Back by popular demand...

I may need to do a re-do next week. Please ignore the creeptastic smile along with the "Eyes Wide Shut" vibe of this picture. I'll take another one next week when i'm more on my game and not after a hefty Mexican meal. However, please enjoy as this is me one week after hitting the half way mark!!! WOOHOO!

Crazy Train

I’m an utter mess and I can’t do anything about it…

There’s a lot going on besides having the baby. Job position may be changing, we are in the process of selling our home, and don’t get me started on trying to figure out a baby name. Not only that but I fear the moment in which I feel a sneeze coming on. Based on this the only thing a pregnant woman can do is sob uncontrollably to her husband and tell him there is nothing he can do but sit there and take it.

This was my mental state over the weekend. We just found out we are having a girl and I was thrilled about it but even with all the baby names Jon and I liked, we still couldn’t agree to just one. I know, I know we don’t need to come up with it right away but in my own hormonal mind I feel like this is the one thing I can control in my life and I want to settle on it NOW. Granted, it is a very important decision and I shouldn’t come up with one based on hormones just because I want to have control over something. That’s why it’s good to have a level-headed husband to take me down to the real world for a bit.  So for now, we are going to wait to come up with a name. I appreciate all the suggestions from everyone but I think we are going to hold off right now and come up with our own when we can.

This week we received an offer on the house, I received a job offer with TD and we have a baby girl on the way. So if my hormones allow it, I’m going to truly attempt to enjoy this upcoming weekend a little bit more as we have a lot to be happy about. 

And of course...looking down at my ever expanding chest makes me feel better as well...

It's a....

Girl! I’m fairly certain most of you are aware as we have already announced it on FB but I figured I’d document it here as well. She is in the 66% meaning she is a little bit above average for growth which is great. I’m not thrilled about one leg measuring longer then the other but I hope that baby boy corrects itself sooner rather than later. Everything else is measuring completely normal with a heartbeat of 149 which is perfect. I’m also excited to see that she has a fairly large booty which she in no way gets from me so she has that going for her.

Our Ultrasound tech was not very comforting about anything. She said she’s not allowed to tell us if she sees any defects or issues and basically has to stay mute throughout the entire hour long U/S. So she was basically good for nothing but Jon and I asked her enough questions to get out that we are looking at a baby with all it’s legs and arms so I’m thrilled about that. I also appreciated the U/S tech telling us that we had a boy for the first part of the U/S but said she was mistaken but yet “99% sure it’s a girl.” So, when my baby girl shows up with a penis I’m coming for her.

The only other bummer about the U/S was the fact that we didn’t even get through all of it. We were there for well over an hour but since our little girl is training to be the next Mary Lou Retton she was unable to capture all the images that she needed and will need to go back for yet another round. The only good thing about going back is that we get to have enough time to take those freaky looking 3D pictures so that we can really see her every feature.

Bottom line is that all looks good, our baby is a girl (for now), who is active and measuring normal. Please enjoy our first scanned photo looking upwards at our baby’s butt and feet. She is going to truly hate us some day for this…

Guessing the baby's gender is a game for everyone..

I kind of expect my family and friends to give their two cents about what they believe the gender of the baby may be. However, I find it amusing the random people that tell me what their thoughts are as well. I did my best to track all the predictions I’ve received thus far. Only two more days until we find out!

Me: Girl

Hubby: Boy, or at least hoping for one

My mother’s psychic: Boy

Gender Prediction Quiz on ”The Bump”, super reliable: Girl

Hairdresser: Girl

Bagger at Hannaford: Boy

Ann Mitchell (Mom): Boy

Chuck Mitchell (Dad): Girl

Conor Mitchell (Brother): Both…(I told him we weren’t having twins but he still hasn’t changed his answer)

Courtnay McManus (Sister): Boy

Jon Evans (Soon to be brother in law): Boy

Jen McLean (Niece): I don’t remember what she had said but I’m assuming she will want a girl. J

Matt McLean (Nephew): Would prefer a boy

Emily Rollins (HS Friend): Girl

Jenny (Old Navy Employee helping me in the changing room): Boy

Katherine Mihalek (Sorority Sister): Girl or at least just wants it to be

Amy Greenblatt (Sorority Sister): Girl or at least all the names she’s been giving me are girl names

Ali Kaufman (Sorority Sister): Boy or at least just wants it to be

Joanna Peirce (Sorority Sister): Girl

Gisele Guerrette (TD Friend): Boy

Sadie Stone (Sorority Sister): Girl

Girl doing my pedicure: Boy

Baby Gender Predictions: Old Wives Tales

It is official! We have our appointment to find out the gender this Friday. They are seriously killing me with giving me the last possible appointment before the weekend. Apparently not hearing your child’s heartbeat doesn’t give you a free pass to be bumped up on the appointment list.  But at least we can find out everything by the end of the week. I figured that now would be a good time to try ten Old Wives tales that I’ve heard about throughout this pregnancy that are supposed to help determine the gender of your baby and see how right they are.

1. Highs and Lows: The good ol’ carrying high (Girl) or low (Boy) prediction. I’m carrying fat. It’s dispersed mainly in my stomach. I’m going to guess and say it’s more low than high though: BOY

2. Heartbeat test: They say if it’s low (140 or below) it’s a boy and if it’s high (above 140) it’s a girl. This is tough, our first reading at 12 weeks it was 170, 15 weeks it was 150. Our midwife says it goes down as they get bigger. So based on this: GIRL

3. Sweet and Sour: If you crave sweet you are having a girl and sour/salty if you are having a boy. Considering my new found obsession with pretzels I’m going to go with salty on this one: BOY

4. Chinese Birth Chart: Alright, apparently this thing is like 70% accurate. We will see! It asks your age of conception and month of conception. Very nosey little quiz. It came up with: GIRL

5. Drano Test: Anyone ever heard of this one? Pee in a cup, mix a tablespoon of Drano in, and watch to see if it changes color. Green = girl, and blue = boy.  Based on this: I’m having an alien or something because it basically just fizzed. But it looked more green than blue so we will go with that: GIRL

6. Evens and Odds: Legend has it that the Mayans determined a baby's sex by looking at the mother's age at conception and the year of conception. If both are even or odd, it's a girl. If one's even and one's odd, it's a boy. I was 26 at conception in 2011 so in this case: BOY

7. Pizza Hut Skin: If you're breaking out like crazy, blame it on your girl babe. The belief goes that girls steal their mother's beauty, hence, those annoying zits. Well I’ve never had worse skin except for maybe Junior year of high school so I’m thinking on this one: GIRL

8. Wedding Ring: Pop off your wedding ring -- if you still can! -- and tie it to a string. Hang it over your belly. If it swings in a circle, a little guy's in your future. If it goes back and forth, you've got a girl. Based on this: GIRL

9. Sick or not? : Sick as a dog during the first trimester -- or still? Signs indicate you're having a girl. Little or no morning sickness points to a boy. Based on this it would be: BOY

10. Baking Soda: What you do is put a little bit of baking soda in the bottom of a disposable cup and then add a little bit of your urine to it. Yup another urine one, thank goodness peeing is a non-issue for me these days. If it fizzles like a soda pop, it may be a boy. If there’s no fizzle, it may be a girl. Based on this: BOY

Grand Total

GIRL- 5  BOY- 5

Thanks for nothing Old Wives Tales!!

What are your thoughts??

Centering

Last night was mine and Jon’s first “Centering” session. Centering is basically a class/appointment that happens with our midwife monthly. Instead of going to your appointments alone each month, she has a session with other mother’s that are due the same month. The first class did not go as planned. To say that I had a panic attack is a complete and utter understatement. She takes each woman one by one to do the weigh in (we will get there in a second) and record the babies heartbeat while everyone does very complex worksheets made for 8^th grade teen moms. I was the last one to go and was taken behind the curtain to get sprayed down with jelly and probed with a Doppler. After about 5 minutes she couldn’t hear a heartbeat. A little nervous she told me that she has an even bigger Doppler in the maternity ward so we should try that. I grabbed Jon and went to the room to do that next. Again, Jelly spray, Doppler on my tummy and nothing. Tears started to stream down my face. It didn’t make sense, considering that I just felt the baby not even 20 minutes before the appointment. Then they had to bring in an ultrasound machine. I was about to lose my mind at this point. Once they got the monitor up and going you could see our baby’s enormous head and the littlest heart beating. Apparently our baby decided it was an awesome time to start doing some gymnastics as I’m laying there scared to death on a hospital bed.  All in all everything should be fine. However I’m now really looking forward to our Ultrasound next week.

Now that I’m officially a parent on an emotional roller coaster that will not stop until I’m dead. I figured I stick with the theme and list out the 5 low lights as well as the highlights from this past week. Feel free to make the distinction yourself.

1. I sneezed…again….(if you don’t know what that means then obviously you haven’t been following my blog and you should get on that)
2. I’ve been feeling the baby moves like crazy this week which has been very exciting and terrifying all at the same time.
3. I’ve read an entire book, “Belly Laughs” by Jenny McCarthy and realized that it is basically my blog in book form. I think the biggest thing is that I finished an entire book
4. Meeting all the other mother’s at Centering was nice until I realized that I’m the furthest along out of the entire group and thus will soon be the largest. Yes, that concerns me.
5. Lastly, freaking about my baby not having a heartbeat was probably the worst moment of my life. Followed by a close second of jumping up on the nurse’s scale to see a number I haven’t seen since college (if you are that curious feel free to take a look at my status page). I told the nurse only half kidding that I’d remove my clothes but she only smiled so I didn’t pursue un-dressing completely. Next time, no jewelry.

If peeing in your pants is cool, consider me Miles Davis 

Registering

Registering for your wedding is fairly simplistic compared to registering for your baby. I know because I’ve done both within almost a year of each other. With wedding registries, it’s not fun by any means but at least if you chose the wrong item no one is going to die or be terribly injured. When you look at some of these baby products there are so many to choose from and you want to make sure you are getting the least hazardous item for your baby.

Registering for me is never fun. I’m doing it on the sole reason that my sister and mom have asked me multiple times to do so. Due to the craziness of the past year and a half: I got married, my sister got engaged, I got pregnant, family vacations, sister getting married,  I don’t think I’ll be having a baby shower for this go around. This is fine with me because I thought that meant I didn’t need to register and just cross my fingers that I didn’t get 15 strollers and 8 diaper genies but had a nice array of cute sarcastic onesies from my friends.  Apparently, I still have to register because that’s what pregnant women do. I’m thankful for my friend Lauren (also our wedding photographer) that she has been giving me some very helpful hints of what to register for and what not to. But I was still having a panic attack over what type of bottles, car seats, etc.

My mom and I went for our first round of registering this past weekend. It was a little overwhelming considering I didn’t realize the vast amount of items this baby would need as well as the price tags that go with it! I didn’t register for Tiffany’s rattles or anything but I may as well have because some of this stuff is insane. I’m very grateful that my mom owns a daycare and knows a thing or two about baby products. We walked through both Toys R Us and Babies R Us and found a lot of great stuff. By the end of the day I was physically and mentally drained. And we haven’t even picked up a crib yet! Even though I’ve heard the worst things about Babies’ R Us, I would highly recommend it. You have everything there and they are very helpful. At least the one near West Farms is.

I’m really happy that is one thing that we are more than half way done with as registering for me is right up there with going in to be weighed at the doctor’s office monthly. With that being said, please feel free to go to Babies R Us and judge anything that I registered for and while you are there feel free to send me a gift off of it.

Easter Candy to the Rescue

This past week has been kind of a bummer. Jon and I have not been feeling awesome, One Tree Hill has ended, and I totally peed my pants.. A standard blah kind of a week. However, I’m thinking next week is going to be a little bit better and here are some reasons why.

Top 5 Reasons I’m really excited for next week...

1. We have our next doctor’s appointment on Thursday. Maybe it’s just me but I think the best weeks are the ones in which you know you have a doctor’s appointment because you get to hear your baby’s heartbeat. Nothing makes pregnant women happier. Besides food and massages.
2. At our appointment we get to schedule our ultrasound to find out the sex of our baby! I’m hoping it will be on Friday but if not, early the following week. I’m excited to find out the sex but I’m more excited to actually see the baby. Our first ultrasound provided us with a blob like picture so I’m hoping our baby looks more human then smoke monster this time around.
3. As most of you know I’m a consultant for TD Bank. I’ve been there for awhile and next week I will find out if I will be employed this summer or have to take the longest maternity leave ever before the actual baby is born. There’s both good and bad about it but at least we get to find out one way or another.
4. We are in desperate need of selling our home and next Saturday we have an open house!! So if someone reading this blog would like to buy it so that we could move before I’m utterly useless with my fat self, that would be FANTASTIC!
5. Lastly, since Sunday is part of next week, I’m excited to spend Easter with my family in CT. I anticipate a Cadbury Coma in my near future.

Happy Easter Weekend!!!

Movements, Mishaps and Motherhood

If I wasn’t sure before, I’m completely aware now that my body is no longer my own. I have absolutely zero control of what’s occurring and that drives me a little insane at times. The good news about this is that every day is a surprise whether it is good or bad. I’ve experienced both over the past weekend.

The good news is, is that I’m finally feeling the baby move! It’s hard to tell considering that it is standard for a pregnant women’s body to be just one big gas bubble and your assumption that anything going on from your neck down is probably a gas related issue. But, after reading all the baby books I kind of knew what I needed to look for. So over the weekend I could feel popping in my belly which I knew had to be the baby. This is somewhat terrifying as you can feel the baby moving for a grand total of 5 seconds and then may not feel it again for another day. I never thought being pregnant would be so stressful but it really is. No matter how many times you say to a first time mom “it’s going to be OK” it will not be OK until we get to our next appointment and hear that heartbeat.

On to the mishap that occurred over the weekend. The moment that I truly knew that my body was no longer my own was the moment in which I sneezed and simultaneously peed in my PJ pants. No, not the cute, “oh I laughed so hard with my friends, I peed a little” (This is assuming not only my friends urinate in their pants while laughing) But regardless this was not it. Stunned and mortified, I ran to the home office to tell my husband of the awful and traumatizing moment. He consoled me though made sure not to hug too tight or too closely. I ran and grabbed my phone to call my mom. I will note at this time that I did manage to change my pants in the middle of all of this. After my mom finished laughing at me, she let me know that everything was going to be “OK” and to expect this to happen even more so after the baby is born. On that reassuring note, I was able to calm myself down and get into bed.

There is a saying that women become mothers at conception and men become fathers at birth. I don’t believe that this was true for me. I felt like a mom in the sense that from day one, I’ve been worrying all the time and I want my baby to be healthy, yada yada yada... However, this weekend was the moment in which I felt like an actual mother. I don’t know why, but I do. The fact that it all became very “real” in just a single moment may have done it. Now I feel like I’m actually in the “club”.  It just took a little pee in a pair of snowmen PJ pants to help me to get to that point.