Belly Pic

As promised here's a belly pic,I'm about 23.5 weeks in this pic, and I will probably post a new update soon, I just have to stop being a slacker!

Baby Gear

Last weekend I went baby shopping with my mom and best friend from college. I had gone a little out of control in making a list of what I wanted to make sure I registered only for what I needed and not get too out of control. We started out at Target and I registered for a few things there but since I know their return policy isn't great I decided to not go too crazy in there. The next stop we made was at a store called Buy Buy Baby we had planned on going there since my friend E had told me it was a great store and then we were going to finish up at the large Babies R Us up the road. Well we got about halfway through shopping and registering there (and dragging my mom out of the baby clothes section before she bought everything with a monkey on it :)) and realized that we did not even want to go to Babies R Us, we could get everything we needed at Buy Buy Baby and the customer service was above board, they checked in with us every now and then and had all the answers to the questions we had and even brought us some bottles of water (no charge!) while we were shopping. I took care of about 95% of the list there and left a few things for the locally owned store Kids Town since N advised me that some of his family does not really like online shopping and since the closest Buy Buy Baby is either in Nashua NH or Albany NH I figured that would be for the best. I had a ton of fun looking at all the baby stuff and it was a little overwhelming but thanks to a book lent to me by E and some e-mailed advice from E and S I was able to knock out the list pretty well.

The rest of the weekend was nice too. I remember when I first got pregnant I told my mom one of my fears was becoming one of those women who people wondered if they were just overweight or pregnant. My fears were compounded by the fact that I went into this pregnancy on the overweight side (I would never have thought I would have weight issues since I was a twig in high school). I told my mom that I really wanted a cute preggo belly. I was starting to feel like I just looked a little fat and since the people I see, I see all the time it was hard to really get a good handle on this. Well going home to NH and seeing people who haven't seen me since before I was pregnant and having them tell me how great I look and how I barely even looked like I gained weight except my belly was really reassuring. I know that I need to gain weight for the baby but I know that if I gain too much weight it can cause problems for me and baby so I don't want to have to add to my worries. As of my 21 week check up I've only gained 10 pounds so far so I'm right on track and feeling great. I'm starting to enjoy pregnancy a little more, although the crazy emotions sometimes get to me a little bit. I'll try and get N to take some belly pics (I really wish I had started this sooner) and get them up here.

Ultrasound Day

Today was the big 20 week ultrasound! Last night I have to admit I was having a bad day and not really liking being pregnant because I was feeling pretty emotional for reasons that aren't really important now but it was something that was bugging me yesterday. Anyways I woke up this morning to snow falling from the sky making the world look like a snowglobe. We made our way to the hospital and were just on time for the appointment. We went into the room and met the sonographer who turned out to be the best! She talked us through everything she was looking at (except gender because we want a surprise!). She looked at all the necessary things like the kidneys, stomach, bladder, heart, brain, legs, arms and face. Everything looked great and it was so nice to see everything looking great. I'm pretty sure we're in for a hyperactive kid just like me since the kiddo was wiggling around and she kept having trouble getting some of the views. Baby was even pointing, lifting its hand up by its head and then threw in a high kick for good measure. It was amazing to see everything and we came away with six pictures and a DVD of the ENTIRE THING! I can't wait to show my mom this weekend when I travel to her house and we go on our shopping/registering adventure! I also did something I swore I would never do, I put up the pics on facebook. I know that sometimes it's hard for people to see them who have gone through what we went through or worse but I decided that since it's been long enough and I don't really post a ton about the pregnancy that I was going to go ahead and give other people what they were asking for.....pictures. If someone sends me a message that it bothers them, then I will take them down if need be but otherwise I just went for it :)

Almost Ultrasound Time

I'm getting pretty excited because in one week we get to have the big exciting 20 week ultrasound! I can't wait to see the little munchkin on the big screen and see how much they've grown. We're still steadfast on not finding out the sex of the baby much to many people's chagrin (to include my mother in law who wants to join us at the appointment so she can try and figure out what the gender is!) so I'm just plain excited to see the baby. Most of the annoying symptoms have gone away which is nice because not puking is a good thing. Lately I've just had really weird craving like being hungry for Caesar salad at 2:30 in the morning. I'm glad most of my cravings have been healthy for the most part. I'm starting to get a little bit of a baby belly, and my jeans are not buttoning as well. I've been in my maternity pants for a few weeks mainly because it's uncomfortable to wear regular jeans at work. An awesome friend just gave me a belly band which allows me to wear my regular pants unbuttoned which is nice since I only have one pair of maternity pants. I'm also pretty sure that I'm starting to feel movement especially since supposedly this is the time that women sometimes start feeling it. It's like little butterfly wiggles in my belly and I can't wait until they get more and more noticeable.

In other news I'm going to visit my mom in a week and a half to do some baby registering and shopping! I'm really excited to see her since I have not seen her since we found out that we are pregnant so it'll be super fun!

Baby Brain

So everything they say about baby brain during pregnancy is totally true, I'm telling you I can't remember anything, which is bad because my ADHD brain normally has trouble remembering things. Just like posting on this blog, I keep having random thoughts I want to post on here and then I get to work with my great ideas get off topic and poof another day goes by where I don't remember to update the blog for any of those readers out there and for me to remember all the changes and fears and whatnot I have during this pregnancy.

I have tentatively made the switch to preggo pants. I find that my regular pants are slightly tight and I can wear them when I'm not at work but since my job entails me sitting down for eight hours nearly straight I can't stand how snug they get by the middle of my shift. Of course seeing as how feel like I barely have a belly (due to the overeating of sweets in my year and a half journey to get here and depressed eating) since I already carry my weight in pretty much the exact place that baby grows. I am finally able to eat with regularity which is but now I'm hungry all the time and some days it's for junk food and some days it's for healthy food. I find that I still shy away from most protein sources (ie: meat) because there's just something that turns me off from them so I've been trying to get protein from cheese and yogurt and the occasional meat like product. Most of the time I really want veggies or a grilled cheese so those have become a huge part of my diet. I'm trying to not let myself go too crazy with the sweets and lucky for me I get heartburn if I get out of control so that prevents me from doing so.

I also have been finding my energy levels on some days being much better than before, but then again there are days where I'm just pooped. I assume this is my body preparing me for motherhood. The other weird and slightly annoying thing (besides waking up to pee at least once or twice a night!) is that my mouth always tastes funny so I'm eating tic tacs like it's my job (not a huge gum fan). It's even to the point where sometimes food tastes funny to me and I know it shouldn't.

Lastly we finally started our daycare search. It took me awhile to convince N that it was important to do it now (he pretty much shut down when I tried even talk about it). So far we've found a couple of places that we've liked and are on waiting lists at those places. This is probably my biggest stressor right now because it's so up in the air. I can plan for a lot of things (and boy do I like planning) but I have to just wait and see and hope that we figure out a solution.

Next appointment is on Monday and the big ultrasound is on Dec 6th. I'll try and be better about updates!

Officially Announcing

Now that I am nearly 13 weeks along I can actually publish all those posts that have been waiting for me to be 100% public. Tomorrow I'm even going to let my supervisors at work in on the exciting news! I'm excited to not keep it as secret as I've been trying to, although there have been a handful of people who have been in on the exciting secret. Today we had a doctor's appointment and things are looking good. I was a little bummed that today didn't include an ultrasound since I love seeing those but we did get to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I have to admit I was a little nervous at first because there was a NP student doing the Doppler and she was having trouble getting the wand in the right spot but then the actual NP took over and quickly found it. It was pretty amazing to listen to and I still can't get over how awesome this all is for us! Now if only the nausea will go away 100%, thankfully it's okay to keep taking the Zoforan which is a godsend in quelling the nausea. Other than that I'm really looking forward to getting my "baby bump" but I know that's a few weeks off! I'm still so happy that we are pregnant and that things are going very well.

Maternity Wear

I definitely don't have a belly yet but nonetheless I made my first foray into the maternity store at the local mall. Since I've been pregnant I've had all sorts of symptoms to include some very annoying breast tenderness. I'm used to having this problem since I'm rather large chested and they tend to hurt during my period. I usually can deal with it pretty well but recently it has gotten to the point that they are so tender it hurts to sleep without a bra. As just about any woman can tell you sleeping with a bra is not fun and I use to enjoy at the end of the day when I could take it off. So I started researching what I could wear for a little support while I was sleeping and came across these bras meant for sleeping that also double as a nighttime breast feeding bra so I went to the store today and tried them on. They remind me of the support that one gets from a tank top shelf bra which is pretty much all I need at night so I bought two. I also took the risk of buying a pair of maternity pants. I've been nervous to start buying anything before I hit twelve weeks for fear of "jinxing things" (I know it seems a little odd but a girl's gotta be a little superstitious and cautious after spending all this time and energy getting here). I know I don't need the pants yet and I just bought the kind that falls under the belly so that they'll be good for when I start to get a little bit of a belly. It probably seems odd to those that have had babies and had huge bellies that caused pain near the end of their pregnancy but I'm so excited to start getting a belly! I was speaking to a friend the other day who said she asked N if he was excited and he told her that he thought he'd get even more excited when I got a belly. So now I'm wanting the boobs to stop growing and the belly to start showing (and yes I know it'll probably be a few more weeks at the very least). For now I keep staying positive and taking anti-nausea meds so I can eat and not get sick.