Mexican Jumping Bean

Still here, just busy. Yesterday, we had my doctors appointment and got to see the little one again. The doctor tried to hear the heartbeat on the doppler, but it's still a bit too early to hear anything but my own loud heart. We decided to do the ultra sound to make sure everything was looking okay. The baby had gone from looking like a gummy bear that was hard to make out to a little person (kinda). I was able to make out the head and the little nubs for arms and legs. SO COOL. While we watched, he or she hopped around a bit. We could see the flashing light on its chest which was its strong heart beat. I am now 10 weeks. I'm counting down the days for my skin to stop looking like you can play connect the dots. Freakin' hormones.

This weekend was a lot of fun. We were able to go to our Wenatchee house for the first time since it closed. We spent most of the time buying things to make it livable and deciding what the next projects were going to be to finish up the house and landscaping. We'd been stressing about how we were going to put a lawn in and keep it watered when we weren't going to be there that often, and Mike came up with the brilliant idea of Dream Turf. A composite lawn that never gets mowed or watered and will always look great. Awesome. Not nearly as expensive and labor intensive as installing a sprinkler system and planting grass. We want to hurry and put up our fence so we can start bringing Titan with us. He would love it there. Unfortunately, there's so much dirt in the back, that dog would be filthy. This weekend we're going to go back and start taking measurements for the fence and price out pools. We'll probably look at the cost of everything and decide that living with our dirt pile back yard might be the most cost effective way to go.

No Clever Opening, Just "Ouch"

The ligaments are starting to stretch and grow. It hurts. For those that are unfamiliar of what I am talking about, these ligaments are located between the lower abdominals and the obliques. It's a little early for them to be sore, but because I work out so much my nurse said it wasn't that unusual. Sleeping is a bit uncomfortable. When I stretch my legs, it stretches the ligaments and I feel like I've over done it in the gym. I pretty much have to keep my legs pulled up so it doesn't hurt so much. Then there's the boobs. I can't really lie on one side or the other with out wincing. It's not as bad as they warned me in the books, but it certainly isn't comfortable. There are times I feel like I'm being stabbed with tooth picks. Again, this is all normal but not fun.

I have formed, what I like to call, a baby blankie where my abs used to be. I know this is my belly growing because when I flex, it doesn't go down. The other day Mike and I were at Rita's and sitting in a chair together. As I was getting up, he grabbed my "belly" and started announcing that my stomach was getting bigger and that everyone had to look. It was funny. You had to be there.

My pants are certainly getting a little tighter. The other day I had to try my hardest to suck it in to button them up. Once I got them on, there was this lovely little fold of skin hanging over the top. This encouraged me to stand up straight and tall. That helps flatten it out. I'm looking forward to shopping at Forever 21 for my "maternity"clothes. Thank you for the tip, Evie. I am going to do my best to stay out of the maternity stores when the time calls for it.

Aggghhh. This entry sucked. Sorry. I'll try harder next time.

The Incredible Shrinking Bed

I haven't been sleeping well lately. Mike has had a cold for about a week and a half and it sucks. For the first couple of nights, I chose to sleep on the couch so that I wouldn't catch what he had. Our couch sucks. Neat to look at, but it holds no comfortable qualities. After Mike was no longer contagious, I tried to sleep in the bed. This didn't work because the person next to me sounded like they had a chainsaw going. Mike usually doesn't snore unless he's sick and has a stuffed up nose. Not only has it been quite noisy in our room, but each minute I get pushed further and further until I'm performing a balancing act on the edge of the bed. I've laid some pillows on the floor along my side of the bed so should I get that final shove I have a safe fluffy landing. When Mike is really tired from taking his cold medicine, he spreads his body out like he's making a snow angel. We have a queen size bed and Mike is not small. I usually have to pull myself together real snug and tight as if I'm sleeping in a coffin. Then Mike gets real close and starts to breathe heavy at me. I can't stand that especially if he's breathing in my face. I have to quickly whip myself over and tuck the blankets in around me so he's not making condensation form on my shoulder. These are all issues I deal with when Mike is sick. Now, the bad news is that Mike is preparing for his off season weight gain where he will probably put on an additional 15 pounds. 15 more pounds in that bed! Not only that, I've never heard of women getting smaller when they're pregnant. We could end up having an all out war fighting over who is taking up more room (it's always Mike). ; ) The good news? Mike's mom, Rita, is letting us have her King size bed. Hopefully we'll have it by June. That will be fabulous for while we're both growing. However, after I bounce back to my normal size (that's right, I said bounce back) it will probably feel like we're on two different sides of the room with a bed that big. We used to have a double! We thought a queen would be a big jump for us. Little did we know that we would be ballooning up.

Sorry, no clever ending to this one.

Instant Family: Just Add Water

This week has been amazing. Without giving too much information to the world, someone from our family that we hadn't seen in years and weren't sure when we'd see again, landed on our doorstep. Those that I've told swear our lives could be written into a Lifetime movie. This was something that needed to happen and has been such a great experience. Everyone has had a whirlwind of emotions flowing through them. Feelings that have been hidden and bottled up are finally being released and addressed. I'm so excited and happy for everyone involved. There are some bumps in the road ahead that we'll all have to get over, but we're so optimistic that it feels like nothing will prevent the future of this relationship to flourish.
Yay to our family!

Sometimes People Just Need A Good Punch To The Face

First, let me start with this: Why, God, Why Chris!?!?! Yes, I have been faithfully watching American Idol. It started out so innocently just like everyone else who just wanted to watch the idiots in the beginning to laugh at their expense. But then, there he was. Chris Daughtry (drool). Awesome singer. Awesome performer. Awesome eye candy. It's got to be the hair...it's the same style as Mike's. I was saddened and yet, relieved that he is no longer on the show. This is mainly because I hate the songs that American Idol has the winners sing. They're always so sappy. Others might disagree with me, but I can't stand the Idol music. I could just imagine him singing, "A Moment Like This"... gag. This is a blessing for us all.

On another note. Yesterday, I was handed three hours worth of work one hour before I got to go home. That means, I didn't get to go home until very late. At 4:30, I received a phone call that an agent was at a listing of ours and that I needed to bring them a key. I arrived at 4:40. This is a small house that really only takes 5-10 minutes to show, 15 if they're interested. I made the mistake of telling the agent to take her time and that I'd be waiting for her in my car. Oops. 5:30 rolls around and she finally is done showing this dump. I hate putting on a friendly face when all I want to do is take the keys back, shove her to the ground, kick dirt in her face, and drive of laughing hysterically and crying at the same time. While waiting for her in my car, I had to roll up the windows so she wouldn't hear my screaming and swearing. I went a little crazy, because in the back of my mind I knew what awaited me on my desk that I had barely started.
I got back to the office, finished my paperwork, and hung it up for the night around 6:45. I was in the mood for a California Roll (which is okay for me to eat) and Miso soup, so I swung around to pick some up. This restaurant is 2 minutes from my office. I literally waited for 30 minutes for a "to-go" order of California Rolls! 30 minutes! Every time I considered walking out with my middle finger up in the air, I thought, perhaps they're almost ready. Maybe the guy was perfecting the presentation before putting it in a styrofoam container and tossing in a couple of packets of soy sauce. Benefit of the doubt can sometimes bite you in the ass. I had to take out a piece of paper and a pen and jot down my profanities so that I wouldn't make a scene. I usually just write each comment on top of each other so that when I've settled down, it just looks like a big blob of ink. Every time the waitress passed me, that's all she did. She didn't look at me, didn't assure me it was on its way, nothing. I had to have had steam coming out of my ears and fire coming out of my eyes, because people would look at me and quickly look away for fear I would cast an evil spell on them. When I finally received my dinner, I stormed out vowing that I would never come back. The pathetic thing was, I knew I would be back. In fact, California Rolls sound tempting right now.

I got home last night at 7:30.

Get Out Of Me, Pee

I just got back from my ultrasound appointment with Mike. At my first doctors appointment, my doctor had a difficult time making out the baby, so she set me up with an Ultrasound technician to get more accurate readings. We figured I wasn't quite as far along as we'd originally thought. Today's appointment confirmed that. Baby Moo's new arrival date is December 26th! Unbelievable. I knew there was a reason I hadn't written it down yet. There he or she was with a strong heart beat. 133 beats per minute. Perfectly normal. I thought it looked a little like a cocoon on the screen. The technician said she thought it looked like a gummy bear. Her description sounded nicer. It is in no way that big, though. It is almost one whole centimeter in diameter. Crazy.
As many know, you must fill your bladder full of water for the appointment. Oooooohhhhhhhh sooooooooo hooooorrrrrrrible! The pushing on the bladder - so awful it made my toes curl (not in a good way). On top of everything else, I couldn't relax because I was so excited and every muscle was tense. I was very happy to see our baby up on the screen with it's fluttering heart beat, but I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there to evacuate the bladder. When I was finally given the go-ahead to use the bathroom, nothing. My body was used to "holding it" that it just wouldn't let it go. Finally, relief. Ridiculously slow relief. I was now able to walk normal and not hunched over on my tip toes. I feel much better...

Let's go for a ride on the Mood Swing

I'm going to try not to be a total bitch when I'm writing this, but according to the books I've read, I can't help it. Have you ever been in such a funk that you deem it necessary to have yourself locked up in a dungeon away from all civilization until it passes? That's about where I'm at today. Quite honestly, I don't know if this has anything to do with the pregnancy or just feeling like every time I look in the mirror I want to cry. It's quite pathetic, really, considering I'm not even near the point when I'll be showing. I can't imagine how big a baby I'll be when I do show. It's a fugly day for me. We all have it, but it's pissing me off. I'm going to do my best to shut it off and not concern myself with mirrors today. This whole week, mirrors have been my enemy and it finally came to a head. I'm almost embarrassed to even be whining about such stupid stuff...almost. It truly isn't that often that I feel a little boohoo about myself, so I'm allowing this time to complain. Also, I'm at work right now and every time that phone rings, I throw out an f-bomb. I can't help it. I just don't want to talk to people today AT ALL. Luckily, no one is here to see my scowl and hear my whining. Mind you, I am feeling a bit better having written my aggressions down. In fact, the phone just rang and I was quite pleasant. I think I'm over it. Yay.

And so it begins...

I am at 6 weeks now and the morning sickness has begun. My "morning" sickness is actually at noon. My new best friends are Tums and Preggie Pops. No barfing yet, but my meal likes to sit on the edge ready to blow at a moments notice. I had to walk, excuse me, run past a platter of grilled burgers yesterday. Holy shit, that is awful stuff! I'm also burping like I've been drinking a lot of Rootbeer and Coke. Yuk.

On another note, Mike and I just returned from Spokane for his second Bodybuilding competition. A lot of the guys he was up against had just competed in the Emerald Cup. As Mike's coach said, it was like College Football against the NFL. He looked great and was definitely holding his own. There were 11 competitors in his division! He was disappointed that he didn't place, but I thought he did an awesome job against guys that have been doing this for 6-7 years vs his 1 year experience. We learned quite a bit from watching and are making some changes for his next competition. The bad news was that he was only 4 pounds away from competing in the Middle Weight category and could have very likely placed second, third at the worst (and that had 4 competitors). He's going to shoot for Middle Weight for the next time. I was and am very proud of him and look forward to the next competition.

We saw our house in East Wenatchee and LOVE it! The colors are awesome and everything is coming together beautifully. All the plumbing and fixtures were put up over the weekend. Everything is set to close by May 15th. We can hardly wait.

So tired. So very, very tired.

The fatigue hit me today, April 26, 2006. Son of a bitch, this is awful. I feel like I have rocks tied to the tips of my eyelashes weighing the lids down. Luckily, my doctor isn't mean and said I could have a cup of tea (perhaps two) a day. I have yet to find out if this makes any type of difference or not. I kinda feel hung over without the barfing and headache. I guess you could say I feel a little drunk. Not "super happy, let's go out dancing" drunk, but "the party is winding down, I should think about going home but I really shouldn't be driving" drunk. Any of you that have been pregnant know what this is like. It sucks because we have to put on a happy face and continue to function normally at work. I'm not good at faking being wide awake. It's getting close to the time I usually take my lunch break. I'm going to quickly eat and take a good hard nap. You'd think I just told myself I was going to Disneyland, I'm so excited to sleep. If, for the next few months my writing is borderline retarded, please forgive me.

Emma and Stuff

Saturday morning, Mike and I had to put Emma down. She was old and miserable. She hadn't really been the same since we put Jackson down. It was sad but very necessary. She was gone the moment the needle hit her. I've been taking Titan to work with me daily and he comes in more often and sleeps with us. I'm trying to keep his mind off of the fact that she isn't around by keeping him busy. It's also been very good for him in terms of knowing his boundaries around the house and how to listen better. It was sad, but everyone feels very good about it.

On another note (not as depressing...sorry), I had my first doctor's appointment for the baby. Mike came along and we sat there a while. Although Evie already helped me calculated my due date, the doctor was able to confirm it. Our baby will be due December 21st. Just in time for a tax break! I had what seemed like a hundred questions for her. The most important one was who I should choose as my doctor for my Cha Cha. I want to be sure to have someone with a sense of humor, but still have good bedside manners. I do not like doctors that are overly technical. Okay, I get it. You went to school for a long, long time and know very big words. That won't help me. In any case, jot it down on your calendars. I haven't yet, but I'm sure I will.

Right now, our baby looks like a cashew nut. Delicious.

Early Signs

Last night I had to get up only 3 times! Twice to pee and once to feed my screaming stomach. That's pretty good considering the night before I got up 7 times to pee and once to eat. That night I only fed myself a stick of string cheese and pretty much made matters worse because it was just a tease. I'm salivating a lot, too. The other day, it was so bad that I actually choked on it! There I was at my desk, not drinking anything, and then all of the sudden I couldn't breathe. I was gasping for air and coughing like I had just been pulled from the pool after almost nearly drowning. Needless to say, it was a bit embarrassing to explain to the people around me I had choked on my own spit. For that dramatic of an episode, choking on spit seemed a little weak. As of today, I am 5 weeks. The bad stuff hasn't even started yet. Lookin' forward to it. Bring it on!

Holy Shit! It worked.

So, Mike and I've been trying since Xmas and it finally happened. We had a feeling that it would only take us 3-6 months to get pregnant; it took 4! I was a little late and asked Mike if he would like to find out with me by picking up the pregnancy test and taking it together or if he would prefer being surprised. He said surprise me. The funny thing is, I didn't plan on checking until the 20th or 21st. I took that comment as a green light. I decided to pick up one of those digital readers so that it would be ABSOLUTELY clear. When I got home, I took the test and walked away to start dinner. When I came back to look, it said, "pregnant". I kept staring where it should say, "not", because that is honestly what I was expecting. All I could say was, "Oh my God! Oh m' God, Oh m' God, Oh m' God, Oh m' God, OH MY GOD!!! I was jumping around the house at the idea of being pregnant, but didn't (and still don't) believe it. I quickly jumped in my car and hit every green light on the way to the grocery store and found a parking spot right in front. It was meant to be. I ran in and grabbed a baby bottle, baby spoon, and baby fork, not to mention my lotto tickets (I won $30 - it was a good day). When Mike got home I was acting like myself as if nothing were different. I offered him something to drink and a small snack before dinner. When I gave it to him, his milk was in the baby bottle and the baby spoon and fork were with the plate. He asked me, "What am I supposed to do with this?" I handed him the test stick and he was a little in shock. In his head was, "Holy Shit!" The same thing was going through mine. He gave me a hug and we sat there for a little bit saying "can you believe it?" He told me he was glad that he didn't have to say, "You're fucking shitting me." Mike's little way of saying, "What?" Anyway, we spent the rest of the night telling my parents and Mike's mom, my best friend and Mike's best friends. It was so late at night, I couldn't tell everyone. Wow, so this is how it all begins.