Mommy's Pregnancy Journal
04/14/2000 through 07/07/2000
Second Trimester

07/07/2000 -- Don't know why I'm doing an update, nothing new really to tell you about, other than I have the SWEETEST friend in the world!  I was getting kinda bummed because we couldn't find a Thomas crib set (in fact, almost all the Thomas stuff I've found is online -- I'm going looking this weekend to see if I can find anything else in regular stores).  So, Tanya, who is having problems with her own pregnancy (everyone keep her in your thoughts, we are all pulling for you, Tanya!), goes and finds this store that has it in Canada!!!!  She put in the order and I'll have a Thomas crib set (bumper, sheet, and comforter).  Isn't that the sweetest????  I mean, here she is having her own stuff going on and she still thinks about me!  I'm completely pyched now!  Apparently Thomas is bigger up there than here.  There's a movie coming out at the end of the month, I hope it goes over HUGE here, so there will be Thomas stuff everywhere!

Other than that, it's been a trying week.  We had a 4th of July party here on Tuesday, we had about 35 people show up and it was a GREAT time.  I'm exhausted still though.  The shrimp turned out good as did everything.  I think the kids had the best time, one of Tom's Aunts couldn't get the kids out of the water.  I think I'll wait at least a year before doing it again though, whew!  The house is a mess, but it will be okay.

That night we got word that Tom's cousin had her baby.  She was due a week after me.  Last I heard, the baby and mom and dad are doing fine.  The baby will be in the hospital for a while, but at least he is okay.  The next day, Tanya told me she might be losing her baby (she's due in February) and today I find out a lady from the internet I talk to that's due right around the same time I am, went into labor as well -- they stopped hers and have her on bedrest.  Whew!  Seems like everyone I know is going at it this week!  So, of course, I'm scared for them all and just hope everyone is okay.

Jamie seems to be doing fine.  I do have a confession.  This is not Tom's child.  He is actually Jackie Chan's.  I'm sorry.  Hehehehe.... I seriously do wonder if this child is a Karate expert or what, man.  I think he's decided that he wants out and is trying to find a way!  Let's just hope it takes him another 14 weeks or so to find it!  I am REALLY starting to feel like that Sigorney Weaver lady in Alien now!  Tom's finally able to feel the karate kid, and he's so cute about it, but gets frustrated when Jamie doesn't move just for him! 

Anyway, that's all for now...... have a GREAT weekend!!

07/03/2000 -- Updated the page (obviously) with Thomas The Tank Engine motif.  Whaddya think?  I guess by now you've figured out... we are having a BOY!  I had a 24 week ultrasound on 06/29 and the tech. is 99.999% sure it's a boy.   The baby looked good.  I did get pictures (Tom hasn't scanned them in yet, bug him!) and a video, of course.

We want to do the baby's room in Thomas stuff, but we can't find a crib set.  I think I'm just going to buy a blue set -- I don't want all that extra stuff, in fact, from everything I've read, they say don't even put a blanket in the crib -- so why do they sell comforters for kids?  Anyway, we have a small twin bed in that room, and I found some Thomas bed sheets and I found all kinds of Thomas stuff, so I think we are set.  Bad thing is that I can only find it online.  Babies R Us doesn't carry Thomas stuff and The Great Train Store (it was in Barton Creek Mall) has gone out of business!   ARGGGHHH... 

Anyway, we did manage to register at Babies-R-Us!  At least I have a shopping list of sorts to go by.  I did find out that Thomas has a movie coming out the end of July, so hopefully this will get Babies-R-Us into the Thomas stuff... sheesh! 

My new work is going well.  I think it's going to work okay with the baby and everything because I am able to get a lot done with so little interruptions!

I also had my 24 week appointment on 6/29.  I was SIX over this time on the glucose test, so I go for the 3 hour AGAIN this month.  Oh, I was WRONG - my total loss was 14 pounds.  I gained one back at this appointment, so I've **LOST** 13 pounds since I got pregnant.  You wouldn't know it to look at me!  I feel like a hippo these days!  She wants to do ultrasounds every 4 weeks because of the high blood pressure and because the baby was so small at 20 Weeks.  He's caught up now!   Sono tech estimates him to be 1 pound, 4 ounces.  So, I have ANOTHER sonogram at 28 weeks.  It's kinda neat... at least I get to see Jamie.  But, I just really don't like taking the extra time to do it.  It already seems like I live in that office!  I'll update soon.  Hope you guys like the new layout!

06/12/2000 --  Well, finally!  Things start going my way a little bit!   I'm working on week 22 now.  Not too much news about the baby other than to say that it's moving around a good bit.  We went this past weekend to Tom's grandparent's 50th Anniversary Party.  (yeah... FIFTY years... isn't that wonderful?)   It was a dance type of thing and this kid was kicking like crazy everytime the band stopped playing.  Not sure if Lima was GLAD or MAD that the country music stopped!   Hehehe....

I also accepted a new job and gave my 2 week notice at my current job.  I will be doing bookkeeping for a construction company based out of Corsicana (about 2 hours North of here) from my house.  Which is GREAT.  I won't have to put the child in daycare unless things change.  They seem more than fine about the baby and seem like really great people to boot.  Hopefully this works out well for me.  I really am thrilled to be getting back into constructiong accounting again.  I really missed it a lot.  I figure with the baby's Grandma and Auntie Donna kidnapping him/her every week or two, I will be able to close the books and do all the insane stuff without having to rely on a daycare place too often.  Well, that's it for now.... next appointment is 06/29 -- hope the baby cooperates for this sonogram more!

06/01/2000 -- Well, this child is still grounded, except now it's until s/he is 12.   Yes, that's right, baby didn't cooperate for the sonogram.  In fact, we had to reschedule the whole thing.  Lima was laying on his/her tummy  with the head thrown back with one leg stretched out and other right on top of the crotch -- ASLEEP, no doubt.  So, we go back on the 29th.  Going to be a busy day, I have the sonogram appointment, I have to retake the one hour glucose test (yuck!) again, and have a regular appointment along with whatever else they do to me!

The sonogram lady was really sweet about it.  We got to see the baby a little bit (what it would show!).  It has a spine and a skull and 2 legs and 2 arms.  I felt bad for her because she tried to see the gender for almost 15 minutes before giving up.  At least she did try!  I hope the baby cooperates next time.  We did get a video of what she did, but there's not too much to see.  I hope that doing this glucose thing right before I do the sonogram next time will get this kid moving -- all that sugar!

The appointment itself went well.  I'm still seven pounds down overall.  No change from last time at all.  The baby's heartbeat is 152 (which she says usually means boy, but she's had girls that low too, so that's no help!).  I've decided it's probably a boy now because of how stubborn s/he was!  No protein or sugar in my urine, which is good, no other changes to speak of.  Blood pressure is fine, I'm fine, baby's fine, etc.  She wants to do the glucose thing again next time and maybe the 3 hour again if the one hour turns out weird.  Whatever.  Also might want to do it again later on.  Why don't they make that stuff more tolerable?  It's nasty.  I'll never drink Orange Slice again!  I also got all the preregistration stuff for the hospital and childbirth class information.  I'll go over it later, I'm beat today.

I myself had a horrible day.  The A/C at the office isn't working right, so it was 80 most of the day in my office - thank goodness I left early for this appointment.   Traffic was bad getting to the doctor's office.  Tom comes in telling me that his boss and him aren't getting along, and I listen to him complain for a good 15 minutes.   They can't do a decent sonogram because the kid is not being good and can't tell the gender either!  I come home - more traffic - to find that Gizmo has left me a few nice little surprises (she's housebroken, just stubborn) and Tom will be home late.   Ugh!  Till next time........

05/26/2000 -- Well, just 5 more days until we (HOPEFULLY) find out the gender of this little wiggle worm.  I'm now in my 20th week, so nearly half-way there!  Hard to believe, eh?

I did already start feeling movement, probably around 17 weeks, but wasn't exactly sure that is what it was.  I'm feeling some pretty strong stuff already, so it's kinda freaking me out as everyone talks about this "gentle" feeling and I feel like that Sigorney Weaver lady in Alien.  Oh well.  Tom got to feel a little something a few nights ago.  A VERY "barely there" feel, as he explained it.  In fact, he thought he had just moved his hand until I said it had moved.   Again, it's really very early for all of this, so it's kinda strange, but I guess everyone is different.

I took the "pick the name" and "guess the gender" off of the pages here.  From looking at the logs, there were some people voting every single day and it was really swaying the whole thing, so it wasn't any more fun.  Votes were coming from the same source almost every day.  Basically, it ended up Jennifer Chloe and Crimson Chloe pretty much tied, James Howell a clear winner (and what we will probably use if it's a boy) and a kinda tie on the gender, more people think girl though.  We will know pretty soon, eh?  :) 

My doctor's appointment to follow up on this foot thing was horrible!  My appointment was at 3:20.  I got there at 3:15, filled out paperwork and waited almost and hour and a half!  I didn't even get to see the doctor, I talked to her PA who talked to me for like 3 minutes, and basically told me to make another appointment in 2 weeks.  HELLO?!!?!?!  Kiss my rear end lady!  I paid $18, and my insurance company probably paid like $80 for this lady to basically ignore me after sitting in that lobby!  I KNOW that doctor's run behind sometimes and I don't mind really, as long as they make sure they know how important MY time is too.  I've had to wait ONCE for my OB doctor and she was apologizing all over the place.  But what was great is that she didn't rush it, even though she had MORE people waiting behind me.  Ugh!  I just can't find a decent regular doctor in Austin!  My foot is still swollen a little.   They won't do Xrays because they say it's not broken.  I can walk on it fine now, but I can't bend it completely.  Oh well!

Anyway, I'm feeling fine, living in a bathroom and taking Memorial Day OFF.  We are inviting a lady I work with and her kids over tommorrow for a cook out and swim, so that should be fun.  She has a 10 year old and an 8 month old... poor Tom :).   I'm also planning a 4th of July thing for family over here so I guess I gotta get addresses and stuff and mail out invites.... ahhhh, the procrastination never ends!   I just hate having to ask my mother in law for them because she gave them to me a few years back and goodness only knows where they ended up since we've moved!  ;)

Hope to have some news (EITHER WAY) on 6/1!

05/17/2000 -- Well, it's been a wild week already!  I stayed late at the office yesterday and was walking and managed to step on the side of my left foot (I'm such a clutz).  [Didn't fall thank goodness!]  I've done this before, so I really didn't think much of it, it hurt, but not too too bad.  Well, last night it got BAD.   I got a few hours of sleep, but was up most of the night.  So, into the emergency room I go this morning.  Of course, being pregnant, my emotions are all screwed up, so this lady asks me what happened and I just bust out in tears on her.   LOL.  I think that Tom couldn't be there, and had to get to a work, just made it worse, and I have no idea why, it's not like it was a big deal.  Anyway, the doctor didn't do an x-ray because he said that the chance of it being broken was very very slim and he didn't want to do anything that could even possibly hurt the baby.  I thought it was perfectly safe to have x-rays???  Anyway, so he poked around down there and I really wanted to smack him... "Does this hurt?"... DUH!   Anyway, so he puts me in this contraption -- some sort of walking splint, but to me, it looks like something out of RoboCop or something.  He gave me Tylenol with Syntheic Codine, so I couldn't take it right away as I can't drive while on it.  I left work early and came home to rest up with this thing.  So NOW I have to go back to a doctor on Tuesday next week so she can see how I'm doing.  ARGH!  Remember how excited I was to get away from doctor's for FOUR weeks?  LOL... no such luck!

I've been ordering used children's books off of Ebay.  I've found some REALLY good deals.  Tom and I both love books some much that we want this child to like them too.   I know it's early, but I don't buy them unless they are dirt cheap.  I got like 13 books for $5!

Last week (I think it was Thursday), Tom made me laugh so hard.  We are renting a home doppler (BabyBeat) and we were trying to find the heartbeat.  It's not easy.  This baby is SUPER active and moves around a lot.  Anyway, he was about to give up and heard a real faint heartbeat so he held it still and listened and we heard "thump thump Thump THump THUmp THUMp THUMP THUMP tHUMP thUMP thuMP thumP thump thump....".... Tom says "Hey, it did a swim by!"  I wanted to laugh so hard!  But it was really weird!  Last night, I actually felt a small little roll or kick or something and we could hear it on the thing.  It was really neat.  My doctor says they are perfectly safe, but we only use it every other day or so.

Nothing else going on.... getting REALLY antsy about the June 1 sonogram.  What if the technician can't see the gender?  I would be heartbroken.  I really think that once I know the gender, I'll be a little more excited than I have been about buying stuff!

05/09/2000 -- WOW!  I just had the AFP test on Friday, and today (Tuesday) morning at 8am there was a message on my voice mail at work saying that everything was normal!   So yeah!!  No more worrying about that!  Some of you have sent me messages all worried.  AFP only tests for the RISK of an unborn child having Down Syndrome, neural tube defects, or trimsomy 13 (don't know about the spellings there).   Anyway,  there is a high false-positive rate, so I wasn't sure about doing it, but everything is fine.  It didn't mean there was anything wrong in the first place.   My next appointment is June 1 -- we should find out the gender.  Everyone please be throwing "wide open leg" vibes my way that day!!!  Hehehe... 'til next time....

05/02/2000 -- Terrible news is that my mom called me Thursday night and she won't be able to come. She was going to move here in June and stay for a year or so. I was pretty devastated because, from the sounds of it, she won't be able to even be there with me for the delivery because she is looking for a job. Apparently, the arbitrator guy said that she couldn't move her because of my baby sister. My baby sister (she's 12) is VERY angry right now at our father. I don't blame her. Me nor my 22 year old sister have spoken to him in years because he's such a butthead. Anyway, this is in S.C. where the laws are all screwed up anyway. My 12 year sister wants to get a lawyer of her own and sue him to let her come. I *almost* feel sorry for him this summer. She lives with him for 6 weeks and she will make his life a living hell-o! Anyway, so this means, we have to find daycare we can't afford and we have to start looking soon because the waiting lists are like 6 months long. I can't find any that will take the kid until it's 6 weeks old, so that means no paycheck for me. I'm looking into work at home stuff, but I don't know if I'll be able to find anything really worthwhile. I'm trying not to worry too much about this latest problem.

Anyway, I was really really upset that night and Tom decided to drag out the BabyBeat and see if he could find a heartbeat. We haven't heard it yet and I'm 16 weeks! We heard it for about 5 seconds at a time, but it kept moving. It really did make me feel great! And, of course, he was pretty proud that he found it before the doctor was able to.

My doctor's appointment was Friday and it went GREAT. The nurse found the heartbeat for like 3 seconds and then lost it all together. She was getting SO frustrated, so she had the doctor do a quick ultrasound, when they do the quick ones at my doctor's, it's not a good resolution, but we were able to see a little outline of a face and a lot of squirming around and we saw the heart beating. Even the doctor said this little one moves around a lot! I guess that's why we have a hard time picking up the heart beating.

We talked about the AFP and I went ahead and did it. I figure it can't hurt; and we will discuss other options if it comes out bad. I will know in a week and am not going to worry about it until/unless I have to. I did tell her I was VERY opposed to doing an amnio and she said that was fine, they could do a target sonogram or we could discuss things later on. She is right, I would rather know if there is a chance of something being wrong so I can prepare myself and our lives. I'm a BIG planner and this pregnancy wasn't planned. I've been obsessed with planning everything else! Tom has decided that I'm crazy.

I lost another 4 pounds (that's like 7 since my 8 week). She said that's just fine and was actually happy about it. She said to keep doing whatever I'm doing. My last blood/urine test came back fine and as long as things keep going well, she doesn't think I will have problems with my next glucose test. The thing is I figured I'd gained a few because I'm starting to feel it in my pants, and I was a little freaked out about LOSING 4 pounds in 3 weeks and being pregnant! She said not to worry because the baby will get what it needs before I do. Anyway, she's very happy with all the test results that I've gotten. So am I. The thing is, I'm not really changing the way I'm eating or anything, I've not really been craving anything (other than sour stuff), in fact, sometimes, NOTHING sounds good.

The VERY BEST news is that I get to be a normal pregnant woman!!!! I get to go *FOUR WEEKS* until my next appointment!!! Yeah!!!!! I go 6/1 for my sonogram (I wanna know the sex and don't know if I can wait that long!) and appointment.

04/27/2000 -- Well, not too much has gone on, but I thought I'd do a quick update.  I'm feeling better and better, of course.  Feeling mostly human again!   I've been eating like crazy the past week.  I'm constantly hungry, but I am trying not to get too crazy.  Seems to be better if I eat small meals like 6 times a day or so.  I understand this stops and goes back to somewhat normal after a few weeks.  I get your body is just getting used to feeling better again - there were days in the first trimester I didn't care if I ate or not, it all made me squish up my nose.

Easter was Sunday and we had a pretty good time.  It was at Tom's Great-Aunt Barbara (and I DO mean GREAT aunt)'s house.  She's truly a wonderful person - probably the favorite people (along with Barbara's sister) in his extended family I've met.  They are just real people - ya know how you meet people and they are putting you on, like they are "fake" nice to you?  I don't know if that even makes sense, but these two are truly great people.  I wish we got to see them more often.  The baby got HER or his first real gift.  Grandma Jennifer got HER or him the CUTEST thing!  It's super super SOFT.  It's a "frogbaby" from Ty and is just adorable.  It's so hard to find baby stuff that is as soft as this thing is.  It's so cute.  So,  Easter was pretty neat.  We came home after a few hours (it was really hot out there - like 93 - and it was getting to me bad), and we just kind hung out and didn't do too much.  [hehehe, yeah, I hope it's a girl, but either way I will be thrilled.  Could you tell?  I've become OBSESSED with finding out the gender]

I made the HORRIBLE mistake of checking on daycare costs Tuesday.  I nearly choked.  By the time I got home, I was near tears thinking about it, we are SO unprepared financially for this child.  I'm REALLY glad my mom will be here for the first year.  Not only do I get "free" daycare, but she will probably help out a little with the bills here.  We could definitely use the help.  Of course, her just watching the child will save us plenty, but I know if we get in a bind, she will help.   Hopefully, things start happening at Tom's work and he starts pulling in some commission checks.  After Mom leaves, I will worry about it, but it still nearly gave me a heart attack.  It's around $600 a month (which is a paycheck and a half for me!) and most have a 6 month waiting list!  ARGH!  Now I see why so many women/men are choosing to stay home these days.  After you buy all the business clothes, pay for dry cleaning, pay for gas and repairs to your car, you are working for free.   Still don't know what I will do when Mom leaves.  I'm considering trying to find something to do at home.  If I can find enough small contractors, I might do side accounting work for them at home.  I don't know.  We'll see what happens.   I don't know if there is a great need here or not.

Other than that, it's been BORING.  Work is boring - there's really nothing new for me to do, and it's getting monotonous.  That's what I loved about accounting, there's always something new and interesting to figure out!  I never heard back from that Wizer Home Systems place.  I was/am interested in them.  I guess telling them I was pregnant wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I felt it was the right thing to do.  Of course, it took 3 months for them to call me back for a second interview.   But I'm not getting my hopes too high up. 

Anyway, my next appointment is May 5.  I HOPE we hear the heartbeat this time.  Geez, who do I gotta kill.  I think the kid is playing hide-n-seek!   Did you know that the kid is around 4" long now?  Cool, huh?

04/14/2000 -- Doctor's appointment today -- and I'm 13 weeks today!  I'm calling this the OFFICIAL 2nd trimester because it's what most of the books agree on!   It went GREAT!  Couldn't find the heartbeat again.  So she did another quickie ultrasound.  There's still a baby there, and it's a wiggle worm.  It was so neat!  The baby has grown SO MUCH since that first ultra sound at 8 weeks!   You couldn't really see too much because it wasn't a really involved ultrasound, but it was so great to get to see the lima bean again!  She doesn't do photos or video unless it's an official ultrasound, but it was neat.  Of course, Tom, even though he had the day off from work, didn't wanna go because it would be "boring" so he missed it.. his loss.... I think he plans on going to the full ultrasound around 20 weeks.

Other than that, she said my weight is fine.  I've not gained anything, in fact I lost 3 pounds back at my 10 (or 11?) week appointment.  She's fine with this, in fact, she had told me that because I'm overweight to start with, it wouldn't hurt her feelings if I didn't gain anything.  Of course, she did say not to NOT eat if I'm hungry.  The weight issue is really not one for me.  Whatever happens happens.   My blood pressure has leveled off.  She was THRILLED about that.  And we talked more about my glucose and she was happy about that as well.  She doesn't want to see me until May 5, so I get to go 3 weeks instead of 2!  This will also put me at 16 weeks, so I *H*O*P*E* everything is still going so well, she let's me go for the normal 4 weeks then... think it could happen???

I'm feeling GREAT!  This cold/allergy is still with me, but not nearly as bad.  I have some energy now.  I've not felt like cleaning anything, Tom's been being lazy even though he had the whole week off, and my sister-in-law, who lives with us, is never here except to sleep a few nights a week and do homework a few days a week and doesn't even eat here anymore, so the house looks like it's a wreck.  (Can you tell I'm getting kinda irritable about stuff?)  I hope I keep this energy level up so I can clean this weekend.  I'm feeling mostly human again!  I just wish I wasn't such a witch at times.  I'm getting to the point (even at work) that I say exactly what I'm thinking.  Poor Tom, he gets to hear it all from me, as he catches the brunt of it.  But really, I get sick of holding it all in.  The first 12 weeks of this were NOT FUN at all, and I got no help or support really, not as far as trying to keep up around here.  Looks like at least Tom would've been more understanding and helpful, this is HIS kid.  ARGH.  Okay, I'll probably regret writing this later, but at the moment, I feel better!  Even the dog annoys me!

The only thing that's REALLY bugging me lately are my contacts.  I can't wear them as much.  I hear that your eyes change shape when you are pregnant, I guess I'll have to go to the eye doctor and see what he can do.  I hate wearing my glasses, but my contacts irritate my eyes right now. 

Oh yeah, the doctor also wants to do an AFP test at my next appointment.  I don't know how I feel about it, as I've heard bad things.  But neither Tom or I, that I know of, have any down syndrome or tube defects in our families, so I don't think it could do any harm.  I guess if the doctor feels it's important to do it, I will let her do it, as she hasn't failed me yet. 

The GREAT news is that Tom and Jennifer, my mother-in-law, got the little spare bedroom painted Monday.  It looks great.  It's where my baby sister (well, she's 12, not a baby any more!), Marcy, is going to be staying.  It looks great.

My mom says she will be moving in around mid-June so I'm getting really excited about that.  We've not really spent much time together since Tom and I got married 7 years ago.  We lived in Hawaii and then moved here to Texas.  It will be great to be around Mom again.  She's a wonderful person who is wonderful with children - kids seem to be drawn to her.  I think it's because she can get to their level really quickly (love you mom!).  Seriously, I think it's because she doesn't mind acting crazy -- anything to make them smile.  She will be living with us for a year.

Okay, well, let's see.... I've managed to probably tick off my husband, my sister-in-law and my mother.  I think I've done enough damage for the night.   You know I love all of you, seriously, but this *IS* a journal, even if I am sharing it with everyone.  I can just IMAGINE what you all write about me!

So before I can offend anyone else, I think I will be saying goodnight!!!!   I'll write when there's something going on!

This page was last updated at Monday, May 17, 2004 at 12:15:20 AM