Squishy is squishing!

It seems the last few days squish has been growing enough that I have started the feel the effects of his/her presence in my innards. I haven't felt any movement or flutters yet but I can feel weird pressure on my insides when I sit down. 

It's gotten to the point at my chiropractor visits too where I end up in quite a bit of pain after adjustments. I'm definitely better off afterward but they've started doing deep tissue laser treatments on my low back to help the muscles heal each time. 

It's interesting to me how some days I'll wake up and not look pregnant at all because my belly has sort of deflated and some days I'll wake up and think I've gotten bigger. I assume this fluctuation will be less dramatic in the next month or two. 

I've spent a small amount of time the last couple of days packing up bits and pieces of our apartment to put into storage. Even though moving is a huge hassle, I do enjoy reorganizing things and having something to look forward to. I just have to be really careful not to lift anything. Especially if the chiropractor finds it so easy to beat me up as it is! 

Second Trimester Pressure

Well, I survived pregnant christmas. And I survived a multitude of other small things as well. I got some baby bibs from my mom & sister - two sets, one for a boy and one for a girl, and Paul's aunt got us a unisex onesie that's super cute. Without knowing what the gender of the baby is yet though the zeal for buying baby things was a bit squelched. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were pretty good for the most part. I ended up with horrible headache by the end of Christmas Day and it just would not go away unfortunately. This morning we went to Paul's Aunt and Uncles for Encore Christmas and I spent all day feeling horribly uncomfortable from the pressure on my bowels and intestines. Squishy is starting to claim its space I guess.

The excitement of pregnancy is starting to wear off a bit. I don't get asked about it as much as I did before when I see friends and family and all anyone asks anymore is when I'll know if it's a boy or a girl. It seems that many people are less interested in talking about their experiences with their own pregnancies. This was something I've really been enjoying because I've felt a new sense of respect and connection to older women who have been raising children. Being the the least far along of all of my pregnant friends I've started to get the sense that some of them are just tired of talking about it and then I find myself with nothing to talk about otherwise - so then I feel kind of boring.

Now we have to gear up for a bunch of January stress. First of all, we're moving into a one-bedroom apartment in our complex to try to save more money to buy a house. It worked out pretty well since we don't have to pay new deposits, break our lease, or pay a transfer fee. We just move and pay less. It does have me a bit nervous about where we're going to put baby things however. I really hate being overcrowded, so i'm seriously hoping that we can crack down and get our money saved and a house bought so I can worry about what color to paint the babies room rather than where it will fit in our tiny apartment.
Second, I am contemplating the idea of getting a part time job. Substitute teaching, while useful for my resume, is not cutting it when it comes to my paychecks. I'm just not getting enough work. So, I'm looking at possibly trying to get in for mornings at starbucks or going back to the bowling alley on weekends. The hard thing about this is subbing is fairly minimal work for a great hourly pay. I just wish it was more consistent and I could count on having work every month and I just can't. So I'm going to end up having to work twice as much for the same amount of money, but at least I'll know that it's coming every month instead of playing a monthly guessing game.
Last is that I have my next prenatal appointment and hopefully we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl by the end of the month. I am so looking forward to getting an ultrasound. I have to admit that I feel a bit left out when I see people post pictures of theirs. So I'm excited that I get to have one and get to see my baby for the first time.

Food is Good

This evenings craving for a french dip sandwich (and no, I was not watching DDD to induce said craving) led to the rediscovery of Claim Jumper's happy hour - and it is oh so happy when you don't have to count calories!

This is not the point however. The point is that I'm starting to get annoyed with how difficult it is to eat enough. I got french dip sliders and shared a giant plate of onion rings with Paul. After one slider and two onion rings I was ready to call it quits. I'm looking at this giant pile of delicious cheap food and suddenly I'm in a zone. Mind over matter! It's me or you food and I intend to win! I finished my second slider and ate probably three or four more onion rings (they were the skinny kind) and thought I would explode. I'm incredibly uncomfortable now.

It was only months ago that I would have polished off a meal of this size and ordered more food easily. It was months ago that a meal of this caliber would have had me feeling guilty for days. I don't miss this, and actually I'm secretly enjoying what this feels like because I know it won't happen again until the next time I'm pregnant. This must be how skinny people feel all of the time. Full!

In other news, I scored big time at Target today. After days of constantly pulling up my maternity pants I decided I've had it and I'm not wearing them again until my belly's bigger. So I went on the hunt for dresses. I managed to find 2 on clearance. One's all black and was $12, the other's black and white and was $7.50. I also got a maternity coat made of sweatshirt fabric for $20. I feel like this is a victory because maternity clothes are expensive!

I will end with my sentimental hormonal story of the weekend. Yesterday we got our tree and I am damn determined to create family traditions! So we went to the tree farm we found last year. I made us hot chocolate that we drank on the way out. We picked our tree and brought it home where I spent an hour or so decorating it. As I was putting our ornaments on the tree I started getting all teary as I sang along to Mannheim Steamroller (sure there aren't words, but that's never hindered me from singing noises along anyway). I put up our ornament from last year with our wedding picture on it and put up the one we bought for this year and then I found my "baby's first christmas" ornament from my first christmas. I was so excited to have a baby's first for next year and to have our own family to decorate our tree and have our own christmas traditions with. Then I felt all cheesy and changed the music to something more commercial.

In Case of Emergency...

In case of emergency, do not call me. Why? Because I'll have forgotten who you are, where I am, and I'll probably be asleep.
Pregnant disagrees with being busy. I have three subbing jobs this week, which is good because I won't be able to sub the last two weeks of this month. Yesterday was supposed to be a half day but ended up being a full day. This led to me forgetting about a student's voice lesson. Fortunately I remembered the other one and was able to cancel it in spite of the lack of professionalism on my part. I also ended up being 15 minutes late to the students lesson that I could make it to. I also ended up having to scrounge to eat all day because I didn't bring a lunch thinking I was going home. I got home at about 9:30 last night. I fell asleep by 10:30.

This morning I woke up at 10. Yep, that's nearly 12 hours of sleep. The baby likes sleep. TONS of sleep. I got about 7 hours the night before, but apparently that's not enough. So I had to compensate by sleeping for 12 hours. I woke up to an e-mail from a teacher I'm subbing for apparently today. Today when I was supposed to go hear the baby's heartbeat. After about 10 minutes of trying to get my phone to turn back on (it's kind of old and needs to be beaten with a hammer) I managed to call Andaluz to tell them I needed to reschedule. They were happy to oblige. It wasn't until after I got off the phone with them that I checked my messages to find out that my midwife was in a delivery today and she couldn't make it either and needed to reschedule for tomorrow. No wonder they were so happy to change it! Works out for me though and I only have to wait one more day rather than a week or weeks like I had anticipated. *phew*

So yeah, if you invited me to a party and I said I'd come...if I'm supposed to sing for you, be somewhere, do something for you... I apologize in advance because I am officially stupid and there's a pretty good chance I'll forget and double book myself or I'll just be sleeping.

Eating for Two

So far it seems that pregnancy had treated me with lots of phases. I had a red meat phase. I had a eat like a garbage can phase. Now I'm having a hardly eating phase. This is a bad thing since I'm supposed to be eating so much protein. I have honestly been trying to eat as much as I'm supposed to. It's hard though when the thought of all meat is a turn off. It is also hard when we're trying to save to pay for Andaluz, christmas presents, and a house. Quality grocery shopping tends to take a backseat in this case. And carbs are much cheaper than protein. But I'm still doing the best I can given the many circumstances that are working against me.

I have an appointment to try to hear the baby's heartbeat again next Tuesday. I'm really hoping it happens this time. I'm rather jealous of what seems like many ultrasound pictures on facebook. At least this would be some proof that there is an actual person in there. Hopefully we can find an ultrasound technician later on. We should be able to find out the gender perhaps end of January. It's too bad we don't know now though. My family is dying to buy baby clothes for christmas!

It's in the Blood

I woke up to a message from my midwife about my blood work. I'm above average! I guess I'm O positive and I have above average iron so I'm not anemic. To great relief I also don't have hepatitis!

Welcome to Andaluz

Well, appointment #1 is in the books! I met my first midwife and her apprentice both of whom I liked very much. I feel very good about my decision to have my baby there. They were very informative, personable, and very clear about the fact that they are there to educate me and help me make my own decisions. I was really happy with how I was treated and the overall atmosphere. They took time to get to know me, they asked me how I met my husband, what sorts of things I do, where I'm from, that sort of stuff. My appointment was held in one of their delivery rooms. It's basically a large bedroom with a big jacuzzi tub and a bathroom. I answered all their questions sitting on a couch or on the queen bed in the room. I like the homey feeling rather than a sterile clinic atmosphere.

I had many questions answered which was great. I learned that I should wait until the month before I'm due to take the Evening Primrose Oil that I've been taking (good to know!), I learned that my vitamins are great, and I learned that I need to eat tons of protein (20 grams a meal!). They told me they'd like to see me gain about 40 pounds, so about a pound a week, maybe a bit more. I think I may just have them weigh me and tell me if I'm gaining enough or too much without a number. I don't think I can deal with knowing that I weight 200+ pounds. They answered questions about foods I should avoid and ones I should eat lots of, about hair loss (I've been losing so much hair!) and about how to best take care of myself for my baby's sake.

They took blood tests and a urine sample, and they tried to find the baby's heartbeat on a doppler radar. They couldn't find one, but they said that it was normal at this point and that I can come back next week to see if we can find it then.

It's a bit surreal knowing that there is a whole real person growing inside me. I imagine it's sort of like how you picture your wedding your whole life and then when it's just months and weeks before it actually happens you really just can't believe that it's real. I'm happy and excited that this is real, it's just hard to really wrap my head around it!