Today is the day we are traveling to New York, and we'll get to tell Lee's side of the family!!! I am so excited I can hardly contain it! Then, two days from now on Christmas Eve, we're planning to tell my family. I hope everything works out ok... I'll update you after Christmas as to how the big reveal went! :)
~Hooks
Just my thoughts and goings-on... Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
December 10th - 20th
These past few weeks have been a lot of the same...extreme fatigue, tenderness in "certain areas." Still no nausea to speak of, praise God (except the kind associated with migraines that I had even before I was pregnant)! I'm happy to be in the ~30% of women who get to escape morning sickness. I'm getting anxious to tell our families about the good news, but I know that the wait will be worth it.
I got a migraine on Monday, the last week of school before Christmas break. I almost went home early after A lunch, but I took a nap on my desk during C lunch and felt better after that. I felt pretty good during 6th period, but by the end of 7th I needed to get out of there. I left school right away, went home, and was asleep by 4. I took a nap with an ice pack until about 6. Lee had since come home, and I went out to the living room where he was. He made hotdogs, fries, and veggies for dinner, and knew I needed to get some food in my system. An empty stomach usually just made things worse. I was still constantly switching out our 2 ice packs, throwing one back in the freezer when it got warm and taking the other one out, but with little meds to combat the headache, I started to feel awful again. I told Lee I was going to try to take a bath then go to bed. I got in the tub and started reading. After about 10 minutes, I began to get sick to my stomach so I decided to take a quick shower instead and then turn in for the night. I drained the water, started the shower, and just as I got entirely soaked, it hit. I ralphed. And I mean ralphed. And since I had just eaten...well let's just say it didn't go down the drain. I knocked on the wall of the shower to call Lee. He came in and asked me what I needed. I said, "Does the drain plug pull out?" I could hear him start to come towards the shower. "Don't look in here!" I yelled, "Just answer me. Does the drain plug pull out?" He said, "No, why? Did you just break it or pull it out?!" He started to pull back the curtain, and I told him again not to look. "I just puked," I said, "...a lot." That stopped him. "I need a bucket...and probably the dust pan or something." He came back with said supplies and I started the nasty task of cleaning up. I got most of it, quickly finished up as the water started backing up, and snaked the drain as best as I could. When I got out of the shower, I sprayed Clorox on the tub, bucket, and dust pan. I got dressed, then went back to clean everything...exactly what I wanted to do while suffering from this dang migraine. The snake had tiny bits of nastiness in the bristles, so I made the executive decision to throw it away. When I told Lee later, he was angry. "That was our only one that fit down that drain!" I told him I didn't care, that they were less than $10, and if he wanted to clean it out, I would go get it out of the trash for him. He didn't respond. Yeah, I didn't think so. I went to bed, got up every hour or two to go to the bathroom and/or switch my ice pack, and slept fitfully between. When I got up again at 4:30 and my head was still pounding, I knew there was no way I could go to school. I called in sick, wrote up my sub plans in an email, and sent it to a few co-workers. I slept on and off until about 9, when I got up and was able to keep some toast down. By about 1:30 I started to feel better, no nausea or throbbing, but I still had a dull headache for the rest of the day and into Wednesday. On Thursday, I started getting sick. Sinus pressure, sore throat, runny nose. Wait a minute, isn't this how my last huge cold started? Great. Hopefully I don't lose my hearing this time.
~Hooks
I got a migraine on Monday, the last week of school before Christmas break. I almost went home early after A lunch, but I took a nap on my desk during C lunch and felt better after that. I felt pretty good during 6th period, but by the end of 7th I needed to get out of there. I left school right away, went home, and was asleep by 4. I took a nap with an ice pack until about 6. Lee had since come home, and I went out to the living room where he was. He made hotdogs, fries, and veggies for dinner, and knew I needed to get some food in my system. An empty stomach usually just made things worse. I was still constantly switching out our 2 ice packs, throwing one back in the freezer when it got warm and taking the other one out, but with little meds to combat the headache, I started to feel awful again. I told Lee I was going to try to take a bath then go to bed. I got in the tub and started reading. After about 10 minutes, I began to get sick to my stomach so I decided to take a quick shower instead and then turn in for the night. I drained the water, started the shower, and just as I got entirely soaked, it hit. I ralphed. And I mean ralphed. And since I had just eaten...well let's just say it didn't go down the drain. I knocked on the wall of the shower to call Lee. He came in and asked me what I needed. I said, "Does the drain plug pull out?" I could hear him start to come towards the shower. "Don't look in here!" I yelled, "Just answer me. Does the drain plug pull out?" He said, "No, why? Did you just break it or pull it out?!" He started to pull back the curtain, and I told him again not to look. "I just puked," I said, "...a lot." That stopped him. "I need a bucket...and probably the dust pan or something." He came back with said supplies and I started the nasty task of cleaning up. I got most of it, quickly finished up as the water started backing up, and snaked the drain as best as I could. When I got out of the shower, I sprayed Clorox on the tub, bucket, and dust pan. I got dressed, then went back to clean everything...exactly what I wanted to do while suffering from this dang migraine. The snake had tiny bits of nastiness in the bristles, so I made the executive decision to throw it away. When I told Lee later, he was angry. "That was our only one that fit down that drain!" I told him I didn't care, that they were less than $10, and if he wanted to clean it out, I would go get it out of the trash for him. He didn't respond. Yeah, I didn't think so. I went to bed, got up every hour or two to go to the bathroom and/or switch my ice pack, and slept fitfully between. When I got up again at 4:30 and my head was still pounding, I knew there was no way I could go to school. I called in sick, wrote up my sub plans in an email, and sent it to a few co-workers. I slept on and off until about 9, when I got up and was able to keep some toast down. By about 1:30 I started to feel better, no nausea or throbbing, but I still had a dull headache for the rest of the day and into Wednesday. On Thursday, I started getting sick. Sinus pressure, sore throat, runny nose. Wait a minute, isn't this how my last huge cold started? Great. Hopefully I don't lose my hearing this time.
~Hooks
Pregnancy Brain Moment #26
While filling out paperwork at my doctor's appointment, I went up to the counter and asked if I needed to sign the last line where it said "Parent/Guardian" underneath or if I could leave it blank since I was over 18. The receptionist looked confused for a moment, took the clipboard from me, read it, then gently replied, "It says Patient/Guardian." Probably meaning, that would be a yes, dummy.
~Hooks
~Hooks
December 4th
Today I had my first doctor's appointment! It was scheduled for 2:30 in the Woodlands, so we were planning to take a half day at work. Then Lee had the idea to take our last certification test (for ESL certification) that morning and just take the whole day off. I wasn't going to argue, especially since our deadline for certification was March and we had to wait 60 days to retake it if we failed. So we woke up early, drove to the University of Houston, and took our test. I was done in just under an hour. Lee took 2 hours. So I was bored and hungry, but I got a chance to catch up on a little bit of my sleep in the waiting area.
We got Chick-Fil-A breakfast after we left and took it home to eat. We watched tv and killed time before we had to leave. I'm pretty sure I slept a little bit more. Then it was time to leave. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous to go. First of all, a tiny part of my worried that maybe things weren't ok with the baby. Meanwhile, a big part of me was worried about all the bloodwork! (It's started to become a problem in recent years...read my post about visiting Rachel this summer...)
We headed out around 1:45 (you're supposed to be there half an hour early). St. Luke's usually has complimentary valet parking, but they had some grand opening ceremony out front for part of the hospital, so they weren't offering it that day. Figures. So we drove around forever looking for a parking spot before finally finding one near the top of the garage. We walked to the hospital, went up to the fourth floor where my doctor's office is, and I filled out the prenatal paperwork. When I had finally given them everything they needed, we waited. We saw all the new moms or moms-to-be with their babies or big bellies. I couldn't believe that was going to be me in a few months!
We were called back and taken into a dimly lit room where I would have my first ultrasound. When the nurse came back into the room, she looked for the baby, then turned the screen towards us. We got our first glimpse of this little wonder. :) She showed us different body parts, "This is the head...and here are the legs and feet...this is your baby's developing umbilical cord...here's the heart..." We took her word for it. ;) And then we got to hear that precious baby's first sign of life - the heartbeat. So rapid and steady. We looked at each other, beaming. She told us everything looked great, that the baby was measuring 8 weeks/4 days, and then she printed 3 pictures for us to keep. Two of them just look like a little blob (which is what I have affectionately taken to calling the baby since then, and my students have followed suit: "Miss, how's your Blob?"), but one looked kind of like a tiny, albeit weird-looking, human...
After the ultrasound, we were taken to another room where a nurse came in and asked me a ton of questions about my family history and my lifestyle. She took my blood pressure and calculated my due date as July 12th. Then she left and said the doctor would be in shortly. When Dr. Scott came in, she had a bag of goodies with her - pregnancy magazines, free offers/coupons, even some samples of baby products. Then it was my turn to ask the questions. She told me my limit was 10, but I had 14 on my list. Yes, I had a list. :) They included everything from "Are these prenatal vitamins sufficient?" to "Can I paint my nails?" Probably the most important question of all, "Can I take baths?" was answered with a little laugh and a YES! (To all those people who told me I couldn't, I say thanks a lot for depriving me of a month of baths...grrr.) I also asked if I should get a flu shot, and she said yes. I wrote a note to myself to get that done but Dr. Scott said, "Actually, I think we still have some here in the office. Do you want to get one today?" I wanted to yell out NO! I haven't had time to mentally prepare for a shot today! But all I could say was, "Sure, ok I guess." I disgust myself. We finished up with the doctor and the nurse came back in with the needle. Just my luck. It honestly wasn't bad, but my shoulder throbbed for the next 3 days. I could barely lift my arm above my head for the rest of the day!
We scheduled our next appointment, January 8th, then left the office to go next door to the lab to get the bloodwork done. If you remember, this is the part I had been dreading. I sat down in the blood-letting chair (awful things), and told the tech "I don't do so well with this stuff." I also told her that they have trouble finding a vein in my arms, so to take it from my hand instead. She asked me if I was sure (looking back, this should have been a sign for me to change my decision) but I told her I was sure and she started the process. It wasn't bad at first, but then she bumped the line and an intense pain tingled up my arm. When it came time to switch the first vial for the second one, more pain erupted. I started to feel woozy, and I felt like my blood was flowing like molasses. This was going to take forever. I tried to think about other things, but I could feel myself slipping. I asked if she had an ice pack, although I knew she did. I had used it last time. She wrapped it in paper towels and I held it on the back of my neck. It helped a little, but I guess she could see it in my face because she suggested that we switch hands. I'm not really sure why this was a good idea because it meant another prick, but maybe the brief reprieve helped me stave off fainting a little. Second hand, third vial. Still slow even though I had plenty of fluids beforehand. The lady was trying to keep my mind off things, God bless her, but it smelled like she had eaten straight-up onions for lunch, which was not helping at all. I began to feel nauseated. And she kept talking about next time I had to give blood, to tell them that I have trouble with it so I can do it laying down in a patient room instead. But she didn't use the phrase "giving blood." Instead, she kept referring to it as "getting stuck." ..."Yeah, next time I have to stick you, you can lay on down," or "Make sure you tell 'em next time you get stuck because when I stick you for your next appointment you'll have to drink a sugar drink first and you don't want to get stuck on an empty stomach with that in ya..." I know she was trying to help, but all I could think of was that line from Lord of the Rings when an orc says to Frodo, "I'm gonna bleed you like a stuck pig." My hearing started to go. I was on the fourth vial and I told her I wasn't going to be able to do this much longer. She mercifully filled up the fourth right to the top and told me that she could split it between the fourth and fifth so that I could stop. Thank You, Jesus. She bandaged me up, and I had to sit there for at least another 5 minutes until I felt able to walk again. Good thing Lee was there with me too.
We went back into the ob-gyn office to meet with the financial counselor, and she let us in on a little secret: babies are expensive! I found out my insurance pretty much sucks. (I have since found out that it sucks a little less then we previously thought, but it still sucks.) She put us on a payment plan to cover all of my prenatal care and the cost for Dr. Scott to deliver the baby. She was careful to tell us that this did not include anything that the hospital would bill us for. Who knows how much that will be... We left feeling a little :-O but ready to do anything we needed to for the sake of the baby.
We went to Olive Garden to celebrate and as a "last hoorah" now that we knew we (really) needed to save for other things. The meal tasted so good, and I was glad that all the anxiety over the appointment was gone. Although when Lee held my hand to pray over the meal, it hurt like crazy. My poor little bruised veins. But the baby is more than worth it, right? :)
~Hooks
We got Chick-Fil-A breakfast after we left and took it home to eat. We watched tv and killed time before we had to leave. I'm pretty sure I slept a little bit more. Then it was time to leave. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous to go. First of all, a tiny part of my worried that maybe things weren't ok with the baby. Meanwhile, a big part of me was worried about all the bloodwork! (It's started to become a problem in recent years...read my post about visiting Rachel this summer...)
We headed out around 1:45 (you're supposed to be there half an hour early). St. Luke's usually has complimentary valet parking, but they had some grand opening ceremony out front for part of the hospital, so they weren't offering it that day. Figures. So we drove around forever looking for a parking spot before finally finding one near the top of the garage. We walked to the hospital, went up to the fourth floor where my doctor's office is, and I filled out the prenatal paperwork. When I had finally given them everything they needed, we waited. We saw all the new moms or moms-to-be with their babies or big bellies. I couldn't believe that was going to be me in a few months!
We were called back and taken into a dimly lit room where I would have my first ultrasound. When the nurse came back into the room, she looked for the baby, then turned the screen towards us. We got our first glimpse of this little wonder. :) She showed us different body parts, "This is the head...and here are the legs and feet...this is your baby's developing umbilical cord...here's the heart..." We took her word for it. ;) And then we got to hear that precious baby's first sign of life - the heartbeat. So rapid and steady. We looked at each other, beaming. She told us everything looked great, that the baby was measuring 8 weeks/4 days, and then she printed 3 pictures for us to keep. Two of them just look like a little blob (which is what I have affectionately taken to calling the baby since then, and my students have followed suit: "Miss, how's your Blob?"), but one looked kind of like a tiny, albeit weird-looking, human...
 |
| Legs/feet are on the left, head on the right, for people who have as much trouble deciphering these things as I do |
After the ultrasound, we were taken to another room where a nurse came in and asked me a ton of questions about my family history and my lifestyle. She took my blood pressure and calculated my due date as July 12th. Then she left and said the doctor would be in shortly. When Dr. Scott came in, she had a bag of goodies with her - pregnancy magazines, free offers/coupons, even some samples of baby products. Then it was my turn to ask the questions. She told me my limit was 10, but I had 14 on my list. Yes, I had a list. :) They included everything from "Are these prenatal vitamins sufficient?" to "Can I paint my nails?" Probably the most important question of all, "Can I take baths?" was answered with a little laugh and a YES! (To all those people who told me I couldn't, I say thanks a lot for depriving me of a month of baths...grrr.) I also asked if I should get a flu shot, and she said yes. I wrote a note to myself to get that done but Dr. Scott said, "Actually, I think we still have some here in the office. Do you want to get one today?" I wanted to yell out NO! I haven't had time to mentally prepare for a shot today! But all I could say was, "Sure, ok I guess." I disgust myself. We finished up with the doctor and the nurse came back in with the needle. Just my luck. It honestly wasn't bad, but my shoulder throbbed for the next 3 days. I could barely lift my arm above my head for the rest of the day!
We scheduled our next appointment, January 8th, then left the office to go next door to the lab to get the bloodwork done. If you remember, this is the part I had been dreading. I sat down in the blood-letting chair (awful things), and told the tech "I don't do so well with this stuff." I also told her that they have trouble finding a vein in my arms, so to take it from my hand instead. She asked me if I was sure (looking back, this should have been a sign for me to change my decision) but I told her I was sure and she started the process. It wasn't bad at first, but then she bumped the line and an intense pain tingled up my arm. When it came time to switch the first vial for the second one, more pain erupted. I started to feel woozy, and I felt like my blood was flowing like molasses. This was going to take forever. I tried to think about other things, but I could feel myself slipping. I asked if she had an ice pack, although I knew she did. I had used it last time. She wrapped it in paper towels and I held it on the back of my neck. It helped a little, but I guess she could see it in my face because she suggested that we switch hands. I'm not really sure why this was a good idea because it meant another prick, but maybe the brief reprieve helped me stave off fainting a little. Second hand, third vial. Still slow even though I had plenty of fluids beforehand. The lady was trying to keep my mind off things, God bless her, but it smelled like she had eaten straight-up onions for lunch, which was not helping at all. I began to feel nauseated. And she kept talking about next time I had to give blood, to tell them that I have trouble with it so I can do it laying down in a patient room instead. But she didn't use the phrase "giving blood." Instead, she kept referring to it as "getting stuck." ..."Yeah, next time I have to stick you, you can lay on down," or "Make sure you tell 'em next time you get stuck because when I stick you for your next appointment you'll have to drink a sugar drink first and you don't want to get stuck on an empty stomach with that in ya..." I know she was trying to help, but all I could think of was that line from Lord of the Rings when an orc says to Frodo, "I'm gonna bleed you like a stuck pig." My hearing started to go. I was on the fourth vial and I told her I wasn't going to be able to do this much longer. She mercifully filled up the fourth right to the top and told me that she could split it between the fourth and fifth so that I could stop. Thank You, Jesus. She bandaged me up, and I had to sit there for at least another 5 minutes until I felt able to walk again. Good thing Lee was there with me too.
We went back into the ob-gyn office to meet with the financial counselor, and she let us in on a little secret: babies are expensive! I found out my insurance pretty much sucks. (I have since found out that it sucks a little less then we previously thought, but it still sucks.) She put us on a payment plan to cover all of my prenatal care and the cost for Dr. Scott to deliver the baby. She was careful to tell us that this did not include anything that the hospital would bill us for. Who knows how much that will be... We left feeling a little :-O but ready to do anything we needed to for the sake of the baby.
We went to Olive Garden to celebrate and as a "last hoorah" now that we knew we (really) needed to save for other things. The meal tasted so good, and I was glad that all the anxiety over the appointment was gone. Although when Lee held my hand to pray over the meal, it hurt like crazy. My poor little bruised veins. But the baby is more than worth it, right? :)
~Hooks
December 1st
Look at these cute onesies we got from our Disney Movie Rewards points... (I actually got these months ago because there was nothing else that I really wanted.) But then we went to Ross, and we found the bottom set. I just had to get it....because it matched, duh. Yay Monsters Inc.! Now all we have to do is have a boy...
...or make our little girl wear them anyway.
~Hooks
...or make our little girl wear them anyway.
~Hooks
November 26th - 30th
For a few days, we were brainstorming about creative ways to tell our parents and families that we're expecting. I had the idea to buy them all "gifts" that reflected their new titles...products that had "grandpa," "grandma," "aunt," and "uncle" in the title. The easiest was, of course, for my brother:
Lee mentioned Grandma's Cookies, which I had never heard of, but we decided to look for those while we were out shopping. I didn't know about "Grandpa's" anything, nor a product by the name of Aunt Jackie, so I hit the internet. I found a gourmet soap company called Grandpa's, and ordered my dad a lavendar and vanilla bar. He's so sentimental I figure he'll probably never use it, but maybe it will make his sock drawer smell good for a while. :)
I was at work surfing for something for Jackie, and I found this!
One of my African American co-workers near me leaned over, looking at my screen and asked, "You use ethnic hair products??" Ummm...whoops. I had just ordered it. Oh well, Jackie has curly hair; how could it hurt?
Finally, Grandma's Cookies. This should have been the easiest thing to find, given that we go grocery shopping every week, but we couldn't find them! We struck out at Wal-Mart, H.E.B., and Kroger. Finally, we were walking in the Woodlands mall, and there happened to be a convenience store there. We thought why not give it a try...and score!
I kept calling Rachel, asking her if she was sure she and Jake weren't going to be able to make it up for Christmas. She assured me that it was impossible, so we're probably just going to tell them over Skype or something. It's kind of a good thing though, because I searched and searched and the only thing I found by the name "Aunt Rachel" was a movie about an aunt who is unlucky in love, so she wishes the same fate upon her niece. Thus, she does everything she can to destroy her niece's romance with a young man - not exactly the kind of message I would encourage. The other alternative was a weird looking book called "Aunt Rachel's Fur." Umm, no. And I couldn't really find anything for Jake either...
Anyway, we wrapped the gifts for my mom, dad, brother, and sister-in-law in identical wrapping paper, with the plan to have them open the presents at the same time. Hopefully they'll figure it out, and it'll be fun to watch. The only thing is that I'm already bursting to tell them the secret. Now I'm not sure when all 4 of them will be together. I want to walk in and be like, "Open these presents NOW!" But that would almost certainly make them suspicious. I've been bugging Jackie about when she and Ben are going to be coming over on Christmas Eve. She probably thinks I'm just being controlling, but the thing is that I'm trying to find the earliest time when everyone will be together! (Sorry, Jacks. :)
The reveal for Lee's parents had to be a little more obvious, since they already are grandparents. We didn't want to do the same thing and have them think we were just reaffirming the fact that they are grandparents because of Julia, our niece. So Lee had the idea to get baby clothes with "grandma" and "grandpa" on them, in the hopes that they would understand it was for a new baby. (Why would we get them baby clothes for Julia?) After hours of searching, we found these. After all the pinks and blues, we thought these were pretty gender-neutral...at least until I showed Becca and she pointed out the pink letters. Oh well, if we have a boy, he's going to wear them anyway!
We're going to give these to Lee's parents as the last gift when we have the Hooker Christmas on December 22. Our plan is to fake-forget them "in our suitcase" so that we can ensure they open them last. We even planned a little fake argument. :) We're not very good actors though, so we'll see how it goes. I guess I'll have to update you on how everything went after Christmas!
~Hooks
November 14th
Well, today is the day my students found out. My original plan had been to tell them just before Christmas break, but they always seem to find a way to ruin plans. It was seventh period and I was walking past a group of girls who sit near my desk. One of the girls suddenly said, "Oooo, Miss! Did you hear what she just said?!" I said no and asked her what she meant. She continued, "She said that she thinks you're pregnant because you're sick and you're always wearing those flowy shirts!"
Darn it! This wasn't supposed to come out yet! And who is she to notice all my "flowy shirts"? For her information, I was only wearing those to cover my stomach - which, sadly, had nothing to do with pregnancy at that time...lol.
Now, the way I read the Bible, lying for any reason is wrong, so I try my best not to, even in situations like this. My wheels in my mind started turning, trying to come up with some explanation that wasn't a lie but wasn't quite the truth either. Something like, "Ha, I wish!" which is technically true. I do wish it, even though my wish has come true already. But I took too long. I managed to let out a little laugh as I sat down in my chair. (Maybe if I ignore them they'll drop it?) And then they pounced. Four or five of them jumped up and surrounded me. "Oh my gosh, are you pregnant?!!" I guess I started smiling (come on, I had just found out myself...I was still giddy), and I could feel myself blushing. I mean, beet red. My cheeks were so hot that I didn't even have to answer. They took my physical signs and ran with them. They turned around and announced to the whole class, "Hey yall, Mrs. Hooker's pregnant!!!" Gasps and cheers and questions filled the air. One student wanted to confirm, "Miss, is it true?" I just nodded and smiled sheepishly. Well, there goes the secret.
I went to the front of the room and told them that I had wanted to wait until Christmas break to tell them. They asked me when I had found out, and I said it had been about a week and a half. They were angry that I hadn't told them sooner! (LOL, they're so self-consumed sometimes...) They complained that in my PowerPoint the first day of school I had said not to bug me about when I was going to have kids...that I would tell them when it happened. I explained that I was still going to tell them, but I wanted to wait until I was nearly out of my third trimester just in case "anything happened." This sobered them up quite a bit. Then one kid yells from the back of the room, "Geez, Miss...way to be a downer!" We all laughed and that was about it. I asked them not to tell anyone until Christmas break, and they all promised to keep my secret.
I went home that night and realized I'd have to be an idiot to trust 30 tenth-graders to keep something under-wraps for a month. I decided that I'd have to tell the rest of my students and colleagues the next day. So on Thursday, I had a PowerPoint slide up as the kids came into class. It said, "As we near Thanksgiving, think of all you have to be thankful about. Mrs. Hooker is thankful that..." and then I had this QR bar code that they needed to scan to find the answer.
Since all of my students knew, I figured the word would be spreading quickly, so I started telling my co-workers one by one as I saw them throughout the day. One of my colleagues hates me - who knows why - so I was waiting to tell her until I absolutely had to. (Usually she just stares at me with no response when I talk to her.) When I finally got up enough nerve, I said, "Hey _____, I just wanted to let you know that I'm pregnant" with a slight smile. She looked at me for a second and said, "Ok." I found out later that she leaned to another co-worker near her and whispered under her breath, "So?" Wow. So, everyone except 1 person was happy for me. :)
All of my students kept asking me if Lee was happy about it. At first this cracked me up. I was like "Of course he's happy about it!" Then I started seeing the sad reality behind the question - they see more unplanned, unwanted pregnancies than anything else. Well, kids, here's how you do it the right way. :)
And they do not understand the concept of development. Every day without ceasing, I get the question, "Miss, is it a boy or a girl?" Me: "You can't tell until at least 4 months sweetie." Next day, "Miss, is it a boy or a girl?" Me: "You can't tell until at least 4 months honey." And repeat. For what it's worth, they all think it's a boy. Only time will tell.
~Hooks
Pregnancy Brain Moment #19
Lee and I are listening to Christmas music in the car, and he loves to play this little game called "Guess Who's Singing This." He's really good, but I suck at it. Still, I play along anyway. I should have known I would be even worse now, with pregnancy brain. So the famous question comes up, "Who's singing this?" My response: "Patty Sandi."
Oh by the way, it was Karen Carpenter.
~Hooks
Oh by the way, it was Karen Carpenter.
~Hooks
November 10th - 25th
About a week after we found out, I started to feel really run down. I was exhausted, congested, and just generally miserable. There were two days in a row that I almost went home sick on a half day because I felt so horrible. I didn't know if I had a cold, allergies, or if it was just due to the pregnancy. After three days of feeling like that, I gained a new symptom...migraine. I wanted to die. I knew I could take Tylenol, but no ibuprofen?! How was I going to make it?? Now I was exhausted, congested, nauseated, in pain, and just generally miserable. And on top of it all, I started freaking out because I didn't know if my sickness was harming the baby in any way. So I called Becca. (Yes, she found out before my parents, which is a little sad when you think about it, but I was getting really worried. I had to confide in someone, and I figured she would be a good person for the job...especially since she's been around the pregnancy block once or twice...or four times.)
I called her one morning while I was at stair duty, told her everything that was happening. She assured me that even if I did have a cold, it wouldn't affect the baby. (She did this by listing everything she has had while pregnant: "...and I've had strep and the a stomach virus and sinus infections and conjunctivitis and I've coughed my lungs out and..." Ok, so I stopped flipping a lid. Then she said four of the most glorious words I had ever heard: "You can take Sudafed." Sudafed! One of my go-to meds for all things sinus! I was elated. I waited for the bell to ring, ran to my desk, and grabbed two little red pills from my stash that had been so long untouched. I popped them in and waited.
Nothing happened. In fact, I started to get worse. I was still apprehensive about taking meds until I talked to my doctor to get the official ok, so I took the Sudafed sparingly. Maybe that's why it didn't work as well. Or maybe I just had a nasty cold that wasn't going to back down for anything. And I'm sorry, but Tylenol doesn't touch headaches. At least not mine. :( I had an ice pack on my head nearly every minute I was at home, and during my free period at school. I couldn't sleep, I didn't want to eat. I'm sure I was not a delight to be around.
Finally after 3 days (day 6 of "the cold"), my headache went away. You'd think it would be a great day, but right about that time I got a new symptom. What was it? Oh nothing...except I went deaf! Ok, not really, but my ears did get plugged. I mean completely. Both ears. I was probably hearing at about 40%, which is really annoying. I couldn't understand what my students were saying, but I knew they were talking because of the dull background noise I heard. I don't know how many times I had to say, "HUH? What's that? Speak up, sonny!" like a 95-year-old. (Ok, I made up the sonny part.) I even went to the school nurse to have her look in my ears. I asked her if they were red/infected or if there was wax. She told me no, but that my ear drums were shiny, which indicated pressure behind them. Thanks, sinuses! First a migraine, now this! She also told me that sinus problems were pretty common in pregnancy, since everything is swelling and you have increased blood circulation. She recommended that I get a neti pot and use it twice a day. I did. At this point I was going to try anything...
After a few more days, I started feeling better but I still couldn't hear. It was a tad comical after a while because I would have to turn my "good ear" towards people when they were talking (one ear was slightly better than the other), and I couldn't hear guys with low voices at all. I went through an entire dinner at a fancy restaurant with one of Lee's co-workers without being able to hear a word her husband said. And they were treating! I felt pretty bad. I must have been horrible company.
It had been about two and a half weeks since I had felt normal, 9-10 days since I had lost my hearing, when I decided to google the clogged ears thing. I found blogs and comment boards where women were talking about their ears being plugged for weeks... One lady even said that she had talked to her doctor about it, and he said her ears might not unplug until after she gave birth! Well that sucks for her, but she was at week 34. I was only 6 weeks in!!! I started to tear up, thinking about being deaf for another 8 months. I gave myself a moment to wallow in my own pity, then resigned myself to the fact that this was the new me. And for the sake of my baby, the cause of all of this suffering, I would endure.
And wouldn't you know it, my ears cleared up the next day. :)
~Hooks
I called her one morning while I was at stair duty, told her everything that was happening. She assured me that even if I did have a cold, it wouldn't affect the baby. (She did this by listing everything she has had while pregnant: "...and I've had strep and the a stomach virus and sinus infections and conjunctivitis and I've coughed my lungs out and..." Ok, so I stopped flipping a lid. Then she said four of the most glorious words I had ever heard: "You can take Sudafed." Sudafed! One of my go-to meds for all things sinus! I was elated. I waited for the bell to ring, ran to my desk, and grabbed two little red pills from my stash that had been so long untouched. I popped them in and waited.
Nothing happened. In fact, I started to get worse. I was still apprehensive about taking meds until I talked to my doctor to get the official ok, so I took the Sudafed sparingly. Maybe that's why it didn't work as well. Or maybe I just had a nasty cold that wasn't going to back down for anything. And I'm sorry, but Tylenol doesn't touch headaches. At least not mine. :( I had an ice pack on my head nearly every minute I was at home, and during my free period at school. I couldn't sleep, I didn't want to eat. I'm sure I was not a delight to be around.
Finally after 3 days (day 6 of "the cold"), my headache went away. You'd think it would be a great day, but right about that time I got a new symptom. What was it? Oh nothing...except I went deaf! Ok, not really, but my ears did get plugged. I mean completely. Both ears. I was probably hearing at about 40%, which is really annoying. I couldn't understand what my students were saying, but I knew they were talking because of the dull background noise I heard. I don't know how many times I had to say, "HUH? What's that? Speak up, sonny!" like a 95-year-old. (Ok, I made up the sonny part.) I even went to the school nurse to have her look in my ears. I asked her if they were red/infected or if there was wax. She told me no, but that my ear drums were shiny, which indicated pressure behind them. Thanks, sinuses! First a migraine, now this! She also told me that sinus problems were pretty common in pregnancy, since everything is swelling and you have increased blood circulation. She recommended that I get a neti pot and use it twice a day. I did. At this point I was going to try anything...
After a few more days, I started feeling better but I still couldn't hear. It was a tad comical after a while because I would have to turn my "good ear" towards people when they were talking (one ear was slightly better than the other), and I couldn't hear guys with low voices at all. I went through an entire dinner at a fancy restaurant with one of Lee's co-workers without being able to hear a word her husband said. And they were treating! I felt pretty bad. I must have been horrible company.
It had been about two and a half weeks since I had felt normal, 9-10 days since I had lost my hearing, when I decided to google the clogged ears thing. I found blogs and comment boards where women were talking about their ears being plugged for weeks... One lady even said that she had talked to her doctor about it, and he said her ears might not unplug until after she gave birth! Well that sucks for her, but she was at week 34. I was only 6 weeks in!!! I started to tear up, thinking about being deaf for another 8 months. I gave myself a moment to wallow in my own pity, then resigned myself to the fact that this was the new me. And for the sake of my baby, the cause of all of this suffering, I would endure.
And wouldn't you know it, my ears cleared up the next day. :)
~Hooks
Pregnancy Brain Moment #12
I'm at school and I ask a student to pull down the, "Uhh, projector...remote...uhh... SCREEN! [long pause] Oh no, I'm becoming my mother."
Shout-out to my Rachel...no, Chelsea...no, Mom! :)
~Hooks
Shout-out to my Rachel...no, Chelsea...no, Mom! :)
~Hooks
Pregnancy Brain Moment #1
I just watched We Bought a Zoo in its entirety without being able to remember the name of the main actor.
Umm, it's Matt Damon. And I own and have seen all of the Bourne movies about a thousand times. All I could think of was Josh Hartnett, even though I knew that was wrong and he basically hasn't done anything since Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down.
~Hooks
Umm, it's Matt Damon. And I own and have seen all of the Bourne movies about a thousand times. All I could think of was Josh Hartnett, even though I knew that was wrong and he basically hasn't done anything since Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down.
~Hooks
November 4th - Sunday
Today was one of my most favorite days in my entire life so far because today is the day I found out...
WE'RE PREGNANT!!!
Ok, now I know I peed on that thing and it may be a little awkward to have a picture of it in my blog but I don't care because it means I'm going to stinkin' have a baby! We are so excited! Let me tell you how it happened... Wait not that part of it, but how we found out...
So you may or may not know, but for about the last 4 to 5 months, Lee and I have been trying to get pregnant. We had tried for a few months and I was already getting antsy, so in October, I got an ovulation kit so I could make sure I knew when everything was happening, down to the day. So when Thursday came and I was one day late, I started to freak out (in a good way). I wasn't going to get ahead of myself, though, so I resolved to wait a while to take a test.
I made it to the next day.
So on Friday, I took my first pregnancy test. It was a cheapo one I had gotten from the dollar store, so when two faint lines - and I cannot emphasis the word faint enough - appeared, I was still trying not to let myself get too excited. "Woah woah Bethany...this thing cost a dollar. Actually, 99 cents. Are you sure you can really trust it?" No, I wasn't sure. :( And before you judge me, pregnancy tests are expensive ya'll! We had stocked up on a few cheapies so that we wouldn't be throwing money out the window every time we needed to test for a "maybe."
The ovulation kit we had purchased came with a free pregnancy test in it, I guess so you could try their brand and keep all your cash going to them. On Saturday, I used it to do my second pregnancy test. Again, two faint lines appeared. Still, this was in an ovulation kit for pete's sake. These people specialized in ovulation...not telling you whether or not it worked. And the thing reminded me of litmus paper from high school chemistry...flimsy. Could I trust it? Well, I trusted it enough to tell Lee about it all. I told him that I was a few days late and about the two "pregnancy tests." He said, "Really?" but still warned me not to get too excited. When I made a comment later in the day about feeling really tired, wondering if it was due to the fact that I was pregnant, he said, "Well, maybe you are. We don't know for sure." What a rock. Always keeping my toes on the ground. :) I told him I wanted to get some real tests for the next day (I didn't have any more at home), so we went to H.E.B. and got a pack of First Response tests. Finally a brand we had heard of, even if it cost an arm and a leg.
Then on Sunday, that glorious day, I took my third and final pregnancy test... at 4 in the morning. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Those 3 minutes were groggy torture. When I could finally look, there I saw two solid lines. Relief, joy, anticipation all hit me at once. How was I going to go back to sleep?! How was I going to tell Lee (for real this time)? I snapped the above picture so that he could see what I saw at the moment I found out, went to the desk and wrote "Good morning Daddy!" on an index card, taped it to the mirror in our bathroom, and crawled back into bed.
Somehow, I feel back asleep and was awakened later by the sound of Lee going into the bathroom around 7. This was it! He came back to bed minutes later with naught a word or kiss for me. Hmph. He didn't see the note. We slept for another hour or so, then when we got up I tried coaxing him into the bathroom again for a shower. I jumped in, and he said that he had to go to the bathroom first.
Then he started making his way to the other bathroom. Ughh! If this man wasn't going to see this sign...
I heard him start to leave the room, stop, then the next thing I knew he threw back the curtain and said, "Really?!" this time with excitement in his voice! I nodded, huge smile on my face. He kissed me, and then he kissed me again... And then he really did leave to go to the bathroom. All in all, a good response. :)
~~~~~
Now, I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm actually writing this on November 24th. We've told a few people, and my students have found out (that's another post), but we've decided not to tell our families about the baby until we see them for Christmas, exactly a month from now. Keeping this from my parents has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. There are so many days when I'm feeling exhausted or stressed and I just want to call my mom or dad and say "Yeah, but I have an excuse: I'm pregnant!" but I know I want to see the look on their faces when I say it. So I was in bed tonight, experiencing a bit of insomnia (which I've read can be a pretty common prego symptom), trying to think of how I was going to last another month without bursting, and it hit me... "Write about it! They can catch up later, but at least you're getting it out now." And even at 12:55 a.m. I can tell you that this has been therapeutic. So this is the first of many posts, catching you up on what you've missed so far on this great journey until we meet our little one. I'm setting them all to post on Christmas day, which by now you know. Enjoy!
~Hooks
P.S. On Sunday afternoon I found 2 E.P.T. tests under my bathroom sink. Whoops. Now I have 4 that will probably expire before I need them again. Anyone want to take them off my hands? :)
P.S. On Sunday afternoon I found 2 E.P.T. tests under my bathroom sink. Whoops. Now I have 4 that will probably expire before I need them again. Anyone want to take them off my hands? :)
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Christmastime Is Here
I don't know why but for some reason Lee and I just weren't really in the Christmas mood. Black Friday sucked. We went out "late," missed our opportunity to buy the laptop bundle we wanted at Best Buy, ended up buying a laptop online in the parking lot at 1:30 am from Office Depot, and went to 2 different Wal-Mart's only to discover that neither of them had the movie Brave. At least we got this pretty sweet Samsonite luggage at Ross later on in the day after we went home to sleep.
Then we skipped our tradition of buying and setting up our tree later that day. So far we had done it that way since we'd been married, but this year, our 5th Christmas together, we chose to break that tradition. I usually can't wait to set up the tree, so I was a bit upset about the whole thing. But it wasn't like Lee was to blame. Like I said, we both just weren't feeling up to it...
On Saturday we decided to decorate. While we were unpacking the Christmas decorations, we realized why people pay money to get climate-controlled storage lockers.
Later that day we went out to look for a tree. We found a beautiful one at Houston Garden Center... We went out to buy some more lights for it, then came home to decorate.
~Hooks
Then we skipped our tradition of buying and setting up our tree later that day. So far we had done it that way since we'd been married, but this year, our 5th Christmas together, we chose to break that tradition. I usually can't wait to set up the tree, so I was a bit upset about the whole thing. But it wasn't like Lee was to blame. Like I said, we both just weren't feeling up to it...
On Saturday we decided to decorate. While we were unpacking the Christmas decorations, we realized why people pay money to get climate-controlled storage lockers.
Later that day we went out to look for a tree. We found a beautiful one at Houston Garden Center... We went out to buy some more lights for it, then came home to decorate.
Aww! Isn't it cute?!
We picked it out from this row of its brothers and sisters. Now we have
our very own little rosemary bush/tree/thing. It smells really good,
and we're pretty sure we can cook with it too.
We decorated the tree (which took all of 20 minutes...and that included the time it took us to sort through all of our ornaments and pick out the few we wanted) and threw up all the other decorations - the Christmas dish towels, a snowman tart burner, our Willow Tree Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus plaque, and a few other things. We were done in record time. Then we exchanged ornaments, which we've started doing the past few years. I got Lee the 5 pointed Peace star to symbolize our 5th year together, and he got me 4 little owls in pink and purple since those are some of my favorite colors and I've been really into owls lately. I loved them! And at that moment, it started to feel a little more like Christmas. :)
~Hooks
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Galveston
We went to Galveston back in early September, but I thought I'd blog about it now in honor of an 80 degree December 1st... And I have time. :)
Becca and Pete asked us if we wanted to go with them to the beach for a few hours, and Lee and I had never been before, so we said sure! Here are some pics...
On our way!
At the beach...there were very few people there, especially since it was so early on a Saturday.
Hannah and I basically spent the whole time in the waves. They were awesome because of Hurricane Isaac. Pete and Ryan played together, and Becca kept a watchful eye on Caleb. Even though I told him to, Lee didn't bring his swimsuit because he's stubborn so he had to stand in the sand all morning. He sunk in pretty far. We were the same height at one point! We all looked for little clams (or whatever) towards the end.
It was a gorgeous day, and I was reminded yet again why I love living in Texas. :)
~Hooks
Becca and Pete asked us if we wanted to go with them to the beach for a few hours, and Lee and I had never been before, so we said sure! Here are some pics...
On our way!
At the beach...there were very few people there, especially since it was so early on a Saturday.
Hannah and I basically spent the whole time in the waves. They were awesome because of Hurricane Isaac. Pete and Ryan played together, and Becca kept a watchful eye on Caleb. Even though I told him to, Lee didn't bring his swimsuit because he's stubborn so he had to stand in the sand all morning. He sunk in pretty far. We were the same height at one point! We all looked for little clams (or whatever) towards the end.
It was a gorgeous day, and I was reminded yet again why I love living in Texas. :)
~Hooks
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