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.

Shout Out to Patrick and Cute Little Kids

Obviously, I don't know what the heck I'm doing when it comes to blogging. Hence the really blurry pictures. Thanks to Patrick Kindregan, computer extraordinaire, for pointing me on the straight and narrow!

On another note, sometimes I'll venture off the baby track if I have a cute or funny story from work. Those of you that know me well, know that I love a random story! My blog will be no different. So the past couple of days I have treated a 4 year old and a 3 1/2 year old. They were so good and so cute, but the 3 year old takes the cake. It really made me hopeful that not all children are hell on wheels when they are in the dentist's chair. Most kids do great when they get their teeth cleaned, but put them in the doctor's chair, and it's a whole 'nother story. There's crying, kicking, screaming, biting...not really the most fun thing to go through for all involved. I know it's scary for them, but you just want them to be still so you can get it over with. Now, laughing gas does wonders for children (for adults, too, but that's another story). Laughing gas takes the edge off and relaxes the kids so you can get in there and do your job and make it as less traumatic for them as possible. One downside to being preggers...I can't give patients laughing gas. So, you can imagine my first thought when I saw I had to do three fillings on a three year old (it was "Oh crap!"). But he was wonderful! He sat in his Mommy's lap and hung his mouth open and gave me a big hug when we were all done. Why can't all kids be that sweet?! Every now and then when I get one like that, it really makes what I do worth it. To give a child that young a great dental experience will hopefully spare them years of being afraid of going to the dentist.

The Belly at 8 weeks

I don't have a baby bump yet. Do not be fooled by the picture. The "bump" I have is merely a result of eating everything in sight for the past 4 weeks. Babies make a great excuse to eat whatever you want, which I have been doing with no shame. Let me give you a little bit of background. Weight has not been my friend pretty much my entire life. After many failed attempts to lose weight I finally succeeded in losing a pretty good amount of weight last year. In March of '08 the Hubby and I started doing Weight Watchers (he was doing it more for support). Since then, I had lost roughly 27 pounds. Enter Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. That pretty much shot the diet. I didn't do too much damage, but just enough to be frustrated with myself. I love WW because it works. It teaches you how to make smart decisions and eat less. I fully plan to get back on the bandwagon after the baby is born. I didn't work this hard to let it all slip away. Having given the background info, I've been eating like a crazy person because it's been so long since I haven't really cared. I can't wait for the bump to actually be a baby bump, but alas, for the time being, it is all me.

Breaking the News to the Fam

Well, we kept our little secret for twelve days. We wanted to wait until we had our first doctors visit to tell anyone. That was a hard thing to do. Everytime I talked to my family or close friends I wanted to say "Oh...by the way, I'm pregnant."

Our first appointment was on January 23rd, where we had our first ultrasound. They dated the baby as being 5 weeks and 5 days old. That means I found out when I was only 4 weeks along. Gotta love modern technology! We were in the ultrasound room and the tech is moving the thing so fast I can't focus. Then, we saw the heartbeat, kinda. I say kinda because it took me a minute. Cameron saw it immediately and I kinda felt like Rachel on that episode of Friends where she has her first ultrasound..."I don't see it!" But I did see it after a minute. That made it so much more real. Not that I didn't think it was real, but it just hadn't sunk in yet. My next appointment isn't until March 16, which is seems sooooo long to wait!

I immediately called my sister and told her she was going to be an Aunt. She was very surprised and very excited. We had been planning for a while to have my parents and Cameron's parents over for lunch the Sunday after my appointment to tell them. We were fortunate to have a fake reason to have both sets come over. Well, not really "fake" because it was my Mom's birthday. I guess I should say good excuse! We got through most of the meal and then told them we had a new project we were working on (the baby). I swear my Mom almost fell out of her chair. It was pretty humorous. Hugs and tears all around! We spent the rest of the day making the rounds to Cameron's Dad and stepmom and our grandparents. Needless to say, everyone was really excited and really surprised. My husband's mother is convinced it's a girl. I don't have any strong inclinations yet. So far, telling our parents has been the most fun!