week 26 day 4

So not only am I waddling, but I can't sit for too long or my organs hurt around my stomach.  I can't stand for too long because my back hurts.  The only good position is to lie on my side.

Last night, I woke up to use the bathroom and I had some serious pains in my left leg.  I had been lying on my back, asleep, and I'm guessing the baby weight was pressing on my sciatic nerve.  Ouch.  I sat up screaming in pain and luckily Mike was already awake.  He helped me up and I just hoped that I wouldn't roll back onto my back during sleep.  I think I ended up lying mostly on the side of my stomach the rest of the evening.

But like my visiting teacher said, it's always good to get the first pregnancy out of the way because the first is just a complete mystery.  With each day I'm learning more about what I can expect for the next pregnancy.

week 26 day 3

I waddle.

Last week, Mike and I were waiting for 2 pregnant ladies to cross the parking lot street in front of us and they waddled.  I asked Mike if I waddle and he said, "uhhhh..." which I know what that means.  I waddle.

So every now and then while I'm walking, I'll quickly stop to think and discover whether I'm waddling or not.  And I am.  Every time.

I try to walk normally, you know, how the ANTM models do it, but it's hard.  When my legs are shifting my weight around, somehow it always turns into a penguin walk.  Oh, I do love penguins.

week 25 day 6

I've been awake for about an hour now.  Given that it's 3 am, it's not the most pleasant situation, however, I went to bed at 9 pm so 5 hours of sleep isn't too bad. 

When I first woke up at 2 am, the little baby was just moving and squirming all over.  Since she's getting bigger, I can feel her quite well these days.  I rubbed my belly, in hopes she would know I love her, and felt her little limbs push against me.  I can't help but wonder what exactly I'm feeling - a leg?  A arm?  Her head?

But the problem right now is that I'm having sleeping issues ... again.  My body wakes me up in the middle of the night and claims that it's done sleeping.  I would believe it because my body knows what's best, but when my body wants to nap all day, it's hard to believe that I'm actually getting enough sleep at night.  Hence the 9 pm bedtime last night.

However, maybe this is all just in preparation for the baby.  It's a given that I'll be up in the middle of the night and probably won't be able to go back to sleep all the time, hence naps.  Luckily Mike won't be in school during the summer so I should have a little extra time to take naps.  Nowadays, life just gets so busy with driving everywhere and trying to get things done around the apartment as well as for work, that I just don't get any time for naps.

Although today I took one in my car.  I got to Spanish Fork in 10 minutes when I thought it was going to take 20 so I had 10 extra minutes.  I thought of stopping by to say hi to Kristin but then realized 10 extra minutes isn't enough so I slept.  And it was good.

week 25 day 4

I'm currently drinking my drink for my glucose tolerance test.  Everyone has warned me that it's not good and it's highly concentrated so I've been dreading it for exactly 4 weeks now.  But boy, were they wrong.  It is fantastic!  I love concentrated drinks with strong flavors and this is perfect.  I would definitely do this again in a heartbeat.

By the way, it's been exactly 4 weeks now since we found out we're having a girl!  It seems like it was a long, long time ago but it's only been a month.  We're still really excited for her to come and I find Mike staring and smiling at all the little girls at church - not in a creepy way but in a I'm-so-excited-to-have-a-little-girl way.  I always lean over and ask him if he's excited, especially after they start screaming, and he always gives me a huge smile, gives me a hug, and says "yes!"

week 25 day 3

After reading Sam's comment to the last post, I realize that I made a weird remark.  Just to clear the record, as far as I know, Asian's belly buttons look the same as everyone else's.  However, mine looks like Asian eyes because it's all squished.

I've been extremely exhausted lately, much more than I've ever felt before.  If I could, I'd take 20 hours out of my day to nap but it's just not feasible.  I'm just not a cat.  Work, driving Mike to and from places, driving other people around, and going to Spanish Fork a few times a week for work just takes too much of my day.  I'm so impressed with those ladies who work full time jobs while being pregnant.  I'm at 35 hours each week but I have the luxury of spreading my work out throughout the day.

My increased weight is really starting to effect my body these days.  My back hurts after standing for too long and is causing me to really hunch over.  I've now gained about 18 pounds.  I always find it slightly amusing how out of breath I am after walking from the car to the front door or up a flight of stairs.  I have about 10 more pounds to gain which definitely doesn't sound as bad as 30 pounds did 20 weeks ago.

week 25 day 2

Sunday was mostly a good day but the best part was the little baby.  I feel like she's grown a lot in the past couple of days.  I now feel like I am growing a big living thing inside me as I am able to feel her much more now.  I can feel parts of her resting against my belly and I can feel every push and shove she gives to me ... especially the ones on my bladder.

With this increase in growth has come more pain.  The pain has spread horizontally across my rib cage.  After just a few minutes of sitting, my insides begin to burn and I feel quite a bit of pain.  Rubbing seems to be the best way to relieve pain for a short period of time before it comes back full force.

I have quite tired limbs as well.  They seem to fall asleep all too often.  Sitting on the floor is the worst though.  Guaranteed, my legs will start tingling within a couple of minutes of sitting.  Sometimes I'll sit for a while, stand up, start walking, and then one of my legs will fall asleep.  It's quite embarrassing to have to drag my leg behind me as I try to get to a wall or out of people's way so I can try to wake my leg up. 

I've also been waiting for the outie belly button.  No sign of one yet - I just have a very Asian-looking belly button.

week 24 day 6

I'm actually able to feel the baby moving and turning and twisting now.  So fun!

People are actually recognizing I'm pregnant now just by looking.  Actually, it's kind of embarrassing because I'll pass people or someone will hold the door open for me and just stare at m belly.  Is that not weird?  I also sat in on Mike's class today and as I had to crawl over a few of his group members to get out of the row, they all stared and asked Mike if I was pregnant.  But it's definitely a good thing that people can tell that I'm pregnant.

My poor little insides are burning ... well, the one section of my abdomen that burns normally now.  And it's obnoxious.  I'm just glad to know that it's nothing serious. 

week 24 day 3 part 2

I'm a little disappointed in my body.  Well, I guess it's actually my fault.

A few weeks ago, my supervisor went onto bed rest for the next 3 months of her pregnancy.  I was also told about a couple other people who were on bed rest for part of their pregnancy and this is something I definitely want to avoid!  Anyway, I made a conscious decision to rest more and to not push myself so hard because for a few weeks, I was pushin.

And then today happened ... a lot of walking, a lot of being on my feet and now my feet are swelling.  Forever Young Shoes, here I come ...

week 24 day 3

So most recently, I've developed this odd burning pain in my upper left abdomen.  It burns after about 5 minutes of sitting down and it's not pleasant at all.  Sunday it burned almost all day and so I decided I should definitely go to the doctor.  Hoping that this was all because of pregnancy, I went to the doctor this morning and luckily I was right.  Seeing as I'm trying to make room for a baby, everything is getting squished and is causing my insides to become uncomfortably squished.  I can expect this to happen every pregnancy now.  Fun.

I am now able to feel the baby moving along my stomach now days.  It's a pretty odd feeling.  I'm still quite unsure as to whether I'm feeling a leg, arm, shoulder, or any other body part but I can feel her and it's amazing. 

Last night I was in a staff meeting and she was moving and squirming like crazy.  My guess is that the really hard kicks are actually kicks and the softer ones are punches, but I can't be sure 100%.  However, last night, I'm pretty sure she was kicking.  She was kicking at a nice steady pace and since it was distracting me from paying attention, I put my hand on my belly and tried to move her.  As I was moving my hand in and up, she started kicking like crazy with both legs.  I don't think she liked it much and I just let her punch and kick however she pleased for the rest of the meeting, as distracting as it was to see my stomach move every couple of seconds.

week 23 day 7

Last night, we had a little party for Mike's birthday.  Being tired and finally relieving my stress for the day, I didn't notice Katie moving at all until Kara brought it up.  I realized I hadn't felt her for quite a while.  Well, everyone left and we went to get the movie, 2012.  As soon as we sat down to watch it, Katie started moving like crazy.  I had never felt her so active before.  I even felt some part of her slide across my belly which is just a crazy feeling.

I love it.  I'm excited to have her here with us but I'm definitely enjoying being able to relax with Mikey.

week 23 day 6

Mike was really tired and so he went to bed early so I decided to as well.  I wasn't too tired but went to sleep fairly quickly.  My body, apparently, thought I was taking a nap so here I am at 2:30 am, wide awake.  But it's not completely annoying because for the first time today, I've been able to really rest and feel the baby kick!  Apparently she kicks a lot during the middle of the night.  Maybe she's a restless sleeper like I am.

Yesterday on campus, I felt huge.  It was probably just my clothes but I was no longer feeling good about myself, for sure.  I've gained 15 pounds in the last almost 6 months which is quite a bit for me.  As I was huffing and puffing as I walked around campus, I decided that I hope to be able to lose this pregnancy weight.  The extra weight is a lot for my little body ... and to think, I still have to gain about 15 more pounds!

week 23 day 2

Yesterday during church, Mike finally had the opportunity to see my belly move as Katie was kicking/punching.  I feel so bad for him that he doesn't get to experience what it actually feels like but he says he's fine with it.

My sister-in-law had her baby this morning!  She was scheduled to have a c-section tomorrow but I guess he was ready to come out today!  My brother-in-law sent an email out to the family and I happened to see Mike's copy while working on his computer.  The title was "triplets."  As I quickly scanned through the email, my heart beating super fast, I only saw mention of one boy ... exactly what we all thought was happening.  I was so confused and was thinking, "there's no way she could've had TWO extra bodies in there!  Wouldn't she have known?  What if I have 3?" 

Ha.  And then I read the P.S.  It read, "Mike Corrigan, I don't have an email for Kim, tell her we had triplets to see the blood drain out of her face. It could happen to you!" 

I didn't know if I should laugh or cry.  It was a very good joke.  Nice job, T.

week 23 day 1

I slept in pretty late this morning.  In fact, I'm still in bed as I'm writing this.  And so my worry this morning is sleep.  How do new mothers get sleep?  When do they sleep?  I'm hoping this will change but I do this really awful thing where if I wake up and I'm up for too long and I start actually waking up from my sleepiness, I have a really hard time going back to sleep.  In fact, usually I don't go back to sleep for a few hours.  I really hope I grow out of that.  It's really frustrating.

I've enjoyed the past couple nights of sleep.  I haven't woken up until about 7 am which rarely happens.  I know my body pretty well right now.  I can usually count on needing to use the restroom as soon as I arrive somewhere new.  There's something about traveling and walking that always makes me need to go.  If I go to bed before midnight, I can count on waking up at 2:30 am and 5 am to use the bathroom.  If I go to bed around midnight or later than midnight and I don't have much fluids left in me at that point, I will wake up at 4 am to go.  And in the rare cases like the past couple nights that I go to bed around midnight or later and have completely emptied out my bladder multiple times right before bed, I won't wake up until 7 am.

I am also beginning to understand the baby's kicking patterns.  I can guarantee that she'll be kicking from 8:30-9 am.  She is also pretty active around 12-1 pm.  She also kicks anytime between 7-12 pm quite a bit as well.  The rest of the day is more random, at least I think it is.  Maybe she has a pattern at other times too, I just haven't noticed yet.  With my ever-changing schedule, it's hard to really sit and figure out what is going on.

Kicking is such a fun and interesting thing to me.  It doesn't distract me as much as it used to which is really good.  I can actually focus now when she's kicking.  And it's odd because as I do everyday things, like write on this blog, she's just down there kicking and throwing her little punches.  It's just crazy to me that I'm growing this little human inside me and she's moving!  And when she's not moving that much, I always wonder, is she sucking her thumb like she did for the ultrasound?  Ah, so much fun.

week 22 day 6 part 2

The youth that I work with are great.  I really do love them even though I may complain every now and then.  I'm facebook friends with a couple of them and I've been following the life of this one girl and this guy she likes.  Well, apparently, tonight he held her hand.  Cute, right?

Wrong.  She's 12 and I don't think I'm prepared to deal with this kind of stuff with my little girl in 12 years.  Watching some of my youth gives me a good heads up as to what I should be looking for when my kids get older ... and one thing's for sure, no guy is going to be holding my little girl's hand in 12 years ... I hope.

week 22 day 6

This week has been pretty busy and by busy, I mean that I've been sick so when I actually have to get up and do something, I feel exhausted ... and busy.

Two days ago marked the fact that in exactly 4 months is my due date.  It's pretty crazy.  In 4 months, Mike and I could have our little one here with us and I couldn't be more excited.

Wednesday I had this 40% off at Gap and so I chose to go to Baby Gap to use the coupon.  It was fun finally being able to buy my own things for our baby.  I really need that experience and it was fun.

My supervisor is in the hospital for the next 3 months.  She is having twins but her body says it's time for the babies to come out even though she still has almost 3 months left.  It's a scary situation.

It seems like almost everyday I find out about someone else who is pregnant that I know.  It's crazy.  Cute little Kristin is looking so cute and I'm so excited to see what their baby room is going to look like when they're done!  Most people I know are due around the same time as me which is fun to watch their lives change and read about what they're buying because Mike and I have sort of ignored the fact that we need to buy things for the baby.  Our biggest problem is space.  Our extra room is stuffed with all sorts of things that have no where to go.  Our bedroom isn't huge so we can't really fit too many more things in there either.  I like things to be orderly and clean and with needing to add so many baby things into our apartment, I just don't know how things are going to stay nice and tidy ... which just reminds me, I wish I was rich.

week 22 day 3

I volunteer to teach an afterschool cooking club.  I'm there for 10 weeks, one hour each week, and get $300 at the end of it ... not too bad of a deal, or so I thought.

After the first two weeks of club I was ready to quit.  These kids are worse than my 4-H kids and my kids are at-risk youth!  However, with my staff training and this "Love & Logic" book I'm reading, I have slowly been able to take control of my class.  Normally the supervisor, Rachelle walks in and my class is going crazy.  They're all over the place, everyone's talking, and it's madness.  Yesterday she walked in and every single student was sitting down in their chair, silent and I wasn't even talking!  They were just being good!

I look at these club experiences as good warm ups to actually having children.  With the Corrigan side of the family, I expect a lot of broken bones, hurt feelings, and a lot of climbing and jumping on everything.  Somehow the Corrigans just have a lot of energy ... something I don't have.

I enjoy being able to take these simple ideas and apply them to the youth I work with.  I have seen huge improvements over the last few weeks and I am really hoping this makes parenting easier. 

Last night, the baby kicked for about 4 1/2 hours in a row.  And these were no gentle kicks.  These were kicks that were moving my belly quite strongly.  I had Mike rest his hand on my stomach to see if it would calm her down.  It did but then he moved his hand and she was back to kicking.  He was surprised as to how much she was kicking.  I'm not sure what was up last night but she had a lot of energy to get out against my insides.  I was finally able to go to sleep around midnight last night when she slowed her kicking.

week 22 day 2

I've been having this weird dream lately that my butt has grown so much that it looks like two big balloons that I'm trying to stuff into my pants.  I'm guessing this is just because I feel like my pants are getting smaller due to my expanding stomach but the dream isn't enjoyable.  It's more like a bad movie.

I've scheduled a lot into my week again this upcoming week which I hope isn't the demise of my health.  Resting all day yesterday definitely helped but we'll see if I can keep my health up.  I can tell my body is exhausted, there's just not enough time to rest!