Thursday, February 25, 2010

pregnancy perm?

i think the hormones are making my hair curlier than it normally is... or i suppose it could be the well water that we've just switched to when we moved to the city's edge. but i'm gonna go with pregnancy hormones, because i can.

it isn't full out shirley temple spiraled locks, but i've definitely noticed a tighter curl than it's usual hint of waviness when i let it air dry.

this excites me greatly, as i've always wanted super curly hair, but my mom would never let me get a perm (she had a bad experience when she was twelve, involving a cut that was too short, and hair dressers that weren't paying attention, leading to her claim that she was the first white girl to sport an afro whenever humidity was on the rise...)

meanwhile, it's possible this nausea is attributed to the fish oil i've been taking in order to get the daily recommended amount of omega-3 and DHA for healthy fetal brain development (or something along those lines). so i'm taking a break from taking the supplement to test it out. we'll see. i've also heard that orange juice helps break it down faster, and thus eases nausea from taking fish oils (my coworkers/customers at rawhide must think i'm a total health nut for taking fish oil supplements.)

lastly, my beloved christina was telling me yesterday that she found flights from chicago to cody for $300 (expires in june, or something like that), and that she was thinking of coming to visit me. i read in dr. oz's "You:Having a Baby" (which i think might be the best pregnancy book ever... not that i've read many, but i've really loved how informative and witty it is, all rolled into one) that 30 hours of flight is the same as being exposed to one xray. that just about did it for me... so now i'm looking into travel costs by train, and it seems that wyoming is actually it's own island. as far as i can tell, there are no train stations for commercial travel anywhere in wyoming, and even in the surrounding states, the only ones i could find were as far away from the wyoming border as you could get without leaving the state.

what gives, wyoming? :\

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

too soon for maternity clothes?

i've been checking out target's and gap's line of maternity clothes...
embarrassed as i am to admit this, part of the excitement of getting pregnant is all the cute clothes available to us preggos these days. (ahhh! and it's still so mind-boggling that i'm now a member of the pregnant women's club, that i can refer to pregnant women, and i now can include myself in that category... it still doesn't feel real. i'm sure after our first ultrasound just a week from today things will start to sink in more.)

anyhow, so i'm looking at these clothes, and under the sale section for gap maternity, i found a pair of white corduroys, and literally this very morning, i drove a box of clothes over to the bargain box that no longer fit my size or style (and haven't for quite some time, actually; ben was very pleased to see me actually getting rid of stuff), including a pair of white corduroys that i used to LOVE (back when they fit me, anyhow)...

the problem is, most of my clothes have been fitting a little too tight for awhile now - and it's not baby mushroom growing at lightening speeds. frustratingly enough, i put on a "few" pounds thanks to the move and stress and adjustment and so on related to our relocation to wyoming. so months before i even got pregnant, my clothes were uncomfortable, and ben and i started working out and eating healthier, and that may have started to help matters, but then we started getting ready to move again, and then we discovered the fabulous news that has lead to this very blog, and so hard core workouts have been put on hold. and while i'm fully aware that it's perfectly healthy - even encouraged - to continue to exercise during pregnancy, assuming there aren't any unexpected risks, i also have no desire to over-exert myself and cut down on calories, thereby depriving my growing baby of much needed nutrients and energy just so my jeans can fit more comfortably for a few more months while i wait for maternity clothes to become an absolute necessity.

(by the way, baby mushroom is the size of a blueberry this week.) :)

and thus my dilemma. ben says it's too soon for maternity clothes. and not that i have any options here in town anyhow (kmart's selection is limited, to say the least), but we are going up to billings this weekend, plus there's always online...

and so as of lately, i try to pull off the rubberband trick (where you loop a rubber band through the buttonhole of your pants and then attach both ends around the button) to get a little extra moving room, but i can only do this with shirts that are long enough to hide the fact that my pants are unbuttoned and starting to unzip :\

(i've already got "the farter" rumor lined up for myself, let's not add more) :P

i'm leaning heavily towards a bella band, but oh how fun it would be to get some new clothes... especially after purging some old ones!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

quick update...

so nausea seems to be trying to creep in... no losing of my lunch (or breakfast or dinner) has yet occurred, but it's that uncomfortable queasiness, like when you've been up all night and haven't eaten anything.

ben thinks it might just be my blood sugar getting low, and that i probably need to eat more regularly (ie - a healthy snack here and there between meals, don't worry mom, i'm eating breakfast everyday.)

speaking of mom, though, while ben and i had planned to wait until easter to tell anybody, i cracked after not even three days of holding in the secret and begged and pleaded with him that we tell our parents/siblings that very night over ichat... which is what we did. (hi moms and dads and siblings!)

and it's so hard when meeting new people and they ask, "so, do you have any kids?" not to respond with an immediate and overly enthused "why yes! we're baking a bun in the oven as we speak! this will be our first child, and we're waiting to find out the gender, and these are all the names that we're thinking of, and baby mushroom is due october 16th of this year! isn't it fabulous?!?!" but rather, to as coolly and calmly as possible mutter out a "oh, not yet... but someday..."

just six more weeks till easter... just six more weeks to hold my tongue.

(oh, and our small group guessed it... three separate times they asked, and by the third time, i couldn't resist.... but they all agreed to keep it confidential, and i have faith that they will. hi small group friends)

okay.... no more.... hush hush now! mum's the word! :P

Friday, February 19, 2010

the lights are on, but nobody's home...

so lately it's felt as though my brain has completely jumped ship.

i'm totally forgetful, i'll ask a customer if they want room for cream, i'll start filling the cup with coffee, and by the time it starts to reach the top of the cup, i've no idea what their answer was...

and it's been getting worse, i think. i'll miss turns when i'm driving home or to pick ben up from work, and so i'll have to turn around. i'll have no idea where i left my keys/purse/phone... and while i had been a little bit forgetful when it came to those things prior to pregnancy, i could usually retrace my steps in thought and figure out, oh yeah! they're on the counter! but now i don't even remember what happened from the time i got out of the car to how i got to wherever it is that i'm standing.

i'm starting to wonder if there's such a thing as gestational ADD... because i think that's what i have.

so every morning, before we leave the house, finding those essentials seems like the ultimate survival test. i need my purse/license to drive. i need my phone in case some emergency happens and i need to call ben. i need my keys to drive and get back into the house.... i'm hoping once we get the house unpacked, things will get better.

i'm also discovering another dirty little secret about pregnancy that no one ever tells you about... i now come complete with my own horn section, parked right in the rear.

so far i've been lucky enough that i've only had to "let loose" at home or in the bathroom when no one's around, but one of these days, i'm sure i'll be somewhere very public and very quiet, and one of those little buggers is gonna pop out, noisier than a trumpeting elephant, and i can only hope baby mushroom will be public knowledge by then, so i can simply shrug and say "woops! pregnancy butt!" and hopefully we'll all laugh it off, but i can just see the small town we live in gathering in whispered hushes, "see her? that's zoe. the farter."

(of course i'm not truly that paranoid about it... i just hope ben doesn't fear that i'll never return to my lady-like ways)

meanwhile, acne seems to be the new trend for my face....

but hey, i'll take gas and zits anyday over hovering over the toilet. (keeping my fingers crossed that morning sickness forgets to show up ever over the next 8 months)

baby is the size of a sweetpea this week, and i'm still just so excited, albeit fatigued, air-headed, gassy, and troubled with acne.... i'm okay with it. :)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

"here we gooooooo!"

so at the end of last august, i went off the pill, as ben and i decided that with his new job promotion, we'd be more financially stable to finally have a baby...

fast-forward 5 agonizing months later (it really hasn't been that bad - but i've been so excited to start "growing" our family, at first i'd get really bummed when the test turned out negative, or AF reared her ugly head... but the past few months i've been able to let go and leave it up to God's timing.)

it started with craving mushrooms. i used to hate mushrooms, but after ben and i started dating, and i discovered his love for mushrooms, i started getting used to them. if i had the option, though, i'd still usually pass on them... well lately, i haven't been able to get enough of them - convincing ben we should buy them at the grocery store, ordering them on my pizza, adding them to my omelets, sauteing them for my pasta, i even snuck them in the chili we made for everyone on superbowl sunday.

on top of this, "the twins" have been super sore and tender and sensitive, but i chalked it up to AF who was due to arrive in a few days, and tried not to think about it (or bump into anything)

and then i was a few days late... i thought, why not? i'll pee on a stick and see what happens (this was on monday, feb 8th).

i figured it would just be another negative, and we'd keep trying, but as i watched the screen, i started to notice not one, but TWO pink lines - albeit one was rather faint, but it was still there! ben wasn't convinced, though, and while i told him that there's really no such thing as a false positive, he didn't want to get too excited too early. so we bought some more tests and decided i would take another one in a few days.

well of course i couldn't wait, so i took one yesterday morning, and this time, a much more visible positive sign than monday morning's faint double lines! (i tested with two different brands)

yup. that confirms it. i'm pregnant.

and due to it all starting with craving mushrooms, "baby mushroom" seemed a completely appropriate nick name for our yet-to-be-born baby (we're gonna wait till baby mushroom is born to find out the gender).

i've already scheduled my first obgyn appointment - march 2, 10am, which includes an ultrasound so we'll get to see our baby mushroom in progress...

oh man oh man, i wish i could tell somebody... but of course we're not telling anybody yet, but i'm pretty much bursting at the seams. i want to tell every single person i see... but since we're waiting till i'm closer to being out of the first trimester, i figured journaling it all would be the best place to get out all of my excitement, emotions, etc.

(i'm still so happy)