30 Weeks

      This past weekend, Dave and I went to an amazing birth class by Pam England, author of Birthing from Within.  It was a nice intimate class at her home and of the 4 couples present, 3 were emergency medicine residents and all live within shouting distance from our house!  The soon to be moms Amber and May will surely be my saving graces once our little baby is born.
       The class was really touching for me because Pam put to words the power of the process of birth in a way many books do not.  She offered the Dad's concrete ways to support and be an integral part of the birth, describing their roles as "Birth Bouncers" (keeping a close watch on mom's emotional needs, keeping the room peaceful and as nurturing as possible, being a first line of contact for all the medical processes that can take mom out of the birthing mentality and into fear, and on and on).
       Dave and I are also in the process of finding a doula (birth coach) to be at the birth to support both of us as I have set my intention to have a medicine free birth.  I know things could change, but for now, that's what I am working towards and visualizing each day.
       We have also had two completely wonderful and amazing Baby Showers, one in New Hampshire at the farm and one here in Albuquerque with all of our new friends.  We have filled the nursery with a beautiful crib and dresser and have been painting the walls and furniture to all match the cute little room!  I snuck home from work yesterday to do some painting and felt so blessed and content just sitting and preparing this new room for the baby.

Oh my poor neglected blog.  I will tell you what happened.  I started feeling so strong and energetic again.  I am out and about around town sporting my 26 week old belly and loving life.  It's big and round and hard and so special and so all this living hasn't lead me to writing.

I need to document that our little baby KICKS all the time!  Especially when its time for mom to go to sleep, that's when the craziest, strongest kicks start flying.  I am often startled and say "Oh!" in response.  I am constantly encouraging my friends to feel the kicks.  These signals let me know, yeah, I am not just physically extending, its for a reason, my new son or daughter is inside of me growing strong and preparing for the world!  It's still quite hard to wrap my mind around this but I know its true.

Next week Dave and I head to New Hampshire for the baby's big baby shower.  Everyone has been getting prepared and I am thrilled to be able to celebrate this new life with all our loved ones.  And my little nieces will be there, I just ADORE those little cuties!

I am adding a photo from 25 weeks with my new neighbor Amber, who is due 6 weeks before me with a little boy!

Sex of baby prediction quiz:

I have taken TWO quizzes to find out if we are having a boy or a girl based on Old Wives Tales. How high are you carrying your baby, what do you crave, how fast is your leg hair growing, did you conceive on an odd or even month, etc? And I took a one question quiz based on the heart rate of the baby.

What did all three say we are having????

A BOY!

"Congratulations! According to the Old Wives it's a boy!"

Guess we will have to wait till the day the baby is born to find out. I spoke with Lindley and my friends Allison and Lexi tonight. Lindley waited to find out with her first baby and found out on the second one, so I believe that she has both perspectives to share. She strongly encouraged me to not find out and then Allison added that "DO NOT FIND OUT, BEST SURPRISE OF YOUR LIFE!" I love strong opinions.

Lexi also spoke to the amazing experience of being surprised and added: "You can't go wrong either way."

18 hours later, Tuesday April 3, 2012:

My plan now is to firmly wait. My only fear is that David will figure out the sex of the baby tomorrow on the ultra sound screen. Our clinic is so nice they even put the image up on a flat screen television! Which makes spotting a little boy even easier......too easy.

The kicks have begun!

Well Little Baby Riss, you let me know you are there at 18 weeks 6 days! Today is 19 weeks 5 days and I am so happy to feel you more and more everyday. I must say its very distracting to be at work, focusing on what a client is saying and then "Whack, whack" from my belly. I am used to telling Dave about every kick and I have to hold myself back and send you a "hello" and then return to my day. But when I am with friends, I love to share the baby communication kicks and shoves. This is the most fun part yet! I adore feeling the baby being active and moving around.

Today its warm enough to ride my bike around town and all the fresh air and new spring growth is so heavenly. I am officially loving pregnancy!

Working Hard to Encourage the Pregnancy Glow: No Success Quite Yet

Went to the Baby Doctor today

This morning Dave and I rode down to our baby's doctor and learned that everything is on track! He measured my belly and said its just the size they expect it to be. We also heard the baby's rapid little heart beat. And our doctor is the sweetest man who makes me laugh and feel so at ease. He recommended some doulas that he has worked with so soon I will contact them to set up some meetings. Can't wait to find just the right type of support/ birthing coach to compliment our hospital, our doctor, and of course Dave! Doulas are there for Dad's too!

17 weeks 4 days

Here are some photos from today after I walked the dogs. Just trying to keep people in the loop. Friends love to ask for photos!

17 weeks

During the day, I day dream and believe I am sure the baby is a boy. My waking self would make a bet on this. At night, I have had two vivid dreams where I am with our baby and its a little girl. Last night I dreamed Lindley had another baby and it was a boy the same age as our little girl. We laid them next to each other and they both had green eyes and looked like siblings. The little girl could talk and I told her she was born too soon and could she please go back inside me and get a little bigger. She said, no, its more exciting out here! ha!

The other girl dream I had was about a little girl named Eloise. I have never heard a this name or met anyone with this name, and I am not sure that I particularly love it, but that was her name. April 4th is our date for the 20 week ultra sound, I still think we are going to pass on finding out. Well, I need to see what Dave thinks. But my vote is no. I am having fun with the surprise.

16 Weeks Photos

I KNOW we need to start documenting this more. Here are two photos from in front of the laundry room tonight after work (poor quality due to iphone). Getting bigger!

Sneaking in my greens

Baby, at 15 Weeks, you are the size of an orange:

Hello tricky taste buds! I always envisioned a very healthy pregnancy, and most likely by national standards I am already there. But what I wasn't prepared for was my huge aversion to previously loved foods ..........like broccoli! Well, tonight broccoli I have snuck you into my dinner by combining you with bites of delicious basil thai chicken! You need to hijack the chicken little broccoli or there's no way you are going into my belly.

My favorite foods to eat so far are usually pasta, cereal, cheese, anything with vinegar, all fruit, and black bean burgers with Hot Sauce (Cholula or Frank's).

Today was a land mark day. Today was my first mama-baby massage at the School of Massage here in town. Twenty-eight dollars and student therapist who was very attentive and wonderful all around. I was very happy to send the baby lots of happy relaxation vibes and have my sacrum worked on which needed help even though I am not even carrying that much in the front. I believe its all the ligaments stretching because I CAN feel those. This week I am also noticing that my movements and resting postures are having to find non-traditional positions. No more curling up on the couch and bending over without thinking. It's like there's a talking brick in my pelvic bowl: "Hey, here's some annoying more than painful feedback that you are cramping my style down here, change it up lady!" And so I do, learning along the way that baby's comfort really is my comfort to; there is a solid communication system happening here.

Someone intervene!

Tonight I am home alone. Dave and some friends from residency have set off for Wolf Creek this weekend to quench their thirst on 15 new inches of powder. Knowing that my battery no longer has the charge to keep up with three grown men tearing around a mountain, nor do I want to cram into a hotel room with all of them and step around potential sleeping bodies on the floor to make my bi-nightly treck to the bathroom, I decided to spend the weekend at home.

When I arrived home at six o'clock tonight after work, I was what you would truly call starving. It wasn't my First Trimester nausea that must be tamed with food, it was a new experience. Seeing as I had not eaten in a total of three hours and that the last thing I ate was grilled chicken on a bed of salad greens, my need for carbs was tremendous. Unexplainably urgent beyond belief. I walked into the kitchen and my legs were shaking and weak as I reached to pull out every cereal we had. I finished three boxes that were already opened and put a dent in two more. I killed the milk. I topped if off with our delicious, full fat Greek Yogurt. I took a 15 minute break to see if I was satisfied. But NO! I wasn't! So then I proceeded to eat 7/8' s of an Annie's Organic Cornmeal Pizza I loaded up with spinach. Crazy good!

I write all this in amazement at what I can eat these days. I feel I could enter a contest of some sort and win. So far, only four pounds of weight gain since November. This baby can EAT! Well, and his/her mom!

Off to sleep aided by my food comma! Quite blissful!

Picture of Round One:

Just to make myself feel better

I have been noticing that in the morning (pre-bloating), I don't look as pregnant as I would like to. I had my friend Molly (who is a doctor) confirm that she felt my uterus was large enough while I laid on my kitchen floor. She did this while sweetly laughing at me. Her great response was: "Trust your body." I appreciated this response, very soothing and very right for me.

I was emailed this 15 week photo this morning and I thought once I saw it, "Hey, I look like that!" I know it's silly, but the validation was nice. Here is the photo from the internet, along with one of me from yesterday.

Rock climbing: 14 Weeks

Climbing again since coming through the Yuckies of the First Trimester, thanks Katie Wurden for hanging with me!

To Find Out or To Not Find Out!

What a common question one is asked when pregnant! Behind the scenes, the Riss Grandparent's To Be have been gently suggesting the joys of not finding out the gender of the baby until its birth. Dave's Dad has helped deliver many babies in the mountains of New Hampshire and he swears that the best births are those where the parents did not know if the baby was a boy or a girl. He shared that he felt this surprise was a nice reward for all the hard work of the mother. So we have been hanging out on the fence. My friend Allison and Shaun said that they waited out of reverence for one of life's sweet little mysteries. I have other friends who love to plan and so do not look away at the twenty week ultrasound.

Aunt-to-be Danielle has tooted two horns. Initially she pleaded with us not to find out and then as she began doing a little shopping, she called up and said she had changed her mind! Shopping was way to hard without knowing!

Right now, I am leaning towards not finding out. I am having fun with the mystery. I pretend that I am having a boy for awhile and go on pretend adventures in my mind. Then, I switch to a girl and she and I go out on our adventures.

Either way, I will be delighted! A girl would follow right along with all the other 11 girls born on my mom's side of the family and we love girls! A boy would be special because they are so rare.

I just love you little baby, girl or boy!

In my head

Hello Blog:

I have been posting to you in my head all over the place and failing to sit down and write about it.

Saturday and Sunday were so lovely for me. I felt such a warm fuzzy glow when I thought about the baby and stopped to say hello to him or her. My Mom came to town and we did some maternity shopping and had fun laughing at some of the clothes and how I don't fill them out now, but that sooner than I realize I will have a bonafied BIG BELLY!

We learned today after some early blood tests that there is only 1 in 10,000 chances that our baby could be born with any serious syndromes or problems. The lady on the phone said "I couldn't give you any better odds, those are our best numbers!" So Little Baby Riss is healthy and strong and growing away.

I have been growing a small collection of things for the baby from a yard sale one of the therapists had at our office. I now have seven baby clothing items (boy clothes that could possibly swing both ways) and a Baby Bjorn. I also just ordered a Ergo Baby Carrier with some old Gilt.com credit I had. I feel so privileged to actually be able to start stocking up.

For the right to pick which room will be the nursery in our house, I bribed David with a very special right. The right to pick the name of the baby! Now, the inside scoop is that he is often so determined that he would end up talking me into whatever name he loved, so this way I scored a bonus based on something I was already planning on doing....letting my strong willed love muffin choose the name (within reason!).

Love to you all!

E

Second Extra Thought for the Night

Well, there I go giving Dave a hard time and what does he pull out of his grocery bag?

Special Tea just for me!

What a great husband.

One more thought from tonight

I feel very pregnant and sick once again when moments like this occur:

8:17 PM Dave calls from the car. "Honey, can you come outside and help me bring in the groceries?" Uh, did I say I was feeling better? Seriously, my stomach just started hurting when I stood up to walk outside and meet him. But I swear its not psychological!

Week 14

Oh week 14, you are balm to my soul. I am beginning to feel hints of my old self returning. New energy spurts arrive each day (ie. what I used to feel like on any normal day in my life) and though I am still nauseous if I don't eat every two hours, I am not living inside of a "flu suit" that I beg to unzip myself from. Oh, and I am feeling less drugged by sleeping pills (progesterone) that have made me feel as if I move through quick sand. And my skin! It's clearing up everywhere! My friend Kelsey said she too broke out horribly in the first trimester, however the second trimester led her straight to the prettiest skin she ever had.

Yes, pregnancy is being kinder and more gentle. Thank you thank you baby and body for working things out because I might have entered a depression if I had to walk around any longer feeling like I had the flu but going to work every day anyway.

A therapist at my office is having a fund raiser yard sale this weekend and she let me "pre-shop" and I scored a blue Baby Bjorn, a Boppie pillow, and seven little boys clothing items that could maybe be called gender neutral. I like tough looking little girls too.

Right now I have a little baby stack beginning to grow, along with some cute wooden puzzles that Grandpa Riss bought for the baby in Switzerland while we were there.

I am so happy to be on this journey! Much love to you little baby, keep grow grow growing!

13 Week Ultrasound

Here's the little little baby waving!

oh no!

I am sitting in my office tonight, belly HURTING, wishing my client would please wrap this up because I am getting worse!

Well, I walk her out the door and turn and run for the toilet. I am so hungry and have had no time to stop in my back to back appointments that I have crossed over and cannot prevent my stomach from trying to help its self. And in that 5 minutes of horror, I am so thankful that this is only the first time I have had to throw up because now my throat is raw and my head is aching.

My friend Allison mentioned the light switch that happens in the second trimester and normally returns! Oh come to me sweet switch! February 8th is now my new best friend!

Happy Birthday on the 7th Katie Lady!

Two new symptoms to the pile

Dandruff AND Insomnia!

The already existing pile:

acne everywhere which I am only getting away with because its winter, bloating, belching, fatigue, nausea, frequent urination, gas, being hungry but not wanting to eat, low motivation for anything, needing to go buy new bras but procrastinating on that too!

Who wants to hang out with me!

So my new friend insomnia. I am awake for several hours at night. Last night up at midnight, then back awake from 3:00 - 5:30. I made a full breakfast with cheese eggs and homemade guacamole and cleaned the kitchen around 3:50 after I lost the battle of trying to tell myself, no you don't have to get up and eat. I called Dave at 4:15 just to say hi but he could barely talk for all the paper work he had to finish by 6am plus the patients with bullet wounds. Yes, that does seem to make my predicament of not being able to sleep seem minor.

Well, friends, thanks for listening to me blah, blah, blah! :O)

Somewhere to talk all about me!

Oh man am I excited! Today I am going to see my own therapist through the university for free because Dave is a hospital employee. I am thrilled to get my own hour after a typical week where I give 27-30 hours listening to others. Don't get me wrong, I love this work.........I just think it will be very refreshing to have a place to explore my own thoughts and prepare for the exciting time of motherhood to come.

I am only alloted 6 sessions as an individual, however, I can come back for six more as a couple with Dave! Parenthood prep/couple strengthening HERE WE COME!

Here is my new therapist Elaine Soto:

http://cars.unm.edu/staff.html

Your first visit to the prenatal care provider

I have been reading on the internet daily about babies and prenatal care and what to expect. I get 1-2 emails per day about things I can do to be healthy and learning what size the baby is relative to something edible.

Well, I thought that with my first appointment with our choosen doctor, Dr. Leeman, that I would get an ultrasound without a doubt (you know based on a my internet research). Well, yesterday after sitting on hold for 13 minutes, I did speak with a lady in his office who shared that no, I would not be getting an ultra sound this visit, but that it would be scheduled by Dr. Leeman for another day. OOOOOOOOOOooooooo no! I have been visualizing all my concerns floating away as I see a REAL BABY on the screen with Dave standing next to me and us remarking about how insanely wonderful this all is.

Well, lucky for me Dr. Leeman really likes Dave. They met when Dave was on his OBGYN rotation. So, I took a little chance and emailed Dr. Leeman yesterday without telling Dave and he wrote me this morning, that sweet man! He said he will try to get me an ultra sound appointment when I am there visiting him and if he can't he will do the ultra sound himself!

Seriously! I like this man! And he ended his email with: "Look forward to seeing you, David and your little one!"

PRECIOUS!

This morning I tried to see any differences in my belly and I lay in bed each morning trying to see if my uterus feels anything like the "grapefruit" the websites claim it should be.

Week 10- uterus: grapefruit baby: prune

Very teeny tiny stuff I am getting over the top excited about, huh?

Happy Saturday!

Some sweet husband points

I wanted to give Dave lots of points for being so sweet to me last night and bringing me treats like oranges and Bran Muffins to the couch as I lounged and read my favorite pregnancy book.

It's a book Lindley gave me called Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. I love so many of the concepts she shares and the intense mind/body connection she describes for laboring mothers. I am intrigued by the psychology of the birth process and how to use my mind and visualizations to ease the child into the world. Ease is relative, not like the ease I feel when I am sitting on a beach, but to even begin to work to shift the language of child birth is powerful.

So for my own sake and for my birth plan, I want to look into summarizing some of the key points of the book in the coming months to keep my motivation and positive thoughts strong.

Dave is nervous that I am only in my 11th week and getting so excited about all of this due to all the medical complications he has seen with pregnancy. Still, the odds are in our favor that all will go relatively smoothly.

And I am hoping that our baby is on the smaller side. Dave was under 7 lbs. I was almost 9 lbs.

Ina May says that your body can most likely handle the baby you grow. So I will keep my faith in my body!

SERIOUSLY!

How does this Mom do it? I have heard about women with no symptoms, no EXTREME DROP IN ENERGY! But to continue with Olympic Trials???

Hmmmmm, this just isn't me!

Living with a Doctor Dad to Be

Well, last night I told Dave about this blog. He read my intro note and laughed! He began to tell me that on a scale of 1-10 of suffering during early pregnancy he would give me a 3 at best! He then proceeded to tell me about the women who end up in the Emergency Department needing IV's because they are so dehydrated and cannot keep a bite down due to constant vomiting. He said every time he turns around I am eating AGAIN! So yes, compared to those ladies, I am just strolling through the park of the First Trimester. HOWEVER, I truly do have terrible belly aches and all types of gastrointestinal complaints, not to mention the skin of a teenager in the throes of puberty!

Waiting for that gorgeous pregnancy glow to arrive any day!

Today: 10 weeks, 1 day

Why not!

Hello friends and family,

As Dave and I are on this journey, I find myself writing lots of little up dates to all you sweetie pies out there wondering how things are going.

A good friend of mine writes on her blog as a way to document her life and to share with her two loyal blog followers. I only want those who know and love us to have access to this blog so I am going to make sure only those invited can take a peek.

I may or may not get into this but I thought I would give it a shot and post up dates!

Also, I am so miserable during the process known as the First Trimester, that I noticed I feel better when I Blah, Blah, Blah a bit about my many not so happy symptoms.

Much love,

Elizabeth