22 Weeks, a Sort of Short Rant, and Five Astronauts.

At 22 weeks pregnant and growing every day, I have a few things to complain about. ..As any pregnant woman would. Please don't judge me for the rant below.

First

The weather. This is the winter that Will. Not. End. Please, all I want is warmth for a few months or possibly forever. Is that too much to ask? In the last three weeks- since my last post- I've slept at work 3 times. Once on the floor in our simulation room, on top of sleeping bags and with a tiny pillow. Once on top of sleeping bags with a tiny pillow, but promised an air mattress. And once in a storm shelter women's restroom on a cot.

The cot was surprisingly comfortable.

All because of weather. And quite frankly, I'm sick of it! I even traveled to "warm, sunny" Houston for a week of training, and ended up with a week of cold and rain. All I can say is WTF. Seriously. I'm over it. None of my previous super warm jackets zip anymore, and my loving mother-in-law bought me a new jacket. It fits- for now- but it's not particularly warm. But if I load up on sweaters and layers, I can't get it on! The struggle is real.

Second

The weather. Wait, did I do this already? I'm still upset at the weather. I'm currently on hour #28 at work. Yes. TWENTY-EIGHT straight hours at work. 28. More than one entire full day. And I still have 5 hours left on this midnight shift. It's March. I'm done with winter.

Third

Air mattresses and their air pumps. Remember in Point One where I mentioned the air mattress? Yea. Well. One of the nights a few weeks ago that I slept at work, I was promised an air mattress. Now, I'm not upset at the person who promised the air mattress- he was being kind. He had no idea how badly the idea would fail. I arrived to work around 8pm on a Monday night, in preparation to sleep through the night - on this air mattress- until my shift started at 7am, because ice and snow was forecasted to accumulate and cause shotty road conditions and traffic issues (I had already slept there the night before in an attempt to avoid the ice). Well, after sitting in the console room for a short while (perhaps an hour or two) before heading to bed, I went across the hall to inflate this wonderful invention of an air mattress that had been promised to me. This air mattress- specifically purchased for weather emergencies in case people got stuck at work- was brand new! I would the FIRST EVER user of this glorious item. Except that... not so much. The air pump, also brand-spanking-new worked only on rechargeable batteries. Meaning, one could not plug in the air pump to inflate the air mattress. Reading the instructions, I learned that this particular battery must be charged for TEN HOURS before it would even have enough juice to start up the pump. Uh.. I don't have 10 hours. In 10 hours, my shift will have started, and I'll be on console..not sleeping. So I "slept" on the floor, atop my sleeping bags

Another air mattress woe: at the end of January/first few weeks of February, poor Hubs was so super congested that his snoring got infinitely worse than it had ever been. So bad, in fact, that it was keeping his over-heated, uncomfortable, pregnant wife awake. All night. Until finally I would give up and move to our guest room, which, as it turns out, is not particularly comfortable. Husband was understanding of my plea one night upon his arrival home. I had been working a swing shift (from 3pm-11pm) and when I returned home after work, he was still out watching a movie with friends. I wrote him a desperate note and taped it to our bathroom mirror- where I knew he'd see it, since he would have to take out his contact lenses. I asked him- no, begged him- to sleep in the guest room. Or on the couch. Or anywhere but in the bed with me, because I so very desperately needed sleep, after having not gotten a good night's rest in about 3 weeks (he even managed to snore horribly through Extra-Strength Breathe-Right Strips!). I even added in the note, that if he didn't want to sleep elsewhere, I was sure I'd wake up, and that I would move- and that he shouldn't worry about it. He loves me, and could surely feel the desperation in my note, and my handsome Hubbin slept on the couch. The next night he blew up our air mattress (with a working air pump!) where he slept for the next week or so. (Yes, he could have slept in our guest room, where there was a bed already made, and pillows, and such, but he preferred to be rocked to sleep by SportsCenter on ESPN. I don't judge or ask questions.. if he's willing to sleep somewhere less comfortable than our bed, I'll let him do it where he pleases). But during his stay in the living room, we discovered that the air mattress has some funny quirks. For example, like basically every air mattress over a year old anywhere, it has a small leak somewhere. But another oddity, one that's possibly much more annoying, it that somehow the whole dang thing is.. lopsided? You know when you lay on an air mattress with someone who weighs more than you, and you end up spending the whole time trying not to roll into their lower area? Well it seems that this air mattress always thinks it has a large person laying on one side. Always. Even if no one is on the mattress, the obvious slant is visible. It was only annoying because of the weekend that Hub and I spent laying on the air mattress watching James Bond films.

Fourth

Company trips where a rental car is not provided. Don't get me wrong, I love the company I work for. They're great. But three weeks ago (when the first of the weird winter weather hit, and I wasn't sleeping due to Hubs' snoring) when I found out that I would be going to Houston for a week for work, my company decided that they would not afford me the luxury of a rental car. There was lots of contractor and subcontractor hoopla surrounding the decision that I won't get in to. The problem with this is that I was instructed to basically invite myself into someone else's car. But I didn't know anyone else going on the trip with me. So, I literally called up a person and said (something like this), "Hi, my name is ____ ____. We haven't met, but I'm a certified DMC and I'll be traveling to Houston the same time as you. I have the same flight itinerary and hotel booked as you, and I was wondering if you'd be willing to let me into your car for the week." Awkward.

He was nice enough, and he did allow me into the car for the week. But it was obvious that we didn't know each other, and that he hadn't had someone rely on him for transportation in a pretty long time (as his youngest child is 24 years old), when the first full day in Houston, he unilaterally decided that we were not going to eat. I texted him around 7pm, and asked what his plans for dinner are. He said, "Oh, I'm not very hungry so I wasn't planning to go anywhere or eat dinner." Hah. Hah. Well, I texted him back and said, "Oh. Well.. I'm pregnant and I sort of need to eat something. Can you take me somewhere?" He looked up the closest fast food place and said he'd only take me to McDonald's because it was close and he "had stuff to do." So I met him downstairs and he drove me to McD's. I saw a Walgreen's across the street and asked him to take me there too, so get a few things. I figured that if on Day One he'd already left me out of the food decision completely I probably shouldn't depend on him too strongly for the food the rest of the week, so at Walgreen's I picked up some breakfasty items, as well as snacks that could substitute a complete dinner. I also picked up cough medicine and decongestant (after much research about what I could take while pregnant), because after three weeks of being congested, Hubs had finally given me his cold. Got back to the hotel and I made sure to ask him only for minimal rides for the rest of the week, and did not depend on him for rides to and from food places, and instead met a woman who was in our same training class, and was also in our hotel, who was much more thoughtful of me.

++

It hasn't all been bad, lately, and for me to make it seems like it has isn't fair. So many good and cool things have happened.

For Valentine's Day, Husband made me THREE WHOLE fridge shelves of hand-dipped chocolate covered strawberries. Three whole shelves. Three.

Such beauty, such deliciousness. 

While in Houston, I met not one, not two, but FIVE astronauts (2 Russian Cosmonauts, 1 European astronaut, and 2 NASA astronauts)

Alexander Skvortsov

Oleg Artemiev

Alexander Gerst

Steve Swanson

Reid Wiseman

And lastly, and definitely most importantly, on the evening of March 4th, I finally *definitely* felt Hugo kick for the first time. And in the early evening of March 5, Husband felt Hugo kick!!

Here's our 22 Week picture:

Look at that bump! He sure is growing!

Also, I bought a curling wand and I love it.

The updates:

Total weight gain: 9 pounds!
Maternity clothes?: All day, err day. I still wear a few of my non-maternity work tops- the kinds that have stretch. But I feel most comfortable wearing maternity tops and showing off my sweet baby belly!
Sleep?: Better, now thanks to my Snoogle, the fact that I got over my week-and-a-half-long fight with a cold/congestion/cough, and realizing that sleeping in shorts and a light-weight shirt is best since I've been getting really hot at night.
Peak of the week?: No doubt- both Hubs and I feeling Hugo kick!
Pit of the week?: Spending a total of 31+ hours straight at work, definitely.
Missing anything?: Warmth. I want nothing more than to not need sweaters and layers and jackets and scarves. I want warmth. I don't even require sun!! Just warmth!
Food cravings: We actually made a list a few weekends ago, and we're slowing working our way through it. Top of the list was waffles. And the waffles we got were amazing.
Anything that makes you feel sick or queasy?: Thankfully, nothing in particular. The medicine has been working wonders.
Happy or moody?: Still mostly happy. Not so much "moody" as "hormonal." Earlier this week, Hubs had to work late, and I was planning to make dinner for us before I had to go to sleep for my midnight shift. Then he said he wasn't going to be eating dinner with me because he was going to hang with friends. That made me cry. But I got over it, and then I was excited just to hang out with him before I had to go to sleep, and he went off with friends for the evening. But around the time he should have gotten home, he texted and said he was stuck in traffic and that "it's not worth it to come home" because he would just have to leave again to meet up with people on time. Yea.. I cried for like two hours because in my mind, I read that it wasn't worth it to come see me and Hugo. Bawled like a baby. So, I'm hormonal.

Looking forward to: Going home sometime tomorrow morning when the nice layer of ice covering my car has melted and I can get in!!

Aaaand I made a time lapse of Bump pictures.

19 Weeks and 1 Day.

This post will have an absurd amount of photos. You've been warned.

I'll start off with the invitation I made by meticulously placing hexagons on a background in PowerPoint (no, seriously).

I took off with the the black and yellow bumblebee theme instead of pinks and blues. 

Ties or tutus? I found these on Etsy and decided to try to

save $50 and made them myself. They didn't come

out as nicely as they would have if I bought them, but I

like them all the same.

Milk Martinis with chocolate chip cookie garnishes. And a few

extra cookies for good dunking measure.

Photo wall!

When the guests arrived, each picked either a tutu or a tie pin to wear to make their vote visible. I also requested (required?) each guest to wear either a pink or blue shirt so there was absolutely no doubt.

My mom and sister were both voting Team Tutu

My in-laws, Tom and Diana, were a split couple. Tom voted Team Tie,

and Diana voted Team Tutu.

Aunt Sarah didn't surprise anyone when she showed up supporting Team Tutu!

Not pictured is Hubs and I. We decided about a week in advance what Team we were on. He was Team Tutu, and I was Team Tie.

We ate some pizza, enjoyed our milk martinis, and then I forced excitement on everyone in the form of four Minute-To-Win-It games.

First was Balloon Head. The premise was that each person had to keep a balloon in the air using any method except their hands (and area below the elbow). 

We battled two at a time, to save some time, and then had a show down of each winner to come up with the final winner of the game! Sarah and Melissa ended up winning- they kept their balloons in the air way past the minute-mark, and didn't show sign of dropping them in any near future. 

Second game was Dizzy Dummy. Each contestant (again, two at a time), had to spin the fastest to get all their toilet paper off the roll first- in under a minute. Since I didn't have enough rolls of the cheap TP, the winner of each round got a mark on the scoreboard (somehow no picture of the scoreboard has surfaced yet). 

Sarah used her ballet-spotting abilities to not get dizzy. 

Hubs' motion sickness got the better of him after this round, and he is kept

company by the fiercest dog in the land.

The winners were Husband, Melissa, and Sarah. 

(If you're counting, that give Sarah and Melissa each two wins, and Husband one win.)

The next game was Junk in the Trunk. I may or may not have tied a tissue box with 6 ping pong balls to the butts of my family, then made them shake what their mother gave them to try to get the balls out.

There is no shame here. (Thankfully!)

If I were playing, I would have won. I got 3 balls out of the box. Diana and Husband got out 2, so they tied!

And lastly, we played Stack Attack. Each player had to build a pyramid with 28 solo cups, and then stack them into one stack in one minute or less.

That's not what you want..

Mom is doing well, except for those few falling off the table on her left.

Sarah won this game, as did someone else who I can't remember :(

If you've been keeping score, you know that Sarah was the winner of the big cash prize!!

A 100 Grand snack bar.

Melissa and Hubs ties for second place, so they each won a Payday bar.

The next activity required less physical exertion, and more mental exertion. We decorated gender-neutral onesies!

Neutral onesies designed by (clockwise from top left): Aunt Sarah, Grandpa Kipper,

Daddy, Mommie, Grandma MiMi (my mom), Grandma DiDi (Hubs' mom), and

Aunt Mita (my sister).

Once we all finished our neutral onesies, we called in some family for some FaceTime fun for the actual main event of the party- the Big Reveal!

Team Tutu greatly outnumbered Team Tie. Pictured are: Aunt Sarah,

Aunt Mita, MiMi, DiDi, Aunt Sydney (on iPad), and Hubbin.

And on Team Tie is Kipper, Yours Truly, and Uncle Brian (left iPad), and

Uncle Ben (right iPad).

I have to say how cool it is that even though some of our family was far away, that they were able to participate in the evening. They couldn't play the games or decorate onesies, of course, but they were able to be a part of the most important part of the night!

Sassy Puppy says "Do you mind?"

Then, "What the heck are these people doing?"

The big moment!

It's a boy!!

Yaaaaay!!!

After a stint of congratulatory hugs and maybe a tear or two, we got back to work on Boy-specific onesies!

"I mustache you a question" by Aunt Sarah, "Rocket Boy" by Kippur, "H"

by Daddy, "Mom's Stud Muffin" not surprisingly by Mommie, "DiDi loves me!"

by DiDi, "Cutie Pie" by MiMi, and "Guess what I did today?" by Aunt Mita.

And finally, the moment you've all been waiting for: 

Hugo Thomas

Total weight gain: +2 lbs! Finally in the positive!
Maternity clothes?: Maternity pants, yes. But I'm still wearing mostly pre-maternity tops.
Sleep?: Very well, except for Hubs' snoring. He's been sickly and stuffy/congested the last week or so, so I've been having a hard time staying asleep. Also, I'm used to sleeping on my back, which isn't recommended anymore, so I've been trying to get accustomed to sleeping on my side.
Peak of the week?: Definitely the Shopping Extravaganza with MiMi, DiDi, Aunt Sarah, and Aunt Mita last weekend after the gender reveal.
Pit of the week?: My two midnight shifts this week were pretty rough on this always-tired soon-to-be-mom.
Missing anything?: Energy. The nausea medicine I take 3x daily is half sleeping pill,so I spend most days feeling like a zombie.
Food cravings: Hubs' grilled cheeses. 
Anything that makes you feel sick or queasy?: The same things as before, plus the thought of whatever the Top Gear hosts made in the V8 blender. *gag*
Happy or moody?: Still happy overall, but I'm getting moodier now. I can tell. I have a harder time sitting up from a lying-down position due to a growing Hugo, I feel crampy and tired a lot. And also, still, when someone gets between me and my food. Or when I'm promised one type of food, then it's taken away. In short: don't mess with my food.

Looking forward to: Continuing to set up Hugo's nursery, and washing little baby clothes and towels and socks. 

And here is a picture of the Grandmas inspecting high chairs. They did everything short of asking to borrow someone's baby. After much inspection, it was decided that Hubs and I had registered for an acceptable high chair. 

DiDi and MiMi hard at work.

16 Weeks Now.

So, at 16 weeks, Brownie and I have been feeling ever so slightly better. With a daily dose (read: 3 times daily) of nausea medicine, Zofran in between, and the occasional Preggie Pop for immediate relief, I've managed to gain some weight. I still feel rather nauseous randomly, and yesterday it hit hard.

Gaining two pounds between January 7 and January 14th kept me from being taken out of work, put on bed-rest, and having a full-time nurse to administer nausea medicine to me through what is essentially an insulin pump. Yay!

One perk of having been so naturally small, and having lost so much weight due to being so sick, is that Hubs and I will get to find out the gender of our baby a full month earlier than planned! It was  originally planned for February 24, but as I'm so small, our doctor reassured us that it would be a cinch to check out 'the goods' (or lack thereof) at the end of January! So a week from today, on January 27 at 11:30AM Sir-Hubs-A-Lot will take his first gander at the special places that our child has developed.

I've chosen to remain in the dark until the mini Gender Reveal party we are throwing for just our immediate families, which will be the following weekend. Hubs will have a hard time not using pronouns to talk about Baby for those 4 days!

A few updates (categories stolen from a pregnant friend):

Total weight gain: -6 lbs, up from -12 lbs
Maternity clothes?: Not required, but dang these jeans my mom got me are comfy. (Side note- all the maternity clothes I have acquired are from my mom- countless tops, several bottoms, dresses, and swimsuits.)
Sleep?: Very very well. I take a daily nap if possible, and typically have no issues falling - and staying- asleep all night.
Peak of the week?: Learning we can find out Brownie's gender four weeks earlier than expected!
Pit of the week?: Definitely spending yesterday morning married to the toilet being sick, after several days of not having been sick,
Missing anything?: The ability to get up in the mornings. 5:30am comes quickly, no matter what time I go to bed.
Food cravings: Steak. Sweet unhealthy things. Cold things (ice cream, super cold water). Cheese.
Anything that makes you feel sick or queasy?: Oranges, store-bought pizza (Papa John's, Kroger, etc), the smell of basically any super meaty sandwich that Hubs loves, pink lemonade, being a passenger in a car (as opposed to driving), and whatever it was that Hubs ate/drank yesterday that was just not acceptable.
Happy or moody?: Happy overall, but definitely get moody if you get between me and my food, or me and the possibility of a nap.
Looking forward to: next week's appointment so Husband can learn Brownie's gender, and our party next weekend so the rest of our family and I can learn!!

Brownies.

First things first:

Hubs and I are expecting our first Baby Brownie in July 2015!

I told Hubs on Thursday, November 6, by giving him this giraffe. This stuffed giraffe is something I've been eyeing at Target for years. Literally, years. Since 2006. But I never had a reason to buy him (yes, it's a "him") until now. 

Husband was thrilled. Of course. We'd been trying for about half a year.

Weeks 5-8 went by without a hitch. Thanksgiving was in the middle of Week 8. I'd convinced my mom to fly up under the pretense of "Melissa just got married and will be wanting to spend the holiday with Lu, and they'll probably go see his family, and I found this plane ticket, and it's not crazy expensive, and yada yada." She came.

We told.

During Week 6, we decided how we would tell, so we got to work on the details.

We colored.

 We made each person who was going to be at Thanksgiving dinner a personalized place card. So, we made 10 different place cards with crayons! We love coloring!

And we made this special one:

Once we'd prayed as a family around the kitchen island, and everyone had loaded up their plates with all the delicious foods and made their way to the dining room table, Hubs slowly and quietly made his rounds around the table to hand out the place cards. Everyone was all "aww this is so sweet!" 

Then he sat back down next to me, and said, "Oh, and we have one extra." He held up Brownie's place card or all to see (mostly our moms). Instantly, my mom got it. Tears ensued. Hubs' mom got it very soon after, as well as his father, brother, and our sister-in-law. 

For the rest of the evening, I swear any time I'd look over at Husband's mom, she'd just be staring at me, smiling. My mom didn't stop crying for about a week, roughly.

At the beginning of Week 9, I started to feel sick. Nausea and morning sickness on and off for a few weeks, and then the week of Christmas (Week 12), I had a couple of really bad days. I was able to enjoy Christmas Eve and Christmas without much nausea excitement, and then, at the end of Week 13...

I was admitted into Crestwood Hospital after 3.5 ours waiting in the ER, 2 hours in a room in the ER receiving IV fluids and nausea medicine, and 6 weeks of fairly non-stop nausea and vomiting causing nearly 12 pounds of weight loss. 

I was admitted overnight and was set up in a room on the maternity ward (shout out to my down-the-hall neighbors Amanda and Wade).

I was so severely dehydrated that I went through several- a handful- of IV fluid bags. I had my blood drawn a total of 4 times that week- three from my left arm and once from my right. I had a bad reaction to the nausea drug Phenergan Friday night in the ER (thankfully I was in the ER!). The nurses and doctor wouldn't let me eat anything until Saturday morning around 10am. So I was one hungry, nauseous, pregnant lady. 

I was happy to be able to go home Saturday afternoon. 

I'm so grateful that my in-laws and Hubs were there with me. I couldn't have gotten my blood drawn, or gotten the IV, or listened to the doctors without their eyes and ears. My mother-in-law is the one who ran down the hallway in the ER to get the ER doctor to come back after I started having the bad reactions to the Phenergan.  My sister-in-law help my shoulders and helped me be brave while I was having a meltdown when the doctor came in with the tools to put in the IV. Ole-Blue Eyes himself stayed the night with me and slept on what had to be the most uncomfortable pull-out chair ever invented. Hubs also ran down the hall when my IV started to beep because it was running low on fluids. They were an invaluable part of my hospital stay- which happened to be the first weekend of 2015.

So far, the rest of Week 14 has been hit or miss. I've been sick overall, but I've also felt generally better overall.

Long story short, we're having our first baby and we couldn't be more excited!

Hubs holding our first ultrasound, where Brownie is 8 weeks. 

(Token Puppy shot, of course.)