21WK3D - Long time no blog

Life is slowly settling down after a whirlwind of drama - car problems, money problems, family health problems, elopement planning, a dear friend passing away :( and issues at work that have been hitting one after the other. Unfortunately that means I've missed quite a few milestone posts! But, we did manage to take a 21-week belly pic on Thanksgiving:

We're past the halfway mark now! So here's a summary of some of the main goings-on:

In terms of pregnancy symptoms I'm still tired and fatigued, with minor backache and increasing need to pee. When I'm not super tired, though, my energy levels are pretty good. I'm still experiencing a higher tendency toward anxiety than usual, though now that life-things are settling a bit it's getting better. Baby is kicking a little harder now, and I feel wiggling about 3 - 4 times a day - usually on my morning and afternoon commutes, around lunchtime, and just before bed. Sometimes baby wakes me up with wiggling in the middle of the night, too.

I had a four day weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday - we went to my mom's house on Thanksgiving, and got to see my still-pregnant SIL (at 38 weeks, she's getting very close to her due date!) and parents.

Unfortunately, Kaitlin's dad's health is not doing so well at all, and we're expecting that he may pass away in the next couple weeks. Her sister, Beth, flew in from Idaho to spend some time with him, and she's staying at our house. She arrived on Friday, and will be leaving next Wednesday - which is the day before the day that Kaitlin and I leave for Vegas to get hitched. So this coming weekend's going to be busy, with packing, and hopefully decorating the house for Christmas, and also having a house guest.

Kaitlin's birthday is on Thursday. We celebrate her birthday in the summer, because her actual birthday so often gets lost in holidays and the cold of winter, but we're still going to make her favorite cherry-chip cupcakes and go out to dinner.

Next ultrasound is Friday, at 22 weeks. It's the big one, the full anatomy scan, and if I heard our doc correctly they're actually going to do it in 3-D. Depending on how it goes we may or may not decide to have another 3-D scan done in a month or so at the private ultrasound place. Looking forward to seeing little baby's growth - here's hoping everything's doing what it's supposed to be doing at this stage!

We have pretty much everything figured out for the elopement now - finally got confirmation for our reservation from the little chapel. Kaitlin's mom is driving to Vegas because she wants to be there, so she'll be a witness and we'll all go out for dinner afterward. Now it's just a matter of making a complete packing list so we don't forget any of the elements we're planning to wear! Kaitlin's also getting her hair and makeup done just beforehand, and I'm excited to see how it's going to turn out. The wedding will be Friday the 11th, so our "new" anniversary date is moving from 12/31 to 12/11. Shouldn't be too hard to remember. :P Oh, and we picked out our 4-year anniversary gifts for each other (year 4 is aquamarine) and got them ordered on a great Black Friday deal, so that's something fun to look forward to.

I have most Christmas presents purchased, just a few more things that I need to square away (and then wait for loads of packages to arrive so I can wrap them.) Christmas will be next on the to-do list once we get back from Vegas.

And of course, somewhere in there we have to make some progress on the nursery. I ordered a ceiling fan/light but have to do a craigslist post to find an electrician to install the power box in the ceiling. We have the general layout of the mural decided, and Kaitlin's started on the digital artwork, but there's still a lot to do before it will be ready to project on the wall, outline, and paint. And I'm currently stalking Craigslist for the perfect nursery furniture set. But for now, Kaitlin's sister is staying on the spare bed in the nursery, so we won't really be doing much physical work until after we get back from Vegas.

As far as work goes, things blew up, then simmered, then blew up, then simmered again. Right now we're in a simmering phase, and in fact I am more caught up than I have been in months, so that's something to be grateful for. I just have to stay on my toes, and keep my staff on their toes, going into the new year. Oh, and start making real plans for maternity leave coverage, which is a whole other monster. I still need to sit down with HR and go over the options, get the FMLA packet, and so on.

So right now, just taking everything one day at a time until we get through the chaos. Thankfully baby's been charging through it all like a champ - no bleeding or spotting or cramping or anything scary, and plenty of reassuring wiggles. As long as we have that, we can get through all the rest. :)

NINETEEN WEEKS

Well, the last couple weeks have been so chaotic I actually missed posting on our 18-week milestone. But we did manage to take an 18-week belly picture: 

In a nutshell, there has been chaos at work, in which not only are annual performance evaluations due for all of my staff (which are lengthy, difficult writing projects requiring a lot of time and attention) but I also made a mistake that ended up getting me in some disciplinary hot water and I was worried for a time for the safety of my job. There has also been chaos at home, in which Kaitlin's car has broken down and will require $2000+ to fix, which is money she just doesn't have; so we had to borrow a car temporarily from my family while we figured out options to fix or sell. Sounds like we're going to sell it, and borrow a car from a friend for a few months while we save very hard in order to buy her another one. Of course it had to happen just before winter, when she cannot take her motorcycle to work safely, and she's facing a gap in pay during schools' Christmas breaks. 

On top of all that, I caught a cold. Not a major one, the primary lingering symptom is congestion, but I was still feeling pretty low and tired and overwhelmed for a while.

I've been really, really stressed as a result, and eating regular meals ends up falling by the wayside when I'm stressed, so of course there was additional worry that I was harming baby in addition to everything else. But, as of last night baby is still wiggling like crazy. And my appetite is slowly returning. I indulged last month in a lot - and I mean a LOT - of eating out. Way more than I should have, mostly because it was so hard to think of anything that was appetizing to eat, and especially at work - by the time I would prepare food I was grossed out by it and didn't want to eat it, whereas if I went someplace and had food plopped in front of me I could usually eat at least half of it. Anyway, the amount I ended up spending on eating out was pretty shameful, so I'm glad that this month I'm able to eat more regular groceries. 

I still haven't gained much weight, and for coming up on halfway through the pregnancy, I'm not really showing much either. Going to enjoy it while I can, since it sounds like the second half of pregnancy is when the bump really starts getting impressive. :P

Sleeping has been a challenge too, though I think it's more stress- related than anything else. There are some pregnancy-related difficulties; lying on my back is less comfortable and my hips get sore after too much side-sleeping. And, of course, most nights I have to get up at least once to pee. 

Anyway, all of that aside, I'm really really grateful that at least with everything else that's not going right the baby and pregnancy seem to be doing pretty much fine. We'll have our next appointment on December 4th, around the 22-week mark, for the "big" anatomy scan.

In the meantime, the 19 week BabyCenter pic:

SEVENTEEN WEEKS

Zipping by the blog to make a weekly update, at least, because this has been the week from hell at work and I've had barely any time to even think about being pregnant. So grateful that the work week is over in a few hours. I'm going to go home and sleep for a million years!

My part of the SCA sewing project is finally finished, so this will be the first weekend that I get to take a bit of a breather... although, I will likely be taking my work computer home to get some work done, because in all the madness I'm behind in my staff's performance reviews and I have to get at least one more completed before the start of next week. SIGH. 

Still, I am not waking up tomorrow until my body says it's had enough sleep. If that's four in the afternoon so be it. I am exhausted.

This week I've mostly had baby flutterings on occasion, and sporadic nausea. I've taken one Diclegis at night and one in the morning, and it seems to control the nausea a little better and also keeps me from being quite so drugged in the mornings when I get up. Also - TMI - has anyone else noticed that pregnancy makes you more stinky? Kaitlin thinks it's hilarious. I'd probably have more patience with it if this week at work hadn't been so dreadful, but as it is I've really just been irritated by it. I feel like I need to shower 20 times a day just to smell not-terrible. X.x Of course, the stress probably isn't helping, either.

Well, here's hoping that next week things are better. And the requisite BabyCenter 17 week pic. Cuter by the day!

SIXTEEN WEEKS

We have an AVOCADOBABY today. <3 Will do an updated bump pic later tonight when I get home from work.

So to sum up this week of pregnancy: chips and salsa, haven't gotten to eat very much, lots of tummy fluttering (feels like a little goldfish swimming around and bumping into stuff), lots of unflattering gas, and a lot of moodiness and crankiness. Also, it is Friday and I am super tired, so I will be very glad to get to sleep in tomorrow. Morning sickness is almost completely controlled by the meds now, except for late at night when I still can end up feeling pukey. Oh, and still having the occasional round of uber-stinky-smells. Last night Kaitlin ate a chicken sandwich in the car and it smelled just awful. :/

Work is still running at high levels of demand and stress, and will be for the next two weeks. I have to finish another staff performance review today, then two more after that... then hopefully things will begin to slow down a little bit. Naturally, our work computer system decided to go down this morning. I sure hope it comes back up so I can actually get things done like I need to...

For right now I think I'll just focus on the next thing I need to do, and then the next, because I'm pretty much too tired to do anything else. Bring on the weekend and my sweet, sweet pillow! <3

Here's BabyCenter's 16 week baby pic. A real human-looking face now, even if the head is still a wee bit alienesque :P

15WK6D - Sixteen Week Checkup

Another crazy work week - really can't wait until performance review time is over, this month is insane. Anyway, on the baby-making front here's the latest news:

I made contact this week with a new OBGYN office that is covered under my work's new insurance plan. Got signed up for my first appointment with them, on 11/4.

Had my 16-week (and final) appointment with my current OBGYN this morning. They gave me copies of all my medical records to take with me to the new doctor's office. The new doctor is actually in the same building as my current doctor, just a few suites down the hall, on the same floor - so at least it's really nice that the location will pretty much be the same even if it's new and different people. Today we didn't have an ultrasound, I just answered a bunch of questions about how I'm feeling and we listened to baby's heartbeat on the doppler - doctor says baby's heart sounds good. Baby also kicked the doppler a bunch of times, which was pretty funny. They drew blood for the spina bifida test, too. I've gained 7 pounds so far, which the doctor says is pretty good.

Other than the fact that I'm getting really tired of chips and salsa - which is about the only thing baby will let me eat easily - I'm feeling okay. The Diclegis still makes waking up in the morning really hard, but it's better than feeling sick all day. I still run out of energy a lot faster than I used to, but I have more good days now where I can at least do the dishes or other small chores before I'm out of steam.

In other news, I am sad that the wonderful warmth of summer really seems to be gone for the forseeable future. It's done nothing but rain and be cold and dreary for the last two days. I am grateful that it's still just rain and not snow - dreading the snow. But it seems we've settled back into my least favorite part of the year, where it's dark when I have to get out of bed, and cold in the house most of the time, and we have to put electric blankets on and I have to wear a coat to work in the morning and my hands and feet are pretty much in a perpetual state of freezing. This is usually the time of year when I tuck away and hibernate, waiting for the warmth to come back. I guess I'm grateful, though, that I'll be pregnant through most of it. Gives me something to look forward to, and I love the fact that our first few months with baby will be during the wonderful warm months of spring and summer when we can take baby out and about and enjoy the world. <3

This weekend will (hopefully) be the last weekend of working on the SCA sewing project. I have huge skirts to pattern, cut, assemble, and attach to the gown bodice, and a heavily boned front plastron to make. Then the gown gets passed to the lovely ladies doing the hems and eyelets, and the following weekend (Halloween!) we can start work on the nursery in earnest. Step one is to clear out all the stuff that's currently being stored in the room - there's a full-size bed we need to give away, and a ton of Kaitlin's art stuff that will have to get moved to the basement. Step two is to hire an electrician to come wire up an overhead box so we can install a ceiling fan/light fixture (and while they're at it we'll have them do the same in the adjacent room, our office).

Then we can start painting. That's the part I'm most looking forward to. The idea is to do scenes from Disney's "It's a Small World" ride, all around the room - there will be a "Europe" wall, and some short "North America" walls, and then a Polynesia / Asia / Africa wall, and then a shorter Central/South America wall. With the big clock-tower-castle on the wall above the crib, in a purple / teal / pink / blue / some golds & whites color scheme.

Once we find the right nursery furniture on Craigslist we'll be able to furnish it, too. I'll have some small sewing projects, like curtains and little around-the-world plushies for a mobile and possibly a hot-air-balloon light fixture, maybe. Also thinking about running some Christmas lights along the ceiling over the crib, and stapling some filmy fabric over them to create a sparkly nightlight/sky/stars effect... we'll see. Kaitlin wants to make a 3D version of the clock face that actually rocks back and forth like the one on the real Disney castle - another thing that would be fun, though we'll see how far we get with it, LOL.

Anyway, super excited as we haven't done a home-improvement room-remodel in a long time. Here's hoping baby will love their room as much as we do :)

FIFTEEN WEEKS

Fifteen weeks and counting! We now have an ORANGEBABY. >D Kind of hard to believe, because while I have a bump my brain is telling me it couldn't possibly be *that* big just yet. 

I forgot to take my Diclegis for the first time last night, so I guess today is the test to see if morning sickness is gone. I feel a little bit sick to my stomach this morning, but nothing like the serious nausea of the first trimester, so I'm hoping it won't be showing up today. 

So over the course of the last week I've experienced a four-day-long headache (fun!), a reduced appetite (the only things that sounded good were iced tea and chips and salsa), a lot of random belly twinging and stretching, an uncomfortable amount of gas, and an increasing need to pee frequently. My energy level is much improved, though I still wear out early and sometimes have a little tummy upset in the evenings. And my sense of smell is still on overdrive, so I'm sure Kaitlin's tired of me cranking at her about the smell of the trash, the cat boxes, the dishes in the sink, and so on. I now realize what a blessing it is to have a normally-insensitive nose. This being able to smell everything is not as fun as it sounds. :P

Last night we went to see "Pan" at the Movie Tavern. Very pretty, imaginative movie, and I enjoyed it a lot, though I don't know that any Peter Pan movie is ever going to be able to match the magic that was Robin Williams in "Hook." :P

At work, I've almost completed one performance review, have three more to go. I also had to meet with my boss' boss this morning to give him feedback on my boss for her review. My boss will be meeting with all of my staff to do the same. I really feel like this year has been my best so far, so I'm hoping my staff & boss feel the same. Especially since asking everybody to accommodate me for three months of maternity leave next year is a big deal...  

I also have one staff member out sick all week, so I'm covering her phone calls, and this was the first week of implementation of the new digital file system, and half my staff have been in training or out on vacation at least two days this week, and in general it's just been a long, busy, tiring week. 

Today I really need to find a moment to make contact with a new OBGYN. Next week I have to enroll in a new insurance plan at work (since I'll be adding a spouse and a child next year, I have to switch to the plan that's free, because I can't afford the full-family premium on my current plan.) Unfortunately my current OB isn't in the network for the new plan. I'm supposed to have a 16 week appointment next week, but I kind of would prefer to get started with the new doc ASAP so that the first time I meet him/her isn't when I've already gone into labor. :P

Overall - and I feel like I've been saying this a lot lately - I mostly just want a nap. Looking forward to tomorrow when I can sleep in some <3

Here's the BabyCenter pic for 15 weeks!

14WK4D - Belly Pic and Ultrasound Updates

So first off, here's our 14 week belly pic. LOOKIT GUYS, I REALLY HAVE A BUMP NOW!

I can still mostly keep the bump covered under baggy clothes at work - but dang. Huge difference between 12 and 14 weeks!

So we went on Saturday to have a gender ultrasound done, and it confirmed that yup! The Harmony test results are right on target. ^^ We also got to see baby wiggling around some more and showing off. We got a good long video and ultrasound pics, but I'm not allowed to share 'em yet - sigh.

So let's see. This week the morning sickness continues to wane, though I do have occasional waves of the sickies in the evening before bed. I'm still taking the Diclegis - I have about three days' worth left. I think when I run out I'll try going a day without it, and if it comes back I'll get a refill. One really unpleasant new symptom, though, is a chronic headache that I've had for about four days now. I've been fighting it with Tylenol - the first Tylenol I've taken since we got our BFP - but only this afternoon has it really mellowed out. Not sure what that was all about but seriously not fun. :/

Baby is also a picky eater, still really only wants me to drink iced tea, and has a penchant for tortilla chips and salsa. I've also felt a lot more heaviness/stretching/twinging in there this week, which I am guessing means our little peachbaby is having a growth spurt. :P

In other news, work continues to be insanely busy, so much so that I barely have time to think during the day and I come home really tired - I feel like going to bed a lot earlier these days. And my pretty sparkly butterfly earrings from AliExpress arrived, so I'm adding them to the stash of stuff-to-wear-on-our-elopement in December. Good thing I bought a maternity wedding dress, I'm thinking this bump will be impressive by then! Sewing project is on track, I still have three solid weekends of work to do, but so far so good. And other than that, the thing eating up my brain lately is nursery prep. Really really want to get started but have to get the sewing stuff wrapped up first! I also have a few sewing projects in mind for our little munchkin, now that we know gender, and I'm plotting a supercute coming home outfit for baby to come home from the hospital in. I might have to make both a newborn-size version and a 0-3 months size version, just to be sure I have at least one that fits! Apparently some babies are too big for newborn sizes right out of the gate. Kind of hoping this one will be little enough, at least for a couple weeks, 'cause I've already started a bit of a stash of newborn-size clothes. *shiftyeyes*

Also made a long checklist (after surfing the internet for recommended checklists) of stuff we need to acquire before baby gets here. Stroller, car seat, nursery furniture, breast pump, cloth diaper stash, etc. etc.  Hoping to get 95% of the items used, with the possible exception of the car seat, because after wandering through Babies R Us and having some eyepopping moments at how expensive these little things (that last what, three or four years, most of them? At most??) are, it just makes a lot more sense to go green and reuse things that somebody else no longer needs.

So that's about it for now... off to eat dinner. Hoping baby likes Hamburger Helper. :P