because I CAN!!!!

I think that every pregnant woman gets some sort of flack from people. I have heard, "are you actually eating?" "Your really going to go for a run?" The latest that I have received is "You're wearing heels? Are you crazy?! Is that ok for the baby?" All I can say is, "Seriously, you are asking that question?"

Why does everyone believe that if you are doing something, looking a certain way or acting in a non-pregnant norm sort of way, you are OBVIOUSLY hurting the baby, or not being a good "host?" If I were one to be sensitive towards these type of comments, I would definitely be suffering from some sort of emotional trauma by now.

In the past, women covered their bellies, didn't do any unnecessary exercise, wear any inappropriate footwear and ate whatever they wanted. I am here to say, Yes I will run as long as I can, I will NOT eat whatever my heart desires and by God, YES, I will wear heels! These would be preferred of course . . . ;)

24 weeks . . . times 2

My husband wanted me to show you a little comparison between my 24 week tummy and his tummy at my 6th month . . .

My 24 week stats:

Total Weight Gained: 12 pounds . . . moving up in the world!!!

Noticeable changes . . . some I love, some I do not . . .
Likes:

• I actually have boobs!! (Sorry dad)
• I feel her move all the time now
• I actually can feel her flip . . . feels like your stomach does when you go down a big hill. You know, like it drops to your feet and shoots back up again.

Dislikes:

• When people ask me if I actually eat. I want to tell them, "Yeah I do, I just don't follow the same rule you must've when you were pregnant. The "You can eat anything you feel like" rule, is not too smart when your stuffing your face full of fast food ,ice cream and pizza. Then they wonder why they gained an absurd amount of weight . . . really????? I don't actually say this, I just smile sweetly and say, "Yes, I eat, promise."
• Lack of clothing that seems to fit me . . . THANK YOU MARCELLA FOR LONG NORMAL SHIRTS!!!! These all fit nicely and do not look like a moo-moo on me.

Bathroom Hang-Ups

Being at the bottom of a massive list of those that went before me, I thought that I knew just about all the pros and cons to pregnancy. I have heard the stories of happiness and the stories that make the most confident and capable person, tremble in their boots. I have seen DVD's that would make the most seasoned midwife blush and turn away from. I have cried with friends when they experienced loss and rejoiced with friends when miraculous blessings were handed to them by the gracious hand of God. However . . . there was one thing that I was not prepared for that hit me like a ton of bricks this morning . . .

Being a teacher, you have small windows of blessed opportunities to "rush" to the bathroom, quickly do your business, hopefully remember to wash your hands and practically sprint back to the classroom before chaos ensues. There is no time for lines, blunders, obstacles or hang-ups. To allow any of those to occur, would be utterly detrimental. So, this morning as I took care of "business" before the school day began, a blaring red flag waved victoriously in front of my eyes. What used to take me 2 and 1/2 minutes flat, will take me now, somewhere close to a very unacceptable 10 minutes to accomplish.

I count myself lucky to be 6 months pregnant and still able to fit in all of my pre-pregnancy pants. With the help of the trusty rubber band and loyal Bella Band, I can pretty much wear whatever I want. However, buttoning a button and pulling up a pair of pants, is a LOT quicker than fastening a rubber band into place through a series of loops and smoothing a Bella Band into place. Let me run you through both processes so that you may fully understand.
First, non-pregnancy pants for the non-pregnant individual, requires a total of 6 steps. #1 - pull up pants, #2 - button and zip pants, #3 - smooth shirt, #4 - walk out of stall, #5 - wash hands, #6 - leave bathroom and go back to class.Now, non-pregnancy pants with the Bella Band takes far more steps than a simple six. #1 - pull up pants, #2 - adjust pants, #3 - zip pants up as far as you can, #4 - fold left over zipper and button down so that the Bella Band can be put into place #5 - adjust pants, #6 - pull Bella Band into place, #7 - adjust pants, #8 - adjust the folded flap, #9 - fold top portion of Bella Band down, #10 - adjust pants, #11 - pull undershirt down so that it covers said Bella Band, #12 - adjust shirt, #13 - adjust pants, #14 - pull top shirt down, #15 - walk out of stall, #16 - wash hands, #17 - adjust pants, #18 - pray that the Bella Band works and does not leave you in a compromising position with a classroom full of 6th grade students, #19 - adjust pants, #20 - go back to class

I am tired thinking about it all . . . .

The 2:45 a.m. Terrorist

. . . I wake to the sound of what I believe to be someone tearing a whole in our wall. I look at the clock and see that it is 2:45 in the morning. I also realize at that point that my husband is on the ground next to the bed, loading his gun. I ask him what is wrong and he says, "Don't worry, it is probably nothing, but I am going out prepared." Paulie, wakes enough to realize that she has to go out, I grab her and say, "Sorry dear, you will have to wait." What I didn't say was, "Sorry dear, you will have to wait, daddy has to go shoot whoever it is who is trying to break into our house." I decided that regardless of Paulie's lack of intellect, her keen sense of poodle intuition is astute and she would of probably picked up the slight fear in my voice. So to not alarm her, I grabbed her and did what any good mother of a furry animal would do, I shoved her under the covers. Because, of course, as long as you are under the covers, no harm will come to you.

My husband leaves the bedroom with his .40 caliber and maglight in hand, and I wait, listen and try not to imagine the worst. I hear the front door open, I am imagining that Michel is going to use the element of surprise and round the side of the house to catch the perpetrator in the act. It was obvious that the terrorist was in the back. I see the maglight shine into the backyard and scoot further down in the covers and squeeze Paulie just a bit tighter. I lay in wait of any sound that might give clue to what is going on outside. I hear nothing . . . I decide that all must be well outside and begin to breathe again . . . but not too much, just in case. At this point I begin to imagine that at any moment someone was going to bust into our room while Michel is outside. It is at that point that I hear the front door open. I lay in wait, hoping, praying that it is Michel.

Michel quietly comes into the room, I wait for him to let me know what had happened. He does not say a thing. I ask, "So, what was it?" He says, "Well, we have one less raccoon for a neighbor."

Pregnancy woes and a Babies R Us induced trauma . . .

We hit a couple of milestones this passed week. The first is I hit 23 weeks and officially am "showing." I still have the "sure, your pregnant" remarks on occasion, but I feel as if my belly is growing by the hour. I have officially gained three more pounds over the past two weeks, making my total weight gained, 8 lbs. I am having clothing issues . . . I have about three different outfits I can wear when I get home from work and the first two involves some form of "comfy pant." Attractive as it may be, that is what I have and that is what I get for now. I was given a ton of maternity clothes from a good friend. However, I was able to take four items from that basket and put in my closet for what I am guessing will be the end of my pregnancy. I told my sis that all maternity clothes are just too big and she said, "well at least your skinny." For the first time in my life, I thought, "well ya, but it would be so much easier if I could just gain a bit more weight so that I could actually fit the FREE clothes that were made available to me." Needless to say, many of you will probably not feel any remorse for me at all, but I am just plain frustrated with the entire situation.


On a positive note, I was able to wear a friends dress that if not pregnant, I would never of been able to wear. We went to our school's annual auction and had a great time. We left a bit early and decided to do a quick Costco run before the Auction. Apparently we have gotten really good at shopping in Costco, because what normally would of taken an hour and a half to accomplish. only took 30 minutes. So, I decided to introduce Michel to the wonderful world that we all know as Babies R Us.


At the very onset of the experience, Michel tensed up. Imagine a ten year old walking through a store with breakables everywhere. Children in this position, tend to walk very upright, tense and worried that their arm or leg might at any moment spontaneously jet out and knock over some ridiculously expensive item, regardless of how tightly they are currently holding their limbs to their bodies.
After a couple of laps around the store and a couple of "really, we actually need that" conversations, Michel was beginning to relax and become more comfortable with the experience. Then it happened . . . we entered the clothing section. Michel walked towards one of those really frilly dresses, looked at me and sad, "Ahh, this could be our daughter's first Easter dress." I watched as the serene expression on his face suddenly melted away and what looked like outright fear became it's replacement. He then looks at me and says, "First a simple Easter dress, then a prom dress, then a wedding dress . . . " Seriously folks, as my husband expressed his emotions, you could here the "dun, dun, duns" in the background. He then grabs my hand, says something about how we are not ready for this, and marches me right out of the store. It took all that was in me not to laugh hysterically. I later heard from other fathers, that this is a common feeling and that it to will pass. I also told Michel that to remedy the problem, it might require him to take a few trips down to Fresno, so that he can make some laps around BRU, you know, so he can get himself acclimated to the situation . . . cause as he said as we were rushing out the door, "It's not like it is going away, there is no turning back now . . . "

Paper Flowers

A few have asked for the flower link I spoke of in my previous blog. Press here and you will enter the world of craft goddesses that we all aspire to be. I know, it was a bit dramatic!

Daddy's first rose . . .

My husband came home with flowers for me on Friday. He took one of those flowers and immediately pinned it up in our daughter's room. He told me that was the first of many flowers to come . . .

It's Time . . .

. . . . to tap into my inner Martha. Over the weekend I had the pleasure of going to my friend Melanie's baby shower. It was held at Micheal and Denise Jones's house. Her center pieces were hand made paper flowers that she had hot glued to real branches and place in a vase with glass rocks to hold them in place. I would love to have a few of these around our daughter's room. Now that I know we are having a little girl, my desire to become more "crafty," has just been pushed into mach speed.

My sister is making pomanders for her wedding. I want to make a paper version to hang over my daughter's crib. This will probably be the hardest, non-sewing, craft project that I will undergo. I have never been known for my craft-making. Sure, I can cut a mean quilt square and I dare any baby to try and pull my hand sewn buttons off of my quilt, but place me in front of a sewing machine and watch me freeze under pressure.

Having a daughter means tons of ruffles! I love ruffle butts! I plan on taking all of my "neutral" baby clothes that have been given to me and "ruffle" them out. Of course this will require a serious tutorship . . . Why did I not pay closer attention to my grandmother?












I plan on overcoming my fear and will learn to sew. My grandmother will be proud of me and I look forward to sharing this experience with all of you. Now, I need a sewing machine . . . any suggestions?

Kaydance aka "Unit 1"

Ok, so my father, for years and years, has said that if he had his way 30 years ago, he would of started a trend in our family. He would of named me "Unit 1." My two sisters would of naturally been named, "Unit 2" and "Unit 3." I always thought this strange, odd and ridiculous. Until now . . . .
This week has given us many firsts. One of them is naming our unborn daughter. I uncharacteristically, became emotionally infatuated with one name in particular. I had unrealistic expectations for my DH to live up to. In my mind, I didn't even think twice about the idea that my future daughter's beautiful name, which means a melodic rhythm, would be coupled with the Sam Cooke classic, "The Chain Gang." Other popular witty references have been Dropkick Murphy's, Cadence of Arms or marching in combat. Being female, I had never even come close to thinking about these references. However, references they are and now, we are back to the drawing board . . . 21 weeks in.
For those of you who know me well, you know that knowing what we are having and not having a name for her, is DRIVING ME MAD! I am sure that there is a life lesson in this, I just have to decide to look into a bit more. I am sure it has something to do with patience, stopping and listening and not having expectations that are not CAREFULLY thought through. It is not like these haven't plagued me my ENTIRE life or anything . . . .

Its a . . .

1 - our child has extremely long femurs, thus giving our child really long legs. 2 - our child likes it's hands and has an outstanding arm block, 3 - our doctor likes to tease us for long periods of time before allowing us to know what we are having at the end of July. 4 - Our doctor also believes that it is a pretty STRONG chance that our daughter will be a red-headed soccer player!

21 weeks . . .

As far as 21 week tummies go, I know mine is small, but regardless . . .

You know your a teacher when . . .

. . . . you plan to incorporate your gender ultrasound as a math lesson on ratios and percentages. Tomorrow we have our gender ultrasound and I have been collecting data (predictions) from my family, staff and kids for the past two days. Seriously, I have yet to really assess my intentions . . . am I just crazy excited about finally getting to know? Or, am I pulling my poor students in on a mixture of my own excitement and required material to cover. Either way, the kids will know how to make pie charts and graphs when the lesson is finished, so it shouldn't really matter, right?

We have our appointment at 2:40 where I have to drink 32 oz. of water in the hour before and not only hold it long enough to get into my appointment, but then hold it throughout the crazy long ultrasound. Not looking forward to that at all. Especially considering that my doctor likes to run late. I think I will actually drink all the water in the waiting room while waiting for my appointment. This MIGHT alleviate the impending pain of holding that much water in my bladder for an absurd amount of time while a doctor pushed on my bladder for an hour.

Expect an annoucement of some sort later this week. I also will try to post some of my kiddos graphs and charts. Really, I am WAY to excited about this lesson!

21 weeks pregnant: