Loves her babies

Summer really loves her baby dolls. I was not a little girl who played with baby dolls, at least not that I remember, but Summer ... she loves her babies.

26 Weeks

I know I need to take a real picture but look at that belly, well look at how small my feet look. And I am wearing socks because my heals are extremely dry - thanks to the lovely Las Vegas humidity, or lack thereof. So what can I complain about this week?

Actually besides last night I have been feeling pretty darn good. My energy level seems to be up some and I haven't had any complaints, except for last night. I think at most I slept two hours before waking to annoying leg or foot cramps. I went to bed at 9:30, got up at 10:00, walked around, back to bed, up at 11:00, 1:00, 2:00, 3:00, 4:40, and finally up for good at 7:00. Today I took a vitamin and I am trying to drink a lot of water in hopes that the leg cramps go away. I didn't really walk a lot yesterday either so I am not sure why I have them. I eat decent and I take vitamins too ...

You would think that I would be exhausted but so far I seem to have good energy. Of course the day has only started, who knows how it will end up, for now I am staying positive and I hope I can get my house clean. I am on my second load of laundry, I have cleaned my bathroom toilet, I did the dishes, I want to do sheets and maybe do more in my bathroom, I want to paint some shirts today and water the flowers out front. I think I can do it.

I am going to have a baby shower on October 1st thanks to my friends. I knew I would be having one, even though I don't need a lot because my friends and I are very big into having parties and if we find a reason to have a party all the better. Once they found out I was pregnant they already began planning this baby shower. I am - scared. Even though this baby is very much alive, very much moves around all day, in fact 4 of my friends felt her kicking and punching yesterday because she was squirming around for over an hour, I still can't imagine having another baby in 3 months. It still doesn't seem real, or it still seems like something bad could happen. Regardless I am enjoying the pregnancy as much as I can, she has a name, mostly, I call her Cora right now. I was talking to her the other day as she kicked around asking her if she was kicking me here and there but I guess until the very end I will probably have my doubt. I do have to go register, and I will need a lot of stuff, little stuff, sheets, clothes, towels, bibs, things like that, but it is really hard making myself do it, because of all the what ifs. What do you do after a shower if you lose a baby, do you give all the gifts back somehow? I don't really dwell on it a lot, or I try not, I will wait until September and go register somewhere I guess.

Can you believe I am having another baby?

Nothing Much

It has been awhile, I guess because nothing is happening, which is a good thing and it isn't. I am starting to wonder how I look to other people because I get asked "how are you doing?" in a concerned voice a lot lately. I either look bad or I complain a lot. Lately I haven't had much to actually complain about, I feel pretty normal, my only issue is how tired I am but I wonder if it has to do with the amount of sleep I am getting, probably more than I actually need. Summer ended up with a fever two days ago but it really only lasted the night and was gone so that is a good thing. I have been experimenting with meals and they are turning out good, tonight I am trying a enchilada soup that is easy, of course these meals are probably better suited for the fall/winter but whatever. I have started reading again, I finished another book (in my 12 series) and will start another today. I took a bunch of pictures a few days ago. Hmmm could that be any more random? I guess we are all just waiting for the weather to cool down a little bit, even tho that isn't going to happen for awhile, one can continue to wait, indoors, in the air. And I was never one to complain about the heat.

Uneventful Appointment

Yesterday morning I had an uneventful appointment. It was just a 4 week check-up and haven't had any issues. The nurse first took my vitals, my blood pressure was 10ish over 60ish, which seems rather low to me but no one else was concerned. My pulse was 80 and my temperature was 98ish. Then the nurse measured my stomach - I guess it measured correctly. She found the heartbeat of 156 after the baby kicked the monitor away twice. Then I saw the doctor, he asked if I had concerns, I do not, so I go back in 4 weeks to see him again. Actually I go back in 3 weeks to do the glucose test - joy. I also found out that I will be going in twice a week when I reach 37 weeks to have the baby monitored. It isn't hard it is just a pain driving all the way across town to do it. I guess it could be worse.

I am starting to get a lot of heartburn and last night I had horrible feet and toe cramps. I drank a lot of water yesterday and didn't do much walking so I am not sure where they came from. Oh well it figures I guess. Just taking it day by day now.

24 Weeks

24 Weeks


Look how happy I look in that first picture! I can't even believe I took it because I had on no makeup, my hair was pulled back in my normal style (which is not really a style), I had on some of my oldest pants that really should be thrown away because they are wearing out. Yet look at that round belly, isn't it just darling? Ok maybe not that cute but do you see a stretch mark? Nope. Do you see a belly button popped out - well almost. I guess my biggest complaint this week, and yes I have many but we can just talk about my major one, is the comfort. I have come to realize that I hunch over a lot. This does not allow my stomach to have enough room, therefore causing me discomfort. I am trying to work on sitting up straight. It is even worse when I drink or eat a lot of food where I almost have no room to function. But there is a silver lining to this cloud, I only have -16 more weeks right?

In other news, Summer is amazing. She let me take my new favorite photo of her this past week.


Look at how stinking cute she is! The plan was to get a dirty photo so we took a bunch of brown eye shadow and rubbed it randomly around her face. Then I saw the hat and coat and thought .... ya! She was making the cutest faces trying to get a "dirty" look. I am going to get this printed - I am just not sure how yet, canvas or regular or AH decisions.

Vacation

California. Huntington Beach. Aquarium of the Pacific. Disneyland. We did it all, three days of fast fun. I will share a bunch of pictures and sum up my thoughts, good and bad, on each section of our trip.

Huntington Beach: Cold, Windy, Dirty, a lot of walking, humid, but overall we made it work. Does that sound like a complaint? As we were sitting on the beach we asked ourselves, why do we do this again? I think we might go to a nice hotel with a nice pool next year :o) Don't get me wrong, we had a nice time, Summer really enjoyed the waves, eventually, but I hate being cold, I hate cold water, I hate wind, I am not good with the sun, I hate being dirty/sandy ... you get the idea.





Aquarium of the Pacific. No complaints here, we needed something to do in the morning while it was still cold and overcast at the beach so we killed the morning and had a pretty good time. Afterward we had lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, which just seemed right.




Disneyland. Overcrowded, a lot of walking, more walking, hot afternoon, but really how can we complain, Summer had a blast! She got to meet 5 princesses and a prince and a few other characters. We went to our hotel during the hot afternoon and hung out and swam then we headed back to the park in the evening to ride a few more rides. If you can believe her favorite ride was the roller coaster! It was fun, just a long day. The day we left we first had breakfast at Goofy's Kitchen and that, while very expensive, was so worth it. Summer got to eat with Balou, Chip, Dale, Aladdan, Pluto, Goofy, she really enjoyed seeing them all.





So that sums up our trip, it was nice but hard for us old timers :o)

I am DONE!

Once again I am reminded how each pregnancy can be very different. Yesterday I had a very busy day, I ran 3 errands (bank, bank, post office) before 10, taught a toddler dance class, went to the gym and attended the zumba class, and took Summer to her dance class. On the way to her dance class I noticed my stomach getting hard over and over. I think that is what they call Braxton Hicks, which is basically a contraction that gets your body ready for the real thing eventually. They are more common in second+ pregnancies and can occur early or anytime, or not at all. I had them with Summer towards the end and never realized what they were until I was being monitored and the nurse asked if I just felt that contraction - a contraction I thought was the baby turning. Anyway as I was driving to her dance class I started having these contractions over and over, my stomach was a hard ball. I didn't think it was normal to have so many so I called the on call doctor and after about an hour I got a call back. After I told him what was going on, and by then having this hard stomach for over 2 hours, he suggested I go into Labor and Delivery to be monitored. The nice thing about being pregnant is you basically skip the emergency room and go right up without a bunch of messy paperwork. So while being monitored in Labor and Delivery I assumed the monitors were picking up these contractions only to be told after 30 minutes that nothing was showing. I was really shocked, was it just constipation? Then the nurse moved the monitor and the contractions finally showed up. They weren't that bad but enough to see on the monitors. Since they kept coming the doctor prescribed medication to stop them and came in to have a look around. *I must say the doctor remembered that I have a heart issue, or anxiety, because he prescribed the medication that would lower my blood pressure instead of giving me the one that would cause a rapid heart beat. Way to go doc!* I also gave an urine sample when I arrived, and that came back that I was only a little dehydrated so they gave me a bag of fluids. The doctor looked at my cervix (I think that is what it was) and it was all closed, he then measured my cervix (I think that's what he measured) to find it was a 4 which was really ideal and meant that these contractions were not doing anything to put me into labor. He did swab my uterus (or cervix or something) and did find I have a bacteria infection which is most likely causing my contractions so now I am on antibiotics for the next 7 days. They taste horrible by the way. I am drinking a ton of water too and not doing as much today. I think I was in Labor & Delivery for at least 3 hours, I finally got home around 11:00 pm. Overall I guess I am glad I went, I am on antibiotics, but how annoying. So far this pregnancy is just giving me so many problems, and now I am too scared to continue working out so I am going to just try to do less I guess. And where did I get this bacteria infection anyway, even though the doctor said it is very normal in pregnant women, I can't avoid it if I don't know where it came from ...

The doctor did say the baby was just barely viable, which is really scary because I don't want to deliver a baby at 23 weeks. So now I am home trying not to stress and relax, which isn't easy.

And I have yet to blog about our vacation! We went to the beach, the aquarium, the beach again, Disneyland, and you can bet I took a ton of photos, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. I guess I have been really busy and active the past week, I have done a ton of walking, and I can tell myself that I am pregnant not disabled but the truth is being pregnant makes everything so much harder.

Is it November yet?