24 Weeks

Ok, I'm not actually 24 weeks YET, but I will be on Thursday. I figure as the '6 month mark' I will try and put down some happenings.

I have to say the past about 3 weeks have gone by VERY slowly but on the flip side I feel like I've felt REALLY good. It's the first time I feel like I've felt really good since I found out. The anxiety has pretty much gone away because I can feel the baby and I've just felt pretty good overall.

That being said, I feel like that time is coming to an end. Besides now being consistently over 100 degrees everyday there are some days I feel fine. Some days I still wear normal clothes, wear my wedding ring, have energy, etc. Other days it's the opposite. I feel huge, my toes feel like they're going to pop, I'm exhausted, and so on.

Just in the last week or so this little booger has really started to move; or I've been able to feel him. It quite entertains me at work for several hours each day. Not too long ago I was able to get John to feel him as well. I sort of wondered if he really felt it or just said he did, but his reaction was pretty funny so he probably did feel it.

I was afraid for a bit about sleeping because I spent a weekend with some horrible insomnia. I don't know if I was just hot or uncomfortable or what, but (knock on wood) that seems to have stopped. Couple that with the continuing violent dreams I've had during pregnancy night time is a coin flip. Sorry to all the people I've killed in my dreams (except the ones who were beating my dogs; they deserved it). I am not sold on a body pillow or not. I tried a regular pillow and that doesn't last. I just toss and turn to much to drag a pillow around with me.

Oh and my last issue. I don't like pregnancy boobs. My boobs aren't even that big I don't think but I do not like them. Supposedly during the second trimester is when they're supposed to explode but maybe not?

Otherwise, I'm just taking it day by day and trying to get through the hotness. I'm excited for some of the fun stuff we have coming up like the cabin the end of the month, Idaho in July, Jersey Boys in August and who knows what else.

Stephanie and I in Toon Town

Huntington Beach. Yep that's my finger

Under the pier

John and I at dinner after Splash Mountain trying to dry off!

John

I decided to do another post because I was at the doctor with John today. He has been sick for the past week or so and we decided he should go to the doctor to make sure everything is ok. I hate that he hasn't felt well but the doctor says it's viral and we have to let it run its course. John said something while we were there though that got me thinking.

I've said this before during this pregnancy but now I'm going to put it in writing. I think it's harder a guy to grasp a pregnancy because they don't feel the changes or anything like that until later in the pregnancy. (I'm pretty sure when I'm feeling the baby now, but it's not something he can/has felt yet). Well there have been a few times in the past 22 weeks where things have happened and the worry and concern has been on the baby but everytime John's concern has been me. He worries about how I feel, if I'm ok, etc. Even today at his doctor he is worried about me getting sick. I can't say how much I appreciate his concern and how he's been so far in this adventure. I hope that I haven't been too bad throughout this whole thing.

Now just an update on the past few weeks. We found out we are having a boy and John and I are very happy about that; we'd hoped for a boy. My mom and dad came down for the weekend and the ultrasound. I hope they had a good time and we enjoyed having them here and being with us when we found out. I had an appointment with my doctor right after and he said everything is going well. I was right on my last post and my no weight gain was over. He had me at a 2 lb gain. Oh well, I'll take it and blame it on being in California 5 days before.

We did go to California the week before. I had a blast. We went to Harvey's in Chino Hills, the beach at Huntington Beach, Roscoe's, and Disneyland. I think I did okay at Disneyland. The only ride I went on that I felt I shouldn't have was the Matterhorn everything else I went on that I wasn't supposed to I felt fine about. I think there was only one time that I needed to sit down for a little bit aside from what we were already doing. If I had downloaded the pictures I would add some, but they are still on my phone.

That's about it! Just trying to figure out how to get through the next few months of heat! I am really excited since we've booked the 2 bedroom deluxe cabin up near Payson towards the end of June.

Musings

Jena said now that I'm pregnant I have to restart my blog. I don't know about that yet, but there are some things I wanted to write down before I forget them so why not....

Right now I'm 18 weeks and 5 days. In some ways I don't feel pregnant at all and in some ways I do a lot. I feel like my appetite has come back to a much more normal level. I still wake up every night to go to the bathroom. This has been since the very beginning; I'm sure it's only going to get worse. I am tired. A lot. Not quite as bad as the first trimester but many days I get home from work and I can barely keep my eyes open. Sleeping isn't the most fun thing because I like to sleep on my back and stomach; both of which I'm told not to do. Sleeping on my back makes my back hurt and on my stomach lasts for about 30 minutes before it hurts that way too. Oh, it's also about a million degrees here. It's been very warm very early for us which is not good for me. I tried several times to keep running but that just wasn't going to happen and may have been part of the reason at week 15 I ended up at the doctors and having an unplanned ultrasound; so I have stopped that. My last 'complaint' is either sitting too much at work or my chair. I'm not sure which is the problem but I get pretty uncomfortable from either my work chair or not moving around enough at work. I need to just get up and stand and stretch a little but I've had to double cover a lot and that keeps me busy where I forget.

All of these things are really little and I realize that. This has not been a 'difficult' pregnancy. I haven't enjoyed being pregnant though and here is why, I think. For 11 years there have been no false alarms, no miscarriages, no anything. I've been told by multiple doctors that I would have to pursue fertility treatments to get pregnant. On top of that for easily 10-12 years I have had girl issues ongoing, every time I went to the doctor, etc. I can say this now, that thankfully about 2 years or so ago my problems got worse which led me to a therapist trying to find out if this was more than a medical issue. Thank you to this therapist she wanted me to get a second opinion and referred me to the best doctor and staff ever, Dr. Brooks. He is the only doctor since I was 18 that listened. He talked me through a lot of frustrations and didn't give up and we went through a lot of different treatments to finally get me to a point where I could say I was okay. So having spent 10+ years feeling out of control and frustrated with my body I was finally to a point where I knew what was going on. I recognized when things were okay and when they weren't. Well..... throw in pregnancy and I am not in control of my body again and I don't know what is going on and I don't know if it's right or normal. Put that on top of being completely blown away to even be pregnant and not entirely believing it means that there is a lot of wondering and worrying about things. There is a need for a lot of reassurance that only seems to come once a month when my doctor listens to the heartbeat or at an ultrasound. So that is why I am not a fan of being pregnant.

Now supposedly I should be feeling 'flutters'. What the hell is a flutter? I've googled it, I've asked people, and everyone has a different answer. I think everyone just calls a flutter what they think a flutter is and no one really knows if it is or if it isn't. (See my above comment about wanting reassurance. This 'flutter' crap is not offering that because I don't know if I'm feeling a flutter or gas).

I'm debating how long I want this post to be... but since it's really just for me.... who cares. Going back to when I first found out. I didn't even take a test for about 3 weeks because it wasn't unusual for me to be late back in the pre-Dr. Brooks days.... but it was Friday February 7th that I decided if I wasn't going to make a dr. appointment I would at least take a test. What really pushed me over the edge was that morning we were at the gym, 5 AM, and I started crying on the treadmill. I mean I was listening to Chris Mann..... who is so amazing you could cry, but I don't normally cry in the morning for no reason. So Friday night John gets home from work and I show him the positive test. Thankfully I'd had about 2 hours before hand to get the crying, hyperventilating, freak out over with. Well there is nothing longer than a weekend when you can't get into a doctor, can't even make an appointment until Monday morning. The doctor I wanted to go to couldn't get me in for a week and a half so I found another doctor that could see me that day because John had gone into an "until it's official" stance. I wasn't impressed with the doctor's office and honestly she freaked me out when she said she only wanted me to gain 10-15 lbs during the pregnancy. Thankfully I was referred to another doctor who I have really liked and seems much more realistic and approachable. I am happy to say though, that up to 18 weeks I hadn't gained any weight. I think that's out the window now, but I was feeling pretty good about myself. I'm still wearing all my regular clothes, which I like as well, but I'm not sure how much longer that will last.

We have the appointment set for May 9th to find out gender. That will be fun. We've interviewed 4-5 daycares and I've called many more. I think we have a decent idea of what direction we're headed there. I've thoroughly researched my works maternity leave which is AWFUL. At least we know now so we can hopefully prepare for it financially. I've also decided there will be no pregnancy pictures of me. I will not be taking a mold of my stomach, I will not be having a photo shoot with me and a fat stomach...nope not going to happen. I have made the request to have a picture of the baby and my puppies when the time comes. That's all I want. I guess that's about it for now.

The end?

I've been thinking about this for a while but I haven't done anything on it. I don't think I'm going to keep the blog. I mean, it's taken me over 3 months to do our cruise and honestly I'm not even 1/2 through it.

Also.. aren't blogs like where mom's post about their kids and all the ideas they found on pinterest? 2 things I do not have. Well I've been on pinterest like twice. I just don't get it.

So....there it is.

Barbados

The next stop was Barbados. We wanted more beach time and went to the Boatyard, a recommendation from our cruise director. It was pretty close to the pier and is just part of a restaurant. The sand in Barbados is beautiful. It has almost a pink tinge to it. We didn't like being hassled to buy stuff and it was a little more 'commerical'. That being said, it was still beautiful and we had fun. We relaxed, swam, played on the toys that were in the water for us, ate, and then called it a day.

The pier is also in a very commercial area so we didn't wander around much there. That was the night we had reservations in the steak house of the ship. I went and got my hair done and John had a shave. He loved it. The restaurant was nice and of course we had a good time. The picture of the cheesecake doesn't even do it justice for how big it was. We were convinced after the other 5 courses or whatever that John could still finish it and he got about 2 bites away and quit. We were disappointed.

To reference the other pictures...we had the late dinner so we would generally get back to the ship about 3 or 4 and then we'd grab a snack which included a 'few' ice cream cones. Then we would normally wander around on deck to see what was up and watch as the boat left port.

Day 4 Sea Day

Alright, I will try and work through this some more. This is why I need to be royalty and have a biographer for me.

The next day was our only sea day. We went out fairly early so we could get chairs in the adult only section. We spent several hours out there just relaxing. Stephanie had a spa appointment at some point. We did go take naps that afternoon and then we wandered and played cards until dinner. It was the perfect day at sea.

Day 3 St. Thomas

I really need to get this cruise blog post finished before I forget what happened!

So our first stop was St. Thomas. At the suggestion of our cruise director we went to Meaghans Bay. That might be spelled wrong, but I am too tired to Google it. It was beautiful, but it's a bay so not really any waves and the beach was long but short and lots of people! I can't even imagine what it would be like with more cruise ships there.

We spent a few hours there and then went back to the main street to shop. We did try to find a Foot Locker. That was a wild goose chase and all we did was get scared and hot!

Based on the pictures that night we watched a movie on the big screen outside for a little bit. I think this was also the night that John and I went back to the piano bar till about midnight because it was a piano bar and the talent of those people amazes me!