Catching Up w/ Pics

Happy Friday everyone. Omigosh, I'm soooo happy this week is finally over. It's been long, brutal and busy!! We've had stuff going on almost every night after work, so i'm also super exhausted and ready for a 4 day weekend!! Whoohoo! Hubby's 30th bday is on Tuesday (he's taking the whole week off, lucky duck), so I'm taking Monday/Tuesday so we can hang, hit the pool, and all that good stuff!! We already had the big blowout party, so hubby has made me promise to keep all actual bday activies/gifts to a minimum.

And Saturday I plan to catch up on everyone's blogs because I'll be flying solo all day! Hubby has his annual Leisure Decathlon. And no, this isn't an official race/event or anything. Its a made up Olympics of sort, that hubby and his friends created a few years ago. Ten events consisting of "leisure" activities, including bags, bocce, bowling, lawn darts, beer chugging, croket (sp), pool, etc. Yes, there is heavy drinking involved here, that's sorta the point, and yes it takes all day long, and yes I worry all day long that someone is going to kill themselves (I mean lawn darts isn't suppose to be safe sober, let alone bombed). There is a trophy involved and hubby came in 2nd last year so maybe with his 30th on the horizon he could get the win!! I actually think the whole thing is pretty hilarious and would LOVE to watch, but no wives are allowed...that is a strict rule, hah!

Anyways, I have one million blogs to read/catch up on so this is a quick post to say I'm still here. And here are a few pics from all our fun events lately. Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy 30th Hubby!!!

I look majorly preggo here, I think its mostly the dress (yikes)!

Wedding this last weekend, the bump is pretty hidden with the dress. Although I did feel like a sausage stuffed into it since its not maternity and needed to be.
Loved their cake.

Yah, I really loved the cake...especially since I was dead sober and could fully enjoy every bite!

16 Week Appt & One Problem to Another

So I just got back from my 16 week appointment (a few days early). As you guys know I was determined to see Skooter...so I called earlier this week and said I was still concerned about the bleed I had in my uterus (which I really wasn't but if you have a bleed might as well take advantage), and would really like an u/s to check on it. The nurse said just mention it to the dr. at my appt and she would probably have no issues squeezing me in!

And of course I was nervous about this all morning, I'm such a chicken when it comes to drs...but to my amazement she said no problem. So hubby and I scooted over to the ultrasound room to get our peek at Skooter. Well, first off it was a pretty disappointing u/s because the tech was mostly looking for the bleed (which was totally gone, YAY). She did measure the head, length and heartbeat and everything was measuring perfectly. I even asked if we could get a better look, and she said the baby is super low and my placenta was getting in the way.

Then she stopped and was like I'm going to have you undress and do a vaginal u/s, I think your placenta may be over your cervix. She walks out the door and I start freaking, what the hell does that even mean, and thank god we got this u/s today. So she's back and sure enough my placenta is totally covering my cervix, and baby's head is right on top. She then told me she was going to go tell the dr. and I would probably have to meet with her again, she brought up to this tiny little room that looked like a place where people go to get bad news. I'm talking a small circle table, a box of tissues, and a red button that says push for help (which the dr. did confirm is in every room, yes I asked).

So turns out the placenta grows where it grows, its can move with your uterus as it expands...but it won't just pick up and move to the other side of your uterus. She said most of the time it will move out of the way, but if it doesn't you have what is called placenta previa and you can't deliver vaginally because your cervix is blocked. Apparently if it doesn't move that means c-section 3 weeks early because they don't even want to risk you going into labor. She said no sex until our 20 week u/s, and specifically no orgasms for me (BOO). So now we just wait.

I of course got back to work and googled the shit out of placenta previa and yes it sounds super scary if you have to deal with it, but it does seem like its super early to be concerned and more often than not the placenta will move out of the way. The dr. told me not to stress, but she's crazy if she thinks this won't be the only thing on my mind for the next month. At least I can stop worrying on the bleed and focus on one issue at a time. Man, if it's not one thing it's a frickin other.

*Side note, u/s tech kept referring to baby as he. Maybe she calls all babies he...but I found that weird. She even asked if we were finding out, and I said no so don't say anything if you see anything, and then she was all he/she. Also the heartbeat was only 143 this time around...so now my total girl confidence is a little bit shaken...which I'm kinda excited about because let's face it, if it's going to be a surprise I'd like to at least wonder a bit!!!

Hello Friday!

So right now I'm sitting in my awful new cube where anyone who walks by can see what I'm doing, but its Friday so I just don't care if people see my blogging. I'm also currently litsening to my boss (who is now in the office over my shoulder) eat the biggest bag of chips or celery or something that requires a super annoying crunch with every single bite. Ahhhh, make it stop please...its like nails on a chalkboard!

Anyways, I'm super pumped for the weekend! Tomorrow I'm throwing hubbys 30th bday party and our favorite surburban hang out place, Pin.stripes. They have baci ball courts which is just so much fun. Tonight I need to make some photoboards of hubby with all his cutsy baby pics, I also need to make brackets boards for the baci ball tournament (yes I like to keep this things official), get prizes for the winners, and order hubby's cake from costco! Tomorrow hubby and I are going to pool it up in the morning, in my new sexy maternity tankini of course, and then I'm heading downtown to get my hair done! Lots of fun stuff!!

Speaking of bdays, my 30th is in October. And seeing as I'll be about 7 months pregnant, hubby and I decided to do the big blowout for his and maybe do just go on a nice relaxing vacay for mine. We want to stay in the states, and go for like 4 or 5 days. Maybe Scottsdale, or something in Arizona, we went there for a wedding last October and it was the perfect time weather wise. Or we could do east coast, like a cute b&b somewhere. If anyone has any suggestions of cool places they've been, would love to hear them!! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

14 Weeks w/ Belly Shots

How Far Along: 14 weeks (and 1 day)

Maternity Clothes: I purchased my first maternity item this weekend...a bathing suit! And let me tell you it is sexy, hah! Its really just a tankini, but my itty bitty bikini was cutting off circulation in my boobs, and after I ate lunch at the pool the whole beer belly gut wasn't looking too hot. Plus hubby was worried about Skooter getting too warm in the sun. I tried on a couple other things but couldn't pull the plug.

Stretch Marks: Nope.

Sleep: Still super tired at night, but pretty good during the day. And I know my books tell me the whole peeing thing will go away around 12 weeks but I'm still getting up nightly to pee.

Best Moment of the Week: Hmm, I guess the holiday weekend in general was pretty good. We kept saying things like Scooter's first 4th, and Scooter's first swim...since it was actually hot enough for me to get in the pool this weekend! And as we watched the fireworks hubby put his hand on my belly, and it felt like all three of us were watching! I can't wait for him (and me) to start feeling movement down there! Oh, and I think we finalized our names when we were laying at the pool this weekend. I still totally reserve the right to change my mind, but as of today I love our two names! Still debating if I'll share early or not.

Movement: Hopefully getting close to some movement action, my book says at the end of month 4 so we'll see. Probably still a few weeks away.

Food cravings: Still lots of fruit, I made pretzel jello salad for the 4th and that has definitely been hitting the spot. Oh, and spaghetti is definitely up there!

Gender: Hubby and I are both thinking girl now. Although I refer to Skooter as a he always!

What I Miss: So I'm getting use to the lack of ultrasounds now, only because I have my trustly doppler on my nightstand. I guess if I had to admit one thing it would be iced coffees from star.bucks. On the weekends hubby and I walk to our little downtown for star.bucks, and my iced tea lemonade (no caffeine if you get passion tea) is just not the same. I suppose I could get decaf, but isn't there still caffeine in that?

What I'm Looking Forward To: My next OB appt which is a week from Friday, hubby and I are hoping we can sneak in an u/s somehow. Still trying to figure out how exactly, but I'm determined to see Skooter!

Weekly Wisdom: Be careful when holding other people's drinks! This weekend at the parade hubby gave me his cup of beer to hold while he unfolded chairs, well I took a swig of his beer instead of my lemonade...and I of course know one sip of beer would be absolutely fine. But instead I freaked and spit it out on the street in front of tons of people, hah! It just tasted so wrong in my mouth I couldn't even swallow!

Milestones: Told my boss today! So I'm officially out of the closet now!

Emotions: I guess the same as usual, so unbelievably excited...but the nerves are still there. I'm getting better at pushing them to the back of my head though. And openly talking baby stuff with people who have heard the news, even allowing myself to daydream about baby stuff and nursery ideas. But even today before telling my boss I had to call hubby and make sure I wasn't jinxing everything by telling. And I just can't believe I'm 14 weeks!

12 weeks

14 weeks

(please excuse the shiny face and air dried fro)

Catching Up - Bulleted Version

Hey peeps!! Like I said I've been SO busy at work which doesn't help my blogging. Know that I'm at least keeping up with yours and even if I'm not commenting, I am reading!! It also doesn't help that we moved floors last week and now my boss, who use to sit on the other side of the floor with absolutely no visual on me (allowing for my 1.5 hour lunch breaks), now sits in the office over my shoulder. Not only does this affect my lunch schedule but also my facebook, blogging, online shopping, etc. Basically its the worst thing EVER!!! But here are some goods things going on:

• Today I'm 13w2d pregnant, whoohoo!
• Last night we did the doppler (because I was convinced my yorkie Bella had hurt Skooter when she jumped onto my lap) and we hit the money spot. Skooter's heart was beating away and it was crystal clear, best sound ever!
• We have fully announced to everyone (except work...when did you tell your boss) that we're pregnant. I'm shocked at how many amazing friends I have that have sent congrats on expecting cards. I'm assuming I avoided this section of the card aisle completely in the past. I want to get better about that in general though, its SO fun to get something unexpected in the mail!
• This weekend is 4th of July which means long weekend, YAY! Since moving to the burbs hubby and I always host our families for the 4th, since we live right where the parade goes by in my town. Always makes for a fun day! Even my grandpa who is 94 comes up from the southside and watches the parade, he's so cute!
• I'm starting to feel like I'm showing, but it does weird me out how much my stomach changes throughout the day. In the morning I look a little bloated, but by bedtime I swear I look like a 5 month pregnant person. Is this normal and does that happen to anyone else?
• Hubby got me the boppy body pillow for my 12 week present, and its AMAZING!
• And to celebrate the end of the 1st trimester hubby and I are having a date night tomorrow since we're taking Friday off. Dinner at wildfire followed by a movie...can you guess what I'm seeing?? You know it, Eclipse here I come...actually more like Edward here I come! Dam he's so frickin hot, hubby I love you more though!

Hope everyone has a great and safe holiday weekend!! And on Monday I'll be doing my 14 week post with some belly shots. I took my first at 12 weeks, so we'll see if there's any change from pic to pic!!! I'm betting chowing down all day on the 4th should help my belly cause!

12 Weeks!!!

How Far Along: 12 weeks (and 2 days)

Maternity Clothes: Just my bella bands for now.

Stretch Marks: Nope, and I got some cocoa butter which I'm slathering on every night now.

Sleep: While energy during the day has definitely improved I still need a lot of sleep. Even when I go to bed early I wake up in the mornings feeling like I'm hungover.

Best Moment of the Week: Seeing Skooter yesterday at our NT scan!! He/she is the cutest little thing, and was bouncing all over the place. But in between bouncing Skooter was chilling with its legs up like it was in a recliner. It was too cute and I never wanted the u/s to end. Here's a pic, you can see the legs on the right and both hands are up by the face. The left one you can see the tips of the thumb and fingertips right there by the nose. The right hand is covering the mouth.

Movement: Still too early!

Food cravings: I could eat chipolte veggie bowl for every meal, watermelon, anything sweet!

Gender: Still thinking girl, reasons are the heartbeat theory and face breakouts. Yesterday's heartbeat was 165 bpm (they say the higher it is = girl, and lower it is = boy). And during the wedding weekend I got a facial and my facialist was 5 months pregnant. She had just found out they were having a girl, and had the same forehead breakouts as I did...she said that was a girl symptom as well. And hey, if were totally off base that would be great too because I can't think of anything cuter than a mini hubby!!

What I Miss: Now I'm definitely missing the weekly u/s as yesterday marked three weeks since my last one. The doppler has truly been a savior. We're so good at finding the heartbeat now that we just do it every night before bed for like 30 seconds. Also, I'm missing worry free sex. Its just not the same when all you can think about is running to the bathroom to see if you're spotting afterwards...I know we'll get there but in the beginning its just frickin scary!

What I'm Looking Forward To: Telling everyone! We told a few people at the wedding but I totally chickened out and didn't want to fully announce. I just needed yesterday's u/s under my belt. So I think I may email my friends today with the pic of Skooter. I'm still nervous since we've been keeping it a secret so long, but I'm excited for everyone to finally know!!

Weekly Wisdom: Random symptom of pregnancy is increased hair growth, well apparently my hair got the memo all new growth should occur on my stomach! Yes, I have a full on treasure trail of blonde hair, in addition to some all over fur. It's weirdly long and just ain't sexy.

Milestones: 12 weeks - almost out of the first trimester!!! And successful NT scan!

Emotions: Starting to believe this is happening. Seeing Skooter yesterday was just so amazing. I definitely have a start of a bump which is exciting too, I took a 12 week picture finally but its on my other camera so I'll have to download later today. And I also pulled out the pregnancy books finally. I had bought a couple last year when I got pregnant and after the miscarriage hubby hid all pregnancy related stuff. I never asked for them because I didn't want to jinx this pregnancy, or something.

Bad Blogger

So I must say I've been a terrible blogger of late. I'm trying as hard as I can to keep up with all yours, but I've been super busy at work which is where I do most of my blogging. I know I know, I'm a bad employee. But 90% of the year I'm bored to tears, but in the summer we have our insurance renewals which I'm in charge of and they really piss me off cause I'm forced to be a decent employee and get some crap done. And I have to admit...back in the fall when thoughts of a summer baby were on my mind I also thought about the chance of my maternity leave falling on insurance renewal season. Oh well, clearly I'm meant to have a January baby so I'll suck it up and get this shit done.

And on top of that we have an out town wedding this weekend in Galena. Hubby and I both grew up growing to Galena. His grandparents had a house there, and my parents had a townhouse. We always joke that we could have walked right past each other way back in the day!! I have so many great memories of that place, we'd go there in the summer and winter...and I have since recruited my friends on numerous skiing trips there and hubby and I have gone for several weekends on our own. The thing I love most about Galena is it never changes...they have this cute little town, with the same candy store I went to when I was 10, that you can weigh on those old school scales. My mom only let me get 1/4 lb, and it was all about getting the gummies which were way lighter than chocolate stuff, hah!!

I also met Jas.on Prie.stly, Ia.n Zieri.ng, and Dav.id Aus.ten Gree.n in Galena. I know, SO random. And believe it or not...it was when 90210 was fairly new, I was in 4th grade which meant 90210 obsession!!! They were doing some celebrity baseball game at the Field of Dreams (which is not too far away), and as fate would have it they were staying at the townhouse attached to mine!!! I listened through the walls with cups all night long. I remember being so upset because Jason Priestly was smoking (which in my 4th grade head was equivalent to doing drugs, hah)!! We got autographs and tons of photo ops, I mean really...how amazing is that story?!?

Needless to say Galena is a very happy place for me, so hubby and I took Friday off and are heading up Thursday afternoon to extend the trip. First stop is Happy Joe's for some taco pizza, yum! And then Friday hubby is golfing with the boys (he's standing up) and I'm heading to the spa for my first mani/pedi since finding out I was pregnant, can we say way overdue. I know I'm a freak but when I googled online it said to make sure they didn't rub your feet or ankles in certain spots cause they're pressure points that induce contractions. Every article online just says to tell them you're pregnant and ask they only rub your calves. But let's be honest...I felt a little silly going in at 6 weeks with NO bump whatsoever being all I'm pregnant so can you not rub my feet, hah. But that's just me.

Another first this week for me is highlights!! OMG, you have no idea. I was due for highlights before I started IVF, but skipped in fear the chemicals would somehow affect my eggs...seriously I have problems. So my point is I literally have 4 inch roots of dark brown hair (with some evil rogue grey strands...okay, i've only found like 2 but they're much easier to find against dark hair), ick!! The combination of the dark roots, gross feet and nails, and totally broken out forehead is definitely not a winning one. It's summer and I'm ready to be blond again, YAY! Maybe I should take before and after pics to document the improvement, hah!

What else, tomorrow I go for blood work for my NT scan next week. Wednesday is my last weekly acupuncture (and then I'm just going to go monthly until my package runs out). And then Thursday is my 12 week appointment with the OB (a few days early) but I wanted to get confirmation everything is good before the wedding. We may start to tell people at the wedding. I asked hubby if he wanted to bring it up to the guys, and he suggested I just bring it up to the wives/girlfriends. The idea of telling people is so weird to think about, I mean I'm excited don't get me wrong...and for my own friends I'm planning a whole cute announcement. But we're going to be at a wedding, and I certainly don't wait to create a huge spectacle...so I may just tell one or two of the other wives and let the news spread on its own. And I think I'm going to wait and tell all my friends after the NT scan (a week from tomorrow) so I can send them all a great pic or video of little Skooter.

So today marks 11 weeks so we're getting very close to 2nd trimester. I think I'm starting to let it sink in a little more, I'm definitely starting to feel more confident talking about this pregnancy like its actually happening. So in any case if I'm MIA this week you know why, and I should have a great post for you next week post highlights/wedding/NT scan! Have a great week everyone.