Wednesday, June 30, 2010

how convenient

so i was at work today reading stories to this sweet boy when he got just a lil bit tired...



sorry sawah... it's just a picture with his head laying on my giant belly so he could rest while looking at the pictures in the book.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

38 weeks

How far along: 38 weeks  (6.26.10)
Total weight gain/loss: + 24 lbs
Maternity clothes?: i swear one of these days i'm going to come to work dressed in a sheet or something.  i get excited that i only have a few more weeks of trying to dress this thing!
Stretch marks?: the ones around my belly button are definitely getting worse...
Sleep: sleep is still good.  my hips ache if i'm on my side too long.  i wonder if these dreams will stick around after the kid gets here...
Best moment this week: going shopping thursday night with my honey.  we picked up a bunch of random baby things we still needed.  makes things seem more real. 
Movement: i love feeling her wiggle all day.  and i love that she soothes me to sleep with her squirms at night.  i think i'll miss not having her wiggles to "rock" me to sleep at night...
Food cravings:  rice krispie treats.... holy cow i could eat a whole pan in one sitting.... no problem.
Gender: GIRL!!!  i hope she's a girly girl.  i probably won't be so lucky though... and i'll try to love her anyways...  ;-)
What I miss:  being able to touch my belly.  now with it itching so bad it's just too risky.
Milestones: reaching the "it could be any day now..." stage.  even though we know this kid isn't coming two weeks early!
Theme: the week of oh my goodness my belly DID find a way to itch even worse!
Extra:  my belly itches something severe.  sometimes huge itch waves will come on... so huge i can't even describe it.  and the only thing that stops it is to get something big (or multiple items) and ice my belly.  directly on the skin because the freeze is the only thing stronger than the itching.  and after five minutes of icing i'm okay, as long as i am careful not to trigger things again.  thank goodness for naps at work.  it's impossible to stay awake through nap time unless i'm walking around and goodness knows i'd rather be reclined!  my doctor's appointment yesterday was uneventful and routine... just the way we like them!  still at a 1, but more effaced.  measuring correctly so she's guessing i won't have a giant of a baby.  she said weight gain is good, even though i'm still packing on pounds and i thought it was supposed to plateau by now.  and she said baby isn't super low but she's low enough that she won't move out of her head down position.  wohoo.  last week i forgot to mention the sciatic pain i've been experiencing on my left side.  it varies from day to day but was getting alot worse for a day or two and monday it was really bad in the morning and had me pretty worried that it would get in the way of me continuing working.  but luckily i haven't really felt it since tuesday or wednesday.  we've been living in our two bedroom apartment for a week now and we're loving it.  it's nice having a bedroom for her even though it's an absolute wreck.  haha, i'll have to take pictures of our "nursery" to document it's condition two weeks before our kid is due.  ;-)

Saturday, June 19, 2010

golf

sometimes we do fun things.


ha



37 weeks

How far along: 37 weeks  (6.19.10)
Total weight gain/loss: + 23 lbs
Maternity clothes?: i'm being less and less stylish as the days go on... and i don't even care.
Stretch marks?: okay, even chris commented on how they are taking over on my right side.  i haven't gotten anything new on my left side for seriously forever.  but my right side... it hasn't stopped... or even slowed down!  and the ones coming out of my belly button are getting worse too.  but my right side... it just extends all along the underside of my belly until the half way line.
Sleep: i still can sleep through the night.  it's wonderful.  my dreams don't let up though.  they aren't traumatic or anything lately but it's annoying to dream all night that you're at work and then when you wake up you have to gear yourself up to go to work for another 9 hours!  too often it's like airplane sleep.  i know i'm sleeping because the time passes faster and i remember what i dream about... but i'm still conscious of where i am and conscious that i'm laying there dreaming.  how does that happen?!?!
Best moment this week: having another nanny with me at work to share the load with.  on wednesday i was absolutely beat.  like seriously dead to the world and physically just felt like i'd finished running a marathon.  she did all the cleaning, carrying, meal prep, etc. while i made sure to contribute when it came to anything verbal.  ;-)  oh my goodness i would have died without her there!
Movement: i take back my movement comment from last week about slowing down.  she is not.  very squirmy and still very active.
Food cravings:  sweets... just being snacky... and sometimes just not in the mood for food, although i sure make up for it later!
Gender: GIRL!!!  i can't wait for her to be my new best friend. 
What I miss:  nothing.
Milestones: reaching full term!  three weeks!!!
Theme: the week of oh my goodness my belly could not itch any worse if it tried!
Extra:  my belly started itching...bad...just overnight... and it's kept up and gotten worse all week!  lotions aren't helping.  so i've started using calamine lotion which doesn't get rid of the itch but it makes it bearable enough that i'm not scratching my skin raw.  everything is going by so fast for me so it's really hilarious every time i hear chris complain about how long "this" is taking and why can't our kid just come a few weeks early?  haha.  i have been really exhausted this week.  all i ever want to do is lay down.  i move slow and getting up is a chore since i'm so big.  i just don't have the energy that i used to... physically or mentally.  this week i've been taking naps at work when the boys nap.  i don't feel so bad about it since there are two of us there... i say if there are two boys asleep and two nannies present, then one nanny can take a nap... especially if she's big and pregnant.  so i've been telling my doctor that i haven't been feeling any contractions because honestly to goodness i thought that was true.  but when i was in the car monday evening my stomach got real compact and hard like a rock all around like it sometimes does... but this time it was definitely uncomfortable whereas normally it's not.  then it dawned on me that it wasn't my kid just stretching for a bit, it was a contraction!  ha, i felt kinda retarded when i realized that.  too bad i have NO idea when i started feeling them.  that would have been nice to record in this journal. 

Friday, June 18, 2010

a picture at 37 weeks!


here's a picture of me at 37 weeks pregnant so get off my back!!!  now do you feel like you're here and getting the full experience of watching me grow huge?!?!  you should!

oh fine... here you go.  i know this is what you were really hoping for...


and the real picture... PROOF that i'm carrying a bowling ball in my belly...

i swear it's the same size and dimensions and everything!  i mean, it sure feels as bulky and heavy!

and now that i have posted these pictures on the internet, i'm glad i only have three or four readers to see!  i hope i made at least one person happy.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

36 weeks

How far along: 36 weeks  (6.12.10)
Total weight gain/loss: + 21.5 lbs
Maternity clothes?: the weather cooperated this week and made getting dressed not such a chore!  how wonderful!
Stretch marks?: liza says i obsess over my stretch marks.  maybe, but i tend to have an obsessive personality.  why else would i detail every bit of my pregnancy for pretty much no reason at all?  the right side confetti is faintly etched to the line below my belly button. just gotta wait for it to really show up.
Sleep: tuesday night i slept with the window and curtain closed so the sun/birds wouldn't wake me up.... and it was glorious!  i was out solid from midnight til my alarm went off at 7:53!  it made for a good wednesday thinking about how blessed i was to have slept so well!  i had a dream that i was hanging out with OMG mom who writes a blog i love.  i thought that was hilarious because when i woke up, i felt like i had a new friend.  i know i'm not the only one with such real feeling dreams...  i actually slept a lot better when chris was out of town!  but i'm sure a lot of it was due to the fact that i kept the windows and curtain closed all night.  i LOVE being able to still sleep through the night.  i feel so spoiled!
Best moment this week: my christopher being done with school and spending more time at home with me!!! (except for being out of town this week) 
Movement: i think she is actually starting to slow down a bit i think...finally...
Food cravings:  they come so fast and so intensely.  but i think that's a good thing because they go away pretty fast too for the most part!  like if i'm craving a kit kat and i don't have one, it goes away within an hour or three.  but if i have the option to indulge it's pretty impossible to resist.  but then again, have i ever been able to resist food when i want it?
Gender: GIRL!!!  i keep imagining her blonde.  if this kid is brunette i'm gonna struggle with it because that is NOT how i'm imagining her!
What I miss:  nothing.
Milestones: less than a month!!!
Theme: the week of feeling more normal again
Extra:  when i was picking connor up from school on wednesday one of the girls in his class started gently poking my stomach and asking "what is that?" at first i thought she was wondering about my belly button but when i asked her to clarify she responded... "that lump!  what is in there?!?!?"  so i told her "a baby" and she asked "why do you have a baby in there?" and i responded "i wanted a baby so i got a baby in my belly"  HA!  if only it was so easy!!!  oh well, i guess life is easy and simple like that for a three/four year old!  and then two minutes later i got another comment from a girl in passing "wow, your belly is big"  ha, why thank you!  yes it is! and ten minutes later a little boy that just kept touching it and running up and smacking it!  ha, good thing i like his mom or i might have been more critical of his actions!  and then about five minutes later i was walking the boys to the car and got another "i hope this one is a girl" comments from a random dad in the parking lot.  so i told him yes, but it was my first and he went on to tell me stuff along the lines of "oh GOOD!  that would be quite a roll to be on!" or blah blah blah about too many kids too fast or something.  i didn't tell him that i totally wouldn't mind having my kids 3.5, 1.5 and newborn.  it all came off badly... i wonder how many mom's he has insulted...  i had my doctor's appointment yesterday morning.  i was happy with my weight... still 152.5 so i haven't gained much in the last week or two even though i feel like i eat til i'm stuffed.  i was worried about that.  especially since thursday was such a rough day at work and i got home and treated myself to a nasty pizza.  oh my goodness it was so delicious!!!  my doctor said i'm at a 1 and 50% and that although the baby is head down, she's not really settled there real well so she still may move... although hopefully not!  my belly is measuring on target... 36 cm for 36 weeks pregnant.  baby's heart beat today was 160.  i think that's all from the appointment.  all in all i'm just shocked at how pleasant pregnancy has been.  i hope it continues, but even if it doesn't... i have six weeks left... tops!

Friday, June 11, 2010

who loves to shop EXPRESS?

the couple that lived in our apartment before us... i'm guessing they were pretty hot dressers!  they have signed up for everything under the moon so i always know when sales are going on at bloomingdales and i stay updated on my victoria's secret catalogs.  anyways, i got something in the mail today from EXPRESS that i won't use since i hate clothes.  BUT i wanted to pass it along to anyone that might make good use of it!

i have two promo cards that can be used in-store or online and are good until JULY 8th.

the first one is  $40 off your $120 purchase

the second one is   $30 off your $90 purchase OR $20 off your $60 purchase OR $15 off your $30 purchase

so leave a comment on here if you're interested and i'll give you the info on the back of the card!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

coming together

oh my goodness i'm actually making progress on baby gear decisions!  i never thought this day would come!  laugh all you want, but i've been so stressed out (i blame it on pregnancy screwing up my head) about stupid stuff like carseats, strollers, baby carriers, cribs, etc.  well, i've actually been able to make decisions about some things AND feel peace about it!  oh my goodness, my honey would be so embarrassed if he knew i was writing about this... mr. doesn't get stressed or think twice about anything and just always happens to make the right decision and never look back (i'm too lazy to insert all those hyphens).  anyways, to all four or so readers i have out there, what baby things do you recommend or not recommend?!?!  or what features of things have you found to be especially essential? 

ps- i just started reading the help.  i'm loving it.

are you ready for this?!?!

okay, yesterday was june 9th.  i'm due JULY 9th.

we are on the one month countdown!

oh my goodness, this is surreal.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

i am pathetic

my honey is out of town til friday night and i feel so lost without him.  what on earth am i supposed to look forward to after work?  or when i go to bed?  what's fun about an empty home and an empty bed?  oh, right, absolutely nothing. 

in honor of being grumpy and lonely, here is a short list of things i hate...

trying to find a non-ugly, affordable stroller
being hungry
finding clothes to wear
wearing clothes
the fact that i'm not getting a massage right now and i want one
when my mother is in africa
missing my beach family reunion for the first time in my life
chipped toenail polish
dirty feet and dirty flip flops
thank you cards
being cold
sleeping alone

and so i don't leave you on such a depressing note, here is a much shorter list of things i absolutely love...

milk
being pregnant
my honey

Sunday, June 6, 2010

35 weeks

How far along: 35 weeks  (6.5.10)
Total weight gain/loss: + 22 lbs
Maternity clothes?: thank goodness the weather warmed up so i could wear skirts and be comfortable!  i think i feel cuter in jeans but they're just getting to be such a pain that it's not worth it to me.  i think pretty soon i'm gonna give up trying to be cute and maybe just live in grungy yoga pants for the last few weeks.  all in favor?  yes, that would be me.
Stretch marks?: these things are hotter than hotcakes.  i felt comfort from my friend megan leaving a blog comment about how her doctor told her she should sue her daughter for the damage she did.  i should probably sue my daughter too.  it's really weird how my left side stretch marks look so insanely different than those on the right side.  left side they are defined and confined.  on the right side they are more like confetti and they're spreading fast!  they keep getting father and father towards my belly!  i'm pretty sure ever inch of me is going to be covered in them.  oh well, they fade right?  it's not like i don't already have plenty of faded stretch marks that i never ever notice.
Sleep: still sleeping on my back.  i'm sure i've already said it but i'm kind of excited to be able to spoon again when my belly isn't so big.  i guess i can be the little spoon but it still means painful sleeping on my side.  i'm just a natural spooner... so of course it's hard for me to just lay on my back on my own side of the bed.  i mean, everyone from girls camp and sleepovers knows that i'm a spooning magnet for anyone within ten feet of me!  but really sleep has been pretty good.  it's getting hot here so i have to sleep with the screen door/window open which means the birds wake me up at 4 or 5 but i can normally just close the door and go back to sleep.  my bladder isn't waking me up at least.  although a lot of times i'm just so thirsty i have to get up to drink a glass or two of milk.  and sometimes my dreams are so stressful that i somehow make myself wake up from them and then it takes a minute or two to go back to sleep.  wow, i sound like such a complainer!  just trying to document it all!  who knows if i'll be loving pregnancy this much the second time around?!?!
Best moment this week: having the new nanny with me at work.  what a luxury to tag team it. 
Movement: same as last week really.  i have an appointment on friday so i'm going to ask my doctor about it and if it's indicative of certain positioning or whatever.
Food cravings:  skim milk... i am so thirsty beyond belief!  i can drink glass after glass after glass of milk.  even when i try to really ration it, i'll still drink at least a gallon in a day!  last night chris and i were at the movie theater last night and i had such a craving for a white cherry icee!  it was $5.50 for 32 ounces and i almost justified buying it!  even though i'm so strictly opposed to buying anything at the movie theater and that it was like five times as much as it would have cost at the gas station.  anyways, i made myself walk away and by the end of the movie i wasn't craving it anymore so we didn't even have to stop on the way home to get me one!  but man oh man was it hard to walk away!
Gender: GIRL!!!  i keep thinking how weird it would be to have a boy when i'm so mentally prepared for a girl.  ha.
What I miss:  nothing really.  maybe just being able to fit through smaller spaces.  i keep trying to squeeze between people in a crowd or chairs that haven't been pushed in or in between cars in a parking lot.  normally you just suck in your stomach and fit through.  now i suck in my stomach (out of habit.  i know it barely gets smaller when i do) and i get stuck.  and then i have to walk around.  it's so weird.  i still have a skinny person mentality.  it's just really funny.
Milestones: FIVE weeks to go!!!!
Theme: the week of being so insanely tired in every inch of my body. 
Extra:  thank goodness i wasn't as uncomfortable this week as i was last week.  last week when i was feeling uncomfortable i was worried it would stick around and get worse until the end of my pregnancy but this week was much better again.  i'm glad it warmed up so i could wear skirts and be more comfortable but oh my goodness... the heat has zapped what tiny bit of energy i had...  my energy is non existent.  i did building cleanup yesterday morning and it complete wore me out.  like for the whole rest of the day.  i even had to sit down and rest part way through because i was so tired and getting lightheaded.  funny story... chris posted on his facebook status something about the five week countdown.  i saw it and was confused a few hours later when he asked me how many weeks along i was.  i just chuckled and was like "well you already know that."  and then he insisted that he didn't.  he goes "i don't know how many weeks you are, just how many we have left."  ha, so i asked him how many he thought i was.  he guessed 40.  ha.  he thought pregnancy was 45 weeks!  i thought it was hilarious.  now he's singing to our baby.  she's dancing to rock around the clock right now.  ;-)  what a great dad.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

bring in the backup!

today was wonderful for a number of reasons...  a few were unexpected but one was long awaited and much anticipated....

today was my first day at work training my replacement nanny!  i helped interview and pick her so i already knew she was really nice.  she's my same age and super friendly.  she's great with the boys and has the same parenting style as i do so i think it will be a pretty easy transition!  the wonderful family i work for said they would love for me to continue working as long as i want... even until i deliver!  so with my wonderful new helper, i'm excited to keep passing the time at work... and goodness it flies by!