Oh Mondays... I'm not a fan. But it was such a great weekend, that I can continue to roll with that. My parent's visit was great. For my birthday my mom made me a blueberry crumble, which is just so good, and my dad ordered me a whole mess of books I'd been wanting. All of the books in the Mary Russell series that I hadn't yet read, including the new one I didn't even know was out... plus dooce.com's new book, and The Road by Cormac something-er-0ther. :-) Its supposed to be really good. I'm looking forward to them all. They also got us a cute baby's first three years scrap/memory book.

In addition to birthday stuff, my mom brought down the curtains she had been making for us for our guest bedroom. They turned out so great!! And they look even better then I had imagined they would. What an improvement too, over the sheets we had hanging over the windows to block light for a few overnight guests we've had! Lol. I meant to take pictures, but ended up forgetting... so hopefully I can remember that tonight, because they really look great and I want to show off my mom's work.

I'm also going to try to remember to take a picture of the adorable baby sweater my mom brought down for us. My brother and I had both worn it as babes, and now our will one will get to wear it too. So sweet.

Their visit itself was really nice too. Relaxing and fun. We just talked and grilled some sausages, they helped hang the curtains, and we watched some football. All in all, a really great lazy Saturday.

Sunday Ro & I went walking... which felt great! It was a little humid, but not too hot, and we actually did the whole 5 miles. I didn't know how I would feel, since my sickiness has kept me pretty couch-potato-like for many weeks, but it felt great to move and exercise and get my blood flowing. I definitely want to start doing more, since I had always planned to keep active during my whole pregnancy, and now the morning sickness is finally getting a little better.

As for today... well its this perfect little taste of fall! A high of around 70*, brisk and lovely. I'm enjoying every second of it. The whole week is supposed to be pretty cool, although its supposed to slowly work its way back up to 80s by this weekend, but I'm definitely going to enjoy this break while its here, and let it carry me through to when fall really arrives!

Well, I have get to work... so much to accomplish. But more tomorrow (SEPTEMBER!!), and hopefully with pictures.

It's Friday... gray and rainy, but I'm okay with that because its also a fabulous 72* out. Plus this week has been Long, and I'm so glad my Friday is finally here. I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow, visiting with my parents, and hopefully walking with Ro on Sunday as long as it doesn't rain all day. I've felt very disconnected from people these past two weeks (since my birthday and all the awesome that went with that), since I keep playing phone tag with my Babs and missed my chance to walk with Ro last week... and have generally not really talked with anyone except for Trav very much. Not on purpose, but I tend to find myself hibernating at certain points... including the end of the summer when there isn't much that could make me want to go out in the heat and humidity. 3 weeks and 4 days until autumn... not that i'm counting.

So I'm sitting here and eating my lunch... a not great lunch of ramon noodles... but I had a not good morning and really just wanted something simple, warm and tasty in my tummy. This fits the bill. I've also been working on a personal project creating a pregnancy book, like a scrapbook, but i'm doing it online because its a lot easier and will probably turn out a lot nicer. Obviously it won't be finished until post-pregnacy, but I did parts for my first trimester and started the second trimester part as well. Its turning out very nicely so far, and I can't wait to finish it up and have it to keep with all the rest of our baby keepsakes.

In any case, I'm going to finish my food and get back to work. Have a great weekend.





Quick aside: 2 weeks and 2 days until my original due date. Its so weird to think about where I would be vs. where I am. Torn between missing the baby I could have had and being so excited for and already loving this baby inside me that I'm going to have. Mostly it just makes me sad to think that maybe no one else will remember.

one day i'll learn to hold a train of thought for more then two seconds (updated)

This is sad: Ted Kennedy dead at 77... he had his personal demons and problems, but he was a champion for a lot of causes that are very important to me, and a fixture in New England/American politics. (Update: A happier look at his final days.)

This is even sadder: Annaleigh's passing and memorial. 8 weeks is not long enough, and everything about that post made my heart ache. But what a blessing to have had the time with her that they did.


On a happier note: I talked to my brother Tuesday night for over an hour, which was really nice. He's doing good in DC... still adjusting and feeling a little overwhelmed, but doing good and enjoying the new experiences. He's already meeting people, and he likes his classes so far. I'm so excited for him, so happy he gets to experience this new stuff... and I look forward to many more conversations where I get to come along for the journey.

Also family related, my parents are coming down for a visit this weekend since they didn't get to see me for my birthday. I'm looking forward to come yummy berry crumble from my mommy, and some relaxing family time.


Anyway, this is haphazard and not cohesive, but its about all i have for you at the moment! Work is so busy and I feel like I can't find the time right now to stop and think. Hopefully I'll be able to actually work up a real post soon.

warning: bare belly ahead.

Weekly Review

How far along? 14 weeks (holy crap, 14 weeks... officially more pregnant then I've ever been before)

Total weight gain/loss: negative 3lbs ... which means that I haven't lost any more, but i haven't gained any back yet either.

Maternity clothes? sometimes... maternity jeans, otherwise nope. just looser clothes, lots of dresses.

Stretch marks? nope, not yet

Sleep: great when i'm not waking up to pee 4x a night!

Best moment this week: Getting the thumbs up from the doc for how I'm dealing with this morning sickness. She says I'm doing great. Plus, I got to hear the heartbeat again!

Movement: not yet, a few more weeks for that one

Food cravings: Avocado rolls. So damn good.

Gender guess/Actual Gender: I really don't know.

Labor Signs: no way

Belly Button in or out? Innie!

What I miss: raw sushi, not feeling nauseous

What I am looking forward to: morning sickness really and truly ending!!

Weekly Wisdom: i have no wisdom. just keep on trucking.

Milestones: the baby is sucking its thumb and peeing now! Lol, weird.

food

I really wanted to write a post about food with a great recipe and more mediocre food pictures in it, because I miss that and I don't want you to think I'm not cooking. Although, frankly, lately I'm not*. And one doesn't really need to post a recipe that goes, "cook pasta. dump jar of alfredo sauce on top." because that's all I can stomach at the moment.
Trav got me a sweet potato/yam (the orange one, not the yellow one) yesterday, and we had a little celebration because I ate the whole thing! Woo!

I was just looking through old posts with recipes and I, honest to god, cannot wait until the fall when I'm so going to be cooking again. A lot. Because by then 1) it will be cooler and therefore easier to use the stove/oven, and 2) I'll either be feeling better or be on drugs to make me feel better because really, enough is enough. Seriously, we celebrated, over a yam. (My weight check appointment is tomorrow, we'll see what happens....)

But really, I love cooking in the fall and winter. The hardy, warm, comforting foods are totally my cup of tea. I'm pretty sure I say this every year, but c'est la vie... won't kill you to hear it again. I suppose its so on my mind right now because its only a month until fall is officially here, and I just really miss enjoying food.




* I did whip up some biscuits and sausage gravy this weekend since we had the stuff we needed for it. I only ate half a biscuits worth, but it was good. And it really was nice to cook!

So I had a dream the other night that I was a vampire who was trying to escape from another vampire, and I spent the whole dream running very fast and very far. I was surprised I didn't wake up tired... because just thinking about all that running made me feel like I should feel tired. But damn was it neat to be leaping from building top to building top, and practically flying over trees.

Last night I had another weird dream, but I don't remember it at all this morning... since my morning was interrupted by having to get up to puke before my alarm even went off. But I did get to lay down for a bit afterward, which was nice. Once I got up and got ready, I went to do my hair... which was wet when I went to bed (showered last night), and I had put up in a knot on top of my head... I totally looked like a girl out of an 80s hair band video. LOL. My hair was HUGE and wavy, and got immediately pulled back into a ponytail... although I did consider just using up my hairspray to keep it that way, then just walking around singing Poison songs all day. ;-)

Yesterday and today I've been doing a 48 hour food diary... which is required of all maternity patients at the birth center I'm using. I've been doing much better with food lately... so I'm hoping I won't get in trouble for my meals, but I'm nervous I'm going to be getting a "talking to" about my lack of greens. I just can't stomach them right now (except for avocado rolls... mmm, that's my one real pregnancy craving so far... and I had one yesterday, so that's something. and i might have another today). My appointment is Tuesday, so we'll see what they say.

I'm also going to ask them about the weirdest pregnancy side effect, but I thought I would seek the internet's advice too. Pardon me, because this is a bit much on the personal information department, but this is just too weird not to ask. Since around 8ish weeks of pregnancy I've had this weird thing, maybe just once or twice a week, where my crotch will go numb. Think "sitting on your foot too long" feeling. But with your crotch, instead of your foot. Its weird. Very weird.
So, anyone else experience this? Or am I just a freak of nature? :-)

On a less weird note... my brother, Ethan is enjoying his first week of DC living! He starts classes next monday, and he's currently enjoying getting to know the city. He's calling me tonight and I can't wait to hear all about it. It makes me a bit nostgalic. There is nothing like your freshman year of college... living "on your own" for the first time. Everything is new and different, suddenly you are in a whole new world of discovering yourself. You have no one to place their ideals on you, its all suddenly up to you. Its a very heady feeling, and I'm so excited and a bit jealous that he gets to experience that for the first time.

And on that note... I'm off!

guilty pleasures

Why, oh why, am I so excited about this?


Not Harry Potter excited... but still, more excited then I care to admit!

sick of feeling sick

We'll start with the disclaimer that I would be sick every day until the end of this pregnancy, if it meant a healthy baby at the end. But putting that aside, I'm really hoping that's not what it takes because frankly, I'm so sick of being sick.

This morning was a Not Good morning. I won't say it was a Very Bad morning, because I only actually got sick once... but it was definitely Not Good. And after four or so Good days in a row, Not Good felt extra horrid. This morning I had to fight off the urge to grab every pregnant woman I saw and demand that she tells me "it gets better." I know it will, but damn if that isn't hard to see right now.

Now I feel bad though since I know there are so many ladies out there who would do anything to be pregnant, or who suffered losses and would do anything to have their babies back. I am so greatful for this pregnancy... and like I said, I would deal with this for all 9 months if I had to... so I hope my rant didn't bother anyone. Its just hard to feel sick all the time.

Anyway, I'm done with the complaining now!! Sorry about that!

its going to be a hot one!

This weekend had just the right amount of "stuff" in it... and just the right amount of laying around and doing nothing in the air conditioning! It was stuffy and hot, though today is going to be even hotter (93ish) and I so wish I could be at home. So lets see. Saturday was my birthday! I'm 27! :-) I love birthdays, and I'm feeling good about this age. The day itself was really nice... I slept in until 10! Trav gave me my gifts, the last two season of X-files and this figurine (which is now on my shelf at work):

I love it! It says, "The journey to motherhood begins with a miracle."

I made a big batch of Macaroni & Yeasty Cheese for lunch (mmm), and we relaxed a watched some X-files. Everyone came over in the afternoon and we hung out for a bit before heading to The Pearl for dinner. It was a lot of fun, and the food was good (as always). Everyone took off after dinner, and I called it a night around 10:30.

Sunday I slept in until 10 again! I was shocked since normally 9 is about as late as I go... but I'm waking up now sometime up to 4 times to use the bathroom, so maybe that accounts for the extra hour in the am. We had dinner plans over at Ro & Pat's house (for chicken and dumplings! yum!), but otherwise it was just a lovely day of laying around with more X-files.

I really didn't want to get up this morning, but it wasn't a bad morning. The sea bands definitely seem to be helping. My doc appointment is next week, and I'm feeling confident that I'm going to "make weight" since I've been able to eat better these past few days, and when I do have a rough morning for eating, I have the Ensure. Its funny though because Trav definitely is very encouraging, cheering me on when I'm eating well! Lol. Who would have ever thought that I would get to a place where my husband would become a food cheerleader?!

Anyway, I have to get back to work... but I did want to show one wives tale that I found online:

Mayans determined the sex of the baby by taking the mother's age at conception, and the year of conception. If both are even or both are odd...it's a girl. If one is even and one odd it's a boy.

Mother's age at conception - 26 (even)
Year of conception - 2009 (odd)

According to this wives tale, we are having a BOY.

About four or five more weeks until we can find out!

things

First the bitching, then the happy stuff.

Things that bug me:


- She is a selfish woman and I feel badly for her poor children who are going to see this someday.

- Michael Vick. On the Eagles. Blah.



Things that are awesome:
- My coworkers who are making me feel super special for my birthday. Lunch out today, homemade cupcakes, and a gift card for another lunch out at Max Brenner (mmmmm!).

- My birthday present from Ro. A girls night out to see a cheesetastic movie that my husband would never want to see, and a dinner afterwards. Yay!

- Another good morning (sickness-wise)... go Sea Bands! go Ensure! go sleeping for an extra 45 minutes!

- The fact that its Friday... and that tomorrow, my birthday, is Saturday! And I get to sleep in!

i'm bringing back the 80s!

So I had a doc appt on Tuesday... a normal 12week appointment, where we FINALLY got to actually hear the heartbeat. We'd seen it on our ultrasounds, but never heard it before, so that was really nice.

BP is good, all my blood work from my first appointment was good, everything else was on track, but I lost 3 lbs which my midwife wasn't too happy about. So I go back in 2 weeks for a weight check to make sure I'm not losing more (at which point I would go on an anti-nausea med). In the meantime, I've purchased some Ensure to drink when eating isn't going to happen, picked up some Sea Bands to see if they help ease the nausea, switched temporarily from my prenatals to Flinstones (which are made for kid tummies and much easier to digest... plus have pretty much everything you need anyway), and have been trying to shower at night so I can get a little extra sleep in the morning, which always helps.

This morning was so much better than yesterday's... which was a Bad Morning... so we'll keep this up. The only downside is that the Sea Bands make me feel a bit like this:

Break out the leg warmers people... I'm bringing back the 80s.
But since I'm already 12 weeks, hopefully the morning sickness will be taking its leave soon.

This weekend is my birthday and we're playing it pretty low-key. My hoser, Lauren, and her fiance, Joe are coming into town... and we're going to go out to dinner with them and Ro & Pat. Should be really nice, I haven't seen hoser since her law school graduation party. 27 feels like a good age to be, so I'm feeling content/happy about this birthday.
Although if you know me, you probably know that I always love my birthday. :-)

Back to work for me...

meegs has a doodle in her Etch-A-Sketch that can't be un-did, homeskillet.

aka. I'm pregnant, y'all!

I've been waiting about 8 months to say this (ever since we got pregnant the first time), but I would like you to meet our baby:



(Click to make bigger and see the labels I added:)


Everything looks great... the baby was jumping and moving all over the place, and had a beautiful strong heart rate of 162.

I can't even begin to explain how happy and excited and relieved we are! And come February 23rd, we will be more than ready to welcome this little one into the outside world.



I'll leave it there for now... because I don't even know what else to say at the moment. I can't believe I finally get to tell the world our news. But feel free to check out my posts under baby #2, all of which have now been published.

wedding weekend

We had a great weekend. The wedding was beautiful, the ceremony itself was actually hilarious (their officiant was a riot), and it was so great to see family. I took no pictures because I basically forgot to... but my brother has some nice ones on his camera that I'm waiting for.

Sunday they had a brunch on the roof of their apartment (its a patio setup, with tables and plants, and a pool!). It was one of the hottest days we've had so far, and though the extent of the heat might have been a surprise, I really don't know why I was SO surprised. I mean, on a roof top in August. Not really expecting cool. But they had the pool there, that everyone stuck their feet into. And I spent my time in the shade provided by one of the potted trees they had up there.

On that note, I'm so glad we took today off... best decision ever. Between all the driving, and weddings just being fun but tiring, and the freakin HEAT, we were exhausted last night. The extra hours to sleep were much appreciated. Not to mention the heat index for today is supposed to be in the 100s, so I am happy to not have to leave!

Another nice thing about the weekend... Daisy had her first experience with sleeping away from us at someone else's house. She's had a weekend away from us before, but my brother came here to watch her that time. This time she went to one of Trav's coworker's places... with their lab, Snickers, who is almost twice Daisy's size! She had the best time with her playmate, and was a really good girl! I'm very proud. ;-)

Well, time for me to pop into the shower and continue my lazy day. Bye!

day in the life - first tri edition

6:00 a.m. - wake up and wish I had taken my shower last night so I could sleep for 50 more minutes. head into the bathroom to pee and blow my nose 20 times.
head downstairs and pour myself some milk, try to decide what I feel like eating. get hit with a wave of nausea and dash back upstairs. deep breathe my way through this wave and blow my nose again. head back downstairs to microwave some chicken noodle soup.
watch the weather channels "local on the 8s" and slowly eat some soup. head back upstairs to get into the shower. shower as quickly as possible, pausing occasionally to lean against the shower wall until a wave of nausea or dizziness passes. get out and towel off, use the toilet again and deep breathe some more.
get dressed making sure that my tank top covers the top of my maternity jeans... the only pair of jeans that don't cut painfully into my bloated tummy, or press too hard and make me feel more nauseous.
hit the bathroom one last time to pee again, and do a quick teeth brushing. not too bad this morning... only gagged once!
Trav is home today on one of his furlough days, so I don't have to worry about the pup. grab my stuff and head out to the train.

8:14 - on the train heading into center city. alternate between reading and relaxing, so I don't get motion sick. head to the bathroom as soon as i get into my station in the city... don't think i could make it into work.
its really nice out this morning, cool and the humidity has broken... makes for a nice walk. stop into rite.aid for a can of chicken noodle soup, and into star.bucks for a grande 6 pump peppermint, nonfat, with whip hot chocolate.

9:00 - start my day by checking my work email. the boss is out, but the three emails of instructions he sent show me this is not going to be a throw away day.
pause for a few to check my own email and some blogs. eat some baked potato chips.
start on today's tasks.

9:30 - feel full... eat rest of potato chips anyway.
continue working.

9:45 - regret potato chips.

10:00 - Trav calls, he's running errands today and knows I needed conditioner. spend 10 minutes trying to describe which conditioner I need... mission successful.
back to work.

11:45 - stomach getting empty and growl-ie. impressed I made it so far before eating before remembering "the chips". oh well.

noon - heat some soup. coworker comments that I'm going to "turn into soup."
follow that up with a chocolate square from max brenner... chocolate ganache with mint leaves. amazing.

EDITED TO ADD: Come back to post the next day because baby brain made you forget what you were doing half-way through your day!

busy week

It's been a busy week, but with good stuff too. Today was the last day for two of my favorite interns from the summer. One was my intern, and I took her to lunch at Max Brenner... which was AMAZING. So good, so fun. I would eat there again for sure. I had this delish garlicy pasta... then we shared a s'mores plate. Mmm.
The second intern was for the person whose office is attached to mine... so we talked a lot and got to know each other while he was here. So that coworker, Tally, Tally's husband Sam, and I all took him out for a drink after work. It really made the day fly by, especially since I was busy for the rest of the time.

So glad tomorrow is Friday... I have off Monday (as does Trav), so I'm really looking forward to my three day weekend. Trav actually has a four day weekend, since he has tomorrow off as well... but its not all roses since he had to take those days off because of a new policy at his company. For the time, all employees must take a mandatory two furlough days a month. Aka: two mandatory days off without pay. Hopefully business will pick up soon and that will end... but its still a little tough, though we are just thankful that he is still gainfully employed.

On a lighter note, tomorrow (night) we will be getting ready for our weekend... my cousin is getting married in DC on Saturday. So we'll be down there Saturday night. I can't wait! I think I enjoy DC more every time I go, and I can't wait to see all kinds of family.

Now I'm going to run to be with my hubby and pup. Enjoy your night have have a great rest of the week.

we're really having a baby!

I had a rather eventful afternoon yesterday! I had some spotting (my third time), so the midwife wanted me to come in for a mini dose of RoGham. I got that and she did a quick internal, which looked normal. My ute felt the appropriate size and since I was 11 weeks she pulled out the doppler. She couldn't find the heartbeat... which honestly, at 11 weeks, doesn't mean anything. That's kind of the line for when you can definitely hear it. Of course, that doesn't mean my heart didn't jump into my throat.

She wanted to offer me some reassurance, so she pulled out this portable ultrasound machine... which they don't normally do, but she really wanted to check things out. So she put the probe on, and there was our baby. Looking like a real baby! Not just a blob! We could see the heartbeat flickering away... but the baby was just laying there. We must have sat there for almost 10 minutes waiting for that baby to move, her poking and prodding a bit with the ultrasound wand, when the baby JUMPED and started squirming all over the place! Our little gummy baby must have been sleeping and was pretty pissed off to be woken up!

It was thee coolest thing, and I'm so sorry that Trav missed it. But I'm also even more excited for our ultrasound on Monday now! Which will be on a better machine, with the sound up, and an actual ultrasound tech who can point things out. But hey, we're really having a baby!!

belated 1000!!!

I didn't realize it at the time, but apparently I posted my 1,000th post 4 posts ago (five if you count this one)! Wowzers.

I wish I could promise that they were all entertaining, all uplifting, all deep and meaningful... but I can't. Frankly, most of them are probably boring or silly. But they are my little contribution to the blogosphere, and I can't believe I've contributed over a 1,000 of them.

rough morning

I made myself a fruit smoothie for breakfast the other morning and it went down so nicely, and I felt really good that whole morning... so I thought I had found the ticket!

Not. So. Much.

This morning I had another smoothie. It went down well, and stayed down until after my shower (leaving time for most of it to leave my stomach, thankfully)... but post-shower was spent "praying to the porcelain gods." Ugh. I felt like crap for the rest of the morning, but was finally able to have some hot tea and soup around 11, which helped a lot.

I'm almost 11 weeks... I was hoping things would start to get better by now. I'm crossing my fingers for some improvement soon.

10w, 6d