I’m not feeling creative enough to give this a title...

Last night was a very busy night for us. As soon as Steve came in from work, we were out the door to go see Suzy and Tiffany (our midwife and Bradley instructor).

Let me just say...I love our midwife! At first I was a little hesitant about her, because of her absent-minded ways, but Tiffany recently had a home birth with Suzy and said that while she agrees about the absent-mindedness, she is absolutely the best there is. So, I started to think about and reflect on Suzy and realized just how awesome she is and Steve loves her too...which is AWESOME! :-) Suzy doesn’t coerce us into anything we don’t want to do and is probably one of the least judgmental people I have ever met.
Last night, she asked if I wanted to do the glucose test to which I responded, “Not really.” She said that was ok and that I didn’t have to do it if I didn’t want to. She said I’m in great shape, my BP is always amazing, and I have no immediate family history to have any cause for concern. Some people may disagree with my decision to opt out of that, but who wants to spend time chugging down a nasty glucose mix? No thank you!
She is also really cool with the placenta encapsulation and although she has never personally known anyone to do it, she is looking forward to being a part of it. She’s even bringing over her own equipment (pretty much just a dehydrator and food processor) to help us out and Steve is going to do it himself. My husband is pretty amazing, I tell you.

Ok, so our first Bradley class went well. Tiffany has a really bubbly personality and seems very passionate about what she does. She actually reminds me of my friend Ally with all of her happiness and excitement for life. We were at her home for two hours and went over exercises, nutritional information, and just a basic introduction to the course. Steve and I had already read the chapter in our Bradley book about exercise, so that actually went fairly quickly. Not to mention that fact that it helps that I know how to squat already and do a pelvic tilt - thank you yoga! To my pregnant friends out there who aren’t doing Bradley, please get on the pelvic tilt train. It feels ridiculously good! It also looks ridiculously silly, but who cares. Another thing about Tiffany is that she is a military spouse and is able to help guide me through the Tricare system since she just went through the same things that I’m working toward. All in all, I think this is going to be a great class for both Steve and me.

I’m so proud of Steve for being so incredibly supportive thus far. The only disagreement that we’ve had is circumcision and since he’s obviously a boy and Chase is obviously a boy, I’ll let him make that decision. The hard part is jumping through the hoops to get him into the specialist - yes, Chase has to see two or three people here before anything can happen - to get that done. Since we’re opting out of the newborn Vitamin K injection, we’ll have to wait a couple of weeks after he’s born to get it done.

That’s about it for now, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry no pics this week! Mainly because I still look the same as last week and I’m about to leave for a trip to the Chiro. It’s been about a month since I’ve been and I may be a little too excited about today’s visit.
XOXO

23 Weeks!!!

I’m guessing that most people can tell from the title that I am officially 23 weeks today. So far, so good with all aspects of the pregnancy and I really have nothing to really report on. I’ve been getting bigger (obviously) and that’s always a good time. Overall, I feel awesome and am completely over being tired and sick – or sick and tired. Haha! Not funny? Ok. Fine. It’s really not.

Chase has been a lot more active lately and moves around quite a bit. We can even see him from the outside now, but I think he knows when we’re looking – the minute we try to look, he stops. Little jerk. :-)

We set up maternity photos and we’re (I’m) super excited about that. We won’t get those taken up March, so it’ll be quite a while before anyone gets to see them. Also, we signed up for our birthing class – the Bradley Method – and I’m sure Steve is internally excited and just not showing it externally. LOL! We start next week and go for the next three weeks until we leave for Alabama and will pick back up once we return in March.

We’re going to Orlando tomorrow for the rest of the week and it’s a bit of a bummer that I can’t ride any of the roller coasters, but I’m sure we’ll be back again in the future. Friday, we’re headed to Tallahassee for me to FINALLY graduate from Florida State. It only took me almost 12 years to get here, but I’m here and stupid happy.




23 Week Pictures!!! When I’m a little bigger, I’ll do better belly shots.

Here’s info about the Bradley Method, just in case any of my other pregnant friends want to look into it or if any of the family wants to know exactly what’s going on in my crazy head.
http://www.bradleybirth.com/
I tried to make this a link, but I clearly have no clue what I’m doing.

It’s a boy!

So, after much thought, we decided to find out if the Terminator is a boy or a girl. I’m sure some people will give me grief about my decision since I was so anti finding out. There are two major reasons why I chose to go the route of finding out:
1. Pure vanity. The thought of getting green and yellow stuff made me want to puke green and yellow. I would lose it if everything we had were covered in yellow duckies and green frogs. Gag me now.
2. Between my hormones and everything else, I’ve been slightly depressed and not really connected to this whole pregnancy. My thought was that knowing if it was a boy or girl would help me bond with the little guy better. We shall see if that helps.

Another thing that Steve and I have looked into and will 99.9% do is placenta encapsulation. What in the world is that?! Well, it’s just what it sounds like - breaking the placenta down and putting it into little pills. Some people eat theirs, but I don’t think I’m quite on that level yet. I’ve done tons of research on it and it has no negative effects, it helps or it doesn’t. It has many positive aspects to it, one being a combative against post partum depression – something that I’m nervous about considering family history and personal history. This is something that I will also get grief about and people will say I’m gross, but just remember…I don’t/won’t judge your decisions. ☺

Everything has been going well and I feel amazing. By the end of the day, I’m tired, but I would probably be tired if I weren’t pregnant. These kids really know how to drain you.

Our little soccer player’s feet!


Well hello, Chase Benson!

Constipation - my favorite word from the -tion family.

So, I feel like all I do is complain, complain, complain. That’s really not how I want to sound/feel/come off as, so I need to stop doing that and start looking at the awesomeness of this process. I’m manufacturing a little human for goodness sake! What is more incredible than that?

The past few weeks have just flown by and really nothing abnormal has happened. I have been getting bigger (obviously) and my poor little feet and lower back do not like that at all. This is the biggest my gut has ever been, so it’s very interesting to feel this way. This is not a complaint, just a fact of my life. My ankles are swollen by the end of the day, but I’m pretty sure that’s because I stand all day. In the morning, the swelling is completely gone, but then the whole process starts back over. Oh well. No biggie.

After a lot of tears and internal battles, I do believe I have finally over came my obsession with remaining skinny and I am embracing my little belly. It’s so strange, the whole process. The scale has only gone up four or five pounds, but I look like I’ve swallowed a cow. I guess this goes to show just how much 10 or 15 lbs is when people are overweight.

My next midwife appointment is this week on the 9th and I’m looking forward to hearing the little guy’s (or girl’s) heartbeat again.

Ohhhhhhhh!!! I’ve felt the baby kick a couple of times starting a day or two ago. I was staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep, with my hand on my belly...and bam! I felt a little kick. At first, I didn't think it was anything, but then I felt it again. And again. I almost woke Steve up, but I knew that by the time he figured out where he was it would be over. Every since then, I've been feeling the little guy a few times a day. I think. Pretty positive. I've been feeling him swim around for a few weeks, but no actual kicking.

Here’s some pics, as promised.
18 weeks!




And a little something to make me feel better. LOL! This is two or three months before I found out about the Terminator.

I’ll probably start posting a little more often, since I keep getting more grande by the minute.

A big congratulations to my two girlfriends from back in NC, Shandi and Leann, who are expecting in May. Yah!!! Such an exciting time for everyone. :-)

Hello 2nd Trimester!

Well, it’s been three weeks since my last post...still not a whole lot to report on. I’ll be 15 weeks tomorrow and I feel pretty decent.

My only complaint is that I get these super awful cramps after I eat. Every stinkin’ time! It is seriously making me doubt my ability to handle pain later down the road. I mean, these cramps are terrible. They only last for about 15 minutes and come in waves during said 15 minutes, but geeeeez!!!

A few of my friends have been asking for pictures, but honestly there’s not a whole lot to show. I just look fat. I’m posting a picture anyway, but I’m slightly embarrassed by how fat/bloated I look now compared to how I looked several weeks ago. Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m pregnant. That’s why I’m a chunkster right now, but I can complain. :-)

Here’s my awful 15 week picture. I’ll be sure to do something to my hair and face for next weeks picture. I guess I’ll start taking pictures once a week now, but I probably won’t post them every week. I think it will be pretty rad to see all the pics side by side in the end.


So, I look chunky, right? I keep telling Steve, “At least I still have skinny ankles” to which he replies, “And wrists!” I can’t button most of my jeans anymore and this caused a huge melt down a couple of weeks ago. When I look in the mirror, I don’t see baby, I see fat girl. This is one of the biggest battles that I am fighting with myself right now.

12 weeks tomorrow!!

Or something like that. I’m terrible with dates.

Not a whole lot has been going on lately. We did have an appointment with the midwife this past Friday and heard the heartbeat again. It’s starting to become a little more real now, so that’s a bonus. Another bonus is that I feel pretty awesome. I don’t really feel anymore nausea and I’m not nearly as tired as I was a few weeks ago.

I’ll probably take a little while off from posting unless something noteworthy happens. I think once a week is a bit much to just say nothing is going on. In another few weeks, I’ll start posting pics of myself. Right now, I still look the same and I’ve even lost a few pounds. I attribute that to the fact that I chase 1st graders around all day, so I guess those little clowns are a blessing.

First big purchase for the Terminator:



What do you think? It’s a co-sleeper and attaches to the bed. It’s also portable and turns into all sorts of other things, so I thought it was pretty rad. It’s also not a million dollars and Steve thinks THAT is rad. Here’s a YouTube video about it in case anyone cares:


I pretty much just wanted to use my newly acquired skizz-als of how to embed a picture and video into the blog. Haha!

Drugs are bad, ummK...

A couple of days ago, I was driving home from school, thinking about how much I absolutely love first graders (insert sarcasm), and I realized something. I have zero mama skills. Or my maternal instinct is broken. Obviously, this is more in jest than truth, but I’ve been having a lot of trouble with these kids. They legit make me want to jump off a bridge (not really, calm down). Some of the things that they say are just awesomely ridiculous. And not necessarily in a good way either.

Anyway, moving away from that. Last week, I began freaking out (yes, I realize this is starting to become a pattern) about the loss of symptoms. I woke up one day and I felt great. Ready to conquer the world! I knew that eventually everything was supposed to even out hormonal wise, but so soon? Was I not prepared to feel relatively normal again? What kind of masochist am I? Apparently one who likes to feel sick and tired all day.
Point is, Suzy gave me three options: do blood work again (which would take forever, since you have to do two draws), get an ultrasound, or calm down and trust that everything is a-ok. Let’s just stay Steve gave me a little bit of a hard time about wanting an U/S when I was so indifferent (pretty much against) them. So, I got the stinkin’ U/S and I feel great about it. Hopefully this will alleviate my worries - for now - and I’ll start to actually calm the F down. Terminator was hanging out in there and wiggling around like crazy and his/her little heart was going at about 175bpm. Steve and I were really in awe of the whole thing. Crazy Terminator.

Then....a few days later, sickness returns with a vengeance. I guess I asked for it. Oh well. I really need to A. Stop freaking out and B. Well, I don’t really have a B...but if you have an A, you have to have a B. Whatever. It probably didn’t help that I had a cold, but I’m pretty much back to normal now. I need  motivation to get over this lazy slump that I’ve been in, but the minute I get home from school, I have no desire to do much of anything. I’m working on it though. I had an awesome night of yoga last night, I came home tonight and put dinner in the oven, cleaned, and meal planned for grocery shopping tomorrow. Well, now that I have rambled on about crap that no one really cares about...let’s take a look at Terminator!


Yah! I figured out how to upload stuff. Now things are really serious. Probably not. I don’t know what I’m even saying at this point. I honestly just want to eat and go to sleep. Oh, but I can’t eat! Because I sat the timer for 30 minutes only to take the chicken out and realize that I never turned the freakin’ oven on. AWESOMEDFKGJDLFKGJREOTUGFGJ!!! Punching baby seals right now!

It was the best of times...

well, it’s not really the worst of times. I’ll just leave it at that. Pop quiz, what is the origin of that quote? It is but a small part of a major opening line...moving on.

There really isn’t anything to speak of currently. We did have our first official appointment with our midwife on August 26th and that went really well. She just addressed any concerns that I had and we talked for about an hour. Next appointment is September 23rd and we’ll supposedly be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat. I’m still torn between the use of a doppler and an old fashioned fetoscope (pretty much a stethoscope). Maybe use the doppler for September’s appointment and switch to the fetoscope thereafter. I have a few weeks to think about it, but it would be nice to hear the heartbeat (or have Suzy hear the heartbeat).

We’ve started our cloth diaper collection and let me tell you, it is difficult to not buy all the super cute girly ones. I will admit that I did buy two girly one, but I figure if we have a boy then we can just make sure his bottom is covered and no one has to know that he’s wearing Hello Kitty. Steve just shakes his head at this. :-) I also hope that out of the two kids we plan on having that one will be a girl. Fingers crossed.

I haven’t had any terrible symptoms and I’ve still only blown chunks once. I do feel nauseous a bit, but that’s really no big deal. Everyday at school, we do the Pledge followed by the National Anthem and I legit thought things were about to get ugly while I was singing today. I was lucky though and held it together. I don’t think the kids would have let it go if I would have puked during the National Anthem. All in all, everything is going pleasantly well. Symptoms = good = lets me know that everything is ok.

On an unrelated note, GO TIGERS!

6 weeks today! +/- a day

I left you guys last time with my fears of a low hCG count and all sorts of semi-irrational thoughts, but I’m happy to report that I was a spaz for nothing. I went from an 840 count to just under 3400 in 72 hours. Yah!! Not to mention the fact that shortly afterwards, I finally started getting some indications that there may be some brewing going on with the little Terminator. While I have managed to only blow chunks once (yesterday), I have been nauseous for the past few days. No complaints though, I’m excited to feel something going on. :-) I mainly get nauseous when I’m driving, (MY DRIVING, not Steve's) which is really no surprise since I’m a terrible driver. 

Steve and I have already been looking into baby gear and I have to show some sort of restraint and not buy everything I see. We’re still up in the air about whether or not we’ll find out the babies sex or if we’ll even get an ultra sound. Since I’m with a midwife, I’d have to figure out how to get to a facility to get said ultra sound. I don’t know. Seems like a lot of unnecessary work to just satisfy a personal urge with no real medical reason to do it (unless something happened and it became medically necessary). However comma...the thought of getting green and yellow crap makes me want to vomit. I suppose I can just get the bare minimum and get whatever else later. Steve and I were joking that we would have two Amazon carts, one for a boy and one for a girl. As I have the baby, he’ll just run downstairs to the computer and buy the appropriate cart. Sounds feasible. Haha!

We did pick a crib out that we like - Arms Reach - it looks like an awesome co-sleeper, so I can keep the little guy next to me at night. 

Question for all my mama friends: did you buy one or two car seats? 

I really don’t have much to talk about at this point. I just don’t want to fall off the wagon and not write weekly or I’ll forget about this and never do it. Time to get ready for yoga! 

Should be sleepin'...

but instead I'm creepin'. What does that even mean? Who knows.

So, the last few days have been pretty worrisome for me. Overall, I feel like the normal champion that I am, but I've been having some mild to moderate cramping. My friend Wendy (XOXO) said not to worry and that it's normal, but I am a spazoid and went to the clinic to get my hCG level checked. I was at an 840, which apparently isn’t bad or good. I don’t know. She said that she can’t really tell anything until I go back in on Thursday (gotta wait 48 hours) for another draw to see if I’m making adequate gains. Talk about being stressed the bad word out!

To top it all off I am so stressed and freaked out, I comforted myself by eating Burger King for lunch. Gross. I don’t even like BK (or any fast food really…but it was there and I thought I needed it – I did NOT need it though, I just felt nasty afterwards. Nothing says greasy, fat, pig like the BK).

After that fiasco, I spoke with Tricare about this whole homebirth thing. While the ladies that work in Tricare are super helpful and want to do everything in their power to make things go smoothly, they did not know how to handle me. They said I was a rarity. So. New(ish) plan of action: gotta switch to Tricare Standard. I’m not 100% sure how the payment and all that fun stuff will work, but we’ll figure it out. My appointment with my midwife (Suzy) is on Wednesday evening and she has experience working with Tricare, so I’m sure she’ll have some advice about what to do. 

Final run down: Wednesday -  meeting with Suzy. Thursday - 2nd draw to check hCG level and a required OB orientation on base. 

I don’t want to speak too soon about this blog, but I may actually be able to keep up with it. It’s an outlet for me to talk about all the baby stuff I want and no one has to listen to me. You can quit reading anytime you want! Magic! 

I'm with child!

Hello boys and girls!
Let me preface this entire blog by saying - if you are easily offended, then you should probably stop reading right here. I will more than likely make you angry at some point or another if you choose to continue reading. Don't say I didn't warn you. Moving on...

Ok, so I'm almost five weeks pregnant. Yah! I'm still in complete and total shock and most of the time I've convinced myself that it's not real and there was a crazy mix up at the lab. Hey, it's military doctors. It could happen. As of right now, I feel pretty much the same as I did a week ago. Give or take a little bit of sore boobs. :-)

SN: I'm really hesitant to tell too many people about this in the event that the Terminator doesn't stick. Like legit freaking out. It's easier to untell a few people versus everyone under the sun. However, with that being said, I just can't help myself! I have a problem!

I had already given some thought to the birth process and what type of person I would be willing to work with during this awesome time. I've decided to go with a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) and do a  home birth. Steve is on board with this, it has been fully discussed, and if you feel the need to judge our decisions - please keep it to yourself. Or talk about us (me) behind our (my) back. I don't really care, just leave us alone about it. Along with that comes a whole slew of other decisions that have been made and it's already caused some issues with my wonderful, 'o so supportive mother. We'll save that for next weeks blog or something. Gotta have something to write about later, you know?

With that, I will leave you until next week. I am pretty much a failure of a blogger, so we'll see how long I actually last with this. I have every intention on posting once a week and I'll start including pictures once something actually happens. By the way, how do I include pictures in this thing?! I'm pretty dumb...but if you're my friend, you already know that.

Until next time....