That time I thought I was going to have a baby

I kept waking up during the 4 o'clock hour on September 23rd. Such a coincidence that it was the due date. 

I felt some weirdness, some pain. I move to the couch so I wouldn't wake up B. I put Friends on tv and drifted in and out of sleep until somewhere near 6am. Then for the first time in my life I actually timed contractions. With the stopwatch on my cell phone. 

It was about every 8-10 minutes, and lasted about 30-40 seconds. That went on for almost an hour before I decided to try for a nap. The pain woke me up many times, but each time I checked the stopwatch I was sleeping a little longer. The first nap was 10 minutes, the last one was 40. When I woke up at 9 I was still having them. I finally told Mom, who got ready to come to town, then I woke up B and told him. 

I had a couple more strong contractions, about a half an hour apart. Then pretty much nothing. I felt slight cramping maybe 5 times since then, lasting about 10 seconds each, and only happening 45 minutes apart or more. 

It is now 3:30 and I've got nothing. I'm exhausted, and it's time for a nap. 

Then I'll decide if I'm joining the family for dinner in a couple of hours, or if I'd rather more sleep and a shower. Right now I don't know which way I'm leaning. 

The Day Venassa got Knocked Up

I'm sure you know how that works, so I'll spare you the details.

But I will share with you the details of how Paper Venassa got impregnated.

If you don't know, this is Paper Venassa.

If you're confused, read about where Paper Venassa came from, or click here to see all of her recorded adventures so far. She's been to New York, The Philippines, Ireland, and Ontario, and so many other adventures that I haven't talked about yet. 

On Easter Sunday 2011, we decided Paper Venassa should get caught up on real life. I am pregnant, therefore she should be too. 

Me,boyfriend, and  Scott each took a try at drawing the embryo we would attach to Paper Venassa. These are our drawings, in that order. Scott's koala bear embryo at the end did not win. 

There was a family vote done by Scott's siblings and siblings-in-law, and boyfriend's embryo won, so we attached it to Paper Venassa. 

And ta-da! The job is done, Paper Venassa looks great and up-to-date, so we took some family photos. 

And that, my friends, is how Paper Venassa got knocked up on Easter Sunday 2011. At this time, real Venassa was approximately 18 weeks pregnant. 

Pregnancy - My Belly at 17 Weeks

Watch Me Grow!

Week 6 - Month 1 pics
Week 10 - Month 2 & 3 pics

I can't believe I'm at week 17. Time is both flying by and dragging on at the same time. Just today I talked to a co-worker who is just a couple of weeks ahead of me in her pregnancy. She is kind of small like me and is noticeably pregnant. She doesn't I'm showing at all. Looking at the photo above for month one, and looking down at my belly now, I am noticeably pregnant. Wanna see? First, take a look at month one above.. then...

Bam! My belly used to only poke out as far as my breasts. Now, not so much.

I. have. grown. That photo show it the most. Photos were taken April 17th. I would've liked to add this one to my above collage but I'm not on my own computer, and this work computer is too old to do much on it.

Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop. [ Via Babycenter ]

Weight Gain: Doctor's assistant vsit on the 7th said 108lbs. Boyfriend's cheap scale this weekend said 112lbs. I will be weighed today at my first appointment with my actual baby doctor. I originally weighed approx. 105lbs.

Ultrasound: Coming up on April 26th.

Clothes: Work pants are all dress pants with buttons - getting very hard to button them these days. Need a bigger size asap. Most clothes still fit fine. Some show my belly off way more than others.

Sleep: I`m still sleeping great, but now I definitely can`t sleep on my belly, and sometimes it`s really uncomfortable laying on my side. I think I always wake up on my back now.

Eating: My apetite isn`t as crazy as it was at the beginning. Now I eat the same small portions as I always did, but I do eat a little more often. And I can go from normal, to starving within minutes.

Other noticeable things... I use the bathroom oh so often. For example, twice before I went to work this morning, 5 times while at my first job (5.5 hr shift) and 2 or 3 times since I got to my second job (I`ve been here 4 hours). Usually it`s a LOT less.

I think I want to go through my nesting stage. I just can`t wait to set up the baby`s room but I won`t be able to do that until we move, which probably won`t be until September.

No sign of movement yet. No more tiredness than what I`d normally feel. Very rarely do I feel blah at all when waking up in the morning.

I have a crib, change table, dresser and playpen so far. Meaning most of the large items on the checklist are already accounted for.

Next doctor`s appointment is this afternoon. I was also informed by my co-worker that I should make my 3D ultrasound (to find out the gender!) asap because they book up very quickly. I will probably do that today as well.

Basically, all things are still going great.

New News: My first appointment with my doctor was today and I heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It's really fast, but makes it that much more real.

Update: My baby isn't a baby anymore. Visit my current blog, A Life of Our Own, to keep up with all the fun. 

Not Quite A Sick Day

Today has not been the best day.

I felt sick as soon as I woke up, and I don't know why. I don't feel like it's morning sickness.

I had my first baby doctor's appointment this morning, which I almost missed, but managed to drag myself to it.

It was just a meeting with a nurse, where she took down a bunch of my information like health background, and gave me a bag of free goodies - a book, a bunch of magazines, prenatal vitamin samples, information on going for an ultrasound. I had no idea you were supposed to go with a full bladder.

She did bloodwork (4 bottles, I think ew), weighed me (I've gained maybe 3lbs so far) and determined my due date (September 23 - one day off from what the internet predicted). I'll probably do a pregnancy update post after I take belly pictures in the next week, then go to my next appointment on the 19th.

And then I went home, had a popsicle and some juice, and napped the afternoon away.

As awesome as I am, I still came to work. What a mistake that was. It was a good night for being yelled at by strangers - 3 times. I think that's a record for me so far.

Gotta love working in customer service. They yell in my face, and then get a gift basket.

Pregnancy Dangers

I started doing some pregnancy reading last night when I got my weekly 'you are this many weeks' email, along with some article links. Through clicking, I got to one on the eating do's and dont's.

Listeria was a big thing that caught my attention. It wasn't a lot of new information to me, it was some of the comments left on the article that had me thinking 'wtf'.

Listeria:  food-borne bacteria. You can read up on it here. According to that link, it's 20 times more likely to hit pregnant women. It can kill you or make you seriously ill. Or for your baby? It could cause miscarriage, infection, premature birth, or stillborn birth.

You should avoid soft cheeses, raw seafood, undercooked meat and eggs, uncooked hot dogs or deli meats, wash your fruits and veggies and so on.

Anyhow, I've never had soft cheeses, tried raw seafood, and won't usually touch runny eggs. I like hot dogs but haven't had them cold since I was a kid. And I rarely eat deli meats even when I buy them, and now I know not to bother. So go me.

I can't find the exact article with the comments I was reading last night, but from memory some people were talking about how they ate some or a lot of those things and their babies are fine. Good for them. There are some pregnant women that were commenting saying stuff like "it's only 'this' likely, you can't worry about everything so I'm going to eat whatever". Really?

So it's not 100% likely. It's not like it's a mild case of food poisoning either. This could kill your baby.

If the chances of poison hurting your baby were low, would you feed it to them anyway? Why take the chance.

It all just seems crazy to me. Why do something if you know it has a chance of harming your unborn baby? 

[ via weheartit ]

10 Week Update & Belly Pics

I've had a baby in my belly for about 10 weeks now. I wish I could say time is flying by, but it doesn't seem to be.

Though baby is barely the size of a kumquat — a little over an inch or so long, crown to bottom — and weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, your baby has now completed the most critical portion of his development. This is the beginning of the so-called fetal period, when the tissues and organs in his body rapidly grow and mature. He's swallowing fluid and kicking up a storm. Vital organs — including his kidneys, intestines, brain, and liver — are in place and starting to function, though they'll continue to develop throughout your pregnancy. If you could take a peek inside your womb, you'd spot details, like tiny nails forming on fingers and toes and peach-fuzz hair beginning to grow on tender skin. In other developments: Your baby's limbs can bend now. In the coming weeks, your baby will again double in size — to nearly 3 inches. [ via Baby Center ]

I took belly photos in January, February and now March. The February set didn't get posted because they were taken late, but here's my belly  at the beginning (approx 2 weeks in) and in February (approx 8 weeks)

And here's March photos, 10 weeks. 

Not a drastic change, but slightly noticeable if you knew me before my belly started hanging over my pants when I sit. Sometimes it really noticeable.

As for me - no more  feeling nausea at all. My appetite has calmed down a little. I'm still tired, but not as much. I've noticed my up top region has gotten a tiny bit bigger, but from their size before it just means I now f it better into my bras. 

Mother bought me a few baby clothes - female baby clothes, to be exact - because she's crazy. She probably just jinxed me into have a boy for sure now, but the clothes are cute and it probably won't be hard to find a home for them if I do have a baby that isn't interested in dressing in pink. 

I bought a used crib and changing table, but I'm considering selling them for a little more than I paid for them and throwing the money into my baby savings account. I'm starting to feel that I'd rather put the effort into saving for new things than skimping on stuff for my baby. The set was in good condition, just not as good as I want. 

Otherwise, not much has changed. I still have those moments where I think "Oh my God... I'm having a baby." I wonder how long until that goes away. 

See: 6 week update

Pregnancy, so far

I think I am approximately 6 weeks pregnant.

This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute — almost twice as fast as yours — and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil.  [ via Baby Center ] 

Here are some before (aka right after I found out I was pregnant) belly photos taken January 16th:

Now, I can tell there's a difference in my belly. If I'm hungry, it seems pretty normal but as soon as I eat a little, I balloon out. When I'm full? I look quite pregnant. 

I use the bathroom about a million times a day. It's annoying, but I know it's only going to get worse. A lot of mornings I wake up just fine, but some mornings I wake up feeling sick for the first few minutes, sometimes lasting about 20 minutes. Usually it's on mornings that I wake up before my body wants to be awake. 

There's been a little increase in appetite. No crazy cravings yet - I've just been drinking a ton of chocolate milk and always wanting ice cream, but none of that is new to me. 

I've always slept a lot and hated getting out of bed in the mornings, but lately when I do get up it takes a lot longer for my body to wake up and a lot longer for me to have any kind of energy. I feel pretty blah and tired a lot of the time. It doesn't help that some nights I'm up at least once every hour.

So far it's been pretty easy. I hope it stays this way. 

When I Told People the News...

As this post, I will be I heading to my hometown to visit my family doctor. It's finally time for this pregnancy of mine to be doctor confirmed. At this point, I think I would die a little if I found out I wasn't. I know someone who's taken a couple of positive pregnancy tests before and found out from the doctor that she wasn't pregnant. She just has wacky hormones, for lack of medicals terms. Anyhow, something like that sticks with you. 

The night I told everyone, I lamely kept track of the reactions I got from them. Even reading them now, some I wouldn't have remembered. Like my brother and sister, who I told separately, but they both asked me if it was April Fool's day. I guess twins really do think alike. I got some "Oh my God", "Holy shit", and "No way". I even got one "Oh my God. Is this exciting or sad?" and a "You're not shitting me?" It was amusing. 

Once I finished telling everyone, I still felt like someone was missing. I think it was partly because I already told a friend (before taking the tests) that I may be pregnant. When I took the tests, she was the first to find out. Another reason was because I couldn't call my grandfather and tell him. I knew I would tell him, but it would have to be in person. 

The stoke still has him having a lot of difficulty understanding spoken word. He does great with clear gestures, and okay with a little bit of written word. Some aunts took him to town for a doctor's appointment on Friday, the 21st so me and mother met them at the hospital. That's where I told him, in the waiting room. I showed him with my arms a big, pregnant belly. At first his reaction confused me. He got right up, pulled out his wallet and started pointing to the pictures of me he had in there. 

We showed him again, and he pointed to Mom and asked "You?" No, not Mom. Then he kept counting on his finger - "One, and two, and three." More confusion. 

But he understood. 

He had been to the hospital earlier that day to see a newborn baby, his sister's newest great-grandchild. He kept motioning back and forth from me to her, making the baby connection. From then on, every 10 minutes or so he would look at me and get all smiley and excited and just kept saying "Well, well, well.", in true Pepe fashion. He understood, and he was excited. He continued with his random outbursts of excitement until he left to go back home. 

He called me today. The only real thing I could make out from our conversation was when he said "I'm glad for you." It was cute. I'm going to visit him, too. 

Guess what?!

Well, did you guess?

I have some news, that's what. It's kind of ironic news after I wrote up this post. It's funny. I wrote that post shortly before Christmas, but waited until Christmas festivities were over before posting it. It was innocent when written. By the time it was posted? Unknowingly, less innocent. You see, the "damage" had already been done by the time it really did get posted, but I had no idea. 

Is this enough filler yet? Because I sure as hell don't want blogger reader to give away my news with its little 'snippet' of my post, before you actually get here to read it yourself.

Are you getting annoyed with me now? 

Here goes. I am having a baby. I'm pregnant. I have a bun in the oven. I am growing a life. I am terrified, but crazy happy. 

I've heard all kinds of 'Oh my God' and 'What?!!' and even an 'Oh no'. But the 'oh no' was when mother thought I was telling her my sister was pregnant with baby #2. 

So you see? Why me writing a post so recently talking about me being worried that time was going by too fast is ironic? That I didn't want to be too old when I started having kids? It almost makes this seem planned, but it was not. Although I've been asked that a lot. 

This is very early. Even early to be announcing it to you guys, but as it has been announced on facebook to my friends, family and entire small town back home, against my wishes. So I couldn't hold it back any longer from my blog family here. I just thought it would be way too hard to go on blogging, without talking about the one thing that is on my mind the most. 

Expect changes around here. Me? I won't change a whole lot. Not for a little awhile. I've been wanting to change my blog name for awhile, but couldn't think of a good name. In the next few weeks/months, I will be changing the blog name to something that incorporates my new little family and soon may even go as far as to gasp pay for a blog makeover. 

I won't be changing to a Mommy blogger overnight, but hey, if you're a Mom who blogs, chances are you're a Mommy Blogger. 

I just ask you guys a favor - to pray:

1. That the twins that run on both sides of the family, don't start growing in my belly

2. That I have a girl. I'm terrified of having boyfriend's mini-me gamer boy running around in a few years

3. That I have a happy and healthy baby(ies?) growing in my belly, no matter what the gender

We are both incredibly happy with this. Now? Nine months to get our lives in order and get prepared.