A Day in the Life of My Pregnant Belly

7:30 - Get out of bed. Immediately pour coffee and drink while getting dressed

8:00 - Eat a giant double-helping of maple-brown sugar instant oatmeal

8:15 - Pack lunch. Think maybe there's not quite enough food. Scour cupboards for anything that looks remotely edible. Pack it all. Leave for work.

10:00 - Starving. Start counting the minutes till I can leave the classroom for a snack.

10:55 - Kids start lunch. Help kids open lunch containers, and restrain self from sneaking crackers and pickles out of their lunch kits.

11:00 - First break. Eat two containers of yogurt. Eat three chocolate chip cookies.

12:00 - Second break (yes, my break times are ridiculous.). Eat two pizza pockets. Drink orange juice. Eat granola bar

2:00 - Third break. Drink hot chocolate. Eat crackers and cheese. Eat mini chocolate bar left from Halloween. Contemplate having hummus and naan bread, but decide it's time to get back to the classroom.

3:00 - Starving staaarrviiinngg I'm staaaaarrrvviiinggggg!!!

4:00 - Home from work. Eat cookie. Eat hummus and naan bread. Start wondering when I can fit in dinner around my 5pm doctor's appointment. Wonder what to have for a bedtime snack.



I. Just. Can't. Stop. Eating.

23 weeks

 

How far along: 22 weeks, 6 days



Physical symptoms: I am huge. That's about it.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I really must start weighing myself.

Maternity clothes: I finally am in maternity clothes, and have never been more comfortable. I have 2 pairs of pants and 2 leggings, and a few tops. I'm still in my regular winter coat but it's not going to keep zipping up much longer.

Stretch marks: Just on my boobs so far. And I seem to have lost my belly butter. 

Sleep: Not terrible. I fall asleep really early, and for the most part sleep through the night. I have started sleeping with a pillow between my knees though.

Best moment last week: We are officially house hunting! Ahhhh!

Movement: Constantly. We are going to have one active little baby on our hands come March.

Food cravings: I eat constantly. I can't get enough. Lately I've been eating clementines like they're going out of style...I think I had six yesterday. 

Gender:  Still leaning towards girl. M swears it's a boy, but pretty much everyone else says girl.

Labor signs: Nada.

Belly button: Super round, and huge. And very close to being an outie.


What I miss: NBR: my husband! I hate this whole living away from eachother during the week thing, and can't wait till we find a house and can get past this blip.

What I am looking forward to: We are seeing a few more houses on Thursday...hopefully one of them is the one!

Milestones: Nothing new off the top of my head. Very close to V day though!

Something I discovered today:

I can no longer balance the laptop on my belly.

Damn.

My weekend in gifs...

 

 

Yep. That's about it.

If I had A Million Dollars...

Or, you know, an extra $1200 laying around.

Anyone want to buy me a present...?

Half Baked!

Omigod, how am I halfway there already? AHHH!
 

How far along: 20 weeks, 3 days



Physical symptoms: I officially have a bump! There is no hiding it anymore. I'm also starting to feel movement which is so so exciting.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I have no idea. I suppose I should weigh myself at some point this week.

Maternity clothes: I bought one maternity shirt but am still holding out on pants. My belly band is amazing and I don't know what I'd do without it. That being said, I am going shopping for maternity pants tomorrow...and I already had to buy new bras. I went from a 32B to a 34C...WTF?

Stretch marks: On my boobs. It never even crossed my mind that I would get stretch marks there!

Sleep: Ok. I've been randomly waking up at 5am lately, which is especially annoying considering my alarm goes off at 6:45. Ugh.

Best moment last week: NBR: M got a new job!! I am so ridiculously excited and relieved that we can start looking at houses and that there is an end in sight to this whole living with my mum thing. It's worked out for the past couple of months, but I'd really rather not live with her much longer if I can help it!

Movement: Loads! I love it, but I'll admit it's a tad distracting. All I want to do is lay down and feel it move...so I'm not being terribly productive these days.

Food cravings: I love food. All food. Last week I had deep fried pickles three times...and I'm considering getting some tonight.

Gender:  I'm still thinking girl

Labor signs: Nada.

Belly button: Weird-looking. I've never had a round belly button in my life.

What I miss: Wine, and rum & coke on a Friday night. This was a particularly challenging week at work and I would have loved to come home and have a drink at the end of the day. I also put away a bunch of clothes that no longer fit me this week...sad!

What I am looking forward to: House hunting! I am seriously so pumped. I can't wait to get started on the nursery.

Milestones: My belly is huge, and baby/skeletor is moving around a ton.

A few shots of our terrifying fetus:

(I may be having a little too much fun with this)

17 Weeks and I'm a Terrible Blogger.

Yes, I am aware that it's been over a month since I updated. I started a new job and am staying with my mum till M and I find a house, which means I am limited to mobile internet during the week. I am losing my mind!

But anyway, here's a quick update on me, and a few pictures since I've been a slacker. 

How far along: 17 weeks, 3 days. Finally getting an actual bump!

Finally a bump!

Physical symptoms: Not a lot, besides getting bigger by the minute. I am feeling a bit less tired and finally have an appetite again.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I was 120 at the Dr the other day, but I'm refusing to believe that I've gained 15lbs already so I've decided either her scale is off or mine is.

Maternity clothes: Still holding out, although I am not doing up pants anymore. My belly band is my best friend.

Stretch marks: Just the ones I already had on my hips.

Sleep: Better that it had been. I can sleep through the night without getting up to pee for now

Best moment last week: Hearing baby's heartbeat again. Love that sound!

Movement: Nothing really. I think I may have felt a bit of movement but it may have just been gas.

Food cravings: Nothing specific. I just eat all day.

Our babe at 11 weeks

Gender: I have a feeling it's a girl. And I had a dream the other night that we had a toddler girl, so there's that. Still team green though.

Labor signs: Not for a long while.

Belly button: Changing shape. It's usually long and kind of almond-shaped, but now it's getting more round. And starting to pop out.

What I miss: Wine. We have like $150 in LCBO gift cards, and I'm so sad I can't use them.

What I am looking forward to: Ultrasound on Wednesday!  Dr S says this is the best one, and they'll show us lots of detail including the sex if we want to know (we don't). Should be really interesting!

Milestones: Finally starting to show a bit! 

Excuse my huge hair. It's humid here!

I'm really hoping to hide the whole pregnancy thing from my new job for at least a little while, but at the rate I'm going things aren't looking good! Guess I'll be investing in some flow-y shirts to get me through September.

Today I had my first full-on prenatal appointment (my last one was just a quick chat). Everything went well, we chatted about medical histories and she told me that so far all my bloodwork had come back just fine. Then she checked my heart and my blood pressure, both exactly what they should be. And then (squeee!) we got to listen to baby's heartbeat! I am so so estatically happy we got to hear it. She warned me that this early on there is only a 50/50 chance of finding the heartbeat, and then it took her ages to find it. She said it sounds like my placenta is at the front of my uterus which can make it tricky. But after a few minutes of searching, there it was! A beautiful, crazy-fast, beating heart. I got all choked up, of course. She said it was about 170BPM, which is apparantly good. I'm so much more relaxed knowing there really is a human in there! Oh course, I'm still slightly concerned that there may be two. I'll have an ultrasound later this month to find out, though.

I also had to have a pap done, since I hadn't had one since 2006 (whoops). It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, and she told me I have a pregnant-looking cervix. Which apparantly means it's purple-ish. Weird.

One year ago...

Ok, so a year ago yesterday. Anyway. Close enough.

I guess I'll start these now, too.

 

How far along? 10 weeks, 1 day

How big is baby? Prune

Total weight gain/loss: I'm not sure. I rarely weigh myself, but I know I'm up like 5lbs from the last time I did. Which was a long effing time ago, so it really tells me nothing at all. But in the interest of keeping track of things, I'm now at 113lbs. I really should put batteries in my scale and start paying attention.

Maternity clothes? Nope. Just the occasional flowy shirt to hide my bloat. 

Stretch marks? Not yet. I guarantee I'll be covered, though. 

Sleep? Meh. I'd love to get through the night without getting up to pee.

Pregnancy dreams? Not really.

Best moment this week? I ate a full meal for dinner tonight! Wooo!

Miss anything? Honestly, I kind of really miss sitting on a patio having a drink. That'll go away once summer's over, though. I'm not a big drinker most of the time.

Movement? Nada. 

Food cravings? All I want is fruit. 

Anything making you queasy or sick? Haven't really been sick, but doing dishes makes me gag. Also I have no appetite. 
 
Team Green/Finding Out? Green! 

Labor signs: Hopefully not for a good long while. 

Symptoms: Tired. So effing tired. And my boobs are killing me. And I don't want to eat. Ever. 

Belly button in or out? In. But the shape is changing. My belly button is usually long and kind of almond-shaped, but lately it's becoming a lot more round.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time? I'm a grump.

Any milestones this week? I don't think so? 
Looking forward to: Having an appetitie again!

HDBD

I figure I may as well start Hump Day Bump Day now. If nothing else, it'll give me a reason to update at least once a week, since evidently I'm terrible at it. So, without furthur ado, here's my 10 week blump.

I discovered today that I suck at taking selfies. Next week, M is going to have to help me. It took an embarassing amout of time to get this pic without being blurry beyond recognition.

Ah yes. There it is.

The nausea has set in. Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Up until now, I've felt fine. Sure, I'm tired, my boobs hurt, and I pee a lot, but that's been the extent of my symptoms to date. Until today. Brushing my teeth before work this morning, I was positive I was going to be sick. Gagging, coughing, the whole bit. Thankfully it didn't amount to anything, or I would have been late for sure. However, the yucky feeling has lasted all day. I've had no appetite at all, and the cabbage casserole I served my preschoolers for lunch just about made me throw up right then and there. Ugh.

Now I've had some ginger-ale, a few bits or leftover chicken, and I'm working on some applesauce. I really, really hope today was  a fluke. Cause I so cannot deal with feeling like this for the next several weeks.

I want them all.

M thinks I'm completely nuts, but I have my heart set on cloth diapering. They're green, cheap, and so flippin cute I could scream. Right now I'm obsessing over gDiapers. I really like the fact that you can get either cloth or disposable liners, and they come in such cute colours! And I love that they aren't giant plastic pants. I'm dying to start stocking up, but I'm making myself wait till 12 weeks to buy any. Till then, I'm drooling over all the cute styles and researching cloth diapers like a crazy woman.

Oh my eff am I tired.

Seriously. I am so tired I feel like I could just fall asleep at the blink of an eye. I always laugh when I see articles for pregnant women that suggest they "take a small nap at their desk when needed". This has always seemed so ridiculous to me. I mean, come on. You still have to do your job, whether you're knocked up or not. You can't just be falling asleep at will.

Now, though, it's not sounding like such a bad idea. All I need is a desk job. I have a feeling my supervisor would not be at all impressed if I nodded off in my preschool classroom.

I had my first appointment on Monday, which was incredibly anticlimactic. Just sat and chatted with the nurse practitioner that I see, and she wrote up a script for me to get some bloodwork done. She's also going to book an ultrasound for me in the next few weeks. I think it'll all feel more real once I get to at least hear a heartbeat. Right now all I have to tell me I'm pregnant is the fact that I'm 28 dpo and my boobs are effing killing me (and my +hpt, obv). The boobs. Oh my Lord, the boobs. I thought they hurt during the 2WW. HA! I had no idea what I was in for. Even laying in bed hurts. I'm seriously considering buying a sports bra to sleep in. Owww.

Our baby is going to be terrifying.

I really should stay away from the baby maker sites.

Is This Real Life?

So because I am a ridiculous over-thinker, by Sunday night I had convinced myself that the little light line on my Wondfo was an evap line and I wasn't really pregnant at all. Then when I looked at it again before I went to bed, the line had faded around the edges, which really didn't help matters in my mind. M and I had gone grocery shopping Sunday afternoon and I picked up a couple of FRERs to take on Monday, but I honestly was half expecting to see a temp drop Monday morning. Like I said, I am a crazy over-thinker.

Look at those lovely dark lines! Two of them! This is really real! This time the second line showed up in a millisecond. Of course then I ran to the bedroom, shoved the pee stick in M's face, and screamed "Look! They're darker today! Look!". He was not impressed with that wake up call. Evidently he had not convinced himself overnight that we weren't pregnant.


We spent yesterday wandering around a little tourist town about an hour from us (where I made M look at every single baby item we found), then back to our town for a restaurant dinner and fireworks. It was a good day.

Today I booked my first appointment with my family doctor.  The receptionist was super nice and it was great to be able to talk to someone other than M about it! She did take me a little by surprise when I told her we had been trying for 8 cycles and she went "Oh, so not long at all!". Seriously? I mean, I know it's not as long as a lot of people, but it's felt like for effing ever.

So now I just have to get through the next little while before telling my mum or best friend. I may burst.

Oh. Em. Effing. Gee.

Pregnant. Knocked up. With child. Preggeriffic. Preggly? Yep, that's me!

I'm still having a hard time believing it's real. I am so effing excited, but also scared to death. And, true to form, over-analyzing every singly twinge I feel. I may make myself completely crazy by the time this baby comes! I bought two FRERs to take tomorrow and the next day, and of course I'll keep temping to keep an eye on things. As of this moment, I am cautious, but optimistic. Our EDD is March 12, which is pretty awesome. My dad was from Ireland, so a St Paddy's Day baby would be so special.

I so hope this is it.

Worst. Blog. Ever.

I know, I know. I'm a terrible blogger. I've been busy, ok? Clearly I'm never going to make a living off blogging. Dammit.

Quick recap of the past few weeks...

My sister in law got married. I went shot for shot with the groomsmen, cause I like to think I can play with the big kids. Missed my husbands birthday brunch the next day cause I couldn't stop puking. Why can't I learn that I can't drink that much tequila?! The sad thing is  M (hubby) was way more drunk than I was, and he felt fine the next day. Not fair at all.

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My crazy aunts and I participated in Relay for Life for our 10th straight year. It was a different location than we usually go to and wasn't nearly as well run as our usual Relay, but we still had a fantastic time walking, eating, laughing, talking, walking, dancing, giggling hysterically, and walking some more. I guarantee anyone who sees us at these events has to think we are drunk out of our minds. Around 3am we are just so deliriously tired that absolutely everything is funny, and we get laughing to the point that we aren;t making any noise and can't even stand up anymore. It's not uncommon to find 3 or four of us spread out along the track, sitting down and laughing like mute hyenas. We get a lot of strange stares, and there are always at least a few people who ask if they can join our family. I love them all.

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I went to a big reunion weekend at the summer camp that was my second home growing up. Seriously, I love this place so much. I started going there the year I was born (they have a parents & tots week) and went for at least a week every summer. I spent the whole summer there when I was 11 since my mum was the cook, and I worked there from when I was 16-20. It was my comfort zone as a kid. I went though a few rough years in school with bullying (I never thought of it as bullying, but now I realize it was), and my self confidence took a huge hit. Going to camp every year was my time. I felt totally comfortable there, I knew the staff and knew they were looking out for me, and I loved that I couldn't just get away from the people I knew at school and be whoever I wanted to. People who know my from camp always find it hilarious that I describe myself as shy and quiet, because that's so not who I am when I'm there. I'm the first to jump in and lead a campfire song, I'll organize all the arts and crafts, and I'll even give sports a go (laughing the whole time at how hopelessly uncoordinated I am).

M and I met at camp when we were campers. We originally were both just going for one week that summer, but after meeting we both saved our pennies to pay for another week together. The next year we both worked there, and though we aren't as involved with it as much as we'd like to be anymore, it's still our place.

So this weekend I went back. I was running the arts and crafts portion of the day with an old friend/camp staff member, which consisted of reconstructing and tie-dying camp shirts. I took my little cousins canoeing for an hour and a half, told old camp stories, slept in a cabin just like the old days, and lead campfire at night. The old staff and I played nighttime hide-and-seek, caught up on gossip, and got our camp fix for the year. Basically I felt 17 again. It was awesome.

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My preschoolers had their graduation yesterday! I am so so so proud of all my monkeys and can't believe they are all off to Kindergarten in September. I've had some of them since they were just toddlers and toilets trained most of them...it's a bittersweet moment to see them go. Some of them will still be here through the summer, so I don't have to say goodbye just yet. I'm glad they aren't all leaving me at once!

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Wow, that was a novel and a half. Kudos to any of you who made it through!

Cycle 8, here we come.

Not officially CD1 yet, but cramping, spotting, and temp drop. I'm a grump. And I'm eating everything in sight. Yesterday I went to the grocery store after work and got pizza, chips, cheesy dip, and ice cream. The cashier asked if she could come wherever I was going with all that food...I didn't have the heart to tell her I was preparing for a CD1 pity party.

I have a whole list of things I was intending to do tonight, but I hurt all over and I just want to curl up and go to sleep.

No-name tissues are the devil.

CD 20. 8 DPO. Nothing exciting to report. I've stayed out of the galleries so far this cycle so I'm proud of that. And I'll be busy at a wedding all weekend so won't have time to obsess. I plan to test Saturday morning just to see whether or not I can drink, then I'll wait out AF.

Non-TTC-related: I have a cold. Summer colds are the worst. I want to die.

 

And that's all I have to say about that.

The Adventures of Kroll the Warrior King...

Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.

CD13. Positive OPK last night, so pretty sure today is O day. Just waiting for crosshairs.

This weekend is my cousin's bachelorette party. I am effing excited.

Tequila may be the death of me. I can take it without flinching and without needing a chaser, and it's been known to bring out my competitive streak when doing shots with "tough guys" who just can't handle the stuff. I'm supposed to meet SIL on Saturday afternoon to help make wedding favours, but if this bachelorette is anything like mine was, I will be in no shape to do anything the next day. I may be BWI very early Saturday morning. I apologize in advance for what will likely be several incoherent posts.

Fielding Questions.

CD 10. Time to start peeing on OPKs and try out the Preseed.

Went to a wedding this weekend for DH's good friend from college. It was a lot of fun to get caught up with friends we haven't seen since our wedding in August. Got all dressed up, cried happy tears, ate delicious food, chatted a lot, danced up a storm and drank too much wine. Good times. Only problem was all the inevitable baby questions. "When is the baby coming?", "I'm amazed you aren't pregnant yet", "What are you waiting for?", "I so though you guys would get pregnant right after the wedding!". Eff. Right. Off. I answered with some variance of "We'll get there, just waiting on job/house/etc".

I would really like to go back and undo all the times I've asked friends and family when they will have babies and why they are waiting so long. I honestly had no idea how much it could sting. I'm trying to remember that people don't know that we have been trying, and that their questions and comments come from a good place. But it's effing annoying. 

Just hanging around...

CD5.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Waiting.

AF needs to GTFO. My Preseed just came in the mail and I'm dying to try it out. 

Well, that'll teach me.

So after letting myself getting all newb-optimistic about last cycle (implantation dip? Come on, Daisy, you know better than that), it looks like we're back to square one. I wasted far too much time chart stalking to see if mine looked anything like anyone else's pregnancy charts (because obviously if it looks the same, I must be pregnant too, right? FFS, I'm a moron), and I peed on too many sticks. No more reading in to things. It just makes me crazy, and then I feel like an idiot. From now on, I'm being completely rational and objective about TTC. I figure this will last about three days, and then I'll be back in the chart galleries again.

Looking to the bright side of CD1, at least the $40 I dropped on a Divacup last cycle isn't going completely to waste. Also I have three weddings within a month of each other, and a bachelorette party, so at least I don't have to worry about who will notice that I'm not drinking. I plan on getting white-girl wasted at all events.

This is gonna be my year

I can just feel it. Things are happening. I am in the hiring pools for two separate school boards, and I just sent of a ridiculous number of applications to individual schools. All of which are in my second choice school board, but I'm still waiting to hear from my first choice. At this point I'll be happy with whatever I can get. So now that the application process is out of my hands, it's on to the waiting game again. But I have a good feeling about this. I really think this is going to be my year. If I get a job with the board, it'll be almost double my current salary, I'll be with my favourite age group (love those 4- and 5-year olds!), and I'll have summers off. This is seriously my dream job. And all the schools I'm applying to are back closer to my hometown, which is exciting. I love the city I'm in now, but I'm ready to be back closer to family again.

On a more TTC-related note, my chart is still making me twitchy. Temp drop at 7DPO, then big jump at 8DPO, and now just a teeny-tiny drop today (still way above my coverline). I cannot stop chart stalking. Originally I was planning on holding out testing until Friday, but now that my temps are messing with my head this much I'm totally starting tomorrow. Here goes nothing!

Reading too much into things...

So today, at 7DPO (I think; my chart is a hot mess), I had a huge temp drop. Huge. As in, yesterday my temp was 97.90, and today it's 97.21. Far below my coverline. My first thought at 5:45am (which is really too early to be thinking anything at all) was "Damn. Looks like I'm out this cycle". But then when I actually woke up at 9, all I could think was "Ooh, maybe it's implantation! Maybe my chart will become triphasic! Maybe I'm actually pregnant!" So now I'm obsessively stalking pregnancy charts on Fertility Friend, trying to convince myself I'm wrong. Or that I'm right. Actually I'm not sure what I'm trying to convince myself.

I hate the waiting game.

On another note, yesterday was SIL's bridal shower. One of the gifts she opened included wine, lingerie, a vibrator, and a pregnancy test. A pretty expensive digital one. When she commented that it would likely expire before she needed it, I had to stop myself from offering to take it off her hands. I mean, come on. I might need it! And I'm way too cheap to splurge that much on something I'm just going to pee on.
Also I am so stealing that gift idea for the next bridal shower I have to endure (but probably minus the test, and plus a bottle of wine). A little embarrassment for the bride goes a long way when it comes to making a shower more interesting! 

I Think Too Much.

Sometimes I think I think too much. There are times that I ask my husband what he is thinking about, and he responds with "nothing". Once I asked him if he really meant nothing, and he said that his mind was actually blank at that moment. He really wasn't thinking about anything at all. That baffles me. I don't think my mind has ever been blank for one second. Usually I am thinking about several different things at once, and I feel like I just can't relax.

So now I'm starting this blog. I'm hoping it'll be a way for me to get some of my thoughts out of my head and on to paper (OK, a computer), and I'm hoping to be at least somewhat entertaining as well. I'll chronicle what is going on in my life (which at the moment is consumed with attempting to make a tiny human), and hopefully someone out there can relate.

A little about me: I am 26 years old, have been married since August 2012, and I teach preschool, though I am trying my best to get into the school board in a Kindergarten class. My husband and I met when I was 15 (he was 14), and we have been together ever since. We started trying to conceive our first in December of 2012. I knew it could take awhile, but here we are 6 months in and nothing. While I know realistically it can take a perfectly healthy couple up to a year to conceive, I can't help but be frustrated. I'm a planner by nature (I was already planning details of my wedding and dream home when I was 8, and have a ridiculously long list of baby names I've been collecting most of my life), and I have a hard time with the fact that there is really nothing I can do to make TTC go any faster. So for now I'm trying to accept that I'm doing everything I can to make it happen, and someday it will. I hope.