18 weeks

I'm a day late, but I wasted most of yesterday napping...and cleaning...and napping.

Life is good! Starting to get the hang of this pregnancy stuff I think. I'm finally starting to feel really good, the worst symptom I've had this week is constant mucous in my throat. I'm sleeping through the night most nights and only having occasional back pain. My frequent poor posture is probably just as much to blame as pregnancy.

We had a doctor's appointment on Monday. Most of these appointments are quick and easy, but as far as we can tell all is well. We got to hear baby's heartbeat (150-it's normal for it to go down as the baby grows). Remember how I said I've been feeling kicks (17 weeks post)? We heard them when the doctor was using the Doppler to listen to the heart beat. She commented that we've got an active baby since she had to keep moving the Doppler around to follow the heart beat. I'm pretty sure they tell everyone their baby is active, but it was all still fun.

Not only am I/we feeling kicks, there have been a couple times baby has shoved his/her butt (or something?) up against me and I can feel the pressure (like a balloon expanding or something) then if we touch from the outside it's really hard. Trevor even played a little game of tag or something with baby last night. Baby was kicking so I had Trevor feel. He pushed, baby pushed back, then again a couple more times.

I think that's all for this week! Maybe not. Who knows. My brain frequently fails me. Pregnancy brain is a real thing, people.

Oh, and the photo. I just took this at bedtime so of course I look a little bigger, but you get the point.

-A

Welcome to Maui.

For the most part, I journaled as we went during our trip, so much of this is written in present tense.  We have so many pictures and it was hard to pick "favorites" but I tried.  This is part one of many.  We took over 500 photos so it's hard to choose!

Day one, August 10:Flights from MSP to LAX (awful airport where we got cold food with terrible service) then LAX to OGG, Maui. We got to Maui about 9pm local time (5 hours behind MN) only to discover our luggage went to Honolulu. We filed a claim, got rental car, drove about an hour to Kahana where our hotel was.  I wish I could say we took a nice night walk on the beach or something, but it was bed time! 

Day two, August 11: 

 The view from our room at the Royal Kahana

 We got a smoothie (Ali) and coffee (Trevor) at the shop next to the hotel pool then walked around a bit until the hotel/Maui orientation and free breakfast. The concierge staff told us about places to see and things to do on the island. I didn't realize Maui is an island of Hawaii but it's also a county that includes a couple smaller islands too. Side note: I felt baby move during our orientation. Felt like little mini popcorn popping and I could see how women could dismiss it as gas but it felt different to me.  We went to get some groceries and necessities (things we needed from our checked luggage). Everything here is expensive because it's mostly shipped here. For example, a family size box of honey bunches of oats cereal was $8 and a loaf of generic wheat bread was $4. Since we still had no luggage, just one change of clothes and suits, we decided to walk the beach and hit the pool. 

Later I realized I forgot to apply sunscreen to the front of my legs but thankfully it wasn't too bad! We had lunch in our room then got more smoothies and went back to the pool. After a while we came back to the room, took a nap, then headed out for dinner. We ate at Honu Seafood & Pizza. Trevor got lobster pizza and a CoCoNut Porter (Maui Brewing Company) and I had a bacon cheeseburger and lemonade (I was so hungry I was starting to feel sick, nothing sounded good but I knew I had to eat!).

Day three, August 12: Our luggage finally came! We ate breakfast in our room, watched the Maui visitor channel for a while then headed out for a walk. We stopped at Hawaiian Village Coffee for a Kona blend and Strawberry-Banana-Mango smoothie. Both the coffee and smoothie were much better than the hotel's so we knew we'd be back. This is where I spotted the Oren Masserman CD and just had a feeling I would love the music (I later checked out his music and my instinct was right). We stopped for a little biology lesson a la Trevor along the walk.

I must admit we spent some time in the room watching Shark Week, but we're on vacation and we can do whatever we want, right? We got off our lazy butts, grabbed some smoothies from the coffee shop and walked up and down the beach as far as we could (there are areas of rock that break up the beach areas). By that time we figured out where we wanted to eat dinner and off we went. We decided on Kimo's since one of the hotel staff said they had wonderful prime rib...and they were right! We started with coconut shrimp and Cesar salads. 

 
Trevor had a Beach Blonde Ale (Maui Brewing Co again) and I had another lemonade. Not only was the food excellent, the view was spectacular! 

 
We stopped by the beach again then back to our room for more shark week-we had an early morning planned for the next day.

Once I get all the Hawaii posts done, I'll link them together at the end of each post.

Click here for Part 2, The Road to Hana, Part 3, Pearl Harbor or Part 4, Sunrise to Sunset on Maui.
-A

2-135 Formal Dinner.

This will probably be a bit of a slacker post, but I'm obviously behind. Trevor's unit's formal dinner was weeks ago. It was great to see friends from the unit and deployment, both those who were deployed and those who stayed home. We got to celebrate a good friend's last drill weekend before getting out of the Guard. And, I'll admit, it was a little bittersweet for us both since Trevor will be transferring to a completely different unit come October. Like I've mentioned, these people (soldiers and their loved ones) have become like family. I know they're not actually going anywhere but it will still be different.

We got ready at the hotel, went to a restaurant for drinks, then headed to the dinner. We got a professional photo taken, ate and talked with lots of people and listened to a few speeches from the leadership. Then it was time for more socializing and eventually the scenic route walk to the Legion. We got a little mixed up and ended up walking much more than we needed to, which was even sillier since I could have just driven us the whole time. It was a great night with great people. We were all exhausted, some hung over, for our second day of reintegration workshops the next day!

Here are a few photos from the evening. I'll add more when I get them from friends. My prego brain forgot to put the memory card in the camera.

 Cory's last drill.  At least it was a good way to go out!



17 weeks

Or roughly the equivalent of 4 months. This has been a great week! It appears my belly has decided to just round out completely, as you can see. Baby isn't anywhere to be found in there though, he/she is still pretty darn low and about 5 inches long from head to rump.

We've been in Hawaii for a week which has helped make this an awesome week. To top that off, I've felt movements for the first time! It was hard to admit that's what it was at first, but as it continued to happen throughout the week I know that's what it was. I can see how people say it feels like gas, but it is different. The first few times I only felt it while sitting. Then, last night, I felt it while lying down...and so did Trevor! I didn't think he'd feel it for a few weeks but I kept trying and he actually felt it last night. Very cool! I'm excited to feel other movements, so far it's just been the little jabs.

Our next appointment is Monday and it's just a quick check in and hearing the heartbeat. Then in a few weeks we'll have the big anatomy scan (the one where we're not finding out the sex).

Here's this week's photo. No numbers but hopefully the ocean makes up for it. See the rounding out? I feel like I just look Thanksgiving full all the time.

16 weeks

This is my first post using the Blogger iPhone app so hopefully it turns out fine. It's been a good week! Still gagging some but much less. I'm starting to have more energy which is really exciting! I'm taking half a Unisom at night just until we get back from vacation then I'll try quitting it again.

My belly seems about the same size, still bloating like crazy by the end of each day. We had Trevor's unit formal last weekend and I was up, at the bar and feeling okay until 1:30 am - unreal!

For the past week or so I have been feeling twinges in my uterus area. From what I've read it could be my muscles stretching or it could be baby. Twinges is the best way I can describe it. It's not painful, not a twitch like when your eye twitches, just a twinge. I've been trying to find a pattern but I don't think there really is one.

I think that's all the updates for now. Time to board our flight to Maui!

15 weeks.

This past week has been pretty good, I must say.  My appetite has been improving and there are foods that actually sound good to me.  No issues with constipation, gas or fatigue.  I think I only gagged a couple times in the last week, very exciting!  And no barfing!  I'm still taking 1/2 a Unisom at night after the barf scare I had last week, but I'm not feeling like I desperately need it each night.  I think I only had to get up in the middle of the night to pee three times which is a record so far.  The most exciting news of the week is I think I have a legitimate baby bump now.  It's pretty small and only noticeable when I wear tight clothing, but it's there.  I still get bloated and by the end of the day my belly feels huge, but this is the photo I took right when I woke up this morning, before eating anything.  Trevor took the picture, I should give credit where credit is due since he was less than thrilled to have a camera thrown at him the second he opened his eyes.

It looks like I'm slouching, but I'm really not, just the belly starting to stick out.  Cheese still tastes particularly good...and sweet corn, I could eat that all day.  I guess it's been a pretty uneventful week, but I'm perfectly fine with that.

Trevor and I are going to Hawaii next week.  I'm really looking forward to the vacation, just not the journey there.  We have a layover on our way there and back and I am not a fan of those at all.  I have to get up and walk around every hour and a half to prevent blood clots because of all the extra blood pregnancy creates.  Better yet, our flight home departs at 10pm so I'll be up all night walking around the plane, pretty exciting, eh?  Anyway, this leads me to this week's pregnancy question: What are your best tips for travel during pregnancy?  Oh, and thanks to everyone for the answers to the weekly questions both on the blog and in private.  It's been fun to get the input from all of you!

-A

Vote No.

Last night Krystle and I went to a meeting/training put together by Minnesotans United for All Families regarding the marriage amendment (“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage in Minnesota?”) that will be on Minnesota's ballot this November.  I went to the meeting because it's important to me.  I went because if this amendment passes, I will personally feel hurt and disappointed.  It's not about politics or religion, it's about love-the love two people (any two people) share with each other and the love I have for my friends and family (straight and GLBTQ alike).

You may be wondering what the connection is between this amendment and my feelings being hurt.  Allow me to explain.  If Minnesota passes this amendment that out right bans gay marriage, it means people I love and people in the state I love will not be allowed to make the same lifelong commitment I have made to Trevor.  Marriage is already defined as a union between a man and a woman in Minnesota, but this amendment would shut the door on even having that conversation.  It would make it near impossible to legalize gay marriage in the future (of course, we'll never stop trying).  It would make it clear in our constitution that gay marriage is illegal.  Furthermore, it would make it clear to the GLBTQ community that Minnesota does not accept them as equal.  Particularly, any GLBTQ youth out there thinking they may lose all support if they come out have one more reason for that fear to be a reality.  I don't want to be a part of a culture that encourages people to hide who they are.  But if we, as a state, reaffirm that we will not allow gay marriage to the extent that we embed it into our own constitution, that's exactly what we're doing.  And yes, that flat out hurts me.  Bottom line, I just can't imagine the feeling if someone were to tell me I can't marry Trevor for no other reason than his sex.  I can't claim to actually know what that feels like, but just the thought makes me sick to my stomach.  That's the kind of hurt to which I'm referring.

If you're reading this with political or religious reasoning ringing in your ears, let me briefly entertain that.  I don't even want to get into that too much because, like I said, it's not political or religious for me, it's personal, but I will say this: Regarding the political party (conservatives) stance, what happened to a hands-off government?  Even if conservatives oppose gay marriage, isn't this amendment an over-extension of government?  This isn't about legalizing something, it's about constitutionally banning something that's already not legal which just doesn't follow conservative principles.  If we can use the constitution for bans now, what else will we use it to ban in the future?  Don't make this decision for generations to come, let them make the decision for themselves.  Gay marriage issue aside, are we sure we want to go down this path?  Remeber, voting no doesn't give gay and lesbian couples the right to marry.  Regarding the religion stance, what about our freedom to practice religion?  Some religions/religious institutions do not support gay marriage, and it is their right not to perform them.  But many are supportive, and they should be able to practice their religion freely, including the right to marry two parishioners.  Moreover, don't all religions teach treat others as you wish to be treated?  I can't think of anyone who would wish to be told they can't marry the person they love.  That is, once we get past the whole separation of Church and State issue in the first place.  If you're thinking what business is it of yours how I vote, my response is it's very much my business because it greatly affects my life and the people in it.

There were so many wonderful comments and insights at last night's meeting, I wish I had written them all down.  One woman spoke about her own family (her female partner of over 10 years and their daughter).  She shared that her daughter, who has been hearing talk of this amendment everywhere, asked them what will happen to her if this passes? Where will she have to go?  This amendment would send a message that a gay family is not a family and that just doesn't sit well with me.  Another woman spoke about the idea of being recognized as a spouse.  Again, I can't imagine someone telling me I couldn't be by Trevor's side at the hospital because I'm not his spouse...because I'm not allowed to be his spouse.  But that happens to so many people.  It filled my heart to see a room full of friends, colleagues, church members, doctors and former teachers of mine-people of all ages from teenagers,  who aren't even old enough to vote but still want to do their part, to people who had to have been 80+ years old, all with different reasons for being there.  I realize not everyone in Minnesota will vote no, and, honestly, I can live with that.  What I can't live with is people not taking the time to think about what this would mean for me, for themselves and their own loved ones, and for the state of Minnesota.  This affects us all whether we're GLBTQ or not, so please, vote no in November.

-A