Racrane- ugh, hope you feel better soon, food posioning is just nasty to deal with, eck.
MindiV- glad to see things are starting to come along ^.^ less to worry about.

Baby suddenly started moving really hard this morning. My laptop (that was resting on my belly) started to bounce for like half an hour. Dang, when did she get so strong? She went from little taps to making the belly jerk around overnight.

Sakai, I love it when my little one kicks my iPad on my belly!! But she will NEVER move when my husband is trying to feel!!

I just feel so run down today. Heartburn hit HARD last night and stuck around a while. Yuck. Just really need a day off!

Thanks Mindi and Sakai.

Some people are just so judgmental. It's driving me nuts. Everyone is asking how long I'm going to be off work when the baby comes, and if I'm going to "get" to stay home, like being a stay at home mom is the end all, be all, pinnacle of life that every woman should strive to achieve.

I have all the respect in the world for stay at home moms. I know they have a job that doesn't start at 8 or 9 am and doesn't end when they go home. It's 24/7, 365 days a year. It's as rewarding as it is hard and draining and takes a mental strength and ability that I just do not have...so it's not something I desire to do. People I've told are just appalled. I'm being judged a LOT for the fact that my baby will be left with a sitter or in daycare at 6 weeks old when I return to work.

When I tell people I'm for sure coming back to work, they just laugh at me like they don't believe I'll be able to tear myself away from the baby. And I may not be...never had a baby before! But I also know that I love my job and what I do. My co-workers not so much. The job itself yes, and I can't see myself doing anything else.

My co-workers said something to me the other day about wouldn't I rather just stay home and I told them no. That I wouldn't be bored, but I feel like I would get depressed without interaction with adults. I have NO friends around here, so the only adult interaction I get, outside of my husband, is at work with the people in the community I deal with. They laughed at that big time..."No you won't!" Like they know me better than I do.

The kicker is that my husband has a chance to get a job where he'd make more than enough money to support us if I stayed home. But there's a catch – he'd be gone 3-4 weeks at a time. I don't want him to do it, but he is bad about measuring success and happiness with money, and even though he has a good job now, he is thinking of giving it up for "more happiness" with more money.

I grew up with a dad who was an over-the-road truck driver to the extreme, and was gone a month or two at a time. I essentially grew up without my dad even though my parents were always married. Father-Daughter Girl Scout Banquets? His best friend went with us. Or we went dad-free. I don't want our little girl to do the same thing. I couldn't bear to have him come home after three weeks and have to get to know her all over again and miss all the first steps, first words, first real smiles, etc.


Oh, and I'm having other issues too that my husband just can't understand - he of the "Oh, you're tired? I am every day so how I feel is worse" mentality.

I totally miss my mom. She died very suddenly during my last semester of college back in 2004 and has been gone eight years. I just never envisioned having a baby without her. It just sucks...I can't ask her any questions and my dad doesn't know because he wasn't there when she was pregnant. I don't know if she tried to breastfeed and couldn't, or if she had any complications with labor. Or if she had a c-section or vaginal birth. How much weight she gained, if she had stretch marks. If she had post-partum depression. Anything.

I guess just more than anything I wish she would be able to be there when I have what would be her little granddaughter.

Mindi- sorry you're surrounded by inconsiderate people. Try and ignore them and not lot to let it get to you. What you want to do and choose to do is your choice and they should respect that. Choosing to put your child in daycare doesn't make you a bad parent. That's what's right for your situation. I hope dh makes a choice based on family and not just money for you and baby girls sake as well. Df has that mentality as well. I've learned to ignore him when he goes into those rants and he usually gets the point.

Get the keys to our duplex tomorrow night. Yippee!! I'm soo ready to put his nursery together!I just can't believe how close to the end its getting. Time is flying.

Spring break starts tomorrow at noon for two weeks. I'm so excited for this break. I'm so exhausted both physically and mentally. I can't sleep more than a couple hours a night due to his positioning.

A has been crazy active like usual. You can now see every distinct kick jab and roll on the outside. Df is easily amused by this and pokes around just to see him roll around. He's head down and really enjoys my ribs now. That's the only part I'm not enjoying.

Hope all is well for everyone!

*waves* Hi everyone, your favorite lurker here ;-)

Mindi, don't worry about those crazy people. Sure it's your first baby, and sure you don't know what to expect. HOWEVER, YOU (not those never-been-pregnant or kids-are-in-college people!) are the one who gets to decide how to tackle life post pregnancy. If you want to return to work when the baby's 6 weeks old, more power to ya! Just like you get to choose your doc, your hospital, and your baby's name You like what you like, just stick to your guns! Nothing wrong with listening to other people's experience, but you don't have to like it. Heck, you can cut people off if you hate it! (And if you prefer to be proper, say you have to potty and blame it on the baby LOL)

Ultrasound time is coming up. I get a lot of interesting reactions to telling people that we don't want to know the gender of the baby before delivery. My doctor (who is hilarious) said, "Obstetricians LOVE it. It makes us feel worthwhile when we get to yell 'it's a girl!' and the parents don't say 'we already know'!" I have to start going to the hospital for my visits because my BP has gone from 100/80 to 150/110 .... ugh. Hopefully it will come back down. Time to curb the sweets. Sakai, didn't you say some women use pregnancy as an excuse for eating whatever they want? That kicked in for me about 4 weeks ago. Probably why the BP is up, I gained 7 lbs in 4 weeks too, where I'd been losing about 1 lb per week previously.

Seems like just yesterday I was making my first post... and now I'm halfway there! WHOOO! It's so neat to "see" other people progressing in pregnancy like I am (just slightly ahead or behind me)

Biancasmom...we weren't going to find out either. Rather, I didn't want to know, but my husband really did! He won out in the end. I can see how doctors love it because they get to be the first to know and can give up the surprise!!

Biancasimone- I didn't want to be one of those people. But I turned into one this week. >.<

I feel so stupid for ranting about eating right so as to not feed my baby this crap and yet I eat it anyway. I caved in this week and had sooo much ice cream(even though dairy gives me tummy issues) I've been craving it hard, and gave in. Even after the Dr. told me to not gain anymore weight I wanted to be strict and put in an effort with the workouts. I've been swimming 7 days in the past 10. But I just can't lay off the sugar, or the salt for that matter. >.< *sigh* it's like my willpower went right out the window.

Sakai, I understand about the food. If it helps, I remember many babies have been born before in far worse circumstances than mine and they were healthy.

(In my case, I'm worried because I'm nauseous all the time and can't eat much but bland foods. But I want to eat sooo bad.)

Personally, I am very excited. I'm pretty sure I'm felt the baby move last night. I was reading a book at 2AM and I felt all this popping and bubble-y movements. It was definitely not me. I am very happy.

Sounds like movement to me, Racrane!!! Wait 'til you start getting jabbed and head-butted.

lol or wait until hicups...I think I felt the her with the hicups last week. She kept bopping me in the same spot over and over for about 2 minutes. And I think that was hicups...not too sure though...

Lol. My mom said I hiccuped all the time. That's cute you're feeling it. I'm pretty excited.

I'm still having nausea, mostly in the mornings. I wish it would just go away!

How is everyone else doing?

Something weird that's been happening for about 2 months, but this past 5 days have been getting prettty bad. Every morning I wake up feeling fine, I eat and kick back for half a hour before I get ready for work. But halfway though getting ready for work I always feel lightheaded, dizzy and very, very sick to my stomach. But now it's to the point I have to lay down on the couch a moment to let it pass.
DF wonders if my morning sickness is back. I haven't a clue, I was never this dizzy. And I didn't really have any nausea...my morning sickness was more like not having any urge to eat anything.

Sakai - I still am dizzy and nauseous but I don't think it's "morning sickness" in the way it was before. Bodies go through a lot of changes, but if it's getting worse you should ask your doctor about it. I"m light headed and dizzy and though I'm okay, the doctor still wanted to know about it.

I know "morning sickness" returns for a LOT of women in the third trimester! I'd be sure and tell your doctor, though, like racrane said!