Christmas!!

Figured I'd make a quick post regarding how our holiday went!

I spent Christmas Eve Eve burning Christmas scented candles and watching several classic Christmas specials on DVD - the original animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and most of Frosty the Snowman. I also wanted to watch Santa Claus is Coming to Town and The Little Drummer Boy, but I fell asleep about halfway through Frosty!

Hubby's crazy 2 weeks of overtime ended Friday at 430am, but he still had to get up and go to his day job at 9am, so he was still a bit tired and worn out (last week he averaged 2 hours of sleep a day while the week before he was running on maybe 4 hours a day!).

We went to the annual Christmas Eve Candles and Carols service up at our church and hubby kept falling asleep throughout the service (which is only like 45 minutes long). Afterwards we went over to my parent's house for Christmas dinner and gifts. Dinner was yummy as usual - mom made her traditional Shepherd's Pie dish, which is basically a meat, carrots, mashed potatoes and cheese.

After dinner we opened gifts - my big gift was the Shark Vac then Steam vacuum and steam mop which was a combined gift from my parents and my mom's dad. I saw the infomercial a few months back and I *hate* sweeping and Swiffering our floors as they never seem to get all that clean and this new Shark steam/vac looked pretty neat and easy to use and actually seemed to get the floors clean! I figured it'd be a good item to have especially in a few months when Jay is playing around on the floor and starts crawling. Hubby got a few techie gifts he wanted, although he mainly wanted cash or Best Buy gift cards so he could get a new computer monitor since he's 2 flat screen LCD ones both crapped out last summer.

After gifts we had dessert - I was bad and had some cheesecake - and then some of us watched a showing of 24 hours of A Christmas Story while the rest of us sat around and talked. Hubby - poor guy - took a nap.

Christmas morning hubby and I woke up and watched the end of a showing of A Christmas Story in bed together and then got ready to head out to his parent's house, as they live over an hour away. Pulling into their driveway, we immediately got our car stuck. They live out in the country and their driveway is about a 1/4 mile long. Usually his brother's shovel it, but this time they just cleared a path... only our front-wheel drive car veered off it a bit and got stuck. It took a good 10-15 minutes to get the car parked near the house! lol...

We ate dinner out there and it too was good! My father-in-law's been sick with pneumonia the last few weeks - he's on antibiotics for it, but I still had to keep my distance. We did some gifts after dinner, although my mother-in-law is giving them later as she was just too preoccupied with my father-in-law being sick to get out to the stores. She did give me this really nice porcelain Party-Lite figurine of a mother and baby which you put scented oil in. She also asked if I got my Sketcher Shape-Up shoes I wanted and I told her I got a check from my grandparents I was going to put towards them and she told me she'd give me some money to cover the rest of the cost. I figured those shoes would be good to have once the weather is nice out as I plan on taking Jay for walks in his stroller regularly and they'll help me "shape up" and tone and tight stuff as I walk. She also told hubby she'd give him some money to contribute to his quest towards a new monitor.

We got hubby's 3 younger brothers the Call of Duty: Black Ops game for PS3 and while hubby wanted to play it with them afterwards, they had to get ready to head out to a friend's house, so me, hubby and hubby's little sister took turns playing together for a bit before we headed out when his brother's did, as we needed their assistance to help get the car out of the driveway and out to the road!

Hubby enjoyed playing Call of Duty on the PS3 a little too much as he decided that instead of getting a new monitor, he'd rather have a PS3. We found a decent bundle online and so he put his giftcards towards that and with the money he still has coming to him, as well as the money he's saved up, we put it on my Best Buy card and will pay it off on our next payment in mid-January. He had a few of the guys from Verizon over the other night and they were taking turns playing on it with our big TV too - he seemed to be having fun!

I took advantage of some post-Christmas sales too. Border's gave me some more free Borders Bucks for being a loyal Rewards member and so I was able to get this desk calendar we wanted for just $2! I also traded-in a few games at Gamestop and took advantage of their post-holiday buy 2 pre-owned, get a 3rd free. Today I went out and finally bought Christmas stockings as all places have Christmas stuff 50% off or more now. I figured we'll definitely be in a house next year and we'll need stockings to hang. I got Jay this cute one with a snowman on it while I got hubby and me matching ones with our first initials on them, all for $5 each. I also got Jay a "My First Christmas" bib for $2.50 that he can wear at our 2 Christmas dinners next year! They also had hats that said "Baby's First Christmas" on them, but considering he'll be around 10 months old next Christmas, they seemed a bit small - more like the size of a newborn's head - so I passed on that.

Sadly, I think I'm finally coming down with hubby's cold. Considering he was running on almost no sleep the last 2 weeks, him getting sick was almost inevitable - I knew it was most likely going to happen! I saw him Wednesday night at dinner and commented that he didn't look or sound too good - he told me he was getting sick. I tried to avoid getting it, but today I have a little bit of a sore throat and my nose is being all icky - he said that's what he had at first too. I know I can take Robitussin though so I'm planning on doing that, as I can't chug orange juice right now because it has too many carbs/sugars in it.

How was your holiday?

32 Week Dr.'s Appointment

This morning we had the first of our 32 week doctor visits, as they're now seeing me every Monday as well as having me come in for a follow-up at the end of the week due to the gestational diabetes so they can check how I'm doing with it.

Last Thursday (which I forgot to post about due to the holiday) they put me on medication - 2.5mg of glyburide (1 pill) to be taken with dinner - as while my dinner levels were looking good and under the cutoff since making the changes the dietitian/nutritionist recommended last Monday, my fasting numbers were still a little high.

Well... the pill seemed to get my fasting levels down the 1st day (Friday) but Saturday through Monday it was back to what it's been at (high 90s or 100 when the cutoff is 90). Today the doctor bumped me up to 5mg of the glyburide (2 pills) to see if that does it.

Christmas also messed me up a little, as they say it's difficult to count carbs when you yourself home-make food, let alone when someone else does it and we had 2 big Christmas dinners within 24 hours. I ate smaller portions but I knew that most likely it was going to be off and it was... although not too bad. The doctor basically told me to get back on track and keep monitoring my meals like I was now that Christmas is over.

Today they also started me with the weekly "stress test." What that is, is where they hook you up with the contraction belt like the one the hospital had me wear when we went after the car accident in October, and they have a separate one they put on you that monitors baby's heartbeat. You sit back in a comfy chair for about 20 minutes while they monitor baby's heartbeat and any contractions you might be having and it all shows up on the printout. Also, you get this button clicker too that you press everytime you feel baby move.

Yeah... Jay didn't seem to like this too much! He was quiet prior, however they had the volume turned up so they could hear for the heartbeat just outside the room at the nurse's station in case anything did happen (the hospital one was quiet) and I think that peaked his interest! After a few minutes he started moving around a little bit... and then he found where the hard round plastic contraction monitor was in the center of my belly and started kicking and punching it - he got in a few good ones! Hubby came with today and started laughing at how the lines on the printout machine were spazing when Jay was beating on the plastic monitor! He gave up after a few minutes but then soon found the similar monitor that was monitoring his heartbeat and he started beating on that one! lol... eventually he stopped and gave up, realizing that like the other one it wasn't going anywhere, but it was pretty funny!

He seems to have issues with things that press on my belly or when I'm curled up in a position that "cramps" his space and he's not shy about letting me know he doesn't like nor is he afraid to get aggressive and start beating until he gets his space back! lol...

We had a brief ultrasound today - she mainly checked the placenta and his growth to see how much room and amniotic fluid he has as well as if the placenta was looking healthy still and not old and icky. The doctor said 10-20 (forgot the units she used) is where we want to be and we were at 14.5 so she said that's good and he still has room without us having to worry. His heartbeat was 149bpm which is what it's been at the last few check-ups, so no change there and that's good. She also said he's head down, which is the position we want him to be, so that's good too!

Guess we'll see how my follow-up goes on Thursday!

32 Week Survey

How far along?: 32 weeks, 1 day
How big is baby?: His fundal height measured 32cm on Thursday, the What to Expect app says he's the size of a head of lettuce O.o
Weight gain?: 189-190 at weigh-in today - I blame Christmas
Stretch marks?: They look gross but rubbing lotion on them most nights
Maternity clothes?: Yep - same as last week
Sleep?: I wake up having to pee in the middle of the night most nights and then wake up at a "normal" time in the morning to go and tend to just stay up after.
Best moment this week?: Christmas!!!
Food cravings?: Nothing in particular
Gender?: Still a boy as far as we can tell
Movement?: He's an active little bugger and quite fussy too - he doesn't like it when I'm in positions that "cramp his space" and he lets me know it!
Belly button?: Flat =(
What I miss?: Being able to shave certain areas =/
Labor signs?: Nothing major, just the occasional Braxton Hicks which always seems to happen in Walmart!
What I'm looking forward to?: Hubby being around more this week
Milestone?:  Looks like we'll make it til at least January!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas for us starts in less than an hour as we meet up with my family at church for the annual Candles and Carols Christmas Eve service and then this year we'll be going over to my parents house for Christmas dinner and presents with that side of our family. Afterwards we'll come home and catch at least one airing of 24 Hours of "A Christmas Story" on TBS before bed and then head out in the late morning to visit with my in-laws for presents and Christmas dinner there with hubby's side of the family. Unfortunately we won't be spending the night out there this year as hubby has to get up in the morning to open his Verizon store for the day after Christmas shopping madness.


Just wanted to leave you all with a digital version of our Christmas card this year!


Happy Holidays!

31 Week Survey

I've seen this weekly pregnancy meme done on several other pregnancy blogs lately and thought I'd take part too as a fun way to track my weekly progress in these last few weeks =)

How far along?: 31 weeks, 1 day
How big is baby?: Fundal height measured 31cm today, they said last week he weighed 3lbs, 14oz
Weight gain?: I actually lost weight thanks to gestational diabetes diet - down to 188!
Stretch marks?: Got some on my lower belly as well as by my love-handles and the side of my boobs. Started using Palmer's lotion for stretch marks though so we'll see how that works!
Maternity clothes?: I only wear maternity pants at this point (cept for my PJ bottoms at home), and I mostly wear maternity tops when I'm out
Sleep?: Ugh... I wake up to pee halfway through the night and some nights I have trouble staying comfortable
Best moment this week?: Hm... not sure - I've been pretty tired this past week.
Food cravings?: Things with carbs - this diet is a bit restrictive in that aspect and I can only have smaller portions of what I normally would eat =/
Gender?: Jay's all boy - there's no doubt about it!
Movement?: Plenty! Some days more than others but he's still a little wiggle bug in there!
Belly button?: It's pretty much flat at this point
What I miss?: Eating how I was =/
Labor signs?: Had a few Braxton Hicks this past week, but nothing major
What I'm looking forward to?: Christmas this weekend!!
Milestone?:  Finally had some Braxton Hicks - was starting to wonder when they were going to show up!

31 week appointment and glucose diet follow-up

So I had my 1 week follow-up appointment with the dietitian/nutritionist this morning followed by my regularly weekly check-up at my OB/GYN clinic this afternoon.

My meeting with the dietitian/nutritionist went okay... she looked over my numbers and commented that yes, some of my post-dinner levels have been a bit high lately and said my fasting numbers were a bit on the high side too. She thinks part of it might be that I'm waiting too long between lunch and dinner and dinner and breakfast and not snacking enough. She counted up my carbs too and said without the snacks I'm not getting enough as I should be closer to 175 per day. So I guess I need to make sure I'm having a bedtime snack and a maybe one between lunch and dinner for when we're eating dinner late - she thinks that might help. She said it's up to my clinic whether or not they want to put me on medication to help with my post-dinner levels. Other than that, she said I'm doing good with keeping track of my carbs. I haven't made a follow-up appointment with her yet as she said it's up to my clinic and what they want me to do for now but she recommended I keep counting and monitoring levels for at least another week and see how it goes with the changes.

At my regular appointment, the scale shows I lost weight. Last time I weighed in at 194, although I did have my snow boots on too as it was kinda icky out and I didn't want to take several minutes in the hallway putting them back on. This time I weighed in at 188.8 without my shoes on. They said it is possible that the shoes and the low-carb diabetes diet did it. They said if I keep it up a bit post-delivery in addition to breastfeeding I'll be able to shed off my pregnancy weight easily!

I met with one of the doctors I've only met with once prior today. I wasn't aware I needed to bring my glucose reading records with me but fortunately I had my meter on me. She flipped through it and I filled her in on what the dietitian/nutritionist said this morning - she said she was going to send my stuff over to the clinic today but apparently this doc hadn't seen it yet...? She said they were going to have me come in again on Thursday to see how the diet was doing after making the changes we had discussed today to see if that made any difference or not before they decide to put me on a prescription and told me to bring my sheets I've been recording my levels on in with me.

She said Jay's heartbeat sounded good - just under 150 - and measuring fundal height with the tape measure she said he was about 31cm... not sure how accurate that is though as he was measuring 32cm 3 weeks ago...?

I guess we'll see how things go!

Formula feeding vs Breast feeding

Just thought I'd make my statement on this topic.

We are planning on breast feeding and eventually pumping and bottle-feeding for when momma won't be around to feed him (like if mommy's out and daddy or grandma is watching him) or we're out in public.

Now I have nothing wrong or against those that don't breastfeed - I was formula fed, as was my sister and my cousin. To be honest, I'm not all that familiar with non-formula feeding and originally when I always thought of having kids the idea of breast feeding never crossed my mind as it wasn't something we did in my family.

Hubby on the other hand... him and all his siblings were breastfed so to him, it was kind of expected.

I was hesitant at first to the idea but then I know my friend who has 2 kids now breastfed both of them (sometimes while I was over visiting as she used a nursing cover) and it didn't seem all that weird like I originally thought.

To be honest, we are tight on money. And out of curiosity, hubby and I looked at the price of formula while in Walmart one night and wow! You can easily spend $15 a week or more on formula alone, pending how much your kid eats!

Thinking about it, I decided I'd be willing to give it a try and I'm thinking we'd do it for the first 6 months until he can start eating baby food and drinking other liquids like juice and water as it'll save us money on feeding him.

And that's the sole reason we're doing it.

They say there's all kinds of benefits to breast feeding over formula feeding, and I'm sure there are as far as nutrients and I hear there's less doctors visits in the first year and such too, although I hate when people say it makes your baby smarter or whatever - as I said, I was formula fed and I turned out just fine - I was on the honor roll all throughout high school! Honestly, we're just trying it because of the cost.

I think breastfeeding in public is a bit weird and I don't plan on doing that as I'm not really comfortable with the idea - like I said, I'm planning on pumping some so that when we are out in public and he gets hungry we can just give him a bottle of breastmilk and save the actual nursing for at home or when we're with family or close friends and use the nursing cover then.

Braxton Hicks and other thoughts

So I think I'm finally experiencing Braxton Hicks. And seems Walmart is the place for me to get them as both days I've noticed them this week, they've started while I was in Walmart!

The first one I noticed was on Wednesday while I was shopping for lower carb food for me to eat for my diet. I had been walking around for about 45 minutes when I felt this tightening on my left side and it seemed pretty hard. At first I wasn't sure if it was Braxton Hicks or if it was just Jay stretching out and trying to make more room for himself like he often does. It lasted for a brief moment although it came and went several times while I was walking around in the store and I had to stop pushing my shopping cart and just kinda put a hand to my side and wince in slight pain for a moment til it passed.

Then yesterday (Friday) I was out there again picking up a few things I had forgotten on Wednesday and same thing - after walking around the store for a bit, I felt the tightening on the left side again and it felt hard when I put a hand to it. I stopped for a moment, winced and breathed and waited for it to pass. It came and went a few times as the night went on I noticed, making me a little irritable when hubby was deciding to be a little lazy. He was like "what's wrong with you?" and I told him and he was all "oh..."


I think I figured what we're going to do as far as Jay's furniture and stuff, since we most likely won't be moving til March at this point. While it was already decided that I would move my clothes around in our walk-in closet to make room for the dresser/changing table and we'd go through and clear out room on the floor for more space in there, this morning I came up with an idea for the Pack n Play we're hoping to get. In our bedroom we have this one wall that has a smaller couch on it. I'm thinking we see if we can store the couch at my parent's house in their basement til we move and we'll have room to put the Pack n Play up along that wall and then on our registry we also have a little 2 shelf table thing that we can set up next to it and put some of his stuff on top and then on the shelves below we can put his books and these baskets I'd like to get to put his toys away in. So it'll be like his own little area in the bedroom for now.

We're hoping to get the co-sleeper we registered for too, as we figure at nighttime we'll use that so if he wakes up in the middle of the night for feedings I can just roll over and scoop him up, but the Pack n Play we'll use for naptime so I can shut the door to the bedroom to keep the cat out and he can sleep peacefully without us having to worry about him being unattended in the co-sleeper.

While we registered for a lot of things on our registry, the things I'm really hoping we get are the Pack n Play, the co-sleeper, the 3-in-1 travel set (with stroller, carrier and carseat), a bouncy seat, a breast pump, the bathtub set, the fishbowl crib toy, and the basic necessities (ie: diapers, washing stuff, grooming kit, basic clothes, etc). Most of the other stuff like a swing and walker and exersaucer and all that stuff is just extra - we don't necessarily need it, but it would be nice to have, ya know?

Glucose Diet: Week 1

So I'm *almost* done with my first week on this low-carb diet they put me on for my glucose monitoring and I must say - I hate it.

Here's what they have me doing:

I wake up around 10/11am and take prick my finger with the glucose thingy and have the monitor give me my fasting number. I write that down, and then I make myself something to eat for breakfast.

For breakfast I can have up to 30g of carbs, although I've been cheating slightly most mornings as the dietitian/nutritionist told me my 2 slice of wheat bread with peanut butter was fine and that puts me up to 35g. I eat and then wait an hour and prick my finger again to get my 1hr post-breakfast glucose level number and I write that down.

Then I wait around for lunch which is sometime in the afternoon - she wrote it down for 2pm but I've gone as late as 4pm. I can also have a mid-morning snack between breakfast and lunch that is supposed to be around 15g of carbs. Usually it's a granola bar.

For lunch I can eat 45-60g of carbs. Lunch isn't too much of a problem - I usually have a sandwich of some sort with some veggies and a fruit cup or if I'm out I drive thru McDonald's and get 2 grilled chicken ranch snackwraps. Then again, after lunch I wait an hour, prick my finger and get my glucose level number.

I can also have a 15-30g of carbs snack between lunch and dinner as we figured I eat dinner later (around 8/9pm). At the grocery store I found I found these yummy fruit yogurt parfaits with granola you mix in that are about 23g so I've been using that as my snack now.

For dinner, like lunch, I can have 45-60g of carbs. Here's the problem though, I'm trying to eat more protein with dinner but protein has like no carbs in it so I feel like I'm barely meeting the 45g minimum sometimes so I feel like I have to scrounge up something else to eat. Also, I'm not used to eating breakfast every morning so by the time I get to dinner I'm not usually *that* hungry either. Another problem I'm noticing is that for the last 3 times now, I prick my finger to get my glucose levels an hour after dinner and they've been *just over* my cut off of 140, which really kind of annoys me.

I can also have a post-dinner, late night snack too of 15-30g although I only do maybe 50% of the time as lately I've just been so tired after dinner that I tend to just crash and pass out and go to bed early.

That's the thing I hate - I feel like crap on this diet. I feel okay for a bit after I eat but then I start to feel all tired and weak once the effect wears off as I'm eating less carbs which means less energy for me. It really kind of sucks. Tuesday, when I wasn't eating, pricking my finger or using the bathroom I spent most of the day asleep in bed I had no energy... and the rest of the week I've felt pretty sluggish, tired and weak too. My friend that does low-carb dieting often says it's probably just my body isn't use to it yet and it's in transition to it which is why I'm so tired from it.

Still, I hate it.

If Jay wants to come out in late January, I am a-okay with that! The sooner he's out the sooner I can get off this diet. Sure, it's got me eating a little better and there's stuff I'm eating now that I'll probably continue to eat after, but I feel like I need more carbs than what I have to function properly. That and the stupid test strips, even after insurance, are kinda expensive, so the sooner he comes out the sooner I can stop monitoring and using the strips which saves us money.

Appointments, appointments!

Today was a day of doctor's appointments!

I started off the morning early by driving across town to our hospital for my first meeting with the dietitian/nutritionist up on the Maternal Fetal Medicine ward at 830am. By the time they updated all my information it was about 845 when I got to sit down with her and go over my typical daily eating habits, she went over a booklet of information with me regarding gestational diabetes and a handy pamphlet of what foods to eat and such and then we made a basic outline of what times I would be having my meals/snacks and how much carbs I can eat at each, as I am mainly counting my carbs as things high in them tend to be high in sugars as well.

Then she gave me a blood sugar glucose monitor kit so I can monitor my levels 4 times a day - my fast level when I first wake up and then an hour after each meal. Basically I prick my finger to get a drop of blood out and then hold it next to this strip that goes in the monitor and it tells me my number or whatever. There's a chart too that tells me what my level should be at different times for fasting and after meals.

Doesn't seem too bad, but man! Even after insurance the strips are still a bit expensive, as she called in a prescription to get me set up with a 30 day supply of the strips and needles and I picked them up already.

At 930am they took me down the hall for an ultrasound, which turned out to be another anatomy scan like the one we had back in October, however this time they were specifically measuring parts of him to check his growth. It appears he has a big head, as that seemed to be measuring a few weeks bigger than he is, and a few other body parts were just slightly ahead of his gestational age when it came to growth. According the ultrasound, based on his measurements it's showing him to be about 31weeks, 4-5 days while his gestational age is actually 30weeks, 1 day old - so he's measuring about a week and a half bigger than he should be. They said he's within 2 weeks though so that's fine and with me monitoring my glucose, if I'm able to work on keeping that down that should help slow down his growth some. The estimated due date the ultrasound was figuring was February 9th, so I guess that means he could be here around then if not closer to his actual due date of February 20th. He also currently weighs just under 4lbs, at 3lbs 14oz.

We did get some decent 3D shots this time around though!

He did shift positions like we thought he did the other night, as his head is now down near my bladder (which explains why I have to pee at least every 2 hours now!) with his face towards my right hip. He's kinda curved around my left side with his back facing us and his feet are curved up towards my belly button.

Face with hand in mouth and foot/leg coming towards face.

Speaking of feet... Jay has discovered them and seemed quite fasciniated by them during our ultrasound today as he spent a good bit of it with one hand in his mouth and his other playing with his feet! lol... at one point we even saw him kick himself in his face! lol... The ultrasound tech also caught him in the act of bumping my left pelvic bone, as I mentioned to her he seems to like hitting that quite a bit despite me finding it a little painful - right after I said that she was like "Oh look! We just caught him in the act of it too!" It was too funny!

He was quite active today but we were able to get him to quit playing with his feet just long enough to get a few quick shots of his face - he didn't like her nudging him with the ultrasound too much though at first, as he gave us a little angry scowl for interrupting playtime with his feet! lol... He has chubby little cheeks like his daddy did when he was a baby though!

"No more pictures, please!"

 I had a few hours to kill until my regular check-up at the OB/GYN office so I met up with my mom before visiting hubby as they were in the same vicinity (hubby was at Verizon but in the middle of putting away a shipment when I called and mom was on the other side of the parking lot having coffee with friends at Panera). Unfortunately, looking through Panera's nutrition guide, they had nothing that met my 15carb max allowed for a mid-morning snack (everything was AT LEAST 50g of carbs if not more) so I just had water with a lemon in it. I'm going to have to search online and look up nutrition facts for all the places we regularly go so I know ahead of time what I can eat, etc.

After visiting with both mom and hubby, I swung home for a quick lunch before heading across town for our regular check-up at 145pm (it was originally at 11am but I had them push it back a bit just so I wasn't cutting it too close with my appointments at the hospital this morning). By then the hospital had sent over all my information from this morning and we briefly went over that. They did say Jay is still measuring big but reiterated that if I'm monitoring my glucose now that should help get him to slow down his growth a little bit. They also are starting me on weekly appointments now to monitor his growth and then starting at 34weeks they'll be having me come in twice a week since with the gestational diabetes I'm technically classified as high risk.

Also, the scale at my clinic and the scale in the dietitian/nutritionist's office have about a 10lb difference as the dietitian/nutritionist weighed me being 5lbs less than I was at my check-up at the clinic 2 weeks ago, while the clinic's scale had me 5lbs heavier than I was 2 weeks prior! I didn't think a few hours and lunch would make THAT big of a difference... regardless though, at my clinic they said my weight was fine and everything pregnancy-wise seems to be in the normal range (despite Jay's slightly bigger size right now).

Until next week!

Appointment scheduled

So I got a call today from the Maternal Fetal Medicine ward at our hospital to set up an appointment for next week to meet with a dietitian/nutritionist and schedule an ultrasound so we can get my gestational diabetes under control.

They want me to come in at 8am Monday for registration while my appointment with the dietitian/nutritionist is at 830 and then we have an ultrasound there at 930. The point of the ultrasound is to see how the GD is affecting Jay - if he's just growing big or if it has something to do with the GD and placenta. I'm hoping maybe we'll get a good 3D of him this time too, as last time he didn't want to cooperate with us. Hubby's trying to see if he can find someone to open for him on Monday so he can go too as he likes to go to the ultrasounds and see Jay on the monitor.

I ended up pushing my regularly scheduled appointment back a few hours, as that was originally at 11am - the lady on the phone from the hospital said we should be done by 1030am, but there's the possibility of them running late and then getting stuck in traffic trying to get across town... I figured we might be cutting it kind of close so I called my clinic and they rescheduled me over there for 145pm. Hubby was going to try and make this one, but since we're having an ultrasound at the hospital that morning, I doubt they'll do a 2nd one at the clinic that day.

I've started watching what I eat even more than I was and I've been going off outlines for what to eat if you have GD that I found online just to kind of start with it since I didn't know how soon I'd be able to get in with the Maternal Fetal Medicine people. I also started keeping a food log too so they can go over with me what I've been eating and what I shouldn't be eating.

In hubby news... he got a mini-promotion/pay-raise at Verizon - he's now an assistant to the executive administrative of their company, although really he's not doing much more than he already was, he's just getting paid for the extra stuff he's been doing. He also found out this week that he got the 2 week Christmas overtime shift at UPS he was hoping to get. Sadly though, we learned tonight that one the dogs at his parent's house (they have multiple dogs and cats - it's like a mini zoo out there! lol...) suddenly died - it was their smaller dog named Boy and he was only 7. When we've talked about getting a dog of our own in the future, hubby always says he wants one that's a lapdog about the size of Boy.

The results are in!

I got a call this morning from my clinic letting me know my labwork was back from my 3hour glucose screening I did on Friday.

Here's my results:
Fasting blood draw - 83 (cutoff is 100, so that was normal)
1st blood draw post-glucose drink - 158 (cutoff is 180, so this was normal)
2nd blood draw post-glucose drink - 168 (cutoff is 150, so this was high)
3rd blood draw post-glucose drink - 163 (cutoff is 139, so again, high).

Apparently you need 3 out 4 of your draws to be "normal" to not have the gestational diabetes - only 2 of mine were, so turns out, I do have the gestational diabetes (as we kind of figured I would).

The lady from the lab said that a girl from Maternal Fetal Monitoring would be contacting me in the next few days, after clearing everything with our insurance, to set up an appointment for me to come in and go over diet and nutrition, as well as how to monitor my glucose levels. They also said that since Jay is measuring big, they'll do an ultrasound there as well as I guess their ultrasound machine is more elaborate, thorough, and high tech than the one at my clinic - they want to be able to see if he's just big or if it's the amniotic fluid due to the gestational diabetes causing him to measure bigger than he should be at this point, as GD can play a part in that.

I'm not too thrilled - especially since Christmas is right around the corner and there's soooo many sweets. I'm a bit bummed I can't really eat Christmas cookies this year (and I refuse to make them since I can't eat em as I'll be too tempted to eat too many, having them around here). Also, the diet doesn't sound too nice (from what I've read) but I guess it's doable.

I keep telling myself, I'm already 29 weeks along, full-term is 37-40 weeks, so we figure I only have to suffer through this for another 8-11 weeks (and probably closer to 8 weeks, as hubby and I both have this strong, strange feeling he's going to be early) as GD tends to go away after delivery.


Today was also a bummer of a day for me - I had a "call in" shift at work, which I was hoping they'd let me come in and work it as they canceled both my shifts last week and I really want to work or at least do something. I need an excuse to get out of the house, but I can't always afford to go out or visit my friend across town as we're tight on money right now and watching our expenses and it takes gas to go places.

I tried to call my mom and let her know about my results, but as it's been the past few weeks, I can never seem to get ahold of her. I know, she's been busy with the costuming up at church for the Christmas program this weekend, but it's just frustrating when I call every number I have to reach her at, multiple times, leave messages for her to call me back, and I never hear anything. Hopefully after next week she'll be more accessible, but yeah... I'm a bit worried that if I go into early labor, my family's going to be the last to know as it seems like no one in that house can answer their phones =(

What really threw me over the edge today was when I was looking for a top I could have sworn I put in the laundry to be washed but couldn't find it in there no matter how hard I looked, and on top of that I noticed I broke another nail.

I started crying, hubby came home soon after, and we snuggled for a bit as I was just really frustrated with everything so far today and hormones were making me all sad panda over stupid little stuff.

Jay's being a bit of a butt today too - like he's purposely trying to stretch out as much as possible, throwing painful punches and kicks in the process! He's been pushing on my uterus it seems, and then once he's pushes with all his might in there, he gives it a good kick or punch! Neither the strong pushing or the kicks/punches are very comfortable to me though! lol...

The 3 Hour Glucose Test

Well today was the grueling 3 hour glucose test.

I had to fast starting at midnight. Poor Jay though - he didn't like the lack of food one bit and was letting me know by throwing fits in there every so often. Poor little guy!

My appointment was at 8am, but they didn't take me back til about 20 after as there was a bunch of people coming in at 8. The girl drew my blood before giving me the drink. For the 3 hour test they only had the drink in lemon lime and orange. I opted for the lemon line. Compared to the 1 hour drink, this one tasted extra syrupy - like a Sprite or Sierra Mist with extra syrup in it!

She said I might feel a little sick or queasy the first hour - I could feel it in my stomach but it more just a form of gas.

The first passed by sort of quick, I read some of my book, they took me back to draw more blood and then we started the 2nd hour. The 2nd hour seemed longer. I tried to get comfortable enough to nap, but it was a little cold in the waiting room and the chair just wasn't comfy enough. Eventually that hour was up and they took me back to draw more blood and the 3rd hour began and came and went.

The 3rd time they drew blood it was starting to hurt from getting pricked so many times in the same spot and my arm started to sting. Same with the last time they drew blood before sending me off.

While waiting in the waiting room, there was a guy that came in, acting like he was running late for an appointment. The girl at the desk was a little confused and flat out asked what kind of appointment he had at an OB/GYN office. The guy looked confused and she clarified they only see females here. The guy was a little embarrassed and realized he was at the wrong clinic! It was a bit funny though!

I was soooo hungry and tired by the time we got done. Hubby dropped me off but had to go to work so my mom picked me up and took me out to lunch (I don't feel comfortable driving when my blood sugar is low or after I've had blood draw as I can feel a little dizzy and weak). I came home and slept for most of the afternoon too.

They said my results will be back Monday and they'll give me a call to let me know and figure where to go from there. Hopefully if I do have the gestational diabetes it's only borderline...

3 Hour Glucose Test diet really sucks!

This whole protein and veggie diet I'm on today for my 3 hour glucose test tomorrow morning really sucks!!!


Seriously, I ate eggs for breakfast and was okay til around lunchtime. Then I went over to Burger King for lunch and had 2 hamburger patties and a side salad with ranch (it was the only dressing with 1g of sugar or less in it, as they said to eat as little sugar as possible today and no sweets at all). I ate it all but I was still pretty hungry.

I'm planning on going over to Subway and getting a $5 footlong grilled chicken breast with veggies (and eat it without the bun of course since they said to avoid bread today) for dinner. I also had a thing of string cheese for a snack this afternoon as I feel like I'm starving and it has no sugar in it.

Honestly though, what I wouldn't give right now for some bread - especially with peanut butter on it - or a granola bar or a cup of applesauce...

Jay doesn't seem too happy about this lack of food today either as he tends to kick/punch more often in a certain way when I haven't eaten in awhile to sort of get my attention (if I wake up and don't eat right away he really gets going).

Stupid genetics.

I told hubby, he's probably going to have to drag my comatose butt to the doctor in the morning as I know I'm going to feel all sick and like crap in the morning from not eating all that much.

=(

Interesting....

My mom ran into my mother-in-law the other day and I guess they got to talking about Jay measuring big.

Hubby knew he was born early - early enough that he didn't have footprints yet - but he didn't any other details.

Apparently he was 6 weeks early, BUT he weighed 8lbs, 8oz (and measured 21inches)! If he had made it to 40 weeks he most likely would have been 10lbs or more!

So I guess that's one possible reasoning for why Jay is measuring big - his daddy was a pretty big baby too!

I weighed about 8lbs, 2oz, but I was also 2 weeks late - had I been "on time" I probably would have been right around 8lbs; my sister was a week early and weighed just under 8lbs.

Got my results already

So I got my results back already from my 1hr glucose test yesterday...

They want me to come in Friday at 8am to do the 3hr version as I "failed" the 1hr version. They said the cutoff is 130 and I was at like 150.

So not looking forward to it!

They gave me an outline of what to eat, meal-wise on Thursday which is pretty much all just protein (eggs and sausage for breakfast, hamburger patties and veggies for lunch, grilled chicken and a salad for dinner) and I can't eat anything after midnight. I'm going to feel like crap when I go in, I just know it.

Honestly though, I'd be surprised at this point if I didn't have the gestational diabetes, as I previously mentioned my mom was borderline with it while pregnant with my sis, my aunt had it and their mom had it too. The GD would also most likely explain why Jay is measuring big too.

Oh well, wish me luck!

28 week photo

People who view my Facebook have been telling me lately I need to take and post more belly shots, so since this week is our first week of the 3rd trimester I figured it was probably time for an updated photo anyway - last one I took/posted was at 20 weeks!

28 weeks, 1 day

Since the news from the doctor today is that Jay is measuring a bit on the "big" side for his gestation age, hubby is jokingly referring to him as "Ginormo Baby" lol...

Fortunately most the weight I gain in these last 9-12 weeks will be mostly him and not me, so if I do get any bigger it's all him!

Honestly though, despite what people have said and told me and the average pregnant first timer is about 8 days late, I've always had this gut instinct that he's going to be early by maybe a few weeks. I guess we'll see, but right now he's only 28 weeks in there and his fundal length is measuring about 32cm - "normal" would be 28-30cm.

3rd Trimester and Glucose Testing

Well everyone, we've made it this far - as of yesturday we are 28 weeks along and according to most pregnancy sites and books, that marks the beginning of the third trimester! Yay!!

Size you're considered being full term at 37 weeks, this means only 9-12 more weeks and Jay should be here in the flesh!

Today I had the Glucose Challenge Test.

They had told me last time I was there not to eat anything sugary or sweet today prior to taking the test and recommended I stick to eggs and sausage for breakfast. We don't have sausage but I did make myself some eggs when I woke up. Gotta say though, for having low blood sugar, not being able to eat or drink anything sweet or sugary prior to my 145pm test really sucked! Fortunately I didn't feel my blood sugar levels begin to drop until we were almost there. I could feel my face start to get flushed and I was starting to get a little lightheaded with the feeling in my stomach that the worst was coming soon if I didn't get sugar in my system ASAP.

They took my weight and got me set up with the drink right away. They had orange and fruit punch available and of course I opted for the fruit punch as I like that flavor better and I've heard the orange version is just gross. I had 5 minutes to finish it finished it with about a minute and a half left - as soon as I started drinking it I felt A LOT better, it had a A LOT of sugar in it. It didn't taste horrible, but wasn't all that great and had a strange after taste while drinking it.

Since I had to wait an hour before they could draw blood I had my check up with the doctor.

Turns out, according to their scale, I lost a pound in the past 2 weeks - take that, Thanksgiving!

The doctor commented though that it seems the odds of me having the gestational diabetes is stacked against me, as my mom and her sister as well as their mom all had it while pregnant once they reached a certain weight (which I've already passed).

Also, she checked Jay's fundal height and... she said he's measuring big! Eeep! She said if he's still measuring big next time I come in they'll send me over to have an ultrasound to make sure he has enough room and get more exact measurements.

Other than that she said everything seems great - his heartbeat was in the 140s, a little lower than what it's been, but usually he's more active at the doctor too and since I hadn't eat much and didn't have any sugar this morning prior to the glucose drink, it doesn't surprise me.

They sent me to wait out in the waiting room until my hour was up (I had about 30 minutes left), and then drew some blood, which wasn't too bad this time. They said to consider no news to be good news, and that my results should be back by the end of the week. They said if I "fail" this version of the test then I have to come back next week for a 3 hour version. Hopefully I don't though, as I did the best I knew to prepare. They said if it comes back and I do have the gestational diabetes then they'll put me in touch with some women's center or whatever that can go over how to watch my diet and prick my finger, etc.

Working and shopping

Today (Saturday, although I guess it's technically Sunday now) I worked my 2nd shift at The Children's Place, this time getting some training in on the cash register.

I think it went pretty well - I seem to do just fine with normal transactions, although I'm not completely comfortable yet when it comes to doing returns and exchanges.

It doesn't help that they have a whole new process for returns/exchanges as well that requires scanning a state ID or driver's license, which many places in our mall have also adopted a similar policy, although quite a bit of customer's don't seem fond of the idea and got a little snooty about it as it takes a tad bit longer (one woman complained it was taking 15 minutes, when really it was more like 5 and that partly due to them explaining what they were doing to me as they did it so I knew what was going on to get some idea of how to do it). The reason behind this "new" policy (which I guess Victoria's Secret has been doing for awhile now) is because people were abusing the return policy, returning things every other day to get a better sale price on it and with scanning the ID now, it automatically keeps track how many times the same person returns the same things and let's us know when they reached the return limit for that item (I think it's like 3 times in a 45 day period). Sure it's a bit of a pain and takes just slightly longer, but it makes sense and clearly we're not the only store at the mall that's adopted this method for returns.

It was a bit amusing though, as several customers (and employees) asked me about my baby bump. This one customer, I swear she was playing 20 questions with me, lol... she asked one question, and then another, and then another and just kept going! At one point I was thinking "okay, you're starting to get a tad too personal for being a complete stranger!" when she started asking about his name and other details, lol... 

I did notice a really cute sweater in the newborn section though and decided to get that and the long sleeved polo I had my eye on for awhile for Jay. Both were on sale too, and when I went to pick out the sweater I saw this really cute polo onesie that matches and can be layered with the sweater so I picked that up too. I got all 3 for under $20 with my employee discount.

I bought the sweater and onesie big enough that he should be able to fill it out well enough come easter, assuming it's not like a million degrees at the end of April like it was for the first part of November here! The polo I got a little bigger too, but I figure it's lightweight and it's long sleeved so he should be able to wear it for awhile, even in the "colder" summer months when he doesn't need to wear a jacket out.

I also stopped at Kmart to buy myself a pair of Joe Boxer slippers. I saw they have them for $2.50 on Black Friday and they were having their "pre-Black Friday" sale this weekend with reduced prices and the slippers were advertised as $5.99 so I figured why not - I don't feel like rushing through Kmart on Black Friday and $5.99 for slippers isn't a bad idea, especially when I'll probably need them when we go to the hospital to have Jay. I have a pair of blue fluffy slippers, but they're really worn and nasty looking as I had them back in college, so it's about time for some new ones.

I also bought myself a pair of dual fingerless/mitten gloves and a black knit cap to go with my new jacket. I have a nice pair of leather gloves, but my fingers are a bit swollen right now due to being preggo and I figured these mittens would probably work better this year than trying to stuff my fingers comfortably in the leather gloves. Plus the hat and mittens and were each 40% off  and only a few bucks to begin with so I figured why not.

C-sections are scary!

So we had our last Childbirthing class last night.

Last night was slightly boring for me, as I had gotten bored earlier this week and read through the book and other materials they gave us during the first class, so it was basically just a review and going over what I had read recently.

We talked about birthing plans, C-sections, epidurals and other medication and postpartum stuff.

I have to say, reading the materials and then class last night... C-sections seem so scary!!! Hubby reminded me that they give you an epidural and other anesthetics so you don't feel it, but still... you're awake while they cut you open! And then you can't see your baby right away either as you have to go through recovery and yeah... doesn't sound fun! I hope I don't have to have one!

Epidurals don't sound fun either - I'm thinking of opting for some of the lesser pain medication they can give you. I would rather not be drugged out the whole time and risk having Jay be all drugged out too and too sleepy to try breastfeeding as they say it's important to get your baby to do that right away if you're planning on breastfeeding.

26 week appointment

Today we had our 26 week doctor's appointment - the last of our 4 week check-ups as we now start going in every 2 weeks.

No ultrasound photos today as we're done with ultrasounds for awhile (probably won't have another one until closer to the end) however the nurse practitioner they have me seeing (since my regular doctor retired from the practice in the time since our last appointment and they haven't assigned me to one of the other 2 doctor's on staff yet) said my ultrasound photos and stuff from our anatomy scan we did last time all look good, so nothing major there!

She said weight-wise I'm right on target (I've gained about 25lbs so far and most weight I gain from this point on should be all Jay), my blood pressure is good and my length (from measuring the top of my belly to my pubic bone) is good too.

We went to listen to Jay's heartbeat and clock it, however - like usual - he didn't want to stay still enough to make it easy for her to find and hear with the doppler!

She was moving it all around my belly and all we could hear was him moving around like usual, then she would stop as she thought she had found a good spot to hear it and count and WHAM! Jay would kick or punch the doppler! lol... It was pretty funny and I even started laughing as he kept doing it! She asked me if my previous doctor had trouble finding and hearing it due to all the movement as well and I assured her that yes, all the previous times they've used the doppler it's taken at least a minute for them to be able to hear it well enough as he doesn't seem to like to stay still, lol...

She finally was able to hear his heartbeat well enough to do a quick count and said his it's in the 150s which is good.

She went over the Glucose Challenge Test that I get to do next time I come in, which is how they check for gestational diabetes. I'm not supposed to eat anything sweet the day of the test (she recommended eating eggs and sausage for breakfast with water), as they'll give me a sugary drink when I get there and then I wait an hour and then they draw some blood. She said it's important not to eat anything sweet that day prior to the test because if I fail it then I have to come back in for the 3 hour version and they stick me a lot more.

Less than 100 days!

With the hustle and bustle of things going on yesturday, I completely forgot to check and mention that yesturday marked the countdown that we have 100 days left til Jay is expected to be here in the flesh!

How exciting!!

Also, thanks to my regular "What to Expect" emails I get, I learned that this week (26 weeks along, week 27 of pregnancy) that Jay opens his little eyes inside there. They say there's a neat flashlight trick you can play, where you can point a flashlight at your belly and baby will most likely respond to it by kicking/punching and increasing movement, like they're trying to bat the bright light away, as they say the inside of your womb is more of a burgundy color. They were telling us about this neat little trick at our first childbirthing class too. We tried it last night, but I couldn't tell if he was increasing movement or not as he was already moving around to begin with, lol...

In other news, I started my first day at The Children's Place yesturday. It seemed to go pretty well - they had me come in at 1130am to fill out paperwork and read through the handbooks and all that which took a good bit of time. Then they were going to have me shadow someone on the registers but it got a bit busy and they ended up having 4 people behind the register as it was and there wasn't much room to squeeze me in so they had me help a girl unload boxes in the stockroom - security tagging clothes and putting them on hangers and taking them out on the floor as they had a bunch of boxes to get through this weekend before another huge shipment comes in later this week! It was a pretty easy work day if you ask me and I didn't mind helping out in the stockroom - it's something to do and I'd much rather help and do something than have nothing to do and be bored.

There's also another pregnant girl working there too - I think she's a little further along than me and was having some Braxton Hicks contractions as she suddenly came in the back and just squatted in pain for a minute or so until it went away. She said she was fine though and after drinking some water she went back out. So it's nice to know I'm not the only preggo on staff! A lot of the other girls were talking about their young kids too, so it seems like most are mothers and should make for a pleasant work environment since they've all been pregnant too!

Loans, jobs, cars, and labor

It's been a busy last couple of days!

Wednesday hubby and I went back to the bank to see where we were at with our credit and getting pre-approved for a home loan.

Well, we're close - VERY close.

If it weren't for stupid Chase we would have gotten it and been signing paperwork for a home-loan on Wednesday ><

We figured out that the problem was that on my credit report, Chase was correctly reporting the balance each month, but on hubby's they hadn't reported it since January so it still showed him with a balance of like $1300 which is NOT what the balance is. So basically, Chase shows up for him, but isn't correctly giving him credit like it is for me, which makes all the difference in the world as with the correct balance on it, hubby's score is just over the 620 that we need it to be to get the loan.

Here's what happened:
I opened the card about a year ago when I started Mary Kay to purchase my inventory and hubby and I had discussed putting him on the card as well so he would have some revolving credit as the bank lady had suggested we do for hubby as he had no revolving credit. Well, we went back to the bank 3-4 months later and met with a guy that time as we couldn't remember the lady's name and couldn't find her card (I found it after the fact) and he said that because the card was so new, it was hurting hubby's credit a lot and that it would be best to take him off that. So I called Chase and requested he be removed. Then we went in this past September and met with the original lady again and it showed that hubby was still on the Chase card, but since it had been almost year, the balance was a lot lower and counts as revolving credit it was actually helping his score - we figured the girl I talked to at Chase was just an airhead and didn't actually take him off when I requested it, but we decided it's working in our favor now so whatever.

So they took his name off the Chase card but reported the $1300 balance that was on it last January when they took him off to the credit bureau and haven't reported any activity in his name since!

Our bank lady said that since it's already under his credit, adding him back on won't hurt his score at this point as all it will do will report him monthly along with me with the updated balance and will help his score.

So I called Chase as soon as I got home and explained it them - they confirmed hubby is not on the card/account and said we could dispute it to get it completely off his credit, but instead I told them just to add him back onto it and they did. They said "big" changes to the account like that would report quarterly, which won't be til January, however it is possible it'll start reporting for him on this cycle.

Regardless, we're just going to wait to go back in in January - hubby's swamped with work in December so we wouldn't even have time to house hunt together.

Hopefully the next time we go in, all will be good and we'll be signing paperwork!

*******************

In other news, The Children's Place called me back on Wednesday - I start Saturday morning, just to go in and do paperwork and that sort of stuff you do on your first day. I'm pretty excited though as I'm looking forward to having something to do and somewhere to be!

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Also, Progressive called us on Wednesday morning to inform us that our car was ready to be picked up and that the rental needed to be returned by 6pm Thursday otherwise we'd have to pay $30 for each additional day.

A little annoyed, as it was a bit last minute and nearly a week earlier than expected, but we were able to figure something out and I drove the 300miles down to St. Louis yesterday with my mom to keep me awake and help with driving on the way back (it's a 4-5hr drive one day, which is A LOT of driving for a preggo lady to do in one day!). I needed to be back in town just after 6pm too as hubby and I had our childbirthing class at 630pm too so we had to leave by 8am to allow enough time. We did it though and the car looks pretty good!

*******************

And as mentioned, we had our 2nd childbirthing class last night.

This portion of the class consisted mainly of going over the different stages of labor. We got to watch several birthing videos - hubby admitted, that's something he probably could have done without ever seeing, as he's not planning on standing near that end of me when Jay pops out, lol...

I don't want to say I'm scared, but ouch! That's going to hurt - I'm not really looking forward to that part!

It was pretty informative though as they explained some more about contractions and that until they're a minute long, 3-5 minutes apart and last like that for at least an hour then we don't really need to rush to the hospital yet and can work on distracting ourselves at home... unless of course my water breaks, then they want us to come in right away.

I'm still not sure about having an epidural vs. natural - I guess I'm leaning more towards natural, although it might hurt more, but yeah... still not decided which is okay as I should have a good 2-3 months still til it's time. We're going to be talking/learning more about epidurals and all that stuff next week.

And... it's done.

So I know I said that our car wouldn't done til around the 15th... well hubby got a call today and it's done early!

Sweet, right?

Wrong.

We weren't expecting it to be done until at least Monday, so we're going to have to put the deductible on my lone credit card for now, although hubby said we can pay it back down ASAP since we'll have the money very soon.

Also, they're only extending our rental until 6pm tomorrow (Thursday) and hubby can't get off work which means I have to drive the 4-5hours one way to St. Louis to go drop it off and pick up our car (although my mom or someone is tagging along with so I'm not driving alone and can maybe do some of the driving on the way back). This sucks because Thursdays are the only day I'm working at my main job! Also, we have our 2nd childbirthing class tomorrow night too so I'll have to leave here at the crack of dawn to get down there and back here before 630pm.

Ugh...

While I am a little annoyed that I have yet to hear back from The Children's Place regarding when they want me to start, I guess it is a bit of a blessing as I can just check with my first job and see if I can come in Friday instead of Thursday and then tell The Children's Place I can't start until 430pm Friday. I figure, they said the manager that does the scheduling and all that was out on a mini-vacation until yesterday - I'm guessing (hoping) maybe she was just swamped with a lot to do when she got in and is planning on making the calls today. If I don't hear anything by the end of today I'll definitely call tomorrow and find out what's up.

Now I have a few phone calls to make, watch last night's episode of Glee, get cleaned up and meet hubby at the bank as we have another meeting there later today regarding trying to get pre-approved for a home loan - I really hope it goes well and we have good news this time... this whole thing is getting frustrating and I just want to get pre-approved so we can finally start looking for a house and hopefully get moved in (or at least be in the process of it all) by the time Jay is here.

Random pains and working for the holidays

Just wanted to mention a few things today.

First off, I awoke earlier this morning with the worst lower back pain on my left side EVER!

I've been at the stage where sleeping isn't very comfortable, regardless of which side I sleep on. I usually start on my left side but switch over sometime to the right side and then back again. And yes, I sleep with a body pillow between my legs as well, but I always seem to wake up whatever side is on bottom feeling numbing and hurting and needing to roll over. Honestly, laying on my back seems to be the most comfortable however after our trip to the ER they specifically told me not to lay on my back when sleeping or resting as the weight of my uterus is pushing down on everything else.

Anyways though, like usual, I woke up shortly after hubby left for work to go empty my bladder since I can't make it through the night/morning without having to get up at least once for that and when I got back in bed to sleep a little more... omg the lower left side of my back hurt soooo bad - I almost thought I was going to have to lay in bed all day til hubby got home to rub it, it hurt that bad! Fortunately I laid on my right side and it went away eventually, but ouch!

Also, yesterday I got a call from The Children's Place, saying they'd like to offer me a seasonal position! Yay!

I was half awake when they called in the morning (hubby and I decided to sleep in since he didn't have to go into Verizon until later in the day) so I called them back a few hours later and told them that I was definitely still interested! They said the 3rd manager (who seems to be the one in charge) is out til Tuesday but they would put me on her list of calls to make so that she could figure out what day this week I can come in and start training.

Yay!!

Like my friend that also works retail was saying, there really wasn't much she couldn't do while she was pregnant at work - the only thing I can think that might be a problem is if I need to lift/carry boxes. I can carry/lift some, but not a whole lot. Other than that though, I don't think there's much that should be an issue so I shouldn't have any problems.

I get a 25% employee discount there too, which is also good on sale and clearance items. I could see this being bad, especially since I started eying some cute little long sleeved polos while there the other day! Mom said though that if there's anything I want, to let her know and she'll give me the money for it so I can buy it and use my discount, even though it'll be from "Grandma" hehe... they'll start getting their spring stuff in come mid-December or so too and I'd like to get a cute little suit-type outfit for Jay for Easter, so I'm sure the discount will come in handy for that too!

I am excited though - I've been sitting home bored for far too long and I look forward to having something to do during the days!

25 Weeks!

Today we are officially 25 weeks! That means there's only 15 weeks left until Jay's estimated due date!!

I'm sure with the holiday season getting in full swing soon, these next 2 months are going to fly by - it honestly seems like December goes by way too quickly each year!

That also means that he is now the size of an eggplant - which it makes sense that he's grown more as his kicking/punching has picked up quite a bit the past few days and I've been a bit sore down in my abdomen for a good week or so now! I noticed last night that now when he kicks/punches there's some force behind it as it makes my belly move, lol... Hope he's not claustrophobic, as his "space" is starting to get a bit smaller on him!

I also can't decide who reacts to the vacuum worse - Jay or our 2 year old kitty Tiger! Yesturday I was doing some massive cleaning on the whole apartment and that included vacuuming. Tiger has never liked the vacuum as the noise scares her so she usually runs off somewhere and hides - last night she chose to sit in the bedroom window, with her tail all fluffed out, only when I started vacuuming the bedroom she completely spazzed out, trying to scale the window in a frantic to get away from the vacuum! Also, the ENTIRE time I was vacuuming, Jay was kicking and punching the crap out of me - I take it he could hear the noise and was wondering what in the world it was and was reacting to it! lol... guess in the future when I vacuum when Jay is little, the 2 of them can run off and hide from the vacuum together, lol...

First Childbirthing Class

Thursday night hubby and I attended our first childbirthing class at the hospital.

There's 2 other sets of people in our class - another married couple, expecting twins in December, who looked to be about the same age as hubby and I and then there was a slightly younger looking girl, expecting a boy in January, who was there with her mom.

It was interesting and not quite what I was expecting, based off what you see in movies!

The RN that taught this session went through a Powerpoint with us and gave us a bag of goodies (which I have yet to go through as hubby keeps leaving it in the car) as well as a pretty informative book/guide that the hospital put out. We went over a few relaxation and early-labor breathing exercises. We also saw pictures of the Labor and Delivery ward upstairs, explaining how the whole process goes and she showed us some of the devices and such that they use to monitor stuff such as that funky contraction monitor belt I mentioned they had me wear when we were there last week getting checked out after the accident.

We got done a bit early but I felt it was informative - I learned some stuff I didn't know and WOW! She passed around a palette that had circles that showed the different sizes your cervix gets as it dilated - 10cm (which is when they say you can start pushing baby out) is HUGE! I can't even fathom that stretching out that big! Almost kind of scary (and painful) to think about!

They also made hubby and the other soon-to-be daddy try on the pregnant suit and waddle around it for a minute! Hubby claimed it "wasn't that bad" as he's used to lifting and carrying packages at UPS - whatever, having the extra weight on you is only part of it, try dealing with all the hormones and the soreness, etc on a daily basis! lol...

We have 2 more of these childbirthing classes which are this Thursday and the next so we'll be done by Thanksgiving, and then I have a breastfeeding class I'm taking on Monday the 15th, which is also the same day as our next doctor's appointment. We have a newborn care class we're taking also, but that's not until January.

We're going to try and breastfeed if we can and pump a little bit as well. Looking over the price of formula - it's expensive! So we figure if we can do it, it'll save us a bit in the long run and I'd like to pump some as well as I'm not a fan of breastfeeding in public not to mention it'd be nice for hubby to be able to feed Jay at times and then if he's with grandma well, I can send a bottle or 2 of the pumped stuff when she's babysitting so he doesn't have to go hungry. I'm thinking we'll probably breastfeed til about 6 months or so, as that sounds like a good age to wean them off, especially since they can start eating the baby food by then.

I have nothing against those that choose not to - to be honest, I was originally thinking of just doing formula until I realized how expensive that can be. I was formula fed, as was my sister and my cousin that lives near us and while "they" claim it's better to breastfeed than formula feed, we all turned out pretty fine.

Clothes and Candles

Yesturday was a bit of a fun day.

I went out shopping with my mom for a bit as I needed to find a coat for winter that I can actually fasten shut as my casual coat and my warmer coat both won't shut over my baby bump. I also needed to find a pair of boots for winter that didn't have much of a heel on them as the only pair I have have a decent sized heel on them and I don't want to risk slipping on ice and falling while pregnant (as I slipped and fell on my butt a few times last year!).

We went to Burlington Coat Factory and found both, plus we got me 2nd pair of maternity jeans in a lighter color since I just have the one pair and my lighter pair of regular jeans are fitting a bit too snug around my hips these days.

I had originally wanted to get a warm, puffy coat but as I tried some on, they didn't look too good on me - they only made me look bigger. As we looked around, I found some that had more of a trench and pea coat style to them and those actually looked pretty nice. We found one that fit pretty well and looked good on me and got it - mom said if I needed more room too we could always just move the buttons on the front over a bit.

Also yesturday, a friend of mine became a PartyLite candle consultant and had her debut. I went and brought my mom and mother-in-law. I haven't bought any PartyLite since the last party she co-hosted with her cousin's wife nearly 2 years ago and I wanted to get some tealights in another scent; my mom hadn't bought PartyLite in years as last time she did she bought enough to last awhile and just now needed to get some more.

Angel Aroma Melts Warmer

I pre-shopped online to get an idea of what they have and picked out a few of the "guest offer" items to get as gifts which hubby approved, so I bought those last night and a pack of tealights to split with them so we got my aunt and mother-in-law's gifts for Christmas done and out of the way. I already know what I'm getting my mom too, just a matter of finding it in town or ordering it on Amazon.com. They had a special going on too where you can get 3 dozen (3 boxes) of tealights for $25 so I picked out 2 more fragrances (I wanted to get at least 1 box so I can put different ones in our kitchen table centerpiece) and then if you spend more than $40 you get an item half off so I got this really neat Angel aroma melt warmer for $12.50 and then a pack of melts to go with it - I figured it'd make a nice piece for Christmas and then after the holidays a nice piece for the bathroom.

They also have this new S-Pod travel fragrance thing that you can buy refills for - they say it's great for the car or a bag - I figured it would be perfect for Jay's diaper bag so I got one of those and a pack of refills (since it doesn't come with any). They say it lasts at least 45 days, but the candle lady said she used one for 8 months before she had to put a refill in.

S-Pod Travel Fragance Sticks - I figured one for Jay's diaper bag would be perfect!

I think I made out pretty well - the only part of our "joint" money I spent was on the 2 gifts, a pack of the tealights to split (since what good is a candle holder if it doesn't come with a candle?), and part of the tax/shipping. The rest of the items and tax/shipping I used my own small stash of money I had been saving (my "allowance" if you will, as it's the percentage of my paychecks I get to keep to myself and spend as I need/want on food, gas for my car and whatever else I want to save for or spend it on).

I'll probably host a party for my friend in the Spring as right now I just can't commit to a date/time for a party like that - we got the car situation which when it's ready we have to figure out a day to go pick it up, if I get hired seasonal somewhere my hours will be on a week-by-week basis, we have our baby classes the next 2 weeks plus another doctor's appointment in just over a week and then I've got appointments every 2 weeks... oh and we're meeting with the bank again this week so *hopefully* that goes well and we'll have to squeeze in house hunting and all that too... and with the holidays coming up, yeah... I just don't want to commit to hosting a party or anything like that right now. My friend mentioned hosting one around the time Jay is born - either before or after - as we could have it at her house and it'd be sort of a gift/gesture from her and I can get some candle freebies. So maybe I'll do that =)

I think burning candles is sort of my way of "nesting" as until the last few months I never really consciously burned candles or worried about having nice fragrances in our home. But lately, I've noticed I'll sit in bed with a book and burn a candle on our nightstand, or I'll light the candles in our kitchen centerpiece while we're eating dinner or I'll light a candle while I'm cleaning or doing the dishes... and I also finally refilled our Airwick Mini that's in the main hallway with a vanilla scent (it helps cover up any smells from the bathroom that might go in the hallway, as well as the litter box that's in the closet near the front door and just makes it smell nice in here when you first walk in).

Job Woes

So the other day I got another bit of unfortunate news.

I was just finishing up a project for one of my bosses and she was the last of them to leave for the day, she stopped by and broke the news to me:

The sale we had started last week in Joliet didn't go as well as we had anticipated and it was closing up early - 2 months early - which means that we currently have ZERO no business and no work for me to do there til after the 1st of the year or until we sign some new clients and start some new sales. Because of this, unfortunately, they have to cut my hours/days back (again) and I'm now only working 1 day a week. I could tell my boss felt really bad about it too - she looked like she was struggling not to tear up as she said she understands we're probably saving every bit we can with Jay on the way and the holidays coming up... and she kept saying she hated having to do this too. I totally understand though and while it was a bit of a surprise, I wasn't really *that* shocked as business has been slow for a long time (they cut me back from 4 days a week to 2 about a year and a half ago and things still never really picked up).

I don't think I've really mentioned what I do for work on this blog - I do graphic design work for a furniture sales promotion agency, which means that we try to help furniture stores have successful sales. Say the owner is retiring or the store is closing or having a grand re-opening or liquidation sale - we try to get in touch with them and using the successful sales methods and techniques my bosses have come up with, we bring in our people to run the sale and help the store get the most profit from the sale. I do all the print advertising work for the different stores, such as the ads that run in the newspaper or the mailers and fliers that get sent out in the mail and any other print media that we might use to draw in customers. I also do all the print advertising and promotional materials for the company itself that appear in several different national furniture magazines to try and draw potential clients to come to us, although I also send out a mailing of letters with a flier and our brochure to potential stores that might need our help in which we get their info from a credit agency.

It's not a bad job, but there just hasn't been a lot of work since I started there and like I said, it's never really picked up but instead it seems to be declining.

Hubby took the news how I expected he would - he was a bit upset and frustrated, not me but at the situation, which I get, I just hate seeing him like that.

Financially we'll be okay as hubby works a lot and this isn't as big a paycut as it was the last time I got my hours cut - hubby just likes to have that extra cushion so when things like the car needing repaired and such come up we have that extra money to cover it. Or with the holidays and buying gifts... and the upcoming hospital bills. We can manage, it'll just be a little tight and we'll need to stick closer to our budget. What we REALLY need is for UPS to start promoting people to full-time again, as once hubby gets that, we won't have to worry about things as it's such a huge pay increase from part-time to full-time.

While I doubt any place would want to hire a clearly pregnant lady for long-term (I'm at the point where it's not really possible to hide my bump), the holiday season is just around the corner and I guess there are some places still hiring their seasonal staff.

I went online and searched the listings for Monster.com/HotJobs and Careerbuilder but only found 3 that looked legit. I also went to several store's sites and applied as they had seasonal positions listed. A friend of mine that's worked on and off at The Limited out at the mall suggested I apply there as she said they just started taking apps for seasonal spots and my mom suggested I apply at The Children's Place too so I went out and did that yesturday.

When I turned in the app for The Children's Place they asked if I could come in this morning for a group interview and of course I said yes! (Honestly, I have nothing going on on Saturday's anyway, so this gave me an excuse to get up and do something and go somewhere!)

It seemed to go well - I hate group interviews as the last one I had was just me and 1 other girl and it was all about one-upping the other person to make yourself look better, however this one was alright. There was 5 of us and I got the impression I was one of the older girls in the group. The manager asked us some questions and spent most of the time just go over all the details about the store and company, etc. I spoke up a few times, asking good questions, etc so I think that helped make me stand out a little bit. I didn't have to mention I'm preggo (which legally, I don't have to) but I'm pretty sure the manager could tell - she mentioned they have hired pregnant women in the past with no problems and while they have had to pick up the slack on some, others have turned out to be some of their best workers. They said they won't be able to let us know until probably Wednesday at the earliest as the 3rd manager is gone til Tuesday and they need to go over everything, confer, and decide how many they need to hire.

She said they usually keep their seasonal employees on through the 2nd week of January and then they reevaluate how many they can keep and how many they want to keep on. I'm sure I won't last past that since they'll know I'm pregnant and be having Jay soon, but still, a good 2 months of work to make some extra cash isn't bad! Hopefully it goes well - any little bit will help, even if it is just seasonal!

My only fear is that you get a 25% off employee discount and when the 50% off sale comes around, that means we get it for 75% off... she mentioned some of the employees that are moms tend to spend a good bit of their paycheck there because of the discount, which I fear could be bad for me! As it is, they had us wander around the store a bit while we waited for everyone to get there and I spied some really cute long sleeved polos!

Also, when I got home, I checked my email and there was a request from Macy's for me to go on their site and schedule an interview. I did, but I'm a little skeptical as I applied and group interviewed for them last year and didn't get the job (that was the group interview where it was me and 1 other girl and all she did was 1-up me the whole time). We'll see how that goes though. My friend at The Limited said she works next on Sunday too so she mentioned she'd put in a word for me too.

Hopefully I'll get something, right?

Another new addition to the family!

Yesturday, hubby's 2nd cousin's wife gave birth to a baby girl!

Eliana Joy was born on November 1, 2010 at 2pm weighing 7lbs, 7oz and 19 inches long!

Momma went in to get induced as baby was about a week late, but turns out they didn't need to as the contractions had gotten worse and so they just broke her water - she was only in labor for 5 and a half hours too!

Gotta admit, while I'm NOT hoping for the next few months to fly by (which I know they will due to the holidays - December always seems to fly by!), I am a bit jealous as I can't wait for Jay to be here in the flesh too!

Hopefully Eliana and Jay will get to play together someday!

Our trip to Dallas

For the past week, I've been away on vacation.

Welcome to Texas!

We took a trip to Dallas, Texas to visit my college roommate who lives down there now and to catch a Cowboys game since hubby's a big fan and has always wanted to see a game in person and they only play the Bears in Chicago or the Packers in Green Bay every few years.

Anyways, for those of you that follow me on Twitter, you're probably aware of the majority of our adventures on vacation. For those that didn't, here's the rundown!

We left Thursday afternoon by 430pm as I had work til 3ish and needed to stop by the bank and drop my apartment keys off at my parents so someone could stop by daily and feed Tiger. I drove us for the first 4 or 5 hours to just outside St. Louis where we stopped for dinner. We were going to eat at Ponderosa as there hasn't been one in our area for years, but apparently "winter hours" where they close at 830pm instead of 9 or 10 start in October...? We ended up eating at Ruby Tuesday instead and hubby took over the driving.

We were making really good time and so he decided to stop a bit past Tulsa at a rest stop and join me in sleeping. We were up around 7am and ended up getting into Dallas at about 10am. It was 1030am when we reached the hotel and since check in technically wasn't until 3pm and I knew my college roomie probably wasn't awake yet I went in to see if it would be possible for us to do an early check in. Luckily, they had a room ready and let us check in, where we got comfortable and napped into the afternoon and then got cleaned up for the evening.

Baby Jay's first Cowboys apparel

My college roomie is currently waitressing at a small Italian restaurant and we were planning on eating there for dinner, but she told us to wait til about 9pm since they were a bit crowded, so we trekked out to get some fast food for a light meal since we hadn't really eaten anything yet and then set out to find a Walmart to purchase some cheaply priced Cowboys gear, since our Walmarts only sell Bears/Packers stuff. The first Walmart we went to was really small and seemed a bit ghetto and didn't really have the selection we were looking for. It has also rained a bit and all these black birds were sitting in the parking lot trees all creepy like - I seriously felt like we were reenacting the last scene of Hitchcock's "The Birds"! We found a Super Walmart though We found several finds - a nice Cowboys hoodie for me, a 2-set of Cowboys onesies for Jay, and a Cowboys hoodie for Jay - it's a 4T but we figured he'll grow into it and be able to wear it for awhile. After we dropped our purchases off at the hotel and watched the end of The Hangover, we headed over to the restaurant where college roomie works and got dinner - it was pretty good!

The Texas Rangers won the ALCS while we were finishing up eating so we hurried back to the hotel to beat the rush of traffic while waiting for college roomie to get home from work.

We went over to her place and watched Troll 2 with Rifftrax with her and her boyfriend. OMG, it's seriously THE WORST movie ever and watching it with Rifftrax only makes it that much more awesomely bad! lol... seriously, if you're looking for a terribad movie to watch and laugh at, be sure to check out Troll 2!

Love and War in Texas

Saturday, we met up with her and her boyfriend for lunch, where they took us to a stereotypical Texas restaurant called Love and War in Texas. It was pretty good fixin's although hubby's potatoes were the spiciest potatoes we've ever had! I only had one and deemed it too spicy... hubby had several spoonfuls before heartburn kicked in! lol... Since it was raining and we had time to kill, we stopped at Barnes and Noble since college roomie had to pick up a few things there before she went to work.

That night we met up again and went to a The Flying Saucer pub, where if you join their frequent drinker club and drink 200 of their brews (they have over 300 different ones) you get your name on a plate that they hang up on the wall and you get an additional plate for each 200 you drink after. It was an interesting place and there was a cover band playing too which wasn't half bad.

Whataburger

Sunday we all met up again and went to Whataburger for lunch since Chick-Fil-A was closed for the day. It was an interesting burger joint that I guess is only in Texas. After that we went to the Galleria which is a big mall and the entire first floor is filled with all yuppie stores like Gucci, Coach, Luis Vutton, etc. There were more normal stores on the 2nd and 3rd floor though - including the Dallas Cowboy's Pro Shop which hubby had to go in. We did a bit of shopping in there before we headed out since the mall was closing. We also stopped in the American Girl store too.

The Cowboys Pro Shop in the Dallas Galleria mall

 That night we went out to dinner at another pub where college roomie introduced us to one of her former co-workers from her previous job, as a group of them usually meet for dinner and drinks at this pub on Sundays. The Vikings/Packers game was on - there were some Vikings fans there cheering on Favre - being from Illinois, we don't like Favre as he was a longtime Packer so for amusement we started cheering against them, lol... there was also a poetry group meeting at the table next to ours - we were a bit confused though as they were clapping when someone finished their poem instead of snapping like you would expect!

Monday was the day of The Big Game.

We got up at a decent time and grabbed some Jimmy John's for lunch, which omg - BEST JIMMY JOHN'S SANDWICHES EVER! Not sure why, but Jimmy John's there tasted A MILLION times better than Jimmy John's back home.

Cowboys Stadium

Since parking at Cowboys Stadium is $70 on gamedays (because Jerry Jones can), we used a parking site online to get a good deal where we reserved a spot about half a mile away from the stadium for $22 from 330pm-midnight. We looked into taking a shuttle, but the one from Humperdinks was $10/person and left 2 hours before the game and gave us no time afterwards to take our time, plus we'd still have to find a place to park the car.

The stadium was huge! They didn't start letting people go in until about 2 hours before game time, but we got to see some of the players pull up to the stadium - hubby got a pretty good pic of Miles Austin getting out of his car!

Miles Austin getting out of his SUV

Panoramic view of the one of the main concourses at Cowboys Stadium

The view from our seats

We went in and walked around the main concourse a little bit and we bought a few things in the Pro Shop there before heading to our seats. So we knew we were in the nosebleed section, but with the world's largest HD TV it didn't matter and we had a view of the entire field too... only our seats were SO HIGH UP! It didn't help the stairs up were narrow and since we were in row 20 we had to walk up about 40 steps... and then the rows the seats were in were pretty narrow too! Hubby's afraid of heights so once he got in his seat he wasn't getting up at all! I was a little uncomfortable with the height until the crowd started filling in in the rows in front of us.

Me wearing my AWESOME homemade maternity tee

I also wore my homemade custom Cowboys maternity tee, which I made with iron-on letters and patches and fabric paint, which says "Future Cowboys Fan" with an arrow pointing to my baby bump. I got quite a bit of compliments and comments and congrats from fans and staff at the stadium that night!

For those that watched, you know how the game went... started off great, then went downhill after the Giants took our QB out by breaking his left collarbone and we got stuck with our back-up QB who hadn't played in nearly 2 years! We lost by only 6 points, which was kind of a bummer, but hubby was still thrilled at actually getting to see an NFL game in person, let alone his team at their snazzy, expensive new stadium!

Traffic sucked getting back to the hotel and we were beat with a busy day on Tuesday.

Mary Kay headquarters

We woke up and went over to Mary Kay headquarters where we got to do a self-guided tour of the museum. It was pretty neat seeing some of her outfits, a picture of the original storefront there in Dallas, and different product packaging throughout the years and for different companies. Even hubby admitted it was interesting.

Next, we drove back over to Cowboys Stadium as we tickets for the VIP Stadium Tour. That was pretty cool as we had a tour guide who explained some fun facts to us and we got to go in owner Jerry Jones' private suite where he watches the games from - the guide said that was something new that they had only started doing recently. We saw some of the other suites and some of the behind the scenes areas that you'd have to be a VIP to get normal access to. Then we got to go down on the actual field and get our picture taken on the center of the 50 yard line and we got to check out both the players and cheerleaders locker rooms. It was pretty neat!

Us sitting in Jerry Jones' private suite where he watches all the home games from

In the Cowboys locker room - the lockers of Tony Romo, Jason Witten and Miles Austin

Getting our photo taken on the Cowboys Star logo on the center of the 50 yard line

The skyline of Downtown Dallas

On our way back, we decided to stop in downtown Dallas just so we could say we were there. We went to the historic West End Marketplace shops, only to learn it had been closed down. Then we walked over to the Dallas World Aquarium... only that was closed too. We had put enough money in the meter to give us an hour and a half to kill down there but only used about 30 minutes of it! Downtown Dallas is all mainly businesses - it's like mini-Chicago, building-wise, but none of the fun stuff to do! A bit disappointing. Also, I didn't realize it was rush hour when we were leaving Downtown Dallas - that was a mistake! It took us awhile to get out, oops!

Wednesday we met up with college roomie for lunch before we left town and went to the infamous Chick-Fil-A - people have told us about this chicken joint for awhile now, but there isn't one near us so we heard we had to try it while we were down there. It was actually pretty good!

We left Dallas around 1pm and hubby let me take over driving at 2 once we were out of the heavy traffic from the area (he doesn't like my driving, lol...) I drove us out of Texas, through Oklahoma and into Missouri where we stopped in Springfield for dinner around 9pm. Hubby took over driving and around 11:30pm was when our fun vacation came to a screeching halt, much like our car.

I had noticed a rest stop about 30 minutes prior but I didn't need to go that bad and hubby said we'd be in St. Louis by midnight and we'd just stop for gas then so I figured I'd hold it. I was looking down at my phone, playing a game on it when I heard hubby start yelling all panicky and he slammed on the breaks. I looked up and saw a big deer in the way right as we hit it and of course I screamed too. The deer went flying it seemed. Hubby quickly asked if I was okay, which I said I think so and after looking to see if the deer was in the way, hubby quickly pulled the car over onto the shoulder of the highway, as there wasn't any traffic near us but we knew some would be coming by soon.

We paused for a moment to collect ourselves and noticed the hood was dented up and bent and that the headlights seemed a bit wonky. We didn't see the deer at all. We called our insurance up which hubby gave them a report and then I called roadside assistance who said they were going to be at least 30-40 minutes since they were in another county and said that since our insurance didn't say we needed a report from them, if we could drive the car to go ahead and do so otherwise we could wait for them to tow us if needed.

Stupid buck!!!

We thought the car was drivable, however we really didn't want to get out on the dark highway (it wasn't very well lit) to survey the full damage since there were semi's and other traffic driving by. The nearest exit was just up ahead so we figured we'd get to a gas station or rest stop there, check it out and if it was drivable wait til morning since the headlights seemed jacked up a bit. Well... there was a Mobil mechanic at the gas station who took a quick look at it and we noticed coolant fluid leaking out - the radiator had been punctured and would need replaced. Hubby called the insurance company again to let them know the situation and to see if we could get a tow - the claims adjuster wasn't in until 830am so we had til then to wait.

Hubby called first thing in the morning - I was still a bit shook up and stressed and worried about the whole ordeal and it was making me nauseous that I couldn't eat so I just sipped on some juice. Progressive put us in touch with Enterprise who picked us up at about 10am so we could get a rental to drive home and they were sending out a tow truck to get our car and take it to a Progressive approved repair shop. We were about 20 miles west of St. Louis and about 4-5 hours from home - we were making good time when we hit the deer and were planning on being home by 4 or 5am... so much for that! What sucks is when the car is ready, we have to drive the 5 hours or so down there to drop off the rental and pick it up. At least we were able to get home though!

I also called my OB/GYN clinic once we got the car stuff figured out, as people online and family were all saying I should go get checked out. I honestly thought Jay and I were fine - hubby and I both had our seatbelts on and my lapbelt didn't really get tight when we hit the deer like the shoulderbelt did (as I was leaning slightly forward in my seat), there was no blood or leakage like my water broke or anything and Jay was moving around in there like he does (although more so because I was so shook up and stressed, giving him a bit of a late night adrenaline boost). My clinic recommended that for pregnant women in accidents to go to an ER and get checked out. Since I didn't have the urge or feel the need to rush to one, I waited til we got back home and went to our hospital there.

Since I'm 23 weeks, they sent me right up to Labor and Delivery where they set me up in a room "just in case" and took a urine sample and later a blood sample to run tests. They hooked me up to a contraction monitor too which you wear like a belt... the whole hospital process took nearly 5 hours... soooooo boring. And nothing was wrong - blood tests came back fine, urine showed a minor bladder infection that they gave me antibiotics for and I learned that I am blood type A+. Hubby and were both starving and tired by the time we got out of there.

And if that wasn't enough... Tiger was happy to see us when we got home, until we found the mess she left for us in the bedroom. Hubby went to climb in bed and thought he smelled cat urine - sure enough, she had peed on his pillow and that whole corner of the bed... and random spots on our comforter, so I get to do laundry tomorrow while he's at work! In the past we always shut the bedroom door when we go away on trips so she can't mess stuff in here, but this time, as we know she has several favorite sleeping spots in here, we decided to leave it open for her. Looks like that won't ever happen again! It's not even like her litter box was full - hubby scooped it out before we left! I think she was just pissed we left her or something.

Anyways, that's been our week - a fun vacation despite the last 24 hours. Hubby enjoyed his birthday present (going to the Cowboys game at Cowboys Stadium). Now to figure out what to do for his actual birthday tomorrow, as we had talked about going to Joe's Crab Shack in the suburbs, but he's really stressed about spending money right now with the car in the shop and our trip to the hospital... poor guy, he was really stressing.