Pregnant in St. Louis (super long...sorry)

Hi! Sorry it's been a while since the last post...the weekend got busy and next thing I knew it was Monday! We had a good weekend and are currently in St. Louis, MO. Adam had to be here for work and since work is winding down for me, I decided to take Mon/Tues off of work and come with him since this was a conference he was attending and not taking customers all over the place to sell starch to them. I'm SO glad I came!! I'll get to StL in a minute...update on the weekend...

Our little stinkerpants continues her antics but is now having a harder time resisting kicking our hands when we put them on my belly like she has this past week or so (since the "ahh!" (angels singing) major kicks she gave us 2 Saturdays ago). Adam has felt her several times since then especially this weekend and today. She was rather quiet for a few days in there and just as I was starting to experience an increase in worry, she made me feel better and is kicking regularly again.

This past weekend...Adam worked the overnight shift Friday night to fill in for someone and then slept until about 12:30 on Saturday. We did a few things, packed up the dogs and us for the St. Louis trip, and then headed over to Jason & Julie's house for a spring party at their "new" house (they've been there since July '08). Their original party was planned for last fall but had to be cancelled/postponed due to issues at Adam's & Jason's work, which in turn effected many of our friends since they all work there as well. Anyway, it was a great party, we overate puppy chow (which I might be at semi-pro status at making now), watched a HUMUNGOUS pair of campfires, and then went home exhausted. We took Maddie and Jessie to a kennel b/w 5-6pm that night (since that was the latest we could drop them off before leaving Sunday morning) and guess what. It was like I was dropping Maddie off there the first time and I started crying. Maybe it was b/c it was Jessie's first time at a kennel. Maybe it's because they're our furbabies. I was able to pull it together, have Adam open their brand-new (disgusting) giant cow bones from Farm & Fleet, and headed out with promises to come back and get them Tuesday late afternoon. Sweet little puppies...

So that brings me to my biggest 20-week symptom - crying. Over nothing. Over something. Small things will set me off. :( For example, while Adam was sleeping Saturday morning, I went into town to run errands. I had to stop at Hallmark to get a few cards and (in my saver-mode) stopped by some clearance things to find the CUTEST pink baby's first year calendar that we can write in the dates/months and put pictures on for our little girl's first year. I was flipping through it thinking "this is great! And on sale! Lucky me!"...but then I got to the last page that had all the stickers on it..."Baby's first tooth," "Baby's first trip to the doctor," the list went on and on...there must have been 100 of them. It suddenly dawned on me that our little peanut is going to HAVE A FIRST TOOTH. She's going to make her own little teeth!!! That we can see! And she's going to crawl...and walk...and eat real FOOD (not from me, at some point)!!!! These thoughts were suddenly VERY overwhelming for me (since this still doesn't seem real much of the time, even though I can feel her very often) and I started crying in Hallmark. I had to go pretend to be looking at some random cards I didn't need while I tried to calm myself and stop being quite so sentimental in public. Success. Home I go. I then wake up Adam at 12:30 as asked and almost instantly (once he's fully awake so as not to scare him) started sobbing b/c I was so excited for all these things that are going to happen that I hadn't even gotten to thinking about yet. Adam's so great with these things...he smiles, pats my arm, gives me a big hug, and tells me he can't wait to meet her. I really heart him. I think I made it through yesterday without crying, but for some reason today I just wasn't having the pregnant body "good vibes" like I have been so far and started crying for feeling unattractive. What better thing to do? Retail therapy. :) Will get to that in a minute too...

Ok, so that brings me to Sunday when we left for St. Louis, MO after getting the car packed up. We had a little snafu on the way, as Adam wanted to stop at an Applebee's for lunch but couldn't seem to find one close with use of the (amazing) Tom Tom. So we stop at a Denny's and walk in to smell B.O. and smoke. We are SUPER used to no smoking in public places in IA/IL so this was new for us. We sat in the "nonsmoking" section (ha, right) and made it through lunch. Adam's food was great (per him) and mine was alright - it takes a lot to mess up a BLT w/ mayo. :) We get to the next exit when we're back on our way...there's an Applebee's. Adam - "Oh crap, there's an Applebee's! Can you believe that?" Liss - "Aw, that..." Adam - "I DON'T want to hear it." We went on our way. :)

We made it just fine and after carrying WAY too much stuff (Adam had more than his fair share of luggage), we made it to our room but I had to then deal with some minor cramping for the next few hours. It subsided by dinnertime (8:30pm) so I didn't worry about it anymore. I was all set to call the doctor Monday but like I said, concern averted. Adam did a few hours of poster presenting and a large presentation (that went well!) before we headed to "Mike Shannon's" for dinner. The concierge said they'd have the seafood we were looking for. It was a really great restaurant just a few blocks from the St. Louis Arch (which we can partially see from our 17th floor hotel room) that was rather pricey. I got pasta (yum) and Adam had the biggest piece of fish (sea bass) I've ever seen. The (foriegn) people we sat near had this humungous steak that could only be the one that was $80 on the menu. Sheesh. We didn't go that high but enjoyed our dinner. The restuarant had an expensive air about it, but had St. Louis Cardinals memorabilia all over the walls. When we walked back to the hotel, the Arch was all lit up and we walked past this great park that had two water features (on fountain, one stepping pool w/ stairs) that I fully intended to visit with a book and giant water bottle the next day. Oh! And I had also found a Macy's while Adam was working before dinner and bought the baby two really cute little outfits...one of which is purple and says "I'll always be daddy's little girl." I've never been to a Macy's before, so being in a store with 7 floors was rather new to me. I loved it. :)

So today, Adam and I went out for breakfast and more shopping at Macy's before he headed to a luncheon forum. While at Macy's, I FINALLY found a new pair of (not teenager) sunglasses. I really was sad that I didn't have anything strapless to wear on my trip to the park as I want to avoid tan lines on my shoulders for Steph's wedding at the end of June. You guessed it -she chose strapless dresses (which are SO cute). :) So I found this really cute reddish dress that has an elastic bust area and then is very flowy until just past my knees. It was super lightweight and after crying this morning due to feeling ugly, it was worth every penny. I even got compliments on it from the concierge twice. :) WORTH IT. So I spent a while at the park chugging water, reading my book, basking in the sun, and dipping my feet in the water feature with steps. Before over-heating (and peeing my pants after all that water), I headed to a Quizno's I had seen earlier...and of course walked 2 blocks out of the way while having to pee so bad!! I made it - no worries - and then met Adam at the hotel to eat my lunch and let him wind down a bit. We then went for a walk to Busch Stadium (where the Cardinals play for you nonbaseball buffs) and promptly decided that we would do that for our evening plans tonight. It's nowhere near as great as a Brewer game, but it will be a good back up. We then headed back to the hotel since it was over 90 degrees and I didn't want to overdo it to the point where I either couldn't walk back or became gigantic from swelling (which hasn't happened yet and didn't today either). Adam commented that I'm carrying this baby well...I can only hope that it continues that way. :) So Adam ordered our tickets (we're in the first row in section 254A!!) so we're good to go. He's scheduled to be done at 7:00pm, and after making sure everyone is taken care of, he'll jet back here so we can take the 15-20 minute walk to the stadium. Game starts at 7:15pm. I already informed Adam that I will be enjoying a giant hotdog, lemonade, and cotton candy. Can't wait!! Then we're going to go to the zoo (which I've heard is great!) early in the morning before heading back to IA to pick up the dogs and so Adam can "attend" online class at 6pm.

One last thing...I am having an issue with my upper gum on the right side. It's b/w my 5th-6th teeth (I should know the names of those...I paid lots of money in grad school to memorize them...). The gum there is rather swollen and not so great looking. I'm leaning on heading to the dentist pretty quick here so it doesn't spread (I hate bad teeth stuff! Scares the daylights out of me!!) or get worse...yet another perk to pregnancy - tooth/gum issues. Thanks for making it to the end of the long post! When we get home, I'll post pics of my great Macy's finds. Of course I forgot to bring the camera along. Ho hum...back to reality on Wednesday. :)