She’s got a Bump!

S and I have been taking pictures of her stomach for the last 3-4 weeks to document her growing belly.  For the most part, if you weren’t looking really closely, it didn’t look like much of anything.  But last night we took our week 11 picture, and she has got a bump!  It’s so crazy to watch her body change and grow with our baby, it makes me so happy.  Also worth noting, for the last 2-3 weeks if you feel her stomach you can totally tell what side the baby is on at that moment.  I just can’t hardly wait to be able to feel the little bean move around in there!  Here is S’s week 11 bump in all of its wonderful glory:

In other news, S is starting to possibly see the light at the end of the nausea tunnel.  She is now going for 3-4 hour long stretches everyday not feeling awful.  Yay!  She even felt well enough yesterday that we went to the gym last night and worked out.  Granted we only walked on the treadmill, but it was more than either of us had done for the last 11 weeks.  So it felt good to be active and do something other than watch TV on our beautiful big TV, though that is nice too J.  All of this gives us hope that in the next two weeks or so, the “morning” sickness will go away.  It’s hard to believe that S is almost done with her first trimester!  I think that she is going to tell work once she is out of the first trimester, which means it won’t be long till we can tell everyone! That will be a lot of fun. 

-Liz

Nursery Letters

On Monday S and I went to Anthropologie, which is now my favorite store, and got our first few letters for the alphabet wall in the nursery.  Even though they were a bit expensive, they are so cute!  The other letters are still going to be crafted, but I thought that these were too good to pass up.  Here they are in all of their glory.

Our other exciting purchase were some Eric Carle Animal alphabet flash cards.  The little bean won't be able to use them for quite a while, but we love Eric Carle stuff and weren't able to pass them up either.  

So do you guys love Anthropologie as much as I do now?  They have so much cute stuff!  Of course, I really can't afford any of it and I for sure can't fit into any of their clothes, but dang, I'm in retail love!

-Liz

How Much Longer Can We Keep The Secret?

I don’t think that S’s pregnancy can possibly be kept a secret for much longer, despite her anxiety to keep it under wraps a few more weeks.  After all, as they say, loose lips sink ships and far too many people around us have loose lips.  At this point probably about 25 people in real life know about the pregnancy, but certainly not everyone.  And we have had a few slips- two slips on Facebook that were hastily deleted, two slips of people making comments about it in front of people who weren’t supposed to know (though those people didn’t catch on), and then this weekend at S’s work a girl pulled her aside to talk to her because she had heard from folks at her other job (where S also used to work) that we were trying to get pregnant (she had some useless advise for S), and also at work S forgot that she was wearing maternity pants and bent over in front of a girl who had a baby recently and she probably saw the belly band part of the pants.  And then stuff keeps happening like at two different parties we have played games that S could not participate in and had to be sneaky about getting other people to participate instead (one involved chugging beer and the other involved popping balloons between two people’s stomachs).  To top it all off, S is sick so constantly it really has just been pure luck that she has been alone at work each time the sickness strikes; and she is for sure sporting the tinniest baby bump that is only going to get bigger.  So I’m thinking as S is going on her 11^th week this week that she probably only has about two more weeks tops before the news needs to be told.  

And speaking of telling people, I told my boss today.  Now my boss is a 65 year old man who used to be a preacher.  He is a great boss, but me being gay is something that I think he probably has a hard time with, though you’d never be able to tell.  In fact, I have known him the whole 7 years that I’ve worked here and he been my manager for about 5 years now.  In all of that time, I have mentioned S many times, have pictures of her on my desk and even introduced him to her AS MY PARTNER at a coworkers wedding, and it still wasn’t until about a year ago that he finally figured it out and asked one of my coworkers if I was in a relationship with S.  Duh!  So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that when I told him he had zero reaction.  No congratulations, no questions about due date or boy vs. girl, nothing.  Just an ok.  And when I went on to explain that I wanted to go to S’s doctors appointments whenever our schedule would allow, he was just like, ok, we can work on making that happen.  So it wasn’t a big deal, and I’m sure he had no idea how to react and so neutral was best.  Still, somehow, I expected more.

-Liz

A B C Easy as 1 2 3!

I started my first nursery craft this week, my wall of letters.  I’ve seen a few nurserys that have alphabet letters up on a wall, all painted/crafted differently and it is so cute.  Here are three amazing examples for you to feast your eyes on:

And because I’m a crafty girl, I decided to make a wall of my own.  The best part about my wall though is that my crafty artist friends are all helping!  I sent out a message to about 10 of my artist friends asking them to pick a letter or two and everyone jumped on the chance.  S and I are of course making a few ourselves- S is making the S and U and I’m making E, F, H, W, N, and V.  And then our wonderful helpful friends are making the rest!  We went to Hobby Lobby and Target and got a few of our letters to get started on.  So far it has been lots of fun.  I’m hoping to also make a few of my letters out of alternative materials- for example I’m thinking of making the V out of two rulers or something like that.  And I know one of my great friends who is a sculptor is going to be making her letters from scratch using wire and fabric, which I’m very excited about!  I’ll be sure to post lots of pictures as letters get finished and once the wall is up.

In other news, we have a busy busy weekend ahead of us!  Tonight we are going to a going away party for some good friends and then tomorrow night we are going to a 30^th birthday party for another dear friend.  And one of S’s friends is coming into town for the weekend and staying with us to go to the birthday party.  It’s going to be fun but I’m worried about poor S being able to stay awake and make it through all of these activities when she is used to going to bed these days at 8 ish.  Also, hopefully her morning/all the time sickness won’t be too bad and keep her at home.  After all, she is currently the best designated drive ever J. 

-Liz

I feel great! Oh crap!

I have felt awful everyday for weeks.  I described it to someone as waking up hung over everyday of your life.  You’re tired, sick to your stomach, and have a slight headache.  It has been crappy and I have been wishing the awful feeling away.  Then today, I feel great!  That scared the hell out of me!  Plus, I fit into my jeans.  They have been tight for weeks which means I don’t have a baby belly currently either!  I have been freaking out all morning, just sure I was no longer pregnant.  I called the Dr. and talked to the triage nurse and she assured me unless there is bleeding and cramping that everything is fine.  I am so glad I switched to this Dr. The last one took a week to get back to me about anything and this one answers the phone when you call!  Just her saying that was such a relief.  She said it like every preggie woman has called her about the same problem, so I feel so much better about it.

My emotions are all over the place this week.  I am not surprised all of this freaked me out, because I have spent the last week worried about every thing.  Money, my job, the baby, parents coming to visit when the baby is here, etc. (yeah, I am jumping the gun on all of it) I read up on this week and the main thing it said is there will be some major mood swings.  Yikes, watch out Liz:)  Fortunatly, Liz does not have a worried bone in her body, so none of any of this has fazed her AT ALL.  She is currently setting the date for the baby shower and I am panicked that we should wait until I am 12 weeks along!  That is how we are though.  I worry enough for the both of us and Liz thinks of all the fun things;)

On another note, I have made all the organs and am now working on bones and cartilage.  My aversion to milk has suddenly gone away, so I should be calcium filled for the process.   Not being sick to my stomach means that I just ate a big slice of lasagna and am hoping to not get crazy sick to my stomach after eating it.  Maybe this feeling good is not so bad;)  I have 2 blood draws today and my poor little arm just quit bruising from the last 2.  I feel like Drs. are suddenly vampires, they all want my blood all the time:)  At least it means my thyroid and hormone levels are going to be checked.  Here’s hoping everything is fine!
-S

Nursery Inspirations

Another dull day at work which leads to blogging.  This weekend I went with one of my good friends and her husband to a little town in East Texas to visit her folks and other assorted family members (of her family, not mine) for the weekend, while the little lady stayed at home, feeling pukey.  I had a great time, even though it was hot as hell.  But to be fair, all of Texas is hot as hell right now.  It was fun to see some of the wild life- on the way we saw probably 10 deer, some cows "making love", a huge opossum outside a grocery store, what I think might have been some sort of wild pig, plus the chickens that her parents raise along with dogs dogs dogs.  While I was having a good time, S was sick.  Poor thing is so tired of being sick.  She is religiously taking her anti-nausea pills and eats lots of small meals and chews on wint-o-green mints and crackers and drinks ginger ale and nothing seems to help that much.  She really hasn't been craving anything, but has some serious aversions.  Right now she has no interest in bacon, can sometimes drink milk, is funny about meat right now in general, and is not into veggies.  The only thing she has any real interest in is pasta, garlic bread, and blueberry muffins.  Oh and S totally has a tiny baby belly!  If you weren't looking for it, you probably wouldn't notice, but of course I'm looking for it, and it is very very cute.

Decorating the nursery has been on my mind this weekend (well more than this week, obviously).  I'm hoping to get it painted in the next two weeks so that maybe we can move to phase two in the next month or so, which is getting a crib and other furniture type stuff to go in the room.  S and I agreed that we really love gray for the nursery and have picked a color (it's pretty close to the color of the 6th picture posted below) and agreed that a white crib will look best.  So the fan will be going back this week (today or tomorrow I hope?) and the quest to find/make fun art and mobiles continues.  Here are some photos of great gray nurseries I found online last week to serve as inspiration for us.  Enjoy.  Oh and be sure to notice the super cute bedding in the 5th picture!  I want!

-Liz

Ultrasound #3 and The Baby Whisperer

Baby, baby, baby, that is all that is on my mind right now.  It was pretty amazing going to S’s doctor appointment on Monday.  Seeing the little dude on the ultrasound, and having it actually look sort of baby shaped was cool, but hearing the heart beat was amazing.  The picture that we got sent home with isn’t great, and isn’t nearly as clear as the ultrasound pictures we got from our RE, but I think you can still get the idea.  On the actual screen S and I could both tell without being told which end was the head and which end was the “rump” as they like to call it and we could see the arm and leg buds waving around.  I think we could even see a bit of a profile, but that might have been more of us seeing what we think we should be seeing rather than what was there if you know what I mean.  

In other baby news, our work on the nursery continues.  We were supposed to get it cleared out yesterday, but alas, S felt too sick and I felt too lazy to get anything done.  We did however get a new fan/light fixture and get a few paint samples to put up on the wall.  Right now we are talking about painting the room either an aqua color or a gray.  I love the idea of doing a gray, it really makes the other colors pop, but I think to pull it off, we would need to get a white crib, and S wants something cherry wood.  I think cherry wood would end up being too dark.  And if we did go the direction of a white crib, then we’d probably have to take back the cherry wood colored fan and get something white instead.  Decisions, decisions.  Here is an example of what the gray would look like, in case it sounded totally awful to you.

And lastly, I am getting more and more convinced we are having a girl.  I’ve had two dreams now about the baby and in both dreams we had a girl.  Also, my dad and his wife were visiting us this weekend (and while they were here my dad got us a 42 inch plasma TV!!) my dad told us that he thinks we are having a girl.  My dad is the baby whisperer, apparently, he correctly predicted me and both of my brother’s gender correctly (my mom was wrong all 3 times) and again he correctly predicted a co-worker’s child as well.  So maybe he is correct?  Only time will tell.

-Liz

The good and the nauseous

Let’s start with the good:  Yesterday Liz went to the Dr. appointment with me and saw the baby for the first time.  We even got to hear the heartbeat!  It was pretty amazing.  The baby looks like a baby now.  On one of the sites I go to it said the baby is a fetus this week.  I am unsure of what makes it such, but very exciting!!  The little heartbeat is beating 162 times per minute!  Go baby go!

The nauseous:  Self explanatory.  The good part is that for the past 3 days, I have been able to eat and hold down one normal meal.  I have been eating little tiny meals all day long because otherwise I don’t feel very good, but the past few days, I ate at least one normal sized meal a day!  I even ate a bowl of fruit and drank some juice, so I am coming along!  The Dr. yesterday said that my hormones won’t peak for another 2 weeks…I AM GOING TO FEEL WORSE THAN THIS…AHHHH!  Okay, I’m better now.  I keep telling myself that it is all worth it and honestly, I would take baby nausea over food poisoning any day, but when you are hugging the porcelain god, it is hard to keep that perspective.

All and all, things are going well here.  We are still elated by seeing the baby and hearing the heartbeat. (I will have Liz post the pic for you guys once she is out of bed.)  My next appointment is not for 4 weeks, which seems like a long time, but everyone does it this way:)
-S

Procrastinating

I need to be cleaning right now, but I am having a hard time getting moving today.  My dad and his wife are on their way to town for a quick over night visit.  They were in Houston for a wedding and are driving up to Austin to say hi.  I’m excited to see them, but I wish I had managed to clean the house yesterday.  I was pretty worthless yesterday.  I had a fun vodka drinking night with one of my BFFs on Friday and thus Saturday was a waste of sleeping and being lazy.

In other news, S and I both also have Monday and Tuesday off together.  S has an appointment with our new OB that we graduated to Monday morning.  They should be doing an ultrasound so I’ll get to see the little baby for the first time. I’m really excited!  Luckily the appointment is early the morning so hopefully my Dad and his wife just sleep right though it and then we can spend the day together.

On Tuesday S and I have big plans to make some headway on the nursery.  We had previously started cleaning the room out (it was a unused office before) and on Tuesday we are going to finish that task, buy a new ceiling fan/light and get a few paint samples to put on the wall.  I know it’s a bit early to really do much of anything to the room, but I’m just too excited not to.  Also, we don’t know if its going to be a boy or a girl yet, so I’m going to keep everything neutral for now.  The color I’m leaning towards right now is a light sort of aqua.  For a boy it can be paired with greens and browns and for a girl I want to pair it with corals and yellows.  Pretty either way.  Any of you other January due mamas started working on your nursery yet?
Happy Sunday!  I’d better get cleaning!
-Liz

Melt Down #2

S had her second melt down last night.  It was pretty intense, to say the least, but with how terrible she has been feeling for the past two weeks, I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it.  S went to the doctor on Wednesday and they were supposed to do another ultrasound but the machine was broken (lame!) and so they just took some blood.  And she got the call on Thursday that her progesterone levels went down, from a 1900 to a 1300 and so they wanted to put her on two week proscription for progesterone to balance it back out.  And I know that a lot of you have done the progesterone thing during TTC and some of you during early pregnancy, but S doesn’t have the time that I do to follow all of your lovely blogs (she reads a few and knows from me what most of you are up to J), so she doesn’t know anything about it and felt like a failure over the whole thing.   Any words of wisdom you can give her or just a “Hey, I’ve had to take that stuff too and it sucks” message would be really helpful for her right now. 

So the melt down was over having to take this stuff along with her thyroid med, her prenatal,  the fish oil stuff the RE recommended, and the two anti-nausea meds is just making her crazy.  If you recall, S is the sort of person who I normally have to coerce into taking an ibuprofen when she has a headache, so to her all of these meds make her feel like her body can’t do this whole grown a baby thing on it’s own and so maybe it isn’t meant to be.  Plus yesterday she didn’t feel as pregnant as usual (and by pregnant I mean totally terrible feeling and exhausted) so she convinced herself that she wasn’t pregnant anymore.  Also she doesn’t think that she has her tiny little baby bump anymore, which wasn’t much of anything to begin with.  Poor lady, getting herself so worked up over all of this.  

I guess what it all boils down to is that neither of us really understood just how hard the first trimester would be and how constant the sickness and exhaustion and whatnot would be.  And I know that if you are reading this and have had/are having TTC troubles that it seems like we should be just thanking our lucky stars that S gets to be this miserable, that some of you are desperate to feel this miserable, and I totally get that and we are very grateful and happy.  But when you are puking everyday and dragging yourself though life and really hungry but everything sound disgusting, I can understand how it’s hard to see past that.  I think I’d melt down too.  Hopefully things will get better soon and before we know it, S will be in that mythical second trimester where all of her sickness will magically disappear.

Fingers crossed.

-Liz

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 3 year wedding anniversary.  Happy anniversary baby! It’s hard to believe that so much time has passed.  It’s been a great 3 years, and an even better 8, almost 9 (in August it will be 9) years that we have been together.  I can’t imagine not having S at my side.  And 3 years later, as we grow our little family from two to three, I love her even more today than I did that day 3 years ago, which I didn’t think was even possible.  

Thank you baby for being my comrade in mischief all these years!  I love you!

-Liz

Proper nutrition= eat something

Today was not a great feeling day for me and baby.  All kinds of things seem inedible to me today.  I mostly ate toast all day and then finally got something else in my stomach later on only to throw it up again.  This baby seems to be able to only handle toast, pizza and red meat at this time.  Weird.  Not really nutritious, but at least I am keeping something down.  I am hoping the next trimester brings better feelings back and I get to shower my baby with fruits and veggies and swim in the heated lap pool after work.  Right now, I am just eating what doesn’t offend me just thinking about it and sleeping every chance I get!  The things that are constant no thank yous are eggs and milk.  However at any given moment, I can be offended by all things except one choice item.  For part of the day today it was blueberry muffins.  Even crackers made me turn away, but blueberry muffin, de-lish!  It is so strange!
On a happier note we had a great time with our visitors.  It was not a very adventurous trip, but we had a very awesome, delicious and relaxing trip.  We mostly ate yummy things and played on the Wii.  It was a blast.  Liz and I decided that for our 3 year wedding anniversary tomorrow we will purchase Mario Party and hang out at the house.  She is going to overcook some little pieces of steak for me and we will play on the Wii.  Once again, not adventurous, but it sounds really nice right now!
-S

So very pregnant!

I threw up for the first time today.  I woke up and felt great.  Ate some breakfast and started to feel nauseous, but nothing major.  Then it attacked me and I went into the bathroom and threw up.  I felt better once I did, but then felt nauseous later too.   Sheesh!  I went ahead and filled the prescriptions that the Dr. gave me yesterday for nausea.  I was very happy to have them today after yesterday being so skeptical:)  We also went and bought some maternity clothes today.  I know it is a little early, but my work pants are already a little tight and I want to start rotating them in so that it is not obvious when I start to show and am trying to hide it from work.  I showed Liz my baby bump and she said that it may be hard to hide since it is higher than if I was gaining weight.  We shall see!  I feel extra preggie today since I got some clothes and have felt both sick and moody all day.  Fortunately our visitors are very accommodating and we plan stuff around how I am feeling.
Liz thinks all the sickness is so great!  It’s kinda cute and kinda annoying when I don’t feel great.  Either way, she is being sweet and taking good care of me.  I am very excited to feel so pregnant, but sometimes it doesn’t feel so great!:)
-S

Ultrasound Number 2!

S went this morning to the RE for her second ultrasound this morning.  Unfortunately due to work, I couldn't go.  But according to our doc, everything is progressing perfectly.  They were able to see the baby this time and not just the sack!  The baby is what is being measured with the blueish/greenish dotted line in the picture below and then the rest is the gestational sack.  They were able to see the heart beat and it won't be long before we can hear it too!  Also, according to our doc, now that we have seen that the heart is beating we have a 95% chance of the pregnancy going to term, which is such a relief!  So, may I present to you the baby's second picture:

Isn't it the cutest little bean you ever did see?
-Liz

Meltdown #1

I had my first meltdown last night.  I have been feeling moody, but no major meltdowns until last night.  I was changing clothes and feel like I am already showing!  I freaked out.  Liz was talking about taking pictures of my belly earlier in the evening.  My body is already changing.  I know I am not really showing, but I am bloated and my whole front torso is softer than usual.  I just started crying hysterically in frustration.  Liz on the other hand thinks it’s great.  I kept repeating that I look pregnant and she kept saying, well you are pregnant!  I should not look like it yet!  I have been eating healthy, but I have not been exercising.  I am hoping that the second trimester gives me my energy back and I can start walking or swimming again.  I have a luscious heated (not too hot) lap pool that I was swimming in after work for a while.  I bet once I really do start showing, it will feel really nice to feel weightless in the water.   I am not really upset about it today, but was dramatically upset about my changing body last night.  Liz pulled up message boards about all kinds of people on week 7 that feel like they are already showing or that their work clothes feel different.
On another note, I have felt slightly nauseous all day.  I have been feeling sick a little here and there, but today I have not felt that great all day.  I am so thankful for ginger ale:)  I am still exhausted but have the next 7 days off work!!!!!  My best friend is coming in from Oklahoma with her fiance.  I am so excited!!  Only day 1 of vacation and I am enjoying it.  I got up at 7 and then napped for a few hours in the afternoon.  It was very nice.  I have a drs. appointment tomorrow where I should be able to see the glimmer of the baby’s heartbeat.  So exciting!!  I will post pics tomorrow.
-S