A Sad Day....

Today my brother, Nathan, left for Iraq. It was even sadder because Vincent and I didn't get to see him at Christmas since we didn't get to go to Georgia this year. So it's been a rough day for me. I held a brave face while on the phone with him this morning but as soon as I got off, I was crying and have been crying on and off all day. To be honest, Nate should be completely safe. He is in the Air Force and flies cargo planes so it's not a dangerous job but it's scary for anyone to have family over there because you just never know what could happen. I am a natural worrier so things like this I don't handle very well. On top of that the hormones are all out of wack so that makes it even worse.....
Since I am at work, I went onto Facebook and stole all the pictures I could find of Nate (thanks, Shelly!). He has several funny faces so I wanted to get them all in plus I just miss him so don't judge me for the millions of pictures.
He gets back in May so right before his niece/nephew will be born. Everyone here will be missing and praying for him! He definitely makes our family proud!
Good luck, Nate!!

Nate with the plane he will be flying

Nate and his girlfriend, Shelly

16 week pictures

Today Vincent and I decided to do a photo shoot of my belly on our front porch and one in the parking lot. Since my belly looks different from different angles, I'll share all the pics. I can't believe that in 2 weeks we will know the gender! Yay!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope everyone is having a great one (even Lauren........actually, especially Lauren!!). We have a long day of family ahead so I figured I'd sneak in a blog.

Vincent and I decided this year that we weren't going to get each other gifts and instead save the money to buy something for the baby. So I obeyed this and spent my time making our gifts for everyone (coolest gifts ever, I will blog later after everyone gets it).

Well, this morning Vincent wakes me up nice and early with a goofy grin and a "Merry Christmas". I mumbled something back to him and rolled over to go back to sleep. He nudged me again and said "I got you something." It took a few seconds to register but then I said "I thought we weren't getting gifts for each other.....I didn't get you anything." He nodded and said "I know but I saw this gift and immediately thought of you so I had to get it."

I slowly made my way downstairs and I see the tiny box that I don't recognize under the tree. I opened it up and I see a Scotch Brite cleaning sponge. I was completely confused as to why he had gotten so excited about seeing a cleaning sponge and buying it for me. Then I saw the note- 'this is a hint for where the real present is kept'. I knew it was under the sink so I ran over there and grabbed the very heavy box. In it was something I least expected- a camera! A Nikon D80 to be exact!! I have been wanting a Nikon D60 for awhile but I guess the D80 is the newest and latest one so Vincent got me that one instead! This should take some really great pictures of our new baby--yay!!!

So kudos for my husband buying a great gift!! As soon as I figure out how to use it I will post some pics from the new camera! I am so excited!!! If anyone has any hints on how to take great pics or any advice, please share! Hope everyone is having a great Christmas!!!

15 weeks

Have you ever heard a pregnant woman, whether in real life or on TV, complain that she feels like "something has taken over her body and is sucking the life out of her"? That's exactly how I feel. How do I know what it feels like to have something take over my body? I don't know. All I know is something is not right. There's a new sheriff in town and it's not me. I feel like I'm always on the verge of getting sick yet I never get completely better. It's like my body makes sure that I can at least get by and that's all. I can definitely tell I'm not getting all the attention anymore. Now I understand when woman who have been pregnant before know right away when they are pregnant again. It's a very distinct feeling. Hard to explain but very distinct once you've felt it.

Also, Vincent and I found out the appointment for finding out the gender is January 14. So we have been trying all the old wives tricks and then some. I have done several of the Chinese gender calendars and half the time it's a girl and half the time it's a boy- so that didn't really work. I also did the necklace-over-the-belly and it came out a boy. I have yet to do the Drano test. This test involves testing my urine with Drano and seeing if it turns a different color. I don't know how I'm carrying my belly- I can't tell. I haven't been craving anything sweet or sour. I did have a dream, which was very real-like, that it was a girl. Vincent wants a girl and I want a boy so we'll see. If anyone has any other tests that they think might work, let me know and I'll try it out.....

Right now the baby is all about moving around. I should start feeling movements soon or the next couple of weeks. This week eyebrows and eyelashes form. Also, a fine hair, called lanugo, covers the baby's skin now but will fall out later. Eyes are still sealed shut but can now sense light. The baby might also start hiccuping this week. In a few weeks, I might be able to feel that as well.

15 Weeks Pregnant

Baby M is the size of a stick of a Kit Kat bar

Drama Queen

Though you might think I am talking about myself I am actually referring to my adorable other half. He decided on Saturday that he was going to work out for the first time in, oh, about 13 months. Instead of easing into the workout, Vincent sees the "competition" as he calls it (or people that work out on a regular basis) working out hard core. He decides he has an image to keep up and therefore must "show" these guys he can keep up (I'm sure they were watching him). He came home all cocky and said he felt like that workout was really good and he actually felt muscle back on his body. I declined to comment when he asked me to look at his bulging muscles and admit that they had grown in the last couple of hours.
Fast forward to Sunday......Vincent wakes up and starts groaning. I ask him if he is sick and he says yes. He insists that his body couldn't handle the work out that his mind had been able to handle easily (whatever that means). All day long he acts like an invalid. He refused to take the dogs out for their bathroom breaks. He makes phone calls on speaker phone. He even had the audacity to ask me to feed him- like put the fork up to his mouth! Seriously??? He tells me that I have never experienced the pain that he is experiencing right then. This reminded me of the last time he was sick and said his throat hurt and I caught him limping around (since everyone knows the throat is directly connected to the leg). I don't mean to be insensitive but I really do think women can handle more pain than men. I know that men deny that but I think women were especially made to give birth because they have a higher pain threshold. I know there is no way to prove it but I told Vincent once he sees me giving birth (because you know that looking at that process from the outside looks even more scary) to tell me if he thinks that I have any threshold for pain. We'll see. I'll be surprised if he doesn't pass out while I give birth......
This whole situation made me think of a cartoon I found on the Internet. I think it correctly defines exactly how men would deal with being pregnant.

13 and 1/2 weeks

This week has been especially rough for some reason even though the 2nd trimester is supposed to be awesome. I guess I'm having a late start.

First, my gums hurt like nobody's business. They are super sensitive which makes it hard to brush my teeth. On top of that I have a giant canker sore. If you don't know what this is, be glad. It's terrible. It's a hole-looking thing that is usually right on the crack on your gum and cheek so anytime you move your mouth, it's almost like you're ripping the hole even bigger. It hurts to move your mouth for little things such as talking, eating, and drinking. Oh and eating and drinking causes the little bastard to burn whenever food or drink touch it. So I have this medicine that numbs my entire mouth so that I can't feel anything. I caught myself trying to air out the gross taste of the medicine by leaving my mouth open and didn't even notice that drool had slid down my chin and onto my shirt. My boss came over and dabbed my chin with Kleenex. Awesome.

On top of that my nausea/throwing up is supposed to be gone but it's having a fireworks finale. I have these episodes where I, instead of throwing up a few times and being done with it, throw up constantly and then lay down and feel better. Then if I stand up I have to throw up again. So pretty much I have to lay down for hours at a time. Me and the TV have been BFF this last week.

Also, I have a craving. It's Coca-Cola, with the caffeine. Just in case you didn't know, pregnant women are not supposed to have caffeine. I have tried the Coke with no caffeine. Tastes totally different to me- definitely not as good. And Vincent does not want me to drink Coke. He has limited it to 1 a day but I need more. I find myself sneaking it and telling myself I will drink twice as much water to make up for it. It's just so good. Seriously, Coke never tasted this good to me. If it was good for me I would drink it 24/7 but it's not good for me so I must sneak it. Don't judge me. I'm just giving the baby what it wants. And what it wants is a nice, cold, refreshing Coca-Cola. Yummy. On Saturday we had my company party at Hotel Zaza -super nice. Well it was open bar and everyone was having fun-looking drinks. What did I have? Coke. And I was delighted even though I would've been just as delighted in having a girly alcoholic drink. But I did make Vincent order drinks that looked fun and drink them on my behalf. But you know what he has the audacity to say? "Honey, how many Cokes have you had because I think you need to slow down?" Are you f-ing serious?? I don't get to partake in free alcohol night and he won't even let me splurge on Coke??? After he said that, I order another Coke. I know, I'm crazy.

And for the biggest news of all- I have a baby belly now. I know I do because people at work keep rubbing it. That is definitely something to get used to. I mean, for all they know, it could just be a nicely developed beer belly that they're rubbing. I've seen it happen. But the rubbing doesn't bother so much as the lack of warning. I'll be talking and then all of a sudden they're going for the gut. The first time it happened, my sibling instinct (the instinct you gain when raised in a large family that pushes a lot) went off and I blocked the hand. I was a little embarrassed so I've learned to fight the instinct and humor them with a good ol' belly rub down. But I will try in the future to post pictures of my new found belly so that you can give it a look down....

Onto the baby.....it is just getting bigger. The liver begins to secrete bile and the pancreas begins to produce insulin. All twenty teeth are formed and are waiting to come out after the baby is born. Other than that, it is just growing and growing. The 2nd trimester will be growing time for Baby and Mommy Martinez. I can't wait......

13 Weeks Pregnant

Baby M is the size of a Nutter Butter cookie or about 3 inches long

The difference between fat and pregnant....

Before I became pregnant I hated hearing pregnant women talk about how fat they were. It was annoying. They were creating life, could they not see that?? And I don't know if I was around the wrong pregnant women but they sure complained A LOT about being fat. It literally drove me insane. I told myself that I would never complain about being fat when I was pregnant.

Well that was then and this is now. I caught myself complaining to some girls at work at how fat I am. I was horrified at myself. How could I do that?? I didn't even think twice about doing it either. But I finally figured out why pregnant women do it.

When you start getting fat (from being pregnant) you only know, at this point, 1 reason to get fat. The only other time you've gotten pudgy is from eating a little too many snickers or from engulfing entire pecan pies for meals. So now that you're getting fat, you see no baby to show for it. What I mean is you don't know how much of that fat is from the baby and how much of it is from eating fried food for your meals for an entire week. Especially when you're craving that kind of food. Realistically any other time you ate what you've been eating, you would grow a tummy and there would be no baby in it. So it's easy to assume that the belly is from the food too.

So, from now on, when you hear a pregnant woman complain about being fat just tell her that you heard from a doctor (or some other esteemed medical professional) that the belly is ALL baby and no fat. That's really what she wants to hear. But telling her that she's creating a miracle of life and it comes with getting fat is really not as comforting as it sounds. I know, I thought it was comforting too. It's not.

12 weeks

Yay! We've hit the 'safe' zone or at least the risk of miscarriage has gone down tremendously- woo hoo!

As for me, I am a hormonal mess. I cry for terrible reasons and when good reasons come up, I don't shed a tear! Last week I cried because I saw a woman on TV crying.....the TV was on mute and I had no idea why she was crying but it made me bawl. Then a few days later I was talking to Vincent and he interrupted me. I started crying because he interrupted me- ridiculous! But Steel Magnolias was on and I didn't cry once. It's really strange.

Baby Martinez has a lot going on this week. All of the organs have now been moved from the umbilical cord to their correct place. Some of the organs have begun working on their own. Vocal cords are formed this week but because it is a water-filled environment, the baby can't make sounds. The baby is able to swallow and practices on the amniotic fluid that he or she floats in. The baby can feel pain at this stage and even cries from time to time, although silently. The baby has doubled in size in the past 2 weeks.

We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I think we have another ultrasound. Hopefully we'll get a print off and I can share just how big the baby is! I will definitely post any pics we get!

12 Weeks Pregnant

Baby M is the length of the pinky finger this week!