Daily Note: May 28, 2009

I'm working on a theory that if I make my hair bigger, my body will look smaller. Thoughts?

Daily Note: May 27, 2009

Our weekend on Orcas was perfect. The weather was amazing, more like August than May. We launched the small boat and Jeff took me out for a spin, the family took a field trip one day to Yellow Island, we ate well and I actually slept better there than I’ve been sleeping at home. Because we are really smart, we forgot our camera, so we’ll just need to wait until Kathleen (sister in law) sends us her photos from the weekend before I can post a few up here. I do, however have some belly shots for your viewing pleasure.

Here is me at the end of week 23, just before I left for DC.

And here I am on Monday of this week, the last day of week 25.

I think the last two weeks have been my biggest growth spurt so far. I’ve now slid into week 26. It’s odd, in some ways this pregnancy seems to drag on and on, but then recently it’s started to zoom by. Sometimes I think about only having 3 months left and I’m panicked by all the things we have left to do, but then knowing me, the next 3 months will feel more like 5. I’ve never been particularly good at feeling uncomfortable. And uncomfortable is exactly how I feel these days. Getting in and out of bed, even rolling from side to side in the night is turning into an activity that requires sound effects (typically grunting from effort, followed by a long suffering sigh). Taking a deep breath isn’t coming as naturally as I’d like either. And Edie has definitely discovered my ribs. Particularly at night, she seems to enjoy lodging some body part or other under one of my ribs and I wake from the discomfort. I tend to get up every hour or two in the night to walk around for a few minutes (thankfully the urgent midnight snacking has subsided) until she repositions herself lower. On Sunday, I actually spent most of the day with what I’m pretty sure was a bruised rib on my right side.

Jeff’s been able to feel the baby’s movements for a month or so, but last night was the first time that he got to feel/witness one of her more dramatic movements – the kind where her knee or elbow jabs out hard and then glides all the way across my belly. I kept trying to describe how strange those movements were but now he finally gets it. It evoked a rather un-Jeff like reaction, causing him to jump to his feet and freak out for a few seconds.

Lastly, I leave you with the Maurice photos of the week:

Daily Note: May 22, 2009

We're headed to Orcas this afternoon for the long weekend and I'm so looking forward to getting away. In particular, I really need to cut the apparent umbilical cord that the TV recently grew and attached to me. I love that there's no TV on Orcas and I recently found one of my old favorite trashy girl books (Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married) on the free book shelf at work. That and a book called The Last Anniversary that looks girly with just the right amount of terrible mixed with goodness. I'm bringing both with me.

I think I finally rounded the corner with this cold last night. I went to my regular doctor yesterday to make sure I don't have sinus infection. Sadly, he seemed pretty sure that I do, but he said it was early/mild and prescribed steam therapy instead of antibiotics. So I went out and bought some dirty hippy facial steamer thing and used it off and on all afternoon yesterday. As a result, I started feeling a lot better towards bedtime and only woke up twice to have a nose blowing/hacking fit last night.

Lately, I've developed a nasty habit of waking up around 2am every night and feeling STARVING. That and my hips ache, so getting up always seems like a good idea. So I wander downstairs and proceed to eat everything in sight. Then I crawl back in bed. I also made a double recipe of rice krispie treats this week and yesterday when Jeff went to cut himself a piece exclaimed, "What happened to all the rice krisipie treats!?" I felt like my Dad (notorious midnight snacker) when I had to admit that I'd eaten a whole row of them in the night. Pretty sure I've given myself gestational diabetes.

Daily Note: May 19, 2009

As promised, a few photos:

So one night Maurice was feeling particularly sleepy and it dawned on me that this was our big chance. Maurice is not a docile cat and he has the scars from neighborhood fights to prove it. He's never hurt either of us of course (or any of our house guests), but we've also never tried to dress him in human's clothes before. The weird thing was, as soon as I popped the onesie over his head, he went completely limp. We couldn't tell if he just didn't care or if it was a coping mechanism. Either way, I peed my pants laughing, but then felt a little guilty later.

Not as funny, but Spring is finally here! So I took a few pictures of the flowers in our backyard to prove it.

It has been pointed out to me that I’ve been remiss in posting belly shots recently. My trip to DC coupled with some really unflattering photos of late has caused the delay. Oh, and I’m also super sick. That cold I came down with last week at the end of my trip is lingering like a bad fart smell. Unwanted and gross.

I miss Nyquil so much. I don’t know how to sleep without it when I’m sick. I spent literally ALL NIGHT last night wide awake but exhausted. I’ve developed a bit of a cough, my nose is completely useless, and my resulting mouth breathing leaves me miserable. And also? You know how when you have a cold and only one side of your nose is stuffed up? The solution is to typically try to sleep on the opposite side to let the nose drain, correct? Well, my hips are still hurting so bad at night from the pregnancy that I can’t choose which side to sleep on, my hips choose for me. And they always choose the wrong side for my nose.

I’m such a dude when I get sick. The thing is, I usually NEVER get sick. I honestly think the last time I had a legit cold was 2 years ago. For this reason when it finally happens to me, I’m a huge baby. Jeff is so sick of hearing me sigh and sniffle that I thought I’d take it out on you for a while. Thanks for listening. Or reading. Or whatever.

Daily Note: May 17, 2009

Well, I'm back. I didn't die in a plane crash and my conference went really well. Unfortunately, it ran me a bit ragged and on Thursday I woke up with a sore throat. By 1:30pm, I was in bed, full of snot, swallowing what felt like cut glass but was really water, sneezing up a storm, and feeling very sorry for myself. The flight home on Friday was miserable. My ears were killing me and for some reason I pulled a Shelby (from Steel Magnolias) about 40 minutes into the flight. I'd felt sort of light headed a few times on the flight to DC, but this was different. When they were coming through with the beverage cart for the first time, I suddenly got really light headed and weak, then my vision and hearing started to dim and I got all sweaty and cold. I started to panic and was envisioning calling an attendant over, laying in the aisle, M'lynn telling me to "drink some juice, Shelby, drink the juice!", and the humiliation of an emergency landing, but then it passed. I think it lasted maybe 5 or 10 minutes? Either way, I was left exhausted and totally freaked out. I spent the rest of the 5 hours in a state of mild panic that it would happen again, but it didn't. I still have no idea what caused it - low blood pressure? dehydration? low blood sugar? the cold? Maybe the combination of all these things? Either way, I'm terrified to fly again in my pregnant state, so I think my next flight might not be until when we take Edie to Disneyland for the first time.

On a more positive note, here was my most entertaining moment from my week in DC:
I was riding the elevator up to my room while eating a blueberry bagel with cream cheese when an large, older African American woman got on. I think I may have been resting my other hand on my bump. She was wearing the hotel uniform, looked at me chowing down on my bagel and said all sassy-like, "Mmmm HMMM, for me it was chocolate puddin'." Then the doors opened and she got off.

So I'm home now, still horribly sick, but SO relieved to have this hurdle behind me. Despite eating nothing but fatty hotel food all day, for 5 days straight, I somehow managed to lose a pound this week, so I quickly made up for that with burgers and fries for lunch yesterday and mac and cheese for dinner. Jeff painted the master bedroom while I was gone, which was a total surprise. This would mark the 156th time we've painted the bedroom, but he says this color is here to stay. He kindly used the expensive, non toxic paint so that I could return to sulk in the bed with my cold promptly upon my return without inhaling paint fumes.

Now that the conference is over, I finally feel ready to get this whole baby show on the road. We need to do some serious shopping and get some SHIT DONE. Edie's been kicking up a storm lately. I find that some days she lodges herself up higher and it makes eating very unpleasant. After a few bites of food, I feel sickly full for hours and hours. She's also started to do what I'm calling the bladder-dance, where for a few seconds she'll tap dance directly on my bladder and I literally fear I might pee my pants. Then it passes just as quickly. She's become noticeably bigger this week. Yesterday I'm pretty sure that I felt my first jab to the ribs. I'm not sure, but given that my ribs start about 3 inches above my belly button, it seems distinctly possible. Something else seems to have happened yesterday and I went from having a little pregnant bump to feeling unwieldy and bulbous. I can't believe that she's still got so much more growing to do; I already feel like I'm spending all day with a cat sitting on my chest - where else does she have left to go? I'll confess to feeling slightly panicked about that sometimes. My skin is stretched so tight you could play me like a bongo and a few days ago, my belly button made its first move indicating that any day now, I could wake up to an outy.

Anywhoo, I'll get my act together and post some photos either tonight or tomorrow.

Daily Note: May 9, 2009

Well, I leave bright and early tomorrow for Washington DC for my yearly May conference. This is the big 4 day affair that I'm in charge of. I sort of a little bit hate it. Mostly because I hate flying and because I spend the entire time nervous and running around on bloody feet. This year, being 6 months pregnant (I hit 24 weeks on the first official day of the conference) should make things that much more hate-able. Who knows though, maybe I'll have fun and everything will go smoothly. Truthfully, the conferences always go well, it's just my nerves that suffer. I just finished packing all my uber professional maternity clothes that I had to purchase just for this trip (waste of money much!?) and have laid out my gaucho pants and long cardigan that covers my ever-widening ass to wear on the plane tomorrow. Not much more to be done really. Please send positive thoughts my way that everything goes well.

I'll be back next week with hilarious photos of Jeff and I dressing Maurice in a onesie last night.

May 5 Update

Bertha

Daily Note: May 5, 2009

Rain like we are currently having must signal the apocalypse. It’s like living inside a monsoon! I’m exhausted after getting little sleep – between tossing and turning from hip pain and the torrential downpour coming in sideways, slapping at our bedroom windows and gushing down the downspout outside our room, I woke up approximately every 30 minutes. We were both silently laying awake last night wondering whether the roof repair we did last year would hold up to this storm and whether everything in the basement was currently floating. Old habits die hard and Jeff finally got up at 4am (without my prodding!), put his coat and shoes on to tromp down to the basement (remember that you have to go outside to get to our basement). THANK GOD it was dry – so thankful for the ginormous sump pump installed after the flood of 2008. The area in our ceiling where we had the chimney flashing redone last year also appears to be dry. Anyways, I realize this is a super boring post, so I’ll try to get down to more interesting topics.

Today marks the start of week 23 for me. I had my monthly check-up yesterday and everything went well. Aside from getting to hear the heartbeat, the only other interesting factoid learned during this appointment was that she was able to measure the top of my uterus as being about 2.5 inches above my belly button. I didn’t realize it was that high, but last night I was reclining on the couch with my shirt lifted up to stare at my belly and I watched a giant lump slowly move from just below my belly button to curve up and around to the left side, stopping about an inch above and to the left of my belly button. I could feel how hard the lump was from the outside and the right side of my stomach had gone squishy, like she’d just decided she wanted to hang out higher up and on one side all of a sudden. WEIRD.

We bought our crib this week. As Culver decisions go, it was surprisingly easy. We just zipped over to Ikea, found the crib that Jeff had researched online, and bought it. It’s sitting in the box in our (dry!) basement awaiting the day we disassemble the guest room. It’s simple, cream, and slightly girly. This marks our first and only major baby purchase thus far. Oh and we also bought a giant hippo stuffed animal that we named Bertha. Maurice does not like Bertha. Strangely, Jeff really seems to have taken a liking to her.

Daily Note: May 1, 2009

Every night now involves an hourly ritual of me pulling my shirt up and my rolling my pants down in order to apply cocoa butter to my itchy, itchy midsection. The other night, I thought it would be funny to surprise Jeff in the office while performing this ritual. He was sitting at the computer and turned to see me walk in, greasing my belly up while making a totally unsexy face. The following exchange occurred:

Jeff: Just a second (he turns and bends down as if to get something and comes up with the camera in hand)
Me: (totally panicking at the thought of photographic evidence, running back to the bathroom)

A minute passes as I finish rubbing in the lotion from the bathroom next door.

Me: (shouting to Jeff in the next room) Look what just came out of my belly button!
Jeff: Never say that again.
Me: Does that mean you don't want to see it?
No response.