Good with the bad.

Well, we've all survived Christmas. That's about all I have to say about that.

I am very happy to be back home. I actually slept last night, which I haven't really done since I left for Hometown. It was wonderful.

I don't have another doctors appointment until January 7, but I may end up going in before then. My back is catching with every move I make. It may be time to visit an orthopedic to see if they can do anything. I have 12 more weeks of having Boogie on board, and I need to be able to move without crying every time I move a muscle. Last night was brutal. It took Bob and I around 15 minutes to get me out of our bed. Tears were involved. It was rough. And then it took almost as long for me to lie back down. Horrendous.

I'm also having some issues with my stomach again. During Christmas, every time I ate any food or drank anything, I barfed. This isn't morning sickness; it's my gastroparesis flaring up. It's been interesting. Puking when your ribs and back hurt with every move is nearly unbearable.

I am so happy when I feel Boogie kick. However, that's about the only damn thing I enjoy about this pregnancy. It's been a long 7 months, and while I want him to stay in there and cook a little longer, I'm ready for him to be here for selfish reasons. I'm in pain and misery every day. But like I said, feeling him kick makes it worth it. And I know it'll be worth it when he gets here. I'm just ready to feel better!

Drama.

Well. Today my little boogie decided to give me a little excitement.

I had yet another work Christmas lunch. (Working in 4 different facilities means lots of functions.) Once we were done eating, we had a mini-staff meeting. While still seated, I started feeling a little odd. Swimmy-headed, short of breath, funky heart rate... Once the conversation was over, I stood up, moved around a little bit, and all my symptoms got worse. My coworkers forced me to lie down for a bit. I text Bob and decided I should go to my doc, so he came and picked me up, and off we went.

After numerous blood pressure checks, pulse checks, and temp checks, my docs office released me to go. They said either I'm on the verge of getting sick or sitting in the chair at lunch compressed the blood flow back to my heart. Apparently that happens starting at this stage of pregnancy. The doc said it'll probably happen again, and when it does, to lie down on my left side to take pressure off that blood flow.

Hopefully it WON'T happen again, but I guess I'll be prepared when it does.

Furniture decisions.

So. Nursery furniture. And pretty much everything else baby related...

In the past, I've picked out furniture based on style, color, and whether or not I like it. Baby furniture and gear, however, must include all those things AND safety. It opens a whole new can of worms making sure this kidlet will be safe in whatever we put him in. Crib? Changing table? Car seat? Stroller? So many decisions!!

After reading online reviews of cribs ALL AFTERNOON, I've finally narrowed down some that I like. Cribs are tricky suckers. On one hand, you'd assume the more expensive the safer. That cheaper ones will collapse and amputate some needed part of your baby's anatomy. However, that doesn't necessarily seem to be the case. After reading up on what to look for in a crib and what to avoid, I found some relatively cheap ones that, according to the reviews, are sturdy and safe. I've narrowed down to three, from which Bob will have the opportunity to choose his favorite.

Same with changing tables. I want one that is a also dresser that I use for storage. I refuse to pay $900 for a Pottery Barn Kids dresser/changing table, even though I love it. Again, after reading every review written by moms way more paranoid than myself, I've decided to get an Ikea dresser and use it as a changing table. We have the coordinating grown up bed already and that thing is a solid beast. So I feel confident that the dresser will be just as solid. And the Moms all love it. Sooooo.

We've received our stroller as well. After posting it on facebook, I feel validated that I picked the right one. Moms came out of the woodwork to tell me they had that stroller and it's one of the best. Of course, I'd read the reviews and been convinced in the store, but it's nice to hear personal testimony that something you will be putting your child is top notch.

My friend Kat has always been a super paranoid mom, and I've made fun of her for years. However, I can see how and why she's like that. I mean, I'm carrying this little beast for 40 weeks of torture and agonizing. pain. I'm damned well going to do my best to keep him alive and safe so I can torture and embarrass him during his teenage years in as many ways as possible.  Payback's a bitch.

Kicks, much?

So apparently I'm carrying a horse. He certainly kicks like one. This dude... I mean. It's ridiculous. I can't imagine how active he'll be once he's actually got room to maneuver like the wiggle worm he seems to be.

He already has such a little personality. A strong one, just like his mom and dad. When I do something he doesn't like, I get a kick. Like in the mornings when I do my exercise class. We do a hamstring stretch that involves me leaning forward. Nope, he says. And he kicks. And kicks me to the point that sometimes I gasp. Dude. Lighten up. My poor students. They know when I suddenly sit upright that I've been assaulted from the inside.

Cravings.

I haven't reached the ice cream craving stage of pregnancy yet. I've eaten some over the course of the last 6 months, but no more than normal. I buy the little individual cups of Blue Bell, and I may have eaten 4 of them. Or 5. Whatever.

A friend of ours in Charlotte is pregnant with twins, and she has been on bedrest for the last few weeks. She has recently been allowed to start moving a little bit, so she and her hubs went to Target over the weekend. They went in and immediately bought ice cream. They checked out and paid for their ice cream. Instead of walking out the door, our friend walked over to Starbucks, grabbed a spoon, popped the lid off her gallon of ice cream, and started eating it right then and there. That, my friends, is a craving!

Baby goodies.

So I've started collecting baby clothes. I've bought a few pieces, and we've been given some hand me downs from E and Ben. Shopping online tonight could have been very bad, but I didn't buy anything. I did get a cute little romper and a shirt/pants set today at the mall. They were on sale and adorable, sooooo. I had to, right? I'm still searching for the perfect Easter outfit. I think that will be his major debut. It's also my birthday, and as of now, we're probably going to spend it in Atlanta with his Aunt Carly, Uncle Frank, and cousin SJ. I'm already excited about it!

Also, our stroller went on "clearance sale" this week. I text my mom and asked her if she thought we should buy it now or wait until later. Her response: send me the link, and I'll buy it. Holy crap! I'm so excited!! It'll be our first new piece of baby gear (besides my diaper bag). I can't wait to have it here and give it a test run.

Rollovers and names.

Well, I learned something about my baby. He doesn't like being squished.

We have a tempurpedic bed at home. With that kind of bed, I can lie down on my stomach and not squish the baby. The bed forms around my belly, and he still has plenty of room.

Our first night away from home during our Thanksgiving vacation, I rolled over onto my stomach and Baby started kicking the shit out of me. I was mostly asleep when this happened and immediately woke up laughing. I could just picture him in there, banging on my belly, yelling, "MOOOOM! You're squishing me!!" Poor kidlet.

During our trip, we also discussed baby names with our families. At the top of Bob's list, is his name. Bob isn't his real name. Really, his name is not quite that easy. He's a junior. And Bob is pushing for a third. I am not. I do not want a third. Plus, our baby girl name is a play on Bob's middle name. I don't want a third, because then we wouldn't be able to use our girl name (should we ever have a girl).

At the top of my list is Charles David. And we'd call him Charlie. In fact, I already do. I refer to him as Charlie when I talk to people. When I talk to him, I call him Charlie. It's kinda stuck in my mind.

When Bob was born, his mother was against having a junior. In fact, his original birth certificate had an entirely different name on it. But then his dad begged, his mom relented, and so Bob ended up a junior (as the story goes). As I've told his mom (and the rest of the family), I'll be way more of a bitch than she was. I will not have a third. I will not give in during the 11th hour. I will not change my child's birth certificate once it's signed.

So. Charles David. Charlie. My Charlie Bear. It's what I'm pulling for. Let's hope it happens. Because we all know, when Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

22 weeks!

I had a doctors appointment today. I was a little disappointed, because I wanted to see my little boogie. But it was an appointment only. Insurance will only pay for "medically necessary" ultrasounds. Next time I go in, my doc is going to "need" to measure the baby to make sure its not overweight or underweight. So I'll get to see him three weeks! Once I get through 28 weeks, I'll be going in every two weeks for appointments. It's getting closer!!

I was able to get an audio recording of his heartbeat. It's so strong and perfect!!

Bump watch. 21 weeks!

So this was the bump last week. I'm not taking weekly pictures yet. I figured I'd wait until later on in my pregnancy before I started with weeklies. Truthfully, I'll probably forget to take them anyway...

This is 21 ish weeks. As my Mom pointed out when I sent her the pic- My boobs finally stick out further than my belly. I hope that was a compliment...

From the seated position, I'm definitely large and in charge!!

How to raise our child.

This week, Bob has left the fuzzy butts and I home alone to travel to Maine. His Grandpa is currently living there (with one of his kids), and he's not in the best of health. Bob went up to spend a couple days with him. No one knows for sure how long Gpa will be here, so Bob wanted the chance to see him again.

Since he's been there, Bob has purchased groceries for the Aunt and Uncle Gpa is living with, and he's cooked them dinner tonight (with enough for leftovers). It makes me so proud that he's so thoughtful and generous. He didn't have to do all that. He didn't need any prodding from me. He just decided to do it.

When I see Bob do things like this, it makes so happy and proud that he will be the father of my children. When he sees that there is something he can do to help someone, he does it. He doesn't expect a single thing in return. He does it because he wants to make that other person happy. While he was in training in Little Rock back during the summer, he spent a weekend and went down to see our families. I didn't expect him to stop in and see MY grandparents, but he did. He spent the afternoon with them, and it meant the world to them. They are still talking about his visit 6 months later.

I want our son to be like this. I want him to genuinely respect his elders. I want him to see an opportunity to help someone, or make someone's day, or go out of his way to be kind to someone in need, and do it. I know it will take urging and examples from Bob and I to teach our kids this. We can show them through actions how we want them to grow up. We can mold them and help them learn to respect their elders, to see how to care for others, to have good manners. To say yes ma'am, no sir, yes thank you, and please. To treat others how they would want to be treated. To respect other peoples opinions and beliefs. To know that being different is okay.  These are things that are very important to me and Bob. I'm excited to watch our son grow up and become the man his dad is today.

Large and in charge.

Being pregnant is such a weird thing. I've never in my life weighed this much or had such a large stomach. Obviously, I know. It's just bizarre to know how large I am. And my boobs. Good lord. I don't understand how they're going to get larger, but as I understand, they will. They're interrupting conversations they're so big. As in, I'm talking and whoever I'm talking to waits for me to pause for a breath before saying, "Damn your boobs are enormous."

Baby G is racking up on good stuff too. His Aunt Carly sent him some cute bibs and onesies, and his Auntie Ashley brought him some adorable Saints gear for next football season. I'm so ready for him to be here, and not just to dress him, but to hang out with him!

Sugar much?

I've reached a new level. I've just bulk ordered Wonka Giant Chewy Nerds. A case of them. At least it wasn't a case of pickles... yet.

Houston: we have movement!!

Last night, after polishing off three Halloween size Kit Kats, I felt little dude move! I'm so very excited that I finally felt him. At this point, I'm kind of still assuming it was him. My stomach wasn't bothering me, I wasn't gassy, and I wasn't moving around. So that leads me to believe it was my baby guy.

Sickly.

So at my last appointment with Dr J, we talked about my gastroparesis. Use The Google to see what that is. Anyway, my main symptom is vomiting, and it's been fairly under control during my pregnancy. Dr J had warned me that it typically gets worse during pregnancy, but I thought I had dodged a bullet. I was wrong.

At this point, I've gotten over my morning sickness and my allergies, but now my GP has flared up and my ankles have started to swell.

I'm so ready for baby to be here!!

Lots of blue!

SO last night, Auntie Jess and I went to register for Baby. Holy balls. Instead of spreading out over several baby stores, I'm only registering at one for basics and one for cutesy stuff.

Last night, we were in BuyBuyBaby for almost 4 hours. I was smart and made an appointment with a personal shopper. Shavonda and Mike were lifesavers. There's no way possible I would have made it out of that store alive without their help. I feel like I registered for the entire store, but in reality, it's probably not even half of what we'll need for the baby. Once I got home, I tweaked it a little bit. I have a feeling it'll be like our wedding registry. I'll make tons of changes between now and March, and I'll stalk it regularly. While there, I bought a few things that I didn't think would be there later... a sweet little Wendy Bellissimo sweater and some burp cloths that were extra cute. Auntie Jess bought Baby a pacy holder with planes on it. Super cute!

I also started a Pottery Barn Kids registry online, mostly for blankets and cute little things. Although I did find a changing table there that I love. Bob will be in for quite a surprise when he sees all these things. And we'll both be shocked when we have to find a place for all this gear in our house!!

IT'S A BOY!!

Well, it's been a roller coaster week in our house.

Let's start with Wednesday. We found out.... WE'RE HAVING A BOY!!! HE was super very proud to show us his junk. As I was lying on the table, the tech did all the measurements first. Then she started looking for gender clues. She had barely started looking when I saw IT and started crying. Immediately. Bob was so confused. The tech said, "Aw. Mama sees what's going on!" We clued Bob in. He cried. I kept crying. We made the tech cry.

We both wanted a boy, but Bob was convinced it was a girl. We took all the pictures and went to sit in the hallway to wait to see Doctor J. While out there, we started crying again. We dried it up and went into an exam room, where we started crying again. The Doc had seen us a couple of times by then, and made a pretty good amount of fun of us for crying for so long. 

Here's our boy!

Saying hi to us.

A sweet little profile.

After my appointment, I went on to work that afternoon. After work, I was in a car accident. My poor car... A lady failed to stop while leaving a parking lot and t-boned my passenger side. We were both okay, but I called my doc just in case. She advised me to go to the ER just make sure the baby was okay. So 4-5 hours later, we left the ER with a confirmation that baby boy was okay and that HE was definitely a boy.

It was so cute during that ultrasound. He was asleep. The tech kinda pushed on my belly, and he woke up, looked around, stretched out, rolled over, and went back to sleep. It. Was. Adorable. And I cried. Again.

Along with everything else this week, my gpa ended up in the hospital for emergency surgery, and we also found out his brother passed away. I wasn't close to my great uncle, but I know it's weighing heavily on my gpa, especially since he was in the hospital and unable to attend the funeral.

So we're hoping next week we will all be back to normal. Or as much as normal as possible! For now, I'm working on keeping baby BOY toasty and snuggly. 

Sickly, but excited.

I hate to sound ungrateful or complainy, but gah. Being pregnant can suck. Especially during ragweed season. I'm so sick, and apparently I can't take a decongestant. I go to my doctor tomorrow, mainly to find out what Baby is (!!!!!!), but also to talk about my snottiness.

I always knew pregnancy would be difficult. I'd been hoping otherwise, but had a sinking feeling it wouldn't be easy. Between my back, my sinuses, and my exhaustion, I'm barely making it through the day. To say I'm ready to meet this little bundle would be an understatement... obviously for more than one reason!

Bump watch.

A couple of people have requested a picture, so I sent this out to them today. I'm posting it here too, so I can keep up as well. Please ignore our white walls, disorganized mud room, and Jack in the background. Painting our new house has fallen on a back burner, especially with me being sick this week. Hurricane Bob came home last night and our house is no longer pristine and put away.

I am 17 weeks along right now. I've gained 8lbs since getting pregnant. Next week, we find out what we're having. I'm excited. I have pinned sooo many things on Pinterest, to a private board, of course. I'm ready to start narrowing down those pins- either to pink or blue. Or shades of those. I don't want to do something typical, so our colors won't really be pink or blue. Not straight up anyway.

So here's the bump. This is why the girls at work call me "belly." As in, "Uh oh. Belly gotta pee. Again. Ya'll watch out."

Pickles and....

Well. I've had my first weird craving. Pickles at all isn't weird. I've loved pickles my whole life. But washed down with orange juice is new. I bought a jar of pickles at the store yesterday, and I've eaten them already. Paired with orange juice, of course.

The oj is good right now. I'm struggling with a raging sinus infection, which sucks even more while pregnant. I'm waiting on a call from my doc about drugs I can take. It's weird to me to think about what I take, what I put in my body, now that I'm pregnant. Drug users and addicts abuse all sorts of things while pregnant, and they have seemingly healthy babies all the time. And here I'm concerned about medicine that would make me human again. It's a hard fine line to walk. Or to nap on. Whatever.

New names.

I'm a little slow sometimes. Yes, I'm pregnant. Yes, I know I'm having a baby and this will likely change almost everything in our lives. But still. Last night, it just dawned on me that Bob and I will be Mommy and Daddy in a few short months. Of all of our names, given and nicknames, these are two we've never had before. It's weird to think about.

I've been thinking about planning ahead and the decisions we need to make: to bank cord blood, to use cloth diaper vs disposable, to breastfeed, which church to christen the baby, how many pack and plays and boppy's we need, whether or not to accept a free crib or buy a new one. I've considered all these things, but for some reason, I haven't considered them as "Mom." I've considered them as Rachel, as Bob's wife, as Dad's daughter, as Hank's mom. But not as Baby's mom. It's weird. I will be responsible for a whole 'nother person.  And it's scaring the shit out of me.