The Roller Coaster

As I was waiting for Pat to meet up with me to enter the BLU gala at Shedd Aquarium, I snapped a cute photo of myself showcasing the ups and downs, hills and valleys that now make up my body.



My belly is so round! LOL!

I spent too much of the night on my feet because there wasn't adequate seating....and today I've had a lot of what I can only explain as cervical pain. No cramping or contractions, and there isn't any other weird issues (i.e. blood, discharge, leakage, etc) accompanying the pain, so I'm trying to not let it freak me out in addition to being painful physically. I may call the doctor tomorrow though, if it continues.......aside from that, I'm feeling OK. As good as I can be, I suppose.

We've got the big things covered - the maternity leave paperwork has been initiated, we have pre-registered for the hospital, and we have a pediatrician. Now, all that is left to do is keep the house clean and wait :)

Whoa.......

The baby is SERIOUSLY developing some big giant muscles :) I'm being pummeled from the inside out on a regular basis, a few times a day. I suppose that's a good thing, right? The baby will probably start running out of room soon - don't they say the most active weeks are 28 - 32? After 32 weeks it just won't be spacious enough for all the herkies and round house kicks. Most of the movement is up pretty high by my ribs - I'm assuming they are kicks from tootsies which means the baby is facing the right way - I think. And my belly moves a lot too - so it seriously looks like an alien from the outside. I think Pat was a bit freaked out by all that!

Another big thing going on right now is HUGE EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTERS!!! Once I start crying, I just can't stop. And its not just a tear or two - we're talking ALL out BAWLING!!! It really is horrible.....I think that is probably related more to my OCD issues than pregnancy issues though. I mean, the preggo hormones make me start crying over the smallest thing, and the OCD-ness doesn't let me stop thinking about whatever made me start in the first place, which makes me cry for minutes on end. Like, 20-30 minutes straight. That is VERY draining!! It makes my nose all pluggy and the back of my throat hurt. What was it last week - OH - a baby bird that fell out of a tree.....and last night it was thinking of retiring my teddy bear into a box or something. Sheesh. Really not big deals here folks!

OH, and I still think women who say they loved being pregnant are lying. It just completely makes your body all crazy - and I can't think of any instance in which it would improve your posture or overall well being! It really is tough work.

This weekend was the Craft & Hobby Association trade show - amazing stuff! Any trade show, in general, is exhausting. 7 hours a day of shmoozing, looking at product, taking classes, making demos - for three straight days! But WHEW - it is so much harder walking & standing with this baby inside me! I didn't even go for the whole time because I knew it would be too much, but even 3 - 5 hours was enough to send me into a hip hurtin' frenzy. I'm doing better now - resting and such, but I can definitely feel it!

To Do this week: 31 week appointment on Thursday! We're all the way into going every two weeks now. YIKES!!

30 week update :)

Still no additional pictures from the shower - I'm hoping to get them developed today-ish or so. Its been a crazy week - what can I say! Here are a few of the books we recieved for the baby's library! Its steadily growing! I wasn't able to find images of all of the gifts - but man O geez there are some good ones :)


I had a check up last Friday, everything looks healthy, happy and normal. I start going to the doctor every two weeks now......that's kind of crazy, because it means "The Big Show" is getting closer. Eeek! We're totally not ready, and I'm rather freaking out about it. Not sure if this is "nesting" per se, but it certainly makes you think!

The doctor said we needed two things before our next appointment - a pediatrician and to pre-register for the hospital. We pre-registered on our way out, and were given a list of pediatricians the group recommends. Luckily, we found a group of pediatricians relatively close to us that is accepting new patients, so we're going to go with them first. I suppose I could go super thorough and "interview" the doctors and choose one out of the eight in the practice, but who has time for that? We'll meet one or two at the hospital when they do their rounds after the baby is born, and then rotate at the baby's million or so appointments its first few months of life.
I figure if the hospital trusts them enough to give a recommendation, then that's enough for me to trust them.

The other big thing we need to do is start really, seriously, looking into child care options. This is super scary - there are so many options and so many things that can go horribly horribly wrong. This is the part where I wish we were closer to family - there really wasn't ever day care for us when we were younger - it was just Grandma. Not that I would expect my mom & dad could watch the baby, but it would be nice to have that option with people you completely and whole heartedly trust. Anyway, I think we'll look into a couple recommendations of other parents, and then also look into a nanny. I'd love to have a nanny if the price is right - especially if its a Spanish speaking nanny......that would help my own Spanish skills AND that of our baby. We'll see if it fits into the budget. Of course, there is also the option that I would stay home, but that's pretty far down on the list right now. I don't think it would make sense - because I make such a good salary, great benefits, have such incredible flexibility and I really enjoy my job. But I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

Surprise for me!

I was thrown a surprise baby Shower at a local restaurant by my friends here in the building! I was so touched :) They gave us all sorts of wonderful books to begin the baby's library (which I am determined to make extensive! Kelly McFeely (our upstairs neighbor) organized it all - glow necklaces to go around, and a DELICIOUS Dairy Queen cake for dessert!!!

Another friend, Sarah, from across the courtyard, has a hidden talent I was unaware of - Balloon animals! So she made one for everyone in attendance - but it wasn't your run of the mill balloon puppy.....it was knocked up just like me with its own little blob and all :)



I'll post more pics when I get the disposable cameras developed :) But for now, I'll bask in the glow of being loved by my new friends :)

Random Updates

Wow. I am at 28 weeks - only 12 left to go! Lots of exciting baby news going on - two of Pat's friends from college & high school both were made proud papa's this week. Both by C-section! All the moms & babies are doing well.

I don't think I ever posted this, but I did get the results of the gestational diabetes test, and it proved to be all good! So there was no need to go back for the gross 3 hour test. I still have been trying to consume more good foods than bad foods, which is often a chore when on the road for over 6 hours in a day. Its just hard for me to snack on water and veggies while driving, you know? Especially when I'm tired and all I want is Coke and fritos. So, on the days where I'm travelling I have made poorer choices than when I'm in the office. I try to make up for it by keeping my water consumption high, and focusing on getting around 30 minutes of exercise 5-6 days of the week, which Pat has been great at supporting. So far, the net effect has been zero-little gain since my last appointment. I was supposed to have another appointment on Monday, but I'll be in Iowa, so its rescheduled for Friday. We'll see what the official numbers show on the scale at the doctor's office.

A few weeks ago, Pat and I went on a maternity ward visit at our hospital. I don't think I wrote about that (although I frequently meant to....its just my preggo brain makes me more scattered than normal - if you can believe it). It was rather funny to be part of a tour group that was 1/3 male, 1/3 female, and 1/3 preggo bellies from the female contingent. I'm not sure why I was so amused, I just was. I guess I had never been a part of a group comprised of that demographic before.

The tour was great (which reminds me - I should pre-register online before I forget) and I didn't really get all freaked out or nervous or anything like I thought I would. The facilities are nice, albiet not quite brand new and fancy shmancy. The brand new women's hospital opens in mid-October, so I'll be one of the last babies born in the old one. The decor is a little dated, but all of thier equipment and philosophies are the latest and greatest, and that's whats important to me. They have been consistantly rated as one of the top 10 women's hospitals in the US, and I've been pleased with their care of me and baby O'Brien so far.

So - highlights. The baby is kept with mama at all times, unless the mother requests the baby be taken to the nursery so she can get some rest. The nurseries are small - one small nursery for each four rooms (they call each four room group a "pod") so even if you decide to put the baby in the nursery, its never far away :) The patient to nurse ratio is 1 to 1 in labor & delivery, 2 to 1 in recovery...so its always like you have a "personal" nurse! The whole place had a very calm atmosphere about it, which I found to be very cool :)

There's much more to it all than that, but that's all I feel like writing about now.....the next steps will be taking our Preparing for Childbirth classes, which will be sometime next month.

Yup - there's defintely a baby in there :)

Tums

Tums are my new best friend.

I'm chowin' down the recomended dosage daily......presumably because this little blob O'Brien is taking up more and more space, leaving less for my food and forcing it to want to come back up. This usually occurs later in the evening, particularly before I go to bed. Less than pleasant I tell you. Occasionally, I've swapped Tums for Maalox with GasX if whatever I've eaten is making me bloated with oodles and oodles of gas. Those two godsends are definitely making my pregnancy a bit easier to deal with!

I've also been experiencing a bit of nausea again. Oh Great Fun! It is just morning sickness though, and only shows up if I get up in the morning and don't eat something right away. So I've been eating yogurt or triscuits or something of the like right away, then I seem to feel fine.