To keep in your thoughts and prayers

If anyone is up for praying, there is a girl on the baby board I belong to who needs your prayers. She lost her baby girl last year at 23 weeks, and now is in the hospital again with her little twin girls in danger. I just can't imagine what that would be like, so thought I would pass along the prayer request.

Her blog is at http://robnjenstwins.blogspot.com/

Hellllooooooo....(aka 21 wks ~ 5 days late)

Yes, I know that it's been a while. Yes, I know that I didn't post any update last week. Yes, I know that you're waiting...

So, long story short, I am apparently suffering from "round ligament pain". This is something I thought I was experiencing before. Haha - nope. What I've been feeling the past couple of months are some twinges and sharp little pulls when I move too quickly or turn a certain way. Uncomfortable, yes, but more of just a reminder that you're pregnant in case you forget once in a while.

What I've been feeling the past week are constant, unending, terrorizing, can't-sleep-more-than-a-few-hours-a-night feelings like I've torn every muscle in my abdomen, dislocated my hips and slipped a disk in my lower back. Oh yeah, and it's just getting better by the day :)

So I finally called the doctor today after not being able to get comfortable sitting, standing or lying ~ my only salvation being two yoga poses (child's pose and cat/cow). You can look these poses up if you'd like, but suffice it to say that neither would be appropriate in public, which is where most of my day is spent. Anyway...the nurse said this was "perfectly normal" although most people don't experience it so severely.

After talking to her, I'll attribute it to being short-waisted and not having lots of room for things to spread out inside. Who knows, but I do have the okay to pop at Benadryl tonight in hopes of getting some much-needed sleep.

Wish me luck!

What's going on at our house right now...

Seth started taking pictures of the dogs and caught me, so I figured I'd give you all a glimpse of how exciting our lives have become...

Some pictures from a wedding

We went to little Theresa's wedding on Friday night and had a nice time. Although there's nothing like sitting next to a table laden with full glasses of chardonnary to make you "appreciate" pregnancy ;)

Here are some pictures that we took:

Our nursery

I've been spending some time looking at nursery gear, after deciding that my original plan for a homemade vintage shabby chic nursery really would work better for a girl and that we'd hold off on that until we have our daughter. So, after looking at what seems like hundreds of pictures of bedding and decor, I was able to narrow it down to about 10 collections. After that, Seth and I looked them over in a slideshow and picked this adorable jungle-themed room:

You can't see it very well, but the brown is actually a subtle leopard print that I love. I just think the whole thing is so cute - kinda reminds me of "Madagascar"!

Forgive the shout out

I just wanted to let my dear cousins Jen and Jenni know how much I love reading your comments. Thanks for the support - you guys are the best :)

Not feeling much like posting lately...

Well, I just haven't felt much like posting on here the past week, but I really do need to keep you updated with all that's going on! So, here's our 20-week update:

• I continue to get comments about how I cannot possibly be due in March due to my already huge belly. Well folks, believe it! And yes, there is only one.


• Just when I thought it would be a while before Seth would be able to feel the little guy kicking, he decided to put on a show on Thursday evening for about 10 minutes. It was so neat! Then Lucy plopped herself down against my stomach this morning and he gave her a punch back - really funny!


• I've been having issues with nosebleeds this week - apparently not uncommon, but really annoying to walk around with tissues hanging out of my nose :) Also feeling really sick when I eat/drink anything sugary, which I hope is not related to any more blood sugar problems. Apparently being hypoglycemic leads to an increased risk of gestational diabetes, which is odd to think, but worries me nonetheless.


• Likes this week: Italian food and cheese. Not into sweets much anymore, but am slowly starting to eat meat again. Thank goodness!

19 Weeks

Well, I went to bed Thursday night with an awful headache and woke up yesterday with it still raging, but decided to tough it out and go to school. Actually, since our lovely school system doesn't offer paid maternity leave, it really wasn't a decision if we don't want to go broke in the springtime. I am currently rationing my 18 sick days like I'm on a bread line in Russia...

Anyways, my point is that the headache seems to be gone today, thank goodness. I think I would have willingly sliced it off if it wasn't...

By the way, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the well-wishes and congrats. We are so excited, and I was making Seth look at names last night. It should be an interesting process knowing how stubborn we both are! I just feel like we'll be in the hospital and they'll be like, "Uh, ma'am, you can't take the baby home until it has a name"...

It's a BOY!!!

Yes, we will have our own sweet prince come March! He looked beautiful, and there was no mistaking that he was a boy!

It really was an amazing experience - we got to see things like the chambers of his little heart, his kidneys, the teeny bones in his fingers, and his little nose and lips. I'm just so proud!

Once I get our scanner hooked up to the laptop I will post some better pictures of him. But this is his first outfit(s) and first pacifier that we got today after we found out. :)

Yoga

So I went to my first prenatal yoga class tonight and I really loved it! Even though it's 25 minutes away in Crofton, it was totally worthwhile - relaxing and energizing. Plus it was fun to have Victoria there to have a few laughs (not sure that's appropriate for yoga, but oh well...). Can't wait for next Monday!

Ah, the "Renaissance" Festival

Let's just start with an example of something that would be totally acceptable and of the correct time period for a festival celebrating the cultural rebirth of the Western world in the 14th century.
And now let's move on to some of the more, shall we say, inappropriate costumes of the day...

Nothing says Renaissance like a bandana and dog collar.

Aaargh, matey.

Jack the Ripper? Nope, a few hundred years before his time...

I think the sneakers really just shout "Renaissance", don't you?

Janis Joplin apparently played to some sell-out crowds in Florence...

I honestly didn't know whether to look at the girl or the guy on this one. I mean, the fairy outfit is cute for Halloween I guess, but what in the world does it have to do with the Renaissance???

Check out the guy on the left. He apparently traded in the rest of his knight suit for a pair of cargo shorts, some black socks and sneaks. Interesting.

We'll just use this as an example of what not to do.

Go Steelers!

I even got Athan involved in rooting for the Steelers yesterday!
How cute is he?

A bit late...but 18 weeks!

So I'm slacking a bit this week. I'm sure my five faithful followers are devastated... :)

It's been a crazy, long, tiring week so while we celebrated the 18 week milestone on Thursday it's just now that I'm updating.

We have another big week planned:

• Going to the Renaissance Festival with James and Tonya today. I just love this fair - people come from all over the mid-Atlantic and it's actually set up as a "permanent" medieval/Renaissance village year-round so it's not some dinky thing that gets thrown up for a few weekends. The food is awesome, there's lots of fun activities and shows to watch, but by far the best part is people-watching. It's as if all the nuts in the world texted each other and decided to show up in one place on one day. I will definitely be posting some pictures - you'll get a kick out of them. A couple of years ago, Seth and I actually saw the world's tallest man there just walking around - he was that one from the former Soviet Union (forget which "republic" he was from) - there's been a couple of shows about him on Discovery. It was pretty cool. Hoping today lives up to the hype!



• We are doing landscaping around the "cottage" this weekend at school - parents and students are pitching in to spiff it up. In case you didn't know, "learning cottage" is a nice way of saying the single-wide trailer that I teach in. Now you know I love it because nobody bothers me out there, but let's just call a spade a spade, alright?



• The NFL is killing me with another Steelers night game this week. Enough already - the pregnant woman needs some sleep!



• The prenatal yoga class that I still haven't signed up for starts on Monday evening. I'm really, really looking forward to this. Geesh, it's expensive though! $135 for 8 weeks (class is only once a week). But if I go ahead with it, I'm taking it with my friend Victoria who is due the day before me and is also a teacher. She found out on Thursday that she's having a boy - YAY Victoria!



• Speaking of which, we have our big ultrasound appointment on Thursday to make sure all is anatomically correct and bebe is still developing well. We'll hopefully also find out if "it" will be a he or a she - last time we did NOT have a cooperative bebe. At first s/he was sleeping with his/her legs crossed, so I drank some coffee and then s/he wouldn't sit still long enough to get a good look! Keep your fingers crossed for us.



• And, yes, Wednesday is a national holiday and I expect bells to be chiming across the nation to ring in my (yikes!) 34th birthday. Oooooh, I'm getting OLD!



• Today also would have been Gram's 77th birthday, so that's pretty sad and I'm just kind of ignoring it. Ignoring problems is what I do best, you know?