Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Patience is a Virtue

Today I was supposed to have my first doctor's appointment. Just a basic question and answer, review of the huge medical history questionaire that I've spent the last three days filling out. About 10 minutes before I was going to leave, I received a phone call informing me that my appointment would have to be postponed. Postponed for another 2 weeks. I was fine on the phone, but as soon as I hung up, I found myself becoming very emotional. I imediately proceeded to call Brandon (of course) and as a result, have decided to set up appointments in Seattle as opposed to the Tacoma/Port Orchard system we had originally found more convenient.

I never thought I would have been so upset to miss a doctor's appointment. I normally HATE going to the doctor. Anyone who knows me, knows that I will postpone going to the doctor for as long as possible. But I think that curiosity has gotten the best of me. I have been looking forward to letting the process begin. To finding out what happens next. What happens now? Nothing. I am now supposed to wait some more. I'm not a very patient person.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

The Motion of the Ocean

This morning on our daily ferry commute to Seattle, I experienced what I believe was my first bout of nausea. Let me just say it wasn't that great. I think it may have been caused not by my already perfect child, but the fact that I rushed myself out the door this morning. A result of a NOT-so-good nights sleep. So I didn't really get any breakfast, unless you count a prenatal vitamin and a glass of cranberry juice healthy. No? I didn't think so. Another problem with me rushing in the morning is the lunch I pack for myself, or the lack thereof. By quickly throwing items from our pantry into my backpack, I ended up with a container of applesauce, a package of saltines, and half a bag of baby carrots. I think I may head to the deli down the road in a while to supplement my insane thinking. I will just say this in my defense, Hopefully, this senario will not likely happen again anytime soon.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Questions

I have discovered that being pregnant gives a woman a whole new outlook on the way she lives her life. Brandon has discovered that he now has excuses to tell me what I can and can't do, and whether I know what I'm supposed to be doing or not. sarcastic note: Did you know that I shouldn't smoke cigarettes, or do any sort of street drugs? Also, I shouldn't drink 12 cups of coffee a day, or do any extreme sports such as bull-riding, or bungie-jumping. Really any action that requires a hyphen, is off limits. He's also banned me from wild nights at the local bar. I don't think I've ever had a WILD night at a bar. Now that I'm pregnant, however, it is completely OFF LIMITS!!! He really does love me.

I called last week, the day I took the pregnancy test, and made a doctors appointment. I have an appointment this Wednesday, and am supposed to bring with me the questionaire they sent me. I received that questionaire today. WHO KNEW that having a baby meant that I'd have to have the medical family history of everyone on both mine and Brandon's family back to the year 1625. Twelve pages of Have yous? and When did yous? As if we didn't have enough to think about and plan, now I have to worry about whether or not Brandon's Mother's Cousin's Great Grandmother had diabetes. I know that it's all important info, I guess I just didn't realize how much detail the doctor actually needs. I can shove that doctor a load of payback with all the questions I'll be asking on Wednesday, so I probably shouldn't complain.

Brandon and I are actually one of the few couples we know that don't have kids yet. It amazes me that all of the women I know that have had a baby within the past 2 years (All 43 of them) have gone through exactly what I'm going through right now, and what I will be going through the next few years. Looking at all of the baby pictures we keep on our refridgerator, Eddie, Khloe, Brendan, Evan, Melina... It's finally set in, that all of these gorgeous babies started exactly where the grain-of-rice-sized fetus in my lower abdomen is right now. Looking at the picture in our copy of "What to Expect..." of the one-month old fetus, and then trying to imagine that little peice of scrammbled egg as a beautiful baby like the pictures on our fridge absolutely stuns me. Our baby doesn't even have a nose yet. Although ruling out OUR baby not having a nose is a little hard to do. Have you seen the schnozes on Brandon and myself?
New Life

It is so hard to imagine as a five year old worry-free kid, that one day you will not only have children of your own, but grandchildren and great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren and so on and so forth(you get the gist). Then one day, whether you expect it or not, two lines appear on a test indicating very clearly, and by the way a lot quicker than the 3 minutes you're supposed to wait, your life is forever changed.

This is exactly what happened last Wednesday morning. My husband Brandon was in the shower when I woke up and decided, "Hey, maybe I'll take a pregnancy test." I'll admit, I had been feeling a bit different (gassy, hungry, I really felt I needed my appendix out) but definately wasn't expecting anything. So, I pull the test out, follow the instructions, and just about instantly, I found out we are going to have a baby.

Automatically after telling Brandon, we went into a fury of whats, whos, whens, whats, and more whats. "What room are we giving up to make a nursury?" "What do I have to give up eating,?" "What should I be eating more of?" "Who do we need to tell?" "When do we actually tell anyone?" "What type of diapers are we going to use?" "How long am I supposed to breastfeed?" yadda..... yadda...... yadda......?,?,?....... So in order to filter all of these questions and to adjust to the new life we just found out we had, Brandon took the day off and we went
shopping!

Given there aren't many stores in Port Orchard to actually SHOP in, we still found ourselves directly in the center of every baby section of every store we went into. We ended our day on the town wth 2 copies of "What to Expect When You're Expecting", a bottle of PreNatal Vitamins, and a mild case of indigestion (Deli food is not always all that wonderful).

Since we learned of our newest addition, our days have been filled with lots and lots of phone calls and announcements, both fun and emotional. We have so much support, and I think that although we'll be getting TONS of hand-me downs, the fact that we have wonderful family and friends to help guide and support us will make the most difference in this new life adventure.