Bump Watch

If I were famous, I believe I would have to officially tell my fans I was pregnant.  It isn't huge, that comes later.  But it is definitely there.  The bump.  I actually prefer having a bump than just looking really fat.  My bump tends to travel around to the rear a bit, instead of being a good bump and staying out front where it is supposed to be, but regardless I definitely have a bump.

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday.  It was one of the run of the mill, pee in a cup, take your blood pressure, measure the bump and step on a scale sort of appointments.  Honestly, being of "advanced maternal age", I actually haven't had too many of the run of the mill kind.  They keep taking blood, doing extra ultrasounds, etc, etc.  But this one was very quick, in and out.  My blood pressure is good, we won't talk about my weight (So far on track to match my weight gain with Jac vs with Mia, yowzer!), urine is good (I know you wanted to know that.), my bump is 21 cm which is textbook since I am 21 weeks almost 22 weeks prego, and fetal heart tones were great with a heart rate of 160 bpm. 

My next appointment is in four weeks.  I get to take the glucose test.  For those of you who forget or for those of you who haven't gotten to experience this joyous drink, you drink this nasty Orange Fanta knock off and then an hour later you get your blood taken.  Supposed to determine if you have gestational diabetes.  Actually, the orange drink isn't so bad, I have done it twice before and lived.  The blood letting.....I mean giving, drives me crazy.  I am not good at it.  But my doctor has a phlebotomist on staff and she lets me lay down while she sticks me, so it is a little better. 

What did kind of freak me out is that after my next appointment we go to the every two week schedule.  You know you have progressed and are getting nearer to D day when the appointments start coming fast and furious.  The staff already knows me on sight and by name, and soon we will be discussing gardening, the latest book we have read and what is for dinner that night.  Ready or not, here we go.

Camping 2010

Last year, at least I think it was last year, my mother and father in-law aquired a camper.  My sister and brother in-law also bought a camper.  Last year was the first year that all of Jeff's side of the family started getting together to camp.  We hadn't been camping with the kids, and really hadn't camped other than a night here or there in a very long time.  Come to find out, pretty much all kids LOVE camping.  I remember loving camping and although it is a little more difficult as an adult, I still really enjoy it. 

As a kid, you don't have to pack up all the food, you really don't care about showering, sleeping on the ground poses no problem and bug bites are there regardless if you went camping or not.  The only thing I distinctly remember hating were the bathrooms when I was a kid, and actually they don't bother me so much as an adult.  I have seen the worst of the worst in Italy and Japan, a mere state park bathroom seems homey and scented with the outdoors, more rustic than disgusting and cannot compete with a millenia old hole in the ground at the Colisseum. 

This year we ventured to Starved Rock State Park in Illinois, it is lovely.  It has 20ish miles of trails that lead to canyons and rivers and waterfalls for the kiddos to explore.  And even though it is in Illinois, it has trees!  Woods actually, think woods that breed an amazing amount of mosquitos and poison ivy.  The kids loved the woods and were able to run around behind our campsites for hours chasing each other and exploring.  We are wary of camping in Illinois simply because it is flat and who wants to camp in a field?  I think Jac and Mia said it best when they were concerned over the "corn cobs that are following us" on the way north.  Those suspicious corn fields literally follow you everywhere in Illinois!  But it was a great trade off, we got a few degrees cooler even though we had to endure the flat endless corn field of a drive. 

Sleeping on the ground and being pregnant, wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  It would have been better if the air mattress hadn't lost air halfway through the night.  (Is it really impossible to make an air mattress that doesn't lose air, really).  But, the fact that I got to use my in-laws bathroom in the middle of the night twice made everything alright.  I was very concerned about that.  There were port-a-potties about eight campsites up, which would have been less than delightful at 2am and of course there always are the woods.  But come on, I am not above peeing on the ground in a worst case scenario, when you gotta go, you gotta go.  It is not something I strive to do, but in the middle of the pitch black with poison ivy everywhere, I think not.   Jeff, by the way, has not qualms about peeing on the ground in the middle of the night with no flashlight, go figure.

Highlights of the trip, hiking to the St Louis waterfall was great.   It was an easy hike that even I could do.  The food of course, I love camping food and must have loved it so much that I gained two pounds. (How can that happen in two days?  Hopefully it is just water weight.)  Evenings around the campfire, although the mosquitos were VERY persistant.  I have been trying to stay away from pesticides, but after being bit about 40 times in an hour we pretty much dipped ourselves in Off.  Not that it seemed to do much.  Poor Jac, he actually faired pretty well on his body, but he got two bites on his face.  His nose and eyes swelled up like someone had punched him, I kid you not it was awful.  After two dose of Benadryl he is looking more normal. 

Only one more thought to leave you with, Friday nights at a campground are Hell.  Even family camping where no alcohol is premitted (although we determined that some funny stuff was floating through the air...), people are beyond obnoxious on Friday night.  Dogs allowed to bark, dragging a full cooler down two campsites in the middle of the road, kids playing tag, Grateful Dead sing along with a portable amp (I am not joking), and the coup de grace a car alarm set off for some ten minutes.  All of this happening after 11pm.  Call me old, but I don't think I acted that badly in my heyday, and these people all had kids with them.  However, Saturday, worn out from the lack of sleep and the lovely hiking the whole entire campground was out by 10:30.  Earplugs are definitely in order for next year.

Prego Slump

I am so in a pregnancy slump.  Yeah, yeah, you've heard it before.  I try not to whine, I don't want to be a whiner, but sometimes, when I am pregnant I just can't help it.  I seem to be able to have amazing energy for a couple of days and then I hit a wall and have to sleep for 23 hours.  This was our weekend.  We did go to our friend's house for some amazing ribs and we went and saw fireworks.  Other than that, I slept, I laid around and I slept some more.  The week at mom's has completed pooped me.

So, to wallow a bit here are some of my symptoms that I am having.  And unfortunately I am smack dab in the middle of the good part.  It doesn't get better than middle of the second trimester.  It is all down hill from here until the bouncing bundle of joy starts sleeping through the night. 

As expressed earlier, I have loads of energy one day, so I use it up!  Then the next day I am completely wiped out.  I feel like an engine that stalls out at a stoplight.  Then there are the headaches.  Basically, anytime I overdo it which seems to be very difficult to guage.  I get this enormous headache, a headache that can last for a day unless I get a good nap to sleep it off.  No, I don't have preeclampsia, my blood pressure is really good right now and no swellling at all yet. 

Of course, then there are the hormones.  They are starting to rear their ugly heads again.  Not really boo hooing, more like I am pissed off at the world.  Hmm, I must be a bundle of joy to live with. 

I have mild sciatica, nothing too terrible and since I am not exercising it doesn't really hurt a lot.  No round ligament pain and really haven't experienced the return of any indegestion, just something to look forward to. 

So there you have it, one joy filled blog post.  Bah humbug. 

My Hiatus is Over

I would like to say that I took a week off of blogging on some remote island with only my thoughts and a fruity drink to occupy my time.  But alas, I kind of worked my tuckus off this past week.  Although I have to say that there were many good things to come out of this past week including some wonderful bonding time with my mom and my sister.  Here in no particular order is a recap of my fruitful week at my mom and dad's house.

Three birthday parties, two trips to the lake, one visit to my lifelong friend, four cases of jelly canned, three trips berry picking, one case of grape juice canned, one fireworks display attended, one Halloween costume completed and more chigger (or tigger bites as Jac likes to say) bites aquired than I care to count.

Here is a picture of Jac and Mia with their cousin after a successful lake visit.