Microblog Mondays: Great father

Whoa jet lag (and/or pregnancy insomnia?). I got a whopping 4.5 hours of sleep last night so today is going to be a rough day of work.

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Today I wanted to salute my husband CP. Izzy is on a bit of a "daddy is my favorite" kick right now which while it made me a little sad, was also sort of nice and made our trip to Hawaii a bit more relaxing (for me at least). I have been her favorite for the past two years so it's nice that he is getting a turn. We decided that since we never use the stroller at home we wouldn't bring one to Hawaii and instead would bring the hiking backpack for hikes through the National Park. Usually I like to wear on the backpack because I get a workout carrying around Izzy's 30+ pound frame but because the straps would hit me right on my baby belly, CP took over as Izzy's personal Hodor for the week (sorry non-GOT fans- you may not get that reference). I carried Izzy a little on my hip but CP did most of the carrying if Izzy got tired from walking around too much. He never complained and Izzy had a blast.

Izzy on CP's shoulders while hiking Pu'u Huluhulu (Hairy Hill) 

I also love how we trade off on getting up with Izzy if she wakes up during the night. I know some wives complain about their husbands' sleeping through crying at night and CP certainly did that sometimes when Izzy was an infant. But really, as soon as I went back to work and Izzy started sleeping through the night we would take turns getting up when she cried. Last night I couldn't sleep so when Izzy cried out in her sleep at 11:30, CP sat up with a start and was ready to go into her room. Luckily she put herself back to sleep within 20 seconds but around 3am she started crying for us. I took the first shift, then when she woke up later, he took the next shift. Teamwork at its best.

I know that CP won't see this blog post but I made sure to thank him this week and this morning for being so awesome.

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Good and Bad

Good: Izzy is feeling much better after her tough Superbowl Sunday ear infection. She is back to normal.

Bad: CP has now come down a fever/sore throat combo which kept him out of work yesterday and had him come home halfway through the day on Monday. He is headed to the doctor today and hopefully he starts to feel better soon.

Good: Last year we set up a dependent care account through my work. The max we can put in is $5000 but we almost quadruple that amount in daycare expenses. I submitted the forms last week and we already got paid! That money allowed us to pay off our car loan on the Prius (we had already paid the car off before but took out another low interest loan through our credit union to pay for siding our house a few years ago). Now we are back to one car payment again. YAY!

Bad: This weekend as I was backing out of our driveway in the minivan I was veering away from the Prius but hit a small retaining wall, scratching up and slightly knocking the front bumper (on one side) out of whack. I was so pissed. The leftover amount of money from the dependent care claim will likely go towards fixing it. Ugh.

Good: We leave for Hawaii in two days! Izzy is very excited to wear her "swimming suit" and to not have to wear a coat or hat. Me too kiddo.

Bad: Nothing bad about a vacation!!

Good: On Monday Izzy's daycare had an in-service day and I had the day off so we had a mommy-daughter day where we went to the local children's museum. Izzy spent most of the time doing crafts that she was super proud of. In addition, we went to the fabric store where Izzy picked out the fabric that I will eventually make into curtains for her new room. I also got blackout material to sew onto curtains in our sunroom to make them heavier to hopefully trap more heat in the room.

Painting with colored ice

Gluing onto a mixed-media masterpiece

Bad: She didn't take a nap that day so she was a little nuts that night. Her napping has gotten better though and I don't think that she is ready to drop her nap just yet (thank goodness).

Good: Recently we signed Izzy up for Highlights the magazine (High Five- the toddler version). Not only does Izzy love getting something in the mail on a monthly basis ("it's mines?"), but she loves the content in the magazine as well! CP and I remember getting Highlights as a kid so we were happy to order it for her. For our big plane ride we got Izzy a book of hidden pictures so hopefully that keeps her busy for a while. (Not being paid to promote this but thought it was a good idea for other toddler parents.)

Bad: We have to read the same magazine every single night. :-/

Good: I have now been outed to my neighbors as being pregnant and everyone is excited. We had a wine party on Saturday night and early on one of the wives noticed that I wasn't drinking. She quietly asked, I said yes, then she announced to everyone the big news (I didn't want to do a big announcement so I was more than happy for her to do it).

Bad: I had let one of the other IVF neighbors know the week before that I was pregnant (she is done having kids) and she was super excited, but didn't get to talk to the other one (tried to have a second kid through IVF and it never worked- now is divorced). I didn't get a chance to speak to her that night so I hope that she is okay.

Good: My job application went in last week and I was selected as one of the best qualified candidates so my boss received my application package (we have a weird way of doing things around here). Yay! Hopefully I will get scheduled for an interview soon.

Bad: My boss literally just came to my door and said that they have to make a decision on the position by February 29th- the day that I get back into the office from vacation. So it looks like I might either have to interview tomorrow or while I am on vacation. Not ideal but if it has to be done, it has to be done. Guess I won't have to out myself as pregnant before the selection is made!

Snippets

*Today I am feeling a bit sense of relief. Remember that potential promotion at work? I finally updated my resume (mental note- don't wait years to do that again!) and submitted my application yesterday. Now I just wait and hope to get an interview!

*How was your Superbowl Sunday? Ours ended up being pretty relaxed because Izzy was sick. She woke up Saturday morning with a fever so she didn't end up going to soccer. She ran some errands with CP but he realized that she wasn't feeling great when at the grocery store he had to make a quick exit because she fell asleep on his shoulder (never happens). We would give her Tylenol which would bring her fever down, but it would flare up again once the medicine wore off which would make her very clingy and snuggly. CP stayed home with her on Monday because I had a big day at work and took her into the doctor- ear infection. I should have thought about that but always forget about ear infections because she doesn't complain about her ears hurting or pull on them. I ended up staying home with her on Tuesday because she still had a fever on Monday night but she was basically back to normal after starting antibiotics on Monday morning.

Poor sick Izzy on Superbowl Sunday

Izzy feeling better when the Tylenol would kick in

*Were you happy about the Broncos winning on Sunday? I was rooting for the Panthers because I am a fan of Cam Newton and wanted a new team to win....oh well. Hopefully my Eagles will be in the Superbowl next year (ha ha).

*Not super excited about the news that there is a dengue fever outbreak on Hawaii's big island since we are  heading there in 8 days, but so far no Zika so that's good. I'm just going to be careful and wear repellent. Otherwise, I am looking forward to our vacation!

*What are people doing for Valentine's Day? Anything? Usually CP makes me a fancy dinner but with us leaving for Hawaii in about a week maybe we will just wait to have a fancy dinner by ourselves in Hawaii! My MIL can hang out with Izzy that night. :-)

*So far I think that I have done a good job of hiding my belly at work but when my parents were over this weekend my Dad looked at my belly and said "You aren't going to be hiding that from people for long." To be fair, we had just eaten dinner so my belly was full of food AND I was wearing a maternity shirt so it hugged the belly a bit more than the shirts I am wearing at work. But, he's probably right. I think that I'm looking more like my 17 week picture with Izzy and I'm only 15 weeks.

New hobby

For my birthday CP got me a sewing machine. For the last couple of years I had been talking about wanting to learn how to sew, but had no idea where to start. CP remembered that and had secret talks with his mom and my mom to figure out the best machine for a beginner that would hopefully get better as the years went on.

I actually got my present two weeks early because CP wanted me to bring it up to Michigan for Thanksgiving so that my mom could give me some lessons. I ended up making Christmas napkins (hard to see but the green ones in front of the sewing machine below). They weren't perfect but a good first start.

After pursing Pinterest, I decided that I would next tackle making a pillow for Izzy (I used this as my guide). I took her to the local fabric store and asked her to pick out the fabric that she liked. She quickly picked out this whale fabric and I paired it with a gray fabric to add some contrast. Actually making the pillow took longer than I would have liked because the first night I would wash the fabric, the next night iron it, the follow night pin it, the next night sew it, the next night iron it again, etc. But I finally finished it and Izzy was super excited.

Finished pillow!

Not sure why the picture is upside down, but here is Izzy getting ready for bed, excited to be sleeping on her pillow (and yes, with all of her stuffed animals sleeping around her).

Now I have to figure out my next project!

First Trimester Bump Pictures

I know that bump pictures are not everyone's cup of tea so please feel free to click away if you are not interested. I have been a little lazy in remembering to take a picture every week, so this is a short post. Hopefully I will be better about remembering as this pregnancy progresses.

8 weeks. My c-section pouch makes me look lumpy.

9 weeks (we had houseguests so Izzy's crib and books were in our room!)



(Missed 10 week picture)

11 weeks (maternity clothes have been washed and were on the floor waiting for me to move clothes that won't fit soon out of the closet that I share with CP)

12 weeks (maternity clothes are still on the floor)


(Missed 13 week picture)

14 weeks

After looking back at my bump pictures with Izzy I think that I am looking closer to 16 weeks, but it's hard to tell.

First trimester recap

I can't believe that I am already in the second trimester! I feel like the weeks have been ticking by so slowly and I didn't even have to go through the dreaded two week wait! This whole getting pregnant naturally still blows my mind and I think that I have been more nervous throughout this pregnancy than I was with Izzy. It's sort of crazy because people have natural pregnancies ALL THE TIME. But after three years of not getting pregnant naturally and having to go through IVF, the lack of drugs and extra ultrasounds has been unnerving. Hopefully now that I am in the second trimester I can relax a little bit.

Once again, I had a fairly easy first trimester. Thank you body for no morning sickness and for simply being a little queasy when I didn't eat something fast enough. After finding out that I was pregnant I had a few nosebleeds (something I remember getting later in my pregnancy with Izzy), I was EXHAUSTED, cold, and got a little dizzy when I stood up to quickly (especially when holding Izzy). Of course the dreaded constipation came back into play which I have tried to counteract with a daily prune. 

Around 8 weeks or so I started to get some heartburn which I definitely don't remember getting this early, I would get out of breath quickly when going up stairs and if I stayed very still in bed at night, I could feel blood flowing near my uterus.

Since then I have had a few instances of round ligament pain, which has felt like sharp pain in my lower right belly, when sneezing, coughing, or getting up from the floor. My doctor says that I'll probably have more round ligament pain this time around because my muscles have stretched from my last pregnancy. More recently I have noticed how seriously heavy my breasts are these days and want to wear a sports bra as much as possible instead of a real bra. I also had one day where there was a sharp pain in my breast, but it went away the next day. Maybe because it's a boy but I have been breaking out more during this pregnancy, especially near my hair line and eyebrows. I am also STARVING. I crave carbs in the morning (especially bagels) and have had a lot of cravings for meat already (cheesesteak and cheeseburgers). I practically became a vegetarian during my pregnancy with Izzy so this has been different.

I got lazy and started wear maternity pants around 11 weeks. Last time I think it was closer to 17 weeks but I wore a lot of stretchy pants during the inbetween weeks and I didn't feel like pulling those out again. I don't really have enough of a belly to keep the pants up all of the time, but they are so comfortable I really don't care. :-) It looks like I have gained 4 pounds so far this pregnancy (last pregnancy I gained nothing in the first trimester).

Despite the exhaustion, I have been blessed with an easy first trimester. The boy has looked good on all of the ultrasounds and he passed the genetic abnormalities blood test. I really can't complain. This weekend I didn't get to take a nap and realized that I didn't necessary need one so I think my exhaustion is starting to lift. Here's hoping for a good second trimester!

Microblog Mondays: Promotion opportunity

Last week a supervisor position opened up in my office. It's a new position and basically the only way for me to get a promotion unless I move to a new division (which I don't want to). I believe that I would be able to keep doing what I currently do (and love) and just add some supervisory functions. I have been hoping for it to open for almost two years now and of course it comes at the worst time! I haven't told anyone at work that I am pregnant yet and although I know that it is illegal to bypass a pregnant woman for a promotion, I think that I may wait to tell anyone about the pregnancy for a while. I just don't want to chance it. 

My boss and his boss (both men of course) love my work and know that I do great work. But in the back of their minds, they may think that having a second child may change my work ethic, or just that my three month maternity leave could be a problem in terms of their work load....so it's just not worth it.

So until then, I'm rocking the maternity pants but not the shirts yet (I don't need them quite yet) and trying to hide my belly that is getting a little bigger every week. I don't look pregnant yet...just like I have gained some weight in my midsection. We'll see how long this ruse lasts.....

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