good thing…..

…..i like surprises!!!!

so we go to the dr. today.  no big deal.  except surprise!!!!  i’m 3 cm & 50%!!!!

no big deal. i know. i can walk around like this for a week!  however, since i had NO inkling…. that came as a big shock.  no uncomfortableness. no pain. completely unexpected.  dr. fully expects me to have this baby this week (unlikely today)….

guess i should FINALLY finish packing my bags??

& let’s not forget…

i knew i’d remember more surprising pregnancy symptoms!!!!  

4.  hiccups.  hiccups? you ask… why, all babies hiccup. in fact, i’m sure all y’all out there were kept awake by all the hiccupping your baby would do.    but here’s the surprise:  it’s not Little Bean.  it’s ME.   not that i have them with any regularity or severity. and they certainly don’t keep me up at night.  but up until a few nights ago, mine were the only hiccups around.  but i think LB finally had hiccups. for about 2 min. once.

5.  movement.  i can’t have this list w/o adding all the times i’ve waited & wanted to feel little bean move around.  even from the beginning when i should feel movement.  even now when there’s less movement to feel and more “kicks”.   the surprise?  baby doesn’t kick me as much as just shift weight so i can feel a foot (?? i hope) .  my good little bean doesn’t kick me in the ribs or lungs or any other place that shouldn’t be kicked.         but surprise #2 is that there have been countlesstimes i didn’t feel any of bean’s movements at all.  so of course when i’m trying to do my kick counts or when i notice i hadn’t felt anything all day, The Mr. puts his ear to my belly, can hear it move and inevitably feels LB move.  what??? how could this be going on w/o my knowledge?   this happens way more often than you would imagine.  so then i’m comforted by the thought that at least someone felt the baby!

i’m sure in not too much longer, i’ll have more surprises along the way…..    good thing i like surprises!

surprising pregnancy symptoms

knowing that all of this can come to a halt at any minute (no, please…. one more week!) i decided to go ahead and write about the things that surprised me most.  the things that i don’t think i’ve read about or heard about.

first of all- i do want to admit that this WHOLE pregnancy has been a surprise for me!!!  i truly thought it would be hell. i’d blow up and be uncomf— & that would be after all the throwing up and constant bathroom trips.  wow. who’da thunk???  everyone kept/keeps warning or asking me about being terribly hot and uncomfortable in the summer. i really don’t think it’s affected me at all.  (but don’t tell The Mr. that!  we get to have the air on a “normal” temperature now!)

i truly truly know how lucky i’ve been!  i’ve seen people and heard stories of people not faring quite as well as i have/am.  i don’t even find myself particularly moody- which i know is a big one for one of my good friends who is pregnant and has had the “normal” symptoms i’ve described.   i feel just awful for them.  and i’m not gloating.  but, well, it has been a surprise.

but the symptoms nobody tells you about- or maybe i’m just weird:

1. what the hell is this stuff falling out of my mouth when i sleep???  it is nasty to roll over into. oh. wait. that’s drool!!!  what????  i don’t drool.  not since that picture of me when i was 7 at holden beach.
2. how come i can’t adjust one of my 6 pillows- especially the one between my legs?  why can’t i grab it at 2 a.m. and reposition it??  oh! right.  because my knuckles are numb and they don’t work!    what??? my hands work fine throughout the day.  but i literally cannot bend my hands easily once i’ve slept.  now- i did read about pregnancy carpal tunnel.  which for about 2 or 3 weeks early on, i did have—  another surprising thing is that the hand that you don’t sleep on and put pressure on is the one that gets numb (like it fell asleep).         that all went away.  only to have this develop (which dr. says is the same) a few months later.
3. oh, and all that swelling i’ve been plagued with since april?  gone.  for the past few days, my feet look normal again!!! AND i’ve even been on them.  is that why i lost a few pounds??  that’s one i’ll ask about. 

i swear there was something else…. i’m racking my brain and can’t remember. that, however, is a common pregnancy symptom. 

happy 4th, y’all.  hope i make it one more week!

Ill Communication

First post being back in the U.S. and A.  And it’s also almost Emancipation Day for the fetus.  And we’re pretty much ready, save for mpotter trying to savor the next 2 weeks off from work.  The only problem left is me being able to answer the phone when she calls saying that labor has begun, the mucous plug has been uncorked, the water has broken, or some other messy occurrence related to the birth process.   I have been stung repeatedly the past few weeks by her criticism about me not answering the phone when she calls.  I’ve been blaming it on lack of cell phone coverage, but she’s never bought that and I guess that’s a pretty lame excuse.  Then when she’s with me and the phone rings, she sarcastically mentions that I never fail to answer calls when it’s about work.

Before cell phones went mainstream, the expectant dad carried around a beeper to get the call.  Before that, I don’t know what they did.  But somehow all these babies still got born and the dad was probably there for most of those births.  That excuse doesn’t work well with her either.  Anybody have any other excuses I can use that will work?

Or maybe I should just answer the phone.

irksome quirksome

i expect certain quirks to come about now that i’m largely pregnant.  funny how it’s the things i don’t expect that irk me to death.

now, i’ve never been pregnant (no, you don’t say!) & i’ve never weighed this much.  so, yes.  i’m large. but i notice and have been assured that most of this weight has stayed in front of me- my belly.   (grant it, right now, i bet my feet weigh about 40 pounds alone!)   but i get so irked by one of my coworkers, who incidentally is the only one to have been pregnant before.  i see her daily.  and every so often, she likes to point out how large i am! 

doesn’t help that i’ve been asked told on more than one occasion:  wow!  you’re about to pop, right?  my response:  no, actually, i have 8 weeks, 7 weeks left…..   *gasp!

that kinda irks me.  i have had a small handful of people tell me that i look “good” or “small”…  i wanna hang out w/ these people.

one thing that irked me recently:    a lady was visiting at work.  she actually happened to be there talking to the coworker who talks about how huge i am.  anyway, as you all know we don’t know what little bean is…  and everyone always asks.  THIS lady, however didn’t ask.  she said with a slight question mark:  you’re having a boy?  and i said, no that we’re not sure… and she then DECLARED no. you’re having a boy.

rrrgghghhhh.  

The Mr. & i don’t really have much of a preference.  so it would be fine if that was the case.  but it irked me the way she said it.  almost as if a warning & i told you so in the same breath.  i know it’s fun/customary for people to guess what we’re having.  and i’ve had more “boys” come my way than “girls”… but really it could be anything….  now i hope i have a girl JUST to spite her!!!

especially since i don’t have a feeling either way, it bugs me that she said it like that.  The Mr. has a feeling it’s a boy.  I have no feeling.  I think a big reason he has this idea is from this early post.  he came to me afterwards and said:  “all i gots to say is: did that look like a sweet little girl or a rambunctious boy?”    but i’ve read lotsa message boards where moms complain about the girls’ movements.  so, i know it can be anything…..  and it’ll be fun to find out.

i guess i have one good thing to say:  at least i haven’t YET to get a stranger rub my belly!

quick update

Little Bean & I had a Dr. Appt today.  no issues with the heart or any pauses.  actually, LB was being pretty active, so it was hard (for me) to tell.  Dr. not concerned.         i still want to know how this bean can be as active as it is and i STILL don’t always feel it!!!???  that’s quite a bizarre concept to me.

The Mr. is out of the country— i know he was a little worried to not be there for this appt.  it seems that i have random issues that occur from a regular appt w/ no complications or indications…  he didn’t want that to happen while he was away.  but alas- he can party work hard now w/o the worry.

i will admit that it’s a leetle beet scary to know that we go back in 2 weeks.  then after that it’s weekly! wow.  how’d that happen? 

The Hardest Button to Button

It’s unbelievable that that there are only a few short weeks left before the baby is finally emancipated from the confines of the uterus, allowing me to claim I have officially sired a whelp.  

In the mean time, I’m off to the land of pannekoeken, bicycles, and lax regulation of recreational drugs again tomorrow, so my next lame post will be somewhat delayed.  Yes, I’m leaving an 8 month pregnant wife with swollen feet and hands who can’t reach the top shelf of cabinets and needs help with buttons.  And hey – I’ve got no problem with that.  Women fought long and hard for equal rights in this country and they got them now, by god.   Maybe they should have thought long and hard about those equal rights as if they were pregnant and swollen.  Cuz you can’t have it both ways, Lydia Chapin Taft. 

Sorry all, I have to end this post a little early as I have to take a few things down from the top shelf of the pantry and am scheduled to give a foot massage.

Just for the Taste of It…

We went to the doctor today for an ultrasound.  Everything seems to be okay as far as I could tell – the picture on the screen was in black and white and all grainy.  I guess they never heard of High Definition or even color TV there.  All that expensive equipment there and we’re looking at our unborn baby on a 12 inch computer screen that I think belonged to a Commodore 64 from the 1980s.  Because of the terrible picture quality, I couldn’t see much, but could make out a arm occasionally and maybe an ear.  So our baby has that much going for it. 

We also watched it lap up some amniotic fluid after a long session of wailing it’s arm up and down.  I usually go for Gatorade after running or soccer, but you take what you can get I guess.  But then again, I haven’t really crawled up in the fetal position and wailed my arm up and down in quite a while, so maybe if I did, I’d crave some of that amniotic fluid.  We then had a discussion how babies urinate into the amniotic sac and drink it back up.  Lovely.  Fetal babies do some nasty shizzle up inside that belly. 

Off Topic

That title makes me think of that MC Lars song “Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock”. 

Anyways, you’ve probably noticed a severe drought in posting here at this brilliantly versed blog.  Almost as bad as the Georgia Drought of 2007, where we were all asked to bathe for 5 minutes or less each day and required to recite “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down” after each public recital of the Pledge of Allegiance and singing of the National Anthem.

Undoubtedly each one of you must be asking yourself, “Why the lack of posting?” and “Hmm, still the same old sh*t here” as you navigate here and quickly out each day during your daily ritual of blog reviews.  The short answer is we pretty much have forgotten that mpotter is pregnant and a baby will soon be living with the both of us in this house.  The reason for that is that we are both the busiest we have ever been with our respective job/career/income generation mechanism that we simply don’t have the time.

As much as I hate to admit it, I have been tethered to this laptop like a ball on a rope tied to a pole all waking hours of the day.  Even worse, it’s not for surfing the Web like it’s 1996 either.  It’s all work, baby.  And mpotter is not getting home to 9 or 10 each night due to Relay for Life preparations.  We are working and acting like we’re in our 20’s right out of college.  Seriously yo, I’m 31 but am acting like I’m 27!  In fact, blog readers, I write this after being up up all night at 2 (two) Relay for Life events.  [Ignore any comments from mpotter that I slept from 2AM-5AM in the car.  Barnesville, GA is a very dangerous place and I felt it necessary to sit in the car during this time to ensure no rural youths tried to siphon my $3.68/gallon gas for their tractor].  As much as I hate to admit it, I am ALT-TABing as I type this to monitor bullsh*t jobs I kicked off for the “no-problems-at-all” application I am implementing.  Add 10 PM indoor soccer games and necessary viewings of The Office and LOST, and any time to update this blog gets thrown away like…well, no need for analogy here.

So all of this sleep-deprived rambling begs the question: “What the hell are you going to do when the baby comes?”.  

Let’s just say I hope it’s “Bring Your Baby To Work Day” everyday.

Third Trimester Woahs

As we enter the third mester, here are a few observations and enlightenments:

• I am able to park the car, get into a restaurant, order, eat, and leave all before she has shut the passenger door of the car.  I tend to think it’s more me becoming the Flash than she slowing down.
• That room upstairs that nobody ever went in has been transformed.  What previously could have been housing a Guatemalan family of 12 without my knowledge is now pimped out big ole baby style.  Man I hope that kid stays under 5 forever, otherwise if any of his/her friends see all of those pastel colors, it’s beat-down city.
• I have discovered “huge” is not the appropriate word to describe a pregnant belly. 
• Likewise, “waddle”, and any form of the verb is inappropriate to describe the process of her walking.
• Adjunct to the point above, under no circumstances is it acceptable to sing “Here We Go A-Waddling” from Claymation Christmas, even though it’s the middle of April and it’s entirely coincidental that you start singing when she gets up to go into the kitchen.  Sometimes songs just pop into your head for no apparent reasons.
• For The Office fans: You don’t ask her if she can still fit in a rowboat.