m+j+1

Things have been a little crazy around here as most probably know at this point.  I started a new job in April and have been getting my legs under me with the new company, new responsibilities, and new benefits (yeah car).  And in true m+j fashion, we decided to add a new thing to the mix --- a baby -- a +1 to our lives.

I'm still getting my head around everything, just starting to believe that it's actually happening.  It took two doctors appointments and two ultrasounds to make me believe that it was in fact real.  It may sound silly, but I was surprised by how "not pregnant" I feel.  There was about two weeks of complete nausea that made me wonder how on EARTH I was going to make it through.  Luckily that passed almost over night, but that of course brought a whole new set of concerns about why all my "symptoms" had disappeared.  John at this point has pretty much decided to dismiss most things I say since they generally start with "I really don't have any symptoms..... I really don't think it's real....".  Then a few minutes later to say "geezz.... (insert appropriate body part here) really hurts right now, I don't know what's going on".  Pretty sure he's getting good exercise just through the total number of eye rolls he completes in a day.  

But we (I guess it's more me at this point, right?) have made it through the first trimester and things are looking pretty good so far.  Baby has a healthy heart beat, looks creepily like an actual human inside there (including ability to punch, kick, and open/close its mouth - that doesn't bode well for me in the future  I don't think).  We have probably been disappointing to ultrasound techs and doctors since we don't get misty-eyed and sentimental when we see the ultrasound and/or hear the heartbeat... we essentially just stare open-mouthed at the screen while repeating "whoa, that is so weird" and "oh my gosh, it's moving, that's kind of creepy".  I think they get more excited for hand-holding and staring lovingly at the screen while periodically looking in each others eyes and saying "I love you" or something.  

As for everything else?  What I find the most surprising is the response from strangers when I'm at a restaurant or bar and not drinking.  Apparently that's unheard of!  Here are my latest examples, I'm sure they will only get better over time.

Example #1 - 4pm at a bar before going to a birthday party with John and my friend KG:

Enter waitress to take our orders, John and KG both order beer. 

Me: Can you make something non-alcoholic?

Waitress: Recovering from last night?

Me: No, I'm pregnant.

Waitress: Oh!  Well, I'll see what the bartender can put together.

Apparently if I'm not drinking it must be because I'm hungover from having one hell of a night before.

Example #2 - 7:30pm at a bar after volleyball:

Waitress takes Johns beer order and turns to me.  I try to order a root beer but she says they don't have it and proceeds to mention a margarita special and some other mixed drink special.

Me: Well, I need something without alcohol.

Waitress: We have cider!

Me: Like apple cider?  I could go with that.  I'm thinking at this point that it's nearing September, they could in fact have apple cider for some weird reason.

Waitress: Woodchuck.

John: Woodchuck hard cider?

Me: That has alcohol in it.  I can't have it.

Waitress: Of course it has alcohol in it.

Me: I'll have a Sprite.  Meanwhile, just staring at her as though my eyes could pierce through her thick head.

I guess she skipped out on listening to me once I said I wasn't interested in margaritas, or just assumed that when I said something without alcohol I meant something without hard liquor.  Either way, awesome.  

The only other story I have so far is the first preseason Bears game that we went to.  Mind you this was about a day after I had been talking with JuliAnna about being pregnant and chatting about if I was emotional about things or anything and I said no, that I was pretty much the same as before.  That was before the "umbrella incident".  I take back all claims to being "even-keel".

Let me set the scene of the preseason game.  It was crappy weather, as in, rain, lightening, thunder that was crazy loud.  It was a mess.  We were walking over to the game in our rain coats with umbrellas.  Clearly we should have read the rules for Soldier Field more closely as apparently umbrellas are a banned item.  Let me also share that I have an umbrella that I'm particularly attached to.  It's striped, it's pretty awesome, it's from Sears, and I bought it about 5 years ago within my first or second year of living in Chicago.  I didn't have it open, I didn't have it out.  It was at the bottom of my bag.  I got through the metal detector wand people and was trying to get through bag check.  Mind you, all of us have umbrellas.  Charlie has one in his back pocket, John has one in his back pocket, and Dani has one up her sleeve.  I'm the only one that apparently has one in a bag and visible.  We are also standing in the rain.

The bag checker says that I'm not allowed to have umbrellas and I'll have to throw it away.  Something about that makes me start to lose it.  I grab my bag and turn around in the 3' space allotted between the wand people and the bag people.  John is about to get wanded so I wander about 3 spots over and am talking to him over the security something along the lines of "they want me to throw away my f-ing umbrella.  I don't want to throw away my umbrella, I've had this umbrella for years".  At this point, I think John probably thinks I'm a little crazed since it's just an umbrella and so I see that Dani has put hers up her sleeve and I proceed to try and put it up my own.  However I have a snap on my sleeve that won't allow me the room for an umbrella and my arm.  I became slightly frantic trying to shove it so that I can make it through the last line of security.  One of the other bag checkers notices what I'm doing and looks and me and says "no umbrellas allowed.  You will need to throw out your umbrella."  At this point, I turn on her (poor woman never saw it coming) and scream "I KNOW!  I'M WORKING ON IT!!".  Meanwhile, the tears have started to flow, thankfully they are masked by the rain that is also pouring down my face.  

I finally open my jacket, throw my umbrella in my back pocket, zip it back up, walk back to another bag checker (thank goodness there were more than 2 otherwise I would have been a goner) and get through security with my contraband umbrella, yet without any dignity having completely lost it over the idea of throwing out an umbrella.  At this point Dani asked if I was okay (thinking it was rain not tears) and I have to confess that the thought of throwing out a $12 umbrella nearly put me on the "do not allow" list for Soldier Field.  If the security personnel had been more aware they probably would have asked me to leave since I was essentially wandering back and forth in the 3' space between the wands and the bags holding the umbrella and probably muttering to myself.  It was NOT my finest moment.  So yeah, I guess I can be a little emotional.  I'd like to believe that my irrational attachment to inanimate objects which has followed me since childhood had the most to do with it - although maybe that makes it worse.  

Oh and there is the time when I nearly (or perhaps did convince) convinced a friend that my doctor had me on crack because it was good for the baby... oh the joys of not drinking and convincing my drinking friends of ridiculous things.  I mean, I have to entertain myself somehow, right?

So those are my first stories.  Imagine, I'm not even showing yet!  So they can only get better from here I imagine.  I'm sure that others have amazing stories of strangers saying the "darndest" things and I would love to hear them!!'

I guess that's about all I've got for now... I have some pictures of the last 5 weeks of my non-existent belly (pregnant belly that is... beware, there is a belly included in the picture but that has nothing to do with our +1) that I can share, of course I don't have it on this computer so I'll have to post it separately.  

Generally, we are excited for this next chapter, terrified of all the responsibilities that it will bring and the life changes that are bound to happen, but I know that we'll get through it and make it work in the best way we can.  We do a pretty good job of it - making things work as best we can that is.  Just don't judge us if you hear a few f-bombs come out of my mouth (I swear, it's the baby that makes it happen... my doctor only said I couldn't blame pregnancy for all the bad food I eat, not the bad habits that I have), a few off-color jokes about some terrible parenting techniques that we plan to implement, and just generally our ridiculous way of dealing with change.  By the time 6 months rolls around, we'll hopefully be acting a little bit more like adults.  Ha.

So here is to the next 26 weeks and 2 days!  Yikes!!!

PS - sorry for no pictures (and the ridiculous length of this post)... I'm finishing this up on a different computer which means no pictures available.  I put together a lovely little slideshow though with Weeks 8-13 (still need to take Week 14) on the off chance that anyone is interested.  Next post will be on the new color of our bedroom since we decided we really needed to get our shiznit in order so that we could prepare our spare room turned office turned nursery.

PPS - not that it probably matters, but this news is still on social networking blackout.  I have to tell my boss still... wish me luck on THAT one.