Top 5 Reasons Why I Will Not Be Nominated For The 2010 Mother of the Year Award

5 - Some days Alexa and I don't get out of bed until the afternoon because we are too busy cuddling.

4 - I let her fall asleep on my (or Nick's) chest every single night because we like it. And almost every day, she takes a nap on her belly.

3 - It is currently 20 degrees outside and I'm pretty positive that I don't have an extra hat, socks or blanket in the diaper bag. I have also driven to Tallahassee with no wipes (had to go to Babies-R-Us to buy some) and I have not once packed enough diapers when we go out of town.

2 - I have, on multiple occasions, taken my kid's picture until she cries. This actually happens about once a week. How else am I supposed to know if she's had enough?! And then usually when she does start crying, I calm her down and then try to take more pictures.

1 - A little background story on this one: When Nick is cooking he usually puts the raw ingredients under Alexa's nose so she can smell them (she loves pepperoni!!!). So I was making peanut butter balls a few weeks ago and totally put a big chunk of peanut butter on my finger and let her smell it. She even got a little bit on the tip of her nose. I thought I was being such a good mom stimulating all my child's senses, etc. When Nick came home and I told him about it he freaked out! I guess Alexa is officially not allergic to peanuts. Oops.

I know that (minus the nut story) it's all something that everyone has done. And I actually do think that I'm pretty good at this mothering thing. I just thought the peanut story was kind of funny. You know, since it had a positive outcome.

My Personal Issue With Taylor Swift

Since I've been staying home from work with Alexa, I usually have the tv on low just to have something to listen to or watch while she's eating or whatever. I have come to the realization that I don't like Taylor Swift. I have no problems with her in general as a person and I pretty much like her music. Watching her perform makes me want to vomit. I don't understand why, but when she sings she feels the need to stand with her feet super far apart. I mean, ridiculously far apart. There must be at least 2 1/2 to 3 feet between her feet. If she peed as she was singing, there would be no wetness on her legs at all. I don't understand it. I'm so distracted by her stance that I don't even know what song she's singing. All I can think about is how uncomfortable it must be to stand like that. It's actually quite impressive, if you think about it. She's doing this in heels. I would definitely fall over. I mean, there has to be a reason behind it, right? So as I'm watching her perform all the reasons of why her legs are so far apart are running through my head. Maybe her underwear were riding up and she couldn't pick her wedgie before going on stage. Maybe she's having a little sweating problem and wants to air everything out. Maybe she wore jean shorts to Disney World the day before and she's experiencing some chafing (I can totally sympathize with that one). Maybe she just wants to feel what it would be like to stand without her thighs touching at all. Maybe she made a bet with her friend that she could make it though a whole song with her legs that far apart without falling. The possibilities are endless. I thought it was just a one time thing that she did on the Today Show. Nope. A few days later she had the same stance on Ellen. So anyway, when I saw it for the second time, I really couldn't handle it anymore and I officially don't like her now. Maybe one of her stylist/publicist/choreographers told her to stand like that. That person should be fired. Maybe that person told her to stand like that as a joke just to see if she'd do it, in which case that person is awesome. And that is my story of why I have an issue with Taylor Swift.

Alexa Rolls Over!!!

On Tuesday I put Alexa down for tummy time (which she usually hates). She loves being on her tummy as long as she's on someone's chest but as soon as you put her on the ground or a blanket, it's all over. So anyway, I put her on her tummy because she was in a relatively good mood. She was lifting her head and chest up to look at her book and all of a sudden...she rolled over onto her back. So then of course I tried to make her do it again, she got upset and long story short after taking a time out to get her happy and playful, she did it again and I got it on video. It's pretty funny, after she rolls over her face is like "Oh my God, there's my fan. How did I end up here?"

Thanksgiving

For Alexa's first Thanksgiving we went down to south Florida to visit family and lets just say that the first 36 hours of our trip was full of bodily fluid. Even though Alexa does really well in the car, we decided to stop in Orlando for the night to break up the trip. So Tuesday night we drove to Katie and Janell's. I was walking Alexa around the room because she had been kind of fussy (she does that in the evening) and all of a sudden I felt some wet nasty on my arm. I looked down and she had vomited all over the place. I know what you're thinking. How much could a little baby really have puked? Ounces people, multiple ounces. I ran into Katie's bathroom with vomit literally dripping onto the floor behind me (sorry Katie). There was puke all over her clothes, all over my clothes (shirt, bra, pants, everything), all over her face. I mean, I was wiping it out of her hair. It was everywhere. And the child never made a sound! So we got her all cleaned up, new pj's and we all went to bed. She got up at around 3:30 to eat (no big deal) but by 5:00 when she absolutely refused to go back to sleep we decided to just drive the rest of the way to Hollywood. So, on with the bodily fluid stories. The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful fluid wise. I had to change the sheets on the bed once because Alexa had some projectile sharting, but nothing too crazy. We took naps and waited for my mom to get home from work. That afternoon we went to go see Grammy (my grandmother). As she was holding Alexa she commented that the diaper had just turned warm and that Alexa probably just peed. I picked Alexa up to check her diaper and there was poo all over Grammy's pants. When I took the diaper off, there was poo coming out of everywhere. The top, back, sides, everywhere. It was on her dress. There was poo up to her chest. Alexa got her second wipes bath in 24 hours. That evening we had a little dinner for all of Alexa's grandparents and great-grandmothers. I went to change her at one point and as I lifted her butt up to wipe her, she had more projectile pooping that got onto my hand, arm and yes, the sheets. Great. The sheets have to be changed again, at least it didn't get on her clothes. So I finished wiping her down and when I picked her butt up the next time to slide the new diaper under her, she peed all over the place. Soaked her outfit and the changing pad (yes, that's right, I said changing pad. When she got poo on the sheets she shot it past the changing pad. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. My kid could be a professional poo shooter.) and so Alexa had what seemed to be her fifteenth costume change of the day. At least she is getting to wear all her pretty outfits!

The rest of our Thanksgiving was wonderful with no more poo on outfits or sheets. Alexa got to meet lots of our friends and family and everyone loved her, of course. We are super excited to go back for Christmas!

My Child The Nudist

Alexa is one month old now which is kind of crazy. We went to the doctor Tuesday for her one month check up and she is 20 3/4 inches long and weighs 8lbs 3oz. She had to have LFTs drawn because she's still a little jaundiced but Dr. Elzie said that's pretty common for babies who are nursing. Other then that, she is in perfect health. Everyone keeps commenting on how tiny she is but I think she's huge! I swear I can see her growing. She is starting to have a little personality too. She loves music, her play mat, her bouncy seat, her little butterfly toy, and most of all she loves being naked. I'm not kidding. The kid is a nudist. At first I thought that she liked taking a bath so much because of the water and maybe she calmed down on the changing table because we were changing a dirty diaper. Nope. Not true. (well, maybe partially true) She just really likes to be naked. It's not like the clothes or diapers are bothering her. She has no rashes or anything and most of the time she is perfectly happy with her clothes on. But if she starts to get fussy for no reason, all you have to do is strip her down. I told her that it's all good now but she better try to kick the habit at least before she's five because it's socially unacceptable to go to kindergarten nakie (Nick and Katie, please appreciate the use of the word 'nakie'). Here's a picture of naked Alexa (at least she keeps the head band on...for now). We had them done at Picture People when we went to Orlando last weekend. I still think my mom and I do just as good with the photography.

Look Grandma and Grandpa! I can pick my head up!!!

Alexa

Alexa Is Here!!!!!

Yes, I know that this is two weeks late, but I've been a little busy...you know, having a baby. In the past two weeks we have discovered that Alexa is a bit of a drama queen (who would have thought that my child would be dramatic?! hehehe). So of course she had to make a dramatic entrance into the world. Enter disclaimer: Obviously, I'm about to talk about the birth of my child. If you don't want to hear about where babies come from, I suggest you stop reading. And without further ado, I present Alexa's dramatic birth:

Nick and I had a plan (I love a good plan) two weeks ago about how we were going to get ready for the baby. We were going to be prepared and have everything cleaned and set up just right. All those fun nesting things which was planned to start on Thursday, September 30th. So Thursday morning (OK, afternoon) I woke up and when I got out of bed a little pee came out. Let's get real for everyone who just made a face. We are talking about a nine month pregnant lady... a little bit of pee coming out every now and then when you change positions is just part of reality. Back to my story. So I started moving quickly toward the bathroom and instead of stopping, more pee came out. Gross! Also I noticed that I was having some Braxton Hick's contractions (so I thought). I figured it was no big deal so I went and layed out in the back yard (all part of the plan, people, all part of the plan). I was outside for an hour and when I came back in I was still having my little pee squirting problem and this time when I went to the bathroom my mucous plug came out. Well that was kind of exciting (and it made me a little nervous) but that thing can come out weeks before the baby comes so I didn't think much of it. The thing that I didn't like was that those Braxton Hick's contractions were pretty close together. They would come every few minutes for a couple in a row and then stop for 20 or 30 minutes. Anyway, around 3:00 I called Nick and we ended up calling my mom (and Merna, her office buddy) to see what we should do. I finally made the decision to just go to the hospital so that they could check me and figure out what this whole contraction thing was all about. OK, fast forward three hours of driving to TMH and sitting in the waiting room. By the way, contractions are now consistently every three minutes but really not that painful at all. We finally got into triage and they hooked me up to the monitors, made me pee in a cup, took my vitals (BP was 160/100) made me drink some juice and water, all that stuff. Around 7:30 someone finally decided to check and see if I was dilated at all. I got all excited and then the nurse said that I was about 1 cm and despite the Q3 minute contractions I was not in labor (well, crap). Did I mention that the Nettinas and the Weavers were in the car driving from Ft. Lauderdale at this point? They stopped in Ft. Pierce to eat dinner and said that they'd call to check on us when they were done. After the nurse had made some comments that I really did not appreciate regarding all the reasons why I was not in labor, she said that I should go home. I asked about the contractions, she said don't worry about it, they aren't real. Apparently I wouldn't be smiling through real contractions. Oh yeah, at this point Nick is repeatedly telling everyone about my unusually high tolerance for pain. Just wanted to throw that in there. So nurse #1 leaves, enter nurse #2 who says that the doctor is now ordering blood work because of my high blood pressure. Fine. An hour and a half later, Dr. Pierce (?) comes in and explains that she is admitting me overnight for a 24 hour urine collection to check for protein. Even though there was no protein in my dip stick urine she was concerned that my BP was so high, she said that my pee squirting thing was weird and, oh by the way, my white count in my CBC was 19.7. I told her that I was glad to be admitted because this contraction thing is really freaking me out. They were still every three minutes and getting stronger. Apparently, still not real because I was able to smile (get the sarcasm? Just making sure). She assured me that I was not in labor and I would be able to go home on Saturday morning. She did, however, order some prn pain meds just in case and said that if I did go into labor, they wouldn't do anything to stop it since I was at 38 weeks. OK, so at this point we spoke to the grandparent car and made a group decision that they should just turn around and go back. Apparently they were having a wonderful time and did not mind the fact that they just drove an hour and a half for nothing.

They admitted me to labor and delivery because the antipartum unit was understaffed for the night (thank God). I got hooked up to the monitors and started my 24 hour urine collection which was annoying because every time I got up to pee the monitor things came off. Finally the nurse said that since I wasn't in labor (are you starting to see a trend here?) she only needed a half hour strip to show that everything was ok. Around midnight my friend Nakima came to visit for awhile and then after she left Nick fell asleep. These "non-labor" contractions have been slowly getting worse but everyone kept on insisting that they weren't real because I was able to talk, laugh, smile, etc. Finally, at 2:00 I called the nurse to get something for pain. That got Nick up real fast...I don't like to take anything for pain in general, even Tylenol, so he knew something was wrong. I got a percocet at 2:30. By 3:00 the contractions were getting much worse and I asked for the Stadol. That is some horrible stuff. Not only did it do absolutely nothing for the pain, it made me crazy. I mean super crazy. I just remember saying over and over how this hurts too bad to be false labor. And instead of questioning the falseness of my labor, I was thinking 'Oh my God, this is really going to suck when I really am in labor!' Anyway, when she put in the IV and gave me the Stadol at 3:30ish, she put the monitors back on which showed that (suprise, suprise) I was still having contractions and they were closer together now. I was getting upset because I was feeling crazy, I was in all this pain that these pain meds did nothing for and now there was pee coming out with every contraction. Have I mentioned how wonderful Nick was through all this? Amazing. So finally the nurse said that she could swab to see if the pee was really amniotic fluid. WHAT?!?! I have been leaking pee for the past 12 hours and no one mentioned that they could just swab it to see if my water had broken?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! Now I could feel my craziness slipping away and I was getting mad. She swabbed it and guess what? My water had broken. Who would have guessed? At that point (at about 4:45 in the morning) she thought it might be a good idea to check to see if I was dilated more than the 1cm that I was 8 hours before. She checked me (I tried not to punch her) and said 'I feel her head, let me get my charge nurse to double check this.' WHAT?!?! You feel her head?!?! Damn right you're going to get your charge nurse to double check this!!! So charge nurse chick comes in, checks me and says 'you're 10cm and +1 station, there's no time for an epidural.' At this point, I don't remember specifics of what happened but I do know that a small break down took place which I'm sure looked something like mad Kristin (few people have seen her) having an adult temper tantrum mixed with a little bit of that Stadol craziness still on board. It was not attractive, I'm sure. Nick called the grandparents and Katie who were in the car and on the road by 5:00. I started pushing sometime after that and Alexa was born at 6:41am.

Apparently I am a good pusher, I have a lot of control over my body. I don't know if it's an awareness I have from dancing or if Dr. Pierce was just being nice to the crazy girl by complimenting pushing techniques. Probably the latter. Many people have asked me if I were to do it again, would I have the epidural. Yes. Are you insane? Of course I would have the epidural. But I suppose I'm not entirely upset that it happened the way it did. I was up and walking to the bathroom 1/2 hour after she was born and it's kind of cool knowing that I was strong enough to do it without drugs (or at least, without drugs that work). I think I'm most disappointed that my mom wasn't there. And Katie (she decided as she was frantically driving that she wanted to be in the room). But again, we will eventually have another baby and they can be in the room that time. Plus, it was kind of nice that it was just Nick and I.

Pictures of the belly

Alright, for everyone who has been asking for pictures of the belly, here are week by week so far. Well, kind of week by week. I'm going to take some pictures of Alexa's room and put those up too...maybe tomorrow.

Ode to Chick-fil-A (and random thoughts about people's maternity pictures)

Can we please talk about how amazing Chick-fil-A is? I feel that if I were to name one food that I've "craved" during this pregnancy (even though I really don't think of it as a craving, more like an ongoing love) it would be the chicken nuggets at Chick-fil-A (and maybe also Mexican food!). They are so good...the nuggets, that is. Do you know what's better then Chick-fil-A nuggets? Chick-fil-A breakfast sandwich. The one with chicken on a biscuit (it's a number 1 in case you want to stop by for breakfast sometime). I discovered this little piece of heaven about a year and a half ago. My friend Magan and I would discuss food, amongst other things, at work in the middle of the night and she suggested that I try breakfast at Chick-fil-A. So the few times that I drove to Orlando after work to visit Katie, I would stop at Chick-fil-A for something to eat before driving for four hours. I only did this a few times and considered it my treat for having to drive after working all night. Do you know what else I deserve a morning treat for? Having to go to a doctors appointment at 8:30 after working all night. Wouldn't you know that the past 3 doctors appointments have been mysteriously scheduled for 8:30am after a night that I worked. Hmm, funny how that worked out.

On a completely unrelated subject, I've been looking at maternity pictures online because Lissette got me thinking about them. (Wow, I'm really influenced by my friends) So now I kind of want them. I wanted my mom to take them (she's a very good photographer) but she didn't seem too thrilled about the idea. I'm not going to be upset or anything if I don't have them I just feel like since I'm not a Duggar, I'm probably only going to be pregnant one or two more times in my life and I like documentation. And lets face it, I'm probably a lot cuter now then what I'm going to be next time. Anyway, off topic. I'm at work, bored, looking at pictures online and on every website I go to there are maternity pictures with the women naked...naked!!! They don't show anything. There is very strategic placement of arms, crossing of legs, draping of fabric, etc. but they are still naked. That's gross. Why would you want a naked picture of yourself? What are you going to do with that? Do you tell people about your naked pictures? What do you say as a person looking at your friend's naked pictures? "Your boob looks really good in that one" "I really like how they covered your cellulite" Lets get real, that is ridiculous. Plus, I feel very uncomfortable looking at them. And everyone who reads this knows that as a general rule, I am pretty comfortable with nakedness. If any of you have had naked maternity pictures taken and I have offended you, I'm sorry, but thank you for not showing them to me. I don't want to see them. There are so many cute pictures that people take that are happy, smiling, mommy and daddy-to-be with clothes on and then BAM naked pregnant chic. I feel that if you want a picture of yourself naked (pregnant or not), bust out your little digital camera, put the timer on and snap away in the privacy of your own home. And then label the media card so no one ever sees it but you.

My Roach Story

I was just looking back on my blog posts, you know, just looking to see if anyone commented on anything...which you haven't. Sorry, I had to throw that in there. Anyway, I was looking back on the blog posts and I noticed that since we found out I was pregnant there has been pretty much nothing but pregnancy posts. Now I know you all love reading about my pregnancy complaint of the month but who wants to be a bragger? Not I. So as promised, here is a blog about the roaches.

As you all know, we live in the country. Like, full out, can't see the neighbor's house, have to stop and let the deer cross the road country. (OK, so it's not that bad. It's actually a community where everyone has 5 acres...but still country!) So as expected, there are many different...shall we say life forms...that we have to deal with. The fore mentioned deer, raccoons, fox, bears (Seriously, a bear stole our garbage one time! Nick found paw prints on his truck where the bear was looking in the windows) frogs, snakes (scary!) and apparently roaches. We had the house sprayed as it was being built and the company comes out every year to spray again as part of their guarantee. So nothing to worry about right? Wrong. Two weeks ago we were upstairs and saw a roach. It was in the unfinished bonus room so my thought was as long as they aren't in the actual house, no big deal. Plus, it was the first roach we've seen since moving in. Well a couple days after that, again while in the bonus room, another roach. OK, that was weird but again it was upstairs and both roaches were right by the opening into the actual attic. Well...in the past week there have been two roaches in the house!!! Nasty! I hate roaches, I think we should coordinate a world wide effort to kill them all (along with toads and alligators. Snakes are working their way onto that list too). And these weren't little roaches either. They were big, fat, black roaches and they looked like they could probably fly. Thank God Nick was home to get them because they are the one insect that I will run screaming in the other direction. Actually, for the first one I jumped on the couch, curled up into a ball, and put two blankets over me (including my head). Hey, they look like they could fly, remember? And the second time I took the dogs and ran into our room with them, closing two doors between us and the roach. Needless to say, Nick is calling the bug people this week. Any other insects or spiders, I kill with no problem. Lizards I pick up and put back outside. But roaches. I just can't handle that.

For Katie (and Tard)

I'm figuring (is that a word?) that I'm going to have a once a month blog because that's what it seems to be anyway. I think of things to blog about but then I either have to go to work or I get distracted by something at home or something like that. Plus, I feel like there hasn't been a major event in the past month that I really want to share my thoughts and feelings with the whole blogging world about. But, Katie asks for a new blog, therefore Katie gets a new blog. And everyone thinks I'm the spoiled one.

I suppose I'll start with pregnancy stuff. I'm 24 weeks now and finally looking like I might be growing a child. I feel like the past month has gone by really fast, but I realize more for reasons that have nothing to do with the pregnancy. I can feel her kick a lot now and I'm starting to call her Alexa or Lexie instead of "the baby". (That's her name and I'm sticking to it!). When I first found out I was pregnant all these people told me "just wait until you feel the baby kick, it's the best feeling in the world..." Let me tell you, I've been feeling her move around for probably about two months now and at first, I was not impressed. It feels like gas bubbles, I do not understand what's so exciting and wondrous about feeling like you're going to fart soon. I actually didn't tell anyone that I felt her at first because I didn't want to fake through the whole conversation about how cool it is to feel the baby move. Now that she's bigger (the size of a papaya?) when she kicks it's more like a nudge or poke from the inside and a lot of the times I can actually see my belly pop out and shift as she's moving around. OK, now it's cool. Now we can talk about it. I suppose I'm getting more pregnancy symptoms too. I didn't think I was getting cravings until Nick pointed it out. And if I don't eat often I get cranky and don't feel very well. My butt is huge (even more so than it used to be). Who gets pregnant and immediately grows a ghetto booty?!?! Apparently, I do. Not that there are any of my male relatives reading this (especially after the butt comments) but if you are, I suggest you stop now because I'm about to talk about my boobs. THEY ARE GIGANTIC!!!!! You know, for me. I want my little boobies back. I realize I'm not going to get them back for a long time but I don't care, I want them back now. At first I was excited that there was a crease under them or that they kind of bounced when I ran. (Katie and Britt, I know you can appreciate that) But now, it's getting old. I've always enjoyed my freedom of being able to walk around my house in a t-shirt with no bra on but now it's just annoying. And they're not even super perky! If I'm going get boobs I should be able to get nice ones!!!! Plus to top it all off there are two stretch marks on them!!!!! Gross! I know! I realize that might not be completely appropriate to write on my blog but you can't say I didn't give you fair warning. On a more positive and less bitchy note, I do enjoy my shirts fitting better. And I really like bragging about them to those of you who still have the boobies. I guess it's more of a lesson in being careful what you wish for because what I had before was just fine, thank you very much!

George came up for a few days so that he and Nick could paint the nursery and it looks awesome! Nick was all about painting stripes or dots or something like that. Me...not so much. But I decided that he is usually good about choosing paint colors and it was essentially a battle that I didn't really care to fight. I eventually talked him into toning it down by painting a pale green on the bottom part of the room and then doing light pink and slightly darker pink stripes on the top part. Yes, that is the calmed down version. All I have to say is thank God for George and the patience and expertise he had to tape off all the stripes. I love my husband very much but if he had tried to do that alone, every stripe would have been a different width and they would all be crooked. And anyone who knows me well enough to read this far into this blog knows that those are two things I just can't handle. I have to say, even with it all symmetrical and perfect, I was slightly overwhelmed by all the color until we started to put the dark furniture in. Grandma's chair looks perfect in the room along with my old bookshelf and one of the dressers dad found at a garage sale a few years ago. Mom and Grammy came up last weekend to return the dogs and ended up buying the rest of the furniture we needed. Mom got us the crib I wanted and Grammy got the changing table (thanks mom and Grammy!!!). They are supposed to come in sometime next week so I'm getting pretty excited to put it all together. Here's a picture of mom and I in Grandma's chair (and Wolfie)

And one of Grammy and I in the nursery.

Katie, I hope this has been enough blogging to hold you over for a day or two. Maybe if we are slow at work (wishful thinking) during the next few days I'll blog about more exciting things like our current infestation of roaches (there have been two!) or our most recent trip to the vet's office for check ups (Wolfie thinks he owns the place). I know, you can't wait. Get excited.

20 Weeks, It's a girl!!!!!

A lot has gone on in the past month. Katie graduated college, which meant another family trip to Disney World!!! Kim, Steve and the boys came up here to visit for a weekend. Amanda graduated high school and the Dance Explosion recital was last weekend. And...we found out that it's a girl!!!!!! It was all very exciting! Dr. Dixon took me (and Nick) to his office on a night where I was working and he was on call. At first he didn't sound too confident that she was a girl but after he looked at a few other things (which were all fine) he kept on going back to check and finally by the end of the ultrasound he said that definitely it's a girl. Now, this made me a little nervous about saying anything because what if he was wrong. I mean, it looked like a girl to me, but what do I know?! So we went to our official scheduled ultrasound with Dr. Willis last Thursday and he (and the ultrasound tech) said it was a girl too. That made me feel a lot better. I could not even imagine if they had found boy parts and we had already told everyone it was a girl!!! Josh (Nick's cousin) would have never let Nick live that down! I realize the next question asked is "do you have a name yet"? Well, I think we do. I'm just a little nervous to say that it is definitely the name. Nick really wants the middle name to be Lynn, for his mom. He won't actually say that but I know it's true. And I'm OK with that, I like Lynn as a middle name. As for first names...Nick likes more common names and I like more not so common names. We had a little list of ones that we both liked and we keep going back to Alexa. Now, I realize that there is a particular small red headed child that I did solos for named Alexa. But, I don't really care. I just really like the name. You can shorten it to Lexie (or even Alex if she wants), which is super cute. It's in the top 100 names for 2009 but it's number 65 or 70. So it's common enough (people with more common names are generally more successful in life) but not too common that there are going to be multiple Alexa's in her class in school. And while I know that it's the name of a dance girl...guess what? So were all the other names on the short list! Like Bailey, Katie and Leeza for example. Let's face it, with me being a dance teacher and Nick being a 5th grade teacher, there weren't many names that we haven't come across before. The only thing that I don't love about it is when you put the Alexa and the Lynn together. Say it fast. Alexa Lynn. It kind of mushes together weird. Hense, no final decision. Let me know what you think. Oh, and here's a 20 week picture. Still more butt than belly! (Glyniss wanted to be in the picture too!)

Nick, his garden, and his hoe

I think that about says it all.

16 weeks and dance conventions

Well, today we are at 16 weeks. According to "His Boys Can Swim" our baby is about the size of a small stud finder, or if you want to go with the food thing, it's about the size of an avocado. I'm still not having many pregnancy symptoms, which I am definitely not complaining about! I'm still a bit more moody and emotional and I'm still pretty tired all the time but other than that, nothing. Not even a belly. Here's a picture of my belly today. Please excuse Nick's old shorts that I'm wearing...I just woke up a few hours ago and haven't made it to the shower yet. :)
While I will admit that my belly is noticeably larger then it was pre-pregnancy, it still looks nothing like a 16 week belly. It is also at what I feel is the annoying state of a pregnant belly where none of my jeans fit anymore (with the buttons done) but if I walked into a store to buy maternity jeans they would look at me like I'm crazy. Also, I can't do some things that I could do before. For example, we went to Jump, a dance convention, last weekend. I was pretty excited to take class from Doug Caldwell and Mandy Moore amongst others. When I was taking class I felt retarded because I couldn't do some things because I could feel my skin stretching. It's not like anything was pulling inside, I could just tell that my range of motion with my back was less and the skin on my abdomen wouldn't let me go as far back as I'm used to. It was no big deal in the student rooms but in the teachers room, where there are only 10-15 people dancing, I felt like saying "I'm pregnant people, I normally can do much better then this, I swear!" Oh well, I know it's not a big deal at all. I'm just saying that a little bit of a belly would have explained the situation. The rest of the convention was fun. It was great to watch real competition again. I still feel like the people up here have no appreciation or even an understanding of what I do... but I suppose that's a whole other blog entry.

Here's pictures of my two side kicks. Daisy and Minnie have been following me around nonstop for the past few weeks.

13 (almost 14) weeks

It is now 13 (almost 14) weeks. Since the last update we have had another ultrasound which was part of the first trimester screen for downs and Trisomy 18. They look at the nuchal translucency which is pretty much a space on the back of the neck. If the space measures above 3mm (at 12 weeks in a pregnancy) there is an increased risk for downs, etc. Our baby measured 1.95mm which is slightly above average but still well within normal limits. Together with my age and family history they calculated that the chance of having a baby with these genetic issues went from 1 in about 750 to 1 in over 10,000. Now the cool part was the super high tech US machine they had. Nick said it looked like a space ship...I'm not too sure about that but it was definately way more intense than the one in the regular OB's office. The only thing that they saw that could be a potential problem is that my placenta was posterior and low lying. Apparently this is very common in the first trimester. As the uterus grows, the placenta should migrate up and away from the cervix. They just said that they wanted to keep an eye on it just in case it migrates down instead and turns into a placenta previa. The heart beat was 159 bpm which is one of many reasons why Nick thinks it's a girl. We go back to see Dr. Dixon at the begining of May and then to see Dr. Willis at the end of May. That's the appointment where we will do the mega ultrasound and where we'll be able to find out the sex. I asked why we were going to the high risk OB's to get the mega ultrasound and Dr. Dixon's partner said that once they see you (even if it's for an optional test like what we did), they like to see you back for that one to follow up. Plus, he said that Dr.Willis' machine was much more advanced than the one at Dr. Dixon's office so we'd be able to see more. Works for me. Well, that's it so far. Still not much of a belly, just feeling kind of chunker.

I feel great.

Recently, a lot of people have been asking how I'm feeling. I always tell them that I'm feeling great because for the most part that's true. Other than the occasional bout of nausea, I really am feeling physically fine. About two months ago Nick and I were reading part of a pregnancy book that talked about moodiness and that some women feel like they are having PMS times ten. Well let me tell you....I kind of laughed at that at the time but this is ridiculous. I feel like the ongoing theme of my third month of pregnancy is "Really, why are you still talking?" I was always moody (in case you haven't noticed) but I'm going to go ahead and correct What to Expect When Your Expecting and say that it's like PMS times 100. And the sarcasm has reached all new heights (now who would have thought that was possible). Oh, and it's not all the time either, it's completely random. I could be sitting here happy as can be and someone will say something or do something that triggers some little switch in my brain and all of a sudden Bristin (Bitch Kristin) is out full force. I just get annoyed with people. And I feel bad because most of the time it's people I really like. Sometimes they don't even say anything that should be annoying but for some reason I just have a problem. For example, we went to competition last weekend (which was a lot of fun). The girls did great, everyone scored well and I had a great time with Hayley and Katie, the other two teachers I went with. I really like 99% of the parents too (you know there has to be that one or two that means well but drives you crazy). However, by the end of a day and a half if I heard one more country accent I was going to scream! I usually kind of like everyone's little accents, especially the kids. But seriously people, your not fixin anything and it's a car, SUV or truck, not a vehicle. What else am I annoyed with? I'm annoyed that my patient is on 60mcg of Fentanyl/hr and 3mg of versed/hr plus the additional 2mg of versed and 2mg of Vec I'm giving him every hour and he's still trying to come off the bed and extubate himself. That is super annoying and now I'm getting annoyed with everything else around me too. Oh, and I'm irritated that I don't have a belly already. I'm almost in my second trimester, I want a freaking belly! And not the 'this is Kristin chunker, have to wear my fat jeans but you can't tell I'm pregnant at all' belly. I want a real pregnant belly or no belly at all! I know that that's not realistic but I don't care, that's what I want. Also, it's always that right when I wake up or at 7am after working for 12 hours someone asks me how I'm feeling. Really? Do you really want me to tell you how I'm feeling? Because let me say, I am feeling fan-freaking-tastic. I've been awake since yesterday at noon and I've been in an ICU avoiding all these nasty germs and dealing with all these nasty parents for the past 12 hours plus I have a 45 minute drive home ahead of me. How exactly do you think I'm feeling? That's why I always say that I'm feeling great. Just focus on the physical, it could be a lot worse I suppose. I could be puking my brains out but I'm not so that's good. I feel bad, I'm trying not to be mean but I feel like some of it kind of just slipps out. And it's not all the time either. I'm going to go ahead and say that 80% of the time I am perfectly happy. And I know that when I'm being crazy, I'm being crazy, but I just can't help it. So if I've been mean to you in any way, I'm really sorry. Please accept this glimpse into the psychotic mind of a pregnant woman as a heart felt apology. It's all I can muster up at the moment. Hopefully this won't last for the next 6 months. I am totally looking forward to the promised bliss of the second trimester. We shall see.

Introducing...baby Weaver!

Alright, here it is... I know that I told some of you that I would start posting baby stuff here after the first ultrasound. Well, as most of you have heard, we've had some family situations since then. So I'm a little late. Sorry. So without further ado.......introducing.......baby Weaver!!!!! I know, your excited! And please don't worry about the dark spot on the head, apparently it's just artifact from the US machine. (I asked Dr. Ross about it at work and he told me not to be a spaz). Is that how you spell spaz? Anyway, I'm 11 weeks as of today (Wednesday) and the due date October 14th. We went to meet Dr. Dixon three weeks ago, he was really nice and funny so I think we will get along well. He said that everything looked wonderful. The baby was just the right size and it was even squirming around when he was doing the ultrasound. I actually left the good picture at my mom's house (oops) so these pics aren't the best. Dr. Dixon was trying to get a profile view but the baby, in complete Nick and Kristin fashion, was being both stubborn and tried to do the exact opposite of what he/she was told. What a lovely glimpse into our future! Maybe next time it will be more willing to cooperate and we will get to see a profile. I go to get another ultrasound on April 2nd to look for evidence of spinal cord and certain chromosomal abnormalities. It's an optional test so I was leaning toward not doing it but when I asked Dr. Dixon about it he said that since I already had the appointment scheduled, it's always fun to get another ultrasound. The next one in his office won't be until around 20 weeks (until then he will just check for a heartbeat with a doppler). So that is our super exciting news. I haven't really felt that sick at all. Just a little queasy if I don't eat every few hours. I've been pretty tired too but nothing like the complete exhaustion that I hear people describe. I think night shift prepared me for that because I'm tired all the time, pregnant or not! Hopefully I will follow in my mom's footsteps who apparently was a perfect pregnant person (obviously). Oh! and I have been taking a picture of my (nonexistant) belly for Katie to add to the chart she's making to see how fat I get. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow I'll post this weeks picture. Until then here's one of the proud parents to be (it's from last June but I just found it on the computer).

Not So Gnocchi

So I have really been wanting gnocchi and pink sauce for the past week or so. I love gnocchi, it's one of my favorite things to get at an Italian restaurant. And a few years ago David, Lori's husband, had a cooking class for us where he made gnocchi. So I thought, I have nothing else to do tonight, why not, I'm going to try to make gnocchi. Need I remind you of my not so hot cooking skills? Didn't think so. Anyway, I got my (3) potatoes and boiled them with no problems. Then after I took them out of the water, I took a wash cloth and rubbed the skins off. So at this point, I'm feeling pretty confident. I was like, "hell yeah I can cook, you don't even know." OK, so far so good. Next came the mashing of the potatoes. I read online that it works best through some kind of pasta machine thing that I didn't even know how to pronounce the name, let alone what the thing was. So I scratched that idea. Then a few other websites said to use a fork to mash up the potatoes. Again, I'm mashing them up, no problems, feeling good. OK, now's the tricky part. Adding the flour. David said to use 1 part potato to 3 parts flour, but all the stuff I read online said that the amount of flour is different based on so many variables so it's better just to do it by feel. Problem #1. I was scared to add too much flour because I was sure that my gnocchi were going to be heavy and nasty so of course I added too little. But I'll get back to that later. As I was mixing (kneading?) my dough my confidence level was dropping but I was still feeling pretty good. After all, I'm almost done, right? Here are some pictures of my dough and the gnocchi that I had already cut. Pretty much once you get the dough to the perfect consistency (whatever that is) you roll it out into long rolls (like your making spaghetti with play dough) and then cut the roll into little nubs. You drop the nubs into boiling water, a few minutes (seconds) later they float to the top and voila! you have gnocchi. And by "you" I mean literally, you, not me. I got mushy potato nasty. And...this is why I don't cook for anyone else but myself. You know I ate it anyway, and I saved the rest of what I didn't eat too. I'm going to try to do something with it tomorrow I guess. I suppose it wasn't a total loss because I was kind of hungry and now I'm pretty full. And, like I said, I wasn't doing anything anyways so might as well make some nasty gnocchi.

Things that are pretty annoying right now

First is a dog named Daisey. As previously discussed, she is deaf (for the most part) and her new thing to do is to whine. She's always been a pretty vocal dog even before the deafness set in so I'm not entirely surprised that she chose whining as her method of torture for me. Oh it can't be that bad, you say? No, this is not just every now and then whining when she has to go out or something like that. This is constant every time she exhales kind of a whine. At first I was kind of concerned. The nurse in me was thinking "does she have stridor? is there something wrong with her airway?" Oh no, that's not the case either. The dog is perfectly comfortable laying on her pillow (yes, that's right, I said "her" pillow) and whining. The only time when she doesn't whine is when there is someone else other than Nick or myself with her. Which I think she does so that other people won't believe us when we complain about it. She's that smart. And so far her evil plan has worked. I realize that she probably likes how the vibrations feel on her throat but this is rediculous. I'm currently weighing the pros and cons of a shock collar.

The second thing is our bread machine. Everyone knows that I do not enjoy cooking. If I could eat bread and pasta with butter and parmesan for the rest of my life, I'd be a happy girl. So, knowing my love for bread (especially the home made kind), Nick got me a bread machine for my birthday a few years ago. Of course I was intimidated by it and so we hadn't touched it until a few months ago when Nick wanted to try it out. Let me tell you the bread that he makes in that machine is increadable. I have tried a few times and for some reason my bread is just not as good. So today, I really felt like some fresh bread. I brought out the machine, followed the directions perfectly. I even sprinkled the ingredients into the bucket thing just like Nick does. And how does my bread turn out? Crappy! I just don't understand why I can't do this! It shouldn't be that complicated. You put the stuff in the machine and three and a half hours later, you have bread. Apparently that is a little too complicated for my cooking skills. Here is a picture of my nasty bread. BTW, it actually tastes pretty good and I'm still going to eat it!