Friday, February 1, 2008

You're Welcome

So today I had a normal check-up with the OB. I got weighed (20 pounds and counting - ohmigosh I'm a ginormous whale), got blood pressure taken, peed in a cup, listened to heartbeat on doppler (no biggie since I do so every night at home)...all the normal stuff.

My doc asked if we found out what we were having and I told him it's a boy. To which he replied the normal "oh that's great" yada, yada, yada and then followed that with "Will you be circumcising him?".

Wow...wasn't expecting that one yet. Nor had I really thought about it much I guess. I told him "yes", he wrote it down on my chart, and we moved on. Now, this question disturbs me, not so much because I was unprepared for it, but because I hate that it has to be asked at all. I've been reading that only 50% of boys these days are circumcised...and this just grosses me out. Now I know that there's all kinds of research out there that it's not necessary any more and that people think it's cruel, and that it should be the boy's choice when he's older - blah, blah, blah.

In those seconds between the doc asking me the question and my response, all I could think of were the girls in the future who would be checking out my son's member. (Yes....it would be lovely if it was just one girl...not plural, but seriously, who are we kidding here?) And I just can't bring myself to put those poor girls through that something extra that they don't need to see.

Let's be honest, the male anatomy is not so attractive in the first place. Why keep something extra on there that'll just serve to make something not so hot even MORE unattractive? Yes, future girlfriends of Grayson, you can thank me now, you can thank me later. My son will have a nice, trimmed and easily cleaned willy down there. And you are very welcome.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Updates Galore

Somehow 2 weeks have flown by without me posting. Not quite sure how that happened...so to recap my last few weeks....

Travel....
As I type this I am in Phoenix, Arizona with my husband on a work conference. I must say the 60 degree weather here is a refreshing change from the cold at home. And, in the next few weeks I will travel to Dallas and to Florida 2 different times. I guess I'm just trying to squeeze in as much as I can before my travel cut-off.

Seeing Red...
Yes....dreaded blood was back this past Saturday. I was out to dinner with husband and co-workers, went to pee, wiped and there it was. BRIGHT red. I freaked out in the stall...and then of course had to do some investigating with some toilet paper and my finger to see if anything else was up there. (Yes...I know, this is way too much information). There was not a lick of anything else, but alas, the worrying began. The dinner couldn't end soon enough so I could get back to the hotel and listen to Grayson on the doppler. He sounded perfect as always, and know more red since then thankfully, but I had a 24 hour period of quite the worrying and googling.

Treadmills and nephews do not mix....
In an effort to slow down my rapid weight gain (Oh yes girls, I have now gained 20 pounds - I am a huge moose) I like to walk. It's too cold at home, so I like to use the treadmill at my parents house. One evening last week I started on my walk, and my nephew vinny decided to come in the room and watch me. He's 20 months old and my mom was watching him for the evening. Vinny decided it would be fun to get on the treadmill with me and before I could stop him, or the machine, there he was sliding through my feet and into the wall behind. And, there I was falling on top of him, unable to get up as the machine skidded on. After what seemed an eternity, but was probably only 15 seconds, mom came to rescue and turned it off and helped us both up. Vinny was totally fine...just scared to death. Me, I was freaked. We've all see the Grey's Anatomy episode where the pregnant girl falls in the shower and loses her baby. That's all I could think of. I had a bummer of a bruise forming on my lower back, and quite the burn on my knee. I called the on-call doc and they asked me all kinds of questions like if i was having cramping or bleeding (no) and if I was still feeling him moving (yes). So they told me to relax, get rest and come in the next morning. So I was treated to a quick u/s on Wednesday morning to make sure everything was all good with the little man. And thankfully, it was. Husband says I should avoid all treadmills and excercise and just become big. Not likely. I think I"ll just avoid them when little rugrats are around.

That's the updates for now...more to come I'm sure!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Bittersweet


Just back from Florida where I have been since Tuesday evening. After getting our fun news on Tuesday morning, the husband and I flew down to Florida to mourn the loss of my grandpa. He has had a 5 year battle with cancer and lost to it last Sunday morning. We've all been prepared for this for some time as he had many close calls. But then he always seemed to miraculously pull through and have some more time with us all. He has always been one cool old dude and I will miss him. He missed hearing that we're having a boy by just a few short days. But, I love knowing that even though he doens't get to meet little Grayson anytime soon, he gets to hold my other 3 babies long before I do. Before his passing I told him to check in on them. I don't really know if that's how heaven works, but I like to think it does. He always gave the best shoulder rides when I was a little girl and I picture him up there right now giving those three the same experience I used to have. So for now little angels, have fun with grandpa. Our loss is certainly your great gain.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Gray's Anatomy

What a morning!!! I woke up at 5 a.m. bright eyed and ready to start the day to find out if Lefty is a he or a she. After an eternity of looking at all of Lefty's other parts, the technician finally got to the good stuff. First we saw the little legs, crossed at the ankle all cute, and I thought "maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is a girl since it's sittle all proper and pretty"













But then, the tech moved down a bit, and it was quite obvious that...




Lefty is a boy! This is the bum shot from underneath, and as you can see the little guy has definite male anatomy parts.

So I now introduce to you Grayson David W - expected to join us on June 10, 2008. His nickname will most likely be "Gray", thus the blog title. (Thanks Matt for the help on that one.

I'm so happy to have this appointment behind us and to start calling our baby a real name. Now Grayson, we have much to do before you get here so keep on cooking and we'll see you in June!

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Moving and Grooving

Over the past week I have begun to feel our little Lefty wiggling, moving and grooving inside me. At first I wasn't totally sure what it was....could've been gas or anything I guess. But..it's persisted and now I'm sure that it's the little one letting me know it's alive and kicking. It feels kind of like I have this rolly polly in there that does these little turn overs right against my insides. An odd sensation for sure...and not the kicking I was expecting to get first. I guess that comes later. This is all becoming so real now and with the gender ultrasound in only 6 days, that just seals it.

Another thing that continues to move is my weight. And might I say that the number on the scale is moving on up. Rapidly. Much faster than I'd prefer. I hadn't weighed in a few weeks, so today I decided it best to get on scale before an appt. with my OB. I have now passed a scary number for me on the scale (150) and have gained just shy of 15 pounds. AHHHHH! How did this happen? Except for the occassional fast food splurge, I'm really not eating so bad or so much. I was braced for the doc to tell me today to slow it up, but she just told me I looked great and everything sounded great and sent me on my way. Phew! I was hoping to gain no more than 30 lbs. with the pregnancy, but that's looking like less and less of a reality since I'm halfway to that number already and not yet halfway through the pregnancy. Oh well. I guess I need to just do I what I know is best for my body and let it do it's thing without sweating it too much.

Monday, December 31, 2007

The Best & Worst

Growing up, every evening at dinner our parents would have us say the best and worst things that happened in our day. It was an attempt at staying connected to our lives as we were teenagers and tended to close them off more than we used to. In keeping with this tradition, as 2007 ends and 2008 begins, I thought I'd reflect back on a year that certainly has had it's lower than ever lows, and also it's share of wonderful highs.



The Worst

-Ringing in the new year of 2007 without the baby that should've been in our arms from m/c #1.

-3rd miscarriage in April followed by 2nd D&C.

-An awful summer with awful anxiety that was treated with anti-anxiety meds. Took anxiety away, but mellowed me out so much I got awfully depressed. Not really what I needed. Had to take a break from the TTC cause of meds and just not being up for another pregnancy or loss again.

-All testing on me and DH came back normal. Yes, I know, this should be a on the best, and it will go down there too. But....it's also the worst because it left us with the fear of the unknown going into another pregancy.



The Best

-Fabulous trip to London, England with BFF from high school in February.

-Celebrating 5 years of marriage in September in Hawaii with love of my life

-All testing on me and DH came back normal. At least many unfixable things were ruled out.

-Amazing support as always from my family. I don't know what I'd do without my parents and my 2 sisters who all rock in different ways.

-Thursdays out forgetting my woes with the perfect companion

-4th BFP in late September

- Lefty is still here with us growing inside me. Could it be that 2008 will be the year that our dreams our fulfilled and we welcome a real live baby?

Resolutions

This is probably the 1st time in at least 16 years that new year's day hasn't brought promises of working out and losing some serious poundage. It's an odd feeling to not be able to do that. I guess I can resolve to not become an enormous cow with the pregnancy at least.

My biggest goal this year is to become the best mom I can be, to fully appreciate every moment that I have with this baby,NEVER forget the journey that brought us here, NEVER take this gift we have been given for granted and NEVER stop saying thanks to God for this blessing.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2008 is the year for dreams fulfilled for all of you.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Lefty's First Blue Box

I love blue boxes wrapped in white ribbon. All girls deserve to have a blue box of goodies given to them at all birthdays, anniversaries and Christmases. If I have boys, I will train them well in this. If I have girls, I will teach them to expect nothing less.

My husband has been trained immaculately by his mother who taught him this same virtue. Because of her, I have received great gifts at all of our special occasions because he knows there is no going wrong when the box says "Tiffany & Co".

So, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when at the bottom of Lefty's stocking, Lefty had a blue box of his or her own. Inside the box was the most adorable rattle, that is way too fancy for any child to play with, but is perfect nonetheless. But that's not the best part. The best part was the card inside that the love of my life wrote to the baby. It was perfect and sweet and made me cry. He's going to be one awesome Daddy.