The Adventures of Orange Seed Cont'd...

So since I have been preggers, I have learned much about myself and how pregnancy changes everything there is about you! Since this adventure has begun, I have successfully grown cahoonas that would make Dolly Parton jealous and now sport the ever so sexy pregnancy panel pants (they look like normal pants till you see that instead of a waist there's this amazing stretchy fabric that leaves room to grow! Not to mention they actually give me a butt!) and the pregger shirts. For whatever reason, it apparently is desired by those that design pregnancy clothes to give EVERYTHING poofy sleeves. Like Deb's sleeves in Napoleon Dynamite. Arg! I am ANYTHING but a poofy kind of gal.

Cravings? That's a common question. Well there was an incident with a sudden disgust for a pasta salad that I usually love. I opened the fridge, took it out, and immediately had to wrap it back up and run away. Fast. Another night we went to Red Robin which is a great burger place. For WHATEVER reason when I saw that there was chicken parm on the menu, I had to have it. No questions asked. Ok, now read that line again..I, a Fazio, grandparents from the mother land, Utica native, ate an Italian dish from BURGER JOINT. Hubs advised strongly against it but I was insistent. And I was wrong. Dead wrong. Like the I might as well have worn a Red Sox hat at a Yankee game kind of wrong. Two bites later I was sufficiently nauseous and ready to leave.

Last night I had the undying desire to eat pickles...at 11pm. Odd night time snack but hey, better than a sacrilege ordering of Italian food in a burger place. Today I packed away half of a GIANT cup cake that was calling to me at the store. Orange Seed was quite content with this choice..

Another great side effect to pregnancy, increased ability to be a bitch. Yes! I typically am a very passive person that probably tolerates way too much. I have a lot of "inside thoughts" but filter them well and speak more kindly than I probably should. Well, good bye filter, hello blunt and sarcastic remarks! I must say that this new found bitchness within me is very valuable in the work setting, especially when it comes to annoying co-workers!

On July 2nd, hubs and I and our first ultrasound...and once again, all modesty went out the door! As we waited in the exam room, I made the mistake to look at the machine and saw this large wand-like item draped over it. This can't be good. What happened to the external ones that you see in the movies all the time? Like when they squirt the goop on your belly and they rub the little machine over you and there's your baby!? Well FYI the FIRST one is an internal exam since the baby isn't big enough to see with the external exam yet.

So the tech comes in and she explains to me and hubs what she is going to do. In goes the femur-sized scope and up on the screen pops our little baby! So as this woman is swishing this wand around in me like she's freaking Harry Potter, I attempt to stay distracted by watching hub's face as he is enthralled in awe of the image on the screen. Oh, did I mention, I can't see the screen yet. Nope, Harry Potter needs to do a overhaul on the whole area before and once she was done I was privvied to the experience! She was a sweet lady, she even apologised for leaning on my knee..really? My knee? You're casting spells in my womb, you've gone where no woman ever has and ever will have gone before and you're apologizing for leaning on my knee. Wow.

Anywho, once the Defense Against the Dark Arts class was completed, she turned the monitor my way and there it was... a little blob, aka, our little Orange Seed. We saw it flinch (I say "it since we are not finding out what we are having) and when we heard the heartbeat Hubs squeezed my hand and we just took in the amazing miracle before us.

So here I have attached Orange Seed's first pics! Awe in our miracle and try not to connect that the pics are of my intimate innards...its weird. :O)

The Adventures of Orange Seed...

Ok so as my darling (and newly married) sister-in-law has pointed out I have abandoned my Blogging responsibilities for too long! So sit back relax and enjoy this lengthy update on my life! (don't worry, I promise to make it entertaining...)

Let's rewind to a life changing day this past May, May 19th to be exact. This was the day that one little stick and two blue lines changed our lives. Yes my dear bloggies, I m pregnant. Bun-in-the oven, on a 9 month alcohol fast, mini Buddha...and whatever else you want to refer to this as! That moment that the faint plus sign appeared I ran into our bedroom to tell John. He was in disbelief (we had been trying for a while) and had me test again. Then again later that day with a digital test (aka an engineer's piss stick). Four tests later he believed the news and instant excitement and worry filled us both! Bazil was quite excited but was more interested in her Greenie at the time...

Two days later we were in the car on our way to Utica for my sister-in-law's bachelorette weekend (go fig that the time we finally get pregnant is when I have a weekend planned at the vineyards in NY). All the way to NY hubs and I debated on if we should tell our family. Most people wait until they are out of the high risk zone (end of first tri-mester) but we decided that we couldn't wait and we would want our family's love and support no matter how things went.

So we pulled into the driveway with the biggest news of our lives and no one had a single idea. We did our usual hugs and hellos when we got there and small talk on top of it. finally we go to the time when we wanted to give my mother-in-law her Mother's Day gift. As she opened it hubs informed her that we didn't have enough notice to get her a Grandmother's gift. It took a minute or so for her and my sis-in-law to realize that we for once were not referring to our pup, and instead that a human- two-legged-thumbed child was the news. Instant tears and hugs followed...

Then there was the phone call to my mom! When I asked her if she was ready for another kid to call her "Mima" she told me that I better not be talking about another dog and that this better have two legs (sensing a trend?). Once confirmed that this grandchild would eat form the table and not from a bowl on the floor, she instantly started with the questions and then not even an hour later began emailing me links to different baby sites. The baby was referred to as "Orange Seed" since that was what size it was at that time.

So now we had this BIG secret that up until a few days before, only Bazil and my nurse at work knew beyond us. The fam was sworn to secretcy until after my sis-in-laws wedding in June, about a month away. Not too hard to keep right? WRONG! Let's again remember what my obligations were that weekend: a vineyard hopping bachelorette weekend! Ahh! So the plan was for my sis-in-law to stay by my side and drink up my samples. We would play it off as me being a responsible DD (even though anyone who knows me knows that I can certainly handle my wine in LARGE quantities), and that I would find pleasure in getting the bride-to -be intoxicated at 2pm. Ironically it was a plan that worked quite well!

So time went by and we hid the morning sickness (which for me was really just an undying need to eat ALL the time or else I would feel like crap-not too different from my usual self!) from friends, family and coworkers (probably the hardest to keep from since they saw me the most). The only one's that knew the big secret of the Orange Seed were our immediate family and my BFF from grade school (I wanted to call her from the bathroom that morning, stick in hand, but hubs requested that we tell fam first...understandable!).

On June 22 we had our first Dr.'s appointment. Hubs came with me as a good husband would. Little did we know that it was going to be one of "those" appointments. You know, the silver duck bill was out and ready and I assumed position feet up in the air and ready to be "explored". While I was used to this routine, poor hubs was NOT. I tried to keep the moment light but our doc didn't exactly catch our humor. For instance, as she proceeded to give me a breast exam, I looked over to hubs and told him that "this was the closest thing to girl-on-girl he was ever gonna get". She didn't seem to get it......

All went well and even though we did not have an ultra sound and hear a heartbeat yet, Doc felt that we were in good shape. That night we decided that the morning after the wedding we wanted to tell the rest of the fam since we would see many of them in person. And, at this point, my boobs had grown form an already impressive size to freaking floating devices that one would throw out to Godzilla! In addition to my clothes were starting to fit snug and if you had seen me you would have wondered if I was packing on a few!

So long story short, the day after the wedding we began to share the big news! All were excited and I could eat without feeling as though people were looking at me as if I should cut back, and start to leave my top button of my pants undone to make room for the inevitable sprouting of dear little Orange Seed!