From Week 6 to 7 - I took up Spinning!

Week 6 - July 16 - 24

First of all week 6 was a particularly long week...because it actually was 9 days long for me! When we went for the ultrasound I thought I was 6 weeks 1 day. In reality I was actually 5 weeks 6 days so I got to go through two days of week 6 again...(well, kind of, but it felt like it).This week I have had two challenges - one of them is just renewed as I am back to having the nom nom noms every 2-3 hours and have been crashing harder than ever if I don't eat accordingly. It's been major work to keep up!

And then challenge number two, the new pregnancy symptom and challenge - when I say I took up spinning...I didn't mean the cool cycling stuff, I meant that that my head took up spinning this week. It took me a few days to target what causes it...basically it is whenever I move! Laying down is best, but...I can't exactly do that all the time! It has definitely made the past few days interesting! One of the afternoons when I went to swim I felt so dizzy the entire time that I eventually gave up and stopped fifteen minutes early because I couldn't handle another minute of working out while feeling dizzy to the point I was borderline nauseous. One afternoon I stopped by Publix to check my blood pressure - yep - it was the lowest it has ever been. Not unhealthy low, but typical pregnant low and low compared to what I was used to.

Today I had my first big *shake my head at my pregnant self* moment. Okay, maybe not my first but the first string of smh events.

I met Daniel for lunch at the awesome Thai place near his work and finally enjoyed some of their awesome yellow curry first hand (it's seriously ridiculous!) After that I window shopped for a bit (finally stepped foot in an Ulta) and I managed to find some swimsuit options that would be more supportive for workouts (that was pretty much the first issue I ran into - I have an embarassing story about my workout swimsuit and a sports bra that we just won't go into) that were all on end of season clearance - perfect! I found some tankinis that fit but left room for my belly to grow and picked up a new pair of bottoms (cause mine were...embarassingly...decade plus old and the elastic was two seconds from crinkling).

From there I headed up I-95 to head to the gym and...needed to snack again. So I pulled out the slivered almonds and proceeded to choke so violently I nearly had to pull over and basically had a near death I-95 experience. Smh.

By the time I got to the gym, I tossed the new swimsuit into my gym bag from front seat to back seat and realized...holy cow I was so tired I didn't know if I could even attempt to workout. So, I set my timer for ten minutes, kept the AC running, and took a nap (using some of the shirts that were in the back seat to go to good will as a pillow)...only at that point I was quickly descending into a coma so I set the timer for ten again and turned the AC off...and even snoozed it for ten more.

So...after a thirty minute nap in my car in July in Florida (I know, I know...my car is super tinted though). I emerged bleary eyed, sweaty, but ready to attempt a workout. I headed in with my bag and went to change in the women's locker room only to discover that I only had half of my swimsuit in the bag. Sigh, I must have missed the bag when I tossed the clothes from front seat shopping bag to back seat gym bag? Oh well. I still had my regular unsupportive swimsuit and I sucked it up and managed to finally squeeze in a workout.

Once I finished up and drove home I took a moment to search the car for the missing, brand new, still had tags on them, swimsuit bottoms. They were nowhere. Really? I mean...with the exception of a box of tissues and my kill-a-man flashlight, my car is not a cluttered car - so it only takes a minute to determine nope, no swimsuit. I searched my gym bag thoroughly just in case. Nada.

I called the gym. "Hi, do you have a lost and found? Umm, well, I have a silly question...has anyone found any brand new, still have tags, never worn, black swimsuit bottoms?" Thankfully they didn't ask what size. Evidently someone had found them in the PARKING LOT and brought them in. (Deep, embarassed smh.) The lady said she was going to put them in a plastic bag with my name on it (awesome!) and I could pick them up the next time I come in.

I couldn't help but laugh at myself. Near choking, basically dropping my panties in the parking lot... I was officially a self-embarassing pregnant lady.

 

 

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From week 4 to 5 - Beth - the Hungry Hungry Hippo...

Week 4 - July 2nd - July 8th

So this week my symptoms were no longer a question of am I maybe pregnant or just imagining things? My symptoms were instead happy confirmation that - oh my gosh - I really AM pregnant!!!

And I have definitely been feeling it! We have wanted this for a long time, so I do not want to be one of those people who just complains about everything - this may sound ridiculous - but it has been so exciting to have moments where I am suddenly so exhausted all I want to do is stop everything I am doing and lay down. When I feel crummy I get so excited - in my head I keep thinking - "Hooray! I feel really crappy - this is such a great sign that things are going well!" In fact when I have had days when I feel pretty good I actually get really nervous - "do I feel great because something is wrong and the hormones are tapering off?!"

Very early on I had about two days or so of pretty intense, very isolated cramps - which technically coincided with further implantion. Online I read comments from other women saying it felt like "a demon creature scratching and clawing its way into place"....but I couldn't help but to prefer to picture it as more like a cute little one nuzzling up and burrowing in for a long protective snuggle.

I've had a few other fun images come to mind...as I knew the cells were differentiating and specializing and dividing up into several different roles and everything is newly under construction. I couldn't help but to conjure up images that were a cross between the cartoon exploration of the body in The Magic School Bus and a cartoon construction site. "Hey, keep the folic acid coming over here please," "we need to route the oxygen line through here." It makes me smile every time.

A few highlights from our trip to the FL Keys...

World's Largest Key Lime Pie in Key West on the Fourth of July

And...it was pretty tasty too!

Enjoying the beautiful waters of Key West - the sun actually came out for a little while!

Parasailing! Daniel, Beth, and Baby Hals! (We have used this company before and it is very very smooth and gentle)

 

Don't worry, I did actually skip the scuba diving, but despite all the crazy weather Daniel and Tom finally got in the water and had a great time!

Enjoying a dinner at Marker 88 with Tom (Daniel's cousin)

My favorite key lime pie in the world - made at Marker 88

 

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Telling the Family!

Monday, July 1st and Tuesday, July 2nd, 2013

We were going to try to wait to tell the family. Really we were. But it's such a hard secret to keep!!! We would have told our friends...but we found out Sunday and just enjoyed knowing between the two of us for the day. Monday we told the family, Tuesday Tom came to visit, and Wednesday we headed to the Keys for the Fourth of July weekend - so really, we wouldn't see our friends until the following week. And, considering we had to tell all of our family members over the phone/online we want to get to tell somebody in person!

So Monday night Daniel got home and he said "So HOW long am I going to have to wait to tell people?!, because this is really hard!" We started chatting about whether we would be able to tell our families in person and it was just going to be tooooo many weeks before we could make it home. So we started chatting about how we would want to tell them...and then I got an idea. I pulled together a video clip that looked like our "anniversary story" kinda video and progressed through me telling Daniel, his reaction, etc. It was one minute, quick, snappy, had an element of surprise, and we thought it would do the trick. We pulled it together and decided to just go for it.

Our video - (this is the original we later made one that more updated photos)
Daniel's mom - we started out by texting Michael and Stephanie and asking if one of them could set up face time on that end for us. Then we emailed her a link to this video. I think the face time gave it away - but still! It was still exciting and everyone was really happy on the other line!

Daniel's dad was at work, so Daniel decided to just text his dad the link to the video clip and say hey - check out what we made. Given that Daniel and his dad have been playing with making different video clips and photos lately, this really wasn't out of place at all. He was caught off guard. Actually I think the first text back was "Wow" (in a very good way!)

My parents - I was really worried that emailing them the video clip would ruin the surprise...but I really wanted to use it! So...I emailed both parents the link and called mom after I thought dad would be home from work. They were on speaker phone but didn't know it. I told them to use dad's phone to stream the funny video I had made. OF COURSE it had to buffer JUST before they were going to get to the good part - we had to wait for them to start the whole video over - I was practically shaking on the other end, but in the end it went perfectly and their reaction was awesome - they were thrilled!

 

It was late, we were exhausted, and so we decided to tackle telling the siblings until the next day. Daniel emailed Emily and copied me on it - similar to what he did with his dad. Within a few hours we got an email from Emily saying something along the lines of "just watched this at my desk at work and literally shouted out OH MY GOD!"

I messaged Pam and Ali with the video link through facebook, again anxiously waiting for them to click on the link with no avail. Eventually it was day time in India and I promptly heard from Pam, who was also incredibly excited and later that night finally heard from Ali who had been at work all day and watched the video with Brad when she got home.

 

Tuesday night I had to pick Tom up from the airport (Daniel's cousin) for the trip we were making to the Florida Keys from Wednesday - Sunday. We figured there was pretty much no way to not tell Tom. Think about it...hey Tom, we know you came down for a dive trip but Beth isn't diving, oh yeah, Beth isn't drinking, oh yeah, Beth snacks all the time, oh yeah, Beth has to pee all the time... yeah, like he wouldn't have figured all of that out. So we told him too!

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