Weeks 11-13

Week 11- Oh no, I forgot to take a picture again.  It seems sort of silly to pose for a picture when I really have no bump to show at all, but I do feel like I look a little like I just ate a big meal, so I will start trying harder.  This week is a lot of the same.  Nausea is almost gone, mostly I am just really tired.  My boobs are ginormous, or as Mark says, they are "monstrous."  One awesome thing that happened this week is that my co-worked brought in ALL of her old maternity clothes for me.  She was about to sell them to a consignment shop, but I told her I would buy them from her if they fit.  Pretty much everything did fit with the exception of a few items.  I got SO many tops, dresses, 2 pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of office appropriate pants, a skirt, and a bathing suit, all priced between 2-6$.  ALL of this only cost me 100$, and I don't think I'll have to buy anything else for everyday wear.  I still will need a few tops for yoga and a dress for a wedding, but still…this saved me SO much money! This pile is only about half of the clothes!  Is it bad if I already want to wear all of it? I can fit into most of my clothes still, but these are way comfier!

Week 12:  I do feel that my tummy is protruding out a little bit now, buts its definitely that awkward "did she just have a burrito?" stage.  Then again, some days I don't notice it there at all…so maybe I did just eat a burrito.  I had my first baby dream, actually I think I had 3 separate baby dreams in one night because I kept waking up and falling asleep again.  I don't remember much, but I do know that the first dream was about having twins, which we are NOT having! I am craving sweets like crazy, and have been giving in to most cravings.  Confession- I bought 5 boxes of Girl Scout cookies yesterday.  I am really trying to keep it in check though, plus I workout in some capacity most days.  I still do not want chicken/meat, hot food/beverages like soup, hot chocolate, tea..etc.  Some types of breads are grossing me out too. 

Week 13:  Wow!  I can't believe how fast this is all going!  I had the first trimester screening done at 13w1d, which included the nuchal translucency test, looking for the nasal bone, and some blood work. The labs will come back in about 10 days, but everything on the ultrasound looked great and the doctor does not feel that there will be any abnormalities with the labs.  We are leaving for San Diego soon and I will be spending week 14 in the sun!  I am still very exhausted.  Sometimes I feel like I have more energy in the morning, but by about 2-3pm, I am totally wiped out.  I'm still walking at the gym and doing my workout dvd.  Eating is ok, a lot of stuff just doesn't sound that good, but as soon as I see a commercial for a food item or hear someone talking about it, I instantly crave it!  As long as it isn't chicken, soup, warm beverages, or certain breads.  By certain breads I mean stuff along the lines of crescent rolls, or anything that comes in one of those pressurized canisters.  Just can't do it.  I am a total freak right now about cheddar cheese rice cakes though…omg yum. 

Weeks 8-10

Week 8: This week has been quite scary.  I had bad cramping going on for a few days, and then on Friday afternoon, I started bleeding. Of course this happened about an hour before my yoga class that I teach, so I had to cancel it, which made me feel terrible.  To make the situation more stressful, I was supposed to leave for California the next day.  I got ahold of the doctor, who assured me that some women experience this and end up being fine.  Of course, it can also be a sign of miscarriage.  She said that unless I was bleeding a certain amount (she gave me all the details but its kind of gross to post about) that it was probably breakthrough bleeding.  She told me that if it did not get any worse that night, I should go on my trip but not to do anything too physical.  I didn't want to scare my mom by canceling the trip, and I figured she would be there anyway if things got worse.  I had no more bleeding the next few days, but it started again on Tuesday after I decided to go for a short walk (see the picture below.)  It was gone by Wednesday though, and has not returned, fingers crossed.  The whole time I was just praying that I would make it home by the time anything worse happened.  Obviously, it kind of killed the mood of the trip.  I am hoping this doesn't happen every time I try to do some form of exercise, that would to be really tough for me.

Week 8

Week 9:  Apparently I forgot to take a picture this week.  I had another instance of bleeding while I was at work on Tuesday.  I called the doctor, who had me come in for an ultrasound and appointment the next day, so I was seen Wednesday morning.  Everything checked out just fine, the heartbeat is strong at 175 and the growth seems normal, except that they pushed my due date up 2 days, so now its 8/18.  Other than the bleeding, this week has been pretty ok.  I am still sooooo tired, I can barely stay awake past 8:30.  I do feel like eating more though, but now I'm craving mostly sweets like ice cream, cookies, candy, and pudding…not that I'm complaining.  The best part of this week has been telling more people.  I finally told my boss and co-workers, who were all very nice and excited about it.  Ideally, I could have waiting longer to tell people at work, but since my job does include eating/cooking with patients, I wanted my boss to be aware of my food aversions/things I can't have anymore.  I told a few more of my girlfriends too.  I'm trying to tell all of my friends in person, and next week I will be able to tell even more of them.  One of my good friends is finally moving back to MN from NJ, so we are ALL getting together for happy hour…perfect timing to tell them all!

Week 10: Wow, this picture really demonstrates how much I need to get my hair highlighted, yikes.  I know its not the easiest to see with what I'm wearing, but I still have no bump at all.  I kind of wish it would just happen!  I was able to tell more friends this week, which has been fun, but also difficult knowing that one of them is really struggling with endometriosis.  I have had some nausea this week, but mostly fatigue.  I have had some AWFUL colon spasms/cramping at night.  Let me tell you, having a chronic illness on top of pregnancy is not a fun experience.  Especially when I can't manage my symptoms with the medications I was on, or use my implanted device any longer. I knew this would be an issue though, and its something I thought a ton about before trying to get pregnant.  I have not had any more bleeding, thank the Lord!  I have been walking a little at the gym and got a prenatal workout DVD to do at home, its nice to be up and moving a little bit more now.  My appetite is much better, still having a hard time finding things that sound good though.  My aversions are chicken, pork, seafood, anything warm/hot like soup, tea, hot chocolate…and some other random stuff. It really depends on the moment.

Week 10

NEDA Week

Don't worry- the baby posts will return tomorrow, but I can't let this week pass by without talking about  National Eating Disorder Awareness week!

If you want more information about eating disorders, follow the blog that my workplace keeps- its a great resource.

This page has several important facts about eating disorders, check it out.

If you think you have an eating disorder or know someone who does- do not be afraid to reach out.  Getting into treatment early absolutely gives you the best chance of reaching full recovery.  Recovery IS possible.

Now, some inspiration.

Weeks 5-7.

I guess as a blogger, I'm supposed to do these "bump dates" now, right?!  I think I'll just write about my symptoms so far.  Thinking about pea sized baby growing a tiny heart and circulatory system freaks me out at the moment. Also, I think I'll take a cue from the other ladies who write these things and combine the first couple weeks.

Week 5:  I've mostly been freaked out that I already did something wrong to screw this whole thing up.    I'm researching what I can/can't do & eat like crazy.  I have had pretty bad cramping ever since finding out, so I called my doctor and she had me come in to make sure it wasn't an ectopic pregnancy.  I had an ultrasound with that wand thing which showed a small "fluid filled sac" with no yolk or heartbeat.  Umm, hearing the words "no heartbeat" was pretty terrifying.  They should probably let you know ahead of time that they don't expect to see one that early on.  They also told me that they could neither confirm nor deny that there was a baby in there. Anyway, I have to go back next week for another ultrasound to see if there is anything in there.  I also had labs done, which have to be done every other day until they can confirm that my hormones are rising appropriately.  I definitely feel like they are though, because I have been exhausted, nauseous, hungry and then suddenly NOT hungry.  The other symptom I am having is severe tailbone pain. It's all going to be ok though, I'm sure I will find all of these complaints completely worth it.  The only thing I've had a craving for is cinnamon toast, so random.  So delicious.

Week 5

Week 6:  This week was not fun, and unfortunately it was the week of Christmas.  Getting through 2 Christmas parties sans-alcohol with friends was tough because I had to keep making excuses.  I had to skip my work party altogether because it was at a brewery and I didn't see any way out of that one.  I was really sick all week, so nauseous and fatigued.  Plus the tailbone pain.  The doctor wanted me back for another US since they really couldn't confirm anything last week.  This week, again, showed no heartbeat.  The doctor was really good though and assured me that everything was fine, she just thinks I'm up to a week earlier than we originally though.  I go back in 2 week for my first real appointment.  We told our families at Christmas, which we were really torn about given the whole no heartbeat thing.  We decided to tell them because 1. there is no way my family would not notice me abstaining from the wine, and 2. my mom left for California for the  rest of the winter the day after Christmas and we wanted to tell everyone at the same time.  We found cheesy ornaments that said BABY on them, and gave them to our parents to open up after everything else had been opened.  Except that my sister was still opening a present, which turned out to be a spoon rest of all things.  It was pretty comical because we're all "we're having a baby!" and she's like "hey, I got a spoon rest!"  It was good comic relief though, because I get very uncomfortable being the center of attention and was kind of dreading this moment because I just hate being in the spotlight.  As far as symptoms go, its just feeling gross all the time and NOTHING sounds good to eat.  I can basically eat different types of bread and thats it.  Hoping this goes away soon.

Week 6

Week 7: A new week AND a new year!  Celebrating NYE's sure is different when your 7 weeks pregnant.   We did nothing to celebrate other than going to Fuddruckers because I was craving a chocolate shake and a burger.  This week I've expanded my food intake from only bread to bread plus junk food.  I feel terrible about this and I always thought I'd eat super healthy while pregnant, because I already eat really healthy- but I just can't stomach anything remotely resembling a vegetable or a lean protein, eww.  The weird symptom I have this week is that I seem to have a smell "stuck" in my nose or in my nose's memory.  I smell chicken soup everywhere.  Everywhere!  It is completely grossing me out.  First of all, I strongly dislike 99% of chicken and always have.  Gross.  Secondly, I once got very sick from chicken soup in Guatemala and that memory is not helping!  I am doing everything I can to stop smelling this- lighting candles, smelling essential oils, avoiding the cafeteria at work, etc.  This will all be comical at some point I'm sure, but OMG please go away.

Week 7

P.S. I know these pictures are terrible.  The problem is that I keep changing into my pjs before Mark gets home, and then I don't want to take a picture…so I'm left using the timer setting on my phone.  I will do better in the future.

Finding Out // Telling Mark

First of all, THANK YOU so much to everyone who congratulated us on the pregnancy!  I am blown away by the support!

I have several baby-posts already written and ready to go.  I am SO glad that I can finally hit publish and stop worrying that I will accidentally publish them and give away the secret!  I'll try to get caught up to current time quickly, so here we go:

(Written Dec 13)
Finding Out:
Whaaaaaat?!  I don't even know where to begin.  Here's a little known secret: Mark and I have been trying to get pregnant for awhile now.  My doctor diagnosed me with unspecified infertility in November.  I had a hysterosalpingogram about a month ago which showed that my "lady parts" were working fine.  I was supposed to go on clomid when I got my next period (should have started today.)  Instead, I work up at took 3 POSITIVE pregnancy tests!  I literally could. not. believe. my. eyes.  I found out almost 3 hours ago, now I am writing this.  I haven't even told Mark yet.  I plan on doing that tonight…so don't worry, by the time you read this in 7-ish weeks, he will be in the know.   I just got off the phone with my Ob/Gyn and scheduled a 1st trimester "pregnancy class" and an 8 week appointment.  I also just got off the phone with my Gastroenterologist who instructed me to tell her right away if I became pregnant since she will need to follow me more closely for the next 9 months.  WTF? How is this happening?  I know was I trying to make it happen…but still, how?!



Telling Mark:
After the initial shock wore off (haha, right) I headed to Target in a daze and wandered around there trying to think about all of the cute ways I've heard that other people let their husband in on this kind of news.   I was blanking.  Should I buy a onesie?  Some tiny baby shoes?  No…I decided that I wanted our first baby purchase to be made together.  I finally ended up in the Christmas isle and had an epiphany to get an ornament to write the news on.  I chose this one, mostly because its a relatively flat surface so that my handwriting won't look like the impending fetus wrote it.

Not only did I have to wait for Mark to get home from work, but I was teaching yoga that evening.  My class starts around the time Mark is done with work, so I had to delay a bit more.  As I drove home from the yoga studio, my heart was pounding!  I got home, saw his car in the garage, grabbed my ornament (that I took with me so he wouldn't find it) and headed inside.  Mark was just getting ready to take Shay for a run, but I couldn't wait any longer.  I told him that I got a new ornament that day and asked if he wanted to see it.  At first he just looked at the front, so I had to tell him to look at the back of it.  He flipped it over and found this:

He paused, looked at me and said "you're pregnant?" in a very nonchalant way that is his typical way of responding to anything that I flip out over.  I think I said something like…"umm, yeah I guess so…apparently."  Then he just says "sweet!" and takes the dog for a run anyway.  Not before I made him look at the 3 sticks I peed on though, which he insisted was unsanitary.  Anyway, he now has the "pregnant dad" app on his phone and is reading the chapter for dads in the book I bought.  Mark never has big responses to anything, so this is exactly what I expected.  He is very excited though and the next morning when we woke up, his first words were "you're going to be good mom" which made me feel terrified and all warm and squishy too.  

And now for something completely different...

In case you missed it on Instagram last night, we're having a baby!  I'm 14 weeks along, which puts our due date at August 18th!  We are really excited and just as nervous :)

Prepare yourself for the obnoxious amount of baby-related posts that will shortly appear on this blog.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I always have to laugh on Valentine's day because people call it the "Hallmark" holiday and my husband's name is Mark Hall, get it…Hall-Mark, Mark-Hall?!  So I always joke that I get to spend the day with the one the day was named for!

Anyway, not to get all sappy or anything, but celebrating this day with my husband for 5 years has really been so great.  We don't do anything fancy, but we have our own traditions.  I always bake him a red velvet cake, which is his favorite!

And he always gets me flowers and chocolate/candy.  We don't exchange big gifts, its all about the little things for us on Valentine's day.  I have gotten pretty creative in the past though, this was one of his favorite gifts:

Another one of our traditions is getting Chinese take-out for Valentine's day.  It all started one year when I brought it home instead of cooking a nice dinner like I had in the past.  Chinese is Mark's favorite thing to eat, so I decided to just get him his favorite meal instead of cooking something.  I guess it stuck, because we always do that now!

This year will be a little different for us though.  Mark and I are heading to San Diego on Saturday, so I did not make the cake.  I figured we didn't need to eat an entire cake the week before going on vacation- since daily ice cream is mandatory on my vacations.  We also aren't getting Chinese because Mark has to drive our dog down to his parents house after work and won't be home until late.  I will be teaching yoga, so I can't go with.  It is kind of sad not being able to actually spend much time together this year, but we will have plenty of time to make up for it next week!

A day in my life

I've seen several people write these posts and I always love reading them, so here is my own version.

I have a pretty variable schedule between my regular job and teaching yoga, and each day at work is totally different depending on what day it is.  I have a totally different schedule each day,  so I am writing just about what Monday looked like this week.

6:30-8am:  Wake up, let Shay out, feed Shay, eat breakfast, get ready for the day.  I could easily get ready for work in 20 minutes, but I have to wake up so early to "manage" my GI disorder.  I won't go into detail here, but its a huge pain.  I usually eat toast/cereal/yogurt/or oatmeal for breakfast.  On Monday, I had oatmeal with peanut butter and some apple.

8:30-9am: Get to work, prepare for groups and patients. (Wouldn't it be awesome if it actually looked like this outside?)

9am: Lead adult group therapy.

10am: Individual patient appointment.  I snuck some time to eat a cliff bar before seeing her.

11am: Lead adolescent group therapy.

12am: Attend treatment planning for our residential unit.

1-2pm: Eat lunch and work on my documentation from the morning.  I brought the rest of my apple from breakfast and an asian salad.  I also bought 5 boxes of girl scout cookies from a co-worker in this time.  I definitely broke into the thin mints for dessert.

2-4pm:  Weekly occupational therapy staff meeting and more documentation.  And more thin mints.

4-6pm: Evaluate a new patient and another individual patient appointment.

6-7pm: Finish documentation for the day.  Also, more thin mints.

7-8:30pm: Drive home, eat dinner, stuff around the house.  Sometimes Mark waits for me to eat dinner, sometimes he eats on his own.  We had dinner together this day while watching the Olympics on TV. Dinner was leftover pasta with red sauce/peppers/mushrooms. Usually I'll clean up the kitchen or fold laundry at night.  I try to do at least one cleaning chore each day.

9pm:  Watch Downton Abbey with Mark.  We usually watch something together at the end of the day while we lay on the couch in the basement with Orlando and Shay.  This is my favorite thing to do because I have a heating pad on that couch that feels amazing at the end of the day.  Orlando and Shay LOVE it too.

10pm:  I am usually in bed by 10…but honestly, sometimes its a lot earlier.

So most of my Mondays and Tuesdays are taken up with work because I work 10 hours both of those days.  I never work out these days because I'm way too tired by the time I get home.  I get my workouts in throughout the rest of the week and do any social stuff other nights as well.  My work schedule is based on our census/need for the rest of the week, and of course I have my yoga classes as well.  I'll have to do another post to cover what those days are like!

Well, thats what my Monday looks like.  It can be a long day, but I love what I do and I love who I get to work with everyday, so it never seems that bad!

Weekly Highs and Lows

I'm thinking that Friday is a good day to reflect on the week.  Maybe I can make this a weekly thing, but we'll just have to see about that.

When I was in high school, my youth group at church always started every meeting with weekly highs and lows, so today, I am going to break the week down in those two categories.  We'll start with lows though, because who wants to end on a bad note?

Lows:

- Last Sunday at my brother-in-law's Super Bowl party, our puppy got sick and started to throw up everywhere (we usually bring him if we go over there to play with his dog.)  It was not cool, and trying to clean up after him with a whole bunch of people around was kind of awkward.  Ps.  I know he got sick because his neighbor's kids fed him buffalo chicken dip- after being instructed to not give ANYTHING to him.  Ugh.

- I ate way too much on a lunch outing at work on Tuesday and felt miserable the rest of the day.  I definitely did not want to eat dessert after the meal, but one of the patients was having a hard time with hers so I told her I'd eat one too so she didn't have to do it alone.  Oh, the things I do for our patients. 

- My gastroenterologist told me that I need to start viewing my illness as a chronic/lifelong illness like diabetes.   Translation- it's not going away. Ever.  Makes being effective at my job (see above) pretty difficult some days.

Ok, now lets move on to the GOOD stuff that happened. 

Highs:

- I had a super full Yoga class on Sunday morning.  The best part of it was that Kristin came for the class!  Hi Kristin!

- I was able to work out 4 times this week, which is sort of a victory for me lately. 

- I totally re-organized my closet and cleaned out a ton of old clothes that are just taking up space.  It feels SO good to get that done!

- The Bachelor was pretty epic.

- On Wednesday evening, Mark and I had dinner with our friends Madison and Joe.  Madison made a delicious dinner for us and we had a great time chatting away.  She is pretty much a professional culinary expert, so I was very grateful that they had us over.  I would have been way too intimidated to cook…but I promise, next time is at our place!

-This hasn't technically happened yet, but I'm having lunch with Kelly today, and I already know that will be a high!

I hope everyone else had a week filled with mostly  HIGHS!

The Glam Series- EYES

For The Glam Series this week, I am talking all about my eye routine.  Last week, I discussed my face routine, and I mentioned my love of Rhonda Allison products.  Well, guess what?  This line also has amazing eye-care products!  Every night I use both of the items below.  One is the Eye and Lip Repair Serum and over that, I put the Peptide Eye Cream.  Together, they completely eliminate any puffiness that might appear in the morning, like magic!

In the morning, after washing my face, I put on the Eye Revitalizer.  It really brightens up any dark circles and makes you look wide awake.

I use a combination of different makeup lines for eye makeup.  In general, I really like Estee Lauder eye makeup, but I use Buxom by Bare Escentuals mascara.  I find this mascara makes my lashes look for full instead of long.  I already have really long lashes, so the fullness factor is more important to me.  I use this Estee Lauder eye pencil in Plum Grey.  My go-to eyeshadow has been the same for more than 5 years now.  I LOVE this Estee Lauder Pure Color eyeshadow in Sugar Biscuit, I wear it everyday.  If I'm feeling fancy, I'll do some shading with Hot Cinnamon as well.

And that's it!  I try to keep things pretty simple.  Like I said, my whole makeup routine only take a few minutes for me to complete, which is how I'd like to keep it!  I can't wait to pick up some little tips from all of the other ladies participating in this series though!