Last night my Milly (Mother-in-Law) brought Charlie a wonderful and perfectly timed Chanukah gift: The Baby Amaze Learn to Talk & Read Doll
Charlotte absolutely adores her new Baby Amaze and spent the whole evening practicing for her new role as BIG SISTER beginning in May 2016!
Yes folks, you read that correctly!
Miss Charlotte will be welcoming a little brother or little sister into our family somewhere in the vicinity of May 20th.
Cheers for growing families! Wish us luck 🙂
Ahhhhh relief! The secret is out at work and I didn’t have to make any awkward announcement… AND, even better, got to create a buzzy, rumor-filled day for everyone yesterday as they tried to guess the momma-to-be. We have our little holiday pot luck at work today, so everyone is feeling a bit more chatty than normal, so it’s a great day to make the reveal. For those of you who missed my blog a couple days ago, check out how I created a buzz here.
So, the trivia question went out yesterday, I collected all of the responses, and today, sent out the answer key and scores. There have been a ton of congratulations and silly stories. My favorite is one guy who said he’s had a hunch for three weeks now! I haven’t picked his brain as to HOW he knew, but I’m guessing it’s one of three things…
We’ll find out!
Other than that, I just have to be excited about my little baby bump that’s starting to show up! Every day I can see it a little more and it gets harder and very precious. I can’t help but touch it. Makes me feel like I have more of a chance to love on my baby. SO fun!! AND, I was able to wear a normal shirt today (aka: non-frumpy sweater) without feeling like a lumpy blob. Thank you, baby bump! I’m sure in 2 months I’ll be singing a different song, but for now, I’m going to enjoy every moment.
Symptoms
Who cares! I’m feeling holly jolly. PS: tomorrow is 13 weeks! Tangerine baby.
My baby.
In attempts to get in the holiday spirit at work, despite the total cluster… fluff… going on in the background, my colleague and I have been playing “elves” and games all week. It started with a glitter fest… err… stocking decorating for the office last week.
Katie and I using excessive amounts of glitter… in the holiday spirit, of course!
A handful of the finished products.
This week, we have been filling the stockings each morning with miscellaneous goodies to brighten everyone’s day. In addition, we have been sending out employee trivia. Each day, there is one question and the office is tasked with determining who selected each response. Yesterday’s question was, “Who is your celebrity crush?” and today’s is, “What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever collected?”
To say that these two little elves have brought some much-needed sugar and laughs to the office would be a mild understatement.
But, I’ve digressed. Tomorrow’s question is, “What is one thing most people don’t know about you?” In the spirit of I’m probably not going to be working here for much longer, I figured what better time and easier way to make my pregnancy announcement than that. So, my response was, “I’m three months pregnant.” My colleague, Katie, and I are excited to see how many people think it’s her with the big reveal.
So, I’ll let you know how it goes!
Symptoms
I forgot to mention this yesterday, but on Saturday, we were at my favorite place ever: CostCo. It was insane there… the dairy section was a total zoo. As I battled carts and oncoming traffic, I suddenly got an overwhelming feeling of dizziness / “Holy Shit, I’m going to pass out.” I’ve never passed out in my life, so I was a little shaken by the whole thing. I don’t know if it was because the feeling made me uncomfortable and a little scared or because it was simply long-lasting, but the whole experience lasted at least 30 or so minutes. Then, yesterday, while I was in the midst of my BINGO madness, I got the feeling again. Thankfully, I was sitting down so it wasn’t as bad, but I really hope that this isn’t something that’s going to happen very often. I don’t enjoy it.
I looked it up last night, and apparently, dizziness is quite common. In fact, my mom was put on disability during one of her pregnancies because she kept passing out. Here’s the article I read if you’re interested: Dizziness in the Second Trimester.
“I’m sure I told you I was pregnant…”
I’ve been trying to figure out when I should tell my boss about my little bun in the oven. Part of me would really just like to wait until I’m giant and can’t avoid acknowledging my growing body… the other part of me feels that might be a bit rude or inappropriate. So, when is the best time to tell?
December 20th officially marks my first day of the second trimester, so in terms of when it’s “safe” to break the news, that would make sense. But I’m just not sure.
Here are my hold ups…
Now, the positives of making my announcement…
I think that might be it. Really, it seems like maybe I should just wait until someone asks me if I’m pregnant and pull the, “Yeah… I told you that! Remember?? Sheesh… you forget everything.”
Symptoms
I think my cold is on its way out! Excessive amounts of water and OJ (and a humidifier on my desk at work) have really done a great job of taking care of this cold in just a few days. I’m not perfect, but have improved significantly. AND, I slept through the night last night! Well, I got up to pee, but that’s my new normal. Other than that, I’m starting to think that the worst of my symptoms are behind me. I’m still decently bloated by the end of the night, but really, even that’s not too bad. And I’m feeling a bit more regular. I’ve adjusted my diet a bit to include a ridiculous amount of fiber, so I’m feeling good.
On Thanksgiving, I finally made the big pregnancy announcement to my aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandparents. It was awkward. I don’t know what it is about these announcements, but I seem to be getting worse at it. I get so nervous and uncomfortable. Needless to say, after I made some weird (and unclear) speech about being thankful to have one more Thanksgiving without naughty children, my sister and mother broke the deafening silence with…
Sister: She’s pregnant!
Mom (said very loudly to my deaf grandpa): DAD, MELISSA IS PREGNANT!
Ahhh, perfection, huh?
Anyway, that’s so not the point. After I subjected the family to the awkwardness of my announcement, we were all chatting and my cousin said to me, “I could tell you were pregnant! You kept pushing away your drinks at your mom’s 60th birthday party… and, your face looks…” (as she cups her hands around her face making what looked like some sort of hand signal for fat).
I cut her off immediately with, “ARE YOU SAYING MY FACE IS FAT!?!”
I’ve been so preoccupied with my growing gut, I haven’t had the chance to pay attention to my face. Now, Amy, if you’re reading this… I’m not mad. But I’m not going to lie, you have punished everyone around me. I will now spend the rest of my 200 some days of pregnancy asking everyone their opinion on whether my face has gotten fat.
Maybe a side-by-side comparison is in order…
Is my face fatter?
I don’t think my face looks any different. I’m definitely zittier now and maybe a bit more tired looking, but my face is always a little round. Right?? Or am I in denial?
Symptoms
All pregnancy symptoms have been trumped by my damn cold. I’m so sick of this running, stuffed up nose and the achiness. I could use a day in bed. Ughhh… is it Friday? I’ve been trying to drink my weight in water and I even struggled through a workout last night… but I think the cold is winning. I’m going to give my “fight back” strategy another attempt today. Maybe tomorrow will bring improvement.
We had a pretty busy and fun weekend. On Friday, we went downtown to meet up with our two friends for their first night out on the town since having their sweet little baby and a couple other folks. Due to the intimate size of the group and the quiet bar we selected, they all seemed to notice that my soda water was sans vodka. The waitress didn’t help either with her obnoxious little comments… “One water, straight up!” Thanks, lady.
Honestly, I don’t think it really mattered, because we were just not on our A game. At one point pretty early on, they asked Mark if I was drinking and as he lied, he nervously knocked his entire drink all over his lap. Anyway, we ended up telling them we were trying to get pregnant and left it at that. Sheesh.
Saturday was a nice little day with my mom. After we got our nails done with my sister, mom took me shopping for some maternity clothes. All of my clothes still fit, but I just feel a little fatter in them. My tum is sticking out a bit and to mask it, I’ve been dressing like a frump. So, being the amazing lady that she is, mom took me to get some new items… and play around a bit.
How am I going to be able to walk?
After our FULL day of shopping, we met back up with the boys and the four of us (mom, dad, Marky and I) went to dinner and a movie. We saw About Time, which I really enjoyed. I just love Rachel McAdams.
Grub time.
Sunday was pretty special as well. In the morning, we got together with the family to celebrate my sweet little niece’s 2nd birthday.
Make a wish!
Then, I met up with my girlfriends for an afternoon full of surprises. We met up at Louise’s in Brookfield, which I have to mention was pretty terrible. During lunch, we were all talking about engagements when my friend Erica, who recently got engaged, flung out her ring-bearing hand and announced that her and her man had gotten engaged. The girls jumped up for hugs and screams and were just so excited.
Erica and I had schemed to get the ladies there that afternoon by telling them I had won tickets to a Christmas decorations show put on by the American Cancer Society. In reality, we had scheduled a dress fitting at Bliss Bridal, a local bridal dress salon. It was so much fun to watch little Erica get all dolled up and just spend time with the lovely ladies.
Once the dress-up session was over, I told the girls that out of guilt for lying to them about the Christmas show, I bought them all an ornament. Suspiciously, the girlies opened their ornaments to find this inside…
Baby Announcement Ornament
My husband thought it was a bit too much and a bit too creepy. I found it funny… creepy funny, but still funny! Anyway, after all the anticipation of telling my friends, it was finally out there! It was a huge relief to tell them and felt good to share the excitement of our new little family member.
After all that excitement, I went home and just crashed in my husbands arms. It was a busy and wonderful weekend, but I think I might need another weekend to recover!
Symptoms
Holy nauseous. What is happening? Beginning last night, I’ve been feeling pretty darn uneasy. Brushing my teeth this morning literally turned my body inside out with a gag that I can only imagine looked like my cat coughing up a hairball. Oofta. I hope this fades. Between wanting to throw up and feeling exhausted, today is a bit rough.
Wait, what’s that? I think my bed is calling me…
Playing House 