pictures

Okay, so I've been lax about taking pictures. It's not that I'm not happy too, but again, you plus size girls know what I'm talking about. The weekly shots aren't as dramatic, so I'll give you the greatest hits...

The one above is the day after the positive pregnancy test... what a great day. So that's week 4

The one above is week 16 (I think). It was obviously a not planned shot, but DH encouraged me. Yeah for 16 weeks!

This one is from this morning. So it's 26 weeks. Sorry about the messy bathroom camera. Okay, so here's the thing. I think I look rediculously pregnant. But I haven't gotten too many strangers agreeing. Yesterday I went to the dentist (no cavities! Just bleeding gums) and when I told the hygenist, she acted surprised! So let's take a poll - Pregnant or fat? actually, I take that back, the only answer I want is pregnant, so I should stick with that. Ha.

Also, I took work off today (horray!) so that I could do the glucose test (yucky). I suppose I'll hear in a few days if it's bad and if it's fine then I'll hear at our next appointment in a few weeks. Sunday I'm going to do the 24 hours urine collection test (BOOOOOO!). I got this really neat seat and jug. And the jug has to stay in the fridge between usages. Pretty gnarly. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Thursday is almost the weekend, Glory to God!

Dr. Ta ta's

So I met the new Doctor. And while the nickname for her may or may not be appropriate in your mind, it is with my husband and I. First of all, her name isn't too far away from that. Second, she just had a baby girl 3 months ago. Third, she wore a dress yesterday at our appointment that left nothing in the general 'chestical' region to be desired.
And I liked her for it.
Not because she had saggy mom boobs, but because I believe she's gonna be a good doctor.
Compared to our first doctor (who once wore his belt inside out and constantly wore winnie the po.o ties), she was way on the ball.
But, the appointment was not all giggles. Here's what we found.
My blood pressure is high. We took it 3 times and while the diastolic finally changed back to a good number, the first one did not. So the doctor is sending me for a 24 hour urine test. I have yet to ask Dr. Google what this means, have any of you ladies had this done? Something about peeing in cups all day was brought to my attention.
The second thing we found was that I am measuring big. I am currently 25 weeks and I measured 28 yesterday. Now this is a 3 1/2 centemeter difference, but apparently when you measure uteri with a measuring tape all day you're pretty good at this. But my big question is, that pre pregnancy/post 3 years of ttc, I have a nice fluffy fat layer on my stomach (and I'm not being cute, I really do), so doesn't that affect things? But then again, Dr. Winnie the p.oo always measured me and never found that I was measuring big, so may Dr. Ta Ta's is right. BUT, reason why we like Dr. Ta Ta's is that she's being proactive and sending me for an ultrasound to check the size of the baby.

Which leads me to my next question:
Since we did IVF, and I know exactly when we transferred the embryo's, doesn't that mean that we know for a fact within 5 days of when the embryo implanted? So I suppose it will tell us if the baby is growing too big (I'm also due for the glucose test next week), but it seems like measuring for the due date is silly. But I know she's just measuring for the general size of the baby.

So yeah, it was a big day. I'm not too worried, but then again, I haven't asked Dr. Google yet, so maybe I should just chill and not do that yet.
I'll post more when I know more, but if you have any info about the urine/bp test or anything else you think is helpful, let me know!

Happy Rainy Thursday to you!

Thankful to be emotional

My last Dr. appointment was the Monday before Christmas. Tomorrow was supposed to be the next Dr. appointment, but with a new doctor in his practice because we're not huge fans of our first Doc.
Then I get a call today that our appointment for tomorrow has to be rescheduled. I didn't get a reason why, but I'd like to think that it's because she's giving excellent attention to a woman having last minute c-section or something that I would want her to do for me.
But I can't get another afternoon appointment until NEXT Tuesday. Now, it's not as bad as the first trimester, because at least now I can feel her move and all that goodness, but I just haven't felt much support from this dr's office. I am hoping that it was just the first doctor and that this new doctor is great, but this is a bad way to start.
Maybe it's because I feel like I have learned way more from books and blogs online (thats you ladies!) than I have from my doctor. If that was the only information I was getting, I would have no clue about what I should be expecting and what is happening to my body.
So I called back just now and left a message that I'll take a day off if I need to in order to get a sooner appointment. DH agrees. We just want to be proactive here, and make sure things are still going okay.

And as a side note, I had 3 major emotional attacks (read: ugly crying) over nothing from Friday night to Saturday. Is this what I have to look forward to? It just felt so good to cry. And even a rescheduled doctors appointment has made me want to cry! These hormones are for the birds (or the babies apparently).

Here we go again! Thankful to be emotional, but emotional about it!

Things that make me smile

I saw this on another blog and thought I'd give it a try. These are the things this week that have made me smile (in no particular order):

~Feeling my baby move.

~Having today be a student-free day at work.

~Drinking a Green-tea Latte (non-fat) from Starbucks

~Band Practice

~Watching the tough electric guitarist in my church band get slightly jiggy with it when the black eyed peas song "I gotta feeling" came on.

~Waking up next to my favorite person in the world

~My dogs Gipper and Nancy. Especially when Nancy goes to plaid (read: is a spazz)

~Thinking about the pre-natal massage I have scheduled for 5:00PM today using some of my birthday money.

~Knowing that Monday is a holiday and I get another day off. This is a good time of year to be a teacher.

~Watching Barney on Ho'w I met your mother sing a song about suits. (anybody?)

~Making a deeper connection with a friend at Bible study.

~Using my new washer and dryer.


What has made you happy this week?

Day Care

This is not about the great debate - stay at home, work out of the house.... It's about finances.
There are some realities in my world. Regardless of my preference, I will be going back to work in the fall.
This really is good timing to be pregnant though, for a teacher. I get to have the baby in May and then have two full months off without missing work (but remember, teachers don't get paid for summer!) but then mid-august, I'm going back. Here is my debate.
Full time?
Part time?
You'd think this would be an easy answer, but it's not.
You want some numbers? I'll give you numbers.
My district is amazing. They have a day care center that runs concurrent with the school year calendar, so you're not paying for days that you aren't working. HOWEVER, they insist that everyone is enrolled 5 days a week for a full day each day. So that means that even if I have a 60% job contract that I will be paying for a 100% daycare. HOw much is that said day care? 51 dollars per day. Each month has varying amounts of work days depending on holidays, but that means that some months have 23 work days in it. Do your own math to find that this is a LOT of money. So if I work part time, then a huge chunk of my paycheck is going to day care that I wouldn't even be using all of! I'd work say from 8-12, but be paying for day care from 7-4.
Strike that idea.
Option 2, work full time. Yes, daycare would be a big expense, but we would certainly be able to afford it if I was full time. But then from 7-4, I am away from baby girl awesomeness. And tired when I got home. And not excited about cleaning/cooking/running to the grocery store - but I would have a good attitude that this is only temporary and an AMAZING problem to have.
Option 3 - work either full or part time and try to work our moms into sharing duty of watching the baby. My mom just decided last week that she is going to retire from teaching. She is an amazing woman but I feel like it's not fair. It's a huge burden to put on her, so we are thinking about sharing that with DH's mom. But DH's mom is not so much in good health. She would be fine watching an infant, but as soon as we had a mobile human on our hands, there really is some legitiment cause for concern.
PLUS, (some of you may hate me for saying this), but if I work full time and then the grandma's watch the baby, I think I feel like I'm not actually raising the kid. It's one thing to be part time, and have grandma's watch baby, but to be full time, that's about 9 hours a day that this child is going to get to bond with them and not me. So do you know what's in my heart of hearts? If i were to work full time, I would want the child in the day care. I feel like it's more reliable, it's not as big of a burden on the grandparents, so they would be more willing to watch the baby at other times (like for fabulous weekend get away trips with DH later on, or just date nights...). But working part time I wouldn't mind them watching the baby. Asking for 4 hours is different than asking for 9 hours.

This is our new debate. This is a wonderful problem to have, and I have not lost perspective of this. This baby girl has lots of people clammering to watch her. Everyone is ready to love her. But I hate my reality of having to work. But that's not something to lament. I'm just glad we have the options God has given us, and we're thinking that this is totally going to be worth it. I'm so ready to meet this little girl (but of course, hopefully not for at least 14-16 more weeks!).

If you made it this far reading, than you deserve a treat. Go do yourself a solid for me.

I feel her!

So I think it's fair to say that as of New Year's Eve, I feel her move!
I don't feel it the way I thought it would be, but there is a fairly consisten feeling in my belly. The best one is when it feels like my eye is twitching, but it's inside my abdomen. Is that what you feel too?
There's another feeling, it's almost painful, kind of like an internal tickle. I'm writing that one down as movement too.
This is a precarious place. Because on Sunday, we'll be 24 weeks. Now, what is the significance of 24 weeks? I know all y'all know, but incase you don't, 24 weeks is that magic viability week. It doesn't mean happy endings for all, but it means there's at least a chance of a happy ending. Now, I really want this baby girl to stick around my uterus (or the chateau as my DH calls it) for another 16 weeks and 3 days, just so that she'll be super-duper ready for the world, but since there are no guarantees in life, I'll just accept that we're getting close to the place where there's a chance that she'll make it.
So we have baby movement and 24 weeks. You're looking at a very happy woman over here.
Not to mention that it's supposed to be 75 degrees today and while all the snow looks like fun in the rest of the country, I'm very happy to take my warm weather and enjoy the final college bowl game at the Rosebowl this evening after band practice.
Was that bragging? I didn't mean to. I just pay so much for my mortage that anytime I can remember why So. cal is so pickin' expensive and it's worth it, I try to focus on that. And there will be another post shortly about the cost of day care...so ...there.

So far, so good, and Glory to God for it all.