Happy Monday, everyone. It is too cold for my liking today. It's not that cold, just windy and not as warm/hot as it's been lately. I'm sure by June, I will be longing for a "cool" day. But right now, I wouldn't complain if it were about ten degrees warmer.
First, let me just brag and say that I haven't needed my spit bottle since this morning. I went to my workout class and realized that I hadn't spit the entire time. I haven't needed to spit since! It feels good but weird to walk around WalMart and the MCX without my towel-wrapped spit bottle. Finally, after almost two months of spitting 24/7, I hope that this is the end. If not, I will just hang in there.
In exactly one week, Derick and I will find out the sex of this tiny baby. I am so excited! We can hardly wait, and I'm pretty convinced that this week is going to draaaaaag by. We finally narrowed down our favorite boys names. And let me just add in that when an expectant mother tells you what she and her loving husband are thinking about naming their very first child that they prayed for years for, that she dealt with months of sickness for, that she and her husband already love more than anything, it is nothing but hurtful to make comments about how you don't like the names they chose. Trust me, she is not telling you this information for your opinion or approval. She is telling you this because she is excited and somehow sharing the information with you is important. So, lets all go back to kindergarten and think before we speak. When you tell an expectant mother, whose emotions are already hard to control, that the name she and her husband spent months choosing doesn't quite suit your standards, don't expect her to appreciate your opinion. Ok, maybe that is a little harsh, but as you can probably guess, my feelings were a little hurt recently by some comments about the names Derick and I have chosen. I am probably being really SUPER petty, but there is not a bone in my body that would ever think of telling anyone that the name they like for their baby is anything but cute. Even if it isn't my favorite name or even a name I would personally chose, it's not my baby either, thus it's not really my place to tell her (or him) that I don't like it. I don't have to lie very much; most of my friends or people who share this information with me actually pick cute names. And even if they didn't, I think I was raised to just show kindness and say something nice. I don't know. Name your baby Garden Hose or Fly Trap or something like that, and then we'll see how I react. But if someone tells me a name that doesn't seem TOO freaking weird like Cheese Cake or Old Man, then I'm pretty sure it isn't hard to just be happy for the parents to be and congratulate them on finally putting a name to the face (or sonogram, per say). Derick and I did not choose the name for our baby to please everyone else. We chose it for our baby, so remember when you say hurtful things about the name we picked, you are, to me anyway, insulting my child.
Now once we announce the sex and name of the baby, I'm pretty sure this post may result in everyone praising our choice. Not what I'm asking for. And trust me, I can take your opinion. I'm not a big weenie who gets upset over every little comment people make. If you don't particularly like the name we chose, that is fine. I just think it couldn't hurt for people to think about what they say and how they say it before they let hurtful things just roll off of their tongues. This goes for all situations--not just baby naming.
So there's my little hormone-driven speech. I hope I'm not sounding like a big brat. I am just super happy that we finally agreed on names for this little angel, and it is upsetting when people can't share that excitement and happiness with us because they are too bothered by what we picked. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.
Tomorrow is such a busy day for me, and I should be catching up on laundry right now instead of sitting at the computer. There is a swim class in the morning that I am going to try out with a friend, then immediately after that, we are going to the hospital on base for a pregnancy nutrition class. Tomorrow night, we are going to try to make it to trivia one last time before Jonathan deploys. Maybe if my week stays this busy, it will speed by! :)
Tomorrow I will be 19 weeks along, and I'm feeling it. For the past few mornings, I've awoken with some terrible pain in my stomach. It's not a sickness pain; just more of a muscular ache. It hurts really bad, and I was a little worried until I talked with a friend and she reminded me of those weird "round ligament" issues. Apparently, my already big belly is stretching and getting bigger and for some reason, it's not an extremely wonderful feeling.
Anyway, Parisann and I need to go check the mail. Everyone have a wonderful week! Be nice to each other!
It's FRIDAY! Also, it is Find Myself an Appropriate Swimsuit Day. All mine have just reached their end. They are too tight, too skimpy, too small. Not working. It may sound appealing to some that I'm running around with little to nothing on at the beach on base, ya know, given my natural good looks, but trust me, it's inappropriate. Derick would disown me. (For the record: I'm not running around in skimpy swimsuits on base, but if I want to go to the beach soon, I better find a new one because my body is outgrowing my fabric.) I definitely want a cute tankini. I will probably later buy a nice bikini and try to emulate my friend, Beth, who looked fabulous even at 9 months pregnant. But for now, I need to cover this thing, mostly for the swim class I'm planning to start attending once the spitting stops. That class is partially women/partially Marines, so I don't want to walk up in there in a tiny bikini with a giant belly. Whaddup, Devil Dogs??
Speaking of spit, yesterday I went with a friend to a luncheon to hear the Commandant's wife, Mrs. Bonnie Amos, speak. She was incredible, and the lunch was very nice. I had been praying for a couple of weeks that the spitting would subside by the time the luncheon rolled around so that I wouldn't look like white trash spitting into my Gatorade bottle. Well, guess what? I didn't spit one time during the entire luncheon! I was so proud of myself. Sure, after dessert and once everyone started leaving, the spit came back, but I did really well during the duration of the event, and I am thankful. One step at a time.
I'm still counting down the days until next Monday. I pretty much wished this week away, which was selfish, but it is so exciting that we will soon know who I'm carrying around, kinda. I shot a text to Derick this morning at around 4:30. He left way before that because the entire Headquarters Battalion went on a three-mile run. That would have been a cool thing to see if I were more of a morning girl. They apparently shut down the traffic circle on base. Anyway, in my text, I asked Derick if he liked the boy name, "Whittaker." He could go by "Whit." Derick replied about three hours later with a simple, "no." I thought it was cute. You can have that name if you want it. You're welcome.
For the past three days, I've felt the baby move around. Once I was certain it wasn't gas, I was able to identify the feeling. It is weird, and I would liken it to the feeling you get when you go over a hill really quickly in your car and your stomach kinda floats. Except it lasts for a few moments and it moves around. If you are educated in the feeling-the-baby-move, and my description sounds like something completely different, please let me know! Haha. But I'm pretty sure it is the baby. I've never felt anything like it.
Well, I hope everyone has a terrific and safe weekend. I'm having Chic-fil-A breakfast with another mommy-to-be in the morning, then Derick is taking me to the farmer's market, then we are going to a Brazilian steakhouse with the Snows. My life obviously revolves around food...which is much better than when it revolved around the toilet. Literally.
Today, I checked the mail to find a giant zulily bag--the bag I've been waiting on for a couple of weeks now. It was my second order of cloth diapers, and I have been anxious to check them out! My first order was super cute, and it was finally nice to actually handle the diapers and figure them out firsthand. At first glance, they were intimidating because of the ten billion snaps, but once Derick and I watched a short tutorial online, it was easy. The diapers we got today are more colorful than the last order, and two of them are made of minky, which I wasn't really familiar with until I ordered the diapers. Minky, to me, is like a very soft terry cloth, almost plush. I'm curious to know how well it will resist stains and leaks, but they are just so soft they will probably be worth it just for the baby's comfort! I would like a few minky diapers, and with the frequent pee issues I'm having, it may not be a bad investment. So now we have a total of five cloth diapers for Baby Roberts. I've put the ordering on hold for now since we've registered for diapers, but it was fun to get diapers for really great prices! I couldn't pass up the deals, so I'm happy with our purchases.
I had a headache all day yesterday, and I came across some Cool Caffeine mints while cleaning. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Cool Caffeine mints sometimes come in MREs. According to the package, 4 mints=1 can of cola; 5 mints-1 cup of tea; 10 mints=1 cup of coffee. I thought maybe I just needed some caffeine to cure my headache, so I sucked on three for a few minutes then spit them out because I didn't want to be on a caffeine high all day. But last night, I did something crazy and sporadic, and I figured I would pay for it all night long. Thankfully, I didn't. I really, REALLY wanted an iced coffee all day, despite my weirdness with caffeine, and I told Derick about it when he got home. It was around six thirty or so when we drove across town to Starbucks, which I really think is a joke because they charge an arm and a leg for just a few sips of coffee, but whatever. I was desperate. I drank my iced coffee and waited to bounce off the walls. Coffee normally causes me to be a little nutty anyway, but coffee at night was sure to be an adventure. Almost like crystal meth. There I go with the drug references again. Anyway, I didn't go crazy, and I was able to fall asleep easily, so maybe Baby Roberts just wanted some dadgum caffeine and was sick of Mom being such a weenie about it. I did wake up pretty early and couldn't go back to sleep, but that can't kill anyone, right?
I went to yoga again today, and it was so nice. It was harder today than last week, and I don't know if more difficult poses were incorporated or if my belly has grown so much that some of the poses are weird. I feel good, though, and I'm planning to continue going until I pop.
Well, I didn't have much to say today. I basically just wanted to brag about the three diapers I got today, so that's my excuse for blogging. It's Wednesday! and I'm hoping it will rain just a smidgen. A little rain is always nice on days like this.
Y'all eat 10 Cool Caffeines for me today! Can you imagine having ten mints in your mouth at once? They're about the size of buttons on a man's shirt. Ah, I admire the things Marines do to stay frosty.
I just ate an entire pot of mac and cheese. Not homemade or anything fancy. Not even the Velveeta Shells and Cheese kind. Nope, in about five minutes I completely devoured a whole box of Kraft in the blue box. Ya know, with the cheese powder. I went to my exercise class this morning (I figure attending twice gives me permission to call it "mine") and as soon as I left, I had the sudden craving for mac and cheese with cheese powder. I've been dealing with sickness and weird appetite issues for so long that having an actual craving is really rare. Sure, sometimes I want some ice cream and most hours of the day, I could be eating pickles, but craving "real" food is a seldom event. I give all glory to my exercise class. I think I just burn so many calories that my body is surprised and thinks, "Oh gosh, I'm starving!" I feel so good after the workout and mac and cheese. Unfortunately, I have tons of things to do and very little time to do them. Kelsey and I are going to Wilmington later today, and I still need to run some errands and clean this disgusting house. Yes, my house is always disgusting. It's so easy to just not clean for a day or two, and pretty soon, we're living in a pig pen. I'm sorry, Derick. Anyway, it stinks to have all this energy and to feel really great, but not have time to get things done. (I declare as I'm sitting on my rear end, typing up a blog.)
Tomorrow, I'm going to a water aerobics class, and I'm so excited. I need to be in water. It's been a long winter and the ocean is still too chilly for swimming. This pisces needs to go for a dip!! I only own bikinis and a couple of strictly-for-athletic-swimming swimsuits, so figuring out what to wear is going to be a challenge. Sure, I could wear those athletic suits, but my big belly would make me look quite ridiculous. Target has some really cute tankinis that I've had my eyes on for a while, but I've also been wanting to look at Old Navy because they usually have good deals.
Backing up to the topic of big bellies. Today before class, I was talking with some girls about how far along we were and one girl was comparing bellies. The girl beside me was 18 weeks, which I will be, too, tomorrow. When she said that, I couldn't help but look at her belly. She had a similar body structure as mine, but her stomach looked like mine did before I was pregnant! She was talking about how she felt that all in one day, her belly just blew up in size! I couldn't help but wonder if our baby is already a ten-pounder. Crazy, I know. We all grow and change at different rates. It's just funny to see someone who is as far along as I am, so tiny and cute, stand next to me as I bulge out of what were once my loose-fitting yoga pants. I'm not complaining. This baby can do whatever he/she needs to do. That just means I will eventually get to buy new clothes.
We got the news that everything is good to go for us to move on base this summer. So now, we just play the waiting game until our lease is up at this house. It's been a nice place to live; I'm just looking forward to being on base around some of my friends and so close to Derick's job. It will literally take him five minutes to get to work in the mornings. Right now, it only takes him fifteen or so, which in Jacksonville is a dream come true, but the houses on base are even closer to Truck Co. That means he can come home for lunch, which will be really nice once the baby is here. It will be sweet to have Derick home in the middle of the day to spend time with the baby (and wipe the butt). I'm sure he will appreciate the nice break in the day. The thing I will miss about living here is the backyard. It's so nice to just open the back door and let Paris use her doggy door as she pleases during the day. I don't mind to walk her, and I know she will love going on walks, but it is a luxury to have a fenced-in yard, even though she won't walk on a vast majority of the grass because (I'm pretty sure) something or someone is buried out there and it gives her the creeps. Base housing has a little dog park, which she will like, and we could possibly get a house that already has a fence up. The downfall on that is that we will be responsible for mowing inside the fence. Not too much of a hassle, though, considering we have to mow all of our yard here. The pluses of living on base are plentiful: housing is just down the road from the hospital, so once I get my Tricare switched to on-base, I could just walk to my doctors appointments. Ok, maybe it's not THAT close, but worst-case scenario.
So, in exactly two weeks, we should find out if we are having a b or g. It is time! We are both so very anxious and excited. I hate wishing my life away, but I just know these next two weeks are going to drag by. Looking back, though, the past eighteen weeks have somewhat flown by. Some days felt like they lasted forever just because I haven't had the most active, feel-good pregnancy, but altogether, it's really been a blessed experience thus far. I find it so easy to (mostly jokingly) complain about the puke and the (everlasting) spit and the exhaustion, but I also hope I've made my gratitude and humility obvious to God. This baby is in so many ways an answered prayer. I wasn't comfortable and 100% healthy during every second. I have had my share of really rough days, just ask those close to me or come take a look at my house. I know there will probably tough times to come, but Derick and I both just give all the glory to our Lord for this gift. We can't wait to discover exactly who it is that's hanging out in my belly and making me so sick! In two weeks, we will hopefully learn a little more about the special angel that God entrusted us with. Feeling very blessed. I'm glad I ate that mac and cheese.
Happy Wednesday! I've had my days all mixed up this week because Derick didn't work on Monday because of the holiday. Only 2.5 days til the weekend!
Today, I am 17 weeks and 1 day along. I will have Derick take a pic of my belly when he's home and post it on FB because I've yet to discover how to post a personal pic on this blog. Sorry! I feel like one day last week, my stomach grew by about ten feet. I can definitely say I "look" pregnant; not just questionably large in the gut.
I went to my first pregnancy exercise class on base Monday, and it was so wonderful. It's funny how little things like physical activity can make you feel so much better. Who woulda thought?? This morning, unfortunately, I woke up with the sickness and didn't think I would be able to make it to pregnancy yoga. I forced myself, though, and I had a really good time.
I'm completely out of Zofran, which stinks. I was trying to salvage my supply and only take one when I really needed it, which ended up being about every two days or so. I think that my lack of meds may have slightly contributed to my illness this morning. I was also sorta congested so maybe my sinuses drained during the night. Disgusting. Anyway, I took a B-complex vitamin this morning and ate a ton of pretzels, which gave me, if nothing else, the motivation to get out of the house and exercise. I'm still feeling yucky, but I shall overcome! I may end up asking the doc to refill my Zofran, but waiting at the MCX pharmacy kinda makes me sick just to think about.
I'm getting really anxious about April 30, which is when we find out b or g (if the b or g is being cooperative). We have a definite name chosen for a girl, but we have just gone back and forth with the boy names, and because I'm convinced we are having a boy, I feel all the more adamant about choosing one before my appointment. We have one name chosen for sure, but we can't decide if it's better as a first or middle name. That all depends on the other name we have yet to pick out. I can't wait to share our news with everyone--regardless if we're having a b or g! (For the record: I really hope no one is thinking I have a preference, because I don't, and either way, it's going to be so much fun to be a mother!)
I don't really have much to blah about today, but I had some time because guess who cleaned the house (well, most of it) yesterday?! That's right, I did! I still need to tackle the kitchen. Oh my goodness, it's unbelievable how fast dishes can stack up. My mom is so good about washing dishes even if there is only a spoon in the sink. Though I wish I were more like that, I tend to wait until it all piles up before I finally get the nerve to wash them. My mom is also this good: not only does she wash the dishes, she also immediately hand-dries them with a towel and puts them away. She rarely uses her dishwasher (only for company, I've noticed), but when she does, she empties it immediately as well. We usually always have clean dishes hanging out in our dish washer. Hey, at least they aren't dirty! (I display the dirty ones in the sink and on the counter. You're welcome.)
Speaking of kitchen stuff, this has really grown to bug me, and I think we are just going to have to break down and make a purchase. In Quantico, we bought a really nice Britta (cool name for a girl, btw) water filter that attached to our kitchen faucet. It was about $35, but I considered it a good investment...until we moved to this house. Our kitchen sink has one of those really weird snake faucets with an optional sprayer on the end. Let me see if I can find a photo.
Very similar to this one I found on popsci.com. The faucet part detaches and has a long hose so that you can use it as a sprayer. (Would be handy in the bathroom for future cloth diapering, but in the kitchen, it has become a slight nemesis.) I liked the faucet at first; I thought it was pretty handy and you can't argue the fact that it looks fancy. But the sprayer option is comparable to a fire hose. If you don't put the sprayer really close to the dish, the entire kitchen will be a deluge. (I learned that word when Derick was studying for the flight exam for OCS acceptance. I should have learned it in high school, or at least college. Didn't happen. Thanks, Marine Corps, for my continued education.) Anyway, the sprayer/faucet issue isn't a big deal. I can get over it. I'm over it. The real biggie is that we can't attach our fancy Britta to that sink. Thus, we've been drinking straight tap water. This didn't create a problem until I became pregnant, because until then, I wasn't a fan of water. I drank it at restaurants and at friends' homes just because. But in my house, I like to have juice or Gatorade or something like that. Derick is the H2O lover.
Well, not only is it pretty smart to drink water while pregnant, our baby really seems to like it. I actually crave water sometimes, and that is not by my own doing.
* I'll make an exception before I go any further and say that, other than the water at my grandparents' old house on Race street (which is another story altogether), water from a water hose is probably my all-time favorite drink. I like that it tastes like iron and rust and mowed grass. It reminds me of my Dad. I can see him recklessly kinkin' the hose and bending over for a drink while he watered the yard in the sun. He always ended up with a wet shirt, and he always humored me by giving me a drink as well.
Anyway, I'm not uppity and feel like I'm too good for tap water. I actually read an article a couple years ago that said that bottled water is a giant scam because it's hardly any different than regular old tap, and people spend a ton on fancy bottled water and water purifying systems when our tap water isn't that awful. Who knows if that's true. Let me inject that buying a singular bottle of water is quite stupid, so don't do it. $1 or more for one bottle, when you can get a 24-pack for $4. You do the math. At least buy a flavored water! Also, in other countries, people would be head-over-heels to have the water availability that we have here. We are really spoiled.
Back to my point, I grew up in a house that had a water filter built in to the fridge. I didn't use it much because I didn't drink a lot of water. I drank a lot of sodas, which is embarrassing. haha. If I did get a glass of water, it usually came from the tap because it was a lot faster than waiting on that teeny stream at the fridge. So, basically, I've been around "purified" water all my life, though I didn't begin to care until now.
It is truly becoming an issue with me. I really want water, but I don't want to drink it from the sink. I do drink sink water because water is water when we really think about it, but I would prefer a filter. A year ago this would not have been a big deal. I would just drink Gatorade instead and be pleased, but now I feel like I need to drink water, especially since my body wants it. Today I was headed home from the gym and nearly stopped at Sonic for a Route 44 water--something I've never ordered. I couldn't justify the stop, so I just told myself I could boil a lot of water, then let it cool and drink it. Of course, I didn't do that. If I don't have the moto to wash dishes, do you really think I'm going to boil water just to let it cool? Um no.
So, all of this to say that I think I'm going to break down and buy a water filter pitcher. Even if my water obsession is just a weird pregnancy thing, I feel like it will be a purchase we won't regret. Have you heard about the water contamination issue at Camp Lejeune in the 50s-80s? Pretty crazy, and luckily, it's not a problem anymore. It still scares me. Everything scares me. I guess that just comes along with being a mom. Wow. I'm going to be a mom. SCARY!
