Pollen is Not My Friend

Spring is blooming in full force. For the past week or so, I have felt like I have little bugs crawling around on the inside of my nose. This causes the feeling of constantly having to sneeze. Not fun. This is the first spring I've been through in at least ten years that I have not been on my allergy medication. The only thing I can take daily is Zyrtec. Well, I'm taking it, but I don't think it is doing a dang thing. My allergies and I have a love-hate relationship. Meaning I hate my allergies and they love to give me a hard time. When I was 18 I had surgery to clean out my sinuses and correct a deviated septum. My problems since then have been minute compared to what they were before my surgery. But, now with not being able to take my Astelin and Veramyst (oh, how I miss you!) I feel like I did before my surgery. My night-time routine has changed somewhat since getting pregnant. I squirt my nose with saline (instead of Afrin), slap on some Vick's vapor rub and stick on my breath-right strip. I'm sure my husband thinks I am a vision of pure sexiness. But hey, it helps me sleep through the night. Now when I get to be the size of a whale, I may be wishing for these days back...

Pictures, Hinman, Maternity Clothes, and Karaoke

So the good news is there was no tornado at Hinman this year! The weather was beautiful and I feel smarter for having attended. For my non-dental readers, Hinman is a huge dental meeting every year in Atlanta. There are literally thousands of people that attend. Last year, Mother Nature decided to throw us a curveball and send a tornado right through the conference center. Needless to say it was eventful. This year was pretty fun and I got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. We went out to dinner with a group of classmates and I actually hung in there and went out to the (non-smoking) bar afterward. Too bad I did, though, because my girlfriends made me karaoke! Which would have been way more fun had I had a little liquid encouragement. But me and the baby got up there and rocked out to "Goodbye Earl".

The bad news (because there wouldn't be good news only!) is that I won't be able to upload pictures for awhile because our computer at home died. We've been putting off buying a new one and finally decided to break down and do it before the old one died...well, it decided that would be too easy and went kaput when I tried to turn it on yesterday. So, I'll try to get some ultrasound pictures and my latest belly pictures posted. I took some on Sunday at 14 weeks and can't really tell a difference yet (maybe a little thicker, but no definite bump).

I had lunch with my girlfriend, Ashlee, yesterday, which was really nice because I haven't seen her since November. She has a precious little angel, Blair, that keeps her pretty busy (check out her blog at www.acrossthebranch.blogspot.com. It will really make you realize the miracles God is capable of doing). Aside from it just being great to catch up face to face, Ash loaned me a ton of maternity clothes. She's a little smaller than me, so I was happy that some of it actually fit my big ol' booty! Thanks, Ash! I haven't broken down and started wearing maternity stuff yet, so I'll just continue to cram myself in my "fat" jeans.

Jumping Bean

We had our second doctor's appointment yesterday and everything looks great! The doc said we are right on schedule. We had another ultrasound that was amazing! Last time, the baby just looked like a fuzzball. This time it actually looked like a baby. As soon as the technician put the wand thingy on my belly, the baby started moving. Then the baby started jumping...literally. He/she would kind of sink down a little and then just spring up off the side of my uterus. Then the baby would settle down again for a minute and then spring back up. He/she did that several times during the ultrasound. Cameron laughed and said if the baby was that jumpy now, imgaine how it was going to be at 7-8 months! I can just imagine my poor patients getting kicked in the head now! We were at the doctor a ridiculous amount of time...almost three hours. I was about to starve by the time we left. Probably one of the most amazing things (besides the jumping!) was actually hearing the heartbeat. We saw it again on the ultrasound (it was beating away at 159bpm) but then the doctor put the doppler my belly, but he couldn't find it at first. After a minute he found it. It was the most incredible sound I've ever heard. I don't think I've totally grasped the idea that this little baby is growing and living inside my belly! We got some really cute ultrasound pictures, so as soon as I figure out how to scan them in, I'll get a couple posted. I'll also post a 12 week belly shot. Still no really bump...just still looking kinda fat!

Dream a Little Dream

As a general rule, I have really strange dreams. And they are so vivid and I remember them most of the time. It's really weird. So far I have not had very many baby dreams at all. I know they will come the further along I am. Lately I've been dreaming about school...mostly college. But friends from all aspects of my life are in them: high school, college, and dental school. I have no idea why I have been dreaming about school. It's not like I have any intention what-so-ever of returning to school. Going from the age of 5 straight through to age 26 was plenty for me, thank you! It might be because I just had my 5-year college reunion and am in the midst of planning my 10-year high school reunion. I don't know!

So I finally had a weird pregnancy dream. I dreamt that I was 9 months pregnant just waiting on the baby to make an appearance. I started having contractions. Well, they were pretty mild, but pretty steady. 51 hours later my water still had not broken. My husband was freaking out saying I needed to call the doctor, but I refused to do so until my water broke. (Now you may be saying "Katie, this sounds like a nightmare, not a dream!" which I agree, but the next part is what makes it a dream.) I had heard about this store that was a wine and dessert store. Obviously I couldn't have any wine, but there were cases of hundreds of gourmet desserts, which I could totally have! I waddled around looking at them all, just trying to figure out which one would make my water break so I could call the doctor. I was just having samples and lovin' it! And that was it. It was over. So random...the funny part is, I'm not even that big of dessert person. I'll eat it and I'll enjoy it, but I don't have to have it. I guess you could say I'm not very sweet! =) I'm sure they'll be plenty of even more weird baby dreams to come.