Monday, June 30, 2008

I"m tired

And sick of the heat. It's been in the 90's here in WA, and our house doesn't have AC (rarely does it get above 75 here so really don't need it).

I want to spend all day at work and come home to a home cooked meal. I don't want to clean or cook or do ANYTHING anymore. Blah. I want to get work projects done and go shopping for fun stuff and go excersise.

Can't wait until my Mom and Mom in law get here.

Random

I'm sitting in the library and watching a cute little girl, probably about 7 years old, big glasses on her face and holding her little brother's hand ( he must be 4 or 5) walking around the shelves. She's leading, he's just following her wherever she wants to go.

SO CUTE. Reminds me of myself and my little brother way back when.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Baby Hiccups

He's been on a hiccuping spree. At least once a day he dives into hiccuping for 2 minutes or so. These little jolts are about 4 seconds apart and felt in the extreme lower abdomen, near the crease between the thighs and stomach. I have to calm him down by massaging that area otherwise he keeps going! Poor kid, my hiccups hurt, I hope his don't!

The doctor said it's pretty normal and nothing to be worried about. I looked up causes of hiccups and there's no real explaination. Maybe my baby is laughing too hard inside? I know that gives me hiccups!

My little alien baby

Lately he moves around a ton. I can even see his little legs or heels pushing into my upper abdomen. This morning I almost caught hold of him, but he moved away. FREAKY!

I love when he's super active during the day because I can tell where he is located...certain parts of my belly will be super hard and certain parts super soft...the hard parts are where he is currently choosing to rest...and sure enough if I poke or prod there he'll slowly inch away and that area will turn soft.

His favorite time of day to move is early morning...which is funny because I've heard that babies like to move after they get a jolt of sugar...that early in the morning I usually have an empty stomach. This guy likes to move when I'm sleepy and awake to the sound of G getting ready in the mornings. The next round of acrobatics occur after breakfast or lunch. Then it becomes less and less until evening time, and when I fall asleep he's usually asleep too.

These are the only part of pregnancy that I feel is really special. The rest of being pregnant just sucks, sorry to say. These hard movements don't really occur until the late 2nd and 3rd trimester, and they decrease as the baby has less room to fool around. Oh and it's cool to catch your baby on the ultrasound sucking his thumb or moving.

For those ladies trying desperately to get preggo, I hope they distinguish between being pregnant and being a MOTHER. You can adopt and be a mother. But who WANTS to be that desperately pregnant? Sorry I am totally biased because I've had gross pregnancy symptoms. God needs to give me some serious amnesia for me to actually TRY and become pregnant again soon after this one. And when I say desperate, I mean like taking years and years of procedures and medications to become pregnant.

Monday, June 23, 2008

3rd Trimester

Depending on how you count it, I'm at 31 or 32 weeks. Contrary to what I've been told, so far the third trimester is 10x better than the 2nd trimester.

2nd Trimester I was miserable with congestion. MISERABLE. I fell asleep fearing for my life, that I would choke to death on mucous. That's why I would go to bed late and wake up early, because frankly sleeping was no longer any fun or relaxing. Traveling was a b*tch, the airplane rides were uncomfortable due to the sinus pressure. My hormones were raging, and I felt like my to - do list would never end. My hip pains were unbelievably untolerable, but I couldn't just sit around all day.

Fingers are crossed for this trimester. So far so good...my hip pain is still bad, but the bones have stretched to their maximum now and I'm not limping as much as I used to. I can tolerate single positions for a longer period of time now.

The best part - my congestion is better. I fall asleep with at least one nostril open so I'm not paranoid of choking. I usually awake to the beautiful and never again taken for granted feeling of BOTH nostrils wide open. Now I get more than just the tossing and turning of 4 hours of sleep. During the day the congestion returns but I've been able to handle that.

My body seems to be returning to semi-normal state...well if you don't count the extra weight and the ginormous bump. Getting out of bed in the morning is quite ridiculous. This morning I misjudged how much room I had on the edge of the bed and practically fell out. The center of gravity is slightly off, so it's hard to catch yourself before you land safely.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Recent Reads

Water for Elephants - Sara GruenWifey - Judy Blume

The Secrets of a Fire King - Kim Edwards


Prep - Curtis Sittenfeld



Sarah - Marek Halter





Peony in Love - Lisa See




Oystercatchers - Susan Fletcher







The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards






The Man of my Dreams - Curtis Sittenfeld


Queen of Dreams - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
I promised myself I would maintain a list of books I've read and liked, that way I can always come back someday and read them again or look up other books written by the same authors...but of course I've been lazy with this and now can barely remember the names of books over the past few months. But here are a few.

Thanks George!


For making this silly pic of me at Big Bazaar in Delhi back in November!



Saturday, June 21, 2008

How we found out

So by request (Hi Namita!) I've decided to post the story on how I discovered I was preggo. It's actually quite embarressing, but I think it makes sense to write this down since my mind has a way of just forgetting important stuff like this...time has a way of making me forget all the details!

Anyway G and I got hitched last November in 2007 in Chandigarh, India. It was beautiful and surreal, and I couldn't have asked for more happier moments in my life.

Our wedding night was perfect, we had the prettiest bed decorated by the most amazing decorator. We reached the hotel at a decent time (2am) which is AMAZING by indian standards (most couples wearily arrive at 5am the next day due to certain traditions etc). We were harassed a bit by G's cousins and aunts (they wouldn't leave the room until they were paid...HA HA) but it was all in good humor. Anyway so of course G and I got a little last minute gift tucked under our blankets (thanks to G's sister's husband and cousin brother who went shopping at the pharmacy earlier that day). We didn't discover the gifts until the next day though because they were REALLY tucked under those blankets.

We left for our honeymoon to the Maldives 2 days later, and had an amazing time in such a gorgeous tropical and PERFECT place (every beach I see now can't be compared!). Of course as all newlywed couples we utilized the little gift we got on our wedding night. :-)

A month passes, and I'm in Dharamsala visiting G's sister and husband. G's mom is with us as well. Both my sister in law and her husband are physicians, so I tend to become a little hypochondriac around them and ask them tons of questions about all sorts of random symptoms I may have had in life. After one particular discussion, my sister in law suspected I may have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). I've had a history of missed periods, size 12 jeans, and some hair issues (on face and body). So we walked down to her hospital one day and I got checked by her friend who specializes in glandular issues. He diagnosed me with PCOS straight away, saying that he was 99% certain I had the problem based on my history and symptoms and that I probably would have infertility problems once I decided to have children. But, before he started me on a few medications he wanted to get an ultrasound done just to check out the scene in my ovaries.

We walked down to the ultrasound labs, which in this particular Indian government hosptial were pretty chaotic. There was no line, but tons of folks waiting for an ultrasound. I felt guilty getting in right away since I was a relative of a doctor...most of the patients had been waiting all morning. Oh and it was FREEZING, the hospital had no heat and it was end of December. We had to bring our own supplies too, which was sort of weird since here in the USA I'm used to clinics having simple things like gauze and towels. The room was full of residents, physicians, and techinicians...and even a stray patient or two...but no matter I was told to take off my pants and lie down. The technician started the ultrasound on my stomach and immediately says "Are you sure you're not pregnant?" I laughed it off, totally not even taking it seriously. I mean we used protection, we were traveling a lot so not much alone time, and I knew my system down there was sort of "off" so I figured she was just mistaken. She said the uterus was abnormally large which is a good indication of pregnancy. I figured I must just have a really odd uterus! My sister in law, however, was ELATED and I don't think I've ever seen her happier. She started talking about babies and totally annoyed me because I was convinced I couldn't be pregnant.

We got the ultrasound pictures and my sister in law convinced me to take a pregnancy test. At this point I had to pee like there was no tomorrow and thought I would burst (I was told to have a full bladder at the ultrasound). So she rushed and bought a test and we ran upstairs in the hospital to a bathroom. Okay this bathroom was RIDICULOUS...I mean you'd think with the bathrooms in India improving so much over the past 10 years the physicians bathroom in a new hospital would be ENGLISH...but no, it had an odd English toilet that you had to squat on...hard to explain! Anyway so I took the test and it came out negative. My sister in law claims she saw a faint positive but I couldn't make out any lines.

We took the ultrasound pictures to an obgyn in the hospital to double check the findings. I am now amazed at what he said becausse he was obviously so wrong...he took one look at the photos and said NO there is no way this girl is pregnant, the teensy spot you see is actually a FIBROID and should be removed with an operation!

My sister in law, intelligent and brilliant physician that she is, didn't believe the obgyn and was convinced I was pregnant despite the pregnancy test. She took me back to her flat and I casually mentioned the whole funny scene to G, who was surprised but I assured him there was no way we could be pregnant. We went for a walk around the hospital grounds and went about our business as usual.

Two days later my sister in law got the itch to have me re-take the pregnancy test. I couldn't figure out why she wanted me to redo it, but I thought it's not like it's going to harm anything so I took the pee test early in the morning when the urine is most concentrated (apparently that really matters!) To my utter SHOCK the test came out positive. I showed the test to my sister in law's husband, who was brushing his teeth at the time and he took one look at it and shook my hands with a hearty "congratulations!" That set me over the edge...I crawled back into bed and started crying. Both my sister in law and her husband left the room and G tried to console me for the next hour while I tried to cover my face with the blanket. Both he and I were in shock.

G's mom got a whiff of what was going on, and came into the room very concerned thinking that I must have some strange disease for us to be behaving like that. Of course when we told her that no, I'm totally fine, just pregnant... she was as happy as can be!

The next few days were weird...G and I kept discussing how our lives would change, how all our plans for the next year for travel and my plans for career would be totally altered....I cried a few times more, I did a few yoga positions trying to make myself NOT pregnant...which was silly but I figured maybe I could will myself into a miscarriage. My sister in law kept scolding me everytime she saw me in a yoga asaan (asaan = position). I was told not to eat papaya, so of course I snuck a few pieces thinking it may end the pregnancy! (which I also learned later was just dumb...it was an old wives tale, only the really unripe papaya can actually cause harm, and that too with a low probability). We were traveling around to a bunch of touristy places those days, so in the car whenever my sister in law would start talking about the baby I would become moody and say how unhappy I was with the whole situation. G was silent and tried not to discuss the baby too much. We were just in so much shock for that whole week, we couldn't believe it was happening to us at that moment.

At one particular temple I finally decided to "talk" to God and figure this out. I'm not super religious but I was super stressed out...those are the times when everyone remembers God hehe. I basically said okay so if this is what you planned for me at this point in my life, despite knowing all the things I want to do and all the things G wants to accomplish...I will accept and deal with it and be happy that I'm getting a baby when so many others in this world can't have children. This baby situation is a prime example of one of my favorite quotes...We plan and God laughs.

Weeks later after I returned to the US I got double checked with an obgyn here. I also finally told my Mom. Her response was hilarious. The first thing she said was "So you guys had intercourse?" LOL...the next thing she said was "You should never use that brand condoms...why didn't you bring them from the the USA?" Umm...thanks Mom for after the fact advice! Hehe.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Sesame Street Memories

31 Week Ultrasound

So today was our last ultrasound for the baby. The radiologist doesn't really need to do any more measurements since he's found whatever he's supposed to find already. I also decided not to go ahead with purchasing a DVD of the ultrasound because although it's cool to see our baby, it's not like he's doing anything to make the DVD exciting (like dancing a jig). The best ultrasound was the 2nd one back a few months when we caught the little booger sucking on his thumb. Other than that it's just been cute to see baby's face and get his stats on weight and his clubbed feet.

From now on I have regular visits with my OBGYN, counting down to the due date. The radiologist today said our baby is in the 35% percentile, down from 45% at the last visit. That's disheartening a bit because I've been trying to get this baby to GROW. Apparently I've only managed to make myself grow (lotsa lumps and bumps now!) and he's now barely 4 lbs. Blah. I guess I just need to be hardcore on the protien and milk and forgoe the carbs (oh but carbs are soooo tasty!) Most of baby's growth is due to uterine blood flow and I can't really do anything for that. I'm also going to look into iron supplements. I guess I have to just keep on eating and hoping he catches up!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Pregnancy Tip


My appetite lately


Long week over

So since June 1st I've been working on setting up our new house almost daily. UGH. We don't even have that much stuff, but somehow being preggo slows the whole process down.



This past week we had our baby blessing party and two of my undergraduate college friends visited me here in Washington. It was great to see them, and to have them see me preggo. :-) On Wednesday, Ida, my friend since freshman year college who lived down the hall from me in the dorm, arrived in the evening. The drive home from the airport was long due to traffic but we got a chance to catch up in the car. We came home and we planned a bit for the baby blessing party (games etc.). Then we watched Monsoon Wedding since she hadn't seen it.

Thursday morning Ida and I went shopping at Baby's R Us and had fun picking out stuff to use in the party (and of course use later when baby arrives). This was the first time I actually ventured into that store....7 months into the pregnancy. :-) Then we stopped for coffee and talked our ears off. We picked up Shilpa from the airport after that (I met her sophomore year of college in the biology labs) and went to a Thai place for lunch. We went to Pikes Place in Seattle and walked around for a long time. We went back home and Shilpa and Ida watched our reception DVD from our wedding. After dinner we watched another movie and passed out.

Friday we woke up a bit late and leisurely got ready. We went to Snoqualamie Falls park which was really close to our house (relatively speaking). Ida was a bit afraid of heights. We had lunch at a really gross Chinese place and then went to see the Sex and the City movie. I thought that Big was going to die in the movie so I was surprised with the ending. After that we went shopping at Linens and Things and then returned to Baby s R Us where both Ida and Shilpa pitched in and got our baby a cute swing that can be turned into a rocker once he is a toddler. We stuck around Bellevue for a while and picked up G, then went to a south indian place for dinner while we waited for my brother to arrive at the bus transit center (the traffic was too crazy to risk going to the airport to pick him up). My brother had checked in his little carry - on, claiming that my Mom had packed bricks in it....which was nuts because that just delayed him another 30 minutes. Later when I checked my Mom had just packed a few indian sweets (ladoos) and the carryon was not heavy at all. Sigh...little brothers.

We got home and my bro was pretty hyper on God knows what, so I had to call Mom up and have her talk to him to settle him down a bit (yes at age 28 and 25 we still have brawls that involve tattling to our parents to pacify things). We watched Monsoon Wedding again because both my bro and Shilpa hadn't seen it. Ida went to bed early.



The next morning I got up earlier than everyone and started putting things together for the baby blessing. It was actually pretty easy, the main thing was making sure everyone got breakfast and woke up in time to take showers. G went shopping for a few last minute items and the rest of us finished decorating the living room. I had fun putting on my sari that was tailored during my wedding days. The blouse BARELY fit over my chest, but I willed it into fitting because I really had no other choice to wear for the party (besides western clothes). The sari was gorgeous and one of my favorites.




The party was a good time, we had lots of games and food. I recieved lots of new and used items for the baby. Shilpa had to leave during the party since she had to get back to California to start packing for her big move to Detroit. My brother took an hour smoke break during the party and then took a 3 hour nap...so he basically only participated for 1 hour of the party. Sigh...what can a big sister do? The rest of the day we chilled at home and then drove Ida for her red-eye flight back to Minnesota.







Sunday we took my brother to Levenworth, a little touristy German town in Washington. We walked around and took silly pictures. Monday G had to go to work so I took my brother shopping for new shoes to wear to work. After hitting 5 stores in Bellevue Square he finally decided on a pair. Then I drove him through Seattle to show him the Space needle etc. He wasn't too interested in actually stopping and seeing anything so we just drove through and went back home. We were going to see a movie but none of the timings were right. Tuesday morning he left for Minnesota. He of course didn't tell Mom and Dad when he was returning so I got a panicked phone call from Dad wondering what time his flight was landing. My parents do not use cell phones and do not frequent the internet, so my bro was calling the landline at home when he arrived while both of my parents were at work. Eventually confusion resulted because Mom left work early to pick him up but he ended up taking a taxi home. Such is the organization and planning of my immature brother.

Monday, June 16, 2008

None of your business

If a couple is having trouble conceving, or the couple is choosing not to concieve at the moment, or the couple is having a baby with a deformity (as in our case with the baby's clubbed feet), or the couple is having a whole soccer team of kids...it's up to the family and friends to support them. Of course that's not always the case.

My sister in law and her husband have been trying to have kids for a long time. The most frustrating part is that the physicans and tests tell them that they are totally normal, and that it's just a mystery as to why fertilization is not occuring. If they were given a reason maybe they could move on and stop trying and accept their fate. But no, there is no reason so they are hangiing onto the hope that it will happen. My heart goes out to them because they truly want a chlld of their own and have been trying all sorts of procedures and drugs to aid the process. The procedures and drugs are not exactly great for a woman's body. My sister in law has been so doped up on hormones that she's not even sure if she'll have her period again. The side effects are terrible, and the procedures themselves are invasive and uncomfortable. Each month they drive several hours away to have the procedures done because the hospitals where they live suck for obgyn issues.

And here I am, never asked God for a baby and got knocked up on my honeymoon. I feel so guilty discussing things like baby kicks and shopping for baby clothes with her. I never dreamed of setting up baby's room, what I will teach the baby, what I will do with the baby....that started when I learned I was preggo. I still cringe when I see the price of a crib or breast pump. I'd rather purchase a purse or plane ticket than spend oodles on my baby (that's the type of mom I am....). But she's been dreaming of these things for ages. She has so many names picked out, what the baby will call her, what types of dresses she will put on the baby.

On top of everything she and her husband get so many unwanted comments about their age and lack of children. I mean, here is a couple who is busting their butt trying everything under the sun to concieve, and they get mean and hurtful comments from some of their closest family members. By USA standards, they aren't even that old. By the old generation indian standards they are way behind.

It just pisses me off.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Dreams

I've had weird dreams during pregnancy, such as the one that told me before the 4th month that I was having a boy (in the dream I was making my toddler son pee in the toilet). I basically knew in my heart after that dream that the doctor would tell me it's a boy.

Last night I had a dream that I was going into labor and the doctor made me walk around the hospital room to try to get my water to break. Then the dream shifted to me playing with this tiny little infant, placing it on my chest, kissing and cuddling with it. I tried to breastfeed him but he wouldn't suck, so I ended up feeding him formula through a bottle. Finally I used a breast pump and managed to extract tons of milk, so I put that in a bottle and tried to feed him again but he wasn't hungry. In the dream I measured how much he had drunk by looking at the ounce marks on the bottle. Then I burped him but was afraid he'd spit up all over me.
Just another lovely lil discomfort of pregnancy...

He's started kicking my coochacha HARD. It feels sometimes like he's doing a little jig on my cervix. I've read that it could mean that his head is grinding against the cervix, and not to worry since apparently the cervix is much stronger than it seems. As long as there is no body part making its way into the vagina, I guess all is well.

When it happens it's shocking and stops me in my tracks. I feel it more when I get risky and start lifting heavy items (relatively heavy items) such as grocery bags. I could mention it to the doctor, but I have a strong feeling that the doctor would either brush it off as another normal part of pregnancy or he would do something worse...actually CHECK my cervix. That, my friends, would just suck. I hated having the ultrasounds earlier in the pregnancy when they put the balled stick up my coochacha and move it around...so I know if the doctor stick his fingers in to check my cervix I'm going to scream.

So I'm just going to not mention it and keep on getting shocked. :-)

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Numnah

HILARIOUS... Sameer Mishra at the 2008 Scripps Howard Spelling Bee (eventually won the contest). I love his facial expressions!




Saturday, June 7, 2008

Yay something works

So Nasacort has been great as a medication. I've been able to sleep through the night (well, mostly sleep through, I still can't control my bladder!). I don't wake up with the horrendous congestion that I've had for months now. Yes there is still congestion, and it's no where near normal breathing, but at least it comes and goes in phases now through the day, and I can almost predict the levels of congestion. I still can't do the breathing excersises in my yoga class (requires breathing through the nose). But at least there is some relief!

The hips are slowly deteriorating....by 8pm daily I am pretty much done with any sort of activity (besides lounging around). Baby's the size of a cabbage now, so I guess it's due to his size and weight and my pelvic bone expanding to accomodate him. I reaching the point where none of my pre-pregnancy shirts work now, so yesterday I purchased some tops from Mimi Maternity. I figure a few of them I'll be able to wear post-partum. I'm more hesitant to purchase tons of maternity pants because I'm pretty sure they'll be too big to wear afterwards.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

How I love lists

Items purchased for new home (with links for viewing pleasure)




Items still coming:



  • Slipcovers for old couch set
  • Coffee table for family room
  • lamps for master bedroom
  • Crib, changing table, glider, and pack and play
  • Either a tv stand or something to hook the tv to the wall
  • Reciever/speakers for TV

Areas still needing work:

  • Guestbedroom needs to be set up for guests, right now we are sleeping in it while we wait for mattresses to be delivered.
  • Office/bedroom still has tons of boxes that need to be emptied/arranged.
  • Baby's room ('nuff said)
  • Family room needs to get the TV situation sorted out (where to put TV etc)
  • Living room needs to have old coffee tables polished and then slipcovers added, and all clutter items transported upstairs.
  • Kitchen is done, except need to organize pantry so I can actually move my whale sized body in and out of it.
  • Garage has tons of boxes and garbage from recent purchases. Need to figure out what to do with those.

Things to do before baby arrives:


  • Purchase crib, changing table, and glider. Set up changing station and nursing station.
  • Tour the hospital and ask doc lots of questions.
  • Finish all of my work projects.
  • Finish setting up the new home.
  • Make sure nails are done, toes painted, hair is freshly trimmed (err & I mean hair everywhere)
  • Battery in video camera ready to go? Camera ready?
  • Make hospital bag and list of important phone numbers. Make sure no rotting foods in fridge. Stock up on food in fridge.

Mom's visit

So unfortunetly Mom will only be able to make it out here for 2 weeks due to her work place being uncooperative with the days off. That's cutting it close, ideally we wanted a week before due date and then 2 weeks after to assure that she's around when the baby arrives. Now she's coming about 2 days before the due date, so hopefully baby won't be early.

She's had a couple work related injuries that are getting to her...she can't stand up for as long as time anymore. I think her visit here will be relaxing, because there's not as much work to do as there is back in my parents home.

Oh baby!

Our little Mexican jumping bean is definetly that....he kicks and rolls all day lately! I actually really love it, because it's a constant reassurance that all is well. When he doesn't kick I get that nagging feeling that something's not right...

I feel his little hands on my lower belly and his legs on my upper belly.

Oh and the other day I looked in the mirror and saw little blue veins starting to appear on the sides of my ever growing lump...so weird! Like I said before, pregnancy makes you experience the strangest sensations and changes in the body. The human body is amazing!

Trying to control cravings for sweets and junk food...I look at fruit and want to GAG. I want to drink chocolate milk 24/7, dip cookies into the chocolate milk, basically eat any type of pastry item, eat pizza and chicken nuggets... so yeah need to do something about this, my baby will come out FAT (besides making me fat!).