Almost reality

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was very nice and quiet. The baby got several gifts and we appreciated that. We are well on our way to getting the house taken care of before the child arrives. We have the painters scheduled for Jan. 23-24 and my parents are coming out to be here during the day since both John and I are working. My mom will definitely be here, and my dad will come only if he isn't working. I'm sure he'll enjoy spending his birthday supervising a paint job. John has completed the floor installation in the man room. The next step is to get new baseboards and attach those, and then rehang the closet doors and do some final touch-up. It looks really good! I'll attach some before and after pictures at some point so everyone can see. Of course, that's just one room. Now he gets to move on to the family room, hallway and other bedrooms. We have decided to do new tile in the entry way and kitchen, so that'll be a different project. But really, I just want the painting done.

I have been meaning to start a journal for the baby. Sure, he/she'll be able to one day read this blog, but I wanted to have something that was just for her/him. I started it at work today. Gimme a break, it's the day after Christmas. There is nothing going on here. I am using this beautiful leather bound journal that I had gotten in Florence way back when I did my study abroad program. For some reason I had never used it, but I guess saving it was a good decision.

I started it by writing a little bit about my history with John, how we met, engagement, marriage, etc. Then I started talking about trying to get pregnant and the Doctor's appointments and all of that. My first entry was pretty long. I will write more later, but I think I got a good start.

It wasn't until a couple of minutes ago, about an hour after I put the journal away, that it really started to hit me. Reality hasn't quite settled in yet because I can't feel any movement yet, but the fact that I am basically writing a letter to my child who will be reading it when they grow up is an odd feeling. It gives me a lot of excitement but also produces a lot of fears. I worry about being a good mom and having no idea what I am doing. I don't have much experience with babies, John is much more advanced in that arena than I am. I worry that I won't be close with my kids, or that I will be totally overprotective (even though I am telling myself that I am not going to be one of those moms that doesn't let their child do anything). I'm sure that all first time moms have these doubts and fears but it kind of freaks me out. And it hit me all of a sudden: I am going to have a kid that is going to be totally dependent on John and I. It's an awesome responsibility and I sometimes have those doubts as to whether I am up for it. Honestly, I really don't see myself as a mature 28 year old. Let's face it, I don't always act grown up so it's hard for me to see myself as a grown up. But then I look at my friends who have kids, like Sara, Amber, and Jason & Noel, and to see what amazing parents they are really makes me see that I can do it and that I have this incredible support system of family and friends behind me that will always be there to help should we need it. But most of all I have John who has been nothing but wonderful through these first 4 months. I'm sure I haven't been the easiest to live with but he has been really patient and has picked up a lot of the slack. And I don't think that he has once complained about cleaning out the litter box.

Elvis

I realized that Elvis hasn't made an appearance in the blog yet. Here he is. He obviously decided that it is too much work to stand or sit to drink his water so this is what he does now. In advance, I want to apologize for the type of bowl that I allow my cat to use. It makes me sick every time I see it.

16 weeks

We've made it to 16 weeks. Only 24 more to go. Jeez. Honestly I think I'm ready to have the 9 months over. I know some women just love being pregnant. I do not think I am one of them.

We had a request for some belly pictures. These were taken today, at exactly 16 weeks. I am really not showing that much, but below are a couple shots. The one of my full body I am going to apologize for because John didn't tell me if I was in the picture or when he was taking it so I am looking off somewhere else. Also, I know my outfit doesn't match. I had just changed my pants after eating dinner and I just wanted to be comfortable.

I'm also noticing that you can see where the band of the pants I was wearing before cut in to my stomach. Nice.

Anyway, we had a Dr.'s appointment today. It was very quick. He just answered some questions that I had. My main question was on skin care. I don't think I've mentioned it before but my skin is TERRIBLE. It's never been perfect but since I got pregnant it has gone from semi-bad to the worst it's been in a long time. And of course there are conflicting reports on what should or should not be used as far as acne treatments are concerned during pregnancy. So I asked my Doc and he said that as long as it doesn't have Retin-A in it then it should be fine. I'm like a junkie now. I need my fix. I've gone 4 months without any sort of treatment and now I can use it. You bet your butt I'm going to. I can't wait to get to the store (I threw most stuff away at the beginning thinking I couldn't use it, but I do have one little tube of spot treatment stuff).

Then we got to hear the heartbeat again which eased all my anxieties. I have felt so good that I almost didn't feel pregnant, but that quick beat that you hear on the doppler makes everything better. The kid is all over the place in the heartbeat range. Apparently there is an old wives' tale that says the higher the heart rate then the baby is a boy, or vice versa, I don't really know. Well this kid must want to keep us guessing because the first time we heard the heartbeat (11 weeks) it was 168 bpm, during the ultrasound (13 weeks) it was 143 bpm, and then today it was 153 bpm. I don't know what to expect at our next ultrasound which, by the way, is January 15. We will be able to find out the sex of the baby that day, assuming the little one cooperates.

John got his Christmas gift from the Coyotes today. It is a bottle of wine from the Wayne Gretzky Estates and it is personally signed my Wayne Gretzky. It is very cool. We are not going to drink it. Even if I could drink right now, we wouldn't. It's a really neat thing for him to do. We had John's holiday party on the 10th. It was at the arena and they let everyone go down and skate on the rink before dinner. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do that, but definitely next year. Here are some pics of John and I.

With the rink in the background. We were going to use one of these as our Christmas picture but decided that you couldn't see the rink very well, so we didn't. Maybe next year we'll get a better shot. And, yes, that is maternity clothing that I am wearing.

Preggo clothes

Yes, I am into maternity stuff for the most part. I do have a couple pair of pants and most of my skirts still fit (as long as they have an elastic waistband), but as far as work clothes I had to buy some new pants and tops. So now I am extremely comfortable even though I may not necessarily be big enough for them. At this point, I don't care. It's much better to have a belly panel and be comfortable than to wear my pre-pregnancy pants that are too tight and have my belly hanging over. That's always attractive.

John and I have chosen a painter for our rooms. It looks like they will be coming the second week of January and we will be all done! Of course I do have to pick the colors now which could be the hardest part of the entire process. They are even going to fix our amateur paint job in the living room and kitchen which is the best part of the whole deal because it really does look like crap. We also bought the first room worth of laminate flooring. John has already moved everything out of the man room (which was a chore because of all his dolls - oops, I mean bobbleheads) and pulled up all the carpet and padding. I think he is going to start installing the floor sometime this week. I am very excited about it. We are really on our way. After all the flooring is done we'll only have to worry about getting the backyard finished. All that will really entail is having someone come out and spread rock. That is not high on our priority list right now though so I'm not even thinking too much about it.

John's company holiday party is tonight at the arena. They are going to let everyone skate on the rink before dinner but unfortunately I won't get to and I'm disappointed about. Maybe next year. We're going to have someone take our picture for our Christmas card tonight so I'm hoping to get that stuff all printed and mailed by this weekend. Ideally, that's the way it will work. In reality, who knows.

Our next appointment is December 20 and that is just a basic check-up so I don't know that there will be much to report there. I'll try to put something up though.

Pictures!

John and I had our ultrasound today. According to my dates I am 13 weeks along. According to the ultrasound technician she estimated that the baby is measuring 13 weeks and 5 days, so since that is within a week of where I think I am she said that the due date is accurate. She said that from crown to rump the baby is about 3 inches long. She didn't give us an estimate of weight but at 3 inches long I'm sure it can't weigh that much. Here are some pictures:

This is a shot of the top of the head. The brain is the butterfly looking thing. It shows both lobes.

Saying hi!

Looking at the camera - face to the right, belly to the left.

Full body shot - head to the

right, feet to the left.

So there we have it. Our ultrasound tech did say that there wasn't anything popping out at her either way as to the sex of the baby. We'll just have to wait until our next ultrasound which will probably be at the end of January or so.

This is so weird! But very cool! I'm having a hard time believing that this little thing is growing inside of me. What a miracle!

Overruled

Alright, I got overruled on the Polish names. John doesn't want to use any of them and I'm sort of starting to agree. He also vetoed Sloane which is okay too. Delaney and Reagan are on our short list still.

We have an ultrasound scheduled for Thursday. It will be fun to see something finally. And I have eaten a salad the last two days! Yay for me finally getting some good vegetables! I also started our registry on Target.com last week while I was at work the day after Thanksgiving (yes, we were one of 16 or so states that worked that day). At least I was productive!

It's getting cold here. We had to turn on the heater this weekend. I'm such a wuss now. The highs have been in the upper 60's and I'm freezing! I have to wear a coat during the day and then I come home I put on sweats and slippers. I thought pregnant women were always warmer than everyone else. Not so for me!

I'm planning on having almost all of my Christmas shopping done by this weekend, and everything mailed by next weekend. One can only hope.

Girl names

I know a lot of people say not to tell any of the names that new parents might be considering because we'll get all sorts of criticisms, etc. about them, but I guess I'm not heeding that advice. I really just needed a place to write down names that I like so I won't forget them so I am going to use this forum. I don't think we're going to announce the name we choose before the child is born, but here are some options for girls. Most of them are Polish names that I found in my baby name book. You'll probably either love them or hate them. I don't think there'll be much in between. I think if we have a girl I would like to give her a Polish name.

Girls:
Ania (Polish)
Kasia (Polish)
Minka (Polish)
Delaney (Irish)
Sloane (Irish)
Reagan

I have found that I am enjoying looking for girls' names more than boys. Probably because I like more uncommon names for girls and more traditional names for boys. Plus I think we've pretty much decided on the boy name we'll use. IT IS NOT TROY SWITZER!

Also, here is the bedding we are going to get for the nursery. We are going to get cherry or another dark wood color for the furniture. The walls will be light as well. Notice how it is gender neutral. =)

Heartbeat!

John and I had a Doctor's appointment today and we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time! It was done with the doppler thingy so we didn't get to see anything but we definitely heard it. (I almost wrote him instead of it - I guess I'm thinking it's a boy, or maybe it's just wishful thinking.) It was really cool. The Doc said that the beat sounded good, that the rate was normal (168 per minute) and that the size of my uterus was right along with 10-11 weeks along, which is where I am. So everything is looking good. It is definitely a relief, and very neat, to hear something. It's making this seem that much more real. Of course all the side effects I've been having have been making it seem real as well. Men have NO IDEA what we go through!

John also got to sit through my internal exam. =) I'm sure he loved that. He can't even stand to hear the word tampon or anything female hygiene related so I'm sure seeing my feet up in stir-ups wasn't fun for him. Of course I laughed at him.

Our next appointment is November 29 when we have the Ultrascreen ultrasound so that will be our first glimpse of the baby. We are going to have them record it for us. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to get it on here so everyone else can see it too.

Have a wonderful Happy Thanksgiving! We'll be thinking of all of you in the cold weather while we chill in the upper 70, low 80 degree weather out here. =)

Busty

One of my co-workers told me I was really busty today. Yeah, well. Not much I can do about it. Thought all of you out there would appreciate that. As if I'm not already busty enough, pregnancy has just made me bigger. And I know it'll just get worse. I'll try to keep them under wraps in our Christmas picture. They don't need to take that over too.

First time pregnant ladies

I have no idea what is going on with my body. I have never been through this before so the things that I feel kind of freak me out. Since about week 5 or 6 I occasionally get this fluttering feeling in my chest - right in the center. I don't know what it is, but I do know that I did not have it before I got pregnant, so I figured it was pregnancy related. I tend to feel it more in the morning or when I am working out. I called the Doctor's office and they said that more than likely it had to do with the increased blood flow, etc. related to bringing this new life into the world. The heart is working harder and blood volume is increasing so weird stuff might happen. They said that as long as I wasn't seeing any stars, or having any dizziness or pain I should just watch it and that everything was probably fine. Anyway, my Dr. decided to move my appointment up two weeks because of it, but as soon as I rescheduled I started having pain in my chest. Not bad pain, like an ache that went all the way through to my back. It wasn't constant but I could feel it for the better part of the day. I thought maybe it would be related to heartburn but I didn't want to wait to get to the Dr. to find out I was alright.

So . . . I ended up at the Urgent Care place on Tuesday night just to get it checked out and I have good old indigestion. Great. The doctor on duty did an EKG just to make sure and everything with my heart was perfectly normal. She told me to keep my Tums with me. They stay in my purse at all times.

Like I said, as a first time pregnant lady I have no idea what to expect or what is happening. And this is just the beginning. I hope I don't become one of those patients that freaks out every time something weird happens.

Ten weeks and counting!