All is well

First off, I have to say 1.19 more days of work until SUMMER! Woo hoo!

Secondly, I am pleased to report that after a cautionary visit to the doctor's office today after yesterday's "stupid dog" incident when she jumped on my belly, the baby is fine (156bpm heartbeat) and I just have a sore lower right belly. And actually, shortly after I left the doc's office, it started to feel better and hasn't bothered me much since. I figured that might happen, but I still am glad I went just to make sure. I wouldn't know what I would do if something was wrong when she's born and it could have been something preventable with a quick checkup. While the doctor was taking the baby's heartbeat, the doctor said, "oh!" and then told me that the little blip in the heartbeat was the baby movin' and shakin'. :) The nurse (before the doctor came in) asked me if it hurt right at that moment...but I couldn't really tell her b/c the baby was kicking directly on the spot Jessie poked me! Needless to say, we're both fine and glad to be so.

Adam is now in Montreal until Friday. I am looking forward to my last full day of work and then completing some serious cleaning that has been neglected in anticipation of more time at home in a few days. Ah, summer. What a beautiful thing.

Ow! That hurt! Stupid dog...

So let me start off by the one bad thing that happened today and then I'll tell you why the rest of the day was GLORIOUS. :) Stupid Jessie (10-month old dog of ours) ran and jumped one-footed into my lower right stomach, way low...OW! I wasn't looking (taking pictures of our landscaping to send my dad) so I was completely unprepared. It really hurt...I'm thinking me more than anything. Good thing baby's got lots of room/cushion in there or I'd be worried...big time discipline ensued. Stupid dog...she's lucky she's cute sometimes...

Otherwise, the day was GREAT! Baby was moderately active throughout the day. I got to eat a HUGE lunch at Pizza Ranch (which consisted mainly of broasted chicken, mashed potatoes, and a salad...totally overdid it). I finally got ALL my paperwork done for work so all I need to do now is go through the motions of the next 2.19 days and I'm DONE FOR THE SUMMER!!! Yay for me!

After work I went for a long, 3-mile walk (yes, long for me) with Julie and it felt GREAT. Especially since it got colder the further we went as the weather was changing. I'm just about to head over there for dinner and envelope/invitation stuffing for wedding invites. See? It was just a GREAT day. Adam made it to Toronto just fine...and now I am heading out to get some yummy grub...haven't enjoyed a Monday this much in a while. :)

I SAW her...with my very own eyes

Wow. It finally happened...I saw our baby kick (who is actually kicking my laptop as I type) last night for the first time. No touching. Shirt up, staring at my belly while she was active right before bed, and all of a sudden about an inch left of my belly button rose and fell independently. Well, independently of my assistance. What an amazing thing to see! It actually freaked me out just a *little* to be able to physically SEE her moving from the outside...sort of alien-like. But once that brief feeling went away, it was truly amazing. Adam was in the office and by the time he finished up and came in the bedroom, she had settled down a bit and wasn't kicking hard enough to be seen anymore. It still floors me that just 2.5 weeks ago (or so) she gave us our first "feel me!" kick and now she's kicking so much stronger that we feel her very often and can now SEE her. I hope Adam gets to see her before we go to bed tonight as he's leaving for Toronto and points near there for the week for work. He's actually traveling every week now in June until Steph's wedding June 26th...then we're off to our own vacation in the Smokey Mountains before he finally gets to come home July 3rd/4th. What a trooper. :)

We had another good weekend...well, sort of. Adam got rained out of 3 outdoor activities (2 softball and 1 golf) so he was pretty bummed about that. We did some other things that were a good time. Since it's late, I'll fill you in more tomorrow, but today (after Adam's suggestion) we started Baby Girl Schmidt's registry at Target. I need to do some research into bottles and a few other things before it's even close to set up and ready to go, but I think we have a decent start. After a very successful trip to Kohl's (thanks for the great tip, Abbie!) and getting the baby several new (on sale!) outfits, Adam was rather reluctant to register for more...we shall see. :) One of my favorite things we registered for was a pink/black baseball glove that won't fit her until she's 3/4 y/o. She's going to be amazing...more tomorrow...eyelids won't cooperate anymore...g'night!

21 weeks down, 19 to go!

Here we are, 21 weeks into this adventure. It's been a good week. Can't really complain. Who can complain about a 3-day work week and summer drawing near? No one. So I won't either because I'm really excited! Although there are some things I've been grappling with...pictures first!
I'm feeling great, actually, but the biggest thing this week is coming to terms with my weight gain thus far in relation to how many weeks I currently am. Here's my goal: I would like to gain no more than 25-30lbs with this baby. I started out within normal limits for my BMI/overall weight so that is a very reasonable, accurate number for me to gain. I've read and heard that many women (I say many b/c it's ridiculous how things vary b/w women) gain most of their preggo weight b/w months 5-7. Since I just started month 5, I would have expected that I would still be under half way to my goal weight so I had "wiggle room" for those months. Here's the problem - at 21 weeks I've put on 14lbs. Not much wiggle room there if my weight gain isn't equally distributed across time/weeks. Hmm. This poses a problem. I think it's also hitting home that I'm approaching/just reaching a 10-digit number on the scale (which shall remain anonymous) that I have never seen before from my body's influence and it's a hard pill to swallow. Ok, so now that I sound like a freaked out "skinny chick," here's what I've come to realize (per Adam (if he's telling the truth, which he's known for) and myself) - I am not gaining weight in my face or arms to my knowledge, nor am I gaining an obscene amount in my birthing hips or thighs. (It's ok...we all knew I had huge hips/butt pre-preggo.) Pretty much most of it is baby-related (bust/belly). I'm ok with that. I've also come to terms that my body is going to do what it needs to so that our little girl is healthy and comfortable. I'm not overeating a ton (well, I do once in a while...that was normal pre-preg too) or anything. So 14lbs at this point is going to be ok with me. I think the next scary number will be when that 14 turns to a 20. Hopefully that's a ways off yet. I also know that I'm going to be getting large and in charge over summer months when it's warm and when preggo bodies like to hang on to water at all costs which could influence my weight gain. I'll just concentrate on the here and now. Wow, that was a lot of info about me coming to terms with weight gain. Sheesh! Thanks for listening/reading.

Something new since last post - ab muscle stretching/discomfort. You know (those of you that have done these ever) when you do a ton of abs or a great ab workout that the next day they are sore to the touch? Well, that's a result of your ab muscles breaking down and getting tighter/stronger. Mine, on the other hand, now hurt to the touch (and sometimes no touch) every few days or so b/c they are breaking down, STRETCHING out, and getting tighter from expansion. It's an odd feeling. It almost feels like I'm full from eating, but am not feeling full in my stomach per se...All I know is that sometimes rubbing it hard with the heel of my hand works to ease the stretch a little. I had wondered how that would work as she got bigger along with my belly...interesting.

One other thing I learned today - if the pants mom is wearing are too tight on the lower part of my uterus area (see first picture), Baby Girl Schmidt just about goes bonkers trying to kick them off. All day long. She maybe slept/relaxed for 2-3 hours today. That is atypical for this little munchkin. Now she's up again b/c I am sitting here relaxing. I guess I'll just have to go shopping this weekend for more clothes. Ho hum (right!). She was still kicking when I got home and finally shed those terrible jean capris so much so that Adam could feel her movin' and shakin' while I was standing up talking to him. Now THAT'S some serious movement! We have such a cute little athlete in there already...as long as she's thinking thoughts of volleyball, basketball, and softball, and not soccer. :)

And finally, updates on mom/baby size.

Liss - gained 14lbs to date. You know where I stand here. :)
Baby - (according to approximations per babycenter.com) - 10.5" long and 0.75lbs. She's the size of a long carrot now and getting huge!! And so much stronger! The other day I think I was actually grabbing her along the length of her back as she was pushing up against the front of my uterus. I told Adam that if I was squeezing her back/body just then, I was going to fall over. It would sort of be the first time I "held" her. (and that thought makes me tear up.) Adam continues to tell me how he can't wait until she gets here. I told him we're moving as fast as we can!! What more do you want from us!?! ;-) And he smiles and gives me a hug...we're so blessed...and here are a few pictures of new clothes I bought her in St. Louis at my first-ever trip to Macy's this past week. :) The purple one reads "I'll always be Daddy's little girl." (tearing up)

Back to Reality...ugh.

I had a great time in St. Louis but now it's back to reality. Boo...a little I guess. I have a full day at work tomorrow and LOTS of things to wrap up before I am finished next week. I'm really looking forward to the end of this year b/c sometimes I feel really inadequate across so many areas - organization, language therapy, and report writing, among a million other things. I guess I'm more excited for the chance to really dive in to pulling together thoughts on the nursery, labor/delivery, finalizing a name for this little chica, and a million other things I'd like to do (including some serious nesting/power cleaning) during my time off. Brain turned off...next topic.

I picked up the dogs today and while I was really excited to see them and never have any question about their care at the kennel we take them to, I was rather disappointed to find that we were being charged another day for both of them (miscalculation on our end), that Jessie's blanket was rather heavy due to her peeing on it when she got excited umpteen times, and once I got home, I realized their bowls were left behind - the lady practically insisted she take all their things out of the kennels. Boo. Now I have to stop there on Thursday to pick them up. I'm having a whiney evening. I could completely resign to bed right now (8:10pm) but think that I will have some cake and ice cream instead. :) Then some mindless TV until Adam's done with class (in our office, online) and then head to bed. Off to go switch the laundry. There was so much hair in our poor lint trap in the dryer from HALF of the dog blankets that I had to take it out and continue drying or we'd have a potential fire hazard on our hands. Such furry little monkeys. :)

Speaking of little monkeys - our little girl has started to really get a personality of her own. I had a granola bar to help get me through to breakfast this morning (at 10am) and by the time we sat down at IHOP she was going nuts in there, kicking me and literally yelling, "FEED ME FEED ME NOW!!" which means she MUST have some significant DNA from me b/c I don't tolerate being very hungry too well. :) Ask Adam. And sometimes she still withholds her kicking when we put our hands over her little kicks. We sure do love our little stinker. I hung up some of her clothes in her closet late this afternoon when we got home. I'm starting to get excited for the nursery transformation. Probably won't happen until at least July though as Adam is traveling all through June and doesn't want to head to Chicago on a weekend when he just wants to be home. Completely understandable. So mid-July will be a big furniture weekend when we buy her crib, dresser, the rocking chair, and whatever else our little peanut needs that we haven't registered for. She deserves the world if you ask me...I suggested to Adam that we decorate her room in butterflies...Adam suggested baseballs...I countered with pink/purple/green baseballs with wings. :) We'll figure it out later. It's on the middle of the priority list for now.

This post got longer than I thought it would. Now I'm off to switch the laundry and take myself up on that cake and ice cream. Three-day work week, here we come....

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. :)

20 Weeks!! We're half way there!!!

Well, ladies and gentleman, we've reached yet another milestone. We're half-way there to meeting our daughter!! HALF WAY! This first half has gone really fast and while I'd like to say I'm peppy and doing all sorts of things, I'm feeling very much the opposite tonight. I'm just plum tired and I think the end of the school year is catching up with me. Tomorrow is my last day seeing school-aged kiddos but I've still got birth-3 as I kept that caseload all summer. It's not like we have a reason for a little extra cash flow and a reason for me to go places besides the mall...:) Here's the belly this week - which Adam has informed unprompted is "going straight out." He's the best husband I could ever ask for. :)
Our little girl has been much more active this week and I feel her regularly now. I still haven't felt her on the outside as well as we did last Saturday night due to her "stinkerness" of holding still as soon as I touch my belly, but we're getting close again.

Here are the really good pictures...of our little girl!! Enjoy! The first one is the front of her face. This one is almost always not the most pleasant and makes her look a little scary...but she's our little scary one and I don't care! :)


Next is her tiny little arms...and her little bitty fingers! We can't WAIT for that little hand to grab our fingers...
And the next two are her profile pictures. The first one turned out better than the second one but since they are our daughter and are amazing, I'm putting them both on. :) Enjoy!! And check our all four chambers in her heart! And her amazingly cute little nose!

Oh and I suppose I could inform you of our stats this week...

Baby:
measuring somewhere around 11oz. (judging by the u/s and typical weight at this point)
10" long from head to heel (they start measuring this way from now on since her legs are not so tucked to her torso)
beautiful as all get out. Trust me. :)

Me:
Ugh, this is a harder post...total weight gain is ~14lbs already. I took a big jump these past two weeks, but especially this past week. I blame the baby. :) Of course!
Feeling kicks regularly - as in a very active baby in the morning, tapers off for a few hours over lunch, and then kicks more on the way home. Then a bit at night before bed. I think she was up at 5am this morning, but it could have been those darn birds making a ruckus outside too...