Shaunna Faye

Monday, March 26, 2012

Nope, I'm just fat.

Friend: (Looking at my belly...) Are you starting to show already?! How far along are you?
Me: Nope, I'm just fat. I'm only 9 weeks.


MmmmmmmmmthanksAmanda.

We had just gone out to dinner where I ate my weight in pad thai. (I know, I should have eaten less.) Thing is, all the food I had eaten the day before and all that day was still just sitting there in my stomach making me look a good 16-18 weeks pregnant. Your digestion slows down during pregnancy, so I feel like all my food is sitting there in my body just hanging out for, like, ever. I know it's because of the change in hormones and possibly the iron, but man, I feel full almost always. Even when I feel hungry, I still feel full. It's a confusing sensation.

And sometimes I get SO SO SO thirsty that I could drink a gallon of water, but even just a few sips makes my stomach feel so full that if I drank anything more I would explode. So, it's either be really thirsty or explode.

I try to spread out my eating, but Lord I swear it doesn't help. So, I'll just go around looking like I'm twice as pregnant as I really am.

The good news is that at 10 weeks pregnant with Martha I was already in maternity pants because of the extra sac that I had. It was like I was carrying twins until the empty sac was absorbed. Luckily, I'm still in regular clothes right now. I always forget that there was almost twins before.

So, if you see me any time soon and my belly is big, just know that it's because 1 - I'm fat and 2 - there's probably about 6 meals still trying to be processed through my body.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Baby #2

We officially announced to all of the facebook world on Tuesday that I'm pregnant with baby #2. We waited until after my first ultrasound at 8 weeks just to be sure everything looked good. Several people knew before then. Just family and a few close friends though. This dude (and I say "dude" because I feel 99% sure it's a boy) has been MUCH easier on me than Martha was. I've been a tolerable amount of sick. It's still every single day, but it's not to the point of feeling like I actually have to throw up most of the time. With Martha, I felt constantly up until 24 weeks that I could puke at any moment. This time I've been pretty good. Chris will attest that I've been cranky but that's to be expected when you're going on 2 straight weeks of not feeling well.

I want to record all this stuff so if/when I have another baby in the future I can come back and compare again. Apparently when I wrote this stuff down for Martha I didn't ever say how far along I was at what point and who wants to go back and do that math? Not me.

So, this time I started feeling sick at about 6 and a half weeks. It mostly starts mid-morning and goes through until I go to bed. I haven't thrown up. Only gagged once. Only had to take something for the nausea twice. Cold beverages or fruit help. And ice cold coca cola.

Had the first ultrasound at 8 weeks and 2 days. They said the baby was right on track. We got to hear the heartbeat and got some pictures. There's a cyst on my left ovary, but I had one with Martha too and it went away. They're going to check on it at my next apt. at 13 weeks to make sure it's shrinking. They'll be doing the down syndrome check (they just look at the shape of the neck and nose) at that apt. too. And doing some blood work.

My doctor's office does gender determination ultrasounds at 16 weeks now, but it's 75 bucks. I think we paid less than that at the 3D place last time, so we might just do that again. I could just be patient and wait until 20 weeks like normal people, but that's just not going to happen.

I started craving milk again, but that only lasted about a week. My ice cream craving lasted about a week. Now I crave egg rolls and coke. I'm sure a new craving will come along soon.

Although I'm not nearly as sick this time around, I'd super duper love it if this will end at a normal time, which according to people with regular pregnancies is between 12-16 weeks. So, we'll see...

Because I was overweight before I got knocked up, I'm looking pregnant already. I'm taking that as an indication that I'm going to be huge again by the end of this whole thing.

I've already got nursery ideas in my head and on my pinterest. I'll get started on all that after we find out that it's a boy. You guys, I'm really THAT sure it's a boy.

We've been talking to Martha about being a big sister. She seems pretty stoked. I think she sort of understands it. She knows there's a baby in my belly and that she can help with the new baby when he's here. She's such a good "mommy" to her baby dolls I know she's going to be the best big sister ever. I'm probably going to get a few books about being a big sister for her to get into. And once my belly starts getting much bigger, maybe she'll remember on a daily basis that there's something in there.

Ok, so here's the dude:

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Kitchen is done, dude.

Praise Jesus! The kitchen makeover is done! Well, mostly. There's a few small touches here and there that I'll get to over time, but I'd say it's 99.2% done.

Here's some before and after photos to commemorate the most annoying week and a half of my life.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After - Coat rack for big kids and small kids.

Faux tin backsplash. Was very easy to put up and I LOVE how it looks.

I made the curtains, but I think I need to hem them a little bit. They're a tad long, but I was just done sewing last night so I'll have to fix them another time.

I got this table thing at Goodwill for $30. I roughed it up and painted the top black. It's perfect to holding hats, gloves, and Martha's shoes...and I'm sure whatever other junk we end up piling in there. We've already faced a challenge though. The sides are wicker, which the cats love to scratch on. Freaking A.

From start to finish it took about a week and a half. That's cleaning, sanding, and painting all the cabinets, priming and painting the walls, installing the bead board, making and installing the coat racks, installing the backsplash, dying and hanging curtains, sewing and hanging other curtains, and fixing up the new table.

I love the end product, but man, it took a lot of time and effort. If I had to do it all again, I'd pay someone to paint the cabinets for us. But that's a lot of money that we didn't have. It probably would have been much easier if the cabinets weren't so built up with grease and dirt.

Anyway, this is the last home improvement project that I'll be doing for a while. It wore me out. I can't even look at DIY things on Pinterest right now because it makes me want to puke.

Can I pay someone to come paint my living room and dining area?

Thursday, March 08, 2012

Cabinets

So, Chris and I (actually, just me) decided that we should paint our kitchen cabinets and re-paint the walls. We did tons of research and just about everything we read said this would take a long time and basically if you have the money, just pay someone else to do it. Well, we don't have money to just spend on stuff like that, but I was really tired of how crappy our kitchen looked. There were missing trim pieces, 20 years of grease build up on the cabinet doors, and several holes in the wall. (One being from the dog that we had for a few months. Why would she chew straight through drywall in a random spot in the middle of the wall?)

Since Martha was going to TN with my mom last weekend, we took advantage of our unlimited time. Earlier in the week we'd taken all the doors off and tried to prep with cleaning them as much as we could. It took forever. Then as soon as I got off work on Friday at 4:00 we started with everything else.

With painting several coats, you're at the mercy of the paint. You paint and then you find something else to do for 2 hours, then you paint again.

We were still mid-project when Martha and my mom got back Sunday afternoon. Luckily, Martha still goes to bed fairly early (7:00-7:30) so all this week we've been doing last minute caulking, final coats, and touch ups after she goes to bed and still being able to get ourselves into bed at a decent time.

As of right now, we have just a few more touch ups left to do, then installing the faux tin tile backsplash, and re-attaching the cabinet doors after the paint has set in enough to not stick when we shut the doors.

There are a few smaller things I need to do....dye the curtains and paint the table top of this little side dresser thingy. But other than that, we're good to go. And at least at this point we're able to cook in the kitchen again.

So what did I learn from this experience?

We should have just paid someone else to do it.