I'm alive! 24 weeks 2 days

HOUSE:
So we bought a house! It was crazy and actually the closing was pretty anticlimactic. Just sat at a table with our attorney and signed some (ok, a million) papers.  Also, NY state sucks – the amt being escrowed for my taxes is more than the actual mortgage.  My mortgage payment is like 40% actual mortgage 60% for my property taxes/mortgage insurance. DUMB. I already knew it was like this since I worked paying delinquent property taxes around the country for 3 years. So I saw the property tax rates everywhere, and saw that most other states pay peanuts for their property taxes compared to here. But it still hurts when it happens to you LOL.

  The seller’s attorney hadn’t given our attorney a house key though which was so stupid. Hello, how are we supposed to get in. Luckily we know the neighbor across the street, and she had a key to the house, so we could get in. But moving was a PIA with coordinating when we were gonna get move all the heavy furniture. Which we still haven’t moved a lot of. Thanks to my parents though for all the help. and also Eric's mom and sister for all the kitchen stuff!

We have been having fun setting things up. We’re starting from scratch and that is hard – don’t even wanna think about the money spent on things. Also, why are window treatments so insanely expensive?  There's lots to clean. Basically cleaning, buying, setting up, taking down, making returns, buying more, cleaning more, organizing. Buying more. That has been the theme so far. All our utilities are hooked up and ready to go now... got Frontier internet yesterday and I reccomend it. Way cheaper than TWC and so far, no difference in speed. I'm online, watching a video on MTV and Eric is on his Xbox doing some online gaming and no difference than when we did this on cable internet. And they give you the modem/router for free and it's a nice router that we got too. Just a little plug for them lol.

But yea, having our own house is awesome and I can’t believe we get to STAY here (well lets hope we can after that first mortgage payment comes due LOL). Still doesn’t feel real!!

I'm posting pics on facebook soon of the house...

BABY:

Had a doctors appt Friday, the 23rd.  Everything was good. He went over the 20 week anatomy scan (again) and said everything was textbook perfect.  Fluid levels were perfect, ventricles in the brain were good, 4 chamber heart was good, all organs were good, bones were good, etc. He measured my belly, they measure from the top of your pubic bone to the top of your fundus (which is the top of your uterus) and it should be about the same amount of centimeters as the amount of weeks pregnant you are. I was 23 weeks (and 3 days) pregnant and it measured 23 cm, so that was spot on. I have gained 10lbs officially from my first appt at 6 weeks (although it is more like 12-13lbs based on pre-preg weight). They said that is very good. He also reviewed my 1^st trimester screen results which were also all good. He said the blood test said my Down Syndrome risk was 1 in 5500. The average for my age is 1 in 1200-ish, so I’m very good. I feel very lucky to be having such a healthy pregnancy, because I know there’s a million things that could go wrong and know that a lot of people have difficulties. I hope things continue to go ok…

I feel him kick a lot, especially the past few days. Although I don't really keep track of how often. He has been kicking me the bladder a lot and rolling on it. It makes me go from not having to pee to suddenly having to pee SO bad. The other night I was on the couch and got such a hard kick I almost peed my pants, like i don't know how it didn't happen. My newest annoying symptom is terrible acid reflux. I have a burning in my stomach and it's so bad it makes me cough a lot. I'm probably OD'ing on Pepcid and Tums but it's so bad!

Sleeping is okay right now, I go through phases where a few weeks I sleep like shit and a few weeks I sleep okay. I still can sleep on my stomach a little bit, but have to adjust my belly to the side. However, sleeping on my side is actually more comfortable...surprisingly. I used to hate side sleeping. I have a comforter on each side of me and depending on which side I roll onto, I contour the comforter into a body pillow. I highly recommend this. A regular body pillow doesn't get those nooks and crannies like the comforter setup does.  Also, I should add, I hate rolling over because without fail, my heavy uterus rolls over my bladder in the process, and I have to pee. I stay on one uncomfortable side praying that I just magically fall asleep because I don't wanna get up to pee when i do the rollover. I wake up about every 2 hours to pee and I pee about 4-5x while trying to fall asleep. Overall, about 8 times a night. Annoying.

This is me at 24 weeks 3 days. Aka 6.5 months.

We have a tentative name picked out but I'm too scared to share because I'm scared of the judgement and stupid things people say. Although many people already know it, some people who ask I say we're not sure because I don't wanna share. It's kinda of hit or miss depending on the mood I'm in, if I'm going to share or not lol. The initials are CJG. Could definitely still change.

I have to go between 9/10-9/24 for my 1 hour glucose test. I hope I pass. I'm scared. Of course my insurance is changing Sept 1st and I know it'll be my luck that it'll take forever for my new insurance cards to come so I'm actually more stressed about the billing situation during that time than the actual test itself. Also I'm AM scared they'll tell me I have the 'betes. Especially since my newest food craving is candy. In particular, I go to the bulk section and get a bag of sour patch kids (heavy on the red ones) and then a bag of the pic-a-mix candy of mostly pink Starbursts (with a few other colors for good measure), caramel cremes, and a few peppermint patties. And also fruit snacks are delicious too. Sugar!

I feel like EVERYONE is pregnant right now. Seriously, i didn't know there was a bandwagon, but apparently I got on it back in March/April. Can't wait for my stop though, getting tired of this wagon ride.

WORK:

I love my job. I'm on "summer pay" right now (an hourly rate above & beyond my salary - i'm a 10 month employee. the hourly rate is actually more than my rate at the hospital!) and just got my first paycheck!I won't get my first salaried paycheck till Sept 21st though. Working an evening shift this weekend at the hospital, not really looking forward to it but the extra money is nice.

IN CLOSING:
I am watching Teen Mom 3 right now and I don't know how teen girls can do this, when I am 28 and pregnant and don't know how I'm gonna take care of a baby. All in all though I am in a good place and probably the happiest I've been so far in my adult life. Which kind of scares me because I feel like you shouldn't be *too* happy because then God/karma/fate will take it away. Or a crying baby at 3am. 

Halfway there

21 weeks on Tuesday. We had a doctors appt this past tuesday (20 weeks). Everything was good. Everything with the anatomy scan (ie the "big" ultrasound) looked NORMAL. They yelled at me for never going to get tested for spina bifida and some other stuff. I honestly forgot, since I have soooo much going on. Plus, I mean, wouldn't shit like that show up on the ultrasound anyway? They said I have until I'm 22 weeks + 6 days so there's still time. It's just like... ugh when do I have time to go sit in a lab waiting room to have blood drawn, when there's really no point anyway. Not like finding out really changes anything if something WAS wrong. And the ultrasound was normal anyway, no holes seen in baby's spine. Blah maybe I'll still go because I like looking like a compliant patient. I felt the same way about the cystic fibrosis test when they told me I was a carrier and Eric should get tested. Didn't feel like paying all the money for him to get tested... when it doesn't change our DNA, and since the baby was already created, doesn't change his DNA either. What's the point, when you can't DO anything about it???

Other than that, we heard baby's heartbeat, it was in the 140s and there was all this random static and the doctor said that static was him moving. We met with the other dr at that practice, which was cool since she could be the one there when I deliver. I love Dr. Tripp, but I liked this doctor too.

I've gained about 9 pounds.  Well according to the doctor's office it's only 6.5 pounds, but that was based on my weight at my first doctors appt - which was when I was already 6 or 7 weeks pregnant.  I am going by my weight on literally the day I found out I was pregnant, at like 3 weeks 5 days, (yes I found out eaaaaarly), which I call my "pre-pregnancy" weight. So based on my weight THAT day, it's really 9 pounds. She said that was great and on target. I feel like I've gained 20 - I feel SO fat. They told me to shoot for about 20 pounds total and I really want to watch that since I spent a lot of time losing weight before getting pregnant. I worked so hard and I don't want to ruin that work.

Tired all the time. Some of that is probably stress related. And my pelvic bones ache all the time - not painful, but annoying. I don't even notice it usually since I'm so used to it.

I hate how all baby stuff is either: PINK PINK RIBBON FLUFF or BLUE BLUE BROWN SPORTS. What happened to a baby just being... an infant. Not genderized? I actually read an article that first off, up until the 1940s boys wore pink and girls wore blue - but mostly all babies wore white, unisex baby clothes. Most baby clothes were pretty unisex until the mid 1980s when finding out baby's sex via ultrasound before birth became popular. It was around then that the dichotomy started. Idk, it's just so overdone. Infants don't know they are a boy or a girl, they're a baby. We were at Kohl's today and I looked at the baby section. I kinda was not feeling anything. There was 1 rack of blue and brown clothes for boys - some with sports and monkey pictures on them. Then 4 racks of baby girl clothes, of course,- all pink and purple with ruffles. Just... it's a little boring. Don't get me wrong, I still think most clothes are cute!  This is just something I've noticed that is kinda annoying.

I start working 2 jobs on Tuesday. Last week Gates called me and asked if I could start sooner than 9/3. How soon? In a week. Lol ok then. They need me for sports physicals and to train me all up before school starts. Well I'm still stuck at my current job until we close on the house . So I'll be working 7am-11am at the school, and then 3-11:30pm at the hospital. The school wants me full time but for now said it's okay to work just in the mornings. UGHHHH. Not sure when we're closing, still waiting. SO SICK OF WAITING. Especially now that I'm pregnant and working 16.5 hour days every day because I'm stuuuuck. I've turned in ALL the documents they wanted except the copy of the cancelled check for the "good faith" deposit I had to give to the seller's attorney. Well they haven't cashed it yet... so I can't exactly give the mortgage company a copy of a cancelled check that hasn't been cashed, can I? Got our appraisal report... everything was good and no repairs to the property were required, yay. My attorney's office said they needed my homeowner's insurance binder in order to set the closing date... I had that sent on Friday. So hopefully within the next couple days they give me a GD closing date!! Insurance starts on 8/15 sooo I'd kinda like us to be owners of the house we're paying insurance on. Buying a house sucks major major ASS. I don't ever want to do this again!!

Not sure how my current job will take it when I'm like heeeey I'm quitting. Like tomorrow. They know I'm leaving but they think in September. Hopefully they still let me work per diem after I piss them off by quitting fulltime sooner than expected. Totally stressed about this!!