Baby kick brings new love (cue sentimental music)

Exciting news! For the last week or so, I thought I was feeling the baby poke my hand while I was lying down at night. I was not sure because I haven't ever really felt the typical "flutters", "bubbles", and whatnot that you are supposed to feel when baby is moving. Every once in awhile I feel something weird going on in my uterus; I can't even describe it. Well, whenever I have gotten this weird feeling (usually when I am lying down at night), I put my hand on my tummy below my belly button. I could have sworn several times I felt small pokes and even the occasional roll. Every time I swear I feel something against my hand, I shout for husband to come into the room to see if he can feel it. So far every time we try, he says he can't feel anything or says it's hard to tell what he is feeling. Last night, on the other hand, he put his hand on my tummy for a few minutes and actually felt some pokes and even a roll! I couldn't believe it! I guess I really am officially feeling the baby move. :)

In other news, I went on a major shopping spree yesterday (well, major for me, at least). I needed an extra pair of maternity slacks for work, casual pants for weekends, long sleeved shirts for work and weekends, and some fitted, stretchy tees for layering under sweaters and whatnot. I was a little worried I wouldn't find much or would have to pay a TON of money because I read that maternity selections for most stores are online now. I don't like buying clothes online because I don't want to be stuck with clothes that don't fit right or have to pay to return them by mail.

Anyways, I first went to Burlington Coat Factory because I read on Baby Center that their maternity clothing is reasonably priced and they were correct. The shirts did not seem of good quality and I was skeptical whether they would really stretch appropriately as I get bigger. The jeans and casual pants, though, looked nicely made and fit me well, so I bought two pairs of weekend pants there as well as one shirt. Then, I went to Savers (a thrift store). Man, I hit the mother-load there! They had a lot of maternity clothes in my size, in good condition, and did not look out of style at all. Plus, a maternity winter coat for $10! I ended up also getting 2 fitted tees, a work shirt, a long sleeved shirt, and corduroy pants. I also went to Gordman's, which was a bit disappointing. It is all Motherhood Maternity stuff and we have that store in the same mall. I did find and buy a long-sleeved shirt there that was cheaper than at the Motherhood store. I went to JC Penney's, even though I went there a little over a month ago already because they have such good prices and quality. Plus, they were having a store sale. I bought 2 sweaters and 1 pair of work pants for $60 total that would normally be $80.

Now I am super excited about Monday, October 3 (like I wasn't before, right?). I want to find out the sex and start buying things for my son or daughter, start working on his/her quilt, and get going on getting the baby's room ready. A lot of my worry has fallen by the wayside and I just want to start bonding with my son/daughter. I want to start listening to music more so baby can hear. I want my husband to start talking more to him/her in my tummy. Heck- maybe I'll even try hard not to get annoyed when people rub my belly without asking first! LOL

Picture and Update!

Here is my 18 weeks belly shot!

Also, I had a doctor appointment today. I was so excited to hear the heartbeat! It is a strong, steady 155 bpm! It feels so good knowing that baby is truly OK. I think this is the happiest I have ever been. I wonder how I got so lucky. A co-worker came up to me today, touched my belly, and said, "I think it's going to be a boy!" No idea if this is true or not and don't really care, but it's exciting to know I will find out soon.

Oops. I almost forgot to mention that my doctor measured the size/length of my uterus and it turns out my uterus is already at my belly button, so I am measuring around 20 weeks! Wow! I guess that's why all of a sudden my belly seems bigger and I can actually feel my uterus.

18 weeks and finally showing! :)

I'll be 18 weeks tomorrow. Hip hip hooray! That's getting pretty close to the halfway point of my pregnancy. 2 weeks from today we will have the anatomy scan and probably find out the gender too. Although I still sometimes worry about if things are OK "in there", I feel comforted by seeing by belly continuing to get bigger. I had a dream last night that I wipe and see blood, but I will not let it bother me. I think that dream was more a reflection of my fears than an actual prediction. (When I miscarried last time, I had a dream the night before that I would bleed and I did.) I also tell myself that nothing bad can happen because my old cat Maxi is up in heaven watching down on me and protecting my baby. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but if this baby is a boy, I am really thinking of naming him Max in honor of my cat.

Exciting news... Someone actually noticed my bump today at work! Up until this point, people kept telling me I'm not showing or that I still look pretty thin. Not today! I was pretty excited to hear that someone besides my husband and I notices my belly getting bigger. It makes the pregnancy all the more real. Baby must be OK if my belly is getting bigger, right?

I'll post a belly pic later tonight or tomorrow.

Bah-bump!

I should be going to bed because I worked for 12 straight hours yesterday, I am starting to have a cold, and I just feel totally wiped out! Oh yeah, and my husband just left today for Utah. He'll be gone for 3 days. I'll miss him. It feels a lot like the first 4 years of our relationship when we lived almost 2 hours apart and only saw each other on the weekends because we were both still in college. I also rely on him a lot to keep me sane with the crazy-stress of my job. I hope the next two work days are "easy" days (if there is such a thing in education).

Anyways, even though I still worry about baby. I really wish I could feel him/her move! Sometimes I think I feel something different in my uterus, but it never lasts long. My belly is steadily getting bigger though and I love that.

Bummer news: My doctor appointment for Friday was cancelled (not by me), and it doesn't look like they have openings this week or next. :( I really wanted to hear the heartbeat and get reassurance that everything is OK. Maybe I will finally cave and by a home doppler. Mmmmmm... maybe not. I don't know.

Happy hump day, everyone!

Working and Being Pregnant

Hello, again! Well, I went back to work teaching this past week with the kids starting school on Thursday. I forgot how busy and stressful the beginning of the school year is! I am almost thinking of creating a separate blog to vent my frustrations and exhilaration of being a teacher. I won't torture you with that right now, except to say that being a special education teacher is VERY hard and that difficulty has little to nothing to do with the students themselves. It all has to do with school funding and district politics/bureaucracy. :(

Anyways, being pregnant while teaching so far is not too hard. I just have to remember to have little snacks and drinking (water) breaks throughout the day. I also have to remember to not pick up or move kids. Eek! I did that on Thursday without thinking. This student was not heavy and I did not feel strained picking her up, but what was I thinking?!

I also have to remember to not stay late like I did almost every night last year (I refuse to work at home). I seem to get tired late in the afternoon, so I do not want to push myself physically too much now that I have to take care of 2 people (me and the baby). I am always trying to please people and not let anyone down (especially my students), but I cannot be superwoman. If I cannot sufficiently do my job within an 8 hour workday, then that means the district has given me too large of a workload and/or not enough resources to do my job. I say all this stuff now, but I will probably still catch myself feeling guilty for leaving at the end of my contract day.

I also need to limit my workday for the sake of my sanity. When I think about work too much and I basically work from sun up to sun down, I cry a lot and get depressed. I need balance in my life and that will be even more important once baby comes.
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I wish I could feel baby move! I am SO looking forward to that sensation. I decided against buying a doppler to hear the heartbeat at home because I didn't want to become worried if one day I couldn't find the heartbeat. I am in the 2nd trimester now, so I just try to assume everything's OK. I keep putting my hand on my belly just below my belly button, trying to feel a small kick or punch from my baby. I have no idea if it would be possible to feel this early, but I keep trying. Sometimes it seems like I feel a light tap against my hand, but that could possibly be my pulse or a muscle twinge.

I should be able to feel baby in the next few weeks though for sure! Yay!

Happy Labor Day weekend and remember why we celebrate it! (http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/08/31/david-rosman/)

My baby bump at 14 weeks

Yay! It's here!

Some of this is bloat still, but the bump doesn't completely go away in the morning. :)

Baby is making 2011 turn into a GREAT year!

Yesterday I showed up at my school's registration. I wasn't required/paid to be there. I showed up mostly hoping to talk with the kindergarten teacher I would be working with this year to get to know her. She was super busy, so I wasn't really able to talk to her. But I got to see some of my students that I had last year! So cool! It made me excited to eventually meet my new students in a couple of weeks, which is good because I was kind of dreading going back to work before this. :)

Also, today I met my doctor! She is very nice and answered all my questions. I also got to hear the heartbeat again! Right in the 150s just like it was the last two times they checked. LOL This baby has a very consistent, strong heartbeat. I am still a little worried about getting the attention I want/need when I give birth. Part of me wants to go with a midwife because I know I will be their sole focus and they will fully support my desire for a natural birth. On the other hand, going with my doctor would be much cheaper (my insurance covers pretty much everything) and I like the security of giving birth in a hospital JUST IN CASE. I do feel better after meeting my doctor and seeing that she is very supportive of however I want to give birth. She also is totally OK with me having a doula. My insurance will cover part of the cost of having a doula, which is great.

I just got off the phone with a representative of my union. I wanted to learn more about how maternity works as a teacher. I have the option of taking 6 weeks paid leave and then 6 weeks more of unpaid leave. During this 12 weeks, the district will still pay its share of my health insurance premium. If I want to go even further and take a leave until the end of the school year, it would be unpaid and I would have to pay all of the insurance premium. I don't think I'll do that, but it's good to know I can take the rest of the school year off if I want/need to!

Update: I just scheduled my 20 week ultrasound for October 3! So excited! We will probably find out the gender then. (I can't imagine being able to wait longer.)

I feel so lucky/blessed to have things going so smoothly so far with this pregnancy. 2011 started out really crummy with the stress of work, the miscarriage, and then my old cat dying, but things are looking up BIG TIME. I thank God/my deceased relatives/my deceased cat Maxi or whoever is looking out for me from above.

Have a great weekend!