Pregnancy = Uncomfortable

So in case you were wondering why the number of posts have diminished quite a bit this summer, it is because of the pregnancy. I told you about the food aversions, but I haven't talked about the lethargy. For the past 3 months, I have pretty much taken 2 hour naps every Sunday and sometimes during the week. I'm usually OK during the day at work, but once I stop moving and start relaxing, my body says "You're finally slowing down, so you're really going to slow down now." It's kind of like when you are working really hard on a project and you can't afford to be sick, so you power through it and then you go on vacation and you get sick because you finally let your defenses go.

Because I have been sleeping so much and been drained of energy, it's been hard to get stuff done. I'm cleaning less- luckily, Edwin is there to pick up the slack most of the time, but it's hard to motivate if you're the only one cleaning while your spouse is sleeping. For me, that means returning less emails, decreasing blog posts, less phone calls, missing fun events with friends, and a decrease in thoughtful things for others (buying gifts/cards, calling/emailing for a birthday, etc.) This may not seem that significant and I know that people understand why, but it's part of what makes me me. Some of our friends said that they were suspicious of my pregnancy when Edwin appeared at a few events without me saying that "Michelle's not feeling well, so she wasn't able to come."

I'm now at 14 weeks and my pants are starting not to fit. I haven't gained any weight, but I guess that it has just been re-distributed to my middle. I had an OB appointment on Friday and my doctor told me that I definitely was starting to look pregnant. I can't really tell, but both Jeannette and Edwin have started saying that I'm looking bigger. I do feel like I'm in an in-between stage because my normal pants are too tight, but I'm still too small for maternity pants because they feel too loose. I'm also feeling some kind of weird soreness in my left lower back. I'm told that it is my sciatica. I have heard that a lot of women have issues with their hips and backs when pregnant because the hormones are working to "loosen" the joints in preparation for the big day. I guess that's why they say that women with large hips are good child bearing hips. I never thought that my hips were that small. It's usually worst when I wake up or after I have been sitting for a long period of time. I've never had back pain because I'm pretty flexible, so I can't tell if this is because I'm just getting old or if it's pregnancy-related- either way, it's uncomfortable.

So in all the excitement related to the baby, I forgot to mention that we've started remodelling again. This time, we're finishing the basement and the best part- adding a bathroom. We started this past week and unfortunately, we forgot to take the before pictures. So far, they have just started the framing to put up the walls, but we've already had a few mishaps. We're using different contractors this time than we did with the kitchen. We were very happy with the kitchen contractors, but Jon and Jeannette just had this contractor build a similar in-law unit for them, so we thought we would give him a try. On the first day, we met with him and told him that we would be leaving the back door open for him so that we wouldn't need to give him a key. He left to go purchase supplies and was going to return that day to start demolishing the basement. Well, that was the same day that my cousin Esther was leaving our house (she stayed with us this summer while she interned at my company) and she accidentally locked them out. Not a good start.

Then, the contractor was going to move the water heater to make room for the bathroom, but we determined that we weren't going to be able to move it where we wanted to, so now we're going to have a tankless water heater installed. We had been toying with the idea for while, but decided not to because of the cost. As you may recall, we had a slight issue when we first moved in because PG&E came to turn on the hot water and said that there was something wrong with the pilot assembly in the water heater. Though our real estate agent used some plumbers tape and "fixed it" so that we could use the water heater, I never have felt that comfortable with the water heater since. Because of that incident and because of the spatial/aesthetic issues, we decided to go for the tankless water heater. They say that it saves energy and money, so why not?

Our Labor Day weekend has been spent mostly shopping for bathroom materials and cleaning. Next weekend will be the one year anniversary since we first moved in. It's hard to believe that we have been here for a year when we still haven't finished unpacking! Also part of this remodel, we will be adding shelves flanking the fireplace- yay, so we can finally unpack our books. Maybe we'll finish unpacking and put up a picture or 2 within the next year. We also get our new sectional this week. Woo hoo- the joys of home ownership.

We're Having a Baby!

Baby's head is on the right and the spot above is the hand. You can kind of see eyes and a mouth.
3D baby. Looks like a topside view.

It's no longer an April Fools joke. We are expecting. Baby Lager will be joining us in late February. Due date is February 24, 2009. We were waiting until the end of the first trimester to announce, but here's a recap of how the pregnancy has gone so far.

I found out that I was pregant right before I left for NYC in July. I had my yearly exam with the OB/GYN, but was told that they would have to charge me for a pregancy test because insurance does not cover it. What??? That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. I don't know why I should be surprised that insurance doesn't cover it, insurance in general sucks. The doctor assured me that the pee sticks were just as accurate, so I took it the next day before I left for NYC. I read the instructions on the outside of the box and took the test. It came out positive. Jeannette reassured me that there are no false positives, only false negatives with these tests.

It's so hard for me to keep my own secrets. It's much easier for me to keep other people's secrets. Maybe it was because I wanted to tell people, but I felt like I couldn't because I couldn't even tell Edwin yet because he was in Nicaragua. That's not to say that I didn't tell anyone, but Edwin was not the first to know. Some people think that I should have emailed him and told him to call me. However, that's just not something that we have ever done. When he's on his trips, he doesn't call me. He usually just emails, but this is not something I wanted to email. And yes, we have not yet discovered Skype because we don't really call anyone internationally.

I finally did tell Edwin over the phone when he was back from Nicaragua. I was still in NYC and was going home the next day. I would have liked to have been able to tell him in person, but I just couldn't wait. It's not like he didn't know there was that possibility, but I think it still surprised him. It's like the clock had already started ticking on 9 months and we didn't even know we were starting until 6 weeks into it. I know it's not right, but somehow I always felt like it was 9 months from when you know.

The first real sign that made me think that I was pregnant was that my breasts were sore for several days. (Is that TMI?) I'm about 14 weeks now and I haven't really had morning sickness where I vomitted, so I guess I'm lucky. I have felt queasy and tired, but that's about it. I have always wondered what kind of food cravings I might have. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought pregnancy would make me want to eat more fruits and vegetables. (Edwin is now convinced that this is his baby!) I can't seem to get enough fruit and I don't think I have wanted to eat salads more than now. Edwin is very happy about that, but he's not so happy that it also seems that the baby doesn't seem to want red meat. I look at a big steak and think "oh, that looks good" but then I can't eat it. My stomach starts to say "don't bother." There have been a few times when I started eating something I thought I wanted and then had to stop in the middle because I started feeling queasy. Baby has also made my portion sizes smaller. In my head, I think to myself, I could eat 2 slices of beef pot pie, but then I am barely able to eat one. Edwin has been trying to get me to eat more meat. It's almost a role reversal. Nobody has ever had to tell me to eat more meat in my entire life! One thing that both baby and I like is soup. Love it. Can't get enough of it.

Things have been somewhat surreal. Part of me thinks that we should be doing more to prepare, but then I'm like, what do I need to do? I think at this point, it's just relax. Maybe look into maternity leave stuff. We probably won't decorate the baby's room until we find out the sex. We both want to know. Right now, I don't really feel anything, so I can't tell if it's a boy or girl. I would be happy with both, but I would at least like to have 1 girl out of the 2 children we will probably have.

Catching Up

Last weekend, we went out to the Castro and met up with Pablo, Steve, and Steve. We had dinner at Luna which had a lovely outdoor patio and a totally delicious clam chowder. Unfortunately, I wish that I had remembered to take a lactaid. Note to self, always take a lactaid when eating creamy soups. We ended up having an impromptu sleepover at Jeannette and Jon's so that I could recover from my gastrointestinal difficulties.

On Saturday, we went to San Jose for Joe and Helena's baby shower/BBQ. We also went to Mike and Michelle's for a dumpling making party. Though we missed the dumpling making part, we were there for the eating part and it was more good times with good friends.

Tea Party

On Friday, we went out with some friends to celebrate my birthday. We went to a French restaurant in the Mission called Garcon. The bartender was very good and the food was not bad, but the service was a little less than I would have expected for that caliber of restaurant. We still had a good time and then went to Bi-Rite for some ice cream dessert. I definitely recommend Bi-Rite. It was quite tasty. I had plain chocolate which was good, but there was a balsamic strawberry that was really great.

On Saturday, Michelle and Show and I went to Debbie's bridal shower in Pacifica. It was quite nice. Debbie has 3 sisters who are very domestically gifted. They had lovely tea sandwiches- salmon and egg salad, chicken curry on croissant, turkey pesto and mozzerella, and peanut butter jelly and banana. So yummy. This is in addition to the 2 trifles, the sorbet, and homemade scones. This was a real tea party.

All in all, a pretty good way to celebrate my 33rd birthday.