32 week alteration

I had high hopes for this pregnancy with regards to sewing.  I had seen a lot of do-it-yourself maternity clothes websites before getting pregnant and had also seen other talented folk do up some really cute maternity pieces (I hate saying "pieces", but my brain couldn't come up with a better word).

However, since pregnancy has ended up being a time of survival for me, I have just been trying to get through it. I enjoy all sorts of fabulous moments throughout, and even enjoy being pregnant at times, but for the most part when the girls are sleeping or playing happily, I am either sleeping or sitting on the couch. 

And so it is with great pride that I give you my one, lone alteration so far this pregnancy.

I found these sweet motherhood full panel XL maternity jeans this past weekend at a Goodwill 50% off-of-everything-sale and decided I would go for it.

I was just thrilled that they didn't actually fit, meaning I am not as XL as I thought I was.

I thoroughly enjoy the full panel because I feel like it helps the pants fall down less, and I also wanted another pair of skinny jeans. If I can't be skinny right now, at least my jeans can.

I wasn't sure how it would work with taking the butt/waist area in and in the end only a teeny bit of the pocket was sacrificed. I think the finished product was well worth it.

 I don't know what I am looking at, but this adequately captured the alteration, and at least someone is looking

And this one adequately captures the 32 belly picture. And veeeeeeeeery awkward leg lift. I was trying to use the leg to help hold the 30lb child.

To answer the question burning in your brains: was it actually cool enough to be wearing that outfit? NO!
But the weather has yet to cool the H down enough to catch up to my not-small-enough-to-wear-tank-tops-anymore arms, so this is what you get.

Happy 32 weeks!

Whiny Weenie

As I approach with sheer terror my next dr. appointment, I have been putting fourth all efforts to keep the added poundage to a minimum- if only to avoid any further awkward/infuriating conversations. As a result I've been doing things like "exercising" and "having no joy in my life at all" "not eating sweets" which requires more than a little self control on my part, as well as averting my gaze from those darned McDonalds billboards slathered with delightful pictures of chocolate dipped vanilla soft served cones.

for the love of all that is good, somebody go out and eat one of these for me

This is most likely all in vain and will probably leave me utterly dejected and depressed after my upcoming visit. The plus side of that though is that I will most certainly eat my fattened sorrows away with the above treat.

As a part of my new desperate-attempt-to-not-gain-weight-routine we've been heading out for morning walks as many days of the week as we can and for as long as we can-- since it's already into the 90s by 9 a.m. and that is just yucky. We follow the walk with some hellish torture Jillian Michaels on some of the mornings.

This morning found me disciplined enough to get us the heck out the door, but I am not going to lie, I wanted to hitch a ride back to our house almost every step of the way. Here are some numbers to give you a glimpse into the fun:

• Number of pointless sprinklers doing nothing for people's yards but hitting the innocent pregnant mother with 2 toddlers just as she passes by-- 10 (or more)
• Number of dead birds run over-- 1
• Number of minutes I HAD TO PEE SO BADLY-- 38
• Number of times I needed push down as hard as possible on the handle of the double stroller to get it to go over the 1 inch bump in the side walk-- 38 appox
• Number of braxton hicks I had to lean on the stroller for support for and breath through-- 38 approx
• Number of decades of the rosary prayed out of desperation that I might not flip out on an whining toddler-- 2.5
• Number of drops I actually had in my bladder after returning home and sprinting to the bathroom to expel-- 10 
• Number of minutes I actually attempted to do any strength with Jillian-- 0
• Number of pounds probably gained from trying not to gain weight with this undoubtedly pointless routine-- who the hell knows, probably 3

I'm not complaining or anything. Wait, yes I am. I'm just a little bitter about the sprinklers.

And because everybody loves a super grainy picture of an increasingly pregnant woman:

more legit 25 wk.pic including head And reeeaaalllly big earrings.

I promise I will figure out my picture thing soon, this is getting to be ridiculous.

Now go read something that is actually entertaining.

Babies, Food, Pinterest, Pregnancy: Quick Takes

I'm steppin in up a notch in the realm of blogging this week.

Last night I checked my Google reader "deats and stats" or whatever it's called and it said that I am averaging 4.2 posts a week, up from 3.3!! What the heck all this .2, .3 crap is about I do not know.

So I am going to keep up that current stat by joining Jen and others for some Quick Takes this Friday.

1.

I am positively delighted that 1) it has gotten below the 100 degree mark outside so that I can justify baking in my home without sweating everyone out and 2) that I have an occasion to bake for tomorrow morning (I've offered to host a prayer group, pretty much just so that I can bake. joking?)

2.

Thanks to Grace's inspiration I will be making THESE at some point today. Because making cinnamon rolls may just be my very favorite thing to do in the world.

3.

I would really like to be known for my famous cinnamon rolls when I am an old lady, I think I am on the right track with this recipe. Also, I have been receiving subliminal messages from the baby in utero that these must be made and eaten pronto, there must be some vitamin I am lacking that is only present in maple frosting...

4.

I looked on Baby Center's website last night to see where the baby is developmentally and was so pleased but mostly confused to learn that she is the size of a rutabaga. Rutabaga, really?!?! You couldn't pick a vegetable/fruit that people actually eat/know what the heck it looks like? I navigated to another site that said "cauliflower", that's more like it. 

5.

I am 25 weeks, 2 days today. Yippee! Only 12 weeks left until I can start doing things to try to get this baby to come out.

About to go do some "exercise" aka pregnant body flopping about with 70 lbs o'children + clunky double stroller. Face left out for your benefit, it's still too early for a head shot.

* Picture taken with photobooth, a low enough quality photo that my blogger lets me upload it. I still haven't figured out my photo-space thing.

6.

I got off of Pinterest a few weeks ago in the interest of not wasting any more time on the interwebs than I already do. Also so that I would stop feeling like a less-than-adequate housewife. But I am not going to lie, I may be going through some withdraw. I just need to see some beautiful pictures of food/houses/clothes, you know. Why is that?? 

Maybe you can convince me to get back on...

7.

And now this marks the 14th time I've been interrupted in the last 14 minutes trying to write this, so I am going to go ahead and be done. You're welcome.

A beached whale seeks advice

I'd like to share with you a conversation I had the other day at my almost 22 week doctor's appointment between me and my doctor. Please note a few things:

1) I've waited a few days to spew this out into the internets in order to not call my doctor terrible names and slander her on the world wide web.
2) The actually conversation has been altered a bit for dramatic effect and because I cannot remember it in detail anymore, I mean it was 2 WHOLE DAYS ago.

For the sake of privacy we'll call my doctor, Dr. Meansly. I will be called Ana.



Dr. Meansly: Are there any issues you wanted to talk about? It says here you get terrible migraines and are having lots and lots of contractions with other things that are concerning you and what not....

Ana: yes that's right

Dr: here's a prescription for the migraines.... and you're fine, now let's talk about your weight gain.

Ana: ok

Dr: I am a little concerned about this because you have already gained THIS much weight, and I really don't want you to come in and deliver a 9 pound baby if I am trying to VBAC you. You REALLY need to watch your diet.

Ana: yes, I gained a lot at the beginning since I felt so sick and just needed to eat all the time and whatever I could stomach in order to not be puking all day... (still trying to talk)

Dr: Yes, but you have already gained THIS much and you're only 21 weeks and you've already gained THIS much, you REALLY need to watch your diet...

Ana: (cutting in) yes, I know, but since my last appointment I have only gained 3 pounds and have slowed down substantially so obviously I have changed my diet considerably and will continue to do so.

Dr: Ok, good, because I would have expected any other woman at 21 weeks to have only gained 5 pounds and you have already gained THIS much, so you really need to slow down and REALLY need to watch your diet.

Ana: (trying not to begin weeping and punching all at the same time) Yes, ok, I've only gained 3 pounds since the last visit but ok, I will work on that.



Before the appointment when I looked in the mirror I saw this:

After I pretty much only saw something more akin to a beached whale.

I have over shared about weight before, so I will not go on too long. But I left the appointment wondering a few things:

1) Am I supposed to go on a diet?
2) How much should I work out while pregnant?
3) Is Dr. Meansly being for real that if I gain more than 30 pounds during pregnancy I am going to birth an enormous mini-whale baby?
4) Why do I go to Dr. Meansly again? Right because barely any doctors will do VBACS anymore and I have limited to zero choice in the matter.

Ok, so I answered the last question easily. And honestly, she is a very good, competent doctor and she was very sensitive to us having just miscarried and to the fact that we were a little over-paranoid about how this baby is doing and I really needed that. But I am kind of a sheepish middle child who pretty much always apologizes first because I HATE confrontation and HATE people being mad at me or mean to me and really like NICE people and am very sensitive and cry pretty easily and am not thick skinned and will spare you anymore needless personal details, but you get it. I did not quite know how to deal with the mean factor and the feeling that I was back in my chubby middle school days being made fun of by the mean kid in school.

And as for question #3, it turns out she isn't a complete idiot as I was able to find a few articles right away on a mother's weight gain during pregnancy effecting her child's weight at birth (although the studies seemed to be focusing more on women who were already very overweight and then gain like 50 pounds or more on top of that) but still I guess that is a legit concern on her part, I mean look at me, we can all see I am bordering on obese.

But the other 2 questions left me a bit puzzled and genuinely seeking the advice and sage wisdom of this wonderful blog community of other ladies who have had babies.
How the heck do you get fit during pregnancy without jeopardizing your own health or the health of baby? What sorts of work outs do you like best? (I tried running yesterday and had about 10 extremely painful contractions in about 30 minutes, so we're not going to re-visit that). I have pretty much only done Jillian Michaels and Pilates in the past year, and running when not pregnant- I even did some Jillian today and enjoyed it! But I am thinking that maybe the more huge I get the harder doing never-going-to-be-pregnant-because-of-what-it-will-do-to-my-body-Jillian will be.

So what's your diet/fitness poison while pregnant? DO share, because I cannot face another appointment like that, and I would honestly like to go in and baffle Dr. Meansly with my impeccable strides in the fitness arena at my next appointment.

Mike Check: Baby Gender

I know I said that posting Mike's sayings would not be a recurring thing, and it probably shouldn't since I think it might be getting to his head- every time he says something even mildly amusing he points at me and yells "Mike check!".

However I thought I would make an exception just this once (and maybe again if he says something funny enough) to announce the gender of our third child.

While at dinner last week with my sister-in-law and her fiance, Mike announced the gender of the new baby to Hannah's fiance who she had not yet told, he said:

"Well it's either a girl, or a boy with labia"

We'll hope for girl.

Agatha Lucy Hahn, "Baby Lucy", due 10/25/2012

Who wears short jorts?

Today's post is brought to you by:

1. 17 week mountain bump
2. Semi-immodest jorts. Thank you Motherhood
3. Horizontal stripes not doing me any favors
4. Fresh mom-bob hair cut now made even-ish with my scissors this a.m.
5. Shoeless joe-mamma

And you have a lovely Saturday :)

Children at play

Mike finished his last paper of his last year of course work for the rest of his life last night, or this morning, at around 3:30. YEEEHAW. This happened after a bed time of 4:30 the previous night working on the same said paper. His wifey (me), on the other hand, has been sporting wake times all too close to my husband's bed times due to a certain scary 3-year-old who, now that she can open her door, runs into my room at the ripe hour of 5:30 a.m. ready to start her day. Every. Single. Morning. Almost.

I am supposed to be napping right now while Mike gallivants all over town with both girls, but I couldn't sleep and my mother always said "when you can't sleep, blog". Lies, she probably still doesn't know quite what a blog is.

So as a result of the insanely early mornings, our morning play time often consist of something like this:

In case you can can't tell from at least a couple of these pictures, Bernadette is not actually tired since she sleeps until a reasonable hour of 7:30-ish as opposed to her wannabe nocturnal sister who is really completely exhausted:

I could write many tales of this difficult sleeper, but I will instead give you a little sneak peek at our babe in utero who was engaging in her/his own play time during an afternoon ultrasound (I don't know how much one can "play" inside a uterus)

The ultrasound tech put "yoga baby" on the top picture since the baby's foot is on top of the head (I love this tech, she is awesome)- so the baby was actually playing, sort of.

Also, we may or may not (MAY) have found out the gender of this baby today, but since this was only a 16 week ultrasound, I will hold off until the next one confirms what we pretty much know and then I will bust it out into the blogosphere.

I know you are all dying, literally dying to know, but I think you'll make it.

Love Hates

Joining Hallie over here for some quick takes and keeping Jen in my prayers today.

1) Hate: as recently mentioned my 3 year old figured out how to escape from her room which has been a source of much frustration and fear this past week and has generally been causing more sleep loss than my pregnant little big body can handle. Most nights it was sleep loss due to sheer fear of seeing her in the doorway with her blanket draped over her head like a ghost, which is her preferred way to exit the room. Great. I am working on the irrational fear.

2) Love: that last night was a vast improvement and found me waking this morning without being on the verge of tears because of how tired I was. Thank you over-the-counter sleep aid that made me too tired to think.

3) Hate: my new pregnancy diet. I think fat and happy is the way to be, but since I am sure my doctor will disagree, I will push through.

nasty and nasty's brother

4) Love: my recent reception if these:

from my sweet mother-in-law

and a starbucks gift card from my mom for mother's day. Best moms ever.

5) Hate: that while I began a super fun sewing project this week, my brand spanking new sewing machine is already not working. I JUST took it out of the box. Grrrr.

6) Love: that I figured out how to block my troll this week, thanks to all who helped me out on the old FB, always a faithful help in times of need.

7) Love/dislike (because it just didn't seem right to start and end with a hate): I am super duper excited that I can feel new baby nubbins moving all around, and there is ALOT of moving going on. This brings me to my dislike, which is that the kick boxing session was the only thing that actually kept me up last night despite my medicated efforts to sleep. It is worth it, for now.

That is all for now, have a splendid Friday!!

7 quick takes: Awkward baby comments edition

Yesterday I took my 2 sweet girls for a walk to take some "new" neighbors a house warming-ish gift of banana bread (they have been in the neighborhood for many many months now and I am just getting around to this) I am a regular Mister Rogers.

Anyways, on my little jaunt we ran into my sweet elderly old lady neighbor and stopped to talk for bit during which time it came out that several of the new families in the neighborhood have at least a couple small children- this fact greatly excited me as the general population of our neighborhood is currently of the same elderly make-up as this said woman. Our sweet neighbor expressed that she too was happy that there would be "more children" in the neighborhood, at which point she asked the ages of our girls. I said "3, 18 months, and we have another on the way!" (excitedly with big smile) and she responded "Oh, Ok". That was it. Her general happiness at the thought of more children faded almost immediately with my little announcement. Maybe she pictured in that moment our whole street crawling with babies: babies on her roof and in her vegetable garden, babies coming our of her heating vents, I don't know. I am inclined to think that we just crossed the line with our whole "were gonna break the rules and have more than 2 kids" attitude.

Anywho, this was the first reaction of this nature I've gotten since conceiving this babe and I fully expect to have many, many more like it in the next 5 1/2 months.
Here are some others I think we'll encounter (way more exciting than, "Oh, Ok"- she could have done better than that)

1) "You're done, right?" (not even "are you done?" this person feels the need to really impose what you should be doing first, then double check, "right?")

2) "How many kids are you going to have?" (I always picture a teenage, air head asking this question, as if there is actually an answer)

3) "You know what causes that, right?" (This one deserves as awkward as a response as you can think of, since it is the MOST awkward question anyone could ever ask)

4) "You're a baby making machine" (A friend just told me she got this response, I can't quite think of what is going through the person's head who says this)

5) The immediate defensive remark like "We're waiting", or "we waited" or the explanations of how they are done and have been sterilized (this puts you in a really weird position, but it is at least a conversation starter, unlike the rest of them)

6) "You're going to have your hands full" (why yes I am)

7) "Why?" (again, at least a conversation starter)

Let me know if you've gotten other responses so I can prepare myself for them, also if you have any good responses, I'd love to hear them!

For more quick-type takes, visit Jen and many others at Conversion Diary.

Pregnant is the new drunk...

Ok, so I might not be slurring when I speak (at least not yet), but I'm pretty sure that my brain is confusing "baby" with "booze," because I. am. not. right.

The thoughts in my head, they just don't stay straight anymore, probably since my short-term memory now only extends about four seconds into the past. This makes intelligent, sophisticated conversations difficult. Who am I kidding- it renders *coherent* conversations completely impossible.

For example, yesterday, or maybe it was last week, I was talking to my friend at playgroup, or perhaps it was my husband, or the neighbor lady who looks like my husband, and we were talking about something about the thing that she was saying and I was like "Oh wow, that's so great!"

Yeah so I don't remember anything about anything.

See, I can follow what's being said, for a moment anyway, but I have no way of keeping track of how to formulate an appropriate response. And because I won't be able to remember what I say anyway, I've started to not even care.

Loss of inhibitions? Check

And I've already talked, um... ad nauseam, about feeling sick.

So, nausea and vomiting? check

Difficulty walking a straight line (or at least staying on my feet)? Check

How did this get here again?

Then there's my short-term memory, which I could swear cuts out like every four seconds so that I can't remember what I've just said or done. Thankfully, there's my trusty camera to capture my moments of greatest triumph. Like when the refrigerator into which I placed the mayonnaise turned into the pantry overnight, probably miraculously.

Oh, and all these preggo hormones have got me feeling alternatingly weepy and crazy sentimental for Mike and girls, so yeah, I maybe cry for no reason and tell everyone around me how much I love them and how great they are.

My brilliant conclusion: Pregnancy = drunk.

Wow, I should probably stop driving now before something like this happens. On the plus side, if I was to get pulled over, that would give SuperFunnyInsightfulMomBloggerHeroSimchaFisher and me something in common, right? Hmmm, on second thought, I do need to get some more mayo, so maybe a trip to the store's in order.

If I could only remember where I left my keys.

Friday through Wednesday blogging

I meant to post a weekend update on Monday from our time in S-town, but since I took zero pictures and I know you would like more deats on my life than just  the weekend, I will instead give you a detailed account of life since Thursday. Ready, set, read:

• Thursday after wasting much time on my computer, I finally got my shiz together and got us on the road for  said Ville trip. It was glorious, and by glorious I mean nauseatingly exhausting. 
• Friday: I slept for probably a total of 5-6 hours then began a great day of time with my family, mostly my sisters- always my favorite. For this pregnant wimp of a woman who usually hits the pillow no later than 10 to rise no earlier than 7- the 6 hours were not cutting it and I was done with the fun by 9. 
• Saturday was wedding time. I will not go into deats- but it was absolutely beautiful- both the wedding and the fact that Mike and I spent almost 8 solid hours sans stinklings- absolutely beautiful.
• Sunday. Some might call this the day from h-e-double hockey sticks, but I will just call it a bad day. After waking with a migraine and doing some major scrambling to get in the car with all our stuff packed ready to head home shortly after Mass we experienced one of the most horrendous Mass experiences ever. It ended with me carrying a screaming Naomi out during a letter being read by the deacon who STOPPED the letter and STARED at us as we walked out of the PACKED Church. Needless to say Mike and I were both pretty soured on the whole taking our kids to Mass ever ever ever again thing, but we've recovered I think. As if the Mass exhibit were not enough, our 2 short hours spent with Mike's family ended similarly with us carrying a screaming Naomi and Bernadette and throwing them placing them in the car seats and hitting the road with tires screeching and yelling back that we loved everyone and apologized for the embarrassing display... (exaggerated a little.)
• Monday, after professing that I was pretty sure that I was done with morning sickness, I had quite possibly the worst sick-day thus far, more intense than all the others. It really showed me. Fortunately I found a food item that sounded good (bagel sandwiches) and ate to my little heart's content to stave off constant nausea.
• Tuesday was much better and I spent the day catching up with a friend and my sister-in-law and eating bagel sandwiches and store brand toaster pastries (another fantastic find). 
• Wednesday we will be venturing out to the zoo where I am sure I will again take no pictures, but it should be fun. One picture I did take is this one of my rapidly expanding jumbo tummy at 13 weeks, thank you bagel sandwiches and toaster pastries:

Wow, you didn't think a belly picture could get any worse than my last, I am always outdoing myself.

Cardi: super old target brand
Tank: recent gap maternity clearance find (you can't see the orange leopard print on it, your eyes are really missing out.)
Pants: lent by friendly blogger friend, Grace and are easing the pain of already being in maternity pants.

One day I will post something good, I promise.

Mary Poppins Days

A few weeks ago I discovered something that has saved me on many occasions since then: that the movie Mary Poppins is almost 2 and a half hours in duration. This would not have a been a good thing about 6 months ago since that is kind of a ridiculous length of time to plop young minds in front of a screen, but then I miscarried and then 4 weeks later I was pregnant again and then 2 weeks later I could barely get off the couch due to alllllll day sickness.

Ever since this current semester happened (I still measure my life in terms of semesters) I have dubbed way too many days "Mary Poppins Days", a day where I cannot imagine NOT sticking my girls on the couch for this length of time. I will try to spare you all the complainy details of why things are so hard right now, I know you've heard it enough if you've stuck out reading this blog since it's turned into one big pregnancy complaining fest, but suffice it to say that heaping a crazy itchy pregnancy rash (diagnosed recently as PUPPS) and bad cold given to me by 18 month old (who ever said these kids don't give me gifts?) on top of the constant nausea and crazy fatigue -yes, I am the most pathetic pregnant women ever- has made almost every day a "Mary Poppins Day". A day where I need 2 1/2 hours to do things like lay on the couch and blog, which is my only social outlet at all anymore, and maybe eat something without sharing.

The point here is that I am in survival mode, and while I am all too eager to be done "just surviving" every day, it's been helpful to realize that for this season in life, this is ok. I read this post recently which I found as a result of reading Hallie's chapter in this book and really being struck by her identification of different seasons in life and allowing yourself slack in certain seasons. I wrote this post recently about how too much is being asked of me and it all came together this morning that I am the one who is expecting too much of myself (it would have been helpful to put all this together a few weeks ago as I am nearing the "out of the woods" point in terms of nausea). I wake up every morning expecting myself to get out of bed, shower, get dressed for the day, and put makeup on and yet I am so nauseous and exhausted from being up all night scratching my rash that the thought of even getting out of bed kind of crushes me. Then, when all of those tasks are not accomplished, I am beating myself up and getting down on myself for not being the woman of Proverbs 31. What if my only expectation of myself was just get out of bed? Then when it happens, I have accomplished my goal. If I just expect that several days of the week right now are going to be "Mary Poppins days" then when I plop the girls on the couch with their juice and snack cups for the entire morning, the crushing guilt that generally follows for failing to be the mother I am expecting myself to be might be eased a bit since this was the expectation anyways. As soon as I let go of the the expectation of working out everyday while feel like crap, the better I felt at the end of everyday about not doing it. You get the point.

Now I will stop ranting and take advantage of the remainder of my 2 1/2 hours to do some more laying, eating, nothing too productive, etc...

And for your enjoyment

Nausea's the werrrddddddd

What did you do today?

It was a pretty normal day around here, but then I got to go and get a little glimpse inside my uterus and saw this:

New Baby Hahn ETA 10/25/2012

Yup, just a normal day.

So in case you were wondering about my lame attempts at keeping up with blogging by posting pointless/random things with a total of 3 sentences and 1 random picture (I say it is better than nothing) or if you were concerned about my girl's increased television intake, worry not. I am just living in a perm-state of nausea and fatigue wherein everyday melds into the next. I spend almost all of them laying somewhere in our house: floor, couch, cushions on floor, child's bed, my bed, etc...  hoping and literally praying that the children are fending well enough for themselves while I try with all my might not to expel all the food I have just eaten.


I'll keep on keepin on and try to update you at least bi-weekly on my current state since you might die of information deprivation if I don't. And now that the cat's out of the bag I can complain away about all my pregnancy woes.

Seriously though, we are thrilled beyond belief and I have actually been glad to be feeling sick just to reassure me that all is well with this peanut. (please remind me of this when the complain train won't stop)

Cheers to 10 weeks and counting!!