Week 19 Begins…

Today is the second day without any Zofran. It’s been a little rough in the morning but tolerable. Hopefully tomorrow, a workday, will be ok without it also. I am not really a medicine taker unless I have a migraine or something. I hate taking medicine, because I feel like I get all of the side effects that are uncommon. The Zofran has been great, but I would love to be off it!Also, today in church I think I may have felt something. My first thought was that I had tiny gas bubbles, but it didn’t feel like the same spot where gas bubbles are. And these bubbles felt vertical like they were going up. I felt it a few times in church, but they were the tiniest little bubbles. I am not 100% sure…In exciting news, I found maternity relaxing pants that I can wear to bed! They have been great, because none of my sweatpants fit anymore :/. Also, I got a nice, maternity, jean skirt from Old Navy, which makes me feel like my regular self.We go to the doctor on Wednesday for an ultrasound. Maybe we will have news!

Dr. Visit

We went to the doctor today, and it was actually nice to not be terrified. I am such a doctor wuss. I HATE, HATE, HATE going to any doctor, even when I am sick.

I’ve noticed that doctor appointments have become predictable. Pee in cup, take my blood, sit and wait, probe my stomach, answer questions, schedule another appointment. Today was a “listen to the heartbeat” day. It was much easier to hear than last time. The first time it just sounded like we were trying to decipher an EVP FROM Ghost Hunters.

Last visit around 12 weeks: 168bpm
Today around 17.5 weeks: 152bpm

In case you have no idea (because I didn’t until they told me), both of those numbers were right on track for the week I was in.

I was happy to hear that I have not gained a bad amount of weight. For every woman, I think it is hard to see that scale go up and be ok with it mentally. Don’t worry…I am fine with the gaining weight part, but it is still strange to suddenly be ok with weight gain. It’s kind of the opposite of your whole life.

Sometimes I wonder if I am too small for 17 weeks. Some pictures online show these ladies that are huge, and some pictures show teeny, tiny bellies. I seem to just look normal plus a few gut pounds. I still can fit into some of my normal clothes, but maternity clothes just look silly on me. I don’t have a cute belly or anything. It just looks like I’ve been enjoying carbs lately. 🙂

In two weeks, we get to have an actual ultrasound that doesn’t look like a piece of popcorn in a hole!

Announcements

So besides the morning sickness, telling people the “big news” is the hardest part.

For the first 10-12 weeks, I didn’t want ANYONE to know, because I felt so sick all the time. Who wants people congratulating them and saying, “Aren’t you so happy,” when all you are doing is throwing up all day?

We had to tell our parents around 7 weeks, because they were starting to get suspicious of me not calling, visiting, emailing, messaging, etc. My mom started telling me how boring I was whenever she tried to call. Honestly, I was just trying not to get sick while I talked on the phone. Plus, all I had been doing was sleeping and sitting, so my list of what I did that day was really lame. It worked out well, because Mother’s Day was about the same time as the 7-week mark.

I am not one of those people who watches A Baby Story on TLC or one of those people who has romanticizes pregnancy or babies. So all of those foo-foo ideas of announcements were just out of the picture. I like humorous things or things that are unexpected. I love practical jokes and getting a laugh or a smile out of a situation if I can. We made this card for our parents and my grandmom:



After we thought about several different ideas, Peter and I decided to post a picture that someone might pass over at first glance, but if they read the whole thing, they got a little surprise.

The Good Old Olfactory

Up until a few days ago, I was basically hiding in my office at work everyday. Literally not coming out of my office, going to the bathroom, getting a drink of water, or visiting coworkers.

I kept reading about this super sense of smell that I would get, but I had no idea it would be so horrible. They describe it online like a superpower or something, but I would call it a curse.

Without opening the door to the hallway, I could tell you that someone just cooked eggs in the microwave (uggggh!), reheated their leftover Thai food (bleh), or cooked their Asian-themed Lean Cuisine. Those are the worst offenders. It was just safer to stay in my room and forbid my coworker roommate from bringing any hot food into the room.

Side note: For anyone reading this, I have an awesome coworker, and I truly appreciate all of the listening she has done, water she has gotten for me when I was too afraid to leave the office (due to smells), food she hasn’t eaten because the smell makes me want to barf, and her ability to pretend like all of the gagging noises I make don’t bother her one bit.

I did find that one day while walking bravely through the hallway, someone had just eaten an orange, and it was the best smell I have ever smelled. I went to Target and bought this 100% natural orange car freshener. I take it everywhere I go.

Now it is about 13 weeks, and I have noticed that going into the hallway isn’t as bad, but I still keep my office door closed. I even let Heather eat a sandwich in the office the other day :).

In mentioning awesome people, I must also mention how absolutely fabulous my husband has been. Opening the fridge and smelling the wave of fridge food is enough to make me never venture into a fridge again. Peter makes me lunch, snackbags, and dinner. I don’t think I would be able to eat without him. I tried going to Target but when I saw all of the food, my stomach got so overwhelmed, that I needed to run away from the food section quickly.

Back to how awesome Peter is. He cleans my puke pots, takes care of my animals, goes grocery shopping, does the laundry, makes me peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, brings me bananas, etc. The list goes on.

I also have wonderful family members who buy me cold drinks (like the 99-cent Arizona Orangeade, which is the only drink that I can stomach sometimes), make me lima beans and carrots, and sneak actual homemade food to my husband.

Thank you to everyone!

Strange Things are Happening

So Peter and I have decided to try out this whole parenting thing. We’ve been married for 4 years, been together for 12 years, and are pretty stable, responsible people. So let’s see how this goes :).

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I love getting out of the house, having guests over, eating out with friends, walking around Target for hours on end, etc. But for the past 5 weeks, I have been a puking monster. Let me just say that people tell you about morning sickness, and you know that it is misnamed, because it could happen anytime…but what you don’t expect is not being able to move your body an inch without vomiting. I always read news articles online about women who didn’t eat a balanced diet for the first trimester, and I though, “How could educated women who can afford healthy food not eat the best, healthiest things?” Well, I figured out how… :/

A friend of mine put it well when she said, “I just started thinking about food in terms of what I wouldn’t mind throwing up later.” Things on my Ok List are cereals, bananas, pb and banana sandwiches, Twinkies, pretzels, pop tarts, banana muffins, beefaroni (some weird exception), oatmeal cookies, cinnamon buns…if you figured it out, it is anything that contains bread or carbs. The strangest thing is how badly I HATE all food right now though. I hate hate hate it all. I don’t want to eat it. It doesn’t taste good. I really just don’t want anything to eat at all…until I start to get sick and then realize that eating is the only thing that keeps morning sickness away.

I think the next blog will be about smells. I know you are excited!!

Since It’s Lent…

Forgive me. It has been too long since my last vacation. These are my sins: 

  • Too much working
  • A billion meetings
  • Weddings every weekend
  • Responsibilitieeeeeeeeees
  • Bad weather
  • Having to be the accountant at work
But seriously.
I need a vacation.

Being Married Means

Being married means sometimes your spouse snores loudly in their sleep, and you have to rub their head softly to get them to stop snoring.

Being married also means sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night with your spouse’s loud, snoring nose in your ear. Literally. In your ear.

Being Married Means

Being married means knowing when your spouse needs to vent more than you do, even if you had a crappy day, too. Sometimes your spouse just needs to talk, and you just need to listen.

Evercare Pet Hair Sweeper Review

We adopted Lennon, the Australian Cattle Dog mix, because we wanted a pup, and she was just too adorable. White and brown hair, white stripe down the nose, white socks, 2 different-colored eyes, peed out of excitement when they put her in the little room with us. She didn’t move from the puppy fetal position for about 20 minutes, but then eventually she crawled into my lap. I was sold.
Lennon needed a friend, and I have always been a “everyone needs a friend” kind of person. We found a newspaper ad that said someone was selling a litter a black lab mix puppies. On our trip to the seller’s house, we soon realized we just had to adopt a puppy from them, because leaving a dog there would just be cruel. They were drunken, sloppy people who were amused by feeding the puppies beer and screaming at them. The puppies were all well-behaved and cute, and Peter really seemed to fall in love with Lily, her one white foot, and her whiny nature. 
Now that you know the background, you can see that it never occurred to us that having 2 dogs with different -colored fur would be a problem…until about a day later when the light tiled floor was covered in black hair and the dark wooden floor was covered in white and tan hair. And since then, our floor, clothes, couches, car interior, etc. are all covered in hair of one color or another. Lennon’s hair is the worst–it is like little needles that are impervious to vacuum cleaners or lint brushes.
Just as an example, here was my dark brown carpet with Lennon’s white hair before.
Today I decided I would try one more thing–the Evercare Pet Hair Sweeper–and I am seriously glad I spent the $7.99. It cleans the black and white hair up sooo well! I cleaned my sofa, the front seats in the car, my ottomans, my coat! 

After a swipe of the Sweeper, here is the carpet after. Yahoo!

Yay, now I don’t have to look like the only person in a business meeting with a suit covered in dog hair!

Holy Bajeez–It’s Been a While

I’ve been working my butt off lately to win a $20K grant for a non-profit that teaches kids–and guess what?? We won :). Thanks to all of those who helped by voting on Facebook!

In other news, Lennon is healing wonderfully. Her leg is super awesome, and she has been enjoying her swims in the lake (for therapy and for fun).

I have been putting off this post for a while, just because I’ve been so busy with life and grad school, but now is as good a time as any. Right? And when life gets busy, what do you start doing? Shoving things in cabinets to make the kitchen look clean. So even though the house may be a mess, I’m trying to clean one little bit at a time, because every bit helps.

Before – Eek!
After – Phew!

Before – This is what was in the silverware drawer.    
After – Slightly better. Silverware is in the dishwasher 🙂
Cheap birch from Michael’s, old stain, a lace scrapbook page, and white spray paint = wall art!     Â