34 weeks

Forgive my lack of caring how I look for a picture. For the first time ever, I don't care. 

At all. 

How bad I look in this picture pretty much sums up how I've been feeling recently.

All that matters is the belly.

34 weeks

I'm definitely in my nesting phase. Only problem is the doctor has told me I have to stop cooking, cleaning, and anything else that increases my heart rate.

My "normal" heart rate for the past few months has been between 110-120, but now it's over 120. My OB was finally worried when he found out my heart rate has been this high (I'd told him, but he just told me it was normal; he never asked HOW high it was) and sent me to my regular doctor. He did an EKG and everything's normal. They're taking me off a medicine I've been on the past few months and hoping that's what it is, but so far no change!

Who knows how long this will last, but it's already been a week. I'm going crazy, there are so many things I want to cook, so many cleaning projects I want to do (and ones I started but now can't finish), and holy cow, I want to exercise!

The only thing keeping me from doing these things is reminding myself that it could hurt Evelyn, so I need to take care of myself & take it easy (and I do...for the most part...). It's not bedrest but it certainly is 

feeling like it! It's TORTURE!

Counting Down The Days

We had both dogs shaved today (if I vacuum every 3 days, their fur fills up the canister in each room. It's disgusting). We knew Sam would look funny, but we weren't at all prepared for what we saw. We couldn't stop laughing when they brought him to us.

BEFORE (I still don't know why he climbed into our shower)

AFTER

Phoebe's change wasn't as dramatic as Sam's, so it wasn't nearly as funny. Only weird thing with her is what they did with the tail: They shaved the first inch of it and left the rest alone, which simply looks awkward

(also seen in the picture above).

29 weeks!

(And people are FINALLY daring to ask me whether I'm pregnant! 

It's about time!)

I'm not looking forward to these next 11 weeks, but I can't wait to have 

Baby Evelyn in my arms!

My symptoms going into the 3rd trimester:

*I've had SPD (the pelvis separating) almost a month, and that shouldn't happen until closer to giving birth. As a result, walking is absolute torture. So is rolling over in bed, putting on & taking off clothes, etc. My OB said the only thing that will make it not hurt so much is staying off my feet, and the pain won't go away till I've had the baby. Yay for encouraging words.


*My "morning sickness" came back about 3 weeks ago, but most days it's only at night. When it reaches about 8-9pm, I curl into a ball for the rest of the night.


*Leg cramps are insane, especially while I'm sleeping.


*Braxton Hicks accompany me day and night. My record so far is 3 within a 15 minute span. And I don't understand people who say they don't hurt. Sure, a few of them have only been uncomfortable, but for the most part, they're painful!


*Hot flashes: I wake up nearly every night (sometimes multiple times) drenched in sweat. It's absolutely disgusting. Now as of yesterday, I'm getting them through the day also.


*Arrhythmia: My heart starts racing several times a day and it makes me feel really uptight and anxious, even if I'm just laying there and reading a book. It usually lasts 10 minutes or less. When I told my doctor, I hoped he would have some kind of suggestion to make it stop, but he just told me "It's common." Ugh.


*Pregnancy Brain: This one is my favorite. I forget things within a minute, and sometimes my brain completely stops functioning. Like this morning, I put the rest of my Chick-fil-A sandwich in the microwave to heat it up. Best part? I left it in the paper wrapper, which caught on fire and became an amazing 4 inch flame! I amaze myself, that's the first time I've done something like that in my entire life!

I'm counting down the days, I can't wait for all of this to end!

Christmastime

I was a bit upset when Target informed me that they were taking me off the schedule a week early (the week after Christmas instead of the first week of January). Once again, however, I've been reminded that the Lord knows what's going on even when I don't. Matt got into a car accident 2 days before Christmas and totalled the car, leaving us with 1 car to share. He started back to school during what would have been my last days of work, so if I had still been on the schedule, I wouldn't have been able to make it to work. It was a huge blessing in disguise that I'd been dropped already.

Then I had a random surprise this week: Target called a few days ago to inform me that I'm on next week's schedule. I told them I could only work Tues, Thurs, and Sat, since that's when Matt doesn't need the car for school -- and fortunately they'd scheduled me for Thurs & Sat! The extra bit of money is going to be a huge blessing! That should be my last week now.

About the car accident, Matt's fine. He came out of it with only a headache for the next few days. Even though he rolled the car, he was being watched out for: there wasn't even any broken glass, no minor whiplash, no bruises, and the airbags didn't even deploy! We're seeing this as an even bigger blessing because the car kept almost its entire worth, and we were given a check that we can use to buy a cheap car with and then pay off all or most of the loan we took out on my car!

Phoebe's finally discovered that she's capable of jumping our fence. Not only that, but she thinks it's a game. When she jumps, she then runs around to our front door and scratches until I open it. When I open it, she's sitting very politely and her tail's wagging like crazy. We can't let them run around outside anymore when we leave the house, and most of the time when we are home, we have to go outside with them. We're trying to teach her and Sam to not jump on the wall now. Phoebe's catching on as long as she knows we can see her, but Sam's not catching on at all. Even when we use the spray bottle when he jumps, he somehow doesn't understand that it would stop spraying him if he'd just get down...

Christmas Day - 20 weeks

Christmas was a wonderful time for us. We got to spend plenty of time together, Matt was safe, and our baby girl is healthy. What more could we ask for?

Soccer Pro Before Birth

Baby never sits still. EVER. We saw this starting at 8 1/2 weeks on an ultrasound. The little bugger was that small and already squirming nonstop. That's actually why the OB told us we had less than a 1% chance of miscarriage in the rest of the first trimester.

When we got the next ultrasound at 13 weeks, she was doing flips, punching, kicking, everything possible.

Around 15 weeks, I started feeling her moving while I tried to sleep. Everyone says the baby kicking feels like "fluttering" in your stomach for at least the first few weeks -- till it gets bigger and can make more of an impact. I disagree. For the first 3 or so days, it was the fluttering. After that, it stopped. Maybe it's just because Baby keeps cornering herself in one side of my tummy (which looks kinda funny-- when she does it, which is about 1/2 of each day, I look about a month further in my pregnancy if you see me from my right side than from my left), but I've felt real kicking since about 15 1/2 weeks.

I can't begin to imagine what I'm in for in the remaining 23 weeks!

17 weeks

P.S. Congratulations to Darilyn & Jonathan Jeter on their new arrival! Best of luck to both of you!!! :)

Bits & Pieces

Work is killing me! The baby is slowly breaking my back, and I swear I'll need back support before I reach 5 months! One of my co-workers (older woman who's apparently losing her filter a little bit) found out yesterday that I'm pregnant, and her response made my day: "I thought you were. But then I thought 'Nah, she's just fat.'" At least I'm starting to sort of look pregnant to people!

In my spare time I'm crocheting a baby blanket. It's gender neutral because I started it before we found out we're having a girl. It's a ripple afghan, which is fortunately much easier than I thought it would be (I haven't crocheted since high school, so I require something easy). I just started the 4th ball of yarn and this is its current state:

I have to be careful every time I work on it because Phoebe thinks it's a new toy and will do anything to get some in her mouth and try to run with it.

Speaking of my puppy...She loves people-watching. The weirdo absolutely adores it. She'll growl once in a while, like if another dog walks past or the mailman walks up to our house, but usually she sits there quietly for the longest time. We open the front blinds so she can do her people-watching, and she's started climbing on the ottoman for it now. I finally caught it on camera this afternoon:

Silly puppy.

This dog absolutely makes my day :) She's a psycho and always puts a smile on my face.

Almost 15 Weeks

I still get really sick if I don't take my medicine (Promethazine) but I'm doing tons better! We went for an NT Scan a week ago and found out we're having a girl! They're going to confirm it in a few weeks, but the woman who did the scan was nearly positive. Little Evelyn Renae is due on May 11, 2012. We're so excited to meet our baby! She's healthy so far, development looks fine, heartbeat is great, and she wiggles like crazy! Here are pics from the scan at 13 weeks:

This is her favorite position -- facing down with her head in my back... 

Baby Profile

I HATE 4-D ultrasound pictures. I really do. Babies have no fat at this point so they're disgusting and lumpy. But I love seeing her tiny fingers. Growing a baby night and day is a blessing and a miracle!

Here's where we found out it's an Evelyn. The dark horizontal white line near  the pelvic area means girl!

I lost my waist by around 8 weeks and started showing pretty early on, at least for a first time mother! I'm not a fan of any of these pics, but they're all I have:

This was taken a couple weeks after we found out, this was around  the 4th week.

13 weeks, but I'd just eaten and my tummy always gets a bit bigger when I eat

14 weeks, I made sure I had my pic taken before I ate this time :)

Vertigo?

I did a hearing test this morning and apparently have nearly perfect hearing. The doctor said I have the hearing of a fifth grader, so I can't complain too much! It makes up for my husband losing his hearing already (due to ultra loud music all the time *ahem*).

I've been diagnosed with vertigo (dizziness caused by fluid in the inner ear -- while standing or sitting) and was sent to an ENT. He checked everything and asked me questions, and at the end he told me I don't fit into any certain category of vertigo, so he's not sure how to treat it. Now I'm going to have to do a "dizzy test," which obviously already sounds thrilling. And just for the heck of it, I'm going to have allergy testing done also. I have allergies of some kind year round, so I might as well see if I can avoid any of them.

I'm having a Nuchal Translucency (NT) Scan today, which should give a REALLY good guess on the gender of the baby!!

I got a seasonal job at Target that I'm starting in about a week. I need to get out of this house and get my mind on things other than how sick I'm feeling. Being here day after day gets really frustrating, and who am I to complain about a bit of extra money around the holidays? (Actually it'll probably go towards bills and student loans, but a girl can dream!) Hopefully the pregnancy swelling doesn't get too bad, otherwise a job where I'm constantly standing will be terrible!