17w2d: Pregnant together

I am so super happy, I can't even believe it! One of my best friends, K., is pregnant! She told me just yesterday, a few hours after she POAS. She is due in early December, exactly three months after me. Our husbands are really good friends (that's how me have met) and we go on vacations together etc. And now we are going to be buying baby items together and pushing strollers together! I am so excited!

Now, a bit sadder news. My sis and her boyfriend decided not to come. She has a new job and it will be hard for her to get time off so soon after she started. Plus they don't have much money. This leaves my 17-years old niece to come by herself. I am sure she will be fine but she has never flown and never even been outside the country at all. However, we are pretty lucky, because my friend's mom and niece are flying from Poland around the same time and agreed for my niece to tag along. I am getting her visa docs and invitation ready now and will be buying tickets shortly. I really hope she gets the visa or we will be out of $800.

On the work front. I am not sure if I mentioned before but I have applied for another position (same company, different division) about a month and a half ago. Had a pretty good interview and was very hopeful. I haven't heard any news yet so I called the recruiter about this time last week. She said that I should hear from the hiring manager very soon and that it will be happy news. I assumed that I got the job. Unfortunately no call from the manager came so far. And today I found out that she is out of town on a conference and won't be back until Monday. Ugh. But actually, it's not bad. The later they tell me the longer I have to finish up my projects. I really want at least two weeks at my current position before I leave, and with the vacation plans it may not be easy to accomplish that if we started talking now. So as long as I get the offer, I am not super worried about the delay.

We have also decided to build a new deck (actually, have a new deck built for us, lol). The old one is literally falling apart and will need to be replaced sooner or later. It's never been good, the steps are different height and by now the railing is wiggly. We have such a big and beautiful yard, if we don't do anything with the deck, I will not be able to go there at all in the summer!

We were also thinking more about the smaller adjustments to the house that need to be made before the baby comes. For example, if my parents stay with us for a longer period of time (which is the plan) they will stay in the basement, where our only TV is now. So we would like to instal a TV in our bedroom. We are not getting any cable though and will just watch movies. We also will need to move all the junk from the closet downstairs so that my parents have a place to put their clothes there. Our house is really small and has very limited storage space, so we need to CREATE more storage space. :) We measured the dining room/addition and decided that we will spare two feet by the wall for a large closet. However, this will require removing one of the windows and moving the door, so it is definitely not an easy job. I will be calling a carpenter as soon as I get an official offer for the new job.

I am feeling great these days, can stay up past midnight and eat pretty much anything. I still have the darn RLS but have noticed that rubbing some Vick's on my legs helps in 90% of the cases. I still don't eat any sweets and don't drink any fruit juices except a glass of OJ in the morning. This minimizes it too.

Haven't felt the baby move yet which is making me impatient and sometimes worried. We hear a strong HB every day though, so I am not too freaked. But I can't wait to be able to feel it!

16w2d: It has officially began!

Today was the first time someone who had no clue actually asked me if I was pregnant. A coworker looked at me and asked straight away: "Are you expecting?" And then asked if she could touch my belly!! :) This was so funny, because the baby is still pretty low, and the rest of my insides migrated up. And that's where she was touching my belly. Lol.

I also finally posted on FB. Last night. Here is how it went:

15w3d: Baby bump?

I think I popped. I know it's still early, but I think I did. I went to the bathroom at work this morning and when I was pulling up my pregoo non-stretchy pants that used to just hang off of my belly, it felt almost right! There is still some room, don't get me wrong. But my belly seems significantly rounder than usually. Also, my wide tunic that used to conceal the pregnancy pretty well is now a bit stretched over the bump. I have to send my "project" email tomorrow before I leave work for the weekend. I am petty sure it will be almost obvious when I come back next week.

Our doctor's appointment is on Friday morning. I don't think there is an u/s scheduled but I still think I will ask for it. We are seeing the nice doctor. He is very compassionate and I am sure he will be fine. I also hope to find out the sex! I have kind of gotten used to the thought that it's a boy and it will be weird to find out that it's a girl. But I don't really care. Besides, girls clothes are much cuter! ;)

We booked our baby moon! We are going to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic (it doesn't get more touristy than that! Lol). We are going for 6 nights and 7 days! Yay! It's good because the travel takes about 9h each way, which will eat up two whole days. I am very excited. It's a small resort (in a larger resort), adult only, and has private beach, which is very important as it apparently gets super crowded there.

RLS update:
I think I got it under control. And you know how? I stopped sweets. Gave up chocolate, candy, and ice cream. I still wake up at night at least once, and feel it. But light stretching seems to do the trick. It does help that (due to the time change) we go to sleep after midnight, so I am pretty wiped out when I finally get to bed. I still take iron, just in case, but put away Benadryl for good. It wasn't helping and I really hater drugs. I miss ice cream though. And there is an almost-full tub of Chubby Hubby in the fridge, my all times favorites! It's testing my will power. :)

14w5d: RLS update (and other stuf)

Today is Friday. I got the iron on Wednesday night and took it before bed time. I also took a long bath, put a folded blanket to elevate my feet in bed and soap under the sheets. All this to make sure the RLS will not bother me. And it didn't. I was so very happy! Fell asleep at 11.30 and didn't wake up till 5.30 am, just to pee, have a glass of OJ , a half of banana, and fall right back to sleep. It felt good and I was so rested. So on Thursday night I figured I would follow the same steps and get a great night sleep again. Unfortunately, it didn't work this time. I turned and tossed till 1 am and finally gave up. Got up and went downstairs to play some stupid game on my phone hoping I'd get so tired I'll fall asleep. After 30 min and 4 rounds of the game I was exhausted but still awake. So I decided to take the Benadryl, like the doctor said. I don't know if it was the pill or my body finally giving up but I slept for the rest of the night. I don't know how tonight is going to go and I am a little scared. I have a class till 9 pm tonight so I don't think I'll be doing any yoga. My class starts at 8 am tomorrow and I really wish I am rested for that. Otherwise it's going to be a really long day.

My next doctor's appointment is exactly one week from now. I would love to see the baby and get another pic for my parents but I don't think I'm going to push for another u/s. I just feel so guilty for bothering the baby every night with the Doppler! So I think we will have to wait til the anatomy scan sometimes in April. I though it would be early April but we are planing a "baby moon" in Jamaica for the first week of the month. And then I really need to start studying for my PMP.

I am also glad we are finally changing the clocks this weekend! I can't wait till spring and this is the first sign of it coming! I look forward to coming home from work when it's not dark outside.

We are meeting all our ski trip crew (minus the baby) for brunch on Sunday and I am so looking forward to that. We are doing dim sum and I can't wait. Both DH and I are big lovers of oriental food.

I have been looking at some baby related purchases lately, especially big items, to figure out how much we should put aside. This financial stuff is starting to worry me a bit. We are able to save a bit less than $2000 a month now but I will get only 60% of my paycheck in September (that's maternity leave policy) and our expenses will grow! I need to sit down and make a plan, otherwise I will o bananas.

I guess I should go back to work now. Only 1.5h and then the class. Ugh, I really don't feel like sitting in a classroom till 9 pm tonight!

14w3d: Sleepy...

I can't sleep at night due to the Restless Leg Syndrome. I tried all home remedies, taking baths (sometimes helps), stretching or Yoga (helps for about 15 min), elevating legs, etc. Nothing seems to work over night. I still wake up at least 2 times a night and sometimes stay up for 2-3 hours at the time. I try to stay up until I am so tired, I know I'll fall asleep no matter what Usually it correlates feeling like you are going to throw up from tiredness and it takes about 2 hours. Last night, for example, I went to sleep at 11.15 and woke up about 12.30. DH wasn't really asleep yet so he massaged my legs. It helped for a bit but for some reason I didn't fall asleep during the "window" and had to finally get up after tossing and turning for an hour. I went to the bathroom, sat on the floor, and played games on my iPhone until 3.30. Needless to say, I am a zombie today.

I am planning on getting iron supplement today. I had my acupuncture treatment yesterday and did an hour of Yoga last night, so I thought I would have a peaceful night. Wishful thinking, as it turned out.

Other than that, I think I may have felt a flutter for the first time today. I read and email from a friend from MP board and she said she had been feeling them for a few day now. I concentrated and I swear I felt something! I know it would be a huge coincidence but who knows!

We have been using the Doppler every night. It just makes me so much calmer. It's funny, as sometimes it takes a bit to find the HB, and some other times, I just put the probe on, and there it is! :) I promised DH that I will limit it to once every two days as soon as I start to feel the baby move, as the movement would reassure me. Maybe it will be sooner than I thought!

On the non-baby front. DH didn't get the job. He was pretty down yesterday and felt really bad. I know he was more than qualified for the position, but I also keep in mind that it was his first try to move to management. When he applied, he said himself that he didn't expect to get it. But then somehow it came out that they had a lot of very unqualified candidates so he got his hopes up. And they were crashed yesterday, and in a pretty annoying way, too. He want to get an approval for PMP exam reimbursement from an officer in his division, and the officer said: "BTW, sorry the management position didn't work out for you this time!". DH was super shocked as he was told the day before that they haven't made a decision yet. Deep inside I still have a tiny little bit of hope that the guy didn't know what he was talking about and that DH will get the job after all. I know that there is only about 0.00000001% of chance of this happening, but the hope is still there.

I also had my interview yesterday and it went well. The hiring manager was very positive and said she was very flattered that I wanted to work for her. You don't hear that on every interview, that's for sure. Absolutely no guarantee that I will get the job but I feel positive. They said they should make the decision by the end of the month. I guess it's soon enough. It would be nice to get the extra $$ (should be another $200 or so a paycheck or $500 a month) especially with the baby coming. I checked out the day cares in the area and they range from $1300 (for a home based) to $1700 (for a center) a month! And that's not all, the wait lists are so long, my friend signed up last February and they just called her back that a spot opened up for April, that's 14 months later!! I also looked at nanny rates they are $15/h and up, which is even more. Ugh, all this financial stuff makes me scared sometimes.

We also told DH's parent's last Saturday. We had them over for lunch (grilled and ate outside - a gorgeous day!). We used the trick with ski trip pictures. Poor things, they have never seen an ultrasound photo and had no idea what they were looking at! We had to say that it was their grand-baby. MIL commented later that she thought it was a hand bag with a strange design on it! LOL! "Honey, when Grandma saw you first time, she thought you were a handbag!" LOL! The whole afternoon was very pleasant and they seemed much more excited about it this time around. My suspicion is that MIL had miscarried before, between having BIL and (5 years later) DH, and when we told them the first time around that we were about 6 weeks, they probably were scared that I was going to m/c too, and that's why they didn't show the excitement. Or perhaps they were more shocked last time. DH mentioned to me that sometimes MIL would tell him that we shouldn't wait with having children any longer. They probably thought we were waiting on purpose.

13w4d: Just a boring post

We are doing good, just super busy at work plus I was trying to figure out the vacations plans and convince my sis to come (she was afraid for the $$). And now we are thinking of buying a new(er) second car as the old one is super old and falling apart and we are about to pay another $150 registration on it. We know we will have to replace it before the baby comes (it's a 2-door and absolutely unreliable). The sooner the better so it doesn't suck out any more $$ out of us.

Pregnancy. I am definitely growing although so far it is visible only to me. :) Got some new cute pregnancy clothes finally delivered. They aren't as great as I expected but they are ok. The pants don't have the very stretchy top like the ones from Mother*hood Maternity, so they are still a little big. But they are very comfy. The pregnancy top is def too big and looks funny now; the non-pregnancy (which actually is pregnancy) is really nice, esp with jeans. The skirt/blazer set I haven't tried on yet.

We are trying to slow down with the Doppler and do it every other day (instead of every day). It's super hard though. Yesterday was the day off and I can't wait to get home tonight! And get much more scared this way. We will see how it goes, perhaps will keep the every day until I can feel the movements.

Also, we got our NT combined results. The called and left a message that everything looks good. We will find out the details on our next appointment on the 18th.

We decided not to go to the beach in the summer. It got really hard to coordinate, especially that the one couple who was FOR SURE going to go with us absolutely stopped responding to my emails/voicemail/texts etc. I am super pissed about it. She (I contact her, DH contacts him) was never good in responding but to absolutely ignore emails with "please let us know ASAP" is ridiculous. Plus, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to drive 7h to a remote area when 32 weeks pregnant. We have decided to change the timing on the original (and pretty darn awesome) house and take my parents there, after the baby is born.

I also figured out a quite clever way to minimize nanny expense for the first few months until the baby goes to daycare. DH and I have every other Friday off as we work the condensed week (9h days). This means one of us is home every Friday. My idea was to take our vacations days one day per week. I.e. I would take all Mondays and DH would take all Wednesdays. This way we would need a nanny only for Tuesdays and Thursdays! Since we have 20 days off per year, we could do it up to 20 weeks (if necessary. We would probably prefer to reserve a week for a real vacation)! DH likes the idea and I am super excited.

I also got an interview for the new job. It's on Tuesday next week. Not sure what to think. I know life would be much easier if I stayed. But on the other hand, we need the $$.

And the last but not least, DH just got certified as PMP (Project Management Professional)! He passed the test this afternoon, five out of six knowledge areas Proficient (the highest) and one knowledge area moderately proficient (middle). I am SUPER proud of him! He studied very hard but got his reward. Now it's my turn...