Actually it is more accurately the house of snot. Ryan, my mom, and I are all sick this weekend (which really sucks because we can’t really take care of each other). I should have seen this coming Friday night. I woke up in the middle of the night to Ryan’s snoring rattling the headboard. He always snores, but it is never to the point of waking me up. No amount of poking or pushing could make him stop, so I relocated to the couch.

While attempting to sleep I had the weirdest dream. I have to preface this with letting you know that my dreams have been out of control over the past few weeks. I have has some truly traumatizing dreams. Supposedly these dreams are caused by being pregnant. So Friday night here’s how my dream went:

I was sitting at my computer checking the Ellen Degeneres show site, and they had just opened the reservations for seat in the month of May. Why is this important you ask. Ellen does an awesome Mother’s Day show every year for pregnant moms, and she gives away thousands of dollars worth of baby swag. Ever since I found out I would pregnant on Mother’s Day I have dreamed of going to her show. Anyhoo, back to my dream. They had released the block of tickets and I could fill out the reservation form, but I was so excited that I was having a hard time typing. I lovingly looked over at Ryan and asked him to help me fill out the form.

He looked at the computer screen and said, “Yeah. I’m not doing that.” That’s when I slapped him (remember in my dream, no spousal abuse claims to the PD please). He got this look of shock on his face and said, “I cannot believe you just hit me.” My response was, “I didn’t hit you nearly as hard as I wanted to. If I had hit you that hard, you would not be sitting up straight.” I know that I’m such a sweet wife.  It was the impending sickness that made me have those dreams…..right?

Then I woke up to a dog’s paw ramming in my neck. The next day we decided to go check out the BuyBuyBaby in Addison. It’s  a lot bigger than the Plano store, but they didn’t really have more of a variety. Ryan’s nose really started to run and he looked like death in the store. We went home, and then my nose started to run. We tried running errands once more thinking that it was just our allergies.

Then the fever hit, and we were done for. It’s been nonstop snot over here for the past 36 hours. Granny was so sweet that she did a grocery run for us because the Walgreen’s by our house of out of tylenol cold. Pepsi makes everything better.

Ryan and I are both planning on going to work tomorrow, but we’ll see if we still feel the same way in the morning. I can only imagine down the road when the whole house being sick involves a kiddo too. I’m going to enjoy my wallowing while I still can.

I have watched this video over 10 times easily in the past day, and it has left with such a feeling of appreciation. I am so blessed for all of the wonderful people in my life. Thank you for being there and making memories that will last forever.

Enjoy the bliss below!

8-10-09

Ellie patiently watched as I punched things our for my classroom. She didn’t even move when I dropped the trash on her. She’s a good sidekick.

8-11-09

I went to Jenn’s school to get ideas for my room because the schools are built the exact same way. As we were leaving we noticed the second pair of keys for her car on the roof. Jonathan had left them there, and she had driven with them up there all day long.

8-12-09

Charlie was fixed last weekend in an attempt to end his obsession of peeing on everything (it worked btw). Here he is before the surgery. All happy to be out of the house and on an adventure.

And this is the after. We even went to Sonic, and he didn’t even care.

8-13-09

What’s this? Christmas in July. Hobby Lobby: this is a little much. It’s still over 100 degrees.

8-14-09

My first convocation (a motivational time for the whole district to jump start the year). It was so cool to see Jenn there even if we were not wearing the same school shirts.

8-15-09

We had lunch with Becky, Robert, and Oliver. Oliver decided that he wanted my sour cream. He also learned how to drink out of a straw that night using mine.

8-16-09

Grilled pineapple from Master Grill is the best. I won’t even bring shame to my family by telling you how much Ryan and I ate.

Little One,

It is so hard to believe that I have been pregnant with you for over three months (16 weeks yesterday). The time seems to have gone so fast. Over the last month lots of things happened. You received your first Christmas presents. So many of your family members remembered you on this special day, and it really made me happy. We spent the whole day in our pajamas hanging out on the couch.

On January 4th we had our first visit with the doctor that will deliver you. He is really funny and made both me and your dad laugh within minutes of meeting him. I was hoping to get a sonogram and see if you are a boy or a girl. Instead he sent me to the specialist to do a routine sonogram to make sure everything was forming correctly (you are growing perfectly by the way). I was promised that this doctor would be able to tell us pink or blue.

You had other plans though. We were able to see you wave, flipping around in my belly, and count all of your fingers. However, you did all of this with your legs criss-crossed like you were sitting in my kindergarten class the whole time.  You were not even being still. You kept arching  your back and wiggling, but your legs were still. So now I will do my best to be patient until our next appointment on February 8th.

I just can’t wait to get things ready for you like painting your room, going through all of the clothes family and friends have given you, and pick out your name. As you will soon find out after you are born, I am kind of anal when it comes to some things. I will do my best to not make you the same way, but just rest assured that all this energy comes from a good place inside of me that only wants the best for you.

We are officially in the second trimester now. The sickness is completely gone, and I am hoping that the fatigue will end soon (fingers crossed). Most days you do not seem real to me. I still am not showing. I will often look down at my stomach (knowing that you are now almost 5 inches long) and wonder where are you? I’m sure by next month you will have made yourself outwardly visible and hopefully I will have felt you moving. We just can’t wait to meet you.

Love,

Mama

I have officially made it through the first trimester! Woohoo! Supposedly the second trimester is going to be the best out of the three. I’ll see about that. One thing I have realized is that many of my ideas about pregnancy are wrong or things have happened that I had no clue about. I’m sure it would be different if I actually read the pregnancy books you are supposed to read, but who has time for that? So here’ what I have learned….I guess the hard way.

1. You can start having pregnancy symptoms very soon after conception. Mine started after only 5 days. I have even judged people (publicly) for having symptoms too early. I chalked it all up to being a drama queen. What did I know? NOTHING. So I’m apologizing to those I have judged wherever you may be now.
2. The main symptoms of pregnancy you hear about is the nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and breast tenderness. Oh but there are so MANY more (not that those don’t completely suck). The main few I have had are an awful metallic taste in my mouth, dehydration (I never seem to not be thirsty), and food aversion (something is wrong when you turn down a Reese’s peanut butter cup). There are even more symptoms than that. Those are just the ones I’ve faced this pregnancy. Oh and I almost forgot about the hormones. Let me go cry for a few minutes before I finish this post.
3. When you say, “I’m ____weeks pregnant” it is not how long the baby has been in you. It is from the date of your last period began. I was so proud to be able to jump from saying I was three weeks pregnant to five. It made me feel proud of my little one is some silly way. “You go baby! Look at you adding two more weeks to your life.” (please refer to the end of number #2 for rationale on that thinking)
4. Not all women will show at the same time (or even close to the same time). A coworker of mine is due the day after me. She has a cute little baby bump. I don’t. I have mixed feelings about this. Bodies are completely different in this respect and even from one pregnancy to the next it can be different.
5. Your first sonogram is such a joy (if you are prepared for it). You finally make it to the 8-10 weeks they make you wait before your first doctor’s visit. You go in expecting to get a glimpse of your sweet little one on the sonogram screen. You’ve seen in the movies what an amazing experience it is to raise up your shirt, have them squirt the sonogram gel on your tummy, and show you your baby. Unfortunately, that is not reality at this point.  As Ryan and I sat for over and hour and a half (part of why I’m seeing a new doctor) in the room waiting for the doctor, we had A LOT of time to look around. Then he points over at the sonogram machine. “Hey, that thing has a condom on. I bet I know where that’s going.” My thoughts were surely not. But, oh YES. Usually your first sonogram is an internal one (not the romanticized experience I had envisioned). Future first time preggos…. remember this! Apparently I wasn’t paying attention when I watched Knocked Up the first time.

All that aside, it has been a wonderful experience. Many days it does not seem real to me. I know that I am pregnant, but part of me thinks that I will not fully realize it until I feel the little one move. I’m looking forward to the second trimester, and I hope that there are fewer misconceptions over the next three months.

8-3-09

Garrett and I took a trip to see Ryan at work downtown. We even road the Dart train. Of all the places to eat downtown, Garrett wanted Dickey’s.

8-4-09

My classroom – the before image

8-5-09

This is the last day I will work here for Bossman.

8-6-09

Today is Jenn’s birthday. We actually celebrated last night at Pappasito’s with watermelon margaritas. Yummy!

8-7-09

Ryan came up to work to help me work on my room. He got so tired that he feel asleep. He’s a TON of help. LOL!

8-8-09

I threw Gracie’s baby shower today. It was lots of fun. I’m sure I should post a cute pic of her, but this photo makes me so happy.

8-9-09

We decided to pull up the floor in the office and stain the concrete. We let Jonathan help. I turned my back for one minute and all the floor was torn apart.

Last Monday I went to my first visit with my new doctor. He is so awesome and funny. At one point he even used the term va-jay-jay. We thought we were going to have a sonogram since this was my first visit with him. Instead I found out that I needed to have the routine pre-screener sonogram with the specialist. So we made an appointment to go Tuesday evening.

As we looked up on the screen, we saw our perfect little baby waving at us. Everything looked to be forming perfectly. We could even count the fingers.

Here’s a forward facing shot. You can even see the eyes, nose, and mouth.

After measuring the neck and length of the baby, the specialist went in to determine boy or girl. This little booger kept his/her legs criss-cross applesauce (formally know as Indian style) the WHOLE time. That would be ok if the baby was being still, but it kept arching it’s back and wiggling all over the place.

So my next doctor’s appointment is February 8th. I have decided to refuse to leave the doctor’s office until I find out the sex, and for good measure I’m going to drink some coffee on the way to my appointment.

This whole experience raises some questions about the baby’s temperament. My friends have been teasing me that the baby is ready for kindergarten, and that he/she has heard me say sit criss cross applesauce over and over to my class. So I ask you, was the baby being obedient or stubborn by refusing to budge? (remember that red hair could be a factor here)

I started the task of clearing off my memory cards. I’m almost done with one (thank goodness). While going through the 400+ images I found this video from Jennifer’s birthday celebration back on August 5th. We go to Pappasito’s often. It was so sweet for Jonathan to lead the birthday song. He did it perfectly.

Enjoy!