Fiji – Playing House

Last night I woke up at 11:30 or so from my first “painful” contraction. I put the word painful in quotes because I know it will get worse and really, it wasn’t terrible. Anyway, I had the thought of, “this could be it,” but thankfully was able to get back to sleep. Alas, this was not it and here I am on day 5 post due date.

Today I am back at work after having Monday and Tuesday off, which has been nice. I’ve been trying to get as much done as possible and really tie up loose ends. My productivity was interrupted; however, by an appointment to go see my friend’s momma who has SO GRACIOUSLY offered to attempt to fix my dress for the wedding I’m in this weekend.

I had been putting off getting the dress tailored until I had a better idea as to what my body would look like. As you might imagine, I did not think it would look like it does today, which is ginormous. In fact, I was hopeful that I’d have a 2-3 week old baby by the time the wedding hit. Clearly not the case.

Anyway, I didn’t think it was going to be a huge job because last time I tried on the dress, it seemed like everything fit but the chest portion. Turns out, this is not the case anymore. My friend’s mom is adding in 5 inches of fabric from top to bottom in attempts of making this dress fit. The challenge? I only have extra fabric for the top, chiffon layer, not the bottom layer of fabric. So, while we did the best we could to match, the underlay fabric is a bit darker. Oy. I’m going to be a fat, sweaty, disheveled mess. Hopefully it will magically turn out perfectly.

As a little pick me up, I did grab an ice cream cone form Baskin Robbins on my way back to work. So that was nice… maybe not what I needed, as I’m clearly pretty giant, but helpful… from a mental standpoint. I’m feeling great again 🙂

Minus my feet that is. Holy smokes. Yesterday I spent about 6 hours sitting at our kitchen counter and when I finally looked down at the damage to my feet, it was too late! They were SO swollen… like, I’ve never seem them look worse… they’re flippers.

I’m sorry, but what is that limb? I don’t recognize it…

Oy. They’re a little better today, but I can literally feel them jiggle when I walk. That’s just not good. Other than that, check out these fun pics I rediscovered yesterday from our honeymoon…

Swinging in Fiji

My hubbers.

Perfection in a single sunset.

Pre-Honeymoon Cali Goodness… Look how agile I was.

Me & my guy.

Yes, I will be making a onesie that says exactly that… Because, as far as I’m concerned, our little lentil (yes, today, the baby is the size of a lentil) was conceived on our belated honeymoon. Technically my fertile week fell partly in Fiji and partly in Wisconsin, but I’m sticking with a Fijian conception. Much more romantic than the Cheese State.

The Honeymoon

My husband and I originally planned to get married on August 25, 2013, but due to my impatience and a slew of other reasons, we moved up our wedding to March 17, 2013. Our date adjustment turned wedding planning into wedding planning on drugs. We kicked it into high-gear and had an amazing wedding planned in 3 months. During that time, I also started a new job, and we purchased and moved into our new home. I think the saying is, “go big or go home,” right? We decided to go big and then go to our newly purchased home.

Anyway, I digress. My point is that with all the chaos surrounding our move and wedding, we had decided to delay our honeymoon until we could a) spend more time planning it, b) make sure we had enough (or any) money, and c) breathe. So, after months of online shopping for a honeymoon destination, we finally broke down and went to a travel agent, who led us to Fiji. From what we could see online, there was no way we could go to Fiji on the budget we had set, but with some buy-one-get-one-half-off airline tickets, we were convinced we could fit it into our budget. Of course, the trip was way over budget, but that’s beyond the point. The reality is that it was so darn worth it. We were able to relax and celebrate 6 months of marriage in the happiest and most beautiful place in the world. We also got to explore the underworld on 10 SCUBA dives and check out the air above while parasailing. Did I mention that we hung out with dolphins and saw humpback whales? I miss Fiji.

The happiest place on Earth.

Body Prep

So, some background: about 3 or 4 months before the wedding, I decided to get off of birth control. I had seen my sister and a friend struggle for a year to get pregnant and just knew that I wouldn’t be able to handle that. So I figured, I would cleanse my body of birth control so that when we were ready to try, my body would also be ready. To note, beginning a few months before we started trying to conceive, I also started taking prenatal vitamins. They were gummy, but regardless, I was taking them.

Now fast forward back to the honeymoon… we had decided that it would be just about the coolest souvenir in the world to bring home a baby from our honeymoon, so we decided to officially stop trying not to have a baby in Fiji. Now, don’t get me wrong… we weren’t trying… we were NOT not trying…. I think there is a difference.

So, the moral of the whole story is that we went, we didn’t not try, we had the time of our lives, and along with a beautiful golden Fijian pearl, a hand-carved bowl, tons of random knick-knacks, and an endless amount of photos and videos, my husband and I brought home a baby.

Future parents…

Symptoms

Today I woke up feeling amazing. I was happy, energetic, and ready to take on the day. So far, I’ve only had very mild nausea and I’m just feeling good. Maybe my little baby is celebrating her 6 week birthday and in doing so, has granted me a little break. Or maybe it’s just part of the swing of things.

Speaking of swing of things, last night I had the most absurd meltdown with my husband over a pillow. I’m not going to get into the details, because honestly, it was bizarre and hard to explain without rambling, but it ended with us “playing” tug-of-war with a pillow. By the time we were physically pulling on the pillow, we were both laughing, but the “pillow mishap” did not begin as a joke. So bizarre. Whatever… I’ll write that off as a pregnancy snafu.