really, really flattering pictures

just kidding! I figured you might like to see front on pictures of me, for some reason. The first one is from Nov 9th, the second is from Nov 23rd. There's been some significant enlargement in the meantime, it seems.



My mom and sister are coming up tomorrow, and there's talk of cheesecake. I'm pretty excited. Also, they're going to see the play I'm co-directing, so that should be fun. It's pretty funny, in a totally inappropriate way. Which is extra funny, because it's a bunch of nuns.

who needs feet?

well, thankfully, I haven't experienced any of the nasty swelling of the extremities that my books warned me about. I did, however, notice today that when I stand up straight and look down, I can no longer see my feet. Fun!

I'm going to update the picture, I've just been so freaking busy with the play that I haven't had time to anything, let alone take pictures of myself. Tonight though, I think.

Not much else new, feeling more movement, and Grant got to feel it this weekend, which was pretty neat. He was all excited. I'm excited too, as are the girls in the play / my theatre arts class. And not that I'm counting, but I am, and there are 18 school days until break, and 63 school days until I go on mat leave. Crazy eh? I'm not like, super anxious for that, because I know everything will change and so on, but I'm pretty excited. I'm 5 months! I'm over half done! Also, I went to Gap Kids on the weekend, and the stuff is just...so...cute. I can't buy anything though, because it's all pretty clearly boy or girl, and I'm not so much clear on which I'm having.

winterizing

hey. I need a new winter coat, soonish. I'm hesitant to buy one, because I don't like spending money on boring things like that, and I figure maybe somebody out there has one they can loan me? Let me know. I (heart) my yellow coat, but it's really not going to do up for much longer. Frigging giant baby! lol.

food for thought

Studies by Dr. Miriam Labbok, director of the breastfeeding division at Georgetown University Medical Center, indicate that the U.S. could save $2 billion to $4 billion each year in health costs if all mothers breastfeed their newborns for at least the first three months. Here are a few more reasons to consider breastfeeding:
* There is strong evidence that breastfeeding reduces the incidence of diarrhea, lower-respiratory infection, ear infections, urinary tract infections, bacterial meningitis, Crohn's Disease, colitis and other diseases (American Academy of Pediatrics).
* Studies have shown that breastfed babies have significantly higher IQs (about eight points) than their formula-fed counterparts.
* There may be a link to a decreased incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome among breastfed babies.
* Numerous benefits to mothers include a reduced risk of ovarian and breast cancers, as well as a lower incidence of hip fractures during the post-menopausal period

hello in there

so I've been feeling more movement lately, which is pretty fun. I can't really describe it, but I'm not sure I agree completely with the fluttering / gas bubbles description. It basically feels like there's some tiny person in there who's rolling around and occasionally poking me. When I went for my ultrasound, it was like he was doing acrobatics, flipping and rolling.

Sidebar: I've decided to stick to one pronoun, rather than the she / he or it thing, it's just simpler.

I'm growing daily, as is the bean though, so it makes sense. I'm exactly halfway along though, which is pretty exciting. Not much else going on though, I go for another appointment on Tuesday, and I'm hoping / assuming she's going to go over the u/s stuff with me. Short week at school again due to Remembrance Day and more PD, which is good, because I'm not getting any less tired. It was my understanding that basically all the sypmtoms of pregnancy went away during this middle trimester. It appears I was misinformed, or, more likely, that like all things about pregnancy, nothing applies to everyone. I'm still tired, and it's not getting any better because I'm not sleeping really well; I wake up with sore hips if I'm lying on one side too long, but I'm not supposed to lie on my back anymore, so I haven't quite figured out what to do there. If I prop myself up with pillows on both sides, I do alright, but then there's not much room for Grant that way. I'm also still a bit gaggy, and my boobs, while roughly one million times better than they were, are still sore.

that's all my bitching for now, but I'll let you know when I have more!

results

awww, isn't s/he cute??



lol.

so, the measurements for Jr. (just the one Jr., thank goodness...) put me at 19 weeks 5 days, exactly a week ahead of where I thought I was, so on Saturday I'm half cooked! Everything looked good to me, but I'll admit I don't have a sweet clue what I was looking for. No extra heads or limbs, everything in the right place. Anyway, all in all very exciting, looks like I have a little acrobat in there, should be interesting when I get a little further along...

ultrasound day!

it seems like it's been coming for so long, I can't believe it's actually November 4th today. I assume most of you know the rest of my news, for full detes, check out the regular blog.

Anyway, so I'm going to pee as much as possible this morning, and drink as little as possible, until 11, at which point I must drink 1L of water. That's a lot. And then not pee until after my u/s, which is at 12:30. I called to verify the appointment time, and I had a couple of other questions, like can I drink juice instead of water? and how long is the u/s anyway? but the woman hung up on me. Bitch. So, I'll see how adventurous I'm feeling, I can't see how it's going to matter if I drink water or juice or chocolate milk for that matter, though drinking a litre of chocolate milk quickly seems to be inviting trouble.

So, obviously, I'll keep you posted, if you don't hear from me today, assume I guess that there's nothing too exciting to report, but I'll let you know soon-ish either way.

pop!

just like that.



freaky.

So, obviously I'm completely out of my 'real' clothes and into maternity wear. This all happened very suddenly, I'm not even really sure when. I went shopping with my preggo friend, and got some really nice things at Thyme, and also picked up a pair of decently cool jeans at WalMart...I really didn't find *anything* else there worth looking at, but Thyme is full of very nice, and very pricey things. The pannely clothes get some snickers from my dear loved ones, so I'm staying away from those for now, since they're really designed for later on anyway.

Not much else going on, hence the lack of updates. I go for my ultrasound on the 4th, which is actually pretty close now, so I'm pretty excited. I'm still feeling big for where I'm supposed to be (17 weeks and 2 days) so I'm still curious to see what they will have to say. Grant's going to come down, I think my mom wants to come up too, so I'll have to see if I'm allowed more than one person in the room or not.

That's about it, I've been super busy with school and the play and everything. When these next few weeks are over, I'll be very, very happy.

new bras, fat pants, and damn, that fit last week...

I finally broke down and bought new bras. I only got 2, and only 2 because it was buy one get one for $5, so I might as well. Effing expensive. Effing went up a whole cup size since about 2 months ago when I bought like, 4 new bras that I now can't wear. Nice. Have begun to more regularly wear the non-panel maternity pants and skirt that I have, and I'm pretty happy about how comfy I am when I do that. I'm really actually looking forward to when I have enough of a belly to justify maternity tops, because they are damn cute, and I have several. For now I'm just looking slightly plump in my regular sweaters. I put on a skirt that I wore quite comfortably last week, because apparently I had actually lost weight since...I think it was last fall/winter that I bought it. Anyway, it still fits, but won't do me for much longer. Ah, the joys!

interesting

I'm too big for 15 weeks, according to my books and my Dr., who I finally saw and is very nice. She said the possibilities (both of which are unlikely, but it has to be one) are that I'm more like 17 weeks (unlikely because I had very regular cycles, and would have been on my period when I should have been conceiving, 15 weeks ago) or that it's twins. She could only find one heartbeat, she thinks, but it's near impossible to tell, because she could find it in more than one place. So, until the ultrasound now, I have something else to scratch my head about. Either way it'll change things, when I'll have to leave school and such, so I'm decidedly anxious to find out. Poor Grant may have a heart attack if I tell him it could be twins, lol. I'll stick to the 'giant baby' theory for now.

updates

well, according to most of the myths about determining the sex of the baby, I'm having a girl. My right boob is bigger, the heart rate is over 140 (144-150), the Chinese calendar says it's a girl, and I had morning sickness. The rest of them I'm not far enough along yet to test out. Good to know, eh? Fun to guess, I suppose, and kind of puts the pressure on to find some good girl names. All the ones I had thought of are really popular right now, so I'm hesitant to use them. I was always one of 3-4 Sarahs in my classes, so I'd like to give this little one a name that's not too crazy or something she'll have to spell her entire life, but something that 4 of her closest friends won't have.
suggestions?

holy cow!

I found the heartbeat and took a pretty funny picture of myself lying down, when all the, let's say, naturally occuring bumps and lumps melt away, and I am left with only this...

so, obviously the Doppler works, and I'm just so, so excited.

mmm, fat pants

I wore maternity pants today. They're fantastic. They're not the old, panelly kind, they have an adjustable waistband thing, so I tightened them up and wore a belt, and they were still about a zillion times more comfy than my 'normal' pants. I don't have a tonne of those kind of clothes though, so I may just be wearing the same pants every day. Nothing wrong with that.

I got a Doppler today (thanks girls!). I got another one last Monday, but unfortunately it didn't work properly, so I sent it back and the very nice lady sent me out a new one, with a note attached apologising for the inconvenience, and she also sent me extra gel to use with it, I assume because one of the times I was talking to her I expressed concern about using too much or not enough, and not having enough in the little tube to use the Doppler often. So I'll try that out tonight, and let you know how it goes. I very remarkably did *not* freak out when the first one didn't work, but after I tried to hear my own heart while pointing the wandy thing right AT my heart, and it was only moderately loud, I figured there was no way it was going to pick up tiny baby sounds.

That's all my news, but if this does work tonight, I'm going to go ahead and tell work, which will make it easier to ask for next Tuesday morning off for my appointment.

boo!

my pants don't fit.

I tried on 3 pairs of cords this morning, because I wanted to wear this specific sweater, and they all are too small. One pair laughed right out loud at me when I put them on, they didn't even come close to fitting. 2 pairs would do up, but there's no way I could sit down or even stand for the whole day like that. So I picked the lesser of the 2 evil pants, and walked around with my button undone for the whole day. Classy. What the hell do I wear now? Maternity clothes are way too big, but my nice, fitted clothes, are too small. Tops are fine, bras are a bit small, but bottoms are posing a serious problem.

whee!

I start a lot of posts that way.

2nd trimester, here I come! That's pretty exciting. I still haven't told work, because I'm still waiting for my appointment. It better be one hell of an appointment, I tell ya. I'm hoping to get some sort of like, confirmation, set my mind at ease a bit. And I know I'll feel better when I can tell work too. 2 more weeks.

better?

I don't seem to feel tooooo nauseated anymore, so I'm hopeful that things are going to start improving overall. The only real 'symptom' of pregnancy in the 2nd trimester is the ... well, being pregnant. The whole, no periods, getting fatter part. But the discomfort of nausea and sore boobs etc is supposed to go away. I'll keep you posted. That would be a good birthday present though! My bday is Sunday, at which point I'll be 3 months, so I'll be telling a few people I haven't gotten around to telling yet. Still holding off on telling school, at least until I have my dr. appt. After that, I'll have to let them know what's up, because I'll be needing to take a morning off a month for appointments, and I don't really want to use sick time if I don't have to.

fun stuff

check out the super cute counter-downy thingamajobber at the bottom of the page. 192 days to go! That's a lot. But not really. Hmm.

semi-useful appointment

but not terribly. She did schedule me for my prenatal classes, and give me a tour of the labour / delivery part of the hospital, which is refreshingly not scary hospital room-y. I got a bunch of information, but none of it is very useful for right now, more for say, when I actually have a baby to breastfeed and / or put in a carseat.

Happy 12 weeks to me!

I have a cold, which I always do this time of year with the weather changing and whatnot. It's extra fun this year though, because I can't take a thing for it. Really. I usually handle things during the day with Advil cold and sinus, and knock myself out with a Neocitrin at night. No such luck for the pregnant among us, those things are very much off limits. As are all cold remedies. Seriously. Good times. So, I've taken 2 Tylenol over the past couple of days to relieve the headache part, which works, but my head is still full of crap, so doesn't work entirely. T-4 weeks until my 'real' dr appt. man, time is not flying.

tired and fat

good times. Work is so hard. Laugh all you want, but going back after a vacation is hard enough, and combined with the fact that I'm exhaustd most of the time anyway, it's not a good scene. My stomach is gradually getting...thicker. It's highly annoying. I don't have much to report still, my ultrasound has been booked, it's November 4th, which is a Thursday, at noon. Could it be a less convenient time? No. So, I'll probably just take the day, because it takes a while, I'd have to take some of the morning and the afternoon off anyway, so whatev. Also, I was told I have to drink 4-6 glasses of water an hour and a half beforehand, which is a lot, and 1.5 hours is a long time. I'll drink a glass of water and have to pee like, 30 minutes later. I'm not sure how this is going to work. Then they're going to be pushing on my poor full bladder with the thingy. Ouch! I need to know if I really need to drink that much, and how big these glasses are supposed to be.

I'm done 11 weeks now, into my 12th. I figure in another week, week and a half, I'll feel better. I have an appointment with a nurse at the hospital on Wednesday next week, she's going to give me some info, some classes I can take, ask me some stuff, and show me around the maternity ward etc. Should be good, at least it's something to do until October. I'm very anxious for someone to just look at me and say yes, you are pregnant, you're this far along, everything is going swimmingly. 4 more weeks until that.

yes, loyal fans, I'm still here

but so busy! Here's an update from Babycentre:

Your baby has tiny fingernails now and the ability to kick, swallow, and move. That's quite impressive for someone who's only the size of a lipstick case. That will change soon; within the next few weeks, your featherweight child should double in size. You may notice your clothes getting tighter as your uterus is now almost big enough to fill your pelvis.

That last part is true, and I'll tell ya, I'm not happy! Hardly seems fair to not be showing, but to just be getting fat. lol. I'll manage, I'm sure.

Not too much to report, I'm very tired, but have been getting up a lot earlier than I'm used to now, since going back to work. I may have to tell them sooner than later, or at least one of the vps, because I'm in charge of the drama productions, whee! but don't want to agree to do a spring production knowing full well that I won't be around to see it through. The vp I'd have to tell, obviously, is / was the drama guy before becoming vp halfway through last year.

that's it!