A Pregger's Night Out in a College Town

Our first extensive night out on the town since I got pg. The occasion: seeing Lucero (a band Stephen loves but I can't stand) play at Athen's most famous music venue, the 40 Watt Club. Here's my version of a pregger's night out in a college town:

9:15 We walk up to the infamous 40 Watt Club in downtown Athens and I notice a problem right away-- the marquis lists three acts for the night, not just Lucero. Thinking about my 8:30 a.m. OB appointment, I make my last attempt to get out of going to the show. "Are there going to be two openers? I really don't want to be here until 2:00 in the morning." Stephen ignores me and keeps walking.
9:25 It's our turn to pay for tickets, and I'm feeling like an old pro. Hand the lady with the scary piercings the money, show the guy with a million tattoos the ID, then place your hand in front of him for a stamp.
9:26 Ahhh... we're in! We triumphantly take the best seat in the house, and wait for something to happen. I survey the club, which isn't nearly as glamorous as I'd imagined. I start taking pictures of the light fixtures, because there's nothing else to do.

9:45 A few more people have trickled in, but there's no sign of a musician anywhere, and someone is starting to get hungry (Babble, of course!). I'm not in the mood to get faint from being pg hungry, so Stephen and I regretfully leave the best seat in the house and are back on the sidewalk. I try not to breathe in as we walk past smokers chatting outside of bars.
9:50 Mmm, a diner! With lovely red seats and real flowers on the table.

10:45 One burger and a mountain of Cajun fries later, Stephen is getting anxious about missing the show. Back on the street.
10:50 We flash the guy with all the tattoos our stamped hands. A hundred more people have emerged at the 40 Watt and the best seat in the house is long gone. Darn. Some kind of hurried activity is happening on the stage. Yes! We got here just in time for the band.
11:00 Checking out the pool room, where the only comfortable open seats remain. I did squats in my prenatal workout earlier in the day and am not about to punish my aching legs by standing any longer than I have to.
11:15 Something screeches over an amp. They're starting! Back into the main room we go. Wait... it's only the second opener. And the amps are way too loud. I start contemplating whether this experience is going to be worth losing a portion of my hearing for. Stephen doesn't think it's too loud, but that's only because his hearing has already been damaged.
11:20 I grab an empty folding chair from a nearby table and fantasize about the day when I'm so large that people will gladly offer the best seat in the house back to my pregnant self.
11:30 The opening band, a funky Mississippi blues duo, is actually really, really good and quite entertaining. It's nice to hear some live music again.
12:00 Making the first trip to the bathroom, where the real challenge of the night lies: the art of choosing the cleanest stall in a filthy club. I go for the one on the far right and try to lock the stall door while touching as little as possible. Toilet paper? Check. "Vagina Warriors" is written on the stall door. Hmmm.
12:30 It's already after midnight, and the roadies are just beginning to set up for Lucero. This is going to be a long night.
12:45 Lucero, in all of it's growling glory, finally begins. The singer is as terrible as I remembered from the cds, but there's a pleasant surprise on the stage to drown him out: a horn section, a pedal steel guitarist, and a keyboardist. Hurrah!
12:55 My hearing has become numb so I resort to people watching. There is an interesting mix of boot-wearing hipsters, boot-wearing sorority girls, and boot-wearing rednecks. And somehow they are all intermingling in a drunken harmony. Everyone seems so young and unable to handle their alcohol. Ahh, undergrads...
1:00 Unfortunately, the dancing at these kind of shows is never entertaining to watch. There are the "head-nodders," the "knee-benders," the "side-swayers." If they really get into it, they might nod their head and bend their knees at the same time. And then there is always the one or two completely uninhibited (completely inebriated) folks who flail about wildly and make everyone around them nervous. One of those uninhibited types is dancing with two guys next to us in dangerously high heels. I try to maintain a safe distance from her wobbly twists and turns.
1:05 There's a couple doing a box step! Impressive!
1:20 Everyone at the 40 Watt is completely wasted by now, except for the bouncers, the musicians, and me. The crowd is a mass of confused stumbling and slurring. Someone near the stage tries a failed attempt at bodysurfing. I'm feeling very sober, very old, and very pregnant.
1:35 Time for the second trip to the girls' room. I marvel at the fact that, unlike everyone else, I'm able to walk in a straight path without stumbling. The Vagina Warriors stall miraculously still has TP, but the floor has acquired a new sticky finish.
1:40 Stephen appears to be ready to pass out (he'd been awake since 4:00 that morning) and I start easing into my plan for getting us out of there. Don't sit back down, just keep standing like it's time to go. The crowd is starting to clear away, the bouncers are collecting empty beer cans from tables, the singer is getting concerned about the inebriation of his fans.
1:45 Stephen asks if I'm ready to go (yay, the plan is working!). I try not to look too excited and casually respond that I'm ready whenever he is.
1:50 We exit the club, and are confronted by an enormous taxi parked on the street. I'm not talking about the little yellow car. I'm talking about a 16-passenger van. They'll only need about 10 more of those. We certainly don't have to worry about a designated driver. I'm thankful that I'm so used to being the DD that this is one pregnancy transition that has not been hard to get used to.
2:00 Back in the car, I marvel at my time assessment skills. Didn't I say we'd be here until 2:00? *Groan* 7:30 a.m. minus 2:00 a.m. equals five and a half hours of sleep. Minus a shower before bed equals five hours of sleep (there's no way I'm waking up in time for a shower in the morning, and we all know a trip to the gyno warrants a shower).
2:15 Back home, and someone is hungry again! Shower delayed by another snack. Now that I'm in our silent house, I notice ringing in my ears. Great. Did I really lose hearing for this?
3:00 Nice and clean, and finally getting between the sheets. Now, if only someone would stop snoring so I could go to sleep...

The Preggo Clothing Dilemma

When I realized that I am going to get bigger and I'd better get prepared for it, I strapped a small pillow onto my belly with a belt and tried on everything in my closet. It was really kind of fun to see what I already had that would stretch over my pillow belly. (Stephen probably would have thought I'd gone crazy if he'd walked in on that.) I was around eight or nine weeks then, and was so confident that many of my regular clothes would work, and it seemed like they would.

But when the real belly began to show up, the test got nullified. My stomach has been doing really strange things ever since about week 10. I wake up each morning, and it looks pre-pregnancy normal. Then as the day goes on, my abdomen-- not my belly-- grows and expands until I look like I've got a bun cooking in there. But the next morning, I wake up and it's all gone. Other pregnant women have told me they had the exact same experience, and none of us can figure out what is going on in there. My doctor said that the uterus doesn't even begin to move out of the pelvic bone area until week 14, so any kind of pre-14 week bump can't possibly be baby. (I don't really want to know what this expanding and retracting bump is made of!)

All this strange bellywork has been making clothing kind of difficult since my body shape changes so much throughout the day. My pants won't fit over the growing bulge and my shirts like to ride up over it. Some women say that they try to wear their pre-pregnancy clothes as long as possible. Personally, I don't know why anyone would put themselves through the torture of making their pants zip up over an expanding belly. I got my first maternity purchase, Old Navy maternity jeans, several weeks ago and am super pleased with them. They look and feel like normal clothes! (Well, except for the fake zipper part.)

I didn't have much luck at the one consignment store in town with maternity clothes. Their selection was tiny and I only found two pants that even came close to fitting. These are comfy, they work, and they were only $5 each, but Stephen said they had a "bubble butt," and that was before I put them on!

After living in southern Arizona, I didn't actually have a winter wardrobe at all, much less a preggo one. So I went out and bought these basic stretchy shirts with looong torsos (long enough to cover the bulge!) super cheap at TJ Maxx. They have been great so far; real maternity shirts would just look silly on me until I get the real belly to fill them out.


When I started getting the mysterious expanding-retracting abdomen, I re-tried on everything in my closet, this time without the pillow strapped on, and found that not nearly as many clothes were going to fit as the pillow-belly had led me to believe. But here's a few that will hopefully keep working for a little while longer...

Hurrah for stretchy knee-length skirts with elastic waistbands! These puppies are good to go with some warm black tights.

Remember when empire waists were in style a couple of summers ago? I'm glad I hung onto those shirts! They just need a little layering ingenuity for the chilly weather. (Do any of these look familiar, Em? =)

Along with some other stuff I already had, like button-up sweaters, an empire waist LBD, and some long tanks for layering, I think this is going to work. (Maybe for another month?)

The Giddiest Grandparents-to-be

Although all of our parents are excited about having a grandchild, there are two in particular who stand out amongst the rest. (Drum roll, please...) It's my Dad and Sonya!

How did Dad and Sonya earn the coveted current title of Giddiest Grandparents-to-be? They sent our first official congrats on the baby card, and it's the most beautiful baby card ever, with the sweetest notes inside, and the coolest baby-related song playing upon opening (Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World"). All hand picked, and hand-written, by Dad. And Sonya, grandma-to-be, is already talking to the baby via phone-to-tummy, and has sent the first little trinket for Baby Brooks.

A lot of people are curious about what "Dan the Man" will be like as Grandpa Dan. He's really quite domesticated these days--check out his homemade super healthy muffins!


Father's Day 2009 with Dad

Some things never change- this man loves food! I offered to make him whatever he wanted for Father's Day supper, and his request was roast, garlic mashed potatoes, salad, and banana pudding. (Thanks to Sonya for the help in the kitchen!)

Grandma and Grandpa-to-be =)

(Can we stop taking pictures so I can eat now?)

Back to Basics

My not-so-trusty scale went kaput a week ago (don't they always do that when you most want them to work?), so I have no idea how things are going there. But I have been spending a lot of time focusing on getting my preggo eating habits on the right track with a tool that is hopefully trustier than my scale, the pregnancy food pyramid guide. It isn't perfect, but I think it's a good goal to aim for in terms of getting a variety of healthy foods each day. And after I almost fainted in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store a couple of weeks ago (a normal occurrence during pregnancy, but it still freaked me out), I started keeping a log of what I eat daily and comparing it to the pyramid suggestions, which has led to some surprising discoveries: I don't eat nearly enough fruits, grains, or proteins. This is very much a surprise because I really believed that I ate healthy before I got pg, but my log is revealing that I'm not quite as healthy as I thought. So, the trusty old pyramid is helping me to revamp and rethink what I eat each day. I feel like I'm in health class in fifth grade again, and can't believe that at my age I really do need to go back to basics and reconstruct my eating habits. But what better time to do it?

My inspirational quote of the week:

"Sooner or later, you have to become your own mother- to feed and nourish yourself in the way that you've always hoped someone else would do for you" (from Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup).

I'm starting to realize that not only do I have to be my own mother, but that I am already the mother of someone else who is entirely dependent on me for everything it needs, even though I've never met that special someone and I don't even know whether to call it a "he" or a "she" yet. I've had the whole "no drinking, no sushi, no being around smokers" thing down for quite awhile now, but somehow it's harder to understand that even the things I'm eating are affecting the baby. Maybe because it's still hard to believe that there is really something in there, because I still don't look pregnant. There seems to be a common misperception that motherhood doesn't begin until the baby is born, but I'm beginning to have the overwhelming realization that it has already begun. Sooo... food pyramid, watch out! You are about to be owned... by a mother.

New Trimester, New Challenges

My second trimester has officially begun, and I'm already beginning to forget about the sheer misery of the first trimester. Now that I can finally eat again, it's time to step up to the plate for the next curve ball: gaining weight. Oh, boy.

From this point on, I'm supposed to be gaining "approximately one pound" per week. Okay, apparently I missed the lesson on how to gain about a pound a week in high school algebra... seriously, how is that supposed to be "approximately" accomplished? Is there some sort of formula I should be plugging my daily calories into and dividing them by my energy output to equal so many ounces I'm gaining per day? I mean, who does that? (If you do do that, I'm really just envious because I apparently slept through that lesson).

The weight issue is yet another aspect of pregnancy that I didn't foresee as a potential issue until... sometime last week. Ahh... there's so much I've learned over the last few months... and I have so many more months left to go... and so much left to learn... (Shouldn't there have been a class in high school about pregnancy? Isn't this a life skill that we could have used a little educating on? I mean, if the government wants to decrease the unwanted teenage pregnancies in our country, all they have to do is fund a little educating about all the "issues" that occur in pregnancy... I'm pretty sure that would scare even the most carefree of teenagers into at least a decade of safe sex).

The weight issue is currently scaring the heck out of me because I have lost too much much of it recently (I know that a lot of people would love for this this to be an issue in their life, but trust me, this is not what you want to be doing when you're 14 weeks pg). The stress of moving this summer caused me to lose weight, and then of course I lost more weight when I was unable to eat over the last couple of months. When I stepped on the scale in my birthday suit a few days ago, I was horrified to find that I'm now precariously close to being underweight. Eeek! This is not what I want for Babble. I've read that being underweight during pregnancy increases chances of premature birth and low birth weight, so yeah, I'm freaking out about this.

Should I start eating ice cream every night? Or better yet, a fully loaded banana split?? I'm fully aware that that isn't the ideal way to gain weight, but I'm desperate to get back in the "healthy" weight range, fast. The only thing that brings me consolation is that this is still very early in the second tri, and if I can gain enough this week and keep gaining the recommended amount after that, being underweight just this one week or two hopefully won't hurt anything (will it?). Stephen and I are now on a mission to "fatten me up," at least until I'm comfortably back in the safety zone. I will admit, I've been on worse missions before. All-you-can-eat Chinese buffet, here I come!

Now I have conveniently figured out a way to postpone my exercise routine, too, which has been on hiatus even since mid-September. Obviously, I need to burn as few calories as possible until I get back in a healthy weight range, so unfortunately those prenatal yoga videos and walks around the neighborhood will have to wait a little longer... (like I needed another excuse to put off exercising!)