9 Months Pregnant - The Home Stretch

I'm 36 weeks + 5 days, and don't feel like I'm about to pop... I feel like I'm going to drop. And unless this little girl comes early, there's still a little over 2 weeks to go. *sigh* Exhaustion has set in again. I thought it was over after the first trimester. NOPE!

I haven't blogged since I started IVF meds, so I wanted to give a brief timeline of this eventful pregnancy (I unfortunately have been super busy at work since moving to a different department, and the last thing I want to do when I'm done is look at a computer!)

First Trimester:

• Pregnancy confirmed, Day 10 after 3 day embryo transfer
• First heartbeat seen/heard at 9 weeks
• Sciatic pain like it's nobody's business
• Morning sickness ALL DAY - but no vomiting
• Slept in my car at lunch for an hour everyday
• Slept 5:30p-7:30p, woke up, back in bed by 10p, slept to 8am (BRUTAL)
• Acupuncture from the start of IVF meds to week 12
• Woke up to fluid and blood at 1am at 12 weeks
• Called in, midwives told me I was having a miscarriage
• Emergency room told me I was having a miscarriage even after ultrasound proved baby was still active and alive
• Was told baby would likely die inside of me over the weekend
• Took a trip to North Conway, NH for the weekend hoping I wouldn't loose the baby while the hospital made me wait 4 days to confirm
• Went to Tufts for genetic testing, told us baby would more than likely have Downs Syndrome due to the size of the back of her neck (all babies have this btw)
• Blood test confirmed this was not the case -- negative

Second Trimester:

• FEELING AMAZING!
• Nausea gone, sciatic pain gone
• Energy through the roof
• At our 20-week scan we found out that the baby has heart disease (PAIVS - Pulmonary Atresia with Intact Ventricular Septum)
• Devastated, cried for days
• Did massive research and found an organization that has helped me meet heart moms
• Transferred from Cambridge to Brigham & Women's Hospital so that we can work directly with Children's Hospital Boston (we are about 15 minutes away)
• Baby will be taken to Children's after birth for her first of 3 open heart surgeries
• Scheduled for induction at 39 weeks to schedule her surgery
• Sleepless nights (even with Boppy)
• HELLO ACID REFLUX!

Third Trimester:

• Sciatic pain is back with a vengeance!!!
• Pain subsided at 35 weeks
• Belly dropped!
• Sleeping much better - napping during the day
• Nesting like its nobody's business
• Lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, sometimes every hour
• From week 35 contractions during sleep
• I've gained 20lbs total
• Baby is just over 5lbs - doc says its fine, babies w/ heart conditions tend to be a bit smaller, also measurements are never spot on - she is 100% healthy besides her heart defect
• Completed nursery - hopefully baby isn't recovering too long in the hospital and can come home to enjoy it :)
• Ready to get this show on the road!!!

As of Monday I will be considered "full term"! Yessssss. Do I think she will come before the week of the 25th? Heck yes! If she's anything like me... I know she can't wait for anything!

Not sure if I will be blogging during my maternity leave. I'd love to. But no promises here. I'm sure I'll be quite busy.

Just praying for the best with baby's heart and that they don't find anything else wrong during the cath procedure (they inject blue dye to see what needs to be done). Also that she handles the surgery well and can come home without any complications.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'm back sooner than later ;) In the spirit of my wacky sense of humor... 

;)

Sunday Snapshots & IVF Update

Not too much going on today. Ate some, cleaned some, studied some, laundered some, and hung with Maia... a lot.

I was in the mood for some home-cooked chicken piccata after eating a bunch of nonsense all weekend!

Oil, lemon juice, capers, sea salt, and bread crumbs.

Individually wrapped organic chicken is the juiciest. You heard it here first! Remove from packaging (I did 3 at a time due to size).

Shake it like it's your job.

Place chicken into hot frying pan and start the pasta. Timing is everything.

Mrs Dash lemon pepper added to the "wine, lemon juice and capers" sauté!

After frying the chicken, place in the simmered juices for about 20 minutes (I do 10 minutes on both sides just so that the juices sock into the chicken).

While waiting for this concoction to simmer, I headed to the living room to do work.

We had a spill on the couch last night so I had to wash a couple of cushions and let the pillows dry on the front porch. You know how it is when you clean ONE thing... you can't help but clean EVERYTHING? Yeah... so I found the inside of the couch looking like this someone got a loaf of bread and just went HAM under those cushions :( That's a result of never eating at the table. This needs to change!

Dusted, vacuumed, lit some candles to oil, and I was on my way.

I am NOT proud of this dishwasher... but we are only renting and it does its job.

For a year and a half I've dealt with water spots (ugh kill me!), and this is with using those pods, and every dishwashing liquid out there. Nothing works for this old school bad-boy. So, I decided to try a different approach. Method Smarty Dish tablets. LOOOOOOVE these! First of all, pink grapefruit scent, and second... no water spots. Also, the dishwasher smells amazing when finished. We use the hand soap for the bathroom, but I have to say... I'm pretty pleased with this stuff!


I finished cleaning and ate on on a small plate (in order to not over-indulge). It was the best I've made so far. Well, I used all of the lemon juice :-/ Lol.

The C's are playing right now... and things look to be going pretty well. I usually don't watch the full game because of the fact that these Playoff games start at 8:30pm EST. Yeah I'm all set with that. Time to catch up on 50 Shades of Grey :) #celtics

Oh and really quick.. I started the pill on Friday, will continue for about two weeks, hopefully start medication then, and I hope to only have one more cycle before we do egg retrieval, etc. Exciting huh?!! I am!!

This week will be gym everyday except Wednesday (in which I have acupuncture).

Tomorrow, I'll probably have a case of the "Mondays"... just a heads-up! ;)

I'm Enrolled! - Institute for Integrative Nutrition

If I didn't mention it yet... I've entered a year-long program to become a certified Nutritionist and Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition :)

I did my fair share of research on this program for the past few months and two weeks ago I took the plunge. They sent me a huge box in the mail with everything that I needed as well as some goodies. The program is suited to teach nutrition as well as the business side of things. I will get credits through SUNY as well as a certificate from the AADP (American Association of Drugless Practitioners), and a certificate from IIN.

One thing that I really liked about the box was this nutrition journal. It goes day by day with morning and night entries. It asks a couple of questions (same everyday) and you check off what you were able to accomplish (same options everyday). When my year is up, I can't wait to see how much I've changed. The President asked that we all treat ourselves like we're in medical school. All that's required is 2 hours a night. This is a free week due to the holiday, but it gives us time to catch up, read, and such.

I'd like to learn as much as I can about nutrition and help people cure themselves with food and spirituality.

I'm super excited to see what comes of this program :)

Day 1 - 30 Day Challenge

Good evening!

I'm beat. I really am. I have mental capacity, but not physical capacity. As I write this post I'm watching "Sweetie Pie's" on OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). The owner used to be a backup singer for Tina and Ike Turner (the Ikettes haha). I have to say I'm quite proud of myself. I just ate a salad, and I have no cravings as I sit here and watch the cooks fry up this fried chicken and baked macaroni and cheese.

(Romaine hearts, chopped with blueberries, cucumber with peel, grape tomatoes, salmon, and lite caesar dressing - 4oz of homemade red wine, it was a gift)

When I got home I put groceries away, checked on laundry in the basement, and took Maia for a quick 15 minute walk. I wanted to get in a little more activity before I sat down for the night to blog and study.

Yesterday I weighed myself (not a good idea after a holiday weekend), and I wasn't happy. I jumped in the shower and cried. I'm at my heaviest. You don't look in the mirror and say "I'm just gonna go ahead and gain another 10... oh wait, slap another 40 on there while you're at it." And it literally feels like overnight.  I texted my coworker who I always go to lunch with "Don't ask me to go to UNO's for lunch anymore, I'm officially a gym-rat again!" and she replied "Alright alright alright alriiiiight!" So we're good!

I think it's easy to be influenced by others, but I'm an adult and I need to keep on it, just like I was at the beginning of the year. I can do it. I know I can. Anyways, I digress!

This morning I woke up and made a salad to take to work, and cracked open a Yoplait to swallow down my vitamins. I walked Maia and headed to work. At lunch I hit HealthPoint (BSC - Boston Sports Clubs). I have to say... I didn't want to even go because I only had a sleeveless shirt in my gymbag. Ugh. I was like "Really?!" I hate my arms. When I was 21, I loved my arms. Time to get back to that. I didn't even want to walk in, but when I did... I was like "What was my problem, this is no big deal, no one's even looking at me!" I did strength training, then cardio, then some pull-down reps for my back.

I was using MyFitnessPal app to fill in my exercises as I went but it became a distraction. So I opened the Notes app on my iPhone and just plugged everything in to keep it short. When I returned to work I put everything into MFP.

I worked out upstairs because all treadmills were taken and a few were out of service. The view was nicer upstairs anyway!

I fell in love with this machine. As soon as I saw that it works the "back fat" area... I was game! I did 3 sets of 20 on the 4th setting. I'm assuming it's about 10lbs per knob.

 I realized that I didn't have any protein drinks at work, so I grabbed a quick strawberry smoothie with a scoop of protein (for an extra $1, grrr) at the cafe. DELISH. Okay so that $1 was worth it. Whatever!

I sucked down half of the smoothie on the drive back to the office, which is all of 5 minutes. I remember my trainer telling me how important it is to have protein within 30 minutes after working out to help your muscles rebuild. When I got back I made a salad and heated up an Old el Paso chicken, bean and rice pouch. The calories aren't bad. Sodium is probably the only thing. Well plus the fact that it's processed... but after a workout, 1/3 cup wasn't going to kill me, plus I had nothing else to eat with it.

I need to lose 47lbs in order to be where i was when I was 6 years ago. I'm confident that I can do it.

All in all it was a good day and I feel pretty damn good!