Family – Page 55 – The Merfett

Merfbaby the Apple

January 31, 2013January 31, 2013 The Merfett

Today Merfbaby is 15 weeks old and the size of an apple :)

Can I say that I don’t like that all these pregnancy sites use fruits and veggies to give you an idea of how big your baby is? Is it the size of a small apple, a medium apple or a big apple? Wouldn’t it just be easier is they said baby is the size of a deck of cards, a soda can or a stapler? See? Much more clear!

Merfbaby is rockin’ and rollin’ around in there, looking like a legit tiny human…but I can’t feel a thing yet! I know everyone talks about how they can’t wait to feel the baby, and then in a few weeks they complain that all the baby does is sucker punch their bladder. Expect those comments ;)

How I’m Feeling: The second trimester is SO much better. I (knock on wood) don’t have morning sickness hardly at all anymore and I feel like I can actually accomplish things again! I notice that I’m much more tired at the end of the day when I get home from work, but I get little bursts of energy so I can get things done. Over the weekend I had a lot of little things to do and I find that I need to listen to my body when I’m worn down so I can sit for a few minutes and take a break.

Belly/Weight: I didn’t show any weight gain at my last appointment a few weeks ago. The doctor said that’s normal, it just means I’ll gain more weight in the coming months. We don’t have a scale at home and I rarely weigh myself at the gym. I’ve come to be more of a “how my pants are fitting” weight person than a numbers person. I find that my weight is constantly up and down a few pounds over the month so I don’t worry about it too much. Obviously weight gain is much more important during pregnancy so I’m aiming for the healthy weight gain of 25 – 30 pounds. If I’m a little over that, no biggie. My belly is starting to pooch. You can tell big time after I’ve eaten a meal. I still feel like I’m in that “if you didn’t know I was preggers you would just think I’ve gained weight” zone.

Life Changes: Most of my jeans are still fitting, and the belly bands are my new favorite thing. They cover the tops of my snug jeans so I can leave them unbuttoned. A few of my t-shirts are too snug and start the ride up so I’m wearing the bands to help keep the shirts longer. I LOVE to wear yoga pants when I’m home and on the weekends. That’s like the standard Mommy Uniform, yea? Merfman got me an awesome pair of Lululemon crop pants for my birthday that I know are going to get a ton of use ;) Hormones are in full effect…as evident in the Burrito Crisis of 2013. For the past few weeks I’ve had a really stuffy nose, and I thought it was just allergies…oh, and I’ve had some epic nose bleeds (TMI, gross). But, apparently that’s normal? According to Baby Center:

“If your nose is stuffed up, for instance, you can probably chalk it up to the combined effect of hormonal changes and increased blood flow to your mucous membranes. This condition is so common, there’s even a name for it: “rhinitis of pregnancy.” Some pregnant women also suffer nosebleeds as a result of increased blood volume and blood vessel expansion in the nose.”

Movement: Nothing yet, but I’m hoping to feel something in the next few weeks. From what I’ve read first time Mom’s don’t recognize the flutters as early as women that have already been pregnant. So I’m sure I’ll probably just count it as hanger or gas at first? Fun!

Sleep: I’ve always LOVED sleep. But now more than ever. We’ve been going to bed really early (8:30/9:00) since Merfman is back into production on his MTV show…and that means 2:30am wake ups for him! I always have one potty break in the middle of the night. I’ve masted it to the point that I can walk around the dogs, get to the bathroom, do my thing and make it back to bed without ever having to turn on a light. I wake up again when Merfman gets ready for work and we have a short conversation before he leaves. Sometime’s it’s REALLY short, and I just grunt as him when he kisses me goodbye. Most of the time my standard is…”Have a good day, drive safe, I love you.” I need to invest in some more pillows, since side sleeping is starting to become uncomfortable on my hips. I normally wake up a few times in the middle of the night to roll from one side to the other.

Cravings: Still Orange Juice and Lemonade. Also, I’m really loving berries. It’s totally not berry season here, but our store has strawberries and blueberries and I can’t get enough! We made steak for dinner on Saturday for my Mother in Law’s birthday, and my vegetarian self thought it smelled REALLY good. Huh?! I’ve never been a big red meat fan.

Exercise: I did a 1,000 yards at the gym pool on Sunday. I have plans for another swim and a yoga class over the weekend. I was planning to do another swim this morning, but Merfman’s call was later so I opted to sleep in and do my swim over the weekend when he’s working. Since I swam for years and years it’s hard to “take it easy” and just get in some moderate exercise for my three 30 min weekly sessions. I’m not nearly in the shape I was when I was swimming twice a day, but I still get competitive when I see someone in the lane next to me. I would always make it a point to beat them stroke for stroke, now I’m chanting…”remember, you’re pregnant” over and over when I stroke ;)

Favorite Pregnancy Moment this week: For my birthday my Mom gave me a baby blanket she made. For those of you that heard the Christmas Morning story of Momma-son’s reaction to becoming a Grandma…yes, it’s THAT blanket :) We also made plans to visit a baby consignment shop here in Burbank in the next few weeks.

On My Mind: Saturday was my birthday, I turned 27. I realized that this is the year I become a Mom. Ah! I’ll be a few months younger than Momma-son when she had me. Which reminds me… happy BIRTHday to Momma-son. She endured 36 hours of labor to bring me into this world :) I’ve been reading “Baby Wise” and thinking a lot about type of Mom I want to be. There are SO many different type of Parenting styles you can go with…Attachment Parenting, Hyper Scheduled, Parent Directed…I know there isn’t a RIGHT and WRONG way, just the way that works for you and your family. It’s just crazy to think about how much responsibly you have as a parent. You’re thinking, well…Duh, Daniella. I’m talking about making sure the baby is getting enough to eat when feeding those first few weeks, getting them on a sleep schedule so they sleep better and then eat better. Merfman and I have also talked about a few possible names for Merfbaby. We may find out the gender in a few weeks, and I can’t wait when people ask me “what we’re having” to say….”well, we’re pretty sure it’s a human…but it may be a puppy.” ;)

Family

Burrito Tears

January 29, 2013 The Merfett

I’m not a tearful person. It’s rare that I cry unless I’m REALLY upset. That usually occurs after a too-long period of holding my emotions all bottled up. <– Oh yes, Merfman has his hands full with me sometimes ;)

So, these pregnancy hormones – let me tell you, it’s no joke. I’ve cried about more things in the past 3 months than I have in the past few years. Case and point I’ve had a few meltdowns and some massive ugly cry episodes. Merfman has been witness to several waterworks shows.

So, we’ve had a busy weekend. Birthdays (I’m 27 now?) and family in town visiting from El Paso :)

We hosted a birthday celebration on Saturday night, which I love. I enjoy hosting and having people over. When all the food was cooked, eaten (yum), dishes washed, and house back in order I was a tired panda. So for Sunday I wasn’t planning to cook. Take out was on the menu, Mexican was high on my list.

We have a good little Mexican place around the corner from our house, and it’s always our go-to for easy dinners. I had been craving a vegetarian burrito all afternoon and was really looking forward to a night of no dishes.

Merfman had a really long (short) day at work. He left the house at 2:30am, and was home around 5:00pm since they didn’t shoot yesterday. He was exhausted and hangry when he got home. I made him a snack and he crashed on the couch for a few hours. I lounged and had a small snack, knowing dinner was around the corner. When Merfman woke up I asked if he wanted me to order dinner. He wasn’t really hungry since his snack was holding him over. I waited a while, asked again and he just wanted a beef taco with cheese.

I called to place the order: Vegetarian Burrito, Beef Taco with Cheese. Ready in 10 min.

I zipped over to pick up our order, and there was some confusion. They had my order ready (I checked the receipt) but my name wasn’t on the tag like they normally do. No biggie. I was getting hangry and was so ready to just eat my delicious burrito I’d been dreaming about for the last several hours.

Home I went, mouth watering. Merfman and I got situated, unwrapped our orders and he said, “wait, what’s this?” I had just taken a big bite out of my burrito and looked over to realize that he was holding a vegetarian TACO. My mind flashed…did they mix up the orders?! Was I holding a beef BURRITO?!

Then, the tears started. I was SO upset. And beyond hangry. I JUST wanted to eat my burrito I sobbed to Merfman. I was convinced my burrito must be Beef since his taco was vegetarian. Merfman grabbed the receipt and confirmed that the order was listed as correct. He was dialing the restaurant to fix the order as I took some exploratory bites into my “beef” burrito to find that it was in fact, meatless. Between tears I told Merfman it was ok, my burrito was fine.

As I dried my tears I apologized over and over to Merfman for making such a big deal over the burrito. He just smiled and assured me it was ok, it wasn’t my fault and the hormones made me do it.

Yikes!

Is that normal?! To cry over the dumbest stuff ever? Hello First World Problems.

Or, should I call it, Pregnant Lady Problems….

Family

Baby Brain Dump

January 23, 2013 The Merfett

So, the news is out and it’s so nice to FINALLY talk about Merfbaby!

We found out on November 14 and I was just 4 weeks at the time. Really early! So early in fact, that when I took a pregnancy test the positive line was almost not visible. I took the test, then called Kelly up to see the result – we both sort of looked at each other and said, “well, I think we’re pregnant?” Ha! Not the dramatic scene you were hoping for, eh?

2 weeks later I went to the doctor, took another test (positive) and was referred to an OB.

At 8 weeks we met our OB, who we both really like. She’s very calm and easy going. I also like that the practice she’s with is all women and they share weekends during the month. Meaning, if I have the baby over the weekend and it’s not “my” doctor’s weekend I’ll know the other women that would be there for the delivery. Merfbaby is going to be born in the same hospital where Merfman was born XX years ago ;)

So, at the 8 week appointment we got to see our jelly bean Merfbaby.

It was so cool to see the heart beat and know that there’s really something going on in there! I was starting to “feel” pregnant at that point, the nausea kicked in almost exactly at 8 weeks. I had many, many dinners of Saltine Crackers and Ginger Ale. At one point I couldn’t take it any more and made a trip to the health food store to buy some Ginger pills. Those helped BIG time. I had good days and bad days, mostly it just felt like being hungover for days and days on end. No fun. But I knew it could always be way worse so I tried not to complain.

We told our parents and families on Christmas. We told Merfman’s parents on Christmas Eve, and my family on Christmas Morning. We gave each of our Mom’s a card and inside the card was a copy of the above ultrasound and we wrote “Merfbaby, coming July 2013.” Everyone was really happy, it’s the first grandchild on my family’s side, and oh has Momma-son been waiting ever so patiently to be a Grandma! Merfbaby will even have 2 Great Grandparents!

Over the next few weeks we told close friends, co-workers and then the INTERNET. We all know, until it’s announced on the interwebs, it’s not official.

I had two more ultrasounds on my 12 week mark – my rollover happens on Thursdays. I’ve had my blood work, and the first part of the Down Syndrom Screening and everything is looking good. I was really fun to see Merfbaby at the 12 week appointment, it looks like a BABY now! I had one ultrasound in the morning, and Merfbaby was sleeping on its back. After some poking from the tech Merfbaby squirmed and then rolled over with its back to us. My second appointment was after lunch (and a PopTart) and Merfbaby was jumping all over the place! I promise I’m eating healthy though :)

I’ve been feeling pretty good for the past few days (knock on wood) and the nausea seems to be just about done. My energy level is back up to almost normal, although I do LOVE a good afternoon nap :) I find that at the end of a long day I’m exhausted and I’m sleeping pretty well. I’m a tummy sleeper so I’ve been working on side sleeping since I was 8 weeks. I’ve also noticed that I may need to invest in some more pillows for comfort’s sake.

I’ve read one book so far, “The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy.” It’s not the most medically based – but it’s a good intro to all the fun things involved with growing a human. I ordered “Baby Wise” on Amazon and it arrived last night, I’m looking forward to reading that. I’ve also heard good things about “Baby Whisperer” so I may order that too. I don’t think I’m going to ready “What to Expect…” I’ve heard it can be really dense. Any other good reads?

What else…

Oh!

Merfbaby is due July 25, 2013. 3 DAYS before our 1 year Wedding Anniversary. We keep saying we’re going to either celebrate our anniversary in the hospital, or with with a Merfbaby in our arms!

We plan to find out what flavor we’re having too ;) Since I go to all the baby doctor appointments solo (yay for Merfman working on a TV show!) I’m planning to have the doctor write down the gender on a paper, and put it in an envelope for me. Then, Merfman and I will open it together. We don’t have any preference boy v. girl all we care about is that Merfbaby is healthy.

We’ve talked a little about names, but we don’t plan to share that until Merfbaby arrives.

I don’t know if anyone is going to read these (besides Momma-son) but I’m planning to write updates to remember the pregnancy and all the changes going on.

We’ve taken a few “bump” photos, I’ll try to post those soon. There’s not much to “show,” ha!