Ultrasound of the baby at 9 weeks

I had my doctor visit today. I just finished my ninth week. Here's a pic from the DVD the doctor gave me. The head is to the right. I could see and hear a heartbeat. I also saw the baby move. I'm guessing we're looking at the backside of the baby in this pic. You can see little arms sticking out. It was the neatest thing!

Matt gets to see the video tonight. He didn't come with me because we're trying to save up our leave time.

My blood pressure was a little high again, so the doctor asked me to monitor my blood pressure and call if it gets past a certain point. I'm heavy, but I've never had high blood pressure before. I also told the doctor that my heartbeat feels fast, and he said that's normal in pregnancy.

I lost 2 pounds since my last visit (my weight can vary by as much as 5 pounds from day to day). I've been eating normally but trying not to eat too much. I don't really want to gain weight in the first trimester, which is acceptable. I'll have a hard enough time later trying to keep my weight down. A heavy person really doesn't need to gain that much weight during pregnancy. I'm shooting for no more than 25 pounds.

My gut is poking out more, though I still don't look pregnant. My clothes are getting tight. Good thing I ordered a few materity pieces. If I had trouble finding clothes before as a tall fat woman, I'm REALLY having a tough time as a tall fat pregnant woman!

The nausea has been getting less frequent, but I still have bouts of it. I'm looking forward to that going away! One more month, I hope.

Still no stitching. My mojo will come back someday....

I'm still around

My mom was wondering where I was. The pregnancy seems to be giving me ADD. Nothing holds my attention for very long, and I'm restless. I've had a few days without nausea, and it's been really nice. I even did some housework yesterday and today.

I think I'm going to have to ditch my goals and such for stitching since it's just not grabbing my attention right now. It's such a shock because normally I love to stitch and can do it all day. I hope this is temporary!

I have been working on The Awakening, though I don't even have the first row done yet. I missed the Barnabee's Quest SAL too. The baby's already sucking out my brain!

I'm going into my third month now. I see the doctor Wednesday and can't wait to see the first pics!

My Stitching Treasures update

I didn't have much oomph this weekend. The nausea came back full force after having a couple of good days. I managed to get a little done on My Stitching Treasures by Jeanette Douglas. I ripped out the old peacock, restitched it, and did the lettering in the top box. I still have some lettering, the other peacock, the outer border, and some charms to do. I won't get to finish it this month like I had hoped, but at least I'm making some progress.

I'll move to The Awakening next.

Barnabee's Quest SAL

I haven't felt like stitching much this past week, which is very unusual for me. The nausea is making me restless. I had a couple great days, and then the nausea came back.

I stitched on Barnabee yesterday and this morning so I could finish Part I.

I did manage to frog the peacock I had messed up on My Stitching Treasures. I doubt I'll be able to finish it this month like I had hoped. I still have to stitch a page of The Awakening this month, so I'll switch to that Monday.

Reading: I finished Elizabeth Kerner's The Lesser Kindred and Redeeming the Lost. Her writing style leans heavily toward purple prose and reads like a romance novel, but there is a good story about dragons there. Since I seem to be in reading mode, I ordered a few more fantasy novels from Amazon last night.

New couch: We bought a sectional and had it delivered this past week. It's huge. I'm still getting my stitching spot situated, and it has lots of static electricity.

Sleep apnea: I had my second night of the sleep study on Monday. This time they hooked me up to the CPAP machine. At first they used a mask to cover my nose and mouth. Around midnight I woke up with a terrible feeling of claustraphobia. I held out as long as I could and finally ripped the mask off. They then gave me a mask just for my nose, and that worked much better. I passed out and didn't move until morning. The machine is weird; it blows air into your nose so your airways don't collapse as you sleep and cut off oxygen flow. So breathing out is a little bit of work. I just hope I can get used to it when I get one for home.

HAED QSs framed

I finally managed to pick up my two HAED quick stitches from the framer Saturday. I figured that they took so much work that they deserved a professional frame job. The top one is Beauty and the Beasts QS, and the bottom one is Dragon Soul QS. I'm not sure I like that the bottom one isn't centered in the mat. The framer said she'd offset it a bit, but I didn't think she'd do it that much. What do you think, honestly?

Pregnancy: Last night one of my breasts started hurting in one spot. I know they're supposed to be sore, but I didn't expect a sharp pain.

Rose Quilt update, block 3

Here's my progress for this month on Chatelaine's Rose Quilt. That border is getting old very fast.

I'm moving on to My Stitching Treasures next. I'd like to finish it this month. I'm kind of restless, which I attribute to the pregnancy. Usually I can sit and stitch for hours, but right now I can't find anything I really want to do. Other than nap--I can nap for two hours on the weekend and still sleep all the way through the night, something that's usually impossible for me.

Saturday I picked up my two HAED quick stitches from the framer. I'll post a pic as soon as I can figure out where I want to hang them.

Rose Quilt update, block 3

I finished the square this morning. I didn't quite know what to do with the lines in the basket, so I used long stitches and did a sort of weave.

This is a Chatelaine online mystery. I'll add the beads and treasures when I'm done stitching the 16 squares (whew!).

I'll post a picture of the whole thing this weekend when I finish the outer border. I want to spend some time filling that in before moving on to the next thing in my rotation, My Stitching Treasures.

Pregnancy: So you want to know if I'll find out the sex of the baby early... Most definitely! I need to know what color to decorate in. ;-) My feet have stopped swelling for the most part, but the nausea is still there. We're eating more normally now, and I hope to not gain too much weight. I can't wait til the ultrasound on the 28th to get my first picture of my little raspberry (which is about how big the baby is right now).

Barnabee's Quest SAL

I worked on this last night. The tiny little snails were a bit of a pain.

Since I took yesterday off, I worked on Rose Quilt during the day. (I should have a new pic this weekend.) I didn't have the energy for anything else. I actually fell asleep sitting on the sofa with my stitching in front of me, and that's after a two-hour nap that morning.

Doctor visits

Health stuff ahead...boring, but I need to talk about it. :-)

Yesterday I had my first baby doctor visit. Actually, I only got to see the nurse. She set my due date at October 5. My blood pressure was slightly high, which I've never had before. The nausea has hit me full force. Matt ate the last of the birthday cake last night, so I won't be tempted in my non-nauseated moments. My feet have been swelling because of the salt I had this weekend, but that's getting better.

Last night I had my sleep apnea test, which confirmed that I have it. The doctor said I stopped breathing a few times last night. I felt like I didn't sleep at all. I go back Monday so they can hook me to the machine and see how I do. Yay. I think the prongs up my nose was the worst part last night, but I'll have the breathing cone on my face instead. I still need to shower and get the electrode goop off me.

So between the nausea and exhaustion, I'm taking a sick day. I want to keep as many of those as possible for when the baby comes, but I just need it. By the way, the baby is going into his/her fifth week!

Sheri's HAED RR

Our HAED RR got off to a rocky start, but I finally got to stitch on one! Here's Sheri's HAED RR. She sectioned off Sacred Hour by Christophe Vacher.

Now I'm moving on to Chatelaine's Rose Quilt. I have the block for February (the third block) to do.

The Awakening Page 26

I hate Blogger sometimes. It just ate my entire post!

Anyway, I finished the page. I just need to do one more this month. My website has a larger pic and specs.

Next I'll work on the HAED RR. I need to make up some lost time since someone eventually dropped from the group. I've already warned the group that my pregnancy may cause some problems. They seem pretty tolerant. :-)

Matt: Today is his birthday! My sweetie is 35! We had Jack-in-the Box for lunch, cake, and later spaghetti. I'm going to hurt later. I bought him some DVDs and some roleplaying books that he wanted.

The house: Matt nixed the idea of selling the house this year. He said it would be too difficult to pack everything up if I were pregnant. I guess he's right, though it's very disappointing. I really don't like this neighborhood anymore, and it's not where I want to raise my child (even though there are kids everywhere).

Reading: I forgot to mention I finished Mercedes Lackey's Wizard of London. I loved it, of course. I also finished One Good Knight, which wasn't quite as good.

What I made for the birthday club

Sherry confirmed she received my package. Here's what I stitched. It's Princess and the Pea by Cross Eyed Cricket. It was supposed to be over two, but that would have made it huge. So instead I stitched it over one. The pea's a little large now, so you can see why the princess has trouble sleeping! My mom sewed the fabric mattresses together. Good thing because it was a pain!

I posted more pics on my website (warning, they're large). This was my first flat fold. I also sent her a bunch of stuff.

I'm working on The Awakening at the moment. I might finish the page this weekend. Sue wanted to know if I really could stitch two pages of a HAED in a month. Sure, I use the large-format pages. I stitched 5 pages a month before, when I was gung ho. Now 2 pages are more reasonable because I switch it up with other pieces.

February goals

Lots to do, lots to do!

HAED The Awakening -- finish 2 pages. I'm 2 pages behind too.
HAED RR -- finish my square
Chatelaine square 3 -- finish it
Barnabee's Quest -- SAL on Wednesday
My Stitching Treasures -- finish it