Posts Tagged ‘pregnancy travel’

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Pregnancy Week 31

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

I suppose I owe you nice folks a weekly update, don’t I? Sheesh! I am just swimming at work and can’t seem to find time to take a deep breath. So I’m going to squeeze this in. This is about all the “squeezing” I can afford because nothing on my body squeezes anymore. It stretches. How do I know? Oh – I found stretch marks this past week! UGH! Shoot me. Please spare me the cocoa butter propaganda. I’ve tried two different brands and it smells so horrible that I cannot put it on my body. It’s like walking around smelling like a Hershey bar or something. So, I guess this is my fate. Stretch mark mama. Maybe I’ll get some new tattoos to cover them up.

From what I can remember, and that’s very little these days, last week was more or less OK. I’m feeling very first-trimester again in that no amount of sleep is good enough. 10 hours? Not enough. 12 hours? Not enough. I just want to sleep and sleep and sleep.

One of the big changes I’ve noticed is the baby’s weight. I can actually feel how heavy she is in my abdomen, which is interesting. She’s heavy! And speaking of abdomen, it continues to grow outward instead of to the sides, so that’s a plus. She’s still just as active as ever, kicking and rolling all the time. She is very active when Shelton plays music for her with his earbuds, and I notice she moves around quite a bit when I’m hungry and when I get into the bathtub.

Our six-week birthing class continued last week. Not sure what to make of this yet. I really feel like it’s sixty bucks wasted; all the relaxation and breathing exercises I’ve been working on for four months in yoga and I find that experience far more valuable. I think if they had someone teaching it who had delivered a baby in, oh I don’t know, the past decade, that might make a difference; she might come across a little more relatable. But it’s some quality baby-focused time for Shelton and I each week… so that part is enjoyable.

The epic bleeding saga continued last week. [Deep sigh of annoyance.] I’m pretty much over that. I mean, I thought in lieu of carrying this baby around in your gut for nine to ten months, you got to give that womanly honor up. Not me! I’m going to DO IT ALL!

We also made a trip home to OKC for my first baby shower, hosted by Shelton’s mom. It was beautiful and so much fun. No detail was missed and we had so much fun celebrating and catching up with so many of our family and friends. The 2.5 hour drive turned in to a nearly four hour drive as we had to keep stopping to walk… and eat… and pee… and walk… and pee. My back was screaming once we got to his parents house on Friday night. And then I had the most uncomfortable, painful night of attempted sleep ever! By 5am I found myself propped up in the recliner in the den, and that helped for some intermittent napping.

I also feel like I’ve started losing my mind. And I’m not joking. Shelton commented that he would like the real me back, and a friend of mine commented that he couldn’t wait for me to return to normal. I’ve suddenly become this emotional basketcase. I’m a neurotic mess that could break down into hysterical sobbing at any moment. It could be because of what someone put on my hamburger (true story) or because I was asked to send an email (true story) or because I didn’t like the “tone” in an IM (true story). I mean, give me a break here! I am not this sap! Shelton said I’ve become needy (agreed), clingy (completely agreed) and indecisive (maybe… maybe not…). It’s all true, I can see it in myself.

So, the consensus… third trimester sucks!

That’s pretty much 31 in a nutshell. We’re honing in on the home stretch here, now in the middle of week 32. I am ready… ready to be done… ready for her to be here… ready to be me again.

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Pregnancy Week 23 and OB Visit Week 23

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Oh what a week! Not as bad as the past few have been, yet still not the starfish kisses that everyone promised second trimester would be. I liked week 23.

I had my monthly visit with my OB. And as much as I like going every four weeks and having him reassure me that there is in fact still a baby inside of my uterus, I’m going to be perfectly honest… these appointments are pointless. I’m learning that short of having a foot hanging out of my vagina, no one is going to react to anything. NO ONE WILL REACT! Which is disappointing for a person like me who, well, likes it when people react to things I say and do. He measured my belly and that was the only “test” he did. Apparently it was fine. I at least took a long list of questions with me to make it worth my while for going down there.

Whether I’m more sensitive to it or it’s just trending, I’ve been hearing a lot about pre-term deliveries lately. This completely freaks me out. And Dr. W was reassuring in telling me that they have no idea what actually causes pre-term and he can’t tell what to do or not to do to avoid it. Awesome.

I asked about the bloody noses that I wake up with every morning. He told me I’m pregnant. Awesome.

I asked about the heartburn I have that would make a dragon cry and “radiates in my knee caps,” according to Juno. Ah ha! A solution. Prevacid or Pepcid.

We spent the weekend of Christmas in Oklahoma City with Shelton’s family. We got to catch-up with friends over a very long lunch and it was as if the past two years hadn’t lapsed at all. It was one of those four-hour lunches where we left with cheeks hurting from laughing so hard. They cooed over my belly and I soaked it up! There was confusion over our baby name and they thought it was Petunia. It is definitely NOT Petunia! We also got to spend two whole days with our nieces and nephew. I absolutely am in love with those babies. My nephew, Stone, is one of these boys who charges you when he wants to hug. It’s adorable, and I’ve indulged this behavior for nearly four years, scooping him in to my arms with each charge. We both had to learn that pregnant people can’t pick-up charging 3.5-year-olds… and 3.5-year-old boys can’t charge pregnant aunts.

One of the highlights of the week was, of course, continuing to feel the baby moving. I will seriously sit here and laugh out loud (that’s normal English for “LOL”) when she gets on a roll. Each week her kicks and punches get stronger and the sessions last longer. This past week, they got so strong that I didn’t even have to touch my belly to feel her, my stomach just moved. It’s insane! Feeling her moving, rolling, punching and kicking is absolutely the highlight of my pregnancy and I think it is this that I will miss most when she’s resting in my arms.

We did two road trips this past week – one to OKC and one to Topeka to celebrate the new year. I swore off planes a few weeks ago and I’m not too far off from swearing off car trips longer than 20 minutes. We have to stop all the time for me to pee, eat something or get up and walk. There is absolutely not one comfortable position in those seats. Driving helps some, but I hate driving and Shelton hates when I drive.

Our New Year’s Eve celebration was fantastic. It not only marks the start of a new year (clearly!) but also the anniversary of when Shelton and I started dating. At midnight of 01/01/01 we kissed and we’ve been doing so every new year since. Maybe one or two other times during the year. 01/01/10 marked nine years… which means we’ve actually known each other for more than ten, and that’s astonishing to me. We spend each Eve with some of our best friends in Topeka for a stay-at-home party that is always themed. This year I was fat and when someone suggested PJ Party I said yes! So we all sported jammies and had a comfy, cozy celebration. I actually made it all the way to 12:45am… even though around 8:30pm my eyes were doing that rapid-blink thing struggling to stay open. I also had a martini glass filled with “pregnancy sangria” all night long, and while I jealously watched everyone sip bubbly at midnight, at least it wasn’t water.

As if my cousin’s long-john style PJs with the butt flap weren’t entertainment enough, my pregnant boobs took center-stage and were the topic of conversation throughout the night. Apparently I’m supposed to change the name of the site to Baby AND Bust. I’ve known they’ve gotten bigger. I mean come on, I’d have to be blind and paralyzed from the neck down not to realize the expansion project taking place in the middle of my chest. But it’s one of those things that you don’t quite realize just how big they’ve gotten until someone points it out. And people pointed, literally. It was all in good humor and I’m glad that I was able to provide such robust entertainment for the evening.

Finally, we finished the week by registering. Yay!!! I’ve been waiting to get through the holidays to do so. The next few weeks are pretty insane for us and my first shower is the end of February, so I thought we should just get it done. Shelton was really stressed about it. He thought we needed a plan or a strategy. And I was like, we’re going to scan baby wipes, what kind of strategy do we need? We went to Babies R Us and quickly realized that ALL OF THE PREGNANT PEOPLE IN WICHITA go there to register on Saturday afternoons. The BRU staff has clearly done this before and they got us set-up with a gun and on our way in a matter of minutes. It helped that I had registered online so we didn’t have to go through all of that in the store. I started crying when they handed me the gun. Just another one of those moments that I thought would never be ours. So many times I’ve walked in to BRU to buy gifts for friends and walked out of their crying each and every time. And here I was crying inside the store because I finally got to be there for us, and it felt so good! I think we did pretty well, considering we have no idea what we’re doing. When faced with 400 different varieties of baby bottles, strollers, diapers and other ESSENTIAL baby items, we typically opted for the brands we commonly see friends or family using. That was our on-the-spot research method. We were actually pretty reasonable about the whole thing, so we think, only scanning items we really needed and straying from the over-hyped plethora of YOUR BABY WILL NEVER LEARN TO WALK WITHOUT THIS SUPER TRENDY VERY EXPENSIVE HOUSEHOLD CLEANER WITH A PICTURE OF A BABY ON THE FRONT type items. Then we went to Target where my back and feet finally gave out and we spent one more hour scanning a few items. We’re just that much closer to getting her here!!!

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Pregnancy Week 20

Monday, December 14th, 2009

Week 20 equals the half-way point and that means some serious excitement and anxiety. With each passing week the reality of our little “situation” becomes ever more apparent and with that comes a host of emotions like “complete and utter panic,” “what were we thinking,” “she’s going to be perfect!,” “how soon can we cuddle,” and “denial.”

OK, so some of those aren’t what most people would classify as “emotions.” It does sort of read like one of those As Seen on TV record advertisements.

I think our range of emotions from nervous, panic and denial to excitement and curiosity is probably fairly normal. I almost think we’d be odd if we didn’t feel all of these things. Which is why bringing home the crib last night hit me like a ton of bricks and made me have this “come to Jesus” moment. Like, OH MY GOD A REAL PERSON IS COMING HERE! Some friends offered up their retired crib and sent it home with us and we are so incredibly grateful. It’s perfect – the color, style, everything is exactly what I’ve had in mind. (THANK YOU!!)

We also brought home an antique wooden rocking cradle from Shelton’s grandparents. My understanding is that every Koskie kid since Shelton’s dad has snoozed in this cradle. Pretty special.

Sitting in it right now is a positively adorable pink OU diaper bag, a gift from another dear friend. Seriously, SWOON over this bag. It’s trimmed in pink polka-dots and the zippers have little football charms. “Sooner born and Sooner bred…” (THANK YOU!!)

In other week 20 news, I flew to LA for a whirlwind two-day trip so that I could attend the Biggest Loser finale for work. This was my fourth live Biggest Loser finale and probably my favorite. It was so much fun to catch-up with contestants who I now call friends and get to know the newest alum of this incredible show. They are truly amazing people, each and every one of them, and whether you have five pounds or 500 pounds to lose, you can’t help but feel inspired to just do better. While I’ve met host Ali Sweeney a few times before, this time we had a chance to chat and snap a few pics. I also had the opportunity to have dinner w/ Biggest Loser Cookbook and Most Decadent Diet author Chef Devin Alexander. She was adorable and funny and her food was AAAAMAZING!!! She sent me home with an autographed copy of “Decadent,” and I’m anxious to crack it open!

This trip helped me realize that my travel hence forward will be done by car. I just can’t handle another airplane. After the snot-covered, tear-soaked hysterical break-down in LAX (because of a canceled flight, coupled with exhaustion and killer back pain) I decided that flying just wasn’t worth whatever was on the other side. (Unless the other side involved all you could eat pizza for days and days and days…and maybe Oprah!!) I broke this to my co-workers in NYC and was not the least bit surprised to hear they were understanding. Maybe I’ll finally coax them to Wichita… yeah right!

I also discussed the maternity leave plan with my boss this week and I think we have something in place that is fair for both sides. I honestly can’t foresee taking a full six-to-eight week maternity leave, but I guess we’ll just have to see when we get there.

And finally, maybe the most exciting news of all from week 20, we’ve got a mover and a shaker on our hands. This little girl has been moving for a few weeks, but really deep little flutters only noticeable to me, and often indistinguishable between flutters and gas. But sitting on my connection flight between Dallas and Wichita, I felt a bump in my stomach like nothing I’ve ever felt before. Positively amazing! I’m sure I looked like a total freak on the plane with both my hands shoved down the front of my elastic maternity pant panel, but I was not about to pass up the chance to feel her with my hands for the first time. The entire 45-minute flight home the monster gave me quite a show. I was literally giggling out loud at some of the bumps because it was just the most incredibly satisfying moment. I of course bragged the news to Shelton when I got home and he was thrilled. It took two or three more days before Shelton was finally able to get his first feel of our little girl. Wow! What a moment. So far she doesn’t keep much of a schedule, her bumps, rolls and kicks come at all hours of the day (and night) and can last for one or two thumps or for 30 minutes or more. She also plays hard to get. I can feel her for the longest time, finally have Shelton come over to feel and she’s done.

Overall I’m actually feeling pretty good. Just dealing with a lot of pretty constant back pain and fatigue. I keep waiting for this “dawning of the day second trimester second coming” event, but I feel like that’s one pregnancy milestone that’s going to pass me over. We’re seven weeks in to this trimester and while I feel a hundred times better than I did in the first, I still feel tired, lethargic and famished all the time.

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Pregnancy Weeks 17 and 18

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

As usual, I should have made some notes for myself because trying to recall the information to do an update on weeks 17 and 18 is proving to be a little difficult.

I spent most of week 17 trying to just hydrate. That is still my mission. Just keep drinking. I’ve been sleeping much better since I got over the dehydration and leg cramps.

The crying phase seems to have set in. Everything makes me cry. For anyone who knows me you might be thinking, what’s new? But this is seriously all the time. It takes nothing to send me straight to bawling. In fact this morning I woke up with an overwhelming urge to cry, and while it never happened, I felt that way for four hours. Just a lump in my throat and the wrong moment was going to send me off the deep.

We spent half of each week on our “babymoon” vacation to Boca Raton. It was a much needed and overdue break for both of us, and I’m going to fill you in on all the details in a separate post. As far as the pregnancy is concerned, I managed just fine. I’m glad it was an easy vacation, meaning a lot of laying around the beach, because I don’t think I would have had the energy to keep up with a fast-paced trip. I did well on both flights, despite the nightmare of traveling the day before and the day of Thanksgiving. My back is in dire need of catching up, and it’s make me nervous about my even longer flights to/from LA in two weeks. I just couldn’t ever find a comfortable position and I was up several times to go to the restroom.

I got to feel the baby move a few more times during weeks 17 and 18. Still just fleeting little flutters that catch me off guard. It tends to be either late at night or very early morning. There was one moment following dinner on our trip though that was completely out of no where. We were walking around some shops when my knees buckled because I swear the monster was trying to escape out the left side of my abdomen. I think it was a combination of slight pain and a lot of surprise.

The day after Thanksgiving I woke to find that I was spotting a tad. I’d had a lot of cramping this day, too, so I was of course fairly concerned. But the spotting didn’t seem to last and neither did the cramping.

I have my monthly appointment with the OB on Monday to kick-off week 19. While we were told it would have to be week 20, I’m HOPING he’ll let us have the sonogram this next week. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! Before I was adamant about not finding out the gender of the monster. However, I’m a little OCD when it comes to planning things and being organized and I just can’t wrap my brain around not planning for a specific gender. So, we anxiously await to find out if this is a he-monster or a she-monster.

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Pregnancy Week 13

Monday, October 26th, 2009

Yesterday we started our second trimester, and I cannot even begin to express the sigh of relief that exhaled from my lungs as I woke up. I know we’re not out of the woods completely, but we’re through the thick of it. I won’t consider us out of the woods and 100% until this little monster is at home with us, and I’ve counted all of the appendages ten times.

But, this post is not about the second trimester, it’s about the final week of our first trimester. Week 13.

I spent Sunday-Saturday in NYC. It’s a trip I take three or four times a year for work, and one I always look forward to. I work at home, so my days are spent with me, the dog and my laptop. I work with the best group of guys and I thoroughly enjoy getting a chance to work in the same room with them. And have real conversations.

On any other trip to NYC, I come home completely exhausted. It’s a completely different pace out there and I’m gung-ho and ready to take it on the first half of the week, but by Thursday I’m fading fast and the airplane never delivers me home soon enough. So I had my apprehensions about taking on this trip pregnant. I have more good days than bad days, as far as how well I feel. But good days can turn on a dime and I knew we didn’t have time for me to be laid up in bed. So my first plan of attack was to take my anti-nausea pill each morning with my pre-natal. And I like to think it worked because I didn’t get sick once. (Well, once, but completely unrelated.)

We also do a lot of walking. A lot. And I have days where a lap around the grocery store can send me in to a three-hour nap. Fortunately, I now stay in Brooklyn, rather than Upper East Manhattan, and the pace is slower. It probably also helped that I didn’t drink every night I was there.

I managed to stay well fed. And if you keep up with my pregnancy story at all, you know that that is a must because I eat round the clock. I took a trip to the grocery store and stocked up on healthy snacks. And then made sure to get my breakfast, lunch and dinner each day. The food there is always amazing and so delicious, and I love how each restaurant seems so authentic, handmade and like they really put their hearts into the food.

I did have one lunch that could have gone badly. On the walk to the restaurant I could feel my blood sugar crashing. I was getting the shakes, so I reached in my bag and started munching on some almonds. By the time we arrived at our table, I was sweating and light-headed. I asked the waitress to bring me food, anything, now! She did and I inhaled the chips, salsa, bread and butter that she delivered. Then I plowed through my lunch and felt back to normal. I hate, hate, hate that blood sugar crash feeling. It’s like there’s not enough food, soon enough that can pull you back to safety.

This past week I also discovered the club soda & cranberry juice. When everyone around me had glasses of wine and beer, and I jealousy smelled the aroma in the air, I got to sip on a fun-having drink, too! (I’ve since named this the Mama Cocktail.)

I returned home Saturday evening, in time to see my Sooners beat the Jayhawks!!!, and I collapsed. I rolled up into a corner on the couch and I didn’t move the rest of the night. I’ve also been home for two days now, and knock on wood, I don’t seem to be getting sick. I was concerned with flying in the germ tube that I’d come home with some horrid strain of some disease. I feel like I’m in the clear, and I’d like to thank my incessant handwashing (my hands are so dry they hurt!) for keeping me healthy.

I also brought a little more home with me than I left with. My belly. BIG changes in that this week and Shelton was just awe-struck when I lifted my shirt to show him the expansion project I underwent while in Brooklyn.

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Now that I’m home, I’m starting to feel better and things feel like they’re slowing down from the insanity of the first trimester, I’m so anxious to get back on track with my eating. I went WAYYYY off the deep-end and I can’t even tell you how much I’m looking forward to salmon, brown rice and veggies tonight!

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Pregnancy Week 12

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Week 12 started on a low note, but ended high. My morning sickness returned. I had several people say they’d never heard of that before, but I had no other explanation. I spent the first half of the week just feeling classically pregnant sick. This entire pregnancy so far, as soon as I wake in the morning, I have about a five-minute countdown to get food in my system or I’m miserable the rest of the day. So each morning last week I jumped out of bed to fix a bowl of cereal or eggs and toast. Within an hour, I’d lose it. By mid-week I started taking my nausea pill before I’d eat anything and managed to get through the end of the week without getting sick.

Everyone asked/argued if it was the flu. And it was not. Definitely morning sickness and I’m sticking to it. There were no other symptoms at all.

My fatigue continues. I’m easily getting ten hours of sleep a night, with 12 on the weekends. My mid-afternoon, I’d give someone $5 and a candy bar to let me take a nap. A simple trip to the grocery store leaves me worthless the rest of the evening. Shelton’s schedule has been so insane lately that having him tag along hasn’t really been an option. So either save errands for when he is around, or just write them off as not that important.

This has left me fairly “homebound” lately and it’s making me mental. I work at home, so my 8-5 is in the same place my 5-10 and Zss are. I’ve been trying to make a point of getting out at least once a day – a walk to the mailbox, a lunch with a friend, working the afternoon from a wifi coffee shop. Just something that changes my environment a bit.

Which brings me to exercise. No, I have not partaken (partook) in any exercise since the start of my pregnancy. With the blood clot, I just couldn’t bare the thought of doing anything that might put me or the baby in some kind of jeopardy. And while the doctor told me I didn’t need to lie flat on my back staring at the four walls until it passed, I just couldn’t do it. However, I’m so unbelievably excited that next week will start my second trimester, for all intents and purposes the bleeding is gone, and I can start prenatal yoga! A woman I work with is a yoga guru, so I had her shop all the Wichita yoga classes and she found one with an instructor who sound just right. Classes are super cheap, about $60 for a month of once-per-week sessions. Everything I’ve read about the benefits yoga lends to pregnant women makes me want to run not walk to my first class.

I’ve only taken yoga once in my life, years ago. And I got the giggles when people tooted and what not, because hidden inside me is a 14-year-old boy that I can’t shake at times. Plus my mother-in-law was attending the class with me and was ultra-bendy and six-packed, and was/am not, so I stopped going. I’m a completely different person now and I’m actually anxious to embrace these prenatal yoga classes, and will of course keep you posted on how I feel about what I’m gaining from them.

In other BIG news this past week, I’m full-on showing. I’ve had a minor bump for a few weeks now, really only noticeable to myself or Shelton (and my sister). But I swear I went to bed one night and woke up the next day and BAM there was a belly. There’s no denying it now. I can’t get over it. I can’t stop rubbing it or holding it. The feeling is so much different than the 12 pounds of chubby tire I lost a couple years ago. It’s solid and round and centered. And that’s the part I can’t get over, is that I keep thinking it’s going to squish or wobble or whatever like love handles. But it’s not. It will continue to get bigger and I cannot wait!

Speaking of “how I’m carrying,” I’ve yet to talk to a single person who thinks this is a boy. Every vote so far has been cast as a girl. Neither Shelton nor I have an inkling of what it could be. Frankly, we don’t care. I’d prefer not the hermaphrodite I dreamt about a few nights ago, but otherwise we’re open to whatever we get. My sister, and the “women’s contingent” in my family have decided that I’m “carrying high” and “all in my belly” and “nothing in my back” and the “wind’s blowing from the east,” and so on – all apparently meaning that I’m having a girl. When and if we decide to find out before this baby arrives, we’ve still got a long way to go.

Other than that, I’m excited that this begins the final week of our first trimester. What a relief it is to get to this point. I’ll spending this week in NYC, currently sitting on a three-and-a-half hour flight. On the downside, my flight was delayed; on the upside, that meant I got to eat! I had to SWEAR and PROMISE Shelton that I would take it easy on myself and try not to push myself; I made him SWEAR and PROMISE not to worry. The only thing I can SWEAR and PROMISE is that neither of us is likely to hold up our end of the deal.

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