Dramatic recreation of what my stomach looks like.

Oh yeah, in case you’re one of the very few people who doesn’t know, we’re having a boy. No, we don’t have a name. No, we’re not even close to having a name. We each made a list of names that we like. Misha promptly shot down all but one of mine. His name list consists solely of 3 letter names (Max, Sam, Ari, etc.). We’ve tabled it & decided to revisit in late October/early November. For now he is known as Boyshteyn!

I still have morning/noon/night sickness. It’s better than it was & I am able to eat more now. If I take a Zofran at 2 am, and again at 8am, I’m mostly okay. That’s not to say that I don’t throw up, it’s just not the debilitating nausea I had before. Since my first visit at 7 & 1/2 weeks, I’ve lost 17lbs. Well, 16 lbs now because I gained 2 back, but then lost 1 between visits. My doctor isn’t happy, but Boyshteyn is measuring exactly as he should (kow) and the weight loss isn’t as bad as it was. I lost at least 8lbs on our trip to Europe. She said just to eat what I can. She wants me to try to gain back the weight that I’ve lost.

I’ve made it past the halfway point! I’ll be 23 weeks on Friday! (That’s out of 40 weeks for those who do not know.) According to Babycenter, Boyshteyn is about the length of a spaghetti squash & weighs about the same as a mango. That’s confusing to me. Basically, he’s just over 11 inches long from head to foot & weighs just over a pound. I’d really like to know who decided that an entire pineapple (week 33) would be a good visual comparison for a pregnant woman.

We’ve had a few scares through the pregnancy. You know, because nothing can be easy. In addition to the nausea/vomiting/weight loss, we’ve had spotting & rounds of wonky blood work. The first round of screenings came back with an increased risk of Down’s Syndrome. We went to see a genetic counselor who told us that she thought it was unlikely since the neck measurement from the ultrasound was perfect. We opted not to do any invasive testing & just see what the second trimester screening determined.

In the second round, the risk of D/S dropped to something like 1:10,000, but the spina bifida risk came back as high. My doctor was especially nervous about that since Lamictal (my seizure medication) can cause spina bifida. She had an appointment set up with a perinatologist & sent us back to the genetic counselor.

She told me to keep the appointment I had with her the next day (Tuesday afternoon), but to make sure I went to the appointment she set up with the specialist on Wednesday. Tuesday morning I wake up nauseous as usual, Misha leaves for work & I start violently throwing up. Not terribly uncommon, but then I suddenly get this sharp pain that makes me double over. This is followed by a little bit of spotting, which is not a good combination when you’re pregnant.

I called the nurse & asked (while sobbing) if I could come in early for my appointment & explained what happened.  She told me to hang up & come right in. Best of all? She didn’t treat me like an idiot! Misha immediately turned around so he could drive me in while I sobbed on the phone with my mommy. You’ll never guess what it was… I pulled a muscle throwing up. Yep. I pulled a muscle. From throwing up! Yes, I have re injured it since then (while throwing up) thanks for asking. The spotting? Just a coincidence. Isn’t that just special?

My OB called the specialist & told them what was going on & asked if they could see me right away. This would allow me to get my detailed ultrasound to check on the spina bifida & both doctors could make sure there really wasn’t anything to worry about from the pain.

The perinatologist did the ultrasound & said the spine looks great. She didn’t see any gaps, but wants me to come back August 13th to recheck. If everything looks okay then, I won’t have to see her again unless I have any problems. She & my OB do still have some concerns though. Since both screenings came back with high AFP levels, that could be a sign of problems to come.

However, the specialist said since I’ve had bleeding (spotting) during the pregnancy, that might be the cause of it. It’s not necessarily that simple though. They’re both concerned that I might end up having preeclampsia, which would suck & would put me on bed rest. It could also be a sign that I’ll have gestational diabetes, or that Boyshteyn might have problems with developing. They’re keeping an eye on his size to make sure nothing slows down.

Let’s all just hope that it turns out to be nothing. Just some strange fluke & I get through the pregnancy & Boyshteyn is born in late November. I really don’t think I can take any more drama.

It’s so much fun to be me right now. I’m fairly certain Boyshteyn is going to be an only child. He’ll have puppies to play with. Perhaps they can raise him to be a wolf-boy. Maybe we should name him Alcide…

For now, I leave you with the genius that is Garfunkel & Oates:

P.S. Kelly -I’m totally working on the homophone blog post.

disgustingly happy pregnant woman

I said early on that this was going to be a picture perfect pregnancy. I wasn’t going to have morning sickness, I was going to be energetic, I was going to eat well, & drink 64 ounces of water daily. Blah, blah, blah.

My body just does not do pregnant well. I’m the pregnant woman who cannot keep much food down & is considering borrowing a bed from the dogs to put on the bathroom floor. I spend enough time sitting there that it sounds like a good solution. Me & my new MacBook chillin’ in the bathroom on a puppy bed. Yep. This is my life:

how I spend my days

Don’t get me started on the people who say “Morning sickness is a good sign! It means everything is going well with the pregnancy!” Um. No. It’s not a good or bad sign. I don’t believe in those anymore. I had morning sickness then hyperemesis with my first pregnancy & had a miscarriage. I realize they’re trying to be helpful, but there’s only so many times you can hear that before you scream.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that I’m finally pregnant. I’m lucky that it happened finally & I’m very happy. It will be worth it in the long-run. (My mantra) I’m just so ready for the second trimester to start. I found a shirt at Zazzle that’s just perfect for me. It says: Pregnancy makes me happily miserable

Thank you Zazzle shirt creator. That pretty much sums it up.

We had a trip to San Francisco planned from March 4-7, so I scheduled the appointment for Wednesday, the 10th, after we got back. After letting me whine for a while, my doctor asked me if I wanted to give Clomid a try. She was willing to prescribe it for up to 3 cycles before sending me to a specialist. I had already decided that Clomid would be the best route & I was all set to start during the next cycle. She gave me a prescription with strict instructions to do a pregnancy test before I started taking them just as a precaution.

I was due to start the Clomid cycle on March 20th or 21st, so I did a pregnancy test on the 18th on a whim. Positive. Holy crap!?! ZOMG!!! What? I opened up another box (What? You don’t want to use the same box in case there was something wrong with that batch!) and made Misha wait on the phone with me while I did the second test. Positive again.

Yep, that’s right! I’m officially, officially pregnant! I’ve had 2 ultrasounds and everything looks perfect. I will be 10 weeks on Friday. The baby is measuring exactly as it should and has a very strong heartbeat. I’m due November 26th, so no post-Thanksgiving party at our house this year either.

The first ultrasound was at 7 weeks 4 days, so it didn’t really look like much. I thought it looked like an otter, Misha said Silly Putty. My lovely, wonderful, amazing OB knew that I was going to be nervous because during my first pregnancy the baby stopped developing at 7 weeks 4 days, so she offered to do another ultrasound 2 weeks later. Love that woman so much.

We did the second ultrasound today and it was amazing. It actually looks like a baby now & is such a wiggle worm. It was turning & the little arms & legs were going crazy. Misha says we’ve got a little Bboy in there. I hope it’s a Bgirl! I didn’t know what to expect to be quite honest. I knew at this stage that the baby should be moving around, and looked up what the ultrasound picture should look like, but I was worried. I was so scared that the image on the screen was going to be the same image we saw at the last ultrasound 2 weeks ago. As soon as the baby came into focus I could see that it was much bigger & then it started squirming.

I’m sure it’s the same way for any parent-to-be, but after going through a miscarriage & over a year of trying… I can’t find words to describe how it feels to see the baby actually moving & to know that it’s growing as it should. It has doubled in size over the past 2 weeks!

So that’s my big news! I’m pregnant, I’ve an unused Clomid script in my wallet, I’ve resorted to carrying Morning Chicness bags with me everywhere & I don’t think I’ve ever been happier.

Now I need to fly somewhere in May. Where should I go?

UH likes to mess with people. A lot (see here, here, & here) & in any way that they can. You know, just for funsies. Since I’ve already graduated, to come back for a second degree I would have to take 30 hours. That’s the 12 psych courses I need & an additional 18 hours of electives. ELECTIVES. WTF? I asked if they needed to be psych electives or something, but no, they can be anything. I was told that I “could even take a science course!”. Um, lady…did you not just look at my transcript? No, I should not ever take a science course again. I know there are at least 18 hours of history classes I would love to take, but it hardly seems worth the trouble especially since they are jacking up tuition.

I went up to work to pick up my Lamictal & happened to talk to one of the co-managers at the store. He was 6 hours from a second degree & when he tried to go back they told him the same thing. His 6 remaining hours would turn into 30 hours. If I had done this as a double major before graduation, it would have just been 12 hours. Well hell, there goes that idea.

I seriously considered double majoring in history & psychology before I graduated, but just did a psych minor instead. I was trying to avoid taking the statistics course that is required for psych majors. I figured since I was taking 2-3 advance level history courses every semester, taking a stats course might be a bad idea. It still might be, but I like to live dangerously.

The four remaining courses I have are:

• Social psych -an easy sophomore level course
• Stats -I still dread this one
• Physiological psych -behavioral neuroscience? Awesome!
• Cognitive psych – Bonjour Piaget! Comment allez-vous?

Maybe I just miss being a student…

Opinions?

I’ve passed 6 stones now, but luckily they’ve all been fairly small. Unfortunately, I missed my French classes this week, but the professor was covering things I already know from my first French class.

Things I know from hanging out in one room of my house:

• I really need to repaint the guest bedroom. The paint is uneven and part of the wall peeled off when the vent fell down a few years ago.
• West Elm used the exact paint color I have in mind for the tile room/kitchen in one of their pictures. Now I just need to figure out what color it is. Oh, and work up the motivation to paint.
• Zoë needs a significant amount of playtime every day to be happy. I didn’t realize how much I play with her during the day before I wasn’t really up to it.
• Maggie sleeps around 20 hours per day. Maybe she’s part cat? How od I know she’s sleeping? She snores. A lot.
• Maggie sheds. Again, a lot. I vacuumed last night because the tan carpet looked black. It was all Maggie hair. It had been a week since I vacuumed and I had to clean the vacuüm out 3 times for one room.
• My neighbors are loud. One in particular likes to screech at no one in particular while she walks her dogs. I’m thinking schizophrenia perhaps?
• Loud neighbors = non-stop barking from Zoë. Her pitch is very high and she hurts my ears when she really gets going. If the crazy lady* is by our house too long Zoë starts howling.
• From this room, I can hear the phone ringing in the house next door. That might be because Mr. Lanier is really old & can’t hear anything, but I like to think it’s because he’s annoying.
• I have a lot of shoes. I counted 36 pair** on the shoe rack, but there are more in the closet. In my defense, I wear almost all of them. I have a few work shoes that I don’t wear anymore, but most of the rest are in active rotation.
• Baby likes to sleep at my feet across the bed. She takes up as much room as possible and makes it impossible for me to stretch my legs.
• There actually is a limit to what you can do online before you get bored out of your mind.

Here’s hoping that lucky #7 will be the end of the kidney stone fiasco of 2010!

*WordPress spell check thinks that lady is “bias language”. It wanted me to change it to crazy ‘woman’. Wonder what it would think of me calling her a crazy ‘broad’, or a crazy ‘dame’?

**This is after Zoë began eating my shoes and brought me down by about 5 pair.

What have I been doing since graduation? Traveling, getting sick, & a whole bunch of nothing. The traveling part has been awesome. The being sick every vacation has not been. The nothing means I have no amusing stories from the pharmacy.

I’ve decided to make this into 2 posts so it’s not so long. The first will be about our trip to Europe and the second will be about our trip to Japan with Dan, Jeremy, and Matt.

September 25-October 12 we were in Europe while JH & Ashlea watched the girls for us. Misha had to go to Amsterdam & London for business & I decided to tag along. Our first stop was Paris. I am now in love with Paris. The first time I liked it somewhat, but the second time I decided that I love it there. As in I want to have babies with it.

le Tour Eiffel as seen from Palais de Tokyo

We decided just to relax & let things happen in Paris. We had a list of things we wanted to do, but didn’t plan out our days too much. I wanted to go back to Versailles because we missed so much the first time, but we slept in too late the day we planned on going. We really wanted to go to le potager du roi (vegetable garden created during the reign of Louis XIV) but we were still sleeping when it closed for the week. I think we will try to go next time we are in Paris. In addition to the vegetables, you can buy jams made from fruit grown in the garden. What an awesome gift that would have been for a certain UH professor/French historian!

We rented a loft & will do that next time too. It was nice having our own space with a kitchenette, washer/dryer, etc. In 2008 we rented an apartment in Saint Germain but this trip we stayed in Montorgueil. I would love to stay in le Marais next time (I could get the best falafel I’ve ever had almost any time I wanted it!) We had a lot of fun just walking through different areas & going to the markets. Misha, of course, loved the meals the most!

View of Notre Dame at night across the Seine

I cannot get over how beautiful Paris is at night. A lot of cities are pretty at night with all the lights, but there was something about Paris. We really liked the Luxembourg gardens & the Tuileries. We went to the Place de la Concorde, where the guillotine was erected during the revolution. Fun French Revolution fact: during the heart of the revolution, the revolutionary government renamed the Place de la Concorde the Place de la Révolution. Louis XV, Marie Antionette, and somewhat ironically, Maximilien Robespierre were all guillotined in this square.

As you can imagine, I totally geeked out at the historical sites and went crazy on our last day when we got to go to the opening of the French Revolution exhibit at the Carnavalet Museum, (the museum of Paris history). We couldn’t read most of the information, but I think I impressed Misha with my knowledge & explanations. (Perhaps he doesn’t think my degree is such a waste now!) I was quite disappointed that they glossed over The Terror, but it is understandable. Interesting to study, but not a very proud event in French history.

Courtyard of the Musée Carnavalet (Paris history museum)

After Paris, our next stop was Copenhagen. Copenhagen is another really pretty city. Living in Houston (where almost nothing is preserved) it is amazing going to these cities where the architecture is stunning & there is so much history. I’d like to go back because we were only there for a few days, and it was so damn cold while we were there. We like to walk around cities & I needed a much heavier coat in Copenhagen! I’m shivering just thinking about it.

Copenhagen at night

Those are swans near the center of the picture.

We happened to be visiting Copenhagen while the Obamas were there for the Olympic bids & announcements. We saw a large crowd in the square across from our hotel and found out that was where they were doing the announcements. We went over there and watched for about an hour before returning to the hotel. All of the Danes were rooting for Chicago, but there were a surprising number of people there for Tokyo (many of them were dressed as Pikachu).

The square where Olympic announcements were made. Note the Japanese delegation dressed as Pikachu.

The people there we so nice. I swear, the Danes are the happiest people on earth. They are just all so friendly. The only people who weren’t were the woman at the front desk at our hotel (I think she was German though) and an Australian waiter at a restaurant. With the Obamas in town we came across one slightly disgruntled cab driver. He was upset that the roads had been shut down earlier in the day and complained that Michelle Obama had an eight car entourage when the Queen of Denmark only requires one car when she is there. I assured him that the cars were probably for Oprah!

Our last day & 1/2 in Copenhagen weren’t very much fun. It was even colder and was pouring rain. As I was starting to feel sick, I decided to stay at the hotel our last full day there trying to rest. If we ever go to Sweden, (I really want to see Stockholm) I’d like to go back to Copenhagen for a few days to see more of the city. Misha would like to go back just to eat at NOMA again.

At the Lego store in Copenhagen (We took this picture for Jaeden)

We went to Amsterdam next & Misha had to start working. I was starting to feel worse & only went out a few times while Misha was working. The last day there I didn’t want to stay in the hotel anymore and wanted to see more of the city. We were staying in a much nicer area than our trip in 2008 and I walked around there and went down to look at some of the stalls at the flower markets. Having been to Amsterdam twice now, I really don’t have any desire to go back. Parts of it are pretty, but I think there are many other places I would like to go to.

Floating flower market in Amsterdam

The highlights of the trip to Amsterdam were getting chocolates at Puccini Bomboni, getting chips at Chipsy King (see husband’s blog post from 2008 for more on that), & eating at the Pancake Bakery. We brought some chocolates back for JH & Ashlea as well as our friend Alison (she really liked them). Once Misha finished his own chocolates, it took considerable effort on my part to convince him not to eat the ones we brought home as gifts.

So good.

The last stop on our extended vacation/work trip was London. I love London. I adore London. It’s really too bad that I was so sick I didn’t want to eat or get out of bed. We stayed at the Hotel Indigo at Paddington station and it was lovely. After a problem with the thermostat in our room, we moved to a slightly larger room & then their biggest room for our last 3 days.

Very pretty, but itty bitty room.

I forced myself to go to the British Museum our first day because I really wanted to see the Rosetta Stone. I saw most of the museum, but did it very quickly. I wanted to get the hell out of there because it was apparently kids day. There were school children in their uniforms running around everywhere. The last thing I wanted to deal with while I was sick were screaming children. When we went to London with Dan & Tara in 2007, we were amazed at how well-behaved the British children were. Yeah, not these kids. I’m not sure if it was the lack of supervision (the teachers were mostly ignoring them) or what, but they were wild!

Over the rest of the week I made myself to walk around the area we stayed in, but didn’t do much else during the day. I went out to dinner with Misha at night, but missed out on so much of the city. I hope that I’ll be able to tag along another time when Misha has to go back. Once we got home it took me over a week before I felt better. Major suck.

Portobello Road Market on a Saturday. Insanity.

While I was bedridden in London, I read the entire Southern Vampire Mysteries series (aka Sookie Stackhouse novels) on my Kindle and quickly decided that I’m totally Team Eric. I watched season 1 of True Blood on the plane back to Houston and got season 2 once we got home. Much of True Blood annoys me (like setting up Bill as the hero & Eric the villain, oh and don’t even get me started on the extended maenad storyline) but the eye candy of the series makes it quite nice.

I’ll work on Part II, our Japan trip, soon. Well, hopefully I will. I’m waiting for Misha to put the pictures up still. (Spoiler: I got sick in Japan too.)

Ashlea was right… I’ll never quit missing her, but it does hurt a little less now. To avoid crying again, I’ve decided to post a few pictures of our girl.  I’m sure that a few of them are repeats, but I wanted to include them in this post.

Bell Bug & Mommy

Bell Bell & Daddy are in love

The sisters when they were much younger pups.

Mommy & her girls in 2007

She was so mad that she wouldn't stop barking until I took the costume off of her

Take at the Omni in Dallas during Ike. Saddest hurricane evacuee ever.

Taken soon after her cancer surgery. She needed some comfort from her sister.

Bell & Mommy are exhausted while studying during finals week.

Our happy girl

My favorite picture of Isabell.

We miss you Bell Bug.