18 weeks & 4 days

My appt. went well today.  HB was 162.  I still don't think I've felt him, but who knows --- I'm feeling all kinds of stuff in there.  As it turns out I've only gained one pound in the past 3 weeks.  I treated myself with a gigantic turtle O:)  That was about an hour and a half ago, after dinner.  Now I want fried chicken!  I'm not hungry -- I just want it!  It's too late for that though.  I'll put today behind me and start over again tomorrow, bright and early at the pool.

I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks or even read up on the blogs that I usually follow.  Headaches have been plaguing me about five days out of the week.  I've also started to de-clutter the house and make room for baby.  I need to take inventory of what I have and what I need, so that's been keeping me busy too.  I'm going to try to get better at reading the blogs and commenting because after all I love getting comments too.

A Visit from BFF, Tiffany & an update

This week has been busy, AGAIN!  That's good though because I can chalk up another week.  My HS friend Tiffany lives in Chicago and she is down here visiting family and me!  I worked as much as possible so that I could take some time off to visit with her.  We went to dinner last night then got snoballs.  I had THE BEST chocolate snoball with condensed milk that I have ever had in my life!  I forgot to take pictures :(  Maybe I will get another chance on Tuesday.  We may be hooking up for breakfast before she flies back to the Windy City.  I can't wait. Also, Tiff gave me a wonderful little book of prayers called Mother's Manual by A. Francis Coomes, S.J.

(Update on pregnancy)

This week I got my results back from the AFP test .... all normal!  That's more than I can say for our little pumpkin's parents. I'm still getting migraines, they usually last through the night into the next day.  I take Ty.lenol, but it hardly ever helps.  I also have tried ice packs after a warm bath.  My headaches are directly associated with shoulder and neck tension.  I went to see my acupuncturist this week and it seems that all of the immunity points relieve the tension and the headache, so I suspect that allergies are the main culprit.  Zy.rtec has worked VERY well for me, so much better than Clar.itin ever had.  I guess I'm more allergic to cats and dogs than I thought, but they are my children too and they are staying inside.  

I noticed that in the mornings my belly is softer and smaller north of my belly-button.  In the evenings I look and feel like I've eaten a whole pig.  It's hard to move and breathe.  My acupuncturist suggested that my digestion is slow and I'm just filling -up so to speak.  I'm still very thirsty in the evenings and can't seem to get enough water.  I'm sleeping harder since I started the aqua-aerobics and swimming, which means that I don't wake up when I have to pee!  No ... not that!  I wake up in the morning and literally have to carry my belly to the bathroom while carefully dodging the way-too-slow cat that thinks the the best route from point A to point B is to travel in a zig-zag pattern.  She follows (leads) me to the toilet every time I have to go because once I sat there and brushed her while waiting for something to happen. I know, TMI.  Well, now she thinks that she is going to get brushed every time I go to the bathroom.  NOT!  

Let's see what else ... my energy is picking up in little spurts.  Today I washed the dogs and planned on taking them to the park for a walk, but got too tired by the time they were finished being bathed.  Oh well!  This weekend they will be able to play and romp around when we go to Abita Springs to visit my folks for Mother's Day. Maybe I will get more me pictures!

Crawfish season is here!

Before I get to the crawfish, I need to update on all the other stuff.

Acupuncture is AWESOME!  A few days after my session, I woke up and my sinus congestion broke loose.  I felt half-normal!  I have NEVER had this happen.  As I may have mentioned earlier, since I started the heavy duty fertility drugs in November 2006 I would get sick every 6 weeks like clockwork.  It would go  like this:  stuffy head, post nasal drip, cough, chest congestion, fever, go to the doctor, start antibiotics and Atuss (love that stuff!) and 2 - 3 weeks later congestion breaks up and I seem to get well.  This time it lasted all of one week!  I still am suffering with allergies being as everything is in bloom and I'm allergic to everything, but I'll take this over a respiratory infection any day.

On the work front, I'm not going to be able to go back to my private massage practice.  I tried it and became out of breath quickly.  So, money will be tight, but we are having a baby!  The safety of the baby comes first.

This weekend has been very nice so far, despite the rain.  Yesterday my brother and SIL boiled crawfish at my parents' house, so we made the trip to the country for an extraordinarily relaxing and fulfilling day.  We had (of course) boiled crawfish, stuffed artichokes, other munchies and strawberry shortcake to top it all off.  I had two helpings of that!  YUM!  I wish I had brought my camera and taken pictures.  It's very unlike me to not have a camera in my hand, but since I've started gaining all of this weight (most of it starting with the OHSS in Nov.) I've been avoiding the camera.  I'm looking pregnant now, not just fat, so I really should pick up the camera and start snapping away again.  So, (hopefully) look forward to some pics on this site of my daily life and other more fun occasions.  I may even get creative.  Who knows?

BTW, exercise is coming along slowly.  I went swimming twice this past week.  I was able to swim for 10 min straight, freestyle, the first time and 15 - 20 min straight the second time.  Both days after swimming I started dragging big-time, so if I have an appt. to go to that day, I will have to get my swimming in afterwards.  I'm looking forward to my endurance increasing.  Also, I did the prenatal pilates dvd once.  I have lots of progress to look forward to there also, but it is a great workout and I'm looking forward to having "hot-legs" by October.  As for my abdominals, well, I work those everytime I blow my nose.