Someone come kick me into gear today, please!

I'm just having one of those days where I don't feel like doing ANYTHING. Granted, it's only 10-something in the morning and I slept a little late, but still. There are plenty of things to do around here, and I just don't feel like doing any of them.

I promised DH that I would pack my hospital bag soon, so I should probably try to do that today. Especially since I'm "term" now and Little Guy could seriously come any day. My midwife is having me come back on Tuesday because my blood pressure was a little high yesterday. If it's still high, she'll check me and possibly do a membrane sweep. Just from her external checking, she said his head is extremely low and asked me if I feel like he has dropped yet. I'm short-waisted so honestly, I can't tell. All I know is that my hips hurt less after last night's sleep than they have in MONTHS. So that's exciting. (Oh, and the membrane sweep? She said that IF it works, he'll be here after 3 days, max. So that could have me holding my baby in my arms by next Friday. That possibility both terrifies and thrills me to no end.)

We had a great Labor Day weekend with DH's parents. Seriously, we are SO spoiled, and we know it and are so thankful for it. We ended up coming home with even more baby stuff, a dress for me to wear postpartum, a couple new ties for DH to wear to work, and we bought ourselves a blender with a food processor attachment with a gift card we had. I am SO excited about the blender! I've been wanting one for ages, to do smoothies with. Our first attempt with them the other night sucked, to be honest, but I've looked up some recipes and hopefully our next batch will be good. :) I want to try some green smoothies with stuff like kale or spinach and just not tell DH what's in them. A little veggies will be good for him!

My brain is officially ready for fall. (I know, I may have mentioned that before, right?) So I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and bought myself the "ingredients" for a fall wreath for our front door! All of the little items were 40% off except for the actual wreath itself, so I showed them the online coupon and got 40% off of that, too. :) Savvy shopper in the hizzouse. I agonized over what kind of design I wanted, what colors to use, etc etc. Our front door is red so OBVIOUSLY I couldn't do red fall items because it'd blend in, and where's the fun in that? So I ended up with creamy/yellowish and orange, and I'm pretty happy with it. I'm looking forward to the day that I have a decorating budget that allows me to deck the halls for every season and holiday. Fall wreath this year, ceramic pumpkin centerpiece next year? I think yes.

Paint fumes, maternity pictures, and ultrasound drama

Fun mix of subjects, right? But that's just what's going on in my life these days. :)

So...paint fumes. We painted our little guy's dresser over the weekend but it turns out that the paint is flimsy and chips crazy easy. DH and I bought a topcoat last night and I decided to paint on my own. I figured, hey, I'll wear a mask and open the window and it won't be so bad. WRONG. The whole house reeks right now. I've got the bedroom window open with a fan running and towels stuffed under the door to try and contain the stank. I also have my back door open and my spiced pumpkin candle burning. I called DH and told him that he will definitely be finishing the dresser on his own. I feel fine, no lightheaded feelings or headaches or anything, but I probably don't need to be breathing in fumes.

We got our maternity pictures back this weekend. I can't even begin to pretend that they were worth the drama or the crazy expense, but they do look nice. It still astounds me how huge my belly is these days...it just seems impossible that everything could stretch that far!

Just a couple of them that I particularly like. :)

And the ultrasound drama. Ugh. My midwife's office ordered four more weeks of BPPs without telling me why. I was a mess wondering if something was wrong with our little guy and they just hadn't informed me. I finally got a half-decent answer from one of the NPs yesterday. She told me she thinks that the scheduling was actually an error, said that the baby looks TOTALLY fine, and that they're still waiting to hear from my midwife whether or not she's actually wanting to do the BPPs or if she's just wanting a repeat growth scan to check up on him. I adore my midwife, but oh my goodness, you cannot keep a pregnant woman waiting like that.

Four weeks left until our due date. Insanity. Once this dresser is done, we'll be pretty much ready for little guy to get here. I can't wait to meet him!

Rawwwr.

Translation: stay out of my way today.

I am in the worst mood EVER, and I don't even know why. I feel tired and grumpy and extremely irritable. I think it's a combination of many things: hormones, discomfort, and things not going as planned. Let's start with this weekend, shall we?

Our plan was to finish painting Little Boy's dresser this weekend, let it sit for a couple days, and then load it up with all his clothes and whatnot. Hah. We used a paint sprayer and air compressor, and apparently the compressor wasn't quite strong enough because the paint flow was a little flaky. (At least the paint color is gorgeous, though.) After all of it was dry, we discovered that it chips off EXTREMELY easy...what the heck? We primed, sanded, and painted two coats, and yet I can scratch paint off with my finger nail. So all that hard work was pretty useless. I told DH that if we can find some kind of low-VOC varnish to topcoat it with, I can do that myself while he's at work. I'm just grumpy that it needs more work at all...we have put SO many hours into that stupid freaking dresser and I feel like it'll never be done.

I'm also sick of waiting for my midwife's office to get back to me and let me know what the crud is going on with my ultrasounds. I was told that if little boy got up to the 11th percentile, we'd be in the clear. At my last growth scan, they told me that he was at the 15th percentile and that there was "no medical reason" to continue the ultrasounds. I got a call on Friday saying that they were sorry I had missed my appointment, so I asked what appointment and the scheduler said, "Oh, you had an ultrasound on the 21st that you didn't show up for." ...I did? No one ever told me I had another ultrasound. In fact, they told me the exact opposite. So I'm still waiting to find out WHY I'm being scheduled for more ultrasounds, because at this point all I know is that they want me to have at least one BPP a week for the next four weeks. Did I mention that I'm due in 4 weeks? Again...rawr.

I am not having a good day.

Last week of 1st trimester, woohoo!

I'm stealing this pregnancy update from Mchupie so I don't take credit for any of it! (Except my answers, obviously.)



How far along? 12 weeks

Weight gain/loss: Still at 124, so down about 3 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight.

Feeling: Tired, but that might just be from getting up 6 times last night to pee. Nausea is almost entirely gone, but I have to keep food in my stomach or it creeps back up.

Maternity clothes? None really, yet. I have a couple maternity tops that I wear sometimes, but more because I like them than because I need them.

Sleep: A challenge. I've been waking up so much to go to the bathroom, and I feel like it's just impossible to get comfortable. I'm trying to convince DH that I need a Snoogle.

Food cravings: Comfort food. Cornbread, chicken and dumplings, etc.

Movement? None so far. I have an anterior placenta so they said it'll be at least another month before I feel anything.

What I miss? Sleep. Beautiful, glorious sleep.

Best moment this week: Not heading into work on Monday, because I'm now a SAHW!

What I'm looking forward to: Heading to Arkansas this weekend to see my grandparents. DH has barely ever met them so this should be fun. :)

Next appointment: I've got my group meeting with other KU ladies on the 27th, but the next REAL appointment is May 10th. Anatomy scan, yay!

Milestones: Baby's reflexes are active now! If I push on my belly, baby will startle and move, although I can't feel any of it for now.

I really am looking forward to my centering appointment. Basically, women who are in the midwife-based program all get together once or twice a month at the clinic for classes, discussion, education, etc. It's all women who are due in September, so it'll be cool to get to interact with other ladies who are as far along as me and have different birthplans and experiences. The first appointment for that is the 27th of this month, so not too long to wait. :)

Movin' on up!

Yesterday was a fantastic day, despite the fact that our entire area was slammed with some pretty bad weather. (Tornadoes, hail, strong winds and thunderstorms, etc.)

DH took the day off and used the morning to go get his yearly checkup done. The doctor's office took their sweet time and made him wait for a couple hours, and he barely got home in time for us to leave for my appointment. But we made it on time (and managed to stop at Panera for some cinnamon crunch bagels for lunch) and checked in at the doctor's office. The nurse took my blood pressure and temperature, and then a couple other nurses came in to record my family medical history and let me know a little more about what to expect and how the whole midwife experience works at Vanderbilt. I'm going to be part of a program called "Centering", which means I'll be meeting for a few weeks with other women due in September and taking group classes, etc. I'm looking forward to it!

The midwife came in, and I really liked her a lot. We chatted about baby-related things, and then she had me lay down on the little table. She whipped out the Doppler and said, "We might not be able to hear anything yet, but what's the fun in not trying, right?" It took her a minute to find it, but there it was! What a relief.

After that, they sent me over to the ultrasound department, and they got me back to a room super quickly, which was great. She told me it was going to be an "internal" (ahem) ultrasound, but I balked and she said we could try the transabdominal instead. (I'm glad I said something, because we could see everything juuuust fine.) The tech turned off the lights, and DH and I had our own tv screen to watch everything on. There was baby, laying still but the little heart very visible and beating. I was a little bummed that s/he wasn't moving around, but then all of a sudden s/he startled and threw those tiny little arms in the air, and started arching that back and wiggling the legs. I burst into tears at the sheer awesomeness of it. It was so crazy, seeing this baby move and not being able to feel a bit of it. The tech said everything looks perfect. Showed us the feet with the little ankles crossed, and baby gave us a great show. She moved my due date to September 19th instead of the 21st because instead of measuring 10w5d, baby was at 11w2d. Cool! She printed up three pictures for us and sent us down to the lab for my bloodwork.

I was really anxious about the bloodwork because last time I had a draw, it went really poorly. The phlebotomist was very reassuring and told me it'd all be fine. She tied off my arm, and I just looked away because if I don't see it, it won't make me sick. It didn't take long before it was done, and I looked over as she had me hold gauze on the hole. Eight vials of blood! I was surprised. Never had that much drawn before. She said it's standard for them to draw a lot from pregnant ladies because of all the tests they'll run. She got me some apple juice and graham crackers and congratulated us, and we were done for the day. It was truly a great experience, although I am really bruised from the draw. Totally worth it.

So the baby that looked like a bean last time, actually looks like a baby now! Here's our most recent picture of Baby K, waving hi. :)

We are super blessed. Couldn't have asked for a better experience. And most importantly, this baby is healthy and OURS. God is good.

I had to ask for help.

The morning sickness is hitting me like a ton of bricks today. I noticed when I was lying in bed that if I was on my back, I would start feeling queasy. So I just rolled over and ignored it. By the time I got up, it was hitting me in full force, which kind of surprised me. It usually gets worse as the day goes along, and doesn't bother me at all until later in the afternoon. I knew that eating usually makes me feel better, so I grabbed some leftover beef stew and tried to eat. Tried. It was a huge struggle to even get the food down. It took me a good 15 minutes to eat a bowl.

As I sat there, the nausea just got worse and worse and worse. I realized pretty quickly that it was not getting better, and I went ahead and called out of work. Thankfully it was one of my female coworkers that answered my call and offered to take the shift for me. I don't think the men there are quite as understanding.

After I called work, I broke down and called my midwife. That glorious woman. She told me that there are tons of options for the m/s, the most common being B-6 and Unisom. She told me to eat something small every hour and a half or so...guess I need to invest in some carrots or something so that I don't gain 10lbs in the first trimester! I really want to avoid prescription-strength options for now...it doesn't feel worth it when I'm not actually throwing up. I'm not a medication kinda girl anyhow. I prefer natural options whenever possible. I still am a little amazed that I can be this nauseous and NOT throw up, but I suppose I should be really thankful for that. There are some women on TB that throw up anywhere from 10 to 20 times a day...I can't even imagine.

We have 13 more days until our first ultrasound. Fly, time, fly! I am so, so looking forward to seeing that beautiful baby and that teensy heartbeat. I know s/he is alive and well, but it would feel incredible to actually be able to see it. All the ultrasounds last time were done out of fear and urgency. But this one is scheduled and routine, and that alone feels fantastic.

Today, I am pregnant, and I love my baby.

Here we go (again)!

Well, folks, it looks like I'm back on the baby train!

After some peer pressure to POAS yesterday, I figured, "Eh, why not? I've got at least 5 ICs, three FRERs, and a dollar store test. I can afford to waste one." So I PIAC, dipped the cheapie, grabbed it, and prepared to walk back to the laptop. As I walked out of my room, I looked down at the test and though, "Holy crud, I think I'm seeing a line form here." I started getting all trembly and staring the test down. After about three minutes, I was definitely, for sure seeing a line. I ran back to the bathroom and dipped a FRER, and as soon as the control line started to show up, there was a test line right along with it. I started laughing and crying and just saying, "Oh my gosh!" over and over again. I couldn't believe I had just tested at 10dpo and gotten a dark, very clear line. Just...wow.

DH is really excited, and obviously, so am I. My OB is sending me an order for HCG betas, and I am SO excited that I was able to book my midwife again. I was so sure that she was going to be all booked up for September, but she wasn't! Her receptionist/doula actually remembered me, and said she was really excited for me. She's incredibly sweet...hope she's my doula!

I am so incredibly excited and thankful. We prayed so much for this baby. All I can do now is try to stay healthy, not eat everything in sight like I want to, and pray some more. I'm already having morning sickness, which is way different from last time. (And honestly, makes me feel more secure.) My EDD is September 23rd. First ultrasound is scheduled for February 9th. Both my OB and my midwife want me to do an early ultrasound since twins are so huge in my family. And I am not going to complain about getting to see my baby early! I am thrilled beyond words. Prayers, thoughts, and good vibes for a sticky baby would be much appreciated! Also, if you know me in real life or are friends with me on FB, please keep this quiet. We're not planning to announce to the world until after 1st tri.

Ants in my pants

Tomorrow is our first midwife appointment and I'm so excited I can barely sit still. I have no idea why I'm so pumped...we're not going to see the heartbeat or do an ultrasound or anything. I think it's just that, in my mind, if I'm seeing a medical professional about my pregnancy, it must be real! (As if the massive aching boob pain didn't clue me in. And also the 5 positive pregnancy tests.) I think DH is excited, too, because he has already told his entire office and a few random strangers. We're taking my niece's old crib instead of shelling out for a new one, and DH wants to go ahead and bring it back to our place this weekend. That one really surprised me...I expected him, with all his careful planning, to wait to wait a while for things like that. I think both of us are just a little on the giddy side right now.

I took our oldest fur child, Pippa, to the vet today. (Well, the vet at the Humane Society where we got her.) She's been kind of congested since the day we brought her home, and it just never cleared up. They told us that it was just the last little bit of an upper respiratory infection she had, and that it would go away on its own. She sounded so pathetic the last couple days that I felt like I needed to do something. So, for $6.75, they gave me three different meds to try and clear everything up. Excellent price? Why yes, yes it was. It'll be fun trying to squirt meds down her throat with the syringe, but if it makes her stop sneezing snot marks all over the wall, it'll be worth the effort.

I need to make dinner plans for tonight. I have frozen chicken, brown rice, and an avocado. Think I can make something interesting out of that? Hah. I think that takes more cooking talent than I possess, but we'll figure something out.