Quick baby check-ups are the best!

We all know that going to the doctor can be a bit of a pain and today, I had one of the smoothest doctor appointments ever.

And when I say ever, I mean ever because everything about it went like clockwork. My husband Dave and I met about two minutes prior to the appointment, walked up to check-in with the receptionist, and then about two minutes after the check-in our nurse was calling our name to be seen by our doctor. I barely had time to sit down. Then, we ran into the doctor in the hallway, said hi, and I stepped on the scale to see my weight gain, which wasn’t too bad at this point. After that, we headed into the examining room, got the okay from the nurse on the urine sample I provided along with a thumbs up about my blood pressure. When she left the room, 30 seconds later our doctor was walking through the door and were talking to him about my pregnancy and how I was feeling. He answered the few questions we had about some stuff I’ve been dealing with and then it was up on the table for a belly measurement and a quick check on little Billy Bubba’s heartbeat. He said that everything looks good with little BB and that he’s about two pounds at this point. It was great news to hear. He then told us that at our next check up, they’re going to do a glucose test to check my blood sugar levels and with that, we were on our way!

We met with our doctor for about 20 or so minutes and after making our next appointment with the receptionist, we were on our way. Like I said, it was the smoothest doctor appointment that I ever had, especially since I was back at work within an hour. Totally awesome!!! The best part about the appointment, something I already mentioned, was how our doctor said little BB was doing well, it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside so I just had to share about how everything went. :) So until we meet again, this is Carla the pregnant tomboy signing off.

No matter how much I eat, I’m still hungry!

For pretty much the first five or so months of my pregnancy, I really wasn’t all that hungry. What would happen is I would eat a few bites during mealtime and be full or just not feel like eating at all since I felt so sick to my stomach. However, now that has all changed because no matter how much and how often I eat, I’m still hungry.

Take yesterday as an example. I had my two Eggo waffles for breakfast around 9:30 am and at about 9:45 am, I was wondering if I forgot to eat my breakfast since that’s how hungry I was! So, I was able to hold off until about 10:30 am and had a snack, which consisted of some Crispx and Honey Nut Cheerios. For lunch that day, I met up with my good friend Janis at El Sarape. We always have the best time talking and catching up, so, it was a blast to see her. She always makes me smile! Now, when we met for lunch there a few months ago, I could barely eat anything given that my tummy was so upset thanks to all the hormones running through my body. Well yesterday, I didn’t have a problem eating at all. As soon as we sat down, I was devouring the chips and salsa that were set in front of us by our waiter. When our food came, I ate all of that too in less than ten minutes. Feeling full for a change, I reluctantly said no to having dessert even though they make the best fried ice cream. So, I was able to exhibit a little self control at least.

My favorite GS cookie!

After the big lunch I had with Janis, who treated by the way so thank you Janis for being so nice, I thought I would be set on not having to eat again until dinner. Let’s just say, that wasn’t quite the case given that an hour later, I was hungry again! I opted for another snack, this time I went with an orange, and hoped that would stick until dinner and boy was I was wrong again. When I got home from work my tummy started growling so I had another snack, a granola bar this time, and that finally held me until dinner. I ended up having another snack before bed too, consisting of Girl Scout Cookies and skim milk. Mmmmmm.

Okay I must say at this point that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why I’m so hungry. The reason being is that my baby has hit his growing stride. :) During the last trimester, that’s basically all that any growing baby does and to grow, the little gal, or guy in my case, needs a lot of nutrients, which come from food, vitamins, and healthy beverages. I’ve always been a fan of eating and drinking, yet I try not to go overboard on junk food and eat as healthy as I can. I do splurge once and awhile, like eating out with Janis at El Sarape or getting cheeseburgers at McDonalds or wherever, but I try to keep the splurges to just that: once and awhile. I’m a big fan of salad, grilled chicken and other meats, and milk. Hopefully, if I continue to eat right, my baby will be healthy when he’s born and I won’t have a ton of weight to lose myself.  

Hmmm, all this talk about food has, you guessed it, made me hungry. So I’m off to get a snack and until next time, it’s Carla the professional eater signing off!

Once and awhile it would be nice to sleep…

I’m at that stage in my pregnancy where sleep is hard to come by. Even before I was preggers, I didn’t sleep all that well, but now that I am things have only seemed to get worse when it’s time to get some zzzz’s.

According to all the reading I’ve done, my doctor, and all the women who I’ve talked to that have been pregnant, it’s not all that uncommon to not be able to sleep when you have a bun in the oven. The thing is, even though it’s not uncommon, it’s still something that is completely annoying and hard to deal with given that when I need to get up in the morning to function, I’m generally tired and drained. It’s not fun, not fun at all. So to all you women out there who weren’t able to sleep while pregnant, kudos to you for getting through it. And to their husbands and significant others, thanks for sticking by them because I’m pretty sure I’m keeping my husband up at night just like all of you probably did. All I can say is sorry love and thanks for putting up with it. I know there are some mornings when you wake up and wonder why you even tried to sleep just like me!

Now, one of the reasons why I’m having trouble sleeping is that I just can’t get comfortable, which again is a common complaint you hear from most pregnant women. I try lying on my side, then my other side, then kind of on my back and my side, and then I toss and turn, repeating this cycle numerous times throughout the night. To help combat my uncomfortable state, I’ve enlisted the help of a full body pillow.

Ohhh so soft.

It supports different parts of my body, especially my ever growing belly and my legs. I’ve only used it a few nights now and it’s helped a little bit. I’m hoping that the more I get used to it, the better I will sleep.

There are other reasons why I can’t sleep and like with not being able to get comfortable, they’re something that most pregnant women end up dealing with at some point. A few of them include: 

• Heartburn. 
• Not being tired at the right times. 
• Having to go to the bathroom a bunch.
• Worrying about this, that and the other thing. 
• And vivid dreams or nightmares.  

The last three are the ones I have had the most problems with because I’ve always had to pee a bunch at night, I’ve always been a person who can’t shut off my thoughts, and I’ve always had vivid dreams. Each has increased for me ten-fold over the last few weeks, especially the dreaming part. Now, they’re more vivid than ever and are so real that sometimes I just get up so I don’t have to deal with them. For instance, last night I had a dream that I was in the fifth grade again taking a standardized test and wasn’t able to finish due to the fact that I was having trouble with the reading portion of the test. I was right in my fifth grade classroom sitting in my desk with my teacher Mr. Herman telling us what we needed to do. I didn’t care all that much at first about the test, yet when the time started crunching down I was freaking out trying to finish. When I woke up, I was thinking to myself how much taking those tests sucked and that I would rather not sleep to have to go through all that hassle again. I did manage to get over the whole thing and fall back to sleep, however, being back in fifth grade was just super weird.

Anyway, as with the body pillow I purchased to get more comfy at night, I’m learning different ways to remedy the other causes why I can’t sleep:

• To avoid heartburn, I eat slower and drink some milk before bed.
• To be sleepy when it matters, I try to stick to a regular sleep schedule and workout regularly. 
• To avoid going to the bathroom at night, I don’t drink a lot of liquids, aside from the milk, later in the day and at night.
• To stop worrying all the time, I use simple relaxation techniques like breathing in and out slowly along with clearing my mind.
• And as for the vivid dreams, I try to let them go and think about something else if the dreams weren't pleasant.

When it comes down to it, I just want to get a good night’s rest and when I do, it’s great and when I don’t, it’s just something to work through that will make me stronger. When little Billy Bubba shows up, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of sleepless nights, so, I’m getting nice and prepared for his arrival! See, I just turned a positive into a negative and I’m learning that’s what life’s all about right now. Just live, learn, and keep on going. Until we meet again, it’s Carla the Pregnant Tomboy signing off.

  

Some people are sooooo nice….

This post is all about giving mad props to one of Dave’s co-workers at the YMCA in Green Bay, WI, Wendy G. Why? It’s because of what she’s doing for our baby boy to be, she’s knitting him a baby blanket. It’s a gesture of kindness that has really touched my heart, especially since she extended the offer to do it for us.

Now, I don’t quite remember how it all transpired with Wendy making little Billy Bubba a blanket to begin with. I think there was some conversation back and forth about knitting, then I saw a blanket she made on Facebook for a friend who was having a baby, I commented on how cool it looked, and then she was like, “I can make you a blanket, just get me the yarn!” Of course, I was all over that because the one she made for her friend’s baby looked really cute! Then a few days later, I even got to see the one she made first hand for her friend's baby and it looked even better in person, if that was even possible? Not to mention that it was all warm and cuddly too! That day, she said to pick out the yarn, drop it off, and that she would do all the rest. We found the yarn for the blanket at Jo-Ann Fabrics and Dave gave it to her about a week or so ago.

Anyway on Monday to my dismay, I missed a Facebook post from Wendy about the blanket, which showed the progress she was making on it. She came up with a pattern that is super awesome: 

Like I said, super awesome!

I so can’t wait for the blanket to be complete and again, what she’s doing is such an amazing gesture of kindness that I don’t think I’ll be able to thank her enough. I figure writing about it on my blog is a good place start, so Thank You Wendy for everything that you’re doing for Dave, myself and little Billy Bubba! You ROCK!

Registering for baby stuff is fun!

This past weekend, my husband Dave and I registered for baby stuff at Target. I must say, it was actually wasn’t all that bad.

We started off the experience by heading to our local Target and after registering online at the store’s Kiosk, titling our gift registry Baby Billy Bubba Lee, we walked over to guest services. They provided us with this nifty scanner, which looked like a futuristic laser gun that made me feel like I was in a Star Trek movie, to scan the items that we wanted to put on our registry. Their instructions were to simply:  head to the baby section, go nuts and scan whatever items we wanted, and then when we were done, bring the scanner back to them.The only downer after talking with them is that we were supposed to get this free gift tote for expecting moms, but they were out. Hopefully, the next time we stop at the store there will be some available.

I heard that Target diapers ROCK!

Anyway, we then went to the baby section of Target and as directed above, we went nuts scanning different things that we both needed or wanted for our little guy who is coming in July.  I write both needed and wanted in that last statement because there are some things that we really need and other things that would just be cool for him to have. For example, some of the things we need before he comes are diapers, baby bottles, bath time supplies, wipes, bedding, clothes for him like onesies and socks, burp cloths, and so on and so forth.

The mobile we found Target! It looks like fun!

Then, there is stuff that we just kind of want like this fun summer outfit we found for him that we paired up with a hat. I realize that he really doesn’t need a hat or the polo shirt and short outfit that it matches, but it looked so cute that there was no way we couldn’t add it. We also registered for a Diaper Genie because I hear that they make diaper clean-up pretty easy and this awesome sports mobile, something matches perfectly with this sports motif bumper set we picked out. I must say, I think I’m starting to like this whole shopping deal. Please, don’t tell anyone! ;)

There were other expecting couples also registering for baby stuff while we were at Target and it was neat to see all of us going to town, especially since everyone was smiling and really enjoying themselves. The bonding that was going on was off the charts and cool to see. We also registered at Kohl’s, but that store didn’t have as much fun stuff, aside from some Nike socks, that Target does. I did find a kewl baby book online that would be super cool to record all of those fun baby events in his life along with a closet organizer that they had online, which would be helpful in getting all of Billy Bubba’s stuff organized! I've never really been a person who really cares all that much about being organized, yet I'm thinking I need to start given that if I don't, Billy Bubba's stuff might end up all over the place.

Nike socks, enough said!

All in all, registering for baby stuff was an experience that was a pretty fun time. And you might be thinking, does she expect whoever is reading this blog to go out and buy her and her husband everything on their registry for their baby??? My answer to that is a no, I don’t expect that at all. What is on the registry is all stuff that would be nice for us to receive. If we do, that would be awesome and I would be very thankful for whatever we receive and if not, no big deal. I basically just blogged about it due to the fact that it was one of those outings that moms to be get to experience and even being a tomboy, I really enjoyed myself and the time I was able to spend with Dave. With that said, I hope being able to read about my experience was able to brighten your day and until next time, it’s Carla the tomboy signing off!

Wait, what’s going to happen?

I’ve been doing some reading about what’s going to happen to my body throughout my pregnancy and I must say, it’s all a bit shocking.

Some of the changes I’ve already noticed and some of them are still to come I bet. And no, I’m not going to give you a rundown of all of them, but there are a few that I’ve dealt with, or that might happen, that have struck me as a bit odd like how my feet could grow up to a half size or even more. I have little feet to begin with, so, this really won’t be all that big of a deal. The thing is, I have a lot of shoes that I would like to keep wearing and that means I won’t get to wear them anymore if my feet get bigger. My feet actually stopped growing back in the eighth grade when I stopped growing and I even have a pair of Adidas sandals I bought back then that are still sitting in my closet to this day. I do wear them on occasion, just cuz. However, if my feet grow then all the shoes I accumulated over the years probably won’t be worn again and that would be kind of a sad thing in my eyes. I do realize that there are other worse things happening in the world and that I really shouldn’t complain about having to buy new shoes, yet, I’m complaining because it’s just not something I really feel like doing. Then again, going on a shoe shopping spree would be kind of fun, hmmmmm, maybe I do want my feet to grow!

A few body changes that I’ve dealt with already that have been a bit cumbersome for me include, aside from the obvious one that my belly is getting larger, is my growing cleavage since I never really had any “size” up there to begin with, how my hands seem to be bloated pretty much all the time and that makes it hard to wear my wedding ring, how there are a few dark skin spots here and there on my body that are common during pregnancy, and a nose that has become overly sensitive to all smells imaginable. I can smell things that I’ve never been able to smell before and it’s really annoying. For example, I could smell my neighbor smoking like six houses down the other night. Then, there was a person at the YMCA yesterday and I could smell her perfume even though she was about four machines away from me. Having an ultra sensitive nose is good sometimes though, especially when good food is being made. Then, I’m not all that bothered by it.

My cocoa butter of choice!

One body change that I haven’t dealt with yet, but I’m sure is on the horizon is stretch marks. Pretty much everything I’ve read in articles on different websites and in pregnancy magazines, etc., is that at some point, I will develop stretch marks due to the fact that it pretty much happens to every woman that gets pregnant. The usual spots women get them include the belly, legs, breasts, and butt. They say that there’s really nothing to do to prevent them even if you use a whole bunch of lotion and cocoa butter (see to the right) like I have been. I actually put it on twice a day even though they say it won't help. I do like the way it smells and who knows, maybe it will help! :) It's all about positive thinking.

Now, there actually have been some positives with the body changes I’ve been experiencing. My fingernails seem to be getting stronger and are growing faster, my hair is now thicker than ever before and that’s nice because at the beginning of my pregnancy, it was falling out, and my body temperature is up so no having to layer up anymore. For a little while there when it decided to be winter outside and actually get cold here in Wisconsin, I didn’t even need to wear a winter coat! Kewl.

On that note, that's enough body talk for one day! So, until we meet again, it’s Carla the pregnant tomboy bidding ado! 

No, I’m not fat!

Just as a warning, this blog post is going to be one big rant, so I apologize in advance. :)

Okay, I’ve noticed that within the last week or so, I’m becoming completely self-conscious about the way that I look and I’m finding myself wanting to tell people, “No, I’m not fat, I’m pregnant!” It’s like for some strange reason, I think their eyes are on me and that they’re judging the way I look, thinking that I can’t control my eating and that I have no self-respect or something. I know that what I’m thinking is completely ludicrous because there’s no reason for complete strangers to give two cents about the way I look. Yet, the thoughts are still there and the best that I can do right now is ignore them!

It’s really probably all my fault because I’m not wearing my maternity clothes like I should, something that my husband Dave keeps telling me repeatedly that I should do. For some reason though, I can’t seem to pull the trigger and do it. All of his arguments for why I should start wearing my maternity clothes are pretty valid such as how I will be more comfortable if I start wearing them. I know that this is completely true, yet, I still sit in my uncomfortable clothes. And yes, I do complain about how uncomfortable I am. Dave has been great about my complaining and lets me vent about everything when I need to. Cool guy. I’m not quite sure why I won’t wear my maternity duds. For me, it’s almost like a sign of weakness or something to start wearing them. I know, a completely random way to think, yet those are the thoughts that are going through my mind. I’m sure a psychologist or psychiatrist would have a field day with me, too bad, I’m not going.

In a day or two, I’m going to take the plunge and put on my maternity clothes for the first time and no, I’m not joking around when I make this statement this time around Dave. (Yes, I’m addressing my husband directly here since I keep telling him I’m going to start wearing them starting tomorrow every time he points out that I should be wearing them already). It’s going to be a big day, I can’t wait!