Operation Weight Watch

So all this week I have been a good girl. I have been a good girl after getting my "fat" news from the doctor last week. I am taking his advice. I am cutting calories and getting some exercise.

Here is what I have been up to: Walking almost every day for 30 minutes on my lunch. Eating between 1780 to 1820 calories. I aim for 1800 calories a day but some days I am under and some days I am over. Before anyone has a panic attack, I assure you that 1800 calories is plenty for a pregnant woman to eat. Especially for a pregnant woman who is already overweight.

I am trying very hard to get in tons of veggies and fruit. I was doing this before but I am making more of an effort now. So far this week, I did two hours of yardwork on Saturday. I walked for 30 minutes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and today (Friday). I couldn't on Wednesday because I was short on time at work due to standing around waiting to get my H1N1 vaccine (that's a whole nother story).

So I have been good. Today, I am really craving pizza. I am not depriving myself of pizza so I decided to splurge and buy a Lean Cuisine Pepperoni Pizza. And because I am trying to get in my veggie servings, I am also having a nice, big salad.

I even baked last weekend and was still able to stick to my calorie intake. I really want to impress not only myself but my doctor at my next appointment in November. I don't want to get the "fat" talk again. It was more than humiliating.

My Husband

I have to write about my husband. He has been wonderful this entire pregnancy. If I ask him to do something around the house, he does without question. If I can't lift something or reach something, he's right there to help me.

The thing that I love most about him lately is how he reacts to my body. You can see in previous posts, I have a hard time with my body image. I was always afraid that he would think I was repulsive or gross during pregnancy. I am not sure why I thought this other than it's probably my own insecurity clouding my vision.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Jason loves my body. He loves my bigger boobs, loves my growing belly and is very concerned with my health. Not in an overbearing way however.

One of the favorite parts of my day is when he comes to bed. This is right around the time that I start to stir and get up for the day (we work opposite shifts and aren't in bed at the same time). He crawls into bed, snuggles with me and usually sticks his hand on my belly. He just lays there for a long time feeling our little guy move. I think it's so sweet. He will say to me "He's really moving around in there!" with awe.

I love my husband. And with our anniversary coming up in two weeks, I can't believe that it's been three years already. We have been together for 8 total but married for 3. I am lucky to have him around.

I am lucky that he says to me "Be careful getting out of the tub. I don't want you to fall".
I am lucky when he asks if there is anything he can get me.
I am lucky when he said the other night "Guess what? I love our baby".

He melts my heart.

24 Week Appointment

My appointment was uneventful and disappointing at the same time. I had it on Friday and have been holding off posting until I was in a better frame of mind. You will see what I mean shortly.

I did the regular routine: Pee in a cup, weight, and talk to the nurse. She gave me the information and the lovely glucose drink for my gestational diabetes test that I need to take soon. I asked her how much weight I had gained so far. She looked at my chart and said "Oh it looks like about 16 pounds". I knew it was going to be high and I groaned. She says "Don't worry about it! You are fine!". I thought I was off the hook.

Oh no, in comes the doctor. We talk, he measures my uterus, asks if I am still nauseous and then........here comes the weight talk.

Disclaimer: If you didn't already know this, I am not a small girl. I am not huge or obese, but I am heavy. I could have stood to lose a good 15 pounds or so before becoming pregnant. I am very self-conscious about my weight and I always have been.

"Do you walk?" asks the doctor. I tell him no that I am not good at exercise. He says "Well, I would recommend that you start and maybe watch what you are eating. I don't want to see you at the end of the pregnancy having gained another 20 pounds". I told him I didn't want to gain another 20 pounds either. He says "Something has got to change. Either you modify your calories in or your calories out".

I will admit it. I knew this talk was coming at some point. As a heavier girl, I knew I should only be gaining 15-20 pounds my entire pregnancy. While I watch what I eat (very closely) during the week, on the weekends I am a little more lax.

I left his office very depressed. He basically was telling me that I was fat. I already knew this, but it stings when someone else tells you. So, I will be modifying my eating and exercise. I actually already have. I am watching my calories and tracking everything on BabyFit. I have been doing this since I got pregnant, but I am going to be more diligent about it. I am also going to walk 5 days a week for 30 minutes. I figure I can do this during my lunch hour.

Yesterday, I ate so well. I ate plenty and got in two hours worth of exercise in the form of yard work. Today, I am on track with good eating again. I am trying to make very good food choices, choosing fruits and veggies over fats. This isn't saying that I will NEVER eat dessert or fat, I will just make my portions smaller.

Do I feel better about myself? No, not really. But I am ready to prove that I can maintain a healthy weight and make my doctor proud. I do NOT want the weight talk at my next appointment.

The Newest Symptom

It really isn't that bad, so I can't exactly complain, but why am I so HOT? Seriously, it's like I am a human oven.

Last night, I slept with the windows open in our bedroom, in a very skimpy nighty without any covers and I was STILL hot. I know I am cooking a baby, but this is crazy! I am usually freezing ass cold. So cold in fact that I have to heat my feet up in bed using a heating pad. Not these days though. I am an oven. I might be hotter than my husband who sleeps nekked and still gets sweaty (TMI, sorry).

It could be that I have extra hormones. It could be that I now sleep with a body pillow (FYI, Target $19.99. Best.Thing.Ever). It could also be that I sometimes have to wrangle between three cats who love humans because they are warm. At any rate, I'm hot.

I had the windows open while working from home today, no socks on and a t-shirt and jeans. I was still hot. It was 62 degrees outside. That can't be normal right?

It's all for a good cause.

Like I said, I can't really complain. My symptoms have been relatively minor. Case in point. The symptoms I do have:

* All day sickness. I take meds though, so I normally don't feel too disgusting.
* Occasional heartburn. Not terrible because Tums usually fixes it.
* Heavy belly. This sounds strange, but every night around 7:00, my belly gets really heavy and hard. Probably from carrying it around all day.
* Round ligament pain. This JUST started yesterday. Not too terrible yet.
* Weight gain. This is normal. It happens to everyone.
* Food aversions. Totally gone at this point. Yay! I can eat chicken again!
* Fatigue. Only occasionally and thankfully on the weekends when I can take naps if need be.
* Nasal congestion. I have allergies anyways, so I am completely used to this.
* Sex dreams. Not complaining about this AT ALL. Unless said dreams are about ex-boyfriends.

I am lucky enough not to be hormonal or have cravings. Yes, once in a while I will want something, but they aren't consistent. Saturday I wanted something chocolate and yesterday, it was something pumpkin. See? Not consistent.

My husband is also very lucky that I have had no hormonal "issues". No crying spells, no rage (at least towards him), no whining moments any more than normal. I consider him lucky.

So, I can't really complain. I am finally starting to feel good. I love feeling him kick and knowing that in 16 weeks, I will have a son in my arms. Makes it allllll worth it!

Registering

Boy, was that an adventure. I thought it would be oodles of fun. After all, we would get to pick out tons of cute baby stuff! I did like registering for our wedding, so why wouldn't I like registering for baby? It's not that I hated it, it was just stressful.

I even went prepared. I had started a wish list at Babies R Us and had read Baby Bargains to know what were good brands and bad brands. I knew we didn't need a lot of "extras" like a wipe warmer or special laundry detergent. We have a very small house so we don't need fancy special extra items. However, we do need certain things. Like say a crib. Oh and a highchair.

So, armed with my list, the husband and I headed out. I let him yield the scanner. I figure it would make it more fun for him. We started at the bottles. Easy enough. I only need a few since I plan on trying to breastfeed. I thought I would want the Play-Tex drop-ins. That way, I don't have to mess around with washing bottles. But the more I thought about it, I didn't know if they would be compatible with the breast pump I wanted to buy. Jason and I got into a heated discussion on just how breast pumps work. The poor man had to explain to me that you store the milk and then pour it into containers or bottles when you want to feed. Seriously, shouldn't I know that?!? Oh well, so we opted for Dr. Brown's. I figure we can wash them and I know they will work with our breastpump.

We made our way through washcloths, towels, bowls, bibs and to bathtubs. Who would have thought that my husband would want to be a fancy baby spa complete with jacuzzi setting? I needed to remind him: "720 square feet. Where would we store this?". He let me pick the whale shaped tub instead.

It was then on to the carseats and strollers. I had a certain brand in mind. After all, Baby Bargains rated it highly. However, when we say how easily the carseat would tip out of the stroller, even when locked in, we went with a different (and more pricey, ouch) brand. The funny thing? It had to match the interior of my husband's car. I really didn't care. He could pick the pattern. It's just a carseat after all.

Swings were fun. I wanted a full-size one but Jason found a smaller and more practical one. So much for reminding HIM about space. Sheesh. Then it was on to pack and plays. Very basic model. Bedding (sateen because Jason said it would feel good on the baby's skin, tee hee), diapers, cribs, toys.

After almost 2 hours, we were done. I was exhausted. I didn't think registering would be that hard. All in all, I think we ended up with about 70 items on the list. 70!? After 2 hours, that's it? There are still items that I want, like baby wash and Mylicon, but I figure those can be found at Target.

Thank God that's over. Even though picking out fabrics and models were fun, it was tiring. I hope I don't have to do that again. At least for many years.

Some Pictures

This is my first post where I am going to do nothing but post pictures.

How I announced to my coworkers that I am having a little boy. Cupcakes frosted blue!



The awesome fabric I bought for the baby's room. The dinosaur fabric is for the curtains and the blue fabric is for the valances and pillows. I love how the blue looks like dried cracked earth!



I didn't want anything really baby-ish and also something he could grow into, so dinosaurs it is!

My cool diaper bag I ordered from Etsy. I was able to pick the fabric. Again, I didn't want something that screamed "BABY!". I am carrying it so I wanted it to be a fabric I liked.

That's all for now. I must post about our registering adventures. We had fun. Sort of.

Best Day Ever!

Yesterday was such an amazing day. I started out the day nervous and antsy. We were going for our "big" ultrasound, or the growth ultrasound in the afternoon. I wanted a healthy baby, gender didn't matter. My husband, always the rock, helped calmed me down.

The cruel doctors make you drink 32 ounces of water 30 minutes prior to the appointment, so armed with a full bladder, off we went! The ultrasound was absolutely amazing. Seriously, yesterday was one of the best days of my life so far. We got to see everything in such detail. I can't believe how thorough and detailed the ultrasound tech was.

The bladder was full (the baby's, not mine) which means the kidneys are functioning beautifully. The stomach was full which means baby is swallowing correctly. Ten awesome fingers and ten awesome toes. The little bugger was laying face down which made it hard for the tech to get good pictures of the heart, but finally, the baby cooperated. It's pretty funny how they get the baby to move. Or at least I thought it was funny. The tech kept poking me with the wand and everytime that happened, the little one would move. Ultimately, he/she didn't roll over, but that's okay. The heart looked great!

Everything else was great. The heart, brain, spine, length of the femur, little hands, little feet (no club feet) and everything. Baby weighs about 14 ounces (little chunker) and is measuring about 6 days ahead of my due date. They will not be changing my due date because it's common for babies to measure a little ahead or a little behind. The ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the gender which of course we said "YES!" to.

Now, I have to tell you that all along my husband has said it's a boy. There is no changing this guy's mind. I have thought it was a girl all along, only because everyone is saying "it's a girl". Apparently, I look more feminine during pregnancy and all the gender prediction tests are saying girl, girl, girl. Jason and I had a bet going that whoever was right about the gender got to pick the restaurant we went out to celebrate at.

So the tech looks at the baby's little legs and then scrolls up. I said "Is that a penis?!". The baby is indeed a BOY! I am totally shocked! Jason was right all along. I should have just listened to him. Secretly, we both wanted a little boy. Jason is the only boy on his side of the family and so he really wanted to be able to carry on the family name. I wanted to give him a son since this might be our only little one. We got to see his little penis and scrotum. Blackmail for later in life I am sure. Jason keeps joking that he wants to frame the ultrasound picture of his little boy parts.

IT'S A BOY! I am totally shocked and absolutely thrilled. Even this morning, I still can't believe it.

We got tons of pictures of the ultrasound. We got to see his profile and so far, he looks like daddy. He even sleeps like daddy. Face down on his stomach with one arm above his head. What a sweetie.

I am in love. I cannot wait to meet this little guy in a little over four months. I hope he looks just like Jason and has his sweet disposition too.