Merry Christmas to All

I hope that all of you have a safe and happy holiday!  To those of you celebrating Christmas with the child you have always wanted, enjoy seeing the lights from the Christmas tree in your child's eyes and the wonder of the holiday season.  To those of you still waiting for your miracles to arrive, don't give up hope.  Keep asking Santa for what you want.  Some day, some way, you will eventually get your wish.

And to those of you who are finally expecting your own miracles - so many Christmases, I have wished for the same thing that all of you have - a baby.  It seems that, as long as all continues to progress normally, we will be getting our Christmas Wish.  I don't know about you, but I am going to enjoy this Christmas - one where I know that there is a great chance that my stocking will soon be filled with all I ever wished for.

We are supposed to be heading north to visit with my family today.  Snow that has blown in my hamper our ability to cross the mountain that separates us from my parents to spend Christmas with them.  I hope we are able to make it to spend this last Christmas in Georgia with them.

I haven't forgotten to update you all on our first OB visit on Wednesday - between the holidays and the things we need to do to prepare to move out of state, I haven't had a chance to post.  I will try to get to it later today.  I will tell you all that there was nothing but good news.

Big News (and details of our trip to Michigan)

I know that I promised you all a post about our trip to Michigan and I haven’t provided it until now.  I promise I will get to it in this post.

On the BIG NEWS front – Derek and I have been talking about moving to a new place and starting over for years, but being straddled with a house under renovation made that seem impossible.  Instead of moving forward, we dreamed of living somewhere new.  We had our list of criteria for a new city and we made a list of places we visited that fit those criteria.  And we waited.

And then, we got the offer/contraction on our house.  Within a couple of weeks, we found out I was pregnant.  And then, a job posting went up in a city in that was on our list.  It was “the perfect” job for Derek.  His degree and experience made him be an ideal candidate.  The job would require little or no travel.  And it would be less stress.  He put in for the job with little hope that he would receive a phone call for an interview – especially considering the fact that we lived in Georgia and this job posting was in another state.

And then, 2 nights before we closed on the sale of our house – he got a phone call.  The company hadn’t been looking to recruit from outside of their state, but his resume stood out among the candidates and they asked for him to come for an interview.  We booked our plane tickets and we went for his interview.  And while we were there, we did some house hunting just in case he got the job.   (Just in case you haven’t tied the two topics together – the interview was in Michigan.)  We used our remaining time to visit with his family and enjoy the snow.

Although the interview seemed to have gone well, we weren’t entirely sure what would happen.  We anxiously awaited any news.  And waited.

And then, on Sunday, we got the phone call.  He was being offered the position.  We discussed the offer and the changes this would mean to our lives.  And then he accepted the position.  WE ARE MOVING TO MICHIGAN!!!!*

We have both given our notices at our current jobs.  My last day at my job will be on December 30, 2010.  His last day will be January 6, 2011.  I will spend the extra couple of days tying up loose ends and spending some time with my family.  Derek’s parents will be driving down with their truck.  We will be selling one of our cars.  His parents and I will pack up our rental house on Thursday the 6^th.  And when Derek gets home from his last day from work, we will get in our vehicles and head north.  North into a new chapter of our lives and a new adventure.  I am absolutely thrilled.  And I am scared to death at the same time.

·       Some of you may ask – Carli, what about your job?  Well, considering the pregnancy, I don’t know if I will be able to find a “career” job when we first get there.  I will probably attempt to get a job part time or seasonally.  And then when the baby is born, I can have some time to stay home with our little one without worrying about rushing back to a job.  Once we get situated and we figure out how our finances will be with this new job, we will be able to determine how long we can survive as a single family household.  Whether it is for 6 months or a year, I will be thankful for whatever amount of time we can afford.

·       Some of you may say – But Carli, what about the snow and the cold???  Well, I know.  But 10 degrees and snowing in Michigan somehow doesn’t feel as cold as 37 degrees and raining in Georgia.  I know I will be cold.  I know the winter is long.  I will by cuddle duds for every day of the week.  And I am looking forward to our child having a white Christmas and getting to sled or build snow men.  And I want to learn to ski.  And, the spring, summer, and winter weather is amazing.  I am up to giving it a try.

·       Some of you may ask – How can you leave your family and friends when you are FINALLY having a baby?  Well, that is the toughest question to answer.  And the best answer I can give is that I feel this is the right time to make this move.  Maybe it was determination.  Maybe it was patience.  But all of these things all fell into place together.  All in a row.  In the order that things would have to happen for us to be able to be triply blessed.  Is it Fate?  Is it God’s Plan?  I don’t know.  But I feel like this is what we are supposed to be doing.  I hate the fact that I am leaving my family behind.  I detest the fact that I will be leaving behind the best friend I have ever had.  I will miss all of my other friends terribly.  And I am worried that none of these people love me enough to want to travel the 15 hours by car that it would take to visit me.  But I have to have faith that they love me enough to come.  And I have to trust that once they visit us, they will see why we fell in love with our new city.  And I know that they all want me to be happy.  So, instead of turning down this opportunity, I cry about the fact that I will miss them and I have begged them to come visit me.**

I have to sign off now.  I am really supposed to be working (but instead I am typing a post to email to my blog!) but I have accomplished a lot today and I am not worried about getting fired.  And I need to leave in 15 minutes to go to my first official OB appointment.  I am sure I will have more to post later.

*I will not be posting my city’s name on this blog.  Perhaps I am just being too careful, but I don’t feel comfortable with that.  If you happen to live in the area and want to know my new destination city, I will gladly provide details in some other form.  I know some of my readers will now be my neighbors and I would love to know if we will be close.

**(Crying as I Post)  Mom and Karina – just in case you missed it, this section of the post was for you.  I love you both and will miss you tremendously.  You can’t possibly know how much it hurts me to be moving away from you two when I want you to be there to experience this pregnancy and child with me.  I know this move is going to be hard on both of you as well.  I don’t know what else to say other than we will have to do what we can to make sure we see each other.  Unlimited texting, friends and family numbers, and web cams may be required, but we WILL get through this.  I love you both.

9 Week Ultrasound

We made it home from Michigan late last night. (I will have another post about our trip later.)

We woke up this morning and headed to Atlanta for our 9 week ultrasound.  I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't extremely nervous.  After being involved in this community for so long, I have seen so many people find happiness only to have heartache follow shortly after.  Sometimes it is very difficult to stay positive and not to imagine the worst when you know what the worst can be.  The saying "Ignorance is Bliss"?  Well, I think there might be something to that.

I had a few moments where I teared up in fear as we prepared to leave for the appointment.  Derek assured me that he thought everything was fine.  I wasn't so sure.  I kept imagining the worst possible outcomes from this appointment.

When we got to the Dr's office, she thankfully did not waste time with small talk.  She walked in and said "let's see what we have going on in there".  She inserted the ultrasound wand, and in just a fraction of a second, our little baby materialized on the screen and I knew that I had worried for nothing.  You could easily see the difference in the previous ultrasound and this one.  Our baby has grown SO MUCH in the last 2 weeks!  You could clearly see the head, body, arms, and legs.  And it's little arms and legs were waving around!  This time I got to see the heartbeat and I remembered to ask about the beats per minute - somewhere around 140 to 150 beats per minute.

We have officially graduated to the OB's office.  I am supposed to continue taking my estrogen and progesterone through December 25 - which really isn't that far away!

I have already made our first appointment with the OB's office.  That appointment will be on December 22.  They said that the doctor may or may not want to do an ultrasound for that appointment.  I am going to see if I can convince him that he needs to do one.  I love seeing that little baby on the screen.  All day today, I looked adoringly at the picture.  It is absolutely amazing that we can already see little arms and legs moving. 

I am in love...

Headed North

Tonight, we are heading north to spend the weekend in Michigan.  Even if our flight leaves on time, we won’t arrive at our destination until the wee hours of tomorrow morning.

There is snow on the ground where we are going.  I am ecstatic to be headed into some snow.  And to be able to see some Christmas lights on a snowy evening.  It will be just like a Christmas Card.

I am a little concerned about this flight.  First of all, this will be my first time flying while carrying injectable medications.  That alone has me concerned about the airport.  What if the TSA makes me throw out my estrogen?  What will I do if I can’t take my shot???  What if they think my progesterone inserts are some sort of explosive device???  I know – irrational fears.  But they are there, regardless of how idiotic they may be.  And the security checkpoint itself – I am concerned that my needles will be cause for them to screen me more thoroughly.  And since I can’t do the body scan since I am pregnant, I guess I will get felt up by the TSA agent.  Good Times.*

My next concern is the flight itself.  It will be occurring during my witching hours, which is enough of a recipe for disaster. But to top it off, we had a holiday party for our staff here at work today.  This means that during the time I would normally have a healthy snack, I was having to set up food for others.  And during the time I would normally be heading out to eat my lunch, I had to cover the phones so those others could eat.  By the time I was released for lunch, I wasn’t feeling so hot because I had waited too long to eat.  Eating helped temporarily.  But now, it is back and accompanied by salad belches.  Yuck.  Let’s just hope that the flight attendant is prompt with her delivery of ginger ale and barf bags.

All concerns about the travel aside, we are really looking forward to this trip north.  There will be some exciting things going on while we are there.  I will post more about those later when I have more details to share.

We will be home on Sunday night.  We are taking our laptop with us, but I don’t know how much time I will have to be online while we are there.  I am hoping to be having too much fun to post.

And when we return to Georgia, we have our 9 week ultrasound on Monday morning.  Perhaps the next time I post, it will include another picture of our beautiful baby.

*Perhaps I should stop for a travel size lubricant to place in my quart sized clear plastic bag.  It might come in handy.

Randomness Thoughts of a Pregnant Woman

I haven’t posted in a few days, so I felt the need to post something.  Anything.  So here I am.

I am now 8 weeks pregnant (it will be 9 this Saturday, but who is counting???)  Wow.  Almost 9 weeks.  My baby is somewhere between the size of a kidney bean and the size of a grape.  It has webbed fingers and toes.  And even though I can’t feel it yet, that little one is moving like crazy in there.  I still don’t feel like I am pregnant – like this miracle growing inside me can’t quite be real and I am dreaming.  I don’t know how long it takes for this feeling to go away.  Perhaps when you start showing?  Perhaps when you actually feel the baby move?  I don’t know.

An update on the upchucking.  My “morning sickness” is really more like “night sickness”.  Don’t get me wrong – some days it is “all day sickness”, but most days, it hits me really hard about 5:30 or so.  I am trying to eat as healthy as I can during the first part of the day so that I am getting as much good stuff as I can while I feel like eating it.  But the nights?  Well, I am trying.  But just the thought of grilled chicken and veggies (which used to be a week night staple at my house) makes me sit in the floor on the bathroom in front of the toilet holding my head.  Literally.  After a discussion with Derek last night about what dinner would be, I spent at least 20 minutes in the bathroom trying to convince my body that it didn’t want to expel my lunch that was filled with protein and veggies and whole grains and my snacks of bananas and oranges.  

I am trying new things to see if there is a magic formula for what works.  As best as I can tell, the best thing for me to do is to eat as much good stuff as I can before 5.  After that, it is whatever is going to stay down.  I know that there are some people out there who probably don’t agree with this.  But the way I figure it is that if I eat something that makes me throw up my healthy lunch and snacks, was it really worth the nutritional value of what I forced down at dinner?  Probably not.  When you talk to people who have recently experienced morning sickness, they say their doctors all told them that the baby was getting everything it needed from the prenatal vitamin and to eat what stayed down.  Dr. Google seems to agree.  When I go see my OBGYN on December 22, I will be sure to ask him for his professional opinion.

Let’s see.  What else?  Forgetfulness!  I am making myself lists for everything these days.  I have taken to attaching post it notes to my cell phone.  I lost my keys at work today.  I almost forgot to take my Monday night shot because somehow I forgot it was Monday night.  I am forgetting to take my afternoon dose of meds (I remember, but then it is later than I wanted to take it).  I have actually thought about setting an alarm on my phone for my medications – but I keep forgetting to set it.  Perhaps you guys should start buying stock in Post It.  I think their sales are about to go up.

Things are growing – my girls are getting bigger (which is not a welcome site to a woman who had a breast reduction, but it is one that I can deal with if it leads to bringing home a baby).  In addition, I feel as if I am growing out in my midsection.  I don’t think it is noticeable to anyone but Derek and myself at this point – but I feel like my waistband is getting tighter on my pants.  I mostly notice this in my “skinny pants” that didn’t really leave me with much room to grow.  When I wear my clothes that had a little more room or some give, things are still OK and not too tight.

My Nose.  My sense of smell is amazing me.  Some people really smell.  REALLY bad.  And I want to get out of the car at red lights and tell the person driving the car 7 cars in front of me that they should really stop smoking because it is making me want to barf.  And I could smell a can of tuna right after it was opened 2 rooms away.  And the sinuses?  Well, they are really productive.  I don’t remember a time when I have had so many boogies my entire life.

We are getting close to the 5 pm witching hour, so I think I will sign off.  I will catch you peeps tomorrow when the vomit isn’t on the rise.

A Song that Speaks from Our Hearts

I found this video thanks to Marianne.  Although she warned about the tears, I was in no way prepared for how moved I would be by this video and how much I would cry.  When the video was over, Derek asked me why I was crying so hard.  When I tried to explain it to him, I cried even harder.  I loved it so much, I had to share.  I haven't cried so much at a video on the internet since Keiko's award winning video earlier this year.

Make sure you have your tissues handy, girls.  I am sure you will all know the exact sign I really "lost my shit" at.  :o)