Coming to an end?

I am 38 weeks and 2 days pregnant today.

It's incredible to think about really. I have grown a human. I can feel him moving around and how he's changed (kind of). After trying so hard to conceive, finally conceiving, making it through the first trimester, growing in the second trimester, and now winding things down in the third trimester, this journey has been incredible.

I tried very hard not to complain during my pregnancy since it was so hard for us to get pregnant. Are there rough days? Absolutely! This part is really hard because sleep is not really happening, there is no way to get comfortable, and hormones are making me crazy. Add to that contractions starting, fluid leaking, stuffy nose, waddling, baby dropping...it's just a whole lot happening at once...and I'm still working (go me).

Things that I feel I have learned:
1.) Limit what you say to a pregnant person, especially towards the end
What I mean by that is while I appreciate everyone being interested in my pregnancy, I hear the same thing 50 times a day and it's hard to keep answering some questions.

2.) Everyone has an opinion and yours is wrong
Ugh, people are just asshats! Everyone will give you their opinion of what you are going through compared to what they went through even though every pregnancy (and every person) is different. I just keep thinking that it's good practice for when these people start to tell me how to raise my child.

3.) Exercise is awesome
Well I already knew that, but I was able to do real workouts until about 36 weeks where I was riding a bike, swimming or on the elliptical in addition to walking and yoga. Now I'm just down to yoga and walking but I'm still doing those things and it really does make me feel good, and I think has helped me throughout the pregnancy.

4.) The body is an amazing thing
I can believe how stretched out I am, it's crazy! This is a comparison photo from 6 weeks to 37 weeks.

I should take a picture this week to show that I've dropped but I keep forgetting to do that.

5.) Gratitude

I had already started a gratitude list at the beginning of the year (which I failed at keeping up with). I am grateful for so much though, and being pregnant has helped me to see even more. I have amazing friends and family and support system. My husband is the greatest man in the world. My dogs are incredible as is my cat...and my husband and I are really good at training them (when we are consistent). Our world is very full and complete and wonderful. We are lucky and I'm happy about that.

6.) Ferris Bueller was right

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

I am excited to meet this little man and I realize that while this journey is coming to an end, I have a new wonderful journey that's just about to begin...and luckily I can have some wine to help me with this new journey :)

31 weeks and counting

Hello everyone,

As usual, I took a summer vacation from blogging...mostly because I'm too busy at work and too tired when I get home.

Baby news is he is still cooking (yes a he)...I failed the one hour glucose test which was bad but passed the three hour test which is no fun at all, but I passed. I had friends telling me in the middle of the three hour test that I can deny it...why would you tell me that after I've already started the dang thing???

So here are some new observations since I left you all.
- People see you as pregnant and feel they can say anything they want to you.
- Showing that you're pregnant makes people feel they can touch you
- My friends and people I wouldn't mind touching my belly are the ones who are most likely to not touch my belly...it's the strangers who feel that they have the right to
- People love to tell horror stories (either their own or ones that they have heard)
- People love to tell you what to do and how to do it in regards to all things pregnancy, baby and raising a child
- Overweight people love to tell you how HUGE you look when you're pregnant
- People do seem to be more understanding of brain farts when you're pregnant
- People do seem to smile at you more when you're pregnant
- People still do not move out of the way and will bump into you

I think that the worst thing was a very large woman asking me how far along I was, I responded about 6 months and she said, "no you're not, you are way too large to only be 6 months pregnant"...that was the worst one. She was larger than me and just wanted to insult someone else I'm guessing. In the same regard though, the opposite statement bothered me too...a colleague hadn't seen me in a while and didn't notice I was pregnant (this was right around the same time the large stranger had said something to me)...I mentioned my pregnancy and my colleague was shocked and said that "you're hiding it well". How can I be both too large to be 6 months pregnant and hiding it?

Now though I'm shrugging it off much better than I was, but man people sure think that they can do whatever they want around you when you're pregnant!

I've also been trying very hard not to have discussions with people regarding sensitive subjects, such as natural birth versus epidural or other drugs; vaccinations/vaccination scheduling; circumcision; faith etc. People sure want to know those things though.

Music festivals - the preparation

I go to two large music festivals a year, Lollapalooza and Riot Fest. Both are held in Chicago, one in August the other in September. I love going to music fests, they are awesome, intense, overwhelming but fun.

There is tons of preparation that goes into attending a music festival and I'm here to discuss some of that. (I can only imagine what goes into putting one together, but luckily I don't).

Getting tickets:
These two festivals are currently very different in how you obtain tickets. For Lolla you watch Facebook/Twitter/Website to see when the tickets will go on sale. There used to be a "secret sale" in which we got tickets one time at the low, low price. Now, tickets sell out within an hour of going on sale. I have tons of opinions regarding this, but I will not express them in this blog at this time (I've expressed it plenty to the lolla people via Facebook and Twitter). Tickets go on sale prior to the line up being announced, so you're buying tickets without knowing who you are going to see.

Riot Fest is much more laid back. You can buy your tickets stupid early (Black Friday) for super cheap. Then they stay off of the market until about May when they release the line up and tickets go back on sale. Here you have the option of waiting until the line up is released to purchase regularly priced tickets.

The schedule:
After the line up is released, the schedule comes out. For lolla they give you a bit more time than Riot Fest does. Lolla released the schedule today (May 15, 2014) for the fest that begins August 1. The initial time you look at the schedule there is tons of excitement and frustration. I always have one day where I need to be there at noon...and sometimes my next band isn't until 4pm...but always one day at noon. We are typically there until 10pm at night so we have two meals there and use the port-o-potties numerous amounts of times. After the initial review of the schedule, you have a couple of months to start to listen to all of the other bands on the schedule that you had no clue who they were. This then creates a multitude of conflicts because you want to be in two or three places at once OR one band ends at 3:15 at the north end and the other band starts at 3:15 on the south end. It's a mile between the two places...with 100,000 people in between.

Riot Fest (last year) had some issues releasing the schedule and I believe we had approximately a week to review the schedule and plan. I'm hoping this year they don't have those issues. Here, the area is not nearly as big nor are there as many people, that is up until the evening performance where if you didn't setup a picnic spot you aren't getting into the sea of people. Since there are only 3 stages (well sometimes 4) there are not nearly the number of conflicts here, and the stages are closer together so you don't have that issue. Plus if there is a large amount of time in between sets of bands you do want to hear, there is a carnival!

The bag:
Water, water, frozen water, frozen water, sunscreen, hat, bandana, poop bags, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, camera (though now I think we pretty much just use our phones), copy of schedule.

Transportation:
This is where it all depends on where you live. In the city? CTA baby! In the suburbs: drive to a CTA stop and pay to park there for the day and take the CTA into the city; take the Metra (commuter train) into the city; drive and park downtown; stay at a hotel downtown; pay for a car to bring you and pick you up.

For Riot Fest we drove last year and parked about a mile away, no biggie. For Lolla we'll be driving this year (I'll be 6 months pregnant) and I'm a little bit nervous about that. It's still cheaper than getting a hotel room. If we were drinking, we would have done the hotel room this year I think.

At the fest:
Wear comfortable shoes and clothing and drink lots of water. Yes you will need to use the port-o a little bit more, but you will be better off for the entire weekend if you drink lots of water. No one wants to go to a 3-day music festival hungover...especially when it's in August! Riot Fest isn't as bad but still drink lots of water. Keep checking your schedule, you don't want to miss anything!

Recovery:
Each night, eat something when you get home and drink more water. Sleep! Take the next day off to sleep if at all possible.

This year specifically:
The Riot Fest line up came out the other day, and now I'm way more excited about that than Lolla (even though I'll be 7.5 months pregnant at that one). Looking at the Lolla line up and schedule I'm more "meh" about two of the days than I would have liked. The good news is, I have time to learn more of these bands and start to like more and want to see more.

Yes, I am starting to feel old, but at least Riot Fest tips their hat to me on that and gives me my old music mixed with my new stuff.

15 weeks, Eek!

I'm 15 weeks pregnant! Eek!

Last night my husband said, "we're going to be parents" my response was a rather freaked out, "yup". Funny how from moment to moment that feeling changes from total freak out to total excitement.

This morning I've been experiencing new pressure. Not pain, not flutters, just pressure. Since Tic-Tac is the size of an orange and my uterus is much larger, it's no wonder I'm feeling pressure.

I've decided that I need to walk more, and I don't think I'll be running much longer. I love being outside and I love to run, but I feel like I'm running slower than I walk there days. I can walk a 15 minute mile, but feel like I'm running at 16 minutes...so walking it is. Plus, while I walk slower with the puppies, they love going for long walks, so we will just go for walks in the woods in addition to around the neighborhood.

Another thing that's exciting, is that I have something the size of an orange growing inside of me. Yup, we're reached orange size, it's crazy! No wonder I have a little bump, I've got a full orange in there :)

Cat is out of the bag

I finally got to post all of those blog posts I've "saved".

That's right, we are having a baby!

It's a very exciting time, and I've had lots of scares and ups and downs and we're only 1/3 of the way through! At least we are in the safe zone now.

I really don't understand how people don't "know" that they're pregnant until they give birth. My breasts have gone up 2.5 sizes, I'm exhausted all the time, nauseous, moody and just feel off a bunch of the time. I really don't know how you wouldn't know.

Yes I realize every pregnancy is different, but you really would think something would be noticed.

Anyway, I shared some really personal stuff in some of the other posts, but here is the official announcement, so yay!

1st time IUI - success

I realized that I kept looking for success stories from people who had a Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) and I didn't really find many stories. There were a couple of posts in the chat forums but I found it difficult to find a real story.

Here is a real story of a first attempt at an IUI that we went natural with.

January 28, 2014 we had an appointment for a consultation for fertility help. We had tried for a year, and nothing. My husband and I both had a plethora of tests done to which we were told, it could be a few things...you're borderline so we'll call it unexplained infertility.

That's right...there's something going on, but we're not sure, so let's call it unexplained.

January 28, 2014 was cycle day 1 (CD1) so the doctor didn't want to start me on any medication since we were just going in for a consultation. After meeting with the doctor, discussing the different options, we had a mountain of paperwork to sign. We weren't even sure if we were going to start treatment/help right away, but when they have you there, both of you there, you just sign a bunch of papers.

We were told that we could do a natural cycle for that month, no drugs, no ultrasounds, nothing really extra...just start peeing on an Ovulation Predictor Kit (OPK) around CD10 and once it turns, call them. I was like clockwork and on CD13 I got a positive. It was a Sunday and the center was closed so on CD14 we called first thing in the morning. At 9am we were at the center and my husband went into a room and did what he needed to do. An hour later we were in a room with a nurse with the processed baby making juice. We had 32.7 million swimmers and after they jumped into the pool (or were forced in I should say), we hung out for about 20 minutes. We were told to have some fun the next morning as well just to add to the numbers.

One week later I went in for bloodwork and my progesterone was around 9.4. They said that for natural that wasn't bad, but they wanted to put me on progesterone to increase the likelihood of a sticky bean. Let me tell you how not fun progesterone suppositories are. Twice a day...it gave me killer PMS...or perhaps it was the fact that I had a blastocyte bouncing around that gave me killer PMS or the embryo that decided to implant that gave me killer PMS. Regardless, killer...super moody, crampy, crying, sore and big boobies...but then it happened...CD28.

On February 24 I pee'd on a stick and I thought that there was a very faint second line. My husband said it might be there but not to get my hopes up. I decided I would call the center and go in for a bloodtest. Only I couldn't wait until they opened and I pee'd on a different stick and that one there was a positive...I couldn't believe it! I texted my husband and he told me to still call the center and get confirmation from the doctor before we got too excited. I went and at 3:30pm I got the call...I was pregnant! HCG was at 65 and progesterone up to 21. I had to go back on CD30 (February 26)...went in there and the HCG went up to 138 and progesterone up to 26.2. I had to go back on CD32 (February 28) and my HCG went to 325 (progesterone went back down to 21.6 but doctor wasn't worried).

So there you have it...you can have a natural IUI, first attempt, and it can work. Now I'm waiting until Week 6 Day 1 to have our first ultrasound (March 11)...this one is done at the fertility center...my first official OB appointment is March 31 when I will be 9 weeks...of course this blog post won't get posted until after that, so there may be a few updates made to this initial post, but overall that's the scoop. So yes ladies, it can happen :)

(Originally written: March 3, 2014)