Thoughts on being 39, banded, and knocked - up

Hey all, I know that at the beginning of this pregnancy, I promised to not be one of those people who ONLY talked about their pregnancy and I've tried to steer clear of writing blogs talking about these things, but truth be told.. I got nothing else going on for the next 3 months with the exception of the bun in the oven.. we have none of the usual fun trips planned, we have no visits from people planned, nada, nothing..   so, either I fall off the blogosphere or I talk baby..  hope you can deal with it..

So, the other day as my friend Mary was driving me home b/c my car was in the shop, she made a comment to me that made me laugh and then think a little.. she said something to the effect, "I hope when I'm pregnant, I'm like you..  you just seem to go with the flow, not really stress about anything (read:  not really know anything!!)"  I thought it was funny that she said that b/c it's true, I'm totally going through this pregnancy with a little bit of forced naivety..  what I mean by that is that I'm purposely not overwhelming myself with all that is out there to read, classes to take, etc..  I'm getting advice from friends and my doctor, not from the web or books, which BTW, I've said it before and I'll say it again, is the devil when it comes to self-diagnosing yourself!!!  I haven't even read "What to Expect When you are Expecting" (the horror!!)  but I will say that I have the app on my phone just so I can check to see what fruit or vegetable my baby is each week!!!  I have read Jenny McCarthy's book "Belly Laughs" and it's freaking hilarious... even if you aren't preggers.  
So, what is the purpose of this blog?? Who knows??  I tend to start things lately and 5 minutes later, not know where I'm at or how it's going to end.. much like this blog!!! So, I figured I'd point out the things I enjoy about being pregnant and the not so fun things..

Things to Enjoy:

• Maternity Jeans  - OMG, I love them. there's a chance even after I have the kiddo, that I will still wear these jeans.. I have been wearing Old Navy maternity jeans and they are ok, but they dig a little into the lower belly but I have found heaven in the Motherhood maternity jeans..  I felt like I was putting on my pj's today..  awesome.. 
• Using the "I'm pregnant" card..  I honestly thought I wouldn't need to use this but it's awesome..  I've been able to change seats on planes, not have to lift things and I can pretty much get my husband to grab me anything from upstairs if I am downstairs..   I know. horrible..  but I only get to have this luxury for a short time in my life so I'm taking advantage of it.. 
• Sleeping - I have a love/hate relationship with my exhaustion..  I am sleeping more but I hate feeling like I am too tired to do anything and am weaker than I'm used to being..  
• Spending more time with hubs..   since I've been pregnant, obviously, we've cut back on going out and have spent a lot more time doing non-bar related things..  like movies, dinners with friends.. things that don't involve hangovers the next day.. I love that he's so excited about his baby boy and making all sorts of plans for him. 
• Eating - I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't mention that I'm enjoying eating all the things that I couldn't eat while being completely filled.  I still have 1/2 the fluid I had pre-pregnancy so I'm not complety unfilled but it's loose enough that I can still eat a burger if I want to, something I missed terribly before.  I am starting to feel more restriction though the bigger he gets and the less room there is in my belly. I may have to go get the rest of the fill taken out but am waiting to see how it goes.  So far, I feel pretty good about my eating but it is nice to indulge every once in awhile.  

Things not to enjoy:

• All the testing b/c of my age..   I call them the "you are too old and have no business having a kid at this age" test..  the medical community prefers to call them AMA (Advanced Maternal Age) testing..   I've been poked, prodded from here to China already and I still have another trimester to go!!!  I actually opted out of getting the big whopper tests - the CVS and the Amnio, b/c my doctor did not encourage them based on the results of other testing that came back fine. 
• The shoe situation - I'm a platform wedge kind of girl and I've been forced to semi-retire these for low flats and flip-flops that make my short stumpy legs look even shorter..  yuck!
• The weight gain - I have gained 20something lbs so far (to be honest, closer to 30)  From weeks 18 - 22, I gained 10 lbs!!! It was horrifying at the doctor's office!!!  HOWEVER, I will say that while I've gained all this weight, I have not gone up in a size or anything. I'm still wearing the same pants I was wearing before, but with a belly band (when I'm not rocking my fave maternity jeans!) I really haven't gained weight anywhere but the belly area..  so I'm trying to be OK with it.
• The exhaustion - as I mentioned before.. somedays I'm ok with laying around and somedays, I just want my energy back!! Everyone says that the 2nd trimester is where you have your energy.. well, I'm screwed then, b/c I'm about a week and 1/2 away from my 3rd trimester and I have yet to see said energy!!!
• The misc cramps and side pains you get and you instantly freak out thinking that something is wrong with the baby, only to find out it's just growing pains or gas.. 

If you are still with me and scratching your head as to what the point of this blog is, I got nothing for you.. just some random thoughts rolling around in my noggin..   All I know is that the 8 year + wait is so going to be worth it when we meet this little boy..  I don't know if I can handle waiting another 3 months!!! 

xo,js

Not even sure what to title this blog... (updated with pics)

Hey all....  wow, not even sure where to start this blog but have a lot to say so hopefully you can hang in with me for the long haul.  My life has literally turned upside down over the past 10 days.. 

On Friday, March 18th, my family lost my dear cousin Karen, who very unexpectedly passed away.  Just 5 days earlier, we were mostly all together in Chicago, celebrating my baby shower. She went to bed on the 17th and to our knowledge, never woke up and preliminary findings suggest a massive heart attack.  She was 48.   Needless to say, this has completely devastated my family.  She was more than a cousin, she was my sister, at times my best friend and just an all around wonderful person. We spent weeks up north in the summer and at Christmas.  When I talk about my family, I mean her and her mom ,dad, and her sister (Aunt Joan, Uncle Bill and Susan) just as much as I mean my immediate family of my mom,dad, brother, SIL and niece&nephew.  We are all one. 

I left Wednesday to fly to Lansing for the services.  After a few mishaps, including a canceled flight and renting of a rental car, we (my brother SIL and myself) arrived in Lansing, MI for the visitation.  While it was completely sad to be there, it was so uplifting to see how many friends she had, what they had all meant to her, what she had meant to them and how she had affected their lives. She was a very active member of the gay community in Lansing and I could not have been prouder to call her my family after hearing the stories from people of how she got them involved and was helping to make a difference in Lansing/E. Lansing.   I could never have imagined how many people showed up at the service on Thursday.. the church was filled to capacity and when we asked the pastor how many the church held, he said, "normally the max is 300"!! Holy smokes!!!  I can only hope to be so lucky to have that many people come out and witness my celebration of life!! She would have been thrilled and I'm sure she was smiling down from heaven on all of us. 

Here are a couple of pictures from my shower of Karen.  (not sure why you may have to click on the little box to see the picture.. so irritated iwth blogger right now!)

Karen, Emma (cousin), Susan (cousin - Emma's mom)

Me and Karen

I'm sad to think about what our lives are going to be like without Karen, what our summers and Christmases will be like, but I know that a little part of her will always be with us and our fabulous memories will get us through. All I ask is that you keep her family in your thoughts and prayers as I'm sure the next several months are going to be so difficult for everyone. 

On the baby news, everything is fine... moving right along. I had a pretty rough, stressful week and the traveling and complete lack of sleep had me a little nervous for baby boy, but he's doing great. I have my glucose tolerance test this week so I'm trying to stay off of the sugar so as not to have to add another thing to deal with in gestational diabetes.   He is kicking up a storm, which, honestly I LOVE!!!  I love feeling him in there and am getting anxious for the next 3 months to fly by!! Here is an updated pic of the bump...  I really don't feel like I'm as big as I am in the picture.. must be what I'm wearing!! :)

Finally, as I had mentioned maybe like a million times, we were scheduled to go to NYC this past weekend for our last little trip before the kiddo arrives..  needless to say, we ended up canceling the trip.  My sweet kind-hearted husband ended up donating our tickets to the Knicks/Bucks game to the Boys and Girls club instead of trying to sell them for a profit.  Will wonders never cease!  Instead of NYC, we spent the weekend at the ballpark here in PHX..  the last weekend of Spring Training!!  I'm kind of glad to see it end so now I can have my weekends back!!  Here is our last Spring Training picture!

Hope you are all well... am hoping to catch up on blogs this week.

xo,js

Chicago Shower!

Hey all - I'm back from a fabulous weekend in Chicago for my 1st baby shower!! It was the most fantastic weekend!   My friends and family out-did themselves and I left feeling loved and extremely blessed!!   Michelle came with me and I'm so glad she did. She fit right in with the rest of my friends and it was so nice to have someone to travel with.   Not a lot of time today but I'll leave you with some pics of the weekend. 

Friday night turned into a little impromptu party/bash as many of our friends met us at the Fairmont for (lots of) drinks and chatting!

The Shower was during Tea at the Peninsula Hotel..  it was fabulous, decadent and so out of my league!!! We were probably a little too loud for the "regulars" there!!!

The food was DELISH!!! 

Our friend Gina owns a bakery in Chicago called Sensational Bites - she made the cake.. it was sooo good!!

Mom and Me!

with the two fabulous hostesses - Jamie and Shannon

One of the tables of girls who attended!

Friends I hadn't seen in a long time came..

The sugar situation was off the charts!!!  So much sugar that I still have a sugar hangover!!!

xo,js

On the Mend, On the Move and Crabby Crabberson..

FINALLY!! I think I may be over the 6 week sickness that has plagued me..  it's so refreshing to finally get a decent (notice I did not say good since I'm still up 4-5 times a night to pee) night's sleep without hacking up a lung or having to sleep upright.  I still have a little bit of a cough but it's slowly but surely going away.  Here's what's been going on in bullet point fashion:

• Spring Training started last weekend and I have to admit, it was welcomed with open arms in the Stull house!!  I actually really love spring training, I love sitting outside on the lawn, in the sun!!  I also love drinking the beers that are requisite for Spring Training but not this year.. I did have a few (or maybe a little more than a few) sips of Timmy's beer on Saturday and it was DELISH.. might be one of the things I miss the most!!  Just in case any of you have forgotten what I look like since I've been absent, here is the 1st of many of our traditional spring training pics: 

• Michelle and I are headed to Chicago this weekend for my first baby shower!!! Soooo excited!!!  I'm excited b/c #1. I get to see my family and friends, #2  Michelle is coming with and I get to drag her around to all my fave places, shop and have her meet the other important peeps in my life and #3. I get to get away for a weekend. I need a vacation badly. I just need a break from work and all the chaos that goes on here
• The chaos and constant non-stopness of work is seriously turning me into a Crabby Patty.. that and the hormones that are no joke,  really make me not so pleasant to be around..  I was telling my friends at work that either I'm hyper-sensitive to everything or maybe I'm right but it seems like people these days are just constantly rude. Maybe I never noticed it but I swear, everywhere I go, I seem to encounter some sort of rudeness one way or the other..  Just this past weekend, we went out to this "lounge" (which wasn't really a lounge but more of a "club" full of douchebags, fake tits and complete idiots for women) for my friend JB's birthday.. I walked in and knew I was walking into my own personal version of Hell.  It was horrible.. so crowded, completely not the type of place I would want to be preggo or not.  At one point, I was just trying to get to the bathroom and no one would move and i literally almost started crying then and there, right smack dab in the middle of the place!!!  I joked that my bump got bumped more times than necessary, to which my friend Jenn3 has dedicated herself to creating a rap song that will soon be sweeping the nation called "Don't Bump the Bump.. " wait for it.. it'll be a huge hit!! Here I am, thinking I looked pretty cute (before I went to the club and found out I was both WAY underdressed b/c I wasn't wearing some hot mini-dress and 5 inch heels and somewhat over dressed b/c I was sooo covered up!!)

• NYC in two weeks!!! So excited for our little vacay!! So bummed that I'm missing out on the bandster brunch that's happening a week earlier though!!  Have been chatting with Jenny to hopefully see her and if anyone else is around and wants to get together, let me know!

xo,js