It burns!!!

Holy cow! I have never had heartburn in my life that I can recall, but let me tell you - I don't think this is a case of simple heartburn. I'm pretty sure this is acid reflux to every extent. It feels as though burning molten lava is being spurted up into my throat all the way from my stomach. It also feels that this burning molten lava has to first get around a giant gumball stuck lower in my throat/chest and it then has to make its way back around it on the way down. Oh my gosh, for about 2-3 weeks I have had this burning in my throat that I thought was just a sore throat coming on. Then I got this cold and it made sense...then the burning kept up and it has only gotten worse. Now it wakes me up in the morning - at 4:30, accompanied by stretching hiccuping baby. Ah the joys. Every pregnant woman has their woes - even non-pregnant people deal with this sort of stuff (the acid reflux at night, not the baby hiccups) but I haven't ever...so right now I just need to vent! I will now revert back to the first trimester when I first found that there really is little to no glamour involved in being pregnant. To all of you pregos that loved it, thought it was magical and enjoyed every bit...your welcome for taking all of the bad stuff on on your behalf!

Now - with my complaining session over - I have to update on our hospital tour last night. I commented on facebook how we were going and to cross fingers that Jason (actually I referred to him as Cletis) made it through the tour okay and didn't pass out. Granted the sight of needles is what really gets him, if I could guarantee no needles on our upcoming real "visit" at the hospital, I'm positive he'd be just fine at this one! Maple Grove hospital is small and new, it has something like 80 rooms....total to the entire hospital. You walk in to a lobby filled with plush couches, a piano and stone walls accented with leather wall tiles. It is so nice! We went up to the family birth center and the hallways are carpeted, dimly lit (in a relaxing, not cheap manner), and the room doors are thick and wide. The delivery rooms have canned lighting all with dimmers, laminate dark wood floors, a full bathroom with jacuzzi tub, full bed that pulls out for the hubby, and enough room to potentially fit about 30 people...not exaggerating. The recovery rooms, or "getting to know you rooms" as they call it, are smaller, but still very nice. Huge flat screen TV, laminate wood floors, a walk in shower with rain shower-head, the full size bed, a refrigerator - the works. The only thing I didn't like about those rooms is that they are small and the beds seemed very narrow, but there was also about 15 people on the tour also squished into the same room. There is even a Mommy refrigerator that is fully stocked with juice, fruit, food and soda out in the main area where if the cafeteria (which is basically all you can order and eat and we were told we could potentially order "too much to eat" and the hubbys could eat our extras...for free too) is closed, you can just help yourselves! Now, Methodist - our original hospital - is nice, but it is huge, sterile tile floors with lots of noise and action all the time. This was as quiet as could be. At first I thought maybe they were just slow, but all the rooms, except the two we toured in, were full and being used! We were rushed through the rooms in fact to accomodate new moms-to-be getting ready to deliver.
After the tour I facebooked again that it was like a spa - or as spa like as a hospital can get. I still wasn't exaggerating! It really is nice! Jason did just fine with the tour and I think he was a little bit relieved to know that we will be in such a comfortable place vs the nurse ratchet (sp?) type needle poking I-V carting typical setting.

Now...if I can get this fiery volcano out of my upper chest, that would be ideal!

30 1/2 week photos

Okay, I know these aren't great, but this is what I get when I insist on getting photos the minute I think of it...and Jason is busy doing something else. I'll get better ones soon, but here we are for now. As of today (Thursday, October 28th) I am 30 weeks, 6 days...and have 65 more days!

Second entry for the day

Okay, so here is my first Dear Baby:

Dear Baby,

Please know ahead of time that when I freak out, please follow in your father's footsteps. He is the one to take after with your temperment and measure of "moodiness". Perfect example...and though I can blame a good part of this on hormones, it happened before you came along and I am fairly confident it will continue after, would be yesterday. Actually, let's rewind to last week and you can read the entry from last week for proof.
Sunday-Wed early in the day were great. My mood level and engery level were pretty darn good and I felt great. At the drop of a hat, sometime during the day on Wed, things starting heading downhill. By the end of the week, my energy level had taken a deep dark plunge and this cold set in. Now, yesterday was an exhausting day having been out of work sick, but even so, there's little excuse for how I was acting. I was hungry, but with this cold couldn't think of anything appetizing. I wanted to eat, but didn't want to make anything. Then the power went out at the house due to a fairly severe wind storm so making anything was out of the question. Your Dad offered to go somewhere, but kept following up his offers with something like "...but I'd really rather not go outside in this weather..." - yea, like I'm going to make him do that when he puts it that way! So, I was crabby from the get-go, then there was nothing your Dad could say to make me feel any better. With that said, he probably would have been better off just leaving me alone so I could be at one with my annoying frustration and anger issues. For some reason, when the power came on and he agreed to make me a pizza (yes, nutritious I know)...and I proceeded to eat the entire thing, I had an upswing in my mood. Not a lot, but enough to take the edge off of my scowl that had ridden my face all afternoon and evening. Nonetheless, your Father kissed me goodnight still the same as any night and we woke up...all was well, the Earth kept turning. I felt guilty for acting so childish and rude the night before because this isn't the first time my mood had gotten the better of me. I had to call him anyway to tell him that the other half of the willow tree out front had toppled over in the wind so I was glad I had the opportunity to apologize. Of course he did notice my mood the night before because I deliberately announced as I got home from work that evening that I was in a sour mood and sorry, but there was nothing he or I could do about it. What he said though was, in a nut-shell, "water off a duck's back honey, you can't help that you are sick and uncomfortable..." and on to accepting my apology all while insisting that one wasn't needed.
That is why you should take after your Father in that respect. He is a wonderful man and I love him very much. I know he loves me too and he already is so in love with you no matter what your temperment. Just always do like you Mother and apologize when you know you've done wrong. A combination of the two will make for a great mix...and you and I may butt-heads less and less.
Love you,
your crabby but "give me a few and I'll come around" Mama

One of two for the day...

Well, I am recovering, slowly but surely, from my first pregnancy cold. I have managed to get through my pregnancy to week 30 1/2 without an illness (not counting the morning sickness of course) so I guess cold and flu season is only fitting to be the time when I experience my first bout with not being able to take any meds at all! I stayed home from work on Monday which was well needed. I used to take sick days all too often when they didn't involve being sick at all. Then I got pregnant - where being sick didn't involve a case of "just don't want to go today" or "ahem ahem, I think I have a cough...coincidentally it is 80 and sunny"... enough about that though - a cold is a cold no matter what meds you can or can't take. Sleep is still the best medicine and that is not something I come short of these days. I do sleep a lot, just in shorter stints vs a full nights' sleep!
So, Friday night we had a wonderful night out with two wonderful friends celebrating their first two weeks of marriage - and another amazing happening in life which I can't get in to at this point... all in all it was a GREAT night and we are very lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives, these two are no less than a blessing.
Late that night however, my throat started to swell a bit. I thought it was exhaustion setting in as I rarely stay up past 9, much less 11. Saturday morning confirmed (say about 3am, 4am and 6am...) that I indeed had something coming on. All day I was moving at turtle speed trying to get the house cleaned for Sunday festivities. It was all I had just to get out of the house in my sweats to Lowes - because that is one of my favorite places to go with my husband.
Saturday night brought an early bed time all by myself because Jason was at Chad and Leslie's pretending (and soon after regretting) that he still likes to pretend he's in his early 20's. It was a lovely night of Unisom and Massey snuggles. Christy was in town for the weekend so she came over for some home made chili and great conversation. Just can't get enough of that girl - wish she were here more...or all that time!
Sunday morning = bring on the kleenex! Throat issues were the least of my worries! I had full sinuses and although my energy level seemed fairly high, I still had to pace myself while getting dressed even. Christy came over and I managed to create my second home made apple pie of the week (what?!?! I know, crazy). And soon enough the living room was full of 6 wonderful ladies all celebrating Baby C with me! We talked, laughed - a lot - and ate - a lot - and I received some amazing gifts! Another wonderful shower for me to laugh at my earlier posts where I had anxiety if anything was going to turn out the way I wanted as far as showers went.
That evening Jason and I both napped (for different reasons yet both very necessary) and then had an easy dinner and early bedtime. Monday, like I mentioned, was a day spent in bed and on the couch, but was well justified.

Keeping up with keeping on...

Well, it has been quite the week! Sunday, Monday and Tuesday came and went with so much energy, I cooked dinner and baked almost all three days/nights! I slept well, cleaned and did all of my wife-ly duties to keep my hard working husband happy...and then Wednesday came. All went well, except all day at work I kept thinking how ridiculous it was that it wasn't Thursday already and that the week was starting to drag on. I got home, decided that the fresh acorn squash from the local farmers market needed to be cooked. So I did cook it, and then I cooked some chicken - some very thick chicken breasts that didn't hold the marinade and took WAY too long to cook in the oven! I ended up cutting them in half (my mere attempt at butterflying something where it inevitably ends up in two pieces) and returning them to the oven after the said 30 minutes...for another 30 minutes. At that point, I just got frustrated and everything went from an energy and motivation level of 10 to about a 2. The chicken no longer looked or smelled any bit appetizing, actually watching Jason eat it brought back my dreaded early-pregnancy memories (both memory and the taste in my mouth) of chicken not sitting well ... and making an encore appearance. So, I ate about 3/4 of the squash and a PB & Honey sandwich for dinner. All the while, all Jason could do was try and keep his mouth shut, he didn't know what to say rather than saying the wrong thing (everything was the wrong thing to me at that point). So, I wanted to get to bed early so I did, and fell asleep. Then I woke up when Jason came in. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but with him in the bed I can't sprawl to my body's new needed awkward positions. While on my left side (the side I'm "supposed to" lay on), my "prenatal onset restless leg syndrome" (Dr confirmed issue) was in full force for my right leg and I just wanted to either tense it up or shake it or kick it or something. So, I turned on to my right side. Not that I am not supposed to lay on my right side, but it isn't the better side to lay on - except for my baby is laying on the right half of me so it would kick and squirm (as though I was squishing it although I knew that I wasn't) pushing everything up into the left side of my ribcage - queue cramping. So then I would lay on my back, which at this point is uncomfortable for many pregnant people because of the weight on your uterus and a major artery. It wasn't uncomfortable for me, but the baby would slump down to the right side and start wiggling around - so I'd roll on to my left side again...see the pattern? After about 45 minutes of this, I, frustrated as all hell at this point, got up and went in to the bathroom and quietly sobbed. I cried uncontrollably because all I wanted to do was fall asleep or at least be comfortable while trying to do so. This not being my first emotional episode (as you have all read before), I knew that my only way to get this sob-fest to stop was to distract myself. So I cleaned the toilet and the bathtub. This did help to a certain extent and now that I'm writing this, maybe it was good because it got my circulation going through my leg to help stop the tingling...long enough for when I went to lay back down, clogged nose and red blotchy eyes (good thing it was dark in the room!) - I did eventually fall asleep. It was not a good night of sleep, but it did include some sleep.
That, on top of driving into work being brought to tears by some jerk lady in an oversize SUV honking at me as I tried to merge with some other dip-shit typical woman driver to get on the highway (the whole annoying subconscious speed up slow down without realizing it only because the car next to you - me - was doing it...). I cried, but quickly found a radio station that had a morning show that distracted me. Then I got to work and had to go to a meeting with a very annoying co-worker that wasn't necessarily going to bring me to tears, but had the potential to make me blow up in a manner that would probably bring her or others to tears with how annoyed I was. I minded my business and called it a short day to get home in time to meet the carpet cleaners. Them being there was a blessing in disguise I think because Massey, Jason and I hung out in yard for over an hour. Just talking and me coming to terms with the humility of how my last 24 hours had gone.
Moral of the story time: It's a very good thing to be able to laugh at yourself...as long as you can eventually bring yourself to do so.
Now, last night after the carpet cleaner guy (zero rez - I highly recommend them!) left, I went over to JZ's house for a girls get together. They carved pumpkins, we drank apple cider, had some pregnancy updates and news...can't spill the beans yet (it's absolutely killing me), ate lots of junk food - and just had a wonderful time with some wonderful friends...and you'll be happy to know that last night's sleep was AMAZING.


Oh - and baby is just fine. Getting huge and no more little pokes and jabs, more like swells of body movements across my entire mid-section. I know I have 9 weeks left, but I'm ready...and truly fearful for how ginormous this child could potentiall get before making its debut.

Misc Updates...

Well, here we are at 28 1/2 weeks, 5 days into trimester 3 (officially)!

At the Dr's appointment yesterday, the heartbeat was in the 140's and very strong. Tons of movement which is good and the head seemed to be "down"...for that moment at least. I was cleared for flying to go visit the Wood's the first weekend in November - and given a prescription for compression socks for the flights!

I have to rewind in time a bit here because I've been sort of bad at bringing in the memory card for the actual camera - having now been spoiled by the iPhone for 3 weeks!

Here are some pictures of proud Dad putting together the crib, I did help - as did Massey as you can see by the photos, but clearly the last photo shows just how proud he is that he put this together!

And then some other fun pics - fall leaves...and then the spoiled pup...not for long!

Growing every second!

What a weekend! We had Niki and Christian's beautiful wedding celebration on thursday night and friday day...and saturday night for that matter! Baby did well, but man did I pay for it on Sunday! The delay in soreness and being so tired - who knew that standing for most the day could make my quads hurt?!?!? Just standing mind you, not running or squatting....

Anyway - we have this picture which I love - don't mind the "fog" there was a smoke machine on the dance floor.

Such a beautiful day and night to match the beautiful bride and groom!!!

So - Saturday, baby was fine and moved as usual. I slept exceptionally well and I even slept just past 9am - that's good for me these days!

Sunday was an added bonus of sorts because it felt as though Saturday was Sunday due to the Friday festivities. I did get a few errands in and was home by 1pm or so to relax, plant some mum's and have some true quality couch time! Most of the day I just felt so full, it is hard to imagine feeling full, but hungry all at the same time. There just isn't much room for the ole' stomach these days. The baby was moving a ton, still some jabs here and there, but mostly waves of body moving from one side to the other. Massey wanted to be scratched so she did her usual plop of her head where your hands are (on my stomach at that particular moment) and got kicked in the face! It was pretty funny, although she didn't mind as long as it was followed by me scratching behind her ears.

Now, last night - hiccups maybe for the first time...at 3am and 4am and then the Samba followed by the norwegian chicken dance at 5am - and so it goes. Now as I sit at my desk, the baby still insists on sitting/laying low and moving around as thought to suggest that I need to lay back so it has more room to do laps!

We are down to about 11-12 weeks!!!!!!

What you get...

Well, I was thinking the other week about certain "things" that pregnant people (supposedly) often get while with child - like perfect hair, nails, maybe bad skin, etc...
So far I have been lucky that my skin hasn't changed, my scalp has actually dried out a bit which was needed. My hair on the other hand, did not and has not gotten all thick an luxurious though. At first I had handfulls falling out, that has since slowed down, but I am still losing hair. The only extra hair I can tell that I've gottin is on the left upper corner of my forehead. A large sprout of baby hairs that cannot be tamed. No matter how flat I can get them to lay in the morning, within an hour or two, they are standing straight out to the side - like I styled them that way or something. My finger nails grow quickly, but in spurts. I don't think they're any stronger though.
I haven't gotten the Linea Nigra (dark line that goes from your belly button down) - not yet at least, but my stomach is just now being stretched taught. It had quite a bit of room to spare:).
Other than that - I can't think of any other huge trends, per say, that women typically get.
Now watch, tomorrow I'm going to have the evils of all that I've seemed to avoid this far - go figure!

A true effort

Well, most of my life I would consider the following to require a true effort - like holding your breath because you're concentrating so hard effort: opening a jar of pickles or pasta sauce, lifting something really heavy across the room or on to a table, moving a piece of furniture. This morning, I realized I now have taken a different view on things that require a true effort: putting on and tying my tennis shoes. yes, it's my fault that I haven't been stretching how I probably should to remain limber and loose for delivery, however, the fact that I had to take a breathe-break between feet, that's not my fault. That's lovely pregnancy showing it's true colors.
Note to self/Moral of the story: Go shoe shopping this weekend for slip on shoes!!