What Girls Do On The Internet

Maybe NSFW (not safe for work). But this is a completely realistic view of what happens when I get on the internet. My husband, Brad, is always amazed at how many tabs I have open at one time. I am always on facebook, while on the bank website, while balancing our budget, oh and what about that new song I wanted to check out? I barely make time to clean my house, let alone update this blog.

Just wanted to check in, let everyone know how things are. I am now manager (!) at my salon after only six months there. It is pretty awesome. My daughter, Kennedy, is now 20 months old and getting more beautiful every day. We are just starting out trying to have another one so send some baby thoughts our way. I just signed up for this free 30 day challenge for Naturally Balancing my Hormones. If anything it will make me more aware of what I am eating because while at work, I don't eat so good. So hopefully this will give me some good tips for that.

I am also in the process of re-organizing my entire house and craft supplies, so hopefully going through all the unused supplies I have will inspire me to CREATE!

Here I am at 26 weeks. I think I finally look pregnant and not just fatter than usual! I am just freaking out that Michelle Duggar had her baby because we were exactly the same gestational age with our babies and that means that I could have my baby right now and she would most likely live. So thankful that my pregnancy has been very healthy so far. I am still down 10 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight and have not gained anything.
I am so so lucky because a friend of my Mom's who has a four year old daughter, gave me A LOT of her old clothes. I basically don't have to buy much more baby clothes until she is like three. I hope someone else I know (Amber!) has a baby girl so I can pass these along someday. See the proof below of me with all my loot.


On the name front I think we are definitely leaning towards Kennedy... or Amelia... or.... It is a really hard thing to decide this.

January is going to start making this whole baby thing even more real because we will be touring the hospital and taking an infant care class and what not and also having our baby shower. So keep the last couple weekends in January open (the 24th or 31st?)

I keep livin this day like the next will never come

18 weeks pregnant
Originally uploaded by flyabuv

So yeah, I haven't posted in a month. Sorry about that, I know my few readers have been very disappointed. I am still pregnant and actually considering the fact that I am actually going to have a baby! It still doesn't seem real. My mom is coming home today after being gone for about two months. It will be great to see her but I am expecting some tension because we have been living in her house while she was gone and I know she wants that control of being in charge of her own house back. I know living with her will work out it is just hard balancing that mother/daughter relationship with the landlord/tenant relationship. Especially when it comes to cleaning as I have been known to not do it.
I am 18 weeks pregnant and just had to buy some maternity pants this week. I still have not gained any weight and am actually down 10 lbs from my starting weight. I am eating pretty healthy when I eat, but I just don't think I am eating enough during the day. I think that starting tomorrow (because of my mom) I will be eating more and more healthy. I did start drinking caffeine a few weeks ago, I didn't drink it the first 13 weeks or so, but I just love soda so much! I only drink one every couple of days or so and that is my only source of caffeine and hfcs.
I am scared that I may get or already have gestational diabetes. If you have read this site before you know that I have insulin resistance and PCOS. So I already struggled with my blood sugar before getting pregnant, so now I may already have GD. That scares me mostly because I am seeing, and hope to be delivered by, a midwife. I don't want to become high risk and have to have a high intervention delivery.
I am planning on getting a couple books about GD from the library and changing my diet where necessary.
Now that life will be getting into a regular routine since we are done moving, cleaning my Mom's house, and my Mom will be back; I think I will be getting more prepared for having this baby. I want to read more parenting books (I already have a list) and start knitting and crocheting like crazy.
Here is a pic of me at 18 weeks. I was already fat, so mostly my baby is just pushing that fat forward, but I can tell that my stomach is shaped differently now. Brad commented that the lighting makes it look seedy, like the Fiona Apple video "Criminal"

Yep, I'm knocked up

I haven't posted anything of substance in a while, because on July 17th I found out that I am PREGNANT!!!!!!! And that is all I have wanted to talk about but I wanted to hold off for a while. I am now 10 weeks 1 day and am very excited. My periods are so random and I don't ovulate on time because according to the ist day of my last menstrual period I should be about 12 weeks, but I went to the doctor and got a sonogram and according to the size of the baby I am only ten weeks. We got to see the heart beating any everything. Pretty effing awesome.

And I know this is cliched, but it happened like the week after I stopped thinking about it at all. We had been trying for about a year and even did a couple of rounds of clomid earlier this year. Then I started school on June 22nd and was so busy and having so much fun that I just stopped thinking about trying for a baby and then we conceived probably the second week of school. Crazy right!!!!!

I am due in March

Make a pregnancy ticker

Insulin-Resistance Diet

There have been a few changes in my diet and in my life!

1. I am still dieting, but not really doing the south beach thing anymore. I did the no carbs for two weeks and did lose ten pounds. I went to the library and got a few books on Insulin Resistance, which is what i have and what causes my PCOS. The book I am most following now is The Insulin-Resistance Diet. The main principle is to link and balance protein and carbs. I always eat protien with every meal and can only have 30 grams of carbs per meal. This will keep my insulin from spiking. If I have extra insulin in my body, it gets stored as fat. It has been very easy to do so far.

The IR diet doesn't restrict which carbs to eat, but I am taking some ideas from other books and my own knowledge and trying not to eat "bad" carbs. So yes, I could drink soda as long as I eat some protien with it, but I would rather not. The carbs I am mostly eating is whole grain bread, fruit, and I haven't yet, but probably lentils, quinoa, and brown rice. I have been drinking/eating a lot of dairy for my protein; about 2-3 glasses of milk per day with my meals, and string cheese with fruit for snacks.

I am still not doing so great on the exercise front. It is so hot here that I don't want to even go outside! I did blow up my exercise ball that I have and did about ten minutes of the DVD that goes with it. It is so hard!

2. We were trying to get pregnant this month (not sure why since our insurance just ran out and we have no money) and took clomid. I did ovulate but did not get pregnant. I know this because... I actually am on my period right now! I am very excited about that, that is the second best thing to being pregnant. Seems weird right, but that is because I rarely have a period normally and will go months without having one. That is a symptom of my PCOS. So I had a relatively "normal" cycle of 33 days. That is amazing, and is just a motivation to keep on this lower carb diet. If I can lose some weight and ovulate on my own, I should be able to get pregnant totally naturally!!!!!!!

3. But we will not be trying for a while now because... I just signed up for cosmetology school!!!! I start on June 23 and it is a ten month program. Unfortunately I found out that although I will get loans to pay for the schooling, they do not give any extra loans for living expenses, so I will most likely have to get a part time job. I am going to have to try hard to eat right while I am there for eight hours a day. I will probably have to bring a cooler with me will lots of good snacks like hard boiled eggs, string cheese, fruit, and veggies.

Well wish me luck, I will still try to update every week

TMI

If you are guy, you may want to stop reading now.

I actually started my period today! It has been 67 days since my last one (and no I was never pregnant). I have an appointment for a new ob/gyn in April (there was no openings before then). I am so happy that my body is showing at least this sign that it is working. In January I did a round of clomid 50 mg, but obviously it didn't work. I am annoyed because I don't even know if I ovulated at all because my previous gyno didn't monitor that. I will push for that this time.

This is a great tool for tracking your menstrual cycles. It looks pretty, and is very easy to use; then it predicts when you will ovulate.

Warning: women bodily function talk below

My period is probably the only thing that grosses Brad out. Anytime I talk about it he gets this hilarious look on his face (so of course I try to talk about it as often as possible). I am on a journey to fertility and I thought I would talk about it here. I will probably talk about my past issues with my period in another post (I know it will be hard to wait) but I just wanted to say that I think I have found a breakthrough.

I am self diagnosing myself as having PCOS (poly-cystic ovarian syndrome). I have a prescription to get a ultra-sound to confirm but I am not going to make an appointment until after the wedding so we will have to wait for that. But I have so many of the symptoms. I went off birth control in March, had a few cycles pretty normally, but then I had not had a period since June. In early September I went to the ND (naturopathic doctor) to discuss my blood test results I was told that I have very high glucose levels and that this is probably related to my infertility issues. To combat this I was told to go on a low carb/low sugar diet. I have been tentatively following this diet (not gung-ho about it yet, but I did give up soda, most fruits and fruit juices, and a lot of bread) for about three weeks and lo and behold I just got my period on Friday. That is amazing. As of right now those two things are just correlated, the new diet may not have caused me to have my period; but I am so hopeful that this will help me in so many ways that i am just ecstatic.

I learned so much from this post on mothering.com. Her story is similar to mine and I am just so excited! After the wedding I will be starting a very strict low carb/low sugar diet and see what happens then. Please send good baby thoughts my way.

p.s. for anyone wondering why it seems I can't do anything until after the wedding, well we will be moving right after the wedding and we have absolutely no money until then either. So right now we are only eating things we already have in the house. That is a lot of pasta, rice, potatoes, lentils, beans, macaroni and cheese, and tuna. Some of those things are not so good for my diet.

New Babies!

Well, there are two new babies in my life.

My roommate had her baby boy two months early on the morning of November 27. He is doing really well, but will probably be in the hospital for the next month or so while he gains weight. I can't wait for him to come home!

My other closest girlfriend had her second baby boy on Monday (only five days early). This is the first birth I have ever seen, and I thought it was amazing. I cried of course. Her family was home by the next day, and the new big brother is still trying to adjust, but he is doing a great job.

I love both of these families and I can't wait to start my own!