Random Updates

Well I've already failed at keeping up with this blog on a regular basis, but I'll try again!

• I swear I've been more tired the 2nd trimester than the 1st - I actually felt pretty normal during the 1st trimester. I had major problems with being tired before I got pregnant, so I had a hard time believing that I could actually get any tired-er. And it's not that it any more than usual, it just happens earlier. I'd actually like to go to bed right now (6:21pm)
  
  
• I've gotten more and more headaches, which has been really frustrating. My doctor prescribed some medicine, but I hate relying on it to make me feel better. But I guess that's what it's for. I wouldn't be surprised if this insane heat is causing at least some of my headaches. It's unfortunate that I can't take a pill to make the temperature drop by 30 degrees and the humidity drop by 50%.
  
  
• Yesterday, Lee very, um, lovingly pointed out that my belly button looks different. And he was right. It's nowhere near poking out yet, but it's getting shallower by the day. I've gotten attached to my innie, and it's only a matter of time before it's full-fledged outie.
  
  
• I love maternity pants. I've never worn more comfortable clothes in my life. No zippers? Score! No buttons? Another score!
  
  
• I only have one more week of school. I didn't realize how preoccupied I've been with all the planning I want to do for the baby, but it's been insanely hard trying to concentrate on anything school-related. I had been planning on just taking off the Spring semester, but just recently decided to take off the Fall semester too. I'm stressed now, and I'm not big or uncomfortable yet, so I can't even imagine how I'd be next semester. There's no law that says I have to graduate by a certain date - it was just an imaginary deadline I set on myself. So I took it off! And I'm so happy with that decision. Lee's happy too. He can finally get a break from doing my share of the housework (Have I mentioned how wonderful my husband is? He is so very wonderful.)
  
  
• Oh, and we decided not to get the Triple Screen done. It just didn't seem worth it to us. If I were over 35 or either one of us had a family history of illness, then maybe we'd think harder about it. But we feel strongly that God will guide us through whatever He puts in our path. And that's really comforting.
  
  
• Add to the list of delicious food - fresh pineapple.
  
  
• We start birthing class next month. I'm really curious as to what we'll learn. Two of the classes are taught by the teacher's husband, so I know Lee will appreciate that part.
  
  
• Only 8 more days until we find out if we're having a girl gorilla or a boy gorilla!

I'll aim to update more, so that not all my posts are novels.

Silliness

Lee in his (ahem) super cool hat and me in my (ahem) super cool maternity shirt, showing off our bellies. As one gets bigger, one gets smaller!

(taken at 13 weeks)

Food, Prenatal Tests, and Weight Gain

I'm perfectly aware that the few people who DO read this blog probably won't be interested in most of the things I'm posting, but I'm doing this mainly as a keepsake for me. Feel free to ingore the mundane.

No real food aversions so far, except the smell at the fried chicken counter at Walmart really gets to me now. It never smelled especially good - now it smells especially worse. And it's unfortunate that the deli meat counter is right beside the fried chicken. And it's unfortunate that the slowest people in the world work at the deli meat counter at my Walmart. So I'm pretty queasy by the time I get home from grocery shopping. (Yes, I know you're not supposed to eat deli meat when you're pregnant - but my doctor said it was fine, and sometimes I even remember to heat it up before I eat it. So there, lysteria.)

Mexican food, specifically Taco Bell (which I'm sure it's up for debate as to whether or not that even counts as Mexican food, but whatever), has never tasted more delicious. I don't necessarily crave it, but when I do have it, it's absolutely wonderful.

Oh, and Krispy Kreme donuts? Yeah, I don't like them anymore. How weird is that? I used to love them - and few things were better than when you got them "Hot Now". But I've had them twice now, and each time I was highly disappointed. I couldn't even finish a whole one, that's how bad I thought they were. Did they change their recipe? They seem crispier (krispier?) and it's terribly sad.

I haven't felt the baby move yet - or maybe I have and just didn't realize that's what it was. My doctor told me that I might not feel something until closer to 20 weeks.

Right now, the big decision is whether or not to get the triple screen done. Lee and I have gone over the pros and cons of doing it and not doing it. I'm a worrier, through and through. And the high rate of false positives makes me nervous. And if something is in fact wrong with the baby, it's not like we wouldn't go through with the rest of the pregnancy. And chances are, I'd spend the next 5 months worrying myself sick. But if we don't get the test done, and something is wrong, we won't be prepared in advance for how to take care of a special needs child. needless to say, we've been praying a lot over this decision ... and we have to get the test done before I'm 18 weeks, so we're sort of on a time constraint.

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Weight gain: +5 lbs

I know that I WILL gain weight because I know I HAVE to gain weight, and I really have no problem with that, but it's still weird to see the numbers on the scale go up. And to see that my pre-pregnancy jeans that sort of fit a few weeks ago, sort of fit even less is still weird. It's becoming more real day by day.

(Lee and I have agreed that he'll match me pound for pound - whatever I gain, he'll lose. He's worried I won't be happy with him when I'm in my 9th month and huge and he's looking all svelte ... but I told him it'd be okay. I'd forgive him) :)

Finally an update!

Grab some popcorn - this'll be a long one ...

Wow. Okay, so I know it's been a bajillion years since I've last written anything. And I have no excuse other than that I forgot. And that I'm slightly scatterbrained. And that I've had a lot on my mind recently ...

Just when I thought that I didn't have any spare time, grad school kindly reminds me otherwise. I have no idea what I did with my afternoons and evenings before I started back to school. Did I just sit around and twiddle my thumbs? School is going well, and most of the courses have been pretty good so far, so at least it keeps me interested. But I still feel painfully out of practice when it comes to studying, doing homework, and writing papers. But so far I'm doing better in my grad classes compared to my undergrad classes. It's amazing how when you're really interested in a topic, you do better in that class :) Each semester I've gotten one A and one A-. I assume that'll be the same for the Summer semester too.

So there's that news. And there's the news of Baby Smith! Lee and I are seriously beside ourselves with excitement. We started trying around Thanksgiving '07 and on 4/26/08 at 4:30am, we saw two lines! [Happy 2nd anniversary to us! :)] I had taken about three or four pregnancy tests leading up to the 26th and they were all negative. I was getting really grumpy, especially because they don't give out those dang tests for free! I woke up early on the 26th and was on my way to the bathroom when I saw the last test sitting on my counter. I figured I couldn't get any grumpier, so I just went ahead and took it. Because it was so early in the morning and Lee was still dead asleep, I didn't want to make too much noise while I waited. I washed up, threw some clothes in the hamper, rearranged some clothes in my closet (I enjoy my OCD, thank you very much), and was on my way back to bed when I glanced down at the test. It was pretty dark in the bathroom, but there it was - the slightest bit of the 2nd line.

I ran into the bedroom and started shaking Lee to wake him up. I kept saying "It's positive! It's positive!" Lee's response (still half asleep): "You're positive about what?" Then he rolls over and goes back to sleep. So I shake him again and say "The test! The TEST is positive!" Lee's response (again, still half asleep): "But I didn't take a test." Then he rolls BACK over goes back to sleep. So I resort to (lovingly) smacking him on his arm and (politely) demanding that he get up. He finally woke up and realized what I was telling him.

We wanted to find some cute ways to tell our parents. So I found some bibs that said "I love Grandma" and "I love Grandpa" and bought two of each. I called my mom and asked if she and Dad could stop by our house that night, since Lee had some souveniers from his trip to NC that he bought for him (completely true, by the way). I tried to act all nonchalant, but I'm sure I sounded like a goofball. We stuffed Mom's "Grandma" bib into the coffee mug Lee got for her, and Dad's "Grandpa" big into a shotglass. The shotglass was from a rival school of my dad's - Lee loves to tease my Dad about that since Dad frequently says that Lee went to LSU instead of Tulane. Mom picked up on it immediately and started hugging Lee like crazy. Dad's pitching a fit (not really) about the shotglass, about how he most certainly did NOT go to Virginia Tech and that Lee should KNOW better than to get a crazy gift like that. He's holding the bib in his hand but hasn't looked at it yet. I asked what he was holding and he said "Oh it's some sweatband (?!) or something. I'm still mad about this shotglass!" We finally had him look at the bib, and he joined in the celebration.

Lee broke the news to pretty much everyone else with this story "Um, listen ... do you have a second? I need some advice. Okay, so I got this girl pregnant, and I need to know if I should tell Suze or not." He told it like a pro after the first five or so times. He even told that to one of our pastors at church (the pastor who married us!). It definitely caught him off guard, but it only took him about a nanosecond before he realized who this story was coming from. They can read Lee like a book :)

I called to set up an appointment with an OB and was told I had to wait until 5/15/08, which seemed like an absolute eternity. But that day finally came. We didn't meet with our OB then, but we met with her wonderful nurse practitioner. It took some doing but she was finally able to find the baby - it was too small for us to hear the heartbeat but we could definitely see it - a really quick flashing light. Just over a half a centimeter with a heartbeat! That blows my mind.

Overall, the first trimester was very manageable. I was nauseous a lot, but only got sick once. One of my biggest concerns was (and still is) that I got off my daily migraine prevention medicine once I got pregnant. I've read that many times, women who have migraines before they get pregnant don't have them after they get pregnant. But I'm still worried - especially since the only thing I can take is Extra Strength Tylenol, which is completely useless in my opinion (sorry Johnson and Johnson, or whoever it is that makes Tylenol, but it's true).
So far I haven't had too many bad headaches. I've gotten them more than I was hoping, but I haven't had a full-fledged migraine. The nurse practitioner prescribed some other headache medicine for me to take if I get a really bad one. Hopefully I won't have to use it, but it's nice to have if I do.

Our second appointment was on 6/9/08. Lee was out of town, helping his sister and her family move from Milton, FL to Fresno, CA. I knew I didn't want to go to the appointment by myself, especially if something went wrong, so I invited my mom to come with me. She seemed really tickled to be able to go. I got to meet my OB at this appointment, and she seems really nice. She wasn't able to hear the heartbeat with the little Doppler thing, so she had to do an ultrasound (score!). And again, it took a while to find it, but all of a sudden there was a baby on the monitor! A little alien-ish, but a baby nonetheless! It was really incredible. And it only took a few seconds before the baby started shaking its little arm buds and little leg buds. This is definitely his father's child. And we heard the heartbeat! A healthy 160 bpm! We got some really neat ultrasound pictures from that appointment. Although I wish Lee could have been there, it was really special to have my mom with me.

(And yes, I keep calling the baby a "he". Lee's called the baby a "he" from the moment we found out I was pregnant and it's rubbed off on me. Even though we say "he", more often than not, we call the baby GB, short for Gorilla Baby. I married into a BIG-baby-having family, so I have no doubt that this baby will continue the tradition. Lee jokes - though I use that word loosely as it's not funny at ALL - that the baby will be 18 pounds at birth. 16 pounds of head and 2 pounds of body. Poor kid.)

I'm slowly growing out of my clothes, which is a bit of a bummer since there's not a huge market for tall maternity clothes. Old Navy has been helpful, but not as much as I was hoping. I showed my pooch to Lee a few weeks ago and he said he didn't notice any difference. Now that means that either he thinks that I look like I *always* have a pooch or that he just can't see the bulge that I can. Let's hope it's the second one. :)

We had our third appointment on 7/9/08, again with the nurse practitioner, so Lee has yet to meet our OB. We were hoping for another ultrasound, but unfortunately (not really) she could find the heartbeat with the Doppler thing. There was all of this static noise at first and she said that was the baby moving around. Apparently he wouldn't be still for her to hear the heartbeat (again, such his father's child). My sister said it perfectly - "like trying to stab a grape with a fork!" :) Finally the nurse practitioner found it and it sounded great - 140 bpm!

We find out where it's a girl GB or a boy GB on 8/6/08! Can. Not. Wait!