Pregnant Bridesmaid - Professional Photos

Esme's wedding photographer posted some photos. The pictures are awesome!  Esme is stunning, and I didn't turn out half bad. :)

24 Weeks, 2 Days - I'm Getting Bigger. How Can I Tell?

I can feel the bottoms of my boobs touch the top of my belly! And it's kind of sweaty there. Ewwww....

24 Weeks 1 Day - Cravings During This Pregnancy

My cravings during this pregnancy haven't been as strong in some  ways, but every so often I get a nagging, "Ooh, that sounds pretty good right now."  For example,  right now I'm thinking  a lot about those yogurt covered star cookies from Trader Joes.

I think this time I've been craving salty and savory foods and meat items, which is funny because last time I didn't care much for meat at all.

Some things that I have been eating more of than I usually do, or that seem to always sound pretty good to me:

• Everything bagel with reduced fat cream cheese from Panera Bread
• Tempura Udon when I'm in Portland
• Banh mi sandwiches from Banh Mi San Marcos
• Pho
• Taco Bell tacos with cinnamon twists
• Costco hot dog
• Hamburger and fries
• Clam Chowder with Sourdough bread when I'm in Seattle
• Pizza
• Coffee ice cream
• Yellowtail sashimi
• Dim Sum

I've also definitely been more lenient about what I eat this second time around.  For example, I've had yellowtail sushi about three times.  Just one order at a time.  Last time I didn't even think about touching raw fish.  I've had cold cuts, like turkey and roast beef.  Last time I avoided it unless I didn't have any other choice.  This time I've had pasteurized brie,  and have taken an occasional sip of wine just to taste it.  Last time I avoided both of these like the plague.  Oh  and soft serve. I've had that too. And I've even  been drinking decaf coffee and a green tea once in a while.  I've learned what that I don't have to completely deprive myself as long as I stay reasonable and moderate about things.  It's funny how the 2nd time around, you just worry less... well in my case, I've been so busy with work  that I don't  really have time to worry about this pregnancy.  

My belly seems to have sprung out overnight! Just in the last three weeks it's  doubled in size! Things are getting uncomfortable, and I'm finally feeling like a pregnant lady.  It kind of sucks, but I'm more excited about it.  I'm finally feeling in touch with my pregnant self, which I haven't really felt up until now.  I know this is where I begin to enjoy the journey of being pregnant and I'm  looking forward to it...swollen  feet, aching back, and all!

23 Weeks, 1 Day - The Pregnant Bridesmaid

Back when  I first started this blog in April, I wrote this post on things that I was worried about.  One of them was about how I had become pregnant a couple months earlier than  I had expected, and that the dress I had ordered for Esme's wedding wasn't going to fit me by the time the wedding came along:

2) This seems pretty minor, but for some reason I’m stressed about it. For Esme’s wedding, I ordered a dress that’s one size larger in anticipation of getting pregnant. Now I’m worried that it won’t be big enough and that I won’t have a dress for her wedding. This seems so trivial as I’m writing this, but I don’t want to be a burden to her and her wedding. I’ve called the consultant to see if I can switch to another dress. Something tells me I won’t be able to, and I guess I’ll just make do with whatever happens.

Here's a picture of the dress:

Notice how form fitting it is, especially around the torso? With my normal Sharon body, this would have been an awesome dress, and would have looked great on me.  With a pregnant Sharon body? Not as much so.

Well, as it turned out, I wasn't allowed to return the dress, or swap for a larger one since I had already put my order in.  Three weeks ago, I went to Patty's house to pick up my dress.  My bump was already starting to make itself known, so I thought I'd try it on just to see how it looked.  As it turned out, it fit juuuuuuust right.  This actually was NOT a good thing, because if I got any bigger, this dress WOULD NOT fit! And I knew I was going to get bigger!

Last week, on the day of Esme's bridal shower, I tried the dress on again.  Yup, it zipped up still, but the entire dress shifted UP to where the top of the bodice was by my collarbone and the skirt was mid-thigh.  Oh no, this was not going to do AT ALL!! And this was a whole week before the wedding-- who knew how much more I was going to grow over the next week?

I had a plan though.  I remember how my wedding dress, which had been used on the set of Passions the soap opera (shameless plug!), came with a panel of fabric in the back where the zipper was.  I guess the actress who had worn the dress was too busty for the dress and couldn't zip it all the way up, so the tailor added the panel to connect the unzipped back together.  I had plans to do something similar, and went on Sunday (a week ago) to Joanns Fabrics to get the materials to do this.  But since I knew I was going to get bigger, I waited as long as I could to modify the dress since I knew I'd get bigger even just over the course of another week.  Plus I was in Portland and Seattle for work anyway, and couldn't get around to it until this past Friday (the day before the wedding)!  At the bridal shower, the girls asked me what I was going to do with my dress.  "Don't worry!" I told them, "I've got a plan!"  Yeah, I've got a plan, I thought, "But probably not a very good one,  and it's probably going to look not-so-good." Inside I had my fingers crossed that I'd be able to pull off some miracle with this dress.

Friday turned out to be a super busy day.  I had gotten home from Portland the night before at around 12:30 am, and was soooo tired when I woke up.  The morning  started out spending some QT with little Audrey and I made her some breakfast and sat with her.  Then I was on a conference call from 8-9.  Then we dropped Audrey off at day care and went to our OB/Gyn appointment at 10 am (more on that later).  We got home at 11:30 am, and that's when I started to work on the dress.  Very quickly, I realized that the fabric panel was not going to work... with my bulging belly, some places needed to be looser and others needed to be tighter... there was no precise way to sew eye hooks into the fabric panel to match my weird pregnant contours. I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  I jumped onto another call, at 1 pm, which went until 1:30. During that call, I had a sudden epiphany: a drawstring back! Like a corset! That would make it loose and tight where I needed it to! That's what I would do!

But  I didn't have the chance to try making one.  By the time I got off of the phone,  I had to get ready to go to Esme's rehearsal, which was scheduled for 3:30, and which meant that I had to leave the house by 2:30 latest.  Stu and I ended up talking after my call since we hadn't seen each other all week, and I didn't realize how quickly time passed.  I looked at the clock and it was 2:45!! By the time I got out of the house, it was 3:00!! I got there 15 minutes late, but just in time for the rehearsal to start.  PHEW!

By the time I got home from the rehearsal dinner, it was 11 pm.  FINALLY, I could start on modifying the dress! Esme had bought me some of the fabric that the dress was made of,  and I took that and cut some strips and began sewing them into ribbon cords to make the loops and the drawstring for the back of the dress.  By 2:00 am, I was close to being done.  I was so tired.  I had to wake Stu up to help me try on the dress.  It wasn't the cleanest work, but it was functional... and it  was  also  really tight, making it hard to breathe.  Oh well, I thought, this was as good as it was going to get.

The next (i.e.later that) morning I woke up at 6 am to work on the veil to help cover the corset back since it was so lumpy looking.  I started out with a needle and thread, but quickly abandoned that for the glue gun, which made it so much faster.  By 6:45 I was done, and I jumped in the shower, gathered all of my stuff up, and dashed out the door bu 7:20 to be at Esme's hotel for hair and makeup by 8 am.  I was running late again, which lately seems to be the story of my life.

Here's how the dress turned out:

Well, all in all it turned out OK.  I was a little worried at the church when I was first wearing the dress because it felt really tight around my torso, and I could hardly breathe.  And the church was really hot and for little while there, I was sweaty and a little short of breath and started seeing spots.  Patty helped me loosen the back a little and it seemed to help, but it was still very uncomfortable.  I didn't know how I was going to  make  it to the reception, and was ready to switch into my backup dress, which was my bridesmaid dress from Luisa's wedding.  Luckily, the dress expanded throughout the day, and by the time the reception came along, it actually fit fairly comfortably!!  It all worked out in the end!

Here are some pics from the wedding.  Dress looked good.  Mommy and Daddy looked good.  Audrey was super cute and had lots for fun with Charlotte and Mikayla.  Overall it was a great day.

And I guess that's the moral of the story.  That things seem to work themselves out.  I'll have to remember that during the moments that I worry and lose sleep during this pregnancy.

18 Weeks, 2 Days - It's A Girl!!

We're having another girl!! Audrey is going to have a little sister!! On Saturday, 7/27, my Gong-gong and Po-po came down to watch Audrey while we went to get our ultrasound done to check out Baby #2's bits and pieces.  

Last time when I was pregnant with Audrey, 

15 Weeks 2 Days - So Much Going On

Being pregnant the second time around really is different.  I guess that's not the most ground breaking statement, but I think the biggest difference that I've noticed is the huge lack of time compared to my first pregnancy.

What did I have to deal with during my first pregnancy? Not much in hindsight. At work I was in a nice project lull because we had just lost LA-RICS, and while there wasn't a whole lot to do on the project, I remained assigned to it since it could start back up at any time.  At home, it was just Stu and Maggie, and they didn't really mind that I traveled up to LA every other week for LA-RICS.  I had plenty of time to blog and plan and think about the new baby and fancy how life would change when she arrived.  I also had the luxury of spending a lot of time sitting on the couch watching TV.  I had so much time to just enjoy being pregnant.

Well this second pregnancy isn't nearly as leisurely.  In some ways it's much more stressful.  I've been traveling almost every week over the past two months... In fact, let's take a look at how much I've traveled since I got pregnant:

• April 21 - Found out we were pregnant
• May 5-8 - Austin, TX
• May 12-17 - Vancouver, WA (and during Mother's Day and my birthday! BOOHOO)
• May 28-30 - Seattle, WA
• June 10-12 - Portland,  OR
• June 24-25 - Seattle, WA
• June 26-27 - Portland, OR
• July 8 (today) - 9 - Seattle, WA
• July 10-12 - Spokane, WA

And that's not all! I'm pretty much doing some travel every week in July.  Who knows what August has in store for me.  When I'm not traveling or working, I'm spending as much time as I can with Audrey.  She's so much fun right now at this age, but she's also a handful! When you're with her, you're on duty the whole time, either playing with her, watching her to make sure she stays out of trouble, or trying to figure out why she's having a tantrum.  Her terrible twos seem to be quickly approaching!  So between work and Audrey, I've had very little time to think/obsess about this pregnancy.  

I told Stu the other day that I feel a lot more tired with this pregnancy.  Well, no wonder!! With all the traveling and chasing Audrey around, my energy is already accounted for.  Luckily, as I've entered the 2nd trimester, I'm feeling much more energetic than I did during my first trimester.  During the first three months, there were days that I felt like I just couldn't handle everything that was going on, and my patience was low with everything around me-- including with Audrey (why won't she just listen to me??).  But now I feel much more equipped to deal with things.  Feeling energetic makes all the difference in the world!

Some updates about the pregnancy...

I had some bleeding in early June-- not bright red blood or anything, just old brown blood.. but more than usual and enough to make me worried.  On June 10th, a Monday, I was supposed to fly to Portland in the morning, but I changed my flight to an evening flight so I could see the doctor and get it checked out before I left.  She did an ultrasound and we saw the little jelly bean in there looking fine and dandy and that eased some of my worries.  Then the doctor asked me if I traveled a lot, and I told her that I did and would be for the next few months.  I guess I didn't look too happy about that and she asked if there was anything she could do to help me travel less.  I told her not really and that I have to travel because I'm in charge of a couple of projects.  She nodded and said sympathetically, "I know it's hard being a working mom."  And I'm not sure what hit me-- maybe it was the words, or the genuine tone of her voice, but I started breaking down into tears.  I couldn't help it.  I'll write more about this some other time, but being a working mom (especially one that is pregnant) IS hard!  And I feel guilty all the time too.  But again, more on that some other time.  Maybe I was crying because I was relieved to find out that the baby was okay too.

We had our nuchal ultrasound on Friday, 6/21.  It's basically an ultrasound that allows you to measure the fluid behind the fetus' spinal chord to determine if it is at risk of any birth defects-- primarily down syndrome and a few others that I can't remember.  Last time when I was pregnant with Audrey, I didn't do the nuchal, and just did the traditional blood tests.  But the results of the blood test takes a lot longer than the nuchal and you don't find out until the baby is about 4-5 months along.  I didn't know this at the time, but the baby at 4-5 months is like a real baby! The stakes are so much higher at that point.  I had no idea at the time, and thank goodness Audrey was perfectly healthy.  This time, since I'm a little older and closer to 35, I didn't want to wait so long to find out.  So we had our nuchal ultrasound and got to see the jelly bean once again... hands, feet, brain heart... and to our relief, the measurements along with the first blood tests came back all negative!  The ultrasound technician asked if we wanted to know the gender, and I said yes, but only if she was absolutely sure.  She couldn't tell from the ultrasound... BUT after the ultrasound, Stu and I both commented on how, when the technician was scanning from one leg to the other, we could have sworn we saw a little stick popping out! Maybe it's a boy!  We'll find out for sure in a few weeks.  I still have a second round of blood tests coming up, and I'm hoping those will be smooth sailing as well.

Last Monday I had a bit of a scare at my 14 Week appointment with Dr. Dilauro.  When she took the heart rate monitor to my belly, for a minute there, there was NO HEARTBEAT! I freaked out a little but she moved the monitor around, then finally there it was... very faint, but definitely there! I guess the baby is so small that the heartbeat can be hard to pick up sometimes.  It was nice and healthy, which was a big relief to me.

I'm sure I'll get more excited about this pregnancy as it becomes more and more real...like when I can feel the baby kicking....

Start baby registry...maybe that will get me excited! :)

8 Weeks, 6 Days - Jelly bean #2

Here is jelly bean #2! We had a great appointment today. Everything looks nice and healthy. I have Dr.  Dilauro this time.  I'd seen her before when  I was pregnant with Audrey, when I had experienced some bleeding...she seems pretty nice.  She's not  as outgoing or over-the-top  as Dr. Block, but she's very calm.  

I know this seems like a silly thing to say, but when I saw this image,  the first thing  I thought was, "Wow, this  jelly bean looks different from Audrey!" Well, duh, it is a different baby (and a different machine).  

As usual, seeing the little jelly bean in these makes this whole pregnancy seem more real.  I don't  look pregnant.  I feel sick from time to time, but other than that, no one can tell.  There is  a lot in store for us, and it'll be interesting to see how this pregnancy pans out.  It's kind of weird starting all over again, but having been through it once already, it also feels a lot less mysterious, and I feel  much more prepared!!