Monday, August 18, 2008

Go USA!

Just FYI, my little revolving baby is totally off--I am not 19 weeks, I'm 16! Ha. Guess that ticker is trying to move me along :)

The past week or so has been all Olympics! I'm sure most of you know that I am obsessed with the Olympics. I'm totally addicted. Chris and I have decided that it has totally wrecked our sleeping schedule. Go figure that the Olympics would change my pregnancy bedtime of 10:00!

Great news today--Chris had his oral interview for Fort Worth PD and it went very well. There is a chance he may have to complete the extended, 31 week-long academy instead the abbreviated, 12 week-long, academy for officers already certified. This is due to UTSW wacky policies and little experience actually working major crimes. He only has 2 steps left--a psychological interview and a physical by a medical doctor. I'll update as the stages progress. Please keep fingers crossed!

I am feeling great these days and for the most part, my energy has returned, thank goodness! I still can't overdue things without paying for it the next day, but overall life is good. So my tummy is getting bigger, heartburn is getting worse, have some swelling at the end of the day, and still have some hip pain, but nothing unbearable. Zantac is my friend! Chris and I have made the decision to use cloth diapers, so I have been doing lots of research and have received a few that I've ordered off the internet, as it's difficult to find them in stores. It's a bit overwhelming, but I am really excited about it.

On to other news, after discussion with our realtor, we have set November 15th as a deadline for selling our house. If it is not sold by then, we will just make the best of things here and turn our guest/computer room into a nursery. Not ideal, but we can certainly make it work.

Hope you all are well!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

A small bump in the road. . .

Finally, and I mean not soon enough, I am feeling better! I'm not sure I realized just how yucky I felt unil it's let up. Such a relief, believe me. This week was so surreal for me--for 12 of the last 13 years, I have been at camp. So you can only imagine that I felt like a fish out of water carrying on like normal when so many of my friends were living it up at camp. Now this is not to say that I regret my decision--I don't. That was confirmed when it was 107 degrees last Saturday. There was just no way that I could have survived that--especially with no A/C! I did manage a visit, though, and it did my heart good to be among friends, many of whom I only see for that 1 week a year.

Now for the bump. I had my monthly doctor's appointment on Friday morning, and wouldn't fate dictate that Chris had an arrest just prior? Chris, who's department really frowns on arrests. Chris, who only has maybe one arrest a month. Yep. On the doctor appointment day. Oh well, 'tis the life of the wife of a police officer, right? So I mentioned to my doctor, who is usually oh-so-jovial, that I had experienced some extremely minor spotting off and on the last few weeks. I mean, I was following his directions by not worrying too much. . . Turns out this time, HE was worried. As you can assume, this only increased my always-high anxiety level. Well, Dr. White and I went down the hall to the ultrasound room. Turns out my placenta, which should be attached on the top half of my uterus, is actually on the bottom half, and partially occludes my cervix. (If this is too technical for you, skip to the end. . . I promise that I'll take no offense!) The technical term for this is partial placenta previa. The extremely good news is that this condition typically resolves itself, especially when noted this early. Hopefully, as my uterus continues to stretch with the baby's growth, it wil move farther and farther away from the cervix. If, by chance, this persists up until the due date, it would be a necessary C-section. With the amount of C-sections these days, that isn't too far out of the realm of expectations of what is 'normal' these days! I feel confident that by the next glance at Baby M on September 4th, things will look better.

The best news of this experience was that Baby M (for lack of a better name) looked great. He/she was squirming all about, the spine was visible and the heart was beating away! So, while some worry is inbedded now (and forever more, I'm pretty sure this is just the job of a mom), it is always magical to see the baby--very surreal, as all that movement is occuring inside me, and yet I can't feel a bit of it.

Thanks for reading this far--it's an abnormally long post. Send good thoughts, prayers, and vibes our way that this minor complication resolves itself.

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Yoga, anyone?

So Trisha asked for pictures. . . Pictures of what, I ask? The dogs, perhaps? No. I'm fairly certain she's asking for pictures of me. Pictures of my stomach, more specifically, I guess. Hmm. Yeah, no. Soon, I promise. This is because right now my stomach looks like I had one beer to many, not that there's a baby in there. I am convinced. Nothing you say will make me beieve otherwise. (I do admit that two people independently commented that I looked like I was starting to "show" yesterday.)

SO. Starting to feel better and have slightly more energy. Emphasis on slightly. I did get the green light to start a yoga class on Thursday evening, as I am officially in the 2nd trimester (woo hoo!). Those of you who know me with any depth at all can only imagine that a non-pregnant Courtney is more than a bit awkward in yoga, well let me tell you that nothing has improved in the coordination arena with pregnancy. The oh-so-wonderful instructor, Mary Elizabeth, kept saying this is because of pregnancy. . . this is hard because you are pregnant. . . Finally, I had to break down and just say, "Pregnancy is only my excuse. This is a life-long affliction." She smiled awkwardly and with a hint of a giggle looked at my friend, Tonya, for confirmation. Yep. You know that Tonya looked down and smiled grimly while nodding. Sad, but true. However, I felt so good after all the stretching that I signed up for six classes!

That was a highlight of the week. Another was spending time with Jackson and an almost 3 month old Abigail. She has gotten so big! On a slightly down note, I have maybe finally realized my own limits . . . although this is no guarantee. I had a jam-packed weekend last week and Monday felt like caca--the price paid for too much fun.

On a totally different note, please send up some prayers and thoughts of healing for my friend, Ryan, who along with another Camp Carter staff member was burned on Thursday evening and is still recovering in Parkland. Hopefully, he will be home soon and recovering quickly.