Monday, March 29, 2010

1 banana - 2 bananas .... 0 bananas....

...gimme bananas!! Now!

I already ate one for lunch and I've got another one on my desk ... I've been patient, I haven't touched it yet, although I already wanted it the minute I finished off the last of my other banana.


I think I've been patient enough. It's banana time. Again.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Heartbeats & dental floss

Since this blog is new, there are a few things I haven't blogged about yet that happened before this blog was born. One major thing was the heartbeat!

During my first ultrasound, I was able to see the heartbeat on the monitor. At that point, I was only 8 weeks along. At first we saw a flutter from the "jellybean" on the screen and she told me that was the heartbeat, then she made me hold my breath for awhile and we could see the heartbeat on the monitor. It was pretty powerful. This little 8 week old "blurb" already had a heart! It just gives me an entirely new view on the abortion issue, where you can abort a baby up till 12 weeks old ... Obviously, by week 8, it's a live being... with a heartbeat? This is not a politcal blog, so I'm not going to make it one... but it was something that was on my mind after this ultrasound appointment.

A couple of weeks later, I had an appointment with my gynecologist, and she told me that we were going to HEAR the heartbeat. Instantly, a million worries went through my head... the main one was: "What if we don't hear a heartbeat?" I can't tell you how long those seconds were, from the time she started pressing the "doppler" tool (no idea what the professional name is lol) against my stomach until we finally heard the heartbeat... I kept thinking "please find it, please fint it...."

And then ... there it was. It was so fast. Reminded me of a bird, the way their little hearts beat frenetically under your finger as you hold their little bodies in your hand. It was a steady beat, a very fast beat as the little bean was working hard to grow & develop ... and I thought "wow...already at week 10 in the womb, life is already a struggle..."

Listening to the heartbeat made this whole thing so real to me, it's concrete proof that there's another life in there that's trying to develop & make it into this world.... and it made it clear to me that I've got to help him/her as much as possible so his/her struggle doesn't get any harder than it has to be :)

My biggest lifestyle change has been that I've started flossing almost every night. After 30-some years of my dentists nagging at me for not flossing enough, it's finally happening. Turns out that a lecture from a professional was not enough, yet the only persuasion I needed was the heartbeat of something that's not even an inch long ...

Guess that's says something about what's to come....

Monday, March 22, 2010

Pregnancy Rhinitis

Huh?? Well, that's what it's called and don't ask me how to pronounce it...

For the last few weeks, my nose has been constantly running OR been annoyingly full of dry buggers... you know, the kind that sit and itch inside your nose until you finally toss all etiquette you ever learned overboard & shove a finger up your nose to get rid of the annoyance. Apart from the runny nose, I haven't really felt "sick" in the sense of having a cold or anything so today I looked it up to see if this maybe has something to do with being pregnant.

I guess I should have learned by now, that any abnormalities these days do indeed have to do with the pregnancy. In this case, there is something called Pregnancy Rhinitis, which affects about 20-30% of women at various stages (or throughout ALL stages) of their pregnancy. Lucky me! It says it may go away after a few weeks or it may last until the baby is born and then some.

I've been good at avoiding any type of medication. I've had an occasional tylenol, as those are safe to take, but as far as nasal sprays are concerned, I have no idea. I've never been a fan of using nasal spray, but if this is going to be something that I'm dealing with for the next 6 months, I may just consider squirting some nasty liquid up my nose now and again to get rid of the liquid that's already there :)

Well... how informative was this blog, huh? Who knew!

Hope you're all having a wonderful Monday.

Hm ... and I have no mango today. I miss it. I did, however, finally satisfy my instant craving for corn flakes. Got a big box on Saturday and it's about half done. Maybe I should think about buying Kellogg stock.... :-)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sunday & car shopping - the good, the bad & the stinky.

Well, in awaiting for our new bundle of joy, we are for the time being shopping for a new car. What a hassle! Walked around a couple of lots yesterday, Penske really wrestled with us to try to lock us into a deal but we managed to walk away from their grasp, no matter how much they were flattering us with their sweet talk.

We went to Metro Honda this morning, which was a pleasant car dealer to walk around actually. Although they of course want to make us buy from them & had some sales pitches to delive, I didn't feel as claustrophobic there. The salesman had no problem with letting us walk out of there after having shown us their selection, he didn't do the cliche "What can we do to make you buy that car today" speech ... if that's their tactic, then it works for me. For someone like me, the more you nag & push me to buy, the faster I back away ... so I prefer Metro's sales tactic!

THEN ... we went to Rock Honda. Holy cow. First thing that hit me as I exited my car was a smell of cigarette smoke. Obviously the sales men are allowed to smoke, none of my biz, but keep it away from the customer areas perhaps? Anyway ... a salesman comes walking up ... and 100 feet ahead of him came the horrid stench of his cologne. Enough to choke a person, I'm sure. I was hesitant to shake his hand...but I did anyway... and as predicted, the cologne stuck to my skin like glue. (And it wasn't even a good cologne...).
He walked us around to the few cars we were interested in. Their selection wasn't great. We sat in a used Honda, it smelled like something sweet on the inside... I'm guessing it was supposed to be that "new car scent" air freshener but it didn't smell anything like a new car.
So we say "thanks but no thanks" and are ready to move on, no matter how much he pleads and tells us he can get us anything we want. As we're standing next to my truck, which is kind of dirty at the moment. Due to all the rain we've had, I haven't had a chance to wash my car yet, and he makes some smart-ass comment about my dirty rims & proceeds to run his finger through the brake dust... leaving 1 stripe of silver showing through the dirt, at least before it was a solid gray, now with the silver stripe running across my rim, it really highlighted the dirt! What a jerk. What was the point of that?? (Was he trying to tell me that Hondas don't get dirty??? )

We couldn't get out of Rock Honda fast enough. The whole way home I drove with one hand because I feared that anything I touched would get this salesman's cologne attached to it. As soon as we got home, both my husband and I ran for the bathroom to wash our hands ... I hosed down my rims to get his fingerprints off my car ... Seriously! Who does that? Someone who sells cars in the first place should know better than to go tampering with their customer's cars... My truck is my precious!! Keep your stinky fingers away from it!

Oh well ... the search continues. We've narrowed it down a little, we'll see what we end up with. One thing is sure. We're not shopping @ Rock Honda.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Feeling good!

I have been playing with the thought of documenting my journey to motherhood through a blog, mostly because a lot of my family is in Norway and are unable to follow the development of the baby & me as we grow together. Through a blog like this, I guess it would be a good way to document how we are progressing and how I'm feeling ... also, one day, years from now, it may be fun to look back & see what I went through while "Jellybean" was developing... you know... cravings, feelings, emotions ... that kind of stuff plus I can post pictures ... ultrasound...belly photos... that kind of stuff.

Anyway... today, I have officially entered the 2nd trimester. I'm on week 13. So far I've had a good journey. I've been blessed enough to avoid morning sickness. I've been nauseous but haven't been kneeling at the porcelain throne every morning. That's a good thing!

My life has been evolving around doctor's appointments. Besides the regular appointments with my ob-gyn office, they also sent me to a perinatal center because I have a history of high blood pressure, and also because of my age, which is 36 at this moment. They wanted to make sure that my baby is growing as it should, because women with high blood pressure often have small & malnourished babies as it's harder for the nutrition to reach the baby. Concerning my age, they wanted to do specific tests for Down's Syndrome, as the risk of having a baby with Down's increases with age. So my past couple of months have been very busy. I've been bouncing between doctor's offices & laboratories every week, but yesterday was my final test for a few weeks. They did an ultrasound to measure the baby, which size was normal, and my test results from the lab had also come back regarding hypertension & down's syndrome, everything is normal! Phew! I'm SO relieved!

I really didn't know how much these doubts & worries were weighing me down. Now that all the tests and ultrasounds have come back normal, I feel so much better.
(Despite the fact that this morning I found 1 pair of jeans that no longer fits due to tight constraint around the waistline.... I COULD probably wear it, but it was very uncomfortable so I decided not to. AFter all, I want to give jellybean som breathing room :)

Cravings? Yes. Pineapples & Mango. And side salads with ranch. Baby Carrots. Klondike Bars.

Yesterday, I was making meat sauce, which I had been craving for some time now. I am talking real, home made meat sauce made from real ground beef, fat & all.
When I tore the plastic from the ground beef that I was about to put in the pan, the smell of the raw meat & the blood from the beef was sooo enticing, I've never smelled anything like it. It smelled sweet like candy, I kept sticking my nose in it (not literally...it was an inch or two from the meat) and I just wanted to lick the blood from the container it was in. Of course, I know raw meat & blood is probably not recommended ... so I did end up cooking the meat before eating it ;-)

Anti-cravings? Yes! Onions. (Unless incorporated into a dish, like the meat sauce). Strong flavors like mint. And frozen yogurt! This last one is the worst one which I've been trying to overcome but I can't. A trip to our local frozen yogurt shop was a weekly, sometimes bi-weekly ordeal. It's a store called 21 choices, they have the best frozen yogurt, several different flavors every day. Since I got pregnant, I have not had a craving, in fact, I don't want it at all. I've tried a couple of times but it leaves me feeling uncomfortably full and very gassy. It's unfortunate. Hopefully my frozen yogurt days will return some day soon!

I think Jellybean is saying "give me the fatty real ice cream! enough with this healthy fro-yo stuff!" :)

Well, I'll end this blog, it was a little long today, it being the first one and all, so hopefully I haven't blabbed on too much & put you all to sleep. I'll try to post frequently & post photos. I have some already that are ready to go up, I just need them scanned :)

Take care all. Until next time .... !