Pregnancy Random Thought #498,352

I've heard the old wives' tale about how heartburn in pregnancy= lots of hair for baby. The more heartburn that mommy has while pg, the more hair the baby will have. Supposedly, estrogen is to blame, as it encourages hair growth??

All is fine with that, except for one minor, little issue... I've, well, had much more heartburn in this pregnancy than I did with that of Jessy.

For reference, this is Jessy on her first day out of the oven. Y'all see all that hair?? Um, yeah... how could a newborn baby have any more?? According to the ol' WT, I may birth a little Sasquatch in July... hmmm...

Murphy, will you please...

...go find someone else to bug?

I swear, since I have resolved to do two things before Firecracker's arrival, I have met probably every obstacle to getting them done. Why? Because, as everything else on this planet does, they cost money. I have decided that I want to start some sort of home-based business ;) and get new glasses/contacts.

Jessy has begun to attempt to pull my nearly-two-year-old glasses off my face several times, damn-near succeeding on several fronts already. They may just break in half, as did my last pair at the two-year mark. I swear the things have timers on them or something! Secondly, I need. my. contacts. back. These glasses, although I have worn them nearly two years straight, are starting to drive me batshit. Need I say more? Since I have been pregnant, my nose has become more like that dreaded, invisible oil slick we don't see on the road when it's lightly raining after a loooong drought. Translation? The things slide down like it's going out of style in the next five minutes, resulting in them being constantly dirty. As in, I just wiped off the lenses not five minutes ago and they're... muy sucio again. Yeah, no thanks.

And now, the other point: starting a business. Any way I go about this, it's gonna cost dough. Whether I go Mary Kay or I go craftiness, there is an upfront investment. The latter may have a lesser investment, but probably a little less profit as it would take time to fill one order. The former, however, may require parties, as my current housing situation severely limits my ability to entertain. (We Three Musketeers live on our own in a single-family home, but it's a bit tight. We need more s-q-f-t's!)

So what's the big deal? The fact that I have again had to miss work, this time twice in a week. As if Jessy's flu two weeks ago wasn't enough, the snowball caught a stomach bug, so I stayed home with her for a day. She was better by the next day so I went back to work, but that evening (same day Jessy was better) I started puking. Ick. Fortunately daddy made some arrangements so that I could stay home and rest and he took her to the sitter. Not a horrible deal, however I don't get paid for any time off at all, let alone sick time. The irony? I have been plotting taking a day off with Keith to tackle the house, maybe a Friday to send the babyjess to the sitter's house and we can hit it hard.

With this little cutey-monster leanring new tricks, cleaning house is hard work! But we don't mind. ;)

Firecracker, Firecracker...

Boom, boom, grow! I can't believe I am 23.5w along already in this pregnancy. Where does the time go?!

We found out the gender (about a month ago- somebody slap me for not talking sooner!) and JessyNicole will have a little sister this summer.

My belly button has popped somewhat. If I'm sitting down it's all the way out, but if I am standing, it mysteriously takes on the shape of Dallas City Hall. I think this child is sitting higher than her big sister, as I didn't have this effect when I was pg with Jessy.

Trying to pick a name has definitely been harder this time around. If I remember correctly, the name Jessica hit me across the face about two weeks after finding out Jessy was a she. However, this one, is entirely different. I sit, stumped still, a month later and counting. The name Julia has been at the forefront of our minds, but there's part of me that worries that people will think I named her Julia b/c she was due/born in July. :/ I am rather sensitive to what I name my kids, as I know it can and does influence a person's life.

Other names we have considered/are considering are Joanna, Natalie, Jana, Keira, Kara, Jillian, Jill, Kaitlyn, Brianna, Gianna, and Victoria.My only concern of another K name is that Jessy may feel left out if we don't have anymore kids after this one (for those who don't know, DH's name is Keith). Hmmmm...

If anyone has any input on names, please feel free to spill it! ;)

That all being said, whatever I name this kid, I do plan on painting letters of her name, just as I did with Jessy.

Stay tuned! 

Snowy Daze

Jessy celebrated her first birthday on 2/5. Um, where did the time go?? Anyway, we had planned/envisioned having her first birthday party ON her birthday. How sweet would that have been? Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans:

Instead, she dumped tons of snow on us, instigating Snomageddon 2011.

Dude, where's my driveway?



While most of this cold, wet stuff melted off by the big day, we still voted to move the party up by one week, simply because of the sheer volume of the frozen stuff that hung around. We usually don't get this much in NTX, so this was a huge deal. HUGE, as in Dallas and Fort Worth (and needless to say, surrounding areas') schools closed. Those two cities never close their schools, unless Mother Nature is having major PMS. End of story.

We finally had the babyjess's party a week later, when there was nary a sign of any of Mama Nature's antics from the week before. It was a bright, warm and sunny day. Typical for Texas weather, if you don't like it, just wait a few minutes. It'll change.

Without further ado, The celebrity babyjess!

Is that a toof?

...but...but...but daddy!

Is this what I am supposed to do? Mommy, you're laughing awfully hard...

The unsuspecting cakes before

3 generations, engrossed in Jessy's toy drum.



Mama in Hiding??

Nope, just very busy. After Jessy celebrated her first Christmas it was time to start working on her... yup... first birthday party! That, however didn't come without good ol' trial and tribulation.

That's the trouble with a hiatus- so much can happen and then you end up with so much to talk about that you don't know where to start.

Since there was nothing special about New Year's, as usual in our house, I'll skip to mid-January, when things got- just a little crazy. As you may recall, my pregnancy with Jessy was quit uneventful. Once I hit 13 or so weeks, the m/s disappeared and it was smooth sailing for the rest of the pregnancy. However, this one has been different. My m/s was a little more intense with this one, necessitating a new friendship between myself and Zofran. It was several weeks before I was finally able to go off of it, but it helped me to function.

The m/s was naturally still with me a bit at 13-14 weeks, hitting me upside the face here and there. On top of it, however, was another issue which made itself very well-known on my break at my job. I had a massive bleed at 13w 2d, no pain, that sent me to the ER, since as my luck would have it my doc was out of the office until 1- and head just left. Go figure. By pure luck my husband happened to be at home- he had come down with a stomach bug and ended up coming home from work a few hours after getting there. I called my husband from the bathroom stall and warned him of what had happened. He was on his way to get me promptly.

About 15 minutes later DH was there to take me to the ER. Thankfully, my place of employment is only a couple of miles from the hospital and wihle it felt like an eternity, we got there minutes later. I was brought back the minute I walked in and told them what was going on. At that point it was hard to not experience deja vu, as the waiting room was laid out the exact time I was there the first time- for the loss of my first pregnancy.  Needless to say, in addition to the fear instilled in me from what I had seen about 25 or so minutes earlier, I had some sad memories going through me. Pregnancy Hormones +Bad Memories +Bad PAL Brain =Total Basket Case.

Another eternity later I was wheeled back to the u/s room to find out the fate of our little firecracker. When I first saw that bleed about a hundred-thousand things crossed my mind at once, including SCH and m/c. The tech placed the wand on my tummy and it revealed a beautiful, healthy and happy kiddo who was throwing her own party (more on that later ;)). The bleed was indeed caused by a SCH, or subchorionic hemorrhage/hematoma. The prescription? Bed rest and no Jessy-lifting. The bleeding tapered off rather quickly (but spotting hung around) and my regular doctor put me at ease.

I stopped bleeding for about a week then the spotting started up again; coincidentally after a growth spurt (I could literally feel the stretching). We went in to the doc again to be safe, and while we confirmed the SCH was still there, we got some beautiful pics of the firecracker. I was convinced the kid was a boy and asked to know the gender, but the firecracker was a little stinker and kept crossing his legs.

Behold, Firecracker at 15w 4d!!