"Strange Things"

by Randy Newman

Strange things are happening to me
Strange things
Strange things are happening to me
Ain't no doubt about it

I have not been able to get this song out of my head.  I suppose the nausea, fatigue, acne, numb limbs, and sheer lack of a brain should've tipped me off to the pregnancy, but I kept getting negative test results.  Finally we got a positive one though.   It was a little touch and go there for a while--I was bleeding and the baby's heart rate was only 107 and must be over 120 to be okay.   A couple of weeks ago though, we went in and the heart rate was all the way up to 150!  Hooray!  On the 20th I went in for my "official" first visit (even though I'd been in multiple times before that due to the complications) and the baby is still looking great and I no longer have to go in weekly--we can go back to the monthly appointments.  

So seriously, my brain is GONE.  I don't know what this little baby has done with it, but it is nowhere to be found!  The other day I went to the cupboard to get out some crackers and found a whole bag and block of cheese in the cupboard.  I don't know how long it'd been in there for, but I am sure I am the one who put it there.  The other day I went shopping with my friend Krystal at The District.  I was supposed to show her where Gymboree was and she was following me in her car.  I parked and she gave me this funny look--I thought because there wasn't a parking space for her.  She parked down the block a ways.  I got out of the car and got Melia out and went to walk in the store but it wasn't there...yeah it was like at least a block down the street.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Then I did go in the store with Krystal and we shopped for a while and then decided to go check another store down the street a ways.  Halfway there I turned to Krystal and was like, "Do you have my keys?"  (Of course she didn't.)  I ran back to the store and they were sitting right on the display counter at the entrance!  

This story takes the cake though.  Another day I was going to pick up Krystal and her girls at her house.  Melia was in the back seat and I was just going to run in to get Krystal.  I pulled into the driveway.  When I jumped out of the car, the car started moving forward.  I had left the car in drive and had had my foot on the brake until I got out of the car.  DUH!  I JUMPED back in the car and went to SLAM my foot on the brake, but I slammed my foot on the gas instead.  AHH!  The car lurched forward and I SLAMMED on the brake and stopped just a few inches in front of her garage door.  GOSH!  THAT WAS A CLOSE CALL!  

So on top of my brain being gone, I've been feeling HORRIBLE and have had to deal with the most disgusting acne ever.  On Christmas day, just a few days after I found out I was pregnant, we went to our big family Christmas brunch at my mom's house.  My brother-in-law, Loren, comes up to me and ACTUALLY SAYS, "What's wrong with your face?"  I was like, "What, my acne?!"  He's all, "Yeah, are you pregnant or something?"  GEE THANKS...MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO!  He sure knows how to make a girl feel good.  ;)  Just kidding Lor.  He is pretty darn observant I guess to put two and two together.  I told him I wasn't though.  I still wasn't 100% sure because I'd had so many negative tests before the positive one.

I kept thinking I was pregnant because I was so late and felt like crap and all those other symptoms I named before, but the dollar store tests kept coming back negative.  I was so frustrated.  I bawled my eyes out after like the 3rd test because I was so certain I was pregnant and if I wasn't there was obviously something SERIOUSLY wrong with me because my period was already like 2 weeks late and I was feeling awful.  Later that same day I was going to the bathroom again and I was thinking, "What if it WAS positive and I didn't wait long enough."  I had thrown it away as soon as the "control" line had appeared because every other time I've taken a test the results have shown immediately, however, the instructions do say you must wait 3 minutes and it's void after 10 minutes.  I dug it out of the garbage can and pulled it back out of the box.  There was a faint positive line.  I started freaking out.  I hurried and looked up "false positives" on the internet.  False positives are rare and most of the time the only reason for a false positive is if the test is read wrong.  This is what I read on one of the websites:  Another problem that commonly occurs when it come to testing is going back to "double check" your results. Disappointed with a negative result at the 3 minute (or 5 minute interval depending on the test), a woman may go back to look again to see if maybe she didn't see that positive the first time. Some women will go as far as digging that test out of the trash "just to be sure". This is probably one of the biggest causes of false positive results.  Gee, now I feel like an idiot.  So then I REALLY wasn't sure if I was pregnant or not.  I sent Mike to the store to buy me a "First Response" test.  The dollar store tests can detect 100 mIU/ml of HCG in your urine but the expensive tests can detect like 20 mIU/ml.  First Response, however, detects something like 12.5, so if I was pregnant, it would say.  And sure enough, it was positive.

Because of how different I feel this time than last time, I feel like it's probably a boy.  I'll be happy either way though.  I think it'd be a lot of fun to have a girl though just so Melia and the baby could be sisters so close together.  But I definitely want a boy eventually, and Spencer wants it to be a boy, so either would be a lot of fun.  


Anyway, I am just hoping that this sick, nauseous, yuckiness will go away soon.  It has been terrible.  I've been puking my guts out, soooo tired constantly, and coughing all the time--which also causes me to throw up, or at least dry heave quite regularly.  I can hardly sleep at all and Melia's been on one too.  She must know or something cause she has been a different child.  She is extra ornery, wakes up between 7 and 8 every morning instead of between 10 and 11 like usual.  She wakes up multiple times a night, and actually wants me to hold her...all the time!  She also just had 4 teeth break through (3 of which are molars) so I am sure that adds to it, but I still think she "knows."  She hasn't let me put her in the sling since she was probably 6 months old.  The other day she was being so clingy I finally just decided to try it because I had so much to get done before people were coming over.  So I put her in the sling and she was happy as could be and wanted to stay there for HOURS.  I am not even exaggerating.  My neck was killing from the sling!  I'm not complaining about that though cause I love her wanting to be close to me and I don't want to feel like this baby is taking anything away from her...at least not yet.  I know it'll be a struggle to feel like the baby is not taking away from her once it's here, so for now I just want to give her all the love and attention I can.  It's hard though because I seriously am so so sick.  


So anyway, there's the scoop!  Ooh I almost forgot to tell you all when I am due!  :)  Well I WAS given the due date of August 19.  (Which is fun because it's the EXACT SAME DUE DATE as my BFF Aubrey!)  I know exactly when the first date of my last cycle was, so that SHOULD be accurate, but with all the ultra sounds I've had to have over the last few weeks, they've seen that the baby seems to be measuring small so now the doctor is saying that the baby probably won't come until September.  So my "official" due date NOW, is September 1.  (Which is still fun because another friend of mine is due on August 28th, but she shall remain nameless because she has not announced it yet!)  I'm happy with that though because Melia was induced a week overdue and I don't know that she was ready to come yet, even then.  I am glad I had her when I did (because the cord was around her neck and who knows if she would've made it if we'd waited longer) but I am hoping that with the few extra weeks they're giving me, this baby will be able to come in it's own time!  I would REALLY like to go into labor naturally.


SOOOO, now, THAT IS THE FULL SCOOP!  Wish us luck!  It's kindof a hectic time for our family right now so let's just hope everything runs smoothly and that it all works out!  We cannot wait for this little baby to arrive!