BumpDate: 12 weeks

I mentioned on Monday that I am officially into my 12th week. Being how it is now Tuesday night, we'll say I officially have five days left in the first trimester. I think a lot of people are excited to be 12 weeks because that is when a lot of people go public. Since I have a big mouth and since we've been going through treatments for so long, it was never really a secret. I am excited to be out of the first trimester just because it's a milestone. 1/3 of the day done, 2/3 to go. Last week I was excited because on the app I have on my phone, it showed that I have less than 200 days to go - that was a milestone to me, to be out of the 200's. Only 95 more days until we are out of the 100's.

This week, mama is feeling less sick, sickness is pretty much confined to evenings after dinner, which is much more manageable, but still makes it difficult getting chores around the house done. In the daytime, the nausea has given way to wanting to eat Everything. In. Sight. I'm talking full meals every two to three hours. While this sounds fantastic to some people, it's kind of a pain to need to think of that much food each day. I'm still eating out a lot as a result. This is something I want to change soon - maybe I'll actually plan some meals and grocery shop this weekend?

Oh wait, no, I have to paint our new house. Maybe for my birthday.

Here's the latest belly picture. Now, keep in mind I take these at night, when the bloat is at it's worst. However, as I said last week, the bloat would not be there without the baby, so it counts! But it's definitely bigger than last week, right? (Pay not attention to the black bra under the white shirt and the greasy "I've worked al day, stopped to order paint, taken care of the dogs and managed to make a frozen pizza for dinner" look.) It's been a long week.

Wait - it's only Tuesday.

My Dryer Died and it's the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me

Sunday night I was doing laundry in the condo we are currently renting while our new house is being built, when the dryer suddenly starting making a REALLY bad noise. Like, I thought Wrigley was back from the dead and trapped inside the moving dryer. B called our landlord and it turns out our condo is the last condo of his with washer/dryers and once they're done, he's not replacing them.

So here I sit with two loads of wet laundry and no dryer. I'll for sure be making a trip to the laundry mat in town tonight to get those dry. This however does not fix the situation we are facing for the next month and a half until our house is done.

Let me add to this story by saying that ever since I got pregnant, I have completely stopped all household chores. I run a Swiffer over the coffee tables once an inch or so of dust has built up and B will get the vacuum out once the dog hair has coated the carpet, other than that, it's been take-out and seeing how long we can go without doing laundry.

So you can imagine how excited I am to have to sit in a laundry mat for approximately three hours every 1-2 weeks.

I should note, I am starting to feel better and am getting a very small amount of energy back. Still doesn't mean I want to spend that energy sitting in a laundry mat with college kids and my town's finest.

Enter - laundry service! I just talked to B and after giving him my sob story and cost comparison, he gave me the go ahead to send our laundry out - at least for a couple of weeks to see what the actual cost is.

Oh my God. The dryer dying is the best thing that has ever happened. to me!

PS - does anyone else LOVE Someecards.com? If you know me, you know sarcasm is a second language to me and I find I connect with a lot of the cards on Someecard's site. :)

When in Doubt, Pretend it Won't Happen

I bought the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting" this weekend. I had put off purchasing it for fear of jinxing things, but now that I started my 12th (yes, that right, 12th!) week today, it was time. I brought it home, flipped through it and landed on month three, which I am almost finished with. Then, being the masochist that I am, flipped to the labor and delivery section.

BIG mistake.

We are just going to pretend that in August, a pretty stork is going to painlessly bring me my baby while I am asleep. That in my mind, is how children are born.

That is the only way I am getting through the next six months.

Have You Ever Lost a Pet?

I've lost pets before, but this is the first time in my adult life that I have, and it's no fun. Growing up, we had a couple of beagles, Molly and Max. They got lose one afternoon and never came home. I think I was like 8 or 9 when that happened, and it didn't hit me that hard, mainly because I thought they'd come home eventually. Then we got Beau, the mentally challenged beagle. This dog was strong and stupid - bad combination. My parents gave him to a nice farmer who was going to train him to hunt after a couple of years. It was much better for him. I remember being upset, but again, got over it quickly. Then we got Dallas, a sheltie. After a couple of years, we didn't have time for her either, so we gave her to a nice family.

Then we were done with pets until I was about 20, when my parents got Sadie. I'm happy to say, Sadie is still kicking, although, she is turning into a crotchety old lady as of lately. But she's still a happy dog with a few years left.

Then when I was 25, I lived in an apartment that did not allow dogs, but allowed cats. I desperately wanted a dog, but decided I would instead get a cat and treat it like a dog. I had no experience with cats, but figured it couldn't be THAT hard. So, in April of 2009 I welcomed Wrigley Fransisco to my home. At first he was a kitty, unafraid of anything. B and I had started dating a few months prior to that and he had grown up with cats. He thought it was odd that Wrigley was unafraid.

Time went on and I treated Wrigley like the puppy I couldn't have. I bathed him and even taught him to play fetch! It was great.

Awhile later, his true colors started to shine. He would attack my leg with no warning and was just stubborn in general. That is when I figured out he was half Siamese  who are notorious for being mean and stubborn. He hated to be picked up and definitely did things on his own time. I am told this is how most cats are.

About a year later, after B and I had moved in together, we got JD, our beloved chocolate lab. At that time, the cat definitely became more of a pest to me than anything. However, I still held a special place in my heart for him.

Over the years, that cat and I definitely had a love/hate relationship. He peed in a bag of brand new clothes one time and I threw him in the garage for the night. I would put up a beautiful Christmas tree and he would strip all the ornaments off by the time I got home from work the next day. We would order a pizza and be sitting on the couch digesting what we could, and he'd come prancing out of the kitchen, dragging a piece of pizza with him.

Oh, that cat was smart though. I wear daily disposable contacts and therefore, throw away contact cases on a daily basis. He loved those cases. So much so that he'd drag them out of the trash can. So I put our scale on top of the trash can to keep him out. He figured out how to knock that off and still get to them. So we got a trash can with a lid, he figured out how to nudge it just right and still get to them. Then one day, he figured out where I kept my new ones, figured out how to open the cabinet door and came walking out of the bathroom carrying a whole strip of them one afternoon. The bathroom door was just closed after that.

He also figured out how to escape our house. He figured out if he batted at the screen long enough, it would become lose and he could get his paw under there and pop out the screen. You can imagine how shocked I was to come home and find him sitting in the window with no screen. He then figured out how to open doors that are not shut tightly, using the same methodology.

Oh that cat was a pain in my ass. And for some reason, I am going to miss him. I came home last night to a house covered in yarn. Our dear cat and found my bag of yarn I was planning on using to knit the baby a blanket and strung it all over the house. Didn't think much of it, until he started throwing up yarn late that night. B tried to tug on the strand that he had managed to get out of his mouth, but it caused him more pain. Turned out, the yarn was wrapped around his intestines. We had two choices, put him through a painful and extremely expensive surgery, with no promises that he'd make it, or put him down. With a new house in the works and a new baby on the way, we chose to put him out of his misery.

This is the first time I ever had to put a pet down, and I don't think it will make my list of top ten fun things. Leaving Wrigley in the cold, sterile vet office knowing in a few minutes he'd be gone, completely broke my heart. I was in so much shock that this was actually happening, that I opted not to be in the room when it happened, something I fully regret now.

I know "these things happen" and I didn't leave my yarn out in a place he could easily get to it, he had to work to get it. It still sucks though. Isn't it amazing how these furry little creatures find their way into your heart?

Rest in Peace Wrigely, I know you're in Kitty heaven now with lots of contact cases, catnip and windows with big plush ledges for you to snuggle on.

BumpDate: 11 Weeks

I promise this won't turn into a strictly pregnancy blog, but it is a blog about our life and right now, our life revolves around two things: the house and the baby, so I will probably be posting regular updates on the baby and baby-related things.

Last Friday (January 18th), we had another doctor appointment. I promised my mom after this appointment, if everything looked good, she could start telling people. The appointment went great, I have been having some issues with spotting, but that seems to have cleared up and my doctor is 95% sure it was coming from a skin-tag on the bottom of my cervix. He moved my due date up a couple of days to August 11th, which made me 11 week on the 21st! Whoo hoo! So excited to be almost out of the first trimester.

It took some work, but my doctor found the heart beat with the doppler. Quick side story, this is why I LOVE my doctor. He tried to find it with the doppler and after a couple of minutes couldn't find it and told me NOT to worry. Then he looked at me and saw that I in fact was definitely going to worry and said, "You know what, I'm waiting on twins to make their arrival and have no place to be. Do you want me to try again?" At 5 pm on a Friday evening, he tried again until he found it. It only took a couple more minutes, but I was so happy he took the extra time for me.

The other great thing 11 weeks has brought me is some relief from morning sickness and slightly more energy! Don't get me wrong, I am still exhausted just walking up a flight of stairs, but I have a little pep back and my nausea is ever so slight at certain times of the day. Nothing like what I was dealing with a few weeks ago. This is very welcomed as life in general was becoming a chore.

Here's a belly pic for you - most people say I am insane and that I am not showing at all yet - however, that slight bulge is not normally there. And while it most definitely is bloat, it would not be there if not for the baby, so I'm calling it a very small bump. :)

My Favs: Red Stamp the App

I love getting cards and I love sending cards... When I remember. I don't for-see myself being that put together mom/wife that has Christmas cards sent to her entire mailing list by December 15th each year. (Plus, let's face it, the pictures you put on your Christmas card you already posted on Facebook two months ago and your entire mailing list has already seen it.)

I am also really bad about sending Thank-You notes. In fact, my cousin and I were addessing thank-you's for my bridal shower the night before my wedding. To me, if someone has thanked me for a gift via text, email or over the phone, I do not need something sent to me in the mail. And that is how I tend to thank people for things - email or text. On the flip side, to each their own, and I do appreciate getting thank-you notes in the mail, but I don't feel the need to call someone out on not sending me a thank-you for a gift of any sort.

Enter Red Stamp. I saw this app on Pinterest a few weeks ago and had to download it. I LOVE IT. You can use pictures on your phone to customize cute cards/notes and send them via text, email and even upload them to Facebook! We are going to announce our pregnancy to the masses next week and I am thinking about using this app to text our close friends. I may even upload one of the cards to email and send it to relatives that way.

There are so many categories to chose from - and most of them are free! (There are some designs that cost a little extra - 99-cents for most of those. But hey - that's cheaper than a card at Target!) In addition to tons of categories, most of the designs can be further customized with different colors, etc. Don't have a picture you want to add? There are picture-less designs as well. Seriously - they though of everything.

Here are a few quick designs I made while playing around with it. We have some birthdays coming up that I will be using it for, as well as announcing the impending arrival of Baby R. :)

2012: A Year of Mixed Emotions

No time like the present to resurrect my blog. I hope to post more regularly with the dawn of a new year, but I have made that promise before. :) Shout-out to my friend KK for inspiring me to start blogging again.

Since my first post back happens to fall on New Year's Eve, what better than to reflect on 2012 and look forward to 2013.

2012 was a hell of a year, not going to lie. I am not going to sit here and say that I am so glad this year is over and it was the worst year ever. Was it challenging? Hell yes. But we were blessed with many positive things this year that I am determined not to let the negative over shadow.

January 2012 started off on a great note, with B and I taking our overdue honeymoon in the Bahamas. 8 days, 7 nights with nothing on the agenda but drinking by the pool. I am definitely ready to go back.

January also brought my first OB appointment where we learned our quest to add to our family was going to be tougher than it is for most couples. I originally was not diagnosed with anything, but was started on hormones right away. More on that in a different post.

February brought my 29th birthday (tear). I spent the day shopping with mom and the evening having dinner with my parents and our buddy AJB. 

March B and I decided to put our house on the market! A task the marketer in me knew I could tackle. After lots cleaning, packing and staging, we were excited to get an offer we accepted in May and moved out Memorial Day weekend. 

May also brought the first of many heartbreaks in our journey to have a baby when the first round of a medication called Clomid did not work. 

June we moved in temporarily with our friend AJB and moved into two bedroom condo in July.  June also brought another unsuccessful round of Clomid - the second time is not any easier.

Soon after we moved into our condo in July, I switch doctors to a doctor that specializes more in a field called Reproductive Endocrinology. She immediately suspected a condition called Endometriosis which would require surgery to remove. While surgery sounded scary and expensive, it was comforting to finally have some answers. I had another round of Clomid that month, but that cycle was scrapped due to the need for surgery.

July was a busy month. On top of moving a second time and surgery, we broke ground on our new house! (I am a bad wife and forgot to take pictures...) We also took a trip to Okoboji for my cousin's wedding. You have to love Okoboji in the summer!

August brought B & I's first wedding anniversary just three days after my surgery. Needless to say, we didn't do much. It's still hard to believe the first year of marriage is over - I would say we definitely had more challenges than we could have anticipated, but it only brought us closer. The surgery was a success and they found just a little endometriosis, which was a good thing!

September we started another round of hormones and in October did another round of Clomid with a procedure called an IUI. (Intraunterine Insemination.) After two agonizing weeks of waiting, I took (a million) home pregnancy tests and it was positive! Our elation was short lived, when two days later, I lost the baby. For those of you familiar with medical lingo, the pregnancy was classified as a "chemical pregnancy" - my HCG never got over 23. For those of you not familiar, the baby didn't develop and stick the way they're supposed to. Heartbreak and devastated does not even begin to describe the emotions. More on that in another post. 

November brought a fresh start, more progress on the house and a switch to the University of Iowa hospitals for our fertility journey. Because of this, we took November off from trying to get pregnant. Thanksgiving was low-key for us, we did a little Thanksgiving at our condo with B's parents and B spent most of the weekend working on the new house. 

December - December 4th to be exact - brought the shock of our life. 

After 14 months, tons of hormones, a surgery and lots of doctors, I was some how pregnant. Without any of them! Again, more on all of that in another post, but B and I are absolutely elated and terrified at the same time. 

As we wrap up the year, the house is about 3/4 of the way done and we are hoping to be in by the end of February/beginning of March. I am battling morning sickness, but luckily it is tolerable, and I'll take it. :) Both B and I are still loving our jobs and are extremely lucky to be in positions that we love and that can provide more than enough for us, our animals and soon - Baby R! 

The Cone of Shame

B is screwed when we have kids.

Screwed.

We've both known that for awhile, but JD - our 105 lb chocolate lab - reinforced that fact for us this week.

A couple of weeks ago, we noticed that JD had a spot on his belly that looked infected. The days went by and the spot started to look worse and worse. We still are not sure how the spot started, but we do know that JD made it worse by incessantly licking it for days. I am talking, that dog had to have been going to town during the 9+hours/day we leave him alone.

Why do I say that? Because he successfully licked a 3" long area of his belly completely raw and it proceeded to get infected.

Knowing exactly what the vet would tell us to do, we skipped to $30 office visit +drugs and opted for a $20 cone from PetSmart and a good old tub of Bag Balm.

*Sidenote - for those of you who know what Bag Balm is, have you ever read the side of the tub it comes in? After years of my mom slapping that stuff on our cuts, I recently learned Bag Balm was orginally used on cow udders. Who knew!

Anyway - as those of you who know our little family, JD is big. A big baby to be exact. He may be the size of a small horse, but his biggest nemesis is the noise an empty milk jug makes.

I came home with the cone on Monday afternoon. We immediately put it on him to see how he'd react and we were surprised how well he did.

At first.

We put it back on him later that evening so he would get used to it before we went to bed. After I secured the cone around his neck, the poor guy would not budge - at all. He just sat there with his ears pulled back, panting.

And my heart broke.

Those of you who have dogs know that when they're scared, they pant. Especially when they're in a situation they know they can't escape. Like the cone of shame.

JD got out of wearing the cone of shame that night.

The next day, he was not so lucky. I made B put the cone on him before we left for work and tried to get out the door before him - no such luck. I rubbed my poor guys ears - which were pulled way back within the cone - before I left.

Luckily the grinch B found his heart over lunch and came home over lunch to check on the poor boy... Who had weaseled his way out of the cone of shame. To top off his escape act, his belly was clearly inflamed from a good hour of licking he got in. B's the grinch's heart turned black and back on went the cone. This time however, JD was put on the bed before the cone went on. Reason? The small horse is too scared to jump off the bed while wearing the cone and therefore can not thrash around to escape.

We got home that evening to find the poor guy in the exact same position B left him in, shaking.

Yep - my heart broke again and he got extra food at dinner that night.

This scenario has repeated itself the past two days/nights. I thought we had made some progress yesterday as JD was not panting when I left, but then I got home this evening and he was shaking and stiff from being in the same position all day.

He got A LOT of extra food at dinner tonight.

There are two pieces of good news though: 1.) The second the cone comes off, he forgives us and acts like we never inflicted torture put the cone of shame on and 2.) his belly is almost healed!

Hopefully keeping an eye on him all weekend will do the trick and he will be cone free by Monday.

Have a great weekend!

Katie's Berry-Banana-Oatmeal Smootie

I am not sure what my deal is, but 9 out of 10 mornings, I don't want to perform the physical act of chewing. This is particularly weird for me because I love to eat.

Let me rephrase.

I love to eat when someone else makes it for me.

Enter smoothies - my breakfast savior. One of my friends actually got me hooked on smoothies a few years ago, and I have slowly refined my smoothie recipe to a science - partly thanks to Pinterest.

Smoothies are great for the following reasons:

1. I have managed to squeeze four food groups into a single tumbler.
2. No chewing involved.
3. Time effective. 

I am always running out of the house in the morning, so I try (sometimes I am too tired) to put all my ingredients in my Bullet blender cup the night before, so all I need to do in the morning is put it on the blender and dump it in my tumbler. 

Without further ado - the Katie's Berry-Banana-Oatmeal Smoothie. 

• 5-6 "cubes" (see below) of vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 c. mixed berries (I buy the frozen ones)
• 1/2 banana, sliced
• 1/2 c. quick oats
• 3/4c. juice (I usually use orange juice because it's cheapest, but any juice will work)
• 1 scoop unflavored protein powder

Combine all of the ingredients, blend and enjoy!

Here are some time-saving tips for those who are always running late:

• Buy a large container of yogurt and freeze in an ice cube tray. After they're frozen, free from the tray and divide into separate "serving" baggies. This saves on mess and allows you to just throw them in the blender when you're ready. I use 5-6 cubes/smoothie, but you can play around with that depending on the size of your cubes.
• Divide fruit into separate serving baggies (with the yogurt cubes). Again - saves time and mess!

I've seen on Pinterest that the "new" thing for smoothies is to add oatmeal - as you can see, I do. I actually got this from the Abs Diet - which I try to incorporate into my diet... Most of the time... Well, I think about it anyway. :) 

Enjoy!