A lot can change in a year, part 2: The next 9 months

One year. one year ago today, my life changed forever. i found out i was pregnant, and this time i knew it was different. the test(s) showed a strong positive line, and the positive came many days earlier than they had in january. my husband and i were cautiously optimistic. a few days later i had an OB appointment which confirmed our hopes - i was pregnant! they wanted to do an ultrasound to determine my due date, but of course it had to wait a little bit - as i had to go to california for work.

santa cruz county is just south of wine country, an area i've always wanted to visit. but not alone. and certainly not pregnant. i don't mean to sound unappreciative of this trip, it was certainly the best hotel i've ever stayed at for work. but they gave me a 2 story oceanview villa with a full kitchen, 3 bathrooms, and 2 bedrooms. for me, alone. ok technically i wasn't alone but nobody knew this yet (well, except for hubs, my soccer coach, and the weight watchers man). anyway, i walked in after working all day, still jetlagged from the early flight, and started bawling. i was going to be in this beautiful place for 10 days, with no one to share it with, and couldn't even have a glass of local wine to enjoy it! i even called the front desk to see if they had a smaller room. they told me i was crazy and said sorry but no.

as the week wore on things got better, and on the weekend i made the trip to the monterey bay aquarium. i felt foolish but giddy telling the baby about everything i was seeing, spent way too much time looking at the penguins, then headed back and strolled on the beach. i was almost smug, everyone i encountered didn't know just how awesome i was feeling inside. i spoke on the phone with my mother a few times, and as much as she interrogated me, i really didn't want to tell her over the phone. see, i had a plan - ordered adorable doggie bandanas that said "big brother in training" and "i'm going to be a big sister". they were so cute!

finally i got on the redeye home, walked into the house and promptly declared how disgusting it was that it smelled like dog. in all the years of owning them i've never noticed the smell before, i realized i truely was pregnant! that afternoon, the time had come, the ultrasound! it was amazing to see the little dot that the tech pointed out was our baby, and the small faded blink that was the heartbeat. we were told i was 5 weeks, 6 days, and that my due date would be the saturday after thanksgiving. hence the name gobbles was born.

for some reason that weekend hubs had to go visit his family and i hadn't planned on going with. so when he departed shortly after the ultrasound, i found myself on the phone with my mother. again, she pushed, and interrogated. over and over "you're pregnant, i know it. you're acting funny. just tell me you're pregnant". "fine", i told her, "you win, i am pregnant". i hadn't wanted for it to be so anticlimactic, but it was still good. she was so excited and nervous that she volunteered to come clean my house for me, not wanting me to run the vaccum. this is the same woman who didn't want me to have a surprise shower because she was scared "surprise!" would make the baby fall out. anyway, i took advantage of her paranioa whenever i could. thanks mom!

over the next few weeks i told my sisters (got to use the doggie bandanas on them!) and hubs family. after we surprised his mom on mothers' day, we started telling friends. all the while, i was spending an 8 week stint (sunday night out, redeye thursday back) in puyallup, washington, a small town 20 minutes south of seattle. one of the weekends hubs came out to visit so i wouldn't have to do the 6 hour flight, and we got to do the whole touristy thing, space needle and all. a night out to dinner confirmed that i was spending two months in the microbrew capital of the world and not getting to enjoy that part. anyone that knows me knows about my love of food, beer, and wine. these trips, combined with my newfound aversion to red meat (and inability to have sushi), made me think god was laughing at me. "you want a baby? you can have a baby, but i'm going to make you appreciate and respect what it takes to become a mother."

somehow i survived with limited sips of hub's drinks for the next 9 months. the remainder of the pregnancy was pretty uneventful save for a few highlights:

The Bad:

1) The swine flu! No, i never got it, but the damn media frenzy when it first came out was during the time i was crisscrossing the country on planes made me crazy. the worst of it came on one flight home. middle of the night about an hour into the trip, 5 hours to go. some old lady across the aisle starts vomiting everywhere. there were but 5 feet between us, and it was disgusting. the flight was full, so it could have been worse - i could have been one of those two people that she actually got sick on and had to get back into their seats to land. i spent the next week convinced she had given me the swine flu and something bad was going to happen.

2) A scare. i was somewhere around 14/15 weeks, still out in washington, having just told my work about gobbles the week before. i woke up one morning and i was spotting. i know this happens to some people, but it hadn't happened to me at all, so i got scared. i called my OB, and they told me to come in right away. i explained that i was on the other side of the country and she said do not to get on a plane before getting checked out. thanks lady, don't scared the knocked up chick alone as it is already. so i went to the nearest ER and sat for a few hours, some of the longest hours of my life. finally i got in to get an ultrasound, and there he was, kicking and waving, heart beating as usual. after a quick exam the doctor declared me good to go, and i was off. thank god!

3) i guess the weight gain, discomfort, restricted diet, peeing all the time, and all that can be categorized as bad, but there's no need to rehash all those details. they generally come with the territory.

The Good:

1) i was never alone. seriously, i loved walking around knowing that my kid was chillin with me the whole time. it was such a wierd feeling, but so comforting. this is the part of pregnancy i loved, and i can see why people say "oh i miss being pregnant". (note, i can see why other people say that, i mean, if i could be pregnant and not have any of those things stated in #3 above, sure, i'd do it all the time... but i don't know if i can say that i miss it). i even enjoyed the little "secret" i had before he was outed. i know of at least 3 occasions where i drank 'fake drinks' all night and my friends were none the wiser.

2) the anticipation. we got the nursary set! we couldn't wait to meet him! see him! hold him! double check to make sure it was indeed a him! yes, we'd had the ultrasound and it was unmistakably a boy, but my mother (again my mother!) was so convinced that it was going to be a girl that it had me a little hesitant. i am the type who loves looking forward to things, and this was a BIG one of those things.

3) the love all around. yes, this was going to be the first grandchild on both sides. the first baby among our friends. i was scared of heading into uncharted territory, that things would change, the relationships i had would wane. but instead, the sisters began fussing over him long before he was born, the grandparents, well duh! and the friends, they started getting knocked up themselves! ok well a few of them anyway. and i know i had nothing to do with it, but i LOVE that we'll all have kiddies the same age. just hope my giant baby doesn't try to eat their adorable little ones. and the non baby fever friends still did their best to include the pregs in their plans, which is all i ever needed.

4) the arrival! of course, this didn't happen until after... the ugly:

1) the only "ugly" part of the whole pregnancy experience was the end. weeks 41 and 42 of my pregnancy were something i'd never wish on my worst enemy. even the labor was "ok" compared to the agony of waiting. and waiting.

so much waiting that the final 10 days of my pregnancy deserve their own post.

so until then... here's to a great weekend everyone!