Found out today (November 16th) that we are expecting a VERY active little boy. He's got long legs and is not bashfull at all. The Ultrasound was AMAZING! It's so neat to see him move and feel it at the same time. He was moving so much that I have to go back in about 3 weeks so they can take better anatomy pictures. He wouldn't hold still long enough to allow a pic of his heart valves!

Laughing babies, very very funny!!!!

This will be my first child and my husband and I are extremely excited. We are hoping for a boy but a girl will be just as loved. Whatever sex the baby is, it sure is making it's presence known to me.

I have little interest in my job and only want to sleep, eat and read because i have no energy for anything else. I had some nausea but never actually got sick which is a major relief.

But on a lighter note my mom and aunt are finding all sorts of good deals for me like clothes and toys and funiture for the nursery. The 2nd hand stores in the area like Goodwill, St. Vincent DePaul's and also the garage sales are a god send and have saved hundreds of dollars.

I hope all you other mommies to be are having a good time with it! Once my nausea and fatigue dissipate i will enjoy every minute of it. Feel free to leave me a message, I love knowing that all the crazy things happening aren't just happening to me!

Madam Zaritska's reading:

The day you deliver, outside will be rainy. Your baby will arrive at night.

After a labor lasting approximately 13 hours, your child, a boy, will be born. Your baby will weigh about 7 pounds, 10 ounces, and will be 18-1/2 inches long. This child will have hazel eyes and be completely bald.

August 28th

First appt yesterday and everything is going perfectly, except for the fast weight gain (in my opinion). My Blood pressure was low too, it was 110/55. No wonder i'm light headed and spaced out most of the time! I'm really excited to actually look pregnant cuz right now it just looks fat to me. I'm finally not feeling so sick ALL the time, just some of the time, but i'm still terribly tired. It will all be worth it though.

October 8

I'm pissed off, this site reverted my entire page back to the way it was about a month and a half ago. What the hell? It lost about 7 journal entries and a lot of graphics! and now I think the numbers on the tickers are wrong too.

October 10

I'm beginning to wonder if lazy is a side effect of pregnancy. It's not even fatigue anymore, I just dont want to do anything. I'm hoping some kind of motivation comes back soon because I don't know how long I can pretend to work hard at work. I'm also alarmed that i've already gained 13 pounds and i'm only (nearly) 15 weeks. Maybe it will stall out for a little bit. I haven't even been eating junk! It's gone to my hips, a little to my butt and thighs, and some to my boobs. I can't wait to have the baby and then see how fast it will come off though. I still have 5 weeks to wait before I can find out the sex of the baby and we are so anxious. I still think its going to be a boy( from my first 2 dreams) but I did have a dream after those that told me it was a girl. We'll see if my first dreams are right, which is what everyone has told will be the case so far. Oh yeah and I did the ring test and it said boy (circles), I did it about 2 years ago over my wrist and it said I would have boy, boy then a girl. We'll see if it's right on number one!

October 12

My head is killing me and I end up sleeping about 2 hours out of every day just because it's the only time that it doesn't hurt. It is such bad pain in the back of my neck that I can't hold my head up any more and I can't work because of it. My job is driving around making calls on customers and prospects (sales combined with nutrition for dairy cattle). It's so bad sometimes I pull over and just want to cry because tylenol won't work, or caffeine and bengay works only for about 10 minutes. Baths dont work because my tub is too small and uncomfortable. Goodness I'm in pain. If you have any suggestions let me know PLEASE!

October 16th

Good day today, felt better than I have in a few weeks and am hoping to be able to work out a little bit now. I can't stand the thought of being sooooo out of shape when the baby is born that I can't even go for a walk or something. Hopefully the restless legs things lets up too. That has got to be the most irritating thing in the world because it's like I need to run a marathon with my legs, but the rest of my body is tired and I usually have a headache. I do get to schedule the ultrasound for November though. We will finally find out what we are having and it will hopefully happen on my husbands B-day! I had another very vivid dream about having a son with beautiful blue eyes and i'm hoping that it will be just as it was in my dream. One second i'm telling people "any day now" and the next, there is a kid on my couch looking at me! Wouldn't that be an easy labor!POOF!!!!!! I wish. Anyways, hope you all are feeling good!

October 19th,

Today is an awsome day. It's five years to the day that my husband and I met and fell in love instantly. We are going back to Madison to basically relive the weekend we met. He lived 3 hours away and was in town visiting a friend and I was out walking around downtown with some friends of mine. We stopped in at a random party and I saw him across the room. I swear that the world stopped the moment I looked in his eyes from 20 ft away and I smiled at him (which is something I've never done). He approached me and we started talking. I described my dream truck at the time, a Dodge Ram with a lift kit. And he mentioned that happens to be what he drives. So he took me home and dropped me off. Two weeks later we had a formal date and then every weekend after that he drove the 3 hours to see me! I can't believe how fast we knew. I have letters from a month after we met that we are both already saying that we could see ourselves together forever and that we love eachother. It's so funny how we just knew right away.

So this weekend we are going to a Badger football game, just like Steve did the day that we met, and we will be just spending some wonderful alone time together. We know we won't get any time alone after the baby comes.

Steve is so funny too, every time I feel the baby move and say something about it he runs over to me and puts his ear on my stomach to try to hear it or feel it. I told him he won't be able too for a little bit longer, but he's so excited. I think he would almost rather be pregnant so he can experience the movements. Still can't wait for the ultrasound. It's less than a month away now!

Oct 31

last appt went great, everything is fine and HR was at about 155. We will do the ultrasound on Nov. 16 and hopefully find out what we are having. I used to think I knew what it was going to be, but now I really don't know. I've actually been feeling better too. No more headaches, more energy and only minor back pain, but i'm convinced that I have a bladder infection because I pee ALLLLLLLL the time and even when I go, I feel like I could go again in like 2 minutes. It shouldn't be that bad already, or so i've been told. It doesn't hurt or anything though. Can't wait for the 2 weeks to be over so I can figure out what this little baby is going to be!

Nov. 26th

Not sure what this is, but I feel like there is something pushing on my rib on my right side. I don't think the kid is big enough yet, but he sure is strong if it's him doing the pushing. The ultrasound was great! I got all the registry stuff done as soon as we found out and am really excited to have the nursery all finished. I finally got the motivation to finish putting the room together and assembling the crib.

December 7th

We had our second ultrasound to check the heart and the brain again. There were some cysts in the brain last time but they resolved themselves and then Rowen was moving so much that they couldn't get the a picture of the heart at all. Everything looks good and now i'm measuring a week ahead ( I was 4 days ahead last time). I'm having braxton hicks on a regular basis now and it's sort of uncomfortable but nothing I'm actually going to worry about. I'm getting extremely tired again though. I didn't think that it would happen already but all I want to do is sleep and my back is aching. Work is getting to be a pain in the butt now and I'm wondering what it will be like closer to my due date to be making sales calls and have to waddle around on farms. Should be entertaining for the customers/prospects I talk to. It's all worth it though. Even the enormous weight gain i've experienced already (25lbs)

December 16th

Going nuts because I can't walk outside. It's too cold and the roads are icey ( I live in the country) so i've been doing these exersizes that are supposed to help with labor. They strengthen your abs and the muscles that support your back and they help with learning awareness of various muscles you use for pushing. It's kind of fun though. I've got so much fluid in my body that I can't stand to bend my legs. It makes my thighs feel like they will pop. When I was born I had very big thighs, now that i'm prego my body has reverted back to that idea of fat storage, go figure right? same hormonal influences maybe? Other than that all is going well. I can feel Rowan shift his weight when I change sides sleeping ( I sleep half on my belly, and don't care what anyone says about it "hurting" the baby, it's fine) and he usually kicks and punches when i'm trying to sleep and when I wake up, as well as VERY often throughout the day. I'll be talking to customers and feel it and just want to laugh out loud because it's surprising but fun. I did have one customer tell me i'm carrying the weight well ( I'm tall) but that i'm "fuller in the face". Real nice, is it obvios that this was a man? I thought so. Best wishes and happy baby's for all!

Dec. 31 2007

Very happy that i'm only about 3 months away from reclaiming my body. I can't wait to meet the little man, but seriously, he's not treating me very well so I could really do without the feet in the ribs and sciatic nerve pain along with all the other crappy parts of being preggo. I'm hoping that it doesn't get worse. I've also officially past up hubby in the weight department(talk about freaking wierd). I'm athletically(sp? oye my brain hurts) built so I carry it decently, but I don't cope with being "out of shape" real well. All is healthy and progressing normally so there is really nothing very exciting to report besides my weight being at 217 for a total of 32lbs gained at 27 weeks (ouch). I have a lot of water weight though and feel like i'll pop most days.

January 4th, 2008

Feeling terrible with an awful cold and no way to treat it or make myself sleep. I can't remember the last time that I had this bad of a sore throat combined with such terrible congestion. I'm going to try the suggested neti-pot that several women on here have told me works pretty well. Hopefully it's enough to make me able to swallow within a couple days. I go for my glucose test next wednesday, only because my prego brain went nuts and forgot that it was supposed to be today. Oops. Oh well, I would have infected the entire family practice division if I went in. Rowan is just fine though and seems to enjoy my being awake most of the night and all day long. He's happily kicking the crap out of me ALL day and night long.

January 10th, 2008

Finally over my cold, but now i'm realizing how much my lungs suffered. It's much harder to recover my breath from the stupid little things like walking up the hill from the barn and even housework. I hope it will come back a little bit, I can't imagine how labor will be if I'm this out of shape now! I am finally getting anxious for the baby to come. Instead of just wanting it out like before, now I actually want to be with him and experience this whole thing. I'm expecting the worst as far as sleep and feeding problems, so hopefully I won't be completely surprised, but i'm sure that no matter what you expect you will have some crazy emotions at the time. My back is starting to hurt and i'm much more uncomfortable all day every day, but I am still sleeping which helps out. Work is still okay, but I get tired much faster and need to take more breaks from making farm calls.

January 27

I just want to crawl in a hole and not come out until this is over. I can't believe how little motivation I have to do anything but then when I sit around I feel even more down and get all upset about how lazy I am. I want the old me back. I'm not cut out for being pregnant (not that I expected to be). It doesn't make me doubt my ability to be a mother, but it does make it horribly aggrivating to have no control over my body and no idea when I will regain it. Once he's born i'll be happier because I'll have something to show for it. Right now it's not giving me much to brag about except stretchmarks, heartburn and moodiness. Now i'm all worried about money and daycare and how we are going to keep up with all the expenses and doctor bills that will for sure be coming our way. I have good insurance but still, the co-pay will be a significant amount when all is said and done. I wish I was one of those oblivious people that could pretend like I have no idea if we have money or not, but i'm so organized that I never lose track of a single penny and it's causing more stress than good right now. There's plenty there i'm just OCD about watching it come in and then allocating where it goes. Pregnancy made me stupid about the little things, why can't I be stupid about that for a while?

Jan 31

Feeling a little better emotionally today. Steve has been wonderful and I don't think I would be able to get through this without him. I sometimes cannot believe how lucky I am to be so happily married and in love with him every day of my life. I'm still worried about money, but who isn't. There really isn't a true reason to be, we have enough to cover all bills and then some, it's just something I find to focus on while there is no way to control other facets of my life, like my body. I feel like such a whale and i'm achey all they time. My belly hurts multiple times through the day and I am having a lot of issues trying to get into and out of my truck when I'm working. It's getting pretty old to grunt like an old lady and not be able to breath when I bend down and put on my shoes and such. My legs are so swollen and fat that they feel like i'll pop when i squat. How irritating is that! Anyways. I wish I was closer to the due date and that labor would just happen without me noticing and poof! there's Rowan and we are a happy family. Just a pathetic little dream though, instead I've got about 2 months of horrible aches and then several hours of intense pain before I can have any joy out of this experience. Wow, i'm a pessimist. I'm okay with that though, it doesn't mean i'll be less of a mother.

Feb 28

SOOOOOOO uncomfortable and all I want to do is sit on my butt and do no work. Then when I do sit on my butt I get so bored that my emotions get the best of me and I get really depressed for not doing anything and feeling completely useless. I'm really tired of not being able to function and I can hardly get in and out of a vehicle or up off the couch anymore. The weight gain has not slowed at all, I've averaged 2lbs/week for the last month. I'm very sick of getting bigger by the minute. It makes my body hurt badly. I'm really hoping he comes at 37 weeks on the nose so that I can be comfotable that much sooner. My husband never knows what to say when I complain because he can't exactly sympathize. Poor guy, I must get really irritating to listen too.

March 30th

I'm done being pregnant. I keep having false contractions that get rhythmic and then I'll get gas at the same time and feel like they are getting me somewhere, when really it's just indigestion combined with false labor. How annoying is that! I keep faking myself out thinking that I will get to see Rowan in the next couple of days. It makes every day DRAAAAAAG on forever. Hopefully the doctors visit next week will provide some amount of hope. I have to wait until Wednesday but if they tell me i'm dilated it would make my day. He's dropped and is at -2 station and I'm 50% effaced and .5cm dilated. Not much progress, but better than nothing if you ask me. If he tells me I'm farther along next time i'll be elated and tell them to set my induction date because otherwise he's not coming out, I'm convinced.