Third Trimester?! Are you kidding me?!

How far along: 27weeks, 4 days

How big is baby: According to thebump.com, the baby is about the size of an eggplant. He weighs about two pounds!

Total weight gain: About 9lbs or so.

Sleep: Sometimes, I sleep really well, and sometimes I don't.

Maternity Clothes: Definitely

Morning Sickness: Nope

Food cravings: Nothing new.

Food aversions: Nothing new.

Challenges: Doing anything without grunting and also a lot of back pain.

Movement: All the time! :)

Boy or Girl?: Boy.

What I’m looking forward to: Everything. Seeing him for the first time. Getting his nursery together.

What I miss: A painless back.

Next appt: I think it's next Friday, but it's probably this Friday. Thankfully, they always give me a reminder call. This is the appointment I'm dreading--the glucose testing to test for gestational diabetes. FUN!

I'm seriously in disbelief over how quickly this baby is growing!

I truly cannot believe that I'm officially in the 3rd trimester of this pregnancy, which only means 2 things:


1. Baby Nathan will be here before I know it
2. School will be back in session before I know it. :(


I'm not too excited about #2, but that's life, I suppose.


A question I have gotten surprisingly frequently or have heard it being discussed is drinking alcohol during pregnancy. I do drink occasionally, but when I say occasionally, I actually mean it, unlike that distant relative you have that says, "Oh, I don't drink often" and everyone knows they're lying. If and when I drink, it's a glass of wine, maybe once a month. This year at my family's Christmas Eve gathering, I poured a glass of wine, took two sips and forgot all about it.



So, the argument is that having a glass of wine once in a while during pregnancy is perfectly harmless, but here's the thing: why drink at all? In the last few months, there have been two instances where I thought to myself, "If I wasn't pregnant, I'd probably have a glass of wine right now" but it's something that I would never do. I'm not saying that I judge people that do choose to have the occasional drink during pregnancy, but being that fetal alcohol syndrome is a very real condition for babies, I just don't see how it's worth the risk.


I occasionally follow a message board on a pregnancy website and some of the expectant mothers there really freak out over issues that I don't always see as being an issue. For example, someone was talking about a pregnant friend who is hoping to deliver at 38 weeks. While I personally am hoping to go into labor naturally, if the doctor of this friend isn't worried about delivering the baby early, then that's between that patient and the doctor, in my opinion.


Yesterday, there were multiple posts on the board about putting a carseat in a shopping cart and the huge danger that it can bring. They were posting articles and talking about how they judge any mother who puts her baby's carrier in the carseat, but most of the articles mentioned that the baby's carseat wasn't properly snapped into the grocery cart and/or they were not wearing their seat-belt while in the carseat.


As these women bring up these topics, I find it a little surprising that I see many of them talking about having a glass of wine here and there. When I brought up that I had personally chose not to drink at all during my pregnancy, because "I don't need it, so why do it" two whole people agreed with me.

As I said before, I just don't see how it's worth the risk to drink at all to people. When I first found out I was pregnant, I decided to cut all of my caffeine (that wasn't chocolate, of course) out of my diet, because I figured that none was better than any, but I changed my decision (with my doctor's advice) when I could no longer handle the headaches from the caffeine withdraws.

Pregnancy definitely brings a lot of opinions from strangers. 


I guess if I decide to snap my baby's carseat into the grocery cart, I'll be sure to keep that a secret from the women on that website.

12 Weeks Down.

How far along: 12 weeks, 1 day.

How big is baby: About the size of a plum.

Total weight gain: Still, as far as I know, none. I need to invest in a scale.

Sleep: I still get tired early, and I wake up early every morning because I'm about to burst.

Maternity Clothes: I'm on the verge of needing to break down and find a solution to tight pants.

Morning Sickness: Nope, thankfully. :)

Food cravings : No majors this week.

Food aversions: I've just been avoiding what I know I don't want, and no new developments lately.

Challenges: Adjusting to having to go to the bathroom every five minutes. How am I supposed to get anything done? I know it's just begun...

Movement: Too early.

Boy or Girl?: Again, too early to know.

What I’m looking forward to: Finding out the gender.

What I miss: Sleeping in.

Next appt: One week.

I love Sundays, because it's church, lunch with Travis's family, and being lazy for the rest of the day. Today, I managed to get a nap, which was surprising since I slept later than usual this morning.

During my nap, I had the first dream that I was able to remember about the baby. In my dream, the baby was a girl, and we were taking her to church. There wasn't much detail to the dream, but I do remember the love I felt for my child. It was so pure. I was overflowing with happiness and warmth. The baby was so sweet and precious, and when I awoke, I was a little sad that I didn't get to dream about the baby longer.

It's just one of those things that got me even more excited to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl, and even more excited to meet the baby.

For years, I've said that the way that I love my nephew, Ethan, was the closest I could imagine to loving a child of my own. I always add that I know that the love I have for my children will be different of course, but it's hard for me to imagine what that love must be like, when I love a child that isn't mine the way that I love Ethan.

My grandmother always is sure to correct my thoughts on this with that I will never love Ethan like I'll love my own kids, and that's fine, but I'm just always amazed at our capability to love other humans, whether they're our own children, or someone else's.

The fact that I love sweet Ethan the way that I do---it's an unconditional, overflowing love--makes me overjoyed at the thought of the love that I'll have for my child. It already amazes me how attached I am to this baby, because I love it already, but I know it'll be an overwhelming amount when I meet him/her for the first time.

Now, that I've been sappy, I'll share other bits about my life these days.

One-Act season is here, and I am busy, busy, busy. With my rehearsal schedule and commitments that Travis has to the church during the week, I feel like I rarely see him these days, and I've been missing him a lot. However, we were able to spend the whole day together today, doing nothing, and it was perfect. :)

With One-Act season, there are always challenges...feeling like some of the kids don't want to succeed like we want them to, the long hours, the bus trips, etc. On Friday we attended our first clinic, which is an event where we perform our show and a clinician gives us critiques on the show. Overall, it went really well, the bus trip, however, did not. On the way up, we were complaining about the heat on the air-conditioned bus, and the driver turned it up all the way, and it was sweltering.

THE HEATER WAS ON. That's a little counter-active, no? We didn't find out until we were almost there, because one of our students finally said, "there's heat blowing out of this vent right here."  I wish she would have said that much, much sooner. When we told the bus driver, she was like, "But they're all off." Then she switched a switched and it turned off. I guess not, lady. The intense heat caused many, including Bobbi, the director, to get carsick. How fun! Thankfully, I don't have to deal with carsickness.

In other news, I have read the first two installments of The Hunger Games trilogy, and wow. It's amazing.  I highly recommend anyone and everyone pick up a copy immediately and begin reading. With the first book,The Hunger Games, after the first few chapters of learning about characters and the setting, it became an imaginary playground as I ripped through the pages, salivating for more. As soon as I finished, I couldn't wait to start the next book.

With the second book, Catching Fire, I was already attached to the characters and knew the setting so it was instant. I would read as much as I could during the day (before rehearsal starts), and stay up late reading---it took about a day and a half. If my student that has been loaning the books to me remembers the third installment, Mockingjay tomorrow, I'm sure it'll be an equally quick read. The story is just sooo good and the pacing of the book is so well written.

And now I cannot wait to see the movie.

11 Weeks!

Remember when I posted two weeks ago about how I was going to post weekly updates?


Remember how I used the word, "attempt" in the sentence?


I know myself well. :)


How far along: 11 weeks, 0 day.

How big is baby: thebump.com says about the size of a lime, which blows my mind a little. People keep telling me that I'll be more shocked when it's the size of a watermelon.

Total weight gain: None so far. :) I feel kind of like a rockstar.

Sleep: I still get tired early, and I wake up early every morning because I'm about to burst.

Maternity Clothes: I'm not wearing any yet, although I did buy two adorable maternity maxi dresses yesterday.

Morning Sickness: It' pretty much gone at this point. :)

Food cravings : Macaroni and Cheese, and Jack-in-the-Box curly fries with buttermilk ranch.

Food aversions: I have to be in the mood to eat meat these days, especially barbeque.

Challenges: I'm still having trouble/frustrations with not being able to help kids lift heavy things at work. I'm just so used to helping!

Movement: Too early.

Boy or Girl?: Again, too early to know.

What I’m looking forward to: Finding out the gender.

What I miss: Sleeping in.

Next appt: Two weeks.


Not much is changing with me that I can feel, anyway. I just think about the future and the baby constantly. I've had some mood swings, but even those aren't quite as bad lately.



The other day, one of my classes did something that really frustrated me, and a girl who tends to be somewhat disrespectful says, "Are you having a mood swing, or are you really mad at us?"


I'm not going to pretend like her assuming that I was going absolutely crazy didn't make me a little mad, but I told her that it wasn't a mood swing, it was that their choice of actions was beneath my expectations. I have, admittedly, felt like I was having an out-of-body experience when I find myself getting frustrated/annoyed over something that wouldn't typically be too bothersome to me, but even then, my 'mood swings' are really just my mind feels like it's going to explode. I have yet to turn into The Hulk.


Maybe turning into The Hulk would be the trick to getting some of these students whipped into shape. ;)

Oh, food.

It's crazy how being pregnant affects food in so many ways.

I had always heard of cravings and things tasting different or not liking favored foods at much, but it's just different than I expected, I guess.

For example, I usually eat Lean Cuisines for lunch---they're easy to take to work, they cook quickly, and they don't taste too bad. I recently tried a new one, Angel Hair Pomodoro, and I thought it was amazing. I brought another one to work over a week ago, and I just can't bring myself to eat it. It's still in the freezer. Every time I look at it, I'm disgusted---like a little kid would to brussel sprouts.

On Sunday after church, we decided to eat at Spring Creek BBQ with Travis' family and we decided to share the sausage/brisket plate. I was thankful that the side-dishes have unlimited refills, because the meat wasn't appetizing, but the macaroni and cheese was perfect to me.

I'm even having trouble getting excited about peanut butter and jelly, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite things to eat. I always say it's the perfect sandwich, because it's just so delicious and fool-proof. I'm finding it quite unfortunate that there's a growing distance between me and my old friend, the pb&j.

I'm also growing increasingly indecisive about choosing what I want to eat, which is frustrating when you're married to a person who is indecisive. Here's how pretty much every conversation regarding planning a meal goes in our house these days:

Me: Hey, what do you want for dinner tonight?
Him: I don't know...food?
Me: Oh, ok. I hadn't thought of that. But really, I don't know what I want, but I know we need to figure it out.
Him: Well, I don't know, that's the thing.
Me: Ok, we'll have that. That sounds delicious.

We always eventually figure it out, but this conversation continues in different varieties for what always feels like an extensive period of time many times a day. It's hard for me to figure out what I want sometimes, so I just need him to decide for me. :) I just need a live-in chef who can make us both whatever we want whenever we want. Interested? I'll pay you $1 a day. I'll go ahead an wait by the phone. ;)

Weekly Update

I have this plan, but we'll see if I actually remember to stick to it.

I'm going to attempt to post weekly updates about how I'm feeling and things like that, kind of like a survey a là MySpace bulletins. I've stolen this survey from my fellow blogger, Salt.

How far along: 8 weeks, 6 days

How big is baby: According to the books, about the size of a jellybean. My ultrasound measurement for Baby Hazzard was 1.5cm

Total weight gain: None so far. :)

Sleep: I tend to get tired early, I've gone to bed as early as 8pm in recent weeks, but I'm beginning to adjust. It's 7:58pm now, and I'm not even yawning.

Maternity Clothes: Nope.

Morning Sickness: Occasionally, mostly just if I get hungry, or if I'm having a food aversion. Those tend to make me instantly nauseous.

Food cravings : No major cravings as of yet, although I have had some. Last week, nothing was going to stop me from ordering a Pizza Hut pepperoni pan pizza...and I never get those!

Food aversions: Yes, yes, yes. On three separate occasions this week, the idea of eating the Lean Cuisine I brought to work that day become repulsive by lunch, so I get something else.

Challenges: I'm having a hard time not helping the kids with the physical aspects of my job, such as moving large set pieces and such.

Movement: Way too early to feel the baby moving.

Boy or Girl?: Again, too early to know. Travis wants a boy, and I just want a healthy baby.

What I’m looking forward to: Less nausea.

What I miss: Delicious White Chocolate Mochas from Starbucks.

Next appt: Four weeks :)

I told my students this week about the baby, and they're excited for me. They're typical high school students---full of questions. Every day they ask me questions like, "How's the morning sickness?" and "What kind of cravings do you get."

It's kind of nice that they're getting to see a more personal side of me, and realize that I'm a normal person. I'm always trying to explain that to them, maybe they're a little closer to believing me now. :)

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then...

Comes baby!

Ultrasound - February 8, 2012 - 8 weeks

So, I have vowed to my friends on Facebook and Twitter that I would not and will not be that parent that once they have a baby-in-utero, they only update about being pregnant and the events after.

However, some people want to know those details, (because I guess it can be interesting) so I'll just update my blog with that kind of stuff, considering this blog is about me, and it's my blog so I can do whatever I want. :)

How We Found Out
Most women discover their pregnancy by typical symptoms (being late, fatigue, nausea, etc.), but I am not most women. If I'm going to find out I'm pregnant, I apparently choose a much different route.

On the evening of January 17, it was business as usual. I got home from work, ate dinner with Travis, watched Teen Mom 2 and then took a shower before bed. As I was taking on the physically-demanding task of rinsing my hair, my heart started racing and pounding. It freaked me out a little, so I decided to breathe slow and finish showering. When I got out a few minutes later, it was still racing, so I counted my beats per minute...it was so fast I could barely keep count but it was somewhere around 130-140bpm. I felt like this was definitely something to be alarmed about, but I didn't want to be crazy, so I decided to lay down so I could just be still. I figured sleep makes your heart rate slow down naturally, so it'd calm down.30-45 minutes later it was still going, so I told Travis that I was concerned, and I felt like I should go to the emergency clinic by our apartment.

Of course, by the time I got there, I felt like I was delusional, because it had finally slowed down, but I wanted to get checked out anyway. They checked me in and hooked me to a heart monitor within a few minutes (I love that place!), and began doing blood work and took a urine sample. I joked with them that if they were looking for a positive pregnancy test, they weren't going to find it. I definitely wasn't pregnant.

A little while later, the doctor came in, and this is how the conversation went:

Doctor: Mrs. Hazzard, we got your test results back. Now everything came back normal except for one...
Me: (inner-monologue) Oh my gosh. I need a heart transplant. Or I'm dying. This isn't good. 

Doctor: ...you're pregnant!

Me: WHAT? Are you serious? No way! For real? You're sure? Oh my gosh. Are you serious? I'm pregnant? No way!

Doctor: (after recovering from laughter) Yes ma'am, your tests came out positive for pregnancy. The good news is that all of your vitals are normal now and it was probably just a surge of hormones.

Travis and I were both so shocked. We were both pretty quiet, trying to absorb this new information. The worst part was that they told us around midnight, which meant that I was expected to go home, go to sleep, and wake up for work the next morning.

I should've asked for a doctor's note to excuse me from work.

Not Feeling Real
Aside from being more tired than usual, some nausea, and the occasional mood swing, overall, I haven't felt too different. We told our families, but it still wasn't feeling real. In the last two weeks or so, I kept thinking, "what if they mis-read my lab results? What if I'm not pregnant? I would be so devastated."

It was bothering me so much I even took a home pregnancy test.

It came out positive. :)

But I will say, now that I have seen (and cried over) the baby and the heartbeat, it feels real. I am soooo excited!

It isn't my intention to only update about baby-related information, but at least people have the option to read this instead of extensive Facebook updating. :)