This Mommy Runs on Caffeine

This Mommy Runs on Caffeine

June 30, 2009

Baby Showers

You know how when you are always the bridesmaid, each wedding gets a bit harder to participate in no matter how happy you actually are for the couple? You feel like everyone else around you is getting married and here you sit, either hopelessly single, or your significant other won't get off the pot and pop THE question. You are silently screaming inside while going through the motions of participating in whatever wedding related activities you have to participate in (except of course for the bachelorette party...... lemon drop martoonis always help!). Like the JLo in the Wedding Planner, "Those who can't wed- plan."




Well, in my case, complete avoidance was the best policy. I suffered not only from fertility issues but also from a horrible case of baby envy and shower anxiety. Just send a gift, no appearance necessary. It's hard to go to the blessed event knowing that Mommy was able to get knocked up on the first try, meanwhile you are the one who is perfecting her aim on ovulation and HPT pee sticks. And sometimes, it's just too hard to fake your 'happiness.' I did make one exception to this policy last year for BFF Leah after a long heart-to-heart. I just vowed to win all the little shower games, bring the best present (and the rum) and not be the one to cut the "let's see how big Mommy's belly" string at circumference so big it would make her cry. It wasn't as painful as I had thought. Perhaps because I had come to terms with my feelings or because we had actually started fertility treatments and I wasn't feeling quite so 'broken' anymore....




Well, I attended my first baby shower this past weekend since I've amended my policy (and no, it's not because mine is coming up- lol)- it's just easier to attend now that BabyW is on the way and I can actually be happy helping the new Mommy celebrate her own little bundle of joy! Remember, a woman's prerogative is to change her mind- a preggers woman's prerogative is to CONSTANTLY change her mind! Not to mention, my friend Amber lives a few hours away and I haven't seen her in forever, and I'm so all about the food right now! ( :




It was a really nice tea-party themed shower (and yes, I did win a game- I knew how many weeks preggers she is- we're just 3 weeks apart) and-gasp!- even had my first pregnant belly photo taken at Amber's insistence! I am not sporting the cute little bump that she has (my arse is bigger than her baby bump!)- mine is more like a medicine ball! (I shudder to think of what I would look like had I not lost so much weight in the first trimester!) So, because my friend Kindle has asked so nicely (and so often) I am actually going to post my first belly photo for the whole bloggoshpere. I'm sure that this won't be the last photo or baby shower for that matter! ( :










The Latest Rude Awakening!

I’m used to waking up in the middle of the night to do the potty shuffle; or because BabyW is having a raging party but the newest Rude Awakening is super painful- leg cramps. For the past four days I’ve had to deal with horrendous charley horses in my right calf- the first day literally brought tears to my eyes. I quickly tried to sit up to rub out the cramp (remember that nothing is done quickly when preggers?) and proceeded to hurt my stomach from squishing BabyW from her nice comfy stretched out position back to fetal style. (and she wasn’t happy and proceeded to give my liver a Tyson-esqe one-two punch); got a nice little head rush from sitting up too fast and rubbing does not help the cramps. You have to flex through it, but that’s easier said than done! Anyways, these cramps are quite common in the third trimester- but they suck.




I’m also finding that my body temperature runs a bit on the warmer side lately; especially this weekend when it was hotter than hell here- the nice balmy 108 degree weather is the hottest that it has been in Sacramento in over two years. Fab.U.Lous. And I get to experience it 7-1/2 months pregnant! Don’t remind me about being pregnant during the Summer- I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that since I’ve been baking BabyW. In all of my 35 years, June through August typically means Summer in North America and temperatures over 90 are pretty much the norm. I have been taking cool showers right before I go to bed and still wake up to turn on the fan (another rude awakening??) So, for comforts’ sake, if I had to choose my last trimester, it certainly wouldn’t have been during a heat wave, but since BabyW is a fertility baby, we’re blessed with what we have! On the positive side- my usual craving of fresh fruit is easy to fulfill during the summer- and strawberries, watermelon, nectarines and pineapple have been SO GOOD this season- not to mention it will be nice to have my maternity leave during the holiday season and the slower period at work.




Speaking of hot, I broke down and purchased a ‘real’ pair of maternity shorts from the Motherhood Maternity outlet- and it was- eek- full price at $29. Ugh- but you have no idea how comfy (and cute!) they are. Or how glad I was to have them on hand on Sunday… I made a pitstop at my parents to soak in their pool yesterday and it rocked. (I think my next purchase is going to be a kiddie wading pool for me to soak in when I get too hot.) Of course my hoped for wading pool pales in comparison, I hope it will get the job done, because as I’m reminded on a daily basis- I’m pregnant in the summer!

June 23, 2009

Your Patience Shall Be Rewarded!!

Forgive me as I am moving at the lightning speed of a turtle! Here are the long awaited 3D photos of BabyW! Although we received many pictures, these are the best:


















And finally, our personal favorite:



PEACE OUT!


June 20, 2009

Congratulations, It's A Puppy!

Or maybe a cute little piggie! LOL.


We just got back from having the 3D/4D ultrasound done at Sonotech (for any of you local in Sacramento- this place rocks! They are inexpensive compared to similar services and will refund your money if they can't give you photos/ good results.... ask me if you want to know more!) and it was a very, very cool experience.


The tech let us know right off of the bat that BabyW is head down into my pelvis and the left side of her face is right smack against the placenta. So much for symmetrical photos.....


As far as the puppy and the piggie- there are a few photos where she is moving and they snapped a photo so that the image resembles a puppy; and then her face is smooshed into the placenta therefore giving a pig nose. It's funny- I can't wait to show those to a future boyfriend much, much later down the road (like when she's 30). Isn't that what we parents are meant to do when we have grown children- embarrass them? RIGHT MOM?????




So, back to the ultrasound- we've been looking forward to this since we booked the appointment a few weeks ago and it's part of Jason's first Father's Day present! The place is busy, and luckily the two mommies before us (who took their entire families with them!) had uncooperative little babies so we didn't have to wait too long nor have to try to get BabyW to turn over. She was in about as good of position that she could be, but again, no full on shots... but there are some awesome ones! There is actually a 16-minute video of the whole process- I'm going to see if my Dad can edit it to post here- there are some amazing parts! She is a very active little girl and loves to have her hands around her face. And even though she is so photogenic (how can you not be with such adorable parents like us! HA!) she doesn't care to have photos taken and would turn away from the wand. Quite the little personality already. A good sign for a healthy baby!
I loved watching the movement and being able to actually feel it at the same time!




I also had the triple-check done that BabyW is still a girl (and she is) and not very shy about showing us so! Oh, and the last development? She is measuring, um, about 3 weeks larger than I'm supposed to be. The screen shots give an EDD of 8/16/09- which is- HOLY CRAP- over 3 weeks sooner than we are originally expecting her! I know, I know- first babies never come on time! But 8 weeks is a bit overwhelming compared to 11! Yikes.




(I know, the suspense over the new photos is going to kill you but try waiting 17 weeks to find out if it's a boy or girl! HA)

(And now that you've seen the cute ones.... here's the "puppy" picture- she is moving as the tech snapped the picture thus resulting in blurring of the image. C'mon- you know it's kind of funny!)

June 15, 2009

28 Weeks Down....

My personal soundtrack is playing the Star Wars theme and rolling the starting credits…. Today marks the beginning of the end. The start of the third trimester of the pregnancy- 28 weeks down- 12 to go (so ‘they’ say… could be less (we wish) or more… ugh) and the end of our lives as we knew it…. Jason and I are excited to soon become a family. Not that we weren’t a family before, but now we’ll be parents. It’s so exciting, so… new, so… intimidating! I will be the first one to admit that I don’t know ‘nuthin’ bout birth an’ babies’ (uhh, is it movie night in my brain??) and the classes that I was so quick to complain about having to go to will probably very helpful! As will all of my Mommyhood friends….. and they are on speed dial!



Right now I will just say that ignorance is bliss- which is the same reason why I quit reading most of the pregnancy books. Although I am far from a hypochondriac, I was expecting the worst to happen every time I turned around thanks to the information overload provided therein. Pregnancy on its own is enough to stress you out- adding in all of the potential problems is what makes you so emotional! If there was anything going on that was questionable, I either sent a message through webmail to my OB or did a quick internet search on reliable medical sites. I have to say that I feel very, very blessed to have had a healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy up to this point aside from random symptoms here and there! I would much rather go through each day feeling as normal as possible then wonder if each twinge and pain is a red flag danger sign. Coping with this weeks’ onset of sleeplessness, heartburn (never had it before in my life!) and bitty bladder is hard enough…







I want to just enjoy the time I have left to wonder about how my daughter is going to look and act and grow. And actually enjoy the dancing/ gymnastics/ soccer game/ open house that is taking place in my womb without a view. (Sorry, Daddy- it’s NOT a celebration party for your Lakers… BabyW is a Kings fan!) I’m going to tell her all about those times that she kicked me so hard that she made my eyes water- seriously. And how she seems to know when Daddy is nearby- even just on the phone! Speaking of wondering… we’ll get to see a sneak preview of BabyW on Saturday- we are going to get a 3D/4D ultrasound done- just in time for Father’s Day! Don’t worry, I will post the details as soon as I can! Until then, I might be scarce; I have our annual charity golf tournament at work on Thursday, and it is a huge time consuming project for me. (Hence the lack of blogs and tweets with the past few weeks!) I’m counting down the days until then so I can relax a little, but maybe it’s a good distraction from being excited to ‘see’ BabyW in the ultrasound on Saturday!

June 11, 2009

A Prayer for a Friend

I received an e-mail early yesterday morning from my friend Amber - she is also preggers like me and expecting a daughter in mid-August- that broke my heart. Her 18-month-old nephew fell ill very suddenly over the weekend; unfortunately the diagnosis was not good- meningitis. Unfortunately baby Ryder passed away in his mother's arms just hours after Amber sent out the e-mail. I feel so horrible for the family; I can't imagine what they are going through. How can you make sense out of losing such a helpless little guy, and how do you ever recover from that? I'm sure you never do, you just pick up the pieces and try to move on with your life. I didn't know Ryder, but my heart still aches for my friend and having to deal with the loss of their little angel.




I think as I am beginning to start a new chapter in my life as a Mommy, things like this affect me differently. It was hard enough coping with loss during each miscarriage prior to BabyW even though they were very early- if something were to happen to BabyW right now, I would never recover. Even though she sometimes makes my eyes water when she gives me a swift little kick, I love her fiestiness (she's definately going to have red hair!) and predictability. (I can almost set my watch to her little activity in there!) Life would never be the same....




But you do survive. A family friend lost his young son, just four-years-old, to a really rare genetic disease. Again, another senseless tragedy. So unexplainable- especially when you try to do it in medical terms. Little Gregory had Gaucher disease; and at the time of his diagnosis not much was known about it. Basically, in this disease- nearly always fatal- a child lacks an enzyme necessary for their body to eliminate dead cells and stores them in other areas of the body resulting in organ failure. There is no cure. It has been 12 years since Greg and Deborah have lost their son. It has been 11 years that the legacy of Gregory lives on in their charity- the Children's Gaucher Research Fund. They focused their grief into a goal- to help other families that have been affected by this rare disease. And it has helped.... the research is making great strides much in part to the grants that the CGRF provides to the scientific community to study and research lysosomal storage diseases (think along the lines of TaySachs or Parkinsons). I don't know how much it has helped Greg and Deborah cope and survive, but their strength and pursuit of a cure is amazing to me. It's an honor for me to take part in finding a cure: our annual corporate golf tournament (which is taking place next Thursday!!) is in it's 8th year and we donate all net proceeds to the CGRF; and Jason and I also volunteer our time and services in planning and running their biennial medical conferences. It's the least we could do- everyone wants a cause to belong to and I'm sure these efforts will take on a different meaning for us as we become parents.




I hope upon hope that we won't ever have to survive losing our child, but if we do, I know that the love, compassion and strength of friends and family as well as perfect strangers will help us endure. I hope that each day will become easier for Amber's family....




Here's to angels watching over us in Gregory. And now, Ryder.

June 2, 2009

Fun with the Parents

Random phone call from my Mom on Saturday:

ME: "Hi Mom!"

Her: “What am I going to be called?” Note: Um, Hi! is applicable here!


...Um... "Mom?”


No, I mean what will the baby call me?


What do you want to be called?


Well, she is going to have three grandmas, so what am I going to be called?


Well, I have a choice name for you but it won’t sound very cute out of the mouth of an infant. TeeHee.


Very funny.


Well, you tell me what you want to be called and call me back when you think of it….


That was Saturday and she hasn’t called me back yet. LOL!



And let's not forget the phone call to Jason from his Mom: “How’s BabyW? I mean how are Carol & BabyW?” LOL.


Sunday: As GrandmaL informs my Dad that we’re coming over for dinner on Sunday: “Oh good, we get to see the baby!” Forget the walking petri dish that is hatching BabyW.... LOL






But the best? Not from the parents but from some random stranger in Starbuck's that should be worrying about more important things than my baby bump...



"When are you due?
(I should have just said that I was fluffy and not pregnant...)

Oh, early September!

"Wow- congratulations!

"Thank you!"

Do you think that you should be drinking that coffee?

"Actually, it's a Frappacino, and you shouldn't be so worried about the caffeine, but instead the Bailey's that I'm going to put in it when I get to my car......"

If I were a smoker, I would have lit one up as soon as I got out the door. Stupid arse people, mind your own business.


OMG- I've Been Preggers for Half a Year!!!!

Wow. What a thought. Today's post is completely random- but that's why I call it random musings....





Taurus Horoscope for Today on iGoogle: “It's tough for you to overcome the inertia of being at rest (read: Pregnant!), so you may get off to a very slow start today.” Oh you have no idea. We (me + BabyW, as it’s all about her now….LOL) have hit another patch of fatigue. Even in my college days where my motto, “You can sleep when you’re dead” applied have I been as tired as I’ve felt the past two days.... that is until I get to experience the first few months after BabyW’s arrival as Leah, Jenn and Paige have informed me (hey, good friends don’t sugar-coat it!) The fatigue has also been accompanied by another new symptom- fleas. Just kidding- but it feels like it. My legs itch like crazy and when that strikes along with my nerves falling asleep, it’s a very strange feeling, or should I say, lack there of! But I think I found some temporary relief in Bath & Body Work’s “Shea Butter.” Although it reminds me of Crisco, it’s been four hours without so much as a little itch! Unfortunately the jar is almost empty- damn- looks like I’ll have to go there tonight… and a little birdie told me that it’s the semi-annual sale. (Hi, Honey! LOL) Now, if only I could get BabyW to shift to the right so my left leg quits falling asleep!







I had to take the mid-point glucose tolerance test over the weekend. It seems like I did
this not too long ago but my OB is extra careful about me developing gestational diabetes. Any level over 140 means that you have to take the 3-hour test and then get put on a bland diet. With the baby’s cravings for popcorn, M&M’s, choco-covered raisins and Milk Duds at Saturday’s movie (hey, we shared with Jason!) Sunday was probably not the optimal time to take the test, but it had to be done. We go to the closest lab to our house- and the crotchety lady says they don’t do prenatal glucose over the weekend there as they don’t have medical staff- I guess “any” lab is subjective then. Thanks for making a hungry, tired (BabyW had a party all night long- Mommy wasn't invited) pregnant girl cry, you hag! Dear, dear husband is trying to console me the whole long 7-minute drive to the hospital- and “!!!I don’t freakin’ know!!!” is not really sufficing for “What’s wrong?….”







At the lab they administer a 50g dose of said nasty crap- great, at least this time it’s lime-flavored humming bird food. The tech wasn’t amused when I asked for my shot of tequila as a chaser…. “Come back in an hour to have your blood drawn and oh yeah, don’t leave the hospital.” Fun. And I didn’t even get a Scooby band-aid or lollipop. But, it’s amazing what pancakes can do to elevate my mood!
…and I passed the test- phew- no 3-hour one for me this time. YAY. Excuse me as I go have a Snickers….