My Belly at 10 Weeks

Here's my belly at 10 weeks. It's seriously starting to pooch. Last night I felt like I had done 100 crunches, because my lower abs were so sore. I guess that's to be expected when things are expanding. Oh and about the picture, that's what happens when you decide to cancel saving your changes in the middle of it trying to save. It leaves a gray area on the bottom. Great, it only made me look shorter and fatter. woo hoo!! I'm a little surprised that I'm already showing some, because I was hoping to hold out until at least 3 1/2 months or so. And yes, that is a maternity top, because I've already out grown every last top I own. Oh gosh, does this mean I'll look like Octomom when I'm 9 months along? I told Brett that maybe we're having twins. He didn't like that idea and would like to just assume I'm just fat. lol. So here's to expanding at a super fast pace!! Cheers!

P.S. I am just wondering how much larger my butt can get? Scary...

This Is Why I Love My Life

Home Is Where The Heart Is

And that's exactly where I wanted to hear my baby's heartbeat. Let me explain, I came across this website, storkradio.com, where you can rent Fetal Dopplers to hear your baby's heartbeat at home. It's the same thing your doctor uses to hear it. I thought it was a pretty neat idea, so I could share the experience with family and friends, so I ordered one. Well the FDA requires customers to get permission from their doctors before they will allow you to have one. I sent the permission slip over to my doctor, but she wouldn't sign it. I'm not sure the reason, but it doesn't really matter. I just feel kind of stupid now. I wasn't trying to do anything that would endanger my baby or myself, I just thought it would be neat to be able to listen to the little guy/girl whenever we wanted. Oh well. I guess I'll save the experience for my once a month doctor checkups.

Stroller Mania

On Saturday Brett and I went t0 the Franklin Main Street Festival to soak up some sun and over-priced arts and crafts. If you're not familiar with Franklin, TN, it's where both of our parents' live and is also the rich and expensive suburb of Nashville. It's home to many country singers such as Kenny Chesney, George Jones, etc. Any I say all this to explain that every little nick nack was waaaaaaaaay overpriced. We did manage to purchase a clay bird house for a decent price, so that was nice.

Anyway, as we were walking through the super packed streets we began to notice how many strollers there were being pushed around. It's super annoying to be stuck behind someone pushing a stroller, because they walk super slow and you can't get around them. This is when I turned to Brett and said, "This is going to be us next year." We're going to be the ones pushing the extra large stroller and annoying the people behind us. It's so amazing how many pregnant people and people with strollers there are out there. I swear we saw 3000 strollers on Saturday!!! We also commented on just about every baby we saw and Brett especially liked commenting on the fat rolls that tend to hang on a baby's legs. I think he believes a baby should have tone, muscular legs or something like that. Wrong!!

As we were eating dinner at Mellow Mushroom, I was getting really annoyed at all the screaming kids, but then calmed down when I realized once again that this would be us in 6 1/2 months. OMG! We even got a front row view of a little boy pulling up his mother's skirt all the way up to the middle of her back. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't wearing granny panties and her entire butt was exposed for the entire restaurant to see. She screamed and then tried to crawl under her table. Poor lady. But then I pictured the same thing happening to myself and thought I'd better wear spandex shorts under every dress to ensure not having an embarrassing moment like that lady.

So to sum this all up, I guess I'm learning to have more patience with parents with big strollers and loud kids. Afterall, I would hate for someone to be annoyed with me when my baby starts crying in the middle of a restaurant or if my stroller gets in the way of someone trying to race around me. I also better learn some patience with kids in general to avoid being annoyed by my own. You know what they say, patience is a virtue.

My Legacy

So I've been catching on to this truck selling business pretty well I guess and I've finally sold the creme of the crop as far as semi trucks are concerned. With every sale, I've upgraded to a little nicer truck each time and this week I sold a 2007 Peterbilt 379EXHD Legacy. It's a $85,000 truck compared to the $38,000 truck that was my first sale. So I had to get my picture taken in front of it. A memento of my accomplishment. Even though I'm disgusted with my appearance, the truck looks beautiful. So here she is.

Thump Thump, Thump Thump

That's what my baby's heart sounded like this morning!! Thump thump, thump thump. Except it was really fast. Brett and I went to the Doctor's this morning for my first meeting with my actual doctor. I was sure I would like her, because I really liked her nurse and I was right. She was great! So friendly and made me feel so much better about certain things like, if I drink a cup of coffee my baby is not going to weigh 5 lbs at birth. She said if I drank three pots of coffee it may be a little different. lol. She also said I could drink Green Tea as long as I was getting plenty of water, milk, and juice.

I also gained 1 1/2 lbs since my last visit 3 weeks ago, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was sure I'd be 5 lbs heavier by the way my body was looking and feeling. So that made me feel a bit better. Then I got to do a pee test, blood test, female test, and last but not least we got to hear the heart beat. It took a little while for her to find the heart beat, which of course made me really nervous because in the back of my mind I'm thinking "Is my baby alive in there? Maybe I'm not really pregnant?" You know those irrational fears that I'm sure every mom has. And then we heard it loud and clear!!! I immediately started crying and so did Brett, although he was trying desperately not to let the doctor see him weep. I expected to get emotional about it, but I can not explain the joy that came over me when I heard it for the first time. It's like up til now, the only proof I've had that I was pregnant was a pee stick and some changes in my body, but now I have real proof that I'm going to be a mommy. It's such a cool feeling. I could have laid there all day and listened to it. All the worries that I had washed away.

Another super pleasant surprise that we got today was a total of our out of pocket expenses from now until my 6 week checkup after the baby is born. Brett and I had feared it would be somewhere around $4,5oo because we chose to have a higher deductible expense with our insurance and a lower premium. Well the lady that is in charge of the billing told us that our total out of pocket expense would only be $1,500 and that once we paid that, our insurance would pay 100% after that. We were so happy about that!! I even asked the lady again if that was our total cost through delivery and everything and she said it was. I could have jumped over the desk and gave her a big fat kiss. I guess maternity costs are different than regular medical costs and that's why our deductible is different. Apparently our insurance company believes in giving new parents a break. Woo hoo!!

So at this point all of the fears I had a week or so ago have subsided. I am just completely excited at this point. The doctor did tell me that I was only 9 weeks and 2 days along and that my due date is Nov. 24 instead of the 19th like the nurse had told me. This made complete sense to me, because I just couldn't figure out how the nurse had figured my due date before. The doctor did the exact same math that I had done and I feel confident that it shouldn't change anymore. So I'll be having a Thanksgiving baby or pretty close to it! How fun. I love Thanksgiving and what better thing to be thankful for than a brand new baby. November just can't get here soon enough.

Anyway, I'll be sure to post pictures of my fat belly as it grows and once I have my first ultrasound (which should be around 20 weeks the Dr. said), I'll post the images if I can. Later!!

Pee

So when Brett and I first moved into our house, we were thrilled about the fact that the house had all new carpet throughout. Well after living there a few months, we started to notice an odor. Patsy (our girl pug) had a couple accidents in our bedroom, but I was pretty sure that our room wasn't smelling from the 2 or 3 accidents she had. Mainly because I had cleaned them up right away. Well as the odor grew stronger, I put my thinking cap on and figured out what it was. The previous owners must have owned a cat and the cat must have urinated all over the place, thus being the reason the carpets were all changed!!!! I've never owned a cat before, mostly because I'm not a big fan of them, but I do know that if they pee often enough in the same place, the odor is almost impossible to get rid of. So our bedroom is beginning to be a place I loathe due to the smell and the awful wall color (bad painting experience). What's even worse is that I am constantly feeling under the weather due to the pregnancy and I am super sensitive to smells. Just about everything makes my stomach turn. So imagine how I feel when I walk in and smell cat pee. I'm so mad!! I told Brett that we'll have to pull up the carpet and do something about the floor underneath. I'm guessing we'll have to get some kind of floor paint and try to cover up the odor. I am sooooooooooo not looking forward to that, but I'd rather do that than live with the smell forever.

On a lighter note, if the weather permits, this weekend I'll be planting my garden. Finally!!! I've had it prepped and ready for a while now but work, Brett's bday party, and rain have prevented me from planting my veggies. Unfortunately, since our winter was longer than usual it's too late to plant most things by seed and I'll have to go to a green house to get some veggies that are already started. Darn! Seed is so much easier. Anyway, I'm thinking once my veggies are ready to harvest, I can make my own baby food. I'll consider it 2/3 organic. I'll explain what that means. I laid weed fabric down to prevent almost all the weeds from growing in my garden (I'll cut holes for the veggies); then I found some organic Pestacide; but the only organic fertilizer I could find was just dirt. Obviously that wouldn't work since I have weed fabric down. So I got some Miracle Grow plant food instead. Good enough!! It's the Pestacides and weed killers that are sooooooo nasty and I'm glad I found them in an Organic product. So that's my 2/3 organic garden. Take it or leave it. I'll keep you all updated on my progress, or lack there of, and I'll post pictures along the way. Later.

Oh the expense.

So Brett and I went to Target last night to put our eyeballs on a few baby items that we would need for our nursery. As we browsed the strollers, cribs, changing tables, bouncies, clothes, pacifers, bottles, toys, diapers, etc...our jaws dropped to the ground. Yes, we were aware that babies cost a lot of money and we're as prepared for that as much as we can be, but it's still shocking. I glanced at a big bag of Pampers and it was $28! So quickly I started to add things up in my head and here's what I came up with:

Crib: $250
Changing Table: $100
Stroller: $150
Bouncy: IDK $50
Clothes: $8.99 per piece
Diapers: $28per bag
Our out of pocket expense for delivery: $4,500
Estimate Daycare expense per month: $1,000 easy
Food: I have no idea

Brett and I have been really good about saving our money for this, but we were also saving for a new roof and the more I crunch my numbers I don't know how we can afford to do both. On a lighter note, Brett's car is paid off now and mine will be in Sept. So we can save the money that would be going to his car every month starting now and mine will be freed up before the baby gets here. That is a relief somewhat. I'm still torn about the daycare idea, not only because someone else will be raising my child, but because it's so dang expensive. But there is no way either one of us could stay home at this point. We both make about the same kind of money now and by one of us quitting it would mean cutting our income in half and most likely losing our house. Not to mention, I don't want to stay at home. Anyhow, if we have a boy I believe we would be so lucky enough to receive Leland's (Brett's nephew) hand me downs and that would say a lot of money on clothes.

On a much more positive note, I already have a super nice dresser for the nursery. It was my dresser growing up and I believe it came out of my nursery. I took really good care of it throughout the years and it still looks brand new. It's a dark wood and I think would go well with the crib I want. My parents also gave us the HUGE toybox that my grandpa built for me and my brothers when we were kids and I'm going to sand and re-stain it a darker color to match everything. That is really cool, because cutting out any expense is great. I also plan to get everything in neutral colors so I can continue to use it with all my children. That makes me feel a little better knowing I only have to make the big purchases once. Although the crib I want is one that turns into a toddler bed, then a day bed, then a full size bed...so I may just buy a second one when I have another kid. Who knows?! I'm rambling.

To update you on my human creating process; I'm 9 weeks along and have never felt more like a pile of crap in my life. Just kidding...oh wait, no I'm not. But I hear it gets alot better after the first tri-mester. If it sounds like I'm complaining about having this kid (and I'm pretty sure it does) I don't mean it that way. I'm super super excited to have this child and am way excited about getting the opportunity to buy all that expensive baby stuff. I just can't wait until November!!! I want it to get here now! In the mean time I will try to be patient and enjoy the baby that is growing inside of me. Later!

Pictures

Here are some pictures I got from a website showing the damage done by the Tornado on Friday. And yes, it has been officially ruled an EF-4.

The Aftermath

Well when I got home on Friday afternoon I realized our power was out and by the looks of the power poles and lines near my house, it wasn't going to be restored anytime soon. So after surveying the damage around our house, which just consisted of a lot of debris from houses that were destroyed around us, Brett and I headed to my parents' house in Franklin. We spent the night there and the next day came back to Murfreesboro to see if our power was on yet. It wasn't. So we drove around the surrounding area a little bit and what we saw was heartbreaking. So many houses were completely destroyed and people were scrambling to clean things up and do what they could with what was left of their property. I wanted to take pictures, but I asked myself if I'd want people taking pictures if it had been my house that was destroyed. So I didn't. After driving around the area a little more, we were beginning to realize how close we actually came to having our house destroyed in the tornado. Once I got a good look at the path of the tornado on a map, I realized it had hit and destroyed houses about 2 streets behind ours.

The National Weather Service is still finishing their report, but last I heard it was an EF-3 tornado and got up to an EF-4 in some parts. It had gained wind speeds up to 165 mph and ripped a path of destruction 23 miles long through Murfreesboro. It completely destroyed over 100 homes, majorly damaged almost 300, minorly damaged about 200, and those are just the homes that are uninhabitable. In total the tornado destroyed or damaged over 700 homes.

I just feel so blessed that it wasn't me or my house. I don't know what I would have done if I had come home to a destroyed house. We came so close to losing everything and I just feel like God really watched out for us that day. Now I feel like I should reach out to others that weren't so fortunate. They say it will take 6 months and over $35 million to clean up and fix everything, so they probably could use my help. I feel bad for not getting out and helping yesterday, but I was in Franklin spending Easter with my family. I was thinking of making a whole bunch of sandwiches for all the emergency workers since I may not be able to help out as much physically as I'd like. I just feel like I've got to do something. If anyone else is interested the Red Cross of Murfreesboro, TN is taking donations. I know I'll be donating something, because it's my community. Anyway, if I do get more pictures, I'll make sure to post them. Thanks for the support.

A Tornado's Wrath

During my 23 years on this earth I've never actually seen for myself the destruction that a tornado can leave behind; that is until yesterday. While I was at work yesterday some severe storms came blowing through middle Tennessee spawning tornados in the area. I wasn't too worried, because I've become used to the severity of TN storms in the last 4 years that I've lived here. None of the storms have closely affected me in the past, so I didn't think much of it. Until one of my co-workers' wife started calling and explaining how bad the storms were in Murfreesboro. They live 5 mins away from my house, so naturally I started to become worried. Brett was out in his work truck while the storms were going and he was racing home to see if our house was okay. He wasn't able to get off the highway at our exit because the police had the road blocked off because the damage was so bad. So he had to turn around and go home another way. When he was pulling in our neighborhood he was noticing all kinds of debris in the yards, such as shingles, insullation, siding, etc. When he got to our house, it was completely undamaged and we couldn't have been happier. Later when we talked to our neighbor, who was home during the storms, said he had video of the tornado heading right at our house and at the very last second it picked up and turned and landed on a road right behind our neighborhood, destroying about 50 homes on that street. I just can't believe that God spared our house when so many were destroyed all the way around us. It was a miracle if you ask me.

So by the time I got off work I was able to go the normal way home and this is what I saw:

Two people died in this storm; a 25 yr old woman and her 9 week old baby. And about 50 people were sent to the hosptial. I'm just thankful to have not been there when it happened and to have our house in one piece. So thankful.

Yoga and daycare.

So since I gave up on my work out routine well over a year ago, I've gained about 15 lbs. and I'm not liking it. I was hoping to be in better shape than I am for my pregnancy, but I guess it's never too late. My goal for a max. weight gain during my pregnancy is 25 lbs. I know that seems impossible, but if I'm really careful about what I eat and I start working out more regularly, I may be able to do it. Since boxing is probably not the best choice of exercises for me right now, I thought about yoga. I found a website online that has prenatal yoga videos that I can follow along with and I think that sounds like a swell idea. I can hook my computer up to my TV and then I don't have to make the effort of going to the store and trying to track down a DVD. I was going to try it out last night while Brett was gone to a hockey game, but for some reason my couch sucked me in and wouldn't let go of it's death grip it had on me. So needless to say I didn't get around to it. Darn!

I had intentions to try it out this morning, but last night I had a really bad case of insomnia. I went to bed around 9 and didn't fall asleep until after 11, once Brett got home. Maybe it was my subconscious not allowing me to sleep until my hubby was home. I don't know, but either way I was extremely tired this morning and didn't get up in time to try out my yoga. I swear I feel like my life doesn't exist except for on the weekends. I head to work at 7:30a.m. and don't get home until 6:30p.m. Monday - Friday. That leaves about 2 1/2 hrs of free time in my day to do anything, which usually consists of cooking, cleaning, and laundry. I'm just a little worried about what it's going to be like when I have a baby. The thought of leaving my newborn at daycare for 11 hours everyday is a bit dishearting. I don't even think most daycares around my house are open past 5:30. I would love to have the financial security that would allow either Brett or myself to stay home with the baby, at least part time, but that's not realistic. I mean we knew that we would both have to work full time and our child would be headed to daycare once it was 6 weeks old, but now that we actually have one on the way, it's a little more scary than ever before. I just want to be able to spend more than 2 1/2 hours with my child every day. I realize my 9:00pm bed time is no longer going to exist once the baby is hear, but still, I wish sometimes that I had banker hours. Unfortunately when you work in retail, that's unlikely to be the case. So anyway, those are my 2 worries for now....gaining more than 25lbs and putting my child in daycare for too many hours. I'm sure my nerves will ease as time goes on.

November 19, 2009

November 19, 2009...that's my estimated due date at this point. I'm further along than I had first thought and I'm liking that fact. I only met with a nurse this morning for my first appointment and she made me take a prego test (which came out positive of course) and then she did some math and figured I was about 7 weeks pregnant. Awesome!!! So my baby is actually turning into a baby instead of just a group of cells. I go back in 3 weeks for my first meeting with my doctor and then they should be able to hear the heartbeat. I'm so excited! It still feels so unreal to me though. I can't believe I'm actually going to have a baby. I just pray it's a healthy, happy baby so the gender doesn't really matter to me. There are many reasons that I'd love to have either sex. Of course, naturally I lean towards wanting a girl and Brett is leaning towards wanting a boy, but I think that's to be expected.

I really enjoyed my appointment this morning. The nurse was very knowledgeable and friendly and I just thought if the nurse is this wise, the doctor has to be amazing. The practice I went to has 5 female doctors, so a female will definitely be examing and delivering my baby. That makes me feel good. The hospital I'll be delivering at is supposed to be one of the highest rated hospitals in the state, so that's an extra perk as well.

Anyway, now I get to start taking my horse pills, I mean pre-natal vitamins. Woo hoo!!! Can't wait to see what those do to my stomach. I'm definitely taking them on a full stomach. But for now, I gotta go scrape up some energy to get through the rest of the day. Later!!