Milestones and experiences

At work they keep asking me if I'm journaling or blogging about this whole pregnancy experience. I am not doing as good of a job as I might have hoped, but that happens.

This past Sunday (July 6) I had my first experience with what I assume was Braxton Hicks contractions. I was folding laundry and doubled over with pain....it was a bad cramp on the lower side of my belly. I went upstairs, laid down, had some water, had one more cramp, and then everything was fine. I'm hoping that I don't experience that until it's actual labor time, but at least I know what the Braxton Hicks are going to be like for me.

He's been a bunch more active, on some days. The days when I don't feel him moving about all the time I get nervous. I realize it can depend on what I eat, when I eat, how I slept, how he's feeling on each day, but it's something I find myself worrying about. Today was a very active day where he's been moving around all day. Typically he's more of an evening mover and shaker...still not moving enough for my husband to feel, but moving around for sure.

My dogs have decided to teach me patience and not to jump to the conclusion of running to the vet/doctor for everything. Last week, the boys were playing ball, ran at full speed into each other's heads, and one of them had a tooth pop out. He had blood all over his nose, I freaked out...cleaned him up, saw what was going on, researched (google is a friend and an enemy) and calmed down. This week, the other dog decided to jump up on the backside of the grill while we were eating. The grill had been turned off for 10-15 minutes already, but it was still hot. The top part of his paw got stuck onto the outside of the grill (stuck between the grill and the piping that holds the grill up)....that was the WORST sound I ever heard in my life. It lasted 20 seconds at most from the moment it happened until we had him freed but on my goodness it was terrible. He ended up burning up some of his fur and having a burn on his paw, but it's healing up nicely (just like the other one's tooth). They can stop teaching me lessons now!

My dogs are also showing me and my husband that we need to work with them a bit more to prepare them for the baby. One of them is so super excited and curious but he jumps with his mouth open...and he can jump! We need to get more baby stuff in the house so that we can reinforce calm behavior around baby stuff (and eventually around baby). It'll be a process, but we will all be in a happy household eventually.

Things not to say to a pregnant woman

I keep seeing these lists pop up everywhere, but yet I feel that I need to write my own. These are things that have been said (or done) to me...I'm 23 weeks pregnant as of today...I'm sure I'll be updating this list.

"You get bigger every time I see you"
"I can't wait to see how huge you get"
"Oh, I didn't know you're pregnant, you're hiding it, why are you hiding it?"
"You're so tiny, are you ok?"
"Are you sure you're pregnant?"
"Let's see how big that belly has gotten"

Added 7/8/14
"I swear, if you hadn't told me you were pregnant I never would have know"
"I think that us petite women have it (pregnancy) more difficult than *pause to look at me* some non-petite women" - not sure if this is in reference to my height and/or my weight
"Look at how big our baby is getting"

So pretty much, don't talk to me about my size...there is nothing good you could say to me about it.