I'm s-m-r-t

I booked the flight home from Christmas this morning for me and John... unfortunately I booked it to fly from Chicago to Kansas City.  Of course, there is a glaring error here.... I no longer live in Kansas City, so that makes it impossible to fly home there.  

I didn't notice until Katie called me wondering why we were in Kansas City for actual Christmas Day this year, as oppose to flying home and being in KC for Christmas Eve.  I had no idea what she was talking about.  Bless Southwest Airlines for letting you reschedule flights without charging a change fee.

So let's just hope that I'm more successful in booking our flights to KC, and that I don't end up with 2 flights coming back to Chicago.  

I apologize for anyone that when they said "pregnancy brain" I immediately discounted it, and chalked it up to an excuse (not in a malicious way!!!  in a non-understanding way).  I don't know how much of it has to do with pregnancy hormones, etc, but I have to say that there is something to being forgetful since I'm constantly thinking of approximately 6,716,234,655,998 other things at the same time.

I'll post pictures soon.  Still not feeling Chalupa Batman moving around... still fitting into my jeans from pre-pregnancy... still able to wear a dress (albeit a more flow-y one) I had in my closet from 5 years ago to the wedding this weekend.  I swear, I thought it would be a lot different... I assumed that you got pregnant and then immediately got big.  I was pretty far off.  I know there is a lot of growing going on in the next 4 weeks while I finish out this second trimester, but I'm starting to worry my coworkers think I'm lying.  

Introducing -- Chalupa Batman

If you don't watch The League on FX then that reference means nothing to you.  If you do watch The League, then you know that it means we are having a little boy!  

I know, I've said this entire time that I was thinking we were having a girl (mostly probably because that's what I wanted).  But about 3 weeks ago when we didn't get to find out what it was, I (and apparently John as well) started thinking that it was a boy.  I think it was mostly because of the idea of Murphy's Law or something like that.  Whatever you think, the opposite will happen.  So I started thinking that it was a pretty good bet that it was a little boy growing away in there, although we both kept it to ourselves.

But we finally got our organ ultrasound last Friday.  We were almost thwarted for a second time because when I had made my appointment for Friday I assumed that it meant they would understand everything based on the doctor's notes that I was supposed to be getting an ultrasound.  When we sat down in the office to wait for my doctor I started getting nervous because there wasn't a single word being said about an ultrasound... seemed like bad news.  Luckily when my doctor came in and asked if we were getting one today and I responded with a hesitant "I thought so?" she immediately left the room and must have put the smack down on either the ultrasound folks or the front desk folks because within minutes she was back in the office saying that they were going to be able to squeeze me in.  Phew!  Disappointment averted.  

When we sat down for with the tech, she asked if we were interested in finding out the sex and John and I without hesitation and I think in sync both said "yes, definitely".  I think that's our strongest response to this whole pregnancy thing yet!  Hahaha.  So luckily at the very end everything aligned and he let us see his goods!  After about 40 minutes of staring at a screen with sort of clear/identifiable images of various body parts she finally has the eureka moment and while looking at the screen says "there you go, that tells you what it is - what do you think?  Boy or girl?".  John and I are both staring at the screen, I'm terrified of guessing the wrong thing ("yes honey, when we were looking at the ultrasound we totally thought you were a little girl...") but I took a chance and assumed that what we were seeing was on the outside, not the inside.  Thank goodness that gamble paid off!!

So now we get to really get into this whole baby thing and start figuring out what we want, how much money we are about to drop (holy crazap is all I can say), and how adorable our little boy is going to be!  I can definitely stand to wait the next 20 weeks out - I say that now because I can still see my feet, tie my shoes, and I'm not swollen yet, etc. - but it seems more exciting now that we have more concrete information in place.

On the showing front, John thinks I am, yesterday my stomach felt so expanded I could barely breathe or sit up straight, but all my pants and shirts are still fitting just fine (aside from one pair that has a higher waist that I finally succumbed to a belly band for and then just decided I should stop wearing them entirely since they weren't comfortable and I had other pants that were).  So looking good so far!

And here are some new pics of Baby Boy McDonald!  I have more if anyone is interested, but I didn't think that posting Chalupa Batman's little boy privates on my blog was such a good thing to do - in 18 years he would probably be mortified...

It's the halfway countdown

Not a long post here, just a quick update on how everything is going.

I'm in my final week of the first half.  (The answer is "yes, that is insane")  I can't believe it's already halfway over!  The weirdest thing is that I'm still not feeling any different.  This makes me of course... nervous.  Because that's the name of the game I play.  My appetite hasn't increased, my stomach at the end of day looks bigger than normal, so I guess I'm starting to show.  Pat saw me the other day and apparently reported me for looking like I had a baby bump.  So, I guess I'm starting to look it?  Although I feel pretty confident I traveled incognito, especially since the trip from Dublin to London they sat me in the emergency exit row and I feel pretty confident that I'm not qualified for that.  Luckily for everyone the plane did NOT go down and I in no way had to operate any sort of safety procedure.  

Traveling while pregnant was pretty easy.  My doctor was completely supportive which definitely helped, but had a few ideas of things I needed to do to make it "safer".  I had to rest as much as possible (obviously), drink tons of water to stay hydrated, bring medical records in case of emergency, and of course wear compression thigh highs.  Now, I don't know how many out there have worn these sexy beasts (I feel few of my readers are over the age of 70 or at the risk of blood clots)... but they are super awkward.  I wore comfy pants on the plane and so you could definitely see the line of where the tights ended and the fat of my thigh over-topped.  My doctor had warned me of the difficulty of getting them on at the airport and had recommended me putting them on before leaving.  I wasn't prepared to wear them any longer than I had to, so I went against that advice.  So I contorted myself and tried desperately to NOT step on an airport bathroom floor while struggling into those things.  Not the best idea, but it did save me about 3 hrs of extra time being squeezed inside them.  The way back they were a little bit better because they were slightly stretched out from my previous trip.  So they were much easier to get on at the airport.  

Everything else was pretty status quo.  I think that it was a little harder for me to adapt to the time change.  I just never felt like I was switched over.  Some of it might have had to do with never really sleeping in, but I just never caught up.  So, I'm pretty exhausted now.  But, that should hopefully pass a little bit until I just am tired anyway.  I was still happy to walk everywhere (including the rental car place to our hotel -- approximately 3 km) and other than a little bit of sacroiliac pain (??), I felt great.  Next step for me is getting an SI belt.  

Now for what you are actually looking for -- pictures of the last four weeks.

Week 17: The Telling Turnip (although it told us nothing since all we heard was the heartbeat.. alright it told us that it was still beating)

Week 18: The Secretive Sweet Potato (since we found out nothing)

Week 19: The Mysterious Mango (still waiting)

Week 20: The Cultured Cantaloupe 

What's the verdict?  I feel like Week 17 looks bigger than Week 18.. and then back to big for Week 19 and then smaller again Week 20.

Oh - and still no feeling of movement.  I tried to relax and see if  I could concentrate and feel it while in Ardmore, instead I feel asleep in the bathtub, so it didn't quite work out.  Ha.  Hopefully that starts up again soon, it's starting to make me so (wait for it) nervous.  So I would really like to have that get going.

Friday is our big day, hopefully I'll have more ultrasound pictures and more exciting news about how it's growing!  When did everyone else start feeling movement?  When did you start feeling like you were actually pregnant?  I'm still waiting on all counts....

4 years ago

Four years ago, I was walking down the aisle.... It's always crazy to me how quickly time passes.  It seems like just the other day we were taking ridiculous road trips to California or Arizona to visit each other, and driving across the country to move me to Chicago.

But here we are, sitting in Ireland - the first stop of our honeymoon back those years ago, taking our first vacation just the two of us for no other reason than to vacation together since our honeymoon and I couldn't be happier.

What Johns lucky enough to have is a pregnant wife who was told to wear incredibly sexy thigh high compressions socks to fly to Europe, and someone who thinks she knows everything (in a very irritating way). What I'm lucky to have is someone to ignore that I'm wearing sexy thigh high compressions socks (And still think I'm beautiful) and who shakes his head in mock frustration when I've once again become bossy over something I know nothing about. Okay, I guess there is WAY more to all of this, but let me just say that I think I'm one lucky lady.

So Happy Anniversary!!  Can't wait to make it four score more!,

Vacation Underway

We made it safe and sound in to Dublin and we are officially on our vacation.  More to update soon and once we can upload pictures to our laptop (find a cable to charge it), I will post some more pictures and write some more.  More info will be on www.m-plus-j-plus-theworld.blogspot.com tomorrow. Until then this girl needs to sign off and get some sleep. We rent a car tomorrow and I get to learn how to drive on the other side of the road!!!  All while also remembering how to drive a stick shift.

Does it get less awkward?

I realize that I'm an awkward kid.. I get that.  I've always been that way.  I'm the one that after being thanked for throwing a baby shower, respond with "Thank YOU.......... for coming...... to your own shower.... yeah".  But telling people I'm pregnant has got to be one of the WEIRDEST experiences and one of the best ways for me to demonstrate my completely lack of social norms.  

For instance, last Monday, I told a friend of mine from Baker after a meeting for ASCE.  We were talking and just generally chatting about if I was going to meet John at the bar for the Bears game, blah blah blah.  Then I just turned to him and said "do you want to know a fun fact?  You'll be the first at Baker to find out.  John and I are actually expecting a baby in March".  Then the best part, I had to run to the elevator to get my car in the parking garage and he had to run in the train.  So I essentially shared and dashed.  Oops!

Then today, I was telling my co-worker that I was pregnant (they brought in lunch today for our lunch and learn and it was deli sandwiches or a veggie patty...gross) because I was joking around about not being able to eat the deli meat.  After the lunch, I was talking with my co-worker about it a little bit and he asked my due date.  At that moment, the presenter walked up (who I had met an hour previous and only said hello to and shook his hand) and he says "what's happening in March?".  My reply, "well, I'm due in March... I'm pregnant".  Letting that just sit in the air with an incredibly uncomfortable laugh.  He looks up and sheepishly responds "oh geez, nothing like walking into a personal conversation".  I don't have a good retort for that.  Right now, it's nervously laughing while looking around for an exit and filling space with gasps, umms, and uhhs.  Doesn't help alleviate the situation for sure.

Did anyone else have a weird time telling people?  Does it get any easier and less awkward?  Is there a way to announce it instead of throwing it in the middle of an email with a lot of other information around it, hoping that it gets lost in the deluge of other extraneous information that I'm only providing so as to surround the announcement?

Side note - see how many times I used "pregnant" in this piece?  I must be getting a little more comfortable.  I also said it out loud a couple of times in the last couple of days.  Must be sinking in or something.

And now a random photo, just to add something extra to the post.  (And because it's one of the better smiles John has ever had in a photo.)

Sunny with a chance of baby showers!

So this Sunday I was lucky enough to help co-host a fun baby shower for one of our friends (Julia) who is due in November.  It was a co-ed shower, mostly so that we didn't have to figure out where to send the guys, and also because there was football on t.v. so they required little to no entertainment.

I got many of my ideas from either JuliAnna's shower (especially the poofs - which are so much fun to use, kind of a process to put together) or Pinterest.  I'm pretty good about not getting too sucked into the site, but I have to say that for planning parties there isn't really a better way to go.  Since Julia is due right in the middle of fall, we kind of figured autumn would be a perfect backdrop, hence the pumpkins, the colors, etc.  And KG and I found a fabulous tablecloth at JoAnn's that we couldn't pass up so it was essentially all based from there.

The tablecloth that KG found and we immediately knew we had to buy!

It was so much fun!  And the start of an eye-opener for what I'll be expecting, e.g., diapers, diapers, and MORE diapers.

Hands off to Dani for supplying a beautiful home to host (and amazing foods - cucumber sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, pumpkin cheesecake, fruit salad, mommy friendly sangria) and KG for being our leader in inspiration and design!!  I was just there to supply prosciutto flatbread and the cake pops.  :)

So here are the pictures I took, unfortunately I took them on my phone so they aren't excellent quality but you'll get the idea.

Happy showering!

I might have been a little into the poofs, but they were so much fun to put up.

The dessert area with cake pops, pumpkin cheesecake, and chocolate chip banana bread.  Someone with better handwriting should have written the signs.

The spread. Yumm!

More food and hot cider.

Our only "game" where we just guessed boy or girl and date.  We were going to turn it into a betting game, but didn't know if that would be in poor taste.  (Seriously who let that girl write on the chalkboards?)

 Little onesies along the mantle.  Paul and Julia are from Ohio so John and I made some Chicago styles to counteract the influx of Ohio State and Bengals gear.

Just a few of the boys hanging out and watching football.   

Oh and don't worry, there were more poofs to be had.  I guess no one really sat over there, but it was nice to know that corner was decorated just in case.