Don't follow your nose!

Wow! What a holiday! I guess you could say that I had a Merry Christmas aside from a broken nose and fat lip. It was really good to see family (especially those I hadn't seen in a while.) I still cannot believe that I found the one small patch of ice in Dart's driveway (my mother-in-law) that was big enough to slip on and managed to get Akron Christmas canceled. Of course, everyone was due to arrive at 11, so at 10:30, I slipped and my face met pavement. Justin took a picture of me at the ER as seen here. Evie and I are both fine and I've healed amazingly well. It's been just more than one week and most of the bruising is gone (there's a little yellow under my eyes) and the one big cut on my nose you can see above is a tiny little cut. I may have a few scars from the cuts, but I'm hoping they too will heal over with time. Luckily, I bought some Mederma for stretch marks when I first became pregnant, so I'll have that on hand once I'm healed over enough to apply it. Now, I just have a very sore nose, so no head colds for me!

I am so blessed

I continue to be amazed at the kindness of others, especially my best friend Christi and her family. Christi has a daughter Rian who will turn three just about the same time that my little Evelyn will make her appearance into this world. Christi and family have given Justin and I a crib, changing table, high chair, travel system (baby carrier + stroller) a second infant car seat, pack-n-play complete with changing table and bassinet, and more girly clothes than I can imagine what to do with! I will have so little on my registry! From going through what I've gone through, it seems that my biggest need will actually be baby clothes for the fist year, bottles, diapers and wipes. I am just not sure how to thank Christi enough!

We are nearing Christmas and I cannot believe that we're just a week away!

Evelyn continues to get bigger and stronger every day. I'm surprised by her strength on occasion enough to gasp or even say "Oh my!" Don't get me wrong, but I so love to feel her move and kick. It just makes me feel closer to her and more anxious to meet my little girl!

Belly Shot

Rebecca has asked for a belly shot, so here you go. Way to go belly!

Craziness

Okay work days that start at 6 AM and last until 8:30 PM are enough to make a pregnant lady wish there was a cot hiding away in some dark corner of the server room. :-) I joked with my office mates that I needed a nap and they found some foam and a blanket for me to lay down on the floor. I just know that if I lay down, there will not be any getting me up. It will be worth it though for Megaconference--why I have a 15 hour day. AND because of my 15 hour day today, I get a 4 day weekend. (Monday is a holiday and I work for the state.)

Evie update: She's been kicking away. I know I've felt a few on the outside and that is so exciting to me. I have yet to have a stranger pat my belly (knock on wood) though the more I show, the more I expect that to happen.

Leg cramps???

Nobody told me that leg cramps would be part of the baby game. I woke up last night around 3:15 AM with the *worst* Charlie horse I have ever experienced. The pain sat me up in bed moaning so loudly that I woke poor Justin. "It's okay," he says, "the adrenaline will soon go away." Well, he was sound asleep by 4. How do I know? Well, let's just say that I wasn't. The Charlie horse turned into a muscle spasm that kept me up, in fact the muscle is still twitching now 6 hours later. Then my tummy started grumbling and I gave up. I went downstairs and had a tall glass of milk and some of the yummy apple crisp that Dart (my mother-in-law) baked for us on Tuesday evening. With a full belly, I crashed out on the couch with WOSU-HD on the TV. I slept until that creepy Boobah kids show came on at 6 when I just turned off the TV and rolled over on the couch. I sure hope Evie never sees Boobah.

It's a GIRL!!!

Justin and I are so excited to share with everyone that we will be having a little girl! We've only settled on a first name (Evelyn aka Evie) go here to see the latest ultrasound pictures. There are a couple of "girl" shots and some that are kinda creepy skeletonized shots. Hopefully she wont be too bashful and mad that we're showing off her girl parts. (Or rather the lack of any boy parts.) The ultrasound revealed all the right parts in all the right places and a "very well formed brain."

Bebe's heartbeat

I finally have a link to share to if you're interested in hearing the heartbeat.

Pregnancy Brain Strikes....Again!!!

It is fact that pregnant women suffer from being scatterbrained while pregnant and we get to blame it on, you guessed it, hormones!!! I seem to be suffering from "pregnancy brain." The other night, I used the bathroom, flushed, washed my hands, turned off the lights and left the bathroom. About 10 minutes later, my dear husband came to me saying, "I turned the water off for you." I had left the water in the sink running after washing my hands!!! Now, I know I've had other episodes of pregnancy brain that I totally wanted to share with my readers, but, well, I cannot remember what they are to save my life!!!!

Anyways, we had our 16 week checkup on Friday and recorded the heartbeat! Bebe Troyer was beating away between 140 and 150 bpm. I'll get Justin to upload the mp3 to our server and link to it here. I'll be at conferences this week and next, and our Level II ultrasound is October 15 and we were given an unofficial 75% chance that we'll find out the sex of the baby!!! Stay tuned.

Starting to feel real...

So my friend Christi dropped off a crib, changing table, pack-n-play, stroller, baby carrier and a couple of bouncers yesterday. All of the sudden having all of this baby stuff in the house makes it all the more real that Justin and I really are having a baby!

You know there are times (like when spending a lazy Sunday sleeping on the couch) that I wonder, can we really do this??? I mean this will be a living, breathing tiny human being that will be completely dependent on Justin and I for his or her every need!

It was funny this morning when Zoey went sniffing about the new stuff (which is spread about in our parlor) and I heard one of the rattles. I just cannot help but think that Zoey is going to be so good with Bebe! She was very gentle playing with Grant (10) and Rian (almost 3). When Christi first saw Zoey (we used to be roommates) she couldn't believe how old ("wise") Zoey looked. Yeah, she's getting gray about the muzzle, but it was a little hard to realize that she really is getting up there at 7 1/2. She could be around for that much longer, too though.

Belly chat

On Saturday, I went out to dinner with my parents, older sister and her husband. Jenny (sister) asked me if I was out at work yet and I flattened my sweater to my belly and just said, "ummm" to which she replied, "Oh, look at your little pregnant belly!" Mom thought I was forcing it out there, but there's no force here! I can hardly even suck it in. Mom thinks it's funny that I'm proud of my baby bump.

Sunday (whilst the boys were over) I went maternity shirt shopping and raided Old Navy's clearance and sale selection. I now have several tops that should get me through at least the next few months, or so I hope. Lots of the current fashion tops have the empire waste that is preggo friendly, but everything I saw was shiny material and I didn't like that so much.

Then Sunday evening, my mother-in-law stayed over at our house. (She's flying to California to stay with her sister, Justin's Aunt, Bonnie who just had hernia surgery.) Dart didn't even get out of the car before she commented on my tummy. She did pick up a maternity top at Target that I'm wearing today.

Okay, so I popped!!!

I went to Chicago with my fellow VC Divas. There I found out that one of my fellow divas is a mere two weeks behind me! (She's due March 29, 2008.) We stopped one evening to take a "belly shot." No, not alcohol, take a look at the picture. We'll see each other again in mid October at a conference in San Diego and will have to repeat the shot. I cannot believe how big I look, already! Its funny though, in the mornings, I'm much smaller. Today, I could even button my pants. I'm sure by day's end, I'll be relying on my belly band to hold them up!

(FYI--VC Divas are Videoconferencing Divas!)

I guess we couldn't wait

So much for waiting until today (Tuesday) to tell everyone at work! The cookies and t-shirts were lots of fun and I was surprised at how nervous I was when actually telling people!

So this weekend was a good weekend. Ohio State won, Michigan lost, and I spent time with my dearest friend Christi shopping for maternity clothes. I didn't think I was ready for maternity clothes just yet, but it was clear how much more comfortable I was in some of the outfits that I tried on. I didn't think I looked pregnant just yet, but in the right clothes my little baby bump is quite obvious. Many of the things I tried on only made me look and feel like a whale, but some of the clothes I found are really quite cute. I'm going to wear one such outfit when I travel to Chicago on Thursday to meet up with some work girlfriends. This will be the first time I've seen my pal Sue face to face, though we've met over the video umpteen times.

Outing at work...

So we decided that today is the day to let everyone (who showed up) at work today know about Bebe. Justin and I baked cookies last night, colored them pink and blue. We each have a T-shirt. Mine is a yellow caution sign that says "Baby bump ahead" and Justin's "She's eating for two, I'm drinking for three."

Shhhhh!

Okay, so we haven't told everyone at work yet--we plan to do this on Tuesday with some cleverly decorated cookies--but the secret is killing me. Most of you all know that Justin and I both work at Ohio State in sister departments, so we have to tell everyone on the same day.

There's part of me that just wants everyone to know, but another part of me that's quite content knowing that only a few select people know. I'm avoiding fumes blaming "migraines." (Although fumes CAN trigger a migraine, its not the real reason I'm walking through the halls covering my nose.)

Oh well, just three more days in the office with the big secret! I think I may hang pictures on my office door before I go home on Friday.

Bebe

First Entry

Mom asked if I had started a pregnancy journal. I have not, but I'm a techy, so I thought I would start a pregnancy BLOG!!! :-) I hope you enjoy reading my occasional updates. I'll post pictures and doctor's appointment updates here. See the current set of pics here:
http://zephirus.dyndns.org/bebe/

Cheers!
Megan