EXPOSED!

I'm still plugging along. I've started to not worry as much about certain things, which I don't know if that's good or bad. But it is what it is. I decided I'm not going to stress about sleeping on my back, I'm not going to stress about eating lunch meat, and well, essentially I'm trying not to stress about too much. Which has me a tad discombobulated. I mean, I'm a stresser. It's what a do. I like to be prepared, but no matter how prepared I am, I stress. Well, for some reason I've taken a completely different mantra to this pregnancy. Heck, I'm barely reading any books about the whole thing. Can you believe it?!? It's not that I don't have plenty of reading material on hand (thanks to many friends!), but I just haven't felt the need to go pick them up. The good ole "What to Expect When You're Expecting" - you know, the Bible of pregnancies? Yah, haven't cracked it. WHAT IS UP WITH ME?!?! So not only am I not stressing, but I'm also not really preparing either. Oh well.

But I do need to vent about something today. Pregnancy. Three months (and that's if you're lucky) of feeling like you're in a constant state of being hungover, but without the fun the night before, followed by dry red eyes, breakouts, the "fat" stage (you know, where you don't yet look pregnant, just fat?), cutting out certain foods you love (aka, sushi!), and a whole host of other things. Don't even get me started on not being able to drink during football season. WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO?!? But, no, on top of ALL of this, your boobs get humongous. Yes, that is my vent today. The girls are huge. I'm feeling a little inappropriate at work even. Maybe I should quite my job and go be a Hooters girl. Oh wait, mine are REAL so that's out. Maybe there is a Hooters for pregnant women somewhere? Reminder to self: Look that up. Anyway, I'm feeling a tad, well, exposed. And I'm not liking it. But there's something worse. Men just get to sail through the entire nine months. And to top off the whole pregnancy experience, they get bigger boobs to look at as well. How is this fair?!? They don't have to outgrow all of their bras, all of their clothes, all the time being scared to death they're going to get cankles, and in the end push out an 8 pound baby. Oh no. They don't have to deal with any of that. But they get big boobs. Every guys dream. And they get it. Tell me, what did women do to piss off God that much?!? Was eating the apple THAT big of a deal?!?

*sigh*

That's all I've got.

On a brighter note, we have another ultrasound on Monday. Hopefully it will help me forget about my enlarged mammaries.

The Survey Part II

So I went to the doctor yesterday and, yup, baby's still in there. The heartbeat was going a mile a minute - but I hear that's normal. It's so weird to hear the difference between my heartbeat and the baby's.

Completely random and off topic, but one of my biggest pet peeves is bananas that don't open properly. You know the kind right? Where you try to open it and it doesn't split right and then you're fussing with it to open and then the top of the banana gets all mushy? Ugh. So frustrating. I only bring it up because as I was typing this, I was trying to eat my banana and that happened. And it's the second time this week!!! This bunch of bananas are being completely uncooperative.

Ok, back to the topic at hand. Since I just got felt up by the doctor I figured it was as good a time as any to update my survey!

How far along? 16 weeks today baby! (Doing this survey on Wednesdays appears to be becoming a theme....)

Total weight gain/loss? 4 pounds - gained. But I guess I can't complain.

Maternity clothes? Well I still just have the one pair of black Gap slacks and the Old Navy jeans (although I can't wear those to work, which makes me sad). I'm waiting for my new pair of khaki Gap slacks to come in. Oh, and I did just buy three dresses from the maternity store yesterday! But I'm not positive I'm keeping them yet...... they definitely will look adorable when I have a bigger belly, but right now, I'm not so sure. And I'm about to have to head into bigger tops. The girls are just popping out of my old ones!

Stretch marks? Not that I can see. I'm counting my blessings so far.

Sleep? Ugh, horrible. I read in one of my many baby books that about this time I need to start trying to not sleep on my back. Well, I sleep on my side a lot normally, so I didn't figure this would be a big deal. Was I wrong! I don't know why, but my hips are KILLING me! I'm assuming it's from sleeping on them and never taking the time to get on my back or stomach. But they hurt so bad. And I am waking up every 2 hours or so because they hurt and then I have to switch sides. I can't believe it. This is going to be a LOOOOONG pregnancy if this keeps up.

Best moment this week? Finally starting to feel decent again! I think I may be over that stupid viral thing I had!! YIPPEE! And it appears that the morning sickness may be gone as well. Thank the Lord!

Movement? Nope, still just indigestion! LOL

Food cravings? I'm still craving fruit and smoothies. But my new thing is definitely Icees. Preferably the cherry ones (although I broke down and got a coke one yesterday because I HAD TO HAVE ONE and they were out of cherry). I am LOVING them! Granted it's been a bazillion degrees out down here and they are very cool and refreshing! Oh, and I am somewhat getting my appetite back for meat. But it is definitely not something I crave.

Labor signs? Again, no. Thank goodness!

Belly button in or out? Still M.I.A. :-( I'm really starting to wonder what my belly is going to look like with this weird belly button thing I have going on.

What I miss? I miss sleeping on my back.

What I'm looking forward to? Starting the nursery!!! (Oh, and also starting to show .... more. LOL)

Milestone? I have a few. They may seem small potatoes to you guys, but they are big to me. (1) Buying new (and bigger) bras.
(2) I'm starting to feel better!
(3) Going into a maternity store and shopping for the first time.

Hope you enjoyed my update! I have another doctor's appointment in two weeks, but that is for another ultrasound, so I probably won't do an update. Stay tuned for the next one .... I think I may just update right after my doctor's appointments. It's an easy timeline to remember! Plus, I'll know whether I want to post my weight loss/gain! LOL

Happy Hump Day!

Am I Human?

I'm so ready to crawl into a hole and die. Or at least stay there until I feel somewhat human again. I had two days, two wonderful days, of feeling really normal again. And then it was gone. We went to Waco, Texas over Memorial Day weekend to visit Jeremy's brother and his family. They just moved into this huge compound and I am not exaggerating when I call it that. The place is massive. But I guess when you're breeding you're own small army it has to be. But it was beautiful. I did take photos. And no they are not attached to this post. They are still on my camera in true Ashley fashion. I bet you guys wonder how I ever became a photographer huh? LOL Good question. I'm actually pretty good about my client's photos - getting them off the camera immediately, uploading into Lightroom, backing them up, editing, etc. But then again - those people are PAYING me. When it comes time for personal photos, I just don't have the energy. It's weird, I know. I'm weird, I get it. Deal with it.

So we get to the compound last Thursday. We basically chilled around the house, playing games, watching movies, and swimming. There was lots and lots of swimming. But it was fabulous. And Friday and Saturday? Yup. Those were my two days of normal. My "morning sickness" (aka, feeling nauseas all day long - especially when I was hungry - but not wanting to eat anything because nothing sounded appetizing) was gone! I woke up feeling great. All day I felt great. I ate as I pleased. I even had some meat for dinner without the urge to vomit (although I only had a very small amount!). It was pure bliss. I finally had reached that stage in the second trimester where I was going to start feeling like a human being again. Sunday I still felt pretty decent but I did wake up with a case of pink eye. From where, I have no clue. I had been around 3 rugrats (two of whom had gone to birthday parties....) but none of them had it. Oh well. I did. Joy. But still, overall, I'm feeling pretty good.

Then Monday morning hit. It's 3 a.m. and I have my head in the toilet throwing up. But trust me, this was NOT related to the pregnancy. Oh no. I had felt like this once before. Back in my second year of law school, it's spring break, and Jeremy and I had gone to California to go skiing. And somehow I came down with some 24 hour bug - and it just so happened to be on the day we had to drive across the Sierra Nevada (yah, I'm horrible at geography, so I'm not exactly sure what mountain range it was....) from Reno to Mammoth Lakes. It's like 3-4 hours of nothing. Complete nothingness. And you're on winding mountain roads with no place to pull over. That is when I learned the art of throwing up in gallon sized ziploc bags. Yah, pleasant image huh?

Well that is how I felt Monday morning. OH and guess what. Another travel day. Monday we were leaving to come back to Tallahassee. Needless to say, I threw up again getting ready to go to the airport, threw up in the car on the way to the airport, threw up in the Dallas airport, and again on the flight from Dallas to Tallahassee. Let me just put it on the record that airplane throw-up bags are made for children. They are so small and the opening is not nearly wide enough. I totally felt like I was going to get it everywhere. But I didn't. I succeeded! I was so proud of myself. For all of 1 minute until I wanted to throw up again.

I know, this is all TMI. Whatever. You are my friends. Hence you get to know all of the gross details. So that's where I've been: sick. Luckily, all of the nausea ended on Monday. But Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat and a headache from Hades. Plus, all this time I had horrible body aches. Ugh. I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday, just to be told it is "viral." Those are the WORST words ever. Seriously. When you are feeling like shit and you want nothing more than to fall into a deep drug-induced coma so you don't have to suffer anymore, the last thing you want to hear is that whatever you have is viral. Because that means no drugs. No magic pill to help it all go away. Granted, even if they had a magic pill for what I had, I probably wouldn't have been allowed to take it. You know, being pregnant and all [rolling my eyes]. But I would have at least liked to have felt justified when I told people I had the flu. Because that's what it felt like. But no - it's VIRAL. Blah. They were able to give me something for the pink eye though. Some nice little eye drops that burn the cotton-pickin corneas out of your eyes. Oh my gosh they hurt. And this morning - I woke up with more crusties. I don't think this burning eye drop solution is working. And I'm pissed. But I'll give it a few more days.

Anyway, so that's where I've been. Home sick all week. I came in to work yesterday. Big mistake. I felt horrible the whole time. I came in late, took a long lunch, and left early though. But still. I should have stayed home and slept. I'm feeling A TAD better today, but still not very good. This is the longest a sickness has ever stuck around with me - at least in recent memory. So I don't know what to think. I guess I'll just continue to "get lots of rest and drink lots of fluids." Since that's the only prescription I'll get. Please, please, let me start to feel human again!

If you made it to the end of this post without feeling queasy. Congratulations! You are a real trooper and I appreciate your loyalty. Now if you want to slip me a few drugs, I'd really appreciate it . . . .