An Open Letter To My Uterus

Dear Uterus:

I'm not sure if you have really been paying attention over these past 29 years, 5 months, and 21 days, but the body you're part of is not exactly known to be an 'over-achiever.'  Sure, we've been known to put in extra effort when it really counted, but as a rule, we've been pretty content in our mediocrity.

Take our musical forays, for instance.  Our ability to play by ear made us a very decent piano and French horn player.  However, our contentment with being decent led us to not practice.  Had musicality not come so easily to us, had we been forced to practice and practice to master the music, we could possibly have been excellent instead of being 'pretty good.'

You may also want to refer to our academic history as well.  We pulled down As and Bs in high school without cracking a book.  In college, we faced a little bit more difficulty but were able to maintain Bs and Cs with minimal studying.  Had we not been so content in our own mediocrity, we could've made Dean's List our entire college career, and not just our last semester.  If bits and pieces from the lectures hadn't naturally just clung to our brain and we'd been self-controlled enough to force ourselves to study for hours each night, we could've graduated with honors instead of just simply walking across the stage.

But you, Uterus.  You apparently want to get this whole child birth thing perfect.  So much so that you have decided to start practicing already.  Sure, the occasional Braxton Hicks is one thing.  It caught me by surprise the other day when I literally arched my back and had to grab the arm rest for support, but it was a one-time shot.  You need to start preparing yourself, I get that.  I forgave you for that incident.  However, today..... today was not cool.  I do not appreciate laying in the fetal postion (although the irony does not go unnoticed) for over an hour, clutching my abdomen as I have consistent contractions every 10-15 minutes.  I do not appreciate having to call the after-hours on call OB in a panic because I don't know if I need to come in or not.  I don't appreciate being terrified that I'm going to give birth 10 weeks early.

For the record, I do thank you that you stopped 'practicing' and that keeping my feet up and drinking water is making you happy.

So please take a note from the rest of this body - let's just be content in our mediocrity.  We're pretty good at winging it at the last minute.  I'm sure this birth thing will be fine.  We got this.

Sincerely,
A very stressed out mamma who would prefer not to go into pre-term labor.

Next Week's Goal

I'm hoping if I write a post about my goal for next week, it will come to fruition.  So, fingers crossed, next week will be successful.

When I was writing my soap-box blog solely about weight-loss, I wrote a few posts about green smoothies.  I loved making green smoothies - they were so yummy and kept me full and healthy and I felt really good.  And, even though this isn't a focus for me now, I lost weight while I was drinking them.

One big reason I stopped making smoothies daily is I was tired of washing my blender every day.  For some reason, it just seemed overwhelming to me.  Also (and I know I'm an airhead), I didn't know that the blender came apart for easier washing.  How did I not know this?  The *whole* thing comes apart so you can scrub the blades.  This discovery did make my life much easier!

So, my goal for next week (and really, the next 5 weeks) is to drink a green smoothie every day.  I am starting a 5-week substitute teacher position and will have to be at school at 7 am every day.  I've been struggling to come up with a healthy breakfast that I can eat on the go and this seems to be a perfect fit.  Plus, it will help me get in my fruits and veggies every day because I've been struggling getting those daily requirements in.... thank goodness for pre-natal vitamins.  Also, they take like, 3 minutes to make and are super portable.  Last time, I used kale as my primary base; a few times I used parsley.  I have been on a huge spinach kick lately, so I plan to use baby spinach as my leafy green this go-round.  A bag of it is relatively cheap and it should last almost a whole week.

My goal for this weekend is to sit down and plan a week's worth of healthy smoothies, lunches, and snacks since it'll be like I have a real job again for a little while.  On Sunday, I'll go buy everything and prep what needs to be prepped.  That way, during the week, I can reach out and grab whatever I need to throw in the blender that day.

Hopefully, this will give my little nugget a surge of good vitamins and get me more healthy as I prep for motherhood.  I can't believe I'm almost at my halfway point.  So, next week, make sure you stay on top of me and ask me about my smoothies!  Make sure I'm being healthy.  What's good for mamma is good for baby, and I want to make sure my baby gets all kinds of goodness.

Baby Bump

Bump-tacular.  Here is my baby-bump at 14 weeks, 3 days.  Please ignore my funky hair, I was cleaning the house most of the day.  I'll try to take a better picture next week! :)

To compare, please see this picture from week 7.  In this photo, please ignore my weird duck face and the semi-mess on the floor.

Tri, Tri, Tri Again

Yesterday, I hit week 14 of this pregnancy!  Woo-Hoo!!  That means that no matter when you believe the 2nd trimester starts, I am officially in it, so let's celebrate!  Before I became 'in the family way,' there was so much I didn't realize that I didn't know about pregnancy.  First off, I didn't know there was some disagreement in when the 1st trimester ends and the 2nd trimester begins.  Some people say the first day of the 13th week is the big day.  Some say 13 weeks, 3 days.  Others insist it's the beginning of week 14.  Ay yi yi.  But I'm here!  I know I am so blessed to be at this point and I thank God daily for getting me safely through each week and pray for a safe and healthy rest of the pregnancy.  Since I am at this juncture, I thought I would put up a post about my first trimester!

I was quite lucky that I really got to miss out on morning sickness for the most part!  I was plagued by nausea and extreme queasiness from about week 4 to week 9 or 10.  I had a lot of advice to keep crackers around and once I did that, if I felt a little nauseated, I would eat a few Ritz crackers or saltines and I would immediately feel better.  I did have your typical "I gotta throw up" outta nowhere episode once, so I didn't escape unscathed from the morning sickness beast; plus, brushing my teeth always made me dry heave and gag a bit - which was just miserable.

Around week 12 I started getting bad headaches.  No where near as bad as the migraine I had in week 8 when I became stranded an hour away from home because I couldn't see to drive.  Luckily, I have a wonderful husband who came to get me and a wonderful friend who lived near the rest stop I was stranded at and let me park my car at her house for a few days until we could come back and retrive my poor little Saturn.

At 10 weeks, I was told that since I was overweight, we wouldn't be able to hear the heartbeat via Doppler, so I didn't get to hear little Squido at that appointment.  However, at week 13, I was finally able to hear the sound of my little one.  It was the most magnificent experience of my life.  I'm hoping to be able to record it for J-dubs at my next appointment so he can hear it too!  At my 13 week appointment, I also got a 'bonus' ultrasound!  I had this stabbing pain in my side and my ob thought it might be a cyst.  So we did an u/s just to make sure.  Turns out it was just Round Ligament Pain, which is common during pregnancy as your ligaments are stretching out and your uterus is getting bigger.  BUT - I did get to see my tiny baby and see the heart just beating away.  I didn't get a good profile shot, as Squido was squirmy, but I saw that big ol' baby head and I literally saw his/her heart beating.  It was like a little drum  It was beyond amazing.  

I also scheduled my BIG ultrasound that will tell us if we're having a boy or a girl!  We'll know on June 5th, and I am SO. EXCITED.  Once we find out, we can start decorating the nursery! 

So, on to the stats: 

How far along? 14 weeks, 1 day

Total weight gain: -11 pounds

Maternity clothes? Sometimes!  I ordered a lot from Old Navy, but they are still a little big.  I am mostly in sun dresses.

Stretch marks: None so far!

Sleep: Sleeping pretty well, I am waking up a few times a night.  Sleeping 

Best moment last week: Seeing & hearing Squido!  It was amazing!

Miss anything? I have never wanted a tequila shot more in my life.

Movement: I have felt a few flutters, but nothing substantial yet... I have a few more weeks before I feel kicks!

Food cravings: Still craving grilled cheese sandwiches.

Anything making you queasy/sick: Not really.

Gender: We'll know for sure in 6 weeks, but I think it is a boy!

Happy or Moody most of the time: Most of the time I'm happy but I have had many moody moments!

Looking forward to: Our June 5th appointment to find out what we're having!

I will really try to take a picture tonight and upload it tonight!

When Easy Listening Takes Your Breath Away

Holy cow.  I have literally had this blog entry half typed and open for over a week now.  This is insane.  I clearly need to carve out some time to write, I really enjoy it and want to keep all these memories.  However, lately all my online time is spent on the message boards at thebump.com!!
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Somewhere, during all internet research about pregnancy, I read that my body has been pumping about 50% more blood to accomodate the work that it's doing growing a small person.  The article said that it  might lead to becoming out of breath for activities that used to be easy.  I thought this meant that I would have to take it a little more slowly on my walks with Penny.

Ha.

I really enjoy listening to music, especially while I'm getting ready for my day.  The other day, I turned on one of my playlists and hopped in the shower.  The playlist happened to be in the middle of a Jack Johnson set of music.  I was belting out Sexi Plexi, Bubble Toes, and Banana Pancakes when suddenly I realized "Holy cow, I am out of breath."  Apparently, shampooing your hair while sitting Bubble Toes is enough of a workout that I needed to stop and take a breather.  I mean, really.  I thought Jack Johnson was supposed to be easy listening music?  It's not like it has a heavy bass or is the type of music you can really boogie to. It blew my mind.

However, after I got out of the shower, Sexy & I Know It came on the playlist.  And boy, I did break it down to that song.  After that, my heart was racing, but in a good way.  I considered it my workout for that day.  I also decided that someone needs to bring back the 90s dance staple, the butterfly.  It goes perfectly with that song!