Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Survey says....

It's a Boy! I have done my wifely duty and conceived a son and heir to the Poole dynasty!

I had the big ultra sound this week. Aside from the less than enthusiastic sonographer, she did at least let us know that I am carrying a healthy baby boy. During the ultra sound she couldn't get all the measurements she needed though because the baby kept moving around. He was also being modest and wouldn't show us his little third leg for a few minutes. Because little David was moving around so much they wound up having to send me to another Doctor to have another ultrasound done. Lord only knows why they couldn't just reschedule me for another ultrasound there, but it actually worked out well.

I went for my 2nd ultrasound today at the other Doctor's office and realized that I preferred that place to where I have been going. I didn't even meet the Doctor but his staff was more friendly and personable then the staff at my Dr.'s office. It almost makes me wish I was a high risk patient, so I could get in to that Doctors roster. The sonographer there was much more friendly and David seemed to respond to that by cooperating with her. She had no problem getting all the measurements and got some great profile shots of David.

So now that we know it's a Boy, we will need to re-paint the room where the nursery is going to be. Some folks are like "Hey purple works for boys too!" which is true it's the color of royalty. However I think lavender might be a tad too feminine for a little boy. So the room will probably go to a blue or a green depending on what John and I settle on for the bedding. I do wish I could find some Star Wars crib sets to snuggle my little Jedi into. Sadly I will have to wait a few years before the Star Wars sheet sets come into the shopping agenda =D.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

We have movement!

I am at 18 weeks and 2 days today, just started my fifth month of pregnancy according to my "What to expect when your expecting" book. I had actually started feeling movement a few weeks ago. It was slow at first, feelings like dental floss being pulled across my stomach (my uterus expanding); mild cramping like pains in my lower regions (my ligaments stretching); and a fluttering, butterfly type feeling in my abdomen (the baby actually moving around).

I had thought that the ligament stretching sensation was the baby actually kicking, but when I talked to my mom about it she said "Oh no, you'll know when it's a kick." Boy was she right! I was at work today and had to go to the bathroom (big surprise there). So I went to the bathroom, came out to wash my hands when BLAM! the baby kicked. There's no clear way for me to describe the feeling of it, especially not for a man to really understand since I don't have a frame of reference for guys, but I'll try. It was a feeling similar to that of a menstral cramp, but much quicker to fade then a menstral cramp. The pain is less than breaking a bone, or even stubbing your toe. It's more like if you ate something bad or if you were constipated and were feeling pains in your stomach. But it's localized to one specific area and it only lasts for a few seconds.

Taravid (a merge of our boy and girl names that John and I are using until we find out the sex) kicked me about 3 times while I was washing my hands and 2 more times as I was going back to my desk. Once I sat down the kicking stopped. It was almost as though the baby was kicking because I woke it up by going to the bathroom and he/she was trying to get comfortable again. Dear lord I hope the baby doesn't sleep like it's father or I'm going to be black and blue on the inside by the time I go into labor ;D (love you honey!).

So it's starting to get exciting now, and I'm actually starting to look and feel pregnant. My feet and hands are starting to get "puffy" as John called it, and I'm getting heartburn more often (thank god for Tums). I do still wish that it would hurry up and get here. I also still think that anyone who loves being pregnant is possibly insane. After all, who really loves running to the bathroom all the time, and the headaches, heartburn, nausea, feet and hands swelling, muscle tension and all the other weird things that goes on? If you really love going through all that I think you need to see a psychiatrist for sadist tendencies =D. However, I am happy to be having this experience since I now have a lot more sympathy for mother's and for pregnant women.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

This Week

The major change this week.....I got a haircut. That's right, the long locks that was always back in a bun have been chopped off. I didn't go super short, just to my shoulders, but it's a graduated bob with stacked layers in the back. Everyone seems to really love it, and it certainly looks good on me. John was a little sad that I cut my hair, but he's gotten used to the new look now I think. The most important thing is that the new cut is doing what I wanted it to, which is motivate me to put a little effort into my appearance ;D.

A lot of people have asked me when we will know what the baby's gender is and if we're finding out. Hopefully I can list the answers here and get folks to spread it around. Yes, we are finding out. I'm too much of a planner to not find out the gender, and John wants to know so he can attach a pronoun to the baby instead of calling the baby "It" all the time. We should find out the gender at my next ultrasound which is on June 29th. So we should know by my birthday if I'm carrying a Tarah Ellen or a David Rawlings.

I've also figured out that the baby doesn't like Monday's. It's the weirdest thing but I always get sick on Monday's. I'm perfectly fine the rest of the week but Monday's are not good for me. I have to remember that to see what day the baby is born on.

I've started to feel the baby moving too. There's actually 3 distinct feelings. One is my ligaments stretching. This is accompanied by a very quick pain that almost feels like I've pulled or dislocated something. These happen occaisionally but not too often, and it's the only actual "pain" I've felt. The second is my uterus stretching. This is accompanied by a feeling like a string of dental floss is being pulled across my abdomen. The third feeling is the actual baby moving. This feeling is like a fluttering like butterflies in my stomach, or it could be a slight pressure that is also felt in other body parts like my breasts.

I've also started to show a bit now. It's easier to see that my hips are spreading and I'm carrying kind of high. this is part of the reason why the ladies at work think I'm having a girl. They're using the old wives method of predicting the gender by how I'm carrying. Even though I see that I'm getting bigger and I feel like I'm gaining weight, I actually haven't gained anything recently, which I hope will continue. I want my baby to eat my fat ;D.

So that about brings us up to date with what's happened with me and baby. Now hopefully I can stay up to date from here on out.

Last Week

I was chastised last night for not posting a new blog, so I'm going to make up for it today. I actually tried to post a new one a few days ago and my silly laptop deleted my entry and I didn't feel like starting over.

Part of the reason I didn't post last week was because I had some sad news to process. John took our dog Dorien back to the shelter. Dorien was a sweet dog and I was very attached to him, but taking him back was the best and wisest option. Dorien had a few behavioral problems, the hardest to deal with being that he was terrified of John. I was the only person that Dorien would obey and even then he only obeyed me about 65 % of the time.

Even though John had only ever loved Dorien, the dog would bolt and run away anytime John can near. He would even occaisionally soil himself and the house when John got close to him. Dorien also wouldn't really let anyone else take care of him, and was given to bouts of bolting out the door every once and a while. John and I decided that this wasn't a very good situation with me being pregnant. I couldn't go running after Dorien down the street if I were 8 months pregnant. Also, someone would need to take care of Dorien while I was giving labor and in the hospital recovering and that really couldn't happen if I was the only person that Dorien would come to.

So we both decided it would be best to give Dorien back to the shelter. We had tried to send him to the Eskie rescue but the rescue wouldn't call us back for 3 weeks and actually didn't call us back until 3 days after we had taken Dorien back to the shelter. John went back to the Shelter to try to get Dorien to take him to the rescue, but when he went Dorien had already been adopted. While my heart is a little bruised, I do have my own little one to worry about now. I send my love out to Dorien and will trust in the universe that the family who has him now will love him as much as I did.

Another thing that happened last week was after John took Dorien back to the shelter, my BF Ali took me to the Star Wars Concert, which was freakin AWESOME! Ali really helped me by taking my mind off of losing Dorien. We were about 20 feet away from the stage and loved every moment of it. I think I spent half the show with my mouth half open.

On Monday I went in to my Primary Care Doctor to get my sinus infection taken care of (since my OBGYN didn't really want to deal with it). This Dr. diagnosed that I did have acute sinusitis and gave me some antibiotics to take, which has knocked out the sinus infection that was causing so many problems. So I do feel much better now, and I'm feeling more like myself.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, just work and home; work and home, and I'll pick up the rest in the next blog ;D.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Irreverant

I would like to start this with a disclaimer. If you are easily grossed out or have an aversion to bodily functions please do not read this posting. It's embarrasing enough for me to write about this, I don't want to have to apologize for writing about it at church. So if you continue to read, please note that you have been warned.

So every person on this planet has gas. We've all let one go in the Walmart (crop dusting as my girlfriends call it). I like to call those the Wal-farts, cause I usually only get them in Walmart; or maybe you've let one rip at a party somewhere when you were laughing too hard. Typically you remain silent and sheepishly hope no one smells it, or heard it.

When I moved in with John I had to get used to idea that now there would be someone else in the house to hear my farts, and I should just get over my modesty issues (Course we're WAY past that at this point). It took me a little while but eventually I did get over it. When we found out I was pregnant I started noticing that I was more gassy then usual. I was burping in public, mortifying myself in front of my colleagues at work, hiccups, and more farting than usual of course. However, even with the increased gas, nothing could have prepared me for what happened the other night.

I was sitting in bed watching a movie (I seem to live in bed these days because it's more comfortable than the couch) and I had to toot. John was in the room because we were talking about what to have for dinner. When I let it rip, it didn't take long for me to smell what had come out of my body. The horrid, putrified, stench of what had just come out of my body. Now it's not like I normally like the smell of my farts or anything, but I can at least stand the smell until it dissapates.

This one almost had me gagging and turning green. Not to mention it just lingered there, suspended in the air like LA Smog. It stank so bad I had to cover my nose as I exclaimed to John "Jesus Christ, that smells!" It did finally subside and I went back to watching TV and John went into the kitchen. Not 5 minutes later though I let another one rip, this one even worse! I felt myself becoming ill and had to get out of bed in order to get some fresh air.

I couldn't go back into the bedroom for like 10 minutes after that. During that time John and I discussed that the baby is making my farts stinkier. Hence why we've named this gastric anolomoly the "baby farts". So if you pass my way and I smell like something that just died an unpleasant death or you see Peppy Le Peu following after me just know it's the "baby farts"