Update, December 14

OK, so I'm now in my third month. I am tweleve weeks and 3 days today. My next doctor's appointment is January 6 at 10:30.

My mom remembers having an ultrasound at three months with my little brother, and we found out he was a "he" then. I don't think my doctor is doing another ultrasound until February. I will be sure to take a DVD-R just in case.

I have finally gotten to the point where some of my jeans are too tight to wear when they're buttoned and zipped. So today I ordered a belly band from http://www.babybeminematernity.com/. I ordered it this morning, and I've already received a shipment email! And today's Sunday! Talk about fast service. I got the Mommy+Daddy=Me band. So cute! I thought I'd get just one for now, to see if I like them before I buy a lot of them.

Got my husband a Wii for Christmas. He got me a laptop. Everyone's happy. Got Chris Guitar Hero 3 (Legends of Rock) for the Wii. He doesn't know yet. He found out yesterday that Daddy has a Wii, and now he has informed us that he needs us to get him Guitar Hero 3 for it. So we did good there!

Gotta get back to work!

Update from the lazy pregnant lady....

Since I haven't blogged in FOREVER.



Last prenatal appointment was Dec. 3. Had our first ultrasound. We have A baby with A heartbeat. (Thank God, no twins that we know of! For those that don't know me IRL, I have a very strong family history.) Picture from ultrasound below:

AWW, how precious! We were so excited! Our next appointment is January 6. I will be 15 weeks and 5 days. Probably too soon to tell baby's gender. Which means the earliest we will probably know is February 6. BOO! :(

Now for a shout out: My mom finished her NaNo novel by the deadline. I have read the first half of it, and it rocks! Way to go, Momma!

Morning weight yesterday morning was 148.6. This afternoon (when I woke up to go to work) I weighed 147.2. Whatever.

WARNING, slightly TMI follows: I do know that when my 6-day straight run of constipation finally ended, I lost 2 pounds in a matter of a couple of days. All I can say is YAY for Minute Maid Orange Juice Plus Calcium (the "high pulp" variety). It saved me from certain unpleasantness and pain, amongst other possibilities.

OK, TMI moment over. Other pregnancy symptoms are surprisingly absent for the most part. I still tire easily. I try to take care to not overdo it on the physical activity. I had ordered a prenatal yoga DVD from a seller on Amazon, only to have my money refunded due to the title not being in stock like they said. I had hoped to get into it. I have read that prenatal yoga will make carrying the baby during the later stages of pregnancy easier, and also helps make birth easier for most women.

I have been getting headaches a few times a week, too. Nothing too major, a Tylenol or two makes them go away relatively quickly. I'm sure it doesn't help that I can't take my beloved sinus pills during pregnancy. Roberta told me my faves were no-no's. I tried saline nasal spray, but it makes my throat hurt when I use them. Considering a neti pot, but I really hate having water up my nose, so we'll see. Momma and Grandmother swear by their neti pots. I'm not entirely sold on the idea. Even though during the summer I can always breathe more easily for a couple of days after a nice swim in the pool.

I got all my Christmas decorations up while I was off work. That was a major undertaking, even though I put up less decorations than usual, I think. There's lots of stuff I left boxed up in our closet. I put up the tree last Friday with Michael's help. I decorated it Saturday. I put up houses and other decorations through Monday. Took Tuesday and Wednesday off, pretty much. Wrapped all the presents we have so far except for 4 or 5 Thursday night while I tried to stay awake as late as possible. That was a feat! I wrapped between 20 and 30 presents in 3 hours. Of course, I cheated. They all went into either bags or already-decorated boxes. I've decided to take it easy this Christmas and conserve my energy for more important things. Like procrastinating against doing all the decluttering and organizing of all my "stuff" that I keep promising Michael I will do soon. I really have to start getting it done. At the rate i'm going, it's going to take until after my maternity leave is over next August just to get my kitchen/dining room done!

On a brighter note, it's almost time for me to go home and sleep! Yay!!!!

Oh, while I'm still here: ROLL DAMN TIDE!!! I'll be awake today just in time for kickoff! I'll get to see most of the game before work.

Update for 11/2 - Oh Crappy Day!

9:07 AM
I still feel nauseated every time I eat. And that extra hour of sleep last night didn't help. I read somewhere that a pregnant woman laying on a couch watching television burns more calories and expends more energy than a man at the gym doing bodybuilding workouts. It must be true, because I'm exhausted.

My sinuses are killing me. It is making my head hurt. And my neck. I want a nap so bad right now..... Stupid job, stupid work. Interfering with my ability to nap all day.....

3:34 PM
I feel a little better. Not as nauseated. My sinus have loosened a little. That has lead to my neck and head not hurting anymore. (For now.) Still want a nap. I've already told Michael that dinner will be frozen pizza or corn dogs, I don't care which as long as I don't have to cook for more than 10 or 15 minutes when I get home. Then it'll be a shower, and bed.

More pregnancy update

Also, nausea (what little I've had of it) sucks! I was nauseated last thursday, so I spent my entire only day off feeling like warmed up crap. Now today I've been nauseated on and off all freaking day. Ugh! Last time I was pregnant, I was NEVER nauseated. Why can't every pregnancy be like that?

And I have acne. I rarely had bad acne as a teenager, but now both cheeks are covered in tiny pimples. It feels almost like sandpaper with all teh little bumps.....

SO, boredom at work leads me to you now....

First, a big welcome to my sis, who finally gave in and joined our mother and myself in the world of blogging. My mother blogs so much, she has 5 (yes, five!!!!) blogs.

Now on to bigger, more important information: my pregnancy update. I was 6 weeks yesterday. Today I am 6 weeks and 1 day. I'm a fat cow. LOL. No, really. Wait until you see my weight as of yesterday at the end of the post. (No fair peeking ahead!) My back hurt so bad last night that I couldn't sleep. I am so tired, I'm ready to resort to taking naps at work (not quite, but almost!). I am physically exhausted when I wake up in the mornings. I sleep 8+ hours at night, but when I wake up I feel like I haven't been to bed at all. And I actually do sleep through most of those 8+ hours. The past few nights I haven't even gotten up to go to the bathroom. Needless to say, I am SO glad I get an extra hour to sleep tonight. Now if we can just get to bed on time.

I am so excited. Our first prenatal appointment is next Thursday. Hopefully, I'll be far enough along to see a heartbeat. And maybe there's only one baby there. I don't know if it's paranoia or mother's (and father's) intuition, but for some reason we both think there really might be two in there. You can already SEE the difference my weight gain has made, more so than those few pounds should be showing. Either that, or I'm farther along than we think. Or I'm just a fat cow. LOL. I have to stop this weight gain now, or else I'm going to end up gaining too much before next summer. I'm on course to gain 35-45 pounds EASILY over the course of this pregnancy. And that's only if my weight gain stays close to what it is now per week. That's not counting the fact that you usually put on more weight during the second trimester, and the first half or the third trimester. People at work can tell that I've already started gaining weight. The pants I bought a month ago that were too big FIT ME NOW! And my almost brand new bra that I got two months ago? KILLING me right now. I can barely get it on without my boobs looking like I duct taped them. The band is thisclose *making thisclose gesture with my thumb and index finger* to digging into my skin, or should I say fat. I've already told my dear hubby to be ready to go by Walmart after our doctor's appointment next Thursday for me to get a couple of new bras to do me until I outgrow those, too. Thank God I get to wear scrubs to work. They have drawstring waistbands, so I should fit in those for a while. I don't know what I would do if I were already outgrowing my work clothes.

I should have an ultrasound picture to post next Thursday. Will also email it to family members and close friends, so all can see. Michael's sister, who is due in February, told me that the doctor I'm using (she uses the same one, based on my recommendation) does DVDs now of your ultrasounds. I'm planning on taking a DVD-R and a videotape, just in case. I'd rather have a DVD. I may be able to rip it and post it to the internet somewhere for everyone's viewing pleasure. Maybe email it? I'd post it to YouTube, but then I can't cover up my name, etc. on the ultrasound. Mommy/Sissy, any other video sites you know of? I can't post a private YouTube video, can I? I don't think that's possible. I'll have to figure something out. Don't want to have to email it to everyone, but I will if I have to.

And now, the best news of the day: my little brother will be home in 3 (yes, THREE!!!!!!) days!!!! YAY!!!!

Morning weight (forgot to weigh Thursday, so weighed Friday instead): 148.4
Total weight gain so far: 3.8 pounds (in 18 days?!?! are you KIDDING me? can we say COW?!?!?!)

Pregnancy Update - 5 weeks 2 days

No nausea the last two days! Yay for me! Maybe Thursday was a fluke, maybe I ate something Wednesday that didn't make my stomach happy the next day. I'm gonna say it probably wasn't undercooked meat, because that don't fly with me. I'm a "steak, well-done" type of girl.

Pregnancy Update - 5 weeks 1 day

Yesterday was my one day off this week. It was a milestone day for my pregnancy. I reached 5 weeks yesterday. I woke up nauseated and stayed that way for almost the entire day. (Not nauseated today, thank goodness.) I realized my first appointment with Roberta is two weeks from yesterday. I weighed yesterday. 147.8 pounds.

I went to Granny and Granddaddy's yesterday. They told me my brother may be home November 4, two days before my first appointment. That's really good news. Maybe he'll actually get to come home that day. Then he'll be home to hear the good news after my appointment. (He already knows I'm pregnant, I mean the good news from my appointment.) Maybe I can upload an ultrasound video afterwards. Or at least pictures. My doctor usually does an ultrasound at almost every visit.

Total pregnancy weight gain: 3.2 pounds

Just a quick update

The big news: Chris' team won their football game Saturday by 31 to 12! It's the first game they've won this season. He even got to play quarterback on the last play of the game.

Now, on to the pregnancy update:

Still feel tired a lot. More symptoms are beginning to slooooowly creep up. My breasts are starting to feel more tender. My back and legs are starting to hurt more. And I have to pee every 10 minutes. Last night when I got home from work, I had a headache and a fever (99.6). Tylenol took care of it, and I woke up with no fever. Maybe it was a fluke thing. I'll keep an eye on it.

Got two of the books I ordered in. What to Expect When you're Expecting and the What to Expect Pregnancy Journal and Organizer.

My first prenatal appointment will be November 6. Hopefully, we'll get to hear a heartbeat. Roberta used to do an ultrasound every visit. I hope she still does. My belly is so bloated it's had to tell if it's baby or bloat. Would like an ultrasound on the first visit to date the pregnancy. By my calculations, I'll be 7 weeks on that day. This makes me due around June 25. If I actually got pregnant a month ago and had a preiod even though I was pregnant, that would make me almost 11 weeks, and my due date would be May 30. Big difference. Although I do really think I'm only 4 1/2 weeks right now (will be 5 weeks Thursday). I suppose we shall see.

Weight gain so far: 2.4 pounds. Have decided to weigh every Thursday morning, as a way of keeping up with the weeks.

My blog

Is it just me, or is the right side of my blog messed up? Anyone know how to fix it?

Good news in my house...

I found out Monday that I am expecting. Michael and I are thrilled. I found out two days after his birthday. I'll be due in June sometime. My first prenatal appointment is November 6 at 10 AM. Last time (nine years ago) she did an ultrasound at every appointment. Maybe she will this time, too.

I have to say, I don't FEEL very pregnant. None of the usual symptoms. I've been so hungry the last week, that's about it. I gained 1 1/2 pounds yesterday (no kidding!) but surely some of that is water retention or something.... Although I did eat five (yes, five) times yesterday.....

The only reason I tested when I did was so I could say that I had to wait a few more days for my period to show. I tested on the earliest day possible, for some reason.

Guess Michael's gonna have to put up the swimming pool as soon as it gets warm enough next spring. Being in the third trimester in the summer in Alabama will not be fun. I think I'll have him put it where it'll be shaded in the afternoon. To minimize the sunburn and heat while I float around in it.

And of course, while we will be happy no matter what, I would prefer a girl and Michael is hoping for a boy. For a girl, I'm thinking either Winnie the Pooh (complete with murals painted on the wall) or blue-and-brown nursery:
(bed set and accessories by Amy Coe for Babies R Us).

For a boy, an Alabama crimson-and-white room. I'll hang my mom's autographed picture of THE BEAR in it, too.

Any thoughts from anyone?

Chris's football update

So far, 0-2 on the season. We lost to the Athens 2 (they have several teams, so many kids in this age range signed up for an Athens team). But my baby made a tackle, and his mom said you could hear me cheering halfway down the field, above everyone else's cheers.

I had to work Saturday, but I am told they lost that game, too.

But I have confidence in our kids on the team. And even if they lose every game this season, as long as they had a good time, that's all that matters.

Some parents irk my last tater. They act like it isn't good enough for their kid to try to do their best on the field, be it baseball, basketball, whatever they do. As long as Chris does his best, I don't care if he never wins a single game, as long as he had fun doing it. He's 10 years old. It's not like full scholarships to college are riding on how he does this week on the football or baseball field. And he's still so young, he's only just now learning how to play these sports. He will improve with time, and if he doesn't, at the end of the day all that matters is that he tried his best and he was happy doing it.

100 Books and a quiz

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.Here’s what you are supposed to do:*Look at the list and bold those we have read.*Italicize those we intend to read.*Underline the books we LOVE .Share this list in your blog, too, if you like.

I intend to read all of them, even the one's I've already read. It's on my 100/1001 list, to be posted here when I am finished writing it. Since I am going to read all of them, I am not italicizing any of them, but I am bolding and underlining as appropriate.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (A good portion, anyway!)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

To be fair, I have read portions of a lot of these, thanks to Literature class in middle/high school, or beginning the book and not liking it, and so not finishing it. I did not take credit for that here, because I feel that would be cheating.

In other news, a blog I read had this on it's website. I took the quiz, here are the results. Forgive me, whomever had this first, i can't remember who's blog I found it on. Let me know if you think it was you, and I'll give credit if it was.

Take the Quiz here!

Messed up schedule...

So, work messed with my schedule. Due to some people going into license training, and others going to a dayshift-only tagging team, I am being moved from Group 1 to Group 3. I worked Friday night, took off Saturday night to go to Chris's two (jamboree) football games Saturday, and worked Sunday night. I will be off Moday. I have to work Tuesday through Thursday, dayshift.

I still have to redo my work schedule calendar that I gave everyone. Momma, do you know if I can share a Google calendar or something like it with people? It would be easier for you, Becki, Granddaddy, and Grandmother to know my schedule if I could. At least, it would be easier for you and Becki. I don't think anyone ever looks at the paper schedules I printed everybody. If I can't share it, I'll just make and print new ones I guess.

Now on to the important topic of football. Bama won big time (ROLL TIDE). Auburn beat Mississippi State 3-2 (better luck next time to the Dawgs).
As for Chris and his team:
1st game, vs. Elkmont - won 12-7
2nd game, vs. East 2 - lost 16-0

Found a new website, www.orgjunkie.com. She does Menu Plan Monday, where a bunch of bloggers post the coming week's menu on her site each Monday, sometimes including recipes and grocery lists. Last week, 351 people posted their menu. Today, 162 people have already posted, since around 3:00 yesterday afternoon. Maybe it will give me ideas. I have run out of new foods that I can actually get Michael and Bobby to both eat, and I'm tired of eating the same stuff over and over. At least they both LOVE Hobo dinner. They request that almost every week.

I'm tired, and I'm glad it's almost time to go home and sleep a few hours.

My first post....

So, this is my first post. I joined some time back, to read a few specific blogs. Now I'm back, to read my mom's blogs (HI MOMMY!). She has gotten back into her writing, which I am proud of. She used to write such fantastic stories and poems and songs.... That was before a very dark period in our family history. She seems to have gotten herself back on track finally, and I couldn't be more proud. After what she has been through, I had begun to wonder if maybe the past had damaged her too much. I should have realized that she is stronger than that. She just had to do this in her own time, not mine or anyone else's.

Momma, if you're reading this, I am SOOOOO proud of what you have done the past 120+ days. I am proud that you have been through the fire more than once and came out on the other side each time, a little singed, but maybe not completely burnt. I am proud that you have finally, in your own time, come far enough to begin writing again. It may not pay much right now, but one day it will. I expect full updates on the NaNoWriMo you're doing, as well as your other work.

Momma, remember, God made women the stronger gender, emotionally and mentally, because He knew we would need it to survive all life throws our way. Hopefully, our emotional and mental workout is over for a while and we can relax.

For those who don't know her yet, my mother is a three-time widow (none of which was her doing, thank you very much) who is also a recovering addict, a writer, and a mother of three, including myself. Se already has been through more than some people twice her age. She is an amazing example of strength and courage. She is also an amazing example of losing it all time and time again. For what she has been through, and her ability to come out on the other side, I applaud her.