This photo...

made me giggle.

{via}

19 weeks, 5 days along

...and I may print this photo out.

Alert

Some of you have already caught on, (so savvy) but in case you haven't noticed...the poll is up!

Over there --->

Vote away.

Please?


19 weeks, 4 days along

...and a leetle part of me is secretly hoping the ultrasound tech makes a mistake and uses an identifying pronoun on Thursday at the ultrasound. Eeek!

19 weeks

Out for date night with A...on our way to see The King's Speech at the Naro

**Haven't taken the photo yet, thanks NAVY for having my hubby on watch on my weekly turnover day. Sheesh. Will take tonight.**


Nausea
I have succeeded in making myself nauseous this week by either waiting too long in between eating or being starving and then overeating because I think my stomach can fit as much as it used to when I was starving. Well, back then there wasn't a baby squishing all my innards together. Sheesh.


Lesson - I need to learn to graze, and plan on bringing smaller more plentiful amounts of food to work.


Skin 
Doing ok, if only the sun would come out I think I would feel so much better. Dear Spring, where are you?

Weight/Clothes
After the midwives spoke about huge babies and the mommas that "did it to themselves" I have been striving to eat healthier and stay active. I did my prenatal yoga DVD last night, but it was a little less stretching and a lot more yogaerobics. It was a weird combo, but I will rock it out!


We did have one 0* day this week and A and I took full advantage doing a quickly paced walk through our neighborhood. I love our neighborhood, and wish it would get warmer sooner so I could walk it more!

Cravings/Aversions 
Healthy stuff is still appealing, thank goodness! I have had more salads in the last week or two than I had throughout my whole first trimester. Yay veggies!

Cramps/Pain
Not too much lately, yay!


Sleeping
Difficult. I feel guilty that I am starting to really enjoy when A is on duty and I get the whole bed to myself...with the dog and Snoogle of course. So far those are the nights I wake up 2 or 3 times instead of 6-8.



Mental State
Enjoying being pregnant and spend the days planning a lot of things, but when I get home just want to snuggle on the couch and lay still so I can feel the baby move. 


Also, as I was searching the interwebs for birth stories this week I accidentally stumbled upon an all photo one. When I clicked on it there was a huge picture of the baby fully crowning real up close and personal with my face to the computer screen. 

Thank you Ginny Weasley for conveying my emotions.

Ok, realistically, maybe it was more like this:

Ha. Then I went home and told my husband (irrationally) that that photo made me, "Want to run away, but I can't run away because wherever I run the baby is with me."


And then he laughed. Let's move on.

Heartburn

Tums are my new bedtime snack. That is all.

Nasal Issues

Pretty good actually.

The Girls

I think I may need to invest in some good sleeping bras here shortly. Apparently constricting sports bras are not good for the girls and I will need to upgrade to something allowing a little more flow.

Fetal Movement

Definitely rocking after the workout last night. So fun.

Weird Stuff

Being pregnant is like an automatic icebreaker. It's weird. People chat me up in public all.the.time now. I mean, I like talking to people, so whatevs, and so far it has all been positive - "You're how far along?! Girrrrrl, you look so good!" (thanks random ladies in the checkout line!)

As this progresses I will be interested to see if I get the "You look like you are going to give birth right here and now" a la Katherine Heigel in Knocked Up.

*******

In other news, just for fun, since our BIG ultrasound is next Thursday (!!!) I am going to put up a poll in the sidebar to see who thinks we are having a boy or a girl. Yay! Vote for fun.

Most people are already telling me their preferences, including random people at Walmart at 11pm, but I would like to see some stats.

19 weeks, 2 days along

...and I am alternatively scared out of my mind and seriously so pumped to birth this baby. Good thing birthing classes start soon.

Midwifery Center tour

As I previously blogged about in my midwife appointment summary, our practice has 4 OBGYNs and 4 Midwives {as well as a myriad of nurses, lactation consultants, etc. Bonus! if you give birth in the midwifery, the lactation consultants will see you fo free even after you leave the hospital}.

They all practice together as one large practice at a local hospital. A small part of the practice is referred to as the Midwifery Center. They are revamping their website so check back if you live in Hampton Roads and are looking into information about them.

If you want to give birth in the Midwifery, which includes rooms with queen sized beds and huge jacuzzi tubs, you have to let them know ASAP {they have recently had to put a cap on how many new patients they take in a given due-date month, and they never turn away moms who have given birth there before} and then, so long as you are not high risk, you complete 3 things:

1. Midwifery Center intro and tour
2. One of the three approved childbirth classes in the area
3. A third trimester class put on by the midwives themselves

This week A and I attended out tour. Woot! I was pretty pumped to finally see this place and get a feel for the midwives that I hadn't yet met.

As we followed the crowd to the midwifery {hmmm, look a whole big group of preggos, all arrived at the same time...could it be we are all here for the same reason?} we got our first glance. Now the midwifery is really small, and on the same floor as L&D (the OR is right around the corner should an emergency anything be necessary). As you go down the hallway you enter a clearly different place.

It goes from blue walls that look very hospital-y to a small semi-circle of rooms with bay footprints all over the walls. Either pink or blue, and with names, dates and measurements written below. Here and there you see vines drawn from one foot print to another indicating siblings. So cute!

We all signed in and sat around waiting for the show to begin. Soon, two of the midwives, Blair and Nell, came out in their turquoise scrubs and got the show on the road.

Blair did most of the talking and was both matter-of-fact and hilarious. I loved them both. They spoke a lot about the idea behind the midwifery, the history, etc. Mainly what made me feel comforted is they did not look the other way about some of the stuff we all had heard regarding medication free birthing.

Blair clearly stated, "This is for you if you do not risk out. If you risk out, we will take you around the corner to L&D. We will still handle your birth, but with a little more care. If you risk out, we will not look the other way because you want to be here. We appreciate that, but your baby has it's own path into this world and you need to walk that path."

Love.love.love.

The best thing about a situation like this is I know that these women will not make me feel bad if something happens and I do need to move to L&D. Plus it is literally steps away, and they go.with.you.

Hearts and stars and unicorns forever. I love you people.

Ok so, back to the facts. They only have 3 rooms in the midwifery - the blue room, the pink room, and the small room. The small room is still larger than our bedroom at home, so take that name with a grain of salt.

Each room has a queen sized bed, a huge birthing tub that looks like a freaking hot tub that could fit 6 people comfortably, and a private bathroom with "awesome" showers. That is a quote from Blair. A went into the showers to see how awesome they were and seemed satisfied, so...that's good right?

So far, in their 11 year history, they have never had a patient arrive to labor and find all of the rooms full. But, it varies. As their popularity has grown, they have had to move people to an L&D room for recovery on day 2 (since most insurances cover a two day stay). But, sometimes there is one mom all by herself down there and she can stay in the midwifery center room for the full two days. It just depends.

Also, good to know, if the mom is a second time mom with the birthing center, and she got moved early the first time, they are not moving that momma until she chooses to go home. I love that they value their repeat customers.

The way they can keep this cycle going, of course is that they have put the limit on how many moms they will take at the same timeline of due date. I am frankly surprised at how few moms are taking advantage of this place! Crazy.

A personal takeaway from this conversation for me was eating healthier and being active. They touched on being able to tell who their athletes were when they were pushing.

Ack. Me = kid who spent more time reading than playing, and volunteered to sit out or third base coach when playing little league.

They mentioned, in a totally nice but upfront way, that when a woman spends hours and hours laboring and trying to push out a 10 lb baby, and then they have to stitch that woman up (who has had no pain meds mind you) they secretly think "well honey, you did this to yourself".

TAKEAWAY - stay active and eat healthier for realz. I am an overachiever and will need them to think I did great, not that I was clearly a weak willed woman overindulging in Mexican food who stopped by McDonald's for a milkshake on the way to this very tour. Oy. Uphill battle. (on that note though, this comes today!)

Blair also touched on family, visitors, and people in the room during labor. Her theory and rule is as follows:

• She doesn't care how many people you have in the room, so long as they are there to support you through the labor and be there for you the momma, and they are not just there waiting for a baby. If they are the latter, she will eject them from said room.
• She is aware that everyone will want to see the baby right away, but all the baby cares about for that first hour is bonding with its parents. So, when the baby is born, send the family out to get you food, and then when they come back they can hang with baby while you eat.

Isn't that the best? Love it.

After she chatted for a while, they opened for questions and let us wander around the suite. We chatted with Nell and had a few questions and then we peaced out for some dinner already. This preggo lady was hungry.

19 weeks along

...and I also randomly came across a birth story from the midwifery center. You should read it and laugh if you are into reading birth stories. Like me.

18 weeks

Do you like my fake smile here? Doesn't it just scream "hurry up husband and take a good photo!"?

No? How about this one:

**Since tomorrow is 19 weeks, I figured I would get this up here. The photo has been holding it up until now...even though it was taken last week, the memory card and I seem to never be in the same place at the same time. Will add later. **


Nausea
Gone, gone, gone

Skin 
Doing a-ok

Weight/Clothes
Doing ok - I think. The whole breathing/eating thing is being impacted by the organ shift that occurs during pregnancy. My clothes are still doing ok and I can still make most dress pants work with a belly band. I have been trying to invest in some cute things that will work for Spring and Summer both while preggo and postpartum.


P.S. I found these links to be super helpful in showing just how squishy everything gets inside during pregnancy. Interactive diagrams! Woot!


http://www.umm.edu/pregnancy/000088.htm
http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/you/the-exhibit/your-beginning/make-room-for-baby/interactive/


Cravings/Aversions 
Meh. Not so much. I just can't eat a lot. See stomach being squished above. I suspect that the height of my uterus may be higher up than most books/sites are saying at this point, mainly because it usually rests in a higher spot to begin with.


Mainly at this point I am disinterested in food. I don't know what sounds good half the time, but healthy stuff is appealing again to me, so I am trying to stick to that.

Cramps/Pain
Random stuff here and there, stretching, pulling, etc. I ordered a prenatal yoga DVD and fully intend on getting a real schedule of workouts going, so hopefully that will stretch and ease muscles.

Sleeping
Difficult. 


Rampant heartburn is making things uncomfortable. I am popping Tums like they are candy at night before bed. I had never had one before being pregnant - I don't think they taste all that bad. I just have to make sure to not spill any on the bed because the dog is SUPER interested in whatever I am eating.


I also am generally just sleeping lightly. I wake up about 6-8 times per night, sigh and try to go back to sleep. Lame. I am trying to bank sleep before this baby gets here!


Mental State
Still enjoying being pregnant, though the resurgence of energy has made me kick into full out planning mode. 


We are planning and trying to purchase some things...but how can you do that when most things that moms and dads live or die without depends on the baby and their preferences...who won't be here until I actually.need.the.thing. Gah! Driving me to minor insanity. 


(p.s. minorly = not recognized by merriam-webster, but majorly is. Though they are both slang. Curious.)


Being a lifelong, semi-professional procrastinator makes this whole thing even more hard to comprehend. What do you mean there is no deadline? I mean, I have a due date, but how accurate is that? Self imposed deadlines do not work for me usually, because I know that it is an arbitrary date picked by me as a motivator...sigh. But, I am trying to fight against it this time! We shall see, we shall see.


Also, pregnancy brain seems to have dissipated in terms of forgetting things, but is in full force in the sense that I can think about little else than preparing and planning while possible. Other things are seeing to slip by the wayside, as is the ability to talk about anything else, though I am putting a concerted effort forth not to be too wrapped up in myself. Selfishness = not cute. 

Heartburn

See above. Ugh. Tums are my friend.

Nasal Issues

Better and better.

The Girls

Still doing fine. No weird leaks yet.

Fetal Movement

Sporadic at best. Sometimes I feel things every couple of hours and other times only when I really, really concentrate on it. Still so faint, but definitely there.

18 weeks, 6 days along

...and I will be providing a more current update soon... like tomorrow. It's a good thing I decided to go this route instead of a typical pregnancy journal - there is no way I would have stuck to that.

Stroller Research, Part II

Wow. You guys have a lot of opinions on strollers, travel systems, etc! I think that post generated more comments than any other. Which I love, of course. I am an external processor, so I have to talk these things out with others, even if it is via the interwebs.

{P.S. Have you seen this clip yet? HI-larious. Though I must admit - in '94 I had no idea what the internet was either...though I was 9 for most of that year, so there is that.}

Anywho, back to where I left off. When I wrote the last post I was headed to check out the returned Peg Perego at Baies 'R Us.

Went over during lunch that day and tried it out. I actually really liked this one. It was so light and super easy to work. This one was discounted though, because some of the parts were missing - eek! - including one of the safety straps to keep the infant seat in. So I didn't get to see how secure it really was, but I got the feeling that it was pretty durn secure.

Also, as I was playing with it, a fellow mom came by with two adorable little boys in her basket and a bun in the oven and said to me, "Don't even think about it, just get it. We got the Peg Perego and would never buy anything else. It is awesome." And she walked on her merry way.

Well, thought I, that is a pretty solid review.

I went home to tell A all about it and realized he was on watch that day...whomp whomp. {For you non-military folks, that means he was spending the night on the ship with no communication to home.}

Fast forward to this past weekend, after reflecting on comments, etc about travel systems being a necessity, etc, and a whole new world of a direction to go.

Mainly because I wandered into this place and found this guy.

Swoon.

I had at one time allowed myself to dream about super cool strollers ala the Orbit System. (Shout out to andria from illinois comment - that video makes me swoon as well.Someday my life will also be that simple and cool, and I will wear skinny jeans and a green shirt with matching green heels while peacefully loading my baby in the car...) But, A in his infinite wisdom, immediately vetoed anything that expensive.

The UPPABaby Vista seemed like a dream to me as well, until I played with it in person and started running numbers. Now let me say first and foremost that A and I are not jumping into a $650 system without some thought first, nor will we necessarily end up going this route (someone may still need some convincing), but I can certainly see why some would go this way.

Points for the UBV:

• First, that adorable pram attachment (comes standard in the package). Are you kidding me? Who doesn't dream of pushing a baby around in something that cute?
• Second, the other seat flips both ways. Cooler and cooler.
• You can put an infant car seat on there, but you have to buy an attachment to do so. Because of this, A and I would probably go the route of just doing a Britax car seat from the beginning (since we plan on buying on anyways, once Bay G grows out of the infant seat...)and not pulling it in and out of the car. I plan on primarily baby wearing at the beginning when I do manage to get out of the house, and those infant seats seem like a pain to haul around. The biggest plus for me on travel systems were not having to transition a sleeping baby in and out of a car seat, and having a place for baby to rest (that isn't attached to me) when we are in a restaurant or visiting friends or whatever. But, the bassinet attachment functions as a place for baby to be, so...
• My biggest pro for this thing is the ability to add a second seat and a piggy back platform.  

• 3 kids on one stroller? That just seems like good planning for the future, since we plan on having more kids, more than likely sooner rather than later, so long as everything goes smoothly. 

Anyway, those are the thoughts rattling around in my head right now. The UBV just seems like planning ofr the future instead of turning around and making tons of purchases...but then again it is a hefty investment off the bat, though the reviews are awesome. 

We will see what we actually end up with. If I am being totally naive on the whole lack of travel system thing, or if you feel that I am right on, please share. 

18 weeks, 5 days along

...and we have our Midwifery Center tour tonight! I am all sorts of nervous and excited. Shiz is getting real y'all.

Vacay

Just a note to say that I have been on a lovely girly weekend vacay for the past few days, hence no posts.

Though, expect some to come soon, because I made the mistake this weekend of going into an expensive baby stroller store and falling.in.love.

I have a problem.


18 weeks, and 5 days along

...and I am sure that me falling in love with an expensive name brand item is not news to my nearest and dearest.