Hot Dogs and Breast Pumps

I had my first baby shower! It was my Phoenix region baby shower and it went smoothly and deliciously. I'm still excited about having a baby shower even though it already happened. I ate, played games, and opened presents for the baby. There were so many gifts for my baby! I was getting nervous about not having anything ready, but this started us off well. I got so excited seeing all the gifts. I'm really starting to get excited and realizing that this is going to happen soon. I mean, I know this is going to happen soon, but it's sooner than I thought. Before I got pregnant, I thought being pregnant would last a long time, but it's happening so fast. The thought of not eating a hot dog for 9 months seemed unbearable, especially when people started telling me that it's actuall 10 months, but I feel like its almost hot dog time! It's bitter sweet, I'll get a hot dog, but I won't have my little guy with me all the time. He keeps me company at work. Who am I going to talk baby talk to at work when he comes out?  I guess I can talk to my jar of peanuts.

Anyway, I love going through all my gifts.  I can't wait to organize it all. Poor Mike, he's surrounded by onesies and breast milk accessories.

Uh....

I think there's a foot coming through my belly button.

A little vacation and a little elbow

Coeur D'Alene

Ah, I had a great Fourth of July vacation! We went to Coeur D'Alene for several days. It was chilly and overcast, which was totally awesome in comparison to the dry, hot, oven environment in Phoenix.


Phoenix





I usually run cold and I always have sweaters in my car. But now, I'm experiencing Phoenix through normal body temperatures and I do not like it. It's really hot here. Poor Mike, he runs hot and I'm only now understanding his arguments for lower A/C settings. Anyway, our vacation was great since it gave me a break from the heat, even though we came home to dirty, muggy, monsoon weather.

16 & Pregnant Prom Pose

We had a great time relaxing, playing games, eating, looking for chipmunks, hiking, boating, exploring an actual farm, and going to buy groceries for what seemed like many days.  We also got to watch fireworks and the main event was that Mike played in a 3-on-3 tournament in Spokane.  Their first game was against the team that actually won their bracket.  I wonder if mini-Mike is going to play basketball.  I know Panchita loves a little one on one with papa-Mike.


Mike gets some hang time



One morning, on this awesome vacation, I woke up and do my "flip to my other side" sequence.  I was on the part where I'm on my back, ready to start the roll to the opposite side, and the baby started moving.  Dang, I woke him up.  My belly button hurt A LOT, so I put my hand on it and there was an elbow sticking out of it.  I looked down and noticed my belly button was super-ultra-extreme-outty.  No, it wasn't just an outty, it was an inside outty.  I had a small freak-out.  It's just not normal.

My Little Coppertop

This may seem obvious, but I discovered today that I have a human INSIDE my body! What?!?! It's finally sinking in that there's a HUMAN inside me. I can't believe I'm making a little boy from scratch! I don't know what I'm doing and I have no clue what's going on in there. It's so weird.

Anyway, this morning it really hit home because everything felt really different. Every morning I have a routine for changing what side I sleep on. I can't believe that I actually have a set procedure for something so simple as flipping sides. So many things have increased in complexity now that I'm pregnant! Let's get back to the story...this morning, when I woke up around 5:00 am to change sides, I followed my procedure on flipping. First, I move my Snoogle out of the way, then I flip onto my back since baby seems to dislike when I flip too fast. Then, I stretch a little and when I was going to begin the big flip to my other side, I felt the baby move. But this was a different move, it was like I could feel him moving around like alien-style. It was like that scene from the Matrix when Neo "wakes up" in the fluid sack and you can see his hands and arms moving around in the sack. It feels like what that looks like. It was amazing. I looked at my Budda belly and I could see something moving. Maybe an elbow or foot or something? I wish I could see what is going on in here! Right now, it's not only exciting, it's also a little gross.

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all...

I'm 24 weeks, almost 25 weeks, so I've got a baby bump. I love my baby bump! A couple of months ago, I was wondering when my baby bump would come and it's finally here! I feel like I grow in spurts, like every week, I spurt one day a week. People at work started noticing my bump about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but they're all hesitant to ask me about it. It usually goes like this...first, they see me in the hallway and make an obvious effort to stop me to talk. They ask what's new with me with that way people ask when they are asking for an answer to a question that's between the lines. You know, like when someone asks a question and they stick their neck out with eyebrows raised? I've been "el preggo" for almost this entire year, so this is technically not news for me, and I like to make it hard, so I rarely concede the news. They eventually ask for personal news or tell me the "You should never ask a woman if they're pregnant" speech. I wouldn't be offended if people were to ask me. I can honestly say this because, last year, three people thought I was pregnant, but I wasn't pregnant. Two of them actually asked me, one was too embarrassed to ask so he asked a coworker. Anyway, people go out of their way to tell me that no one should ask a woman if she's pregnant because she may not be. What I don't understand is why they follow that with, "Wow, you're so big! Are you having twins?"

Pee is for Pythagorean

So I'm sitting in a meeting today at work and we're trying to troubleshoot a hardware issue. There's one guy at a wall that's got whiteboard wallpaper along the whole thing. He's scribbling block diagrams all over the place and we're talking about RF input, bla, bla, bla, down conversions, harmonics and oh my gosh, baby starts kicking! Okay, keep focused this is important stuff, Nyquist zone, bla, bl....oh gosh I have to pee REALLY bad and baby is kicking....okay, I will just get up and say I'll be back. These guys should get that we've been sitting here for almost two hours and I've gone through my entire water bottle, right? Oh...wait, I don't have to go now. Okay, so back to test equipment set up, input frequencies...whoa...Peepee Emergency! Oh, wait, it's gone. OH, so this is the whole "baby is pushing on my bladder" thing pregnant people always go on about! Oh geez, it's back! Code RED Peepee emergency, highest threat level! Where's the nearest restroom? Can I make it? Oh, wait it's gone again.

Not-So-Teenie Weenies

I'm now half way through this crazy ride! I have turned into a preggo cliche. I drop everything. It's really embarrassing. At work, I dropped my pen, stared at it, contemplating leaving it, and then did a weird knee bend squat to pick it up. I then promptly dropped it again before I even took a single step. Augh!! Its pretty uncomfortable to bend over now. I drop so many things at my desk that I just make a pile near a chair that people sit in at my desk. By the end of the day, everything gets picked up by annoyed co-workers.

I've also noticed a lot of people staring at my Budda Belly. Don't try to be discrete, I see you looking at me out of the corner of your eye. What are they looking at? Are they trying to figure out if I'm pregnant, or just eating too many doughnuts? Or are they judging me because I'm pregnant and not wearing a wedding ring? Well, so what if my fingers have swollen up like little weenies and I can't fit into my rings? Mind your own beeswax people!