Thursday, September 29, 2011

Baby Update and Anxiety

The good news...baby is doing just perfect.

The bad news...John knows the gender and I don't.

This sounded like a good idea before this morning. But once he was dancing around the lobby holding the news in his hand my resolved started to crumble. Then he threw our baby's picture in the trash because it was evidence. I made him retrieve it.

So...what am I going to do? I haven't really decided yet.

The thing is this...I really want a girl. Part of me is really worried if its a boy I'll be disappointed. So maybe I'll find out now so I get used to the sex of the baby before I'm all exhausted and laid up in a hospital recovering. And I could better focus my knitting efforts.

Plus, I haven't felt very connected to the baby. Now that the morning sickness has passed (Hallelujah!!!) I'm started to like this pregnancy thing a little better. But I can't feel the baby move yet, so its hard for this to feel real. Maybe knowing the little one's sex would help me along.

Do I sound like I'm trying to convince myself?

Anyways, here's updated pictures. Its a little freaky to think its head is already 4cm across.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Namaste

So around the 7 week mark I got morning sickness and was also hit with a complete lack of appetite. Before 7 weeks I'd been going to ballet class, but after the sickness hit I sort of gave up exercising. I know...that's not good. But I was only able to keep down about 600-800 calories a day and figured I didn't have much to burn off in a work out.

My Mom told me I should start to feel better by 16 weeks. At the time I couldn't believe her. I think I was 10 weeks at the time and another 6 weeks of sickness was unimaginable.

But here I am at around the 16 week mark and magically I can eat again.

So back to the question of fitness.

When I first met with my doctor I had asked him what type of exercise I could do. He replied 'Walking is really good.' But really? Nothing by walking for months. I just couldn't do it. I asked about my ballet classes and he said its fine. Just no jumping, no twists, and no raising my heart rate. Great! I'll just take half a class and stretch the rest of the time. He replies 'No stretching too much either.' Damn.

So I looked up all kinds of pre-natal exercise. First I found a water aerobics class. Sweet! Water fitness is something I've always wanted to try. Too bad the class only meeting during the work day. So, moving on.

Finally I settled on pre-natal yoga.

This is kind of what I pictured. A few gentle poses and getting in touch with the momma I'm about to become.

The reality was very different.

First off the teacher talked about some of that mumbo jumbo universe stuff. Sorry, but I hate this part of yoga. This probably means I'm not really a yoga sort of person, but oh well.

But what followed was well...hard. We did several series of poses that worked every one of my muscles except my abdomen. Even my hands were sore. Little did I know that I wasn't putting my weight on my hands correctly while doing downward facing dog. My triceps haven't hurt this much in like years. At some points I thought class would never end, but suddenly it was over and I was surprised it went so quickly.

As I hobbled out of the room I had a mental conversation with myself.

'How do you feel?'
'Tired and hungry.'
'Did you enjoy class?'
'Um...kind of.'
'Should you do this again?'
'Absolutely.'
'If you don't sign up for more classes right now, will you come back and sign up?'
'Nope.'
'Okay fool, then sign up now because you NEED this.'

Then I waddled my butt over to the counter and signed up for more classes. Because yoga was hard in the perfect way. And it will be good to challenge myself a little bit. My triceps will thank me in the long run.

I'm still going to do ballet once a week too and walking Dottie of course.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Childhood Memories: Little House on the Prairie

Last night I started reading The Wilder Life. Its a book about a life long fan of Laura Ingalls Wilder who decides to visit the places Laura lived and find out the true story. I'm only on the 2nd chapter, but felt I should pause for a moment and write this post while a memory is fresh in my mind.

As a child I think I was lonely. We moved a lot. When I was 2, 4, 8, 12, and 14. This is great for learning to be self-sufficient, but not terribly great for making friends on the playground. My sister and I were polar opposites. Kathryn was more wild. She liked to play outside. I preferred playing house and dressing up in historical costumes. At school we were both the new kid a lot, but Kathryn just seemed to meet people more easily while I was more reserved. I guess I would say that still rings true today.

So, when I'd enter another new school it seemed to take me a good while before I would make friends. But that doesn't mean I was alone in my game. I had imaginary friends, only my imaginary friends were literary characters.

God, that sounds depressing, but at the time I loved it.

So what does this have to do with Laura Ingalls Wilder? Was she my imaginary friend? Nope...her sister Mary was.



Laura was too crazy. She liked to do adventurous stuff. But Mary liked the same things as me. She preferred quiet amusements.

Why am I telling you this? Because last night I found out I'm not the only one who did this? Wendy McClure, the author of The Wilder Life admits in the first chapter that Laura was her imaginary friend. I am not alone.

Okay, so here's a story about me and Mary.

My family moved from Phoenix, AZ to LaGrange, KY in the summer of 1990. In the fall I entered 3rd grade taught by Ms. Smith. The kids thought I was totally bizarre and had a weird accent. I believed the same of them. Thankfully Ms. Smith was amazing and helped me get through the year with a minimum of embarrassment.

Every day we would have recess. This consisted of sending us out to a big open field with a swing set in one corner. Since I'm a loner, I would avoid the actual games going on and try to amuse myself. Instead I would play games with Mary. One day we went flower picking. There were bunches of yellow flowers along the edge on the field so Mary and I picked a bunch as a gift for Ms. Smith. I presented my prize upon returning to the classroom. Ms. Smith took one look and told me I'd just broken the law. What?!?! Me?!?! Turns out I picked a bunch of Goldenrod...the state flower which is illegal to remove. I was devastated, but she shrugged it off as a warning....thankfully.

Can you picture it? A little blond girl in a dress (always a dress) running around a grassy friend talking to an imaginary person. No wonder the other kids thought I was strange. But that's okay. What is more important is that I survived the 3rd grade thanks to Mary...and I made some real friends eventually.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

A Summer of Changes

The last time I posted was just June 10th.

Since that time...

  • John and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary
  • Dottie celebrated first first year living with us
  • I took on a client for sewing work
  • I danced in the Ballet School's annual production
  • Oh...and I got pregnant
So, nothing too crazy or anything. 

Our first anniversary was nice. My parents watched Dottie so John and I could go to Ojai for the evening. Ojai was boring, but we did attend a local wine fest. Being surrounded by a couple hundred drunk baby boomers was pretty awesome. It was Tommy Bahamas and Harley Davidson wear as far the your eyes could see. By 2pm they were all wasted and we were just starting. 

Dottie is doing great! She's 1.5 now and much more calm. To celebrate we bought her doggie cupcakes. She liked them very much. 


Yep, I took on a client for some wedding sewing. It turned out more involved than I planned (surprising right?), but in the end I was really proud of my work. I altered a wedding dress, embellished two bridesmaid dresses, added straps to the bridesmaid dresses, and constructed a lace edged shrug for the bride. Seriously, everything looked so wonderful and I cannot wait to see pictures from the wedding. 


As I mentioned above...I had my triumphant return to the stage. Well, maybe not triumphant since I was only a gypsy in one scene in a very long production. But really it was fun to get dolled up and dance in front of people. I only wish there were more opportunities for adults to perform more often. Plus rehearsing was really fun with the other gypsies. The hardest part of the performance was keeping my big secret that I'm pregnant. Found out two days before the show,but didn't dare tell anyone until after I got confirmation from the doctor. It was killing me to keep it from my Mom, but I did it and survived.

And so...now its baby time. 15 weeks 3 days today with a due date of February 26th. Will it be a leap year baby?

Being pregnant hasn't been easy so far. I've spent more time in a bathroom than I ever care to, I basically stopped eating for a few months, I'm tired all the time and get all kinds of strange aches. But at the same time I'm very excited about this baby.

At our appointment yesterday the baby was wiggling all over the place. So the only picture we got was this.

 That's a top view of the head. Not the most excited photo, but getting to see the spine and heart at work was pretty neat. No gender though. Little peanut wasn't interested in showing the goods. I don't want to know if its a girl or a boy, but John REALLY wants to know. So he can find out and torture me.

I'm also starting to show. Did I mentioned the upper arm spread? Sweet!


Next up...how to clothe my growing belly as I enter the busy season at the museum. I have both Halloween and Christmas events coming, plus regular tour guiding and I'm afraid my current outfit just isn't going to work.