updating from the sticks

So we've been here in rural upstate NY for just over a week.  It is pretty crazy to go from our high-paced play-date/wifi-filled life to the sticks, where my mom had dialup, my cell phone doesn't work at all (except 10 miles away in town), and I'm pretty isolated!

I actually have really enjoyed this last week.  I've been helping my mom with cooking, cleaning, and general care as she just had double foot surgery a little over 2 weeks ago.  I've been relaxing and watching movies with her at night after Mimi goes to sleep and just enjoying the cool fresh air.

I've just now gotten to a state of boredom and isolation lol.  Luckily my mom can make longer outings now that she has orthodic boots to help with walking and isn't so drugged on pain meds.  Also she can be left for a little longer periods so I've been able to take Mimi out to the lake to swim, or to library story hour, etc.

Pregnancy wise, I feel pretty exhausted and have had a lot of headaches.  Otherwise I feel pretty good. When I wake in the morning, I can feel a hard lump on one side of uterus, and it changes position throughout the day.  I never felt this with Mimi, maybe because I was heavier.  I still haven't gained any weight, but the bell is rounding out nicely!  I let Mimi tatoo my belly with washable markers the other morning to help curve her boredom, I think she did a great job!

Her birthday is this weekend.  We're having a big family picnic at one of the parks on the lake.  My husband will be travelling up this weekend too.  I miss him so much and can't wait to be together as a family for awhile!

Belly Pics - Week 16 & Fourth of July

I'm coming up on 16 weeks here folks, and man, it gets harder everyday to conceal "the belly."  Obviously I wore a pretty tight tank top this day (4th of July) because the people I was with all knew I was pregnant.  Can you believe how big it looks?!  And do you like my festive outfit? I'm pretty wardrobe challenged right now.

I should see if I have a photo of me 16 weeks along with Mimi's pregnancy, because I don't *think* I looked this big, even though I weighed a good 30-40 lbs more!  Tomorrow I go for another anatomy/growth scan of "Gummy Bear" as we affectionately call this baby.  Then I have my traditional 16 week OB apt.  Hopefully all is well.

We had a good time this year for the 4th.  I took Mimi to a parade and festival in the morning while my husband slept in and enjoyed his first day off in months.  Later that night we went to a BBQ at a friends house and lit some fireworks and saw some nice fireworks.  I was so spent by the end of the day!

Saturday I leave for 3 weeks for my Mom's in upstate NY.  I'm excited about the trip but a little stressed about tying up loose ends before I go.

I hope you all had a great Holiday (for those of you in the States)!

Feeling Very Drained

I have been the world's worst blogger lately.  I used to have all sorts of ideas of things to blog about.  I would get excited when I had a few minutes to sit down and put up a post.  I hate to be one of those women who gets pregnant and falls off the grid, but man am I drained.

I can't tell if it's because I'm older this time around (30 instead of 26), or if it's because I have high blood pressure (an added stress on my body), or if it's because I'm chasing around an almost 3 year-old and setting up the new house.  For whatever reason, I feel so drained.   I wake up feeling pretty rested usually.   Now that I'm over the first trimester sickness, I have a lot of energy from about 7 am to 1pm.  By the time I get Mimi home for lunch from one of our outings, I feel as though I'll collapse by 2pm.  Maybe it's because it's over 100 degrees here?  I have been taking naps with Mimi in the afternoons and I wake up around 5pm with sweaty Mimi snoring next to me, and I feel worse.  Have you ever woken up from a nap and felt worse!?  It's such a crappy feeling.  I wake up feeling shaky, dehydrated, headachy, etc.  

Between 5 and 6:30 (when my husband gets home) I try to muster together the energy to make him (and us) for dinner.  At least food actually sounds appetizing now.  Infact, I dream of food at night, and wake up desiring all sorts of random things.  I find myself craving things like fresh cut up vegetables, yogurt, pickles, and fruit.  Not bad right?

As far as my (and the baby's) health goes, everything seems fine.  My appointments are a lot closer together than when I was pregnant with Mimi.  I see a normal OB office every 4 weeks for your normal pee in cup/weight/bp type stuff.  I usually bring Mimi to those apts, I figure it's good for her to get used to it now, and also the office seems to really accomodate children, with toys, coloring sheets, letting her "help" with the doppler, etc.  I also go see a Maternal Fetal Specialist every 4 weeks for more "advanced" care I guess?  I get anatomy/growth scans every 4 weeks, then at 32 weeks, weekly.  I get additional blood and urine tests at those appointments, usually for stuff I dont' understand!    Oddly enough, I feel more supported and "taken care" of by the doctors and staff at the Maternal specialist, which I did not expect.   My normal OB office rotates me around 6 doctors, so each time I go, I see a perfect stranger.  Hopefully it gets better.

So far the growth scans have gone well, and baby seems to be growing fine.  It's odd because when I was pregnant with Mimi, she routinely measured days ahead on the ultrasound, whereas this baby measure dead on each time, to the day.  Is it crazy that I actually worry that this baby isn't' even a day ahead?

I've resolved myself to only keep my maternity clothes in my closet after the move to the new house since I had to reorganize the closet anyway.  It still feels weird to think I'm having another baby in December.  I still forget sometimes that I'm pregnant.  I've definitely started looking a little rounder these days.  I'm still a few pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight, but I eat when I'm hungry and try all day to keep my fluids going in, so I'm not really too worried.  The numbers will go up eventually.  I am now back to eating primal again after some first trimester buttered toast binges.

I'm had to stop my workouts.  I stopped running at about 8 or 9 weeks along because I would get spotting after each run, but no spotting when I wouldn't run.  Both my doctor and I agreed that it was best to stop.   It breaks my heart, running is something I really enjoy (and now miss).  I just keep getting excited to train again after the baby is born.  I picked up swimming laps when I discontinued running, but soon realized I was too exhausted and couldn't make it through the day watching Mimi on the days I swam, and her happiness is important too.  Now I just do 1-2 mile walks with her and the dog.

This upcoming weekend Mimi and I head to upstate NY to help take care of my Mom after she had double foot surgery.  I'm both excited and apprehensive about the trip.  I haven't been back to my hometown in many years.  I also have a lot of loose ends to tie up here in Austin before I go.  Mimi and I will be gone 3 weeks, but I think it will fly by.  My husband will travel up for Mimi's birthday weekend in the middle, which will be really fun.

Hopefully I'll have some photos soon, sorry for the long update!

World's Worst Blogger

So I was reading this post from one of my fellow blogger/youtube friends (Gee Sarah I hope it's okay to call you my friend lol), and she mentioned the phenomenon where young woman become mothers and seem to make this transition into frumpy moms, not finding the time to wash their hair and put on mascara, or heck even shower.  I had friends that before I had Mimi told me the horror stories of how they never even had time to shower.   I'll admit that when I first had Mimi,  I always made time to shower, mostly because my kid was the world's most frequent puker, but I hardly ever put on clothes that fit me properly, or makeup.  I just tried to be clean and look awake.  After a few months (sadly yes, months), I managed to pull myself back together, and look like a young woman again.

I think there is this other phenomenon that occurs, but not to you, but to your house.   Before I had Mimi, my laundry never piled up, the floors were always lemon fresh and spotless, my bed was made, the dishes were put away, and mail never piled up on my table.  After 3 years, I feel like my house/home has slowly become completely chaotic around me.  I can sit here on my bed, which I happened to make today, and I see a desk piled with papers, receipts, a blood pressure machine, a pair of Mimi's underwear, you name it. I can see Mimi's daypack on my kitchen counter overflowing with our stuff from today's outing, surrounded by unopened mail and empty juice glasses from this morning.  My living room is covered in blankets and toys Mimi had dragged out of her room while she was watching a show.  Let's not even talk about the bathrooms.  Or worse, my closet.

Today my husband came home from lunch and something snapped inside him and he started on this rant about mess and clutter.  He was frustrated at the mess and warned me how he felt this was unacceptable.  I couldn't help but laugh.  I laugh because even if I clean EVERYDAY my home looks and feels like this.  Luckily we are moving to a bigger place soon with more space and storage.  Moving is a great opportunity to get rid of stuff, and believe me I will take advantage!

I hate how my home has transitioned to an acceptable level of mess.  Now, I am going to cut myself a little slack here, being in my first trimester of pregnancy, I've been pretty tired and sick.  The last thing I want to do is clean.  But our life was kind of getting "messy" before the pregnancy too.

With the move, and the new baby coming this year, I really want to de-clutter my home, and find a cleaning schedule that works for me and actually keep up with it.

In Other News....

So I've been a little busy with life lately. Travelling, doing the SAHM thing, trying to finish my dissertation, growing a human life... you know all in a days work...

So okay, right now the human life resembles a gummy bear more than a human baby.  Gummy bear measured right on target at my first apt, and had a heartbeat of a whopping 175 bpm!  Mimi's little heartbeat wasn't ever that high I don't think.

So we're excited to welcome gummy bear (God willing) on or near December 24, 2012.  Awesome due date right?  I imagine when people ask me when I'm due I get to say "oh well Christmas Eve..."

If you're religious, say a little prayer that our gummy bear keeps growing strong.  I've been really anxious and uneasy about gummy bear's future for some reason this time around.  There have been a lot of losses among my family and friends lately, and I guess i'm just paranoid.  So far, all is well and we're just excited for every day that passes and I'm still healthy and pregnant!

More to come later on gummy bear....

Sweaty Berry Picking

Nice title right?  Some friends and have been meaning to go out to Sweet Berry Farms for awhile now to pick strawberries with the kids.  My friend Melissa had her baby in mid-April, then there were a plethora of birthdays to plan--so we finally made it out there today!  I'm glad we did, because berry picking season ends at the end of May.  It was over 90 today and sunny as heck.  The kids definitely were feeling the heat. They picked berries for about 20 minutes, then went to play under the shaded pavilion.  Those little buggers left us to finish the job.   I picked a few pounds of deliciously sweet and amazing smelling berries to make some freezer jam this week.  We had a nice picnic and then the kids napped as we drove home in the air conditioning.

Here are some photos....

We're Moving!

After a month of chasing down craigslist ads and scouring sites like Trulia, along with tons of neighborhood drive-throughs, we have found a rental house!  Renting a house in Austin is tricky.  The housing market didn't suffer here as much as Florida, and the rental market is brutally competitive.  The city has a 97% occupancy rate--this means only 3% of the available housing in the city limits is open for rent.

We wanted to stay on budget with what we're spending now, since we still have the same financial burdens and didn't want to cinch our budget too tight.  We wanted no carpeting, and at least 900 sq ft with basic amenities (no window ac units etc).  My husband and I had two or three main neighborhoods in central Austin we liked, so we looked and looked and looked.  Houses would go up on Trulia or Craigslist and be gone in a flash, or they didn't allow pets, or it was only a 10 month lease, or they wanted you to move in TODAY, not at the end of the month or next month.  Our lease here isn't up until June 23, so we expected to cover double rent for the month in order to secure a place we liked.

I run with two mom's at 6:30am twice a week, and one of the mom's mentioned that her and her husband bought a house and were moving out of their rental home. She raved about the landlords' good qualities and the quaintness of the house.  Turns our she's moving out June 10th, so she put us in touch with the landlord and were were able to secure the house for rent before the guy even put the "for rent" sign up! No one to compete against, no pressure to lease a month ahead.  The landlord was super friendly and chill and is letting us move in anytime after June 10th that we want.  He didn't even charge a full months' rent as deposit, which is nice.

Not having to cover double rent for the entire month helps out a ton!  It allows us to hire movers for the big furniture, and buy some new furniture to fill the additional sq footage!

So about the house....
It's 1200 sq ft (we live in 968 now)
Has a one car detached garage with built in shelving and cupboards
fenced backyard (yeah for our dog buddy!)
all hardwood floors and tile! (Yeah no carpeting!)
attic converted for storgage (can you say no more clutter!?)
3 bedrooms (yeah for having a separate office again!)
1.5 baths (not ideal, but i'm not complaining!)
washer dryer hookups in a HUGE laundry room!
big bright open kitchen with a vintage feel with eat-in area
dining room (yes! we can finally have friends over for dinner!)
TONS of closet space for a 50s house
Cute brick fire pit in the backyard
adorable front porch are with built-in flower boxes

the list goes on.....

I am beyond excited to have a home again--one with a driveway, and storage, and an eating area!  Mimi is really excited to have a new room (even though her room now is pretty swank) and we are excited to leave apt life!  About the only thing I'll miss is the amazing pool here!

Wish us luck! I'll share photos when we move in!

ttyl!