First Trimester Musings: Ultrasound

(Written at 12 weeks, early November 2009)

I am so so relieved to have had the ultrasound.  It's scary how I really have no perception that there is a little human inside of me, with bones and tissue and an APPENDIX, for crying out loud.  How alien.  I swore this was a molar or ectopic pregnancy.  How could it be so easy?  How can I feel so normal? 

(9 week pregnant self feel free to stab future self for saying this.  Does she REMEMBER sitting at home, not being able to do anything but nap under a quilt, not even browse the internet?  And how she threw up a single saltine, and on another morning just water???) 

But really.  From all the stories and "common symptoms" I read, I've had it fairly easy.  Way to go, genepool.  I knew these hips meant I would be a baby-making rockstar.

First Trimester Musings: Acceptance

(Written mid October 2009)

I've had a strange disconnect between having a baby and being pregnant.  I just feel pregnant, like it's a temporary disease that's giving me weird symptoms and will eventually go away.  I'm adament about not looking at baby products or baby advice or baby names.  After two weeks of excitement, I turned all my books and pamphlets from the OB facedown.  For some reason I don't want to see the work "pregnant" around the house.

I was watching some old Muppet videos on Youtube.  The thought came to me, that I frequently have thought, that I should be sure that when we eventually have kids, they watch some Muppets because Muppets are awesome.  Then I had an epiipheny - this wasn't some far off prediction.  There was a kid in my belly RIGHT NOW.  She/He will be the one that I encourage to watch Muppets.  Right there with me now in this room.  I kind of freaked out in a major way.

First Trimester Musings: Food

(Written October 2009)

If I get up before 8 am, I have to puke at least once.  Good luck trying to eat anything before 9 am.

The first thing I cooked in three weeks was bacon.  Nitrate and nitrite free bacon, courtesy of my dear dad.

My food aversion has manifest as "anything that you cooked."  If Ben makes it or I buy it ready made, I seem to do better.

Surprisingly, peanuts are my go-to snack for keeping fueled during the day.  And suddenly orange juice is delicious.  And pickles.  I had a Jimmy John's pickle and wanted to marry it.

What's happening in my belly?

Because I hear you are all dying to know :-)  I'm in that weird poochy stage.  My clothes don't fit and my husband says I've looked pregnant for months.  But when I tell people the news and that I'm 21 weeks, they look down at my stomach and tell me I don't look pregnant at all.

I feel him moving all the time now.  Especially during a meal (blood sugar spike?) and when I change positions - sitting to standing and such.

My belly button is disappearing way too fast!  It's kind of freaking me out.

The most annoying pregnancy change?  My absurdly strong pulse.  I hear it when I'm trying to sleep at night.  I feel it in odd places like my scalp, my shoulders, and pretty much my entire abdomen.  I feel my heart pounding with extra stroke volume when I climb stairs.  I swear I can even feel my inferior vena cava flowing.  My hand veins are so engorged with extra blood that they are raised and fat.  L&D nurses must have the easiest patients for placing IVs. 

I'm going to post a couple things I wrote during the first trimester, just to catch up my journalling.

It's a boy!

Everything in its place and he's right on schedule. 

Comforts

Snow falling quietly, kneading yeasty dough, sipping French hot
chocolate, and knitting green curls. I like today.

A new decade

I told Ben that I couldn't believe another decade has passed.  "Really?" he asked, "I can.  We had a lot happen in the last ten years."  We thought of all the momentous things that happened to us in the aughts. 

• Most of our courtship and our marriage
• All of my undergrad education
• My first real job as a research assistant
  
• Completing a second degree
• My second real job as a nurse
  
• Most of Ben's college years
• Numerous jobs for Ben
• Moving five times in three cities
  
• Buying our first house
• Buying my first car
• Buying my first new car
• Travel too numerous to count
• Thousands of knit stitches
• Thousands of video games
• A movie-making phase
• A ballet revival phase
  
• Getting a cat
• Getting a dog
• Three computers for me, who knows how many for Ben?

Ok, proven wrong.  I guess it seems right that ten years have passed, given all the growth we've had. 

We're excited to start a new adventure this year.  For those who haven't heard yet, we're having a baby in May.  That's right, I'm 21 weeks pregnant.  Want to know why I was so quiet in the blogosphere in October and November?  That's called the first trimester and it BLOWS!  But those times are past, I feel pretty great these days.  The little kid has finally made itself known to me.  Just in the past week I started feeling movement.  Now I swear it's doing somersaults in there.  Tomorrow we have the big ultrasound to find out if our first will be a little boy or little girl.  I don't care which, I just want to know!  I'll be sure to let you all know too, and perhaps I'll fill in some details on how the pregnancy has been so far. 

Happy New Year and here's to ten more!

I can make bobbles!

Christmas break is turning into a fiber feast!  I've been knitting up a storm on my new addi-clicks turbo needles and learning to spin on my new spinning - wait for it - wheel!  Holy smokes it's so much fun. Technically it belongs to both me and Amanda.  Santa thinks we are mature enough to share a Christmas present.  :-)  I'm taking video clips of our vacation.  In January I'll knit those together into a little film of Christmas with the Waterhouses.  Hope everyone is having a relaxing week!

BA dum dum dum!

I'm trying very hard to stay jolly today.  Peppermint hot chocolate in my thermos, Big Soft Ginger cookies packed to take to coworkers, a green t shirt under my scrubs (gasp!  against the rules!).  But it still sucks to have to work on Christmas Eve.  Darn people getting sick.  Here's some Muppets to lift any other sinking spirits.

Jem's Boots

Jem is a major wimp when it's cold.  We wouldn't care except she won't pee when it's icy and we have to make multiple trips out to get her to go.  We've never had much luck with boots in the past.  It seems the designers rarely test them on actual dogs.  Ben came across these at Petsmart and they work great!  Not only that, they would totally fit in Jerrica/Jem's wardrobe.  What do you think? 


Jem's Boots from Rachel Mason on Vimeo.

What's RADDER than a disco tree?

My new BSG shirt!!!!!!!!!!

Team Edward, originally uploaded by Ben Mason.

Seriously though. Does it get any cooler than this? If you know me well, you know what a perfect combo this "Team" Edward James Olmos shirt is for me. It's from this web comic.

O Tannenbaum

Just got back from a quick trip home for the holidays.  I'll be back for Christmas, but took advantage of a long work break by visiting Grand Junction.  I finished some craft projects, started some new ones, and made many many marshmallows.  Somehow I have become the homemade marshmallow guru.  I travel the mountains imparting the wisdom of whipped sugar.

While holiday shopping with my mom I got a fabulous new Christmas tree.  I already had this rad black tree from last year.  Check out my new disco-tastic green tree!

I couldn't be bothered with a full sized tree this year.  But these little guys I can handle.  Here are some more Christmas-related photos I've been meaning to post:


Isn't my advent calendar chocolate TOTALLY a companion cube??

Earlier this month I went to the Holiday Handmade craft fair with Miranda.  She blogged about it here.  I'm finally posting my pictures of all the beautiful crafts (note: I received permission to take every photo).  Boy was it crowded!  Next year we'll go on the second day and plan to do more shopping.  I had most of gifts done already.  Even so, it was good I only brought a limited amount of cash.  I needed something to keep my spending in check!  Luckily most of these sellers have etsy.com shops.  I collected many business cards and plan to return to their online stores later.

Whereabouts

For those wondering where we'll be for the holidays, here tis:  I'll be in GJ this Monday/Tuesday (14-15th) for a short, quiet visit with my folks.  Then back to Denver where I work 3 back-to-back shifts Th-Sat and on call Sunday.  Monday is my day off of work.  Then I go back for 3 more in a row Tue-Thur, ending with an evening shift on Christmas Eve.  Ben and I will book it down to GJ on Christmas morning and spend a couple days there with family.  We're going to visit the gang in Utah, leaving either Monday or Tuesday after Christmas, and return to GJ Wednesday or Thursday.  Either way we need to be back in Denver by Ben's birthday on Friday the 1st, then I'm back to work on Saturday. 

If any of my friends out there happen to cross paths, give me a call!

Saturday in Boulder

Oh, Anthro

You need to stop with the darling sweaters.  I can't take it!  At least, not at full price . . . hurry up winter sales . . .

Molly's verdict on my new sweater

Is that it makes excellent biscuit dough.  She wouldn't stop kneading my belly!  Yes, this is a lot of cat pictures, but I got a few comments enjoying my last picture of us.  Thought you might like some more.  Oops, she's back.  This time on my knees.  That's cool.  As long as I can see my screen and type :-)

Owl sweater refinished

Here are photos of my finished owl sweater!  I bought buttons a while ago, but had to reorder more from Hobby Lobby.  Weeks later I found out they were discontinued and out of stock everywhere!  I finally snipped them all off and replaced them with sea-green beads.  I like these new eyes better anyway.  I also re-knit the collar so it comes up closer to my neck and doesn't slide off my shoulders.  It's so satisfying to say that this project is DONE.

Cat Attack!

Beans beans

Today I fulfilled a three year dream of ordering vanilla beans from ebay.  I found out about these sellers years ago, but either didn't have the cash or didn't have an active paypal account to deal with it.  I was whining about wanting vanilla beans to make more marshmallows and Ben basically told me to shut up and order them already.  After 25 minutes with paypal customer service to unlock my account, I bought my beans.  What a steal!  I got a 20 bean sampler of two varieties, costing $0.50 per bean.  Incredible! 

We got them tonight and Ben spent most of dinner trying to figure out why they cost so little compared to stores ($6 and up per bean).  Something about inelastic demand.  Or scarcity.  I don't remember.  It's cute how he thinks I understand economics.  All I know is I'm going to make some FABULOUS marshmallows tomorrow.

Sweet Action

My wacky husband craves ice cream more the colder it gets. Here he
and Brian sample the many flavors at our favorite shop.