Pregnancy: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good

1. So far, I have to say I like being pregnant. I love how Little C can be quiet and not move for such a long time, but when I start to say "our" prayers at night, the little turkey starts moving and kicking. I guess he/she likes to pray too :)

2. Over the belly maternity pants. I've always thought they looked funny but when I bought my first pair of maternity jeans that had that kind of panel (they were on clearance, yay), I was instantly hooked. I love them!

3. Nails, nails, longer stronger nails!

The Bad

1. Having to remember to keep said longer and stronger nails trimmed! They're like 20 (toes included) little dangerous weapons!

2. I'm eating a lot of sweets, which I normally don't do. Bacon and eggs for breakfast? No thank you. Give me some pancakes or donuts or sugary cereal. I'll be honest. I consumed a box of Lucky Charms in 2 days. I think Anthony may have had one bowl. Would I normally buy Lucky Charms? Nope. Go figure. This baby definitely has Anthony's sweet tooth!

3. Trying to tie my tennis shoes. I don't think I'm even that big...yet, but I seriously have to take a deep breath in order to bend over (while sitting) to tie my shoes. Looks like I need to find some slip on sneakers. Thank goodness flip flop season is back. Not that I ever stopped wearing them in the winter anyway :)

4. Bye bye self pedicures? The answer may have to be a yes. I tried to do my toes myself last night. I'm too cheap to go get them done. That was a chore. I did it though. Stronger longer nails cut, old red paint taken off and a pretty aqua(ish) blue color put back on. It only took me a little over an hour to do. Not too bad.

The Ugly

1. Body odor. I know, it's disgusting. I'm sorry. But it's the truth. I have tried just about every brand/type of deodorant and have had to make the switch to what Anthony uses. An Old Spice men's deodorant. If that's not ladylike enough, I have to put the stuff on AT LEAST twice a day. I stink! haha! I miss smelling like a girl!

2. I feel like a side show act at a circus. "Come one, come all! Come see the bearded lady who's growing another human in her body!" UGH, I swear! I keep thinking that when people talk about a beard they're talking about Anthony not having shaved for a couple of days. Wrong! They're talking about me! :( Don't get me wrong, I try to keep those suckers in check. Pluck, pluck, pluck and pluck some more. So fun...

3. Trying to get out of the car. Yeah, it's ugly. I can only imagine that it's just going to get worse as I get bigger and further along. Can't wait...

4. Gas. Thank goodness it's not from the stinky side!! (I'll leave that to Anthony, haha!) I've always been a pretty good burper. Man, oh man am I awesome at it now! I could beat any frat boy in a burping contest. I'm proud of my ability, it's funny. I'll just let one out for no reason. Not necessarily because of something I ate or drank, just out of the blue. I chose to list this under "the ugly" because Anthony thinks it's disgusting and not lady like. Oh well, he's just jealous :)

That's all I can think of so far. I'm sure there's stuff I'm leaving out. When/if I remember them, I'll make a part two post.

Food Wasters

I'm not happy to say that we're currently wasting food. It's not by choice. About a week or so ago, our refrigerator started making this odd noise. It would click, make a buzzing noise for a few seconds and then click off. Well, yesterday morning our freezer decided it was tired and started thawing stuff out. Not good. It didn't take long for the refrigerator part to slowly get warm. Ugh. So, we found a place that would come and diagnose the problem. After looking at the darn thing for about 5 minutes, he said it was the compressor and quoted us $912 to fix. WHAT?!? Are you kidding me?? When we bought this house last summer we negotiated with the sellers to leave the fridge. It looked pretty new and it has the freezer on the bottom. It's a nice fridge. I guess we're lucky that we didn't have to buy one at first.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the guy messed up our floor. Yes it's linoleum but now it's got a pretty tear right in front. I wanted to call the guy back to tell him, but Ant said no. How were we going to prove that he did it? He was already gone (by about 3 minutes) when we noticed it. Sucks! So, we're out $79 for having the guy come tell us what's wrong and now have a messed up floor. I guess someone's going to be getting a not-so-nice review on the angieslist.com website!

So, Ant and I decided that we could go to a scratch and dent place and hopefully find a good deal on one there. Off we went! After looking at a few places, we finally found one. We also found out that to buy a compressor would cost around $300. I understand charging for labor, but to charge $600 for it? That's absurd! The guy we bought our new refrigerator from gave us a good deal. Since we offered to pay with cash, he didn't charge us any sales tax. We were hoping he'd knock off a little more, but oh well. It was a good deal and it's about 6 cubic feet bigger than the one we have now. It doesn't have the freezer on the bottom, it's got the side by side doors. That's okay. Hopefully we'll like it in the house.

It looks like after tomorrow I've got some grocery shopping to do. Too bad that a half gallon of milk and a brand new unopened gallon of chocolate soy milk got to get poured down the drain. Such a waste!

The important question to this story is this: Why does the word fridge have a "d" in it but refrigerator does not? Hmm...

Dallas Mavs vs Memphis Grizzlies

Final Score

Mavs - 103 Grizzlies - 104

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our friends Karin and Brian! They were so kind as to invite us out to a Mavs game. Not just any Mavs game, Courtside seats at a Mavs game! Holy cow! We were 3rd row back. We could spit on the players if we wanted to! I always thought Jason Terry was cute, but he's adorable in person :)

Anyway, Karin scored the tickets for us and we had a fantastic night out. It would have been nice if we had won, but we lost in the last 3 seconds of the game. Victory was in reach but the other team snatched it up at the last second...literally. Such a good game!

We really appreciate Karin and Brian's kindness! Thank you guys so much for that awesome opportunity! We'll never forget it!

Happy 2nd Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

It's our 2nd year of marriage and I have to say that it's been an interesting 2 years. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our future family!

A week ago we were finally able to see Little C at our obstetrics appointment. Today, we had an appointment with my midwife group. Since my last visit 2 months ago, I've gained 5 lbs, making it a total of about 7-8 pounds in 6 months. My blood pressure was fine, so that's good. I also had to take a blood glucose test to check for gestational diabetes. I should get those results in a day or so. Fingers crossed! We got to hear Little C's heartbeat. I love that sound :)

We splurged and went to Olive Garden. Anthony wouldn't let me get a dessert though. Only because I had to drink that sugar stuff for my glucose test at the doctor a few hours earlier :( Boo on him! I did have 2½ graham crackers though, so HA! :P

Here's to many, many, many more interesting and wonderful years together.

Anthony, thank you for asking me to marry you. I love you!!

Happy Valentine's Day 2011!

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to yours!

It's been a great day! After two long months, Anthony and I finally got to see Little C. Why so long? Well, I lost my job at the end of last year which means I lost our insurance coverage. So, I've had to wait to get things straightened out. Now that everything is set, we were able to get back to the doctor to check things out.

Since I have to have my blood pressure monitored, I have to see an obstetrics doctor along with my midwife group. The obstetrics office is where we get to see Little C! Yay! Anthony actually got some video coverage. It's not the best. He shot video off of the huge TV screen they use for a monitor. We got a lot of good pictures. The poor little thing was pretty much folded in half. His/her feet were above it's head! It definitely gets its flexibility from me :) We also learned that the poor thing has my chin. At least it looks that way from the front. In a profile view though, it doesn't stick out like mine does...yet, so there's still hope!

In any case, we were so excited to see Little C move around! The doctor said it's about 1.5 pounds now and my due date is still somewhere between June 4th and June 12th. So far, so good!

TV Show: I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant

Seeing as I'm not working at the moment, I've had a chance to sleep in and indulge in some TV time. The past two mornings I've caught the show I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant on TLC. Now, I've seen the show before but, like most people, I didn't understand how a woman couldn't know she was pregnant. I kind of do now.

Besides the ER visit for the horrible pains I was experiencing right before Christmas, I don't think I'd be able to tell that I was pregnant at this point in time. I'm about 20, maybe 21, weeks along tomorrow. I had no morning sickness, I've had no weird cravings, I've always been irregular (sometime months at a time), I've only gained about 1 pound, I haven't felt the baby "flutter" around in there, and I'm not showing. I just feel like I've had a big meal most of the time. Yes, my pants are a little more snug than normal, but I've always battled with my weight so that wouldn't have surprised me. The main symptom I had early on was that I was exhausted all the time. I would have passed that off as going to bed too late and waking up too early, which I usually tend to do. I will say that I've been eating more sweets than normal, but with the sweet tooth Anthony has, I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it. So, as of right now, I could see how a woman might not know she was pregnant. I would have been able to provide a reasonable excuse for the few symptoms I did have.

We'll see how things progress in the future. Hopefully this "I just feel fat" feeling will go away soon and I'll be able to feel Little C moving around!

In the words of my wise husband "You're not faaaat" (he says in a whiny voice!) haha :)

Being Pregnant So Far

When I found out that I was pregnant, I decided that I wanted to keep a "daily" log. I found a journal that I liked and decided that I would do just that. Well...that hasn't really happened. I always have good intentions when it comes to stuff like that. I started it, but haven't kept it up. Maybe today's the day I'll do a recap of things that have happened and try to write in it daily. Yes. That's one of my New Year's Resolutions! I can do it! In the mean time, so that family and friends who want to hear about what's happening, I'll try and journal on here too.

So, let's start!

The first three months were pretty easy. I have to say that I've been blessed so far. Apparently I found out that Anthony and I were expecting just a few weeks in. Maybe 3 weeks along, if that. We had been down in Houston for a Quinceañera, and I felt like I was catching a cold or had bad allergies while we were there. I was taking any cold medicine I could and taking allergy pills. So fun! We came home on Sunday and for some strange reason, I decided to take a test Monday morning. Anthony got up with me and he started getting ready to go for a run. While he was doing that, I snuck a test that I had bought at the dollar store to the other bathroom. I didn't think anything would come of it. When that second line showed up, I sat on the edge of the tub and was shocked! I kept standing up and sitting back down. Up and down, hand over my mouth. The line was there. It was light, but it was there. I thought, no way, it's a dollar store test. So, while Anthony was in the kitchen, I ran and grabbed the other dollar store test and snuck it back into the bathroom. Took it and waited. Again, a second line showed up. I started thinking, okay that's two positive tests. Yes they're both from the dollar store, but they were both positive! Hmm... so, I got ready and went to work.

I started to lose my voice while I was at work and didn't feel much better. So when I got home that evening I went to an after care clinic to see if they could give me anything to make me feel better. There, they confirmed that I was pregnant with a urine test. Unfortunately, they didn't give me anything to help me feel better. I had to wait it out.

So I found out on a Monday and ended up sharing the big news with Anthony on Thursday. Yes. I waited. I wanted to tell him in a fun way. So, I went and bought a pink onsie and a white onsie. On the white one I wrote "Little Cisco" in blue. On the pink one I wrote "Little Conchachita" in dark pink. We have always joked that if we ever had kids we were going to name them those names. Silly, we know. I also bought a digital test and took it. That one said "pregnant" so that was 4 positive tests in a matter of days. I wrapped it all up and gave it to him. Needless to say I think he was shocked and surprised. Unfortunately the digital test was blank! Stupid expensive test! The two dollar store ones I had taken on Monday still had the second line on them. (Just goes to show, a test from the dollar store is just as good as an expensive digital one!) In any case, we were both shocked!

So since then it's been interesting. I had a run in with a rake (see previous post Kristy vs. the Rake from October 2010), which eventually caused a visit to the ER a few weeks later because I was coughing up a lot of blood. After the ER visit, an appointment with a pulmonary specialist and then an appointment with an ENT doctor who then gave me a scope, no one could find anything wrong with me. I'm convinced that I was coughing up the blood that was from the swelling and two black eyes I got from stepping on that darn rake. Knock on wood, I've been fine since that two day coughing fit.

What else? I was very lucky in the fact that I never really had any morning sickness. I got nauseous a few times but never hugged the toilet. I just slept...a lot! I would fall asleep at my desk (oops!) during the day, come home, eat dinner, fall asleep on the couch, then wake up around 10 PM or so and get ready for bed. That's all I did for the longest time! Sleep, sleep, sleep :)

I decided to go with a midwife group. I want to try this the natural way. Fingers crossed, I'll be strong enough mentally and physically to make that happen!

The Thursday before Christmas I woke up in the middle of the night to a horrendous pain in my left side and back. It was so bad it was making me nauseous and I was vomiting a lot. I decided not to go into work. I called my doctors office and they suggested that I go to the ER. It sounded like kidney stones. Fun. Well, after being in the ER for about 5 hours, they couldn't find anything wrong. Of course they could have done more extensive testing but I didn't want to put Little C in any kind of harm. So, they finally diagnosed me with round ligament pain. Huh? How come I hadn't read anything about that?? And why did the hospital decide to give me a low dose of vicodin on my way out?? Thanks for that! Anyway, longer story short, by Christmas Day evening I had done a complete 180. I was actually eating food and playing (somewhat) with my nephews. Big change from barely being able to eat a slice of bread so that I could take my anti nausea pill and 3 regular strength Tylenol every 6 hours. That was a chore! I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat. UGH! Horrible!

The fun part of Christmas was the way we told our families about the baby. We framed a recent sonogram picture and included a card that said "Merry Christmas Nana and Papop! See you in early June 2011! Love, Little C". Needless to say, I think everyone was surprised. Yay!

That's pretty much the excitement so far. I will say that I accidentally laid down on the bed the other day on my stomach and felt pressure for the first time. Guess I can't do that anymore :) Sorry Little C! Momma didn't mean to squish you!

All in all, Anthony and I are very excited. We're so blessed that God has decided to grace us with such a wonderful gift! I hope we don't let Him down!!