Weeks 19-24

When I said I was busy- I meant it. I haven't seen my best friend in 2 months. In the last few weeks I doubt I've "seen" my husband a full 24 hours (sleeping doesn't count) and in the past month I've had a total of two days off. The end of competition season for dance is a blessing, but it also means we are in full blown recital mode. In just 3 1/2 weeks it will all be over and my nesting can really begin.

In week 20 when we found out it was a girl, we were just thrilled. Yes, Bernardo had hoped for a boy but all along he suspected he would have another little pretty princess to watch over. He also decided he may need another gun and he must stock up on ammo. When he told Nadia (his first daughter who was also hoping for a boy), she was also ecstatic. Just a day before our ultrasound, we had to put one of our kitties to sleep, so we all went from crying one day to enthusiasm the next. It was a very emotionally draining week. The two people who were the most thrilled were my parents. I promised my Dad that if it was a girl, we would call him first. He also told me if it was a boy, to lie to him lol. So once we got in the car and out of the parking garage, we pulled over and put him on speaker phone. When we told him it was a girl, he thought we were pulling his leg, but once we assured him it was true, he let out a "wooohoooo!" and my husband went over later to celebrate with cigars and a nice bottle of scotch. My mom had to go shopping that weekend and bought the baby 5 or 6 new outfits. She couldn't contain her shopping craving any longer!

All along I have looked like I just gained a few pounds, but no one really noticed that I was pregnant unless I told them. Until around week 22/23. I had two moms at the studio say, "You popped". They were right. I got real pregnant, real fast. I am in desperate need of some maternity clothes, but because of time restrictions I have managed to buy one pair of shorts that fit me comfortably and I'm slowly running out of shirts long enough to cover my entire belly.

I've had no real cravings as of yet other than smoothies. I don't care what flavor, I just want them like 3 times a week (could be worse right?). The baby's movement has progressed from a kick here and there to full blown cartwheels and dance parties. I can feel her twisting, turning, and stretching any time I'm seated. She doesn't move very much when I'm teaching or walking around, with the exception of last night. She was so low that it felt as if she was dancing on my bladder during one of my classes. It was incredibly uncomfortable and thankfully she moved after about 20 minutes. In the past month I have gained 5 pounds, putting my weight gain total at 13 pounds total with 3 months left to go! Indigestion has not been a problem since I've cut out spicy foods (I miss you Mexican food!) and eat around every 2 - 3 hours. There has definitely been some round ligament pain and a little sciatic twinginess (that's a word right?) but overall it has been smooth sailing since I left that nasty first trimester.

I have my glucose test and another ultrasound in 3 weeks. I'm not really worried about gestational diabetes considering my weight and family history. The doctor asked to get my cervix looked at during the ultrasound again because I have had two surgeries on it in the past. I have cervical dysplasia and I believe I had my last surgery 2 years ago where they had to laser out a portion to remove "bad" cells. At 20 weeks my cervix looked great, so here is to hoping that everything stays awesome! The only complication I've heard from a woman with the same issue was that because of her scar tissue, she could not dilate. And now I have to go do housewife things before I head off to work. Hope everyone enjoys their long weekend- I know I will enjoy 2 whole days off!! xo

Week 18 and my world full of weird

Sometimes I wonder if the universe groups weird events and weird people all together and sort of dumps them on me all at one time. To me, the changes my body is going through is definitely weird and takes a great deal of getting used to. Going back to a previous post, I'm in front of the mirror more times than I'm not. I still forget that I'm pregnant and sometimes while I teach, I catch a glimpse of myself and get surprised! I forget that my belly is growing and I feel normal for the most part. It's kind of funny actually. So many of the moms at the studio and my husband's family have commented on how little my belly is- but it just feels so big to me!  Anyways back to the weird stuff. It started last week with the guy in the Prius brake-checked me on the interstate and then as I passed him, he flicked me off. Yesterday, as I'm driving home I spot a man walking down the road with his hand down the back of his pants scratching his bottom! What!? I had to do a double take. Finally, I had a cyber bully try to beat me down. I belong to a FB page that supports the no kill movement in Manatee county. They network shelter dogs who are on death row, help others rehome pets and work together to right the wrongs of the shelter system. There are a lot of dedicated people there, and then there are a few who are questionable in character. One man in particular who has been banned from the site, had posted something about a recent case in Manatee county on another animal site. Someone reposted it and I asked if he was the same man who I've seen threads about threatening woman volunteers with scathing emails. Matter of fact, a woman messaged me privately and said in fact it was and she had been on the receiving end of some of those "crazy/scary emails". I then received a message from him saying that I was ignorant and that he only deals in facts and I should go back to my fairy tale land. HA! I let him know I was not someone to be messed with and that cyber crimes are serious and neither I nor my husband would let any remarks he may make get swept under the rug. I contacted the page administrator and told her what transpired and she too received some crappy email from this guy. After all of this, I'm wondering what else could possibly happen. What other weirdness is the universe is going to throw at me this week?

Bernardo and I are anxiously waiting for week 20 when we find out the sex of the baby. He is convinced it is a girl, but I have no feeling one way or the other. I have had an aversion to eggs... not cooked ones, but ones that just get cracked opened. I cannot cook them without getting queasy, but I can eat them okay as long as its not first thing in the morning. So strange. I've had no real cravings, I'm just hungry like every 2 hours. Sleep has been okay. I definitely miss sleeping on my stomach and now my back. I think that I've become a little more impatient. I hate standing in line and my dog is increasingly aggravating when he won't poop! LOL. The little things right? I discovered how real mommy brain is yesterday and I could barely form a cohesive thought or remember what I was searching for, or even know my right from my left. I hope that isn't forever! I've felt the baby move a few times, very small and slight but good to know it's alive and kicking. The dreaded trip to the maternity store is going to have to happen soon. All my growing is in my belly thankfully, but I cannot button my shorts and sit down comfortably anymore. *sigh* Off to make banana bread :) Have a blessed day! xo

Have Baby, will travel

I just realized how busy I have been in the past two weeks when I saw that my last post was about week 14. Today marks week 17 and all is well in Baby Land. A lot of my dancers and their parents have been asking if I'm going to or if I have already found out the sex of the baby... The answer is no, I haven't found out yet, and yes we will definitely be finding out. I like to plan everything. I even tried to plan this pregnancy to the month, however my efforts were thwarted by higher powers. I think He likes to keep me in check; just reminds me that I can't always be in control. Trust me I know, but that doesn't mean I won't try. The past few weeks have been spent getting ready for our first dance competition of the season. Rehearsals, sewing, stoning, gluing, more rehearsals, shopping for props, makeup, etc. And here I am sitting in the hotel room waiting for the clock to strike 10pm so I can allow my body to get the sleep it's asking for. I would have to say that the hardest part of traveling while pregnant is not knowing if the bed is going to allow you to have a decent night of sleep and (while at competitions) the constant urge to have to pee while watching and waiting. Waiting.... there is so much of that here. I spoke to my husband earlier today and told him that competitions are a lot of "Hurry up and wait". You frantically rush to get everything you need for this event, rush to get your dancers ready and on stage at the right time, and in just over 2 minutes it's all over. You then sit and wait, sometimes for hours to hear the results of the competition. And each time you do this (especially if you have multiple dances in one day as we do tomorrow), you have a big adrenaline dump while you are sitting and waiting and then again after awards... over and over again.
You eat bad food and have the potential to be sick by the time the weekend is over because there are so many people and your body is clearly exhausted.

Alright enough about that, you want to know about the baby. Last week was my doctors appointment. I thought I was going to have an ultrasound and perhaps find out the sex of the baby. My husband happened to take the day off and my stepdaughter was on Spring Break so we all went in together. Well we were both disappointed when my nurse told us we were just going to hear the heartbeat that day. The look on my husband's face was so disappointing and also (I believe) a little bit of blame. I explained that when they tell me when my next appointment is, they don't tell me what is going to go on. I assumed that this was the next step, and unfortunately it wasn't. It was great to hear the baby's heartbeat at 160 and to know that I gained 2 pounds since this whole thing started....I lost 5 at the beginning. April 22nd is THE day! They will do bone measurements and find out the sex of the baby. My blood pressure is low 105/53, and yes this is normal for me. I haven't had any cravings and I am finally REALLY showing. Coconut Oil everyday!  Every morning I wake up stuffy, and it's allergy season to top it off. The other night I got up to go to the bathroom and felt the baby move when I layed back down. It was very cool. All in all I feel great. I think my body is looking a little bit alien like right now, and my husband is being awesome to his preggo wife ;)

Week 14: The body beautiful

I'm writing this while laying on the couch with the button of my jeans popped open. I've finally hit that point where I can still fit in my pre pregnancy jeans but they are just uncomfortable enough to make modifications. While reading some Mommy Blog somewhere in cyber space over the past few weeks, I saw this belly band advertised that would allow your top button to be open, but it would still hold up your pants- kinda looks like you have layered shirts on. I thought this was an amazing thing and would help to stretch out my time to NOT wear maternity clothes. Today I went shopping at the Outlets with my Mom and took my very first step into a Maternity store. I was hoping to find these belly bands and not really to look at anything else, but my Mama had other ideas. She pointed out maternity capris and shorts and cute shirts, all to which I thought "ugghhhhhh". Why the adverse reaction to preggo clothes you ask; let me explain:

Since the ripe old age of 2 I began to dance. Tap and Jazz were always my passions and still are to this day. But anyone who knows anything about dance understands that ballet is the foundation of it all. I never fell in love with it because I didn't fit the "type". I was always very tall and never what you would call petite, which is exactly what those ballet dancers were. Sleek, svelte, petite little beings who fluttered across the stage with their tiny frames. I always carried a little extra weight in my pre teens and teens. Nothing much but enough meat to fill out my already large frame. In high school I was one of the tallest on the team, which leads you to always being placed in the back. I had boobs and a butt to match it all and I didn't come to love my body until I was in my early 20s. It was then that I understood that having thick thighs and not being skin and bones was an amazing thing. I have always strived to stay in shape and of course would diet and over exercise hoping to achieve perfection. I've always been body conscious and everyone from my Mom to my Husband could not understand my obsession. Dance has done many things for me, but it also made me hyper aware of what I look like day in and day out. I was still a dancer myself when I started teaching at the age of 16. I would spend hours in the studio, on the field, performing week in and week out. And now as a career, I do much of the same. I am the example, I am what the dancers see. My level of fitness and confidence is what they will want to achieve or even surpass for themselves. Dancers spend the majority of their time looking in the mirror, constantly comparing or adjusting their movement to other bodies in the room. Unfortunately it is why so many dancers end up with eating disorders. There is always someone better, thinner, someone who can jump higher and turn faster and we rationalize that it is because they are lighter. Is it the truth? No of course not, but that's what goes through our heads.

I knew that getting pregnant would forever change my body, and of course I hope and pray that it will come back to what it was and able to do the things it did just 10 months before. I still can't help but fight it- fight the fact that my top button on my favorite jeans must remain open if I have to sit down, the fact that I am slathering copious amounts of organic coconut oil all over my stomach, back and boobs to prevent stretch marks, and that I really don't want to buy stupid looking maternity jeans with the elastic waist. I'm going to do it, but I don't have to like it! I came out of the maternity store today with exactly what I wanted- the belly bands. My only excitement was that they were on sale and had different colors.  I'm creating a tiny human in my belly which is an amazing thought and from a scientific perspective, really intriguing when you think about how rapidly it forms. I always hear that mothers make incredible sacrifices for their children. Maternity store shopping is a sacrifice for this Momma!

P.S. I feel great this week- Eating well, no vomiting, I still hate bodily fluids from my animals, I can no longer smell their wet food without gagging, and I had a great prenatal massage this week.

xo-JV

The Second Trimester: Days 1-3

I am a knowledge junkie. If I hear about something and I don't know who/what/where it is, you can bet that I will be Googling it sometime in the near future. I have been this way for as long as I remember and I am this way with my pregnancy. Almost all women I have spoken to about my pregnancy have told me about feeling their best in the second trimester. You can bet that I read about it as well. In the past week I have been riddled with horrible morning sickness and vomiting. Earlier in the week I even had a migraine which is unusual because I have not touched any of my triggers leading me to believe it was hormonally induced. I have been anticipating today, the beginning of the second trimester. I was expecting rainbows and ice cream sundaes, but instead got more nausea and the worst back/side pain I have ever felt. I made my way through work by making sure that I ate frequently so that the nausea would keep at bay, and by the end of my 5 hour teaching day I was exhausted. I had plans to take my Mom to dinner for her birthday and knew that I needed to make it a few  more hours on my feet. All day I had a nagging pain that would come and go in my right side, but then it hit me. Like daggers in between my ribs (in my back), I had no idea what was going on. I thought of the possibilities; over stretch, kidney infection, and because the pain traveled to the front at times, appendicitis. GOOGLE came up with many posts by women who experienced the same pain due to the shifting of organs, expansion of the rib cage and round ligament pain.  I was shopping in Pier One before my Mom's dinner and almost had to sit down out of sheer uncomfortableness. I couldn't take it anymore so I left the store and tried to relax in the car for a while before dinner. What a miserable pain to deal with.
After dinner I came home and laid in bed and by the next morning all the pain was gone. BUT I felt bigger than I did previously. In fact I went to my parents house for dinner Sunday night and my Dad said "WHOA! You got so big in a week". I can always rely on him to tell me the truth. So I believe those horrible pains were just my body's way of making more room for baby. No nausea all day Sunday and Today (Monday) I woke up and even ate an egg for breakfast! That's huge news for me. Before I was pregnant I would have an egg at least 3 times a week for breakfast. Since getting pregnant, the idea of it is so nauseating that I usually just eat a bagel or some dry cereal. I at an egg, toast, and slice of cheese for breakfast- no nausea, no vomiting---could this turn out to be rainbows and butterflies after all ?? Let's not jinx it ;)
Have an amazing Monday! I'm pretty sure I will! xo

Belly Pics! Take 1!

Just Found Out

12 Weeks 5 days

Week 12 Ultrasound Day!

The final days of week 11 were a little rough with some morning sickness and lack of appetite. But yesterday (Sunday) I felt like the normal me. I had energy, I wasn't tired, I wanted to eat and more importantly I got the house clean. No it's not nesting. Cleaning is a normal part of my weekly regiment. But since getting pregnant I haven't had the energy to do much else than go to work and come home and lay down. Today was the Ultrasound that checked for any abnormalities, Down Syndrome and take measurements of the baby. It was magical! He/she was asleep for the entire time, funny enough with it's hand on it's head (just the way my husband sleeps... elbows out!). I had to cough a few times to wake that baby up so the ultrasound tech could continue the exam. Once the baby woke up, it was kicking its legs and rolling side to side and lord only knows what it was doing with those hands! It was absolutely breathtaking to watch. It was especially interesting because with all that movement, I didn't feel one single thing. I fondly refer to the baby as my dancing baby. With all that movement, I wonder if I will ever get sleep when it is big enough for me to feel it's movements. My doctor was in surgery so I did not get to meet with him and was told he would called me. I'm anxious to know if all my blood work came back normal or not.

I think I may have over done it in dance tonight. On the way out the door I was dizzy and seeing spots..... It was reminiscent of the beginning of a migraine without the huge headache. Though I do have one a small headache at the moment. Hopefully after I eat it will subside. I am so grateful to have gotten a glimpse at my little one today. What a blessing. xo