More pregnancy fun!

These are some of the things they don't tell you, or maybe they do, I just stopped reading all the pregnancy books around 24 weeks, because I know everything.

Nothing is a certainty, Everyone has experiences, Not all experiences are the same. Although the way I write, it sounds like this is all going to happen, if you are reading this and have never been pregnant, you should know that everyones experiences are different. 

You will become a mouth breather. We have been trying to move, and find a house, in my last trimester. There was one house I looked at while Paul was out of town. I made a video of this house to send to him so he could get an idea, the whole video you can hear me breathing, and sniffling, loudly.

Feeling the baby move is amazing. You may even learn tricks to 'make' her move, I would play song pop, with my iPhone propped up on my chest or boob, she either loved it or hated it (I may never know), but it always made her move. (fyi- she's being extra wiggly right now)

You will pee, when you don't expect it. It may be when you think you are done peeing and you stand up, it may be when you sneeze, it may happen when you laugh really hard, but it will happen, at least once.

There will come a point where nothing will fit, not even your maternity pants. This is when I was pretty much permanently wearing Pauls t-shirts and no pants. If I had to leave the house I could wear the maternity pants, but not comfortably. This started around month 7 for me.

Everyone has advice, not all of it is good. If you question something, or if something sounds silly ask your OB or trust your gut or google it. I was told by one woman that reaching over my head will cause the cord to wrap around the babies neck. This is an old wives tale and not true. Can you imagine not reaching over your head for any extended period of time? Need to water your hanging plants? Nope. Need to get down the crock pot from the top of the pantry? Nope. Grocery puts the hot sauce up on the high shelves? None for you. Yeah that's just silly.

There will also come a time when you decide that you hate the way you look, you aren't cute anymore (I never really thought I was but that's not the point) You will hate your hair, or your weight gain, or your cankles. They say this gets better, and it's not a good time to make any drastic changes in your appearance i.e. don't go for a drastic new hairstyle to try to make yourself fell better.
Don't worry though, you will have good days too, days where you love your body, and your bump. You will have days that you feel pretty.

If you get the 'Pregnancy Acne' It will probably be bad. Maybe you won't get it, but if you do I am sorry. I found nothing that even almost worked. But my problem wasn't entirely just acne.

Moodswings suck, that's not really a secret though, I've had days where I have been laughing with my husband one moment, and the next I was in tears accusing him of being a horrible person. It just happens, warn your husband ahead of time, hopefully yours will be as understanding as mine.

Things like eating are going to get uncomfortable. As your baby grows it is going to squish everything inside you. Yes you grow and stretch too, but things are still being compacted, and you will have a hard time breathing too, but your stomach is going to have even less room to expand as you eat, so you can't eat as much. So make what you eat count. Yeah I have days where I binge on carbs, but I try to eat healthy too, well at least I think about it...
But as you progress you will probably not be as picky of an eater. Once I hit third trimester, I would eat just about anything.

You kind of have to take things with a grain of salt though, I think I've become more laid back, and forgiving, sometimes things just suck, and people will piss you off, and your body will hate you. But there isn't anything you can do about it, because you are making something amazing.

And as horrible as you may feel, you aren't the first person to feel horrible, and you won't be the last. Women have been doing this for gazillions of years, and will keep it up for gazillions more. I hope one day I can look back at this time and smile, and remember the good, and not the bad.

For my next pregnancy, I will plan it better. Knowing what I know now, I don't want to be 2nd or 3rd trimester for any extended period of time in the summer. I was miserable. Now that the weather has cooled off I actually feel much better, my swelling has gone down, my mood is a little better, and these are things that are said to be worse at the end of pregnancy. Nope, mine (especially the swelling) tapered off after the temps dropped below 75. 

- Alana

InstaTuesday!

Go find Jane's blog and play along! 

You can follow me on instagram: AlanaMarie26

It's been a while since I did this so I am going to throw up some randoms from the last month or so. 

This was on a saturday in the parking lot of Hastings where I used to work, A very busy parking lot mind you. We share it with Ross and a Pizza hut. This ass had his lawn chair set up and was just chilling with his dog. Now I don't mind chilling with your dog in the parking lot grass, but really bro? you had to park like this? in front of a busy business? 

Taco, posing like, well I thought he seemed quite provocative. 

Montana just skipped right over fall, we went from the 70's to this in about a week.

Renji loves to lick all the surfaces, and the blankets, and the pants, and the elbows.
Here he shows us just how tasty the blanket really is. 

Aiko makes pretty eyes at me.
I get so sad when I look at her getting gray hairs on her face. She can't get old, She's my little girl. 

I looked at myself in the mirror a few days ago and thought "damn, where did that belly come from!"

I just love Aiko's eyes, she's so beautiful 

Renji trying a new tactic to get me to feed him early. 

"maybe if I lay down next to my food bowl she will get the hint?"

Two bad little Bostons, curled in my lap, enjoying the sun. 

Snow! about an inch. 

Aiko curled up on my belly.

Renji stole my pillow.

Grandma came to visit. Renji loves her too. 

(this is why I have been so absent this past week, I was playing with my mom)

And then Grandma left, and the doggies (mainly Aiko) are back to pestering mama all day. 

Okay that was a lot, I need to play more. 

- Alana

my blog is my diary

Maybe I'm just being a whiner, but I think the military is trying to ruin the last few months of my pregnancy. I am due Dec 7th. Paul is being transfereed to Butte (about an hour south of us) sometime in the next month. 
But they can't give us a date, they have told him that there is no way he will have funding or approval to move in the first half of November. So that puts us moving, at the earliest three weeks before my due date. Which I had already accepted. I don't want to move until after the Marine Corps Ball anyway. But the thing is we may not get funds and orders until Dec 1. 
I am fairly certain that even if we get approval on one day, it'll still take a week or at the very least a few days to get movers in order. 
I don't know what to do. I am such a mess right now. I doubt the house we found will hold it for us until who knows when. I don't know if it would be a better idea to just stay here until after Baby E is born. 
I am so sad at the thought that we are going to loose the house. I am stressed at the thought that we could be stuck here, when I just accepted the fact that we are moving, until we find another house.
This is really stressing me out, I am really getting down about this. I am not the least bit excited about whats happening, not excited about baby, just stressed. I am back to not doing anything to prep for baby, just stressed about where we will be living. 
I know it'll all work out. Paul keeps telling me he'll handle it, but this isn't something small like a car, or a bill. This is such a cluster fuck that I feel like I am loosing it. 
I can't not be stressed when I am about to bring a small person into this world and I have no idea where I am going to put it. 
It's so frustrating because to a certain extent we planned this pregnancy, knowing we'd be stable, we were going to be stateside until at least 2013, we had no idea that a transfer was on the horizon. Things were going to be perfect, things were going to run smoothly. Now things are just a mess. 


- Alana

Dear Friday

Dear Blog Audience Please forgive me as I am likely to continue with the sparse posting, we have so much going on over the next two months, I will post as often as I can find time. Dear Heartburn I hope the old wives tales are true and you really do mean that I will have a baby with hair. Babies with hair are so much cuter. Dear Baby I think it would be cool if you came a little early, or right on time, just don't be late. Dear New House Please just be great. and let everything come together, and let move in be easy, and let the dogs love it, and things work out. Dear Dogs I know you don't mean to make me crazy, and I love you, but you are so bad sometimes. Please be good, and healthy, and lets have this move run smoothly. The last time we moved into a new house the first few months were a little expensive, so lets not make it a tradition. Dear Anxiety please stay away, things have been so good for me, please. 
- Alana 

Housing issue hopefully solved

Things are coming together for us on the homefront. I looked at a house wednesday that I think we are going to rent. We'll travel back down next week so my husband can have a look at the house, and hopefully sign papers! 

 It's also literally across the parking lot from the hospital that I will likely give birth in. I went and toured their L&D, and it's very small, which I like, All the nurses were so polite and I think in the whole L&D ward there was only 1-2 moms there. Apparently Butte, Mt doesn't have a high birth rate. 

3 br 2 bath, garage around back, huge deck. Only downside, is that the only area in the back that could be used for doggy potty is about the size of the average hallway. But they don't spend too much time outdoors when it's cold anyway. They can play on the huge back deck, and with it being a north facing house the back deck gets lots of sun all the time, which they will love. Plus we'll do lots of long walks with the baby once it warms up again. 

Next step, clean and pack. 

Joy!

- Alana

Not sure if anyone else is having issues with spam but I am turning off Anon comments for the time being because I have had a whole slew of Anon spam comments in the last 24 hours. All on the same post too, which is really annoying. Stupid spammers. 

And I'm Unemployed.

For the first time in almost 2 years I am unemployed, with no job on the horizon. This is a choice I made because I want to be a stay at home mom. It happened a little sooner than I had planned because I was having a real hard time at work, physically and emotionally. Retail is hard, but it's even harder when you are 7 months pregnant. I was always on my feet, so I was hobbling around like I was broken.  I already sort of have a short temper, but a few times in the last few weeks I've gotten visibly mad, or cranky with customers. And some days I found myself angry at more than just the customers. Oh and on days I work I find myself gorging on candy, because that's the only kind of consumable they sell in a movie/video game store. I've eaten more starburst in the last 3 months than I probably have in my life.
Well my last day was Saturday, and at the end of my shift I was able to sneak out with no one really noticing. That's how I hoped it would happen I didn't want any hoopla, or extra attention. I just wanted to go quietly into the wind.
Now that my last day has come and gone I can focus on myself and baby E, finding a house, and getting this house ready to be moved out of, so cleaning and packing, and more cleaning.
It doesn't feel like I don't have a job anymore, I don't feel unemployed. I am not sure what I expected, but I don't feel like I wont to go to work at Hastings ever again.
I only worked for a short time while we lived in Japan, so not working isn't a huge change for me, but I had a social life. Soon enough I'll have a full time job of Baby Mama. I just hope that I don't go crazy like I did the first winter here when I was not working yet, I would go to Target just to be around people. I would go to the grocery and talk to anyone who would talk to me. I was desperate for adult human interaction.
I am sure I will be fine, especially if Pauls hours are better. Also it's likely that we will be living in town, so I won't really have as much of that feeling of seclusion that I do sometimes in this house.

- Alana

Old Navy Sale!

Yesterday when I said I hadn't made any purchases for the baby this week, that was mostly true. 

I haven't purchased anything, this week, I did however make a nice size order from Old Navy at the beginning of the month, But it only just arrived. 

First we have the adorable rainbow dress with the matching beanie. It's actually a size 6-12 mos, But I've been eyeing it for a while and it was on sale, plus ON was running a 30% off special. The kitty hoodie is fleece and just adorable. Plus she got the boots with the fur. 

All on the onsies I got are long sleeve. And some animal prink leggings. 

I also got her a few denim overall dresses. I got the top one twice, one in 0-3 and one 3-6 because they were something like 3.99 before the 30% off. The other one has a cute braided waistband. They all have little bloomers. 

So little baby E has quite a growing wardrobe. She better have lots of friends so she can show off all her fantastic duds. 

I also got a few things for myself, two long sleeve maternity shirts, one of them in neon yellow, it's awesome, I also got myself two pairs of leggings. 

- Alana

Let Them Eat Cake: No-Reply Bloggers & CAPTCHA

I wanted to share this blog post with you. Okay CAPTCHA sucks, but more importantly, I suck at replying to comments, but sometimes when I try the commenter doesn't have an e-mail! oh noes! If you check out this post she very easily and painlessly explains how to make sure you can get my replies!

Go Check out Rebecca's blog!

Let Them Eat Cake: No-Reply Bloggers & CAPTCHA: WEDNESDAY 09.26.12 I know that so many bloggers out there have created one of these posts. And this has been a long time coming for me. I...

- Alana

32 Week Pregnancy Update

How far along? 32 weeks

Total weight gain/measurements: I am no longer weighing myself, It's too depressing, but according to my doc I'm holding steady at 186 for two weeks now, so you do the math. 
Size Of Baby: Honeydew (19 inches 4.5 lbs)

Sleep: I had one great night earlier this week, I had several hours of uninterupted sleep. But overall I am sleeping like shit, 

Maternity clothes: When I am at the house I am not wearing much, I find most pants extremely uncomfortable, so when at home I wear a loose tank top and underwear. I only put on pants to take the dogs out. 

Stretch marks? Oh No! I've got 4 little ones, they look like quotation marks just under my belly button. I wouldn't even know they were there if I didn't see them in the mirror. 

Best moment this week: This week has kind of been a bust. But i have felt a lot of movement, which is both a blessing and a curse, it's great to feel her, but at 3 am when I want to be sleeping, it would be nice if she'd nap too. *okay I thought of a best moment! When I found maternity jeans at Target that were not full pannel, the full pannel pisses me off and it's so uncomfortable, but the ones I found are just elastic waist and they are fantastic! 

Miss anything? Comfort, I am so uncomfortable almost all the time. Also although I've always been a little chubby, I miss my old body, I am a little depressed at my appearance right now. 

Movement: So, So much! 

Cravings?: Mac & Cheese. I was ready to write Albertsons grocery a nasty e-mail this week because I was out of Kraft Mac & Cheese and I wen't to get more and they had it on the bottom shelf. If you've never been pregnant, the easiest way I can describe it is, imagine you are really sore, from say a gym workout, like really really sore, and you drop your keys, You know that totally uncomfortable feeling when you have to bend down and pick them up, where it's just so hard just to touch your toes? That's what it's like to try to bend over and get something on the bottom shelf. It's damn near impossible. Then I dropped half the mac and cheese. So I had to bend down again and pick it up. 

Oh and I want nachos all the time, not the good kind either, I want cheep mall nachos, or in my case Target nachos. 

Anything making you queasy or sick? Just heartburn. Heartburn makes me want to puke. 

Labor signs: practice contractions have picked up this week. And I had lots of dreams about going into labor last night. 

Symptoms: Heartburn, crankyness (EXTREME!), mood swings, tired, sleeplessness, oh and that huge ass baby bump.

Belly button in or out? Mostly in, but I can see the bottom!

Happy or moody most of the time: I am a horrible cranky bitch, and I don't even want to be around myself sometimes.
Baby related purchases?: This week I got Ina Mays Guide to Childbirth and her Guide to Breastfeeding. But I look at stuff all the time when I go out. I just don't buy anything.
Looking forward to: My mommy coming to visit me in a few weeks. And my babyshower that weekend! 

- Alana

Thank You Navy Marine Corps Relief Society!

I want to thank the Navy Marine Coros Relief Society and our Family readiness program, for the wonderful gift we received today. Our FRO here in Montana, who is also a friend of mine, signed us up with the NMCRS to receive this wonderful new parent package, with all kinds of fun stuff. 

Crib sheets, onsies, burp cloths, mittens, a formula kit, baby towels, the new parents kit has a DVD and reading material for new Parents, and the blanket on the bottom? It's hand crocheted.

Baby E is such a lucky little girl. 

Just a side note: When we were in Okinawa, I wanted to volunteer with the NMCRS and knit/crochet blankets, but as soon as I got involved, we got PCS orders and I wasn't able to. Now I really wish even more I had been able to be a part of it while I was there. Perhaps I'll have to make some and send them over now. 


- Alana