Making Room for Baby: Project #1

Before

I love our house. What I do not love is that I am a packrat with lots of stuff, and that our house - with its few closets - has trouble accommodating me and said stuff. In anticipation of another little person joining our ranks, and knowing full well that said little person will have lots of stuff of his or her own, Scott and I made plans to build a new closet in what will be the baby's room. Well, let's be honest. We made plans for Scott and his dad to build a new closet. This ambitious project commenced yesterday.

Dad on the floor playing with the electrical stuff. Scary business.

Scott cutting the drywall

This one makes me smile.

Inside the "closet"

I'll be honest here and tell you that I vanished downstairs for awhile. I think I was of better use just staying out of the way. They worked and pounded for several hours, and when I came back upstairs, I found this:

And this:

After. Well, after their work from yesterday. The inside isn't finished.

11 Weeks

I can say with no hesitation that this week was infinitely better than last week. No emergency room visits! I've probably been feeling about the same as far as typical pregnancy symptoms go, but the pain and discomfort I felt last week is long gone. (Praise God!) It was a good week. I even anticipate that it will get even better over the next couple of weeks as I venture into the second trimester.

I don't think there were any new symptoms that emerged this week, other than impatience. (Seeing your sister advancing 10 weeks ahead and finding out exciting news you can't know about your own baby will do that.) Many continued, though. At the top of the list:

Food aversions and a general obsession with food. Eating is a necessary chore. It takes an eternity to decide what to eat, and heaven help me if it takes more than 15 seconds to prepare or retrieve it. By the time the food itself is in front of me, I won't want it any more. Even if I can get my first bite within a few seconds of deciding it sounds good, that first bite will probably make me change my mind. As soon as I finish eating, though, my mind becomes consumed by trying to figure out where the next meal will come from. There, the cycle begins again. I'm actually worried that I'm going to get in trouble for not gaining enough weight. I'm just going to assure my doctor that I'm eating all I can, even if it's not much. I think he's probably seen this before.

Sleepiness and easy fatigue. I went to the grocery store the other day and slept for two hours when I got home. I get out of breath when I, well, stand up. I know I should be taking walks, but walking to the end of the driveway is an accomplishment. For someone who is generally in pretty good shape (that'd be me, by the way) it's kind of like living in someone else's body.

Of course, there are all of the *other* symptoms that I've had since the beginning but have not written about. Some, well, just cannot be appropriately written about for general audiences, and others aren't very entertaining (even though poor Scott gets to hear about them ad infinitum).

I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday and I can't wait. I don't know if they'll do another sonogram or not, and really I'm okay either way as long as I get to hear the baby's heart again. If they do a sonogram, expect pictures!

I want to say here that I do not write about any of these symptoms in order to complain about them. Honestly, I find them all amusing. It's like my body has been hijacked and I get to be the journalist on the scene to report what's going on. This pregnancy has been a blessing and I do not in any way want to imply anything to the contrary.

Photo Op: Pregnant Sisters Together

Yesterday Mom and I had the awesome privilege of going with Ashley to her 20-week sonogram. (The wee one cooperated and we found out some very exciting news.....which I'm not going to share......I shall leave that up to Ashley......Hurry up, Atty!) Mark, her husband, couldn't go because her doctor rescheduled her appointment so many times that he couldn't get off work. (Long story, which can best be summarized by saying, "Boo to bad doctors, and HURRAY for good doctors!") Before we left for the appointment, Mom had to capture the image of her two pregnant daughters in a photo shoot in the back yard.

Ashley at 20 weeks

Me at 10 (nearly 11) weeks. Methinks some big changes cometh in the next few weeks. (Believe it or not, I was actually quite poochy yesterday. I had to, um, make some adjustments in my pants to accommodate me.)

We find the differences amusing.

Ashley: "What are those things?"
Me: "Those are my feet."
Ashley: "Huh. Do I have those? I can't see."
Me: "Yeah, you do.....they're right there!"

Me: "Ma.....she's freaking me out. Why's she looking at me like that?"

Ashley: "Girl, lemme tell you all about it......."
Me: "Oh, no.........."

Ashley: "I just feel so........uuugghhhhhhhhh."
Me: "Hahahahahahahahahaha!"

Ashley: "Yeah, you just keep laughing. You'll be here soon enough. You'll see. And then I'll get to laugh at you because I'll be done and you'll be HUGE! Just keep laughing. Laugh on."
Me: "Oh, no.......................really?"

Two Weeks Notice

The latest big news? I quit my job yesterday. I put in my two weeks notice and am not looking back.

Anyone who's been around here for any amount of time knows that it's been a long time coming. It's been a lot to handle for awhile, and I think I've only recently reached that critical tipping point. It finally got to me and was really affecting me in ways it should not have been allowed to, and I couldn't let it happen any more.

I felt as though I was heading down an all-too-familiar road, with familiar milemarkers that indicated my nearness to a destination I have no desire to reach again. It's that place of desperation....of panic and fear....of crippling anxiety and nerves of....well, nerves of whatever material could be considered the opposite of steel. It's not a good place to be, and my nearness to it was enough to convince me that something had to give.

Something had to change. I couldn't put myself, Scott, or the baby through any of that anymore. The normalcy of stress and anxiety was unnerving and not something I wanted to encourage.

I don't have a definite plan now, which is a little bit scary, but I really feel that God is going to take care of us. I'll start looking for something with less pressure - something of less importance that will let me concern myself with my health and wellbeing. I will write. Ultimately, that is what I want to do, and this gives me a good opportunity to pursue that. I feel peace about my decision and I know that I've done the right thing for myself and my family.

That's what's most important to me.

While in the above movie Sandra Bullock does play the part of an assistant to an overly busy real estate developer person, I have to be sure to point out that the resemblance between the two of us ends there. I do not anticipate the end of my movie here at Boss Man's Concrete Company to look anything like the end of Sandra's movie. I'll leave it at that. (Though now I do have the urge to watch that movie. It was good.)

10 Weeks

I'm officially 1/4 of the way there....nearing the sought-after end of the first trimester.

This week was a rough one. There were the normal reasons, of course, like being crazy hungry but not wanting any food known to man, and nausea when I picked the wrong food or waited too long to pick something. (Poor Scott. This has been a challenge for him. Halfway to a restaurant, I'll decide that where we're going isn't going to work, but I don't know where will work. Lots of fun as I start feeling sick because I'm getting hungry and he's panicking because he doesn't know where to go or what to do.) New this week: sinus problems. Netty Pot to the rescue! (Ashley - I hope you're happy.)

Aside from that stuff, though, when I tried to think of a way to summarize the week, this was the best I could do:
I realize this requires some explanation, so an explanation I shall provide.

First of all, that's my wrist with my accessories of the week. The tan thing in the middle is a band that's for my nausea. It has a magnet that presses into a pressure point on my wrist and thereby reduces the symptoms of nausea. Mom's acupuncturist gave them to me, and while they don't work 100%, they do work well enough for me to continue wearing them despite their goofy appearance.

The white band to the left is a hospital band. Last Sunday night when I laid down to go to sleep I couldn't breathe. Could not. It felt as though my throat was closing up - I had to cough just to breathe. Sitting up helped very little, but I drank some hot tea that eventually helped some and I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep (in a recliner). As soon as I woke up Monday morning, though, it started again and Scott took me to the emergency room. They couldn't do much there - no chest X-rays or anything like that - because of the baby, but they did an EKG, which looked normal, and took lots and lots of my blood, which didn't show any signs of blood clots or anything like that. They gave me a breathing treatment and an inhaler and sent me home. My obstetrician (the best in the WORLD) came and checked on me, and wanted me to follow up in a couple of days and just let him know how I was doing. I used the inhaler 3 times Monday but haven't had to use it since then.

On Tuesday, I felt pretty good, except for this somewhat worrisome nagging ache I'd had for several days. My doctor told me it was probably something normal, based on my description of it, so I wasn't all that worried. I was aware of it, but not scared.

Then on Wednesday, I figured that I needed to get checked out. The ache was getting worse, and I was having strong symptoms of.....a urinary tract infection. I've had them before, so I knew what I was looking at, and called the doctor's office and told them what was going on. I went and had some lab work done to confirm my suspicions and was told they'd let me know. I didn't hear anything on Thursday but was getting increasingly uncomfortable. On Friday morning I was in agony and called the doctor as soon as the office opened. I told the nurse that my back was hurting - in my kidney area - and the UTI symptoms were worse. Based on that, she told me to come in and see the doctor on call because my doctor was out of town at a funeral.

Let me say here that I do not like the other doctor. Let me quote her: "Oops. Made you bleed. Sorry!" Yeah.

She gave me some antibiotics and something for my discomfort and sent me home. An hour after I got home, the pain got bad enough, all of a sudden, that I was close to calling an ambulance. I called Scott instead, though, bawling, and told him something had to be done. I have never felt pain that intense. It was so scary.

He came and took me back to the emergency room. (Hence the second hospital band, on the right in the above picture.) Again, because of the baby, they couldn't do all the tests they normally would. Scott and I had a feeling that it was a kidney stone. The doctor (the same one who saw me Monday) told me that they'd do the same thing for a kidney stone and a UTI for a pregnant woman. They did give me some vicodin, though, for the pain. (I was assured by several doctors that everything they were doing and giving me was safe for me and the baby.)

Me likey da vikey.

After one dose the pain evaporated as quickly as it came, and now I'm just fighting the UTI. No fun, for sure, but at least I can move. Baby steps.

There's my week in a nutshell. Fingers crossed for a better week this week.

Nine Weeks

Here I am at nine weeks. (I usually don't look quite so......hmm.....awful. Ironically, I've been told that I've begun glowing this week.) I know there's not a whole lot to see there in the midsection area, but I figure if I post ones where there's not a whole lot to see, it'll be much more exciting when there is something to see. So, yeah. Here I am with minimal midsection pudginess. Actually, there is some expansion there (and this time, it's not because of a huge Mexican meal like it was the first time we took one). My books tell me I should be experiencing "some minor thickening" in the waist, so I think that this is what that looks like. (There are bare midsection pictures in existence, but I'm going to leave that to your imagination.) (Actually, no. Scratch that. Don't, under any circumstances, imagine my belly. That's weird. Stop it.)

This week:
Nausea morning, noon, and night, but as long as I eat approximately every 14.6 minutes, I'll be fine.

Food aversions. Do not, under any circumstances, present me with the same meal I ate a few hours ago. Leftovers, which were once barely tolerable, are now abhorrent.

Pressure. I'll leave it at that (and fully expect that you experienced ladies out there to say something along the lines of, "Just wait," or, "You think that's bad?").

I am narcoleptic and my legs get tired after a stroll around the back yard.

Shopping for the wee one for the first time. Among our purchases:

Oh, come on. You know I had to.

My mom, hereafter known in this context as Weezer, bought this. I. Love. It. Nearly makes me cry.

Which, by the way, is not unusual this week.

Finding Out The News: May 13, 2008

Because a couple of people have requested the story and because I think it's a good one and so classically us, I shall share the story of when we found out the news.

We decided that Tuesday night - the Tuesday after Mother's Day - would be the Night of Testing. We had our suspicions, of course, but had been hesitant to test too early and get a false negative or something equally frustrating, so a lot of thought went into when we were going to actually take a test.

Scott got home and we had small talk and then finally got around to the thing we were both anticipating greatly but weren't talking about. We went to the bathroom and I, well, did what was necessary on the expensive plastic stick.

For three minutes we again talked about.....whatever....but not the little stick on the counter. Finally we got to look. We peered at it together, and saw......

"Wait. Is that one line or two? I can't tell! There are two lines, there, I think, but it's faint......... Babe, it seems like I read somewhere that if you see the second line AT ALL it means....well, it means you're pregnant. I think I read that.....!"

We were looking at the instruction booklet that came with the test and trying to see if there was anything in there about a faint second line. There was nothing. Nothing at all.

We went to the family room to try to get on the computer to go to the First Response website to see what they had to say on the subject. Waiting to start up the computer. Waiting for the internet to connect. Waiting for the internet to connect. Waiting for the internet to connect. Waiting......for......the.......internet.......to......connect.......... It would not connect. Would not. We tried and tried and tried. (This is where it's not such a great thing that we mooch wireless internet service from our neighbors.) If three minutes seemed like a long time sitting in the bathroom making small talk, this was an eternity!

Finally Scott said he'd go to the store to get a digital test. We had another of the same "two line" tests, but that one probably would have done the same thing, so he figured a digital one might be better. I offered to come with him, but I was *exhausted* so he refused to let me and insisted he'd go. I told him we could get one the next day (not really wanting to do that, but feeling bad that he was going to drive back into town by himself at like 9 at night), and he was like, "Um.....no." I said, "Do you WANT to go?" He nodded. "You wanna know, too, don't you?" He nodded a very enthusiastic nod, and that was so sweet to me - that was literally the first time he had seemed excited or anxious at all to know what was going on.

So he went. And I waited. I would have been watching American Idol to distract myself, but the TV was messed up so I couldn't. (It has been suggested that the broken state of our TV was the reason we got pregnant in the first place. Regardless of the humor in that, it's not true.)

Finally he got back and we went back to the bathroom. And we made more small talk while waiting AGAIN. He went back into the bathroom (we had been sitting in our room) to blow his nose, and when he came back we resumed our small talk. He randomly hugged me, and said, "I saw what it said."

I was like, "Um.....huh?"

"I saw what it said. Do you want to know what it says?"

"Yes! But you weren't supposed to look! We were supposed to look together! But yes, I want to know!"

"I couldn't help it! I just saw it when I went in!"

"TELL ME WHAT IT SAID!"

"It said what you were afraid might not happen."

"Are you KIDDING me?"

And we ran into the bathroom and saw it. Big bold letters this time: PREGNANT.

And I screamed. And Scott jumped. And we hugged and cried and it was all a very sweet scene.

The Biggest News Yet.....or EVER!

Really and seriously.....we're pregnant!

I can't even tell you how excited we are. We're at 8 weeks right now, and everything is going beautifully so far. Even so, we covet your prayers. This little person already means the world to us, and I want him or her bathed in prayer from the very start.

I promise to keep you posted! I'm excited about having all of you with me on this journey.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. (Psalm 139:13-16)