Nearing the end of my 1st Trimester!

Journal Entry from March 9^th: First Trimester

 As I near the end of my first trimester, I look back at the last few months and realize I WON'T miss ANYTHING about the first trimester!

If I knew that pregnancy would be like this, I probably wouldn’t have wanted kids… I’ve been having every symptom of morning sickness, except vomiting (which, in my opinion, is the worst!). The thought of eating makes me sick, but having an empty stomach makes me sick… so I HAVE to eat. :-( But luckily I have PB&J sandwiches. I would eat them for every meal if I could! 

I see pregnant women that never complain, always look so fresh and happy, and then I look in the mirror… I look like I haven’t bathe in days, my face looks so pale and is full of acne, and the bags under my eyes can probably be seen from outer space… Needless to say, I don’t think I have that pregnancy “glow” that other women seem to have. But I’ll think positive (or just keep feeding lies to myself): A difficult pregnancy makes for an easy motherhood??? Please say it’s true!!! (Wishful thinking?) 

– Update April 2012: Pimples, pimples, and more pimples! If I get just ONE more pimple on my face, you won’t be able to recognize me anymore! And most of them like to form around my chin, so it looks like I have a “pimple goatee!”  I feel like as soon as one pimple goes away, two more take its place!! I have hope that they will go away, but I’ve been told by numerous moms that they won’t go away, and sometimes not even AFTER the baby is born… And I just THOUGHT I was done with my teenage years… 

Baby Johnson at 12 weeks (from my doctor's appointment on March 23rd)

 

Strawberry Tree

So I was working on a fun edible centerpiece and I wanted to share it with you!

I bought a styrofoam cone from Hobby Lobby, approximately 12 inches tall. I wrapped it in aluminum foil and then wrapped it in red tissue paper.

I sorted the strawberries by size (I bought 4 lbs of strawberries and had about 6 leftover... which I ate!) and removed the leaves from all of the strawberries, except for the largest one, which I left for the top of the tree.

I started at the bottom using the largest strawberries. I pushed a toothpick into the cone about 1/2 inch from the lower edge, pushing it in about half way. Then, I attached the strawberry to the end of the toothpick sticking out of the cone. Work your way around the cone, with the smaller berries on the top.

Insert a toothpick at the top and place the strawberry with the leaf on it at the top.

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

Journal Entry from February 28^th: Our 3^rd Anniversary!

Tonight we celebrated our third wedding anniversary by going to the restaurant Neal took me to the night he proposed, Perry’s Steakhouse. It’s one of our favorite places to eat, especially their pork chop! I like to call it “The whole damn pig” because it’s SO much meat! Nonetheless, I’ve been having aversions to meat, so I didn’t order the pork chop. I actually had to look at the menu because I wasn’t sure what else they had on the menu besides the pork chop and steak! LOL! I chose the shrimp, but I let the waitress know that I wasn’t planning on eating much so I could save room for dessert… Actually, what I really said was, “Do I HAVE to order dinner? All I really want is dessert!” But, I knew I had to be proper and order my meal in the correct order, so we all laughed it off, pretending like I was joking (but I was not joking!). I only ate about two pieces of shrimp when I called the waitress over and told her to get the chef started on my dessert, since it took 20 minutes to prepare… I did NOT want to have to wait for that delicious chocolately slice of heaven (with a mound of vanilla ice cream on the side). YUM!  Now, you MUST know that I NEVER order dessert… NEVER. I’ve always been a “meat and starch” kind of girl, and I didn’t care for dessert at the end of my meal, because I was always too full… I was CLEARLY a pregnant woman having a craving!

-- Update: After re-reading this journal entry, I must tell you that my cravings for desserts and sweets have NOT gone away! I think they’ve actually increased! I think I have three different types of ice cream in our freezer right now (Pre-pregnancy we NEVER had ice cream in our house because I’m lactose intolerant).  And I am now craving Perry’s again, including “The whole damn pig!” Thank goodness I like meat again!!! Neal, can you take me to Perry’s soon???  :-) 

Baby Johnson at 8 Weeks & 4 days (from doctor appointment on February 24th)

When the Excitement Settles and Reality Kicks In

February 23^rd: When the excitement settles and reality kicks in (aka morning sickness)

When I first found out I was pregnant I thought, “Wow! This isn’t bad at all! All I want to do is eat right and exercise. I feel great!” Maybe I was blinded by all the excitement, or maybe I just wasn’t as far along in the pregnancy as we originally thought, but right around February 9^th, I started feeling horrible. I would start feeling sick right around breakfast, and it would last until after lunch. Then it came back in the evening... all evening. There were days I was certain I came down with the flu. I was nauseous, achy, tired and felt like I had a constant head cold. I guess I was living in this “bubble” of excitement and as soon as that burst, the symptoms of morning sickness came flooding in! 

Of course, this had to start right before my trip to Las Vegas. Before my flight, I prepped my carry-on luggage with medication (approved by my doc), crackers and other snacks to keep me from getting sick on the plane. It worked!! But the second day in Vegas, I was stuck in bed… ALL DAY!! I had to send my poor sister off to explore wonderful Las Vegas all on her own. I felt like the WORST traveling companion, especially since she won this trip through her company and chose to take me… I’m so grateful that she was so understanding! Luckily, I was feeling well enough to go see a WONDERFUL show, Le Reve at the Wynn. I highly suggest you see this show if you go to Vegas. Probably the best show I've ever seen! Here's a link to some photos: http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/Shows/LeReve/Photos

Since Vegas, I started to get worse and worse… until Sunday, February 19^th when I started running a fever… Yikes! I freaked out and went straight to Google to research… BIG mistake! I kept reading horror stories about women that had a fever while pregnant. This did NOT make me feel any better! My fever hit 99.9 degrees and my paperwork from my doctor said that 100.4 or higher is considered an “emergency.” So, my goal was to keep my temperature down as low as possible. I was chugging cold water, keeping a cold washcloth on my head, and keeping Tylenol in me. It seemed to work because I slowly got my fever down! And now I’m mostly tired, but being tired is the new norm for me… 

Update (April 13): Turns out, my doctor told me that anything below 100.4 for a pregnant woman is not considered a fever, But anything over 102 would be cause for concern… I wish they put that on the paperwork!! I’m just SO glad that part of my pregnancy is over!!

Our wonderful view from the party! 

Exploring Vegas on day one.

Exploring Vegas.

Our hotel, The Cosmopolitan

Relaxing with the Vegas skyline in the background

Kristy and me in the hotel room, getting ready to go see Le Reve!

Our room

Kristy was demonstrating that you can see the shower from the room. 

(Awkward and kinky... Too bad I was there with my sister! LOL!)

Loved the art in the room! Too cute!

This woman was floating in the pool during the party. Pretty cool.

Our First Appointment

February 7^th: The night before our first doctor appointment

I never thought I’d be so excited to go to the doctor! In fact, I’m counting down the hours until I get to see Baby J, looking all black & white and squiggly… I’m sure I’ll probably look at that sonogram and think “What the heck am I looking at??” But I’m just so anxious to know that he or she is healthy and growing! Unfortunately, I haven’t been feeling well all day, but I’m fairly certain it’s just my allergies acting up; stuffy nose, itchy eyes, sneezing.  I’m really dragging today, but knowing I get to see my baby tomorrow makes me feel so much better! I just hope I can sleep tonight! 

February 8^th: Our first doctor appointment

Waiting an hour in the waiting room at the doctor wasn’t the best start to our appointment, but as soon as we walked in the room and saw the sonogram machine, I forgot all about having to wait! (By the way, the sonogram machine does not look like what I expected! Because the baby is so tiny they can't do an "over-the-belly" ultrasound yet, but have to insert it, well, you know... The machine looks a little intimidating!! LOL!) When the doctor came in, of course we started flooding her with tons of questions. She had to interrupt us and give us her talk, which surprisingly answered A LOT of the questions on our list! (This doc knows her stuff!) So, on to the fun part! When we first saw our little one on that screen and I saw his/her heart beating, I felt such relief!! Up until that point, I just thought we’d made a mistake and that we weren’t pregnant! She had originally given me a due date of September 22^nd, but as soon as she saw how tiny the embryo was, she seemed a bit concerned, which freaked me out. When she found out that I had abnormal periods (they're VERY abnormal), she seemed a lot less concerned and informed me that she was going to change the due date to October 2^nd… At first I was excited, but then I realized I have TWO additional weeks of feeling like crud.  She printed off three images of our baby and had to “mark” where the baby was because I kept thinking I saw it, but she just kept laughing and telling me I was seeing the “sac”, not the baby! 

Here's baby's First Photo!!! Baby Johnson at 6 weeks (If you look closely, the baby is between the two little x marks.

 

And here's a close up of the baby (You can see the "x"s better in this shot"). --Baby looks a lot like an alien here!

The Joys of Pregnancy (Sarcasm)

Because I started my journal when I first found out I was pregnant, I'm going back in time to catch you all up on the joys, or lack thereof, of the first weeks of my pregnancy:


February 1, 2012: Pregnancy Food Aversions

I thought pregnancy was about having all these crazy cravings, but I haven't experienced this... YET. For now, I'm learning how to deal with food aversions. I never in a million years would have thought that the idea of food would make me sick. Even writing this blog is making me feel a little queasy, so I’ll keep it short! Pre-pregnancy I put bacon with everything. Now, the smell of bacon makes me gag. And for the last few weeks, I’ve had yogurt every morning, but all of a sudden yesterday, I had the hardest time swallowing the first bite when I realized if I kept eating, I was going to vomit… I just hope that I don’t have any aversions to pickles! :-) 

-- Update (April 2nd): Now that I'm in my second trimester, I don't have many food aversions anymore, but I am still having a hard time eating enough food (I NEVER thought that would be a problem!!). I no longer have an aversion to bacon, thank goodness!! But I fear I may NEVER want to eat yogurt ever again! The thought and smell of it still makes me a bit queasy! Oh, and no aversions to pickles! I have my homemade pickles, Kosher dill, Original dill, and hamburger slices in my fridge right now... Too much?? Not for me!! :-)

February 4, 2012: Pregnancy Mood

 Those that know me, know I can be quite moody from time to time... Ok, most of the time. In the mere weeks that I've known that I've got a little one growing inside my belly, I've been trying REALLY hard to keep my emotions in check. Ask Neal; I've actually been a pleasant pregger so far! But SOMETIMES I just can't keep my emotions from boiling over! For instance, pre-pregnancy Sandy would have never yelled at an innocent guy at the gas station because he tried cut in front of her to take her gas lane... I was there first!!! And I never would have cried when I had to rewrite my blog because it didn't save properly... And the best one was when I went to Chick Fil A and asked for extra BBQ sauce but when I got home, I realized they didn't give me any... I cried so hard I couldn't speak. Neal couldn't figure out what was wrong with me until I could muster up the words "IIII assssked for eexxxtraaaaaa baaarrrrr beeee qqq saaauucccee!!!" His response, "It's ok babe. We have some in the fridge." Me: "It's not the same!!! I'm NEVER going to Chic Fil A again!!!" - I went back a week later... It's crazy how my emotions have taken over! 

-- Update (April 2nd): I'm having a much harder time keeping my emotions in check (Ask Neal, he'll tell you that I've probably called him every bad name in the book!). I've actually quit trying to hold back. I mean, it can't be healthy for the baby, right?? :-) My emotions are still crazy. I cry a lot more than usual and at really stupid things (TV commercials, random comments made by others, songs on the radio, etc.).