Jenny's treat from 'grandma'

Jenny got a special little treat from her 'grandma' Lori from the natural pet store.



I do think she likes it!

Week in Review

Last week was a big week on several fronts. First and foremost, on Tuesday we had our first OB doctor's visit and we got a chance to hear Lloyd's heart beat for the first time. Yay! It was so fast and brought into question exactly what species I was carrying in there ;-) I was so relieved to hear that little lub-lub and it really did cement that this was in fact happening and there is a little person growing inside me at this very momment.

Then, right on queue, I started showing. We both really noticed the change on Wednesday night. I'm far from huge or anything, but I can no longer suck in my tummy and except for the normal layer of padding that's always there, my stomach has a firmness to it now.

On Thursday, not only was it Brad's 35th birthday (wow!), but his folks flew into town that night for a long weekend. We had a really yummy sushi dinner at a fairly new local sushi bar then picked them up at the airport around 9:00. The next few days were a whirlwind of building up dressers and shelves to help us stretch the usefulness of our condo for the baby as well as gathering other things to keep us organized. We're still in the process of moving everything into their new homes, but I'll be sure to post photos of everything once its all shipshape. I'm really excited to continue to get things organized and cleaned out, so that the next few months I can just concentrate on making things...because there are a lot of things on that list!

So...Sleepy...

Today has been a tired day. I can't seem to shake it and even after my lunch nap, its been rough. Fortunately, I've been able to just plug away on a project at work with no big rushes or demands. But, sheesh, I just want to go home and sleep. I am, however, going to try and be good and take myself to the gym after work. It will be harsh to get over there, but I know once I finish spin class, I will have a lot more energy and will feel better. After all, I do have one more 6am work day this week.

ETA - apparently it helps to actually bring your gym bag to the gym! I must have really been out of it this morning - not only did I leave it on the dining room floor, I didn't even realize I'd forgotten it until I got to the gym parking lot and discovered my empty trunk!

11th Anniversary Weekend

This weekend we celebrated our 11th anniversary! I talked about about it here, but I thought I would talk here about what we actually ended up doing! We got up bright and early on Saturday, fixed breakfast, then headed over to the San Diego zoo. Since it was earlier than when we normally go, we got a chance to see some things we normal don't. Most of the big cats were out, including the huge jaguar as well as most of the bears. We got a peak at the new tiger cubs, too. We also walked a lot more of the zoo...almost the whole thing. By the time we were done and had lunch, I was exhausted.

(Brown Bear enjoying a dip in his pool)

This was compounded by the horrible night sleep both of us had the night before (although, I have a sneaky suspicion that I was responsible for Brad's sleep issues that night). I was tossing and turning after continually awaking from very vivid dreams. Besides 3 trips to the bathroom, I finally had to get up and eat some cereal because soon I was too hungry to go back to sleep. That helped a lot and I finally got some rest, but I was still awake by 7:00, only to find Brad was already up.

(View of the sky from under our tree at the park)

Today, our anniversary, we headed to the park - of course! It was a perfect park day and the soccer people who had taken over our little nook of the park were finally gone, so it was back to normal. Yay! We also went out to eat tonight at Toro and I was able to fake my sushi craving with a couple rolls that don't have raw fish in them. After that we headed to Maggie Moo's for an ice cream splurge. We've got a movie to watch now which should round out the night quite nicely :-)

All in all, it was a lovely anniversary weekend and we were fortunate to have been able to spend the whole weekend together!

Public Knowledge

Last week we officially started telling people about the pregnancy. It was a lot of fun to share our news with people we see every day and people we haven't talked to in ages. It was especially great to hear from so many old friends. I think my favorite response was from our friend Mimi who said, "You can now join the club of sleepless nights...You've had entirely too much sleep over the past 10 years!" Too funny. True, but funny none the less. :-)

I told everyone at work last Wednesday and my email inbox was flooded with emails within a couple minutes of sending out my firm-wide announcement. But, it is now pretty much back to normal...although I did answer the question "Have you had any morning sickness?" about 6 times yesterday!

One thing I didn't expect was a growing uncertainty that everything was progressing normally. It's particularly hard right now because except for being a little tired, I pretty much feel back to normal. And now that everything is public knowledge, a little paranoia set in. So much so, that I even looked up more information about miscarriage on babycenter. Fortunately, the information I found was more reassuring than scary. They basically said that if you are asymptomatic, which is the case with me, and you were able to see the heartbeat on a sonogram at 9 weeks, the chance of anything happening at this point is very, very slim. Yay! So, now I just need to be patient and know that this baby is growing as fast as it can and soon I will KNOW Lloyd's in there. (In fact, I probably should enjoy it now, while I can still sleep on my stomach if I want to!)

Speaking of 9th week sonograms, here's Lloyd's:

Symptoms So Far

I thought I'd try to go back a little and record some of my pregnancy-related "experiences" so far. Like I told the doctor, I really can't complain. I haven't been entirely comfortable the last 8 weeks, but compared to what some others go through, I'm not going to complain one bit.

The only real nausea I experienced was from the end of the 5th week through the 6th week. I was pretty much nauseous all day long, but I found as long as I kept a little something in my stomach, I could keep it at bay. I never did have true morning sickness and have been fortunate to be able to keep all my meal down, although some have been easier than others.

So far, I haven't had too many food aversions, but there have been a couple instances of random "I don't want it". Its not the smells (or at least I haven't noticed it being that) but just a random certainties that I will die if I have to put food X in my mouth. One day it was even the fish tacos I've been craving all morning. I finally sit down and nope not only did I not want them any more, they grossed me out. But I had just ordered my lunch and the last thing I was going to do was throw it out, so I ate them (well most of them)...and haven't wanted a fish taco since. I think the saddest thing that fits into this category is quinoa. Quinoa is something I'd been meaning to try forever. Its super healthy and one of the recommended pregnancy foods, so we finally got some at the very early stages of my pregnancy. I really enjoyed it with my dinner and as leftovers the next day, but now, no way.

I think along similar food lines has been my inability to plan meals, because what I don't want can drastically change from one day to the next, it has been very hard for us to do our normal grocery shopping. We eat most dinners at home and generally did our week's shopping on Sundays. Now I have no idea what I'm going to feel like and I don't want to spend money on foods that might go to waste. So, we've been having to make a few more mid-week store runs than normal and it is helping.

The meals are also challenging when I have had to limit the size of my dinner. Around week 8 to the beginning of week 10, I was getting really full at night. I was so uncomfortable, I was having trouble sleeping. It felt like I ate a huge Thanksgiving meal and the went to bed...every night...even with the fairly small portions we usually eat at dinner. Eating smaller meals did help and the full sensation has decreased dramatically over the last week or so, which means, I can actually get back to sleep after my required trip(s) to the bathroom.

Hmm, what else...I think the only other thing I haven't mentioned (except for my craving for Honey Nut Cheerios) is my energy level. I haven't had consistent problems with exhaustion, but random days. Fourth of July weekend was one of them. I had grand plans to do a lot of cleaning out and organization and ended up just sleeping. I also got really tired during some errands we ran on Friday. I knew I was getting tired, but had no idea how tired I was until I started crying after biting my lip. It was straight to bed with me and after a good nap, I started to feel human again!

Inaugural Post

After more than 10 years of marriage, we finally decided to take the plunge and start our family. We are super excited and are really looking forward to everything that is to come...except maybe the diaper changing part.

I'm currently starting my 11 week and have more or less just finished telling everyone about the pregnancy. Things are going well and most of the uncomfortable early-pregnancy symptoms have mellowed out now. We are scheduled for another OB visit in a couple weeks where hopefully we will be able to hear the heartbeat for the first time.

Oh, and I suppose I should explain the baby name in the countdown widget to the right. If we have a boy, Lloyd will most likely be the baby's middle name. Its Brad's grandpa's name and his middle name, too, so we'd like to keep it in the family. My friend Shannon subsequently dubbed this little baby I'm carrying "Lloyd", and honestly I'd much rather use a name to associate with this little guy rather than just calling it "it" or "the baby" all the time...or at least until we can pick "its" real name.

I suppose that's all for now. I had to start someplace and this is as good a place as any.