Week 13 (again?!?!) (8/21-8/27)

This week has been a little better. I finally slept through the night which was great, I'm sure my attendance at the gym had something to do with it. Nothing like a hard leg day to knock me out. Hopefully it continues. I almost murdered Hov when he had a bad night sleep and I commented that he now has a taste of what it feels like and he responded with "yeah but you're used to it by now". He almost died that day.

I can't get enough tacos this week. Tacos. Soft, hard- doesn't matter. I want tacos. Hov has been an absolute saint when it comes to this department. Anything I want is met with a very quick "OK baby let's/let me go get it". First day I wanted On the Border Southwest Chicken Tacos. They sounded amazing to me. I know they're horrible for you with the onion rings, shredded cheese and ton of sauce but I didn't care, I wanted them. He went immediately to get them and came home and of course the people forgot the sauce they usually put on the side and they forgot the onion rings. WTF people. I was trying hard to not be upset since my man had just been gone for an hour retrieving these but I just wanted to throw them. Hormones are strange. The very next day I wanted tacos again but this time hard tacos... What's the nearest taco place? There isn't one. Anything is like a 15-20 minute drive away, more now since all the college kids came back to clog the streets and ruin my life. I ended up deciding on Moe's and got one overachiever hard taco with a side of queso. Heaven. Best decision ever. I have a feeling Moe's will be seeing a lot of me.

I also haven't been able to get the thought of homemade rice krispy treats out of my head. I think that will be a project for today.

The best part of this week so far was coming home on Friday to a ton of mail (not the good part) and seeing a little envelope package from my girlfriend Dani. She had sent me a cookie-gram!! Is that what they're called? Whatever- a cookie in the mail. I was so excited. I had just gotten home from the gym so please forgive my status in the following pictures, I was definitely struggling but the little cookie was so glorious I couldn't handle it. The best part was that the box said "It's a girl" which I thought was hilarious since Hov is sure it's a boy. I made sure to point out to him Dani's thoughts on the matter. It wasn't until I thanked her for the cookie and sent her a picture that she informed me that there was in fact ANOTHER COOKIE. Holy cow. If things couldn't get any better. I searched the rest of the ignored pile of mail and sure enough, another little envelope, this time with an "It's a boy" cookie. I let Hov have that one. It was after this cookie massacre that I went to Moe's. The food adventures never end. If only Moe's delivered...

In other good news, Hov made the "short list" for the job in South Florida and will be down there next Thursday for the in person interview. Apparently they don't talk salary until that day which I think is kind of silly since he has to travel 8 hours for the interview but what do I know. At least he told them his minimum salary requirements during the first phone interview- I don't think they would have invited him down if that had been a huge problem. We'll see how it turns out. He's really happy but trying to not be too excited and also trying to do his homework and research the company since he is but a humble English major tying to break into the business sector. He'll do great, he can charm the pants off a nun (if they were to be wearing pants). UPDATE: they changed it to a Skype interview but after the second phone interview he thinks they really like him. Fingers crossed.

The plan to eat healthier hasn't been going so well. The weekends are bad, we go out to eat so often. I went semi-OCD and prepared/marinated enough food for the entire week. Hopefully I will actually put it to good use. One of the things I wanted to make was pasta with zucchini but of course when I went to look for pasta there was only 1/3 of a box left and so what would be the most rational thing to do at 8pm on a Sunday? Go buy (or send Hov to buy) some pasta? Nah. At that point I decided to bust out the pasta machine (that I had never used before) and make my own pasta. The adventure was definitely fun but should have been a two person job. Two hours after inception I had a clothes dryer rack holding about a pound of fresh pasta. I was covered head to toe in flour, the kitchen was a mess, my hair was- well you'll see. I wasn't a pretty sight but those newly cut strands of pasta sure were.

I also had a craving this past weekend for rice krispy treats so I made them and then regretted it. They weren't that good, my cereal to marshmallow ratio was way off. Notice that the baking pan I'm using is a half-sheet cake sized one. I ended up throwing them away, but not until I had eaten like 1/3 of the treats. In totally unrelated news, my favorite jeans no longer button. Starting tomorrow, it ends. I feel so gross I can't even explain. There comes a point where garbage food isn't fun anymore. I'm at that point. 

The big thing starting this week is that I had an appointment Monday morning (8/26) with the specialist to do the early test for Down's Syndrome. The good news is that the measurements look good so we are just waiting for the blood work. The neutral news is that the doctor thinks the baby is too small to be 13.5 weeks along and we are more like 12.5 weeks along so this is going to be the 13 week post AGAIN. Can we say deja vu? That also means that the due date changes from February 27th to March 5th. They did say that the date is flexible and they would have a better idea at the 18-20wk ultrasound when they can get better measurements of everything.

I have to admit I definitely overreacted/freaked out when I first heard that the baby was small. Is the baby not getting enough nutrients? Are we having a little person? The doctor assured me that we just were off with the due date and then I was annoyed I had to re-do the 13th week. Of course it's always something. I am very very thankful that things came back normal (so far). I'm not sure how I would have been able to handle that decision had it not. The baby looked healthy though and we did manage to get another picture where he/she looks like he/she is just kicking back, relaxing. When he/she was on screen there was a lot of bouncing around but we still got a good pic.

It's a real baby!!

Monday also came with headaches and nausea, not sure if that was because of baby or because of no parking since all the undergrads are back. Maybe a little of both. Also could have been because the big pooch I'm getting is nowhere near where the tech was looking during the ultrasound. She was all the way near my lady bits and the pooch/belly I'm getting is much more on the north side. No excuses, I went to the gym and had a sensible dinner. No way I'm going to be one of those people who uses a pregnancy/kids as an excuse to let themselves go. Not healthy or aesthetically pleasing.

Week 13 (8/14-8/20)

This week the cold finally went away but the insomnia came back with full force. It doesn't help that some hooligans moved in on the street behind us and whenever they decide to have a Sunday night party that lasts until 4am I am wide awake while my boyfriend snores soundly. It makes no sense but his ability to sleep through it makes it that much worse.

Corn pops are still my jam but the kit kats have taken a backseat. Mangos are where it's at this week. I went through almost an entire box from Costco (7 or 8 I think) and they were delicious. I have a daily bargaining session with myself over what I can and can't eat... "No honey butter chicken biscuits" is my new mantra. I still struggle with food but at least I'm back in the gym this week. Not nearly as vigorous as I am used to but I guess I'll have to make do. I've been lifting a lot with a little cardio warm-up, on Tuesday we went and ran stadiums... well it was more like a jog but still. My gym classes start again next week and I couldn't be happier. It'll be easier to maintain going when I don't have to worry about what I'm going to do next and only have to worry about getting up in time to be there.

In stressful news, I met with my committee and they said a tentative Spring graduation seemed reasonable as long as I met all the deadlines (two papers, prospectus and writing dissertation) by then. Should I start pulling my hair out now or wait for later? Couple this with trying to get my MCAT studying done and the constant fatigue and I am so overwhelmed I don't even know where to begin. Meanwhile, Hov continues the job search/application/interviewing process to try and get back south and be close to family but that adds another layer of stress. What happens if he does get this dream job and they want him to start next month? I can't leave until the end of the Spring, how will we make it work? Will I be by myself for this entire pregnancy? They're already making accommodations by letting me graduate a little early, will they be sympathetic to wanting to finish remotely? Would it end up as an out of sight out of mind type thing where it ends up dragging on forever and I never get this degree? I'm flipping out and he hasn't gotten the offer yet. Second interview for him is next Monday. I want him to get it so badly, he's wanted this for so long but I just don't know what that will mean for how things will plan out.

The little pooch is officially a pooch. They say this week is when the baby is the size of a peach but you would think I have a cantaloupe in there. It's kind of depressing... Now I want a fruit salad.

Trying to take the pictures this week in front of the dry erase board led to a near nuclear melt down. We borrowed a camera from Hov's friend who was nice enough to lend it to us so we could take these pictures but I guess since we are using a black dry erase board (who has it out for me) there can be no light near it or else it has a huge reflection. If there is not enough light then you can't see the letters on the board. Poor Hov got most of my frustration. Anyway, maybe for next week we'll be able to figure out how to do it, I ended up just taking pictures with my phone and sulking in a corner.

That's my annoyed face, can you tell?

Stupid reflection ruining everything

Finally just gave up and took it in front of my mirror with my phone

For family members you can go ahead and skip this next part and come back next week...

The part of our lives I didn't expect to take a hit so early on was our sex life. Honestly wtf body. So the sucky thing is if you end up with a delicate cervix like apparently I did, next to nothing can cause you to bleed. If you bleed the doctor says absolutely no sex until 7 days after you stop bleeding. So say you have sex one day then you bleed for a week then you have to wait a whole week before you can go again. At this rate we'll get to play a whopping twice a month. I am not pleased and I am sure neither is he. The raging hormones don't help at all.

One thing that is nice is I get to see what I would look like with a boob job. The girls were the first thing to get bigger and I have to say, go me. I'm liking the new look, too bad they are sensitive and sleeping on my stomach has become a problem. Also, sports bras are now a little too tight. Need new ones or only yoga bra type things that are softer.

Week 12 (8/7-8/13)

This week was the one where pretending like clothes weren't getting tighter went out the window. Sitting down for long periods of time now requires a discrete unbuttoning of the pants. I still refuse to use the bella band but I think that isn't going to last for long. I don't have the official in front of the dry-erase board picture but I have a sort of deconstructed version.

The smell of cooked chicken is disgusting and I'm still having a hard time with food aversions but cereal is my new best friend, fruit is always good too. I keep a stack of white chocolate kit-kat bars in the freezer but somehow my stash has been depleting at a remarkable rate and not because of me. It looks like my boyfriend is on the road to gaining the sympathy weight with me, we'll see how that goes. I'm certainly not dieting or trying to limit my food intake but I am going to try to make better food choices which so far has been remarkably difficult as so many things make me gag. I've had a hard time turning down food that doesn't make me nauseated even if it's not the healthiest. Maybe I'll have better luck next week. We'll see if I can gain the weight at a steady pace and avoid the tiger stripes.

I wanted thin crust AND pan pizza crust, it was the only way to go...

As far as actual weight gain goes, I still haven't really gained anything but my body is changing fast. I am now incapable of "sucking it in" and am no longer wearing fitted shirts without a cardigan or some sort of flowy shirt on top. So far my bottoms still fit- snugly. The big thing that is annoying is the acne, even in the worst puberty days it wasn't as bad as it has been in the beginning stages of this pregnancy. It looks like it's starting to clear up but we'll see how that goes.

The one thing that has been consistent is the fatigue. How I crave naps... ALL the time. Wake up, eat breakfast...nap time. This makes studying and trying to get work done pretty difficult, also working out.  It didn't help that this week I came back home and got a horrible cold. Three days in bed and the congestion finally started to let up. Thank goodness. Hopefully week 13 is a little better!

The pooch begins...

Baby is the size of a PLUM
Mom is craving: fish sandwiches (McDonald's style- I know, I know...), Corn pops and White Kit Kat bars