Support Group

There are more pregnant ladies out there than I realized. Through the grapevine I discovered that there are some other ladies at work that are early in their pregnancies and haven't really announced it to the world yet. While talking to one preggo (CC) we thought it would be fun to go out to dinner and commiserate/swap stories with the other pregnant ladies.

It was a blast! We all had virgin daiquiris and shared stories of how our husbands and families are reacting to the pregnancy. Two of us are on our second baby so we gave the first timers some insight and advice on what's to come. Our husbands also seem to be reacting very similarly to the latest pregnancy (or maybe a better description is not reacting) so we each rolled our eyes often in understanding. The other two have husbands that are very excited and into the pregnancy. I told them that they should be thankful for that at least. Although I am thankful that B isn't the type of guy who would announce the pregnancy on Facebook before you are ready to tell anyone. The grass is always greener for some things.

We stayed out a lot later than I thought we would. Especially since most of us go to bed around 8 or 9pm these days. It was so much fun I hope we do it again.

Week 18

The belly is starting to make an appearance. I still have some regular clothes that fit but wearing more and more maternity clothes these days. The pregnancy hangover (otherwise known as morning sickness) is getting better. Most days I feel ok. On the bright side of dealing with the hangover, I still haven't gained any weight. It would be nice to only gain about 20 lbs like I did with Miss M. Especially since I'm starting out at a higher weight than when I got pregnant last time.

I started feeling the baby moving around and kicking just after Christmas. It might have been earlier but it's hard to tell at first if what I'm feeling is a gas bubble or baby movement. Now it's really obvious. It even woke me up the other morning around 4am and I never got back to sleep. Started thinking about stuff I need to get done (sort baby clothes, move Miss M to a different bed or not, repaint her new room or not, etc).

This cold weather SUCKS! I'm done with winter. Need spring to get here NOW. To help my winter blues, I'm planning a trip to someplace hot. Haven't decided on the location yet but it will be in late February. Only B and I will be going. Already got Grandma lined up to watch Miss M and the dog sitter for the puppies. We just need to decide on a location.

It's proving to be difficult. Traveling to the Caribbean or Mexico is a bit outside of B's comfort zone. He has heard about other people having problems and is certain something will go wrong. The eternal pessimist. I, however, am the eternal optimist. Sometimes we balance each other out, sometimes not. He always shoots holes in the suggestions I throw his way. Hopefully we will find something soon. Otherwise we might end up not going anywhere (this is what happened last November).

Any recommendations?

Holiday post-mortem

Overall the holidays went pretty well. The time before Christmas was extremely busy with activities (cookie decorating, swimming, babysitting my nieces), fixing food for Xmas Eve and trying to prevent a visit to the emergency vet. The last half was pretty low key so we were able to recover before heading back to work.

One of the most memorable moments was when our older dog Onyx swallowed an avocado pit on Xmas Eve. They are slippery little suckers and neither my mom nor I could get to it before the dog did. I thought it might be ok but my hubby convinced me to call the emergency vet. The nice lady on the phone said that I should either bring our dog in or we could try to induce vomitting ourselves. Considering it was a holiday and we were many miles from home, we decided to try it ourselves.

This involved force-feeding Onyx a certain dosage of Hydrogen Peroxide then waiting 10 minutes to see if anything happens. If no results, try again. After the 3rd dosage (and maximum recommended dosage before we would have to go to the vet), up came the avocado pit. B had the worse end of the bargain, other than Onyx of course. He held down the dog and forced her mouth open while I poured the hydrogen peroxide in. He also had to sit and wait to see if anything happened and clean up the mess afterward. I wasn't much help because I was in the middle of finishing Xmas dinner, getting dressed and my gag reflex is 100x more sensitive than normal right now. Lucky guy.

Xmas day we had dinner at my aunt and uncle's then headed to B's family about 4 hours away. We celebrated Xmas with them the next day (B's sister had a late shift at the hospital on Xmas day). Almost ended up going to the Emergency Room because Miss M hurt her arm while playing. Took us a while to figure out what was wrong and it turned out to be minor. One of those times when having a sister-in-law who is an Emergency Room nurse came in handy.

On the 26th, we celebrated Miss M's birthday. B's sister made a really cute cake and Miss M mostly ate the icing. Big surprise. She had a lot of fun opening presents (hers and everyone else's too). Was very careful on where the torn wrapping paper went. Usually tried to give it to her cousin Jacob for some reason.

Sunday we headed home and enjoyed a week of relaxation. Didn't do much on New Year's Eve. Just went out for dinner. I didn't even make it until midnight (shocker) but I did wake up around that time due to some fireworks nearby. Celebrated Miss M's birthday again on New Year's day. Some of her favorite words right now are chocolate and cookie. Since neither B or I are huge fans of regular cake, we decided to make a birthday brownie for Miss M instead. She didn't seem to mind one bit. Miss M is definitely a chocoholic like her daddy.

The last holiday event was a visit from my dad and stepmom. They weren't able to come up north until after Xmas so they made the extra trip to come up to see us. It was an odd way to end a two week holiday because they came up on Sunday night and headed home on Monday morning not long after we had left for work. It didn't seem like the weekend was over yet because we had visitors. Miss M had a blast during their visit. She is still asking where her Papa is.

Some fun news I learned about recently is that my friend PIC is also pregnant and due in June and another friend at work is due August 1st. I'll have someone to talk baby stuff with!