Insomnia

For some reason, I've had a lot of trouble sleeping lately. I don't know what the deal is. It's really irritating. I've had trouble sleeping in the past, but this is a little different. I tend to be a bit of a worrier (ha - that's an understatement) and that's caused me sleeping problems before, but I'm really not worrying about things now. I just have a lot of thoughts in my head. For example, last night - at 2 am - I was wondering where we should put the piano in our new house. Not worrying about where to put it, but just thinking curiously about where it will go. Now this brings up a big question... Do we own a piano? Well, no. But I want the kids to have piano lessons, so at some point we'll need to get one. So as one part of my brain was thinking that finding a good place for it will be a little tricky, the other part of my brain was thinking, "What?! This is crazy! You don't even have a piano! You don't even have a kid yet! It's 2 am!!" And so on. That's about when I started thinking about this blog and mentally writing it. And then, "Are you crazy? It's 3 am! Write the blog tomorrow! You won't even remember what you're thinking right now anyway!"

Sigh... For now, I'm blaming the insomnia on pregnancy. It's been getting more difficult for me to be comfortable at night. Really, I think I've had a relatively easy pregnancy so far and I truly don't want to complain. I recently have been having a fair bit of pain in my hips, so that's not so fun for trying to sleep on my left side, as they say pregnant ladies should. I've been doing the pillow between the legs thing and it helps a bit, but still... It's really fine for now, but I've got a long way to go. Now that makes me worry.

So, I'm starting a new "sleep hygiene" plan today. I woke up (and actually even got out of bed) when Ian left for work this morning and I went for a walk. I then did a bit of a prenatal yoga workout. Maybe exercise will help. I've decided I'm also going to do the ending meditation portion again tonight before I go to bed. And no caffeine from the afternoon on. I really haven't had much caffeine lately, but I did have an iced tea at dinner last night. And no naps today! I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully there will be some easy, sweet dreams tonight.

Very proud!

Take a look at my very impressive husband's new website... :) http://www.wesleymc.com

Super-Size Me!

Time for my quarterly update. Firstly, thanks for all the good wishes from family and friends regarding the new addition. We're obviously thrilled and thankful that everything looks strong and healthy. Of course, I feel vindicated that it's a girl--I don't get to say "Told you so!" too often to Mae.

I'm in the last week of fellowship. It's been a good year--worked hard, learned a lot. Made great friends with my 2 other co-fellows. I'll be keeping in touch with them just like my former chief resident friends. Something about working hard together always develops strong friendships.

One of the other great things about fellowship is that I lost close to 10 pounds since I finished residency. I started fitting into clothes that I haven't been able to wear in a long time. I went down to a Large scrub top from the X-large that I wore for the last 2-3 years of residency. My suit size went down to my size in medical school. I felt and looked pretty good!

All of that has now gone down the drain with the pregnancy. I've heard and read that husbands often gain weight during pregnancy--definitely true for me. I have gained almost all of the 10 lbs back. It's not pretty. She now feels this great freedom to eat whatever and whenever she wants, especially deserts. Deserts are killing me. But they taste so good. Mmm, tiramisu.

I take comfort in knowing I am not alone. My unofficial poll of husbands here in Charlotte confirms that they gained weight as well during their wives' pregnancies. Of course, I know what I have to do to get these 10 lbs off and I feel quite confident that I can accomplish this prior to starting work in August. After all, it doesn't inspire confidence when your weight-loss surgeon is heavy. This is true in other fields; can you imagine going to an ugly plastic surgeon? A dentist with bad teeth? A dermatologist with bad skin?

On the other hand, there is a tub of ice cream that needs to be finished before we move. Mmm, ice cream.

Isn't She Lovely?

We had our ultrasound on Friday and... IT'S A GIRL!!

We found out we were pregnant on a Saturday night. Earlier that week, we'd been watching that Wayne Brady show, "Don't Forget the Lyrics" (actually, that's the only time I've ever seen the show). Boyz II Men were on and one of the songs they had was Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely? (Here's a clip from the actual show, but unfortunately, it skips the part when they're singing...

Boyz II Men Don't Forget the Lyrics Part 4
Uploaded by natathang76

Anyway, we heard the song again several times over the next couple weeks (at my cousin's wedding, etc., etc.), which seemed like a sign that the baby was a girl. When we found out, we both immediately thought it was a girl. I have to stay that Ian has been steadfast in that belief... I, on the other hand, have changed my mind back and forth at least once a week since then. :) He was right! (As were Uncle Kevin and Tita Kit, who I think were the only other ones who told me they thought it was a girl.)

The ultrasound was the most amazing experience ever. I had no idea we'd be able to see so much so clearly. For whatever reason, I've never been able to see much on other people's ultrasound pics, but everything the tech was showing us seemed to be clear as day. Everything looks good and the baby seems very healthy. We're so excited to be having a girl (although we probably would have been just as excited about a boy, really). I'm glad we found out. It was definitely the right choice for me. I'm looking forward to the baby girl growing up with 2 cousins just a year older than she is and I hope they'll all be friends!

I'm a Slug... but a HAPPY Slug!

What a lovely day... I slept in, snuggled with kitty cats, had a leisurely breakfast (and made coffee at home for the first time in MONTHS), and watched some design shows to get ideas for our house. On top of all that, it's a Wednesday! I am a very lucky girl. I've been feeling a lot better, but I'm still really low on energy. I'm good for brief spurts, but get worn out pretty easily. Fortunately, though, a slug doesn't need a lot of energy, so I'm in good shape!

We've been a little busy trying to get things ready to go for the move. It's hard to believe it's coming up so soon... one month from today! Goodness, there's a lot to do. I'm really excited about our new life in Wichita and I can't wait to get going. Before we get going, though, we have a couple other fun and exciting things coming up. The biggest one is our ultrasound this Friday! It's the one where we should be able to find out if the baby is a girl or a boy. I can't wait to find out. Friday afternoon, we're heading to Washington, D.C. for about a week. Ian's going for a conference and I'm tagging along. A couple of his buddies from residency will be there, too. Ian's seen them at a couple conferences earlier this year, but I haven't seen them since we left Chicago. I'm excited about hanging out with them. It'll also be Ian's first time to D.C., so I hope he'll have some time away from the conference to do some sight-seeing. Once we get back from that trip, Ian will have only 1 week of work left and we'll have less than 3 weeks before the move. Yea!

I got my memory card back, so now I have pictures of our sweet nieces (Sophia above & Emma below) from the trips we took in May. They're beautiful girls!

Back to My Life of Leisure

So, I'm now in my 6th day of my life of leisure (that doesn't include days spent traveling or actively preparing for the next trip). I have to say, I truly have no idea where the time goes! I've decided that since I'm pregnant, everything takes more effort and more time to get done, but still. I had grand plans to have our whole place clean for real (I'm talking super-Spring cleaning, not just the regular kind we've been faking our way through for the past few months) by the end of the week. Umm, that's tomorrow. Don't think that's going to happen. Instead, I've done a fair bit (OK, a ton) of pretend online shopping to try to figure out what it's going to take to furnish our new house. (I forgot to include a link to pics in the last post. Here's one pf the builder's from about 1 yr ago and here's a link to ours.)
I told Ian that I think $150 million ought to do it. :) That's been fun, but a little overwhelming. I like the idea of decorating, but this is a lot! Especially compared to our previous apartments, which were already taken care of courtesy of IKEA. We've decided it would be awesome to buy some furniture that we don't have to assemble. Or, if we do have to assemble some, at least furniture without a piece of cardboard as the back. Yes, we're very fancy now.

Speaking of fancy, Ian and I went to the prom this past weekend! Well, not a real one. His department is celebrating its 10th anniversary, so someone held a black-tie gala to celebrate. We've been referring to it as the prom for months now. It was a lot of fun. I was able to borrow a dress from Naomi, so Ian's tux was all we had to worry about. His friends said that he's a "sharp dressed man," which we thought was pretty hilarious, since that's one of his favorite Guitar Hero songs. :) One blessing about maternity clothes... I have to say that's really the most comfortable I've ever been at a formal event!

So, I guess maybe I should really get to doing some cleaning. There's a big pile of laundry waiting for my love and attention!