29 Week Appointment! And a short rant...

I went in today for an appointment and ultrasound. It was so wonderful to get to see Eddy moving and wiggling and kicking away. The radiologist said that she's about 2lbs, 13 oz right now, in the 41st percentile (meaning that she's bigger than 41% of the other babies at her gestational age - right about average), and given my scheduled delivery date she will probably make it into the 6+ pound range by her birth at 37 weeks. That makes me really happy because delivering 3 weeks early is always a bit of a concern, even though it's "full-term"; I was hoping she'd be at least 6.5lbs. I guess we'll see! The radiologist said that she couldn't tell length for sure (because the baby is longer than the ultrasound, I guess?), but estimated it at about 13 inches long, and noted that's around 35% or so, another just about average measurement. Considering that I know a couple of SUPER TINY kids that were big at birth and some WAY BIGGER THAN AVERAGE kids that were average or small at birth, I'm not worried about delivering an average-sized baby. :) Here's a 4D shot for your viewing pleasure. She's so beautiful! And she looks so much like Jim (he says she looks like me... I guess we'll beg to differ until she gets here and we can judge accurately).


And now for my short rant. :) Those of you who know me in real life (or, let's face it, have seen pictures of me on this blog) know that I'm not the smallest girl. I've struggled with my weight since my adolescence. I'm healthy: I eat well, I exercise, I take care of myself. I do have a hard time losing weight, but I'm not so worried about it that I consider myself unhealthy or obese or think I've got a problem. I don't wear plus-sized clothing, but only just barely. I started this pregnancy 10 lbs heavier than my last one; even though initially my baby weight came right off, due to stress and emotional issues it was easy to pile them back on. But overall, I'm okay. I know that obesity is an epidemic and that I don't want to suffer from it, so I do everything I know how to stay out of that category and be healthy. Today, however, an article I saw online frustrated me beyond belief, as a large-ish woman in modern society. This article is a travesty. It's horrible. The apology is half-hearted and frustrating. It makes me so angry to read things like that. But yet, that's how a lot of people feel about the overweight in our society. I'm NOT obese, but I understand that obesity is a line that anyone could cross, and that just like any other eating disorder, obesity is a disease. Food can be an addiction; otherwise there wouldn't be support groups for it like there are for drugs and alcohol. Even with the apology, and the editor's attempt at changing the word "Fatties" to "Overweight Couples" on the search tag, the truth of the matter is that this article should never have made it to the Internet. It's offensive. A magazine such as the one that put it out should know better. It's a normally reputable magazine that just lost a LOT of readers. **And I'm stepping down from my soapbox now. :)
I hope you all have a wonderful week. I plan to get a lot done this weekend, and do very little after work each day in between. :)
 

15-Minute Commute

I'm done with my first week of work. It's been really good! I think I'm really going to like the company and the job. I hardly sat down the whole week while at work, which is GREAT for someone who craves activity like I do. After sitting in a cubicle for the last 6 months, and being unemployed and/or pregnant for the last 8 months prior to that, it's been really great to be more active. Although, at almost 7 months pregnant, it's exhausting, too. My job consists of production: printing out a whole bunch of training manuals and handouts and sorting them, putting them in binders and preparing them for the shipping section of my department. At some point in the future I will cross-train in shipping and train the shipping person in production, but the shipping person and I both started anew at these positions last week, so we're both learning our specific tasks prior to cross-training each other. So for all of you who were worried about me lifting stuff: no worries. I'm not lifting more than just stacks of paper for now, and the shipping person won't let me lift anything (not even boxes of empty binders, which aren't heavy).

My co-workers are great (though I do miss my old co-workers GREATLY!); everyone's friendly, and the group seems to consist of lots of people of different and diverse backgrounds and lifestyles, which is great. In a city where diversity is hard to come by, it's really nice to be able to meet lots of different types of people.

The best part about my new job, though? THE 15-MINUTE COMMUTE! Oh, it's wonderful being able to leave the house at 7:45 and make it to work by 8. And I usually leave around 7:40, just because I don't like to be late, and traffic made me late about 65-70% of the time I was working far away which really frustrated me. I get to lie in bed for a little while in the quiet of the mornings, get up, get around, take the dogs out, feed them, have coffee, eat breakfast and see Jim for longer than 5 minutes. It's wonderful. My company provides a health club membership to all of its employees at no cost, and I chose the YMCA for my membership. So in a few weeks I will be able to start working out there, which I'm super excited about. I will be able to go workout after work and still make it home and make dinner by a reasonable time. I'll be smelly, but I'm so excited to be able to work out again! I haven't had the time or energy, and now I have the time, so I'm hoping the energy will come. :)

Our sweet puppy girl dug an ENORMOUS hole in the backyard yesterday (I'm talking a trench about 2 feet long that leads to a hole under the ground that's about 3 feet deep) and got something lodged in her paw (that we're trying to work out slowly so it might hurt less, and because she's hesitant to let us pull on it), so she's been limping around the house pitifully. Poor girl. The moles in our yard are just ridiculous, and the dogs will dig to get to them, then just keep digging until they get called away or they decide the mole isn't there anymore, or they hit something impenetrable (in this case a pipe of some sort which involves us calling the city on Monday to make sure that the pipe isn't compromised before we fill in the hole). Raisele was so tired last night, and hobbling around on three legs, which probably exhausted her even more. She got some rare hours of on the couch snuggle time with me and then with Jim. She woke up this morning with the ability to put some weight on her paw, but the splinter is still in there and she's still favoring her hurt paw. Poor sweet girl.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Raisele's hole. She must have worked really hard on that! It will sure be fun to fill back up; glad I don't have to do it! :)

Alrighty, then.

Well, today I started the new job. Apparently, all of my worry was for nothing.

There was absolutely no problem with me being pregnant. I still don't know if they knew I was when I interviewed. At some point my manager made a subtle reference to me being pregnant, but it wasn't unprofessional or strange or out of place. A couple of co-workers asked me about how far along I was, was it my first, etc. The HR manager asked me what my plans were for after the baby's born and told me she'd double-check the short-term disability leave policy so that I had all the information I needed. All-in-all, things were good. And the job for which I was hired will not initially be as physical as I first thought, so I don't have any worries about lifting too much. I will be cross-trained within the department and get to know two positions, which I love. It means more helping others and less downtime, which is great. My commute was about 15 minutes this morning, and I went to Target to get some groceries after work and got home at 5:35. Before if I had errands after work it was 6:30-7 before I got home, depending on traffic. 

So yeah. Alrighty, then. I guess I didn't have anything to worry about which is great. I'm hopeful that my time at this company will be good and that I can make a long-term career there. My colleagues seem nice and well-educated. And I learned, after talking to several people, that moving between departments and among positions seems to be a regular occurence, which gives me hope for moving up within the company at some point in the future.

Anywho, things seemed good. Thanks for all of the happy thoughts and prayers for me today.

In closing, here's a picture of my clearly civilian husband and me before a wedding on Sunday. The beard and hair, while a bit unruly, suit him, I think. :)

Eeek! FLEAS!

Sorry to leave you all hanging like I did. I'm horrible, I know! If you're not my Facebook friend, I realized, you wouldn't have gotten the "everything's okay" update after my doctor's appointment on Monday. SO...

Everything's okay. The doctor checked me for dilation and I wasn't dilating, and I haven't been bleeding or leaking anything (I know, again, TMI, get over it.) so he chalked the contractions up to Braxton-Hicks and sent me on my way. Baby Eddy's movement has been consistent. Her heartbeat has been great, and was a strong 148 bpm when I was at the doctor, and fluctuates between 142-150 when I check it each evening. I have an appointment on October 29th (probably... I start my new job Monday, more on that later, and I have to double-check the date/time with them) and will have an ultrasound then to see the little wiggle worm again. I did my glucose test at the appointment Monday, and while it definitely isn't the worst thing in the world, drinking a small bottle of super sweet, flat-tasting orange soda is not that great. I was nauseous for the hour I waited (thankfully my doctor's office gets you in to see the doc while you wait, so you're not just sitting around, like you do for military doctors... fun - not!), but I didn't get sick, so that was good. I didn't pass out when I got my blood drawn, either! Yay! And I got the call back from the nurse on Tuesday that everything was great with my blood work. No gestational diabetes or anemia or negative things at all. Hooray! I was down a pound again, which makes my grand total, um, 1.5 or so in the last 26+ weeks. But the nurse said that my belly's growth looks fine and the baby's healthy, so they aren't concerned.

Anywho... my new job! I'm starting the new job on Monday, and I'm excited but nervous about it. As I've mentioned before, I think everything will be okay, and I know I'll do well at the job for which I've been hired, but I have no way of knowing if they know about little Eddy. I guess we'll see. I can do the job for which I was hired, so I hope all will be okay. I'm hopeful and optimistic.

So, as the title of this post suggests, FLEAS! EEK! Gross. We have fleas. Correction: Raisele had fleas. I think/hope the rest of us are clear. I took the dogs to the groomer today and they called and said the dogs had fleas. So before I went to pick them up we vacuumed the house and I stripped their beds, their nap areas (blankets in the living room floor), and our bed (their favorite place to play) to wash the blankets. Both dogs got flea/tick baths, and when I picked them up I bought flea collars for both dogs and the cat. Of course, when I picked them up I discovered that it was only Raisele, which was encouraging because if Rubeus hadn't picked them up from her, with her laying on his blankets and snuggling up to him consistently, then it probably isn't the worst infestation ever (although still REALLY gross!). Hopefully we got them and they won't come back!

Anywho, that's all that's going on right now. Jim and I are going to a wedding tomorrow afternoon (he's super excited... not! he's not really into weddings, and he doesn't know either of the people getting married or anyone who'se going, so he's not too excited about being my date). I haven't done any more work on the nursery, so I don't have pictures of that yet. We're 74 days from delivery, and I'm super excited about that. Who's counting, right?

I'll leave you with a picture of our sweet pets. As much as the dogs antagonize the cat and the cat baits the dogs into chasing her so they'll get in trouble, they really do love each other. Exhibit A:

We have great pets.

Terrifying

Last night was the most terrifying night I've had in my life since the night I was in labor with Angel.

I awoke at about 1:30 a.m. in lots of pain, with waves of pain rolling across my stomach. I felt nauseous, and I felt like I needed to use the bathroom. (Sorry if you think this is TMI, but it's my blog...) I got out of bed and went into the bathroom and my body couldn't decide if I needed to throw up or something else. So I just laid down on the floor because the pain was so terrible. The source of the pain will be obvious to any woman whose ever been in labor (or had Braxton Hicks contractions). I was having frequent, excruciating, terrifying contractions. In between the contractions I both vomited and manged to empty my bowels. Then I just laid on the floor in the bathroom praying that the contractions would stop. Eddy was moving a lot; I was sure to pay attention to that. I didn't feel like I was in labor, and my water didn't break or anything. I just prayed and prayed and laid there so scared. I didn't wake Jim up because I didn't want him to worry unless I felt there was a reason for us to worry (of course this morning I was scolded for not waking him up). I knew that I might have to wake him up to go to the ER, so I didn't want to wake him unnecessarily before that.

THANKFULLY my contractions stopped in a short amount of time. But for about 20 minutes I wasn't sure if I was going into labor and what would happen if I did. I went back to bed and the baby was quiet for a little while and I was terrified because of that, but my body and mind were so exhausted that when I went back to bed I fell automatically asleep. My bladder woke me up around 6 a.m. and I felt little nudges against my belly, but not the big movements I'm used to feeling from this wiggly little girl. So I poked and prodded until she woke up fully and kicked me a lot so I knew she was okay. I fell back asleep to the rhythm of her kicks. When I awoke around 8 for the day I woke her up again so I'd know she was alright.

I was 25 weeks pregnant last Thursday. In two days I'll be at 26 weeks. (I miscounted last week when I posted that it was 11.5 weeks left... It's about that now.) I will deliver at 37 weeks, 1 day gestation via scheduled c-section. In 80 days. In 11 weeks and 3 days. She'll be just past full-term on that date. If she had been born last night there would have been very little chance that she would have survived. And financially I'm not sure that Jim and I could have survived. I am beyond thankful that I was not in labor last night. And I am even more thankful that I'm going to the doctor tomorrow morning, because I can ask him about it, make sure everything is really and truly okay, and be positive that our little girl is safe.

When I told Jim about the incident this morning I was in tears, just thinking about how scared I was for her life. I can't lose another baby. I just can't.

25 weeks last Tuesday... Here's to 11 weeks and 3 days more!