Pre-Christmas

**Warning!! Terrible and unedited photography. Proceed at your own risk.**

 This year Forrest and I are spending Christmas with his family and Christi is spending Christmas with her in-laws, so we decided to meet up at Tammy's house the week before Christmas to exchange presents and hang out!

We did a bit of lounging around...

Forrest decided to get Kaleb (our nephew) knife claws

Some of us played with our gifts...

We goofed off a bit...

And SOME of us pigged out. Definitely not me ; )

It was nice to spend time together and thanks to Tammy for letting us mess up her house a bit to have a good time. Good luck cleaning up before you have your real Christmas festivities! 

Things Change When You Start to Feel Like a Mama

I know that I am just hitting the tip of the metaphorical iceberg as far as maternal instincts and hormones go, but I have noticed a big difference in the way I feel about myself vs. the world around me. For example, I have found myself on several occasions wanting to "go and talk" to other drivers who I feel were rude. Anyone who knows me, knows that A) I have little to no road rage, and B) I am one of the least confrontational people you can meet when it comes to strangers. All of a sudden now I feel like I deserve a kind of respect that never occurred to me before. This boy honked at me while I was pulling out of a parking lot and yelled out of his window that I was driving to slow. WHAT?!?! I am sorry if you couldn't get to Chick-Fil-A fast enough. Here comes the odd part-- I actually had to hold myself back from getting out of the car and going to explain to him how awful it was that he would treat a pregnant woman like that and MAYBE he should consider that I had the right-of-way and safety is just plain important! Who have I become? I had to ask Forrest that night how he would feel if I got arrested. He simply asked, "what for", and after I explained he was fully supportive of me. I am sure he would be proud in fact, since it usually baffles him that I cower in the face of standing up for myself.

Today at the mall I had to pee really badly and there were teenagers walking slowly in front of my and a friend (who also had a baby in a buggy) and I considered asking the teens to move aside "because I am about to pee my pants". Again...WHAT?! I have a feeling that if this goes much further I am going to be one of those women...those ladies...you know...a "mom". Does this happen to everyone else when they were pregnant, or did everyone else have spines to BEGIN with? I am turning into my mother, who used to throw fits about "poor service" with salesmen while I hid in corners and turned red.

Worst of all, is when I can imagine someone doing something stupid to hurt Augie. I have had incredibly graphic daydreams about ripping people a new one for even thinking about it. I know-- Daydreams? Coo-Coo!

Maybe there is just something about growing a human that makes a woman start thinking, "You know what, I don't have the time or patience for this!" *Proceeds to ring necks and take names*

Or maybe it is just me and I am going crazy...

23 Weeks, and Another Appointment!

Today I had my fourth appointment at ABC and decided to prepare a little beforehand. Lately I have been reading a lot more about what I am getting into, and came up with several questions that needed to be answered before I actually went into labor. First off, I asked her about what to do/who to call when I decided it was time to come in. Then I asked her about what tests I will have to take the remainder of my pregnancy. Apparently the only things I have left are a gestational diabetes screen and iron test at my next appointment in one month, and then at 36 weeks they do the test for group B strep. I had heard horror stories from various sources about the GD test being a huge liter of nasty sugar goop and having to fast all day. Apparently all I have to do is not eat after midnight, drink this little bottle of orange glucose water at 8 am, and go in for the test at 9am. Not too shabby! I also asked her how far over my due date they would allow me to go without having to intervene, since going over seems to be a pattern in my family. She said that 41 weeks and 5 days is the longest I can go over before they send me to be induced by their OBGYN  in the hospital. I REALLY hope that does not happen to me, because the type of induction they do is just the normal Pitocin route, which results in abnormally painful contractions. Seeing as how I am not superwoman, I doubt my ability to refuse an epidural when I am contorting in pain and made to lay still in a hospital bed while hooked up to monitors and being poked and prodded by nurses. My natural birth would be out the window! EEP! One good thing to note is that at 36 weeks they will give me raspberry leaf caplets and evening primrose oil caplets to begin getting things ready. The former is taken orally and leads to light contracting of the uterus to hopefully get the cascade of events started, and the latter is inserted daily into the area around the cervix. It apparently disintegrates and gets the cervix "prepared" better for dilation and such. Sounds graphic, I know, but I am excited there is something proactive I can do to help ensure NO INDUCTION is needed! If I go over 41 weeks and 5 days they feel that my placenta has a high risk of being compromised and that is no bueno for Augie. I also asked them how long I would be allowed to labor at the birth center, and they said that as long as neither of us went into distress we could go as long as needed. Finally, I asked how long after until we go home, and that is between 2 and 6 hours. WOO HOO! I love that I won't have to spend unneeded time in a nasty hospital bed.


Current Stats:

How far along: 23 weeks
Weight gain: 9lbs Woot Woot! Right on track.
Cravings:  Fresh fruit and carbs.
Sleep: I dream a LOT about Forrest now. I thought my dreams would be about babies!?!
Moods: A little but not too bad. Probably because Forrest has curbed the grumpy lately for me : )
Stretch Marks: not yet...
What I Miss: Sleeping more than 4 hours without peeing. 
Milestones: The kicks have gotten quite strong and I can SEE them!
Looking Forward To: Hugging my little baby bear!