Sprouticus is as big as a kumquat!

Posted on by anislandofchoices

Here is Sprout’s first picture!

My baby at 9 weeks and 4 days old.

 

Seeing this actually made being pregnant a lot more real for me.

  • Measured right on target at 9 weeks and 4 days
  • Strong heartbeat at 173 bpm
  • No, you can’t tell yet if it’s a boy or a girl

Morning Sickness seems to be over, finally.  

I can’t believe I’m already in the home stretch of my first trimester.  What have I learned so far?

Well, my little Sprouticus has outgrown his/her tail and has proceeded to make life much more bearable by allowing me to eat without feeling “off”.  I have, however, given up coffee entirely.  I don’t even think to drive into the Starbucks parking lot anymore and it used to be that my car would just turn there automatically when I was too tired to turn it on my own.  I’m eating lots of fresh fruit, namely apples and grapes.  Having a produce guy as your significant other is a perk that I appreciate every day.

I have been soooooooo tired!  I get plenty of rest, but found that I’ve fallen asleep on the chair/couch more than once and regularly take naps on the weekend.  I get in bed and it’s all I can do to stay awake for 10 minutes let alone read my new book or play on my phone.  I get up a lot at night for the bathroom and sometimes have a hard time getting back to sleep.

My pants are snug.  I denied it originally, but it’s becoming truer and truer.  I even noticed a pair of undies seemed snug.  I’m going to have to remedy this soon or I’ll be out of clothes to wear for work and that’s not going to be a good long term solution.  Maybe next Monday since I have that day off, I’ll go do some shopping.  I heard a nasty rumor that Macy’s doesn’t carry maternity clothes and that just floored me.  I’m hoping that’s not the case.

Bras…..OMG, my desperate need for bras…..   My boobs are enormous.  They’ve always been big, even at a lower weight, they stick around and are certainly more than my share.  But now they are spilling out over/under my current bras.  So I have a few on order and we’ll see how those work.  If they don’t work, then I’ll just exchange for even bigger.  I got one that’s a ‘weekend bra’, one that’s a step below a ‘weekend bra’ (closer to a sports bra) and two that are like my regular bras just with more space in the cups.  Wish me luck.

Here is what Sprout would look like right now.

I guess this is the turning point between embryo and fetus where the ‘forming’ is over and the ‘growing’ starts.

  • Of course, this is if we could see him/her in utero
  • And this is supposed to be as big as a kumquat.  That doesn’t help most people who have never seen a kumquat, like me.

 

 

 

Welcome Sprouticus!! (Heather)

Posted on by anislandofchoices

Or is it Sproutacus?  Or Sproutucus?         

Now you’re all wondering who is this Sprouticus that I’m speaking of?  Well, Sprouticus is my embryo.  She/he is 7 weeks and 5 days old today.  This seems very old considering I’ve known little Sprouticus since 5 weeks 4 days.  Wow, how quickly life changes.  I barely had time to feel engaged!  And for the record, no, we didn’t know until 2 weeks after the engagement but it’s a shotgun wedding nonetheless.  Oops!

Image

This is what 7 weeks would look like if you could see Sprouticus.

I’m having a baby.  How did that happen!?  Well, okay, I know how it happened (Dad, see Kevin for details).  It seems kind of surreal still.

Why Sprouticus?

Aunt Ho’s affectionate nickname for this one will likely stick.

  • How else are you supposed to refer to an embryo if you don’t know what to call it yet?  “The embryo” or “my fetus” seem rather….medical.
  • This could turn into a long term nickname if the child resembles anything remotely sprout-like.

 

Am I excited?

Of course!  *said with vast trepidation*

  • Clearly this is the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life.  It’s a big deal.  And it wasn’t a big deal until it was happening and now it’s a big deal.  What if I mess this up?  This isn’t one of those things you can just abandon if you get bored with it or blow off for a few weeks while focusing on other things.
  • The most excited I’ve been in almost my whole life was the telling of my parents.  I will never forget the shocked look on Mom’s face when she saw the stork.  Had it not looked suspicious to be photographing her opening a kitchen composter, I would have made sure we had a camera handy.

Gonna need a bigger house.

5 bedrooms??

  • I’ve always held to the rule that 4 bedrooms and 2 ½ bathrooms were plenty of room.  Not so much anymore.  I’m getting 2 stepkids this year, a child of my own, and Kevin already needs his own room due to the snoring extremes that he regularly achieves.  We need 5 bedrooms.
  • Next year, after recovering from my unpaid maternity leave, we’ll remedy this problem somehow.

Muddy Horse (Heidi)

Posted on by anislandofchoices

Today was all about:

Work.  It was a good, productive day in the office.  Of course, I always love it when the day is done and I get to head home to spend time with my little family.

Exercise:

Today’s morning workout was random, but awesome!  I started with 5 minutes on the elliptical followed by 15 minutes on the treadmill walking on an incline.

After that I switched to some circuit training and completed the following:

  • 3 min- pushups, butt presses, fire hydrants, and tricep dips
  • 2 min- jumping jacks and side twists
  • 1 min- straight leg stretches
  • 5 min elliptical
  • 3 min- bicep curls and lunges
  • 2 min- jump rope and straight punches
  • 1 min- heel touches
  • 5 min- elliptical
  • 3 min- squats with shoulder press, dead lift with two arm row, and dead lift hold with reverse grip row
  • 2 min- ski jumps and uppercuts
  • 1 min- plank

Phew!  I’ll definitely be sore tomorrow.

Other Choices Today:

  • Got a second monitor at work.  I’m finally caught up with 2001.
  • Loving this story about the muddy horse.
  • Loved my lunch salad- lettuce, cabbage, tomato, red onion, avocado, turkey, black olives, and sauteed brussel sprouts!

Pot Roast (Heidi)

Posted on by anislandofchoices

Today was all about:

Pot Roast.  Today I made a pot roast in the slow cooker following the recipe noted on the A1 bottle.  The dish was met with rave reviews by Patrick.  Comments like, “Mm, mm, that was delicious Scoop” and “That was excellent” and “Best pot roast” were heard after consumption.  Quite the compliment for such an easy dinner.  I can’t remember the last time I had pot roast.  Probably some time as a kid and I’m sure I hated it.  I was so hard on my mother when it came to food (other topics too).  Everything I ate needed a separate dish.  Life forbid I ate what everyone else was eating, right?  Sorry Mom!

Fast forward to today and all I am craving is red meat and bran flakes.  Iron deficent?  Probably.

Exercise

Two mile run and one mile walk.  It had been a while since I exercised, so it felt really good.  Winston supplied some post-workout sweaty kisses.

Weight and Points

I have been off track this week after vacation, but tomorrow’s a new day.  I’m hoping my weigh-in is not too shocking tomorrow.

Today’s High

Exercise.   It felt great to sweat again!

Today’s Low

Cleaning W’s tail pocket.  He hates it, so I don’t love it either even though it’s good for him.

Other Choices Today

  • Hot bath while continuing to read this book.  Great read!
  • Weeding.
  • Finished Margin Call.  I was really excited to see this movie, but highly disappointed.

Back from Jamaica (Heidi)

Posted on by anislandofchoices

We’re back from Jamaica!  We had a wonderful time, but it’s always nice to be back home.  Please enjoy the picture highlights below.

We enjoyed the beach.

We enjoyed the pool.

We enjoyed the palm trees.

We enjoyed the wedding.

We enjoyed wearing flip flops.

We enjoyed each other.

We even enjoyed the freaky Rose Hall Plantation.  Haunted by the white witch!

Then we flew home.

Borgias Day (Heather)

Posted on by anislandofchoices

Today was all about:

            I don’t know what today was about, honestly.

Information gathering maybe?  I was diving deep into some new pieces of software, new general ledger structures, new info on short term disability insurance options, figuring out what the vet thought about Hannah, and getting info from a carpet/vinyl installer that will be able to get carpet on the stair for Hannah ASAP.

Tonight I started watching The Borgias, which is a Showtime series about the Borgia family that held the papacy in 1492 for about 10 years.  They were apparently scandalous.  And interestingly enough, that was back when popes could have wives and husbands (read: when religion wasn’t as important as the politics).  This reminds me of a question I asked my favorite Catholic when I was in high school.  I said, “Who takes over when the pope dies?  *long pause*  His son?”  She broke into peals of laughter at such nonsense.  Read about them yourself:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Borgia

Today was also about Kevin being a turd.  See picture below.  He just loves to mess with me!

Stressful things:

Today’s stressful thing was not being able to determine the softwares that are going to be my “babies” at work.  It’s very difficult to research software online because, of course, all their websites do is pitch it to you with some fancy screen shots.  The forums are better, but it takes forever to browse through them and find beneficial information.

Thankful things:

I’m very thankful for Dr. Greg Benoit today.  He basically reinforced exactly what I expected.  Since Hannah didn’t respond to steroid treatment for inflammation and x-rays were normal, signs point to some sort of degenerative nervous system problem and the DNA test being positive for the mutated gene is strong enough to make the educated assumption.  Even if it wasn’t DM, at this point, the treatments would all be the same.  Exercise, environment changes, and then we’ll move to a cart when it’s time.  He said he’s only seen a handful of DM cases in his 20 years so he was going to dig around a bit for his last case and see if he has any other ideas.  Since DM is really a diagnosis of exclusion, he agreed that a CT or MRI would only further eliminate any tumors or structural problems and point us back to the DM assumed by the DNA test.  Greg also mentioned that I could take her to WSU for a consult, just to see what a neurologist said.  He said at the most it would cost me a day off work, gas money, and probably $100 for the consult.  I’d likely get no further with it, but I think it would be very interesting to see what they say.  Greg said he’d get a packet together of what they’ve done, x-rays, and medical opinion for me.  I think I’d like to do it just to learn a little more if nothing else.  Greg suggested that I don’t take any action with Hailey unless I want to get a DNA test just to see if she is active or just a carrier.  I probably will, just for the information.

The other thing that was important to me was that Greg told me that Hannah will tell me when she’s had enough.  That’s reassuring to me.  He laughed because she’s like a 2 year old in a 10 year old body.  So true!  He’s right though, she’ll tell me and I’ll know.  I don’t know how I had the strength to say it, but I asked if this was something that is rare enough that when Hannah passes away she could help the school learn about this disease.  Maybe.

Checklist items:

Tracking – yep

Vitamins – yep

Enough water – no…only 36oz.

Enough sleep – about 7.5 hours last night.  Slept like a rock after the cry fest.

Pushups – none

Kevin thinks it's funny to open all cabinets and drawers and just leave them that way to stress me out. He also amuses himself by doing this will my dresser and nightstand as well.

Hard to see, but that's my view out my east window. I overlook the campus and can see a mountain in the background.

My desk at work! I have a very hip lamp. You know you want one.

Sad Monday (Heather)

Posted on by anislandofchoices

Today was all about:

Degenerative myelopathy.

It’s with a heavy heart that I finally confirmed that my dog is slowly becoming paraplegic.  Her DNA test came back and she has an active genetic mutation indicative of DM.

I’m angry.  I can’t do anything to make it go away and I feel frustrated and helpless.  I can’t throw money at it, I can’t negotiate my way out of it, I can’t just walk away and ignore it.  How fucking awful is it that her mind and her body are perfectly fine….she just can’t FEEL her body.  So cruel and unfair.

I’m sad.  Devastated.  I know what’s coming.  This diagnosis will end badly.

I’m scared.  Scared that it will happen too fast, scared that Hailey isn’t going to understand and that she’ll be lonely and confused and sad.  They’ve never spent a day apart!

I’m determined.  This disease will not take her without all the fight I have in me.  The Hail Mary (if it can even be considered that) is exercise, B-vitamin therapy, and something about amino acids.  Kevin and I are working on an exercise plan for her being careful not to overdo it with her very weak muscles.  Meeting with the vet tomorrow night to talk about any other options he can think of.  When that isn’t enough, there are booties that  help stabilize her and keep her feet from getting scraped up from knuckling over as she walks.  Of course, the doggie wheelchair cart will help her first as a walker in three stages:  first as a walker, next attaching stirrups to support her feet as she still tries to walk, and lastly, full support of her legs.  I’m going to have her fitted for one now while she can still stand to be measured.

I know that when it’s time, I’ll be strong enough to make the call.  I’ve learned that I can be strong when faced with something overwhelming and difficult.  It’s easier to be strong though when someone else has to make the hard calls and the situation is outside of my control.  I’m hoping she’ll just tell me somehow.  We’ll have a moment of epic understanding and I’ll know it’s okay.

Stressful things:

See above?  Sorry readers, this isn’t a very happy blog today.

Thankful things:

I am thankful today that Hannah can still wag her stubby little tail at me.  She’s such a happy and spirited dog and I am so lucky that I adopted her.

Checklist items:

Tracking – No

Vitamins – Yes!

Enough water – Maybe…about 60oz.

Enough sleep – Yes, a good 8 hours last night.

Pushups – I got 22 done before I got distracted.

Don't worry....I got this.

Hold me, Auntie....just a little longer.

Only three months old and hardly innocent.

Three of my favorite girls in the world.