Whaaaa?????

It's official. I've got a full blown case of pregnant brain. I can not be trusted to remember the most trivial of things. I put the dog in the crate, but forget to close it. We go to Home Depot to place an order and I give them not only the wrong address but the wrong phone number as well. And for the life of me, I could NOT remember what the correct ones were! Chris had to look in his cell to give them my phone number. I come home from work and forget to close the garage. Start cleaning the bathroom, get distracted and forget I was ever doing it until Chris goes in that room and wonders why its covered in windex that has yet to be wiped up. The list goes on and on and on. It's embarassing really. And making it increasingly hard to keep it from the folks at work. But no morning sickness yet so I think they still have no clue.......

9 weeks! - 2 more weeks till we get to see the doc!

Week 8! 2 months down - 7 to go....

The Baby:
An ultrasound done at this stage should show a fluttering heartbeat. Elbows begin to form in the arms and fingers start to develop. The leg buds begin to show feet with tiny notches for the toes. The face continues to change as the ears, eyes and the tip of the nose appear. The intestines start to form in the umbilical cord. Teeth develop under the gums.

Mom:
Your uterus is the size of an orange now, and you may find your waistline expanding. If this is your first pregnancy, you're probably not showing. If it's not your first, you may have a "pooch" already. You will tend to show earlier in subsequent pregnancies since your muscles and ligaments aren't so tight.
You may be feeling like a teenager if you find yourself with pimples and other skin problems. Don't fret ~ pregnancy causes an increase in oil secretions not to mention those rampant hormones! Your break-outs will go away either after the first trimester as your hormones level off or after delivery.

Pimples.........delightful. :(

Dreams

So I've had a few strange dreams recently.

One a week or so ago went like this: We gave birth to twin boys, who came out 3 years old, fully clothed, talking.....we took them home and things got really wierd. Home was a giant house I'd never seen before and the Freiwaldt, Starowski, and Cave families all lived there with about a dozen kids from who-knows-where. That was a wierd but happy dream.

Last night I dreamt that I was working for Conway again in a different building but with all the same people and a few extra of my friends thrown in for fun I guess. It was my first day back after having the baby and I was able to bring him (in my dream it was a boy) to work with me. How great! Till I realized that I didn't even OWN a car seat and had completely forgotten to bring any supplies. No diaper bag, no clothes, no diapers, NOTHING. I had to change his diaper with copy paper and I cried the whole day because I realized that I couldn't leave to go get anything I needed cause I had no car seat and that I was officially a bad mother because there is no other way I could have been that grossly underprepared. I couldn't even work - I just cried everytime I'd look at my poor boy in his makeshift diaper. It was awful.

Lets hope for more of those fun strange dreams and no more I'm-a-bad-Mother dreams.

Fingers crossed.

He's so adorable

Chris is by far the sweetest husband a gal could ask for. We started DVR-ing & watching A Baby Story last night (more like I MADE him watch at first - he was skeptical). We watched 2 episodes back to back and at each of the births he started getting a little choked up. Afterwards we were chatting about the whole crazy process and he said everyone is going to be making fun of him when I give birth cause he's going to be bawling his eyes out. Ahhhh....what a sweetie. Then he got me a glass of milk. Guess he wants to make sure we get that far. :) 3 weeks till the ultrasound!

Technically speaking....

Week 7

The Baby:
Your embryo makes great strides in size this week, growing to between 0.44 inches and 0.52 inches from crown to rump by the end of the week, or about the size of a small raspberry. Leg buds are starting to look like short fins, and hands and feet have a digital plate where fingers and toes will develop. The heart and lungs are becoming more developed, as are the eyes and nostrils, intestines and appendix. By now the brain and spinal cord are growing from the neural tube.
The Mommy:
You're still not "showing," but by now you're really feeling the changes in your body. You still may be experiencing morning sickness and the other symptoms of early pregnancy. Breasts will probably be tingly and tender.

Nothing new....

So my little preggo life is boring. Symptoms are few and far between. Now that the excitement of telling everyone is over we're just biding our time till the doctor's appointment. We want to wait at least till then to start really "doing" anything like moving the house around for the nursery and all that. I did find an awesome website though - Babyfit.com where you can journal your meals to make sure you're getting enough of the important nutrients and keeps you on track for ways to be more healthy during pregnancy. Its pretty cool and reminds me a lot of the Weight Watchers tracking so its second nature to me. Helps to make me feel like I'm not overeating but according to them (and Nutritiondata.com) I'm not getting enough calories in. I've been having more to eat during the day and making sure I'm snacking but still I'm at least 200 calories short every day! (They want me to have 2000-2300, I get between 1750-1850). I guess I won't worry about that for now since I'm always on target for my nutrients (calcium, iron, folic acid, protien, etc) and don't feel deprived. In fact I think I had my first craving while grocery shopping Monday. Couldn't go one more day without a grilled cheese sandwich so now I have one every day for lunch. Hopefully all is still well with mini-cave, being so normal makes me nervous. Chris has an uncanny ability to not worry about something unless he knows for a fact that there is something to worry about so I'm trying to be like him.

Mother's Day insanity

I got my first Mother's Day gift from Mom & Dad - a white azalea we planted in the back yard last night to watch grow along with the baby. I think the hormones are starting to kick in cause I started crying while planting it and thinking about symbolism of all of it. Then I proceeded to name the azalea Thursday because thats the day of the week we found out we were pregnant. (That idea comes from the shower on Saturday when Bridget told us about the conversation she had wth Tom Helm that he believes she should name the baby after the day of the week it's born.) So next time you're over be sure to say Hello to Thursday. I'm officially insane.

Start spreading the news!

Finally got to spread the word to the majority of people in our lives. Starting the 10th with Corrie & Jay. We went to dinner for our parents B-days and to celebrate Corrie's Teacher of the Year award. So I gave Cor a "Congratulations" card she thought was for the Teacher of the Year thing but was actually Congrats Auntie-to-Be!! It took a second for it to register then she teared up and there were hugs and advice immediately. This is going to be a great time to bond even more with Cor. I can't wait. She already gave me her pregnancy journals from Aria and Adrian so I can follow along the week by week and compare to myself or see what's in store. She and Jay helped with the telling of the Starowski side of the family too recording with me an addendum to the crusie slide show/ video. But before we could tell the families I had a baby shower to co-host with all the old Rainbow girls! Bridget is 7 months now so we had an old fashioned slumber party! Mom made me jammies to wear that said "ME 2" on them so Bridget went down to the girls and said "Guess what? I'm pregnant!" then I came out from behind her and pointed to the ME 2 on my shirt! It was a perfect announcement and a great time! Sunday was Mother's Day with Chris' side first for brunch and my Mom-in Law got to show everyone what we gave her for Mother's Day (the frame and test stick pic). Colleen already had figured it out! Must be a mom thing. We chatted about names and timing and all those things. Then off to Corrie's for dinner to tell the other side. My cousin Christi figured out I was preggo already and pulled me aside to confirm her speculations. She figured it our because I was adamant that if she was not coming to Mother's Day she HAD to call me. She's so tuned in! So everyone else found out right after dinner when we played the video clip. Jay & I were having a conversation about souveniers we brought back from the trip ending with the best souvenier - I walked over to the oven ad illustrated that Chris & I brought home a Bun-in-the-Oven. Took a minute to sink in but I got to experience my first Mother's Day with lots of hugs and stories. It was perfect. :)

My Sister

I'm trying to figure out a good time to tell her - she just HAS to know before I spill to the rest of the family since I think I was among the very very 1st to know about all of her pregnancies. It just wouldn't be right for her to not be in the know. Plus, I bet she has some good ideas about how to tell everyone. Just not easy to find a good time! Ugh. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and do it tonight.

You know what's strange is that most days I don't feel any different. One day I'll be tired and a little crampy then nothing for a few days. Kinda makes it seems unreal..... No morning sickness yet. I guess when that happens I'll feel all too pregnant. I suppose I should be relishing in the symptomless second month, but honestly its kind of a bummer! I know I'm going to be uncomfortable and achy and swollen and not be able to sleep and get stretch marks and acne and all that but how I am right now is boring. I'm writing this down so that in a few months when I am miserable I can look back and see how great life was back then. Ha.

Oh yeah

I just ordered a onesie for the baby for Chris that says "My Daddy's Tattoos are cooler than your Daddy's Tattoos". Hee!

Grandparents

We've just been totally BUSTING to tell someone but we knew we wanted our parents to be the first to know. But how to tell them? Unfortunately the drama that we created for Corrie & Jay we can't use now, and we kinda wanted it to be a little more private. Luckily for us we took a photo of the home pregnancy test saying loud and clear in all it's digital glory "pregnant" so we thought it would be cute to give our mom's the pics of the test at a pre-Mother's Day thing at our place. Too bad the test turned out totally blurry in the photos. Luckily I was able to write on them with a fine point sharpie, you can see the words great ni good lighting so we were a go! Also found some #1 Grandma frames to put them in for added impact. And we couldn't forget Grandpa so he got a Grandpa Loves Me bib. Hardest part was we had to get through Rob & Helen's Cinco de Mayo shower without letting anyone know I wasn't drinking cause that would be a dead giveaway. It was no small feat but still easier than we expected. I was made to taste a few drinks so I pretended to sip them, I think I fooled most everyone. Mom was so funny because as Rob & Helen were opening packages she insisted that Chris & my present to them was #7 because of an old wives tale the the 7th gift opened at a baby shower is the next to have a baby. I acted my way through that one as well, poo poing her silliness, calling her an eternal optimist. But MAN did I just want to blurt it out and tell everyone!!! We made it through the night and were really looking forward to the parents coming over Sunday so we could finally get it off our chests. We had to make up and excuse that we were going to be gone for most of Mother's Day so we wanted to do something for them ahead of time. They bought it! Chris worked tirelessly out in the yard all day (I think he's nesting) and started up the BBQ as the soon to be Grandparents (again) came in. We were all out on the back deck for a bit then we ust couldn't take it anymore. We gave our mom's their gifts and instructed to open them together. My mom got hers open first - first she looked puzzled, then shocked, then she screamed "YOUR PREGNANT!" just as you could see Chris' mom figuring out the photo as well and getting this shocked, surprised, excited look. So now our parents and all my neighbor's within earshot know. There were tears and hugs and lots of questions. All in all I think it went really well! We discussed it, and we'll be telling the families on Mother's Day. This should be another tough week keeping our mouths shut!

Does that stick say what I think it says??

Chris and I decided that we would wait until after our cruise to start "not being careful" about starting a family. Little did we know that our first attempt would stick! Somewhere between Costa Maya, Mexico and Freeport, Bahamas our bun in the oven was created. I started feeling a little strange this week, and when I think about it, I was really sick when we got home from the trip with fever and chills. We just chalked it up to vacation lag cause come on, who gets pregnant the first time they start "not being careful"? But my monthly visitor was late, and I've been feeling strange so I stopped by the drugstore on my way home from work yesterday and picked up a box of Clearblue Easy (on sale of course) and went home to wait for my honey. I think he thought I was just being a little paranoid, or maybe he just didn't want me to be disappointed if it didn't say what I thought it would. Either way he said do it and we'd read the results together. Of course, of all times in my life to NOT have to go, this would be it. I go more frequently than an old person but I just couldn't do it! Stage fright? After a bit though I got it together, took the test, and laid it on the counter to wait the 3 minutes. Chris went in cause I just COULDN'T look and came out with this sheepish grin saying "Honey......." and there it was in real Clearblue Easy style...............PREGNANT. Holy Schmokes. Here we go, an 18 year project has been set in motion! So we both teared up, lots of "I love you's" and kisses, lots of "wow's". We took one test a few minutes later and it must have been too soon cause this one said NOT PREGNANT. What?!?! Oh man, what does THAT mean?? Figures, I did buy the tests on sale. So we were off to the store to buy another test cause we just could NOT let the final word be 50/50. QFC in Covington, by the way, does not carry home pregnancy tests (wierd) but Rite Aid does. We chose a different brand and waited till bed time. And there it was, a plus sign right where its supposed to be. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Of course we can't really tell anyone yet so it's been a rough day at work. Had to sneak out to my car twice today to call my insurance and doctor to set up appointments and what not. What a secret to keep!!!! I have wanted to call people all day. Trying to figure out how to tell our parent's to make it special. Then who do we tell next? And when? How long should we wait? End of the first trimester won't be till the end of JUNE!!! So long! I can't wait. Little Mini-Cave is due the beginning of January it looks like. Wow. 1st doctor's appointment June 13th. So many questions till then, but for now we are just so so so so so happy. Already can't wait to meet our son/daughter. Let the name ideas begin! :) Chris has already shot down Ruby Donna so I'm back to square one.