19 Weeks, 2 Days... or 21 weeks??

I had another check up yesterday, and hubby got to go with me for the first time.  :)  It was just a quick appointment, but I was happy that he could meet my doctor.  He seemed to like him, and asked him some good questions.  It was so nice to have him there next to me.  Soooooo nice.  Everything went well.  Doc said my uterus is measuring at 21 weeks.  21 weeks?!  That scares me!  That means Harper could be here in September instead of October.  Holy cow.  It's almost June.  Holy cow.  I've gained four pounds since my last appointment.  A pound a week.  I hope to hell that doesn't continue the rest of the pregnancy.  That's 20 more pounds.  NO.  WAY.

The doctor has always had me at a week ahead of what I calculated myself at, based on the first day of my last period.  I always just go by what I calculate.  So according to me, I am 19 weeks, 2 days today.  According to him, I'm 20 weeks, 2 days today.  And according to him yesterday, I'm measuring at 21 weeks.  Holy cow.  Again.

I've been craving a Caesar salad since the day I found out I was pregnant and couldn't eat them anymore because of the raw eggs in the dressing.  I asked the doc if I could eat them, and he said YES.  Music to my ears.  He said I eat a lot worse things everyday than a Caesar salad (fast food, ahem).  So hopefully I'll get my Caesar tonight somewhere.  He said as long as it's not homemade dressing we're good, and most restaurants and stuff you buy in the store is OK and not homemade.

Hubby asked him about which hospital he prefers to deliver at and why.  We have two options.  Hubby was leaning more towards the hospital the doc doesn't like, but after our discussion yesterday, he changed his mind.  Doc gave us a list of why the hospital we were going to pick is not a good one, namely because their nurses are morons and inexperienced and shitty (at least that's what I took from the convo).  So we'll be going with the other hospital at doc's recommendation.  It's the same distance from our house as the other one (5 miles away), so it isn't a big deal.  I think we'll take a tour the next time my hubby is home to check it out and get a feel for it.

What else...?  OH we left the appointment and went and bought a crib!  It's beautiful!

We bought it from the same store where we bought our glider and ottoman when I was about 8 weeks pregnant long, long ago.  It's a cute little boutique that sells really nice, high quality stuff.  We've been debating about a crib for a few weeks now, and it's such a huge relief to have one and know we don't have to look for one anymore.  Of course now we need to get a dresser and side table, but I'm sure we won't have any issues finding those (hopefully, at least).  We bought the bedding for the crib the night before from Pottery Barn Kids.

Is that not just precious?  My hubby picked it out.  :)  He is such a dream and knows my style to a T.  I'm not going with a traditional nursery bedding set.  We bought the bumpers, skirt and fitted sheet.  I'm going to make Harper a quilt to go on the bed, and I am going to do the wall decor myself, too.  Our glider will go beautifully with this style and color scheme, and it really gives me the chance to play up different colors and patterns with everything else.  The quilt I make will go with the wall decor I choose to make, too.  It will all be tied in.  And the art work we purchased for the walls will look beautiful with this, too.  We purchased three pieces in New Orleans over the weekend after we found out Harper was a girl.  Seriously, this is going to be such a chic nursery.  I'm going to want to sleep there (and probably will be doing so for the next year or so).

Things are winding down for me here at work.  I have two weeks left tomorrow.  Wow.  Time has FLOWN by since I quit in January.  I quit before I knew we were expecting (I may have been a few hours preggo at that point), because we decided to build a house an hour east of here.  It all worked out when I found out we were pregnant.  But I didn't expect time to go this quickly, to literally fly by.  That means the first half of my pregnancy has gone in the blink of an eye and now I'm on to the last half.  It's going too fast!  I'm trying to just take it in day by day, but it seems to be skipping ahead week by week.

I'm still squeezing into my favorite pair of jeans.  My work pants don't fit me anymore, and I've basically checked out of my job anyway, so I'm wearing jeans everyday to work and flip flops.  It's not that I don't care.  It's that I don't give a shit.  My life is about to consist of yoga pants, organizing our new house, putting together the most fabulous nursery on the planet, and hopefully teaching myself to cook so my hubby and I don't starve to death.  I'm trying to convince him to send me to a cooking class.  He is NOT buying that one.

Preparations have started for my Ohio baby shower.  My best friend up there is throwing it for me.  I have the guest list, which is way too long and needs to be paired down a lot.  I have a lot of people invited simply to make others happy, and that's not how it should be.  So the chopping block will be coming today when I have a chance to look and see who should be included based on what I want.  This is NOT gonna make some people happy.  Oh well.  My baby.  My shower.  MY decisions.

Sometimes it's fun being an adult.  :)

It's a...

GIRL!

:)

I've been saying all along it was a boy.  I had a dream it was a boy.  My husband had a dream it was a boy.  I had a gut feeling it was a boy.  Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Back when we had a "Sneak Peek" ultrasound 4 weeks ago, the tech said that she "thought" it was a girl but since there was so much swelling she couldn't be for certain, so I took what she said with a grain of salt.  When I laid down and she put the belly wand on me she said she knew instantly what the baby was, but was trying to get a good view for us.  I told her that 4 weeks before she told us she thought it was a girl, and she said "Well, I'm pretty good then if I told you that at 14 weeks."  :)  I cried.  I squealed like a pig in mud.  I didn't care what the baby was, just as long as it's healthy and happy.  But to hear that it's a girl... I've always dreamt of having a little girl of my own to spoil, dress up, play with, and love unconditionally forever and ever.  I grew up with sisters.  I helped raise one.  I have a special connection with girls.  I know how to deal with them, how to handle their quirks.  I have no doubt in my mind that I would have been just as fabulous a mother to a little boy as a little girl, but deep down I wanted this baby girl.  :)  We are SO very blessed.

My hubby, on the other hand, was disappointed, I think.  He wanted that first boy, that little one that he could play video games with, bond over Star Wars and comic books.  I told him he can still do that with our baby girl.  :)  I know he's going to be the best daddy to this precious little girl.  I can just picture him with her and it melts my heart, just the thought of it.  I'm going to be a total mess when this little girl comes into our lives and I see him with her.

Harper Annmarie Bell.  That's our baby girl.  We love the name Harper, and Annmarie is a combination of my grandma and mom's middle names (Ann) and my middle name (Marie).  We both loved the name and thought it sounded pretty.  And from the sounds of it, everyone else loves it, too.  Not that I care, really.  :)

So we started spoiling her this weekend.  30 minutes after we knew we went shopping.  Clothes, bows, stuffed animals, socks, shoes, books, bibs, precious dresses with ruffles... we got it all.  Lord help us and all of the stuff we're buying.

So my next actual doctor's appointment is tomorrow at 1:10, and my hubby gets to go to this one.  :)  I'm so excited.  It's the first one he's been able to make since he's been working so much.  The appointment probably won't consist of much, but I'm excited because he'll get to meet the doctor and tell me what he thinks of him.  There's something about this doctor that I just can't pinpoint.  I know he's a good guy, he delivered my cousin's baby, but I just feel like he doesn't take my concerns into consideration.  It will be nice for my hubby to meet him and give me his opinion.

Harper Annmarie Bell.  (I can't stop saying her name...)

18 weeks 2 days... it's been awhile

Well it's been awhile.  Quite awhile... since my last post.  I'm ashamed but things have gotten crazy at work.  I've been training my replacement (my sister) since April 30, so there hasn't been much free time at the office to work on my blog.  So here goes a recap.

I think I've had one appointment since then.  It wasn't my favorite appointment.  I thought the doc would do an ultrasound and maybe tell me the sex of the baby.  Instead he told me I wouldn't have another ultrasound until Week 26 with him.  When his dumb ass nurse told me this, I naively asked "how will I find out the sex of our baby?" and she told me that my doctor doesn't like to know the sex, therefore, we wouldn't know either.  Hmm.  Well, stupid nurse and equally stupid doctor, this is MY baby, not yours.  She told me I could go somewhere and pay to find out.  You're damn straight I will.  When the doc came in I made it very apparent that I was NOT a happy pregnant woman, and he decided to tell me a story where his wife was pregnant and her doctor told him the sex (but not her), and when the baby came out it was a different sex.  Now, doctor, this was 30+ years ago, and modern medicine has come a long way since then, but whatever you have to tell yourself to keep from doing more work with your patients is fine by me.  Whatever makes you sleep better at night.

So long story short, my hubby is home from work this weekend, and we are going to New Orleans to the place that did our little "first glimpse" ultrasound on Saturday to see if they can tell us the sex.  I hope they can.  We are so excited to find out, and not knowing is eating away at us.  We can't properly shop until we know, and that's driving me nuts.  I went to the Carter's outlet on Saturday and very nearly bought boy AND girl clothes.  The temptation is there.  We just want to know!  We have names picked out and everything (that's how much of a planner I am... I would NEVER be able to wait until after the birth to name our baby, that's just stupid).  So, if we have a baby girl, her name will be Harper Annmarie Bell.  We both love the name Harper, and Annmarie is a combination of my favorite, sweetest grandmother's middle name and my mom's middle name (Ann) with my middle name (Marie).  I think it sounds so beautiful and southern and precious.  And if it's a boy, we're carrying on the Bell name and will have a Robert Neil Bell IV.  I love carrying on my hubby's name.  I have some people that don't agree with it and want us to be "original," but news flash: this is OUR baby, not yours, and I will not hesitate to put you in your place and tell you to suck it.  It leaves a warm fuzzy feeling inside to think that we will have a 4th generation of Bobby Bell's, and I love it.  Just love it.  :)

So in the past four weeks I've been feeling really great, just pretty tired still.  My appetite is back in full force and nothing is off limits anymore.  Everything (but bananas) sounds good.  And I finally started gaining some weight, probably because I stopped listening to my doctor telling me to cut out all sweets and good foods, and I've just been indulging in what I feel like.  I did cut out all pop and most desserts, and I feel like that should suffice.  I kind of feel like he was training to use a scare tactic on me, threatening me with a c-section if the baby was too big.  But I won't let him scare me.  I have to trust that everything will be OK and we will hopefully have a epidural-loving vaginal birth.

Speaking of birth, I tried to talk my hubby into hiring a doula.  This nice southern boy wasn't falling for that hippie shit.  Oh well, I tried.  :)

I've been thinking a lot about nursing and child birth.  I wish I could stop.  Hell, I'm still 22 weeks from delivery (if we go full term, I guess).  I've really been enjoying this part of the pregnancy and I'm loving the expanding belly and all the happiness that comes from a new life growing inside of you (especially the increase in sex drive, which is absolutely bananas).  But as I get bigger and closer to the big event, I get realyl terrified.  These first 14 weeks since we found out have literally flown by.  If these next week go just as fast, we will have a baby before we know it.  I just want it to slow down.  It's going too fast.  I think the thought of everything changing really scares me.  There is so much going on in our lives right now.  I am done working in less than 22 days.  Our new house is very nearly finished and we are working on mortgage stuff right now.  Then the baby.  It's a lot to take in.

Just gotta remember to breathe.  Like my hubby said, one thing at a time.  House, then baby.  Easier said than done.

I felt the baby move for the first time two weeks ago, right at 16 weeks.  I was walking to my car at lunchtime and had to grab unto the hood of the car to keep from falling over.  It felt weird, like jello moving around in my belly.  To be honest it scared the hell out of me.  But then I thought about it and thought "that has to be the baby, or else my internal organs are shifting in a way they probably shouldn't be."  It was soooo neat and immediately gave me a high that I can't describe.  I've felt some movement ever since then, but nothing like that first little jump in the uterine trampoline.  I'm hoping I'll feel more as the weeks progress.

I celebrated my first Mother's Day as a momma-to-be two weeks ago, May 13.  Hubby was working but he bought me cards before he left and had them on the table for me to open.  One from him, and one from baby.  It was the sweetest thing ever.  I kept them (and all the other cards I got from people) in the pregnancy journal book my mother-in-law bought me.  I love keeping track of things like that.  Here I am on Mother's Day, before meeting the family for lunch...

So I am 16 weeks, 5 days there.  That's one of the maternity dresses I bought.  My hubby bought me a bunch of maternity clothes for Mother's Day from Motherhood Maternity, and then I also went on a little shopping spree for myself and bought a bunch more from there, too.  Clothes just don't fit anymore.  Maybe it's those 5 pounds I gained and that protruding belly out front.  I love it.  Love it, love it, love it.  I need to get a bathing suit, though.  I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time in the pool this summer.  There's one by my in-laws and one at the baby's fairy godfather's house.  So I guess I can take my pick.

So I guess that's about it.  A lot of nothing but a lot of somethings.  This weekend should be the big weekend.  Once we know what the baby is all bets are off.  The shopping will BEGIN.  And we can start calling the baby by it's name instead of all these pet names we have for it.

Finally.

14 Weeks! 2nd Trimester!

I forgot to post this picture of my 13 week board last week...

Me being weepy was an understatement.  I think my hubby inadvertantly made me cry 3 or 4 times over the weekend.  He wasn't being mean.  He just didn't say the right thing, apparently.  :)  I cry at the drop of a hat nowadays.  Everything rubs me the wrong way.  I felt so bad every time I cried, but I just couldn't help it.  You can't stop the waterworks when they start.  Add to that some very unnecessary family drama going on, and I've been a total mess.  There is a particular person that I unfortunately have to associate with, but I've had it.  You try and try and try to make a relationship with someone that is just not the kind of person you want to associate with, and eventually you give up.  I have given up.  There was all of this drama going on on stupid FB that forced me to defend my sister (which I will ALWAYS do, no matter what), and it eventually ended with me texting said person that I appreciate her and her family for what they do, and I didn't get a response.  That's OK.  Proves the maturity level of this person.  I can't tell you how many times I've apologized or tried to explain myself or make things right, but get nothing in return.  Like my hubby said, he realized a long time ago that you can only be shit on so many times before you just deal with it, distance yourself, and don't trust this person.  My life is simpler now and less stressed, but it's sad.  Oh well.  I need to eliminate stress and unnecessary bull shit out of my life, for our baby's sake, and I have done so.  I will be civil around said person, but like my hubby says, the only people that matter are us, the baby and Fritz.  I love that man.  He is my sanity.

Sigh of relief.

So hubby is back to work now.  He was home for a few days and it was wonderful (with the exception of my emotional crying fits, sorry hubby).  We went to an outside source Saturday for an ultrasound.  The first one hubby got to see.  It was amazing.  After fighting torrential rains to get to Nola early Saturday, we made it and got to hear baby's heartbeat (156 BPM!) and see Le Petite Bebe just a bouncing around in there.  Bebe even waved to us, saying hi to daddy for the first time.  Bebe even kicked back and laid around.  The tech said bebe was so active because I hadn't eaten.  Don't worry, I engorged myself in Juan's Flying Burrito shortly thereafter and bebe was very happy.  We went to the French Quarter and picked up bebe's first present from daddy, a giant, soft, fluffy alligator and a book for the nursery library.  We did a lot of house finalization stuff that needed completed, so it looks like we just have to sit back and wait for it to be done at this point.  Another sigh of relief.  :)

So now we are 14 weeks!

Hubby put his artistic skills to the test and drew his work place.  :)  2nd trimester.  The first really flew by.  I think I'm finally getting some energy back, but it's hard to say.

My sister is moving down south today!  She is actually taking my place at my job, so she starts training with me Monday.  I have so much to do here to get ready for that.  Wish I hadn't procrastinated so much.  That my mode of operation, though.  Wait til the last minute.  I'll probably have to come in this weekend to finish up the training stuff.  I do so much on a daily basis that it's hard to pinpoint everything and put it into writing.  Luckily I had a manual to work off of, but I do a lot more now than I did when I originally started.  She'll be shacking up with us until she gets her own place (hopefully soon lol).

I still haven't gained any weight yet, which has me kind of wondering.  I started eating better because of my sugar, but I've been slacking on that.  I feel like I should be gaining some kind of weight.  I know my belly is getting bigger because the one pair of jeans I wear do the roll over maneuver.  I may pop by the maternity store this weekend to pick up some jeans.  I have maternity capris, but I need something to wear to the office that isn't capris.  I got a really cute maternity dress from Target last week that is going to be a God send this summer in this south Louisiana heat.

My next appointment is next Wednesday... maybe I'll talk to the doc about not gaining weight.  I'm sure the minute I mention it I'll put on 20 pounds.  :X

13 weeks!

13 weeks... so crazy.  Seems like just yesterday I peed on a stick and it changed our lives forever.

Things are going really well.  I'm not sick anymore (!), which is fabulous.  I'm still really tired, been asleep before 9 every night.  I'm sooooo sick of hearing people say "sleep while you can!"  Yeah, I get it, sleep is flighty, at best, when the baby comes.  I'm not stupid.

Oh yeah.  I'm still a raging bitch.  Maybe more so than before.  Thanks hormones.

Hubby finally gets home tomorrow after being gone 25 days.  That is a l o n g damn time when you're pregnant, emotional, mad, sad, happy, bitchy, sick, tired.  I'm so ready to see him.  We're going to celebrate our 2nd anniversary while he's home, since he'll miss it and be gone for it this year (April 30).  Hopefully the next time he comes home we can find out the sex of the baby!

The cat is out of the bag at work now.  Everyone knows I'm leaving (an e-mail was sent out), my replacement (my sister!) begins training April 30, and I'm outta here June 15.  Looks like I'll still be tied to this place after I leave, doing some recruiting from home, but I'm good with that.  Extra money, and it will give me something to do between now and baby time.  Everyone is really happy for us, with building the house, moving, and having the bebe.  I think a few of the guys here almost cried when they came to talk to me about leaving.  Kind of funny and sad.

I made this really cute dress over the weekend to accomodate an expanding belly.  It makes my rack look HUGE (although a full coverage hooded sweatshirt does, too), but it turned out pretty cute.  It's long and flowy and makes me look like a whale, but I love the fabric and colors, and I'm pregnant, so I don't care.

This past weekend, besides sewing, was full of activities.  Most weekends lately have been comprised of sleeping, napping, taking the pup to the dog park, and sleeping some more, so this was a nice change.  Went to a little birthday party on Saturday and had a much needed girls night out with some fabulous friends.  Three hours later I was totally falling asleep at the table of the restaurant (along with another preggo friend).  10pm is like 4am to me.  I met up with some family on Sunday and went to the Strawberry Festival over in Ponchatoula.  It was very fun, but a little warm and after indulging in fried food, a giant lemonade, and some shopping, I was overheated and sick.  :x  Baby was ready to go home and take a nap!  (and throw up a little bit, I hadn't eaten much sugar or fried foods lately because of my blood sugar, so my body was on crappy food overdrive, I guess...)

12 weeks, 3 days

Chalkboard Countdown

How cute is this?



I've seen these little countdowns all over Pinterest so I had to do one, too.  I think it's so cute.  Hubby ordered these great chalkboard wet markers from Amazon and they worked out awesome.  Love, love, love it!