Baby Girl!

Today we got to see our little girl again! It was a lllloooonnnngggg wait to see her though. When we got to our appointment (15 minutes early) we were told they were "running a little late". Well "a little late" ended up turning into a two hour wait. Ben was starting to get very upset. I had to remind him that if we had an emergency other people would be put off too. He calmed down a tiny bit.

What really calmed Ben down was seeing our little girl. The first image we got to see was of her face and she was "jawing" at us. LOL! She was just "talking" away and waving her arms. So. Cute.

Everything is going very well. Her brain is developing normally, the kidneys are good, her stomach is developed, her bladder is good, she has all 4 chambers of her heart and she's definitely a girl. There was one heart area we couldn't see because of the way she was sitting but Dr. B wasn't overly concerned. We found out she's measuring right on schedule. She weighs about 14 ounces and is 9 inches tall.

I didn't gain that pound they wanted to see. I actually lost 3. But again the doctor wasn't concerned. My blood pressure is excellent and my sugars have been great. The only "concern" that we have is the placenta is sitting a little low but Dr. B says it's moving up so there's no need to change my activity level. All in all it was a great appointment even though we were there for almost 4 hours.

I just wanted to apologize for not updating on the assessment testing. It was a very uneventful hour. I'm still waiting to hear back about the results. They did say it would take a couple of days so I'm hoping to have some news either today or tomorrow. I can't tell you how great it feels to have all the support of my wonderful friends! The notes on my blog, in my emails and on the boards I frequent have been wonderful. I truly am a very lucky girl to have you guys!

No second interview for me....

Instead they're bringing me in for assessment testing!! YAY!! I go in Monday at 8 am. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes (as always).

Status of Interview

So the interview went really, really well today. I was there for almost 3 hours. I met with 3 people. It was nice to learn more about the company and the position.

I'm excited about the position. It would be a mix of familiar work and new work that would be a challenge.

They're going to be doing call backs sometime next week. Hopefully I'll be on the list!! I'll let you know if I get a call.

An Interview!

I have an interview tomorrow at a company I really would like to get into. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes!

Buying stuff for Baby Girl!

I'm still unemployed but that won't stop me from preparing for my little girl to get here! This weekend we headed out to do some baby shopping.

First it was off to pick out a light fixture for her room. A local lighting store was having a beat the clock sale. If we bought what we wanted before noon we got 40% off the price. As we strolled around the packed store I tried to convince Ben that our girl needed a chandelier. He wasn't believing me. So I took a different approach and suggested the modern light fixture that was full of crystals.....yeah he wasn't having that either. I can't say I blame him. Once I looked at the price I wasn't having it either (over $1100). We finally decided how on two fixtures that we liked. One we really liked, the other was the "back up". After waiting in line to even talk to a sales person we were able to ask a few questions. We ended up buying our first choice. It's modern and chic and I love it!

After the lighting store we headed off to the baby furniture store. They were having a one day sale. We walked around and contemplated a few cribs that we liked. We also took time to sit in the big comfy chairs they have. After some discussion and debate we picked out a crib. Since we don't have a room to put it in we decided that layaway was the best way to go at this time.

After picking out our crib we headed over the the stroller and car seat area. We played with a few car seats and looked at a few strollers. Then it happened. One complete system caught my eye. I headed over to it and started playing around. The sales girl took plenty of time to tell us about the system. Once I took a look at the name she really didn't have to say much more. I've done enough research to know it is a top of the line system. Ben on the other hand asked plenty of questions. I finally got up the nerve to check out the price. Yep....it was expensive and it was marked down significantly. I knew in that there was no way I would ever be able to have this wonderful chic yet incredibly safe system. Ben freaked out about the mid-priced systems so there was no way he would go for this one.

The sales girl left us to play around with the system. It was at that point that I just about fainted. Not from being sick or pregnant or anything like that. No, I almost fainted because my husband turned to me and said "I want it"! HOLY CRAP! I was shocked beyond belief. Ben's reasoning for wanting the system are very well thought out. Not only do I love it (which I do) but it's super safe, it's light, it's easy to use and it's safe. Yes, I know I said safe twice but that's the biggest selling point to us. The issue is we don't have the money for this system. The discounted price is only good for the floor model. They're coming out with new fabric designs so they're getting rid of floor model. So we left there dreaming. We're hoping it will still be there when we get extra money.

So that was most of our Saturday. We had a good time and started talking about creating a registry soon. It's hard to believe that we're almost to the halfway point. before you know it, I'll be sharing baby pictures!

No worries!

I had a doctor's appointment today. It went very well! Little girl is VERY active. We had a hard time getting her to sit still long enough to get a good listen to her heart. We finally "pinned" her down but it took a good 5 minutes and 2 different dopplers to do it. LOL! I think we're going to have our hands full when she makes her appearance.

Today was work day 2 of being unemployed. I have to say it's not as horrible as I thought it would be. Granted there is NOTHING good to watch on tv during the day but I am getting a few things done around the house. I know if I'm home for too long I'll start getting bored. Thankfully it looks like I may not be home for too long. I've heard a "rumor" that one of the places I sent my resume to on Friday is interested in interviewing me. YES!

So I think I've used all my lemons up! It was suggested that I make lemon bars instead of lemonade.....it uses up the lemons much quicker!

Getting ready

This week has been a very busy week full of just about every emotion imaginable. We started off the week looking forward to our third anniversary on Wednesday. We didn't have much planned other than having our yummy cake (we have our cake top recreated every year) which we were going to enjoy on Friday. Unfortunately the morning of our anniversary we found out the father of a very, very close friend of ours had passed away the night before. We decided to cancel the plans we had made for that night and spend the evening together after all. We probably should have done that no matter what. But sometimes life makes you think you have to pack so much into it that you forget to take the time to enjoy each other. We decided that we were not going to take for granted the time we have to spend together.

Since we have a long weekend we decided to take advantage and start preparing our little girl's room (yeah, we need to pick a name real quick! Calling her "little girl" all the time will get on my nerves shortly I'm sure). First we headed to Babies R Us to pick up a crib sheet. We had decided on a bedding set and we want to match the paint in the room. The next day we picked up a bookcase and a mirror to go in the room. We starting with the little things that we can afford right now and hopefully we be able to buy the bigger things later.

Today we cleaned out our attic to make room for the contents of our former spare bedroom now known as baby girl's room (see! It's annoying!). After that was set we started taking down the walls and ceiling! OMG! There is so much insulation in that room! The thing is it's crappy insulation. Plus the room has crappy windows. All things that will soon be replaced.

Now that we have a good idea of what is behind the walls I was sorely disappointed. Ben had planned on making me a built in diaper changing station that could be switched over to an entertainment center. Well the room is part of a dormer. The dormer slopes the wrong way for us to fit the changing station where we wanted it. We were thinking it could go on the opposite wall but Ben banged a hole in that to see how much room we have. Now my closet has a hole in it! LOL! So there won't be the lovely built in changing station that I longed for. The good news is the walk in closet will be made bigger*!!! That's just what every little girl needs!

All in all the pregnancy is going fine. I've been feeling the tiny one move around every now and then. Nothing too strong but she does let mom know that she's there. My health is good although I'm still struggling to gain some weight. I think my body is still adjusting to the lower amount of carbs I'm eating. Ben plans to start reading us stories at night very soon. I found my book of Grimm's Fairy Tales. I have another book either packed away here or at my mom's house that I absolutely loved as a child. I want to find it so we can start reading that one together too. (I know, mushy right! LOL)

*Update: After talking last night we decided to put the built in changing station in the closet! We have plenty of room to make it in there. Plus no one wants to see where poopy diapers are changed anyway! LOL!

Talk about some exciting stuff!!

Yesterday was the start of week 15 in our pregnancy. This was also the same day we made our first trip to the high risk doctor (Dr. B). It was a long appointment but it was well worth it. All in all everything is going perfectly! Not too shabby for a "high risk" pregnancy if you ask me (or even Dr. B). We were able to see that our little girl has a nice strong heartbeat of 142bpm. Oh yeah! You read that right! WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!

Ben and I have had strong "girl" feelings from the get go. Ben actually had known from the start. The pregnancy test had barely said positive and he was already positive we were having a girl. I took another week or so to have that feeling but it was there nonetheless.

We went into the appointment knowing we may find out what we are having but not getting our hopes up. We were fully ready to wait another 5 weeks. Dana, the ultrasound tech, was so great at explaining what we were looking at, why she was doing so many measurements and what it was all going to mean in the end. Well she was focused in on one area and looking pretty closely. To my untrained eye it looked like a butt with 2 legs. LOL! Well I was right. A few seconds after I asked if those were legs I was checking out she asked if we were going to find out the gender. We couldn't get the yes out of our mouths fast enough! That's when she confirmed what I thought I was looking at: those were little girl parts between those tiny legs!

We couldn't be any happier! Our little girl is measuring right on schedule. She is the perfect size for her age. Also the rest of the appointment went well too. My blood pressure is excellent. My sugar readings are pretty darn awesome and I was told my chances of ending up on insulin are 10 to 15 percent. Those percentages may change but I'll take them right now! The only "issue" we have is that I have lost weight instead of gaining it. The challenge presented to me by Dr. B (the man already knows I love a challenge) was to gain 10 to 15 pounds by the end of my pregnancy. That's a few pounds each month. I can do that. Bring on the full fat cheeses! LOL!

So all in all it was an excellent appointment. Now we're on to picking out names and setting up the nursery! All more fun then a barrel of monkeys!

To boob or not to boob?

For those who may not want to know about my internal struggles with a sort of personal issue (read: guys that don't want to hear about breastfeeding whoas), you may want to stop reading here. If you think you may have some advice for me (guys included) then read on.

Before I ever got pregnant Ben and I decided that we would formula feed our children. This was perfectly fine in our minds since we know plenty of children that were bottle fed and have no issues once so ever. I never had the want to breastfeed. I still don't.

So now here I am trying to decide what to do. I have no urge or want to breastfeed my child. BUT I have read all of the benefits that breastfeeding can have not only for the child but also for me (especially with gestational diabetes).

Now I'm torn. I still really don't want to breastfeed or pump but I want to to what's best for me and my baby. It seems like every article I read or every person I talk to (I have not talked to my doctor or our pediatrician about this yet) about this makes me feel horrible for even considering not breast feeding for at least a couple of weeks. I feel even more selfish then I originally did.

It's been weighing heavy on my mind lately. I was just about in tears over it the other day. I feel very helpless with this decision. If I breastfeed, I'm doing something I really don't want to do. If I don't then I'm labeled a bad mom and not looking out for my own health. I really don't care what other people think. These are the struggles going on in my own head.

This is the one area Ben isn't being very helpful. Who can blame him though! He wants to do so much with the baby. He admitted he would like to spend a little more time then I do with the baby each day for a while so he can get that great bond that I'll already have. He will love me no matter what my decision is and he's told me it's completely up to me. Any how there's no real point to this post other then for me to get this off my chest. Feel free to offer me any advice you may have. Maybe it will help guide me.

A girl with a curl

No. We don't know what the sex of the baby is yet. I'm referring to myself.

You see I grew up with ridiculously straight hair. I HATED it! Back "in the day" I would perm it. WOO boy! Those were a bad ideas. Perms weren't so nice back then. I ended up always looking like Sideshow Bob (as my lovely brothers would call me). Then I embraced my straight hair and just let it hang. That was fine and dandy for my alternative/rocker stage. As I got older I didn't necessarily want curls but just a little body to my hair wouldn't look so flat.

A little over 2 years ago I gave in and had another perm (my first in many, many years). Thank goodness perms are so much more forgiving now then they were back in the 90's. I loved my curly hair. It was almost too much curl. It was fun while it last......over a year!

I decided to let my hair grow out and see how it went. Eventually my hair grew out enough that all of the perm was cut out of my hair. So why then did I still have the smallest bit of body? Hmmm. It wasn't enough body to make a big difference but I can tell you it wasn't exactly straight either.

This year I noticed it had been getting harder and harder to keep my hair straight. By the middle of the day I would end up with random ringlets in my hair of very wispy ends. I was starting to get frustrated with it all. I couldn't seem to control my hair anymore.

Well now that I'm pregnant the curl has become much more pronounced. If I tried to wear it straight my hair looks as if it was fuzzy and fried! Last week I found some curl creme I had left from my perm. I put a little in and OMG! The waves I have! I was in shock! I was thinking it was a fluke and maybe the humidity was a little higher that day. So I tried it again. Same curls and lots of them!!

So I called Tracy (she's my awesome friend that does my hair) and had her pick me up something to boost my curls. I'm loving my curls while I have them! I'm not sure if they'll stay but they just might. After all my mom has naturally curly hair. Maybe my curls were just very, very delayed. Thirty years for curls is better then no curls....right? LOL!

So don't be shocked when you see me. I didn't go out and put a bunch of chemicals on my head while pregnant. Those curls have been making their way to my head for about a year or so now. I'm just thinking the baby helped them pop out! Hmmmm.......maybe we are having a girl. After all a boy wouldn't care about his mom's hair. LOL!

Hey! How'd that horse get in there!?!

Today we had our second doctor's appointment. When we arrived I was told my regular doctor was out for a delivery. They had me see another doctor. Knowing that they were short handed we were prepared for a long wait. Thankfully it was only a few extra minutes.

Back we went to do the usual pee test (for sugar & protein), blood pressure reading and weight check. The nurse frowned when she took my weight, looked at my chart and said "What's going on with you?" I replied that nothing was going on, I was feeling fine. She told me that I had lost 5 pounds in the last 4 weeks. Ben and I both replied "Great!" she was not as enthusiastic. Basically I was scolded for loosing weight. We didn't think much of the scolding since I spoke with the doctor about loosing weight a long time ago. When there's an issue I'm sure the doctor will let me know.

So into the room we go. Ben fussed with the chair to get comfortable. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he hurt his back somehow. We didn't have to wait so too long in the room either. In walked the doctor and he proclaimed "We get to hear the heartbeat today!" So after a few minor checks we put the doppler up to my belly. We heard lots of swishing and then it was there. Our baby's heartbeat. It sounds much more like a horse then a heart. To be specific it sounds like the clanking of coconut halves to make a horse sound. We were told the rate was a strong 165.

Next was question and answer time with the doctor. First question came from Ben. Over the weekend and on Monday I felt like I had gas. The only problem was it was different then gas. It was much more of a rolling feeling. So Ben asked if it was possible for me to feel the baby so soon (at 13 and a half weeks specifically). The answer: yes! It's very possible that I can feel the baby! Wow! Just.......Wow! We're not sure if that was it or not but it was noted on my chart.

The next question was about my sugar readings. The doctor was very open with me on his opinions. He asked about my history and told me what his feelings were on my case. He did admit that gestational diabetes was not his specialty but that was his feelings. We were informed that our high risk doctor is very aggressive in treating gestational diabetes. After some more discussion the doctor advised me to go and talk to the high risk doctor. He said if at any time I'm not comfortable with them then we'll look at getting a second opinion. He was very sympathetic to my concerns and told me they were valid concerns to have. Needless to say having a doctor hear me out and validate my feelings made me feel very good. Once again we were very impressed with our doctor's office. It was nice for the doctor to hear out not only me but Ben as well.

Well that's all I have for now. Oh! In case you didn't notice, we're now in the second trimester! Yay! Off to bed for this momma. Baby needs some rest!