I really hope and pray this is my LAST blog post being pregnant. I was telling my mom today, the first 3 months seems to go by so fast and you start thinking....why do people complain so much...only 6 more months to go. Well, 9 months is WAY to long to be pregnant...haha I am DYING. The heat has been extremely bad....especially since we live in a brick building that absorbs the heat like nobody's business! I have been hitting the pool about once a week and trying to mooch of my mom's cool house as best as I can without feeling like I am abandoning Andrew in our sauna. The past week of being of work has been AWESOME! I thought that I would be completely bored but I simply have not run out of things to do. I have cleaned the whole house...the "deep clean"....scrubbing bathroom floors, cleaning kitchen nooks and crannies, organizing paperwork, setting up all our baby stuff and putting the car seat IN the car. The hospital bags have been packed for a couple weeks but I have added a couple things to them to help me get through labour and delivery. At prenatal classes, it was suggested to us to bring tennis balls, massage tools and magic bags....just to have a variety of pain relief/focus changers. The whole point of breathing exercises is to divert your attention away from the pain.....so why not put a modern twist to it and make Andrew massage me for hours on end??? that sounds like a WAY better focus changer. I got my hair done this morning and bought my Nikon D90 on Wednesday so I'm pretty much set for the baby to come.
My Uncle Ron has a concoction that involves castor oil, orange juice, almond butter, water...and some other special ingredients....it has worked on twelve out of the thirteen girls he has tried it on...pretty good success rate if I may say so myself. Anyways, before you freak out and tell me it is a horrible idea...keep in mind that I am an intelligent person and that I have done the research involved in trying something like this. Midwives have used castor oil for many years to help get labour going and most of the time it will only work if your body is ready to go into labour anyways. The biggest negative about using castor oil is that it can cause dehydration if not used correctly...so yes...I will be staying very hydrated the whole time. I'm going to try this concoction on Sunday night after church so that Andrew will be around and if something does go wrong he can take me straight to the hospital. When I do take the concoction I will be 39 weeks....very close to my due date...and lots of doctors will agree to strip membranes at this point if women are extremely frustrated being pregnant. I promise not to complain about my pregnancy because I have been blessed with a very good one.....but just so you know.....having a pinched nerve that only allows you to sit a certain way....in 32 degree weather....in a sauna house...is just about getting on my last nerve. If baby is ready...she will come....if she isn't...then she will not come.
So I've decided to just do a little sum up of my pregnancy in case anyone cares to read. (questions were found in the baby book I bought for Scarlette)
1. When Mom discovered she was expecting.....
When I first discovered I was expecting it was really surreal. Andrew and I thought it would take us a long time to get pregnant because I had been using birth control for a really long time for acne purposes. We got off birth control in the middle of September and thought we might get pregnant by January. My first period didn't come till October 24th so I went 38 days without a period when usually I would only go 28 days between cycles. Thinking that my body was just adjusting to being off birth control, I got caught up in exam week and went almost 50 days without a period after the 24th....I didn't have any signs of being pregnant so I didn't think I was. PLUS, Andrew was gone with work A LOT that month.....I know... TMI ....but I really think this little girl was meant to be HAHA. When Andrew finally got back from travelling with his work, we went out to dinner with Brooke and Dexter ( who were about 6 weeks farther along then us) and decided to go to the dollar store after to grab a pregnancy test JUST IN CASE. I remember Andrew running to the dollar store and when he got back in the car he said that the lady ringing him through was saying what a nice christmas gift that would be to find out we were expecting. When we got home I decided that it was a perfect time to see if we were pregnant or not....I honestly had been feeling crampy and bloated for that whole week ( my tell tale signs of an oncoming period) so I was NOT expecting...to be expecting haha. I stood in my undies while waiting for the test to come back with one line......so the one line appeared and I waited a minute longer just to make sure there was only one line....when I looked back down a couple seconds later I saw a second line......HOLY CRAP......there is a human being growing inside of me. I ran out of the bathroom and said "ANDREW...were having a baby!!" ..as I was saying the "baby" part, I burst into tears and had a crazy cry fest because I had never felt that kind of emotion before. I immediately asked Andrew to get the baby clothes down that were hidden in the closet and I held all the baby girl clothes that I had bought and couldn't imagine that our baby was a boy. We then grabbed the period calendar and figured out how far along we were and then searched on the internet how big she was......it was an amazing moment that I will never forget, my biggest dreams were coming true!
Who is the first people we shared the news with? To be honest... I told Sherri Hill very first because she works at the drugstore as a pharmacist and she knew we were trying. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't hurting my baby because I had been taking melatonin to help me sleep. Obviously, she told me to stop taking melatonin but that it shouldn't have affected the baby. Andrew and I waited till Christmas morning to tell our families and it was such a funny experience. This one year my parents told us that we were either getting a puppy or a baby for christmas and mom was FOR SURE not pregnant...so we were expecting a puppy...but we woke up christmas morning to a little yellow ducky blanket. So Andrew and I planted a tummy time toy for them to wake up to this christmas and Andrew told his parents at sacrament meeting that morning.
My due date: July 30th 2012
First heard heartbeat: At 12 weeks we were lucky enough to hear the heartbeat...and it was fast!
When mom began to "show" : I remember waking up one morning at about 17 weeks and I felt like I was showing...mom says that most people wouldn't have taken a second look....so the Lady Antebellum concert on March 12th would have been more accurate of when I actually started to show.
When Mom first felt me move: I remember this one Sunday that I was laying in bed....completely still....and I could feel the tiniest little movements...it was a really spiritual moment and I knew it was the baby. It was around 16 weeks...so it was early for a first timer.
When baby became really active: Scarlette became really active at about 20 weeks....she was like a crazy flip flopper, the kicking and fun stuff probably happened near 25 weeks and now it is really hard to feel a moment when she isn't moving, elbowing me, or hiccuping. (she has them right now!) It is especially neat when you start feeling specific body parts...that happened at around 29 weeks for me...right before I left for the Yukon.
Summary of 1st trimester- Didn't find out till I was about 8 weeks...thought I had no morning sickness but once I entered the 2nd trimester I realized that I did have a bit of nausea and had been lacking in energy. I threw up twice....once while intensely cleaning on an empty stomach and once from drinking way to much acidic orange juice in the morning. Very fast.
Summary of 2nd trimester-Started feeling the baby move, had tons of energy, felt great, found out the gender, finished University, was super busy....overall went by pretty fast....it felt like forever between 13 weeks and 20 weeks when we were waiting for our ultrasound.
Summary of 3rd trimester- Most of the third trimester has flown by, my back has had a pinched nerve for a lot of it so that has been super painful. It is hard to go to the movies or to friends houses because I have a hard time enjoying myself when I am in pain. These past couple weeks have been extremely hot and uncomfortable..I had one day with swollen ankles but that was it. Excited for it to be over in a couple days (knock on wood).
Total Weight Gain-- As of today....39 weeks....22lbs.....I am extremely happy with this. Most people say I am huge but I haven't gained all that much lol!!
Stretch marks----I have a couple on my inner and outer thighs...and JUST discovered a couple light ones on my lower belly....probably due to her dropping. They are VERY light but I almost made it to the end without ANY on my belly. I will admit..I have some on my bum...but none on my boobs.
Anyways, husband is getting mad because my computer is still on and it is late!!! If I missed anything please don't hesitate to ask..I'm pretty honest.
