Here We Grow Again and Other Pregnancy Expressions: 12 Weeks

Not content with taking over the globe with one minion, hubs and I decided we should add another human to our team. Or maybe it was something more normal. I'll let you decide.

I am 12 weeks today, and it is a great feeling. This pregnancy is so different from my first. But before I delve into that, some FAQs:

When are you due? 

As my cycles continue to plague me with their randomness, this is always somewhat difficult to ascertain. After a dating ultrasound, we have an approximate window. April 21-24, 2017. But babies are notorious for doing whatever they please, so this little kidlet will show whenever he or she decides. 

Will Josh be home? 

YES! Or at least he should be barring unforeseen disaster. 

How are you feeling?

Now, I only feel tired. Weeks 5-11, I had nausea that lasted most of the day. I still have extreme food aversions, but as long as I avoid them I don't get nauseous anymore. 

What is the gender? 

We don't know yet, but we will soon!

Back to the pregnancy. This pregnancy is very different from my pregnancy with my daughter. They started out almost identical, though. For one, I knew I was pregnant almost immediately. This is some magic power I have. Hubs also developed suspicions about a week after conception. I also got a positive pregnancy test way earlier than should have been possible. 

So why did I test early? Like I said, I already knew. I started having symptoms I only get while pregnant. One of the frustrating aspects of early pregnancy is it is almost identical to PMS. Moody, crampy, bloated, HOORAY. However, some early pregnancy symptoms are rarely anything else. For me, I have three things I look for: bleeding gums, constant peeing that wakes me in the night, and a metal taste in my mouth when I eat. 

I had been peeing more than usual and I had noticed the bleeding gums when brushing my teeth. However, I chalked those to other things because it is very hard to get hopeful when dealing with fertility issues. When trying to conceive my daughter, hubs and I went through a lot of testing to figure out why we couldn't get pregnant. Everything came back normal. However, I wasn't ovulating regularly. I found that out by charting my cycles. I was told that once I successfully conceived and carried a child to term that I wouldn't keep having these issues. That was unfortunately not the case. But I digress. 

It was nearing the end of August and temperatures were absurdly high. As a result, I drank a lot more water on a regular basis. I reasoned that more water consumption meant more peeing. I had also been slacking on wearing my retainer. I started wearing it again and it was a bit tight. I figured that accounted for the more sensitive and thus bleeding gums. 

However, one night I was making dinner and I went to taste it. I almost spat it out as it tasted like I had just sipped on a spoonful of pennies. The next day, I went out to Walmart and bought myself a cheap $0.88 test. I knew I was still early and didn't want to waste money peeing on the Gucci pee sticks that cost $10. It popped up as positive immediately. Cue insane laughter. 

I set up a little scavenger hunt for hubs because I couldn't be a normal person and just tell him with words. I left a sticky note on the front door telling him I had something for him in the fridge, The fridge had a sticky note that said something like, "Haha just kidding. Go look on your pillow." The pillow had a super sweet note that read along the lines of, "I got tired waiting for you to find this, so I needed some coffee." The back of the coffee pot had a sticky note informing my husband that all that coffee made me need to pee, so he should go check our daughter's little training potty. 

He later told me he thought our daughter had gone pee pee in the potty which explains why he stared inside the potty with a blank expression for a few seconds before bending down to pull out the pregnancy test. 

Hubs is notoriously bad at reading pregnancy tests. I blame this on ovulation predictor tests (OPKs). For an OPK to be positive, the test line has to be as dark or darker than the control line, With a pregnancy test, it just needs two lines period. However, this test was a clear positive. His face split into a grin and he declared, "I can DEFINITELY see that!" I then went out and bought a Gucci pee stick that came with a digital test because I needed to see the words.

I saw a midwife when I was a little over six weeks. Since my first pregnancy was an ectopic, my risk is higher to have another one. As a result, I get a very early ultrasound to confirm the pregnancy is in the correct location. We saw the heartbeat and it was 104 bpm. They had me come back a week later as they like to follow the heartbeat to 120 bpm. At 7+3, the heart beat was 144. My last appointment was at 10+2 and the heartbeat was 168 bpm. I have another appointment around 14 weeks. 

On to the differences of this pregnancy. With my daughter, I had hellacious heartburn right off the bat and zero nausea. I craved all things tomato products. With this pregnancy, heartburn didn't kick in until around nine weeks and nausea showed up at five weeks. I also crave sugar like there is no tomorrow. Tart sugar in particular. Think Laffy taffy and chewy sweet tarts. Also, I only want chewy sweet stuff. So odd. I also have intense food aversions. I hate the texture of meat. I don't mind the smell or taste, but the texture makes me want to gag. Even thinking about it too much can make me feel queasy, so enough about that. 

Even so, hubs and I both have our predictions for gender. We both think it's another girl. My dad also thinks it is another girl. While my reasoning is based on mother's intuitions, my father's is based on a dream he had of me holding hands with two little girls that look like me. We are all wearing the same type of dress in the dream as well. 

Time for fun comparison pictures. I didn't get a front picture of eight weeks and my side view is half cut off by a vanity. Ohhhhhhh well. I'm eight weeks pregnant with my daughter on the left and eight weeks into this pregnancy on the right.

Below is the most recent comparison. On the left, I was 12 weeks with my daughter. I also had a glorious tan as it was high summer. The right is today. Pale McPalerson. Don't mind my face and hair. I was freshly bathed, so neither were fully done. #WetHairDontCare

I feel like I look ever so slightly smaller this time around. My waist hasn't disappeared yet. With my daughter's pregnancy, I turned into a tree trunk almost immediately. I didn't show in the traditional sense until forever, though. My lower back is also way less curved. I did a lot of physical therapy and had a couple of chiropractic adjustments when I was pregnant with my daughter as I have scoliosis and sway back. Maybe I won't have as much back pain this time around? So far, that has not been the case.

I'll be interested to see how this pregnancy compares as time goes on. I hear it is common to show faster with subsequent children, so we shall see!

LASIK Surgery

I've been meaning to write this post for awhile and I keep putting it off in favor of other things. Like making cute strawberry costumes for Halloween. I got LASIK about seven weeks ago and it is amazing.

Pre-Op

This was a very annoying part of the process. Hubs wanted me to get LASIK for my birthday which was in January. However, I was not a candidate at the time because I was still nursing. I had to wait until my daughter was weaned + three months. They say this is because the hormones related to nursing can affect your vision. There is no sense getting LASIK for a prescription that is prone to change. 

My daughter weaned around 14 months (late April), so I couldn't get the surgery until late July. However, I was going on vacation in late July/early August. After LASIK, I wouldn't be allowed to get in a natural body of water for weeks. I wanted to enjoy my family vacation, so I scheduled the procedure for after we returned home. 

I still had my pre-op appointment in July to confirm I was a candidate based on some parameters about my eyes. I got the all clear and surgery was set for mid-August. They checked my eyes one more time before the procedure to make sure my prescription hadn't done anything weird and to check the dryness of my corneas. Apparently, my initial exam showed some corneal dryness. They were not any dryer than before, so I was all set.

This is the last picture of me wearing my glasses the day of the surgery. Also, no makeup. Ew.

To get ready for the procedure itself was kind of funny. They put my hair back in a net and put some numbing drops in my eyes. Then they wiped down my eyes with some antiseptic cleaning product. I was not allowed to wear makeup or products around my eyes for three days leading up to the surgery or for one week after the surgery, but they wanted to be extra certain that my eyes were clean. 

Here I am in all my no makeup glory. 

I was offered a valium for nerves, but I declined. I have had poor reactions to narcotics in the past. I know valium is not a narcotic, but I did not want to discover mid-eyeball surgery that Valium makes me go nuts. I was given a warm neck pillow, blanket, and a teddy bear wearing scrubs to hold. This was oddly comforting. 

The Surgery

The surgery is not painful, but it is not the most comfortable thing in the world. The part I was most worried about was getting the little thingamabobs put into my eyes to hold them open. I didn't even feel that part since they gave me even more numbing drops before the procedure. 

The part that was uncomfortable was cutting the flap. The surgeon has to hold the eye in place to ensure it does not move. This requires an absurd about of pressure. It is exceedingly uncomfortable. It does not take long, though. 

The surgeon pulling the flap back was by far the oddest part of the procedure. From what I could tell, he was using a tiny spatula to gently ease the flap open. Each time he pulled on the flap, my vision would move with it. Super weird. It was also odd to see someone wiping a tiny spatula across your eye. It was kind of like watching TV if the TV was directly on top of my eyeball. 

The laser part was simple. My prescription was pretty mild, so I only needed the laser for four seconds per eye. It did smell like burning hair, though. That was gross. Then the surgeon replaced the flap and that was it. He taped some super attractive eye shields over my eyes and I went to get lunch. I had to come back 90 minutes later for post-op.

Recovery

My eyes got extremely uncomfortable within 30 minutes as the numbing drops wore off. They didn't hurt so much as they were light sensitive to the extreme. When I went back in for my 90-minute post-op, I could barely open my eyes in a dark room. However, I was already at 20/20 vision for distance. 

My up close vision was blurry which freaked me out as I've never had problems seeing up close. The surgeon explained this was because of all the drops I had in my eyes. He said it was kind of like looking through a fish bowl.

The surgeon gave me some more numbing drops in the office so that I could open my eyes for more than two seconds. He inspected my flaps and said it all looked how it should. Hubs drove me home and my eyes were starting to bother me again by the time we got to the house. However, I took a three-hour nap and woke up feeling 90% normal. My eyes felt a little gritty, but they did not hurt in the slightest. 

I had to wear my super attractive eye shields at night for five days. I also had to use antibiotic drops for a week and steroid drops. I was supposed to use the steroid drops until I ran out of them. However, I made the unfortunate discovery that I am allergic to sulfites. One of the ingredients in the steroid drops was sodium bisulfite. It made my torso unbearably itchy. At my one-week post-op appointment (which was actually 10 days after surgery), the surgeon told me to cease the steroid drops.

Here are the eye shields. Trying to take a selfie after LASIK is hard. I couldn't see up close.

I came back one month after my one-week follow-up for my last follow-up appointment. My eyes are doing great and my vision is excellent. My right eye is 20/20 and my left eye is 20/15 (potentially even better, they didn't check below 20/15). 

In the beginning, I had to use artificial tears every hour. By one week post-op, I was using them every 2-3 hours. Now I use them about three times per day. The dryness was the most annoying part of recovery, but being able to see without glasses is worth it. Plus, that side effect won't last forever.   

DIY Plush Strawberry Halloween Costume

With Halloween around the corner, I've been trying to figure out my daughter's costume. She's still too young to have an opinion, so I started checking out the costume aisles at stores. Not surprisingly, these stores wanted $20-$40 for a toddler costume. I decided I would make my own.

At first, I wanted to make a little plump pumpkin costume. As I cruised Pinterest for ideas, I came across a tutorial for a strawberry and fell in love with it. I opted to not make the headband portion as my daughter won't wear them just yet.

It cost me about $11.50 in materials. I also had to buy some thick stockings since it will be chilly. Those cost me another $3.50. I already had a long sleeve onesie. In total, this costume cost $15. Here are the materials I bought:

• 1 sheet of light green felt (8x11'')
• 1 sheet of dark green felt (8x11'')
• 20X58 inches of red felt
• 20X58 inches of red Minky with raised dots
• Elastic
• Polyfill (you only need 12 oz, but 16 oz was cheaper for some reason)

The amount of fabric you need will vary depending on the size of your child. I measured around my daughter's shoulders and to where I wanted the costume to end on her. She was 22 inches around. I decided to go with 20 inches for the front and back pieces so the strawberry would fill out when  stuffed with polyfill. I also wanted it to be about 22 inches long. To account for the elastic pulling on the fabric, I added 3 inches to the total length. Final measurements for the red felt and Minky: 20X25' for the front and back pieces.

To start, place your two Minky pieces so the right sides are facing each other and sew along the sides of the costume using a half inch seam. Be sure to leave room for the arms. For my daughter, I marked at the 4.5" mark and the 10" mark with straight pins. I left that section open. Repeat the same process for the red felt. 

Next, insert the red felt tube inside the red Minky tube so the right sides of the Minky and felt are facing each other. Make sure to align the seams and armholes. Sew along the top edges of the felt and Minky using a half-inch seam leaving a one inch gap. This gap is necessary so that you can fish your elastic through it later. Be sure you are sewing the edges and not straight across. Otherwise, where would your child's head go? 

Turn your Minky right side out so that the felt tube is inside of it. Line up the seam you just made and pin it into place so the Minky doesn't slide everywhere. Then sew all the way around approximately one inch below the seam. Again, make sure you are sewing the edges and not sewing the costume shut. This creates a casing for your elastic. 

Find the arms holes and pin them together (again, slippery Minky). Turn the edge of the Minky inward toward the felt by half an inch and turn the felt toward the Minky by half an inch to make a clean seam for the armholes. Pin it in place and sew in a rectangle shape. Repeat this process for the other armhole The final seam for the armhole should look something like this:

Now it is time to cut your strawberry leaves. I drew a basic leaf shape along the edge of the felt and used my first leaf as a template for all the other leaves. Be sure to use the border of the felt so your leaf has a flat edge to line up with the neck of the costume.

The original tutorial used bigger leaves and all light green. I wanted more visual depth, so I used two different colors. My leaves were also slightly smaller because I only had two 8x11 sheets of felt to work with. This made 16 leaves total.

Overlap your leaves and pin them into place. Make sure they line up with the neck of the costume. I wanted more overlap, but I had just enough leaves to make it around the costume. If you want more overlap, get more felt. It's inexpensive. Mine cost me $0.23 per sheet.

Sew one inch below the neck so that you are sewing along the same path you made earlier. Again, you are sewing along the edges, not straight across. Your child's head needs to be able to go through the top. The end result should look something like this:

Now, tuck the bottom of the Minky and felt in toward each other by half an inch like you did the arm holes. Sew as close to the bottom edge as you can. Not to beat a dead horse, but do not sew straight across. This will close off the costume. Leave a 4-inch gap so you can stuff your polyfill into the costume. Sew along the edge again one-inch from the bottom leaving the same 4-inch gap. This is the casing for your other piece of elastic.

Next, thread some elastic through the neck of the costume. To do this, attach a safety pin to the end of your elastic and inch it through the casing you made for the neck. Pull it until the neck opening is small enough to stay on your child's shoulders but large enough that it can easily slip over their head. Tie the elastic and sew the opening shut.

Now, stuff the dickens out of the strawberry costume with your polyfill. Take some care arranging it so it doesn't look lumpy. My daughter's costume is a little on the fuller side. I used about 12 of the 16 ounces of polyfill I bought.

Next, thread some more elastic through the bottom casing you made earlier. This one does not need to be as tight as it only needs to pull in slightly to complete the rounded shape. You want your child to be able to walk unencumbered. Tie off the elastic and sew the opening shut.

To complete the look, I am going to thread green ribbons through a hair tie and put my daughter's hair up in a ponytail. She won't wear headbands or hats, but she will let me put it into a ponytail. She will also have long sleeves and warm stockings on to insulate her from the chill. Here is the completed strawberry costume on my bewildered, bed-head daughter. It's still hot during the day here, so no long sleeves or stockings in this photo:

That's it! One strawberry costume complete!

DIY Blanket Ladder and Entertainment System Curtains

A friend of mine has a blanket ladder and I immediately fell in love with the idea. I love fuzzy blankets, but I do not love them lying all over my house. I kept putting off the project because I didn't have a power drill. Hubs and I finally made the trip to Lowes and got our supplies:

• Power drill
• Bits
• Stain (espresso)
• Polyurethane
• Stain cloth
• Polyurethane brush
• Brown tipped wood screws
• Sanding block (120 on one side, 220 on the other)
• Two 2x2x8
• Floor protector pads

I had a Lowes employee cut the 2x2x8's down to five feet. Then I had him cut those two 3-foot long pieces in half. This left me with two five-foot long pieces and four 18-inch pieces. 

I went home and I sanded the wood with the 120 side first then the 220 side. Then I wiped them down with a cloth to remove the dust. I went out into my yard and stained three sides of the wood. I left that to dry in the sun (until it was no longer tacky to the touch). This only took 45 minutes or so during the heat of the day. Then I flipped it and stained the other side and waited for it to dry. This took a lot longer as I had to move the pieces into the garage. 

My excellent makeshift paperweights. 

Waiting for the fourth side to dry. 

I waited until the following day to put the ladder together. My husband and I determined where we wanted the ladder rungs to go (one run for every foot of ladder height) and drilled pilot holes. We lined up our ladder rung and slightly drilled into them through the leg of the ladder, then backed the screw out. We also drilled pilot holes in the rungs. Then we put the rung back and screwed it all together.

The final rung was a bit of a bear. I tried to find the straightest 2x2x8s I could, but one of them had a slight bow at the bottom. I braced the side my husband was NOT drilling into and pulled the opposite leg tight so the rung sat flush aginst it. Then my husband screwed it all together with the drill. We had to back the screw out a couple of times before we managed to get it so there was no gap.

Almost done! I still needed to polyurethane it at this point.

I applied a layer of polyurethane to ensure no stain would come off on my blankets. I waited 24 hours before bringing the ladder into the house for use. I also put floor savers on the bottom of the ladder as well as on the back of the top part of the ladder legs to protect the wall. Here is the final product complete with blankets!

Those two baskets behind and next to it hide our internet cable. I ended up removing the blue box and sliding over the beige one so the blankets don't pile up on top of it. The blue box now hides our remotes and game controllers so my daughter will stop trying to get at their batteries. I assume this will last for all of a month before she figures out she can take the lid off of it.

Somebody wanted to help. 

Notice that grey bench sitting in front of the entertainment system? This has been a massive pet peeve of mine for awhile. We moved it there back in January when my daughter first started walking. She kept pushing the XBOX power button and ejecting the discs. The grey bench was meant to be a short-term solution until she lost interest in the XBOX. She never lost interest.

She is now tall enough to reach across the grey bench to mess with the XBOX. I also got hubs a PS4 for his birthday back in March, so now we have even more electronics that entice her. I decided maybe out of sight, out of mind would work better in this scenario. Plus, I could put my bench back where it belongs rather than in the middle of the entertainment system.

I bought am expandable tension rod and an 18'X44' piece of fabric. I cut the fabric it in half so I now had two 9'X44' pieces. Then I hemmed the short sides. Next, I folded over the top about 1.5-2' and sewed it. This part would hang from the tension rod. Next, I measured the gap on the entertainment system to see how long I wanted the curtains. I wanted them to hand down slightly past the opening. This ended up being 6.5'. After carefully measuring and pinning the bottom of my curtains so they were the same length all the way across, I sewed the edges.

I pulled the curtains onto the rod and expanded it so that it fit tightly into the entertainment system. I arranged the curtains how I wanted them. Voila. My daughter no longer messes with the XBOX and the bench is back where it belongs. Again, this solution will most likely not last long, but I don't care. For now, it is a win.

Hawaiian Chicken Kabobs

My husband is about to embark on a very strict, six-week long diet and exercise routine. To prepare for it, we started searching for dinners that I could make that would 1.) Fall within his diet plan and 2.) I also liked because I am not making two dinners. I found this Hawaiian Chicken Kabob recipe on Pinterest, and it is amazeballs. I changed a few things. For example, I didn't have rice vinegar so I used apple cider vinegar instead--small things like that.

Ingredients

• 1/3 C ketchup
• 1/3 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/3 C low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 C pineapple juice
• 3 Tbsp olive oil, divided
• 1 1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2-4 tsp minced garlic (about two cloves)
• 1 Tbsp powdered ginger
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• Salt and black pepper
• 6 chicken tenders, chopped into 1 1/4-inch cubes
• 3 C (heaping) fresh cubed pineapple 
• 1 large green peppers, diced into 1 1/4-inch pieces
• 3/4 large red onion, diced into 1 1/4-inch pieces

Directions

Whisk together your ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, pineapple juice, 2 Tbsp olive oil, apple cider vinegar, garlic, ginger, and sesame seed oil in a bowl. You can also add salt and pepper if that is your preference. Set aside half a cup of the mix in your refrigerator. Place your cubed chicken in a gallon size bag and pour the remaining marinade over the chicken. Let it sit in your refrigerator for 1-2 hours. I only had an hour on my hands, but it was still very flavorful. Soak seven-ten wooden kabob sticks in water for one hour as well. I only ended up needing 7, but I also packed my kabobs to the max. 

I used my Foreman Grill for this, so no preheating was required. If you are going to use an actual grill, preheat to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, drizzle the remaining Tbsp of olive oil over your pepper and onion, then toss well. Season the pepper and onion with salt and pepper.

Begin threading your kabobs with your green pepper, onion, pineapple, and chicken until they are filled to your liking. The end result should look like this:

Spray your Foreman Grill with Pam (or lightly brush with olive oil). If you are using a real grill, brush olive oil onto the grates. Brush 1/4 of a cup of your remaining 1/2 a cup of the marinade, then grill for five minutes. Rotate your kabobs 180 degrees and brush the other side with the remaining marinade. Grill another 4 minutes or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. This should be the final result:

Nutrition Information

	Calories	Fat	Sat Fat	Sodium	Carbs	Fiber	Sugar	Protein
Chicken	129	0.6	0	231.5	0	0	0	29.6
Pineapple	82	0.2	0	2	22	2.3	16	0.9
Pepper	13	0	0	1.7	2.6	0.4	1.2	0.4
Red onion	8	0	0	0.5	1.8	0.2	0.8	0.2
Olive Oil	51	6	0.81	0	0	0	0	0
Marinade	53.23	2.18	0.30	256.87	8.37	0.18	6.91	0.47
Total per 3 kabobs	336.23	8.98	1.11	492.57	34.77	3.08	24.91	31.57

Figuring out the marinade is a little tricky. It will change depending on how much of the marinade your chicken absorbs. My chicken absorbed roughly 1/4 a cup of the marinade out of roughly 1.5 cups total. I then further divided the nutrition info to get the amount for three kabobs. Below is the nutrition info for the marinade if you need to adjust it based on how much your chicken absorbs. Longer marinating time will result in more absorption.

	Calories	Fat	Sat Fat	Sodium	Carbs	Fiber	Sugar	Protein
1/3 C ketchup	89.33	0.13	0.03	725.67	21.00	0.23	17.33	1.00
1/3 C packed light brown sugar	276.33	0.00	0.00	28.67	71.37	0.00	70.57	0.00
1/3 C low-sodium soy sauce	45.00	0.07	0.03	2834.33	7.23	0.67	1.43	4.40
1/4 C pineapple juice	34.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	8.17	0.23	7.03	0.23
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided	238.00	28.00	3.80	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
1 1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar	4.50	0.00	0.00	1.50	0.15	0.00	0.15	0.00
2 garlic cloves, minced (4 tsp)	20.00	0.12	0.02	4.00	5.28	0.40	0.16	1.00
1 Tbsp powdered ginger	18.00	0.00	0.00	2.00	4.00	1.00	0.00	0.00
1/2 tsp sesame oil	20.00	2.25	0.30	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Total ~ 1.5 C	745.16	30.57	4.18	3596.17	117.20	2.52	96.67	6.63
Total for 0.25 cups absorbed	124.19	5.09	0.70	599.36	19.53	0.42	16.11	1.10
Total per 3 kabobs	53.23	2.18	0.30	256.87	8.37	0.18	6.91	0.47

This is a decently healthy and surpsingly filling meal. I originally planned to make rice to go with this, but I ran out of time and I'm glad I did. Three kabobs were enough for me.