Oops...

I really should have posted before now, and I feel pretty bad that I haven’t. Did I mention I was having my “big” ultrasound on Thursday? You didn’t remember that, right? Because if you love me (and I know you do), the anticipation just might be killing you. That is, if you weren’t one of those that Chris text messaged from the waiting room immediately afterwards and I was in the bathroom. He’s pretty excited. So, I’ll go ahead and show you some pics.

This is a side view of our kid in mid kick to my uterus. Check out that giant foot.

This is a profile face shot.

And this is the money shot.

We’re having a boy! I love it when my intuition works with me instead not working at all (which is what happens most of the time). I totally knew I was having a boy.

So, I also wanted to add how incredible it was to watch our little guy wiggling and moving all around on the ultrasound. It was also really cool to feel him move while seeing the movement simultaneously. I’m so glad this is happening. I’m sure I’ll post more about it later, but I knew I needed to at least get the news out.

Invasion of the Job Snatchers

If you live close to Idaho, chances are you've heard about the lay offs happening in the company that employs me. There are about 80 people being laid off in Boise and forty in Minneapolis. And lucky me, it's pretty much my whole department. I am lucky that we weren't just given pink slips and escorted out of the building. They've just given us fair warning and individualized timelines so far. The first wave goes sometime in the third quarter. We've just started our second quarter today, so they've got about 3 to 6 months left. Another wave will go in the fourth quarter. I'm lucky enough to be in the first quarter of next fiscal year (which runs from the end of Feb. through the beginning of June), so at least I'll still have my maternity leave. I was planning on taking the full 12 weeks of FMLA, but I don't want to get laid off while I'm gone. So I'm not sure what will happen, but at least I have a little time. There are a lot of people that don't have that luxury.

We all kind of expected to get laid off eventually when our company was purchased by another company. But we thought our jobs would be moved to their headquarters in Minneapolis. I certainly didn't expect this. If you didn't catch it in the news, all our jobs are being outsourced to India. Which is great for India, but it really sucks for our economy, you know? Our CEO just kind of shrugged it off as "well, everyone is doing it". It disappoints me, quite frankly. I can understand the company trying to cut costs, but obviously "cost" to them is only calculated in dollars.

I do want to say that the company has treated me very well thus far. If it weren't for their totally rockin' health coverage, I wouldn't be getting fat with baby right now. I will always thank them for that. But I will also always be disappointed at the loss American jobs to try and save an extra buck (or a few mill, whatever). It's also disappointing that they've taken so many jobs out of the valley. This company was built here. Granted, new company is not the one who ran it into the ground, but a lot of people shop there as part of a kind of local pride. And now a lot of people won't be shopping there because so many people know people who have been affected by this new occurrence.

Anyway, enough of that mess. I have to think about it all day at work every day. Let's talk about this baby, shall we? I forget how big I've gotten until I lay down in the bed at night. Then I feel huge. Of course, I realize I'm nowhere near how big I will become in the coming months. It's just kind of a shock to look in the mirror because, well, my belly is a lot bigger than it was a few months ago, or even a few weeks ago. Check it out. I don't think it's much bigger than last time, but this is at 19 weeks.


My knockas look smaller now, though. I had to give up my fancy Victoria's Secret bra that made them look fantastic. Now I wear a nursing bra that's a little too big (you know, room to grow. please?). Ah, so glamorous! This baby has been moving around like kuurazy. I feel flutters and bumps all the time now. It's pretty awesome. Sprout's activities still can't be felt from the outside, though. And they're still sooooo unpredictable. But it makes me happy to feel them. Everything about this pregnancy has made me happy. I don't even care that I peed on myself a couple of times when I got really sick last week (note to self: you should really do those kegel exercises for more than just labor preparation...). Luckily, I was at home or on my way home, so a shower and a change of underwear were quickly forthcoming.

Uuugh, I got reeeeeally sick. Well, really sick for me anyway. It was just a cold, but it totally kicked my butt. See, I usually take a lot of medication for colds because I hate feeling so crappy. My "safe" drug list from my OB gave me a good idea of what I could take. It gave me a list of safe active ingredients, as well as a list of safe OTC brand names. All of the OTC drugs had phenylephrine in them, which is not on the safe active ingredient list. So I looked it up online, and decided not to take anything with that in it. I felt crappy for several days before I realized I could take Mucinex, and I even had some in the house already. It didn't matter because it didn't help anyway. So I drank a mug of warm water with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, and my congestion finally started breaking up. I'm still not completely better yet, though. But at least I don't feel so crappy anymore. Poor Chris. I gave it to him, and he's getting sick now. :(

I love Weezer

And after this video, my husband will love Rivers Cuomo with all his heart. Chris has respect and admiration for a good mustache.

A Very Baby Post

Hahahaha! I'm actually crouching in this picture, trying to get my face into it. See that grin? I'm trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of how I must look! Self timers feel like they take FOREVER when you're standing in that position, trying not to die and ruin the picture. But look at mah belleh! It's fo' reals, folks. Oh, and Chris is back from AT, but now he's at work, and I'll be asleep when he gets home. But really, this picture would not be nearly as entertaining to me if I hadn't taken it myself. And that is a cell phone in my pocket, people. Just so you know...

So I had another Dr appt today, and my weight is good. I did gain this time, but I already knew that. So I'm feeling pretty good about that. I did ask her to tell me what Sprout's heart rate is this time, and it's about 150 bpm. So according to that wive's tale, we're having a girl. I do realize that it's only a wive's tale and according to the accumulation that I've read, I still have a 50/50 chance of having either sex, lol. But we're excited either way! And if the baby cooperates, we'll be finding out in just TWO weeks! Woot!

I know this is going to sound silly, but lately I've had this feeling that something is probably going to be wrong with this baby. Like he/she will have some kind of physical or mental handicap. I know, I know. 9 out of 10 mothers worry about this. But I'm not anxious about it like it's a bad thing. Chris and I have even talked about "what if we have a handicapped kid" before, and it's not a fear for me. I think I have this feeling because in my head I'm thinking that there's no way we could be so lucky to have a normally healthy baby. I mean, we are SO very lucky to be having a baby at all, you know? Like I said, it's probably silly, but the thought is there and it won't go away.

I also wanted to mention the best pregnancy symptom so far (well, except for the 'child in the womb' symptom- that pretty much trumps anything else). So earlier on, I did notice that I lost less hair in the shower, just like the pregnancy books told me. But I didn't notice how much hair actually stayed in my head until today. My hair almost feels thick! I have very fine hair, so while I have always had a lot of hair, it has always felt thin because the strands are so thin. Even with my newfound bounty of hair, I still have the wimpiest ponytail you've ever seen. But it is glorious and shiny and wavy, and I love it.

I don't have anything else to talk about really. I've been so tired lately. I could take a couple of naps a day. And I think it's bed time now...