My pregnancy in a nutshell

I remember hearing women say that by the time they hit their due date they felt like they had been pregnant FOREVER! So to stave off that feeling of desperation I decided to down play the pregnancy. While it was on my mind all the time, I tried not to go too crazy talking about it or buying stuff until the home stretch. Given that Jill showed up 7 weeks early, I wish I had relished every moment!

I was lucky to have a healthy easy pregnancy. I didn't have too much nausea and I only had one instance of morning sickness. I'm kind of glad that happened because it felt like a rite of passage and Bryan was so nice to me afterward. In total I gained about 28 lbs, though the docs thought it was only 24. As soon as I got pregnant I started eating Devil Dogs like crazy and gained a quick 4 lbs. This is something I would recommend to all women. Adding 4 lbs before I even went to the OB meant it didn't get added to my official weight gain stats and no one ever told me to cool it. Genius! My other major weight gain came after we went on a cruise to the Caribbean during the week of Thanksgiving. We went with the Huies and had such a great time. The food was excellent and there was a lot of it. We had decent weather and enjoyed relaxing on deck and snorkeling. My only real challenge was fitting into my clothes for the formal dinners.

My second ultrasound told us that we were having a girl. I'll attach a few of Jill's ultrasound pictures. She had really long funny legs that were all stretched out. The day before the ultrasound we were at brunch with Mom, Beck, Yaka and the girls. We took a quick poll and Jacqui and Anna both thought their new cousin would be a girl. I'm so glad that the ultrasound was able to let us know. I don't see any sense in being surprised.

I want to write down some of the little problems I had so I don't delude myself into thinking that being pregnant was a total piece of cake. That second ultrasound also showed a marginal placenta previa which meant I had to slow down my exercise. At 28 weeks another ultrasound showed that the placenta had moved and everything was A OK. The one thing that really bothered me during my pregnancy was flying. I had to fly a lot for work and vacations and nearly every time I felt like something just wasn't right. I would frequently spot after a flight which was really scary. I couldn't find any discussion of spotting related to air travel online and my doctors couldn't think of a reason why it would happen. It was weird.

Bryan and I traveled a lot for work in February and March. I went to DC twice and Bryan was in California several times. We even had a three week stretch when we didn't really see each other. Week 1, Bryan was in CA. I picked him up from the airport and drove directly to Rhode Island for his cousin Angie's wedding. On the way back from Rhode Island on Sunday, Bryan dropped me off at the airport for a week in DC. In the meantime we were trying to choose cabinets and appliances for our kitchen remodeling project. The plan was to order the cabinets in March. They would arrive on May 3rd and we would have a couple of weeks to wrap up the work before Jill was to be born. It was a risky move but we figured that if we didn't remodel the kitchen then, we would never do it with a newborn.

By the time I got back from DC, Bryan was scheduled for his next trip to California and that's where he was when my water broke at 32 weeks. The kitchen was gutted the next day!