Headed into the Weekend

I’m glad to see this weekend. Today, I had a check up with my OB/GYN and HH was able to attend. I called him when I was en route, and I could tell by his voice that he forgot. *facepalm* LOL! By the time he got there, I was already in the exam room, and the nurse had already brought out the Doppler and found Baby H’s heartbeat. When he came in the room she turned it on again so he could hear it. It was 152 beats today.

This is the second time that they’ve had to search all over for the baby’s heartbeat. He/she likes to chill low and to the right. Perhaps that’s why my bladder always feels heavy. And then when she did find him/her, the baby moved away like, you are invading my space. Hilarious! Kid is already feisty.

HH and CH just left with a couple of his friends to go ride the go karts. HH is taking them to eat afterwards. That should be expensive fun.

Tomorrow, CH goes up to his school for four hours of EOC studying. We’re going to get up early (read: I will get up early and HH will struggle) to check out a neighborhood garage sale. I’m not sure what’s on tap for Sunday, but I’m glad HH took the weekend off.

CH will be 16 on Monday! He has made some strides while he has lived here, and I am happy with that. It’s a daunting task to take someone else’s child under your wings. His grades are a little better than last year. Hopefully, he will be more prepared for his junior year and understand expectations for home and school life. He and I talked for a couple of hours the other night and watched Mythbusters. He leaves for his summer in NY in a week.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!

That Didn’t Exactly Work Out

So, it’s the end of May and we’ve heard nothing from HH’s job about the alleged transfer that could’ve taken place this month.

I guess the retiree was phantom. Or maybe he said, “sike! I was just playin’. I got five good years left in me.” Or maybe the yard master was just completely mistaken with his info and he doesn’t want to admit it now.

Either way, hubs still makes the 90+ minute trek. More wear and tear on the car and more cash out of our pockets.

We have A LOT to be thankful for this year, so we will be focused on that in the coming months. It just cooks my grits and sticks ’em to the pot that they dangled this carrot, and then snatched it away. Booooooooo.

House Hunting – Update

Last time I posted about the house hunt, we were taking a break, because our realtor had kidney stones. Well, he recovered, and our hunt is on fast forward!

HH sent me a MLS and I immediately fell in love with the house based on the photos. It has everything we need, and a lot of wants. A 4 bedroom ranch is rare. And it’s a split ranch! It even has laminate floors.

After we saw the house, we moved fast to make an offer. Not wanting to play games, we offered them what they asked for. They tried to ask for more, but we stuck to our guns and by the end of that day, they accepted our offer!

Now we’re in the midst of the tedious portion of the house buying. HH has submitted all paperwork for the VA loan, which is approved. We’re in the due diligence period and we’ve sent the seller a list of repairs, based on the inspection report. The house was built 19 years ago, so I’m not too surprised at the inspection. I think the report looks scarier than it is.

We are just waiting to hear back from the seller. I hope that he’s amenable to taking care of the bigger issues, because I really love this house.

The last order of business would also be for our current landlord to get this house back on the market and rented, so that we don’t have to be responsible for the last three months of the lease.

Wish us luck!

On The Grow

Baby H is on the grow. I have my next doctor’s appointment on 5/31. I’m 15 weeks and I do have a baby bump. I guess that surprises some folks, but news flash – I’m 5’2″. There’s not a lot of room for this baby to grow vertically. LOL!

One of my friends sent me this article, which I just now got to sit and read in its entirety. I just chuckled at the following, because it’s so true:

“Suddenly, her body is no longer her own. Her entire extended family feels that it is pregnant, and all of them give her advice about what to eat, what to wear, and what to do. I was amazed by how total strangers would approach me when I was pregnant, pat my belly, and offer suggestions. Friends seem to think it their duty to tell pregnant women the worst stories they can think of about cesarean sections, labor pain, and poor outcomes.”

People just want to direct you in everything – all of the above, as well as how to refer to and talk about your baby, when to talk about your baby, etc. They offer unsolicited advice and get mad when you don’t take it…and then if you do ask for help with something later, they don’t want to be bothered because you rebuffed the unsolicited advice. LOL! Who wants to walk around feeling uncomfortable talking about their pregnancy? Not cool.

I tend to be in agreement with those who say a baby’s experience in the world is already being shaped by his/her mom’s emotional state while pregnant. So, my focus is to remain positive and try to make healthy choices.

I am grateful for the support system I have in my close friends (on and offline), and my sisters – who have been through all of this before. Grateful for the people who don’t try to make me feel like my questions/ideas are crazy. Those are the people I keep close.

In the meantime, I will practice my “wax on/wax off” for the folks who want to try and randomly touch me in the coming months.

Aunties

I didn’t grow up around my dad’s side of the family. We were in NY, and they were in GA. Well, my dad did have one sister in NY as well, and even though she was only about 2.5 hours away, we didn’t get to see her much.

Conversely, 3 of my mom’s 7 siblings lived in NY with us and we spent all of our holidays together. By the time I came along we weren’t even making trips to GA. The first time I met my paternal grandma (and was old enough to remember it) was when I was about 10.

My brothers were born in GA, so they are more familiar with my dad’s side of the family. As an adult, my oldest brother would take road trips to GA so he got to see them a lot more. In my late 20s, I started going as well. It was like meeting all these strangers for the first time.

My dad had 6 sisters. The youngest died when I was about 5 years old. Everyone says I look like her. The other passed when I was older but I never met her. Out of the four remaining, I am closest to my Aunt Betty and my Aunt Shirley.

They’re like my connection to my dad, now that he’s gone. They both do the greatest impersonation of my dad’s voice and intonation. It always makes me laugh.

So when I called to tell Aunt Betty about our adventures in house hunting and the baby on the way, she said she was sad for a second because she knew my dad would’ve really enjoyed being here to see this day. You know it doesn’t take much to make a pregnant woman cry, right? I’m on 485, blue tooth in my ear, tears just flowing…but then she went into her impersonation of what she thought he would say if he was here, and next thing you know I was laughing. I know he’d be excited. Shoot, like my mom he probably thought this day would never come.

I sent my Aunt Shirley a text since she was on her way to Myrtle Beach and told her I had news to share. She called me today and I left her hanging and told her about the house hunt first, and then about the baby. She was so excited! She said she was sure my dad was up in heaven celebrating. I told her I think he had something to do with it. LOL

I know they’ll let Granny know (that’s what they call my grandma). She’s got so many grands and great grands and great great grands, but I hope she’ll be excited about this one, too.

Connecting with them is so important to me. It’s like my lifeline to my father. I need to do a better job of staying connected.

Spreading the Good News

Whew! Now that the news of my pregnancy is out, I can exhale! It’s been so hard holding it in from you guys. We actually had planned to wait until this week (13 weeks) to say anything, but I grew impatient. And, someone almost – unknowingly – outed me on FB. I had posted a pic of Bogey and joked that she followed me around like a bodyguard. So my friend asked me if I was pregnant! I had to do post diversionary tactics! LOL! Another friend who already knew came in and helped.

So, let me take you back to the month leading up to finding out. I know some people can look back to an exact date when they conceived. I cannot. I know when I suspect it was, and with HH’s crazy work schedule there are limited days when he was home (this is before he started just commuting every day).

I was not on any hormonal birth control, and haven’t been since I stopped the pill in December 2009. Three years of barrier protection with no pregnancies is a pretty good ad for condoms. LOL! I digress. I also have a very regular cycle. So I suspected nothing until it went MIA.

Back in March, HH wanted to go ride go karts for his birthday. He and CH both wanted me to ride. While the insurance adjuster in me just kept picturing the kart crashing and tipping, I agreed that I would. However, when the day arrived (3/1), I was suffering from heart burn and my stomach felt iffy. If you followed my old blog, you may remember me tweeting about how I used to get heartburn all the time when I lived in ATL. So, this occurrence of heartburn never phased me. I took some apple cider vinegar and kept it moving, but I didn’t ride the go karts.

The next week I kept getting heartburn. I eat at my desk at work a lot, and sometimes hurriedly, so I chalked it up to that. On 3/9, my friend Audrey had a Partylite party and I headed over to her house for the evening. When I got there I drank some punch and started to feel nauseated. I thought it was because the punch was pretty sweet. Still not getting the clues. LOL!

It wasn’t until the presentation was finished and I excused myself to her bathroom, that it hit me. I was washing my hands and looked in the mirror and realized my cycle should’ve started 2-3 days prior. It was like that moment in Disappearing Acts (the book, not that iffy movie, lol) when Zora was looking at the calendar and realized her cycle was MIA.

OH, %#^*{!

I re-joined the party and ordered way too many candles *facepalm*. The whole time I was thinking, I’ve got to go get a pregnancy test as soon as I leave here. I also realized after my third trip to the food table that I had been eating like crazy. LOL! Due to another friend sharing her news about a wedding that none of us saw coming, I didn’t end up leaving Audrey’s house until 11:00pm. I zoomed to Harris Teeter and got a box of three tests.

I’ve taken tests before and I know your hormone levels are higher in the morning, but I couldn’t take it. I ripped one open and took it.

And waited. And looked at it sideways, and waited.

Finally, a very faint pink line appeared. And I thought, nah, because it was super faint. I resolved I wouldn’t say anything to HH when he got home that night, and I’d take another one.

The next morning I woke up bright and early and HH was still conked out. I went in our bathroom and clicked on the fan, hoping that would block the noise of me opening up that test. LOL! Took the second one and waited. Pink line again. A smidge darker.

And I just sat there for a few minutes and looked at it.

Finally, I turned the fan off and came out. I guess I was in there for longer than I thought, because when I opened the door, HH rolled over to face me and said, “you were in there for a long time – you ok?” Man, he scared the mess outta me because I thought he was asleep! I hadn’t worked out what I was gonna say! Hadn’t we just told his mom 2 days prior that we likely weren’t going to have any kids because we couldn’t afford daycare? LOL!

Me: well, I was in there because I had to take a test.
Him: *wide eyed stare*
Me: *hands him the test* I think you got me, bruh.

LOL! Yes, those were my actual words. You got me. Yes, I was there, but I’m putting this on him.

He smiled, I got back in the bed, he kissed and rubbed my stomach, and so it began! After that, it was a blur of making a doctor’s appointment, giving up my beloved Starbucks, and nervousness.

The morning of my appointment with my primary care physician, those jokers called to cancel! The doctor’s son was sick so she was going to be out. Uh, no ma’am! I’ve already waited a week and a half! Can I see someone else? Luckily, they got me in with another nice doctor and I was able to get my referral to an OB-GYN (I didn’t have one because my primary doc does my yearly exams).

I had some spotting early on, so I had my first ultrasound at the end of week 7. I don’t know how the techs do it. I recognized none of the things she was pointing out to me (ovaries, fibroid, etc). Finally, she confirmed that Baby H had implanted properly, and I heard the heartbeat.

Then it really, really became real. I’m gonna be somebody’s mommy!

*faints*

And then four agonizing weeks of not being able to go public. Man, that hurt. LOL! Especially when morning sickness and fatigue started kicking my butt. I needed people to commiserate with! So, I did tell some folks offline. *waves at y’all* We told “the rest of the world” last Friday. I’m so glad to be able to share now.

Stay tuned, I’m sure the next few months will be filled with pregnancy stories and home buying stories (which is a whole OTHER post).

Happy Saturday!

Wordless Wednesday: The Bump Edition