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.