Well, the ickiness of early pregnancy has decided to make a comeback for this last trimester. :: sigh :: Now I get sick after dinner.... in fact, I'm beginning to think there is really no point to even eating dinner anymore.

I don't share this information to gross anyone out... it's mostly for my own benefit -- so when I read this journal a year or two so from now when I might be entertaining the idea of getting pregnant again, I remember what THIS one was really like. Everyone tells me you block out all the bad stuff.

So, note to self: You miss your real clothes, you can't sleep very well, you can't see your feet, and eating has become just plain annoying ... and there are still 12 weeks to go.

a little bit at a time...
Here are the new pics.

For those of you who missed my regular blogging over the holiday vacation, here's a quick summary: ;)

Christmas Eve - I finally got to wear the one dressy maternity outfit I've bought so far. And the hem I put in the pants myself stayed in ALL night. I was quite proud. We spent the evening talking politics with Tom's grandparents, or rather, I talked to Tom's brother Marc about weddings while the rest of them talked about politics. Again, I'm pretty sure English royalty came up at some point, it always manages to. I should start taking bets on Graff conversation topics. Tom's vegetable platter, though its beginning was a little shaky, was a hit... mostly with Marc. All I know is we didn't come home with any vegetables, which I was a little sad about. I like vegetables, especially when they are so conveniently cut up like that. Oh well. At some ungodly hour (no pun intended), we headed off to church.

Church was actually very nice, even if it was a small crowd. I've always enjoyed the Christmas Eve service at Tom's parents' church. As non-traditional a church fan as I am, I do like all the pretty candles and hymns for Christmas. Their current priest is really great too ... long service, but I left with a happy Christmas feeling. We got home around 11:45 or so and I crashed... in my new pajamas with clouds on them.

Christmas Morning: As has been tradition thusfar, we went to Tom's parents' house to open presents around 8:00. This is funny because they make us all go up to the top of the stairs like we're just emerging from our rooms to find Christmas has arrived! I always feel like I'm ruining this picture because exactly whose bed am I coming from at their house and from upstairs? (Tom's bedroom was always in the basement anyway). So we opened presents for awhile, got a bunch of cool stuff. This was apparently the year for DVD's, because between the six of us, there were at least 10 of them exchanged. Oh and, in keeping with what has turned into a running joke about our baby's name, Ben received a gift from "Santa" labeled To: TBG. :: sigh :: Someday they will use his name... someday. Right now, they just can't... it's okay... I understand. Kudos to Tom's brother Taylor though, who gave Ben (yes it was labeled To: Ben) a stuffed Pluto. We ate a yummy breakfast and then Tom and I headed out for some well-deserved rest and relaxation before dinner.

Christmas Night: We went to my parents' house for dinner. Dinner was delicious and there were no exploding meat thermometers this time. (don't ask.) More gifts were exchanged ... Ben got some gifts with his name on them. We played a Karaoke Playstation game, which I thought was quite cool... Tom and my brother thought otherwise and preferred watching my brother's new Southpark DVD's. At some point, I think I became delirious because all I remember is trying to play Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture DVD in the basement and then starting to cry, apparently from sheer exhaustion. After that I got to go to bed. Bed was nice. :)

The last of the holiday festivities was my friend Mandy's holiday party yesterday. Tom didn't go with me because he was on his Christmas golf outing. I told him he is coming with me no matter what next time because Mandy is starting to develop a complex about him not attending her parties. Anyway, the party was lovely, lots of yummy food. (mm! mm!) And I got to see Meg (the other preg due around the same time as me... Hi Meg! ;) I was pleased to see that her tummy just about matches mine. Last time I saw her, I was huge and she was still a stick. HAHA! We talked babies while Mandy's sister and Val, another friend from highschool, talked upcoming weddings. We're all so busy these days!

So that's it. The short version of our last pre-baby holiday. :) I am SO glad it's over. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............

Ben's nursery is still a work in progress... but you can see what's new here.

This article actually made me CRY.

Benjamin has been SUPER active for the last three days. And I haven't even had any caffeine in weeks! At times, it feels like he's laying sideways because I feel kicks/punches on both sides of my tummy. Last night, I was poking around ("tapping on the glass") and I felt something really, really hard. I made Tom feel it too. We decided it was either a butt or a head and since it might be his head, Tom determined that we'd better stop poking at it.

Only 13 more weeks until we get to meet him! (maybe even one or two weeks less than that if I'm lucky.) I'm a little wary about packing that emergency hospital bag just yet because that makes it all a little too real. I should though... women on my March 2005 Expecting message board have been having their babies left and right! It's still way too early for Ben to come though. I saw a 27-week baby born on the Discovery channel last night and it was REALLY small and skinny. Ben needs time to fatten up.

I, on the other hand, am ready to STOP fattening up. I'm up about 26 pounds now. I know it will go away quickly after the baby's born (I HOPE)... but it's really unnerving to see the scale go that much higher than it has EVER been. I'm hoping that all this healthy pregnancy eating will pay off in the weight department after March. I guess we'll see.

One last rambling thought... I was looking at Ben's christening outfit last night and it's 0 - 6 months... so it's SMALL. I was hoping to do the christening in early fall, but I think he will have grown out of it by then. So now I'm thinking July or August. Hopefully that gives everyone enough time to recover from the baby shower, Josh and Jen's wedding shower the birth, and Josh and Jen's wedding in May... since a lot of the same people are involved in all of those events. :\ Ugh. So much going on these days!

Ben had his first (documented) case of the hiccups this morning... It was so regular that Suzanne, who sits next to me at work, was able to come over and actually see my tummy move a few times. Funny baby. ;)

Ben has about three weeks to pick a position and stick with it. (by 30 weeks things are so crowded in there, it's hard to move around anymore)

As of 20 weeks, he was feet first. Then I started feeling kicking up high, near my ribcage... and I still do a few times a day. But I'm pretty sure he's still on the move because an equal number of times a day, he's kicking down near my bladder. We've already established that he's a rather active kiddo ... just hoping he settles on head-down very soon. :\ Otherwise, his birthday might be a little more planned out than I had intended.

This has turned into the neverending home project. Yesterday, I touched up the paint, put new handles on the closet doors, washed the blinds and the windows, hung the pictures, put up the valances, added a new lamp and installed a dimmer. So the nursery is ALMOST finished. We still need to get the mattress and touch up the ceiling where we got wall paint on it. THEN I think we'll be finished... FINALLY. I will take pictures as soon as I figure out where I put my camera. Argh. It's turning out very cute, but I still think it needs more color somehow... working on that one...

I called my doctor's office today to see if the results of my Glucose test were in. She said they were and everything is fine! Hooray! No three-hour starvation marathon for me!! Thank goodness because I really think it would have made me very, very sick. Plus, they make you load up on carbs the few days before you take the test and that's the LAST thing I need right now is to put on 2-3 more pounds in two days. So yay... that's my happy news for today. :)

I found this Parental Readiness Quiz. Apparently I am ready to be a parent. Hooray. Because it's kinda too late. I scored lowest in emotional maturity though. What's THAT all about?

Anyway, here's another quiz some of my readers might be interested in. The Marital Readiness Quiz

I didn't want to take that one because it's even MORE too late to find out that I'm not ready to be married. ;)

I was figuring yesterday that I have about 7 paychecks left in my career. While this is a good thing because it means I'm ever closer to not having to drag myself into the corporate world day after day, it's also a little disconcerting.

Not that we won't have enough money after I stop working. We've planned for this for years ... we're careful, and we don't live beyond our means by any stretch. So Tom's salary covers all of our bills and then some, and mine gets saved, for the most part. Plus he gets his raise and bonus in July, three months after the baby comes, so that helps.

But still, the idea of not having mm own money is just WEIRD. I have worked full-time pretty much since I was 16. And since I always had my own money, I never felt bad spending it now and then. After March, I'm spending "our" money. It will be an adjustment.

I absolutely know I've made the right decision, but it's hard not to think about the fact that we'll be giving up about 20% of our income. Compared to Tom, I make diddly squat, but it's still a nice chunk to be able to put into savings.

Ah well. I guess it's something everyone who makes this decision struggles with. It's kind of an issue of personal independence.

But... the trade-off is certainly worth it.

Only 99 days to go before my due date!

Today I went for my Glucose Tolerance Test. For anyone who doesn’t know, this is a blood test to see if you have developed gestational diabetes. (If for some reason you absolutely, positively must know more about what it is, just google "gestational diabetes.") Otherwise, just read on...

Anyway, it’s not as easy as just a blood test though. No no no.

First they make you starve yourself. Now first of all, not letting a pregnant woman eat is just mean.

Then, they make you drink this syrupy sweet carbonated orange soda that tastes like Sunkist with about twenty scoops of sugar tossed in for good measure.

THEN, they make you sit for an hour (still without eating) while the magic syrup does its work, which is to shooting your blood sugar sky high. (Ben really enjoyed this part... it sent him into a writhing frenzy of feet and fists)

Then, they take some blood and a few days later they let you know if your blood sugar STAYED high (bad) or if it came crashing down (good).

I can tell you right now, I’m a crasher. I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. And if I follow my usual pattern with not eating/lots of sugar, I’ll develop a raging headache in about three or four hours. Can’t wait.

All this would not have been SO awful if it had only taken an hour like it was supposed to. But I went to Labcorp. Their motto may as well be "Sit down and shut up. We’ll take your blood when we’re good and ready."

So I entered an already crowded waiting room at 8a.m. and found myself stuck behind a very very old woman who was apparently there to give a stool sample. According to my watch, she entered the one and only bathroom there to produce said stool sample at approximately 8:15 a.m. At 9:15 she still wasn’t out. I guess she had performance anxiety. Meanwhile, the Labcorp people aren’t bright enough to decide to just take me ahead of her. Hello? Hungry pregnant woman with an hour’s wait ahead of her?? A little consideration would be nice. But I guess they couldn’t handle this little change to their routine so there I sat. Me and all the other people who were getting blood drawn for god-knows-what communicable disease they might be carrying.

At approximately 9:30, they finally made poopy woman come out of the bathroom. She had to come back later when she was more prepared.

Finally, at 10:30, after I had chugged 10 ounces of the icky orange soda, and sat in a sugar –induced coma for an hour, a very rude woman stabbed me, took my blood and sent me on my way.

If, by some strange twist of fate, I failed this one-hour test, I have to go back for what one of my recently pregnant co-workers dubbed the "three-hour tour." All the same routine only they make you sit there, starving and high on sugar for THREE hours. What other pregnancy torture is in store for me? Stay tuned…

I had yet another fun-filled doctor's appointment today.

Everytime I go, I say to the girl who takes my blood pressure: "It's going to be high, it always is when I'm here." Everytime she takes it, it's high. So today she takes it, surprise, it's high. I get into the examining room and the doctor comes in and says "You're blood pressure's a little high." I told her I know this, that we've had this discussion before and that this "high" blood pressure is limited to when I am in the presence of medical personnel. She laughed and asked me if the nurse weighed me BEFORE she took the blood pressure. When I said yes she said, "Oh I have GOT to tell them stop doing that. It just stresses everyone out." That was amusing.

Tomorrow I have to go have the screening for gestational diabetes. I have been dreading this since I got pregnant. They make you drink this super sugary orange stuff and then wait to see what your blood sugar will do. If it goes up and stays up, you've got gestational diabetes. I KNOW what mine will do... it's going to immediately plummet. This means I'll get spend the rest of the day with a raging headache. Ugh.

Oh, she also listened to the baby's heartrate on a different machine. This one spit out a little piece of paper with a black squiggle on it that she claims is the baby's heartbeat. It looks more like a doctor's signature to me.

Aaaaaannd.... I think that's all. My next appointment is in January and after that I have to go every two weeks! Wahoo!

Today, since it was yucky outside, I decided to suck it up and paint the nursery. It was as awful as I had been dreading. The walls were already sort of a dark sage color, so painting over them with a neutral, whitish color took many, many coats. Three, to be exact. Tom helped me by trimming out under the ceiling and taping off the room. I think there's still some touching up to do, but I won't be able to tell until I see the room in daylight. Ugh. Every muscle in my body hurts.

On another topic, I fear my innie belly button is truly not long for this world. When I cough or sneeze now, it sort of pops out so it's flat. I know it's just a matter of time until it pops all the way out and stays out. Yucky.

Doctor's appointment tomorrow! I love going every month because I get a chance to check in and make sure everything's going okay. But I really dread being weighed. Ah well. Only three more months of this to go!

Sorry my blog hasn't been working for about a day and a half. Something is up with the site that hosts my comments. So comments are temporarily unavailable... but feel free to leave a note under the tagboard on the right. :) Seriously. My blog has been very lonely lately.

Not much new is going on with the baby, so here's a pregnancy update on mommy. I have gained 24 pounds. Sounds like a lot, but I'm on track to gain between 35 and 40 total, which is about right for the average pregnancy. The morning sickness has stayed away, which I am eternally thankful for. My only real complaints these days are the yucky acid reflux and a general lack of energy in the evenings. Otherwise, this pregnancy thing really is pretty easy. We'll see if I'm still saying that in another two months or so, but so far, it's just not that bad!

I've noticed from watching the various birth shows on the Discovery channel that there seem to be three types women during labor....

1) The au-naturel women who choose to go it with no pain meds. They usually look pretty miserable the entire time. This is not for me.

2) The women who get the epidural but it either doesn't work or it wears off. They usually look pretty miserable during the pushing stage. This is also not for me.

3) The women for whom the epidural works miracles and they laugh and talk through the entire labor. There is obvious effort during the pushing, but no look of real pain or anguish... these people even joke around between pushes. THIS is where I want to be.

I have a doctor's appointment on Monday and I'm going to ask her what I have to do to be laboring woman #3.

Also, regarding the issue of who will be in the delivery room. Tom, definitely. My mom, definitely. I apologize a hundred times over to my mother-in-law as well as anyone else who wanted to see the bloodbath that is birth, but I'm just too shy for that. Plus, in the very likely event that I am in pain, I really really don't want a ton of people around. I promise all who are interested that you can come in and out freely before the pushing begins... and as soon as they put me back together into some sort of modest state, you can come right in and hold the baby, take pictures, etc... but during the ickiness, it's an exclusive crowd. Tom, because he did this to me and after all, Benjamin IS half his. ;) And my mom because she's my mommy.

According to all the baby stuff I've read, babies open their eyes at week 25. Before that, they are sealed shut while their retinas develop and all those other good things. Anyway, today marks the beginning of week 25! :) So ... yay Ben! Although, I'm guessing my insides aren't the most exciting thing to stare at all day. Hrm.

Came across this in my travels. It's a 24-week fetus... about the same age as Benjamin is right now.

I bought paint for the baby's room yesterday during my lunch hour. I was too tired to start painting last night though. :( Maybe tonight... but probably not. I'm just too tired after work to do much of anything except eat dinner, clean up the kitchen and go to bed. I'm very VERY ready to be done with work. Lately, it seems to just be getting in the way of things I could be and need to be doing.

Somewhere between 14 and 15 weeks left to go in this adventure. Doesn't sound like a lot, does it? In some ways I wish it the time would hurry up and go by... but in other ways I am not so impatient. We still have a lot to do to get ready and I'm not really excited about the unavoidable, impending pain. Ugh.

One is of Tom and me breaking the wishbone on Thanksgiving Day. (23 weeks pregnant)

The other is of the picture we put on our Christmas cards this year. The message was "Fetus Navidad" ;)

Everytime I see my tummy move, I can't help thinking (or saying outloud), "That's so weird... there's a whole PERSON in there!" This is something I KNOW for a fact, but can't seem to comprehend. I was talking to my friend Joy on the phone the other night and she said something that I know is true for me too. She said that up until the point that her daughter actually came out and she got to see her for the first time, she still couldn't picture what she would look like, or even that she would look like a real baby. It's all just too weird.

But enough rambling. ;) I guess the only news today is that we put our Christmas tree up last night. I owe my blog several pictures, including one of me and my big tummy standing in front of the pretty tree. I'll get to it soon, I promise. It's a matter of getting my digital camera, my laptop, an FTP program and a reliable internet connection all in the same place. Ugh.

Well.. sort of. But I swear he knew something exciting was happening this morning because he NEVER moves around in the morning and he was all over the place.

We mailed out our Chrismas cards today. If you don't get one, I apologize. I only ordered 30, due to budget constraints. But I'll scan the card in later and post it on here for everyone to see. As you might imagine, it's baby-related.

I'm stuck at work right now, even though there is snow everywhere. I'm hoping this is only a temporary situation because I'd really like to dig out the Christmas decorations today. We'll see... more later.

I read somewhere a couple of days ago that when babies in the womb hear familiar voices, like their mother and father, their heartrate goes up. As a childhood fan of Mr. Wizard, I couldn't let the opportunity for a little home scientific experiment pass me by! Tom and pulled out our fetal doppler (which I'm getting ready to send back, since the baby is moving now) and we both started talking to Ben. Well, the results are inconclusive. His heartrate did go up... but then again, usually when I watch it on the doppler, it goes up and down about 20 beats a minute. I think it's mostly due to movement. Ah well, it was fun. ;) Our little alien is a constant source of amusement to his mommy and daddy.

In baby news: the baby is moving a little less these days... I guess he's starting to get a little crowded in there. I gained 5 pounds last night. But judging from the number of trips I've made to the bathroom today, it will probably be gone tomorrow.

Now, I must vent about something unrelated...

There is a feud going on in my office about the company Christmas party. Now, I for one, could NOT care less if we have or do not have a party. Period. It's not going to make or break my holiday. In fact, I was all for doing secret santas during December and calling it a day. But whatever. The way I see it, there are two contingents of people here:

a) The Socialites/I'll Do Anything to Get Drunk for Free - Two separate groups, but both after the same thing... a fancy shin-dig, off-site, outside of office hours where there will food and drink late into the evening.

b) The Quiet Types/I'd Rather Not Go Out After Work - I will admit, I'm part of this group. I'm not that social anyway, and lately, I only have so much energy to last through the day. I'd rather not have to drag myself and Tom out into the cold after work to socialize with people I see 50 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. My followers include the people with young children, the quiet types, and the holiday stress-cases. We're hoping for a nice, low-key lunch or something in the office.

Whatever. At this point. It has snowballed into SO much negativity that we probably shouldn't do anything at all. Which, again let me reiterate, is MORE than fine with me. I didn't ask for anything. I don't want anything. I don't expect my bosses to feed me or give me gifts. Just my paycheck and Christmas day off would be lovely, thank you.

So now I'm frustrated and annoyed with people I would normally call friends, or at the very least, people I am friendly and social with during the workday. And of course, because I am pregnant and hormone-overloaded, the whole thing just makes me want to cry.

The people who are "in charge" are complaining that those of us who are anti-their-ideas are just ungrateful morale killers. Who asked them to be in charge anyway? Obviously they are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts or it wouldn't have gotten this ugly this quickly. I would have been happy to help... so would about a dozen other people.

Yet another case in point for why (other than visiting family and friends and going to church) Christmas should be wiped out. It's nothing but a pain.

Funny how we all just mindlessly do certain things without knowing why.... I thought this was interesting. And let it also be noted, that it seems I am actually following the middle name tradition the way it was originally done. ;)

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A History of Middle Names

Few Americans were giving their children middle names in the 17th century until the German immigrants introduced this naming custom to America. They were in the habit of giving their children two given names at baptism. The first given name was a spiritual name, often a favorite saint's name, and the second one, which would later be known as the middle name, was the secular name. The secular name, or "call name" was the name by which the child was known and the name used in legal records. It was not uncommon for the spiritual name to be the same for all the children of the same sex within the family.

While the Germans would bring this custom to America, it was not until the early 19th century that the custom caught on with others. By the 1840s, it had grown into a popular practice. According to a study of college records, in 1840 about 92 percent of the students at Princeton had middle names. This custom would continue to grow and by World War I it was assumed that everyone in America had a middle name.

Yesterday, I packed myself a lovely little lunch. It consisted of a yogurt, a grapefruit, a turkey wrap and some M&M's. I ended up going out to lunch with a coworker yesterday, so I was really looking forward to my packed lunch today.

I just went to the refrigerator to take something out of it and noticed that my beloved turkey wrap was GONE! Now, it seems odd to me that in an office less than 20 people that someone would eat someone's sandwich. That's just WEIRD. So I'm thinking that's not what happened... but yet, I do have to wonder where it went. It was definitely there yesterday when I placed the bag in there... it was definitely in there at 4p.m. yesterday when I raided the bag and took the M&Ms.... hrm. So strange.

And if someone DID take it... WOW that's just so rude! And you SO don't want to take a pregnant woman's food. Grr. If I find out who took it, they will FEEL my wrath.

So here I sit, eating my yogurt ... wondering what I'm going to do for lunch. I'll probably shell out $5 for a tuna bagel from the deli next door. $5 I wouldn't have to spend if my wrap hadn't mysteriously disappeared.

Film at 11.

This was a post I found today on my pregnancy message board. I laughed out loud at my desk all alone. Enjoy. ;)
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"...I know that most everyone on here has a belly button that has popped out like a great tree stump but mine is still an innie. I had a little pooch on my tummy pre-pregnancy that has only just started to go away so that probably explains it.

Anyway, I was laying on our bed the other day and my husband said my belly button looked like a little baby mouth. He started moving the belly button around to make it talk, saying "Hi mommy" and nonsense like that. I started to laugh and I felt something funny. My husband let out a yell and sort of jumped back. My belly button had popped way out as I laughed and I swear it nearly poked him in the eye.

I stopped laughing to figure out what was wrong and the belly button sucked back in. After hearing the story I started to laugh again and *POP* out came the belly button.

Now I can pop my belly button in and out like it's a New Year's Eve noisemaker. I'm sure that this isn't uncommon but I'd never heard anyone talk about it before. I think I should throw a party, I have a feeling I'd be the life of it."
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I hope MY belly button does this! What a cool trick! ;)

Not much happened this weekend, therefore, no blog entries. Sorry folks. I ran around all day yesterday. Part of my mission was to finally get the prints for the nursery framed but I have had a heck of a time finding frames that work. I was trying to save money by not getting them custom framed, but it seems that custom framing might have been the better choice. Argh. So six trips to Michaels and about $200 later, the pictures are framed. Hooray.

Now the room has to be painted. I was hoping all of this would be much easier, but alas, no. So next weekend, I guess it's off to fight the Christmas crowd at Home Depot so I can buy paint supplies. More later...