AN EVEN LONGER OVERDUE UPDATE

Well how about a two month hiatus? Dang, I suck. As you can guess, life has been fairly uneventful. The 16 week, 20 week and 24 week appointments went very well. We had our ultrasound at 19 weeks. It’s a girl! As of now her name is Ana. Middle name is still TBD. She is moving like crazy. What a weird feeling that is. Everyone always prepares you for kicks. She does kick me but I am pretty sure her favorite thing to do is somersaults. It feels like something is rolling around in there. The fun part is watching my stomach jump here and there. Fun!

I am officially showing but I still have the B belly that plagues most overweight girls. Granted, at the rate I am going I expect that to all fill out in the next few weeks.

Although I don’t have much news, I can share someone else’s news. Let me tell a story.

A few years ago (almost 5 actually) we were at a Reptile New Year’s party at the Witte’s. Friends of ours who had been trying to get pregnant for quite some time informed us that they were 8 weeks pregnant with twins. It was extremely exciting. At that moment, the female half of another couple we are friends with and I look at each other and decide that the next year we were doing the whole baby thing. That way we could be pregnant “together”. Well, as you can probably guess, I chickened out. However our friends decided it was definitely time for them to start a family. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had a different time frame for them. After almost 5 years of dealing with infertility they are over 4 months pregnant with their first!!!!! Although, I wish they didn’t have to go through hell to get there, I do have to appreciate the irony that in the end we are doing this at the same time just as we initially said we would. So big hugs and kisses to the M’s. They are going to have beautiful little baby to love and spoil come next April.

I started writing this yesterday. In the mean time I learned two new pieces of information that are definitely blog worthy.
Our friends Kim and Martin welcomed their little boy, Aidan Patrick, yesterday.
We have learned that another couple we are friends with is expecting their 3rd. I am not sure how wide spread that knowledge is so I will refrain on using their names for now.

Well tomorrow is the big shower. Boy does time go by fast. We are excited but at the same time it’s all a little overwhelming. Man I wish this kid came with a user’s manual.

No good dreams lately. But I do have new entry for……….

Things they don’t really prepare you for #2
They don’t tell you that the kid will kick you in the colon or in the junk. You always hear about kicks to the stomach or the baby sitting on your bladder. But for some reason colon kicking isn’t mentioned in any of the books.

A long overdue update...

Well, I have returned after almost a month long hiatus. I just haven’t had anything to talk about. At least not anything interesting. So all you kids can finally get off my back about posting an update….geez.

Let’s see, what’s new….

I started pre-natal water aerobics two weeks ago. The class is fantastic and the ladies there are a lot of fun. One girl is a Weight Watchers leader at Edward’s Fitness Center – 7 Bridges. I have been planning on joining WW after I poop out this kid so it was great to know that there was a meeting not too far from home. Not to mention the fact that she is a lot of fun and would make a great leader. Maybe I can talk Chris into going with me…

My company is merging with another packaging company later this year. The corporate offices will be moving to Georgia so I have been semi-officially laid off from my job effective 12/31/2008 (yes 2008 – so I have over a year to worry about it). I say semi-officially because the letter we received made it very clear that they could change their minds and ask me to stay but I really don’t see that happening. The severance package is awesome! I will be getting more than twice the severance that Aon offered me and I have only been there 4 months. If we play our cards right, I will be able to stay home with the baby once this all goes through at the end of next year. Very exciting! My intent is to find a part-time job a couple evenings a week for a little extra income and to make sure that I am still contributing to Social Security and such. Cross your fingers.

My very cool friends, Shel, Bel and Kristin have informed me that they are planning a shower for us in November. They are calling it the Impending Picchi Party. Sweet! I have to admit I’m kind of excited about the shower but am apprehensive about registering. Kristin, Bel and Beth – Take this as warning that I will be sending you our registry for your expert review.

I played poker with the boys and my pal Shel this past Friday. Chris lent me $10. I left the table with $29. Tell me. Why haven’t I been playing longer? Granted I won a lot of Chris’s money (I paid him back his $10 by the way). But I also had fun winning Larry, Mike, Mel and Q.’s money as well. Take that suckahs! (I also took Shel’s money but I won’t gloat over that one….)

I had a big moment this morning (at least for me). I stepped on the scale as I do every Tuesday morning. I lost 3.5lbs! I haven’t been sick but apparently eating a lot of grapes, small meals and exercising twice a week will do that to you. But to counteract the weight loss I went to put on a pair of work pants and they were too tight! I could have worn them but it would have been painful. So I have officially graduated to maternity pants although I am not really showing. Thank goodness I had bough a couple pair from JC Penney’s when they were on sale. Otherwise I would have had to suffer through the discomfort.

I’ve got nothing else. We have our 16 week appt on Thursday so I will give an update then. In the mean time I am adding a new dream as well as a new section called “Things they don’t really prepare you for…”



Dream #6
I dreamt about ice cream. How much better can life get? “It’s not about Ice Cream. It’s about desire.” If you have ever seen the movie My Girl you will understand that quote. This dream was about desire all right. Desire for ice cream! Yum! You know the refrigerators that many of us have with the water filter and ice maker? Instead my fridge had a cone dispenser, a soft serve maker, and topping dispenser. So a cone popped out, slid to the right and was filled with soft serve ice cream and then slid to the right again to be topped with crushed Oreos. How much better can life get? Not much, I tell ya. *sigh*



Things they don’t really prepare you for…
Did you know that you might feel your uterus pop when your pg? Yep! I did and I had to look that up online as it was no where to be found in any stupid books. It was a little disconcerting but nothing painful. Just a weird pop. I thought maybe that I felt the baby move then realized that I was only 10 weeks pregnant at the time so that would be next to impossible. Now tell me if you have ever heard of that?
Can I mention the whole discharge thing again? Read an earlier post if you want details.
I will add these to the blog as I think of them.

Just Catching Up

So I’ve been slacking in my blog duties. But it’s all been pretty uneventful. Thank goodness.

We spent the week before last in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. To make the week interesting, my body decided I need a UTI. Fortunately I recognized the symptoms a couple days before we left. I was able to get into the doctor that day. They did the usual dipstick test which of course was negative and made me look like the crazy paranoid pregnant lady. Dr. Martin sent me home with an Rx for a antibiotic just in case – particularly since I was heading to Mexico for a week. Fortunately (or not fortunately) the culture came back positive. So Yeay! I wasn’t the crazy paranoid pregnant lady anymore. The best part of the visit was that Dr. Martin insisted on doing an ultrasound to make sure everything was looking good before I left. It was awesome. I got to see a little hand and a discernible head and body. It was very cool that you can see all that as early as 10 weeks. The only thing that sucked was that Chris wasn’t with me to see it. But that’s okay since he did get to see an even better picture at our 12 week appointment.

As for Mexico….it was fantastic! The weather was hot but the ocean breeze made it bearable. I spent some time on the beach but actually most on my time was spent in our room sleeping. It was wonderful. We took a city tour on Wednesday. The bus took us shopping, to lunch at a beautiful restaurant in the mountains overlooking a waterfall and river and then to a small tequila distillery for a short tour and tasting. I didn’t get to taste but I did get to smell – Ha! We also went to a small beach called Caletas. It is accessible only by boat so I wasn’t sure that I was going to go. I was definitely being the overly paranoid pregnant lady at that point. However a Canadian lady at our beach insisted that I would be fine. She and her family had gone earlier in the week and she insisted that boat ride was quite smooth. So I went and I am so glad that I did. The trip included snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, an amazing lunch, an open bar, and a nature walk. There was also a spa on the beach which I took advantage of by having a ½ hour massage. I’m not sure if was the open air but it was the best massage I’ve ever had. *sigh* All in all it was a great trip and I can’t wait to go again. But it is very good to be home.

We had our twelve week appointment the Thursday after we got back. They tried to find a heartbeat with a Doppler. I knew that they might not hear it so I thought I would be okay with that. However, when she couldn’t find it, I was feeling pretty upset. Fortunately they took me in for an ultrasound to make sure everything is okay and we saw that our little Picchi was doing well. We could also see some feet and arms. Very cool. Again, it’s amazing how much the kid grows every week.

Haven’t had any crazy dreams lately. I had a number of dreams about breast feeding although I can never remember specifics. I hadn’t realized I was that obsessed with it but apparently I am.

Well that is all the boring crap I have for now. Hopefully I will have more fun and more interesting things to share soon.

A Rant and More Dreams...

Nothing new to report. Same as usual. Symptoms come and go. But hey, I’ll take it! I did have a couple new dreams…..at this rate; this blog will just become a dream log…..LOL!

I started to realize that I should warn any boys (and girls too) that may read this that I don’t plan on sugar-coating anything. In other words, if you don’t want to read about bodily fluids, bodily functions, breasts, vaginas, cervixes, uteruses, etc, then be very careful as you read this blog…..

Speaking of bodily fluids and functions…..I was reading about month 3 in What to Expect When You Are Expecting. According to the book, one of the things that I may be experiencing this month is an increase in vaginal discharge. No Shit! This is why I hate these stupid books. Sorry month 3 is too late for me. Maybe you should have warned me about this in say hmmmm……Month 1? I’ve been wearing a flippin' panty-liner since the week after we found out we were pregnant. Month 3 my ass…. If you do want to know how normal this is, read The Girlfriends Guide or Belly Laughs. Both women know exactly what I am talking about.

OK, enough ranting. Now some more dreams…

Dream #4
I dreamed that I went to a garage sale with Eric and Kathy of the Eric and Kathy morning show…..I have NO IDEA where this came from. I hadn’t even listened to them in a while. After that I of course had to listen to their show this week. Maybe I should email them. That should at least get me a t-shirt…..maybe even one from a garage sale….


Dream #5
I am assuming only a woman would understand this one. I dreamed that we had a little boy and he immediately took to breast feeding. We had none of the issues that a mom and newborn might experience when they first start that process. Hey a girl can dream J
However, in the same dream, I was also trying to pump and was having super difficulty getting the hang of that. Not that I had issues with the actual pumping. I was having issues keeping up with the pumping while breast feeding and then cleaning the pump afterwards. So, I am not sure what concern made me have this dream. Is it the fear of not being able to juggle the breast feeding and pumping? Or is it the fear of not being able to keep the breast pump clean enough? Who knows?

I start out on my quest to bore you all...

Let's face it....if I can go on and on about my dog, we all know I will be unbearable when it comes to a kid. So I have decided to write everything down and maybe I won't talk about my pregnancy and future kids so much that everyone just wants to tune me out. I can write it all down here and if you want to read it, read away. If not, then don't.

The other reason I am starting this blog is that I don’t want to forget anything about this pregnancy which I know I will do once I pass each stage. Just the way I am…I would say it’s an only child thing but Chris (who is also an only child) remembers EVERYTHING so I can’t blame it on that…

Today I am 9 weeks and 1day pregnant. I am feeling absolutely terrified that something is wrong simply because my symptoms are starting disappear. They are not completely gone. My breasts are still periodically sore and I was surprisingly nauseous last night. But I don’t feel these things as often as I did through the beginning of week 8. I probably have nothing to worry about but after the early miscarriage we had in April, I am extremely paranoid. I know people say to be grateful that my symptoms have been easy but honestly after our experience earlier this year, I would embrace feeling sick all the time just to have the assurance that everything is OK. I guess until you have experienced that kind of loss it would be hard to understand why someone would think that way…..Heck, I used to always say that I hoped I had symptom-free pregnancies. Now listen to me. I guess we always want what we don't have...
Anyway, everything I read has pretty much told me to that this is normal and not to worry. So I am embracing the periodic symptoms I have and am just looking forward to our next ultra sound in a couple of weeks.

On a more positive note, I have had a few interesting dreams. I’m told this is pretty common in pregnancy. The only time my dreams have been this bizarre or this vivid is when I had to take anti-malarial medication for my trip to India last year. Not sure if that should mean anything...

Dream #1

I dreamed that my mother pimped out my dog. Not as in she pimped out my dog like someone may pimp out their ride. He wasn't covered in rhinestones or anything. No, she made my dog have sex. To make it worse, she made him have sex with poodles. How dare she? There were two puppies. They were about ½ the size of Ambrose with Chow like hair and markings just like Ambrose. But the funny thing about the dream? I told my mother that I was angry that she made my dog have sex. Apparently I want him to stay innocent forever. Well, fortunately in real life the poor dog has no nuts so he should be pretty safe from my mom and the poodles.

Dream #2

All I remember is that there were weird bugs biting me…..I think it all stemmed from finding an ant in our bed the night before…..one thing about having a long haired dog….never know what they might get in their fur and then bring into the house…yech.

Dream #3

What I can remember is that two nuclear bombs were set to destroy the US. Me and some other girl survived by swimming along the coast of Alaska and waiting in the water near the top of the state. It only took us a few minutes to swim there….apparently I have Wudchuk-like swimming skills. We could see the whole country from where we were (no one said dreams were realistic) and we were freezing to do death. Next thing I know we made it back to the main continent and were trying to keep alive with a bunch of other survivors. Then I woke up. Not sure where this dream came from. I don’t think I’ve seen Jericho lately.