Baby update!

There are four of these filled with my beautiful, thoughtfully collected clothing now in my basement. Yes, this baby has given me a gut. A gut so big that I can no longer fit into about 80% of my clothes--mainly my nice suits and other work attire that I've bought over the past few years. About a week and 1/2 ago I fit nicely in the pants that I'm wearing today, they were zipped all the way up and I could breathe. Alas, today they are mostly unzipped, completely unbuttoned and are supported only by the trusty belly band. Maybe it's just fat, you might ask? Well, I'm down 2 pounds from my last doctor's appointment at the beginning of last week. So, I blame the baby. Happily, of course, I look forward to the day when I no longer look like I've been eating too many (reduced fat) oreos, but instead have a large baby bump.

But I digress... Also in the bin are several pairs of seven jeans and a brand new pair of white boot cut JCrew jeans bought at the end of last season that have never been worn. Am I complaining? Of course not. In spending four hours last Sunday afternoon packing away all of these lovely items, however, I definitely realized that I WILL be losing every single pound that I gain while with child. My clothes packed away in the basement are too special not to honor them by re-wearing each item with a baby on my hip as my accessory of choice.

I also discovered maternity clothing last weekend. A quick trip to Pea in the Pod resulted in a surprising discovery that their black suiting skirt looked nice and was really comfortable. Now, I wear the maternity band folded down. When the bump gets bigger, I'll be able to fold it up. Maybe maternity clothes aren't that bad after all! This whole being pregnant this is kinda fun ;-)

I'm happy to report that the baby has now decided to comply with its Mama after we had a little chat last week, and now lets me find it's heartbeat nearly every time I try with the doppler. Last Friday, heartbeat was 174 BPM, about the same as it was at the doctor's appointment that Monday. I found it again yesterday, although it wasn't quite strong enough to register on the digital BPM scale. It's neat to hear the sounds of the placenta whirring away in there, they have definitely become stronger and louder over the past few weeks. Baby is just tipping outside my pelvis, and I have a feeling in the next few weeks I'll have a legit baby bump. After all, with a torso as short as mine, there really isn't anywhere else for it to go.

So we're all doing well, fatigue is still kicking my tail, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Second trimester begins in four days! I'm counting the minutes until Natural Instincts takes my gray away...

My Go-To Beauty Product...

Is mascara! I feel like I'm naked without it. I've tried so many types of mascara that I have definitely found a favorite, and here it is:

Dior Diorshow Black is the best that I've tried, with all others very far behind. This mascara makes your lashes BOTH long and thick, and is a fantastic rich black color. Not far behind is another Dior mascara:

Dior Diorshow Blackout. I also really like this mascara, although after a few weeks of use it gets rather clumpy. This mascara has a extra thick black tar base, and thus doesn't last as long as the Dior Diorshow. When I want to be super-glam, this is my mascara of choice.

I have another favorite that I've been using for a long time, that I've used less recently - mainly because most stores stopped carrying the brand, and I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart unless it's absolutely necessary. It's:

Max Factor 2000 Calorie in Rich Black. I prefer the curved brush, but it seems as if it's increasingly hard to find. I've taken to buying a lot online these days, simply because it annoys the hell out of me to drive to a store looking for a specific product, only to get there and discover that they don't have the right color/type/brush style that I'm looking for. So I may check drugstore.com soon to see if they carry this mascara. It also works rather well, is about a third of the cost of the Dior mascara, but doesn't exactly give the "oomph" that the Dior gives.

And lastly, my favorite alternative-use mascara:

Maybelline Great Lash Clear Mascara for brows! I've used Cover Girl's Clear Brow Gel for awhile now, but couldn't find it on my last run to CVS (grr!) - so I picked this up instead. And, to my surprise, it works better! It holds my brows in place all day long and sets the brow powder I use to make my brows look more natural. And at under $6 bucks, it's a steal and lasts for a long time. I have a feeling I'll be sporting it on my lashes at the beach this summer too, just to keep me from feeling naked, of course.

Heartbeats and Strange Dreams....

So I've rented a fetal doppler from Baby Beats, and I'm fairly certain that I found the heartbeat last night - measuring 180 BPM. We'll see, I will probably wait until my first OB appointment on Monday to try to hear it again (hopefully they'll do that for me).

I read in Jenny McCarthy's book Belly Laughs that she had strange dreams when she was pregnant, like one recurrent dream where she apparently delivered her child herself via c-section, played with him for a few hours, and then put him back in and sewed herself up. I kid you not. I had a very strange dream last night, where my LO arrived - and I was totally unprepared. I was walking around my house--holding the baby-- and realized that I had not purchased a cradle/bassinet, and the baby was too little to sleep it the crib, and that I didn't have a changing pad on top of the dresser we're using in the nursery, so I had to change the baby on the bed, and that while changing the baby's diaper I realized that I was wiping from back to front instead of front to back (and in saying that I'm realizing that I dreamed baby was a GIRL!) - and that I was generally panicked and distraught. In other words, I had my worst nightmare. It was extremely vivid, in color, and I even remember thinking during the dream, "Hmm... I think I'll try this whole breastfeeding thing now...."?? How odd is that. Anyway, I guess the dream could've been worse, but it was definitely strange. I hope future dreams are of a happier nature.

Totino's, How I Love Thee....

Totino's, how I love thee, let me count the ways:

1. You satisfied my hunger at 3 AM during law school after long nights post-finals where too many cocktails had been consumed...
2. You rewarded my hard work at everything from dieting to making an A on an exam...
3. You only take 13 minutes to bake, less time than it would take me to call, order, and receive a pizza delivery...
4. Your crunchy, cheesy, deliciousness is always just the right amount of food, never too much (or too little)...
5. You satisfy the hungry pregnant lady's quest for carbs...
6. You keep the pregnant lady full long enough so that she doesn't wake up at 4 AM starving...
7. You cost under $2.00...
8. You fit easily in my freezer...
9. I can always count on you to taste the same every time, unlike Chinese food from Dragon which is apparently made via a different recipe every time I order, even though I always order the same thing...
10. You come in many yummy flavors that all hit the spot.
    

Oh what a deal....

Like all other newly-married couples, once Frank and I moved into our home decorating has been a slow process. The main thing that we have struggled with is rugs - We bought one rug when we purchased our mattress from Macy's right when we moved in, and I found a steal at Pottery Barn for our bedroom ($80 for an 8 x 10 wool jute) a few months later. Fastforward a year and a half, and none of the other rooms had rugs in them! I decided to scour Ebay for a good rug deal, just to see what was out there. I knew that I wanted an antique, Persian if possible, to go in our living room. But I also knew, that with the LO on the way, there was no way that Frank would shell out the $1000 plus for a nice rug. So scour I did... for about two months. I lost a rug that I really liked along the way, but patiently waited for another to appear. One afternoon, I found one - A Persian Tabriz, 6'6 x 9'6 (perfect size for the living room), with the colors that matched the rest of the room's decor and that was sufficiently a semi-antique (1950s) with a nice KPSI ratio. Seller had a good rating, out of Memphis, TN. So that afternoon, I bought a rug! Check out the pic below -

It was a steal, I paid a whopping $103.50 for it. That said, I didn't mind paying the VERY LARGE $100 shipping fee (for a three hour drive from Memphis), particularly when the rug was purchased on Saturday and was in my living room by Monday afternoon. Seriously. It's in great shape, and looks fab with our other decor. I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome, and I have to admit, Frank was impressed.

Positively Fabulous!

Well, I think most anyone who actually reads this blog has received a personal "I'm pregnant" phone call/ e-mail, so now I suppose I can begin actually sharing some of the minute details of what life's been like! It all started back in February, when I was about at my wit's end with this whole TTC thing. This was the first month we'd used the TTC aid "instead cups" and lo and behold it worked-- thankfully so, the entire process had become way too clinical for my taste.

Frank's parents were in town that weekend, and after they left on Sunday I felt a little funny... the next day, I told Frank that he would probably think that I was crazy - but I was pregnant. That was at 9 DPO. The next day, I traveled out of town for work, and spent the night away. After returning home the next day, temperature still up!, I decided to try an evening test. About 7 PM, after "holding it" for an appropriate amount of time, I headed off to test in peace. Two tests later, I'm fairly positive that they both are faintly positive! At that point, I hear a knock on the door... Frank (who is aware that our test date is rapidly approaching) sarcastically asks, "Are you peeing on something in there?!?" So I flung open the door to show him a test and coyly respond, "YES! And I'm pretty sure it's positive!" Six tests later, they all are faintly positive and my heart is about to beat out of my chest. After over 5 months of the TTC process, I had begun to think that positive tests were an urban myth. Apparently not! Frank, of course, totally didn't see the line, and did not (or didn't let himself) believe that they were actually positive.

So.... Off I go to photograph the tests so that I can post them to the Fertility Friend website and send them to a group of special ladies who KNOW what positive tests look like! Two hours and about 60 photos later, I have confirmation from my unknown anonymous friends at Fertility Friend... and tentative "I see the lines" from my special ladies! Could it really be true? I couldn't wait to go to sleep so that I could wake up to pee on something.

Fastforward to the next morning - 6 more tests, 6 more positives. This time, Frank sees a line "he can get behind!" So it's true - I'm pregnant! Confirmed that afternoon with a digital that pretty quickly reads "pregnant." Halleluiah! I'm officially three weeks and six days pregnant. That was the first week of March. For a good week or so, there were about 15 positive tests on the back of our toilet at any given time.

I literally held my breath until March 31st, the date of my first ultrasound. Fertility Friend is fabulous for providing online charting services and information for those TTC, but it's also pretty depressing--at least a few times a day there are posts from ladies who lose their little ones ("LO"), and so I'm well-versed in the delicate nature of early pregnancy. Frank and I hang on, don't tell a soul, and wait a few more weeks to tell our parents. But just in case, I take a test every few days. Seriously - I peed on things for fun. At a certain point, the tests turned positive so fast that the actual reference line had not even begun to appear yet. Looks like things were going to be ok!

Still hoping for the best, we tell our parents when I reach six weeks. Frank's parents handle it pretty well, they are excited and hopeful, but realistic. My parents, on the other hand, flip out. They want names picked, nurseries decorated, and grandparent names established. Immediately. Grandmother ("Mimi") pulls out every item of clothing I have ever worn, baby blankets made by my deceased maternal grandmother, among other items. To that point, I had been able to remain somewhat detached, hoping for the best but trying to avoid becoming consumed with the fact that I'm actually pregnant. It all went out the window. I mean, how tiny are some of these clothes? We ask grandparents to keep it under wraps, until we have the ultrasound and make sure LO is where he/she is supposed to be and healthy.

7 weeks 3 days, March 31 - we have our first ultrasound! I make the appointment at 9:00 AM so that Frank and I would be able to get in and out and to work without too much delay, only to wait 30 minutes to be called back, meet with the OB for a while, and then wait another hour to actually GET the ultrasound. So at 11 AM, we finally walked in. Frank laughs at the "latex cover" (a.k.a. condom) that they use on the ultrasound wand - and then the tech begins. Two seconds in, we find a healthy little bean, measuring 7 weeks 3 days with a heartbeat of 137 BPM!

It was well worth the wait, both that morning and the months that it took us to conceive our LO. Hearing the heartbeat - and knowing that it was beating inside my belly is an awesome experience! Frank was truly excited, it was a neat moment and one that I will certainly never forget.

We asked my parents to keep the news quiet for a few more weeks, as we were told by my Dr. that once I reach 10 weeks the risk of miscarrying is under 1 % - to no avail. The moment Grand-dad (aka "Papa") receives the pictures of the peanut he shares the news.

Most of the questions that I've been getting have been about how I'm feeling... Well, I have been pretty blessed I have to say. I haven't had the dry heaves, haven't thrown up, and haven't been nauseated 24/7. I have waives of nausea, and have had some pretty strange food aversions. I take a couple bites of things, and then they taste bad and I stop eating them. Mainly, I'm just tired. Overwhelmingly tired, to the point where when I get home from work each night, it's a struggle to get off the couch and walk myself to bed. I've also had some fairly harsh back pain, likely from the fact that my uterus is apparently tilted and is likely pressing on my spine... which may also be to blame for the recent "full" feeling I have after I eat a couple of bits of anything (uterus pressing up on my stomach instead of outward like most other ones). I'm not complaining though - I swear I wouldn't care if I had thrown up 10 times a day from the moment I got a positive test, knowing that on November 14 (or before) I'll have a child with Frank is totally worth it!

I could probably eat pizza every meal of the day without an issue, and salty fast food french fries hit the spot. I have tried to avoid them too often though, because I know the LO needs more nutritious foods than that! Grapes, apples, organic granola bars, cereal bars, and trail mix have been my snacks of choice lately, and they seem to taste pretty good most of the time.

Although I let myself gain about 10 lbs prior to getting pregnant (in the hopes of conceiving faster), I'm not doing a good job letting go of weight-gain worry now that I'm pregnant. Since I got the positive test, I've probably gained about 4 pounds (which means I'm up 14 over my normal weight, and have already - in the first trimester- seen a number on the scale which I have NEVER seen before), I was up six at one point but am back down two pounds. I suppose, in my tenth week now, I'm hitting the "in between" stage, where I just look fat (at least to me) and not pregnant yet. I am determined, however, to begin walking this week - I know it's good for both me and the LO, to help "guide" the weight into the right areas and to help me to carry the excess weight that's the normal part of being pregnant. At the moment, when people tell me "You've got that glow" I can't help but think about when people say "she's got such a pretty face" about girls who need to drop a few. Know what I mean? So with that said, I am ready for the "bump" to appear!

All in all, our prayers were answered, invasive and expensive medical treatment was avoided, and all is well on my end.