Fox Sightings

So walking or running through the neighborhood I have been finding out we have quiet a population of wild animals!

We have a band of Ospreys who frequently can be seen soaring or hunting over the water (saw one eating a snake the other day). I was running down one of our roads here the other morning and two came swooping down, one had a large object in his clench. His claws were so big! I felt like I had a front row ticket to the Discovery channel during filming! Well a few crows were nagging them and they were trying to divert from them, but they dropped their prize. I ran over to see what the crows had won and sure enough it was a fish as long as my forearm! Wild! It was still kind of a alive, but I am sure the birds remedied that. The cycle of life!

So fox sightings! The first time I saw the fox here was one night while he ran across the street. The second time Neil and i were sitting on our front porch and sure enough one walked passed us just in front of the house. He must have not minded us as we were quiet still. One afternoon we were in the kitchen working and we saw him walking around our yard like he owned the place, it was day light so that was a bit odd, but got to see him in all his color! The last week I have been able to see him walking on our patio in the wee hours 0500ish. He's just walking around sniffing and checking things out. I suppose he cannot have his den too far if he's by our house this frequently.

Deer... we have a bunch of deer here too. I have seen one walking in the neighbor's yard one morning (early!) and just eating and walking around on his own. I have seen many but further in the neighboring community. Many new ones too.. bambis!

Well as for some of the others... we have cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, black birds, crows, yellow breasted sparrows of some sort, and robins. They are very neat to watch and we can see many in the back yard (especially since we feed them!).

Oh and lots of squirrels! We also recently added a couple darlings to our family, yes in our home, two sugar gliders. As soon as they are better bonded with us we will try to snap some photos!

Well thanks for listening, tune in next time for the animal show! Oh and week 19 of the pregnancy will be posted this weekend too.. I need to take some belly shots!

17 + 1, babe is a huge hass avocado!

It's week 17+1 and things seem to be going great. I still can't believe how much I can feel him or her moving around! I am so amazed by the feelings of elation I get from this. Sometimes the babe moves more when I am hungry or sometimes when I see Neil after a long day. Speaking of hungry I have finally grown accustom to eating every couple hours. My tiny stomach just can't handle too much but man I am always hungry. Eating lots of fruit, cereals, breads, and anything good. Being vegetarian without a kitchen makes it so difficult. Eating out is such a challenge, it has become a chore, but the new kitchen is coming to life as we speak. Neil's brother Scott came up for a few days just to help us get those cabinets in, it's a wonderful time. I just can't wait to have a kitchen again - thanks Scott and Cindy!

The pictures show you how I am looking here now... body is definitely swelling. I am doing my best to move around and get some time in the gym but it's difficult some days with the house and Neil! At least the weather is better I go out for short jogs in the neighborhood when I am motivated (about once a week).

So my Chinese online gender prediction thingy (from www.thebump.com) says it will be a boy.. but hey 50/50 chance for either right? Speaking of Gender, the appointment for our big long ultrasound is 22 MAY! So expect a nice new picture then of our little one at that point! We hope to find out more about our tike!

So we haven't bought a thing for the baby yet. I suppose that after the ultrasound we will probably be able to make better decisions on the what we needs. I am just not sure when to start, but figure as soon as we know the gender we will start getting the registry together. Fun fun!

Well as my belly grows I will keep up with the pics, stay tuned! Oh and visit my facebook for updated pics on the house/kitchen!

Week 15, going on 16

I am sad, happy, sad, sad, happy, sad, happy, anxious, flippant, omg... my emotional roller coaster is a bit nutty lately, but it's hormonal.. not the meds! Or at least that's what I am telling myself.

On a better note, I am starting to show and Neil seems pretty excited about this! I am really not fitting into my regular pants, even though my work jeans will have to make it for a while so we can get stuff done around the house (I just hold them together with a hair band and a blue bella band). I have given into to the fact that prego pants are the most comfortable thing invented, not sure why more people wouldn't want to wear them! The microfiber stretchy material around your waist.. fabulous! Now my work pants have an elastic waist band, and I hate it, I will probably change that with some of my hand stich work.. trip to Jo-Annes in my near future!

Well as some have noticed I have also been cleaning my facebook up. I have been removing folks that I am not truely friends with, and man this has caused some major stir. I thought people wouldn't mind if they were taken off.. figured they would just go about thier business but seems that it was a major point of contention and cost us one of our couple friends. They don't want to see "us" any more. Amazing.. the things you don't know. But here's the deal, why should I open my personal life, my blog, my family, my friends and suscept them to people I don't talk to and well... that could hurt me or any one of us? I see no reason to include them in my life right now. Now if we became true friends, then I would see keeping them in my "circle" but well... life is too short and I am too crabby/anxious/emotional to keep around the dead weight. Sigh.. there is never a right answer is what I know. It's just amazing that a silly thing like facebook is gonna hurt a friendship that has lasted over 6 years. Was it all really worth it in the end?

Ok, need to move to a lighter note... I have a doc's appointment on Tuesday! I also am pretty sure we are coming up on our next big ultrasound.. and with a better, more powerful machine so they can see more. I can't wait! For those that know me they would be able to see that I am kinda pregnant now, and it's exciting to see it come together. The babe should be about 4-5 inches long by now (from the readings) and sucking it's thumb!

Severe indigestion has begun to creep in though.. so eating smaller portions and foods that irritate less have become my way of surviving. I also keep the Maloxx handy for now.. but I try not to ingest anything unnatural for the sake of the little guy or gal.

I am overwhelmed with joy about the pregnancy and worrisome that something will go wrong. I suppose that is or was everyone's issues.. you worry until you see them come out and with all fingers and toes and healthy. We can't wait, I love hearing other stories about other's pregnancies and babies (thanks Harmony, Jim, Shawna). Keep em coming!

Well as for now and this weekend, need to get hopping! I am tiling the bathroom today in the upstairs hallway and Neil is closing up some walls downstairs in the kitchen so we him and his brother can hang kitchen cabinets up next week! It's all so exciting!!!! Our house is coming together slowly. It's such a slow painful process but we keep trying to keep our "eyes on the prize" and how great it will be in the end.

THanks for any and all support!!!!

Week 13!

We have fingerprints! Or so babycenter.com weekly update tells me. So it's now 2nd trimester and I am feeling a helluva lot better than I was, even though I didn't vomit once! I was so very lucky! But some folks seem to think because I didn't get sick, it will be a boy... hmm... we will see.

Hormones have been definitely at work though, making some days harder than they need to be. I frequently tire within seconds of being active and other times I cry for pretty much nothing... it does not take much!

Did you know the baby is now making pee? and then drinking it because it goes into the amniotic fluids? The things you never needed to know about yourself right? There are all sorts of interesting things that I never wanted to know.

So I have finally found that sleeping with my teddy bear between my legs is the way to go, I can pee twice a night without it truly interrupting my sleep, I still get up around 0500-0530 which is good for work but not good for the end of the day when I can't keep my eyes open but it works.

Well my brother was in town this past weekend and we did my work, D.C. (Sea and Air museum, cherry blossoms, Japanese Festival, and Blessing of the Fleets at the Navy Memorial. We also went to Baltimore for brunch and people watching this weekend it was nice to see my brother and enjoy a couple spring days.

Ok well as far as pregnancy goes the picture above does not express how I feel though.. I feel so much bigger than that picture looks, but oh well.. guess the picture is not going to lie to me.

Ok, well more updates to come, I am visiting mom next week and can't wait!!

Spring

It's glorious Springtime! Ostara was a little over a week ago and the rains are here to help make our world green again. It's a bit gloomy but my drive this showed me the budding trees and flowers beginning to spring all over the ground. It also reminds me of my growing belly and how the ripening fruit of the trees are quiet symbolic to my body and it's blossoming state. It feels wonderful and I wish I could share it more... but this house... well it's just not there yet!

Soon there will be time to celebrate and a place to do it. The greenery is coming in and I will do my planting here soon, the earth is blossoming with me. I wish Neil could understand. Men are so different.

Our First Ultrasound!

Today was our first ultrasound and it was one of the most amazing experiences of our lives! The doctor sat us down and chatted us up for a while but then finally when we got to business and they put the cold wet gel on my belly the baby showed right up. It was on it's left side curled up and we could see the heart beating! After a minute, we must have stirred him/her up because he/she started kicking up a bunch, moving the umbilical cord with its feet and just kicking around. It turned away for a minute, it was so neat to watch a live picture of what was going on in there! All that movement and I still don't really feel it! It's just surreal! We are very excited, I am absolutely estatic over our experience today! I wish we could have recorded it!

Week 11 and it's a fig!

It's exciting stuff, we had our first visit with the doc yesterday and Neil made it just in time... flew in that morning! Yeah! We could not be happier! (Even though so much work on the house got done while he was away! *wink*)

Doctor seemed to be pretty happy with the way things were going and I have felt so much better as we are leaving the first trimester. I do get the "fear" that I was not having enough "pregnancy symptoms" and there are moments I worry that things are not as they should be. It happens a lot right now... I suppose as I start gaining weight hopefully the fear will be for not, but it's been looming.

I have gained about 2-3 pounds since my pregnancy has began and normal seems be anywhere between 2-7 pounds depending where you read. So about 5 is average and healthy but because of my small stature we are doing well. And as much as I hate to do this, I appreciate all the other moms who did, so here we go, the beginning of the Belly Shots, and not the kind you suck out of belly buttons.

I am pushing the comfort factor of my jeans since my hips spread over the last few weeks and the bloat made me unable to wear my uniforms to work but now that the bloat went away (about week 6) I have been feeling pretty good. Had to upgrade bras, and looks like I may be upgrading again soon... but feeling really good, less nausea and wooziness, but I have been tired...

Tomorrow we have our first ultrasound and we can't wait... pictures to follow!