Pregnancy Update

Yes, I'm still pregnant.

But things are looking up! I am not quite as swollen or puffy-feeling. In fact, I lost four pounds in one week-- all of it water retention! So that's good. My overall sense of well-being is quite fine.

Unfortunately, my blood pressure is still high. But my midwives assure me that everything else looks just peachy, and they have a really good gut feeling about how my pregnancy is going, so we're just going to keep a close eye on the blood pressure and proceed as normally as possible.

Except-- they put me on a diet that I HAAAAAAAAAATE. No sugar, no refined carbs, and there are even a few complex carbs I can't have, like corn and potatoes. I can't even have fruit. I have to eat 70-90 grams of protein every day (!!!) and take a bunch of supplements. For this carb-lovin', sweet-toothed gal, this has turned out to be my greatest pregnancy challenge of all. I know it's a really dumb thing to complain about- of all the interventions I could be going through, this is a breeze- but GOSH! I can only eat so many eggs and cheese sticks!!!

An artistic rendition of my past week.

I've been a little down about it for the past couple days (and certainly that much more eager to get that baby out!), but I'm determined to get out of this funk and try to figure out a way to creatively eat my protein. Do you have any good egg or meat recipes?

Complications

Complication is not a pleasant word to hear, and it is downright scary when you are pregnant-- and unfortunately, I'm experiencing a bit of one myself.

The past several weeks, my blood pressure has been high (around 140/100). Fortunately, other than having puffy ankles, everything else looks good. Unfortunately, high blood pressure can lead to preeclampsia. Also, my midwives had a client once, who like me, had high blood pressure, and as soon as she gave birth, her blood pressure skyrocketed, requiring immediate medical attention. So, naturally, my midwives are quite concerned, and at our appointment today, they told me that if my blood pressure doesn't go down soon, I will more than likely need to transfer care to a doctor and give birth in a hospital!

I don't feel particularly alarmed. And I'm not annoyed with pregnancy, or with Baby D. However, I am quite a bit crestfallen that my vision of a quiet home birth might not come to pass, and I'm also quite frustrated because I'm doing everything humanly possible to lower my blood pressure, and it doesn't seem to be working. Eating tons of protein? Check. Getting some physical activity? Check. Resting the rest of the time? Check, and double check. Laying off the cigarettes and booze? Well, still working on that one...

Totally kidding about that last one. Just seeing if you were paying attention!

So, I'll be keeping up my awesome lifestyle ways, and crossing my fingers when I go in for another appointment on Friday! Make sure that your comments aren't stressful! ;-)

Thrity-Seven Weeks!

Today is a good day to be Baby D, because today s/he is officially full term!

(You can come out anytime now, little baby!)

Starting at eleven weeks gestation, we took one picture every week or so and put it on facebook to chronicle Baby D's growth. I'll spare you having to look at all twenty-five pictures, but I thought it'd be fun for you to to see how things went month-by-month!


So without further ado, let's start at Week 11, when I was able to stop throwing up long enough to pose for a photo-op:


And to think I actually thought I looked fat back then. Sigh. :-D

The next week, at three months:

Four months:

Nineteen weeks (almost 5 months). This was how I looked that Friday...

...And here I am on Monday, three days later. I POPPED!

Five months, with Adam.

Six months.

Seven months.

Eight months.

Nine months, taken last week!

...which brings us to today, at 37 weeks.

Why yes, I AM wearing my husband's shirt. Don't judge me until you've walked a mile in my maternity pants. Speaking of which, you may have noticed that I'm wearing the same pair of maternity jeans in the majority of these pictures. I totally scored them at Ross for 50 cents! It always makes me smile a little to put them on, because I have DEFINITELY gotten my money's worth out of them. Let's hear it for the clearance rack!

So there's your little slideshow for the day. Hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

A Brief Life Update

I'm back! Wow, life has been crazy for the past few weeks, and I apologize for being such a blog slacker. So here's what's been going on in a nutshell:

~Adam got sick. And then I got sick. It was some sort of nasty respiratory sickness, which I'm still recovering from as far as sniffling and congestion. Since I'm exceptionally loathe to take medication, being pregnant and all, I tried a device called a Neti pot. It's like a small teapot that you fill with a saline solution and use to rinse your sinuses out. Go here if you'd like to see a weird lady demonstrate it on Youtube. I do not recommend those bending exercises, though, unless you want boogers all over your floor!!! Just sayin'. I'm not entirely sure how effective the Neti pot was for me, but it was nice to feel like I was doing something about my cold.

~My work replacement started with the company last week, so I've been training her. And by "training", I mean playing solitaire while she does my job. Ahhhh, these will be a glorious last few weeks at work.

~My sister's birthday was on Tuesday. Since our birthdays are so close together, she made the three-hour drive down here so we could celebrate it together! Our cake was INSANE. She wanted a raw cookie dough cake, and I wanted an ice cream cake. So we combined and made a ridiculous double-layer chocolate chip cookie dough cake with a full carton of ice cream spread over the top. Calories don't count on your birthday, right? Right?? Oh yeah, and since my sister was turning twenty, and I'm turning twenty-four, we put forty-four candles on the cake. I dare you to find a more ridiculous cake (and one that makes a bigger cloud of smoke).

~So what am I doing on my actual birthday, which happens to be tomorrow? Well, not much-- I'll be spending most of the day at work. I'll also be celebrating Arnold Schwartzenegger's birthday, as well as National Cheesecake Day!!! This is probably going to involve me bringing some sort of cheesecake dish to work tomorrow. Adam probably has some special plan up his sleeve because he's sweet like that, but otherwise, that's what my day looks like.

~Today, we went to the local water park for free, courtesy of Adam's workplace. Since I can't really go on any of the slides, and Adam's favorite ride was closed for maintenance, we hung out there for a couple hours, said, "Well, this is lame," and went home. I am SO glad that we got in for free, because they way overcharge for everything there!!! I highly encourage any readers in the area to find alternative means of entertainment, because you will be charged theme park prices for a less-than-memorable experience.

~We are watching a dog for some friends who are currently out of town. The household menagerie score: DOG +1, extremely happy and excited to see our cats. CATS -2, throwing literal hissy fits and spending the past approximate 36 hours under our bed. ADAM AND MARIA +5, extremely entertained by how much the dog still loves the cats anyway.

~My midwife appointment on Tuesday actually took place at our apartment, so that they could scope things out and not worry about finding the place when B-Day actually arrives. Luckily for me. they did not take one look at my apartment and shriek, "NO WAY are you having a baby in this MESS!!!!" which is probably because I spent the two days before doing some hard-core cleaning. Not surprisingly, my blood pressure was high. Of course I wasn't going to tell them, "Yeah, I was under stress to get the house clean!!!" so now I have to actually formally exercise and eat more protein. Oy veh. On a more positive note, tomorrow marks nine months!

So that's what's going on at the Downright Domicile. Hope you all are beating the heat just fine and enjoying the rest of your summer!

Wisecracks

Driving home from a birthday party last night, Adam and I were discussing the various physical changes that pregnancy has brought on me.


Me: I've had a few people tell me that I'm glowing.

Adam: I know-- it's been keeping me awake at night!


Silly, silly husband.

Bringing Out the Krab in Me

Nearly two weeks ago, I hit the big 28-week mark in my pregnancy-- the third trimester.

We're in the home stretch, folks!

Not only did all the third-trimester loveliness such as an achy back and- dare I whisper it- cankles somehow magically appear that first morning of the twenty-eighth week, but I suddenly realized that time was running out for me to get my act together. So what did I do?

I made a list.

I want to be mostly prepared by Week 36. So, I made a week-by-week list of everything I wanted to get done by then. Last week was great! I proactively made another wool diaper soaker and signed up for an online childbirth class that I had my eye on ("What? You're just now starting a childbirth class?" you incredulously ask. Ummm, yeah. Told you I needed to get my act together!). This week, though, I have been procrastinating big-time.

This week is supposed to be diaper week. It's time to buy the diaper sprayer, pail liners, changing pads, lanolin for the wool covers, and a couple pocket diapers/AIOs to supplement the prefolds I'll be using.

But these looming purchases have brought out the Spongebob character, Mr. Krabs, in me.

(Image owned by Nickolodeon)

They're taking all me MONEY!

To be fair, we have not had any money at all for most of this week. But now, we have a paycheck in the bank and too many ways to send it, and I still... must... buy... diapers...

Speaking of Spongebob, here is one diaper I sooooooo want to buy:

I found this at wahmykidz's Etsy shop. Gotta indoctrinate the kids early with quality programming, right? ;-)

So, I have one more day until Week 30 rolls around. Will I actually buy anything between now and Friday? Only time will tell!

The Midwife Appointment: Round 6

Yesterday's midwife appointment went superbly. It just so happened to be scheduled in a perfect window when Adam was free, so he came along. What a good, supportive husband!

There are two midwives in the practice I'm going to. Yesterday was only the second time that I had my appointment with Tiffany-- all the other times have been with Heather. And let me tell you what, this visit with Tiffany was a whole lot more positive than our last visit with her, when we couldn't find the baby's heartbeat!

Everything looks good. My blood volume has doubled- DOUBLED!!- in the past month, and accordingly, I gained five pounds. What a porker. At one point, Tiffany told me that she needed to stick my finger and get a blood sample to check the hemoglobin. Adam blanched, stammered, "Um, I forgot something in the car!" and beat a hasty retreat.

"It's a good thing that men don't have the babies!" Tiffany said. :-D

The baby actually behaved for the Doppler this time (no Little Stinker Saga this time!). That is always my favorite part of the appointment. Nothing like hearing that whoo-whoosh whoo-whoosh! I made it a point to ask how many beats per minute it was, because my mom is always hounding me to find out (probably because she's trying to guess the gender). Tiffany gave me the heart rate (147) and said, "...And tell your mom it means absolutely nothing! Did you know you have a better chance at guessing accurately from a Chinese calendar than from the heart rate?" No, I didn't. I guess I'll go get my mom a Chinese calendar. :-P

Since I just started the third trimester, I'm going to need to start going in every two weeks instead of monthly. Good thing I thoroughly enjoy those midwife visits!

Getting Ready for Baby: The House, Part 2

So, in a previous post, I told you that we're looking for the best housing options for us once the baby comes. Our conclusion?

We're better off financially staying in our one-bedroom apartment with no laundry hookups. How so? Here's how I came to that conclusion:

My main concern is getting the laundry done around here, with cloth diapers and all. Apartments with the same square footage as my apartment and washer/dryer hookups start at about $75 more than what we're currently paying. Then you factor in the cost of renting a washer/dryer, since we can't afford to buy one now: about $25 a month. Without even factoring in the extra cost of hot water, that's at least $100 extra a month.

The laundry facilities where I live right now are about fifty feet away from my doorstep, and everything is ground level, so it's pretty convenient. It costs $2.50 to wash and dry a load, but we usually bring the wet laundry in the apartment and dry it on a rack. Yay for savings! I figure that we do a maximum of 10 loads a month for Adam's and my stuff. If I wash diapers every other day, and allot 5 more extra loads for baby clothes, we have 30 loads total per month.

30 x $2.50 = $75

And that's if we pay to dry all the clothes, too! So we will be saving if we stay.


So that's the laundry. Then there are also other factors:

~The pet deposit. That's about $300 down the drain if we move to a new place!

~Proximity to school. Our apartment complex is the closest you can live to Adam's school. He usually bikes there. Yay for low mileage!

~A fantastic floor plan. There is no other way I'd even consider staying in a 700-foot apartment with any other floor plan. As I've said before, this one is laid out so that all the rooms are spacious.

~The cost of moving. Getting a truck, driving back and forth between living spots, hooking up the electric... it adds up, and we'd much rather put that money towards moving out of OKLAHOMA!


I just found out yesterday that two adults + one baby are allowed to live in a one-bedroom! Hoorah! So now that we've made our decision, I guess it's time to declutter and really get the house ready for Baby!

Getting Ready for Baby: The House, Pt. 1

Even back when Baby D was a twinkle in its father's eye, preparing for Baby D's arrival has largely been juggling logistics and making choices: how do the costs of midwives vs. doctors stack up? Do we want to start our family in Tulsa? Can we afford a baby? (the answer was NO, but that didn't stop us :-P).

The logistics that I am working on right now involve our housing situation for at least the first year of Baby's life.

Right now, we live in a one-bedroom 705-square-foot apartment. That may seem small, but the floor plan is arranged just in such a way that makes all the rooms huge. Of all the 700-square-foot apartments we looked at before getting married, none were arranged so spaciously. And the kitchen! I have to brag on my kitchen just a little bit here, because it has soooo many cupboards and so much counter space! I'm in love with my kitchen.

As great as the apartment is, though, it does have its downsides. The bedroom is more of an Everything Room, because all the craft supplies, school books and supplies, and everything else that is not Living Room/Kitchen-worthy has to live in the bedroom. The cat litter box is in the bathroom, because there is no other workable place to put it. Adam's mountain bike takes up a generous chunk of the living room space (I'm still trying not to be bitter about that :-P). And, last but definitely not least, we don't have laundry hookups in the apartment, which means that we spend $2.50 to wash and dry a single load at the apartment laundry facilities.

Since DH and I do not want to stay in the Midwest any longer than we absolutely have to, here are our housing options, once Baby comes:


*Stay in our current apartment

*Move into a bigger apartment or house with two bedrooms

*Move into a bigger apartment or house with washer/dryer hookups


I mention the washer/dryer hookups because I'm planning on going the cloth diaper route. Washing all that would be burdensome and expensive-- or would it? Read all about my logistics juggling next time!

Q: What goes *whoosh whoosh* and is incredibly difficult to find?

A: My baby's heartbeat!

After last weekend, in the absence of any warning signs or discomfort, I decided that there was no cause for concern over not hearing Baby D's heartbeat. So I called up the midwives and asked if we could just wait another week or two before scheduling an ultrasound. So yesterday, a week after the last appointment, I went in to go hunting for Baby D's heartbeat again.

Can I just say how much I love going to the midwife's office? It always smells sooooooo good in there, and it's very comfortable and homey! Can I live there, please?

Anyways, after about fifteen minutes of searching with the Doppler, I was starting to get frustrated. Baby's No Show, Act 1, Scene 2. Sigh. And then--

whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Success! Turns out, my baby likes to hang out waaaaaaaaaay down at the bottom of the uterus. So that's the happy ending to my mini pregnancy drama.

The Midwife Visit...

... did not go well today. The midwife, after several minutes of trying to find the fetal heartbeat, turned and asked, "Are you sure about the date?" I replied affirmatively, to which she told me that she was concerned about not finding a heartbeat at Week 14.

So now I have to make an hour-long drive for a lovely expensive ultrasound, even though I'm pretty sure everything's okay. I just had a morning sickness episode twenty minutes ago, for crying out loud!- and I'm definitely bigger than I was last week.

Ooh! Speaking of which, here's my fourteen week picture:

That thing you see sticking out from under the door is the paw of my other cat, who, I suppose, felt slighted at being left out of the last belly picture.

So anyways, I'm not too concerned, besides wondering where the heck my baby's heart is. :-P That ornery baby just couldn't be easy and let us get a heartbeat! Baby D. certainly doesn't get that from my side!

And Yet Another Post That Revolves Around How I'm Feeling...

...But this one has a happy ending! Evidently, my body wanted to apologize for how horrible it was yesterday, because today was one of the best days I've had in a long time! I am hoping this means the smooth start of the second trimester, because today is...

Twelve weeks.

Hooray! And to commemorate the three-month mark, I had Adam take a belly picture. I apologize in advance for looking so ratty. And for my cute little demon cat in the corner.

Yep, there's definitely a bump going on now!

A Pregnancy Headache

So I'm participating in that NaBloPoMo thing, and I almost forgot to post today. Reason being, I am experiencing a massive pregnancy headache. This morning, I had such violent sickness that I got a headache, and from then on, the headache has made me violently sick. Ain't pregnancy wonderful? So now I'm going to (hopefully) sleep it off.

There. I posted for a the day. Kind of. Bear with me while I ride out these *crosses fingers* last few days of first-trimester horrors, and I, in return, will make significantly better posts!

A Day Off From Work

Today, along with Sunday, are my days off from work. It is so great to be home during the day here, because my morning sickness is always worst in the evenings, so I haven't had the wherewithal to get anything done around the house. And can I say, as of this morning, that it's good to see the floor again!

I was telling a friend yesterday, I am just waiting to find some joy in this pregnancy. My attitude so far could be best described as sober. I am all too keenly aware of how this pregnancy so far has been a teeth-gritting battle to just survive the first trimester, and also that we're kind of broke and far away from any family or support network. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, it's just the facts.

It's been kind of hard for me to feel excited about a perpetual stomach bug, but I think that once the baby actually starts making a baby-like manifestation, my frame of mind will change. Here's crossing my fingers! And now I'm off to clean the house some more!

Works For Me Wednesday: Backwards Edition

I'm pregnant! Good thing I'm so excited, because all that excitement is needed to counterbalance an equally distressing occurrence:

Morning sickness.

In this Backwards Edition of Works For Me Wednesday, I'd like to ask all you moms who have come before me: how did you combat the queasies?

Things that have worked for me so far: eating a little something before getting out of bed, and drinking lots of water. Things that are not working so great: ginger. It has actually been making me sick. My problem times tend be late morning, when I'm at my desk at work, and the evening--before, during, and after dinner.

So please-- tell me how to get that glow of pregnancy! (unless you think green is a glow)

Thank you for stopping by! Feeling like the Answer Guru today? Check out more burning questions at We Are THAT Family.

The Pregnancy Lowdown

So-- the cat's out of the bag! Adam and I are pregnant with our first baby! I am super excited! So, without further ado, here are all the answers to your burning questions.

How far along am I? Only about seven weeks-- which, I just realized, is mercifully halfway through the first trimester.

How am I feeling? Ooooh, don't make me go there! I am sick. Sick. Sick. Sick. Fortunately, I've only had a few episodes of bowing before the porcelain throne, but I feel nauseous 24/7. Even thinking about food usually makes me green. Because of said nausea, I usually spend my free time lying down.

So what have I been eating? Things that would probably make a doctor blanch. I used to be a HUGE lover of all things green, leafy, and organic. Now, I can't stand the sight of vegetables. :-( I've been eating lots of string cheese, crackers, and baked potatoes. I've also started drinking at least two 24-ounce containers of water with lemon at work every day-- a huge increase from my camel-like ways.

So how am I getting any nutrients? Well, Adam's grandmother is a purveyor of fine Shaklee vitamin products, and as soon as she heard the news, she sent me big jars of multivitamins and B-Complex tablets. This baby is going to have the best neural tubes in the world, lol.

Any weird cravings/aversions? My latest craving is frozen yogurt. Great stuff! On the down side, my morning best friend and I have had to part ways. *sniff* I'm sorry, Coffee, it's not you, it's me.

How is Hubby taking it all? He is thrilled, and doesn't mind at all when I'm crabby/ravenous/helpless. I'm not letting him forget whose fault this is. :-P