Shaving

I may have mentioned that I pulled my groin muscle in my left leg about 2ish weeks ago. While I can still move around there are certain things that cause me extreme pain and the top 3 are:
1. Shaving my legs
2. Lifting up my legs to step into pants
3. Rolling over at night

While I have found a minimal pain solution to #2, and there isn't anything I can do about #3, I have found a great solution for not being able to shave my legs. I may get in trouble for this post... Derek has graciously volunteered to assist me with this task. The honest truth? He does as good of a job as I do if not better. Now if only I could find a solution to painting my toes : ) Have I mentioned how awesome my husband is??

Nursery

A few weekends ago, my dad came up and helped Derek paint the baby's room. Derek and I picked out a nice sage green to go on the walls and they did a great job! Here are a few pictures of their handy work





















The door in this one on the left goes into the closet, and the rocking chair in on loan to us from my parents. That's my diaper bag on top, and there are 3 homemade blankets as well! The top picture is the view when you first walk into the room...we still use the room to store some things, we'll find a place for those later :) Of course my cat, Bebe loves being in this room (it's usually off limits to the cats) and she took advantage of the photo shoot as a chance to poke around in here! We still need to put up some things on the walls and put up a curtain to help block out sunlight, but we are getting closer to having a completed nursery one of these days!

Thankful

In light of my recent posts which have been full of complaints, frustrations, and me just being whiny, I was thinking today about things that I am thankful for. Here are the main ones:

My husband, Derek. He is racking up MAJOR brownie points these days for dealing with me while pregnant! Derek is my best friend, my rock, my consoler, my everything. If I didn't have him supporting me through all of this right now I don't think I could make it. He always makes me laugh when I'm sad, and when he knows I just need to cry he willing sacrafices his white undershirts to my mascara while holding me. It's crazy to think of how much more I love him today than yesterday.

My Family! This one doesn't include Kelsey and Caleb because they couldn't make it to our wedding, but this group of people means the world to me. We were constantly moving as little kids, and we had to depend on each other for support. It's taken us several years to get to the closeness we're at right now, and it's been amazing to develop better relationships with my siblings. My parents went through a lot of tears, stress, anxiety, etc to get all us of to the point where we're at today. My parents are amazing, and I wish I had been willing to see that in high school. I cannot wait for them to get to know their grandson, he is going to have wonderful grandparents not only from my side, but from Derek's side as well!

Yesterday, at my doctor's appointment, I only gained 1.5 lbs!!! She weighed me before they made me pee in a cup so I probably didn't gain 1.5lbs in 2 weeks, it was probably closer to 1 lb. I am still under the number on the scale that would send me into an emotional breakdown. 9 weeks to go, hopefully I will only gain 3 more pounds in the upcoming 9 weeks to stay under those dreaded 3 numbers that would make me lose it. But enough on that, I'm just happy that my weight hasn't continued to sky rocket and seems to have slown down quite a bit.

Doctor Drama Again

I had my 31 week appointment today, and when I showed up for my scheduled appointment at 8:45 they commented how I was super early. 2 seconds later I come to find out they had informed me of the wrong time and my appointment was actually at 9:45. They assured me that it wasn't a problem and I would be able to get in right away. Which I was thankful for, I was starting to have flashbacks of Alliance and how they treated me when they screwed up my appointment!

I get taken back to a different part of the office, assuming that I'm going to see Sameerah, my nurse mid-wife. I am then informed that I will be seeing one of the doctors, and when I asked if I would still be seeing Sameerah, they looked confused. I quickly explained that I'm only supposed to see her and if she's not available I'd be more than happy to see a doctor. The nurse comes back in and says that my chart has been switched from mid-wife only to doctor-only, but is unable to give me a decent explanation or reason, she says nothing on my chart would indicate why that has been changed.

After a disappointing appointment for reasons I will not delve into here, I go to schedule my next appointment. The receptionist tries to schedule me with a doctor and when I push back that I'm supossed to see Sameerah she tells me that I must have been switched because of medical conditions. I let her know that I do not have any medical conditions and would like to see Sameerah. She then tries to get ahold of my chart, which I am not ok with - she's not a nurse or doctor and has no business looking at my records!! The nurse behind her doesn't give her the chart, but they let me know they will call me to tell me why I've been switched. Apparently it was a big mistake and I'm back over to mid-wife only.

The next surprise arrived when I called to cancel my set of labs with the oncology center to see if I carry the gene for hemochromotosis. They wanted to do more labs and said they couldn't use the labs my doctor had just done to test for that. We decided that it's in my best interest to not get any more bloodwork done during this pregnancy and that we will get the baby tested when he arrives. The oncology center informs me that not only is my appointment for the hemochromotosis but it is also because I'm anemic. Come again? Me, anemic? You have got to be kidding me, I have NEVER been diagnosed with anemia and none of my labwork has ever come back indicating that I am even borderline anemic.

Why does it seem that there is not one single competent doctor's office in the Lansing area?! I sure hope we have moved out of Michigan by the time we're ready for our next child. I also am strongly considering the possibility of an at-home birth next time around. I can avoid all doctors and unnecessary bloodwork, needles, shots, etc. Oh and one last thing, apparently being pregnant does not legally entitle you to any special treatment or coverage. It's not considered an illness or disability, I'd like to blame this on the stupid women's rights movement that want equal treatment no matter what. As a pregnant woman I think we should have increased legal rights and am very upset with the women's rights activists who created those stupid laws preventing us from receiving different treatment.

And yes, it is only 10:43 am and I still have to work 9 hours today, Lord have mercy.

Bitter

I'm in a bitter mood today. I don't remember the last time I was this bitter about something, but it takes a lot to get me to this spot. My normal pregnant response would be crying, but surprisingly that's the last thing I want to do. 3 things that I want to do - don't worry I will not be doing the first two so you don't need to call or comment to talk me out of it-
1. Have a big fat cigarette (this is one of the things I will NOT do again no judging people)
2. Have a big fat alcoholic beverage or several (please see parentheses above)
3. Go outside and shout obscenities for 2 hours

Now I probably will not do the last one just because we live in a very family-friendly apartment complex and even though I have heard the f bomb dropped from a 3 year old's mouth here I will not be the reason why they learn that word.

In lighter news, I ordered a onesie for the baby as a part of his possible coming home outfit. I'm not 100% decided on which outfit he will come home in, but this is a distinct possibility. I can't show the back because it has his name on it, and to show you all ahead of time would be cheating, you'll just have to wait until he decides it's time to enter the world :)

Here are the 2 outfit choices so far:

Option 1 (this will need some pants, socks and probably a jacket or something):


Option #2 (because I'm secretly hoping for him to arrive on Halloween):

30 Weeks 4 Days - nothing new to report

I haven't posted a picture in awhile, partly because I am not using the computer that I can put my SD card into, and I do not know where the cable is to hook my camera up to the other computer. I can tell you this much, take my last belly picture and add about 500 inches to it and you will have my belly now. It seems to grow daily and I'm not so sure I like the idea of taking weekly pictures. It doesn't really help the self-esteem factor these days!

Things coming up this week:

-last week of this session of pre-natal yoga
-birthing classes start up
-bi-weekly visits to the doctor have begun and i have another appointment this week

Recent cravings:

-for it to be October

Aches/Pains:

-everything hurts these days

I will post pictures one of these days :)

Tired

I have 10 weeks until I hit my due date, and I feel exhausted. I've been reading that this is normal, but it sure has been difficult, I don't remember being this tired in my first trimester. Everything seems to take more effort to do, and I get tired a lot faster when doing normal things!

Today, I went on a 30ish minute walk during my lunch break, when I returned to my office I was ready for a full blown nap. I still haven't recovered and would take a nap right now if I could. I'm praying for a second wind to hit sometime over these next 10 weeks. I'm trying to enjoy these last few weeks of being pregnant, and yes I am being serious. There are a lot of great aspects to being pregnant, right now one of the best parts is being able to feel the baby move. He sure is active!! There have been multiple times where I could even feel his heartbeat through the belly. Derek enjoys giving him kisses through the belly, and has also been very good at reminding me to watch what I say because the baby can hear us. It's been fun to go into the baby's room and look at all of his clothes and the cloth diapers that we have so far, I can't believe he'll be here so soon.

Time has been flying by, it seems like yesterday was the 4th of July and now it's August 11! Before I know it, we will be posting pictures of the baby to introduce him to all of you.

Victory!

Yesterday was my 3 hour gestational diabetes test, which included fasting as well as 4 blood draws all an hour apart. Sounds like fun, right?

As many of you know, needles and I do not get along, I tend to faint. I was terrified for my appointment yesterday, and I would like to announce that although I went through the motions of passing out I DID NOT FAINT ONE TIME!!!! This is a HUGE deal for me! Derek was a trooper and a great supporter with each draw yesterday. I know I had a lot of friends and family praying for me, thank you! The ladies at the lab were very nice and understanding and even agreed to drawing my blood with me laying down on the floor since there wasn't a reclineable chair or table for me to lay down on. My arms are pretty sore and bruised today, and yesterday I was exhausted, but I survived.

Doom Day Approaches

Tomorrow = my funeral, have I mentioned how much I hate doctors, more specifically labs?

Meet Glucola, my best/worst friend:

This stuff tastes about as toxic as it looks and tomorrow I get to chug this whole bottle with glucose content of 100mg in a 5 minute period of time without throwing up. Last time this little friend gave me the worst heartburn I've experienced in awhile? Whose genius idea was it to make pregnant women take a diabetes test drinking something that is citrus? Whoever it was deserves to be punched.

I haven't slept very well in the past 2 nights, and last night all I could think about was pasta, which I am adamently avoiding until after the test. I fully plan on walking around in between the test and doing whatever it takes to pass, even if that means sneaking some caffeine in when the lab tech isn't looking to boost my metabolism - not sure how to do that yet without drinking some sort of sugary drink...possibly tea, but I'll need to brainstorm that one out. I'm already working on a checklist of stuff to take with me for tomorrow. So far I have:

-Derek
-washcloth (their chintzy paper towels don't do anything)
-laptop and DVDs to watch
-cheese to chow down on once the tests are over
-change of clothes (don't ask)
-cell phone so I can talk to my mom since she won't come home from Romania to go with me to this appointment (life's not fair)
-water, lots of water to help flush that crap out of my system
-possible green tea or something w/o sugar but with caffeine to pass the test

I'll update tomorrow after I'm done, but maybe Derek will have to as I don't think I'll be in any state to do anything.

Baby Shower Pictures

My sister in law sent me some of the baby shower pictures today so I figured I would share some of them!

This is a onesie that Derek made:

Here is a onesie that my oldest brother Benj made, and yes it really does say Pimp on it:

A picture of my sister, Kelsey, and I. I'm just now realizing how tired we both look in this picture, but still a good one of us!!

Here's one of my mom and I, we were playing the toilet paper belly measuring game, apparently she took a little bit too much!!

Some of the delicious food and presents:

Correction

Slight correction to the post below, I don't get my blood taken 3 times. Apparently that's not enough, I get it taken 4 times. Once when I first get there then I drink the crap then each hour after that. And to think the nurse laughed on the phone when she mentioned that she thought she had called me yesterday, and how silly of her to make that mistake. I had wrongly assumed ahead of time that no news was good news, big fat stinkin lie. Is it October yet?

GD Test = Fail

Yup, I failed the stupid 1-hour GD test and have to take the WONDERFUL (sarcasm) 3 hour test on Saturday. What does that mean? It means fasting, double the glucola, and blood draws at 1 hour, 2 hour, and 3 hours. What does this mean for Arwen? I am pissed beyond belief and am almost guaranteed to pass out on Saturday. Great, that's exactly how I want to spend my Saturday morning. This also means that I won't be able to see my really close friend, Rachel, who is in town on Saturday.

Sometimes I think Derek's right when he says that pregnancy is a scam. Think about all of the people who are making money by me having to do the 3 hour test. The company who makes gucoloa, my doctor's office, the lab place, and of course my wonderful insurance company. I don't think this is necessary I do not have GD, sorry that I failed the test but they flippin made me drink straight up sugar and then decided it would be "genius" to see what my sugar levels were right after. Yes, that sounds like a fabulous idea, everyone but the pregnant woman wins because they're all getting paid by ensuring that I fail the test.

I'm starting to see the logic of people who forgo the doctors all together and go all granola and natural.

GD Test Today

I have my GD test today, which stands for gestational diabetes (for those of you who haven't been pregnant before!). I am not looking forward to it. At this point, I could care less if I pass the test, I'm more concerned about passing out when they take my blood. Granted, I would like to pass the test, but I'm not sure all of the factors they measure (including how much the baby weighs) actually "prove" you have GD. I was just under 10.5 pounds, and my mom did not have GD, I was just a big baby. Thankfully our nurse mid-wife is phenomenal and really supports us in our strive to have a natural and medicine free pregnancy and birth, thank God!