Friday, July 29, 2011

sweet and freaky dreams

I was at my parent's house, just sitting around and relaxing, enjoying the peace and quiet. Out of nowhere, I jumped up and realized that I had no idea where my baby was.

So I decided to head over to my aunt and uncle's house in Phoenix and knocked on the door when I arrived there. A young girl answered my call, a girl who I had never seen before. And she looked confused when I asked her where my baby was. Out in the hallway, another little girl came out carrying Lucy. So I asked her where my baby was. They both stared at me with blank faces and I got so frustrated that I could scream.

So I went back to my parent's house and decided to wait for my sister to come home. In the meantime, I searched the house high and low thinking that possibly I was just a terrible mother and left my baby in the bedrooms or something. But I was relieved when I heard my sister walk into the house. She was carrying our car seat and I immediately felt relieved.

But as I looked into the car seat, all I saw was our dog, Lucy, again.

Crazy dream, huh?

It's not as crazy as the dream I had where our baby ripped itself out of my stomach and was already dressed in clothes. And on one hand, this dream freaked me out because I literally couldn't find our child anywhere. But on the other hand, it made me realize that we actually already have a baby.

A little beagle baby.

Yes, I know she's a dog. She's an animal. A creature bred for hunting small game. A being that is pretty much content just eating, sleeping, peeing, and pooping.

But she's still our special little girl.






Tuesday, July 26, 2011

how to: freak out a pregnant woman REALLY bad

Place a fetal doppler monitor on her pregnant belly and proceed...for 5 minutes...to NOT find the baby's heartbeat.

Yeah. That will REALLY freak her out.

I'll explain...

As mentioned yesterday, the baby ended up moving just fine in the end and had a good, strong heartbeat as usual. So they ended up letting me go and just making sure I called back/came in again if I noticed anything crazy like bleeding, contractions, loss of fetal movement, sharp pains, water breaking, etc. etc. I haven't experienced any of that stuff, so it turns out our little guy is quite the trooper.

Phew!

Crisis averted.

This morning I had a checkup with my normal obstetrician's office (since my appointments are weekly now). Usually these appointments are super quick and consist of checking up on usually only 5 things:


  1. My weight

  2. My urine

  3. My blood pressure

  4. The baby's estimated growth via measuring the fundal height, and

  5. The baby's heartbeat.

So at my appointment this morning:



  1. My weight - My weight was down by 4 pounds. Not sure how I did that in 1 week. Maybe it's from trying to eat better and sweating a lot? Or maybe it's because my appointment was in the morning and not in the afternoon after I've already drinken over a gallon of water? Who knows?

  2. My urine - My urine was plentiful. Actually, I never really get the results of the urine tests and usually attribute this to things being okay in the pee department.

  3. My blood pressure - For the first time in this pregnancy, my blood pressure was actually high. I told them that my appointments are usually always in the afternoon after a day of working at a computer and that this morning I had been running around getting ready for the day and heading over to the appointment and not really having time to just chill out. The doctor said that blood pressure normally rises a little toward the end of pregnancy, but to be safe, they drew some blood to do some labwork and to see if there is any possibility that the blood pressure is related to preeclampsia. I am really hoping this is NOT the case...so keep your fingers and toes crossed.

  4. The baby's estimated growth - The fundal height check was so uneventful that I don't even remember that part of the appointment because...

  5. The baby's heartbeat - The doctor put the heartbeat doppler monitor over my belly and literally for about 5 minutes they could NOT find the baby's heartbeat. Can you imagine how scary that is? I was thinking in my head the whole time "Oh My Dear LORD what is going on now?" and "Why can't we hear the heartbeat?" and "Come on little baby, where are you?" So stressful not being able to hear it. Then little heartbeat ended up being found hiding and kind of quiet and the heartbeat counts were just fine. But, MAN! Talk about a stressful 5 minutes!!

I'm thinking, in hindsight, that little Baby McG was hiding from the monitor as a way of getting me back for falling the other day. Kind of like him saying "You want to fall on ME, mommy? Oh YEAH? Well I'll just hide my heartbeat from you to freak you out. How do you like them apples?"


Very funny, baby. Very funny.


Not laughing, though. We've grown kind of attached to you now so you better be okay in there!


Stay tuned...

Monday, July 25, 2011

how to: freak out your family REALLY bad

Just become 37 weeks pregnant and fall down some stairs.

Yeah.

That'll do it.

I'm actually being sarcastic and kidding. Don't do it. It is really scary.

Okay. Here's the explanation...

For the past (I don't even know how many) weeks, Joe has been refinishing our little baby's crib with the help of my parents and their garage. And since it was pretty much finished this past weekend, I was itching (BADLY!) to get the finished product back to our own home so that we could get it all set up and pretty.

Because I was so antsy about getting it all ready to go, Joe started to help me get the back of our truck ready for all the fun crib pieces. He went inside and grabbed the first (heaviest) piece of the crib and started to carry it outside to the truck. I was a little slower than him and was heading downstairs to where the crib pieces were lined up and ready to go and seriously just completely lost my balance, skipped over the last two steps on accident, and fell onto the tile at the bottom of the stairs.

The brunt of my weight actually fell on my knees when my knees hit the tile first...but with all of the momentum from my gargantuan body, I kept going forward and landed on my hands and belly.

I immediately took the weight off my hands and belly and just rolled over to my side. My mom came right away from the kitchen. Joe flew back in from where he was outside with the crib piece he was carrying. And my dad came in from grilling out back. They were on me so fast and I was actually kind of just in shock and started to sweat a lot and just kind of laid there.

I didn't really know what to do because the force really did primarily fall on my knees. So I figured we should just eat dinner and then keep an eye on the baby's movement. After dinner, though...to be safe...I called my OB's office and, since it was a Sunday, they said the doctor on-call would call me back. He called about 15 minutes later and basically said what I already knew: to keep an eye on the fetal movement and to call/come in if it significantly decreases or completely stops. He gave me the goal of 5 moves/kicks per hour and I ended up feeling 5 kicks within the first 45 minutes, so I figured everything was okay.

It was still wicked scary, though.

And as I said before, I was actually kind of kidding before about saying to "just become 37 weeks pregnant and fall down some stairs" to freak out your family really bad. Don't do it. It was really scary. Kind of embarrassing. But scary.

I have been really paying attention to any and all movements in my abdomen ever since then. I mean, even though babies are SOOOOO well protected in the womb, I have still been hypervigilant since last night. So much so, that this morning (after feeling only about 3 kicks in 2 hours) I decided to call the doctor's office again. I even had a good breakfast, lots of cold water, and even some apple juice...so I thought that only 3 kicks in 2 hours was way too low of activity.

They recommended that I go to the hospital where I was delivering just to get monitored and checked out.

They got me in RIGHT away and immediately hooked me up to a fetal heart monitor. And then the most beautiful sound in the world started being broadcast in the room - the little heartbeat. From then on I knew it was definitely going to be okay and after I had some ice water he actually moved probably about 10 times in 1 hour.

So annoying that he couldn't have done that this morning BEFORE I called.

Anyway...they kept me there for a few hours just to make sure it all stayed the same and then they let me go because there was no other trauma, bleeding, contractions, etc. It was almost a waste of a day, but I'm glad that it's all okay and hearing that heartbeat and feeling more regular movements again made me feel so much better.

To Joe, Mom, and Dad:
I am so sorry for freaking you guys out yesterday. But I'm really glad that you all were there and cared so much to help me. :-) I love you. And just know that Baby McG is a-okay and that I will try to remember to walk sideways from now on since I can't see my feet when I walk straight.

To all you pregnant ladies:
Please be careful on stairs. Actually...be careful everywhere. Your ligaments are loose and stretched out and you are predisposed to balance issues just because the state of being pregnant. So be careful where you step. Especially if you can't see your feet. Always look where you're going and go slowly. Who cares if it takes you an hour to walk 10 feet? Do what you gotta do.

To everyone else:
Be like Joe, my mom, and my dad and just be there for your pregnant wives/friends/family members. It's so nice knowing that, even when we are weak and spazzy and uncoordinated, you are there to help and support us.

:-)

Sunday, July 24, 2011

perspective


My mom: Not pictured. Taking the photograph.

Joe: Staring straight at the camera. He thinks this picture is just of him.

Me: Staring away from the camera. Yes, this action was deliberate. My un-pregnant face is just fine, but I don't like my pregnant face. Way too chunky. So that is why I am staring away from the camera. Immature? Sure, whatever.

My dad: Thinking to himself. "Why is she being so immature and looking away from the camera?"

Perspective: When this picture was taken, I didn't really know what it was going to look like and actually forgot about it until I downloaded the photos. But looking at this picture really put things in perspective for me. Those of you who know me know that I have big knockers. REALLY big knockers. And I'm not just saying that. In my opinion, they are actually ridiculously big. But the part of this photograph that really put things in perspective for me is the belly. You can't see the whole thing...but the part of the belly that you CAN see makes my knockers look small. So you know that means? This belly is freakin' HUGE! I mean, anything that makes my knockers look small is pretty ginormous.

That is all.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

38 days to go. Wait............WHAT?!?!?

Week:
35 5/7. More than halfway through week 35 already, actually. Just a couple more days and the 35th week will be over. So weird that there are less than 6 weeks left. So. Weird.

Size of Baby:
According to the interweb, books, blogs, you name it…the baby should be around 5 ½ pounds now. BabyCenter, in particular, states that at 35 weeks the baby should weigh about as much as a honeydew melon (which is around 5 ¼ pounds). Well, let’s just pretend you read our blog from last week. That means that you know that our ultrasound from last week showed that our baby was already at approximately 5 ¼ pounds. I know those things are just “estimates”, but I have a feeling that he’s going to be a little porker.

Size of Mom:
So rude. Why would you even ask that? Bank this in your list of things NOT to ask of a pregnant lady. :-) Let’s just say that I’ve gained way more than I should have and already voided out all of the weight I lost last year. Yeah…let’s just leave it at that. Kinda making me sick just thinking about it (but yet I still want dinner).

Fetal Movement:
I have heard and read that around this time the baby starts to move less and less. But I have noticed that, while he’s not quite rolling and somersaulting anymore, he’s definitely still moving. He’s most active after meals (see…a little porker!) and will usually always squirm if I drink some cold ice water. But he’s definitely still moving in there. Sometimes I will even feel a hand punch towards the bottom of my belly and a foot kick up top all at the same time. He’s probably ready to have more room so that he can more easily move his ginormous head. :-) But he’s definitely still kickin’ that’s for sure. I remember that at one of my appointments they said that you should always be able to feel 10 movements within a 2 hour time frame. With that in mind (and believe me, I’ve counted), our little one makes at least 10 movements within a 1 hour time frame. So freakin’ cute, eh?

Sleep:
I’m starting to realize that I don’t know what that word even means. I mean, I actually fall asleep really easily (which probably annoys Joe a little), but because of the canteloupe in my abdomen, it gets pretty uncomfortable pretty easily. Plus, I have to get up at least 4 to 5 times every night to get rid of the fluid in my ever-shrinking bladder. So all in all I probably only get about 4 hours of actual sleep. And I know it’s only going to get worse, especially when the baby arrives and I can probably only sleep for 2 minutes. But then eventually it will get better again. So I’ll just shut my yapper. :-)

Cravings:
None. Seriously. Not at all. I love eating salads and could probably eat salad for every meal, but I loved salads before becoming pregnant…so I wouldn’t really call salad a “craving”. A few weeks ago, though, I discovered that Haagen Dazs (stereotypical, I know) makes a chocolate ice cream with chunks/swirls of peanut butter. I don’t “crave” it, per se, but that’s the closest I’ve come to craving anything during this entire pregnancy. I like to think that means I’m getting a little bit of everything I should be.

Symptoms:
***BRIEF COMPLAINING ALERT***
Skip to the next section if you are sensitive to complaints and references to bodily functions.
  • Bloating – retaining an unbelievable amount of water.
  • Edema – The swelling (aka. “cankles”) associated with water retention.
  • Aches – Back aches and knee aches (from all the weight my poor legs now support).
  • Urination Issues – Extremely excessive urination, also had a UTI that I had to take meds for so as not to go into preterm labor (apparently infections can do that).
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome – This freakin’ HURTS! I used to think it was a joke and that people who had “carpal tunnel syndrome” were just whiners. But it’s the real deal. And it’s stupid.
  • Gas – The most uncomfortable gas I have ever experienced in my life. Sorry if that is crude, but it’s just plain TRUE. Nobody has gas like a pregnant lady. Nobody.
  • Memory Issues – What was I just talking about? Yeah. Really bad. On that note...I feel like I'm forgetting some symptoms. Joe? Am I missing any?

What The Doctor Says:
Nothing. You may think that this means I have a terrible doctor. I like to think it’s because my pregnancy has been pretty low key. Which is a GOOD thing. As of next week, however, I will be going for weekly appointments until the big day arrives, so will definitely keep you posted of any news from the doctor front.

I Am Missing:
Feeling normal. Being a normal, healthy weight. Seeing my feet. Seeing my feet look their normal size. Seeing my boobs look their normal size (bras are flippin' EXPENSIVE!). Being able to get up on my own without help. Sleeping through the night. Being able to shave my legs comfortably.

I Am Looking Forward To:
Holding our little baby and meeting him for the first time. Seeing Joe as a dad (he's going to be a GREAT one!). Being able to announce our baby and his name (since I seriously get the "what is your baby's name" question every single day). Seeing Lucy meet her little baby brother. Being a normal, healthy weight again. Seeing my feet again. Being able to get up on my own without help again. Not having heartburn or gas anymore. Sleeping through the night again.

Uhh......eventually, right?

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

lucy fur the swimming beagle dog

As Joe mentioned in his last post, we had a very memorable weekend. And, part of that weekend was spent letting Lucy swim at Watson Lake near Prescott. We had to keep her leashed, but she still had a blast.

Take a look!



:-)

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

a very memorable weekend

We had quite the interesting trip this past weekend.

My work gave me Monday & Tuesday off so Theresa took Tuesday off giving us a 4 day weekend. We decided that due to the ridiculously hot weather we’d go somewhere as high as possible (for every 1000 feet you go up in elevation the temperature drops 3.5 degrees). We also decided to borrow her parent’s Coleman pop-up since tent camping really isn’t an option with a 8 1/2 month pregnant woman.

Our adventure began on Friday because I went into work for overtime, which messed up our packing and shopping because I usually have it done before T gets home. I even had prescriptions I had to go pick up, and neither Theresa nor I was feeling the greatest. By the time we ate dinner, went to pick up prescriptions, and got all our gear together it was 9:30pm. We headed down to Tempe to pick up the pop-up and spent the night at Theresa’s parents house in the guest room.

The following morning we got up, went food shopping, and hooked up the trailer. By this time it was about 9:30am and much later than I wanted to be leaving. The temperature was already over 100 degrees and climbing.

We got on the highway and got about 10 miles north of Phoenix when we saw a sigh warning us of a crash 27 miles ahead… less than 2 miles later we were at a dead stop. Because of the extreme heat, plus towing a trailer, plus the stop and go traffic, I had the terrifying experience of watching the engine’s temperature gague creeping up. When it got to ¾ we had to shut off the A/C.

Now we were sitting in 110 plus degree temp.’s, in stop and go traffic, with no A/C…not a good situation for anyone, but doubly bad for a pregnant woman and small animal. We immediately broke out the GPS and found an alternate route to Prescott and around the accident, but we had to creep 2 miles forward to the next exit to take advantage of it. When we finally got there we were ecstatic to whip a U-turn and start heading south on I-17 at 65mph. Once the air was moving over the radiator again Monty’s (Monty = the Montero) temp gague went back to its normal position at 1/3 of the way up. With the A/C back on, we were happily on our way, again.

First major crisis averted.

If you know anything about Arizona, you know that taking the Carefree Highway (SR74) all the way through Wickenburg to SR89, then following 89 to Prescott is the L O N G way. We were just happy to be moving with cold air blowing over us. Also, if you’ve never taken this route I highly recommend it, the ride is much more scenic and interesting.

After climbing one set of mountain passes we went through the cool little town of Yarnell. Never would have known it was there at all!

Eventually we made our way to Prescott and made our way towards Mount Mingus where we hoped to camp. We turned off 89 onto the badly maintained road that leads to the top of Mingus and were praying that there would be an open site. One mile from the CG my heart sank when I saw a “campground full” sign.

Being optimistic, we decided to go check it out anyway reasoning that maybe somebody had left and nobody took down the sign. We’d been in the truck for roughly 5 hours. Arriving at the campground on top of the mountain it was indeed full.

Bummer!

We discussed our options while heading back towards the highway. There was a free dispersed camping area about a mile away from Mingus campground, there was Potato patch campground about 2 miles away, and there were hotels in Prescott (that allowed dogs, with vacancy?).

After checking out the dispersed camping area we (Theresa) decided that it was a little too primitive for our current situation. There were no bathrooms at all, no water, very little level smooth ground and a lot of forest between sites.

So we headed over to check out Potato Patch Campground since we’ve never camped there. The first loop was for RV’s and it was basically a parking lot, but there were sites open. The second loop was paved, but much more our style with spacious sites, trees, grass, pit toilets and water… and there were sites open!

Crisis #2 averted.

We picked a nice spot far away from other sites and backed the trailer in only to realized that the door was on the wrong side, i.e. I was 180 degrees from the picnic table and fire ring. Because I haven’t backed up a trailer in quite some time I did not want to switch sites so we did what any self respecting Pollocks would do… we unhooked the trailer and turned it around in the site by hand.



Set up was quick and easy and other than forgetting to put the awning on before popping the camper up, went off without a hitch. Shortly thereafter an afternoon shower cooled things off nicely. Finally some good luck and Saturday ended on a good note.

Sunday morning we were awoken before dawn by coyotes that sounded really close. It was one of the coolest and weirdest sounds we had ever heard before. Kind of like a mix of dog and hyena.

Later that morning after breakfast we decided to head back towards Prescott and check out a lake we had seen on the ride in the day before. Watson Lake was beautiful, but temporarily closed to swimmers due to water quality. Being the rebels we are we let Lucy swim anyway, and stood in the water to cool off.

When we had cooled off a little and were getting hungry we decided to head back to the center of Prescott to see if the event we saw yesterday was still underway. It was and we walked around the “fine arts and crafts show” for a while then sat down on the common in a shady spot to listen to a Military Band play and eat shaved ice.

Refreshed, we started back to camp and saw ominous dark clouds in the vicinity of where we were camping. Normally not an issue as we love rain in the desert, but I sort of freaked when I remembered I left all the windows partially open in our borrowed camper.

Not good.

I drove as fast as I safely could worrying that we would get back and find a large puddle inside the trailer. Arriving right as the rain started we shut all the windows and celebrated our good fortune with naked dancing in the rain.

Not really, I just wanted to see if you were still reading this long blog entry.

Crisis #3 averted.

It poured rain most of the night and we slept soundly, dry and comfortable in the trailer. Well actually T slept soundly, I couldn’t sleep and layed awake listening to the really close coyotes making more noise than the previous night. It was actually really cool because I think I could distinguish adult and baby coyotes yipping, barking, and howling, and even though they sounded like they were right across the street I wasn’t worried and gradually drifted off to sleep.

Monday morning started off uneventful and we made breakfast and broke camp in a timely fashion. Once underway we had a 30 mile drive to the highway, and we made it about 25 miles before small vibration started and soon became a big vibration. I looked into my side-view mirror and saw chunks of rubber flying off the driver side trailer tire.

We had blown a tire on the trailer.

We pulled over quickly, and got as far off the road as possible. Luckily we had everything needed to change the tire, and I started while Theresa watched traffic for me since about half of the vehicles going by didn’t even move over. A few minutes later a DPS officer showed up and blocked traffic for me so I could concentrate on fixing the tire and worry about being hit.
Eventually, I got the tire on, lowered the jack, and tightened the lug nuts. Then I thought that I should check the pressure to avoid another blowout. I could not find the valve stem. Then it dawned on me… I put the spare tire on backwards.

DOH!

At this point, the officer let Theresa sit in the back of his cop SUV with the A/C going while I changed the tire and chatted with the cop. He wouldn’t let me take pictures of her in there, though. Anyway, I jacked the trailer back up, took the wheel off and put it on correctly. Checked the pressure and it was a little low but safe enough to get us to the gas station right before the highway.

When we got to the gas station I pulled up to the air pump and grabbed a tire gague from the car. When I got back to the trailer I realized that my tire pressure gague was worthless because it only went up to 40 PSI, and the tire needed 55 PSI minimum.

Did I mention I was sweating like a pig by now because it was 100-ish degrees?

Umm yeah.

Hot and sweaty.

Luckily the gas station had a heavy duty gague I was able to borrow and I got the tire up to the proper pressure.

Crisis #4 averted.

I worried a little about what would happen if we blew another tire on the way home, but my worrying was uneccessary, and we made it home safely and without incident, swam in the pool, ate food, and enjoyed the rest of the 4th of July.

PS - The rest of the pictures will be on Facebook soon!

"That boy's head is like Sputnik!"

Last week I started to feel a little "off." Other than my knees and back hurting from the seemingly neverending weight gain, nothing hurt out of the ordinary. But I still felt a little "off" and I really don't know any other way to put it. I was talking to Joe on one of my lunch breaks last Thursday and he said I should probably just give the doctor's office a call to make sure that if something WAS wrong that we get it taken care of and NOT risk the chance of having preterm labor.

Yeah. Definitely not ready for that yet!

So I called and was seen that afternoon.

At the appointment, it was confirmed that I have an infection (not going into details) and should take some antibiotics for a week. Turns out we had some good intuition because infections can cause uterine contractions which can lead to preterm labor. And, as I mentioned above...totally not ready for that yet.

At the appointment, it was also confirmed that our "baby seems to be measuring large." I must have been giving the doctor a completely stupefied, blank, and/or confused stared, because she immediately said "Which is definitely okay...but since your last ultrasound was back at 18 weeks, we should have another one done within the week just to make sure everything is okay." Even though she said it is still okay, I immediately started to think that maybe something was wrong with our baby. Joe ended up telling me that he was rather large and in charge being born at 9 1/2 pounds...but the doctor's statement still made us worry a little bit.

According to pregnancy websites and books that I've been thumbing through, at 33 weeks pregnant our Little Baby McG should be about the size of a pineapple and weigh anywhere between 4 and 5 1/2 pounds.

We went for the ultrasound today since both Joe and I had the day off and we watched as the ultrasound tech took some measurements of the head, stomach, heartbeat, arms, legs, and umbilical blood flow. The heartbeat and umbilical blood flow looked good. The arms, stomach, and legs measured between 33 and 34 weeks. Perfect! They also showed that estimated weight of Baby McG right now is about 5 lbs 4 oz...which is a little high on the 4 to 5 1/2 lb scale, but still within range for 33 weeks. The head, on the other hand, measured at about 35 weeks and a few days.

"Look at the size of that boy's heed!"

Apparently, our baby is already on track for being SUPER smart because he has a really big head already. I can live with that. But what I might not like too much is if it keeps growing faster than everything else...because that might hurt.

WICKED hurt.

All in all, the ultrasound tech and doctor said that our baby is currently measuring a little larger than average, but still within a good range. So it shouldn't change the due date at all. Which means that right now we are 6 weeks 4 days away...and counting. Well, as all you mothers know, that could turn out to be 4 weeks, or 8 weeks, or anywhere in between. But right now we're "on track" for our due date.

So it's all good in the heed...I mean, "hood."

:-)



"Look at the size of that boy's heed...I'm not kidding, that boy's head is like Sputnik; spherical but quite pointy at parts! Now that was offside, wasn't it? He'll be crying himself to sleep tonight, on his huge pillow."

Stuart MacKenzie (Mike Myers)

So I Married An Axe Murderer
(1993)
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