Shit Crunchy Mamas Say

I can already relate to 90% of this video and I'm still pregnant. Ha!

11w3d

11w1d

How big is baby? About two inches from head to rump--the size of a key lime.
Symptoms: Still gagging/vomiting thought not nearly as much--what a relief. I have some pretty persistent headaches and I have to pee all the time.
Total weight gain/loss: 1-2 pounds
Maternity clothes? Jeans and a few shirts.
Sleep: I'm up every 2 hours (at least) to pee.
Best moment this week: Seeing the baby again and graduating from the RE!
Movement: Every now and then I feel fluttery but I'm pretty sure it's just gas.
Food cravings: Oh Lord. Didn't you read my post about Arby's Roast Beef Sandwiches?
Gender: We decided to schedule an early detection ultrasound. Hopefully we'll be finding out in about five weeks!
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: Brushing my teeth without gagging and throwing up.
What I am looking forward to: Feeling the baby move.
Next Appointment: 2/16 to meet my midwife
Weekly Wisdom: Definitely don't get lazy with your water intake.
Milestones:  First external ultrasound, graduating from the RE and my intake appointment with the midwife clinic.


Today I had my intake appointment at the midwife clinic. As we were driving around looking for the medical complex I looked out the window, saw the hospital and said to Mike, "I can't believe I'm looking at the hospital where we're going to have a BABY!" It's a very funky looking building--reminds me of something from a futuristic movie or something.

I liked the vibe of the clinic, although most places will have a better vibe than a military hospital, right? The first thing I had to do was give a urine sample--no big deal, right? Yeah...I dropped the specimen cup in the toilet. That's never happened to me before and believe me, I've peed in my fair share of cups! I had to cut myself off mid-stream, fish the cup out of the toilet (EWWW!) wash my hands and go back to the front desk to ask for a replacement sterile cup. Talk about embarrassing.  The LPN who took my history was very vibrant and animated and put us right at ease. I was given the choice of four midwives and ultimately ended up going with a Yale graduate (Hellooooo smarty pants!) based on this little blurb about her, "Christina delivers care that is both personalized and holistic, taking into account a woman's physical, emotional and spiritual health, as well as her preferences for pregnancy and birth.  She is experienced in assisting women with uncomplicated pregnancies that are safe and nurturing.  All along each patient's journey into motherhood, she welcomes and supports family involvement." I have my first appointment with my midwife on the 16th of February and I'm super excited to talk to her about all my birth options.

The LPN sent us across the street to the hospital to get blood drawn but not before sending us home with a bunch of goodies:


Even the guy at the lab was super courteous and a lot more chill than the Privates who normally draw my blood on post--thank goodness! All in all, things are going great. I'm starting to feel less sick and tired, everything seems to be  progressing normally and I couldn't be happier!Now if the post housing thing would rectify itself I could stop worrying and stressing about having a place to live in a month!

Graduation!

Last night we had our 11 week ultrasound and officially graduated from the RE! It was a very bittersweet moment--words could not express our gratitude as we said our goodbyes. Our RE is also an OB/GYN so we technically could have stuck with him for prenatal care but his office is quite a drive from where we live. However, he was very supportive of the decision to go with the midwife clinic, wished us well and asked us to send him baby pictures. He's such a great guy and we will miss him!

The first thing I asked the nurse when I got there was if the ultrasound was going to be internal or external. I was so happy to find out that I could keep my pants on for this one! A HUGE milestone in the world of infertility so I made Mike take a picture. Look--no dildo cam in sight!

The baby has grown so much! (My mom attributes this growth spurt to the club sandwich I had the other day-ha!) It was really wiggling around this time and that made it difficult to get a good picture. Dr. actually commented that looking at the picture was like reading tea leaves--a Harry.Potter dork at heart? I'm going to miss him.  The baby's heart rate was 178bmp and I'm measuring four days ahead--a healthy, chubby little baby! My placenta is still over my cervix a little bit but he's confident that it will shift during my pregnancy. I have been having some pain on my left side, very similar to what I have experienced in the past and attributed to my endo. He said that my endo should be suppressed during my pregnancy but since I have adhesions, the pain that I am feeling is probably because things are shifting and pushing against my ovary that is adhered. OUCH! I hope it doesn't get too bad because it hurts! He even measured the nuchal translucency, which I wasn't expecting. Everything looked well within the normal range though and now I guess we don't have to worry about deciding whether or not to have a NT scan done. He explained that our risk of Down's is probably somewhere around 1:2000 now.

I'm so happy and relieved that everything is developing right on track. I'm finally feeling like I can start relaxing and start getting excited about this pregnancy. I'm super excited to meet with the midwife clinic on Monday and to learn more about their philosophy on child birth. I haven't had time to read all of Ina May's Guide to Childbirth so I will be borrowing most of my questions from my good friend Allie--she blogged about her natural birth plan here.  We still haven't started buying any of the big stuff but we probably will in the next several weeks, after we move on post.

Oh, the move! What a nightmare. All of you other military wives can fully appreciate the headache that is the military housing office.  We have been on the waiting list for new housing for seven months and were assured multiple times (by the same person) that we would have a house in February when our lease is up. We've already given notice to our landlord and hadn't heard anything from housing so I decided to drop an email to the housing coordinator yesterday. She acted like she had no clue we needed a house in February and told me that there are no available homes! ::headdesk:: Mike tried ringing her multiple times yesterday but she never returned his calls, even though she was clearly in her office and responding to my emails within minutes of them being sent.  The bad news is that now it looks like we're not going to get a newer home (so long  wood floors, big kitchen island and enormous laundry room) but the good news is that they DO have other homes available to us--they're just older, smaller and don't have garages. ::sigh:: We will most likely just be getting a car port, I'll have a smaller galley style kitchen and a laundry closet--BOO! The neighborhood itself is much closer to the airfield though, which is a big plus for Mike in the mornings when he's going to have to fight with traffic and because it's an older neighborhood, the trees are well established and beautiful. The newer neighborhood is closer to the freeway (noise) and there are virtually no trees around the houses since the area is only a few years old. It really, really sucks that we got screwed like this but we will try to make the best out of the situation.

Instead of this.....

We'll get something more like this:

Instead of this:

.

I will have to make do with this:

It sucks, but it is what it is. You'd think we'd be used to things not going quite as planned after dealing with the military for eight years, right? Moving on post is still the best plan for us because we spend so much on gas each month with Mike commuting nearly 40 minutes one way. Poor guy showers at the gym and naps in his car after PT because it's too far to drive home--and once I have the baby he can run home at lunch just to say hi! Another positive is that the Army is going to move us so I don't have to worry about packing anything except things like cleaning products. My mom is coming out for a couple weeks to help me clean, organize and unpack too! It will be nice to have her here! I will probably post a bump picture and my 11 week post--we have a FRG (Family Readiness Group--basically the group of spouses from Mike's unit) Bowling Party later today and I'm hoping to get a few good pictures of my growing bump. Have a great weekend, everyone!

What Baby Wants, Baby Gets

Yesterday I posted about my struggle to resume eating meat, after having been a vegetarian for almost two years--THANK you for all the responses. It's been a struggle the past two weeks because I've been waking up every night craving different meat dishes that I haven't had (or wanted) in forever. Baby has other plans for me apparently--I blame my carnivorous husband since this kid IS half his.

Around 3 pm yesterday, the craving became insatiable. I was like a caged animal just pacing around my living room. I tried eating a PB&J to see if that would help--it did nothing and was a little difficult to choke down. Then I finally just said, "Okay, baby...." and started putting on my boots. I began to think of options near my house. Subway, sure....but then that'd require me to put on real clothes and ::gasp:: a bra. Drive thru it is. Definitely not the healthiest option but since we don't have any meat in the house and I needed something quick, I headed to Jack.in.the.Box. for a Grilled Chicken Club.

The guilt started as soon as the teenager in the drive thru window handed me the bag and it continued all the way home. I had to remind myself that whether or not I ate the sandwich, the bird was already dead. When I got home I cut the sandwich in half because I wanted to start out slowly with a small amount. I think I ate half of my fries before I finally got up the courage to take the first bite--I felt like I was having a spiritual crisis. Like the world's biggest hypocrite for buying in and supporting a system that I am 100% against but then I reminded myself to listen to my body--obviously my diet as of late has not been all that great (Hellooooo food aversions!) and I am probably missing something that the pregnancy needs. If I have to eat meat for my baby then I'm going to do it.

I took the first bite and it tasted way better than I care to admit. Grilled chicken + bacon after almost two years was almost like a mouth orgasm. I'm ashamed to admit that. However, I'm happy to report that there have been no adverse side effects from eating half the sandwich. Let's see now if the craving is satisfied or if I will have to continue down this carnivorous path.

Calling All Vegetarians

I have been a vegetarian for almost two years but I'd cut a bitch for an Arby's Beef N Cheddar right now. I have been having immensely vivid dreams of food, mostly surrounding things that I would not normally eat--proving that this is definitely Mike's kid. Pulled pork sandwiches and now Arby's sandwiches. I'm going insane!

I have never been a big meat eater (I didn't have a hamburger my entire four years of HS) but I had a few weaknesses like Boneless Buffalo Wings from Buffalo Wild Wings and bacon-- I used to LOVE BLTs but I've found a good substitute in tempeh bacon (Great, now I want a freaking BLT.) It was pretty easy for me to give up meat all together, especially because I became a vegetarian for ethical reasons. To put it plainly, I do not agree with the inhumane conditions in which animals are raised on factory farms in America and the even more disturbing slaughterhouse practices. Not to mention all the unnecessary hormones and antibiotics that are pumped into the animals and are then ingested by us.

When I found out I was pregnant I was afraid that I was going to start craving meat. Some people say that cravings mean something--that it's your body's way of telling you it's missing out on key nutrients. I don't think my cravings necessarily mean that I NEED an Arby's sandwich but maybe I need to eat more protein. The problem is that up until now I got most of my protein from beans--which sound totally unappetizing right now. I don't know what I'm going to do! This kid is determined to return me to carnivore status.

I have been thinkinga bout it a lot this past week and I think am willing to give into the whims of pregnancy (as long as I don't actually think about what I'm eating)--I know that I can make conscious decisions on where I buy the meat I cook at home. I can try my hardest to get free range, hormone free, etc. However, one of my biggest fears right now is getting incredibly sick when I go to reintroduce meat into my diet. I'm sick enough as it is!  I haven't had any meat what so ever since April 2010, with the exception of a bite of bacon when we were England (since their bacon is different and I wanted to see how it tasted) as well as a bite of sausage at a brewery in England. Are any of my readers former vegetarians? Any tips for me should I decide to go forward with this transition? Help!

Wordless Wednesday

Grab your tissues.

10 weeeks

10 Weeks!

How big is baby? The size of a prune. About 1.2 inches!
Symptoms: Still gagging/dry heaving a TON and throwing up whenever I have any sort of food in my stomach. Blech.  I'm also having very, very vivid dreams. Last night I dreamed I had to hide my cats from the Nazis (WTF?) and that I was being attacked by a killer placenta--only it didn't look like a normal placenta. It looked like that thing from the Alien movies that attaches itself to your face. It was creepy. My boobs are also huge. I only have one bra left that fits halfway decently. I've also been dreaming about food--a lot. Then I wake up even more starving. I honestly think this kid is determined to return me to a carnivore because I've been dreaming about pulled pork sandwiches. Random, right?
Total weight gain/loss: None
Maternity clothes? Jeans and a few shirts.
Sleep: My back has been hurting, even with a pillow between the legs. I'm still up frequently to pee (It's only going to get worse, right?) and having trouble going back to sleep so I end up awake from 4-6 and then end up sleeping until 9 at least.
Best moment this week: A friend telling me I'm actually starting to show. I think that Mike and I also decided on God Parents though we will have to confirm our choices once we meet with our Priest on post. Another great moment that's not baby-related was booking our tickets to see family in March! I've already nominated Mike to change every one of Charlotte's diapers- he needs the practice.
Movement:   None that I can feel.
Food cravings: I did crave Thai this week and it was so good. Mango curry with tofu. Yummmm!
Gender:  Too early.
Labor Signs:  Nope.
Belly Button in or out?  In.
What I miss:  Sleeping and eating like a normal person. I hope at least the eating thing gets better soon.
What I am looking forward to: Feeling the baby move.
Next Appointment: 1/27 for another ultrasound and then I will graduate to the OB!
Weekly Wisdom:  Barf buckets are still a pregnant woman's best friend.
Milestones: The baby's tail is gone. :) No more estrogen patches! I'd probably be off the PIO too if I was able to make it to get my blood drawn yesterday but the ice storm fixed that. Hopefully I'll be off the PIO by the end of this week!



I had to reschedule my midwife appointment due to the ice storm and now we're not being seen until the 30th--I'll be almost 12 weeks and graduated from the RE at that point.  Mike and I have been discussing the NT scan a lot and we're still torn. We are both young, healthy and have no family history of anything like Down's or heart defects. As far as I can think the only risk factor we have is the fact that we did IVF, which has been linked to slightly increased rate of birth defects. We want to be prepared if there are any potential problems but I'm worried about getting bad news only to find out everything is perfectly fine (it happened to a friend) and I already know that it wouldn't change the outcome of this pregnancy. We will love our baby no matter what, we'd just like to be prepared. However, if we do get bad NT scan results I already know that I would not do an amnio due to the risk of miscarriage. I just don't know what to do! If you are a mom or an expectant mom, how did you make this decision?