14 weeks!

I am 14 weeks today! Moving right along!

A little too tired from my first day at work to post anything, so I should have something tomorrow- and maybe even some pictures!!

sleepless nights already?

i am a stomach sleeper. i enjoy sleeping on my stomach, it makes me happy, and I have no problem sleeping. sometimes i even sleep on my back. coming up here in the next couple weeks I am going to have to change sleeping positions to where I am sleeping on my side, or as my book puts it, "change sleeping positions NOW!" i have already been "practicing" for these upcoming nights where i can no longer sleep on my tummy, and for when sleeping on my back or even laying on my back will cause severe trauma to my baby. so far, it's not working so well. i either lay there until i finally start to get sleepy, in which at that time I have to go to the bathroom, or i'm starving and I have to get up to eat...

we found a body pillow here at the house, so i've been using that for now, but i've had a few recommendations: 1. All Nighter total body pregnancy pillow (i would paste that link, but blog won't allow, or i'm dumb) and 2. Boppy Body Pillow. Both are about $50- crazy, and the All Nighter has better reviews, so i'll probably go for that if I decide on one. I still don't know if it's going to help me solve my problems. The last few days I've definitely had an easier time sleeping on my side, but I have woken up in extreme pain, and not where I should be in pain...

1. my ear- I have woken up the last couple mornings with my ear screaming in pain, I don't know if i am sleeping too hard or what, but it does NOT feel good.
2. arm/shoulder- i don't know where to put my arm when i sleep on my side- i can't get it out from under me- i've tried above my head, out to the side, nothing helps- i wake up and my whole left arm is asleep, or sore.

So, i'm hoping $50 and a magic pillow will help solve my problems- we'll see, i'll definitely keep you updated!

moving right along through week 13

baby totally sucked my will to live yesterday. i was tired, cranky, slow, and in a lot of pain. i won't go into all the details of what went on yesterday b\c it's just not necessary. i do need to get to a chiropractor asap though- i am having a lot of neck pain, and it makes me nauseous.

last night we went to dinner with Dave's friend Israel. Israel lives about 30 minutes from us, and he went to Salzburg College with Dave- in being here, it is nice that we are closer to Salzburg friends including Israel, and Holly, who we hope to see very soon. I didn't think I was going to make it to/through dinner. I had left my Zofran at home, and all I had were rolaids and lemon drops. luckily, I made it and enjoyed the most awesome pasta/salad ever from the Rock Bottom Brewery- I am going to try to recreate it sometime b\c I could've eaten 2 of them!

Antipasto Penne Salad
Capicola Ham
Genoa Salami
Fresh Mozzarella
Kalamata Olives
Artichoke Hearts (my salad had NONE- outrage)!!
Beefsteak Tomatoes
Roasted Red Peppers
Penne Pasta
Arugula
all with Pesto Vinaigrette

Amazing!

Leaving the house almost turned out to be tragic- I only own 2 pairs of jeans that still fit- the rest are in the pile to be boxed and marked "pre baby." Both those pairs of jeans turned out to be dirty- and all hell almost broke loose. Luckily I invested in the BeBand earlier this week and a crisis was averted! Lesson learned: plan laundry days better.

Tonight I plan to do some grocery shopping with husband- hopefully he won't mind. I am starving here and constantly eating cereal, fruit or easy mac for a meal- Dave seems to not think there is anything wrong with this, but then again, Dave has never been pregnant. Now I must go fix myself a bowl of cereal (i've already had easy mac for lunch) and change out the laundry...

ultrasound results

it's a baby... skeletor! at least that's what baby is looking like these days. it was so neat though to see the little teeth, the spine and the heartbeat. plus baby has 2 arms and legs, and looked right on track for 13 weeks! after our ultrasound, Dr. Duval came in to discuss our results and he said everything looked normal and next up was the blood test- if the blood test showed anything they would recommend an amnio to find out for sure. i told him i wouldn't really be interested in doing an amnio, so he then recommend that I just not worry about the blood tests, and come back in 7 weeks for the more detailed ultrasound and anatomy check! in a little less than 2 weeks I will head back to Dr. Barthel's office for my regular 4-week checkup!

today baby seems to be sucking my will to live- i just feel puny. i think i'm about 5 minutes away from an afternoon nap.... zzzzzzzz

exciting day today!

this afternoon i have an ultrasound. it's actually the test for down syndrome, but i'm excited none the less to see baby peach McFadden. i think it's too soon to determine the sex at this point, so i won't have my hopes up!

Dave & I are still hard at work on our insurance claim. we have all our pictures printed, and our list looks complete- we just need to sort the photos and I think we can send everything in with our fingers crossed! it rained here really hard around 4 am last night- it always makes me worry that we need to go check out the unit for further damage! it seems pretty dry now though, so i think we're ok...

tonight i have orientation for work... finally! i am packing tylenol, rolaids, zofran, lots of snacks and lemon drops- all to fight off hunger and nausea! i don't know how long it will last- so it's best to just come prepared!!

earlier this week, i got a wonderful birthday/baby package from my friend Lyn! it included adorable pictures of her little girl, Ava (now almost 6 months- WOW), the BabyWise book, a nice soft blanket, and teddy bear (that Eleanor proceded to dig out of the box and make her personal plaything, and 2 packs of Swaddlers diapers (mmm, they smell so sweet)! how exciting is it to receive baby things?!

so, i said earlier this week that my sister in law was supposed to find out the sex of her baby- well, it is maybe a girl. she said her technician really didn't do that well in trying to even find out- which i know disappointed her. she also found out her fluid is low- which could be the result of her reappearing morning sickness (which her Dr. tried to call a "bug"). She has had a really hard time with her Dr.'s office- she has to see a different Dr. every time, and it's really bugging her- here she is at 20 weeks, and has yet to see the same Dr. and the one she's liked best so far was the first one she saw!! they just keep jerking her around- and I realize i have been really lucky- i love my Dr.!! since her fluids are low she is going to have a more in-depth level 2 ultrasound in the next 2 weeks- they are also more in-dept with the anatomy check too- so maybe she'll have some confirmation. my step-niece was really wanting a boy, and threw a total tantrum when she found out it was possibly a girl. hopefully this next ultrasound will give them confirmation either way and she can either jump for joy, or get over it and prepare for a sister. i love my brother dearly, and i'm glad i have him, but i always wished i had a sister too! I think she'll be fine, and she'll get over it... eventually!

well, i can't think of anything else that's really pressing right now, so i need to get ready and go feed myself so i don't get sick later!

until next time...

cravings and adversions

everyone talks about food cravings and pregnancy. pickles and ice cream and what have you.

ice cream is the most commonly craved food by pregnant women- but i have wanted nothing to do with it. in fact, if you know me well, you would know that my food motto could very well be "eat dessert first." not these days. sweets haven't really been something i desire. no nightly chocolate fix, no grabbing a candy bar of sorts at the grocery store. if we go to starbucks, sure i'll take something, but lately dessert just hasn't been on the menu for me- it's sad, and refreshing. the closest "dessert" type thing i've wanted has been a peach smoothie from panera. i'm still waiting for one...

another thing i'm not interested in these days... meat. i hope that's healthy. i will occasionally eat a can of tuna, i will eat salmon when it's made here, i made myself shrimp & grits for dinner last week, and I will never say no to a burger from steak & shake, but that's about it. I don't know what it is, but there is something about meat, when cooked where I can see or smell it, that just makes me ill! ground beef is about the only thing that sounds appealing, but i don't want to be anywhere near it while it cooks. my father in law eats very healthy, and makes a lot of dishes with lean meat in them- and I have either turned them down, or eaten very little of them!

as far as cravings go, i kind of want what i see other people eating, or hear about other people eating. it started when Turk & JD were eating Reese's Puffs Cereal on Scrubs- then i had to have some. then my friend Tiffany told me how she craved anything with tomato sauce- that's been about all i've wanted to eat since then (and that was 4 or 5 weeks ago)! then Jess told me about having shrimp & grits at a restaurant for their anniversary, and bbq for hubby Jay's bday. the weirdest things though have had to be the frozen fried foods- jalapeno poppers, mozzarella sticks and spinach/artichoke dip. i've made many a meal out of those lately as bad as that seems.

cravings and adversions are supposed to be wearing down now that the first trimester is over. we will see...

exciting things up ahead:

currently: my sister-in-law is @ the dr. as I type having an ultrasound to determine the sex of my soon to be niece or nephew!

upcoming: orientation for work starts tomorrow at 10AM. Haven't worked since i've been up here, or since i've known I was pregnant. very nervous...

Weeks 9-12 aka: i need to update

Since my pukey week 8 things have been a lot better.

Week 9 I journeyed home to Atlanta where we threw a surprise party for my parents 30th anniversary! I'm pleased to report that it went very well and we had no real issues with pulling it off. I even got to pull some sneaky stunts, and that's very exciting. It was good to be home, celebrate my bday with friends and celebrate my parents anniversary with family and friends. Although we really didn't get to spend father's day with my dad, we were still there for that weekend.

Upon returning home, (starting week 10) we carried some items to our storage facility. We had an indoor unit that seemed pretty safe. When we got inside there was water in our unit, but it seemed pretty minor. The facility had closed, so we put our new things up high and left. We came back Wednesday to show the people who run the place. The damage still looked minor, but upon further inspection we realized that the entire unit's floor was covered by water- a space of 15X15. We spent the next 5 hours taking everything (the entire contents of our home in Atlanta) and separating the wet from the dry and reloading everything into a new unit. Luckily, pregnant women don't get to move all of that stuff. Dave's parents helped, and a couple of his friends came by too. By the end of the night my entire body ached, i was covered in bites, hot, cranky, and had cried a lot. Lucky for us, big ticket items like furniture were safe, but smaller electrics, dvds, books, and most of my yearbooks (irreplacable) were destroyed. We are in the process of a claim, currently.

We attended a fun wedding this weekend, and the tail end of week 10/beginning of week 11 had a Dr.'s appointment in store for me. Since I've been pretty nauseated, i got a Rx to zofran. Yay. Thank goodness b\c the vomiting reurned in week 11. Luckily, it has passed for now, and i'm off to week 12. I got a job the same day as my dr.'s appt- and I start work on Tuesday. I've had a couple interviews since, but still waiting to hear back from those. Hopefully i'll be a better updater these days too! I should be feeling better here beginning week 13!

1 Trimester down!