My baby boy’s first outfit…

My love for Nike clothing, shoes, accessories and anything that has to do with Nike has hit a whole new level because I found my little son’s first outfit at Nike.com today.

Here it is and I have to say, I really like it:

It will be cool to see it on him for the first time, however, what will be even cooler than that is seeing him for the first time. I’m trying to imagine what that moment is going to be like? I mean seeing and holding your child for the first time has to be a completely amazing experience. I’m really looking forward to that day and the anticipation of it all is like waiting for Christmas to come when I still believed in Santa Claus. (Thanks to my parents and their clever ways, I believed in Santa Claus for quite some time!) Basically, July can’t come soon enough.  

Anyway, you may be thinking, what’s this girl's obsession with Nike and why would any parent be so excited about having their child’s first outfit come from Nike? Well, my answer to that is that’s how much I like Nike gear. I think it’s because of all the fond memories that I have when it comes to getting a new pair of shoes for the multiple sports that I played when I was a kid. The start of every sport season generally meant getting a new pair of shoes and going to pick them out was a fun adventure. Then, wearing them for the first time was just as special to me. They kind of made me feel like I could accomplish anything for some strange reason and to this day, when I get a new pair of running kicks, I feel the same way. The swoosh and what it represents is another reason why I like the Nike brand so much. “Just do it,” I know, super cliché, yet that phrase meant a lot to me when I was playing sports given that it represented just getting the job done. Just going out and giving 110% on the ball diamond, the basketball court, or the cross-country course. Plus, Nike makes some gear that has a nice look to it, especially the Prefontaine line that came out a couple years ago. All the Oregon green and yellow was basically all I wore for awhile outside of work. What would be even better than the Prefontaine line though would be Nike coming out with a maternity line, man, I would be all over that!

Now that my obsession for Nike is now all out in the open, I wouldn’t say that I’m crazy about it, but I’m probably just a tad over the top. Oh well, we all have our vices and if my vice is simply purchasing a lot of Nike stuff, I’m okay with that! :) So until next time, it’s C-Money the pregnant tomboy signing off.

Ooh, that’s not gas!

It took me a little while to realize that the stomach discomfort I was feeling wasn’t gas, but was actually my little guy moving about in my belly! Yeah, I know that sounds super weird, yet it’s the truth so proceed to laugh because there’s no reason not to. 

Okay, now that you got your chuckle out of the way, I just wanted to go into why I thought I was having stomach problems instead of realizing what was going on. The reason is, is because that’s what he felt like a few weeks ago. My tummy was uncomfortable and I felt like I had some digestion issues. I never thought that’s what the baby would feel like until I asked a few friends and other people who were pregnant in the past what it felt like when you started to feel your baby. Most of them said, “It feels like you have really bad gas.” Then a little light bulb went off in my head and I was like, duh, that’s my little baby moving about in my belly. It was a surreal moment and something that I’ll never forget since it meant that my baby was growing and becoming a little person. Super kewl.

The term that is used to describe a mother first feeling her baby move is called quickening. According to Wikipedia, it's defined as:

“the moment of quickening refers to the initial motion of the fetus in the uterus as it is perceived or felt by the pregnant woman.”

Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that my baby has certain positions that he likes due to the fact that I can feel pressure in certain areas of my stomach more than others. For example, he totally enjoys burrowing on my left side. Occasionally, he’ll sit in the middle of my stomach and sometimes, he’ll migrate lower and rest right on top of my bladder, which isn’t all that fun for me since, you guessed it, causes me to have to visit the bathroom even more than I have to already. Dave my husband pointed out why our baby likes my left side so much the other day and that’s because I sleep on my left side more than my right. It makes sense and something that I overlooked just like with feeling my baby for the first time due to the fact that for some reason I no longer have common sense. It’s like when I got pregnant, my common sense flew out the window. Hopefully after the baby comes, it will return, but who knows!

Now, the only real uncomfortable position that I’ve noticed him frequent is when he goes up right under my rib cage. He did this over the weekend and it was like, dude, what are you doing up there? It made it really hard for me to breath and as I’m writing this, he’s actually making his way up there right now!  Interesting, I guess the two of us are connected. Sweet.  Anyway, I’m crossing my fingers that this won’t happen often, however, I do realize he’s only going to get bigger and there’s only so many places that he can go. So, it’s just going to be one of those things I’ll have to deal with as with all those other uncomfortable pregnancy moments. It’s all worth it though because the end result is a cute little bundle of joy!

Well, that’s all for today. I bid you farewell and until next time, this is Carla the tomboy signing off.

Survey says...

My husband Dave and I found out the sex of our baby today!!!! Like I said in the last post, we weren’t all that sure if we wanted to find out if our little tyke was a boy or a girl, but after some careful consideration and some gentle pushing and encouragement from family and friends, we decided to go for it.

So as my favorite host of Family Feud Ray Combs would say, “Survey says,” we’re having a boy! :) 

Dave asked the doctor about the ultrasound if the picture was pretty accurate and the doctor said, “Yes, that’s a really good picture.” It made us both chuckle and what was even more funny was when the ultrasound technician was looking at the little guy’s parts before we spoke with the doctor. She was like, “Well, baby looks like a boy.” And then was like, “Oh yeah, baby’s a boy.” She said it with a big smile and it made me totally laugh out loud. She took a picture of the whole thing and on the picture, she even wrote “Boy” with an arrow pointed to his junk. Seriously, that’s what she did, but that’s not going to be posted on this blog because I don’t think it’s all too appropriate or something I want to have him see when he’s on the Internet when he’s like 15 or 16. Could you imagine that, him seeing the blog and saying, “Hey Mom, I found something you wrote about me before I was born,” and then be like, “You posted a picture of that. MOMMMM!”

Okay, I digress, but I had to because that picture is tooooo funny! Anyway, the best part of the whole ultrasound experience though was to find out from our doctor that the little guy is healthy and progressing nicely. He has all ten fingers and ten toes, a strong heartbeat, two kidneys, a liver, a stomach, a big noggin, a bladder, and lungs that we can’t really make out, but the ultrasound technician assured us that they’re there and just not visible yet. From that long list of things, I don’t think I’m missing anything, however, I’m pretty excited so forgive me if I did!

In five weeks we go back for another baby check-up and throughout the next five weeks, we get to do a lot of fun baby planning from how we should paint his room to what kind of furniture we should buy and so on and so forth. Here's a picture of something fun I already found online: 

Located at: http://www.greenevillegifts.com/baby/its_a_boy_baseball.htm,  Pretty cool!

I’m a big planner, so this is going to be fun and until next time, it’s Carla the tomboy signing off.  

Something big is on the horizon…

Well, it’s something big that’s going to happen in my life, but not really for everyone else. However, I still wanted to go with that headline because in about two days, Dave and I are going to find out the sex of our child when we head to the doctor for another ultrasound and check-up appointment.

This is another one of those things that I had mixed emotions about because originally, I really, really wanted to know if we were going to have a boy or a girl. Then, Dave got my wheels spinning when he said to me that it would be better if we were surprised on the day the baby was born and didn’t find out. So for a while there, I thought that would be a good idea and was all for being surprised when July came around. All the anticipation would be fun and make the day the baby was born even more special.  

That all changed over the course of the last few months when people started asking us if we were going to find out the sex of the baby and I would say, probably not because we wanted to be surprised. They would bring up that fact that it would be hard to plan what we would need to buy for the baby in terms of clothes and everything. So, then I got to thinking, I’m really all about planning and I’m really not a fan of neutral colors like yellows, greens and browns, which our baby would end up with since we wouldn’t know the sex in advance. Not that I’m a fan of pink if the baby is a girl or anything, but fun bright colors for a girl or darker tones for a boy would be way better than a boring baby room painted in green or yellow or whatever other color we would use to paint the room to have it be okay for a baby of either sex.

After all of those thoughts and feelings, we made the decision to find out the sex on the baby and the big day is on Wednesday. The thing is, I still might change my mind due to the fact that lately, that’s the one thing I can bet on. I feel one way one minute, another way the next, and a third way after that. So wish us luck on Wednesday and please share your thoughts on the blog about if you think we should find out the sex of the child before he or she is born. Thanks for reading and until next time, this is Carla the tomboy signing off!

Shopping, shopping, shopping…

There has never been a time in my life where I actually enjoyed going shopping. Wait, that’s not true, when I bought my first road bike, I was actually more than excited to go out and buy it. I also like looking at sporting goods and all kinds of athletic shoes. Other than that though, shopping has never been on my list of super fun things to do. For me, it’s more like a chore unlike other people who view shopping as a fun hobby.

Now that you know my stance on shopping, you’ll now understand why going maternity clothes shopping was an outing that I wasn’t quite looking forward to. So when I did finally take the plunge and do it, it was quite the experience to say the least. My husband Dave and I went together. The only place that I knew of to get any kind of maternity clothes was at the mall in Green Bay. We made our way there on that fateful day back in January and found ourselves, after some walking and heel digging on my part, at the clothing store called Motherhood Maternity. We walked in and I was immediately overwhelmed by everything that I saw. There were strange looking pants with funny panels, tops that were oddly shaped and over sized, and a whole bunch of other odd stuff that freaked me out. Basically, I almost turned around and walked out.

Before I could walk out though, a sales associate by the name of Samantha came to my aid and asked if I needed any help. I think she sensed that I was completely out of my element so it was nice to be asked if I needed help for a change by a sales associate. I told her “Yes,” and she proceeded to ask me a few different questions including when I was due, what type of clothes did I like, what size I was, and so on and so forth. She started picking out things for me to wear left and right and said I should do the same. This is where things got frustrating because I couldn’t find anything that I liked. I mean, I scoured the entire store for like 20 minutes and when it was time to try things on, I had two pairs of pants that I thought were okay and Samantha the sales rep had about 13 things for me to see if I liked. Let’s just say, I’m not a fan of frilly girly clothes and that’s all that was in that store. It was all this form fitting stuff with lace and flowers not to mention how everything was either low cut, low rise or most of the pants in the place had a flare on the bottom. Not cool, not cool at all given that my style is no-nonsense and straight forward. I like t-shirts, sweatshirts, boot-cut jeans, and plain clothes that look nice. I don’t need anything with pretty patterns or clothes that leave little to the imagination if you know what I mean. I like to be covered and I like to look sporty, which means, as I’ve mentioned a bunch of times before, you’ll see me wearing a Nike sweatshirt and jeans, an Adidas t-shirt and shorts, or my lounge clothes.

Two pairs of pants I decided I didn't mind wearing.

Okay, with that rant of frilly clothes out of the way, I’ll get into how trying on all the clothes went. In short, it wasn’t all that fun. Things were too small, too short, too uncomfortable, and not all that appealing to my fashion eye, well, if I had one I guess. J I tried on one pair of jeans and almost laughed. I came out to show Dave and Samantha was like, “Those look great!” All chipper to make a sale and I was like, “No, they’re way too small!” She was nice about it and got me the next size up, insisting that they’d be too big. To her, they ended up being too big, but for me, they ended up being just right as they were a bit baggy and actually kind of looked like real jeans even if they had the weird maternity tummy fabric going on. I can’t complain about her though, she was tremendously helpful and kept coming with more options and took away everything that I didn’t like. After all the trying on, I ended up with three pairs of pants, a cute outfit for the baby (which Dave found), and some tummy butter for my belly. 

The cute baby outfit we found!

In total, I spent $178 and was completely floored. I did earn some Bump Bucks to use on future purchases at the store, yet it was still a lot of money to spend. Probably the worst part of it was that we were in there for almost an hour and a half. Yes you read that right, we were in there for almost an hour and a half looking for clothes, it was borderline nuts. To reward myself, I got an Orange Julius afterwards. It was well deserved. Dave mind you was rewarded with a nice frosty mug of beer at a local establishment later in the evening. He deserved that beer for how nice he when I was trying on clothes. If he didn’t like something or if it didn’t quite look right, he would let me know without hurting my feelings. Really cool.

The shirt I found at Target.

After learning from the shopping extravaganza at the Motherhood Maternity store, I now only shop in about 15-20 minute increments to find maternity clothes. This strategy has paid off due to the fact that the next time I went out to look, I found a nice pair of maternity khakis at Younkers. In and out in about 15 minutes and I was even able to get them on sale. I was also able to find a few shirts another time I went shopping, this time at Target, and now my new favorite place to shop for maternity clothes, yes I now have a favorite maternity outlet, is Old Navy. However, not the store itself, but online. When I checked the store in Green Bay, they didn’t have a lot of options. I was able to figure out my sizing when I was there though and later went online to see what they had. Come to find out, they do have a lot of options and if you catch their online store on the right day, you can get everything pretty cheap. I bought like six items the other day, paid only $88 and got free shipping, which was refreshing after spending a huge chunk of money the first time around.

In the end I’m still not a fan of shopping, even if I did find some stuff to wear. To me it’s always going to be a chore, but at least I know how to shop now without getting too frustrated! Yeyeyee for me! Until next time, it’s Carla the tomboy signing off!

The baby bump has arrived…

So, the news of the day is that I’m starting to really show and I’m going to be honest, I’m not quite sure how I feel about this one. It’s like a combination of being tremendously happy, mixed with feeling all out of sorts mixed with, wow, I look really silly.

It really is a roller coaster of emotions and when I’m happy, I’m really happy and kind of want to show off the fact that I’m pregnant. I want to be like, “Look at me and my baby bump,” and be all proud about it. It’s completely foreign and strange for me to feel this way because I’m a person who doesn’t care all that much about physical appearance and what I look like. I mean, I wear hooded sweatshirts and jeans whenever I possibly can and my husband Dave practically has to beg me to let my hair down since I would rather put it in a pony tail to avoid having it all in my face.  So, to actually have moments where I want to show off what I look like is not something I’m used to and something I probably never will get used to.

Now, when I talk about feeling all out of sorts, I mean just feeling off and all over the place. For example, my balance is off a bit and I find that it can be hard to bend over and tie my shoes. Seriously, this happened to me the other day. I saw that my shoe was untied, bent over to tie it, and almost fell over due to the fact that my weight shifted awkwardly and my body didn’t respond well to it. It was a funny sight to see and if you would have seen it, you would have laughed your butt off. I was chuckling inside myself. I also have to find different ways to do things that were pretty easy to do pre-baby bump. For one, lifting boxes or anything pretty much is not easy like it was before. So instead of carrying things around at work, you can now see me using a cart to get things from here to there. At home, I just ask Dave to help move stuff around and he’s more than willing to do it. What a guy!

The baby bump itself is a bit uncomfortable at times too since I was somewhat in shape before my pregnancy and didn’t have a lot of extra “stuff” around my belly. Now to have “stuff” around my belly is just odd and something that I simply have to adjust too as I know it’s only going to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. What has helped me get over those uncomfortable moments is to just get up from sitting down and walk around. Or, loosen my belt buckle a notch or two if it feels way too snug.  And, there have been times when I just said the hell with it and unbuckled my pants. Too much information, I’m sure, but that’s where a rubber band comes into play. You can rubber band the buckle on your pants so you can wear them longer when you’re pregnant instead of jumping right into maternity clothes. I also bought a belly band and plan on using that soon. Just to note for the record, I haven’t given in yet and started wearing my maternity clothes. I know that day is on the horizon, but I’m still too in love with my regular jeans and they still kind of fit. So, I’m not going to put them away until I ultimately have to! When all else fails and I feel completely bloated, out of whack, and all crazy like, I turn to my fuzzy lounge pants and throw the regular pants aside. I realize that this is something that I can only do when I’m at home, but there have been times when I’ve felt like doing it at work. Hmmm, maybe I should suggest implementing a sweat pants day at work just like casual Fridays? Now that’s something to think about.

My fuzzy lounge pants! Thank goodness Dave gave them to me for Christmas!

Okay, I got sidetracked a bit there, but what can you do? Moving on, I want to briefly get into the looking silly part I touched upon at the beginning of this blog post. For me this happens when I realize the clothes I have on are a bit too small. For example, the other day, I was wearing a shirt that fit perfectly fine everywhere else, except in my belly region due to the fact that my belly bump was basically bulging out from under my shirt. This is when I feel completely silly and even a little embarrassed. When this happens, I typically go home and throw the shirt, or whatever article of clothing that it might be that is too small, in the pile in the corner of the bedroom that I now call the too small to wear pile. The pile is starting to grow and I think I’m going to need a box so I can store it all until after I’m pregnant. I have purchased some looser fitting clothes to get me by for a bit, yet as I said earlier, the day is coming when I’m going to have to bite the bullet and start wearing the maternity clothes I got. That reminds me, I still have to blog about maternity clothes shopping. Well, that post will be next, I promise.

All in all, I’m sure that every pregnant woman goes through the roller coaster of emotions that I’ve been experiencing with my new baby bump. The roller coaster is totally worth it though given that my baby bump means that I’m going to be a parent soon and that when my waistline grows, the child inside of me is growing and getting stronger like he or she should. Honestly in my life, I haven’t experienced a more warm and fuzzy feeling of happiness than that, knowing that my husband and I have created a life that will be a part of this world in five months or so. Pretty awesome. Life is pretty awesome.

With those uplifting words, I'm going to end my post and until next time, it’s Carla the pregnant tomboy signing off.

PS…I realize I got a little emotional there at the end, but it’s all so very true. :)

PSS…This post was inspired by my Aunt Ellyn, thanks for bringing up the baby bump!

Tummy troubles...

One thing that has become quite clear during my pregnancy is that my tummy hasn’t been all that happy about me carrying a little guy or gal. Poor tummy, so upset allllll the time!

It’s pretty much been a battle from the get-go to figure out what makes my tummy remotely happy and I’m laughing to myself as I write this. Why? Because, sharing with everyone about my tummy troubles is really, really funny to me and not something I think I ever would have done before. Yet, tummy troubles are something that all pregnant women deal with and 

now that I’m one of them, I might as well offer my take on the situation.

The first thing I’ve learned is at the beginning, there are, quite frankly, no foods to eat that won’t bother your stomach. The reason being is that there are so many hormones running through your body, your stomach just can’t handle the food whatsoever. This means that you have to just find a way to get by to get the nutrition you need into your body. My coping method was to trick my tummy into thinking it was feeling better. The tried and true method of soda crackers and clear soda always seemed to get the job done. Then, after a few soda crackers and a few sips of soda, I would feel a bit better and would able to eat something else on top of it before I felt like poo again. The feeling like poo part after eating was a bit annoying too. Eventually, that would subside though and I could go about my day. 

Finding foods to eat that didn’t make me sick has been a long process given that it was all about trial and error to figure out what I can and can’t eat. (I say can and can’t eat because this is still something I have to deal with on a daily basis.) For example, as I’ve said in another blog post, plain cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes go down okay. However, if the cheeseburgers had ketchup and all the other fixings on them, then it was a no go. 

Yummy chocolate shake!

Or for awhile there I eating a bunch of oatmeal and now, I can’t stand the texture of it. What’s weird is my new favorite is chocolate flavored Malt-O-Meal, which I can eat without any problem. I also really liked Lean Pockets, yet, I’ve tried a few over the last few weeks and those are now off the list of things I can handle eating. Some of the other things I’ve discovered were/are easy on my tummy include: cups of jello with fruit in it, cooked broccoli, pasta, vanilla ice cream, lean cuts of meat like chicken or flank steak, Frosted Flakes and Captain Crunchberries without the milk as they’re perfect for snacking, microwavable macaroni and cheese cups, cheese, skim milk, Gatorade, raw carrots, and toaster waffles! I have been able to sneak in some calorie loaded foods as of late like cookies and doughnuts, the cheeseburgers as mentioned, some pizza (as you will find out about a bit later), and I even gave Taco Bell a try the other day since I was craving it and it actually worked. I don’t quite get it due to the fact that oatmeal makes me gag, but I can eat Taco Bell??? Oh well.

Another way I got over my tummy troubles at the beginning was to eat smaller meals throughout the day instead of three large meals. This made it easier on my stomach to digest whatever I was eating and prevented the rest of my body from stressing out over being really, really full. Eating smaller meals throughout the day is still the meal plan that I’m sticking too at the moment because now instead of being sick all the time, I actually can’t eat all that much food at once. I take a few bites of something and I get full, which can be a bit of a downer when I’m tremendously hungry and just want to go all out and stuff my face. This past weekend, we got Toppers Pizza for the Super Bowl. Yes, full of calories I know. Anyway, I ended up eating small pieces of thin crust pizza and three Toppers’ Stix. In the past, I could’ve packed away double, even triple the amount. I shouldn’t brag, but just wanted to give you a comparison. Well, it was a crying shame because I was SOOOOO hungry heading into the meal and then that’s all I could eat! Very disappointing. In a way though, I guess it’s not a bad thing since not being able to eat a lot at once is preventing me from gorging myself. Wow, I’m proud of myself for looking at the positive side of that one! J

In all seriousness though, it’s about finding a balance with what and how much you eat when you’re pregnant and I’m think I’m getting there at least. I try not to give in to my cravings too much and I try to eat food that is good for me. I think that’s really the best that any pregnant person or non-pregnant person can do. It’s all about moderation they say. So, this moderator is outtie. Until next time, it’s Carla the pregnant tomboy signing off!

Wicked cool.....

Generally, going to the doctor isn’t all that much fun. You have to go because you’re sick, hurting, or simply trying to figure out what might be wrong with you because you just don’t feel right.

However, I’ve found that it’s actually pretty interesting to go to the OBGYN when you’re pregnant. Why you ask? Well, sure there are those awkward moments when you’re like, “You’re going to do what?” Or you’re wondering in your head what exactly your doctor is talking about? So, you just nod your head and then go on the Internet later and research what he was talking about since you didn’t want to look stupid when he was talking to you. It’s probably happened to all of us in some doctor’s office at some point, right? I mean, who wants to look stupid? Not me!

Oh, and I’m using the pronoun he by the way because I have a male doctor.  I go to Aurora and he’s super chill and very easy to talk to, something I find to be very refreshing in a doctor as most I’ve dealt with in the past are the complete opposite.

Now, once you set those weird times aside while visiting the OBGYN, it can be pretty interesting and informative to go to those monthly baby check-ups. Take the one that Dave and I went to today for example. I wasn’t all that excited about going to my baby check-up appointment to begin with. It meant that I had to get up early to go to work early to make up the time that I was going to miss.  Then, I had to leave work, get there, wait for a bit in the waiting room, and finally meet with the doctor for a 20 minute or so appointment. It’s a process to say the least and can get a little old.

When we finally met with the doctor though, it was really, really worth it! Why, the reason being is we were able to hear our baby’s heartbeat! How freaking cool is that? You go in thinking that all that’s going to happen is your doctor is going to ask you questions about how you’re feeling with you telling him that you’re not feeling great. His reply is typically, “that’s normal,” and then the appointment’s over.

Well this time around, he busted out this machine, which is called a fetal Doppler monitor and yes I looked up what it was after the appointment since I didn’t want to ask and look stupid, that let us hear our baby! He located where my baby was nesting, right below my belly button, in about thirty seconds. 

A picture of the monitor the doctor used to listen to the baby's heartbeat.

After about a minute of hearing, “dunka, dunka, dunka, dunka, dunka, dunka,” the doctor said everything sounded good! It was an amazing moment and made me realize that it’s the little things in life that matter the most. Here I was all crabby about having to head off and rush to go to the appointment to begin with, yet when I got there, I was able to experience this wicked cool moment with my husband. Sweet!

During the question and answer portion of the appointment, my doctor did give me some helpful information when dealing with some of the things I’ve been dealing with. So, I guess that part of it wasn’t all that pointless as I made it out to be. For instance, I haven’t been sleeping well, so he suggested I take Benadryl before I go to bed. I’ve also had a cold for awhile and he said Sudafed is a good decongestant to take. I knew this one already, yet, it was nice to get some confirmation. Another thing he mentioned to do to stay regular, and yes this is gross, but I’m going to talk about it anyway given that it happens to a lot of pregnant women, is to take Fiber pills or Metamucil's along with a stool softener like Colace. This suggestion did make me feel like an old lady and kind of silly, however, if it helps I’m down to try it. One thing I’ve learned throughout the pregnancy is that if you need a little help with things, whether it be to use the lotion to fight dry skin or to use some fiber to feel better, do it because there’s no reason to feel uncomfortable. Before I would have just dealt with it, but now I’m all about making things easier on myself if help is available.

In another couple of weeks, we go back for our third ultrasound and another baby check-up. I’m actually looking forward to it! How crazy is that? I never would have thought I’d be excited about a seeing a doctor. There are decisions to be made before this one though, like, should we find out the sex of the baby? Hmmm, that’s a whole other blog post in and of itself. So until next time, it’s Carla the pregnant tomboy signing off!