Hello readers!
We are 37 weeks! That is insane. Truly.
Things are overall going....well? Considering other people's stories, I have it pretty good. My main ailments revolve around getting bigger, like hip pains, lower back pain, etc. My carpal tunnel in my wrist is flaring up but that could also be the week's worth of rain the northeast just got dumped. My fatigue has been horrible as each day I feel like I could sleep while walking... I guess that is natures way of prepping me for the next 20 years! I have made some adjustments lately so hopefully that improves. Overall I am lucky, I don't have the insomnia, overly frequent urination, heartburn, etc.
My other big symptom lately has been anxiety. As if it hasn't been "real" this whole time, it especially feels real now. IF she waits until full term, then we only have 3 weeks left, (actually by now its 2 weeks and 5 days!!) and thats if she doesn't come early, which she has shown signs of maybe wanting to. I'm thinking (at least hoping) that this is normal for moms this close to delivery to feel. Basically I can't decide what is scarier at this point, her being inside me or her being on the outside living with us.
Last Monday (again with the Monday's) she gave us another scare. I was having contractions on and off Sunday and then came down with this constant abdominal pain that wasn't going away. We figured it was likely the early stages of labor and we went to bed to get a good night's rest, thinking we'd be having a baby Monday. I tried working from home Monday but the pain continued although the contractions faded. I took a nap and the pain continued. I let the doctor know and she told me to rest and try a few stretches to get baby to move. I tried as best I could and went to a cardiology appt that I had, and when I left the cardiologist I just felt dizzy, out of it and still had the pain. I called the doctor again and was told to go to L&D triage. Well, long story short, 6 hours were spent in triage and we didn't leave until 11:30 pm. Our end diagnosis was "heartburn" and I was still in a LOT of pain. I knew it wasn't heartburn, I've had heartburn before throughout my life and know exactly what it feels like. This felt like I was wearing jeans just above my belly button that were way too tight and digging into me, even though there was nothing there. But we were exhausted, I was sore from laying on a stretcher, and were both starving. So we took the diagnosis and left. Tuesday I stayed home from work and rested, the pain continued. I tried yoga, hot shower, resting, lots of water...The pain slightly subsided. I went to get groceries and was practically gripping the shopping cart with white knuckles in pain. I went home and rested some more. Eventually the pain subsided on its own, but it really got me thinking, at what point do you really start raising the alarm? It's not just me and my body anymore, I am a mom now and need to advocate for my daughter. At what point is it just to keep calling the doctors because you are in pain even though they diagnosed you with "heartburn"? I hate being "that" person that doctors roll their eyes at, but they're also not living in my body and feeling my pain. I know its not OK to listen to horror stories online, but how can you avoid them? I hear these stories of mom with weird symptoms that ended up being a matter of life or death for their baby, and they caught it just in time thanks to the mom continuously fighting for their unborn child. It really is hard knowing at what point to trust yourself or to just the doctors. I work in and receive healthcare from a state of the art hospital and healthcare system which I know is a blessing in comparison to other healthcare institutions in my area that I could not say the same for. But it is still terrifying.
So yeah, these last few weeks are anxiety driven as I worry for her health. I go weekly to the doctor and so much technology exists to monitor unborn children, but I know how fast things can take a turn for the worse. I just am terrified I will miss a symptom and not know she's in danger. I've always been fascinated by healthcare technology and I want all the tests done because I want to know as much about her as possible! Her size, her weight, etc. She always passes her kick counts, but then there are those days where she just isn't moving as much and you can see the anxiety all over my face and my tensed body on those days. I just have had horrible nightmares of her not making it or something horribly wrong with her health and I cannot imagine coming all this way and not getting to meet her and bring her home. I just cannot. I addressed these horrible fears with the doctor and she offered anti-anxiety medicine. As if. You would need to put me in a coma to get rid of my anxiety, and frankly I would think any new mom would say that! Its natural to be concerned, and I wouldn't want to be a happy go lucky zombie walking around thats not concerned about her child's health.
But that brings me to her being born! Let's skip over the whole labor and delivery part, I know thats full of many anxious thoughts I won't bring up now. Let's skip right to the day when we bring her home. I know my anxiety will continue. That's natural for a mom with a new baby. But being so close to this point, I am trying to visualize our life with a newborn and the next year ahead. I know our life will change drastically and its hard imagining those scenarios and how we will cope until we're in the middle of it living it. We both want to do everything right, but like any new parent, we also have no idea what we are doing. I'm not sure yet how I am going to sleep, especially that first week, and trust that she's okay, alive and breathing. I remember babysitting infants and sometimes would just watch them breathe as they slept to ensure they were okay. But I hope that anxiety fades in time. But even the years to come, It's going to be hard controlling my anxiety with any ailment the child has. She will cough and I will be worried its tuberculosis. Okay thats extreme, but you get my point. With my huge imagination mixed with my anxiety, you can probably guess I've always been a little bit of a hypochondriac myself. And this extends to those I love also. When my husband has a health issue or a close family member, I always feel like I need to err on the side of caution and I think of all the horrible things it could be. I think this stems from a fear of guilt, from imagining if I were wrong or downplayed their concerns or symptoms and then it ended up being something deadly or serious. I think the same thing applies with my future child. As a nurse myself, I fear that if I downplay their symptom, what If it does turn out to be very serious and I ignored it?
We have picked out our pediatrician and he has helped to ease my anxiety. He has been in practice for almost 30 years and seems to really know his stuff and has good instinct. I trust that and hope we will be a good match.
Overall, we cannot wait to meet her. To see what she looks like. To bring her home and start living our lives as a family of three (6 with the pets!) and to start seeing and experiences those miracles and her milestones. We can't wait to start living life through her eyes and experiencing all life has to offer with a child, showing her all the things we love. But I know the next couple months are going to be the most challenging of them all also. We are very blessed to have a lot of support with friends and family very close by and just a text or call away, so I am thankful for that.
Thank you for sticking with it with a long post with me. It helps to just get all of this out, even just for my sanity! Now we are going to go on a walk :-)
Happy Saturday!
Love, the New Motherboard. <3
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Creating Her Nursery
Hello!
We are officially "near term" at 36 weeks! So if labor started now, theres no delaying or prolonging it! Thats insane. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Each milestone in the pregnancy, from finding we were pregnant December 11th, 2017 today feels so long ago yet like yesterday at the same time.
She gave us a little bit of a scare last Monday when I started having contractions bad enough that seemed worth calling the doctor for. The doctor sends me to L&D triage, who at first pretty much brushed us off as totally fine but thought we could run some tests anyway. Turns out contractions were real, coming at around every 10 minutes or so and I was 1cm dilated, 80% effaced! For those not familiar with these terms (I really wasn't either til last Monday), the baby is ready to start pushing out at 10 cm. Effacement goes up to 100% and is speaking of how thin your cervix is. The thinner it is, (100%), the closer you are til baby comes out. So I seemed to be in questionable labor. We waited and waited longer in triage to see if I would progress (even got a hot stylish gown and robe and we walked the hallways) but alas, we did not progress and actually the contractions seemed to have stopped on their own. Baby Tan was like, wait no- Nevermind- not ready yet! So home we went. Ever since then we sort of have had whipped our butts into gear to finalize getting ready for babies arrival.
So that brings me to my topic, the progress of our nursery being put together!
Creating the art was one of my favorite parts. We chose a theme of Disney's Frozen, as we both are pretty big Disney nerds, we both like it cold (no really she's gonna get used to being chilly quick so we may as well put snowflakes in her room), and we love Anna, Elsa, Sven and Olaf. We also had to buy the paint when it was on sale, and at the time did not know the gender yet. We genuinely guessed it was a boy so we went with blue, and thought if it was a girl we can girly it up with a feminine touches throughout the room.
So with the frozen theme I wanted to create portraits of those favorite four characters. Here is the beginning of each and the ending:
Anna:
Elsa:
Sven:
Olaf:
The rest involved a little more hands on construction. When we moved in, the room that we converted to the nursery was a spare bedroom that likely hadn't been updated since the house was built in 1987. The carpet was stained, smelled, the paint was just a base white, and it just lacked any personality. Also the fan on top looked to be original with the house also!
So out came the carpet, in went the laminate floor, and painted the walls:
Then came the furniture (only minor amounts of cursing and tantrums involved), and decorations, and we have a finished product!! Special parts of this photo: The quilt atop our changing table is made by my very talented friend Jess who makes thousands of quilts and I am honored to have our little girl grow up with her own! Its designed to be Anna's dress and the back of it is Elsa's (we plan to rotate). Check out her website here: The Quilty Habit
The artwork:
The closet! A little messy right now as we are still organizing what goes where...
The crib! Next to it is a very special gift, Jasper. I grew up with Jasper! My grandpa made it for me when I was about 2 years old and It has stayed with me my whole life. It then stayed at my parents house when I moved out, and my mother gifted it to me (well, my daughter) now at her baby shower. Now she can grow up with it, and hopefully pass it along to her child also one day. Very special!
We are so lucky and so blessed to have been gifted with so many wonderful additions to the nursery, our baby girl is so lucky to have so many friends and family that love her so much! We also were very fortunate to be pregnant when Babies R Us is going out of business and we got much of the furniture brand new at a very discounted price! Can't beat it.
Few more additions coming as we finish up some more pieces of artwork for her, and I can't wait to show you!
We are absolutely stoked to meet her and can't wait. Although the calendar states we have to wait four weeks, I think it will be more like 2! But we will see!
With love,
The New Motherboard <3
We are officially "near term" at 36 weeks! So if labor started now, theres no delaying or prolonging it! Thats insane. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. Each milestone in the pregnancy, from finding we were pregnant December 11th, 2017 today feels so long ago yet like yesterday at the same time.
She gave us a little bit of a scare last Monday when I started having contractions bad enough that seemed worth calling the doctor for. The doctor sends me to L&D triage, who at first pretty much brushed us off as totally fine but thought we could run some tests anyway. Turns out contractions were real, coming at around every 10 minutes or so and I was 1cm dilated, 80% effaced! For those not familiar with these terms (I really wasn't either til last Monday), the baby is ready to start pushing out at 10 cm. Effacement goes up to 100% and is speaking of how thin your cervix is. The thinner it is, (100%), the closer you are til baby comes out. So I seemed to be in questionable labor. We waited and waited longer in triage to see if I would progress (even got a hot stylish gown and robe and we walked the hallways) but alas, we did not progress and actually the contractions seemed to have stopped on their own. Baby Tan was like, wait no- Nevermind- not ready yet! So home we went. Ever since then we sort of have had whipped our butts into gear to finalize getting ready for babies arrival.
So that brings me to my topic, the progress of our nursery being put together!
Creating the art was one of my favorite parts. We chose a theme of Disney's Frozen, as we both are pretty big Disney nerds, we both like it cold (no really she's gonna get used to being chilly quick so we may as well put snowflakes in her room), and we love Anna, Elsa, Sven and Olaf. We also had to buy the paint when it was on sale, and at the time did not know the gender yet. We genuinely guessed it was a boy so we went with blue, and thought if it was a girl we can girly it up with a feminine touches throughout the room.
So with the frozen theme I wanted to create portraits of those favorite four characters. Here is the beginning of each and the ending:
Anna:
Elsa:
Sven:
Olaf:
The rest involved a little more hands on construction. When we moved in, the room that we converted to the nursery was a spare bedroom that likely hadn't been updated since the house was built in 1987. The carpet was stained, smelled, the paint was just a base white, and it just lacked any personality. Also the fan on top looked to be original with the house also!
So out came the carpet, in went the laminate floor, and painted the walls:
Then came the furniture (only minor amounts of cursing and tantrums involved), and decorations, and we have a finished product!! Special parts of this photo: The quilt atop our changing table is made by my very talented friend Jess who makes thousands of quilts and I am honored to have our little girl grow up with her own! Its designed to be Anna's dress and the back of it is Elsa's (we plan to rotate). Check out her website here: The Quilty Habit
The artwork:
The closet! A little messy right now as we are still organizing what goes where...
The crib! Next to it is a very special gift, Jasper. I grew up with Jasper! My grandpa made it for me when I was about 2 years old and It has stayed with me my whole life. It then stayed at my parents house when I moved out, and my mother gifted it to me (well, my daughter) now at her baby shower. Now she can grow up with it, and hopefully pass it along to her child also one day. Very special!
We are so lucky and so blessed to have been gifted with so many wonderful additions to the nursery, our baby girl is so lucky to have so many friends and family that love her so much! We also were very fortunate to be pregnant when Babies R Us is going out of business and we got much of the furniture brand new at a very discounted price! Can't beat it.
Few more additions coming as we finish up some more pieces of artwork for her, and I can't wait to show you!
We are absolutely stoked to meet her and can't wait. Although the calendar states we have to wait four weeks, I think it will be more like 2! But we will see!
With love,
The New Motherboard <3
Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Dreaming Big
Hello Readers!
Happy fourth of July!
Might I start off by stating that this week hubby and I were joking that next baby needs to be an early spring baby. Not in the middle of a snowstorm, but I can be 7-9 months pregnant in the cold and not in this drastic heat! It's been awful. Even staying indoors is challenging as our AC can only do so much without breaking! It's nice to dream at least, I know baby #2 will happen whenever it's meant to be. It's even a joke that we are thinking about baby #2 yet! (I swear we aren't, just joking it needs to be a winter baby.
Otherwise, I am 34 weeks!! It's INSANE. It's terrifying that baby could come any time now. I know its early still, but in TWO weeks is the mark where they wouldn't try and stop early labor. On June 25th I saw a Reiki therapist ( I highly recommend trying it!) who predicted my baby was coming in 4 weeks (so, like 2.5 weeks from now). We shall see!
My main symptoms have been my 3 ribs are "out of place" according to the chiropractor due to my expanding body and lungs shifting. So all day my upper left back feels numb and tingly and at night its excrutiating pain. But besides that, I am feeling great. Seriously way better than the first and second trimesters. I could honestly do this trimester for the whole nine months instead of go through the 1st and 2nd again.
As for baby, she's in the 73rd percentile! She's about 5 lbs and is very healthy. Going to be a big baby (scared & terrified emoji here please). One of my favorite parts about pregnancy that I have noticed, especially recently, is that when I am very happy, like when a favorite song comes on, or I am eating a favorite food, or I'm with great company, or whatever, she moves so much. Like she senses my joy and is celebrating it too. Could be a coincidence but I don't think so!
Anyway, this post is about dreams. I have had the most ridiculous dreams in this pregnancy and some are hilarious. I wanted to share and hope you have some laughs too! Please feel free any mamas out there any funny pregnant dreams you remember!
The latest & greatest (last night):
All the sudden we had this ginormous house with like 5 floors and hundreds of rooms. For some reason we had like a crazy amount of kids like 20 or something crazy. So here I am in my dream searching for my husband and I finally found him on one of the upper floors hiding, and he had made a little man cave. So I decided to make my own woman cave too. And he is like, well who is watching the kids? And I was like, I don't know, I'm trying to hide from them! And he is like, "me too!" so then the dogs found us and we were all hiding together and we were telling the dogs not to bark so that the kids couldn't find us!! Hah! What does that mean? Don't have 20 kids I guess...
Next-
We went into labour at home, and for some reason that wasn't really a big deal in my dream. We had the baby and it was like a piece of cake like we did this every day. So we put her up in her crib, and we go back downstairs and watch TV for a few hours. Then eventually I am like, do you think I should feed her? And my husband shrugs and is like, probably... So I go to get her from the crib and see she's sleeping with a blanket and I'm like OMG they're not supposed to sleep with blankets! (Great time to start parenting). So I feed her and then I go back downstairs and I ask my husband, "So if she was born this early do you think we should take her to the hospital or anything to get checked?" I can't even these dreams are cray...
Most of my others are pretty vague and just general concepts. I had one where we were on a long plane ride and I just laid her on the seat next to me (not even a seatbelt lol). I got up to go talk to people and came back and she was just sleeping there, and other passengers were like, do you think you should hold her? And I'm like oh shoot I forgot she was there! Lol.
Then I've had a few vague dreams where I'm supposed to watch someone else's baby and I suddenly realize I have no idea what I'm doing, and If I can't babysit how am I going to be a mom???
Dreams overall are pretty funny and are no reflection of who we really are or how we will really act (god I hope so at least!). I think they highlight our worst and greatest fears but who knows why..maybe to show us that even though we think we are messing up in real life, we know we will never actually be that bad as we let ourselves be in our dreams?
I will likely even add to this post as I dream more, but please comment with your own funny dreams! I'm sure we all have the same themes and plot lines as pregnant women! I've heard other themes like forgetting you have a baby and not attending to it for days, or losing the baby, etc.
Thanks for reading!
Love,
The New Motherboard
Happy fourth of July!
Might I start off by stating that this week hubby and I were joking that next baby needs to be an early spring baby. Not in the middle of a snowstorm, but I can be 7-9 months pregnant in the cold and not in this drastic heat! It's been awful. Even staying indoors is challenging as our AC can only do so much without breaking! It's nice to dream at least, I know baby #2 will happen whenever it's meant to be. It's even a joke that we are thinking about baby #2 yet! (I swear we aren't, just joking it needs to be a winter baby.
Otherwise, I am 34 weeks!! It's INSANE. It's terrifying that baby could come any time now. I know its early still, but in TWO weeks is the mark where they wouldn't try and stop early labor. On June 25th I saw a Reiki therapist ( I highly recommend trying it!) who predicted my baby was coming in 4 weeks (so, like 2.5 weeks from now). We shall see!
My main symptoms have been my 3 ribs are "out of place" according to the chiropractor due to my expanding body and lungs shifting. So all day my upper left back feels numb and tingly and at night its excrutiating pain. But besides that, I am feeling great. Seriously way better than the first and second trimesters. I could honestly do this trimester for the whole nine months instead of go through the 1st and 2nd again.
As for baby, she's in the 73rd percentile! She's about 5 lbs and is very healthy. Going to be a big baby (scared & terrified emoji here please). One of my favorite parts about pregnancy that I have noticed, especially recently, is that when I am very happy, like when a favorite song comes on, or I am eating a favorite food, or I'm with great company, or whatever, she moves so much. Like she senses my joy and is celebrating it too. Could be a coincidence but I don't think so!
Anyway, this post is about dreams. I have had the most ridiculous dreams in this pregnancy and some are hilarious. I wanted to share and hope you have some laughs too! Please feel free any mamas out there any funny pregnant dreams you remember!
The latest & greatest (last night):
All the sudden we had this ginormous house with like 5 floors and hundreds of rooms. For some reason we had like a crazy amount of kids like 20 or something crazy. So here I am in my dream searching for my husband and I finally found him on one of the upper floors hiding, and he had made a little man cave. So I decided to make my own woman cave too. And he is like, well who is watching the kids? And I was like, I don't know, I'm trying to hide from them! And he is like, "me too!" so then the dogs found us and we were all hiding together and we were telling the dogs not to bark so that the kids couldn't find us!! Hah! What does that mean? Don't have 20 kids I guess...
Next-
We went into labour at home, and for some reason that wasn't really a big deal in my dream. We had the baby and it was like a piece of cake like we did this every day. So we put her up in her crib, and we go back downstairs and watch TV for a few hours. Then eventually I am like, do you think I should feed her? And my husband shrugs and is like, probably... So I go to get her from the crib and see she's sleeping with a blanket and I'm like OMG they're not supposed to sleep with blankets! (Great time to start parenting). So I feed her and then I go back downstairs and I ask my husband, "So if she was born this early do you think we should take her to the hospital or anything to get checked?" I can't even these dreams are cray...
Most of my others are pretty vague and just general concepts. I had one where we were on a long plane ride and I just laid her on the seat next to me (not even a seatbelt lol). I got up to go talk to people and came back and she was just sleeping there, and other passengers were like, do you think you should hold her? And I'm like oh shoot I forgot she was there! Lol.
Then I've had a few vague dreams where I'm supposed to watch someone else's baby and I suddenly realize I have no idea what I'm doing, and If I can't babysit how am I going to be a mom???
Dreams overall are pretty funny and are no reflection of who we really are or how we will really act (god I hope so at least!). I think they highlight our worst and greatest fears but who knows why..maybe to show us that even though we think we are messing up in real life, we know we will never actually be that bad as we let ourselves be in our dreams?
I will likely even add to this post as I dream more, but please comment with your own funny dreams! I'm sure we all have the same themes and plot lines as pregnant women! I've heard other themes like forgetting you have a baby and not attending to it for days, or losing the baby, etc.
Thanks for reading!
Love,
The New Motherboard
Monday, June 11, 2018
Touring the Birth Center
Hello!
So tonight my husband and I toured the hospital we will be giving birth at. INSANE. Even though I happen to work at this hospital, I a) get lost every time I go to this campus and b) never have really been to L&D except for one time and didn't see much. Plus, husband needed to see!
Boy (or should I say Girl!), was it eye opening. I know its partly third trimester hormones but I almost turned into a teary soppy mess at least four times every time I kept envisioning my husband, myself and our daughter in the same scenarios they were going over. Every time they mentioned "mom will do this", or "we always have our moms do that", or "Mom will sleep here", or "mom gets to wear this", and ESPECIALLY when they were going over the matching baby & mom bracelets and the skin to skin time, I almost definitely lost it just envisioning those moments.
The scariest part is, I am 30 1/2 weeks now....although it would be WAY too early still, technically she could come any time between now and her due date. Each week that passes it gets more and more likely. So everything that we saw tonight is getting more and more real and there are no brakes!
Some thoughts that ran through my head during the rest of the tour:
"My legs are gonna go up THERE? I don't see that happening."
"I get to bounce on a bouncy ball. That looks fun."
"Ooh....Jacuzzi."
"Wait we get this whole suite when we are pushing and screaming for 24 hours and then we get to go to the closet rooms? Fun."
"Temperpedic mattress? On a stretcher? Lol."
"I seriously won't be able to eat or drink during labor?!"
"can I shower during labor? Will I want to?"
"but seriously, no eating or drinking??"
"How fast do we get whisked away to the closet room from the suite after we push the baby out?"
"Those cribs though. Interesting."
"BABY!!" (we saw one!)
"Oh my god my husbands face right now." :D hah.
"It's funny how none of these moms are talking to each other, because we all are in the third trimester and we all hate small talk! Lets give each other that courtesy of skipping the small talk!"
"Seriously though what if I get thirsty?"
No but in all seriousness, I can't believe how real its starting to feel.
She's moving so much! (I'm literally doing a kick count now and I'm at 10 kicks in 14 minutes. Kick counts confuse me because I still don't know what to count as one kick. Sometimes it feels like an octopus is dancing for 10 seconds, is that one kick or 50? Seriously!
She hiccups so much as well! Adorable, but feels really weird. She hiccups most in the morning when I wake up or when I want to go to bed. I wonder if this means she will be a hiccupy baby.
As for me, mommy is feeling okay. We are trying to go on as many walks as we can to keep my weight under control....although the subsequent Ritas Ice right after kind of doesn't help but its SO good and so refreshing :D
Back pain is probably the worst symptom right now. I have 3-4 ribs out of place according to my chiropractor. So this means at night while laying down its almost impossible to be comfortable for longer than 20 minutes, and all day my rib in my back feels like pins and needles and is cold and tingly. Then my tailbone hurts also, which has made trying to put pants/underpants/skirts/anything on my lower half really really painful, also shoe-applying, getting in and out of cars, on and off toilets....ahh. Yeah.
Daddy built the crib this week.....Lots of shouting, a few beers, a couple (okay, many) curse words later, and its a finished crib on four legs! YASS.
But 9.5 weeks to go! I cannot wait to meet our little girl, we are both anxiously awaiting her arrival! But she can stay put for a little while longer please :-)
Love,
The New Motherboard <3
So tonight my husband and I toured the hospital we will be giving birth at. INSANE. Even though I happen to work at this hospital, I a) get lost every time I go to this campus and b) never have really been to L&D except for one time and didn't see much. Plus, husband needed to see!
Boy (or should I say Girl!), was it eye opening. I know its partly third trimester hormones but I almost turned into a teary soppy mess at least four times every time I kept envisioning my husband, myself and our daughter in the same scenarios they were going over. Every time they mentioned "mom will do this", or "we always have our moms do that", or "Mom will sleep here", or "mom gets to wear this", and ESPECIALLY when they were going over the matching baby & mom bracelets and the skin to skin time, I almost definitely lost it just envisioning those moments.
The scariest part is, I am 30 1/2 weeks now....although it would be WAY too early still, technically she could come any time between now and her due date. Each week that passes it gets more and more likely. So everything that we saw tonight is getting more and more real and there are no brakes!
Some thoughts that ran through my head during the rest of the tour:
"My legs are gonna go up THERE? I don't see that happening."
"I get to bounce on a bouncy ball. That looks fun."
"Ooh....Jacuzzi."
"Wait we get this whole suite when we are pushing and screaming for 24 hours and then we get to go to the closet rooms? Fun."
"Temperpedic mattress? On a stretcher? Lol."
"I seriously won't be able to eat or drink during labor?!"
"can I shower during labor? Will I want to?"
"but seriously, no eating or drinking??"
"How fast do we get whisked away to the closet room from the suite after we push the baby out?"
"Those cribs though. Interesting."
"BABY!!" (we saw one!)
"Oh my god my husbands face right now." :D hah.
"It's funny how none of these moms are talking to each other, because we all are in the third trimester and we all hate small talk! Lets give each other that courtesy of skipping the small talk!"
"Seriously though what if I get thirsty?"
No but in all seriousness, I can't believe how real its starting to feel.
She's moving so much! (I'm literally doing a kick count now and I'm at 10 kicks in 14 minutes. Kick counts confuse me because I still don't know what to count as one kick. Sometimes it feels like an octopus is dancing for 10 seconds, is that one kick or 50? Seriously!
She hiccups so much as well! Adorable, but feels really weird. She hiccups most in the morning when I wake up or when I want to go to bed. I wonder if this means she will be a hiccupy baby.
As for me, mommy is feeling okay. We are trying to go on as many walks as we can to keep my weight under control....although the subsequent Ritas Ice right after kind of doesn't help but its SO good and so refreshing :D
Back pain is probably the worst symptom right now. I have 3-4 ribs out of place according to my chiropractor. So this means at night while laying down its almost impossible to be comfortable for longer than 20 minutes, and all day my rib in my back feels like pins and needles and is cold and tingly. Then my tailbone hurts also, which has made trying to put pants/underpants/skirts/anything on my lower half really really painful, also shoe-applying, getting in and out of cars, on and off toilets....ahh. Yeah.
Daddy built the crib this week.....Lots of shouting, a few beers, a couple (okay, many) curse words later, and its a finished crib on four legs! YASS.
But 9.5 weeks to go! I cannot wait to meet our little girl, we are both anxiously awaiting her arrival! But she can stay put for a little while longer please :-)
Love,
The New Motherboard <3
Sunday, May 27, 2018
A New Beginning
Hello Everyone!
So I am starting a new blog! I've blogged other blogs in the past, and I miss it so much! It's such a great, healthy channel to document a journey or just daily thoughts. My main mission here is to document the final and third trimester of my first pregnancy and then continue on to document the joys and hardships of raising our first child! The blog is for me, I'm not working to market to a global audience by any means. The world has enough 'new mom' blogs, thats for sure! But I want something that I can publish as a book for myself after her first year to document the years journey, to look back on all we've done together. What will make my blog a little unique, is technology. I've named my blog "the New Motherboard", partly in that because I am obviously a new mom, and the other half is because I love all things technology. I work as a nurse in IT and get to see and hear about the brand new technology available, particularly how it is used and affects healthcare. As we have been shopping and browsing for things we need for our baby, its been overwhelming on how many options there are out there in terms of technological products. So part of what I want to focus on is not just new parenting, but also using existing and new technology in ours and our child's life.
A little about myself, I am a first time mom at 29 years old, soon to be 30 in one week! I work as a nurse in informatics, but prior to that was a nurse at the bedside for 10 years. I am happily married to my husband, who I met six years ago and have been married to for almost three years. We have been trying for this child ever since the wedding, so we are very excited. We both feel like we were blessed enough to spend our 20's vacationing, enjoying life, exploring, building our careers, upgraded our house, and now are ready to enter parenthood in our 30s! We have three "Furchildren", one girl Dog Daisy, a 10 lb cockapoo, and 2 cats, Belle & Maui, 5 years and a kitten. They already keep us busy!
So far the pregnancy has been relatively good and healthy. My first trimester I was downtrodden with awful nausea. I only vomited once, but the nausea alone was so bad there were days I could barely function or stand up. The second trimester got rid of the nausea (thank god) but brought in severe headaches. I've still been working to battle the headaches, but they've improved a little as I have learned safe techniques to help. The third trimester so far has been mostly back pain, hip pain and heartburn! Yay!
As for baby, we are having a baby girl! She is usually very active and it amazes me the movements she makes sometimes. I was trying to explain how it felt to my husband and couldn't come up with words that made sense. It is just truly surreal. She moves the most when I eat or drink, but in general anytime I am sitting down. Or driving! Lately I have noticed when I am in the car she likes to move, not sure if that means she will be a "car sleeper" or if she will hate the car. Who knows!
I am trying to soak in every moment of the pregnancy. Some days I feel like I'm already so done with this, but other days I don't want this time to end. Our due date is August 16th, and part of me feels like it is right around the corner (it is), and part of me feels like that is forever from now. I strive to take in each moment but life keeps me distracted easily too. I have always been a type of person to adapt quickly to situations and surroundings, whether it be a new challenge at work or in life. So part of my subconscious has just taken this whole pregnancy and just adapted to it as yeah, just a part of my life. I work full time and have plenty at work to keep my mind distracted and plugging through the weeks. But then there are those moments where it all sinks in and I am like, "Holy Sh**, I am creating an actual human being in here. This isn't something that will just be over, we are bringing home a baby!!" Its very scary. But in a good way. It's definitely harder to forget I'm creating a human now that I feel huge and she moves a lot.
Something I have really struggled with this pregnancy is watching myself get bigger and bigger. I know it's the baby, but I know its also me. I've always struggled with my weight and haven't felt comfortable in my body since I was about 20. In March 2017 I had reached the heaviest I have ever been at 212 pounds and it was the wake up call I needed. I hated how I looked and was depressed with it all. I started a journey with the help of a chiropractor and a nutritionist to start losing weight. It came off slowly that whole summer, til I started what is called the "HCG diet" in the fall 2017. This was a 500 calorie/day specific foods only diet used in combination with the HCG hormone. Through this diet in combination with the summer weight loss, I had lost a total of 40 pounds and it felt so good. I had no intentions of returning to any bad habits, I had adjusted to my new way of eating and was in a good place and wanted to lose more. Well we found out we were pregnant in December 2017. With the severe first trimester nausea, I found myself disgusted by leafy greens or excess vegetables, and all I could muster up the strength to eat was simple carbohydrates like bread or pasta. Therefore began my spiral back into my bad habits again. I had intentions to walk it off as I ate more, but we had a very very cold northeast winter and I couldn't really consistently get out walking until late April/May. By then however I was in my late second trimester coming into the third, and walking now is a lot harder. I have been working on other ways to keep my weight in check by doing small exercises and trying to find the willpower to not indulge on everything I want, but it is hard! There's gotta be a scientific fact to prove that pregnancy overall makes it harder to turn down our indulgences!
The last subject I wanted to talk about in my first post is something that has truly surprised me in this pregnancy. I want to call it "Stranger negativity". Almost every person that I have talked to about the pregnancy, whether it be a stranger, an acquaintance, a coworker, or even a good friend, they all have so many negative things to say about "what I'm in for". They all need to throw in their two cents on how hard its going to be in the next couple months raising a newborn, and how our lives will never be the same, and we can say goodbye to our freedom, and say goodbye to sleep, yada yada yada. And I get it! I know all of this is true. We've been waiting for this for over 2 years. That doesn't mean by any means that we are 100% ready, of course not. No parent can truly say they are ready, ever. But we know it's not going to be unicorns, puppies, rainbows and a perfect baby either. We know what the next few months to a year has in store. But what bothers me is how much negativity and "warnings" come from other parents out there. It's exhausting to hear. I appreciate and know they mean well and are recounting their own experiences with their children, but we will live through that soon too and see for ourselves. Why do we have to dread it? I want to strive to take in those hard days and nights as challenges but get through them. Will I likely read this post 2-3 months post birth and laugh at myself? Yeah, probably. I know its going to be hard. But literally only one mom-friend that I have said how good the experience has been for her, despite her many bad days and nights too. Everyone else has been all warnings, dread, and negative comments. It's disappointing and sad to hear and I look forward to hearing other good experiences parents are having. And I want to be that good voice for any of you too, and talk about our good and bad experiences as we raise our daughter. Like any challenge we have to strive to see the good moments in a challenging journey.
Thank you for reading everyone! I hope to post frequently on many topics that I encounter or think about in the pregnancy. Come back soon!
Love,
The New Motherboard
So I am starting a new blog! I've blogged other blogs in the past, and I miss it so much! It's such a great, healthy channel to document a journey or just daily thoughts. My main mission here is to document the final and third trimester of my first pregnancy and then continue on to document the joys and hardships of raising our first child! The blog is for me, I'm not working to market to a global audience by any means. The world has enough 'new mom' blogs, thats for sure! But I want something that I can publish as a book for myself after her first year to document the years journey, to look back on all we've done together. What will make my blog a little unique, is technology. I've named my blog "the New Motherboard", partly in that because I am obviously a new mom, and the other half is because I love all things technology. I work as a nurse in IT and get to see and hear about the brand new technology available, particularly how it is used and affects healthcare. As we have been shopping and browsing for things we need for our baby, its been overwhelming on how many options there are out there in terms of technological products. So part of what I want to focus on is not just new parenting, but also using existing and new technology in ours and our child's life.
A little about myself, I am a first time mom at 29 years old, soon to be 30 in one week! I work as a nurse in informatics, but prior to that was a nurse at the bedside for 10 years. I am happily married to my husband, who I met six years ago and have been married to for almost three years. We have been trying for this child ever since the wedding, so we are very excited. We both feel like we were blessed enough to spend our 20's vacationing, enjoying life, exploring, building our careers, upgraded our house, and now are ready to enter parenthood in our 30s! We have three "Furchildren", one girl Dog Daisy, a 10 lb cockapoo, and 2 cats, Belle & Maui, 5 years and a kitten. They already keep us busy!
So far the pregnancy has been relatively good and healthy. My first trimester I was downtrodden with awful nausea. I only vomited once, but the nausea alone was so bad there were days I could barely function or stand up. The second trimester got rid of the nausea (thank god) but brought in severe headaches. I've still been working to battle the headaches, but they've improved a little as I have learned safe techniques to help. The third trimester so far has been mostly back pain, hip pain and heartburn! Yay!
As for baby, we are having a baby girl! She is usually very active and it amazes me the movements she makes sometimes. I was trying to explain how it felt to my husband and couldn't come up with words that made sense. It is just truly surreal. She moves the most when I eat or drink, but in general anytime I am sitting down. Or driving! Lately I have noticed when I am in the car she likes to move, not sure if that means she will be a "car sleeper" or if she will hate the car. Who knows!
I am trying to soak in every moment of the pregnancy. Some days I feel like I'm already so done with this, but other days I don't want this time to end. Our due date is August 16th, and part of me feels like it is right around the corner (it is), and part of me feels like that is forever from now. I strive to take in each moment but life keeps me distracted easily too. I have always been a type of person to adapt quickly to situations and surroundings, whether it be a new challenge at work or in life. So part of my subconscious has just taken this whole pregnancy and just adapted to it as yeah, just a part of my life. I work full time and have plenty at work to keep my mind distracted and plugging through the weeks. But then there are those moments where it all sinks in and I am like, "Holy Sh**, I am creating an actual human being in here. This isn't something that will just be over, we are bringing home a baby!!" Its very scary. But in a good way. It's definitely harder to forget I'm creating a human now that I feel huge and she moves a lot.
Something I have really struggled with this pregnancy is watching myself get bigger and bigger. I know it's the baby, but I know its also me. I've always struggled with my weight and haven't felt comfortable in my body since I was about 20. In March 2017 I had reached the heaviest I have ever been at 212 pounds and it was the wake up call I needed. I hated how I looked and was depressed with it all. I started a journey with the help of a chiropractor and a nutritionist to start losing weight. It came off slowly that whole summer, til I started what is called the "HCG diet" in the fall 2017. This was a 500 calorie/day specific foods only diet used in combination with the HCG hormone. Through this diet in combination with the summer weight loss, I had lost a total of 40 pounds and it felt so good. I had no intentions of returning to any bad habits, I had adjusted to my new way of eating and was in a good place and wanted to lose more. Well we found out we were pregnant in December 2017. With the severe first trimester nausea, I found myself disgusted by leafy greens or excess vegetables, and all I could muster up the strength to eat was simple carbohydrates like bread or pasta. Therefore began my spiral back into my bad habits again. I had intentions to walk it off as I ate more, but we had a very very cold northeast winter and I couldn't really consistently get out walking until late April/May. By then however I was in my late second trimester coming into the third, and walking now is a lot harder. I have been working on other ways to keep my weight in check by doing small exercises and trying to find the willpower to not indulge on everything I want, but it is hard! There's gotta be a scientific fact to prove that pregnancy overall makes it harder to turn down our indulgences!
The last subject I wanted to talk about in my first post is something that has truly surprised me in this pregnancy. I want to call it "Stranger negativity". Almost every person that I have talked to about the pregnancy, whether it be a stranger, an acquaintance, a coworker, or even a good friend, they all have so many negative things to say about "what I'm in for". They all need to throw in their two cents on how hard its going to be in the next couple months raising a newborn, and how our lives will never be the same, and we can say goodbye to our freedom, and say goodbye to sleep, yada yada yada. And I get it! I know all of this is true. We've been waiting for this for over 2 years. That doesn't mean by any means that we are 100% ready, of course not. No parent can truly say they are ready, ever. But we know it's not going to be unicorns, puppies, rainbows and a perfect baby either. We know what the next few months to a year has in store. But what bothers me is how much negativity and "warnings" come from other parents out there. It's exhausting to hear. I appreciate and know they mean well and are recounting their own experiences with their children, but we will live through that soon too and see for ourselves. Why do we have to dread it? I want to strive to take in those hard days and nights as challenges but get through them. Will I likely read this post 2-3 months post birth and laugh at myself? Yeah, probably. I know its going to be hard. But literally only one mom-friend that I have said how good the experience has been for her, despite her many bad days and nights too. Everyone else has been all warnings, dread, and negative comments. It's disappointing and sad to hear and I look forward to hearing other good experiences parents are having. And I want to be that good voice for any of you too, and talk about our good and bad experiences as we raise our daughter. Like any challenge we have to strive to see the good moments in a challenging journey.
Thank you for reading everyone! I hope to post frequently on many topics that I encounter or think about in the pregnancy. Come back soon!
Love,
The New Motherboard
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