Insomnia sucks

If you know me, you know I LOOOOOVVEEEE my sleep. Love it! I loved being able to sleep 10+ hours if I had the chance. It seemed easier to do when I was a day-shifter and not a night-shifter, but, either way, I could really get my sleep on if I had the time.


However, not lately. I don't know if it is pregnancy, vacation throwing me off my schedule, excitement about my brother's upcoming graduation, stress/excitement about the buying of our house and, now, the process of moving in and getting everything set up, or the fact that my doctors' appointments that I'm looking forward to are now 1 week and 2 weeks away. (So close!) Either way, I never hardly sleep past 3pm, and rarely get more than 2 to 4 hours sleep at a time. It really sucks. 


I've even tried benedryl to make me sleep (baby safe, I've checked). That stuff used to knock me out for a billion hours back in the day. Now? Nothing. I've taken two today and only slept four hours. And I still have to go to work! Ugh! At least I found a new Facebook game that really holds my attention for a long time to help me out during the slower times at night. Last night I worked on only about 2.5 hours of sleep and only once almost nodded off...and that was before I found the Facebook game, lol. (oh, and definitely not when I had any patient care to be concerned with!)


But, all in all, I blame this on the baby. Never in my life have I ever had sleeping problems, until now. It seems I can go to sleep just fine in the beginning, but I can't stay asleep for long. Once I wake up, I'm up. I'm hoping after my brother's graduation weekend, and after we get officially moved all the way in, things will settle down. Time will only tell, but I have to be more diligent about my sleep schedule. No more marathon naps! It's ruining bed time!


On another note, I'm 16 weeks this week. I think all the books call this week within the 4th month of pregnancy. Of the two books I have, they disagree on month 5. One says it starts at week 17 and the other says like week 18. How they could be so different, I have no idea...but whatever. I'm four months it seems regardless of the source, so that's cool. Almost half way through...but I know the more difficult times are coming in the third trimester...but so are the more fun times (feeling baby kick and all). Week 16 is an Avocado, the baby is like 4.5 inches long and about 3oz in weight, his or her eyes can actually now sense light, and is able to move around better thanks to innervation and muscles making enough connections to do it, though I haven't felt the kiddo move yet. The books say it's a bit early still.


I sneeze more, even though I've never experienced seasonal allergies in my life. I've officially ordered maternity jeans because mine just aren't comfortable sitting down anymore without at least un-buttoning them, if not unzipping a tad, lol. Otherwise, I think I just look pudgy. Oh, and I still pee all the freaking time. I still haven't found the heartbeat with my stethoscope or the Doppler machines at work. I've actually given up on the ones at work, don't remember if I mentioned that or not. Other than that, I'm great! Just sleepless...


Here is a picture of me in regular length Old Navy maternity jeans and maternity shirt. (I bought the shirt, but went online to get long jeans.) I think they look good!

15 weeks now...

And nothing really new to report. I still don't think I have a "bump," yet. What I have is really just some fat. But I'm ok with that. I'm a big girl (as in tall with not a slight frame)...I have some room to spare.


However, now that the house is actually BOUGHT, we can starting thinking a little of the nursery. Most of the consideration will happen after we find out what we're having, but dumb things, like which room will the nursery be in, we can decide on now.


Since the new home is 4 bedrooms, we sorta have 3 to choose from. Our real estate agent just LOVED what was used as the study to be a nursery, but I personally think it is a terrible idea. I don't remember if Brandon weighed in on that idea or not, but here are my reasons. It is right next to the front door. The other two bedrooms are more on the side of the house, so there would be a lot less potential noise and traffic. Also, as it does have a super cute little chandelier and really pretty yellow painting already, it has French doors. If we wanted to close the door and keep the noise or lights out of the room, it would only be the French doors, which I just don't see as being as effective as a real door. I love the French doors, but not for a bedroom/nursery. And, besides, whichever room we pick for the nursery will be the kid's room as he or she grows up. I don't intend to have one room be a nursery and another room be the kid's room. That is too much work and moving crap around.


That leaves two rooms that are practically identical and side-by-side. I know which room I'd pick, and I think Brandon said he never really thought about it. It really makes little different. I would say which room I'd pick, but, literaly, it would be saying I pick left over the right. That gives no information, but is practically is all there is to the "big" decision to make. But, there we have it. After we pick, we can decide if we want to leave the colors as is, or paint some in the room. I think that will depend on what we're having some, but I don't want to go crazy with paint. I just can't imagine having a girl, painting a room bubble-gum pink, and leaving it that way for years. I suppose as the kid is little, no one will really care what color there is, but the thought of painting over colors like that just makes me cringe, too. I think any painting done should be simple and maybe just an accent wall or border or something, and leave the rest some neutral, generic color that could be easy to change decor over time and not clash.


But here are pictures of a convertible crib that would help keep the kid's nursery his or her room forever.

This isn't exactly what I'll get, but I do like this one a lot! See the top left picture is a perfect little crib, then can convert two different ways for a toddler/day bed. Then can convert one more time to a full size bed with headboard and foot board. Talk about all in one! It also has matching furniture, the chest of drawers and changing table. The changing table can have a hutch with it, but I'm not personally a huge fan of hutches. Also, not all changing tables have the little tower, which I'm not that fond of, but can make use of it for years. I think a nice toy storage area or something for the future. But, if I can find a set that looks more like a set of drawers than a changing tower, I'll likely hit that up instead of one exactly like this. But I love the options!

I was going to find pictures of cute nurseries that aren't over-done and show you things I kinda like, but I think this post is long enough right now. Have to same up something for the next uneventful update post, right?

Fruit

A little back story. When I was planning our wedding, I participated in the local boards on TheKnot.com. I found it very helpful and found some cool people through it as well. TheNest.com I haven't participated in much because I haven't exactly had my own "nest," yet. I know you don't have to have a house, apartment, condo, whatever to participate, but there just wasn't a niche for me. I thought I'd like the Pets board, but I only check these sites about once or twice a day, the board was just too active for me to keep up with, and many of the ladies on the Pets board just took some things too extreme for me. They'd probably flame me for not going to the emergency vet every time one of my dogs had one of their freak lacerations. But, they've all healed just fine, thank you.


Anyways, I'm on TheBump.com now. The boards I enjoy the most would be my birth month board and Baby Names. Baby Names is a harsh board at times. Many girls are diplomatic about names they don't like (and, believe me, the poster is asking opinions, thus they're receiving them.) But some girls are very gung-ho, lets say, about why you should not name your child *insert name*. The typical reasons are things like, imagine a CEO of a company being named that, or how everyone will mispronounce it because of it's eu-neek spelling, or, for example, names like Judas will always carry bad connotations (even though, obviously, the child was not the person who sold out Jesus Christ back in the day). Apparently, there are names like Justyce Libertee for girls and a new name Nevaeh (meant to be Heaven, backwards, with a trans-location of vowels to make it more natural to say). Let's just say...not MY style, thanks.


But the point, you can have a ticker on TheBump associated with every time you post, and I picked the one that shows about what size your baby is compared to common fruit. It was fun...until NOW! Oh, and I assume they got the ticker idea from the popular book What to Expect When You're Expecting, because, in most of it's week by week descriptions of what is going on, it often compares the sizes to common fruit.


Weeks 3&4: Poppyseed (ok, not fruit, but seeds)


Week 5: Appleseed


Week 6: Sweet Pea


Week 7: Blueberry


Week 8: Raspberry


Week 9: Green Olive


Week 10: Prune


Week 11: Lime


Week 12: Plum


Week 13: Peach


Week 14: Lemon *me right now


Week 15: Naval Orange


The rest are: 16, Avocado; 17, Onion; 18, Sweet Potato; 19, Mango; 20, Cantaloupe; 21, Banana; 22-24, Papaya; 25-28, Eggplant; 29-32, Squash; 33-36, Honeydew; 37-delivery, Watermelon.


Why is my new fruit not exciting? Because I think lemons and limes are the same danged size just about! Lime was week 11, and, at 14, I'm a lemon? LAME! Also, on common fruit sizes, how exactly different is a peach from an orange from an onion (week 17)? Toss lemons and limes in there as well and it's like all the same size for weeks.


Now, the books do say that this week growth will vary a lot, which I'm assuming is why the similar sizes in fruit, but it was kind of fun seeing the fruit getting bigger, slowly, every week. Now it's more like...ugh. 


I just can't wait until I can confirm this isn't fat on my belly but a baby. Because right now it looks like fat. It doesn't necessarily 100% feel like fat...but ya, I feel fat. 


Maybe I should eat some more of the stupid fruit that is annoying me. 

I'm obsessed...

With my stethoscope. According to one of the books I have, I won't be able to hear my baby's heartbeat with a stethoscope until about 18 weeks (I'm 14 and some right now). Brandon told me I'm obsessed...and I think I'm ok with that!


What did not help with the obsession is my mom who remembers hearing my heartbeat before I was born with her own stethoscope. She also said, when she had time, she'd go and grab a doppler machine at work and listen to my heartbeat that way before she could find it with her stethoscope. (yes, I've dopplered myself at work, so has the monitor tech and the patient care tech, lol. Love you ladies, by the way) Mom swears she could do it this early, but, gosh, that was like, 30 years ago? 


All I hear right now is my stomach, and, wow, my stomach can make some crazy sounds! Of course I knew this already, because my stomach has bordered on hyperactive in sounds my entire life. Now, it's just nutty.


I also can find my heartbeat. I've convinced myself it's the blood flow through the placenta, but it is probably just one of the many large vessels that supply all my organs. 


Oh, and when we got home from vacation, mom said to me, "I bet I could find your baby's heartbeat with my stethoscope." She didn't know I try almost daily. So I challenged her to find it, and all she found was my heartbeat and tons of tummy noises. She laughed at me actually and declared them hyperactive, as well.


Oh well. Eventually I'll get to hear it without being at the doc office and can share it with Brandon and mom and whoever else wants to hear (my stethoscope stays in my purse since that's how I transport it to and from work). 


We still have a couple weeks until any big appointments. So, most likely just boring stuff until then! I'm ok with that!

My Second Doc Appointment

On the 26th of April I got to go see my doc for my first monthly "tummy check."  Brandon didn't get to make it no thanks to some buttholes who managed to wreck out on the highway and make him late enough he was unable to come. :( He was sad, but at least it wasn't an important doctor's appointment. He didn't get to hear the cool part, but the rest was relayed to him probably in more detail, by me, than he'd ever care.

As usual, they were running a bit behind (my appointment was at 9 and I don't think I saw my doc until 9:30...), but getting me back to pee in a cup and check sugars and protein (at least that's what I assume the dipstick was about) and take my blood pressure at least helped the time go by until I saw the doc. (oh, and don't worry, I really won't blog about every single doc appointment...because I imagine they'll mostly all be similar...but 2nd time hearing the heartbeat was nice.)

What was funny was the first time the nurse took my blood pressure, it was with the automatic machine and it read systolic of 160! That's too high for me, lol. I told the nurse, "That's not right." And she agreed and did it manually. The second reading was something like 138/78. 138 is actually still a tad high for me, but soooo much more normal of a blood pressure. Granted, I had just finished a 12 hour shift where I was in charge, which always makes me apprehensive, and had a patient we had to do a lot with, which is not normal. I'm sure I was still amped.

Anyways, fast forward to the good part. Doc came in to see me and she had this little hand held doppler machine, put some goop on me, and, viola, baby's heartbeat! It was perfectly quick and made me happy to hear it. I didn't realize how sometimes since I have mild to no symptoms (especially moving into the 2nd trimester, now) how I felt I needed that little sound to reassure me all was well. I mean, I feel normal...except I haven't gotten my period and I feel fatter, lol.

She did mention that they ran extra blood tests on me because I work in health care and that I'm immune to Parvo (which made me think of the dog disease and how the hell did I get immune to that...but then I realized it was the human parvovirus, and, whatever, no big deal lol). However, and I knew this before they drew my blood, she was not so thrilled that I have no immunity to CMV. I knew this since before I got pregnant, I gave blood regularly. The technicians at Carter Blood Care had already told me that my blood tested CMV negative, which meant my blood was able to go to babies in need of transfusions (which was AWESOME in my book). They had also told me that most people end up with immunity to it, not because they got sick with CMV or anything, but, like many things most of us are immune to and we don't know it, we were exposed to it, our body fought it, we didn't get sick, and immunity was created. It's not like the doc wants to put me in a bubble or anything, but she just said to be extra careful with the sick patients. Lucky me...we usually don't get patients like that. I can go into details about why...but we just don't. 

What I was a tad surprised the doc didn't bring up was that I was Rh Negative (not a big deal, but it buys me extra shots throughout this pregnancy and any further ones...especially since hubbers is Rh positive). But she said all of my blood work looked great, my weight was fine, and my blood pressure was good (thank God for the recheck). She told me I was making it too easy on her. Hello? Could I have a luckier pregnancy so far? I think not.

Anyways, that was that. Like ten minutes with the doc and I was outta there. I have another "tummy check" in four weeks and in five weeks my next ultrasound! Which will be super awesome since not only will we get to see the little minion again...we'll get a guesstimate on what gender our baby is! Let us pray the kiddo cooperates and we get a clear look-see.  

We figure after we find out the sex...we'll start looking at buying baby crap! 

Not that I believe in signs, but...

And by signs, I mean if I dreamed I was having a girl, then it must be a girl. That kind of thing.


Side note:  I don't know if anyone tried to be clicky and vote on my silly little poll...but I don't think it was working anyways. It wouldn't let me vote! Lol. It should be fixed now...in case you cared. It let me vote...


However, what I've found to be a bit amusing is Brandon's recent Pei Wei trips.


Now, if you've been to Pei Wei and grabbed one of their fortune cookies, then you'll know they give some random comment (where a fake fortune USED to be, no thanks to whoever whined so much that their "fortune" didn't come true), some lottery numbers, and on the other side, a word and how to say and spell it in the language. (I assume it is Chinese...but if it is Japanese, I'm sorry. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to know for certain with somewhat generic restaurants like Pei Wei...though I love them!).


Anyhow, back to the topic at hand, Brandon REALLY loves Pei Wei, and he frequently orders take out or eats there. Well, a few weeks ago, I get a text message from him including a picture of what the word of the fortune cookie was.


Here it is:

So, needless to say, we thought this was highly amusing and will be so tickled if the baby turns out to be a boy, after all. Let me remind you that this is the part of the "fortune" that is teaching you how to spell and say the word, not the fortune. Just in case you didn't catch on.


Well, fast forward to tonight, and Brandon gets sent home sick. Stupid pollen. But he stops and grabs some Pei Wei on the way home. When I get back from eating at my grandma's, I go and sit with him and he offers me his fortune cookie. Of course, I want the fortune cookie. I make a joke about how I'll scream if it teaches us the word girl now. But, alas, this is what came out:

It seems, according to Pei Wei, we're having a boy and he'll join us in October, not November. I guess I need to save up a little more vacation time to stay out through New Years!

Weird symptoms & Dopplers?

Everyone seems to know all the usual symptoms: nausea and vomiting, peeing all the time, sore boobs, crazy sense of smell, and emotional.


While I have a couple of those, and some pretty mild, what I didn't expect with pregnancy was my skin to freak out! I thought you were supposed to have this great skin, hair, and nails (what I'm learning is that many women, once they start the prenatal vitamins, get this...but I was already taking vitamins so mine didn't change). Instead, I feel like a damn teenager again. And not the simple, oh lets pop that real quick pimple...but the "under the skin," swollen, and painful nodules that fester and take forever to go away. Ugh.


I've already really mentioned this on my main blog, but what I didn't mention about it is it's everywhere! My face, my back, my chest, and my upper arms!!! (wtf, upper arms?) It isn't that bad, really, but when you go from nothing to something, then it's shocking enough. And I'm a picker! (I know, I know, bad, bad Kim) Or, if I'm concentrating on something and, say, my arm itches, I'll scratch it, right. But then I'll feel a little bump and I'll scratch at that, because, well, it's small and whatever. Next thing I know my upper arm is reddened because I've started scratching at all the wanna be pimples trying to sprout. I frustrate the crap out of myself.


So, now that some of the exhaustion is relieving (thank God!), I'm being much more aggressive at skin care. I can't stand it! Hopefully, this will all clear up nicely and quick.


Instead of getting nausea, I had a gagging feeling. Like something in my throat wanted to make me gag. And, for a while, it was when I thought of eating, then that slowly went away. Then, it was only certain things that somehow elicited the gagging feeling. But, although almost all of the gagging feeling is gone now, I still have a hard time with one thing...


Little back story: when I first found out I was pregnant, I went batshit crazy looking up cloth diaper websites and found tons of blogs and random people that were giving away free "fluff." (definition of fluff: another name for cloth diapers, and, yes, I'm hoping to cloth diaper) I signed up to follow their blogs, I liked them on Facebook, I signed up for all the giveaways. I wore myself out doing that, but, hey, free stuff is free stuff, right? Anything to save money!


In comes gagging phase...and every single time I saw a Facebook post from a cloth diaper person, or a blog update about cloth diapers, or anything of the sort...I wanted to gag. Yes, I found a random aversion to cloth diaper sites. It expanded to almost anything pregnancy. Any emails I got related to pregnancy, I wanted to gag. The thought of going on TheBump.com made me want to gag. I had to delete following the blogs and remove those diaper people from my Facebook. I couldn't' stand it. I had not the energy or the gag tolerance for all the jazz. Next thing I know...it was starting to affect anything related to Brandon and I buying a house! But, thank God, it never got that bad and I could muscle through those websites.


So, chalk one up for most random aversion ever. Not food, not smell, but a theme...I guess is the best way to call it?


Well, I was reading the birth month board on TheBump that I belong to, and, someone posted about finding the baby's heartbeat on her home Doppler. What? She has a home Doppler? Why? So I looked at it and found out you can buy a home Doppler machine. Other than searching for a baby's heartbeat, I am CLUELESS as to why you'd want one of these. (I'm just saying I can't fathom another reason...but I'm sure there are other reasons for them...)


Then I thought, if she has one, it can't be very expensive. We're all saving to buy a ton of crap for a little one, so no way would anyone would spend a good amount of money on a Doppler when they're planning to spend so much on baby stuff. I thought, if it isn't expensive, it might be fun to play with, that's all. Because, really, who wouldn't want to hear that extra, super fast heartbeat anytime you wanted? (assuming you were of sound enough mind that, if you couldn't find it, you wouldn't freak because sometimes babies are elusive) She had linked the site from where she bought the Doppler, and I clicked it. On discount, it was $63. I would NEVER spend $63 on something so very random. Really, what else are you going to use it for? Maybe I'm too frugal, but I'll pass. However, now you know, if you didn't, that you can buy one...if you want...and find whatever use for it you'd like! How many onesies could you buy with $63? Or, baby wipes, diapers, toys, blankets, etc? Ya, pass for me.


But, as I'm rounding out week 10 and looking forward to week 11 (and really looking forward to finishing week 12 and officially entering SECOND TRIMESTER), I feel good. I think lately I've been sleeping a lot, not because I'm tired, but because I know I'll get hungry and I don't feel like figuring food out...so I'll go back to sleep. Bad, bad me.


And no pictures. Sorry. I pretty much look exactly as I always have (no belly yet), and the next doc appointment is April 26, and even then I don't know what we'll be doing. I think the next ultrasound is at 18 weeks...so, that isn't April 26 lol.