pregnancy and work

Last week, I had my first important business meeting since I began to "show." It was with a brand new client whose business I've already won, and I was meeting with them to discuss the first project. Up to the this point, all of our contact had been over the phone or through email.

When you work from home the dress code is pajama casual so off-site meetings require a little wardrobe planning. Throw pregnancy into the mix and the fact that all of the maternity stores are carrying summer clothes while the temps hang in the mid 50s to 60s, and I had a real mess on my hands. I managed to pull together an outfit of prego charcoal gray dress pants and a top that was a bit too dressy, but at least had sleeves. The pants are the kind that go over your stomach in that unattractive, dumpy old man sort of way, but with a long top it's difficult to tell. The only trouble is they're still big on me, so the belly "pouch" sticks out further than my actual stomach, making me look bigger than I am.

So I go to the client meeting, and immediately I sense an uneasiness from the 2 women I was meeting with. While they both refused to acknowledge my condition directly, they kept making odd word choices. At one point, the topic turned to why there aren't more women engineers, and they concluded it's because women are too nurturing to be in engineering...but that women make great obstetricians. I don't know if they were unsure if I was pregnant and they wanted me to mention it, or if they were sure that I was, and it made them uncomfortable. Either way, I was there to discuss their logo job, so I tried to keep them on track.

In the end they seemed more urgent to get the project completed than the original schedule, and it may be that they thought I was going to have the baby before they had a logo. As I left the meeting, I thanked them for their time, and told them that I had enough information to begin the job...the last thing the client said to me was "let's get this baby started!" :)

fun day

Yesterday afternoon I played hooky with Annie. We've been able to catch up about once a month for the past few months which has been great. At first I always think I'm too busy to take the time off, but in the end I always have a ton of fun and I'm never as far behind when I get back to work as I thought I would be.

Annie surprised me at lunch with a bag of goodies for the bean. Tony and I had already decided on a ducky theme because it's one of Tony's many nicknames and it's a nice neutral yellow. Kittenhead has already shown a bit too much interest in the ducky rattle mittens (see photo). Annie is also my crafty buddy, and she made a super cool ducky bath hoodie towl. It's pretty ingenious. It's made up of one bath towel, a hand towel, and a wash cloth.

I asked Annie if her and Glen would be the bean's godparents. Tony and I had planned to ask them at dinner in a couple weeks, but I broke down yesterday because Annie and I were having so much fun. Annie started to shake and cry and there were lots of hugs. Already the bean is one lucky baby.

When I do triangle pose, I hear They Might Be Giants in my head.

I've been taking a prenatal yoga class at Health Advantage Yoga Studio for the past seven weeks, and it's been absolutely wonderful. My family and Tony's family looked at us like we were weirdos when we told them about the class, but that's because both families view anything that's different from what they remember during their own pregnancies as strange. What's amazing is how pregnancy has changed even in just the past 10 years, when ultrasound was rarely done and only if there was a problem, and doctors' attitudes about what is a healthy weight gain and exercise during pregnancy have also changed dramatically. Tony's mom was particularly surprised that I'm not supposed to drink caffeine especially since her refrigerator was stocked with soda.

Some of the "new thinking" is still a little fuzzy. The whole fish thing is really confusing. Basically it seems like fish can be very good for pregnant women but because of water pollution, many kinds of fish are not considered safe to eat. I've decided to just avoid all together...besides the smell isn't particularly appealing these days.

Anyhoo, if you've never taken yoga in a studio, I highly recommend it. I've taken classes before in gym settings, and enjoyed it, but a studio is so much better. The instructor doesn't have to drown out the techno bass coming from the aerobics studio next door, and the students are much more dedicated to the practice when they are paying for a separate class instead of just dropping in after a run on the treadmill.

My prenatal yoga class is taught by a woman who was also a labor and delivery nurse until the birth of her son last fall, so she has a lot to share with us about delivery scenarios along with her own labor experience. The students are all in different stages of their pregnancy, and it's a great place to get advice on remedies for aches and pains. I've learned about minor adjustments and breathing exercises that have honestly cured every minor ache I've had up to this point. I'm not expecting to be able to go into some painless yoga trance during labor, but I'll take what I can get!

19 weeks

I started taking a knitting class about a month ago because I've always wanted to learn, and I know I won't have any time to take classes after October. Plus, I'd love to be able to make a blanket for the bean...and maybe a cool scarf for myself.

Now that I've finally got my knit and purl straight, I decided to start the bean blanket. Yesterday, I played hooky from work and spent the day getting a jump start on the blanket. The first few rows are basic stockinette stitch, knit a row, purl a row, but I didn't realize it would curl as much as it did. So now I've switched to seed stitch, knit one, purl one, repeat. I'm not following any kind of pattern, because I don't have the attention span to count stitches. I don't think the bean will mind a plain, imperfect blanket, so I'm just having fun with it.

Oh, and the ultrasound is scheduled for June 4th which is less than 2 weeks away.

16 weeks

Tuesday, May 6, I had my 16 week appointment. We weren't as lucky finding the heartbeat this time, and it was nerve-wracking at first. It was for a good reason though, the little one was swimming all over the place, and the doc was literally chasing it from one side of my abdomen to the other. We'd hear it for a few seconds, and then it would be gone. The bean's definitely energetic and is enjoying the ever widening space I seem to be giving it. For the first 3 months, I gained a pound a month, but then I gained 3 lbs. in the third month! It's a little tough to see the numbers on the scale steadily climb, but it's a good sign that things are progressing well.

Blood was drawn for the AFP/triple screen test, and the results were back this week. Everything was negative, and that's a good thing. I've been less nervous about these tests than I have been about miscarriage. I'm finally beginning to feel more confident about the pregnancy, and seeing the physical signs in myself has made it harder to deny that this is real.

Before we left, the doctor wrote out a form for the BIG ultrasound. It's hard to believe we're almost to that point already. She recommended we wait until 21-22 weeks to have the ultrasound because there will be more to see by then. So we're looking at early June for the ultrasound, but I plan to call today to schedule it. My next doctor appointment is June 2.

quick post

I've been busily writing the K Art web site this morning before our trip to WI, but I want to make one quick post before I shut down for the day. Above is the pillow I made for my mom. It was my way of sharing the news with her, and it was the first project I did on my new sewing machine. The embroidery was done by hand though because I'm just not that sewing machine savvy yet. I had seen a pillow with this saying in a catalog, but it was expensive. I'm always up for a craft project, so I made my own. I'm glad I did because it's one of a kind!

I put the pillow on mom's bed at my grandparents' shore house the day before Easter. But when she arrived she was in such a tizzy bringing in packages and food, we had to force her to go to her room. I thought my grandmother was going to explode with the news she was getting so excited and frustrated.