Second Tri Here We Come...

I'm in my second trimester!

Whooo hoo! I cannot believe that a third of my pregnancy is over already. Time really is just flying by. I honestly couldn't even visualize myself here at the beginning and now it feels like it was just yesterday that we found out.

I bought my some fun baby related things today, the first since finding out we were pregnant. Just a couple little gender neutral onsies and a soft blanket with polka dots on it. So exciting!

It has been an uneventful week pregnancy wise, which is a pretty darn good thing I think. Other than a rough day with a headache and being sick on Thursday I've felt pretty good, almost normal. The headaches are killer at work though, I can barely look at my screen. Also, I've lost weight, as of my last doctors appointment I was up 3 lbs, as of today I'm back down to my original pre-pregnancy weight. I think it is because I am NEVER hungry and nothing sounds remotely appetizing even though I don't feel half as nauseous as I did a couple weeks ago. So now I'm making a concerted effort to eat, even though I don't want to. Who would have thought!?

So that is about all for now, I didn't want anyone to think I had disappeared off the face of the blogosphere for not posting last week. We're still here! I will have an exciting post for next week though, our NT scan is Tuesday morning at 8:30 am (early!!!). I'm excited and nervous, though mostly excited to see Baby M again. So that one will be a nice long blog entry on Tuesday along with a new belly shot, though not much has changed, it still just looks like lumpy pudge to me today...maybe it will magically become a bump not a lump by Tuesday. Fat chance! Ha ha, get it? FAT chance? Ok, lame...pregnancy has apparently stolen my wit along with my waist!

PS. The majority of you were right on my latest poll, Christmas IS my favorite holiday...this year more than ever.

"There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. "

-Logan Pearsall Smith, Afterthoughts, 1931

Look to Your RIGHT...

Notice my ticker? What is different about it? Oh yes, Baby M has been bumped up to a New Years Day due date!! Goodbye January 6th, hellooooo January 1st! We may just squeeze Baby M into the 2008 tax year after all.

I had a THIRD ultrasound again (with my dear, close, personal friend "The Wand") today with my regular OB/GYN. I totally wasn't expecting it but hey, I'll take as many as they'll give me. I knew she was so excited, so I was totally expecting her to hug me when she came in the room. Thing is, I wasn't expecting an internal ultrasound, so this was the first time I've hugged a woman with no pants on. There's a first time for everything right?

And one more thing. She saw a nub. A nub! she was looking at the screen and suddenly said,

Dr. W:"Hmmm...I'll be interested to see how your big ultrasound comes up."
Me: "What?? What does that mean??" And I'm all panicking thinking there is a third arm or something.
Dr.W: "Well, I'm absolutely not sure about this but...hmm...yes, I see something. See that? In between the legs?"
Me: "Is that a boy part?" (And yes, I'm 27 and couldn't bring myself to say penis, so sue me).
Dr. W: "Definitely could be, either that or a tailbone, but I think that maybe...it just might be! Don't bet on it, but it is just something that I would be interested to see the outcome on. Don't go painting the room yet."

Thing is, Rob missed this appointment, so he doesn't know about the nub. I had told him it wouldn't be exciting and just boring blood work and stuff so he didn't need to be there. He really, REALLY would love to have the first boy, but I don't want to get him be all excited and then be disappointed. It wouldn't necessarily be disappointment, but he would just be SO excited for a boy. So I'm keeping it to myself, (and yes, apparently the entire Internet), until the big U/S. Maybe we'll see something on the NT scan in a couple weeks and I won't have to burst from secret keeping! Although truthfully, I'll probably break down and tell him...like tonight. I'm such a bad secret keeper!

Case In Point: Damn it, he just got home and came in the room while I was writing this blog and I told him. I have absolutely no willpower whatsoever. None.

Next up, NT scan!

“He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.”

-Douglas Adams

Father's Day...

For about the last seven years Father's Day has been a rough, and although this one had the fun celebration of Rob's quasi- First Father's Day, it still wasn't easy. Ever since my dad has been gone I've dreaded the day. I think about him every day but on Father's Day you really notice the absence of a father, especially one like mine. I really can't put into words what an amazing dad he was, and unfortunately, I really don't think I ever appreciated him enough while he was here.

I know that he would be over the moon thrilled about this baby. I just know how incredibly, amazingly happy he would be about it. But what makes this particular part of my pregnancy so bittersweet, just like my college graduation and my wedding, I just wish he was here to share it with me and with my mom.

I never had a grandfathers, both passed away well before I was born, and although Baby M will have Rob's dad, and no offense to him, he won't hold a candle to the grandfather my dad would have been. Of course I'll tell stories, but it hurts that Baby M will never really know him, not well enough to realize how amazing he was. I miss him so much and I wish he was here, in person, to share this time.

"A man tells his stories so many times that he becomes the stories. They live on after him, and in that way he becomes immortal. "

-Big Fish

Bobble-head Baby...

Second ultrasound went fantastic. Although I have to say, I was hoping for the external kind. I'm just feeling a little too intimate with the doctor's ultrasound wand. I was kind of hoping that at 10 weeks they might try the Doppler, but I figured it was too early. Boo! Having a huge, billy club style, wand shoved up your privates is never a fun time, although seeing Baby M totally made up for the fact that I have now been violated with that damn thing three months straight!

Baby M looks more like an actual baby! A very large, bobble-head-esque baby, but a baby nonetheless. Rob swore he saw a penis, I had to gently correct him, "No honey, that is the umbilical cord." That man has high hopes for our child apparently. When the doctor was showing us the baby, I swore he/she was waving at me. We saw arms, legs and the heartbeat now beating at 167 bpm! I never, ever get tired of hearing and seeing that heartbeat, how amazing is that sound? Seriously! Baby M is even measuring ahead! Whoo hoo! Though SUPER exciting, it is always a little awkward to hold a 10 minute conversation with the person who happens to have a large, lubricated stick in your nether regions! Most importantly though, Baby M looks healthy and happy in there and I am incredibly relived. So relieved, in fact, that I finally gave in and let my mom call every close and distant relative from Oregon to London to tell them. She spent the entire evening on the phone telling people. I'm hoping she didn't actually call her sisters in London, as it was 2:30 in the morning there, but I wouldn't put it past her!

I'm feeling a lot less sick lately. I get about one bad headache a week, which is hard to deal with at work and small bouts of nausea when I wait too long to eat but other than that I feel SO much better. YAY!

So I KNOW these pictures are simply of bloat and not of baby, but I figured I'd post them anyways. Today I am 9 weeks and 6 days, but Baby M is measuring 10 weeks 5 days! I actually feel less bloated and I've only gained 1/2 a pound so far since I found out I was pregnant. I'm sure the lack of weight gain is due to the three weeks of nausea which made me not want to eat anything. Still none of my pre-pregnancy pants even come close to fitting me anyways, so I've got some crazy bloat going on still! Here I am in all my bloated glory:

If I push it out a bit I look a 5 months pregnant already!! HA!

And here is what everyone has been waiting for, the REAL star of this show,

the incredible Baby M! Ta-da:

"Let it go, Let it roll right off your shoulder.

Don't you know

The hardest part is over

Let it in, Let your clarity define you

In the end

We will only just remember how it feels

Our lives are made

In these small hours

These little wonders,

These twists & turns of fate

Time falls away,

But these small hours,

These small hours still remain"

-Rob Thomas "These Small Hours"

Tomorrow!

My second ultrasound is tomorrow at 2:15. Wish me luck!!! I'll update and post a belly/bloat pic afterwards!

“Get excited and enthusiastic about you own dream. This excitement is like a forest fire - you can smell it, taste it, and see it from a mile away.”

-Denis Waitley

Pepto Bismal and Lady Lump...

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates, its just every time I come home from staring at the computer all day long at work the LAST thing I want to do is get back on, and the FIRST thing I want to do is go to bed. This pregnancy stuff is rough, I'm not kidding. I would feel like this the entire 9 months, hell I'd feel like this even longer, if that meant we get our baby, its just not exactly smooth sailing at the moment.

For one, my stomach hates me, with the passion of a thousand burning suns, I kid you not. I am a walking Pepto Bismal commercial, you know the one that goes: "Nausea. Heartburn. Indigestion. Upset Stomach...." well, you know the rest. Pregnancy has wreaked havoc on my poor digestive system. For the first few weeks I would eat anything in sight. Now? Not so much. Two of my favorite weekly meals, Friday Costa Vida with the work girls and Saturday Farmer's Market Bratwurst I can hardly bear to smell or even think about let alone eat. I just feel sick, sick, sick. But I will accept it GLADLY. No, not even gladly...HAPPILY. I more than happily accept these feelings, but I'm not going to lie, its a little rough (but secretly I love it because it just cements the fact that, and I don't know if you heard this, but I'M PREGNANT! And yes, it is still THAT EXCITING to type those words).

Our next ultrasound is next Monday. I feel like this is a big one for us because although I know you're never 100% in the clear, after hearing the heartbeat again at 10 weeks I think we're fairly good to go! That is also when I'm letting my poor mother, who is practically bursting at the seams from not being able to tell our family, friends and anyone who will listen to her. She actually helps this feeling by telling random people, like store clerks and tellers at the bank so she can at least get it off her chest a bit. Hilarious!

Tomorrow I go shopping with my best friend Lindsay to attempt to find some clothes. Absolutely nothing fits me anymore. Which would be fine if I had a cute baby bump, but all I have is a big lumpy, squishy thing around my middle. Lovely! Weirdly enough I haven't gained a pound but I haven't been able to fit into my normal clothes since Week 6. I am THAT bloated. It is ridiculous! So we're on a mission to up my self esteem a bit so I can stop with the rubber bands around the jeans button and the pulling down the shirts to hide said button. All it does is stretch out my shirts that already don't fit my spare tire/muffin top middle. Come on bump not lumps!

I'm sorry for not updating more. The tiredness is lessening a little bit so I will try and keep up the posting once or twice a week, if not for you all our there then at least for me so I can have a record of this fun time!

Lastly, my food craving for last time was Grilled Cheese with tomatoes! YUM! I'm fact, that is sounding damn good for dinner tonight... Oh Rob honey, put on the panini press for lil ole pregnant me.

Expect a new belly pic after the U/S next week, you know you want to see my lump!

"What you gon’ do with all that junk? All that junk inside your trunk? I’m a get, get, get, get, you drunk, Get you love drunk off my hump. My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, my hump, My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely little lumps."

-Fergie