So here are the most recent pictures from the room!  Angie finished the mural today and it looks awesome!  Now all that’s left is for me to sew the curtains and mom and I are going to put new covers on the cushions of the rocker I got.  Then it will really be finished!  The mural is fantastic, it’s better than I could’ve imagined – the characters are perfect and I love the bright colors!  Hopefully our little ‘chicken nugget’ will eventually enjoy it as much as I do.

I went to my midwife la

st week, she said everything looks good.  When I went to leave the woman who was helping me, she offered to schedule the rest of my appointments . . . wow  . . . I’m already there!  So now I’m going every two weeks and then the last 4 weeks I go every week . . . and they are all scheduled!  Kind of crazy that it’s getting so close, I still don’t feel like it’s entirely real!

My best friend host

ed my baby shower last weekend which was a ton of fun!  We got lots of stuff that we needed for the baby and his room so that helped me relax a little about how much it was going to cost to have this kid!  I feel so fortunate to have friends and family that have helped us so much – with the crib and the changing table from my sister-in-law and my best friend who is painting a mural in the room!  It makes me feel loved =).

We started our childbirth classes two weeks ago, they are interesting.  I think we have both learned some from them for instance: 30% of people go into labor at night . . . thus the suggestion that if you like your mattress perhaps you should get a waterproof sheet.  We still aren’t sure what to think of that (and haven’t rushed out and purchased one) but it got me thinking about if my water breaks before I get to the hospital where I will be, what I will be doing, etc.  I’m trying not to freak out about it too much but the thought of my water breaking while I’m at work is terrifying.  I think I’d just try to hide it.  Ugh.  Maybe I should take an extra set of clothes, some baby diapers, a towel, and some chucks with me everywhere I go once I hit 38 weeks.  Neurotic?  I’m not sure yet . . . I think my husband would say so =).

I’m including a couple pictures of the nursery too!  None of the mural yet – those will come in a little while when it’s done.  She’s hoping to finish it up August 16th and 17th so shortly after that I’ll post some!  It’s going to be awesome!  (It’s Winnie the Pooh theme).  We put up the fan last week and installed the closet shelving too – It looks pretty packed right now.  I’m trying to keep everything in the baby’s room for another 6 weeks or so – then we will let the baby stuff take over the house but until then I’m resisting!

So here’s sort of an update:  I’ve been traveling a ton.  I was in Maryland for two weeks last month to attend the National Fire Academy.   It wasn’t bad as far as trips go, but certainly not something I would do again being 5/6 months pregnant.  They were very accomodating in terms of a room with temperature controls and an extra pillow.  However, a large part of the academy is networking with other firefighters and socializing . . . I didn’t do very much of that part – and it really made me just want to go home.  I was much more tired than I expected to be after sitting in class all day, I would go workout, eat dinner, do some reading, and head to bed.  About the time I was heading to bed was when everyone else was heading down to the bar – ugh!  I joined them a few times, and discovered that I’m pretty okay at darts (at least when everyone else is drunk I am!).  A weekend trip to Boston to see family really helped me make it through the whole two weeks – I don’t know if I would have otherwise!  It didn’t help that husband was at home on his two weeks off – so I missed the whole time he was off!

Tomorrow I leave for Las Vegas for 8 days for some more training, this time for USAR (FEMA based urban search and rescue – the group that I went to hurricanes Gustav/Ike with).  It’s training I have been waiting for for 3 years (since I joined the team) so I am excited to finally go but . . . trying on my uniform; think army BDU’s, made me realize how much bigger I am, to the point that there is really no chance that I can wear pre-pregnancy clothes and hope they do any decent job of covering important parts . . . Plus it’s really hot in Vegas right now.  And who goes to Vegas pregnant?!  Husband will be working nights this time so that will make it easier to be gone – we wouldn’t see each other anyway for a week.  We are staying in a hotel so that will be nice I’m sure – maybe there will be a pool!

That’s it for traveling for me!  I’m done then until after baby is born!

I’m feeling pretty good, I’ve been able to keep working out about 5 days a week – mostly cardio and yoga which has been pretty therapeutic!  No real cravings still, it’s more like permission to lack willpower to say no to things I already loved: ice cream, brownies, chocolate cake, etc.  And I’ve really been enjoying red grapes – maybe that counts as a craving.  But nothing that I HAVE to have at 2am type of craving.

My first issue was what to pack – my belly is growing at an alarming rate, I tried on a bunch of summer clothes that I thought would fit for a few more weeks, only to find that the didn’t fit at all any more!  The number one issue was shorts, most of my tank tops were long anyway so I just wore a tight maternity one under so they didn’t ride up as much.  So Thursday, the day before we left I ran out and bought two pairs of shorts and a jean skirt.  I was pretty glad I did because I ended up living in them!

The second thing I was really worried about was what I was going to eat while I was down there.  We were staying at an all inclusive so food would be provided but I was worried about getting sick or the food not being cooked good enough.  The last trip that we went on (to Cozumel) Jay ended up with a trip to the doctor, a shot, and some antibiotics because he got sick from the food . . . I brought a buncfh of Luna bars and some almonds and sort of held my breath.  Turns out there was no need to worry.  I didn’t end up eating much meat but I had eggs every morning for breakfast, the pasta bar (that they cook in front of you) was great for lunch, and sometimes dinner.  There were a few things that I came across that made me gag (the chimichanga at the Mexican restaurant?!) but for the most part it was all good!  And neither of us got remotely ill!  I drank just the bottled water that they provided and sometimes juice during the day, all in all I didn’t need to worry like I had.

The third thing I was worried about, and sorry if this makes me sound spoiled, was what I was going to do for 11 days . . . I’m not really the type of person who can lay on a beach every day all day and do nothing.  I read about 10 books: Funny in Farsi, Smalldone, She’s Come Undone, I, Alex Cross, Twilight #1, and I don’t remember the rest.  Most were pretty good – I got the Kindle from my mom for my college graduation and I love that I can lay on the beach and download a new book in seconds!  It’s awesome!  Usually after laying on the beach for 4 hours or so, and intermittently cooling off in the ocean.  I would do some kayaking or water aerobics (in the ocean!).  Ocassionally I headed back to my balcony to do some more of the Spanish lessons in the Rosetta Stone on my computer . . . it helped minimally but I was excited to learn more.

Some things I learned:

1) Never pass up an opportunity to go to the bathroom

2) Unless in your room bring your own toilet paper

3) Drink more water than you think you need to

4) Ask for more pillows right away

5) It sucks to be on a dive trip and not dive

Overall though, we had a great time!  Jay dove every day, usually two dives.  He even got to do some spearfishing of the lionfish down there!  (It’s one of those invasive non-native species of fish that eats everything and has very few natural predators . . . like our Zebra mussles.  The lionfish is causing a lot of damage, but now there are almost 60 fewer fish!)  I didn’t need to have worried as much as I did, and I’m really glad I decided to just wear my bikini’s instead of trying find the maternity swimsuits.  I’m still sort of at that in between stage where I kind of just look fat (I suppose unless you know me  . . . ) but there were other people in bikinis or topless that were getting a lot more stares than me!  That’s the beauty of an international resort, there are all kinds of people there so it doesn’t really seem to matter what any one person is doing!

Here’s a picture of my belly for week 15:

I’ve known that I’m one of those people who is always worried about what could go wrong, I think a large part of this is the medical training I’ve had.  That and the fact that I have a job because “things” go wrong, all the time.  So part of being pregnant for me has been realizing that this is something that my body was made to do, and that more than likely everything is going to be fine.  I think that’s probably one reason that they make pregnant women go to the doctor so often . . . or maybe there really are that many things that can go wrong. . . .

Anyway, one of the really fun things about the doctor’s office is – more pictures!  I saw hands (2) arms (2) and stretched out legs (2) it was very entertaining especially when the baby started rolling over while they were doing the ultrasound!

So here they are:

If I can bring myself to take more, I will.  But if I become too disgusted with the stretch marks I am bound to get I might decide to keep them to myself and wear a tank top when taking the rest of the pictures.  We’ll see.
Maybe I’ll get a tan when we go to the Dominican Republic in a couple weeks! ha! oh wait – I’m still a red head . . .

So far I’m feeling pretty good, a little nauseous if I don’t eat often enough (every 2 hours) but aside from that it’s not bad. Some friends of ours own a business in which they rent out the fetal doppler’s.  So, this morning I set out to find our baby’s heartbeat – and I did!  I was surprised how easy it was, and how fast the heartbeat was (160′s).  But that’s the first time I heard it!  It’s pretty amazing to think that something growing inside me now has its own heartbeat.

The funny thing is, now that most people know, I am getting opinions about everything from everyone.  And, the first person (other than Jay) touched my belly today . . . kind of wierd.  He asked, and I said yes . . . but I don’t know what to think about that yet!  I’m sure it will get old, he was a good friend so kind of an exception I guess?

I’ve been a firefighter for 10 years now.  It’s the only “real” job I’ve ever had.  The rest of my jobs were while I was in high school and while they were real, they weren’t something that I had to be very responsible to do a good job.  A little bit about why I love being a firefighter:

It changes every day.  I know that is sort of cliché and a lot of people can say that about their job but, it truly does change every day.

I get to help people when they need it the most.  When people have an emergency (which is defined drastically different by everyone) they call and when we get there we solve their problem.  And that feels really good, to be able to take someone’s really bad day and help make it better.  Granted we can’t always make it better, but we do our best to try to make it better.

I have a lot of days off.  This is one of those things that I try not to brag about too much because there are so many pros and cons.  On the one hand I don’t really have to do anything when everyone else does (think: any kind of shopping, working out, hiking).  On the other hand when my family or friends are getting together I am often working – and it doesn’t matter if it’s in the evening – I’m still working, for 24 hours.  There are a lot of times that I feel left out because of this.  Fortunately my family is very understanding, especially now that it has been this way for 10 years.  But it still doesn’t get any easier to miss out on the celebrations.

So, now, being pregnant I need to decide when to go offline.  That means no more firefighting for probably 9-10 months.  I will be working days (8-5 M-F) at our administration building.  I will be doing things like car seat checks (for child passenger safety program), repairing and doing maintenance on our dive team equipment, organizing and data entry type stuff, etc.  Really anything that anyone needs that will keep me busy for a little while.  I should be thankful that I have this option and my work is so supportive of me, but instead I find myself dreading it.  There are a lot of politics that go on upstairs (in admin) and I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut anyway . . . let alone with all the hormones I have racing around – my filter seems to be full all the time so everything I think comes out of my mouth.

I have been working and it doesn’t seem too bad, the main concerns I have are the potential exposures to chemicals.  CO is a big one, it has an affinity for fetal hemoglobin (blood) that is 250 times greater than normal adult hemoglobin (per our physician advisor at work).  It really comes down to risk vs. benefit which is something we consider all the time at work.  It’s also a matter of what we are doing at work – we don’t fight fire every day, really we rarely fight fire.  Most of our calls are medical calls, the hazards there are illness or crazy people, like the chick that was drunk and tried to kick me in the gut when we told her she was going to the hospital because she couldn’t make safe decisions for herself.

So, this brings me to:  Does my time off and enjoyment of this job warrant me continuing to work despite the potential for risks?  I brought a job description to my OB and she said that it would be a good idea to come offline sooner than later, but she didn’t make a definitive statement of “you should come offline at __ weeks”.  I sometimes wish this decision wasn’t mine.  Also, I don’t have the same crew all the time and I haven’t told many people at work so when I’m exhausted or I feel like I’m going to puke people don’t know why . . . and I’m hesitant to explain to them.  Mostly probably because I don’t want their opinion of whether I should still be working!

Okay, I’m done.  I think I’m going to take it day by day.  I anticipate working the next tour (set of 3-24 hour shifts) and then probably going offline.  We’ll see how it goes.  I’m pretty useless in the middle of the night.

I’ve started to get a little nauseated, especially if I don’t eat often.  And I’m thirsty all the time!  I’m still pretty much living in sweats when I can get away with it, not really because my stomach is getting bigger, but just because it feels better.  I don’t think it’s actually increased in size yet, it’s just more sensitive to tight clothing I think.

The other funny thing that’s happening is that I can’t really avoid telling the people I see all the time, especially when we are hanging out at a bar or restaurant – I haven’t been able to get away with saying “I’m the designated driver” not one person has believed me!  I guess that says something about my normal drinking habits . . . . I’ll have to keep that in mind in the future!

Here’s my ultrasound from that very first appointment, sort of nondescript looking but exciting for us none the less!