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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

better late than never!


oh hey, week 18, where did you creep up from??

Actually, that's a total lie.  The fact that I haven't updated weekly since week fifteen has been hard on me!  I wanted to update on Dec. 10th SOOO BADDDD but I couldn't because I didn't know how to keep information secret! haha! So I waited.. and then drove to Arizona to see my mama bear and papa bear and it turns out my brother turned off their internet, so I couldn't update there either. Also explains why my mama bear hasn't been FB chatting with me as much lately.  Boo on having their internet turned off!! :P


OK so let me back up to Week Sixteen.  W16 was oh so good to me.  It was the first week I graduated from actually getting sick, to only dry heaving, and only about three times that week.  It was glorious.  I thought I was in heaven.  I could eat without getting sick, and I could fall asleep without any trash can by my bedside.  I felt normal again!!  Yes, glorious.

I also had my long-awaited next OB appointment.  I had a really hard time falling asleep the night before! So instead, I googled ways to wake up Baby W* so we could try and see what's in between those little legs.  I drank a lot of water from the moment I woke up to try and fill my bladder up, I drank a whole big glass of OJ twenty minutes before my appointment, I even ate plain chocolate M&Ms - I don't like plain chocolate, but I read the sugar rush helped... so I ate them. haha.  I jogged from the car to the office building.  I jiggled my belly a few times... you know.. the usual crazy stuff crazy mama-to-be's do - or maybe just me.

I got to my appointment and asked the lady at the front to be put in the room with the little machine in case the doc had time to check the gender.  She said it was too early and even though I minded my Ps and Qs, and asked nicely to just do it juuuuusssstttt innnnn caaaaaasssseeeee, she didn't do it.  Rude, raining on my parade and I haven't even left the waiting room yet.
Finally got taken back to the room, and was asked to empty my bladder.  Dang it!  The odds were definitely NOT in my favor (hey, what book is that from?? and if you're thinking movie, you need to read more!)
That's okay.. the tech finally found the heartbeat this time around.. after about five minutes of searching.  Healthy 150 BPM works for me!  Doc came in, went over my test results from previous blood work.  Apparently I never became immune to some sort of sickness and I will need to get a shot as soon as Baby W* pops out.  I guess after labor, what's a shot, right??? :(
LAW was on call with me waiting to see if we could find out the sex together.  He set an alarm and everything!  (It was supposed to be his bedtime since he works nights which are my noons/afternoons). I finally asked doc if we could try to see if we could find out the gender.  

"I know it's only 16 weeks, but I read that was enough, and LAW is deployed but he's up and ready to skype just in case this works!"
So he checked to see that the room with the machine was available, and it was, and we went in to check things out.  He started it up, saying, "But I'm not going to promise you anything, it's still - WOAH there it is!"
[In my head: What?  What "it" is where?!  I don't see anythinggggg. I don't understandddddd.]
"Well, she's either flipping you off, or that's his junk!"
*Insert blank stare here* Sooo.. is she flipping me off? Or is that his junk??  Hey, I don't know!
"I wouldn't doubt it's a boy, but I'll leave some room for question in case she's just flipping you off"

So there it was.  He's pretty sure that Baby W* is a boy. Unless she is cursing at me already, in which case she will be grounded until she's 35. Okay, 25.

I took a picture, sent it to LAW, and tried to explain what I don't even understand.  It looks like a 3 to me. That's the only reason I know that's what it's showing.

I immediately got home, finished the gender announcement cards I had premade, and sent them out to my immediate family as well as LAW's, and sent the rest of the family/friends ones a few days later (I wanted to give our immediate family a chance to find out first!)  Hopefully boy doesn't turn out to be girl after already announcing it, but either way will be great with me!
We will 100% confirm on my next appointment with a different doc who did the DS testing a few weeks ago - by the way, finally got all the results.  Baby W* has less than 1 in 10k probabilities of DS, and 1 in 2500 of spina bifida.  They said those are great numbers.  I'm thankful Baby W* is developing well!

Those are kinda the highlights for that week... I had a great time attending the Guard's Christmas party (great job putting it together, DM!) and hanging out with Baby Michael, his mommy MM and daddy DM. I was logically getting wasted on iced tea and drove them home so they could enjoy their rated R drinks.  Even Baby Michael was milk wasted by the end of the night.  It was also my first time driving in the snow (and at night!) but I think I did great.

I drove to Vegas on Saturday, saw an old friend from Jr High and High School, and then finished out the drive to AZ that Sunday.  Man, I was pooped when I finally got there!  Monday and Tuesday were super slow, and it helped me get settled and rest after that weekend, but starting on Wednesday, I had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with at least one person per day, not including the other early dinner I was already eating with my parents! hahaha.  I'm a fatty.  Huge thank you's to my mama bear for making every dish on my wish list while I was home, even tamales.  She's definitely a trooper.  LAW, you missed out sooooo bad! Sorry babe :(

I got to meet Baby Sofia while I was there, saw my friend JL's baby bump (she's due in Feb), found out a very good friend is expecting after much adversity (YAY!), and also got to meet Baby Ava.  So many babies right now!!!

There wasn't much going on as far as Baby W* goes, except most family/friends got our Christmas card in the mail along with the gender announcement, and some couldn't scratch it off because I failed and didn't layer enough paint on parts of the paper (SORRY! I was too excited and didn't want to wait any more for paint to dry!!!), a minor hiccup in the getting nausea/sick department, and the last day of Week 17 I finally saw a legit baby bump.  Nothing to brag about, but I can see it now for sure. Even when I don't have a belly full of pee!

That takes me to Week 18 - current week.  It started with Christmas Eve, and mannnn if there is one thing I look forward to during the Holidays, it's my mom's green turkey.  Some of you are lucky to know what I'm talking about and will have a hard time arguing when I say it is THE best turkey in the whole wide world. My mouth waters when I think of it on any given day and I have no problem admitting it.  They make it every year for Christmas Eve dinner and again for New Year's Eve dinner, and in my opinion, two times a year is just NOT enough.

I thought I was getting some sort of rash on my belly on Monday, because I had really tiny red bumps everywhere and I was super itchy.  I really think it's just from the stretching of the skin, but I could be wrong.  I never recovered from my allergy reaction to minocycline and doxycycline - so much for acne meds.. instead I got vertigo from one and itchy legs/knees from the other (mild eczema is my guess). Still, it had been contained specifically on my knees and legs, so I don't know if the pregnancy is just making it worse or what.
BUT here is the coolest part... Monday night, during Mass celebrating Jesus' birthday, I felt Baby W* move.  I wasn't sure if that's what I was feeling, because it was brief and only happend a few times that I could notice, so I didn't tell mama bear or papa bear.  In hindsight I guess I should've!  But LAW was the first to know so that's special enough.

Yesterday should have been great, being Christmas and all, but I was silly and opted to save a couple hundred bucks in exchange of traveling on Christmas.. I thought it was smart, since my parents do our celebration Christmas Eve, and I wasn't going to make it to Memphis for Christmas morning anyway, but it ended up biting me in the butt with all the crazy weather!  Too many people asked for a White Christmas and got one.. I can't be mad at them.. haha.  It was rough, though.  I left AZ at 10, flight was already delayed, finally landed in DFW and sat in our plane on the landing strip for two hours.  Ran to my connecting flight, that luckily at that point had been delayed to just ten minutes after I made it out of my landing gate.  I was so excited to make it to my flight, only to sit in the plane for about two hours before taxi'ing out.  We were in line to get de-iced before take-off, got to the runway, and just seconds before take-off, they shut down the engines and the captain said he had just gotten word that the weather was bad in Little Rock and we needed to wait a half hour to see if conditions improved.  They didn't, we taxi'ed back to the gate, waited while the plane was refueled, and were told to get off the plane while they waited on weather changes, up to another hour.  By then, all the restaurants were already closed and I hadn't eaten since about 8 AM that morning.  When LAW called, I cried my little eyes out and complained about the day.  Baby W* was upset, too.  I knew because at around 2 PM I started feeling non-stop movements in my belly.  Same ones as the night before.  I knew he was hungry since he would stop briefly whenever I would snack on some lame-o oatmeal bar that the flight attendant was kind enough to get me.  They didn't have ANY food for sale on either plane, and 10-12 hours is an awfully long time not to eat when I seriously need to eat every four hours right now. wowza.  There were so many canceled flights at DFW, that I really couldn't even be upset at people.  They were already getting so much crap from really angry people who didn't understand that weather is out of everyone's control.  I was just upset about the no food on flights thing, but it was just my luck I guess.
LAW was awesome and booked me a room at a Hyatt nearby, so at around 1230 AM, I got myself a little cab and went on my merry way.  His little rewards status with them let me check out at 2 PM so instead of trying to come in early today for an early flight on standby, I stayed in the hotel until the very last minute resting up.  Lucky thing, too, because the first flight out of here that I was supposed to be on standby for was canceled, and every flight since, including my own, has been delayed for at least an hour.  I'm sure there are still so many people stranded looking for seats from the now four canceled flights to Little Rock alone in the last 24 hours. I'm just glad I have a confirmed seat on this one - late or not!

So hopefully everyone else had a much better Christmas than the W-B clan this year!  I'm just glad to be seeing some of LAW's family at some point today.. haha.  and Memphis BBQ, definitely Memphis BBQ.  My mouth waters thinking of it, and it's the ONLY pork I want to eat (and I hope I still do when I actually order it)

Sorry about the ridiculously long update, but three weeks doesn't fit into a few short paragraphs :/

I'll leave you with any pictures I have related to Baby W* these last three weeks!





I took this last one after the shower to show my sister, but it's the only updated baby bump I have so whatever!




Due Date: last week of May 2013

How far along? Eighteen weeks now. holy cow!

Symptoms: ok, so I started getting floaters in my vision.  Is that normal??? ugh.  ligament stretch pains, and abnormally hungry.

This week, Baby is the size of: a bell pepper sort of?

Total weight gain: I haven't weighed myself in a long time.  I was two pounds under my normal weight at sixteen weeks though, so I'm getting there.

Gender: 90 something percent that it's a boy!

Food cravings: Memphis BBQ. haha

Anything making you queasy or sick: not eating every four hours.

Maternity clothes? no but I stopped buttoning some of my jeans... and I also got some loose fitted sweaters and leggings for the coming weeks.

Sleep: it's not too bad!  I have to sleep sideways though

Movement: weeeeee!

Stretch marks? nothing new yet

Wedding rings on or off? on

Swelling? Nope

Belly Button in or out? in

Labor Signs: definitely not.

Happy or Moody most of the time: I get really moody if I'm hungry, and it happens in seconds. haha

Best moment this week: feeling Baby W* move!

What I miss: LAW and my puppies right now

Looking forward to: getting to Little Rock then Memphis to see LAW's family, eating delicious Memphis BBQ! yummm

2 comments:

  1. You look absolutely beautiful!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I need more. I'm updating my much less interesting blog now. So how's about you tell us all about what you and Baby W* have been up to in the past 3 weeks? ;) Xoxo

    ReplyDelete