Myspace shots for the win!

How far along: 27 weeks… welcome to the start of the third and final trimester!

Total weight gain/loss: 18-20 pounds. Maybe more after indulging in some Mexican food last night. Mmm.

Exercise: I am SO proud of myself! I walked 3 times (so sad that this is exciting to me but these days any cardio is a big feat) — one of those walks was even 3 miles! I finally hit up my favorite yoga studio for a prenatal yoga sesh last night as well. Now I need some yoga after my yoga class. Can’t wait to go back next week!

Maternity clothes: I live in my work out clothes.

Stretch marks: I sing a song to my cats while I lotion up in the morning. I’m pretty sure I embarrass them. This poor kid doesn’t stand a chance!

Sleep: This week marked the revenge of the sore hips. Otherwise, sleeping fine except for the 3:00 and 4:00 am wake ups because my hips hurt. SO. FRICKIN’. BADLY.

Best moment this week: My husband fixed the door knobs for all of the bedrooms. That’s what excites me these days. Door knobs that turn.

Things you miss: I really miss running. It’s extremely tough to not take off running when my favorite running songs pop up on my iPod playlist.

Movement: She’s pretty consistent these days. Kicking and moving when I wake up, during and after exercise, and around bedtime. She went nuts during and after yoga last night. Hopefully she enjoyed her mellow mommy.

Food cravings: “Still craving PBJ smoothies from Smoothie King.” Love these things! I want one right now. Too bad they are 500 billion calories. At least they let me buy the kid size (12oz), which is a lot less calorific than the small (22 oz).

Anything making you queasy or sick: Eggs.

Gender: GIRL!

How I’m feeling: My allergies have been horrible. I popped onto weather.com yesterday to check the temps and noticed the big, flashing banner that read “POLLEN ALERT” above the forecast. Well, that explains it! It has been unseasonably warm this year, even for Jacksonville. This is both good and bad as I’m not a big fan of cold weather and refuse to buy a coat/jacket during pregnancy. Honestly the cooler the weather, the more depressed I feel because it’s my favorite time to run! On the other hand, I’m tired of the bipolar weather (I deal with enough bipolar people as a social worker!) and could really use a reprieve from the pollen bomb that exploded this week.

I also noticed my running shoes do not fit properly anymore. Aside from my growing feet, my hips ache so badly after a longish walk. My left hip is especially sensitive to the fit of my shoes. I also refuse to buy a $120 pair of shoes which may only see the light of day for 3-4 months, but it makes it extremely difficult to walk anywhere for more than 30 minutes. I feel like a granny.

I haven’t experienced too many other symptoms. I notice if I forget to snack at work, I start to get light-headed and need to eat right away. I’m also very, very absent-minded. Placenta brain is no joke!

Looking forward to: My hair appointment next week. Prenatals and hormones are making my hair go crazy! I’m also excited to apply for my license. I’ve been putting it off for financial reasons, but I think it’s time to bite the bullet before I go on maternity leave.

How far along: 26 weeks… only 14 weeks to go!

Total weight gain/loss: Not sure. Probably still floating around 18-20 pounds. Don’t really care at this point beyond health reasons, like excessive weight gain because of pre-eclampsia. Just want to stay between 25-35 pounds total.

Exercise: Meh. Twice. At least I tried.

Maternity clothes: Yes.

Stretch marks: None. Still making it a point to lotion up after showers. It keeps me from being super itchy, especially with all the dry air lately.

Sleep: No sore hips this week! Still having vivid dreams.

Best moment this week: This week was pretty status quo! Really enjoying our Bradley classes.

Things you miss: Running and ab exercises.

Movement: Baby girl looooves kicking mommy’s bladder.

Food cravings: Still craving PBJ smoothies from Smoothie King.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Eggs.

Gender: GIRL!

How I’m feeling: Pretty good. My allergies have flared up again but I’m managing. I’m starting to feel anxious about her arrival.

Looking forward to: Getting closer and closer to her due date. So excited to meet our wee one!

…and less than 15 weeks to go!

How far along: 25 weeks, 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: 18 pounds (from 122 to 140 pounds). Somewhere between weeks 23 and 25 I started to let go of my anxiety about weight gain. I mean, 18 pounds is a lot. I don’t “carry weight well”; I look best at 122-125 pounds. Unfortunately vanity has no place in pregnancy. I’m eating (relatively) well, still exercising semi-regularly (with the exception of the last two weeks), and gaining weight appropriately. It may be a hard pill to swallow right now, but it’s only temporary and it’s what my body has to do to prepare for our baby.

Exercise: Needless to say, week 24 did not include much exercise. I squeezed in a little exercise over week 25, but I was still recovering from my holiday sugar coma and a haze of congestion.

Maternity clothes: Different day, same… stuff.

Stretch marks: None! I bathe in cocoa butter.

Sleep: My hips hurt and my dreams are super freaky, but overall I’m still sleeping well.

Best moment this week: Buying a new car and starting our childbirth classes (I plan to post about the class when we get more into the thick of things).

Things you miss: Climbing, running, Sumo Sushi’s caterpillar roll, Jimmy Johns. You know, the usual.

Movement: I hardly felt baby girl at all last week. However, by Saturday and Sunday she was movin’ and groovin’. She’s been pretty active today, too!

Food cravings: PBJ smoothie from Smoothie King. Yum!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Eggs.

Have you started to show yet: Yes, I think it’s pretty obvious I’m pregnant and not fat.

Gender: GIRL!

How I’m feeling: Much better this week! I passed my GD test last week. Unfortunately I found out I’m ever-so-slightly anemic at my 24 week appointment (hemoglobin was 11.8; should be 12 or higher). I did some research and learned that calcium can prevent the absorption of iron. Guess I need to stop taking my prenatal vitamins with a glass of milk every night. Apparently vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron. Too bad I bought calcium-enriched OJ to drink… Whoops! Can we say placenta brain?

To be honest, I’m nervous about the anemia. In order to give birth at the birth center, you need to be considered “low risk” during your pregnancy. I’m worried my anemia will rule me out of a birth center delivery, especially since I’m making a huge change by switching from an OB to midwives. It would be a huge pain in the butt to switch to the birth center only to turn around and be referred out to an OB!

Looking forward to: Continuing our childbirth classes, my first appointment with the midwives on Feburary 2nd, and switching to biweekly appointments.

Why hello there. It’s been a few weeks since my last update over at Baby Stanley.

Week 24 left very little to be desired. Despite my best efforts (obsessive hand hygiene, copious vitamin C intake, and R&R despite the holiday madness), I came down with a cold during my holiday vacation. I was in the thick of it on Thursday when I had to participate in interdisciplinary rounds at the hospital at 5:30 am (see also: the ass crack of dawn). On a good day, rounding at the ungodly hour of 5:30 in the morning is akin to having your wisdom teeth surgically removed without anesthesia or passing a kidney stone without the aid of mind-altering narcotics, so you can only imagine how much fun it was to round with a cold and zero decongestants. It was so bad that I actually called out on Friday, which was ultimately the best decision I could have made. By the weekend I felt 75% restored to my usual state of health.

Unfortunately having a cold meant that we missed a visit to my mom’s house in South Florida over New Years but we managed to squeeze in a visit over the weekend. It was nice to catch up with my mom. It’s always tough missing holidays with family. Although I enjoyed spending time with my in laws for Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s nice to spend some time with the people who you grew up with.

Week 25 was a definite improvement. We bought a new car (it’s so nice having two cars again! even if it meant dealing with car salesmen), we visited my mom and step-family in South Florida, two of my friends booked venues for their weddings, I switched providers from an OB to a group of midwives, we started our birth classes and I’m officially 14 weeks and some change away from my guess date! I will follow this post up with a standard pregnancy update, but I figured it was worth mentioning week 24 and 25 together to explain my absence from the blogosphere.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (if you celebrate!) and a wonderful New Year! 2012 is going to be a doozy, that’s for sure. Keep your eyes open for a pregnancy update. It should be up soon especially because it will distract me from this awful game against Alabama (ouch).

Wow. My last post over in these ‘ere parts was October 5th! Crazy.

For the past few weeks I posted some pregnancy-related updates at Baby Stanley on Blogger, but I think I want to stick to my roots. Plus, my husband built me this blog and I’m sure it would mean a lot to him if I documented my pregnancy over here.

I’m now 23 weeks and some change. Baby Stanley is a GIRL! We do have a name picked out, but I’m going to “reveal” it when I paint the letters for her nursery. Our family and friends know her name, though. It’s fun to call her by her name.

To be honest, it wasn’t until 16 or 17 weeks into this pregnancy that I felt truly connected to the idea of a being a mom or having a baby. Initially I was terrified. I remember laying on the reclined chair in the doctor’s office during my 8 week viability ultrasound, watching the little mole-shrimp-baby floating around on the monitor, and thinking, “Oh my god, there really is something in there!”

My first emotion was disbelief which was promptly followed by a wave of panic. RJ had been laid off in April. We had zero money, zero job prospects (not for lack of interviewing or applying), and zero idea about what we were going to do. I wasn’t in a position to pick up and leave. Little details such as maternity leave, health insurance, and licensure made it difficult for me to up and relocate if RJ found a job outside of Jacksonville.

By the time October rolled around, RJ had finally been offered a job and started working. We learned our baby-to-be is a girl in early November. We started planning the nursery. On Thanksgiving I felt my first distinct “kicks” from Baby Stanley. I was finally starting to feel excitement about my pregnancy and the future. I’m still terrified but it’s for a whole new set of reasons.

Anyway, that’s the hap. I’m back for now. I will start to post my weekly pregnancy updates here for consistency. See you soon, interwebs!

Wow, a lot has changed since my last post!

In mid-August, my husband and I found out we are expecting our first baby. For the sake of being honest, it was not a planned pregnancy. When I peed on a stick on August 14th, I didn’t expect to see two lines. The first night was a little surreal. I cycled between a state of denial and shock.

While I didn’t expect to see two lines, I did have a nagging suspicion that something was off all weekend long. It actually started when I completed the Tour de Pain the first weekend of August. My sports bra seemed tight, but I hadn’t gained any weight. I assumed it shrunk in the dryer and figured Aunt Flo would rear her ugly head in a few weeks. Little did I know that my suspicions weren’t wrong.

Anyway, fast forward to the weekend of August 12th. My dad, RJ and I traveled to Louisiana to visit our family that was visiting from Hanoi. My cycles are irregular but I couldn’t push away this feeling that something was different this month. I managed to sneak into a CVS to “pick up some shampoo” (not a total lie; I left it in Florida). I also purchased a pregnancy test which I took that evening. It was negative.

On Saturday, I still wasn’t convinced that I wasn’t pregnant. I passed on having a beer at dinner and opted for a Diet Coke. I didn’t drink the entire weekend in fact. On Sunday, we drove back from Baton Rouge to Jacksonville. All day I couldn’t shake this feeling of “motion sickness.” I was extremely tired but I decided it had to be from spending time with family and traveling a total of 16 hours in 3 days.

I ran into Target to pick up some food and little things I’d need for my work week. I also purchased a pack of 3 Target brand pregnancy tests. When I arrived home that evening, I decided to try again. This time a very, very faint second line appeared on the screen. Not entirely convinced it wasn’t an evaporation line, I showed it to RJ. He confirmed what I thought I saw: two lines. We ran out and bought several more tests, including a digital test and a “plus/minus” text. The digital read “not pregnant” but the “plus/minus” showed a faint plus sign. I resigned myself to wait until morning, which is supposed to be the most accurate time to test.

In the morning, I removed my last test. And I peed on the screen. The test was invalid! In a panic at 5:00 am, I drove to the 24 hour drug store by my house and purchased a box of EPT and a box of Answer tests. When I arrived back at home, I peed on the Answer test and there was a very faint but obviously present pink line. I knew that this was for real.

Over the next several days, I took 13-15 tests. I had my first OB appointment on August 22nd and my first ultrasound on September 12th. Today I had another ultrasound and I’m approximately 11 weeks, 4 days pregnant.

Yep. Some mighty big news.

Anyway, it’s time for me to hit the hay. An impromptu nap on my day off is making it difficult to sleep, but I think it’s time to hit the hay.

I imagine what my life will look like in a few days, months or years. I wonder about major life events, such as children or moving, or the little things, like what I am going to wear at work tomorrow. I’m very future-focused, so this is an interesting prompt.

I always thought moving out of Florida was a big to-do on my list of “stuff to do in the future” as well as going back to school. There are some non-negotiable items, like having children, that remain my list.

Now that I am taking some time to really envision my future, I’m picturing a different scenario. Instead of specifics, like going back to school to be a [insert occupation here], I simply want a job that makes me feel like I’m contributing something to my community. As a social worker, that isn’t a stretch and I can probably apply my skills and education to a variety of careers without continuing my education. It’s a little easier to list my requirements for a joyful, fulfilling future, so here it goes:

1. A happy, healthy marriage. I know it should go without saying. Of course, everyone wants their relationships to be happy and healthy. No one wants to be miserable when they are with their partners, families and friends. I am terrified of failing at my marriage. My parents divorced when I was very little. On one hand, I was always grateful that my parents spared me from years of misery and unhappiness. Neither of my parents should feel obligated to stay in an unhappy home. I think that can be just as damaging as divorce to be honest. However, I am always fearful that this predisposes me to my own divorce or that it is somehow the only alternative to unhappiness. This has been a very challenging first year for my husband and I. I hope it helps us grow as a family rather than tear us apart.
2. Discovering what I want to be “when I grow up.” Okay, this is very vague. I have mixed feelings on finding the “perfect” career. I think this is pretty typical for my generation. I recognize and accept that every job is challenging. I believe you should work to live, not live to work. But I still feel I am entitled to having a rewarding career, whatever that looks like. I’m a social worker by trade. I have a graduate degree and I am very close to becoming licensed. I have struggled with this professional identity crisis for the past four years. I simply want to find a job that I enjoy, that gives me satisfaction and purpose. If it is in the field of social work, so be it. If not, I hope I figure it out!
3. Having a family. This is pretty simple. I picture myself having children. I guess I could live without a family that includes my own children. A few years ago, I would have laughed if you told me this would be on my list. I would have thought you were crazy actually. This has become incredibly important to me, though.
4. Settling down and buying a home. When I thought of settling down in the past, it always took place in a far away city (like Portland or DC). Now I have no idea where I want to settle down. I’ve grown fond of this sprawling southern city, but I know my husband isn’t happy here. I want a place that I can call home.

So that’s it. That’s my list. It’s very simple and extremely vague. I don’t have lofty dreams of starting my own business, writing a book, or becoming President. I just want a life that feels complete to me, and that means a great marriage, fulfilling career, my own little tots, and buying a home.