Do I stay or do I go?

I had a talk with my human resources guy at my work and explained to him that I want to be a stay-at-home mom. I let him know it has nothing to do with my work because I love my job; it's just what I need to do. Eric and I figured out our finances in such a way that we can deal with having just his income.

In effort to have some spending money sometimes, I requested one favor: I asked if I could be on staff as an intermittent fill-in for when a member of the front office (reception, billing, insurance) takes a day off. This enables us to have sporadic spending money.

So it looks like I get to be a stay at home mommy that works a day or two a month :)

Dream a little dream for me

So, the dreams get weirder.

Sunday Night:
I dreamt that Emily was born and I took her home from the hospital but she was super tiny. Like 10 inches big. And she projectile pooped on me.

Monday Night: I dreamt that Melanie and I were with Susan. There was some game being played and Susan had something stab her in the shoulder. Melanie and I grabbed Susan and rushed to my car to get her to the ER. We realized that we forgot to call my parents when we got there and my parents weren't panicking at all when we called. They asked if we were joking.

I've learned to stop questioning things that aren't harmful to my health now. :)

I NEED TOPIC IDEAS!

I was going to have a doctor's appointment tomorrow but, because of my changing insurance situation, they said I can wait until Eric's new work insurance kicks in which won't be until October 1st. They said they don't bill out after the initial copay once I've been seeing them for my pregnancy. So I won't even GET a bill from them until after I'm postpartum. That's okay with me; I didn't want to give them money right now anyway. They said we can do a payment plan if I need to at that point. So basically, I won't have any doctor bills until the New Year.

Also, my poor pregnancy hormones (which is really just my justification to throw a tantrum every once in a while and to cry a LOT during any emotional moment in a movie) are going to go nuts now because Eric is leaving for ANOTHER set of training after his current one. The good thing is, he won't miss any OB appointments now! :)

I need to have funnier blogs. I had a couple of hilarious ones last month. I'm slacking!

Possible next entry topics:

- The horrors that I've learned about post-delivery

- New fads for child rearing

- Old traditions for children

- What I didn't expect during pregnancy

- Worries

I'm accepting interesting topic ideas!

Also, because I've been having requests, I decided to post a "progression" picture of my belly.



There's a first time for everything

Emily's been getting a lot more active lately. I told one of my friends that when she's rolling around, it feels like the rumble of a bowling ball. I just finished week 25 of my pregnancy so I was really hoping that Eric would feel her move before he left.

(Just a heads up - my husband found a new job and he's on his second and last round of training for 10 days. He's just come back for 4 and left this morning.)

Last night, we were laying in bed before going to sleep and I felt her rumbling around in there. And luckily, she really wanted her daddy to feel her in there before he went back to training for ten more days and kicked a little "thump" right on his hand. :) It made me really happy to have Eric be the first one to share that. Hopefully, she'll be kicking up a storm by the time he comes home for good...

Anxiety!

Anxiety: A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

I have an unreasonable anxiety about my water breaking. I was going to use paranoia but that would more be if I was convinced that the act of my water breaking is out to get me. And I thankfully realize, because I read the definition of paranoia and because I researched what actually happens, this is not the case.

For those of you who don't know, your "water breaking" during pregnancy (actually called "rupture of membranes," which just sounds worse) happens when the fluid that surrounds the baby in the amniotic sac begins to leak out of the cervix. Most websites say this seems a lot like wetting your pants. (Oh, joy!)

Now, the reason I say that I have an "unreasonable anxiety" about this happening, is NOT because I'm scared of my water breaking. I'm highly worried about where and when. One fear is that my water will break at church on a Sunday; this is because they have carpets and I don't know how easy it is to get out. Or that my water will break while I'm trying on pants or capris or a skirt that I decide I don't want to buy and then I have to spend money on an item of clothing I hate because I ruined them. Or that I won't know that it happened and Eric and I could be at a nice dinner and then I stand up from a nice seat and my water broke all over it. Or that I'll not notice if my water breaks while on tile and then I slip and get hurt. And there's a million more scenarios.

I don't know if this stuff stains clothing or how to even get it out! I guess I'm worried about damage, stains, and spending more money than I want. And most of all, embarrassment.

(The truth of the matter is that only about 13% of the time will your water break prior to the onset of labor. In fact, more than 75% of the time your water won't break until you're well into labor and more than 9 centimeters dilated, according to this website.)

That being said, I'm also a minority in the fact that I'm classified as obese YET: I do not have gestational diabetes. My child is not currently beyond the weight she should be. My blood pressure is never high at the doctor's office. I'm also a minority in the way that I waited to have sex and I've only ever been with my husband in that way. And I'm not having a child out of wedlock.

I really want to be in the 75% statistic right now for the water though.

Key to my ultrasound report and a change...

I know I gave you guys the whole "She's a Girl!" blog already but I got the report and I wanted you to know my findings :)

So, in case you ever wanted to know WAY too much about Emily and I, here it is:

Fetal lie: the relationship of the long axis of the fetus to the long axis of the mother, which basically is the fancy way of saying the baby's position in your body. My report says that she is "vertex," which means she's in the fetal position.

Placenta: Posterior, no previa - This means that the placenta is towards the back of my uterus and the placenta is attached to the baby correctly.

Placental grade: 0. It's just the rate that the placenta is maturity. Once it's closer to the due date, it should be a grade 3. It measures the calcifications in the placenta.

BPD, 48mm - BPD is the BiParietal Diameter, which is the diameter between the two sides of the head. Right now, that diameter comes out to almost 5 cm (or almost 2 inches), or a little smaller than the width of a full roll of Scotch tape. lol

FHR per minute 139 - her heart rate.

Fetal weight 360 g - she's a little more than 12 oz.

The rest is just bone measurements.

But if you've read this far, you should know... the ultrasound is saying she measures another 2 days older. So, according to the ultrasound, she's now due on 12/9/11. 

Sweet Dreams... or not

So, I read a few months ago that you will start to have more “vivid” dreams while you’re pregnant. While I was a little surprised not to hear of bagels or soda cans or some other food analogy to describe the vivid nature of my subconscious, I was actually excited that I’d have some interesting dreams to go along with this ride. And I have had some sweet ones:

Before I was pregnant, I dreamt of my 4-year old daughter not being able to decide what to wear to go to lunch. This caused Eric to say, “She’s your daughter.” Then, she decided that she wanted to go to the Chinese buffet for lunch, I said that she’s his. (At the time, we were going to the Chinese buffet a lot.)

A month ago, I dreamt my daughter was born early so she could prophesy about the people we will eventually minister with.

Two nights ago, I dreamt of meeting her and she had the cutest nose and perfect ears and she looked up at me. Then, she immediately fell asleep in my arms.

But lately, I’ve had some weird ones:

Two nights ago (separate dream), I dreamt that Denis Leary had become a hobo so I gave him money for a hotel room to clean up.

A couple of weeks ago, I dreamt that I ran all the way across town to go to the Mesquite Tree which turned out to be a fighting ground.

About 3 months ago, I dreamt I was at a party with friends and (long story short) I killed everyone who I thought was a threat to my friend’s newborn that she had just birthed on ecstasy.

I think I need to switch to milk before bedtime.