The days of my life.

Just a quick update on what’s been going on. Brace yourselves. It gets crazy. Ok, not really.

• Thanksgiving happened and that was fun. I was really worn down all day, but I chalked that up to being so pregnant.
• The next morning I woke up with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Uh oh. We all know what that means. I immediately started drinking tons of fluids and taking Emergen-C to heed off a cold. It didn’t work. The cold still happened.
• It sucks having a bad cold and being pregnant, just FYI. I had an OB appt today, but canceled because I don’t want to leave the house. I left the house yesterday and the cold, dry air really messed with my lungs and sent me down a spiral of hacking and dizziness. I left a message with the nurse to call me back and tell me what kind of drugs I can take (preferably ones that help me sleep). She called back and told me no Emergen-C but laughed when I told her too late. No biggie, just not recommended by her office. Oops. Baby is still disco dancing in my uterus, so I’m not worried.
• I don’t know what’s going on with me, but I’ve been watching a lot of football with my husband (and kinda liking it) and also becoming slightly obsessed with the Star Wars movies.
• I am almost 37 weeks pregnant, which is full term. Scary. We’ve still got a few things to get like a breast pump (really leaning toward the Hygeia, since it’s come so highly recommended by my doctor and my mother-in-law the nurse), and some nursing bras (thanks to Tamara for reminding me I need those), and some other little things. We’re pretty much all set up here with everything else. And baby clothes? He is set until he’s one. It’s kinda crazy. And I keep buying them, so I am also crazy.

Here’s one pile. There’s a lot more. Our mothers cleaned out a Carter’s or two.

• Blood sugar is still good. Still annoyed at having to poke myself four times a day.

My best friend.

I just heard “You’re My Best Friend” by Queen and got all pregmotional. Chris put this song on a mix CD for me right after we moved in together. I always get choked up when Freddie sings “I’m happy at home.”

It was also our first dance song at our wedding. So I guess that makes it our song. It’s fitting. We really are best friends.

Kinda scary freeze frame there, though.

Human pin cushion.

It’s been a while since I posted. Guess what I’ve been doing?

Mainly just working, sleeping (yes, finally sleeping a teensy bit better, thanks for the maternity pillow), cleaning, freaking out about pending in-law 5 day stay, and…that’s it.

Today, I had my normal monthly OB appointment. When I arrived, they told me I was going to get a flu shot and a Rhogam shot. I was expecting the Rhogam since I am Rh-negative, but not really psyched about getting a shot in my butt. Then the nurse asked if I wanted to just go 3 for 3 and get the Tdap shot as well. Sure, why the hell not? Bring it on, lady. It made me feel better to know that my husband will also be getting the flu and Tdap as well. Can’t risk pertussis around the infant, ya know.

My very sweet husband is nesting. He has been cleaning out closets and organizing the office/baby room. He sold a butt load of DVDs, video games, books, and CDs and got a bunch of money. What he do with that? Bought me the new JK Rowling book for starters, then bought the baby a bunch of books. It’s been really amazing watching Chris get so excited and happy for little Henry to make his grand entrance. The baby is going to be CRAZY about his dad and vice versa. I can’t wait to see that. One book we bought is called My Daddy & Me and I cry every time I look at it. It’s the hormones, of course. Yeah. Hormones.

The Monster at the End of this Book was my absolute favorite as a kid. I love Grover.

…when I am with you.

I’m a little verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves.

 

And the winner is…

…Chris. He wins an award for the Most Patient Man on the Planet Earth. This is how I know that one day he will win a Father of the Year award. I have to give him public props for how great he was this weekend in particular.

Friday night, I was feeling so bloated that even sitting on the couch was uncomfortable. Instead, I told Chris I was going to lay down in the bedroom. I had a little pity party of one for a few minutes because it was Friday night, and I was in bed at 7 pm. He surprised me by picking out a movie and cuddling with me. He wanted to spend Friday night with me, he said. It was a really sweet gesture since I know he’d probably prefer to play some PS3 and watch movies on our big living room TV instead of the tiny one in the bedroom.

He chose Willow because I’d never seen it. We had a great time watching 2/3 of it before we both passed out cold. It was the best Friday night I’d had in a long time.

The baby was the best actor in the movie. Such great reactions!

Saturday, we got up bright and early and went to the first showing of the The Campaign. I love anything Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, so I thought it was great. Afterwards, we were starving. I was at the stage in hunger where I was going to get real stabby if I didn’t eat immediately. So of course, we drove around FOR AN HOUR before deciding on where to eat. Chris was very patient and sweet even though I was a giant, evil beetch. It all ended in a very delicious cheeseburger from the Elephant Bar, so all was right with the world shortly thereafter. No one got stabbed. (He should have received a medal).

Today, the nesting kicked in again big time. What’s really strange is Chris has also started nesting. He’s been cleaning out the office/future baby room diligently every evening — getting rid of old DVDs and comics. Today, as I was cleaning this apartment from top to bottom, he was organizing our kitchen cabinets and scrubbing the appliances. I giggled to myself at the sight of it because if you knew my husband, you’d know just how out of character this behavior is. But I’m not going to complain. He can keep doing this forever, please.

When the house was sparkling and we finally sat down, he told me, “We make a great team.”

Yeah. I totally agree with that.

Colorado and goodbyes.

I was so excited to go out of town last week, even if it was for a night. Chris and I love travelling together and we always have a blast. It could be because we leave our mundane worries at home or it could just be we enjoy each others company. Either way, it’s awesome.

On Friday, we drove 200 miles to Durango, CO — one of my favorite places on planet Earth. That might seem like a long way to go for 24 hours, but honestly, we really enjoy the road trip part of it just as much as the destination. Northern New Mexico is gorgeous (and quirky), and we have fun having long conversations and laughing. We did not turn on the radio or play tunes from the iPhone. Nope. We just talked. Brilliant nuggets of convos such as: “Chris, these rocks could be petrified Dinosaur poop. I’m not a scientist, but it kind of looks like it.”

When we arrived in Durango, it was pouring rain. We didn’t care though. We pulled out my old pink Umbrella that I got at a Walgreens in San Francisco years ago. Chris held it for us. Another reason why I love him: he doesn’t give a s–t  about holding a pepto pink umbrella in broad daylight.

Downtown Durango is great. Lots of cool boutiques, restaurants, coffee shops…you get it. We stopped into the Old Tymer’s Cafe, which we later found out is co-owned by Christopher Lloyd. We had no idea, but had we known, we would have sought it out for sure (big Back to the Future fans in this household). The food was really great, too.

Outside of the Durango train station. This picture is very American.

Afterwards we did a lot of walking. I shopped in a cute little baby store and we went to a couple clothing stores. My leg was doing it’s burning/numbing routine, but I sucked it up. It’s my vacation! So off we headed to the Animas River to walk around some more. And some more.

I want to live here.

Swelling in process. 

By the time we checked into our hotel, my WHOLE BODY was swollen. I looked in the mirror and actually kinda scared myself. And the cankles? I’ve never seen anything like it. Instead of Mayor of Cankle Town, Chris said I was the Professor Emeritus of National Cankle University. I totally was. But this time, it was all over my body. My wrists starting hurting really bad shortly thereafter, which is a common complaint when retaining water. Nice.

Oh! I did have a hormonal moment: as we we were walking along the river, a very pretty blonde cyclist passed us and smiled at me. I immediately burst into tears because my leg was numb, I was swollen, and felt gross. Chris of course just hugged me and told me I was not gross, I was carrying his baby, and to shut up. (Ok, he didn’t tell me to shut up, he was actually really sweet, but I am sure you are sick of hearing about that).

He really is sweet, though.

The next morning, we did more of the day before: shopping, eating, and walking along the river before we headed home. We were happy to get home to our Quincy. She was happy to see us, too.

And exhausted. She passed out on the baby clothes I was putting away.

Yesterday, we said goodbye (or see ya later) to one of my best friends, Park. He has decided to get the hell out of Albuquerque and finally have some adventures. Park has always been there for me and supported all my decisions, so even though I was bummed to see him go, he’s got my full support. He deserves it. When I moved to LA in 2006, he came out to visit me with his brother Sam and spent the entire day with me going to the Getty Museum, Universal Studios, and Santa Monica Boardwalk. He even insisted on buying me a new watch so I wouldn’t be late for my new job. He’s, simply put, a wonderful person and I’ll miss him a lot…until October when he’s coming back for my baby shower. He promised. Now that it’s in writing, he can’t back out.

Getty Museum, 2006.

Last night. Outfits very similar. 

Halfway.

After the craptastic day I had on Monday, I told my husband I was going to go to bed early so I wouldn’t be a bitch the next day. He said under his breath, “I don’t know if that will help, but…”

I laughed so hard, and as a result of his smart assedness and a good night’s sleep, the past couple days have been much better. I am 20 weeks pregnant today! The half way point! It’s a huge relief we made it this far. I almost didn’t believe the email I got from Baby Center announcing the milestone. I actually counted out the weeks on the calendar like a weirdo until my due date, and sure enough there are 20 weeks to go.

Apparently, baby boy is now the size of a banana, swallowing amniotic fluid, and making poop. The websites refer to it as “meconium,” but it’s poop.

I am finally showing, but still not brave enough to post a belly pic. I realized it wasn’t just fat when I couldn’t suck in anymore. Like, literally, as hard as I suck in, nothing moves. It’s just a round belly and it’s only going to get bigger. I’ll admit – I love it. Oh! And I got my first pair of maternity jeans today. They intimidate me and I don’t know why.

Onto my Olympic commentary of the day.

YAY USA Women’s Gymnastics! I love those girls. They epitomize teamwork to me and boy, are they amazing. So fun to watch. I cried like a hormonal pregnant woman when they won the team gold last night. Not only did they win, they smoked the competition. Take that, Russia and Romania!

“We’ve achieved more before 18 than most people will in their entire lives! We also have extremely muscular thighs!”

By the way, I am still the mayor of Cankle Town. I guess I have a few months left in office. I will not be running for a second term. For a while, anyway.

 

A little perspective.

Today was another craptastic day. But, instead of going through it and sounding like a whiny baby, I’m going to try to write about something interesting. I want to stay authentic on my blog, no matter how it makes me look, but with all of the complaining recently, I don’t want people to think I’m a broody, depressed chick. I’m really not. It just happened to be one of those days where everything went wrong. And pregnant or not, it sucked. Hard.

I will just say that I spent too much time crying in the women’s restroom.

With that said, I know I am very blessed with many things and I need to focus on that. Change the things I can, and let go of the rest. Much easier said than done, but it’s necessary. Especially because I have a precious baby boy on the way.

I had my first baby dream last night! I picked up my baby, and he was a big boy, and just held him. In my dream, I became overwhelmed with emotion and just stood there holding him and feeling so…amazing. I don’t know how else to describe it.

Chris and I were trying to get pregnant for almost a year before this pregnancy (including the miscarriage). Needless to say, this baby is very wanted. So, despite all the bitching, I am so so so happy. I feel the baby moving around (probably telling me to calm the eff down) and it brings everything back into perspective.

Oh, so about the Olympics. Did anyone see the women’s gymnastics last night? If not, stop reading now. Unless you don’t care, in which case, please keep reading.

I was so sad for Jordyn Wieber, who is the all around world champion, when she got bumped from competing for the Olympic all around title. There is some new rule that only two people from each country can compete for all around. She got beat out from a dark horse teammate, who no one expected to really do anything, I guess, based on commentary. Poor Jordyn immediately burst into tears. What was really awkward was when the NBC reporter cornered the two teammates who did make it who were obviously elated, and Jordyn is immediately behind them on camera trying to breathe through the sobs. She’s 17, she can make it happen again. The new rule still kinda sucks though, right?

Awk.ward.

Also loved: synchronized diving. The Americans were adorable and were THRILLED to get a silver medal. You never see athletes thrilled for silver, do you? Michael Phelps and team sure looked like someone boiled their bunnies. I think it’s a pretty amazing feat, but then again I’m not a super competitive athlete.

How cute are they?

I think I will train for speed walking (aka race walking) in the 2016 Rio Olympics. It’s a real thing.

Cankle town.

As I predicted, this week at work has been crazy go nuts university.

Tuesday, I worked a couple hours out of town at a trade show. It was pretty easy and I got to sit on my butt most of the day except for an impromptu hike uphill to find a place to tape a banner. That alone made my legs swell and hurt for the rest of the day. But I got some free chips and guacamole, so I didn’t complain.

Yesterday, work was crazy catching up on the day before (I hate missing a day and coming back to 10,000 emails). And my whole body felt like it was hit by a truck. So weird.

Today was the worst. We did our LAST (woohoo!) trade show for a while and it was a doozy. I couldn’t sit, so I had to stand for 5 hours. And get this. My growing uterus or something is hitting a nerve in my back causing my right outer thigh to go numb when I stand for more than 10 minutes. Then it starts burning. Numb and burny = not a good feeling. THEN my feet started swelling so bad I thought I’d die. But I got free pizza and ice cream, so I didn’t complain too much.

When I got back to the office, I made some popcorn for the staff (we rented a dumb popcorn machine for this show). As I’m making popcorn, I very slightly burn myself.  I immediately go into pity party mode and start crying. Imagine me stuffing popcorn into bags and crying. By myself. I don’t know if there is more of a pathetic sight. I knew it was dumb but I couldn’t stop.

Stupid popcorn.

I put my big girl panties on eventually and wiped the sad, sad tears from my eyes and decided I’d worked enough today. When I got home and took off my socks, I was beholden with the most sexy sock lines from my very swollen ankles. It’s cankle town up in here. No, I will not post pictures.

This week wasn’t all bad. On my lunch break yesterday, I stopped by Other Mothers, which is a second hand baby store. It was amazing. I got a TON of stuff for $25. I even got a onesie from the John Lennon baby line, which was discontinued long ago. I’m a giant Beatles freak, so this was very exciting. Oh, and it was 69 cents.

It’s hard to tell from the pic, but there are 20 pieces here.

And, I think we got a baby name. I will share it later on when we are 100% sure. Meaning, when Chris is 100% sure. I’m pretty much there.

Yay for Fridays.

A week 8 & 9 retrospective (and other stuff)

I almost didn’t blog tonight because I am so full of anxiety. I thought if I sat down to type, all that would come out would be, “ARGHHHHHHHHHHFDSFDSDFSGFKOLGOROMG!!!!!!”

I’ve never felt this way before, so of course I am going to blame pregnancy. It just fills like anxiety is bubbling over and I could snap at any second. It’s not just one thing making me feel this way either. It feels like everything and nothing at once, if that makes sense. Work, pregnancy, life…but at the same time, these things don’t bother me that much when I think about it. I actually have it pretty good and I know this logically. Doesn’t matter. Sigh. I think now is the perfect time to start going to pre-natal yoga classes.

Writing helps me, so here I am. Let’s do another retrospective.

Week 8.

So happy to hit that 2 month mark, but not much different from week 7. Still really worried about my first OB appt, which is still a few weeks away.

Week 9.

I was worried that I haven’t had enough morning sickness. Guess what? At 9 weeks 2 days, I spent the entire day on the bathroom floor. I thought projectile vomiting was a myth before that day. I’ve never felt so bad in my life. I couldn’t keep anything, including water, down.

I called my doctor the next day, my whole body sore from vomiting so violently. She was worried about me not even being able to drink fluids, and prescribed me anti-vomiting medication. I took one pill – and miracle! Almost instant relief. I chugged a gallon of water immediately. Still took me a couple days to feel ok with food again though and I’m still extremely nauseous all the time.

Thankfully, she also moved up my first OB appointment and got an ultrasound. We saw our little tadpole and saw the heart beat (it was still too early to hear it), but visual proof was all I needed. It was a strong 162 bpm, which according to old wivestales, it will be a girl. The chinese gender chart also says we are having a girl. To me, this almost certainly means we’re having a boy. Regardless, to know our baby is in there and it’s tiny little heart is beating, is all I need. I’m in love already.

Oh, also lost 5 pounds this week thanks to the aforementioned barfing. And we finally got to tell Chris’s parents, who were really happy. I think. No, I’m sure of it. They are just not the jump up and down and scream I’m so excited kinda people.

This was the last week that I actually wrote stuff down. Maybe because I started feeling so crappy. So I’m going to have to start going by (fuzzy) memory.

Oh, just BTW, I have intentionally left out some of the more personal symptoms involving body parts. I think you know what I mean. I’ll just say, some things are growing a lot and those things are extremely sore.

Tomorrow is the day. Boy or girl? Stay tuned.

Edit: I just realized I had the wrong title up for a couple hours. Again, I will blame pregnancy.

7 things.

1) We went on a tour of the women’s hospital today where I’ll be delivering. Compared to other hospital maternity wards I’ve been in, it’s great. I’m about as excited as one can be to deliver a baby. Still terrified, though.

2) My wonderful, supportive mom and step-dad came with us and afterwards, made me a bacon cheese avocado burger for dinner. It was amazing. My mom also told me I looked like I lost weight. What a sweet little lie. She obviously didn’t notice my burgeoning cankles due to swelling. (Actually, she did notice.)

3) My mother-in-law has been texting me lately (this is very new). Today, she sent me a very sweet text and signed it, “Love, Mom.” I can’t even begin to express how much that meant to me. We’ve never had a bad relationship, but just…non-communicative. I’m glad that’s changing.

4) Work this week was beyond stressful and next week will be times 10. The silver lining: after next week, our trade show season is over and things will start to slow down. So looking forward to that.

5) A bit of advice. Don’t be assholes to pregnant women for no reason. The hormones are real. And you’ll either get physically hurt or feel like a dick when you make them cry. So just be nice.

6) Round ligament pain is no fun.

7) I got nothing else. I promise to be more interesting tomorrow.