Week 8: Magic Beans

Kidney beans are not as cute as blueberries. I can't complain though~ I do like chili and that 3 bean salad stuff from the Fried Chicken spot in the grocery store.

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Technically I am 8 weeks and 5/8 today says the nurse at the doctor's office. That's right, we had our first appointment today! Woo Hoo! It was actually boring and uneventful. I peed in a cup to confirm that my barfy food issues, cravings and lack of my "monthly gift" were in fact pregnancy. Glad we got that cleared up. Approximate due date is October 5th. She informed me that I should avoid citrus to aide in my nausea. Thanks for that, I ate 15 clementines this weekend. No problems yet though... Next, I got a flu shot (tsk tsk for not having done that) which seemed silly since I already had a lovely bout of the flu as mentioned in a previous post. TB test, check, and finally they took some blood. "Oh this arm is good, here are 2 good veins." Poke 1, "hmm, I know its in there." Poke 2, "come on, I can see it." Dig around with needle in arm, "there we go!" Thanks lady.

The final advice nurse lady gave me was to get What to Expect While You're Expecting.

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Thanks nurse lady but Nurse Furr beat you to it! Courtney sent me the pregnancy bible along with one to make me go less insane, Belly Laughs.

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I've read up to my 8 week point in Expecting and thought I might wait for the Belly Laughs until I get a little more belly. Something to look forward to! Thanks Court!

I go back March 28th to see my doctor and not just a nurse and hopefully, we will get to hear a heartbeat. The planning/picking of a doctor/hospital has been causing me some stress. My current location isn't one of the new, state-of-the-art woman's hospitals that Omaha offers but how do you get hospital referrals when you aren't telling people you are pregnant? Thanks to Courtney (the only person who knows at this point) and some google action, I think I have a general idea of whats "good" and unfortunately, my doctor, who I LOVE, does not deliver at the "best" hospital and to my understanding, doctors are tied to their hospital affiliations. We are forging ahead though and have decided to wait until we actually meet with her to discuss our concerns and see what she thinks.

In other news, I have been having vivid hallucinating dreams at night. In my first one, I was in labor and then, even though my body was in labor, I was also in between my own legs yanking the baby out (I credit this to watching One Born Every Minute on Lifetime = a must see!). It was a girl. I have this weird feeling the bean is a girl but according to week 8 reports, gender is not yet determined. I always thought of a "first" being a boy, probably because that is the way it is in my family, but I'm not having boy feelings. I don't want to find out the gender though so we will  find out that surprise later!

The next vivid dream I had was being in a school with a shooter running loose. Great dream right? Turns out, the shooter was a little Gary Coleman look-a-like who was about 8 and he spotted me in an empty cafeteria hiding under a table. Eye contact, gun pointed, wake up. Thank God. Too many crime shows I guess.

My magic bean had me hallucinating again last night and I dreamed I was at the dance studio where I taught/took lessons growing up. I was dancing and for some reason, I decided I needed to move my car. I picked up a Nalgene bottle full of wine, CHUGGED it, and went out to move my car (this parking like is like a strip mall, there are only 2 rows to park in - every spot is close). I peeled out, and attempted to re-park my car facing the studio (a whole 10 feet away). It took a couple of trys and I finally settled in a spot. Out of the studio rushed like 3 people and they were yelling "What did you hit? What was that noise?" I had rammed my front into a big concrete pillar on the structure of the building and my car was smashed. A police man happened to be next to my car and they were all concerned with the damage to my car. I was panicking for a few reasons, a) Matt was going to be pissed about my car b) I was wasted from my wine chug and Matt would be pissed if I got a DUI c) Would they believe I was NOT drunk? Afterall I was pregnant! Wake Up. WHAT?!? Why was I dreaming of drinking and driving?? And doing it while pregnant?!? Weird little magic bean, really weird.

My final report for week 8 is that food is getting better. I can tolerate much more (I'm not sure if that is good or bad) and more things are sounding good. There are a few things I have wanted really badly then once I eat them, I want to vomit thinking about them. Unfortunately, the Velveeta cheese products have not fallen into that category. I was pleased with my weigh-in today at the doctor's though so maybe tomorrow I'll start to do better ~ it is the beginning of a new month! For now, we will feed my magic beans whatever its little heart desires and in return, keep hallucinating.

Blueberry Basket Case

Matt has been calling me his "blueberry basket" for the past week which I think is pretty darn funny. Too bad tomorrow is the big news of what the blueberry has grown to~ yay for growth, sad to leave the blueberries behind.

In other news, we have been attempting to move. We found a short sale in January we were interested in and we made an offer, knowing that short sales could take months dealing with the banks and their very little wiggle room. At the time of our offer, we had 2 bathrooms half torn apart and some other repairs desperately needed to get our house in selling order. Scary- short sales don't work with contingencies.

The house is a different color now, sort of pinkish to Matt's dismay

We were hoping that time would be on our side, the short sale would take a long time, and we would get our house sold. Reality = offer accepted within about 3 weeks with a closing date of March 17th. Yikes. We got our house listed last Thursday (2/17) with an agent (4 weeks after our offer, 1 week after our offer was accepted). Saturday (2/19), we did the inspection on the new house which was contractually our last chance to back out. We signed off crossing our fingers for the 4 showings on our house that day. Sunday (2/20), 1 more showing. No weekend offers but a few comments about wanting a bigger house and a complaint about our yard not being lush with green grass (um, thanks. Its February and 12 inches of snow just melted).

It looks okay in the spring time though!

Did I mention we have to put on a new roof due to some recalled shingles that came with the house? Oh yea, and the home warranty inspection we did as a "selling point" revealed that our 1972 furnace has a cracked heat exchange and is slowly leaking carbon monoxide (Gus and Wiggity sleep 2 feet from this furnace). The lucky buyers just got 2 more selling points and our profit just shrank.

Monday (2/21), there was a late morning showing and Matt took the puppies for a ride to "Divine Truth." He bought a St. Joseph statue and we were both a little creeped out by the "Home Sales" packaging. Really? I knew people had faith in the tradition but I didn't realize it was so 'commercialized.' We felt weird burying him so St. Joe posted up in a window sill Monday night. Stress was getting higher.

Papa Joe had been hearing a lot from us and Tuesday evening (2/22), we had another showing. We had looked at a house a street over from ours a few weeks before we found the house we offered on and the listing agent informed us a family with friends in the neighborhood had been through it 3 times. We joked that they should buy our house instead. They ended up not getting it and Tuesday night, low and behold, they were coming to see our house. I took the dogs and Matt went to work just before 5:00 as the people were pulling up. 5:21 drive-by, 3 cars + the agent's car still there. 5:37 I pulled in as the agent pulled out. That took awhile.

Wednesday night (last night) Matt was attempting to woo his blueberry basket and he nonchalantly told me, we had an offer and they want to close March 31. WHAT?!?! "Go, go, go, Joseph, you know what they say...."  The Tuesday night people put in an offer! Isn't it weird that we joked about them buying it a month and a half before we even listed?? We may counter (Matt is meeting the agent as we speak) but the good news is, we have a serious offer! And another showing at noon today (bidding war?!?).

There is some MAJOR stress off of my shoulders now and I am actually envisioning moving into the new house now. That's good considering our closing date is 3 weeks away! Which room will blueberry get? The bubblegum pink one with huge butterfly decals? The underwater mural of the ocean room complete with a giant whale? The camping/outdoorsy bear and pine tree room? How about any of the above coated in thick primer!

Oh, and to top this all off, aside from blueberry being a secret right now to everyone, the house status is sort of on the D.L. too. Everyone knows we are listed and we have offered, but we haven't told the news that its is ours and we have an offer. The next few weeks will be full of big reveals!

Week 7: Paddle Thumbs

We have blueberries folks!

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I am obviously amused by the weekly comparison of the little bug's size to food items. Its a little disturbing though that reading the word "blueberry" in reference to my embryo makes me want to eat blueberry poptarts, smoothies, or blueberry fruit leather. Yum. In my defense, fruit has been a craving since this all began and I have been to Tropical Smoothies twice in the past week. Maybe I'll go today....

Anyway, I get a weekly email from babycenter that keeps me updated on the progress of the pregnancy and this week's description made me laugh. "Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs -- although they look more like paddles at this point than the tiny pudgy extremities." This is the make or break developmental moment for the question that I know you are all asking: Will this baby get my nubby thumbs? 

At Hummel Day Camp, where Matt and I met, 2 counselors oversaw a "tribe" of kids. Each day, the counselors were responsible for making up a song about camp for their tribe to perform in front of the whole camp. In one of Matt's early attempts to woo me, he wrote a song for his tribe to sing. I stood unassumingly at the flag pole, listening to the daily songs when Matt's tribe began, (to the tune of Mary had a Little Lamb) 


"Katy Krebs has paddle thumbs, paddle thumbs, paddle thumbs. Katy Krebs has paddle thumbs, and its really weird."

foundmagazine.com

For the record, a song winner was picked each day and this song did not win (MY songs won at least once a week thanks to my clever and witty camp lyrics). I'm glad that my thumbs were the feature that captured Matt's attention (eyes?? smile?? personality?? throw me a bone here Matt!). Hearing that the status of the blueberry is that its growing paddled extremities made me giggle and remember where the dream of this baby all began, on JJ Pershing.

Week 6: Cookie Monster

So I got my email telling me the progress of my now 6th week little bug. My sesame is now a lentil with a heart beat according to the Internet.

 

organicroad.com.au

I have been having some serious food issues lately. I keep telling myself I am not going to be a high maintenance, crabby lady for the next 8 months but my tummy is making it tough. Being someone who eats everything and eats a lot, this is an issue. My average days seem to go like this....I wake up and take my daily oatmeal to work. The thought of oatmeal becomes hard to stomach and I begin to starve around 8:30. I have found that fruit sounds good and the past few days, I've been eating apples (although I am a little upset I sent Matt to get some and he came back with a 5lb bag of Red Delicious.... who eats those?). Anyway, 1 apple does not do it but nothing else sounds good. I have been dreaming about toasted bagels- sweet flavored ones- but I am trying to resist the caloric equivalent to ice cream at breakfast. I try to choke down the oatmeal but the consistency isn't doing it for me. Today, I've eaten 2 apples.

Moving right along, time to go home for lunch. I keep telling myself, "Now I'm going to be healthy! It's not just for me anymore!" Matt and I are also trying to control our spending on eating out (which we do WAY too much) but by the time I get in my car, I can't think of one thing that sounds good that is at our house. Pit Stop. This week I have been wanting sandwiches and salads. I've been to Subway, Panera, and a stop at the grocery store for supplies for my own. I guess it could be worse. By mid afternoon, the thought of whatever I consumed for lunch makes me have gag reflexes and I begin to feel the hunger creep back in.

I tough it out, get myself home for the day and feel crappy. After work I feel like I could go to sleep and wake up the next day (it's only 4:30 and trust me, my workload is not that strenuous to be used as an excuse). At this point I feel sick I'm so hungry and it takes me awhile to think of something I would like to eat for dinner that will not cause the barfy feeling in my throat. This week, Runza (in my defense it was free thanks to the below zero temperature Tuesdays), Old Chicago (not my pick) and a Birthday dinner at Matt's parents. As you can see, we are failing at this "no more eating out" thing.

There is a glimmer of light in this consumption chaos. Once I eat the thing that sounds sooooo good in the moment, the thought of it sounds appalling. I can't event think about Old Chicago without gagging. Panera sandwiches - barf (the soups and salads are still on my good list though). Runza, no thank you. Pizza, Chinese food, Indian food, Mexican food eeew....the list goes on. Unfortunately for my waistline, carbs are definitely on my "to eat" list which includes those bagels I mentioned craving, mac n' cheese, and Velveeta cheese dip. Let's see if I buckle. Half of my brain says, "Don't do it! Be healthy!" But the other half is saying, "Get it over with! Once you do it once, you won't want to again!"

My research says the "morning sickness" feelings get bad around the 6th week. I was in my 5th and am just starting the 6th which does not have me seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. Come on lentil, let's think positive thoughts like veggies and nutrients... and lentils?

2/8/10 Check.

Test 2/2 agrees. I guess its for real. Matt asks when the 3 of us will be eating lunch. Weird, I am not alone. I refer to our new "circumstance" and Matt corrects me saying not circumstance, "miracle." He sure knows how to score Brownie Points already! He asked if I am going to be a bitchy pregnant lady. I quickly put myself in check and said "no way!" I'm pulling for 4 or 5 here so I can't scare him away on baby #1!

Still partially in shock, I decide to determine how far along I am. According to the Google Machine, they start counting weeks from the start of your last period (which seems stupid to me considering the first 2 weeks of that you aren't pregnant but whatevs). Mine being Dec. 29th, the internet claims my baby is due anytime between 10/5 and 10/7. Hey Birthday Baby! Matt's is 10/8, my Dad and Papa Dale and cousin Finley are 10/7, Matt's Mom is 10/5 and there are plenty of other October Bdays including Matt's Dad, cousin Kelly, Aunt Sue and God Baby Liam. (Shout Out to October!) Anywho, the gist of my research is that I am 5 weeks along, baby is the size of a sesame seed and I don't get to see a doctor until 8 weeks. We plan on waiting a while to share our big news (even to you Mom) so by the time you read this, it will be even MORE exciting!

cindalouskitchenblues.blogspot.com

Look at all the baby Core's!

2/7/10 - 6 months married and Everybody IS Gonna Love Today

My work has a Birthday celebration for me Monday morning and they all give me a hard time for being ONLY 27. They ask about my weekend and I tell them about my brothers and their shenanigans. They all laugh and talk about their own kids and blah, blah, blah. I am feeling off lately in the mornings, starving but nothing sounding good. Anyway, I go back to my office and think, maybe I should stop saying anything about pregnancy until I find out what is going on. On my lunch break, to Walgreens I go. Which brand do I trust?? I have never taken a pregnancy test before but I go with a middle of the road price from a brand I have heard of.

Fast Forward

I am now home from work with the goods and Matt tells me to do it before he leaves for work. I pee on the stick, paranoid I'm doing it wrong and wait as the hourglass flashes. About a minute later, I see it...

Most of me is not surprised but part of me thinks this is a mean joke. I am grinning ear to ear and I go out to the kitchen to wait for Matt who is shaving before work. He comes upstairs, both of us with stupid grins, knowing without knowing. He hugs me and I immediately start to cry. He gives me the best hug and says, "Well, Happy Birthday I guess." I am happy, I am scared, I am terrified, I am so in love with Matt, I am in shock, I am in awe at this person I am lucky enough to be in this with.... I am every emotion at once. (now I can blame it officially on hormones!) At this point, Matt has about 30 minutes to get to work. He offers to take the day off but I tell him to go. The day before we had watched a birth announcement video that had included a picture of the pregnancy test. It's a little weird but a little neat. Insert cheesiest of all pregnancy test pictures...

Talk about capturing the moment. Thanks engagement picture. Matt leaves for work and I take a nap. Seriously, sooooo tired.

February: Almost Up to Speed

Jan. 31st - Period Week. (EARMUFFS) You know when every single feeling feels like it has arrived? I was paranoid constantly checking.

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Feb. 1st - hmmm.... no sign.

Feb. 2nd - Okay, seriously. Part of me is getting excited and part of me is afraid to pee in fear of disappointment.

Feb. 3rd - Can't contain myself, possibly glowing. I email my friend Courtney with subject line "Top Secret" and fill her in. (Sorry Em~ you aren't very good at these kind of secrets- I wouldn't be either if you told me this sort of news. We're family now.) We are on day 37 since start of last period. Boobs are killing me, I'm waking up in the middle of the night to pee, and I'm EXHAUSTED. Could it be?? She replies that my due date would be Oct. 6th. We will wait and see.

Feb. 4th - Still scared to pee, I'm getting too excited about the potential news. We go to dinner and although I am normally the person who thinks every single menu item sounds delicious, I can barely stomach the thought of 70% of the menu.

Feb. 5th - Still feeling a little queezy thinking about certain foods, Matt and I head to happy hour/dinner. Food is not settling well. We move on to another bar to meet different friends who question why I'm not drinking. I blame it on the Roja and we move on to a Birthday Party at one more bar. At the Bday Party, the brothers Krebs pounce. Katy is not drinking. Never mind the indigestion excuse, they made up their minds that I was pregnant and the rumor mill began. They have fancier phones than me and posted on Facebook, C: "Congrats on the Baby!" and P: "Congratulations!" Unable to control my FB wall, within 60 seconds, Bday girl's sister flies across the room and screams, "OMG WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?!" Lies, lies, lies I say! P adds to his Congratulations, "I meant on turning 27." C keeps up the game. They are just hilarious, right? sarcasm. The night ends, the relentless baby talk does not... maybe we should figure this out. Lights Out for me though~ I am EXHAUSTED. Why soooo tired??

Feb. 6th - Happy 27th Birthday to Me! Happy 40th day since start of last period to me too! Bday brunch at my parents' house with the lovely brothers. Emily says Charlie kept talking about the "baby" the whole way home last night. Patrick informs me it will be easy to find my place at the table. Oh, a sippy cup and mini silverware, ha ha, soooo funny (again with the sarcasm). I keep thinking, they are either going to be really disappointed if I'm not pregnant or they are going to be really disappointed when they ruin the surprise for themselves. Whatever, I am not lying when I say I am not pregnant. We have suspicion not proof.

blogtown.portlandmercury.com

January: What's New, Besides the Year

Stuck in the midst of a bitter-cold Nebraska winter, Matt and some friends dreamed up an idea for a little Spring Break fun, a ski trip. Something about the plan for a trip in March gave me a feeling. What if I was pregnant? Can pregnant people ski? Pregnant people can not play the fun drinking games in the cabin, or sit by the fire with a cozy glass of wine. I was insistent that our cabin of choice include a hot tub... pregnant ladies can sit in those right? Wrong. This trip was sounding worse and worse. I kept trying to be vague with Matt about my true desire to go. I just wasn't envisioning the trip to be all that fun if I were to get preggers. Lucky for me, it fizzled out.

Still having the feeling it could happen, I tried to watch my alcoholic intake until my confirmation at the end of the month. I did have some applecorn (aka apfelkorn) while ice skating in the middle of the night, and I also had a Skinny Girl Margarita and a beer but I kept telling myself, real pregnant people have done way worse. Look at those ladies on "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant," they go to the bathroom to poop and out comes a baby! They have to have done worse than minor alcohol consumption before really knowing they're pregnant.

                                                        "Buzz, your girlfriend, WOOF!"
                 (This is my punishment for showing Matt puking - on my way to ice skate at midnight)

The Facebook buzz of the month was that everyone was getting pregnant or having babies. Within the month, I knew of 5 baby boys born, 2 more to come before May, and 5 summer births-to-be. The funny thing about the summer babies was that 2 are to couples who got married a week or 2 after Matt and me. A sign?? Hmmm.....

December: Back to the Beginning

So, even though Emily and I thought the bet was a great idea, at the end of the day, I want it to be right for both Matt and I. Even though everyone knows where I stand on the baby subject, Matt too wants to be a Dad he is just a little less vocal (and 1 year and 8 months younger than me so his clock is a little behind). After talking about the subject quite a bit, we both decided that (EARMUFFS) we were going to stop trying NOT to have a baby. We were not trying in the sense that we were counting days, taking temperatures, or following charts.... we were just going to let nature take its course.

The monthly pass/fail test for me comes at the end of the month so right around Christmas, I started to think, "hmm... maybe??" My mom gives us each a Christmas ornament each year signifying something eventful from the year and this year, Emily and I got these little Mexican handmade fabric dolls with a little swaddled baby in a pouch on their stomachs. She laughed knowing we both wanted babies and said, "you never know!" She was right, wouldn't it be ironic if the little bun was in fact in the oven?? How clairvoyant. After Christmas, we went to Ames, IA to see Matt's family and the 3 hour drive allowed me plenty of time to annoy him by taking pregnancy quizzes.

"Did you miss your period?" I don't know yet.
"Are you moody?" Matt snickers (I'm just HUNGRY a lot!).
"Do you feel kicking in your stomach?" What med school did this rocket scientist go to??
Next Brain Buster... "Are you having contractions?"

Needless to say, these online pregnancy quizzes are no help at all. Time would tell, and it did. After an awful 24 stint of the flu...

both Matt and I, both ends, both bathrooms in renovation mode leaving 1 toilet - sorry, should I have inserted an EARMUFF?? Eventually, Aunt Flo stopped by. Thank God she was not a few hours sooner. Gross. Anyway, I was part expectant and part disappointed. I knew it could take people months to get pregnant but I started to think in extreme pessimist mode... What if I never get pregnant? What if something is wrong with me? What if I never get to be a mom?

Relax Katy, we are not trying, just not trying not to.

September to November-ish: "The Bet"

Emily is one of my best friends, and even better, my sister-in-law. We are obsessed with babies. She married my brother Charlie in June '09 and I got married in August '10. We want babies. In September, the 2 of us were on a roadtrip with plenty of time to think, chat and talk about nothing. Did I mention we LOVE babies?

2 new brides + babies on the mind = plan hatched.

Both of us grew up close in age to our siblings and with plenty of cousins to play with. Of COURSE we want to be pregnant at the same time! Our unborn kids are already BFF's, duh. We quickly did some math and discovered that if we started trying to have babies in December, we would give birth around September '11 making imaginary babies the start of a school grade in age. That would leave other couple 11 months to also have a baby in order for cousins/BFF/imaginary babies, to be in the same grade in school, further solidifying BFF status. Genius. We thought of all the details, we would prove at the end of November we were both NOT pregnant to officially begin the race to parenthood. Competition could get the husbands on board, and the loser (the last to get pregnant) would have to include a winners' first or middle name in the baby's name. Gosh Me and Emily are smart.

Don't we look smart??

Problem: It takes two to tango. Husbands were not as into this plan as we were. November passed without proving non-pregnancy but the seed was planted. It's on C&E!

Testing 1, 2, 3

Is this thing on? I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while now and finally have decided to figure this out. For the record, it is not as easy as I thought it would be. Kudos to you blog wizards! There are a number of blogs I love to stalk almost daily, mainly baking blogs. If only smell-o-vision would hit the internet.... I have stockpiled millions of recipes and ideas from these baking blogs and since I am always hungry, I can always find something I want to make. I have also recently been stumbling upon many friends acquaintances personal blogs. They list their friends' blogs on the side and click, click, click..... my creeping intensifies. But hey, if bloggers are posting for the world to see, don't be surprised when people see it, right? Stalkers are welcome here! Well, I take that back. Stalkers with 7 degrees of separation or less- Kevin Bacon style - are welcome here.

To get a taste of what I like, here are some of my favorites....
Annie's Eats  makes me want to stay home and bake, learn photography
Bake at 350 everyone loves sugar cookies
Food Gawker click, gawk, drool.... each picture takes you to the recipe's home blog
All Things Thrifty too bad I don't like touching old stuff because her furniture looks good!
A Pile of Style I want her wardrobe (she also bakes, Lovin' From the Oven)
Style Me Pretty  wedding mode - great pictures
Sweet Designs - Amy Atlas party in the USA

I wasn't lying when I said I love looking at blogs. Check them out, tell me some of your favorites, and better yet, tell me yours! I'll try to use my own stalker approval rules when creeping in blogland.....

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