It's official: I'm a moron

Is pregnancy brain real or a myth? Well, I can tell you first hand now that it is real. I was skeptical but there have been far too many "Did I really just do/say that?" moments in the past week that it seems only fair to blame it on Lil Monty.

1. Still haven't found my deodorant. I probably threw it away because I thought that's where it belonged. Hopefully I won't do this with more valuable things.

2. I've backed the car out twice into the grass. Bear in mind, our driveway is straight. Then, in an effort to avoid the grass the third time, I concentrated very hard to stay in the driveway but ended up running my sideview mirror into the side of the garage. So now it's like taking a test every time I back out of the garage...it requires way too much concentration and discipline.

3. Sunday I started a crock pot of cheesy potato soup. I turned it on and timed it perfectly so it would be ready for dinner before church that night. I came back to check on it an hour and a half later to find that I had never plugged it in. Needless to say, it wasn't ready in time for dinner.

4. The other night Ryan used the word "consummate" in a sentence. I proceeded to make fun of him because I thought he misspoke and meant to say a different word. I said "Consummate? Really?" and he looked at me like I was crazy, assuring me that was the correct word to use. Then, I realized that I was in fact the idiot thinking that consummate referred to a type of diplomat. Like the Chinese Consummate. Or Consulate. Same thing in my mind.

5. I submitted a rebate to Ace Hardware online. After I submitted it, I decided I'd done something wrong so I called Ace Customer Service to fix what I had messed up. Toward the end of our conversation I realized that I had actually done it right but I continued to pretend I'd done it wrong on the phone in order to save face with the Ace rep. Not a huge deal but a big waste of time!

So to all of my friends at VSRP who think they miss me working there, count it a blessing that I'm not assisting in surgery or responsible for patient care anymore. There would be some messed up overdosed dogs walking around.

Speaking of dogs, Grover is currently at the vet. I had to drop him off this morning to be sedated and have an impacted anal gland expressed and flushed. In the past he's been a champ and lets this stuff happen without sedation but he's just too painful this time around. The vet was chaos this morning (as I guess most are first thing) with dogs being dropped off for daycare and other things. Grover cried more than I've ever seen him cry, especially when a few dogs started barking at him while he was trying to be friends. The staff seems nice and knowledgeable enough. We'll see how it goes. Probably won't be able to pick him up till 2 or so. Sad day for me.

15 weeks: Perhaps there's something there that wasn't there before?

On Thursday morning, I noticed a pretty bird outside the window so I said "Hey Ryan, look, there's a pretty bird outside the window." Next thing we knew, there were a BUNCH of birds outside our window. Our backyard went from desolate to Snow White's forest in about 2 seconds. We suddenly had 2 woodpeckers, 4 blue jays, 2 robins, a lonesome dove, and a couple squirrels. We watched them for quite a while - they were squabbling and being mean to each other so it was very entertaining.

The 'pretty bird' that started it all. Stolen from Google.

Thursday afternoon, we went to Ryan's parents to eat Thanksgiving food. Skyped with Randa. Ate too much.

Friday I had to bite the bullet and take Grover to the vet. Oh how it pains me to pay full price for vet care. I noticed on Wednesday that he had some bruising around his bottom parts and upon investigation noticed he had an impacted anal gland. Soooo, since I couldn't get that concrete out of there by myself I had to take him in. Once I was there, they couldn't get it either without him screaming bloody murder (poor dog...) so we opted to abort mission that day and I will be bringing him back next week to be sedated so they can do it a bit more peacefully..and hopefully less painfully since he'll be drunk.

Today, Poppa came over to help Ryan install a new power outlet in the basement. We are moving the office down there so that the current office can start turning into Lil Monty's room.

We also watched the NC State - Maryland game. It was on local TV here for some reason! At the half, State was down 41-14 and I was tired so I went to take a little power nap. Shortly thereafter, Ryan kept interrupting my slumber to tell me "State just scored." and " State just scored again." Once State had rallied 41-35, I got back up to watch the rest of the game. I'm glad Ryan kept watching because State won 56-41 - held the Terps to their halftime score and scored 35 unanswered points. Now they get to go to a bowl!

Here is a week 15 picture. I think you can see a little somethin going on here...maybe. I don't know.

14 weeks: a little of this, a little of that.

This week was pretty uneventful. Thought maybe I was starting to show a little yesterday but Ryan disagreed. So maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see :) In the middle of the night I woke up with a sharp pain on one side which the midwife says are normal "growing pains" of my round ligament stretching to accommodate and support my abdomen while it expands. So, I thought maybe I grew?! Who knows. If you wish to read up on this "pain" and don't believe me that it's not big deal, you can read an article here.

I will say that I really like my midwife. I like her even more after attending one of the free classes the practice offers to first time parents. It was mostly about nutrition, what to expect (like round ligament pain), yadda yadda. The other women there seemed much less informed than me based on the questions they were asking. There was one woman at 20 weeks asking questions that my midwife answered on Day 1. So, I'm really happy with how thorough she is.

I do think I've had some bouts of the infamous "pregnancy brain". Nothing too bad, just some moments of confusion. For example, yesterday I couldn't find my deodorant. And I still haven't found it. So I just opened up a new one and maybe one day I'll find the other one. There are only so many places deodorant could be, right?

Also this week: I was shopping at Safeway and one of the manager's happened to be my cashier. I overheard him talking to another employee about how they are understaffed and he doesn't even have enough people for the schedule next week. Then, he looked at me and said "Do you have a teenager that wants to work here?"

Ok...so let's all take a moment to pause. At first, I didn't think anything of it. Then about 5 seconds later, I think I probably looked something like this:

And said: "Do I look like I have a teenager at home?"

He then began a series of uncomfortable dig-out-of-hole-just-dug attempts which were entertaining. I mean, I know I have some grey hairs now, but COME ON! :)

Ok so now for more boring pictures. Gotta give the people what they want.

The End.

Oh but also we've been watching Once Upon A Time - new series on ABC. The only reason we were initially interested was because the writers of LOST are the writers of this show as well. As you may know, a giant hole is still left in both of our hearts because LOST ended. This show is not yet what LOST was..but it is entertaining, suspenseful, and has painfully slow development of plots characteristic of the LOST writers. It's going to be great!

The End again. Or, Happily Ever After.

The FAQ's

Here are some questions you might have for me because it seems like everyone has them! I thought I'd just answer the most popular ones all in one spot...

How are you feeling?

First trimester I felt pretty poopy. Just a lot of nausea and feeling flu-ish. At first it was only for a couple hours in the afternoon and then it increased to all day everyday. I never actually vomited - just an overall feeling of sick. Probably the worst part of it all was my aversion to food - I would literally make a meal because I thought it sounded good and by the time it was ready, I couldn't bring myself to eat it. Brought me to tears once :) Now that I'm in the second trimester, I don't really have any of that going on. However, I'm still not 100% on wanting to eat a lot. I hope that passes soon..it's really annoying being this picky! Not to mention, hungry!

When are you due?

May 18 or so.

When do you find out the gender and do you want to know?
We find out at 20 weeks (around New Years-ish) and um, YEAH we want to know. We are far too scheduled and planned to leave that kind of thing a surprise. But, if you read my last post, there is a chance they won't be able to tell us and we'll be forced to wait. But, if the doctor can know, we want to know, and then you'll know. :) Be sure to vote on what you think Lil Monty will be!

What names are you thinking about?

We have thrown around a few names but aren't really getting excited about anything until we find out the gender. Also, we aren't sure we'll be sharing the name before Lil Monty is here because we don't want anyone to make us feel bad about our choice. For example:

Person: What name did you pick?
Me: Gertrude Horace Montgomery. We love it!
Person: **stares blankly and blinks a lot because they want to be nice and say they love it too, but they obviously don't and don't want to hurt our feelings so they force a smile** oh, that's...unique.

Or even better, the person who is comfortable telling you that that name is terrible and we should choose a different one.

You see? Why would we want to set ourselves up for that? It's better if we've chosen a name, it's on the birth certificate, and no one can say or do anything about it!

Are you excited?

Well, at first, I was like:

But as the weeks go on, I'm getting more and more excited. Still very much overwhelmed by the thought of raising a child but fortunately I am married to a great man who has been super supportive and helpful and I'm sure that will continue once Lil Monty is here.

Is Ryan excited?

Of course.

Is Grover excited? How do you think he'll do with the baby?

I don't think Grover has any clue anything is different. They say some dogs can sense the pregnancy and become super protective and awesome...well, Grover has not shown any of these tendencies. He's a great dog but I don't know how sensitive he is to this type of thing.

With that said, we don't suspect he'll have any issues with Lil Monty at all. He's not a terribly jealous dog and he is about as tolerant of getting his eyes poked, ears pulled, pushed around, food and toys taken away, etc as they come. Our only concern is that he is 70lbs of hyper so he may accidentally knock a child over or scratch them...but that is something we'll just have to be on alert for all the time. So much for leaving the infant alone with Grover to babysit while I go to the store...



If there are other questions, let me know...I'll add them. I'm sure I've forgotten some.

13 weeks: Heard the heartbeat!

I went to the doctor on Friday (13 week checkup) and we were able to hear Lil Monty's heartbeat with a Doppler. It was at about 155 bpm which she said is a great heart rate so hooray!

These pictures were also taken on Friday...sorry, again, they aren't that exciting yet.

We also learned that we only have one more ultrasound left (at 20 weeks) as long as everything is going smoothly. The 20 week ultrasound is also the gender-finding-out ultrasound. The midwife said it's a one-shot deal and if they can't tell the gender by that ultrasound (like if Lil Monty is turned a certain way or is crossed-legged, etc) then we just have to wait until the baby comes out to find out! So, hopefully they'll be able to tell!

12 weeks: Baby bump? Not so much.

I haven't gained much weight..in fact, I've lost some. However, there have been many, many, many requests for "baby bump" pictures. But, Lil Monty (although theBump.com tells me is the size of a plum today) is choosing not to take up much space yet.

But, in response to the overwhelming requests, here are some pre-bump pictures.

9 weeks

I'm tryin!

10 weeks

12 weeks. Ryan didn't tell me my sweater was all messed up....but rest assured there is still nothing to see!

Sometimes I think I'm getting a bump but then I remember I just ate dinner and I'm just stuffed :).

By the way, the word "bump" is weird to describe this kind of thing.  Sounds like some sort of tumor or mass that's not supposed to be there. Under no other circumstance would someone requesting to see pictures of my "growing bump" be appropriate. But it's the popular buzz word so I'll use it.

My next appointment is next Friday (a week from today). So far so good at the doctor. I'm actually seeing a midwife at a mixed practice. Not sure why I decided to go that route but since it's a mixed practice, I can switch to a doctor at any time if my pregnancy becomes high risk or if I just feel like it. Also, it's not a midwife like "give birth under water while everyone sings campfire songs" kind of midwife. She's very normal, well trained, has real certification and education, and can do everything a doctor can do except surgery. I'll be delivering in a hospital just like I would with a doctor and I'll have all the medical equipment and expertise I need surrounding me if I need it. If I don't need it, great! Lower hospital bill :)

Ok bye for now!

And then there were three...

It's official! There is a Lil Monty on the way!

September 22, 2011 I went to the doctor to confirm our suspicions and the ultrasound said it all. There was barely anything visible but a little heartbeat that was glub-glubbing along to prove that I was in fact harboring life. If you squint and distort your face the right way, you can see the little peanut there. It's about 0.5 cm here.

6 weeks

October 13, 2011 I went back to the doctor for a checkup and they did bloodwork and another ultrasound - this time, Lil Monty was bigger (about 2.5cm) but the midwife had a hard time finding the little booger in there so the ultrasound picture still is pretty skewed. I've used my skills in Paint to try to clarify what's going on here.

9 weeks

9 weeks with Paint help

Ok more to come in a bit...

Pumpkin Carving and YURTing

On Thursday night, we had a few friends over and carved pumpkins. We made chili and cider and carved to our little hearts' content. Below are pictures of our efforts.

From left to right, Batman by Ryan, Happy Halloween by me, Michael Jordan by Steve, wolverine by Brock, haunted house by Carolyn. :)

Closeup of the Montgomery art. My pumpkin rotted within 2 days. :(

On Saturday, we went up to Granby (about 1.5-2 hours northwest) to go YURTing. Now, for those of you who are like most of us, we didn't really know what YURTing was. Basically, it's camping in a little round hut with bunks and electricity. You might be thinking, "What sissy camps in a hut with electricity?". Well, these sissies do. I believe it got down to 15º or so that night....

The YURT (which stands for year-round universal recreational tent) is not heated but it is more protected from the cold by shielding wind and our friends brought space heaters. The dogs were still pretty cold in the YURT but the humans were very comfortable. It was fun and the dogs were good, enjoying playing in the snow and tackling each other. Everyone seemed to sleep well but me - I was involuntarily on dog patrol - keeping Grover from licking people in the face while they slept and from playing with Mya at all hours of the night. :)

Here is our happy group outside the YURT: