Confessions of a Pregnant Girl, Part II

So far being in the second trimester has been exciting and frustrating all together.

• What's been the most exciting is that I definitely know I've been feeling baby move. I mentioned in the last confession that I thought I might have felt the baby move, but now I definitely know that those little gas bubbles were indeed baby. The movements have been getting more and more distinct and I even notice them while I'm at work too. Which is nice but it can be so distracting... How am I supposed to concentrate at work when I have a small alien tickling me from the inside???
• At work, with a client, explaining an exercise to them
• Me: "So yeah all you do is you move this way -" *punch* 
• "uh huh, just like that. And then you -" *punch, punch* 
• "yeah, you've got it!" *wiggle, wiggle, punch*
• Recently, I've discovered that baby's movements are now strong enough to be felt from the outside too! I was sitting on the couch and I felt like some of the punches were really strong so I placed my hand on my tummy and sure enough, I could feel the movements under my hand! I was so sad Joe couldn't be there, but I texted him right away to tell him. At least by the time he gets home I'm sure the movements will have gotten stronger so he should have no problem feeling them! 
• Something that is both frustrating and exciting is the fact that I am finally starting to show! Sort of. I am 23 weeks along today (or 5 months for those of you who don't measure time in weeks) and it only really shows when I let my stomach muscles totally relax. Otherwise, when I've got my core engaged, it just looks like I'm starting to get fat. 

"Psst, is that girl pregnant or is she just getting fat?"

"Aw what a cute pregnant girl! And the faces she makes are totally adorable! She will have a cute child."

• I have finally made the switch to maternity pants at work, thanks to my sister-in-law and OH MY LANTA WHAT WAS I WAITING FOR! They are so comfortable. I really like the ones that have the super stretchy tummies just cause they feel more secure and don't emphasize the fact that I have a billion layers going on around my stomach in the summertime. Now that I have a good variety of pants for work, now I just need to collect a few more maternity tops and I should be set!
• I think I would like to check out some prenatal yoga classes soon. I've been able to find out about a class the happens here in GP so now I just need to make a commitment to go. This will be my first time venturing into a fitness group outside of school that doesn't involve rugby people, so wish me luck! If I had a pregnant friend to bring along that would be great (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, to a certain pregnant girl who moved back south just before I found out I was pregnant!)
• Okay, this one's a bit of a rant but... One thing that annoys me about being pregnant is how everyone who knows I'm pregnant wants to treat me like I'm made of glass, or they think I need to be extra careful while I'm doing things. Like the other day when I was standing on a stool to fix the dryer vent a co-worker said, "Be careful! If anyone here needs to avoid falling it's you!" And then another time when another co-worker was struggling to move a big heavy box into another room, I just stepped in and pushed it as I've been taught to push anything in rugby and she was all worried that I might hurt myself. I just don't understand how my body can all of a sudden become this frail, delicate thing when all my life it has been strong and reliable! I just wish people would trust that I know my body and I know how to listen to it when it needs a break. As I've been playing touch rugby with a group of people from church, I have definitely noticed that I can't cut and run like I used to (not that I was much of a runner before), but I don't push it! I take breaks when I need to and I stop when I've had enough. My biggest pet peeve is when someone doesn't think I can do something just because I'm a girl and I feel like a lot of people underestimate my abilities just because I'm pregnant! I'm carrying a child, not a disease. I'm not dying. Calm down, everyone.  **DISCLAIMER: I am in no way saying that pregnant girls should ignore restrictions placed on them and go out and push their bodies to the max. I am saying you should listen to your body and do only what feels comfortable. Pregnancy is no time to be trying to break any world records**

The kind of post my mom would scold me for

It is after 10 pm and I have to be at work for 9 tomorrow. But here I am blogging because I am an adult and I pay rent so I do what I want.

I saw someone post an article earlier today that said something like "15 things couples do when they leave the honeymoon phase". I skimmed it and it made me think of the days when Joe and I were in the honeymoon phase, but more specifically it made me think of the day we left the honeymoon phase. (and just to clarify, I'm defining the honeymoon phase as that time in a new relationship when the couple still feels the need to put on their best selves around each other. Not the literal honeymoon phase where the couple has just gotten married and is still enjoying the perks of - well, you know...)

Anyway, sorry for the long parentheses. Where were we? Oh yes.

The day Joe and I left the honeymoon phase, or in other words: the day we broke the fart barrier. Everybody knows that when the fart barrier is broken, all other walls come tumbling down. It's impossible to go back to the honeymoon phase once gas has been passed between two lovers.

I can say with a mix of pride and shame that I was the one to break the barrier, but it was Joe's fault that it happened.

I think we'd only been dating a month or a month and a half when it happened. Joe was over at my house and we were just messing around in the living room. Somehow we started steam-rolling each other. Then Joe got the bright idea to turn himself so that he was steam-rollering me from top to bottom instead of side to side. As he did so, I said "No don't! I'm really gassy!" (which in itself, was a first in the relationship for one of us to even admit we had gas). But instead of respecting my womanly dignity of not farting in front of men, Joe just got this look in his eye that said "Oh really??" and he began to focus his steam-rolling efforts around my abdominal region (I was lying face-down, btw, otherwise that would have really hurt).

He didn't have to try for long before the demon was released. At first it was funny because of the noise it made and the fact that when I laughed, it came out in time with my laughs. But then Joe got a whiff of the monster and jumped across the room so fast you'd have thought someone released a stink bomb - oh wait...

I was rather embarrassed and worried that it might have been a deal breaker, but thankfully Joseph was able to see past my stench and he learned to love me for who I really am: a smart, talented girl whose farts should be taken seriously. Honestly, I'm pretty sure he only did it so that he would finally be allowed to fart around me. I later found out that until that point, his stomach used to hurt so bad from holding in the gas when he was with me too long.

So if there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that you should break the fart barrier as early as you can in a relationship in case there could be health risks associated with holding in your gas for too long. If you truly cared about your loved ones, you'd let them fart around you.

Hawaii 2014 - the rest

I am not the kind of person to go on a holiday and have every day scheduled down to the minute of things to do. So before we left, Joe and I made a to-do list of all the things we'd like to do while we were there. Then as each day came we'd look at the list and see what we could check off that day.

14/25, not bad! Had to save some things for next time ;)

I think we did a pretty good job with our list! The first half of the vacation was really go, go, go for us and we did a lot of things. But for the last half we started winding down and did simple things like exploring along the beach or exploring the areas around the turtle bay resort. Nice and relaxing, I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

As you saw in the Day 1 post, L&L was the first thing we crossed off the list. After that, we crossed off Shark's cove - which I didn't expect to happen right away. The first morning we were there, we went to Kuilima beach at Turtle Bay Resort to explore. While we were exploring we actually bumped into a friend of Joe's! After chatting for a bit, he told us he was going to go to Shark's cove that afternoon and invited us to come along. We borrowed two pairs of flippers from him and had a great time. We even saw a sea turtle!

Hooray for underwater cameras!

The last thing we crossed off our list was to visit Junior Ah You and eat at his restaurant, Tita's Grill. Junior was my parents' bishop when they were in Hawaii and us kids got to meet him when our vacation rental flooded and we needed a place to stay. He's a super cool guy, plus he played for the Montreal Alouettes in the CFL! And the food at his restaurant is delicious! 

Ah You hungry?

My favourite item to cross off the list was the hike up Diamond head crater. It's a pretty easy hike, but the most difficult thing about it was definitely the heat. Joe and I were smart though and we brought ourselves lots of water as well as a papaya to eat at the top of the crater. When we got to the top though, it was pretty crowded with people, so we took some photos, enjoyed the breeze and made our way back down. We didn't have our papaya until the end and it was soooo worth it. The only thing that could have made it better was if we could have kept the papaya cold in Joe's backpack. Oh well. 

Here we are at the start of the trail!

The trail in all it's glory.

I love how you can see Joe up ahead like, "Are you coming??"

At the top! So sweaty... 

I've considered making a video for this trip like the one I made for my Australia trip back in 2010. If I do, it probably won't be for another month or two... For now, just enjoy the pictures!

Confessions of a Pregnant Girl, Part 1

I'm not gonna lie, being pregnant isn't as exciting as I thought it would be. I'm supposed to be getting all amped up for the little person I'll be bringing into the world soon, but it's hard to get excited when you hardly feel like anything's happening. Mind you, that may change once I actually start to show and the whole world can see I'm pregnant too, so that's why this is "part 1" of my pregnancy confessions...

• I don't think I've ever had to pee in a cup more in my entire life than I have since I've been pregnant. And I'm pretty sure all ladies can agree with the fact that peeing in a cup SUCKS. For some reason you can never figure out where the pee is coming from and so you inevitably pee on your hand every. single. time. And then there's the walk of shame as you carry your sample out to the collection site in the warm cup. Speaking of pee, I may as well get the rest of my bodily functions out there too...
• Holy gas, Batman! Not only do I get gas more frequently, but it is deadlier than it has ever been before. There have been a couple days where I just end up crop dusting my entire workplace and make the patients and therapists gag. My mother would be so proud.
• This is gross, but I have dry skin all over my stomach and boobs! It's so bad that when I take my shirt off at the end of the day, I have a small shower of flakes fall out. So attractive. 
• At 16 weeks, I have reached the point where my belly makes it uncomfortable to crouch for long periods of time (which I do a lot at work). It's made my work pants start to feel a little snug in the waist, but I can still wear my jeans. Sort of. As long as I go without a belt I'm fine because as soon as I sit down it will dig into my tummy. Unfortunately, my pants can't stay up on their own, so I just end up looking like a slob when I try to wear something fancier than yoga pants or sweats. 
• I have had several moments where I've thought I felt the baby move. But then I realize it's just gas. There has been one instance that was different from the others though! So I wrote it down in my journal saying "If a kicking baby feels like a muscle twitch deep in my lower abdomen, then I think I felt the baby move. If that is not what a kicking baby feels like, then disregard this note."
• Pregnant girls have to drink so much water! At my first prenatal appointment my doctor pointed out that I needed to be drinking more water. So for the next month I was hydrating like crazy. And on the day of my second appointment I made sure I drank lots. But she still told me that my urine sample said I'm not drinking enough! I feel like I'm going to need to carry around a camelback water bottle just to meet the doctor's orders. 
• Normally, I hate putting additional sauce on anything I eat. Joseph does this all the time - he'll douse his plate with ranch or siracha or BBQ sauce and it always makes me so mad because it's like he doesn't like my cooking. But lately, I've been adding ketchup or BBQ sauce to everything. Not that there was any question, but I think this proves that I am definitely carrying his child. 
• I have discovered a couple perks to being pregnant and that is that I'm able to get Joe to do a few more of the little things for me. Like if we're watching a movie and I want a drink, but I left my cup on the kitchen counter, he'll go get it for me. Even when I'm closer. Sometimes when we're both in bed and I realize I left my phone in the living room, he'll go get that for me too. I'll have to be careful as I test how far he's willing to go though so I don't lose his co-operation before I get the midnight munchies for 7-11 potato wedges during a snow storm. That will be the big test if he makes it that far... 

Pregnancy FAQs

Since I started telling people about the little human I'm growing, I've noticed there are some popular questions that everyone loves to ask a pregnant girl. So to save myself a little trouble, here are my answers before you even ask!

1. When did you find out?

- April Fool's Day of all days. For the past week or two something in my body didn't feel quite right. I don't think I felt like there was anything wrong, I just felt different. So on April 1st I summoned up my courage, dug out the pregnancy test a friend had given me when I got married, and peed on a stick that would change my life. It was a bad idea to take the test before work, because after that I could barely concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing but instead on the fact that "Holy crap I'm pregnant!" and  "I can't be though, that test is expired so it's probably wrong, don't freak out." and then "But what if I am?? Holy crap!"

2. When are you due?/How far along are you?

- December 6th. An almost Christmas baby - joy. As of now I am sitting at 15 weeks pregnant.

3. Are you going to find out the sex?

- No. And I can't tell you how satisfying it is to frustrate so many people by making them wait to find out what my baby is going to be. I'm almost tempted to find out what it is and then not tell anyone, just to spite them all, mwahahaha.

4. How have you been feeling?

- Physically, I thankfully haven't been feeling too bad! In the first month or two, I was suuuper tired all the time. Sometimes I went to bed as early as 9 pm! As I've entered the second trimester, I've perked up a little, but I still do enjoy my beauty sleep. I haven't been all that sick. The worst I would get is a little nausea whenever I got hungry and it only got worse the hungrier I got. I just had to learn to bring snacks with me to work and anywhere else I go.

- Emotionally, it's been interesting. It's not that I've been extra sensitive, but I did have trouble coming to terms with the fact that my life as I know it is ending. All of a sudden my body isn't just my body any more, there's another occupant now and to realize that everything I put into my body is going to affect it somehow is really exhausting. Every time I eat I question myself if it's something good for the baby and it is so annoying when I'm used to eating whatever I want! Thank goodness I don't drink or smoke because that would just be more to give up for the sake of making a healthy baby. And that's just how pregnancy is affecting me now! Thinking about life down the road with baby brings a lot of questions and worries to mind that I won't even get into.

Hawaii 2014 - Day 1

We arrived in Honolulu on Friday, May 16th at 2:30 pm. We were exhausted and hungry. Unlike the other airports we'd been in earlier that day, this one was partly indoor, partly outdoor and it was hot and humid. By the time we made it out to the shuttle area, we were already sweating buckets. We both regretted wearing pants for our arrival.

Our first photo in HI! We hadn't even left the airport yet! 

At the car rental place Joe decided to take the $5/day upgrade to a mustang convertible. I was not pleased. Once we had the keys to our car, we started to make our way out of the city towards the north end of the island where our vacation rental was. Holy cow is traffic ever horrible on the H1 highway in Honolulu.

Driving through central Oahu

After we finally made it out of the city and were able to drive the speed limit, our tummies started suggesting we find a place to eat. I knew I wanted L&L. I'd been craving it ever since we started making our vacation plans. So we found the L&L in Wahiawa and pulled in to give Joe his first taste of Hawaii. Mmmm, it was so good.

We got into the vacation rental around 5 and unloaded our stuff. We wanted to hit the beach right away, but we also needed to stock up on food, so off to the grocery store we went. The last time I was in Hawaii with my family, we couldn't visit the grocery store without running into one of my parents' old friends. So it was different to go and wonder if someone knew my parents but having no way of knowing without carrying around a giant picture of them.  

Once the fridge was stocked, the sun had gone down and so instead of going to the beach we decided to go to one of the pools we had access to around the complex. We couldn't get our key to work for the gates and so since no one was around we hopped the fence. We were such rebels. 

After a relaxing dip in the pool we went home, changed into some dry clothes and immediately fell asleep. 

Hey!

Has it only been a month since I last posted? I thought it'd been longer so now I don't feel so bad.

Many excitements have been happening in my world lately. My lil brother is now a missionary and currently working hard in St John, New Brunswick. Joe and I went to Hawaii and had a marvellous time (which I plan to write a separate post for). After our Hawaii trip, before we went back to GP, we spent 4 days at home with the family for my convocation! I finally graduated from the U of L and it was a lovely day.

Here's me and the pronghorn!

Here's me and my mama!

Here's me and Joe!

Aaand here's me dealing with the lovely wind.

And if all that's not exciting enough, there's one more thing...

On April 1st, I found out that I am pregnant.

Ho-ly crap. 

Don't worry, more on that later...