The Recovering Non-Alcoholic

Random musings, fun facts and innuendo galore!

Friday, August 24, 2007

Random Prego Moments

Burst into tears tonight while watching the Friends rerun where Monica & Chandler find out they won't be able to conceive a child together. Yes these are fictional characters and this show originally aired a few years ago. It still made me cry. And it reminded me of how lucky we are. So many couples can't conceive a child, or shouldn't have one due to medical reasons, and this one just dropped out of the clear blue sky! Well not literally, there was no stork involved. As Rich's mom Peggy said when we broke the news, "Well, I'm not going to ask how it happened..."
While trying to unwrap a baked potato delivered from Off-the-Grill tonight, I knocked over the remote and dropped the HOT baked potato on the floor at the same time! (Fortunately it was still 90% wrapped in foil.) Not that I've ever been very coordinated but this is klutzy even for me. I'm starting to identify with Tonks, the clumsy Auror from the Harry Potter books - except I'm not a Metamorphmagus with a werewolf husband. (Speaking of which, how sad is it that Tonks & Lupin had to die? Apparently JK Rowling had to kill them off in exchange for not killing Mr. Weasley. Tough choices.)

My feet are hot all the time! This happens to all pregnant women apparently but it doesn't help when the weather in your area is this hot. It's been over 100 degrees almost every day for about 3 weeks now! This is just ridiculous. I meant to buy myself a nice footbath unit with built-in massage for my birthday but couldn't find one at WalMart and ended up spending too much money on other things. So the other night I got so desperate for relief that I filled Rich's big mixing bowl with cold water, added one of his frozen water bottles for good measure, and dipped my feet in. It felt great! Now I need to wash it and do that again but I can never seem to fit the damn thing into the dishwasher, and my housekeeping motto has always been "Death Before Handwashing." Something's gotta give.

I finally broke down and bought Jenny McCarthy's book Baby Laughs. It's good - not Pulitzer material by a long shot but a quick & funny read. Of course I had to laugh when she complained of having to go from a size 4 or 6 to a size 12. (Oh you poor thing - try getting knocked up when you're already a size 18! She also mentioned that she gained about 50-60 pounds during her pregnancy, while I probably haven't gained more than 10 yet. I remember Kate Hudson gained about 70 pounds when she was pregnant, so I guess these skinny ass Hollywood chicks have to catch up to normal weight and then some! Pregnancy is probably the only time they're allowed to eat, poor girls.) Anyway, she had some humorous and humanizing thoughts on the various things that happen to our bodies during those nine precious months. Like pretty pink areolas turning brown. Constipation. Nasty farts of death. Having to pee every 5 minutes. Granny panties. And at least I don't have to go through this in the public eye. Having nothing stylish & flattering to wear is no big deal when you hardly leave the house. God forbid having to host an awards show in this condition! And have Howard Stern talk about your boobs the next day!

Bought a prenatal yoga DVD when I ordered Jenny's book. Now I forget how to work the DVD player! Rich will be home tomorrow, I'll have him give me another tutorial. (Am I turning into my mother already?) BTW today is Rich's birthday - he's 32! I've already bought him a few gifts and am insisting on taking him out for either lunch or dinner this weekend. He's going to try to pay and I won't let him.

I'm finishing up my 21st week. Not sure if a casual observer would notice but I definitely look pregnant to me! I've always had a belly, as I went straight from baby fat to adult fat with no hot bikini figure in between, but my belly has never started just under my boobs before. This is definitely pregnant form. Those of you in the Boston area will see me in late September - early October, and I should look even more pregnant by then.

The baby is kicking! Not hard, not like I thought it would be. More of a fluttering sensation that can easily be mistaken for gas. When the fart doesn't come I know it's the baby, not my intestines. Naturally he never kicks when I'm ready and waiting for it, he prefers to wait till I'm distracted, then it's like "wait, was that a kick?"

Got a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning. Nothing special like an ultrasound, just urine and blood test as far as I know. TennCare, the state Medicaid program, has this incentive program to keep pregnant women on schedule with their prenatal visits - for every 3 office visits you get a $10 WalMart gift card! Now I'm not the kind of mother who needs to be cajoled into making and keeping those appointments - on the contrary I had to wait much longer than I would have prefered thanks to TennCare's paperwork backlog - but I'm not going to say no to $10 free money. We're at WalMart almost every weekend so it will be put to good use.

Michael Vick deserves to be shot. Better yet, electrocuted and drowned. A few years of getting butt-raped on a regular basis would work too. Sick piece of shit.

Red Sox didn't play the White Sox tonight due to inclement weather. That means a double-header tomorrow! Can't wait to watch my guys win both games and leave the Yanks further in the dust.

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but Zorro is very interested in my belly. Every day he spends at least half an hour cuddled up to my midsection while I'm lying in bed or sitting on the recliner. Sometimes he "kneads" my belly flesh. Zorro generally prefers the company of males, especially Rich (aka Daddy), who says Zorro is doing this because he knows there's a penis in my belly. I'd like to think it's something about animals sensing subtle energy changes, but whatever works. I'm alone all week with the damn cat, so I'm grateful for all the affection I can get out of the little beast.

Going to bed, gotta be up in 9 hours to get to my appointment. Talk again soon!

Labels: , ,

Monday, August 13, 2007

Pregnancy Updates

Yeah... for those of you who haven't been living under an unlisted rock - I'm PREGNANT!

We're having a boy and he's due New Year's Day. Right now I'm in my 20th week and the doctor says everything looks good. We had an ultrasound three weeks ago (duh that's how we know the gender!) and everyone has commented on the impressive size of his head. Let's hope I don't need a C-section! But if I do it's not the end of the world.

Back story... last April my period didn't show up, but I wasn't paying close attention to the calendar and chalked it up to stress and travel since we'd just taken a road trip. Then in early May I noticed that I had to pee all the time, and the clothes I'd bought the week before were too tight, and then I started feeling a little queasy every morning while simultaneously craving foods that were NOT on my diet... So I took a ClearBlue Easy test with a "digital readout" feature, meaning that the word "Pregnant" showed up in a little screen on the dipstick a minute after I'd peed on it. Once I got my knees to stop shaking I shared the information with Rich. We spent the next few hours talking and crying (well the crying was all me) and making up from all the arguments we'd had recently. Eventually we both went to sleep, and in the morning I told Rich I wanted to keep the baby. He said that was fine with him, and the rest is history.

The reason I'd been so upset about the pregnancy was that I did not have health insurance at the time. Plus we were both between jobs; I was temping off and on, and Rich was transitioning back to work after spending a few months day-trading. Not the best situation to bring a baby into... Then a coworker at my temp assignment told me about TennCare, the state Medicaid program, which just about always approves pregnant women. So I applied for TennCare, got an "official" pregnancy test from Planned Parenthood (positive, of course) as proof of my condition, and bided my time for a whole month (yes, a month!) before I was notified to come in and meet with a caseworker. The waiting around sucked of course, and the Department of Human Services place was, in a word, icky. The walls were painted a color I can only describe as "puke blue" and it was hot and crowded and not fun. But after a few hours of waiting (yes you read that correctly) I met with a caseworker who kindly approved me for TennCare coverage. Phew!

I found a very nice OBGYN named Dr. Hamilton, whose office is located at my neighborhood hospital. Due to the TennCare processing time - apparently they take a month to review every application - I was in my 15th week before I could get any prenatal care. But Dr. Hamilton's nurse, Tia, assured me that I hadn't missed much, and that I'd probably saved myself a blood test or two. During this visit Tia checked the baby's heart rate with a Doppler device, and it sounded good and strong! I got all teary-eyed over it... Tia also confirmed that, based on the heart rate, I had correctly ballparked the gestational age.

Two weeks later I had my ultrasound appointment. Rich took the day off from work for this, and we're both very glad he did! If you've never had a baby I can tell you, there's nothing like seeing your unborn child's image on the screen, seeing the heart pumping... it's just incredible. Even Rich, tough guy that he is, was touched. The ultrasound tech was quite a character, and his humor really put us at ease. When he located the baby's genitalia he kindly pointed out the penis and scrotum, and labeled it "Weenie." We have a 9-minute video of the ultrasound session, which yielded these still images:








Rich kindly added his own artistic touch to this image - I had no idea he was so talented!


So anyway Rich has a good job now, and I have health coverage, and we're both very happy and excited. Yes it's not necessarily the best timing but we've accepted that. Our baby will be born to adults who are in love and living together, and who already love the baby very much. We haven't set a date yet but yes, we are planning to get married. We haven't picked a name yet - we're calling him the Player To Be Named Later. And I will try to blog more often and keep you updated on all things baby!

Labels: , ,