A little disappointing but I'm still upbeat!

I did not get the much hoped for ultra sound today at the doctor's office. I was a little frustrated. The ultra sound tech had already gone home for the day by the time I came in for my 2:30 appointment. The doctor's office had told me there was a chance that this would happen since I didn't have a "scheduled" ultra sound. She did however, tell me to call 1-2 days in advance to see how the scheduling was for today to see how good my chances were for the tech to still be there when I came in. So I did that yesterday. She told me that it looked like everything would be fine and he would be there, otherwise they would have tried to bump me up to come in earlier which would have been fine with me. I got off at 12:30 anyways. Well...I knew right off the bat that I probably wouldn't be getting the ultra sound when I stepped into the waiting room...a very empty waiting room which I have never seen at my doc's office before. I barely waited 5 minutes after checking in for them to come out and call my name. That also never happens. After the nurse took my blood pressure (which was perfect) I asked her if the tech was still here and she said he had already gone home for the day. I have to say I wasn't as disappointed as I thought I would be. I'm feeling confident that this little one is a girl and if it isn't, then we will deal with it when at that point. I'll probably be getting a 3D sonogram so we will know for sure at that point. For now, I'm going to continue to refer to my baby as a "she" and call her Brooklyn until I am told otherwise. :)

The rest of the appointment went just fine. The heartbeat was very strong and she was moving around tons. We heard lots of other sounds that were the product of all that moving around. She is a very active baby. This past week she's really showing what she's made of! I've been able to actually feel her movements and kicks with my hand and Waylon has also. That part has been very fun for me. Now I'm obssessed with trying to feel her move any time she starts wiggling around in there. I don't think she likes me pressing into my belly because she always kicks (or head butts) me...which I love so I do more! lol. This has definitely been the funnest part of the pregnancy. From all her moving I'm sensing that I'm going to have an active child! Or she could turn out to be the total opposite when she comes out.

Some not-so-fun side effects I've been experiencing lately have been swollen hands and feet. My hands swell to the point where it hurts for me to close them or make a fist. I also wake up in the night with an arm or hand tingling like it does when it has fallen to sleep and the circulation is returning. That's really not a good feeling. I dislike this part a lot. The wierd part is that one day I'll have the swelling and the next day I won't and then it will be back the next day. This week I had it really bad on Sunday, no swelling on Monday and then it was back for most of the day today. Right now my hands aren't swollen and feel fine but earlier today they were feeling quite bad and I had to take my wedding ring off. One thing I have NEVER liked has been swollen hands. My hands are already slightly chubby and they tend to get more "full" during the summers and when I exercise and I HATE the way it feels. Now it's that way and I've done no exercise and the weather is still cold! ugh. This is one symptom I'm ready to be done with but will no doubt only get worse with the upcoming hot weather and larger body I'll be developing. yay...

Tonight Waylon and I got busy cleaning. We got rid of a lot of paper junk that was lying around the house, I paid a bunch of bills, we put a couple of loads of laundry to wash and a load of dishes. I feel better already! I made this bill spreadsheet to keep better track of our bills and getting them paid on time. I also made the spreadsheet so that Waylon can start being more involved in the bill paying. Up until now I've been the main one doing it mainly because I have online access to our bank account, many of the bills are under my name and I just kind of took over it. It's now getting to where I really need his help with more and more and I want him to have a part in the money managing. I'm starting to see more and more how important it is for both of us to help with the money managing. It's not easy though. We have so many random bills and so many bills that we're trying to pay off that were from a while back that it's hard to keep up. I get really frustrated and I'm ready to get all those bills paid off so that we stop getting so much in the mail and our money stops going in 20 different directions each month. I wish there was just a central bill paying center that disbursed your money for you! That would be awesome! I also want to start keeping a cleaner house. I'm starting to think that we are going to HAVE to move into a bigger apartment with the baby comes. There's just no way we will be able to fit more stuff into this small apartment. It's been perfect for us as newlyweds but once we add that third family member, things are going to get cramped. We at least need a full 2 bedroom apartment. Right now we have a 1 bedroom with a "den" which is slightly smaller than a regular bedroom and we use as an office.

Any minute now I'm expecting a call from my family saying they are done with dinner so I can go over and visit with them...I need to do a few more things around the house before that happens.

Steph