Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

Well, I’m at 20 or 21 weeks. The docs aren’t sure which due date to go by yet– so here in a little over a month I will probably have another gestational development scan. If I still measure a week further along then they’ll advance my due date, and if not they won’t. So I’m due in the beginning part of December either way.

This week of time won’t matter at the end, of course, but it will matter if I have any sort of earlier complications. One week makes a big difference in survivability of the fetus, and may change whether they try to stop labor (if I go into labor very early) or allow it. From that standpoint the later date may be the better one, even if it were incorrect it would make sure decisions were made conservatively. I’d still rather have as accurate an idea as possible, of course.

As a side note, it turns out I’m probably not immune to rubella any longer. That makes all the articles I’ve been catching about parents parents not vaccinating their children actually critical to me — I am currently a person who can’t be vaccinated (until I have this child) and must rely on the possibly compromised herd immunity to protect me and my unborn child (who would likely die or have serious birth defects due to the disease - it’s scary stuff). According to Wikipedia, it’s this risk to the fetus that was the primary motivator in creating the vaccine. (Of course, like most of the internet, Wikipedia is quite fallible, but this does make sense.) They’ll give me a shot to try to re-immunize me before I leave the hospital. (Luckily my other immunities still seem to be up to snuff.)

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I am trying once again to make bread. The last time I tried to make bread, it exploded.

It was a strange set of circumstances — I didn’t know what I was doing, didn’t know a friend had given me self-rising flour, added yeast (who knows if I added the right kind or amount), didn’t know to let it set and didn’t bother with kneading, etc. I’d had good luck baking in the past and figured stuff would work itself out. I wound up with a mess in the oven.

Anyway, other than that, I’ve still had good luck with baking, generally speaking. So I decided to give bread a second try. I looked up a couple recipes online, and since I want sandwich bread I decided to try something close to what I found on “The Simple Dollar.” Here’s what I used:

1 packet active dry yeast

1/2 cup warm water

5 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 tablespoons butter (melted in microwave)

1/4 cup milk (added to butter after melting butter and before adding to yeast mixture — figured the hot and cold would even out a bit)

1 cup stone ground wheat flour

1 cup all purpose white flour

1 additional cup all purpose white, of which I used about half

So mostly I followed the recipe from “The Simple Dollar” (it was actually that site that made me decide I could do this). I mixed the yeast and the warm water, stirred until smooth, and let it sit a moment; then added the sugar, salt, milk, and butter and stirred until smooth again. I then added two cups of flour, one white and one wheat. (This was my change from the recipe — I wanted to have some wheat in the bread.) I stirred and added about a 1/4 cup more flour, then wound up giving up stirring and started working the dough with my hands, adding little bits more flour as I could.

I don’t really know what I’m doing with kneading, but I spread out some flour and pounded the dough, and worked it, and twisted it, and balled it, and smashed it, and drove my knuckles into it. Then I cleaned the bowl, and sprayed some Pam in it, and took the dough and balled it up and stuck it in the bowl, and covered it with a paper towel for an hour to let it rise.

After the first rise I pushed it down, and took it from the bowl and pushed it flat and folded it and pushed it flat and folded it, and then tried hard to push it flat and rectangular and rolled it up and stuck it in the loaf pan (also sprayed with Pam) and left it to rise again.

And that’s where I am now! In about 20 minutes I’ll get to throw it in the oven (at 400 degrees for half an hour), and I’ll let you know how it goes.

(I’ve read that it’s best to allow another rise and pound down before baking, but I’m impatient, and want to see how this comes out.)

Updates to come…

Update the First

No explosions! And it seems bread-like! The top may be a bit too dark, and one tiny part of the bottom was determined to stick, so I tore a little of the bottom crust shaking it out of the pan. Smells good though. Just need to let it cool…

Update the Second

Success! The top crust is a touch too done, but the bread is fabulous — good consistency for sandwich bread: not too chewy, not too airy, not too dense. Sean and I each had a sandwich from the loaf so far. The only question now is how to keep it: I put a ziplock over the cut end to try to keep it from drying out, we’ll see how it lasts.

Note: I used 2% Homestead Creamery milk and an Anchor Hocking glass (would that be Pyrex? or technically not Pyrex?) bread pan.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

As of midnight, I am now at 20 weeks! Now admittedly I had no idea what was happening for four of those weeks (and since I apparently ovulated early I guess technically I got to skip a week) but it does seem to have flown by.

According to Baby2See (a site that’s less flashy than some other baby sites, but seems to have really accurate information for me, which I like) my baby now weighs 11 ounces. The site also mentions that mothers will probably start feeling the first fetal movements about now if it hasn’t happened already — which earlier today I did! I had felt little tickle-y feelings many weeks ago that I thought might be movement (about 13-14 weeks, which really would have been 14-15 weeks since I was a week off) but wasn’t sure, and that went away. And I’ve felt several painful jabs in the last couple weeks I am pretty sure were kicks, but on Thursday I felt real movement — the kind where when I put my hand on the spot I could feel the movement with my hand, too! It was neat, but nothing like anyone had described. (I’d reference the movie Aliens, but with a wondrous tenor instead of horrific, heh. I mean, there was something clearly moving under my skin — I think maybe she was rolling over.) It’s the first feeling where I have absolutely no doubt at all it was the fetus, and it was pretty neat. I’ve felt a few echoes of that since, too — subtler movements that I’m noticing, maybe since I have a gauge on what to feel for now.

I haven’t gained much weight lately — I’m holding steady at about 8lbs gained. That’s probably good, as I gained that earlier when I was more hungry. I’ve pretty much left it at “I eat when I’m hungry, and I try to eat good food” rather than overstressing it, and I figure I’ll keep that attitude unless the doc tells me to do differently. I did crave spaghetti dinner earlier in the afternoon, and it was awesome, which I may blog about separately.

Halfway! It’s hard to believe.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

Today I had a pulmonary function test, where they measured something to do with my lung volume and breathing, first normally and then with a bronchodilator (albuterol). The doctor decided to do this since I was prescribed an inhaler for allergy related asthma, but had never had one of these tests done. They take your height and weight (according to them I am at least an inch shorter than I thought!) and your age and race and sex, and basically compare you to others in your bracket to see if your numbers are normal or not.

You get to breathe through a device, where they have you breathe normally, and then take a deep breath and exhale as hard and fast and as completely as you can. You do this a few times, and then they give you a bronchodilator. If it weren’t in such a sterile hospital setting you’d think you were smoking some exotic alien drug, the way the gases roll out of the tube they hand you. I had to breath that for about 8 minutes, then wait another 10 (it made me feel a bit shaky and light-headed — he said that feeling jittery was normal, and he figured the light headedness was due to all the deep breaths). Then you do the test with the device again (breathing and deep breaths/forced exhalation) and they measure the difference.

I won’t be seeing my doc(s) until a little over a week from now, but I asked the tech (that may be the wrong term, I only know he said he was not a doctor) what the results looked like. He showed me the numbers he got, and explained that my lung volume exceeded predictions for my bracket (at my best I got 4.8L and 4.6 at my worst, predicted was about 4.2) and that I was in the 99 and 100th percentiles for the flow rates (I think that’s what those percentages were for, I could have that confused and that was for the volumes instead, but regardless he said the flow rates were also normal). Then with the bronchodilator I showed a small increase in the flow rates (though not so much in the volume). He says that part doesn’t really tell them much.

So woo hoo! I can breathe good!

Basically, he said, it looks like my lungs are normal. I’m surprised, because I always thought my lung capacity was smaller than normal since whenever I was asked to exhale for something I seemed to run out of breath more quickly than the tester expected (I figured that was part of the asthmatic response to the allergies).

Of course, I have to wait to see what the doctors say about the results. (I wonder if it’s a bad thing that the bronchodilator didn’t have a fabulously dramatic effect?) But I won’t be stressing about it all week until I see them.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I wish every doctor’s visit could be an ultrasound.

We had our first ultrasound yesterday (most people would have had one before this, we got started late). I made sure I ate about an hour and a half before-hand (so there was some blood sugar in there) and I had a drink with some sugar in it, and drank plenty of water so I’d have a full bladder as requested. I also tried to relax but move around a bit about a half hour before, to make sure we’d have an active fetus to look at.

My goodness I needn’t have worried so much! She (and yes, by this “she” I mean the fetus — the u/s tech wasn’t 100% sure of the sex because most of the time the fetus had her feet crossed in the way, but the tech said if it was her fetus she’d start buying pink, she caught a couple of glimpses of what looked like the “three lines” that indicate a girl) was almost constantly in motion! The ultrasound techs thought it was funny how much she moved around. Turning her head, opening and closing her mouth, moving her arms, kicking her feet, twisting around, just constantly in motion. They asked me how much I was feeling it, and truly I’ve only felt the occasional jab I wasn’t even sure was her — but now maybe I’m glad I’m not feeling everything she’s doing! They gave us a handful of printouts to take home, but really they don’t do justice to being able to watch what was happening.

When they finally got her to hold still for a moment they determined that her heartbeat was 153 bpm (which is normal) and Sean says he thinks they wrote her weight as 9 oz (I didn’t even think to ask). I figure I’ll get more of the information at my next doctor’s appointment, but the ultrasound techs said it all looks great.

It turns out we’re further along than we thought, by about a week (which means I ovulated way early that month). So today we’re about 19 weeks 1 day. (Basically everything I’ve said before about what was happening, I was a week further along than I thought.) Still due in December, but now in the very beginning of it (December 3). My original due date was December 10, and since first babies are notoriously a week late, my first due date may actually be the more accurate of the two!

Here’s a crop from one of the profile shots (not bad for a cameraphone pic of a glossy printout…):

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I had high blood pressure when I went to the doc Monday (actually at 140/90, she said), so for the last day or so I’ve participated in the joy known as the 24 hour urine test. You get to keep all of your urine for a 24 hour period, then drop it off at the lab and let them do a blood draw (which I did this morning). You have to be sure to keep it all for the full 24 hour period, or the test is invalid (you start by emptying your bladder in the morning as usual and writing down the time, so you start with an empty bladder and an empty container, then from that point keeping all urine up to exactly that time the next day, and if you miss one you need to start over — from what I read they can tell by measuring creatinine levels whether they have a full 24 hour sample or not, so don’t try cheating, heh). In my case they’re looking for protein in my urine, to see if the blood pressure is having an adverse effect on my kidneys. (I suspect not, as this is a new phenomenon, but they can’t take my word for it.) They actually gave me an interesting device to catch it in, which fit on the toilet seat (I’ve read it referred to as a “hat” on some sites, and it does kinda look like one - upside down). Then you decant it into the special jug they give you (mine was orange) and you have to keep it refrigerated. Nothing like having a jug o’ pee in your fridge.

The worst part was last night about midnight when I filled the jug, with there still being about 9 hours to go. I googled frantically, but had a hard time finding a site that told you what to do if you filled the container, except to go on to a second container like the first one. Of course, I didn’t have a second container like the first one… (And why would you give a pregnant lady only one pee container? Sheesh. :))

So I have these plastic one liter bottles that I buy water in, and I rinsed and used two of those. (I think the original container was 2.5l, might have been 3l.) Luckily I was doing a test that didn’t require any special acid in the bottle. I finally found something at this site that suggested that what I had done would be fine (it says “In an emergency a clean glass or plastic bottle that has been thoroughly washed and rinsed with clean water will suffice for most tests”) and when I went in this morning they said that the water bottles I used were fine! Thank goodness, I didn’t want to have to do it again (now I can just hope I don’t have to do it again later in my pregnancy).

I think the gun was a bit jumped on prescribing me this test — they didn’t test any smaller urine samples for protein first (no dipstick test), and this is only one visit where I had high blood pressure (but it’s my only visit to them so far, so it could be higher now regularly, I don’t know). I also think that being nervous could cause a jump in blood pressure, and my 3 hours of waiting at the doctor’s office (broken into 45min or 30min segments between nurse or doc visits) certainly didn’t help that! But I suppose it’s easier or quicker for them to just skip to this step and do the analysis, even if it is more inconvenient for me. And if there is something odd with my kidneys, of course I’d like to know. (I certainly feel like it’s hard to keep hydrated right now, which may also have something to do with all this — I bet being mildly dehydrated doesn’t help the blood pressure any.)

I’m hyper-aware of my bladder now, though. I can’t wait for that feeling to go away. Still, glad my twenty-four is over.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

This image is from Chris James over at “…A Sour Apple Tree.” It’s inspired by a humorous image by Graphjam you can see on Buzzfeed, “How Californians See America.” Go to Chris’s site to comment and compliment. I was sent there by “Random (but not really).” Thanks, Michelle!

click for larger image

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I had a moody couple of days, but happily I’m feeling much better today.

It was odd, almost like it hit me all at once how much my life was going to change. All I could think about was all the things I will not be able to do — feeling a little trapped, I think.

Things will change. But I am confident that I will enjoy many of the new things just as much as the things I’m “missing out” on. And for those things I really miss, I can still do those things occasionally with the aid of a baby sitter.

I also couldn’t help thinking that Sean’s life would change less than mine, and yes, I know that’s untrue, too. And really, Sean is more likely than I am to want to stay home with the kid(s) if I were to want to go out alone. I also know that once there are actual kid(s) in the picture, I probably won’t want to leave much.

The holiday, as well as the dreary weather, are I think partly to blame. I kept thinking of all the things I won’t be able to do next year, or even that I couldn’t do now. I’m too tired to go to all the places I would have, I can’t drink alcohol, I can’t eat much in the way of “outdoor bbq” type food — and next year I won’t be able to do much of that either. (Though again, with the upside: there are lots of things I do that are awesomely child-friendly, and will be so much fun. Friends at the winery will love having another little one around for holidays.)

But I went out last night, and got to watch fireworks hidden under an umbrella with good friends, listening to my husband and his band practice for Sunday’s rock ‘n’ roll bbq (they’re covering a bunch of AC/DC songs, which is hilarious and was great background music for fireworks). And I got to laugh a lot, and come home when I got tired and eat a sandwich and relax until Sean got off work, and all and all had a really nice evening. And today I really do feel better.

It was very strange though. I am typically a relatively positive person, and for about two days I just felt down — it wasn’t entirely illogical (ie, while I’m sure hormones are partly to blame, it’s not like my feelings had no basis in reality), but it didn’t go away with the same logical “upsides” that I’ve written here. Sean knew I was down, and made food and tried to cheer me. He kept asking me how I slept, I think suspecting that was the cause (and actually, it’s not a bad call, I have been sleeping pretty poorly the last week or so). But I felt low pretty much way all the way up until I went out last night.

The only thing I can think to close with is a cliché: Maybe laughter really is the best medicine.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

When you’re pregnant your digestion slows down, ostensibly so your body can suck every bit of nutrient value from every crumb of glazed donut you’ve managed to gobble down. What this means for many women is that you should be sure to get as much fiber as you can, to keep things moving.

I’ve been trying to be careful about this from the beginning, just to avoid any problems. With most of my lower organs being shoved somewhere into the vicinity of my chest, I have never been more aware of my own digestive processes. I can be hungry and full at the same time, which is a bizarre feeling. I imagine that being constipated, while so much else is vying for room in my body, would not be the least bit pleasant right now.

While I was wandering through Target the other day I saw the Quaker Oatmeal to Go “High Fiber” breakfast bars. I was skeptical, but figured I’d give them a try.

They’re very yummy.

I tried them later that evening. I opened one end of the first package and microwaved it for 10 seconds, making it pleasantly warm, at which point Sean noted that it smelled good. Since it was my first foray, I split it and handed him half. We both liked it — which shows it’s actually tasty, not just worth suffering through because I really wanted that fiber.  (edited to add: It is however very sweet, so you need to want something sweet.) And at 10g of fiber, I can actually stop myself from eating more than one a day (since I don’t want to overdo that either).

So, that’s what I had for breakfast this morning — about 200 calories of rolled oats and high fructose corn syrup. Oh, and about 3/4 of a liter combined of water and gatorade. What did you have for breakfast?

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

All sort of fabulous anniversaries today!

Happy Birthday to Michelle!

It’s also the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection!

And Happy Canada Day!

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I know, no one needs a reminder of how high gas prices are right now, but it continues to amaze me with the impact it has. I am fortunate in that I need to do a fairly small amount of driving overall, but things like our yearly vacation (Pennsic) are going to be much more expensive this year specifically because of the gas prices. It costs over $80 at regular gas prices right now for me to fill the tank. I’m not even sure how much more I need to spend on other goods because of the increase. So I’ve been trying to watch the price of gas various places to notice where it is cheaper, and trying to shop a fair bit at Giant Eagle in order to get the gas discount.

So far for this week, here’s what I’ve noticed as being the cheapest gas prices in Morgantown:

Dairy Mart: $4.08 / gallon

Get Go (Giant Eagle) $4.09 / gallon

Kroger $4.09 / gallon

(Various other places I’ve seen are also at $4.09 per gallon, like some of the BPs, but since the two grocery chains offer fuel discounts they get preferential treatment here.)

According to WestVirginiaGasPrices.com, Sam’s Club is selling gas for $4.06 / gallon (I was actually up there today, but Walmart doesn’t have obvious gas prices posted, at least that I saw, so I can’t confirm).

Now the actual *cheapest* places to get gas for me seem to be the two grocery stores — Kroger drops ten cents per gallon automatically for you having a Kroger card, and Giant Eagle does the 10 cents off per gallon for every $50 of groceries you buy. (Is there more to the Kroger deal? I thought you could get an extra 10 cents off for every $100 you bought in groceries, but I was never actually able to redeem that at the pump, I was only ever able to save 10 cents per gallon.)

Since I’m a Upromise member I can get 1 cent per gallon back towards college from Exxon, but the only Exxon I’ve been by was priced at $4.11 / gallon, so it really doesn’t seem to pan out right now.

It’s funny, I used to be concerned about buying my gas at BP or Amoco because they had the best environmental track records. Now I’m most concerned about who’s cheapest.

Where do you get your gas?

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

So, I’m often hungry. The quick “snack” of choice over the last week or so has been:

Flour tortilla

Shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Salsa

Microwave for 15-30 seconds.

It’s not really that unusual, but it’s something for those of you who want all the odd food combos…

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

It’s interesting to watch the housing market around here. I doubt we’ll move from our apartment before next summer — there’s just so many variables in having a baby I don’t know how to quantify, that I figure it would be best to stay put. But I’ve been keeping an eye on the public part of the multi-list system looking at what homes are available, just in case a gem appears in the lower price ranges. (And I may go investigate a pre-approval, just to see what our options are, but I digress…)

Right now it looks nearly impossible to get a livable house in town for under $100,000. And any houses around the $100,000 mark seem to be a gamble — they generally need some sort of work, but it’s a crapshoot as to what kind or how serious. Living outside of Morgantown instantly lowers the cost of the home, sometimes by half.

I found two cute looking houses in the last three months that were under $100,000, and near enough to be of interest to us. One was a little over 10 miles out of town, and one was near downtown in the heart of what is mostly a rental district. The first never made it past the drive-by stage: the surrounding neighborhood was run-down, littered with trash (piles of trash), and didn’t feel safe, though that last is probably not true–it just wasn’t a nice enough area to justify the drive, especially with gas prices as they are. The second looked great from the outside, so we asked to see it. The inside was really rough — holes in the walls, floors that needed work, animal smell (several dogs living there). And even with all that, I think we would have considered the possibility of making a considerably lower offer (based on the positives of the location near downtown and the attractive exterior) except that the layout was so very poor that it didn’t seem worth the work it would need. (And the smell seemed to linger on me after the visit — unpleasant. The poor animals.)

And even if we were to find a house around $100,000 that met all of our requirements, that’s a scary commitment. With the housing market in the mess it’s in, will houses maintain their heightened value in this area? Or will they drop down, back to where prices were, heck, only about 10 years ago? I’m sure that the student interest in this area has kept some of the prices going up — will that continue? Or will we have finally gotten to the point that student housing exceeds student demand?

With the fluctuating economy and housing situations, it’s a confusing time to look at houses.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I keep thinking I haven’t had a whole lot in the way of cravings, but I’m not sure that’s true. Early on I really wanted fried foods, like jalapeño poppers and mozzarella sticks. Instead of going out to get them I just bought them at the grocery store and made them at home. I think my most pregnant-seeming meal combo was the night I had a blueberry bagel with swiss cheese and jalapeño poppers (and let me just say that even now, that combination sounds good to me).

I think the fried food craving was my body’s way of upping my caloric intake — I remember having hunger pangs that were actually painful. As soon as I started eating more, regularly, that craving went away. Since then I’ve been good at satisfying myself with what’s around, for the most part. (It helps that I want sharp cheese and we usually have that around — still a shame that I can’t have feta. Boo.) Also I’ve noticed that hummus seems to work well as a general craving solver when I’m not sure what I want.

I have had a few very specific cravings that were one-time fixes (at least so far). One night I really wanted a candy bar, but I couldn’t decide which kind. So I bought a bag of mini-bars and had a few different ones. And I’ve had days when I really wanted a burger, or really wanted avocado, or really wanted broccoli, or tomatoes, or spaghetti — but no regular cravings.

The closest thing I’ve had recently to a consistent craving is that I’ve wanted Flat Earth Peach Mango chips. I think it’s the peculiar combination of sweet and mildly tangy I wanted, and since we didn’t have it in the house at the time I couldn’t satisfy it and kept wanting it. So today when I went to Target I picked up a bag.

I think I ate about half the bag in one sitting. It was lovely.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

There are so many things that you’re not supposed to eat when your pregnant. I have no intentions of going through a litany right now (note too that what you can and can’t eat while pregnant changes all the time, make sure you do your own research or talk to a doctor rather than relying on friends’ accounts from when they were pregnant). I’m sure I’ll complain about a number of the off-limit foods here in due course, but one thing that is a subject of much confusion is artificial sweeteners.

Scientifically speaking, the only really questionable artificial sweetener right now (that is legal for food use in the U.S. to begin with, I mean) is saccharin, good ol’ “Sweet ‘n Low.” Some of the others it is advised to use only in moderation, but there doesn’t seem to be any proven negative effects. Of course some people are convinced that all artificial sweeteners are poised to give us cancer or tentacles at any moment, and any pregnant woman who dares feed herself such chemicals is already a horrible mother. I have seen nastiness on message boards regarding artificial sweeteners that I thought was specially reserved for those who dared to ingest alcohol, or chose to continue smoking. Woo.

While I don’t really hold to the idea that my child-to-be will instantly grow scales and an extra head if I sip a Diet Coke, I have done my best to cut out most of the foods I would eat that would contain artificial sweeteners. However low-fat yogurt I had nearly given up on.

See, I like yogurt, in waves. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes I can ignore it for weeks and not feel deprived — but when I want it, hoo boy, I want it. So then I buy a handful of containers, eat it for a week, and then eventually get to throw out the rest. I’ve tried to avoid buying too much at a time to stall this recurrent theme.

I don’t usually want full fat yogurt though. There’s not enough of a caloric - satiety pay off there. I like low-fat yogurt. And being pregnant, it’s a great idea to eat yogurt — for all sorts of reasons, but calcium is a biggie. The problem is that all the low-fat yogurts I can find are generally artificially sweetened. So I decided I’d have the occasional “Splenda” sweetened yogurt and forget it.

I was ridiculously excited when about a month ago I found Stonyfield Farms yogurt at the Giant Eagle and decided to try it. I got a no-fat version first, I believe, but that was fine, it was yummy (I love plain vanilla yogurt, and the blackberry wasn’t bad either), and no artificial anything. I looked them up online, and as a result bought some of the “Yo-Mommy” yogurt (something I would never have bought just seeing it in the store — there’s something off-putting to me about the name).

And yes, for those of you who I’ve already hinted to about this, this is the website I nearly got choked up about. Consider it a testament to pregnancy hormones. (They care about people, about what we eat. They really care! *sniffle* I must buy their product.)

So if you, like me, live somewhere where it’s hard to find low-fat or no-fat yogurt without Splenda in it, you can try to find the Stonyfield Farms stuff. It may be in the store’s organic section.

And I’ll still reserve the right to have the very occasional (saccharin-free) diet soda. Lizard scales be damned; viva la moderation.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I have nothing insightful or witty to say about this, but I wanted to note it. I’ve always enjoyed him, and I’ll miss seeing what role he’d surprisingly play next.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

From what I’ve read, a lot of women having their first child don’t show for a long while — the body doesn’t stretch outward that easily (5-6 mos is often mentioned). Women having second children usually show much earlier, since the body has already done it once and stretched.

I’ve noticed changes for while now (most noticeably the loss of a waistline, and that my organs seem to be shoved into my chest), but what you notice in yourself other people don’t necessarily see. I’m pretty sure that now I’m showing a little — I noticed yesterday that my belly, just barely, sticks out further than my breasts do. (And the breasts, they ain’t tiny. Finally, physical proof it’s not just in my head!) I think I sounded a little forlorn as I observed this to Sean, and he laughed a bit, agreed, and observed that it must be disconcerting. And last night at the bar a few people commented that I was showing a bit (even those I didn’t point it out to myself!) So I suppose I feel validated, but there’s also a feeling I can’t quite identify (it’s not negative, but I also wouldn’t call it positive). I think it’s just that there’s something odd about having your body change so dramatically so quickly. It’ll be interesting as it becomes more obvious that I’m pregnant and not just gaining weight (though I think that’s probably obvious already to some, as all the weight is in the front).  I tend to favor loose t-shirts, so I can still hide it most of the time.

I’m only about 15 weeks (as docs count it), so it seems a bit early to be showing, but everyone’s different. I think I’ve gained about 8 lbs.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

My pants only sort of fit anymore. For the past fews weeks I have been slinging the waist down (like a man with a beer belly) letting my hip bones hold them up, but recently my pants have been threatening to actually fall off if I do that.

I went to Bellies ‘n’ Buttons, a local maternity boutique, and tried on a few pairs of maternity pants, but that was no good. (I actually went to Target first, but they didn’t have things in my size.) I’m not yet big enough for them and though they are comfortable they have a little extra cloth in the front that pooches a little silly. I decided I’d go somewhere and just try bigger pants, or live in sweat pants for the next couple months.

When I told the saleslady I’d be back in a month or so, she laughed. I explained my problem, and she told me that I didn’t need new pants yet (actually, first she tsk’d me for not letting her help me sooner, but hey, I like to shop on my own…), she said I needed a BellaBand. It’s a mostly nylon band that you actually wear over your old pants, so you can have them unbuttoned and still stay up. The sales lady told me that it let many of her customers wear their pre-pregnancy pants up until 7 months or so (and with the price of maternity clothes, that idea is just awesome).

So I bought one in black, and I have to say that so far it’s great. I was a little skeptical, but I figured it was better than my pants falling down. I wore it tonight with jeans and a t-shirt, and not once did I feel the need to hike up my jeans. Bella indeed.

As for the “Brutto” (or should it have been something like “Male”?) in my title, I had a little fender bender tonight. I was backing out of a friend’s gravel parking area, and hit a car that was parked a little awkwardly on the side of the parking area. (Totally my fault, the car was after all parked–and it’s not illegal to park there or anything.) I hunted down the owner and gave him my insurance info, and he and his friends were nice. There were four fairly young guys hanging out there, and one of them thanked me for hunting the guy down and letting him know, pointing out that most people would have just driven off. (It was easier to be honest.)

I’m not too worried, I mean this is why I have insurance, but I’m hoping it won’t be too much of a hassle. I called it in immediately, of course. I’m sure I was only going 2 miles an hour or so, but my vehicle is a heavy one. I dinged the other car right behind the light on the right front quarter panel (but didn’t move the light or anything, and the car is still very drivable). It did dent the metal, though it was hard to tell how badly in the dark.

My Jeep is of course fine. It was built to hit things like rocks and trees, a poor Honda is no challenge. In that, I suppose, I am fortunate.

I was craving avocado, so I went down to P-Street and had some blue chips and guac. (The guac is awesome there, makes me happy.) Sometimes it’s amazing how much you can eat when you are pregnant. After that I came home to relax a bit. Now I just need to wait for Sean to be done with work so I can go pick him up.

Tomorrow I get to sit through seven hours of continuing legal education. I predict that my insurance company will call me at least twice when I can’t answer. Any other predictions?

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

I’m pregnant.

Anyone I’ve had to avoid drinking with for the last few months already knows this, but I’ve been strangely reluctant to make it public (superstition, paranoia, perhaps virulent random shyness, I’m not sure). Since I’m past the first trimester no matter what method you use to calculate it, I figure it’s time to at least announce it here. Being pregnant is neat, and odd. I’ve mostly been tired, and sleep a lot (quite a lot more than I used to–sometimes twice as much) though I think that may be tapering a bit (it’s hard to tell, I’m still tired but have had about a week now where I’m just not sleeping as much, since I need to wake up to go to the bathroom and to entertain cats). No morning sickness, a few minor aches and pains of course (I may detail some of those more later, especially if they recur) but nothing that seems to be unusual.

I’m due in the first half of December. No exciting doctor’s trips or anything yet (we have one a few weeks from now). We do intend to find out the sex but don’t know it yet.

I haven’t blogged in a while so I don’t expect a lot of comments, but at least I’ve made my official announcement post, and can occasionally talk about my odd food combinations and aches and they’ll make sense.

Originally published at Escapism. Please leave any comments there.

125 Pleasant Street (otherwise known at 123 Pleasant Street’s upper bar) is opening its kitchen! Get burgers, vegetarian sandwiches (vegan, even, I believe), ultimate BLTs and more! The restaurant currently plans to open at 5 and stay open until midnight Tuesday through Saturday! (We got to taste test some tonight: The spinach artichoke dip was yummy, and the guac was awesome.)

First day is Wednesday, June 18th! Check it out! (Help support LJ, Lisa, and Emmy in their new endeavor!)