It's Bridge Time

Everyone in Charleston is very familiar with the Ravenell Bridge. It was just finished being built in 2005 when I moved here. It's the longest bridge on the East coast... It crosses the mouths of two rivers as they merge together and flow into the Charleston Harbor. There is a walking path on one side of the bridge for pedestrians and cyclists. It connects downtown Charleston with Mouth Pleasant. I think it's funny bc it kind of connects the ghetto of Charleston with the "rich,snooty" suburb of Mt Pleasant.

The bridge rocks. Walking the bridge is so relaxing and calming. I used to walk it frequently when I lived in Mt Pleasant bc it was only a couple of miles away and a 10 minute drive. Now that I live on Daniel Island and in the boonies, it's a 15 mile-ish drive and a 20 minute drive. Since everything is pretty much separated by water here, there aren't that many short cuts to get places. It's pretty but annoying at times.

So this picture above shows about 3/4 of the bridge on the walking path side. It's a steep hike on one side and slow incline on the other. It's awesome. However, once you are up there, there are no shortcuts to getting down. So if you have a bathroom emergency, game over :) Being pregnant and walking this with the baby bouncing up and down on the bladder is funny. I feel like I have to pee for over half of the walk... in all reality there is barely in pee in their, the baby is just going nuts on the bladder.
Here is Bambino on the first landing of the bridge walk. I took these on a Monday at like 1 pm so there weren't that many people up there... only tourists and college kids. I only took these when I was by myself and felt like no one was watching me :) I didn't want to look like a loser. But I want Bambino to know the places he/she went while in the womb. You know, when I'd walk the bridge in my normal body, people honk their car horns at you... either at your front, or you back. Now that I am pregnant, no one honks. I take that back, I've had a few honks from the back when they couldn't tell I was preggo. But not from the front. It's hilarious. Everyone says pregnant women are so beautiful but not beautiful or sexy enough for a honk on the bridge. Totally cracks me up.
I love listening to my Ipod and walking the bridge. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a music video and I sing along with the music.... really loudly. I forget that I am not invisible. It's always embarrassing when I don't know people are behind me getting ready to pass me when I am singing in my own little world. At times like that I was say to myself, "It's so windy up here, they couldn't hear me anyway." :) Yeah, right. If I REALLY enjoy the song, I will even break into a dance move or two. It looks good :)
I can't wait to actually take the baby in his/her stroller and walk the bridge. I just love it so much. It's great exercise and a great way to clear your mind.

Come visit and walk the bridge with me! You'll wish you had one too! (Unless you are from Charleston and reading this. In that case, call me and walk with me.)

The creatures at the mall

I wish I could take pictures of people at the mall and put them in my "creepy people" folder/memory book in life. No one really just takes pictures at the mall so I would feel odd, and rude, pulling out my Nikon and going snapshot crazy. However, there are priceless people lurking in allll corners of the mall.

These were some of my favorites today...

~Drunk guy -- 50 something yr old man wearing a tucked in old guy type of T-shirt, belt, dirty Levi jeans, and chunky-clunky boots with the big fat tongue sticking up over the bottom of the jeans. His love interest was approximately the same age wearing khaki shorts that could have doubled as underpants for her, a skin tight shirt and matching boots. Drunk guy's eyes were so glassed over and drugged up looking. They were quite the pair as she dragged him to the contact solution section when he preferred to walk towards the children's clothing section. So creepy...

~Kid on the leash - I love love LOVE the kids on the leash. Alot of them remind of caged animals that finally have a bit of room to run. They are almost always pulling their parents behind them. I love the leash idea however Alex said we will never put our children on a leash like an animal. We don't even do that to our cat. So this little kid was so cute. He was a little Hispanic child that to me would have appeared like 5 yrs old but was probably closer to 2. He had a little bowl cut. He wasn't speaking English but I don't know if he was speaking Spanish either. His mom and dad were in their own deep conversation about something in Spanish he was wearing his leash/furry backpack thing pulling them forward bc he needed to get somewhere else fast. He was in the shoe section of Sears but needed out. So funny. I feel like he was going so nuts his head was literally spinning all of the way around on top of his shoulders. I found a place to sit down and watch for a few minutes. Funny.

~Rude people that own the walkways - I try to be polite to everyone I see. Being pregnant, I find that its a bit harder to perform this task bc I am realizing just how rude people are. When walking in the mall, it's common courtesy to share the walkway. I went to Sears to look at cheap running/workout/work shoes. It was the closest store to the deli I had eaten at so I went in their first. I don't normally shop there, not bc it's bad, but bc our Sears smells. I can't buy things from a location that smells... especially clothes. Since this was pretty much my first time being in there for more than 5 minutes, I really noticed the clientel (sp?). I don't think it's the store that smells, I think the people that shop their do not shower... I'm being completely serious. And they trash the store. However, not only do the customers in this store smell, but they are RUDE. I got out of MULTIPLE people's ways and no one ever said excuse me, or smiled, or said thank you. HOW RUDE. This went on the entire time I was in this store. Had their not been such a good deal on New Balance shoes, I would have hit the road. There were multiple teenage kids that basically walked by and kicked my shoe boxes as I was trying on shoes. A middle aged woman GLARED at me for walking on HER side of the aisle. I even got out of her way so she could pass by me. Maybe she wanted a red carpet thrown down ahead of her. I have decided not to go back to that store... or to avoid the mall on Saturdays which I think was part of the problem.

There were so many other people but my mind is drawing a blank right this second. There are weird creatures everywhere but I feel like the mall is a common meeting place for people of all degrees of creepy, crazy, or normal.

Happy Shopping :)

I can't believe we are working on a nursery...

My dad and my baby daddy putting together the crib :) It's so crazy to think we are at the point in life where we need to think about someone other than ourselves...and our cat.

The finished product... without the mattress, obviously...

My newest favorite purchase. Totally something I'd have my newborn wear :)

Aunt Meem gave Alex this picture/calender last year for Christmas for him to put beside his bed. I think this is the perfect thing for Bambino to have hanging in the nursery :)

Our two paint colors... we'll see if they are dark enough. No need to spend tons of money on pain and such when we are only renting and we won't be living here for forever.

Bambino's closet... Contrary to most people's belief we really haven't bought any of this stuff. Love the little box thing... This closet is super small.

Here is the baby's bedding. Max loves it :) He keeps playing in the bumper thing. He thinks it's his.

I do love it :) I'm glad we went with this crib. Originally we were going to go with a black crib but all of the ones we liked had horrible ratings... as in like "F" ratings. This beaut has an "A-" rating. We were good with that.


I will post most pictures as the room progresses! We are loving getting ready for this baby.

9 pounds and a cold...

Rough week on the health front for me...

Went to the doc for my 22 week appointment. I about had a stroke when I stepped onto the scale. I saw a number that I had never seen before on the scale... even at my fattest of fat. Geesh. I gained 9 pounds in 4 weeks. Needless to say, the ENTIRE office knew I was mad about it and knew I was going on a diet. :) Yeah, yeah, I'm pregnant. Yeah, I am supposed to gain weight. However, to go from gaining 8 pounds over 18 weeks to gain 9 more pounds in just 4 weeks is a bit ridonkulous. So in my head, as I waited the 40 minutes it took for the midwife to get done with hospital rounds and see me, I decided to go over all of my meals in the last 4 weeks.

Since my last weigh in I have... (no worries, I'm not going to name the meals, just the circumstances)...

-Been to Illinois for almost a week. Now, Illinois has all of my favorite foods. The fattest I have ever been (until now) was when I was living in Illinois. I ate my feelings back in the day. So, when I am back on my old stompin' ground, all of my favorites seem to find their way into my belly. I also had cake and cookies GALORE while I was there for Jennifer's wedding festivities.
-I threw a bridal shower for Alysia and Lee. Since no one wanted to take the rest of their food home, they left it at my house. I had enough chips and sweets to last me a lifetime. For the entire week after the shower all I did was graze around the kitchen.
-Alex and I threw a chili party. I ate for an entire day. This event was held less than 48 hours prior to my weigh in. I have the slowest digestive system known to man so I know that I was still holding 85% of that food in small and large intestines :) (You are so glad you are reading this...)
-I worked all night prior to my doctor's appt. I drink this 2 liter bottle thing and that particular night I had 3 of these bottles. I was a bit swollen and I am hoping some of that weight was "water" weight.

Oh, weight gain, how I loathe you.... None of those are excuses. Trust me. Alex is ready for me to never bring up weight gain again. Poor young chap is so tired of hearing me say I'm fat. My midwife didn't lecture me. She just pointed out that she saw how much I had gained but once she looked at my trend of weight gain, she said it was ok. Ok my butt.... We are changing things this week :) (As I nibble on the last piece of cake in the house from the party last weekend.) I'm buying a scale now so that I don't have to deal with going into a states of depression once every four weeks. I don't think Alex can handle it.

I also have a cold. I was feeling a bit crappy on Monday but ignored it. Got my flu shot on Tuesday. By Wednesday I felt like a dump truck had hit me. I went to work Thursday only to have the two girls I worked with that night spend the first three hours of the shift trying to get me to leave. I totally felt the love. They'd call people to come in for me when I'd be out of the nursery checking on some of my babies. It's funny, bc when I wasn't pregnant and felt and acted the same way, no one cared. Now that I am knocked up, they send me home every chance they get. Good thing I go part time as of Sunday! :)

So now I am doped up on Tylenol cold and flu. I'm going into work tonight bc I can't leave them hanging. I think it'll be fine. Besides, after tonight I have an entire week off! HOLLA!!

Hope you are all doing fabulous :)

Bambino is kicking away... best feeling in the world :)

Kicks McGee

The feel of a kick from your baby is one of the coolest yet creepiest things ever... in my opinion.

I felt the first kick on September 7th, I was 17 wks 1 day preggo. Alex and I were "sleeping"... of course I wasn't bc it was like 6:30 am and that's just not something my body likes to do. I was laying there and I felt this little "pop" or "push" from the inside. I knew it wasn't gas. My gas doesn't like that :) It was awesome... and freaked me out a bit. I put my hand down on the part of my growing belly to the spot where I had felt the kick. I felt like a flutter under my skin. So I woke up sleeping beauty next to me and told him. I was expecting a party bc this was a HUGE deal. Instead he rolled over and said, "Well, that just means you can feel it and I can't, right?" I say, "yeah." He rolls back over and goes back to sleep. End of story. No party.

After weeks of trying to make the soon to be daddy sit still enough to feel the baby kick, we finally were able to get the two in sync together. Alex felt the baby move on September 28th. Again, while lying in bed, I put his hand on my belly and he finally felt the kick, movement, head butt, whatever. He was like, "It knows it's dad!" His reaction was so cute :)

That was also the night I had my first real contraction. WOWZAs! I was 20 wks and 1 day preggo. My entire uterus cramped up (in a painful way) and the pain reached all of the way around into my back. It was hard as a rock. It last about 2 minutes. I was in complete panic mode for a few minutes. It hasn't happened since. So crazy. I was amazed at how hard my uterus got! I have been feeling it in patients for years but it's so different when you're the patient.

An update on cramping.... it's intermittent and few and far between. I think I am just going to cramp. As long as I am high, tight, thick, and closed, I'm fine with it. :) I'm just living my life like normal now and will pray not to go out on bedrest :)

Happy Thursday, Lovies. My next post might include a note about hemrrhoid pads :) Get pumped.

Cramping,oh cramping...

So apparently I am averaging a month between posts.... Sorry... I actually have no idea if anyone even reads this. I will be better. I promise. Onward and upward.

I am cramping. Again. Ugh...

You know, I always just think I am being dramatic or making it up so I just let it go when things like this happen. For example, right after I got preggo, BEFORE knowing I was preggo, I had a UTI. I tried to treat it on my own with over the counter remedies. I feel certain I am a doctor in my own mind. I dealt with the UTI for two weeks!!! After realizing I was pregnant, I knew I had to get it treated. When I finally went to the doctor, he said I was fine. I had drank 6 liters of fluid over a 12 hour period... of course my urine is going to be completely clear and he said I didn't need any meds. I begged for him to give me some sort of antibiotic (I felt like a druggie begging for narcotics.) So, he prescribed me one. Two days later my OB called to say my urine culture was back and was in fact positive. I was like, "Told you so."

So I am worried that is what's going to happen if I go to to the doctor for my cramping. It started on with me feeling really crappy on Saturday night which I told myself was just from exhaustion. I had worked Thurs and Fri and threw a party for friends on Sat. Very little sleep was had. After sleeping off and on all night on Saturday and after 14 hours in the bed, I got up at noon and ran errands on Sunday. The "menstrual cramps" started within 30 minutes of me getting up and being active. Of course I can diagnose myself, so I called my best friend and asked her if she had them while pregnant. No. I called my other best friend who was working on the OB floor at the time and asked if this is normal. No. Both stated I should call the doctor. Do I call? No. I go shopping.

After two hours of shopping, on and off "menstrual" cramping, and back pain, I end up at Babies R Us. A sales person takes one look at me and says, "Are you ok? You don't look well." I say, "Thank you" and smile. At that point, I decide it's time to leave and go on bedrest for the remainder of the day. After three hours of time on the couch, I wanted to poke my eyeballs out. But I was continuing to cramp off and on. By cramping, I don't mean pain. There was no pain. Just discomfort. I really felt like my time of the month was in full swing. My back hurt, my cramping hurt, and there was no comfortable position. On top of all of this, my uterus was starting to tighten intermittently. There was no pattern to any of this at all either. Ugh...

The hubster was on his way from Marine Corps weekend most likely excited to see my face and have me be jump all over him. Instead, he got greeted with a phone call while driving that told him I was cramping. The next phone call he received was me telling him I had talked to the doctor on call. Poor guy. He was so worried. He didn't even want me walking up and down the stairs. :) Such a good hubby. (I did walk the stairs however. He can't lift this moose right now.)

After talking to a family friend, she said call the doc. I was shaking so bad. And my voice was cracking from nerves. I felt like I was calling about a patient at work. I seriously get myself so worked up that I can't function. :) She was very nice and called me back. She told me to take a hot shower and tylenol and call her back if it didn't go away. So I listened and obeyed.

I never called her back. I have had some cramping still but it's not terrible I have been on bedrest for 27 hours now (I had to take a break from it here and there.) It's time to get ready for work. We'll see what happens tonight. I will at least be in a safe place... they deliver babies where I work, ya know? :)

I will keep you up to date. I promise to write again within the next month :)

Happy Monday...

Hi Ho Hi Ho It's off to work I go....