Saturday, June 28, 2008

For all you pregnant ladies and their doting husbands...

Pete and I attended a Nutrition During Pregnancy class on Thursday evening. One of my favorite parts of the class was when they passed out a sheet that listed common maladies associated with pregnancy, and things you can eat to alleviate them. The last few days I've been pretty green around the gills (next week the full-on morning sickness is scheduled to kick in), so I checked out the morning sickness remedy. It said that morning sickness can often be alleviated or fixed all together with vitamin B-6. You can get this into your body by eating tomatoes, brown rice, wheat bran, brewer's yeast, soybeans, poultry, veal, and organ meats. Other remedies included drinking ginger tea or red raspberry leaf tea.

None of these items sounded particularly appetizing except for the tomatoes, but I can't get tomatoes right now because of the salmonella going around. The local stuff isn't ripe yet. So, I decided to go to Walgreen's to see what I could get.

I purchased a bottle of Nature's Bounty Liquid B Complex, and also got some seasickness wrist bands. These are also supposed to help by using acupressure. Anyhoo, I paid for my purchase, and while Pete was driving I squirted some under my tongue like the directions said. It wasn't the best tasting, but I felt like crap and was willing to try anything. About two minutes went by, and I almost immediately felt so much better! I'm not sure how much is too much to take per day, but I'm going to ask my midwife at my Tuesday appointment I have with her. The B vitamins are really good for baby's neural development, though. They're also good for metabolizing proteins too, so it's good for your iron intake as well. Lots of iron means no anemia. Yay!

If I get nothing else out of this class, it would have been worth the $15 we paid just for this tidbit of knowledge about morning sickness. So ladies, have your man go to the store and buy you some. The liquid stuff works almost immediately because you don't have to wait to digest it. I took it about two hours ago, and I still feel really good. Granted, I don't have full-blown puking-my-guts-out morning sickness yet, but it worked to settle my stomach so I could feed my starving self.

If you guys have anything other remedies you need, let me know the symptom and I'll see if it's mentioned in the materials I brought home with me from the class. Just to list a few, there were food remedies for heartburn, itchy skin, swollen ankles, constipation, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, postpartum depression, and more.

Pete and I decided we're going to have the baby at UNM Hospital's Nurse-Midwifery. Our midwife is named Dympna Ryan, and she is a sweet little English lady with a really cute accent! I'm shooting for a natural childbirth, but if I chicken out I'll be in the hospital, so I can get an epidural if I want. Plus there are lots of machines that go Ping! so we know the baby will be safe if there are any complications. I'm also getting a doula so I can be encouraged by someone who has seen a trillion births and can give a rad pregnancy massage!

On a completely different note, hoodlum kids rang my doorbell about every hour until 3:30am last night. I was daydreaming about sitting on the roof with my shotgun waiting for them to run up to my door so I could suddenly stand up, cock my shotgun *chunk chunk*, point at at their stupid heads, and dare them to ring it again. I was too tired to really do it, though. Too bad. It would've been fun to watch them squirm!

Now for some randomness. I've posted these before on myspace, but I thought I'd share them with you folks who are strictly blogger fans. I love Michael Cera.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I'm STARVING

Used to be that I didn't normally get hungry until at least 10am. I could hold that over until lunch by eating a granola bar. Then, I'd eat a smallish lunch, eat a decent sized dinner, and I was good to go. I'm not sure if you pregnant Hutchins ladies are as suddenly starving as I am, but yesterday morning I woke up famished. We had a leftover plate of pork chops, scalloped cheesy potatoes, and corn in the fridge, so I ate it. After I had devoured the entire plate of food (a bigger plate than I usually have for dinner, mind you) I was just as hungry as I was before I had a single bite. What the deuce!? This happens pretty much every meal, and I snack all day long. I'm not really craving any particular food, I'll eat pretty much anything placed in front of me. I do particularly enjoy the extremely spicy, though.

I was reading that the normal pregnant lady eats an extra 300 calories per day. At the rate I'm going, I'm gonna be the size of a water buffalo in no time. I'm just grateful that I haven't really gained any weight yet, but this constant hunger is in its early stages.

I signed up for a pregnancy nutrition class for this Thursday evening at the hippie birthing center here in town. During the class I'm supposed to be fed (yay!), and they are going to be passing out healthy recipes to everyone. Hopefully, there will be some good ones. If there are any that are amazing, I'll post them on here for the other pregnant ladies who read this.

Oh! I also have my first official doctor's appointment on Thursday. It's not a fun one. Just blood tests and stuff. Basically it's the "yup, you're pregnant" appointment. Thank Pete we have amazing insurance. There's a $25 co-pay at the first appointment, and the rest of my pregnancy is FREE! If I need to stay in the hospital beyond the first day, it's $100 per day, total.

I need to sign up for this. I'd rock it!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Grampa's 90th

I took a few pictures at Grampa's 90th birthday party last weekend. Just thought I'd share them with anyone who is interested in them.



While we were there, Katie and I decided to try on some of Grammy's jewelry that we liked. This led to us trying on the really big jewelry Grammy had, which then led to much more. By the time we were caught by Grammy, Katie was Glamour Grammy, Mom was Red Hat Lady Grammy, and I was On Vacation Grammy.




After having lunch, a bunch of us converged in the family room and started looking at photo albums. I asked Grammy if I could take some of them over to Dan's place to scan them so I could have a copy. She said yes, and now I have lots of pictures to share. Some of them are AMAZING. You are such a gorgeous lady, Grammy. World traveler, author, mother, wife, and smokin' babe! I have a lot to live up to!




















Wednesday, June 18, 2008

It tastes like a pig!

Today I got this yucky taste in my mouth that luckily goes away when I eat something. I've been chewing a lot of gum. Pete was asking me what the taste was like. I couldn't really think of anything in particular, but I had a vision of an episode of Invader Zim that was particularly disturbing. The episode where Dib curses his sister, Gaz, so that everything tastes like a pig.....A PIG!

Link: sevenload.com



Please, God, do not let this happen to me. Everything does not taste like a pig yet, and hopefully it'll stay that way. However, I have noticed my sense of taste is in overdrive. We went to SuperSalad today for dinner, and when I took a bite of my salad there was a piece that got on my lower left lip while I was chewing on the right. I could specifically taste the difference between the spinach caught on my lip, and the mass of spinach, carrot, cheese, and dressing on the right. It was weird. Plus, when I'd have a conversation with Pete, and I generally go into auto-eat mode where I'm not particularly paying attention to the specific tastes of my food, I couldn't NOT taste the food. It was like the taste was really vivid, if that makes sense.

Luckily, I'm not pukey or anything. I just got pig mouth!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

We Have Fertilization!

*Disclaimer: graphic details about some bodily functions. Reader discretion is advised. (Nothing too gross, though)*

I suspected that I was maybe pregnant about a week ago when I started getting pimples around the sides of my nose, and Pete told me that I had "backne". My skin was really greasy and gross, which hasn't been the case since high school. It was 5 days before my missed period, and the package on the pregnancy test said it could detect a pregnancy "as early as 5 days before a missed period." It also said on the package that it was 99% accurate. So, I took the test and sure enough it was negative, as usual. No big surprise as I've had many of those over the last 6 months since we've started trying.

Then Father's Day came around and my chest was really tender. I thought I should take another pregnancy test, because I was supposed to get my period on Father's Day, and it hadn't happened yet. I was about 8 seconds late. I thought it's be neat if it was positive and then I could give the test to Pete as a Father's Day present. I had just driven home to Albuquerque from Prescott, though, and I really didn't feel like driving to the store to pick up another test. So, I didn't.

The next day I still didn't get my period. I wasn't super-shocked because I've been known to be up to three days late and then get it. Since the other test I took days before was negative, my hopes weren't really up. I had three kids over that I was watching, and when they layed down for a nap I went online to this fertility website that had trivia questions. Loving any form of trivia, i of course took some of the tests. One of the test questions had something to do with whether or not pregnancy tests were 99% accurate. I got the answer wrong! The correct answer said that they are only 99% accurate after the date of your missed period. It was more like 30% accurate on the day I took mine. Very inneresting, said I.

The kids all went home by about 4pm, and I had shopping to do anyways. I headed off to the supermarket and got stuff for dinner, and i also picked up a pregnancy test. The cheap ones came as singles, or as a two-pack. I decided to get the more economical two-pack so that when this one turned up negative I'd have an extra one for next month.

I went home, put the groceries away, got dinner started, and then went and took the pregnancy test. With this particular brand of test there is one line that indicates you have successfully peed on it, and another that shows up if there is any human growth hormone in your system. Human growth hormone is only present in pregnant women, people on steroids, and dudes with testicular cancer. It's pretty fail proof if your a chick not taking steroids. Anyhoo, I peed on the stick, and then mosied back into the kitchen waiting for the pee to ebb its way over to the result window (hey, I posted a disclaimer). I placed the stick on the counter and watched one pink line immediately show up. "Not pregnant," I said out loud, "real big surprise there." I'm pretty cynical since I've done tons of these and they all turn up negative. Then I had a "wait a minute" moment. The line that says I've pee on it usually takes a few second to show up. And, isn't it usually on the right? This one is on the left. As I stood there scratching my head staring at the thing, there was suddenly a second, faint pink line. It was the control line that said I've peed on the stick. That meant that the super-bright pink line was the one saying I was pregnant!

Wait a minute...I'm pregnant?! No....no....NO! I was so used to seeing the negative tests that I didn't really believe it at first. Plus, there were tons of times in the past that I felt like I was pregnant, and it turned out to just be PMS or something. Wait a tick...I'm pregnant!? Holy Shit! I'd been wanting to get pregnant pretty much since I was about six, and we'd been officially trying for a while. But suddenly panic overtook me. Not necessarily about the fact that I was going to be somebody's mom, but more that there was another person in me. It is way different actually knowing it was there than it is imagining what it would be like. It was cool, though. I was just freaked out. Surprised that I could do it, more than anything. Overjoyed!

I tried to think of a fun way to tell Pete. I could wait until that evening and tell him in some cutsie way. My brain was in overdrive, though,and I couldn't think of anything clever. So, I placed the test on the end of the kitchen counter so he'd see it when he came in.

When he came home, he was still wearing his helmet because he'd taken the scooter to work that day. I tried to keep a straight face, but of course a big dumb grin planted itself there instead. Pete asked what I was so happy about and I looked at him,and then looked at the counter. *blank stare* So I looked at him and I looked at the counter. He looked down and just stood there for a minute. Then he picked up the test and started reading the "how to read this test" thing printed on the side of it. A couple of seconds passed and then "You're Pregnant?!" We had matching big dumb grins! Yay!

I am seriously barely pregnant. I'm a couple weeks along. Our child looks like a Sea Monkey right now. Every time I see a picture of what our kid looks like, I think of shrimp. Then I think of eating shrimp. Ew! Our baby is currently the size of a grain of rice. Here's a picture of our future baby that I made by morphing baby pictures of Pete and myself. Isn't he/she cute! Looks like a little freaky elf!


Here are my stats according to whenmybaby.com:

Baby's Due Date: Sunday February 22, 2009
Approximate Conception Date: Sunday June 1, 2008
You are in your first trimester.
Your second trimester starts on August 10, 2008
Your third trimester starts on November 23, 2008
You've been pregnant for 30* days and your baby is due in 250 days!
*Due date based on Naegle's Rule (40 weeks from last menstrual period), so you're not actually pregnant for the first 2 weeks! Subtracting out those 2 weeks, you've been pregnant for approximately 16 days since conception.


I hate to be tacky and add this to the end of an otherwise lovely blog, but please people, don't buy us anything yet (especially you, Mom Ristig...I know you all too well!). If you want to get some outfits or bibs or something, that's fine. But as far as furniture and bedding and stuff is concerned, I want to pick it out. I want it all to match. I'm a big baby like that. No buying us furniture! Grrr.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Ooooooohhh, back to school...back to school...

I've been thinking about going to the local community college and taking a few classes on early childhood development. I already have all my basic courses out of the way, so if I wanted to get another degree it would be really easy. I'd only have to take the core courses for the degree.

Well, I was reading a Montessori book trying to find new ideas for activities to do with the kids when it dawned on me....why don't I take some Montessori-specific classes. I did an internet search and discovered that most of the certification programs cost at least $8,000 per semester, which I'm not about to pay. The search continued until I found a place in Canada called the North American Montessori Center that offers online courses. It's an accelerated 6-month program that covers the 3-6 year range. The cost is $2,000 for the entire program, which includes all my books and postage as well as internet classes on video, online. I would have to e-mail in my assignments.

I was a bit skeptical at first. An out-of-country school online. The website was really nice, and the books that come with the program looked cool, but was it legit? I called my sister Melanie, who most of you know has been a Montessori teacher for years. She teaches at Keystone Montessori and works with Jr. High kids. She just returned from a class trip to Costa Rica. Anyhoo, I had her check it out, and she agreed with me that the program seems legit, and beside that would be way more useful to me than the generic early childhood classes.

I decided to wait until Pete gets his bonus (which should be in the next few weeks), and then I'm going to sign up for the courses. Once I've got my credentials, I'm going to focus my at-home daycare on Montessori teaching methods. I worked as a teacher's assistant at a Montessori school in Phoenix for two years during high school, so I pretty much know what I'm getting myself into. I'm really excited about starting as soon as possible! C'mon bonus check!



Do you have any more gum, more gum, more gum, more gum? Do You Have Any More Gum?!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Awesome.

Pete and I came back from our vacation late Monday, and all I have to say is that our trip was AWESOME. Well, that and all of this....

First, we flew into Orlando and checked in to the Disney Pop Century Resort. I got pictures of us in front of the crazy stuff they had at the resort, but they're on Pete's laptop and I can't find the jump drive. So, pictures to come! We went on all the fun rides at Magic Kingdom, but Pete refused to go into the Hall of President's claiming that as a kid his Dad dragged him in there and he thought it was stupid. That isn't really a very fun ride anyways, so I wasn't too distraught.

The next morning we were picked up at the resort and driven to Port Canaveral to board our ship, the Sovereign of the Seas. My friend Laura who works on the ship met us outside and we boarded the ship pretty quickly. Here's a picture of the ship.



On the first day Pete was fine, but I was feeling a little green. I didn't puke, but it felt like I was riding in an elevator the whole time we were on the ship with all the slow lurching. I was over it by day two. I have no idea how people get smashed on the ship without barfing their guts out. Pete went to the public restroom once while on the ship and said there was a fresh batch of puke all over the place. Gross.

Anyhoo, on the first night we ate at the buffet that was pretty good, we played a rousing game of Bingo which we lost, and then we went to the Follies Theater to watch the Love and Marriage game show. We got picked from the crowd to be one of the three couples contestants. Laura told us it would be aired on the ship, but what we didn't know is that it would be aired on the ship over and over and over throughout the course of the cruise. By the end of the cruise everyone and their mother recognized us. We were ship celebrities. It was kinda funny, and kinda annoying. Someone even asked for our autograph (as a joke, of course).

Day two we docked at Nassau in the Bahamas and went on a Segway Tour! It was so flippen' fun! If I had an extra six G's sitting around I would totally get one. They were really fun to ride. We toured Fort Charlotte,stopped at a touristy shopping place, and Segwayed through the Botanical gardens. I cannot emphasize how FUN it was! Next, we went back and met Laura back at the ship. She had the rest of the day free, so we went to a fish shack on the beach and got some conch deep fried in what tasted like corn dog batter with this yummy, spicy dipping sauce. It was the bomb. Then we went to the straw market where I purchased a green knock-off Prada bag for the bargain price of $30. I would've bought more, but I was on a budget. Budgets are lame. Then we went over to Atlantis, this whole island owned by Michael Jackson with a giant building that looked like a Las Vegas casino, surrounded by tons of extremely expensive shops and restaurants. We had dinner at one of them. Never again do I plan to spend $140 on one meal for three people. The food was good, but DANG! I could've bought four more knock-off designer bags for that price, and then got some more of that $4 fried conch! At least the food was yummy. That night we went to the formal dinner on the ship and got pictures taken all fancied up. I'll scan and post them in the next few days or so.

Day three the ship docked at a cheesy little private island owned by Royal Caribbean called Coco Cay. They sold lame trinkets including this lovely coconut that I thought Melanie and Brian would like.



I also found these sweet, racist "Bahama Mama" salt and pepper shakers that I totally wish I'd bought.



After a little shopping while Pete layed in a hammock on the beach, Pete, Laura and I went snorkeling in the bay. Pete was freaking out a little at first because he wasn't used to sticking his face in the water while breathing, but he got the hang of it soon. He didn't want to really do it, but Laura and I pretty much peer pressured him into it. We told him that all the cool kids were doing it. Don't be a nerd, go snorkeling with us. So, reluctantly, he went. We saw lots of colorful fishies swimming around an underwater cannon, and there was a crashed airplane as well. After snorkeling, we got a cool beverage, went to the empty side of the island, and chilled out on some lounge chairs on the beach. It was there that Pete realized his wedding ring was missing. It fell off in the water! We offered to go back and look for it, but Pete convinced us that it had been swallowed by the ocean and was gone. He was pretty sad. Other than Pete losing his ring, the afternoon was quite nice........UNTIL WE GOT BACK TO OUR STATEROOM AND REALIZED WE WERE COMPLETELY FRIED! I didn't really think about it when I was putting on sunscreen, but I was wearing a shirt at the time. So my entire back, and Pete's, were sunscreen free. Duh.

We got back to the ship, and Laura had arranged for us to get a tour of the bridge. Technically, it's like touring an airplane cockpit in terms of security, so it was pretty special. All the dudes had Russian or Scandinavian accents too, so it felt like we were on Hunt for Red October or something with burly men saying "anchor ho" and then other people repeating "anchor ho." It was spiffy. The captain's number two, or as I like to call him the Will Riker of the ship, gave us our tour. Unfortunately, he wasn't nearly as ruggedly handsome as Riker. On a plus side, he wasn't nearly as big a douche as Riker, so that was nice. I can't believe they let us take pictures. And, check out the sweet mecha-chair!



Since it was yet another Bingo night I decided to attend. In case those of you out there are unaware of my love of Bingo, you can consider yourself informed. I love Bingo. I own Bingo markers. I collect lucky cats. Bingo rules! I haven't won at Bingo since I was nine years old, but I don't care. Bingo is fun. So, I dragged Pete to Bingo once again. There were four games. Guess who won game number four! That's right...ME! I won the biggest jackpot of the cruise! Unfortunately, someone else also called Bingo, so I only won half the pot. Luckily, half the pot equaled $622 and change! If I'd known I'd win bingo I would DEFINITELY bought some more knock-off purses! Here I am glowing from my Bingo blackout victory.



The next morning we de-boarded and flew back home. Everything went smoothly, and we were sad to leave. I was so tired I fell asleep on the plane while Pete read his book. Oh, and I also read some of the awesome book I purchased at Wal-Mart before the trip. It's called Highlander Rogue, and it's every bit as cheesy and hot as the title sounds. Plus, there's time travel! It was so bad it was good. Pete read over my shoulder a couple times and shook his head, but he can't talk. He was reading a classic called This Alien Shore.

Anyhoo, that was our vacation. It was wonderful, and I'm hoping to take another one soon. But first we get to pay off our credit cards. Yay!

Your promised awesomeness: