Monday, January 31, 2011

Alone Again

So my last bit of company left today:( Man January has really flown by fast due to all the visitor's I've had keeping me busy

Last Wednesday my brother's girlfriend came to visit. G is such a sweetheart. Not only is she the first of my brother's girlfriend that I actually like, but she is one of the nicest people I have ever met. She cares about my brother so much and puts up with all of his shit. She deserves a medal for sure!

I had a blast having her in town. It was so fun to watch movies, shop, go out to eat and just hang out.

We had a crazy busy weekend. Thursday night after I got off work we went out to dinner and to see No Strings Attached. Loved loved that movie. I love both Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher!

Friday we headed up to Raleigh to do some shopping and then came back and went to an art show and out to dinner downtown. Saturday we laid around and watched movies before going to see Black Swan again. ANother great movie and def a must see. That movies makes me wish I was still a dancer! Sunday we went to the Y for their open swim. The water felt so nice! And last night we just hung out and watched some more movies. I was so bummed when she had to leave today

Now I am at home, in my lonely apartment which I just finished cleaning and now I'm sitting down to watch my favorite guilty pleasure, Pretty Little Liars.

Bring on February

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Buried

With my sister in law and niece in town this past weekend we had a lot of pajama days planned. The night they got in we hit up blockbuster for a ton of movies.

I am a sucker for horror movies, especially cheesy B horror movies and picked up Buried with Ryan Reynolds in it. I figured I couldn't go wrong with that pic. We could laugh at the hilarity of the movie and hopefully enjoy some scenes with Ryan Reynolds without a shirt


How wrong was I. If you are a military spouse I would stay away from
This movie.
The back of the movie simply says something about a man waking up in a coffin to find out he's been buried alive and has only a cell phone and match to aid in trying to escape

Instead after starting the movie you find out Ryan Reynolds plays an American contractor who was working in Iraq. His convoy was ambushed by insurgents, most of his men killed and he was kidnapped and buried alive for random money. He tries to call for help using the phone and gets the run around from pretty much everyone. Needless to say this movie did not have a happy ending and it gave me nightmares. When the hubs called yesterday I couldnt stop crying about this movie. It terrified the crap outta me. So ladies do not rent it!




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Thursday, January 20, 2011

12 weeks

How far along: 12 weeks

Total weight gain:None, I've actually lost three pounds this week

Size and growth of the baby: Baby is 6.0 cm and weigh. Baby is now the size of a plum

My baby's genitals will start showing signs of being male or female. Baby's brain is starting to make hormones and nerve cells are multiplying at a rapid rate. Your baby may start sucking as early as this week and your baby's kidneys may even be producing urine. Fingers and toes have separated and hair and nails begin to grow. The baby's face is starting to look more human as his eyes have moved to the front of his head and his ears are in place.

Sex: Scheduled an appointment for a gender elective ultrasound!

Maternity clothes: None, though lots of loose tops and leggings

Sleep: Up constantly throughout the night, yet exhausted during the day

Best moment(s) of the week: Hitting 12 weeks, going for my prenatal massage yesterday

Movement: None yet

Food cravings/aversions: Everything that isn't a carb. Baby loves bagels, crackers,bread though I have had a major craving for red velvet cupcakes. I try to supplement that by eating Yoplait's red velvet cake yogart as a healthier option

Morning sickness: All day sickness.

Symptoms: Nausea, dizziness, back pain, vomiting, exhaustion, headaches

Labor signs:Thankfully none

Belly button in or out: In

What I miss: Nothing

What I'm looking forward to: Just scheduled a gender elective ultrasound for Feb 24th. They will even livestream the ultrasound to the hubs and take some 3D/4D pics. I am so excited! I couldn't wait to hit 18 weeks to find out the sex

The top isn't very flattering since it's like that balloon material but oh well



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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

It's official

I announced our big news on facebook last night and we all know nothing is official unless it's on facebook

I'm feeling much more relaxed and excited now that we hit 12 weeks. Although I still feel extremely exhausted and run down. It took so much effort today to walk let alone put in a full 10 hour work day. Luckily I'm off to get my first prenatal massage tonight. I'm so looking forward to that my back is killing me

Now let's talk about weight. I haven't gained any and food is really starting to disgust me. Unless it's carbs baby doesn't like it. Usually I have a bagel in the morning for breakfast but thats not filling for me so with working longer days I decided to make a nice big breakfast of eggs and toast. Ten minutes later and I didnt quite make it to the bathroom. Ugh but oh well. I don't mind I just have to start finding different foods baby can eat besides carbs. Lunch has been hard tp cause I drive from client to client. I try to pack a lunch but having no microwave access and not being able to eat lunch meat makes lunch options difficult. Any ideas ladies

Hope y'all are having a great week so far. My sister in law and niece are coming to visit tomorrow. I'm so excited!




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Monday, January 17, 2011

Weekend Review

I was dreading this weekend. I had to drop mom off Friday afternoon for her fight home and I was dreading it. This would be my first weekend alone since M left. I was grateful to have work to keep me busy but due to some cancellations I was off by 3. I started on the drive home to an empty apartment. Luckily my neighbor brought her dog over to play with mine and we hung out for a bit. As nice as it was, her puppy is extremely irritating.she was all over my furniture, shit all over my house and ripped a hole in my couch. Oh well. So at 8 I said I wasn't feeling well and went off to bed

Saturday morning I brought my dogs to my neighbors house and while the dogs played we played with her Kinect. The dance game she had was so much fun. After playing and running errands I went home and napped before going with a friend to see Country Strong. I loved loved this movie. It wasn't cheesy like I thought it's be and the acting was fantastic!

Yesterday morning I woke up bright and early to head to Durham, Nc to go seethe broadway musical the Lion King with my friends for one of their birthdays! The musical was fantastic. Beautiful sets, props and costumes. The dances were amazing and the performers were superb. It was truly a great show.
After the show we went to the Cheesecake Factoy for dinner. Baby Finn is loving their red velvet cheesecake


Today I'm back to work. My niece and sister in law are coming to visit on Thursday and tonight I'm going out to dinner for my friends birthday! It's going to be a fun week


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Friday, January 14, 2011

Lab Results

So last week I told y'all about my high blood pressure at the Drs office. When at my appt she told me she wanted me to have some extra labs taken to determine if I really do have high blood pressure. I was so confused! He does blood work show you have high blood pressure. I kept asking her and she just kept saying she was ordering labs. Finally I must have asked the right question for she explained that people who have high blood pressure generally have problems with the functioning of their kidneys and liver. So that will show up in the lab work. Apparently they look for protein and Uric acid in my blood. She also explained that this would help get a baseline for me so that If I continue to have high bp at my dr apts than they can just keep reordering these labs to see if the results had changed at all.

So off I went to have more vials of blood taken. Have I mentioned I hate having blood drawn! And at the lab they also gave me a container so I could do a 24 hour urine collection. They wanted me to do it the following day but since I travel from house to house for work I couldnt really drag along a gallon of urine to be refrigerated!

So this weekend I did my collection and turned it in. I got up the nerve to call today for my lab results and.....


They all came back great. No protein in my urine and no protein or Uric acid in my blood therefore indicating I really do have anxiety induced high blood pressure at the dr's

Mom and I have been monitoring my bp all week so I have documentation to take in. We've taken my bp on both arms at all hours of the day after periods of resting or coming in from work and they've all been perfectly normal. I actually run on the low side of normal. So now when I go to the dr's I just have to make sure the nurse will wait with me and take it more than once

I am so relieved that my tests came back perfectly normal, excellent according to the dr today and that I have nothing to worry about! I also took the annoyed army wives advice and schedule a few prenatal massages, one the night before my next appt. Hopefully that will do the trick and relax me!!


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Thursday, January 13, 2011

The Middle

Where has the time gone? It's almost the middle of January and the hubs has been gone for a little over a week and a half!

It has def helped having my mom in town. One thing I hate about the first few weeks of deployments is getting used to an empty house. Something about knowing I'll be going home alone makes me dread getting off work and heading home. So having Mom here has been so nice. I also like knowing that there's someone in the house at night and I dont feel so alone. She leaves tomorrow and I'm already getting sad. I'm thankful we were blessed with three days extra together due to the snow and the fact that I didn't have to work any of those days.

Tomorrow she leaves and then next week my SIl and niece are coming to visit followed by my brothers girlfriend the following week. By the time all my company leaves it will be february! Now I just gotta get my company scheduled for February hehe!

For some reason this depmoyemt has been way harder and we are just getting started. I find myself doing things like spraying my pillows with his cologne, refusing to wash the shirt he wore to be his last night in town instead wearing it myself and leaving cups or random things around the house he may have used instead of putting everything away. The pregnancy hormones are def kicking in and making me weepy, anxious, scared, nervous and insecure all at once.

Luckily I have amazing friends and family who never let me forget Im not alone. Thanks to thanking time is flying by. Hopefully it will continue this way!

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

I love snow days!

We woke up Tuesday morning to find the white fluffy snow had been covered in a sheet of ice. So again there was a snow day! And due to refreezing issues there's a snow day again today!! I'm loving the fact that the south is not equipped with equipment for this kind of weather. Who doesn't want some unexpected days off of work to lay around and relax! I'm not complaining!

Growing up as a kid in Wisconsin the chances of a snow day were slim to none. My last snow day occurred when i was in grade school and I think it only happened because we also had bad ice that froze the pipes at my school. Every time it snowed I would anxiously await and hope for a snow day. So these past few days have been exciting for me. Plus mom got to stay an extra day and we were able to spend more time together. she is supposed to leave this morning but we will see the status of her flight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it's cancelled again

And I hope I didn't offend the southerners out there. I obviously realize the town doesn't have snow plows and salt trucks like in Wisconsin and Thats why the town closes down. I'm happy it did. We may be used to snow in Wisconsin but when it snows we don't have special vehicles or snow tires or chains on our cars. We drive the same cars y'all have down here. We just obviously are more accustomed to driving in this kind of weather. And 35 degrees in Wisconsin is warm. Here it's cold! It's crazy the differences in other parts of the country. That's one thing I love about being an army wife. You get to experience different areas and climates.

regardless of where your from the roads are very icy here in my part of town. There were 137 car accidents in town yesterday alone. So please if you have to drive, drive slowly, don't slam on the brakes even if you lose control of the car, pump them instead and steer the car in the direction your spinning in. Although I'm a Wisconsinite at heart, I haven't lived there for almost two years and have not driven myself in snowy weather in that amount of time so common sense for me is to stay off the roads. So again I'm going to take full advantage of these snow days and relax at home. I'm loving living in the south where this weather is unheard of for the most part. Makes me appreciate the snow and my days off of work even more!

Enjoy the snow everyone. Today I went and dropped mom
Off at the airport only to head back an hour later to pick her up. Her flight was cancelled and she stuck here until Friday!! Yay for me. More time with mom. Have I mentioned how much I love snow in the south!


Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Snow Day

We had a snow day yesterday in town and another one today. As Mom and I were watching the Packer game Sunday afternoon they started forecasting snow for Monday evening. About an hour later school cancellations started coming in. My mom was shocked. In Wisconsin they don't close for anything so she couldn't believe that schools were already closing for the next day when there was no snow on the ground or falling! We went to bed that night expecting to wake up to nothing

I was up at 530am and sure enough the grounds were covered. My area of Nc in total received 6 inches of snow. Now while this isn't a lot for this Wisconsite this is alot for the south considering the city has no snow plows or salt trucks. In other words the town closes down completely. Post was closed, schools were closed and the forecast now consisted of freezing rain so cancellations were also coming in for Tuesday

Mom and I enjoyed a lazy day at home watching movies. She was supposed to leave tonight but her flight was cancelled so it looks like another pajama day for us!

If y'all got snow hope you are enjoying your snow day and be careful If you have to drive in it. I personally am not afraid to drive in it but people down here have no clue. Yesterday my friend had to drop her husband off to deploy and she said people weren't even trying to stop at lights or stop signs nor were they driving for the conditions. There were countless cars in ditches and numerous accidents. So home is where I'll be staying


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Monday, January 10, 2011

Hello Murphy

Murphy is back and let me say I have not missed him. Perhaps many of you are familiar with him. You know the man that creeps in and wreaks havoc around your house and in your life almost immediately after your husband leaves. I forgot all about Murphy and let me tell you he was quite upset with me and wanted to be reintroduced into my life.

Here's how it all started. Thursday when I was at home on a work break I was playing with my dogs and my mom was watching tv. My yellow lab was laying on her back and I noticed a black piece of fuzz on her. Well it wasn't fuzz, it was a flea and after closer inspection I saw some more. My mom checked out my other dog and sure enough bites and fleas. Now the dogs had to have gotten them recently since we had just come
Back from WI and it's not flea season there. Plus we called my dad and none of their dogs had fleas. So of course I panicked since I knew that I couldn't be around flea chemicals or treatments when pregnant. Mom and I went to Pet Smart and they gave me a pill for the dogs that will kill fleas and protect them for a month and explained that blue dawn dish soap will kill them. They also said since we only found three on each dog that we caught it in time before an outbreak. So we went home, washed every piece of bedding, towel or clothing they might have touched and mom bathed the dogs twice. We have yet to see any more fleas and their itching has decreased. Phew problem resolved

Today Mom and I got up to do some grocery shopping. We came home to find all our neighbors standing outside the apartment and you could hear the fire alarms going off. I flew into a parking spot and ran into my apt to grab the dogs. The thought of anything happening to them terrifies me. The alarms were so loud they were shaking and trembling. I got them outside and we all waited for the fire trucks to come. Not only were the alarms going off but everyones indoor alarms were going off as well.it was very loud and only maintenance can turn those off. Oh and did I say maintenance is off on Sunday and the guy is new and knew nothing about the alarm system. It toll about a good 2 hours for them to all be turned off.
And there was no fire. Turns out the neighbor across from me was moving things around in his apt and knocked the indoor sprinkler with a gold club. The sprinkler would not turn off and sprayed in the middle of his living room. Within minutes his apt was flooding. Everything inside was ruined and the water was rushing out of his apartment. It came up to my door but didn't enter so no damage here. It did unfortunately seep into my friends apt who lives next to the guys whose apart flooded. Her husband is also gone and so my mom and her had to move all her furniture out of the living room. They are in the process of ripping up her carpet as I write and my poor neighbor is trying to save whatever he can of his belongings.

Good thing at least is that I had my mom here. I dont know what I'd do without her!


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Sunday, January 9, 2011

11 week Update


I am officially 11 weeks today! This was baby's first picture taken at 9 weeks!!

How far along: 11 weeks

Total weight gain:0 pounds! Although I have gone up a cup size and I'm starting to get a little pooch in the belly

Size and growth of the baby: at 11 weeks your baby is almost fully formed. At just over 1 1/2 inches long, he or she is about the size of a fig. Your baby's hands will soon open and close into fists, tiny tooth buds are beginning to appear under the gums and some of the bones are beginning to harden.

He or she is already busy kicking and stretching, and these tiny movements are so effortless they look like water ballet. Movements will become more frequent but you won't feel these acrobatics for a few months.( All information taken off babycenter.com)

Sex: Too soon to tell

Maternity clothes: None yet although my mom and I went to Pea in a Pod and Gap Maternity yesterday and I bought some new bras which I desperately needed and also bought some jeans and shirts

Sleep: I get exhausted throughout the day and am usually asleep by 9 or 10 at night. However I am now getting up about every 3 hours to use the bathroom

Best moment(s) of the week: Hearing the heartbeat and going maternity clothes shopping. It made it seem even more real

Movement: To soon to feel anything yet

Food cravings/aversions: Mushrooms make me sick. No cravings yet, in fact I don't have much of an appetite

Morning sickness: This has gotten worse within the last week or two. I have the dry heaves all day and then about every 2 days I will be sick all day throwing up

Symptoms: Morning sickness, or in my case all day sickness. Headaches, tender and sore breasts, a back that hurts all the time. Next week I schedule myself a prenatal massage so hopefully that helps. Dizziness, fatigue, nausea, dry heaves

Labor signs: None yet thankfully! It would be very scary if I was having any

Belly button in or out: In

What I miss: Nothing

What I'm looking forward to: Being out of the first trimester in a week. My prenatal massage and hopefully positive results on my 24 hour urine test that I just started today

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Thursday, January 6, 2011

Retail Therapy

A good cure to beat out the doldrums is shopping! And I decided to do just that after M left the other day. During the summer months my favorite thing to do is go to the beach or lay by the pool so I decided to order myself a new swimsuit. Since I will be hugely pregnant in the summer months I didn't want something too expensive but I also didn't want a "Mom" swimsuit so I went on Victoria Secrets and ordered this little number



Except imagine this with a hugely pregnant belly lol! I of course ordered it it a size bigger than normal and figured the ties on the side would allow for growth in the hips and tummy area. I also ordered the top in a full coverage halter instead of the top pictured above but I thought the pattern was super cute. I can't wait to get it in the mail.

I also found a pool on post that has open swim on the weekends and my goal is to go every weekend. I know swimming is a great exercise and I have been dying to go swimming lately. So once my suit gets here off to the pool I go


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Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Day 1

Today is my first official day alone and my empty apartment is driving me crazy.

Yesterday after dropping M off I immediately went home and cleaned. When you've been gone for two weeks and barely cleaned before leaving you can bet how messy my apartment was. I literally cleaned from 230-6. That helped take my mind off things but once I sat down to relax realty set in and I looked around my empty spotless apartment and cried. Luckily a good friend of mine saved the day and invited me to dinner so I didn't have to be by myself.

My mom also surprised me by booking a trip to visit. Win she called yesterday wrote M left I was in the background crying hysterically asking her to come. She immediately booked a ticket and will arrive tomorrow. I'm so glad I won't be alone

I know I gotta get over this. Just being sick, pregnant, and alone is hard and throw in pregnancy hormones and you have one emotional army wifey

No sleep isn't helping either. After dinner my friend and I started a movie. A half hour in I left to go home cause I was exhausted. Only to get home and toss and turn all night long. Finally at 330am I fell asleep only to wake up at 530 for my dr's apt

I had my first actual apt today. I was so nervous. I dreaded the pap smear lol. When I was called to get vitals taken I told the nurse I was so nervous and tended to have high blood pressure at first. She took it, it was high and tool my pulse which was 137. She was like yup your nervous but didn't take my bp again. So when I saw the dr she expressed concerns. I showed her my vitals from when my mom took my bp at home this past week and she said that reassured her but that she wanted to be cautious and ordered more labs for me to test my kidneys and liver. She said if it was high I could be put on meds but she also told me to keep taking it at home and bring my results in at my next apt. She said it did seem like I just got very nervous but ordered the labs in case. So off to the labs I went and am hoping for good results. Im sure fatigue, stress, and nauseua and vomiting didn't help calm me down nor make my
Bp normal so we shall see what the lab results are. I'm praying they are good

One major plus of the day, hearing my peanuts heartbeat. Good and strong at I only wish M could have been there

Tomm I'll do a 10 week update. In the meantime has any of you dealt with high blood pressure during pregnancy. Any pointers or concerns?


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Monday, January 3, 2011

Here We Go Again

Last night I went to bed with a heavy feeling if sadness. This morning I woke up with an empty put in my stomach. The hubs leaves today and for some reason I'm having a hard time adjusting to that fact.

And just to clarify I'm not violating OPSEC by saying he leaves today since he is not going directly to his destination, nor is his trip classified.

Anyway I don't know why I'm dreading this deployment so much. I remember last March when he left I was almost ready for him to go. Our first deployment I stayed with my parents in WI so I had wanted to prove I could do it on my own. And I did. No questions asked. However instead of facing this deployment head on, I wanna go home, pack up all my stuff and drive to WI and stay there until he returns.

I am dreading going home tonight to an empty apt and being alone these next few months. It doesn't help that it's such a bad time of year. For me at least. I always hated January. After the Xmas decorations are down and the holiday celebrations are over it's kind of depressing. So already I'm in a funk

I know that I need to shake myself out of this and put one foot in front of the other and stare down this deployment.

Though I think I'll do that tomm. Today I'll enjoy the rest of the afternoon with the hubs and than go home and lay in bed with the dogs and watch tv.

I promise a more upbeat post Tomm. I have another dr's apt tomm that I'm looking forward too!

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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Baby books

As an avid reader the first thing I did when finding out we were pregnant was head off to barnes and nobles to stack up on pregnancy books

My Picks
What to Expect
The Mayo Clinics Guide to a healthy pregnancy
Expecting 411
The Pregnancy Journal
Pregnancy Week by Week

Any other recommendations? I'm always looking for more


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