one enormous chair

Well I have become a crazy person. One of those people who will call customer service and make a big fuss for just a few dollars.  I have spent a lot of time on the phone for a few dollars. HOWEVER I have gotten some of the sweeeetest deals on baby items. Like a box of 174 pampers for $11, and a new $120 dollar baby monitor for $45. We had expected to spend a chunk of money after the baby showers were done, just to fill in missing items, and I went apeshit with coupons and discounts, making sure I was using every possible combination, and getting the right item from the right store (wherever it was the cheapest).  So my final tally (I'm so proud) was about $1300 worth of items, and after coupons and gift cards, we only spent about $450 out of pocket.  BOOM! We are still waiting on some shipments, but for now I think we have bought most of the stuff we need to start out (and then some). So the next step is getting the nursery all pretty and put together.

34 Weeks! MEGA BABY. I can't believe how big my tum is, and I really can't believe it is going to get even bigger. I am just really REALLY hoping that I have inherited my mom's ability to deliver big babies without a lot of issues. We are both flexible, which they say helps... fingers crossed. Speaking of being bendy, Amanda and I went to another Prenatal Yoga class this week. This one felt a lot better than the first one. The instructor mixes up the routine and I think each class will be a bit different from the last. I bought a package for 5 classes (Mana picked up 10) which I can hopefully use up before Babby arrives. The meditation portion was much less weird this time, she asked us to visualize the moment the baby is born: "it is being placed in your arms, you can feel the weight of the baby, you are looking at his or her face and touching his or her skin." Rather than feeling relaxed by this I felt overwhelmed and I almost started crying, lol. Any time I s...

You could at least brush your hair...  Approximately 7 weeks left! Every time I think that I follow up with, "but omg, it could be any day!" and "omg it could take even longer than that!" We are in getting-everything-ready mode.  I find myself wandering in to the nursery just to look at the baby stuff and fold things and look at the little books. We have collected a pretty decent amount of stuff at this point, we've had a couple of showers, and I have been hoarding any free samples I can get my hands on. OH! and we won a drawing at Babies R Us for a big gift basket full o' baby stuff! When the lady called me to tell me that I'd won, I almost pooped with excitement. It feels really good to win things! Tim and I have been just completely baby obsessed. We've spent several weekend nights just going to baby stores and looking at stuff, and setting up bogus registries just to get free gift bags. We are becoming experts on baby stuff. My mom DV...

Meh. Well this sucks. Gestational diabeetus is official: I have been given a monitor and have to check mah blood 4 times a day. I have a feeling that I will have to limit my diet even more now that I'm actually checking my levels. The dietitian said it needs to be under 120 two hours after I eat. Last night I had some pizza and two hours later it was still 144. The dietitian said with the meter I can narrow down the foods that cause my glucose levels to spike, and kinda figure out what I can and cannot handle. Apparently not two pieces of pizza. :( I am just kind of an emotional mess about the whole thing. There's a little voice inside me that keeps whimpering "It's not fair!" and then I want to cry. I feel so unsure about EVERYTHING I put in my mouth. I am struggling to find things to eat, and then I worry that I am not eating enough for the baby to grow properly. This is becoming even more difficult as I have to check my blood 4 times a day, and it has to take...

I know it will seem like it all flew by eventually, but right now I feel like I've been pregnant forever. The fact that I have less than 10 weeks to go goes back and forth from seeming like not nearly enough time to seeming like an eternity. Being anemic is making me tired and listless, and it is rubbing off on Timmy too. We are just kinda bored and unmotivated, which I need to get over or start appreciating because these will be the last days of truly being lazy. I get bursts of motivation (notice I didn't use the word "energy') here and there and try to use that motivation to do something good for babby.  One of those things is getting my butt back in the kitchen. I had entered a vicious cycle of eating a lot of easy food, which was affecting my energy level, then keeping me from cooking healthy. This past week, if I have a chance, I just go prepare a few things and stick them in tups, which are easy to grab for lunches or snacks. I've made sesame peanut...

OK! I am soo over days where I have to stand for hours and hours. Holy aches and pains. My ribs and my feet were suffering the most. I've finally found some time to chill on the couch and it has been very nice. I really haven't had much of a chance to be a lazy preggo. I had my glucose screening this week, and bad news... they said my results were high. This isn't the worst thing that can happen but I have to have another (longer) test in a couple of weeks to fully determine if I have developed gestational diabeetus. If I do, it can cause problems like a huge fatty baby (more difficult delivery).  I've done all kinds of restrictive diets in the past, but I've never monitored my sugar intake. It is a new one for me. Admittedly, I have consumed a lot more sweets since I've been pregnant than I normally do. So I am trying to be cautious about the sweets until my second test. I had the test in the morning, then I went to get some lunch from the grocery store. Fo...

I am six months pregnant! what the buh?! Third trimester! Babby is about 2 pounds and growing quickly. Things have been crazy busy and will continue to be so pretty much from now on. We have gotten all of our new Ikea furniture built (it took a month), and we have finished the move at work. Both worlds have been very demanding physically for me, even without heavy lifting. The belly and boobs add enough weight to make everything harder. 10 hours on your feet for moving is hard enough as it is! I had one night after a moving day that I literally couldn't stand anymore. Tim was talking to me about my computer, and I had to interrupt him so I could lay down for fear that my legs would buckle and I would fall over. I think we've finally reached a point where I don't have to work as hard physically, but there is still a ton to do. Baby paperwork. All the planning, arranging, forms, scheduling crap that comes with the arrival of baby. I have to make a will and stuff. Weird. W...

Babby is now about 11 inches, and nearly a pound! A couple weeks ago I thought that maybe I was feeling kicks, and a few days later the full-on-ninja-fest began. So YES! Those little gentle taps were baby kicks. Kicks can even be felt (and seen!) from the outside. Timmy was determined to feel one, so he rested his hand on my belly several times to no avail. Eventually the timing lined up and he loved it. I love it too, except the time baby started kicking downward on my bladder... That feels WEIRD and UGGY. Babby seems the most active in the morning when I first get up and as I'm settling in the evening. It makes me giggle to imagine it just flailing around in there for no good reason. "Baaaah! I'm a baby! Hi-YA! I have nothing to do! Take THAT!" The kicking makes it feel more real now, like baby and I are a little team. It makes me much more conscious that I am carrying Babby around and taking care of him/her.  Lucy the cat even felt a kick: she was resting her chi...

I thought that maybe I could use some of this fascinating baby experience to form pregnancy advice.  Nothing very out of the ordinary has happened so far (knock on wood), but I have had a lot of adventures in food as a pregnant lady, so here it is! My preggo food list! 1. Coconut Water In the worst stages of nausea, I would have died without coconut water. I am typically an AVID water drinker, but when you are extremely nauseated, water is the enemy (it tastes really gross). Coconut Water has hydrating effects, and tasted much more pleasant than water during that period.  It also has a crap load of potassium, which potentially alleviates restless legs (it def helped with mine). I would get up in the night with restless, achy legs and chug coconut water like it was crack. Potassium also regulates blood pressure which is important during pregnancy as well. My favorite brand is O.N.E. It may be a trendy health beverage, but it is GREAT for pregnancy. I rave about it ...

Well it happened. I turned 30. The celebration of delicious food continues as it did in Hawaii, I've had a meal date just about every night this week for my birthday, and cakes and treats have made several appearances. I really need to have some meals where I don't end up stuffed and THEN get a fancy dessert. It's a blessing that I am pregnant for all this so Babby can help me use up some calories. I caught a glance in the mirror as I was changing my bra yesterday. I don't even recognize my boobs these days. They are intimidating, aggressive even. Pregnancy makes them nips go through some changes I tell you what. Your nice peach colored silver dollars morph into prune colored pancakes. My belly button is also strange looking. It was compared to a teeny cinnamon bun resting on my torso, and one friend even cringed in fear when I revealed it. I thought I maybe felt some kicks the other day, but I'm not positive. Some women claim it feels like a flutter, some like ...

Weeks are flying by. I can't believe it but I am halfway through my pregnancy! That's insane. It's making me feel like I should be doing stuff (I probably should). Birthing classes or something? paperwork? I read a few books at the beginning, but they were mostly funny books about peeing yourself and such. Well the past few weeks have seen some belly growth for sure. A couple of those weeks were spent in Hawaii eating all sorts of delicious food, so some growth has been of the fat variety. Babby got his/her share of delicious treats... yes especially desserts. I am not typically a huge sweets person (salty in taste and disposition), but Hawaii had the BEST desserts. They're all coconut and tropical fruits and macadamia nuts. There is a local candy bar made in Maui called WowWee  which comes in the BEST flavors. The cuisine focuses highly on local fare, seafood and super foods, so unlike our usual trips to restaurants where our only vegetarian choices are carbs with da...

I am feeling a little bit better these days. The weather is helping A TON. I feel like since the moment we opened our windows, my coughing and snottiness has gone down. Obviously, nice weather improves my mood as well. I don't care if it is cloudy, rainy, or storming, as long as I can open windows and breathe real air. This baby requires mad oxygen! I still throw up most mornings, but it almost feels like part of the morning routine: get up, make some tea, watch some YouTube videos, barf, check my email, bathe... I'm starting to feel kinda chubby, and I'm trying not to let it bother me too much. Just having these huge new boobs makes me feel frumpy. I actually LIKE having small boobs. The titty fairy has stopped by, but I didn't want her to, that asshole. I feel quite hippy too, and I've been trying to do some "butt blasters" to keep from getting a squishy fat ass. Sigh. We are going to Hawaii in a little over a week and I am super excited. The travel ...

Hiya. So first of all, some updates: -At the moment, Tim and I are not planning to find out the sex of the baby beforehand. -Baby Shower will probably be some time in late July or early August. -Babby is about 4 inches long and is still trying to suck the life out of me. Sooo... It's a lot of work to feed a pregnant lady. First of all, the sheer volume of food I must consume requires a lot of groceries. I used to pick out one box of cereal and it would last me a few weeks. Now I have a miniature cereal aisle on the kitchen counter which must be restocked often. Second, a given food may sound like the most delicious thing ever, or it may sound awful. No one, not even me, will be able to advise you on what to prepare that I will want to eat until the moment its time to eat. I do not wish to hurt any feelings if you bring me food, I just may not be able to eat it! Third, if I get too hungry, you better keep your distance, or feed me asap (don't fuck with the hungry pregnant l...

I am now 14 weeks along, and still have sickness. My coughing and congestion are worse than ever. But I gotta keep swimming. I am trying to work on being really positive about everything, but its hard. Especially because it still doesn't seem real that there is a tiny person in there. I am still waiting on an official bump. My torso/stomach does seem to have a slightly different shape, and my belly button's shape has changed (weird) but it doesn't look like a pregnant belly. Believe it or not, I have built abdominal muscles from constant coughing, heaving, and retching. So hey! that's a positive thing, right?!  I am sooo positive. Last week Tim and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat via Doppler at the doctor. I have been trying to figure out how to embed it in this entry but I am not having much luck, try clicking this:  Heartbeat and Kicks . I dunno, that might work. You need to play it in itunes or quicktime. Most of my time these days is devoted to eating ...

The couch sores will now fester for a different reason: baby. Before it was just pure laziness, but these days, it really is physically difficult to get myself off the couch. So the story goes like this: a couple years ago, Tim and I thought we might be reaching a point in our lives where we were ready to reproduce (attempt to avoid visualizing). We got up the courage to "try," thinking this was it. After having been so careful in the past, one time is all it takes, right? Well yeah, for some people, like those women who ovulate 16 times a month. Well let's just say it took more than one try. After spending months believing the slightest twinge or symptom was pregnancy, multiple negative pregnancy tests, several months of no drinking for no good reason (I attended my 10th high school reunion sober... terrible mistake), we started to feel a little hopeless. I can't tell you how many times I heard "just stop trying and it will happen!" That is neither true...