wavesoflife

Ultrasound Pics

I’ve had a week to adjust to the idea of a boy and I’ve mostly adjusted. I read some gender dissapointment articles. Even if it was a girl, there is a very small chance that my relationship with her or dreams for her would turn out to be reality. She may hate dresses and hairbows and be totally into sports. Or want to never get married or have kids (not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just no wedding to help her plan). And while the girl clothes for babies are adorable, older girl clothes seem to want to transform them into little street hookers.

Here are the photos from my ultrasounds.

Tne first four are from early in the pregnancy when he was just a jellybean. The last four are from the anatomy scan. The first one of those is freaky because he was looking at the ultrasound probe and it just looks weird.

April 25th, 2013 - Posted in Pregnancy | No Comments »

It’s a Boy

I had my 20-week anatomy scan yesterday. Halfway through the pregnancy! The baby looked as it should and had all it’s parts, including his boy parts.

I had originally felt I might be having a girl but have felt it’s a boy for awhile. We have a name we agree on, although I’m not saying it now since it could change in the next few months.

I do feel sad it won’t be a girl. I had wanted a girl for my first. I guess mostly because I plan on two kids and I really want one to be a girl so having it first would take the pressure off. I feel much more anxious that the next (last) one won’t be a girl and I won’t have one.

I’ve been feeling him move pretty often for a week. It’s kinda strange. He’s now the size of a banana.

I’ve only gained about 4 lbs so far. I haven’t had an increase in appetite yet. In fact, it’s been a decrease.

We registered for baby things last night. It was a little hard seeing all the little girl stuff. One of the good things about a boy though is that all the dinosaur and ocean life themed things are on boy clothes. I picked out dinosaur bedding and dinosaur bibs and a dinosaur mobile. We also bought a dark blue footie suit thing with little red crabs on it and a blue and white striped one with a whale on it. I had planned on going with a more gender neutral for most items (and we did for the big items) but most of the gender neutral things have an insect theme, which I am totally not into. Anyway, girls can like dinosaurs and fishes too. I know I do.

April 18th, 2013 - Posted in Pregnancy | No Comments »

Second Trimester

I’m now 16 weeks pregnant and several weeks into my second trimester. The anatomy scan is scheduled for April 17 and we will (hopefully!) find out the gender then. I think that knowing the gender and seeing the ultrasound where the baby looks more like a human and not a jelly bean will make the pregnancy more real. Also, I should start feeling the baby move soon as well. Right now pregnancy to me is big boobs and feeling miserable and not a lot to show for it yet. I still fit into my regular pants (which were a bit big anyway because I can’t stand remotely tight clothes). The baby now is about 5 inches long and the size of a turnip (not sure I’ve ever actually seen a turnip).

I used to be jealous of pregnant women. Not because they got a baby at the end of it, but because I thought being pregnant would be wonderful and magical. I knew, of course, about morning sickness and being extremely miserable near your due date due to your size and swelling and all that. I didn’t know babies would suck all your energy and intelligence away.

Fortunately, I have only thrown up once and that was after eating too many leftover Chili quesadillas for breakfast around my 13th week. I can no longer eat as much as I used to (or I feel like throwing up) and I feel hungry less often. So far I’ve only gained about 2 lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight. Pretty normal. My boobs no longer hurt, which is good, but they went up in size. I had always thought I wanted bigger boobs and now that I have them, I don’t. And I only went from a B to a C cup.

I spent most of my first trimester feeling like a slug. I didn’t want to do anything but lay on the couch and watch tv. I had (have) trouble concentrating on my work and doing anything that involves a lot of thought. The nausea is mostly gone but I’m still waiting for that energy increase that is supposed to happen.

I’m having trouble sleeping and pain in my upper right arm (sleep position related) and pain in my knees and sometimes hips. It’s uncomfortable sitting as I used to in a computer chair sometimes due to my new uterus position and expansion. My asthma is getting worse so I think I’m going to have to go back on the inhaler (was just taking Singulair). My nose is constantly congested (another pregnancy thing that I didn’t know about before hand). My sense of smell is still increased but I’ve mostly gotten used to that.

So yeah, being pregnant is not as fun as I expected.

March 20th, 2013 - Posted in Pregnancy | No Comments »

People on the Internet

Recently, Facebook has twice suggested a sponsored post to me about a class action suit for birth defects from women who took Zoloft when pregnant. I mistakenly read the comments on there and they really pissed me off. Some people seem to feel that if you require any sort of daily medication, no matter for you, you shouldn’t even get pregnant. Or if you do get pregnant, you should immediately stop any sort of medication and not take anything at all while pregnant, despite your doctor’s okay that it’s okay to take that medication. Yes, that will be very helpful for my baby when I can’t breathe due to my asthma.

And then there were the people who said that if you have depression, you shouldn’t even have kids. Really? How about if you’re judgmental idiots, you shouldn’t have kids? What gives you the right to say who should or shouldn’t have kids?

And there were all public comments on Facebook, where anyone can see them and which were most often associated with their real name.

And then there’s the women on the due date club forums that I lurk on. Not only is there so much drama and cattiness and bitchiness, there is rampant stupidity.

People ask the same questions over and over that a Google search would be more appropriate for (or asking their doctor). Like, “can I take Tylenol”. Yes, you can. It’s the only class A drug in pregnancy. Look it up yourself. Now, I can understand questions asking for opinions or options, such as “what drug did you take for high blood pressure while pregnant”. That’s a reasonable question. And then there are questions that are just totally ridiculous like “can I eat doughnuts while pregnant” or some other food that there’s really no question is safe. Unless of course you eat like a dozen donuts yourself every day. I wouldn’t advise that.

Then there are the women there who are like “I’m not eating anything bad, taking any medication, or having even a drop of caffeine while pregnant because I love my baby and want the best for it”. Yes, way to make the rest of us who aren’t quite so fortunate to not need medication feel great. Or who enjoy still having a cup of black tea that doctors agree is completely safe to have. Or who don’t have the energy to cook healthy food all the time.

I will love my child and want the best for them, but I am still a person too and will not now or later have my whole life focused on my offspring. I will still have my own interests and own hobbies and be my own person. I will never have a username that is “mommyoftwo” or some other thing that shows my whole identity is based upon my kids. My own life is not ending just because I’m having a baby. And if my Singulair and Zyrtec allow me to breathe without tons of mucus and wheezing, then dammit I’m going to take them.

March 4th, 2013 - Posted in Life | 1 Comment »

Jake’s Surgery

Last Friday, Jake, our youngest cat (about 3 years) had to have surgery on his back due to an abscess. Our other cat Draco had jumped on him and bit him a couple weeks ago and it turned into an abscess. He now has a 4-inch long row of stitches on his back and a cone around his head. He acts like nothing happened though. Friday it was like he didn’t even have surgery. He was walking around the room we have him in (he’s not supposed to jump or run for 10 days), wanting petting and making small jumps on top of storage containers. He had three days worth of pain pills to take and they were flavored. We were able to just put them on the floor and he ate them himself. We also have to give him liquid antibiotics which isn’t quite as easy. He goes back to the vet on the 14th to have his stitches removed and then the cone can come off as well.

On the 14th we’re also taking Luna along to get her vaccinations up to date. We’re taking her back at the end of the month to get her fur mats removed and her vaccinations had to be be up to date. She has some really bad mats, especially on her stomach and she hates to be held so we weren’t successful at removing them ourselves. She’ll probably have to end up with a lion’s cut. We’re going to have to try to keep up with brushing her after that so it doesn’t get that bad again. She enjoyed being brushed usually.

I’m very tired of going to the vet. It’s also been very hard on us financially and it’s wiped out all the money I had set aside to pay my taxes with. All the tests and things on Spencer were very expensive and the surgery on Jake wasn’t cheap either.

March 4th, 2013 - Posted in Pets | No Comments »

Spencer

Spencer was born in April 1998 and yesterday we had to put him to sleep. He was dying from cancer and was barely moving and not eating. He spent his final hours laying in the bed with me and occasionally eating his “snow” (crushed ice).

It was devastating. He had been with me since right after I graduated from high school. He had been my best friend. I’m going to miss him so much.

I’ll miss his “meow-chirps”. How he’d try to get me to wake up at 7 am to feed him. How he’d complain whenever Joe talked. How he used to roll over and over just for fun. And just all the little things that made him different from our other cats.

Goodbye Spencer. I love you.

February 22nd, 2013 - Posted in Pets | 4 Comments »