Twenty-Eight Weeks

Note: Still catching up from the computer glitch... but baby's growing fast!

Twenty Eight Weeks. It's getting closer, fast, very fast.

October 1, 2013
28 Weeks, 0 Days
We had a doctor's appointment today! Got to hear that baby's heartbeat again, although at this point I know she's alive and well because she's kicking all the time. I love it!

My doctor had to leave the office to deliver a baby, so I met with one of the other doctor's in the clinic. I had a million questions, again about childbirth and hospital policies, but decided to wait until after our class at the hospital and ask my actual doctor at the next appointment.

Not the most exciting visit, but I did get to drink what they call the GluCola for my Gestational Diabetes Screening. Won't hear back for a few days about my results, so I'm anxiously waiting, not because I'm nervous, but I'm a registered dietitian who loves to read lab results.

Now I'll start going to the doctor every two weeks! It's crazy, due date is getting closer every day! Mother-in-law reminded me that I could use the Christmas Countdowns and subtract a day to countdown to my due date. The other day was 100 days until Christmas, so that meant 99 days for me (give or take a few). Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.

October 2, 2013
28 Weeks, 1 Day
Heartburn was not just here after I ate too much chili. It's possibly here to stay, it's attacking me with a vengeance. I finally understand the complaints of all my old patients... but I'm taking all of my own recommendations and it's not quite working. I had tuna and whole grain crackers and grapes for lunch. It was small. And then heartburn for dessert... and then I was starving a  few hours later so I had some yogurt and granola, some. And then heartburn...

I think I need an appointment with the Tums in our medicine cabinet.

Twenty Eight Weeks and for those of you who were wondering, no gestational diabetes thus far. Thankful for a healthy pregnancy. It's work to roll out of bed or get off the couch with this big 'ole belly but I know I've had it very easy compared to some. And for the ones out there who are wishing they would be uncomfortable for 9 months because you're still waiting, still trying for your baby... I'm praying for you this morning. The Lord is good.

Eggplant baby, big belly and all...

Twenty-Seven Weeks

Note: Who knew one little computer glitch would put me this far behind. Turns out we needed a new motherboard. Then turns out I had WAY too many pictures on our little laptop: my fancy camera pictures were taking up like 90% of the computer's total storage space or something crazy like that. Now we're armed with a new motherboard AND a couple of external hard drives for all the pictures. And we're back in action!

So much to update you guys on! We've been busy around the Hess House! Stick with us as we play catch up on little (but growing) Baby Hess...

It's October. Oh man, it's fall and it's October and we are officially in the THIRD TRIMESTER! It's kind of crazy, but I feel like maybe we should have a party or something. I'm kind of impressed we've made it this far... you know, while still sane and still able to walk without a full-on waddle.

September 25, 2013

Tired hit me like a ton of bricks. Like Ten Weeks Pregnant kind of tired (which for me was literally falling asleep everywhere for 3 hours in the middle of the day)... I'm not sure if I'm over doing it once I get home, or if I'm just not getting to bed early enough, or if it's just that little baby bouncing around in there stealing all my energy.

Or maybe it's iron... gotta start taking iron. As a dietitian I pride myself in how well I eat (most of the time). I'm taking folic acid because it's way too risky not too (you can't always get the right amount of spinach in conveniently each day). I'm taking DHA because I can't eat enough fish for the amount of DHA me and baby really need (thanks to the recommendations that I limit my mercury exposure). And I'm not taking calcium... instead I drink 3+ glasses of milk a day and eat yogurt everyday with lunch. Taking extra calcium would just be overkill at this point. I mean sometimes I drink 6 glasses of milk in one day... this girl loves milk.

But the iron. Us pregnant women really need more iron than it's really quite possible to eat in one day while staying in boundaries for other nutrients... so I've been taking iron 1-2 times a week.

May be time to up that. And I know that. And my prenatal vitamins (with iron) are on the way to me right this moment via the US Mail. But that doesn't help me keep my head up at work...

Or maybe it was mowing half the lawn two days in a row, or staying up just a little too late to finish a sewing project, or building a headboard in the garage and beating the tar out of those nails with the hammer.

Either way, I'm totally that tired pregnant woman who really wants to take a nap in the "Safe Place" setup for 4 year olds right outside her cubicle...

Baby seems to have lots of energy though, glad for that. Glad for her. Although I am tired, I am truly blessed.

September 30, 2013

So Saturday we had friends over to watch the LSU game. We have cable this year so we can actually invite people over to our house to watch the game! Kyle and I decided to go all out and make chili for the game, although Kyle liked to call it chili frito pie, because his wasn't just chili. Love chili, great idea...

But today it wasn't my best idea. I packed a little too much leftover chili in my lunch box and ate every last bit of it. And then I remembered I was a pregnant woman. And that pregnant women are prone to heartburn... and then the heartburn came with a vengeance and kept on coming for the next 4-6 hours. Ooops...

But I really have been trying to get a lot done around the house. I think maybe my plans are getting a little bit ahead of my energy level. I decided to make a list of things I wanted to do this week around the house and it ended up something like this:

 - Finish the headboard, Prime, Paint
 - Prime, Paint, and Install the Chandelier from Mom and Dad's house into our kitchen.
 - Prime and Paint the old lamp for the baby's room, and get a lampshade.
 - Prime and Paint the cool mirror I bought at a garage sale... for the baby's room.
 - Prime, Paint and Hang the coat hooks I bought at Canton way too long ago
 - Paint the Hallway and Hang a few pictures

Then it led to: paint the desk in the living room, go ahead and paint the walls in our bedroom before installing the head board, sew some curtains for the baby room...

And then I realized I was insane. And that I didn't have enough energy to get all those things done. And especially that all those things didn't need to get done before the baby arrives. And then I realized that actually, other than purchasing some very necessary baby items, none of the projects actually needed to be completed before the baby arrives. That made me really, really excited.

So i'm picking just a few projects at a time, maybe one at a time, and then spending a lot of time relaxing and watching TV and all those other mindless things people tell you to do a lot of before you have a baby.

And then here's the 27 Week belly pictures. Belly's getting big enough to hold that rutabaga sized baby this week. And if you are wondering about Kyle's pictures with the fruit, we're slowly catching up, and I'll air those pictures as soon as we can.

So we're officially back after the computer glitch, like I said, get ready to zoom through 6 weeks of preggo pics ;) and of course, Happy Tuesday.

A little paint, goes a long way...

Note: The computer is still out. Apparently when the computer guy says his shop closes at 5:00pm sometimes that means 4:55pm. I raced in there yesterday after work only to find the cute little "Closed" sign on the window. I get off early today, so I'm hoping to get the computer into the shop then... Until then, cell phone pics and not so many posts... sorry, it's kind of pathetic, I know... but we'll be up and running fully soon. I feel like the government shutdown message or something...

But we have been busy around the Hess house, functional computer or not. Kyle's been home so I've had him doing all my heavy lifting. Sometimes I must sound crazy 'ordering him around' but it's just my 'delicate condition'...

I got on the ball with a few projects this last week so I'll give you a sneak peek at what's been going on. Nothing is really safe around our house, safe from being hit with a coat of paint that is...

Went to Lowe's and got the supplies we need for the next few projects:

First is this handy respirator. I use No-VOC, low odor paint when I'm painting walls and painting with a brush, but apparently spray paint is not recommended for pregnant ladies. And primer is quite hard to find in No-VOC. So after a few hunts around the internet I saw this mask recommended for the preggo ladies. It's not 100% fool-proof. It doesn't say "Safe for Pregnant Ladies to Use for Painting" because, let's be honest, nothing, nothing says "Safe for Pregnant Ladies" it's like a rule or something... Like I don't recommend standing in a room full of lead paint just to see if it works. But for the 10-15 minutes of total spray painting I want to do in the next few months, I just wanted an added layer of protection. Mind you, many of my friends have said they spray painted without a mask and they were just fine... but sometimes I'm uncontrollably partial to the 'safety first' side of things...

And some people say, 'get someone else to paint it for you.' I'm not that person, I'm a little crazy when it comes to paint. Obsessive-compulsive maybe? Not that I'm perfect, but it's a pretty sad 'oh did you just get paint on the carpet?!' situation with others, lol...

So there's the spray paint. I've had this white Krylon spray paint in Glossy for a few months now. And I have a million things that are about to getting painted with it all at once. Well nine things (including the mirror not pictured)...

Then the other spray paint. It's the famous oil rubbed bronze spray paint by Rustoleum. It sticks to almost anything and I'm ready to see it in action.

For now I'm limiting myself to the pulls on the dresser for the nursery... but the rest of this can is going to coat all our inside door knobs once I'm no longer preggers. (You should see some of our door knobs, one of them doesn't even match the knob it's connected to on the other side of the door...) And then maybe a chandelier gets painted too... who knows.

And then there's the entire gallon of No-VOC, low odor ultra white paint in semi-gloss. I started out buying only a quart... then after listing everything I wanted to paint, Kyle recommended the gallon. He's a smart man.

On the list for the white paint: the dresser in the baby room, the headboard I've been building, and some old window frames I want to hang in the living room (was going to leave them with old flaky paint until I realized they are old and it could be lead paint!). Someday I'm planning on getting a coat on the dining room chairs and table and then every door in the house. Did I mention that all our trim is white and all the doors in the house are painted off-white? Or that maybe in the baby room 'one of these things is not like the other...?' Maybe the dresser...

Throw in a drill bit so we can finally finish putting together the headboard (apparently you need a drill bit longer than 4 inches to drill through a 4x4 post...) and a cheaper brush that I can throw away after getting primer all over it (rather than wrestling with mineral spirits) and we're ready to rock paint.

Don't expect all these projects to happen tomorrow. I'm a pregnant lady that gets tired at all hours of the day. But I do want to get the painting done before the dreaded cold weather get's me out of the perfect 'temperature zone' for painting... then it'll be a long, long winter...

Really nothing is safe. Well expect of course all the baby things and the respirator mask, they are all very safe. We double checked... and then maybe I triple checked... So maybe I'll say "nothing is safe from a little coat of paint." ...ooo, not even the walls in the hallway... :)

Happy Friday. It's Fall... :)

How 'bout them apples?

Note: The Hess Family laptop is still out of service, but we did get a second opinion today that looks like it may be worth repairing... Until then it's phone pictures for just a bit. We'll catch up on the pregnancy updates as soon as I can...

Just a little fun for your Friday. You know, before Miranda Lambert and the Countryfest/Bullfest weekend invade our small town...

So I was grocery shopping last night walking through the produce section. I had been enjoying myself quite a bit; it's amazing how the store changed after 8pm... no one in a rush, it's kind of like a little museum of food that you can purchase.

Anyways, so I'm in the produce section picking out some of these wonderful newly discovered boxed Prima tree-ripe peaches... When this young-ish man walks up to me and says,

"Excuse me, but do you like apples?"

I first thought, 'is this guy hitting on me in the produce department??' because a line about fruit is always a great idea in my book... And then I remembered that I had been waddling around the produce department because I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant. No, there is no way any sane person is hitting on a person in my condition... not that I'm available anyway...

I jumped back to reality and answered a quite excited "yes, I love apples." Because truth is, I do. They were the next item on my list and I was wondering what kind I would try since it's fall and apples are everywhere.

Then he (also very I excited) says, "Then you have to try these Jazz apples. The first time I ate one I was in New Zealand. They are delicious, and they're only available twice a year here!"

So then of course I'm excited about apples, but also wondering where this kid is from. Because in our small town I'd doubt that many people have been to New Zealand and had apples... but he trotted right off and, well, I told him that I'd try them and I did.

They are delicious. And I appreciate another fellow human's excitement over fruit... Even if he wasn't hitting on me...

I wrapped up my grocery store trip by stopping to see my friend the butcher and show off my pregnant belly. In his French accent he replied "oh a Christmas baby! vonderful time to have a little baby!" Beats the Americans who seem to often reply "oh how horrible... you're kid's going to hate that... Christmas birthday... wa wa..."

And then I returned home. Pretty impressed with my grocery store adventure and laughing at how I really am slowly or quickly becoming my own mother. :)

Slight Glitch

The blog may be a little lacking this week...

Apparently our trusty laptop decided to stop working. Therefore pictures from the camera have no way of getting to the computer and then out there to you in the interwebs... My iPhone pictures can get to you just fine, but they're not my best shots.

I've visited the local computer repair guy and he says it's bad. Like short in the motherboard bad. Which, I had no idea before, is like when your car has new tires, great alignment, maybe even a new air conditioner, but the engine won't run so it's worthless... Apparently a $450 repair on a computer renders it worthless.

Then we heard about the other computer repair guy in town (yep, along with two Sonics and two Dairy Queens our little bitty town has two computer repair guys). I'll be dropping the computer off to get a second opinion, and we'll see what diagnosis he gives.

But until all is well, I'm trying to figure out a good system for blogging. Maybe iPhone pics and typing posts on Kyle's iPad until we get all that figured out... but this week will be lacking. Sadly.

But it does give me more time to spray paint everything in the house. Okay maybe not everything, just a lamp, a mirror, a picture frame, coat hooks, and a chandelier...

Hoping your computers are happy and healthy, Happy Wednesday.