Month 5

Okay so I have officially passed the halfway point (yay!). I am 22.5 weeks and have gained 12 pounds. With this pregnancy I am on a mission to not gain 70 pounds like I did with the last one. So far, so good. I work full time in the ER, run around after a 2 year old on my days off, and power walk whenever I can squeeze it in! I also am not participating in my delicious Ben & Jerry's taste-testing marathon like I did last time (as tempting as that sounds). Ed is on a super diet kick trying to train for fire school so for the most part we eat healthy around here.

Nausea is gone. My energy is actually through the roof. I seem to be able to more than keep up with my normal pace. I pretty much am gaining weight in my belly so I have a little basketball looking thing there. You're thinking..."great, what do you have to complain about now?"

Well...I kind of forgot about this part of pregnancy. I hate it.

HORMONES!

For those of you who know me well, know that I am not an overly emotional/dramatic kind of person. Don't get me wrong, I cry when something is sad, I feel empathy for people, etc. I'm just not used to feeling overcome with emotion. It's really hard to explain, maybe some of my preggo moms can chime in if you get what I am saying. It's like you do/think/say things and there's this teeny voice of reason way in the back of your head going, "No!! Don't do it!!!" but you can't control yourself.

You know that movie Knocked Up with Katherine Heigl? There is the part where they get into a huge fight at the doctors office and the guy is screaming at her, and I quote...

"I know this isn't you talking, it's your hormones, but I would just like to say...F*** YOU HORMONES, YOU ARE A CRAZY B****, HORMONES, not Allison, HORMONES, F*** 'em!!!!"

That in a nutshell is how I feel. I feel like I am on the verge of psychosis. I get so moody and irritable for NO REASON. My husband should seriously win an award for putting up with me. So in this next phase of pregnancy I actually feel good physically. Energy, not sick, etc. Emotionally....a whole different story. Why is there always some bullshit side effect of being pregnant? Isn't it enough that you have to lug around extra weight, and walk with a basketball in your shirt all day? Seriously.

In other news here are some more updated ultrasound photos for everyones enjoyment pleasure. Of course we still do not know what the baby is going to be. Jack says "Baby Girl" 100% of the time when we ask him. It's hilarious. I'm going to be surprised if it's a girl because everyone else in the world seems to think it is another boy. He points to my belly and says, "that's mine baby!" He's already taken ownership of his little brother/sister. Cute! We do have a boy name and a girl name all figured out...but we are keeping that a secret like we did last time too. Sorry people. :)

So one other topic I wanted to discuss. It seems like everyone who is pregnant with their second kid has this huge fear that they won't have enough love for both kids...or that the first kid will feel completely neglected and/or replaced. I don't have that fear. Is it normal to not have that fear? I just feel like if you grow your family you grow your love...therefore with the addition of a new baby there is the addition of EVEN MORE love to go around. I don't know, maybe that is stupid but that's how I feel.

I truly think that Jack will be an awesome great big brother. He is just old enough now that he does things on his own. He LOVES to go to school and play with other kids. I think that he will appreciate the new baby, but still feel loved by us. I hope that is the case at least. Hopefully we can start potty training sometime soon. It would be AWESOME to only have 1 kid in diapers at a time!!!!

That's all I have for now. :) Will post more later! PS-these pictures are from about a month ago so the baby is now much bigger. According to my little week-by-week book the baby should now weigh about a pound. So I guess technically that means I have only gained 11 pounds? Is that how that works? Haha! :)

Month 3

Okay so newsflash...I don't know what I was thinking when I felt the need to update this blog every week. I already have a blog that I update every week and it is much more interesting. BUT I don't want to not do anything so I have decided to update this blog every month. 10 posts instead of 40. Sounds so much nicer...doesn't it? Lets face it, I have a 2 year old, we have 2 jobs, school, firefighting, a dog, a household to run, etc. I don't have time to update 2 blogs every single week. I will rename my last 2 posts.

So here is your update at the moment. I had my first doctors appointment today...yay! We were really excited to finally see this little peanut. I don't know about other people, but to me it doesn't seem real until I see it. I need a visualization. Earlier today Ed was like, "are you excited about the doctor today?" I was like, "no, I'm scared, what if I'm not really pregnant," he was like "umm...yeah right do you think you have just had a stomach virus for the past month or so???" I know it's not logical...it's just me. So we saw it. It's real! Based on the calculations I gave them I am 10 weeks and 3 days. They still wanted to do the ultrasound "official" measurement and guess what it said? 10 weeks and 3 days! Haha! :) I know what I'm doing.

The doctor was really nice. He seemed really cool and laid back. :) Funny story. We were waiting in the waiting room...I filled out all my papers and we were still waiting. Jack was with us so of course he was getting impatient. It is my fault because I scheduled a late afternoon appointment. It's the only way to pretty much guarantee that Ed can come with me. I definitely don't want to take Jack alone. So anyways. We waited, waited. I had to pee so bad because I drank a jug of water on the way in anticipation of having to provide a urine specimen. I ran up to the desk and whispered..."do you guys need me to pee for you today?" The lady said, "yes come on back and go while you are waiting." So I go to open the door from the waiting room to the back part of the office where the exam rooms are...Ed looked over and was like, "where are you going?" I kind of whispered (because there were quite a few people in the waiting room..."I have to pee." Ed, "what??" Me (whispering a little louder), "I have to pee." Ed, "WHAT???" Me (screaming to prove a point), "I HAVE TO PEEEEE!!! GEEEZ!!!!"

Everyone in the waiting room started cracking up. His hearing is definitely not what it used to be. I'm glad everyone got a good laugh at my expense. Hilarious! Oh well, what can you do?

The nausea and vomiting is still plaguing me...but less and less. It always comes at random times. Tonight I puked up my whole dinner. The other day I enjoyed a fantastic run (even kept up with Ed) and felt awesome. You never really can tell. 29 weeks 4 days left of torture. :) Yes I am counting down.

Month 2

So this week has been terrible. Filled with CONSTANT nausea and then occasional puking. Lovely. On top of all that I have been so tired that I feel like I could sleep and sleep and sleep all day long. All of those people who love being pregnant must experience a whole different thing than I do because this pretty much sucks. I feel so bad because it is such an effort to play with Jack when I want to just lie around on the couch.

So that pretty much sums up my week. Hopefully the vomiting/puking will subside soon. On a funny note I had a dream that we went to our ultrasound and I saw three heartbeats. I say on a funny note because that will never happen. I told Ed about it and he laughed. Now I joke around and ask him if he's ready for the triplets. He was like, "If we have triplets we're getting a show...and it's going to be called 'What Jon & Kate Should Have Done'" Hahaha. Hilarious.

I have my first doctors appointment on February 24th. Woohoo! :)

Month 1

Ask and you shall receive...

So I have decided to make an effort to resurrect my pregnancy blog now that I am pregnant again. I just want to warn everyone that this time around I have decided to be a little more candid about my experiences. I think I will make it a forum for other moms to join in. If you have something to say...by all means please comment!!! I welcome your thoughts and opinions!

Those of you who just "love being pregnant" and think it is the greatest thing ever...you might get a little annoyed by my blog.

I personally do not enjoy being pregnant.

GASP!

Yeah, I said it. I hate sharing my body with what is basically a parasite. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom. I love the whole idea of having lots of kids but if I could do it without the whole concept of 40 weeks of prison I would probably have 10 kids. Okay, so not 10 but you get my drift.

Okay another thing to clarify. It is definitely exciting to think that you are growing a baby in your body. Yes, very cool. As far as gaining weight, stretching out, feeling nauseous, gassy, and blah...it's not very fun for me.

So far in my early weeks of pregnancy I have been SLEEEEEPY. I could probably sleep for 10+ hours a night and then take a 3+ hour nap during the day. Seriously. This is what I did when I was pregnant with Jack, especially on my days off. I would sleep and sleep and sleep. It was wonderful. All those people kept saying, "sleep now while you can." Well I heeded that advice.

Reality check: This time around I have a (almost) 2 year old to chase around. He doesn't even take a nap half the time lately. There is no sleeping in, taking naps, or resting. It's just not fair to him. Believe me, there are days I wish I could just lie on the couch with him and cuddle while watching his new favorite movie Toy Story. He would do it, too. I just have never been that kind of mom. I can't plop my kid in front of the TV and use it as a babysitter.

So for now I have been sucking it up and fighting the urge to snooze. It is even worse since Ed is gone right now for work. Yesterday Jack and I had a lovely morning at the zoo and then played at the park in the afternoon. Today we had a play date with his friend Tristan, went to the park with the twins, and then in the afternoon had another play date and did some crafts (more to come with that later) with his buddy Madelyn. After that we went to dinner and now he is asleep. I should be going to sleep but it's only 7:30 pm and I just needed a minute to vent and get my thoughts out.

So there you have it. My first post on the pregnancy blog. I am not promising to keep up with this every week...this is a trial period. For now, I am going to go enjoy a nice hot cup of my pregnancy tea and fold all the laundry. Maybe next week I will blog about the different array of teas I seem to like to drink when I am pregnant. Have a great night!

Storch Family Blog

We started a new blog...

http://storchfamily.blogspot.com/

Week 40

Well today is March 6, 2009. It just happens to be the baby's official DUE DATE and so far NOTHING. I was so excited when I woke up, because I thought maybe the baby would really come on it's actual due date. Here are some pictures we took in front of the house this morning before we left for our appointment.

We went to our doctors appointment at 8:00 this morning for a Non Stress Test and an exam. Here is the update: these past couple of weeks I have been gaining weight like crazy (total weight gain is now 53 pounds), my blood pressure was 100/60, baby's heart rate is in the 140's, my cervix is about the same as it was last week, I am not dilated at all.

The NST is basically where they hook you up to a fetal monitor for 20 minutes and see how the baby's heartrate is reacting to any contractions you are having. It also makes sure the baby is moving around like it should. I don't know how it moves at all since it is so squished in there, but somehow it manages. We passed the NST and now the plan is to wait. If nothing happens this weekend we are scheduled to go into the hospital on Tuesday night and check in. I will be induced early Wednesday morning.

So I guess we are just going to try and enjoy our weekend. Today we have a hot date to get pizza and go miniature golfing. :) We will keep you updated if anything happens! Here is one last belly shot for your viewing pleasure.

Week 39

Well we are down to the final stretch!! 7 more days and the baby is due to come out!! :) Yay! I went for my doctor's appointment yesterday (Friday) and she says that the baby's head is right there. My cervix has thinned considerably, but not all the way. I am still not dilated at all. It still could be any day now. I have my next appointment on Friday, March 6th (due date!) and if the baby has not come by then I already have an induction scheduled for early Wednesday morning. Some good news...the baby is not big, blood pressure was good, blood sugars have been good. Everything is right on track so now it's a waiting game.

Here is a 39 week picture that Ed took today. Who needs a tan? This girl!

This weekend we don't have a whole lot planned. Basically we are going to clean the house, get the guest room ready, clean out the garage, and make sure everything is washed and ready for baby. I need to pack my bags too. I have a list that I made, but I think this weekend I will go ahead and have it all ready so that when the time comes we don't have to worry about it.

Here is a picture of baby's room still in progress...

My latest addition is the book shelves on either side of the crib. I needed more space for storage and they matched perfectly. We have started a book collection for baby. We got a bunch of books that we both loved to read as kids and we both agree that it is never too early to read to a child. I can't wait! Ed already read all of the books to Hope so he could practice reading out loud (how cute!). I think this weekend I might set up the pack & play downstairs so we have somewhere for the baby to sleep close by. I don't have a monitor yet and I don't think I'll be comfortable with the baby upstairs without being able to hear it cry.

Well I guess it's just a waiting game from here on out. We will keep you posted if anything happens!! :)

Week 38

Week 38! 14 days to go! Friday I had my doctor's appointment and he said the baby has definitely dropped down into the pelvis...yay! Unfortunately I'm not dilated or anything so it could still be weeks, but at least baby is doing what it can to get here. :) Either way it will be soon!

Ed and I had a nice weekend. Friday night we went over to a friends house and played a game of poker. It was a first for both of us and we didn't end up winning, but we both had a lot of fun trying. Ed held in there pretty long. Saturday Ed went iceskating with his friends Randy and Tyson. I went shopping at the mall with Randy's wife. That night another neighbor was going to have a poker game at his house but Ed and I were exhausted from the busy day so we volunteered to watch Randy and Andrea's baby Madilynn. She is so cute!

They brought her over around 7:00. She had a snack of goldfish and shared with Hope. Then she got a little fussy so we thought a bath might be fun but she started screaming and reaching for Ed. We cut the bath short, got her dressed in her pajamas, and I started warming up her bottle. She only wanted Ed to hold her (so cute!) so he gave her a bottle and she passed out in his arms. Ed and I watched a movie and passed out on the couch.

Sunday we went to church in the morning. We came home and made delicious Reuben sandwiches for lunch. Mmm! Ed watched the Penguins game and I cleaned up a little bit. For dinner we made cheese stuffed manicotti.

On to the next week...maybe the baby will make it's debut...we shall see!

Here is the start of packing the baby's bag. I have a bunch of outfits, pacifiers, diapers, wipes, blankets, etc. Hopefully we will have everything we need. The carseat is in the car ready to go!

Week 37

BELLY PIC

As of today I have 18 days to go!! CRAZINESS! We have had a good week so far. At my last appointment I had lost 1 pound from the week before (yay!) and my blood pressure was good, my sugars have been good (except when I eat yummy cake!), I'm measuring fine. They checked me and said that the baby is still WAY up there and shouldn't be here anytime soon...darn. :( I was really excited because once you hit 37 weeks in your pregnancy, the baby is considered full term.

I stopped working as of last week because I was having contractions all day long and they were starting to get uncomfortable. I really wanted to work through my whole pregnancy, but the 12 hour shifts were becoming too much and I just couldn't do it. I felt like I was sitting down for a break every 10 minutes to make the contractions stop. I guess I will take the extra time to get caught up on my cleaning, getting the nursery ready, etc. There are so many things to do around here, I don't even know where to start. I made this huge list so hopefully I can tackle everything before I go into labor.

Other than that, we are just sitting here anxious to meet our baby and find out if it's a he or a she. We're both really curious to see what baby looks like, we talk about it almost every night before we go to bed. Ed thinks baby will be blonde like he was and I think it will come out with dark hair like I did. We will see soon enough.

As soon as I get the nursery cleaned up and everything put away I will take an updated picture of what I've done so far. We still don't have a theme (we're waiting until we know what the baby will be), but we have some things in place.

Week 36

The Week of the Showers...Part 2

This is Amanda's famous diaper cake...ADORABLE!!

After my PSA shower I loaded my car with presents and drove straight to Jacksonville. My BFF Monica had planned a shower and invited all of my Wolfson girls!! I was soooo excited to see everyone, they hadn't seen me since September (see past blog "Last Night at Work"). I was a little nervous about driving by myself 9 months preggo, but I had been to the doctor's office the day before and she assured me I would be fine. So I made it to Monica's house and she was the best hostess ever. It was more like a vacation than anything. She had worked so hard to clean her house and she even had a low-carb dinner ready for me when I got there. We ate dinner and visited for awhile. Her hospitality was incredible. She even turned down my covers when it was time for bed. Here is a picture of her and Max.

The next morning we got up early and she made me coffee with cinnamon (mmm!) and breakfast. We ran a few errands, and I helped her get everything ready for everyone to get there that afternoon. It was soooo nice! Here are some pictures...

Here is a picture of the spread...DEEE-LISH!!

The girls trying to figure out the word scramble game...

Angela won that game...with some help from me! Haha!

VACCINATION!! (inside joke)

Baby Madelyn shared her birthday with me...she came straight from her party!

Opening Presents!!

Me & Jamie!

Lindsey & I...and my big baby!

Thank you Monica for hosting this baby shower!! It was so much fun to spend a weekend with you. It was nice to see everyone from the floor. I can't thank you enough for your kindness!!!

Week 36

The week of the Showers...

I had been looking forward to this week for awhile...the Week of the Showers. It started off last Friday morning at the office of PSA Healthcare, my current job. The lovely Betty had planned a beautiful baby shower for me. It was so much fun! We had a gorgeous cake, fun decorations, and delicious food! She had some neat games and activities arranged...they had to get this tape and rip off a piece long enough to fit around my belly. We also decorated little onesies with paints. They turned out amazing. Here are some pictures from the party...

Fun Cake

Fun Presents!

Decorated Onesies! Thanks everyone!

Holly & Cathy

Brooke and I

Betty working hard!

Thank you so much Betty for this beautiful shower you arranged!! :) It was amazing!

Week 35

Well Friday marked the beginning of Week 35 which means I officially have only 35 days to go!! Woooo hooo!!! :) Baby is almost here! Here are some pictures from this weekend.

Here is the latest belly pic...

People asked for pictures of me so here you go...in all of my big fat glory, but not for long. :)

We started off the weekend by going to dinner with friends at a Japanese Steak House. It was a lot of fun and the food was good. We also went to a movie (Revolutionary Road). I was disappointed in the movie b/c it wasn't at all what I expected. It was actually kind of depressing. If you know anyone who shouldn't get married anytime soon, have them watch that movie and they won't ever want to get married.

This weekend we are relaxing and getting ready to watch the Super Bowl. GO STEELERS!! Ed is very nervous about the game, but I'm sure the Steelers will come out on top. We have a doctors appointment on Wednesday, so more to come on this week...

UPDATE:

Well the Steelers won the SUPERBOWL!! Here are some pictures from our little Superbowl party. We were invited to watch the game with friends, but Ed insisted that he had to watch it in our livingroom alone so that people wouldn't be talking and interrupting his concentration.

Week 34

Well this week we had our ultrasound. The baby officially weighs in at 5 pounds 1 oz. I thought that sounded kind of big, but the doctor insisted that it is in the 50th percentile and right on target. My blood sugars are still good, same with weight, blood pressure, and fundal height. I have been having contractions every so often, but not painful ones. It feels like a tightening around my tummy and then goes away when I sit down. Everything is right where it should be so we don't have to go in for 2 weeks to be seen again. Now all we need to do is wait for baby to get here...it seems like these last few weeks are taking FOREVER. We are ready!

The changing table finally arrived and Ed was gracious enough to put it together before I got home from work and he surprised me with it. It looks great in the nursery. I want to find some baskets for the shelves though, to keep things organized and looking neat. I also bought some shelves to put on either side of the crib to hold books, pictures, a lamp, and the ipod docking station. Baby will have plenty of lullabies on his/her own ipod. Any suggestions? So far we just have the Rockabye Baby soundtracks that we've found on i-tunes (the music playing on the blog).

Other than all of that we have both been working and going about normal stuff. I'm still working 12 hour shifts which are keeping me busy and helping the time pass by. At least I get 4 days off a week to relax. It's going to be very strange not working, since I've done it ever since I can remember. I'm not sure if I know how to not work. Hopefully baby will keep me busy. Haha. Well more later. Here are a couple of pictures for this week...

Here is a blurry picture of me from the side.

Ed said he took this one to show how small Hope looks next to the big baby.

Week 33

Hello all. This week was pretty good and productive. Thursday we had a doctors appointment to check up on my sugars again. They are still within the normal limit so I don't have to go on medication...yay! :) I still have to check them 4 times a day and watch what I eat. Also my blood pressure was fine and my belly is measuring right on target. We have a follow-up appointment on Tuesday morning and the doctor ordered an ultrasound to see how big the baby has gotten since the last time they measured at 24 weeks. I am curious to see how much the baby weighs now. At 24 weeks they had estimated 1.5 pounds based on the ultrasound. According to all of the books a baby at 33 weeks should way a little over 4-4.5 pounds. I guess we will find out soon enough.

The weather has been "cold" here. Well cold meaning 60's and 70's instead of 80's. At least we can wear our jeans now and sometimes even long sleeves. I am still waiting for the changing table to get here. Stupid online shopping...very convenient except you have to wait. Today I bought a million baby hangers and my goal for this coming week is to wash all of the baby clothes that I have and get them put away. Last week I washed all of the bassinette pieces and those types of things. Our washing machine can sterilize so I used that setting. It takes forever but it makes things REALLY clean.

This past Saturday we had our big "Childbirth Class". We were very optimistic and open-minded hoping that we would learn something useful. Unfortunately, Ed and I have read all of the books there are to read on pregnancy and labor which kind of ruined the class. We could have gone up there and taught it ourselves. We had to go at least once in our lives I guess. We did a bunch of ridiculous breathing and visualization techniques. I was hoping we would at least see some good birthing movies where they showed everything (TLC always blurs it out which doesn't make sense since it is a natural/medical event and not pornographic). We were hoping to at least maybe make some new friends and compare pregnancy stuff, but most of the couples were older (I'm talking old enough to be my parents) which was surpising b/c it was everyone's first baby. We were pretty disappointed. Oh well.