Side notes

As a bit of a continuation from the previous post ~ I would like to mention how my dress from Cotton On that I wore to the zoo (which I got at Plato's Closet for $10 because the mall stores are too expensive) is super comfortable. I am so glad I bought it even though I wasn't really in a shopping mood when I tried it on, but needed some "maternity" dresses since T-shirts and shorts are looking a little bummy on me right now with the bump. **Emma is 26 weeks +1 day today, the size of a butternut squash at an estimated 9.2 inches and weighing about 2 pounds now.

I have to admit that one more thing I look forward to about going places with Michael and Emma, is that we will take turns using the Canon so we both get to be in pictures (and a few family photos using the timer), rather than me rarely having pictures of myself at each event aside from a couple taken on phones. But I do really like these few pictures that my parents got:

Baby Turtle Face! (aka Helena Rey)

  What I've been eating lately: Chocolate carnation breakfast with vanilla wafers, or peanut butter on a raisin English muffin on my way to work. Less cereal than before, but I keep the pantry stocked with options, always having plain Cheerios on hand. I was eating a lot of bagels (plain, everything, oat) a few weeks ago, but am tired of those now.

   My stomach is getting bigger as our baby is continuing to grow. She is around two pounds now (making me 122) and maybe a smidge over 9 inches long. In this picture (below) "we" look huge, but that was after I ate spaghetti, garlic bread, and Oreo ice cream on Thursday. The picture under that shows how my stomach looked (tighter, full of just baby) the next morning. After that night I learned that in order for my stomach to not be uncomfortable and feel really stretched out all over, I have to eat less than I normally would and to stop once I get any hint of a full feeling. Also it's a good reminder to keep walking to keep myself healthy and so the weight I gain is all for Emma and not in my face or arms. On Friday morning I walked 2.5 miles with Jackie and then 3 miles with Alana in the afternoon. I didn't even need a nap in between! I squeaked by with 1.8 miles yesterday, but felt good doing so. While walking with Alana I said something that made me bust out laughing. She said, "Wow, that was a really big laugh. Did you just pee in your pants a little bit?" A fair question, but no. Luckily that hasn't happened (yet).

I was very excited to learn this morning that the girl at work in the "baby line" before me (Whitney) had her baby girl early Friday morning, four days before the due date. The baby was born at 3:54AM and she was at work the whole shift feeling fine on Thursday! One of the supervisors told us that Whitney had to have an emergency C-section, but she and baby Avery are both fine as of 3:54AM Friday so that's good. So I'm the next one to have my baby! 14 weeks/ 97-ish days to go. Unless the girl who is due one or two weeks after me (Valeska) happens to have her boy first. The "baby line" has been numbered since November when I announced that I was pregnant. Yesenia had her baby girl right before Christmas (and just returned to work two weeks ago). Priscilla had her baby boy about two weeks ago. Also Kaitlin (who switched from 911 to Records) and Andrea (a call taker who moved to New Jersey with her husband a couple months ago) are both due in August. 

   Some questions I thought of today that I would want to ask Whitney, but will save to ask myself in a few months: 

-- When will it get to the point that the kicks hurt? When will sleeping become less comfortable? Will I have back or leg pain? Will I get Braxton Hicks?

-- How sweaty will I be in May and June being even more pregnant? Am I sweaty all the time or only when I'm outside? Will my hands and feet swell up even when I'm not exercising? Will we have to turn the AC down inside?

-- After she is born how will the first week be? How tired will I be? Will I be crying a bunch because my hormones are out of control or will it be as easy as Jacquie makes it seem? And how much harder will the second week be after my mom leaves and I'm doing everything by myself until Michael gets home from work each day?

-- How easy will it be to motivate myself to exercise? Because I always hate how gross I feel when I lounge around the house and don't get outside or run errands. Don't forget: taking a shower & brushing my teeth works wonders! 

Snuggling while I filtered through all the zoo pictures on Saturday night.

   One question I can answer now that I had wondered before: What does it physically feel like to be pregnant? It didn't really feel like anything until I started feeling kicks at 19 weeks and 4 days. I sometimes said in the early months (especially since I barely ever even felt a twinge of sickness - sorry Lindsey) that I sometimes forgot I was pregnant and that made me sad. But I knew that I was and had the sonograms to prove it! It was a weird thing seeing the sonograms each time, like "Is that baby really inside of me? Is this still a dream? Is it our turn to be that lucky?" I think for me and Michael, once we could start feeling and seeing the little kicks, it was like, "Yeah we really are having a baby and it is alive and moving!". That's when I noticed he started getting more excited, talking about doing the registries and was fine looking at day cares after that point. It was no longer a "well let's just wait and make sure everything stays good". The kicks became the point of being officially good and safer with less worry, especially by the halfway mark. But right now with her getting bigger and my stomach stretching and really probably needing to wear my anti-stretch mark oil every day now, being pregnant feels like how it does after you eat at Olive Garden. (Not all the time, mostly now just after I eat too much. Definitely felt like this in the window reflection. But I imagine it will feel like this in most of June when I'm the "biggest"? Maybe even in May, or will it happen slowly enough that it's not uncomfortable too often? Another question I will have to follow up on.**) You save up your appetite so you can fill up on those warm bread sticks, salad, and soup. Maybe even an appetizer if we're splurging, and then keep the entree for lunch the next day. But that point where you tell yourself, "I should probably stop now or I might get sick." But then you still also feel sick and have to sleep it off because you feel more full 15 minutes after you're done eating and your brain finally realizes that you're done. Not counting the sick feeling, but the "wow I am really stretching my stomach out for this and should probably only eat celery tomorrow".. You know, in the best, most exciting and joyous way possible! =)