Two More Weeks!

Two weeks from today, we will have already spent our first weekend in our new house. I can't wait! We went by the house yesterday to check things out. Austin has the final walkthrough with the builder tomorrow, but since I'm already taking off a lot for doctor appointments and stuff, he and his dad are going to go so I don't have to take off more work. So I wanted to take a final peek to see if there was anything I noticed that needed to be fixed before we close on the house next week. It looks great! They fixed all the little things we had seen on previous visits, painted the door and put up the shtters on the windows, and everything looked really great! I can't wait to get our fridge and furniture in there and blinds and all of that. It's really going to be great!

This weekend was good - we did lots of packing and organizing and we're making some awesome progress. I'm really proud of us! Luckily none of the drawers in the furniture have to be packed up because our moving company is going to shrink wrap everything for us so we can just leave the stuff in there. That makes things so much easier! Just got rid of some miscellaneous stuff and packed up bookshelves and the entertainment center and all of that sort of stuff. This week the goal is to clean up and pack up our bathroom linen closet (hopefully getting rid of junk I won't ever use!) and the rest of the kitchen (except for a few things to cook with).

On Saturday, we picked up the changing table for Cooper and our kitchen table/chairs. Here is a picture of the changing table we got from Ikea. Love that store!



We also went out to dinner with Austin's cousin and his wife and Austin's brother on Saturday night and to see "The Matador." It was pretty good although I've realized that I'm getting more and more uncomfortable sitting in one place for long periods of time unless I can lay down and relax in bed or on my sofa or a really comfy chair and be wearing pajama pants or something else loose-fitting around my tummy! Getting big but luckily not too much longer! Less than 8 weeks and that's if we make it all the way to the EDD! So we shall see! Hope you all had a good weekend - things are going to start getting a little busier around work in the next few weeks with our intern recruiting, but I promise not to go MIA and still post. I am sure I can still sneak in a post a day or so! No doctor appointments this week until Friday when I have my regular doctor appointment. And my parents are coming in town Thursday night so they will go with me to the doctor on Friday. Fun stuff! :)

There's Something (Bad) About Mary

This morning I went to see the perinatologist. My understanding was that I was going to see him so he could do a more intensive ultrasound and evaluate the kidney issue a little further since we weren't able to get into the pediatric urologist until February 14th. So I went alone to the appointment because I figured it was just a routine, easy appointment - no problem! I left there in tears because of Mary. But before I go into the whole thing, don't worry because everything is fine and Cooper is healthy and wonderful and still a big boy (this time his belly measurement was 4 weeks ahead and his weight was 4 pounds 15 ounces).

After filling out like five pages of paperwork, I went into the ultrasound room with the nurse. The doctor came in just a few minutes later and he's the one that conducted the ultrasound. He was a nice guy. He measured Cooper in all kinds of ways, said the heart looks great, the amniotic fluid is good, everything looked great. He gave me a cute picture of Cooper's profile and we got some good video of his face and legs and everything. I can't wait to see him in person! :) He said that he would do another ultrasound in 4 weeks to check the kidneys again.

After this, I got my stuff together and was ready to go and they were like "oh please wait in the living room for the genetics counselor." Um what?! Genetics counselor? Why?! So now I'm freaking out in the waiting room. The other patients consisted of either overweight pregnant women, older pregnant women, or women of other nationalities (there are some genetic disorders that are more prevalent for different races, etc.). And I'm the one that has to go to the genetics counselor?

So then they call me in there to see her. Her name was Mary. She was the genetics counselor. Apparently, enlarged kidneys can SOMETIMES be a marker for Downs Syndrome. But she proceeded to tell me how this was something that we needed to be aware of and how I could have a late amniocentesis. I told her that I had taken the quad blood screen and everything came back normal, and she told me that they needed to have the exact numbers to be sure. She asked if I wanted to have a detailed family history done to determine the percentages and things, and I said no because we have no family history of these things and I have passed the tests and never before have I been told that this is something to be concerned about. I just wanted out of there!

I made my appointment for the next time, waited for the elevator, got to my car, and started bawling. I debated on whether or not to call and tell Austin because I knew he would just get upset and worry. But I knew I had to tell him. After several attempts at telling the story, I finally got it out. He was furious because he didn't understand why they had told me all of that and what was going on and why our doctor had never said anything before if that was the case. He finally got through to my regular doctor (love her!), and she told him that we had nothing to worry about because I have had so many ultrasounds and that they would have seen other markers if something was actually wrong and how I had great results on the blood screen and to please not worry. She also said she would call Mary and let her know what she had done.

Mary then called me to "apologize" and say that she didn't have the test numbers earlier and that they were great - the lowest they could possibly be and that there was a LESS THAN 1 in 5000 chance for any of the genetic disorders and there were no other markers or indicators so there should be no problems with Cooper. Okay, could she not have told me that before and/or kept her mouth shut until she had the correct information instead of completely freak me out unnecessarily?!!!!

Needless to say, my blood pressure is still probably through the roof as I try to calm down again after the freak-out morning that I had. I talked to my dad about it, and he said that he had known about that in the beginning, but that both he and my doctor had talked before about the fact that there was absolutely NO reason to indicate that and that it was just a kink in the tube from position or the reflux thing that can be fixed after birth. His heart is wonderful which is usually a major sign and he is a big boy (which most downs babies are small) so there is NOTHING to worry about. But it was a very scary morning for me!!!!!

I refuse to see Mary again, and I'm going to tell my doctor that I will only go back for that appointment to the perinatologist on the 24th if they promise I don't have to see her too. :) Other than that, I'm just happy because my little boy is okay and it's Friday! Of course, I should have just called in sick because I'm super drained now and tired even though I actually for once got some sleep last night! But we have fun stuff to do this weekend along with the packing so it should be a good time. Hope you all have had a better day than me and have a WONDERFUL weekend! :)

Sleep Deprivation

So I haven't truly gotten a good night sleep in about 10 days now, and it's starting to take its toll on me. For awhile, I was able to force myself to get out of bed just in time to get ready in the morning and get to work, and once I was up and awake, I could make it until a somewhat decent time in the evening before feeling dead to the world. But lately, I feel like a walking zombie all day long! ;) Good times!

Now I know everyone likes to tell me "oh well this is just nature's way of preparing you to be up with Cooper." That's all well and good, but 1) he's not here yet, 2) I'm having to sleep and rest for TWO right now, not just one and 3) when he is here, I will have 12 weeks in which to try to get him to sleep through the night (which hopefully he will do since both his father and I slept through the night after three weeks) and where I won't have to get up for work and be there all day long. So while I understand the idea of it all, I still would love to have at least a little bit of sleep and not feel like I'm dragging my big body all day long!

I really shouldn't be complaining - I know things could be a lot worse! But I'm just so sleepy all the time, and I feel so worthless because then I just lounge on the couch after dinner until I go to sleep and don't get any organizing or packing done. I need my "nesting" phase to kick in so I can get in gear! LOL Oh well! Hope you all have a good day - I just need to get through a full day today and then tomorrow will be a shorter day because I'll be coming in late from my doctor appointment. I'm sure I'll have more updates tomorrow on my mammoth (but super cute) baby! :)

Doogie Howser

This morning, Austin & I went to "interview" a pediatrician that was one of the ones recommended to us by my ob/gyn. You would think it would be easy for us to find a good pediatrician because my father is one. But he is in Florida and the only one he knows in Texas is in Houston, so that didn't really help out much! And I guess it maybe is really harder than easier since I know how great a doctor my dad is and I want someone equally as good for my baby. :)

After many frustrating attempts to contact pediatricians in the area with no luck or various complications, I asked my doctor last week who she would recommend, and she gave me three doctor names to try. Two of them were in the same practice and right near the hospital I am going to deliver at, so I started with them. I super-researched them on every website I could find (American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, Texas Medical Examiners Board, google, etc.). I decided to make an appointment with Dr. Hopkins and got an appointment for this morning first thing.

Austin & I were really hoping this would work out so that we would have one more thing to cross off our list of things-to-do in the next month or so. And it was a GREAT experience. We both left there very happy with all the information we received, and we were very impressed by not only the staff and their helpfulness but especially by the doctor. He told us he is often called Doogie Howser because he started volunteering at Texas Children's Hospital when he was 14 years old! He is still quite young (around 33 years old and in practice for about 4 years), but he seemed super knowledgeable and was really personable which we both liked. He spent about twenty or thirty minutes with us which was a lot longer than I thought he would, and his office manager also spoke with us in the beginning about their office hours and after-hours care and all of that sort of thing. He was really excited because he apparently just found out today that his wife is pregnant with their second child (they have a 2.5 year old girl), and they had been trying for a second so he was all glowy - it was cute! One less thing to have to stress about, and I totally feel more comfortable about Cooper being in his care because he knows my doctor as well as he is good friends with the pediatric urologist we are going to see in February.

Other than that, I got a call from my doctor's nurse this morning to let me know that the test she did to check for pre-term labor came back negative so there is now only a 5% chance that I will go into labor before 37 weeks which is a relief because although I don't mind Cooper coming a little early, it would be good for me to get through all of February without worrying about his arrival because of all the stuff going on with the house and also being more busy at work.

They also set up my appointment with the perinatologist (sp?) for Friday morning to get the specialized ultrasound to check things out with this kidney issues. But the doctor today told us that it is a really common incident these days and that it is usually just caused by the position that the baby is inside the womb. And even if not, all should be resolved before 1 year of age so we should have nothing to worry about. As much as I am fascinated with medical technology and all that they can tell now, I have to wonder sometimes if we know too much now and unnecessarily worry ourselves as a result! But I guess it's worth it to help prevent complications from getting worse in the future and to catch things earlier so that it isn't a problem so it's a double-edged sword!

Today I got to go to a yummy lunch to celebrate my boss' birthday so that was good. Tonight we will be lazy couch potatoes since I slept horribly again last night and as a result Austin did too! But the rest of the week is slow and steady with packing up things here and there - it will make things so nice. Don't worry I'm not going to overdo it! :) Austin has been great about all of this - it's just nice to be able to help out and get rid of stuff we don't need to waste time or energy moving and to better organize things so we might actually have a chance of easily unpacking and finding things in the new house! Sorry for the long post (probably boring too) but these days it's lots of doctor appointments and house info! I'm sure it will get more interesting once Cooper is here to provide entertaining stories! LOL Have a good evening! :)

Showered With Love

Today was my work shower, and it was GREAT! Austin was able to get away from work to join us, and we all had a really good time. We had pizza and salad and yummy cake. I got little advice cards that are really cute and great for the scrapbook I plan on making for Cooper with all his photos and other little things. And presents! We got the rug that matches his bedding set, the extra car seat snug ride thing, lots of cute little clothes and gifts, the booster seat, and the baby monitor set. It was great - I can't wait to get home and look at everything again when I have more time and not a bunch of people staring at me! LOL

Other than that, we had a good weekend. Saturday, we went and picked out our new bed - we are getting a king size bed as our anniversary/Christmas present from Austin's parents. We found one very similar to the queen we have now, and it was on sale besides so that made them happy! Plus, since we got it on sale, Austin's mom got us a beautiful comforter/bedding set for it with the extra money and for Valentine's Day so we are all set! We are SO LUCKY! They are going to deliver the bed on the 10th, so it will already be there when the rest of our stuff comes with the movers on the 11th, and we are taking our old bed and putting that in the guest room and giving the guest room bed back to Austin's parents for their guest room. So it all worked out nicely! :) Yesterday, we did a LOT of packing - I should say Austin did but I did help too! We got one half of our kitchen cleaned out and packed up (other than a few things we will need in the next few weeks), plus the entertainment center all packed up, plus took everything down off the walls and packed up what we could of that too. We are making progress - slowly but surely!

This weekend we get to pick up our kitchen nook table and chair set from the furniture store and the changing table for Cooper so they can be moved with the rest of it. Then lots more packing because it's our last real weekend to pack before the move because my parents will be out here that first weekend in February for the shower, and I hope to be able to relax and enjoy that weekend because of all the crazy weekends after that! :) We are going to "interview" a pediatrician tomorrow morning, and I'm hoping that will work out so that will be one thing off the list! That's about all for now - I ordered some baby clothes this weekend as a baby shower gift to myself! LOL Can't wait for those to come too - he's going to be the cutest baby ever! ;)

Amanda, This Should Make You Feel Better :)

So I had my doctor's appointment this morning. I will be 31 weeks tomorrow. My due date is March 25th. Cooper, however, is in the 90TH PERCENTILE PEOPLE! He is already weighing 5 pounds and 2 ounces and is measuring for a March 5th due date!!!!!! Of course, they tried to tell me that there is always a growth spurt between weeks 28-30 so he may level out. But my doctor said that since Austin was over 8 pounds when he was born, Cooper will probably follow in his daddy's footsteps. So now the question is whether or not I can naturally birth a 8 pound plus baby!!!! ;)

I think at my appointment in two weeks, she will see how he is doing and talk about inducing early or c-section or whatever options she thinks we need to evaluate. She does not think I have to worry about pre-term labor and thinks I should make it to at least 37 weeks. But since he is large, he may be a little early so it looks like it will be beginning to mid March rather than the end of the March. I'm fine with that as long as he will wait until March 1st or later so we can get moved and finish our childbirth classes. :)

So all this to say - we have a nice healthy baby boy on the way but he's going to be a big one!!!! So Amanda you should feel better because you are supposed to be several weeks ahead of me and Cooper is already measuring almost as big as Itty Bitty! Next week, we are finally going to go meet with a pediatrician that I'm excited about and seems nice and normal and also am supposed to get scheduled to get a more detailed ultrasound done next week by the perinatologist to see what the kidney situation is looking like before we go see the pediatric urologist in February. Good times!!! :) I'm so glad that my work is so good about personal time!

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL weekend - we plan on doing much of nothing other than packing and cleaning some more. The movers are coming tomorrow to give us an estimate so we'll see how that goes. And Monday is my work baby shower - can't wait!

No Soup for You

For lunch today, I brought my usual boring lunch of late - a can of microwave soup, applesauce, and today I had some leftover mac n' cheese from last night (yes we regress to children for our meals occasionally). I ate my mac n' cheese first and went over to the microwave to make my soup. It was a new kind I had never tried before (well I had tried the kind of soup just not that brand).

I went to pull back the metal lid thing so I could put back on the plastic lid and heat, and it sprayed soup everywhere. GRRRR. I was so annoyed because it splashed little soup droplets (of an orangish color) all over my pretty green sweater exactly on my left boob. Luckily there was no one in the kitchen at the time so I waddled quickly over to the table to grab some paper towel because surely it was on the surface and would come off easily. Of course not!!!! So I went back over to the mean soup, put the plastic lid on, started in the microwave, and proceeded into the ladies' locker room to see if I could fix the situation. I tried water (which I then had to use the hairdryer in there to dry my boob afterwards so I didn't look like I had premature leakage), but nothing helped. It is not bright orange at least and is probably not noticeable unless you REALLY look which hopefully no one will be doing anyways, but it still made me angry that the soup decided to spit on me.

So then I go back out and try to eat said soup. It was disgusting. I was so annoyed at this point that I gave up, ate my applesauce, and went back to my desk. I grabbed a pack of crackers from the stash of snacks we have in our recruiting office and a Kit Kat and finished my glorious "lunch." I sent an e-mail to Austin when I got back to my desk to tell him of my disastrous soup-boob incident, and he called me up laughing! Of course, I laughed too while telling him it wasn't funny! :) Blah!!!! Good thing I'm not hungry although I'm sure I'll be starved by dinnertime.

Other than that, not much else going on - working on getting all the utilities and things transferred, cancelled, set up, etc. for the new house so everything is in working order when we move on the 11th. I'm so excited that three weeks from Saturday we'll be moving to our new house!!! YIPPEE! Everything is coming along nicely. Hope you enjoyed my soup incident today - who knows what tomorrow has in store?! ;)

Good Long Weekend

I had a nice long weekend this past weekend. It was really nice! :) I think every work week should only be four days long with a three day weekend. Or that schedule that some people do where they work 80 hours in 9 days and have every other Friday off. I could go for that!

Friday night, we went out to dinner with some friends to On the Border. It was quite yummy, and since the one girl worked there, her waiter friend gave us a discount so that rocked! Saturday was errand day. We hit the bank, post office, stopped by the house to check the carpet before they install it this week, marked the wedding photo albums to be fixed, etc. We went to dinner and saw the movie, "Glory Road." It was really a good movie - interesting story and one of those feel-good movies you have to see every once in awhile!

Sunday was cleaning/packing day! After breakfast, I went to the grocery store while Austin cleaned our bathroom. He has been such a sweetheart about cleaning since I need to avoid the chemicals right now. When I got home, we started going through some boxes we had brought up from the garage and got rid of some junk and reorganized some stuff. We also went through our entire desk and organized the paperwork, shredded the stuff we didn't need any more, and got everything organized and ready to go for when we get some boxes to actually start packing things.

Yesterday, I had the day off but Austin did not. So after sleeping in a little bit and some breakfast, I got up and went to have lunch with him at a BBQ place by his work. Then I stopped by the jewelry store to pick up my ring that was being fixed and drop off my bracelet to have a charm added. More errands (oil change, car wash, mortgage company) and back home for laundry and more mail organizing/shredding. It was a very productive day but relaxing which is always a plus!

Today, I am quite sleepy though because I didn't sleep very well last night and my whole back and neck are achy. I woke up with a headache which has at least subsided so that's good, but I think my ribs are achy because Cooper has been kicking and pushing on them. Good times! :) Hope you all had a great weekend - we just got some good news that the last recruit we were waiting to hear back from has accepted so it's a good morning! Yay for good news at work! Talk to you later, alligators!

I Passed!

Yay for me - I passed the one-hour glucose test. So after all that worrying about the three hour test, I am not going to have to take it! Yipee! Since I still have a bruise on my arm from where the lady screwed up my blood draw, I'm glad not to have to be poked or prodded for a little while longer! And now I can still have my sweets which I enjoy! :) I was pretty sure that I didn't have gestational diabetes because out of paranoia, I had tested my blood on Austin's blood meter last weekend (he has Type I diabetes for those of you that don't know), and it was normal. But I was still afraid they would try to tell me I had failed the 1 hour like some people do even if they don't have diabetes. Thank goodness - I'm glad for the good news.

I am a little low on iron though from my blood test (probably because I've had somewhat of a meat aversion since pregnant) so in addition to my prenatal vitamin and DHA supplement I take at night, I now get to take an iron supplement in the morning. Luckily, my dad was able to recommend one that causes less stomach irritation and less backup if you know what I mean so I will be swinging by Target on the way home to pick that one up. Yay for having a dad that is a doctor! :)

Other than that, things are still pretty slow around here and probably will be for another two weeks. But it's okay because now that we have the closing date, I plan to spend a lot of next week getting all our utilities set up and transferred and all of that mess so it is done before I get busy and so we can get the dates we want for things to be turned on/off and all of that fun! And next week I have another doctor's appointment.

Oh and in other good news, I found out that the two people in my department at work are going to throw me a work baby shower on January 23rd. So that is really exciting! :) I love unexpected surprises like that. We are having a couples shower for friends/family on February 4th too so we are really blessed to have so much love for Cooper. That's all for now I guess - have a great rest of the day!

The Countdown has Begun!

I'm so excited about our house and getting to move in that I thought I would create a ticker to track our progress to our move-in date. :)

Belly Button Bothers

I have an innie belly button. Or I guess I should say I HAD an innie belly button until our little bundle of joy started to take over and pushed it out. It is not 100% out yet, but it's getting there, and I noticed today especially that you can see it through my shirt. I know some people think this is "cute" for pregnant women to have. My guess is that these same people have never been pregnant or didn't have their belly button pop out like a cooking utensil indicating it's done! Even though I still have 10.5 weeks to go by my due date (although who knows if that will change if he's still measuring big the next few times I go), I feel like the whole world should know that I'm getting done since it is half popped out. I guess the rest will pop out when I'm really done!

I might also add that not only is it embarrassing for me that my belly button is poking out now for the whole world to see, but it is also irritated. My belly button insides are not used to be bumped or rubbed up against by clothes. So even though it doesn't "hurt" it is not very comfortable and is a little sensitive. Oh the joys of pregnancy! :) I will not complain though because at least I'm not sick (knock on wood) like I was for the first half of my pregnancy so I can deal with a little aches and pains and getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I just thought since those that can actually see me can also now see my belly button that I might as well share with the Internet that my belly button is now on its way out!

There Needs to Be More Than 24 Hours in a Day....

and I also need the ability to stay awake for more hours in the day as well!!! There was a time when I could go with only a few hours of sleep and be fully functional. These days it is virtually impossible because of an ever-growing sleepiness associated with the third trimester. But even before being pregnant, I had found that the older I got, the harder it was for me to survive on little sleep.

I desperately need more hours in the day though. What with all these doctors' appointments and work duties and house appointments and packing and cleaning and all of this, there is SO much to do and not a lot of time to do it!!!! I am so grateful and lucky that my work is so understanding and doesn't penalize me for missing for doc appointments and the like, but part of me still feels guilty because I have so many right now! And the weekends go by SO QUICKLY that I feel like even though we accomplish a lot, there is always more to do! At least this upcoming weekend I have a three-day weekend and have next Monday off, so that will help. Just need to be more proactive about doing stuff during the week instead of lying on the couch like a lazy bum! ;)

At least I can be happy because we have a lot to look forward to in the next few months. And we finally got a closing date for our house and so we will be moving the 2nd and 3rd weekends in February which is a relief to know that that is finally set! Need to save up my energy for February because that is definitely going to be a BUSY month!!!!!

Don't have a whole lot else to post about but if you find a solution for how to increase the number of hours in a day (and also how to keep awake to get more done in one day), please let me know. :) Have a good one!

Sleepless Nights

Now I know that in a few short months, my number will have come up for many sleepless nights of feedings and crying and everything else. But for now, I would like to get some sleep people!!!! It's bad enough that I get up at least once (sometimes twice) a night to use the restroom now because my bladder is the size of a pea. But last night, my dog felt the need to be wide awake and moving around and making a fuss at 4 am. GRRR!

Maddie is a sweet dog and has been so much better lately I have to admit. We have trained her to sleep in her dog bed on the floor on Austin's side of the bed, and we usually let her lay in bed with us for a little bit at night before we go to sleep and then she goes down into her own bed for the rest of the night. Occasionally I will wake up for my bathroom break or just to turn over and find that she has snuck up in bed with us again at the end of the bed, but she usually will oblige my requests and get back down into her own bed and go to sleep. Last night was a different story.

At 4 am, Maddie was all about being awake and wandering around the bedroom. She wouldn't lay in bed with us, she wouldn't lay in her own bed. She just wanted to walk around the bedroom looking at things, sniffing things, and being weird. She checked out to see what the cat was doing, and when he came into bed to sleep with me as he usually does, she stood by my side of the bed staring at us for awhile. She ignored my and Austin's requests to get in her bed and stay there and in general acted very odd. Finally at about 5 am when we had both had enough of her noisiness, we tried in vain one last time to get her into her bed and she finally obliged to at least lay down next to Austin in our bed and relax. I am still not sure what her problem was but at least we were able to get a little bit more sleep (of course, it took me another 30+ minutes to fall back to sleep after that).

Needless to say, I'm kind of sleepy this morning because for some reason I already had a hard time falling asleep last night initially (usually no problem at all for me lately!). Oh well! At least it's the weekend, and I can try to sleep in a little bit tomorrow. We don't have any big plans for the weekend - just things we need to do like work on the list for the shower invitations so they can go out on Monday and swinging by Babies R Us to make sure our registry is updated and ready to go and lots of throwing out/cleaning/packing of the apartment in the process towards our move. Fun stuff! Hopefully we will get to go see a movie tomorrow night at least for a break! :)

That's all for now - pretty boring post I'm sure. Hope you all have a GREAT weekend, and talk to you soon!

One Big Baby!

After waiting quite awhile at the doctor's office, I am back from my checkup. Everything looks good, although our little guy is not so little. He is already weighing 3 pounds 5 ounces and is measuring about 12 days ahead of schedule. The doctor said that this is the biggest growth spurt period for babies though so he may have already experienced his early so we should know in about a month if he really is bigger than normal or not. My mom said that I was a big baby up until I was born and then I was pretty normal, and Austin was over 8 pounds when he was born so I guess it's in his genes.

I survived my glucose one-hour test. The stuff I had to drink was really not all that bad, and it luckily didn't make me feel sick or anything. The blood lady was in a hurry to go to lunch though I think, and she gouged me pretty good so I have a little bruise around the area which stinks, but I survived and they at least only took two tubes of blood this time. I now am at the point where I have my two week appointments so I go back again January 20th and do another ultrasound and doctor visit, and then starting at 35 weeks, I have to go once a week until the little guy is born. I turned in my pre-admission form to the hospital today while I was there so that's taken care of, and now I just have to wait to get the call about whether I will have to do the 3 hour glucose test. I'm really hoping not because I've heard that one is not so pleasant!!!!

Other than that, at least today is a short day! I LOVE the fact that my work does not make me make up missed time for doctor's appointments, so I can still leave at my normal time today and get paid my normal hours without taking vacation time either. Yippee!!! :) Hope you have a great day!

It's Like Doing 500 Sit-Ups Without Moving a Muscle

Ladies and gentlemen of the blog world, for the past week or so, I have begun to notice the phenomenon that is Braxton Hicks. Don't be worried, it is completely normal especially at 28+ weeks. In fact, some women experience them much earlier on and other than one or two here and there, I have been lucky to not have them (or at least not feel them) before. Apparently, my body's favorite time to have them is first thing in the morning so that by the time I sit down at my desk at work, I am all uncomfortable feeling and wondering if it's time to drive to the doctor's office, and then again in the evening when I'm coming home from work and trying to eat dinner. It's fun times!

Like my blog title says, it feels like I just did 500 sit-ups even though I have been sitting here doing nothing. It doesn't hurt. It's just uncomfortable and weird feeling and strange. For those of you that are not knowledgeable about this lovely topic, Braxton Hicks are like "practice" contractions and are just part of the pregnancy thing as long as you aren't having 6 or more during a one hour time period. They can be brought on by being active or by being dehydrated or just by being. ;)

So now that you have had your medical lesson for the day, I'm sure you are feeling even smarter than you already are. I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow to get another ultrasound (regular 2d one this time) and my regular checkup, and I have to do the one-hour glucose test for gestational diabetes. Then after this appointment, I will be going every two weeks. Also need to pick a pediatrician to go visit soon and "interview" - too bad my dad is so far away or I wouldn't have to even pick! Got to get this stuff done now before I get too large and before the moving process begins and the baby classes in February. Busy busy from now until the end of March! :)

A Good Start to 2006

Austin & I had a great weekend. We really did a lot of nothing, but we did it together and that was nice. I'm learning to cherish these last few months of just him and me time since I know soon we will have a little bundle of joy to take up more of our time! I'm getting a little anxious about being a mommy and hoping I can do a good job and balance all that that entails, but Austin gives me the confidence that everything will be great! Now if only I could stop feeling like I swallowed a huge watermelon!!!! ;)

I ended up getting to leave around lunchtime on Thursday because my boss came in and said that there wasn't any reason for me to sit here and do nothing. And since I couldn't get my work computer to connect until last night, I had the whole weekend without work. Austin came home early on Thursday because he had to pick up this new type of insulin from his doctor so I rode along with him. The stuff is great and his blood has been so much better because of it, and it makes me happy because now he will be able to take less of the other stuff and be able to lose some weight which he works so hard to do (the other insulin stores fat so no matter how much he tries and works out, it is difficult for him to do anything but stay the same).

Friday, Austin had to work, and I had to go to the dentist to get my teeny cavity filled. My dentist rocks though, and besides having to wait in the waiting room for about 35 minutes, the procedure itself took all of 3 minutes or something and didn't hurt a bit so I was happy! Then I went to meet Austin for lunch and vegged around the apartment until he got home. We went to see a matinee of "Fun with Dick & Jane" which was entertaining and grabbed some dinner.

Saturday, we took the Christmas tree down. Normally we would leave it up longer because we both love the holidays, but even though the tree did great for a really long time, it had gotten REALLY dry and it was becoming a fire hazard and dropping needles everywhere so it was time to take it down. Of course that involved much vacuuming with the shop vac by Austin afterwards because it proceeded to share its needles with us all the way down the steps of our apartment. We ran a few errands, got some Christmas goodies for next year on sale at 75% off at Target (love it!), and got ready for the evening. We went to dinner at Benihana's (I'm sure by now you realize how much I love that place) with Austin's parents, brother, and family friends, and we all had a really good meal and a great time! Headed home, watched "Herbie Fully Loaded" on DVD, watched Dick Clark, and managed to make it until midnight (quite a feat for a pregnant lady like me that usually is asleep by 10 at the latest and lately it's been earlier than that!).

Sunday was football watching day for Austin although it turned out quite disappointing as the Cowboys were shut out of the possibility to advance to the playoffs. There is always next year I guess! :) Sunday night, Austin's cousin came over for pizza, a few fun rounds of our new Scene It dvd game, and more football. Yesterday, we were both off so we ran errands, enjoyed a nice lunch outside in the beautiful (but oh so strange) weather, and made a yummy fish dinner at home last night.

Today, Austin found out that to help regulate his blood, they are going to let him go into work at a normal time (between 7:30 and 8) and just stay until 6 or 6:30 which is very exciting because he used to have to get up at 5 am to be at work by 6 am and still have to work until 4:30 or 5. I'm hoping it will help his blood and help his mood because getting up at 5 am is never fun!!!! :) All in all, a good start to 2006.....other than that, not much to report. Battling the afternoon heartburn that I've been getting lately (thanks Cooper for sitting on some internal body part and blocking things up!) and counting down the time until 5:30 when I can get out of here!