Pregnancy is not very fun today

Like a little kid stuck in the back seat of a car, all I want to know is “Are we there yet?”.
I had a pregnancy breakdown last night. And I thought there is just no way I can do this another 3 ½ months. No friggin’ way.

The night before last I had a horrible nights sleep – tossed and turned all night and kept waking up hot and sweaty. And now there are of course 2 new things that have, of recent, joined the fight against me: leg cramps and heartburn.

My daughter the little flame thrower – is lighting my chest up at a whole new level these days. They say heartburn means she will have a lot of hair. Well, if that is the case I am afraid I may be giving birth to King Kong. To combat this heartburn I refer to my list of “ok to take medication” that I got from Dr. Chu. Only thing I saw on there that was in my cupboard was Tums. And let me tell you when I wasn’t pregnant and had a tummy ache those suckers would work wonders….Now? well now they do absolutely nothing for the raging inferno in my body.

So back to the list. List says (and friend Jill recommends) Gaviscon.

Off to the store. Gaviscon to the rescue…well at least the first couple of times. Gaviscon works much much better than Tums. BUT still doesn’t relieve my problem. I can’t sleep, with this heartburn. So I prop all my pillows up, I chew gum, I sip water, I don’t eat spicy or late at night….I can’t get it to go away. And therefore I can’t sleep. And it’s not only at night it’s during the day too. Yay.

Along with HFH (heartburn from hell) I’ve started getting leg cramps. So just in case I do by the grace of God fall asleep for a couple hours I will surely be woken up by leg cramps. The kind that feel like pitbull has gotten a hold of my calf and wants to twist the muscles until they snap. Only way to make them go away? – jump out of bed and stretch out my leg. However, with the growing belly there is no more “jumping” in or out of bed these days. More like a steady wiggle side to side until I get enough momentum to roll over. FUN… not.

Back to last night…

After I had been dealing with no sleep and heartburn all day and night I just wanted to relax. And then I started feeling itchy. Really itchy. Wanted to find a tall oak tree to scrape my back on, itchy. I couldn’t relieve the itch, I tried a bath and lotion, making Jason scratch me etc… Nothing.

I know, I know, heartburn, leg cramps, itchiness maybe not sound like that big of a deal. But when you combined it with working all day, overall lack of sleep and pregnancy hormones it’s was just enough to push me over the edge. I stood in the bathroom and cried. Snot running down my face my husband asks me what’s wrong…and all I can say is “pregnancy is not very fun today”.

p.s. pic is of us in a happier moment. 6 months.

4D ultrasound

I have some awesome friends that are thoughtful enough to think of my little growing family when they hear of things we may like. 2 of my good friends Aimee and Stephanie referred me to a company called Medison. This company essentially created what is known as the 4D ultrasound. They have a location of Knott right by Moms house where they train technicians to use their machines. So they need models, and who wouldn’t want to be a model and see their baby in 4D for free right?! Needless to say I signed us up and we got called to come in Thursday the 15th.

Jason got the time off to come with and Giselle was kicking me all afternoon (in anticipation of her big photo shoot I assume). Well when we finally got into the room there were about 25 techs and 25 pregnant women between 20-24 weeks excited to see their little ones.

Our tech Barb started our scan and showed us the heart and spine. As grateful as I am that Giselle has a strong heart and spine I was anxious to see her face. And of course what happened? – Giselle fell asleep…head down. We waited, and waited hoping she would wake up. She didn’t. I rolled on my side hoping she’d re-adjust, she didn’t. I went for a walk hoping she’d wake up, she didn’t. I ate some candy hoping the sugar would give her some energy, it didn’t. She MUST get this from her Dad who can sleep anywhere at anytime. There could very well be a tornado that picked Jason up and spun him around and as long as he was on his bed he would sleep through the whole thing.

Jason and I just listened to all the moms to be around us “Ooooh, look at her sucking her thumb” and the technicians “You see his mouth opening to practice swallowing?”. There were people seeing eyes, lips, tiny hands grabbing tiny feet, and all kinds of fun stuff. And we just stared at the back of Giselle’s head. I decided it kind of felt like all the kids on the soccer team were running around kicking the ball and our kid stared up at the sky picking her nose while they ran around her. Whatcha gona do right? I’m sure she was still the cutest one there 

Finally I had a genius idea! Jason had a Rockstar energy drink in the car, I snuck out and took a few sips (please don’t report me to child protective services, I just had a few sips I swear). Good news: little Giselle finally flipped over! Bad news: Barb our tech sucked.

Granted Barb was very nice, but she did not get the contrast dialed in and wasn’t able to master zooming in on things so the pictures we got kind of suck. BUT we got to see her. And she definitely pouts already (no idea where she gets that from!). Here is our little princess at 23 weeks <3

That Girl & This Girl

That girl up there is wild
This girl is tame

That girl’s tummy is flat
This girl’s tummy is round

That girl used to stumble home at 1, 2, sometimes 3 am
This girl stumbles to the bathroom at 1, 2, and 3 am

That girl loved buying little dresses at Bebe
This girl loves buying little dresses for baby

That girl danced the night away
This girl feels dancing in her tummy

That girl was carefree
This girl worries

That girl wore heels everyday
This girl wears flats

That girl had many fair-weather friends
This girl keeps only loyal and caring people close

That girl needed her family
This girl still does

That girl had a wonderful guy in her life
This girl still has him

That girl laughed often
This girl laughs just as much

That girl had big dreams
This girls dreams are coming true

This girl is glad That girl was around,but is happy where she is.

ZZZZZZZZZZZ...

Sleep, sweet sweet slumber oh how I miss thee. My mom told me that she thinks God prepares you for the baby by not being able to sleep while you’re pregnant – she may be right on with this one.

Ask my family, sleep is one thing I always had perfected. I would come home after school and take a nap even during high school, and as a young child even would put myself to bed - no fighting Mom for 30 more minutes here. Even on family holidays I would take a nap right on grandma’s couch while everyone chatted and ate around me. I love sleep. And now I MISS sleep.

I have always been a back sleeper, in fact I have a certain way I sleep (3 pillows and my stuffed bunny). I’d go to sleep in that position and wake up in virtually the same exact spot. Perfection.

Now I toss and I turn, and I toss some more. I am up and I am down more times than my mood swings these days. Doctors say to sleep on your left side, which would be fine if I had a removable arm. If I could somehow take off my left arm to prevent it from falling asleep on me I might be able to sleep on my left. Can’t do that. So I try “The Pillow”. Yes the wonderful hubby got me “The Pillow”.

You know those pillows. The picture on the bag always shows a lovely pregnant women sleeping soundly and hold her pillow like it’s Johnny Depp next to her in bed. Well my pillow and I have a love hate relationship going on. I love the idea of it, but most the time we end up in a wrestling match. First of all it is about 5 feet long…it’s hence earned the nickname the Beast. I put a snuggly brown cover on it too – so it’s almost like the Beast has fur, which feels lovely but is very warm. I start out holding the Beast and putting him (I assume it’s a him?) between my knees just like the picture. But somehow I wake up and the beast has mysteriously jumped out of the bed and onto the floor. Or the beast has left me and is now lying with my snoozing husband (who looks more like the peaceful picture on the bag than I ever will). I grab the Beast back and attempt to try again. But most of the time it feels like the Beast is fighting me in the middle of the night. Considering we’re fairly close to the same size lying down, it takes me a few minutes of wrestling the Beast to get him back into position to try again. It’s exhausting, but not exhausting enough to make me sleep of course. Noooo, normally by the time I’m back into the peaceful sleeping pregnant lady position I am wide awake. I wish I could strangle the Beast for making me so awake because of our WWE session. UGH.

If it’s not the Beast, it most surely is my undying thirst combined my prune size bladder. Now this is just a mean trick God plays on us pregnant women. I mean I never ever been as thirsty as I am these days. All the time I am thirsty. Even at night. I take my vitamins at night before bed – and drink a full glass of water to make sure I digest them well. And then thirty minutes later that water is ready to come out. So I waddle to the bathroom in the dark trying not to open my eyes so I can somehow semi stay asleep and pee. But of course on my way back to bed I am thirsty again. So I drink more water, go back to bed, wrestle the beast, lay there awake, finally fall asleep, and then wake up to pee again. Over and Over and Over.

Now some may say, Nicole why don’t you try not to drink as much water before you go to bed and therefore maybe you won’t wake up as soon? Well my friends I tried this the other night, here is that humbling tale: I of course have a 15 minute routine to get to sleep (face wash, teeth brushed, lotioned up, vitamins, water etc…). That night I take my vitamins with just a little water and jump into bed with Jason, Jersey and the Beast. About 20 minutes later a wave, rather a tsunami of nausea hits me. I RUN to the bathroom and barely make it before I begin to throw up. Think that sucks? Well here’s the really fun part: Each time my stomach contracts to get substance up I pee a little. I can’t control it. I know it’s happening but I can’t stop puking and I can’t stop peeing. Finally my stomach is empty and unfortunately so is my bladder. I stand up and sure enough I am a 25 year old woman who just peed my her pants like a 4 year old (never mind, my 4 year old nephew Luke has better bladder control than that). I pathetically look at Jason and he just laughs with me. Yes, I was laughing. It was either laugh or cry and the latter sounded less fun. After all, how many times have you seen a sober 25 year old pee their pants? UGH.

Oh Pregnancy such a J.O.Y you are.

I MISS sleep.