Leaving on a Jet Plane

We are going to Baltimore for my cousin Anna's wedding tonight-- a red-eye flight out of Seattle calls our names! We have never been to Baltimore before, and we should be able to spend some significant time exploring the sights and sounds with the Holemans.

So, wish us well on our cross-country trip... I, for one, will be trying my best to sleep on the long flights so I am in great shape to enjoy the sweltering heat of the East Coast. We bid you adieu, rain and wind!

Here is a candid shot of me yesterday at the Chamber Membership Luncheon, chit-chatting with my good friend Shanden. I post it because I really don't have many good pregnant photos... perhaps after this weekend, there will be more.

In other news, as you might have heard, Tony recently graduated from an exhausting, 9-month program called "Leadership Skagit." Now he is a certified leader. I am proud of him for having stuck it out through a program that was difficult (though I think it was designed to be so) and not always rewarding in the traditional sense. He learned a lot, I'm sure, about how frustrating teams can be. He also, along with his team, accomplished a bunch-- there is now a lovely park on Guemes Island for all to enjoy (as well as an annoying song to the tune of Gilligan's Island that will be stuck in our heads for a decade). Congratulations, Tony!

Stubborn Child

My pelvis is large, spacious... and apparently, the greatest place for my baby to hide out! I guess all the ligament-loosening that has been happening to me over the past few weeks has made my baby want to seek refuge where the docs cannot see it! We finally (after I got up off the exam table and danced about for a few minutes) got to see a partial profile of the child:

The ultrasound tech said that the chin isn't well shown, and the forehead isn't as sloped as the photo shows... just a really, really bad angle.

Comparison

I came across this candid photo today, looking through the photos on my work computer for a shot or two of a retiring colleague, and lo, I was lovely! Look at that shape! Those curves! Those thin arms and that thin waist! Will I ever see you again, beautiful self?

Hello, baby!

I felt my baby move for the first time on Saturday! In truth, I think it had been moving for awhile and I just didn't register the feeling... most people report a "fluttering" in the belly as first movement, but I can't say I noticed that. Instead, on Saturday, I sat down, stretched out my legs, and poked into my rock-hard uterus with all my might (hey, this kid's gonna keep me up nights for quite awhile pretty soon, I figure I can keep it awake now). Sure enough, a few moments later, I felt the lil' bugger kick me! A real kick, too, none of this "butterfly wings" nonsense. Now, I feel it everyday, just a little bit more often and stronger. And I don't have to poke the kidlet into activity to get him or her to move, either. It is a pretty awesome feeling. I just have to give it a few more weeks before Tony can feel it, too!

We have our 19-week ultrasound today, and I'll be sure to post photos later, so check back!

The B-B-Belly

Behold the magic:Livin' large at 18.5 weeks...

17.5 Week Update

We saw the baby doctor yesterday, my baby daddy and I... and all is well, of course. I haven't felt the baby move, yet, so I am forced to wait four weeks between confirmations that the little one is alive and well. Here are the stats:

• My weight gain is right on track, literally smack on the dotted line they use to represent "normal" progress. Which is to say, I am three pounds heavier than the last visit.
• The baby's heartbeat is 140, nice and strong.
• My fundal height (the size of my uterus as measured on my belly) is perfectly normal. In another couple of weeks, it should be even with my belly button, and then it will grow 1 centimeter in height each week! Amazing expanding belly!

We have our "big" ultrasound scheduled for June 24th in the afternoon at a local radiology shop. I am already dreading drinking 32 ounces of water 1 hour beforehand... makes me sweat just thinking that my bladder will have to hold up to such pressure!

Watch My Corn Pop up in Rows...

Hooray, we finally got our vegetable garden in! In one respect, at least, it's good that we have had such a cool spring-- our lateness on getting the garden planted will not adversely affect the veggies.

It all started a few months ago when Tony ground up a couple of giant cedar stumps. We then got some cement landscaping brick, and Tony laid it all out according to my master plan. This morning we went and got two truckloads of garden soil, some peat moss, and our seeds and starts to put it all together. We finished off with some Buster-proofing: a nice garden fence.

We'll have sweet corn, zucchini (what garden is complete without too much zucchini?), cucumbers, turnips, pumpkins, watermelon, jalapenos, and basil. The watermelon is an experiment, I am really not sure it gets quite warm enough here, but we'll see. I picked up t the jalapeno plant because I thought it was a bell pepper plant, but no worries, my guacamole will be nice and hot this summer! I also have a nice tomato plant, an "Amelia" tomato given to me by a coworker, in a bucket. I have about half a row left, so I am open to suggestions for completing the garden.

The rest of the garden, the flower part, is doing well, also. It has been quite rainy the past week, so my peonies are mostly bud, but here is one pale pink bloom:

I am now 17 weeks pregnant! That's over 4 months! That's 3 weeks to the halfway point! Thats, thats... that's almost too much to think about!!! We have another appointment at the women's clinic this week, and we will schedule the big ultrasound then. We are still adamant about not finding out the baby's sex, but we will soon have more detailed photos of our little kidlet in utero. I am feeling well, though I go back and forth between days during which I want to eat everything in sight and days during which nothing really sounds good. Today and yesterday were "nothing sounds good" days. I have mostly just eaten a lot of kiwi fruit. I need to go shopping now, though, so perhaps something will strike my fancy! Still not eating chocolate, or even much cheese... pregnancy is so weird!

Editing

Tony thinks I should delete that last post... It's not representative of me, he says. And he's right. I am generally a very happy person. Granted, I thought I would be a sassy, beautiful pregnant woman, basking in my fertile glow all the time, and that has SO not been the case. But still. Mostly happy.

I'm just having one of those days, you know?

I'll sleep tonight, and tomorrow will be better.

In the mean time, you can read some of my "dirty laundry" here. At least I am not posting graphic accounts of my pelvic exams and other such things one might see on a blog written by a pregnant gal. Hell, I can't even stand to be photographed. No threat of hoo-ha stories here...

One of Those Days

I didn't sleep well last night... not abnormal, in my current hip-hurting, peeing every couple of hours state. Buster is back, with a vengeance, and he was sure awake and ready to go at 5 am. My mom was kind enough to let him out that early, but I had to yell at him to stop him barking at God-knows-what at 5:15 am in the back yard. I am glad to see him happy again, but I wish he would just wait until 7 to get crazy, that's all. Mom and I saw Indiana Jones last night (and loved it), but we were out late, and I sure did belch my Costco hot dog all evening long.

Buuurp! I figure I only have another month or so before the indignity of my "condition" spreads beyond gastro-intestinal issues to other such lovelies... like getting kicked in the bladder and wetting my pants, probably in a business meeting with the mayor or something.

All that to say that I am tired, and that fatigue brings out the worst in me. No, that's not true. Hunger has always brought out Mega Bitch Amelia. I have nearly committed cold-blooded murder for a sandwich before, and I felt totally justified in contemplating such a thing because, well, I was hungry. You just shouldn't mess with a woman's blood sugar, that's all I'm saying.

Now, if I am hungry, I will most likely cry, because, damn, it hurts! But today I will most likely cry anyhow, because I am tired, and the weepy, worried Amelia is out today (much like we say the mountain is out when it is a clear day). For instance, I am now close to tears thinking about how fortunate I am that I have enough money to buy food to feed this growling, growing belly and the little person inside of me-- what do poor pregnant women do? Shit, now I am thinking about hungry people the world over, and what am I doing having a baby when I should just take the extra food I have to eat for this child to grow and give it to someone who needs it?

I also got up early today for a meeting, went to work late due to said meeting, where I have the daunting, near-impossible task of selling advertising. I hate selling. And then my mom called, and my dog had eaten through my phone charger cord, the only charger I have, so now I have to buy a new one, and dammit! That dog is getting so expensive (and then my mom gave me money because, she says, the culprit might have been Alli. Which is true, but I feel badly that I can't even really afford my life so my parents take pity on me). What was I thinking when we got a dog? Plus, my phone is so old and beat up that AT&T probably doesn't even sell a charger for it anymore, but we can't afford for me to upgrade my phone. This is in total conflict with the fact that I love my dog, and we should probably rescue a lot more dogs from the shelter because they need someone to love them, too. I can't stand the thought of them living in the shelter all their lives, or starving on the streets. *sob*

And now we're back to food, which reminds me of my flabby silhouette, and the fact that I literally cannot wear anything that is not maternity at this point. Also expensive. *tear*

Can I have a do-over please? If not for life over the past few months, at least for today? I need more sleep, but mostly I think I want to wait to have kids until I am paid what I'm worth so that we can afford to move wall outlets more than one foot from the ground throughout our house so that I can plug my phone in and set it on a flat surface that is not my floor so that Buster can't eat it. Also, to buy a car that will fit both a large dog and a child, to remodel the kitchen, and to not be so fat. And to be able to donate thousands of dollars to the local animal shelter, buy a large ranch and rescue sad, beaten dogs, and feed the hungry. Please? Maybe just a nap, then? Oh, that's not in the cards, either? *waaahhh*

Buster Update

Well, just as you and I might catch a virus and have the "stomach flu" for a few days (which is not really the flu, but a misleading colloquialism), so has Buster. Poor guy spent the night with the doctor and will have another night with him to clear out his system... gross. The Doc said he didn't think we would want to deal with the mess of a squirty dog, and he needs to be observed so that he doesn't get dehydrated or anything.

But the good news is that he will live, and is already feeling better. Hooray!

Little Bear in Jail

That's what our vet calls it: spending a night in jail. Buster is being given some sort of stomach medicine and then will be watched overnight to see if anything changes. He seemed to perk up a little bit on the short ride to the vet's office, but man, what a difference from our usual, hyper, stubborn dog! He buried his snout in my chest and just sat there as Dr. Ray poked all sorts of things in his butt. Poor guy. We'll know tomorrow if he needs more tests or if he's gonna be okay.

Sick bear

Buster's not okay. I spent a good while crying last night because he is just so sick and it hurts me so much. He has an appointment at the vet today at 3 because they couldn't get him in earlier... poor guy. He had a bone from Tony's steak on Friday night and has not eaten anything since. He is lethargic and sad looking. I tear up just thinking about him, and three o'clock can't come too soon.

It has really caused me to think about how much I love him and how attached to him I am... I couldn't stand to lose him. If this is how I feel about my dog, how am I supposed to deal with my own child, a baby who will probably get sick and hurt much more often than Buster?

Please send good thoughts our way. I am so upset that he is hurting.