Pregnancy Milestones IV

They keep coming...

1. I've reached an all-time high of needing to get up 4 times during a single night to pee. Thinking of investing in a bed pan.
2. Bought a birthing ball.

3. People have stopped looking nervous when they ask when I'm due (it's pretty obvious it's getting close and I really am pregnant). Also, after I've told them, have started letting me know how close that is, as if I was unaware...

4. Convinced my sister to give me the parking pass she paid for so I didn't have to walk.
5. Nate has been relieved of all late-night/over night Scout duties just in case I go into labor in the middle of the night- he has to be there!

6. Set up my tour of the hospital.

7. Tried to get by a man talking, to get to the restroom in a restaurant. He ignored my several polite "excuse me's". Finally I just pushed past and when he looked down and saw my pregnant belly was touching him he jumped back horrified. Not sure if he felt guilty or has a fear of pregnant women but it was awesome!
8. That's what my belly button looks like (ps do you know how hard it is to take a picture of your own belly button??? also I'm counting this as a requested 'belly picture').

9. Had my first Braxton Hicks contractions. About 4 in an hour at the end of work and while I was getting to my car. The next day, while walking to my car not experiencing contractions, I was amazed at what a short, easy walk it was.

10. Got my first tiny stretch marks on my belly. I knew I was going to get some (they're hereditary and I already had some from getting boobs in 8th grade). It was a relief to just get them showing up over with (ps they're on the bottom of my belly so I can't actually see them but Nate can).
11. Asked Nate to sweep under the kitchen table for me since I was having trouble reaching under there and it's too heavy to move. He chose to finish the chore he was working on first. He returned to find under the table already swept out and me in tears. Possibly nesting...

12. Also, Nate is one of those people who likes the alarm to go off 6 times before he actually gets out of bed. A couple days ago as soon as the first alarm went off it seemed completely necessary and rational for my to get up and do the dishes at 5 am.
13. People are actually buying plane tickets to come out and see Peanut!

PS While filling up my tank of gas this morning Nate got me pink grapefruit juice to drink. Nothing has happened so far but we'll wait and see if the curse continues...

Why this is the best pregnancy ever!!!

1. I am not a teenager, in high school or living with my parents.

2. I am not single.

3. This pregnancy was planned and I am excited to have a baby.

4. I have a husband who is supportive and as excited as I am about the whole thing.

5. Even though it is over 105 degrees outside today I am working in an air conditioned office, actually a little chilly. I get to sit most of the day but can walk around if I need to.

6. I have no other children, meaning I have no one else to worry about, or carry around, or have to comfort when they're crying etc.

7. I have supportive family both on my husbands side and on my side.

8. I am able to get the food I need when I need it. This does not involve digging in a trash can.

9. I do not have gestational diabetes (ps remind me to post on how the gestational diabetes test should be labeled as torture and outlawed).

10. I am not: on bed rest, deathly ill, completely swollen, really old, really young.

11. I get to feel my baby move regularly. Last night I could feel an appendage through my belly button.

12. I have a home, a comfortable bed and an AC unit in the bedroom.

13. My baby is healthy and seemingly comfortable in his 5 star accommodations.

And they eat me...

Still regularly covered in the bug bites symptomatic of a Californian living in Oklahoma. Randomly wondering if all this bug saliva in my blood will lead the child to be extra allergic to bugs or totally oblivious to them the rest of his life...

Need to remember to find this (it's the only thing that works without covering myself in DEET):

Happy Mother's Day!!!

For Mother's Day this year Gibson gave me my first definite poke in the gut. He proceeded to do it several times Sunday, a couple times yesterday and pretty much all this morning. Nate seemed concerned when I poked back- but you have to start discipline early! (just kidding it was just more fun to poke back). I have a feeling when this gets stronger it won't be nearly as cute.

Nathaniel Gibson Mitchell

everything looked good although he was moving around a ton so it was hard to get the important pics like to see the 4 chamber heart and kidneys etc. :)

New Background Corresponds to Certain Announcement...

It's a Boy!!!

pictures to come...

Bring on the WitchDoctors...

Ok I'm about to over share quite a bit. If you're just browsing through you might want to skip this post on account of how you don't really care about my weird personal stuff cause you just clicked the wrong link when on my sisters myspace account...

So let's get onto it.

Nate and I have been trying to get pregnant for over a year now. At first we didn't mention it because we though how fun it would be to surprise everyone who didn't even know we were trying. There's also the nervousness of telling people in the first trimester. Overall we went into it feeling very strongly that was the right path for us at exactly that time.

I went into the doctor's office got a pre-pregnancy check-up and he said everything looked good so get on with the trying. So we tried and we played and we overall had a good time waiting for things to happen when they would. We used basic biology information to guide us (I am a Bio major after all) and didn't stress much. Overall, a very enjoyable time for all involved.

But then we still weren't pregnant. I have never been 'regular' as far as womanly stuff goes and though I'd been on birth control for a couple years to help that, it started coming back. It got difficult to pinpoint when we should try because my cycle was ranging from 24 days to 72 days long. This was not the fun part. I started stressing that something was wrong and worrying and finally decided to go back into the doctor. At this point we'd probably been trying about 9 months, so we still weren't even officially experiencing "fertility problems" but I didn't want to waste time if something was wrong. Plus I'm overall just a 'know-er'. I'd rather know if something bad's going to happen, know if something good's going to happen, know about surprises, know if people don't like me, just KNOW.

So we did some tests. Nate passed his with flying colors- he got an easy one. I got a super fun hysterosalpingogram. Not the most comfortable procedure I've ever experienced but everything looked fine. So my doctor put me on Clomid (or it's generic equivalent) to force me to ovulate on a regular schedule. He said he would allow me 6 months of that but that was as far as he went fertility-wise, after that we would have to see a fertility specialist. We also started being strict about our chart-keeping and temperature taking etc. We spent money on ovulation tests and pregnancy tests every month. We started taking this seriously and at the same time tried not to stress because that decreases fertility.

Well my 6 months was up about 2 months ago. Last month I talked to my doctor on the phone and he said he would give me 3 more cycles at double the dosage of Clomid. So I have 2 cycles left.

Now a couple months ago I started telling people what was going on. It really started right after the hysterosalpingogram. I got out of the hospital and wanted to be able to talk to people about it. Instead of being a fun, just-between-the-two-of-us secret, it had started to feel like something we had to keep hidden because something was wrong with us. I didn't like that feeling. Also, I didn't like all the hints that people were expecting me to be expecting. When I wasn't trying to get pregnant they were annoying, when I was they really started to hurt. I was doing my best. Why couldn't people leave my private life private? So anyway, we told a couple people, mostly just some family and a couple friends, and I started getting the witchdoctor advice.

Now I'm a Biology major and love science so all the crazy things I heard that had no logical or medical base just blew me away. I mean first-off, why do people feel that the area in which their advice is always welcome, is child-making, bearing and rearing? I'm not sure. And also where did people get these ideas? ancient english folklore? some book they found in the library? their cousin's wife's good friend? Seriously I heard tons of the craziest stuff you ever imagined and I mostly just laughed it off.

The problem is now I'm willing. I'm willing to dance naked under the full moon and kiss certain beetles and use household chemicals in ways I never thought possible. I'm ready for the crazy. Cause I don't want to go down the road of shots in the leg and uncomfortable tests and honestly I'm a little excited to stop having to write down every time my husband and I have sex. It will be nice when that's back to just the two of us again. And mostly I want to have a baby. I'm still ok with the fact that it might not be on my time line but on His but I'm ready to do even the crazy stuff to fulfill my part. I want nothing I have control over left undone.

So...comment. Let me know that thing you heard your ex-roommate's best friend did. Let me hear your crazy theory you came up with in 8th grade science class. Ask the old lady at your work what she did and pass it on. I'll take all the advice I can get.

Bookkeeping- To keep this comfortable for all I will make the comments come to me first before they get posted. This will allow me to not post and yet still read things that might not be for the faint-of-heart or queezy-of-stomach. It means you can be as blatant or graphic as you desire. I can take it- I've worked on cadavers. :)