Halfway!! (And some Throat Fire.)

Although based on my mom and sister, I'm probably not really halfway.  They were both over a week late.  I'm actually hoping I'm late by at least a few days because as a teacher, you have to work 75% of the school year for it to "count" for seniority.  Because of furlough days, there are fewer days total which means even though I'm only planning to take 9 weeks, I may have to go back one day before Spring Break to make 75%.  I guess time will tell.  (Although if this baby tries to come out as big as his daddy did, I'm not going to be able to/want to hold out any longer.)  Daddy was almost 9 pounds.  He's 6'4, I'm 5'4.  My sister's baby was only 7lb7oz and still got caught under her pelvic bone and she had to have a C-section (after pushing for 2 1/2 hours!!).

I guess based on that paragraph, this is going to be a rambling post...  So be it.

Today was my first day back at school and boy am I tired (mentally and physically).  My feet are starting to swell and one of my arches was killing me by the end of the day.  I don't know what shoes I'm going to wear until it gets cooler out.  (It was 90 in my bungalow today.  No AC.  Fun.)  Kids don't come back until Tuesday, so today wasn't too bad, but I'm definitely tired.

And then on my way home, I realized I planned a birthday dinner with a friend.  What was I thinking?  So instead of driving a half an hour home and back, I am sitting in my mom's air-conditioned house close to school.

The puppy hasn't been home alone this long in awhile and I just got a call from Mr. GG saying she shredded an entire roll of toilet paper across the entire house.  At least toilet paper is funny since it's cheap.  (And he had to clean it up, not me...hehe.)

I had some former students come help me get books and supplies and I got to tell them (or show them I guess) that I was pregnant.  That was fun.  Kids get so excited!  One kid emailed me and said he was going to get the coolest baby shower gift.  Sweet : ).

My biggest complaints right now I guess are my feet hurting, difficult sleep since I can't get comfortable, and heart-burn.  I learned about the pain of raw onions a few months ago, but yesterday I had some salsa that had a few diced jalapenos in it.  OMG. Ow.  My sister and I decided it should be called Throat Fire instead of Heart Burn.  It's much more accurate.  My back is actually feeling much better after a top-notch professional massage about 3 weeks ago.  Oh, and I'm big.  And I'm sick of hearing about January moms who still haven't gained any weight.  I imagine it will even out towards the end since I'm not gorging myself or anything, but still.

We had our anatomy scan yesterday.  It is so frustrating to have someone look at your baby for an hour and not tell you if anything looks good or bad!  I won't get actual results until Thursday or Friday when a "real" doctor looks at it.  Everything looked ok to my un-skilled eye and she didn't spend extra time on anything except the heart, but I think it's because baby was squirming like crazy the entire time.  She had a lady she called "The Baby Whisperer" come in at the end and she basically re-did all of the major parts of the ultrasound only much more quickly.  I don't know if the first girl was just new, or if that's a bad sign, or if she just did extra or what.  Baby was also measuring big, 20w5d.  I'm hoping that's just for now...

In other news, my best friend keeps mentioning how boring her pregnancy is.  I don't think I'll ever be pregnant again, but if I am, I sure hope it's so boring I almost miss it!  The second trimester has been light-years easier than the first though.  I'm hoping this period sticks around for awhile.

I don't know how much time I'll have for blogging with school starting, but I have some really cute nursery ideas, so I'll try to post about them soon.  We're thinking dinosaurs!

My love to everyone...thanks for reading (if you actually got this far!). : )

Almost 19 week update

I haven't felt like writing about my actual pregnancy in awhile, but a lot has changed so I'm ready!

Let's try bullets.  Nevermind.  Bullets didn't work.  On to headers.

The Belly
Four people touched my belly in a period of 2 days last week.  I knew this was coming, but I was still a bit surprised!  Three were my husband's co-workers; two of whom I've known for a really long time (one was a dude!  But he's a dad, so maybe that's why he's a belly toucher?), one I've known for about a year.   The last was a total stranger at Massage Envy.  I think they all asked permission which is nice and I'm not going to say no, but...not my thing.

I'm also starting to run into things with my belly.  This is really strange.  I'm used to easily sliding through small spaces.  Today, I turned at ran my belly into the end of a sleigh bed.

I'm very obviously pregnant, but not huge.  Quick story: We golfed at Pebble Beach last week.  (extra aside: I cried through holes 8-12 on Day 1 and quit at hole 11 on Day 2.)  Our caddy started the day by saying: "My sister-in-law is the exact same size as you.  She's due in November.  When are you due?"  January.  Thanks dude.

How I Feel
I feel SO MUCH BETTER!  Starting about a week ago I realized that I can look at a food menu and order basically whatever I want.  For the entire pregnancy before this, absolutely nothing sounded appetizing and at least twice I ordered something and could not take a bite.  This included salad which I found odd.  I still haven't tried spinach, but I'm back to all other salads.

I can also exercise more easily.  I'm really only walking, but I have the energy to do it.  The only problem is that the next day my hip always hurts.  Still planning to get to a prenatal yoga class but it's just not happening.

But...after a marathon closet reorganization with my mom today, I completely hit a wall.  Bending over and sitting on an ottoman for hours made my belly really crampy on the underside.  It didn't "hurt" per se, but I literally had to stop and put my feet up for awhile to get it to stop.  I hope I can make it through an entire school day!

Back Pain
I've been having some major back pain.  At times I feel like my back will never not hurt throughout the remainder of this pregnancy.  I feel like part of it is from side-sleeping.  I've been working on different pillow options, but for the moment I know that I need something between my knees and something to support my arm.  Much of the pain is in my mid-back between my shoulder blades.  But I also have had some major lower back pain.

But...(until tonight after the marathon cleaning...which was still worth it), I had the best massage of my life last weekend and it totally cured my back pain.  I've had a few throughout the pregnancy, but at Massage Envy you lay on your side.  It feels good while you're there, but it's just not worth it - no lasting effects.  The nice places have a foam pillow with a cut-out for your belly.  It feels amazing to lay on your stomach.  Guess I'll be getting lots more massages!  I'm sure the wine I'm not drinking will pay for it : ).

Clothes
I have loved back to school shopping since I can remember.  This year's back to school shopping is all-maternity (obviously), but I need a lot to make it through and I want to get it now while I still have time. If I hate what I'm wearing, I'm in a bad mood all day so I really wanted to find the pieces I need to feel like I truly have things to wear.  Someone is going to get a lot of hand-me-downs when I'm done!

My summer/hot day uniform is fold-over skirts with a fitted tank or tee.  All of my regular tees still fit since I'm short and they're stretchy.  My fall/cold day uniform is going to be leggings with long flowy shirts and boots.  (I decided this while trying not to look at my co-worker who was adorably pregnant last year.)

I got most of the shirts at a boutique that I usually shop at (cheap cute stuff!).  I can wear ALL of them after my pregnancy which is awesome.  They might not all fit in the last month or two, but we'll see...

And I got most of the pants at the Motherhood outlet in the Pea in the Pod section.  I got 4 or 5 pairs at a HUGE discount so I've got every color/thickness covered.  I also have 3 pairs of jeans that I bought at Pea in the Pod way back at 9 or 10 weeks.  One designer splurge and two sale pairs.

I also got a few shirts at Target, two from Motherhood online (this was my first true online buying experience and I have to return 80% of it), and a bunch of random basics and business clothes from a good friend.

Registry
I started my registry!  I'm going with Amazon because I hate the mark-ups at Babies R Us.  My mom will just have to teach all of her friends how to check off items that they buy themselves.  It's super easy though.  Since my nephew will be 7 months by then, I'm going to be able to get a lot of stuff from my sister which is awesome.  I'll post some of the bigger things I'm deciding on later.  Oh my goodness it's overwhelming!  But I got a fabulous link from Her Royal Fabulousness, Lucie's List.  Check it out!

Nursery

I haven only the vaguest notions of what I want to do and am quite overwhelmed by it.  First I need to redo the guest room to fit what is now in the office...  But I know I want to put a quote on the wall.  I want it to be from a book or an author if possible.  I searched a ton tonight, but couldn't find anything quite right.  The best at the moment is Dr. Seuss, "The more you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go."  But I would love more suggestions if you have any!

Anatomy scan is next week.  I get to see little GG every other week, which I know is a luxury, but I'm still a bit anxious about the anatomy scan.  Fingers crossed.

My Husband

I'm writing a new post today!  Can you believe it?

I've mentioned before how awesome Mr. GG has been throughout this entire process.  At times I accuse him of being unemotional (like when he writes "Happy Anniversary, You're so sexy!" on a card after I write an entire page), but he has the perfect personality to be my support as he consistently has been throughout our entire journey with infertility.

So this post is dedicated to him, on our second anniversary.  (By the way - this was my total freak out deadline.  This was the "future" date that I had permitted myself to completely lose it by if we were still not pregnant.  Thank goodness it never came to that because I really had no idea what to expect from myself, but I knew it was looming deep inside me.)

*     *     *     *     *

Once we found out that we were indeed pregnant, Mr. GG went to his favorite store, Costco. (He wore Kirkland brand jeans before he met me and I banned them.  Not ok for your jeans brand to match your toilet paper.)  He bought a huge, probably larger than life-sized teddy bear.  I thought it was really sweet of him.

When we found out we were having a boy, Mr. GG just lit up!  He started talking about the baby all the time and made one more really important purchase, a baby-sized Chargers Jersey that matches the two that we have.  I laid the jersey on the bear to finally announce our pregnancy on Facebook.

But he's been sweet in other ways too.

For my birthday, he bought me a necklace (yep also from Costco) representing a mother and child.  It's simple and totally my taste and I love it.

When he gets home from work or sees me after a short absence, he kisses my belly and then kisses me. : )  He's not overly showy of affection, so I think it's really sweet.  He even did it at a work event (for him) at our local racetrack in front of lots of people, although he had been drinking : ).  

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I know our 3rd year of marriage will be very different from our first two in great ways and in hard ones.  

1) No dealing with infertility!  Woohoo!  (Although I still feel like I could jinx things by saying that out loud.) We started trying on our honeymoon so this has literally consumed our entire marriage, although it has brought us closer in many way. 

2) We'll have a baby!  Mr. GG will get to change the first diaper of his life : ).  We will get to figure out how to parent together which I know will take a lot of compromise.  But we'll be a family and I'm so excited.

So thanks for everything Mr. GG and I mean everything - from buying me chicken noodle soup and Gatorade when I was recovering from retrieval  - to carrying my laundry basket upstairs for me - to letting me cry when I really needed to. 

I love you so much!  You're the only person I could imagine myself going through this with.