Hot Women American Perspective

Here is the progression. 23 weeks (top picture), 19 weeks and 11 weeks, wearing the same outfit. I have gained 10 pounds so far, exactly. I'm right on target, and my blood sugar is holding steady. Fasting glucose was 82 this morning. Baby is kicking harder all the time. He loves to punch and kick my bladder when it's full. ;-)

Today I am exactly 5 months pregnant. My due date is November 26th and today is July 26th. Woohoo! I am particularly pleased with how well my 16-y-o is doing. He has made such a great leap forward in maturity and confidence. Before the summer, I recall that when I would talk to him about getting a summer job, he would whine, complain, cry and accuse me of pushing and nagging him. On one occasion, when we asked for an application to In-N-Out Burger at the drive through window, he threw a yelling fit from the back seat. Later when he heard that there were openings at Knotts, he got excited about applying for the job. That was step #1. Step #2, he filled out the application, interviewed and got the job. Step #3 was learning how to keep the job. He has done all of that. And yesterday he told me that he wants to find a job that pays better than minimum wage. He would prefer to work at an electronics store or something like that, but he is perfectly willing to work at In-N-Out (w...

I have gained 9 pounds so far at 22 weeks. That leaves 18 weeks left and I have 21 pounds allotted for weight gain if I want to gain 30 pounds. That leaves me a nice, comfortable allowance of 1 pound per week. Yay! BRING ON THE FOOD!!!! It will be even better if I gain close to 25 pounds, which is still a good gain, but I usually gain quickly at the end and I have never gained less than 25 pounds, usually just on 30 pounds. I want enough food so the baby can grow properly and put on the right amount of fat. Most of my bubs are around 7 or 8 pounds, and that would be fine. I try to wait until I am hungry before I eat my next meal. That is my system. Not going hungry. And I get hungry a LOT! I didn't feel like taking a pic yesterday so I don't have one at exactly 22 weeks. Too busy and tired, I guess. Today was pretty easy. DS8 is away with his dad for 3 weeks. And DD is off to her dad's for 2 days, so there is less shuttling and running. I don't even need...

Sorry I have been offline the past few days, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, book 7, came out Friday night, and I have been "hot bunking" with my kids reading the book when they were at work or asleep. I am the first to finish it (they work and sleep a lot, he he). The following paragraph will discuss the book. I am typing it in white font, so please highlight with your cursor if you wish to read. I won't be giving things away in a big way, I hope, but the tone of my voice might possibly give you too many clues. So come back to this post maybe after you have finished the book if you are wary of inadvertent spoilers. The book was fabulous. It was her best. J. K. Rowling, toward the end, had me swearing at her, but the plot pulled together at the end. It was also the best book action-wise. Some of her books have long, slow parts, but this one was action packed from almost the first page to the last. She really did justice to all of the other 6 novels in t...

I think Wednesday is my busiest day of the week. Here is a sampling: 6am, woke up, showered, dressed and ate 6:30am, emptied and refilled dishwasher. 7am, 3 youngest boys woke up, I got them dressed, fed, and packed lunch for the 8-yo. 7:30am, put brisket and potatoes into crock pot. 7:45am, drove 8-yo to bus drop off for camp. 8:45am, drove 4-yo to preschool. 9:00am, woke sleepy 16-yo and reminded him that his SAT prep class was starting, and he needed to get up, get dressed and eat. 9:15am, made scrambled eggs and bagels for 16-yo. 9:30am, drove 16-yo to SAT prep class. 9:45am, drove 2-yo to Preschool Practice mommy and me class and stayed there from 10 to 11. 11:30am, picked up 4-yo from preschool. 11:45am, picked up 16-yo from SAT class. 12noon, picked up burgers for all kids, including DD who had woken up, was working out on the Stairmaster, and showering. 12:30pm, put 2 youngest down for nap after reading stories. 1pm, went to grocery store to restock depleted shelves. 1:45pm, d...

Here is my belly this afternoon. You are really getting a tour of my maternity wardrobe. :-) The kids have been having normal days at work. Things have calmed down and they feel comfortable there. DS is hoping that he can continue working on weekends through the school year. It sounds like a good idea because otherwise, when he visits from his dad's house, he just sits around most of the time. Only thing that worries me is the driving after the baby comes. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Maybe DH will have to pitch in. DD and I are starting to think about back-to-school stuff. She will need furniture and kitchen utensils for her new apartment. Lots to think about. DD also asked if I would get her a car, so I don't have to drive so much this summer. I told her that I didn't want to buy a car to save me from 5 more weeks of driving, as she will be on vacation with her dad for 1 week in August anyway. I said that if I could rent a car for her ...

About 5 minutes ago there was another little earthquake. I felt the shuddering and heard the house moving. It reminded me that another one struck during the night last night. I'm pretty sensitive to the signs. During the super mild ones, it sounds like the entire house is whispering. I heard that sound and jerked awake suddenly to see if it would get worse. It went away. But I had disturbing dreams after that. With my kids in danger, of course. My oldest 2 are coming home with some interesting work stories from Knotts. My DS-16 almost got punched by a guest a few days ago. He was working in a game booth with another coworker and some young men were hanging out at the booth joking around with them. One of the kids was joking with my son and may have said some insulting things. My son at one point said "You idiot..." to the kid, at which point the kid went ballistic, jumped into the booth, grabbed my son and said, "What did you say, BITCH???? SAY IT AGAIN!...

I think it's the pregnancy hormones. I swear I could sleep 20 hours a day, except I have so much going on. Eight hours a night is a drop in the bucket! Here is a pic of my daughter in her unflattering Knotts uniform. Luckily, she would look good even in a potato sac, so it's not a problem for her. Harry Potter was fun. I liked the IMAX 3D thing. They turned on the 3D part only for the last 20 minutes, and I thought it was special. I know I will see the movie again, but I might not have the opportunity, or take the opportunity to see it in IMAX, so I was glad I did it. I thought it was well-acted and nicely done. I will have to see it again soon because I missed the first 15 minutes standing in line to get popcorn for my boy. He had just come off the bus from camp and he was starving. Ah well, it's a good excuse for me, right?

This is the halfway point. Though if you are splitting hairs, a lady doesn't even ovulate until she is already 2 weeks pregnant, according to the 40 week model. But close enough, right? Here is my pic from today. The ladies are starting to notice on their own. Folks are starting to tell my I "popped".

You may have guessed that I love Harry Potter books and films. If you look near the bottom of the page, you will see that there is ONE day until the 5th movie comes out. {boing, boing} My big plan is to see the movie with my kids (everyone 8 and over) at the IMAX theater near here. There is a showing Wednesday night with a 3D ending and we already have advance tickets to the show that has since sold out. I'm so EXCITED!!!!!!

I got a copy of the amnio report from the doctor. I will transcribe most of it here, because I think it is really interesting. The indications for this exam were advanced maternal age & positive first trimester screen. Multiple longitudinal and transverse sections revealed a singleton intrauterine pregnancy with the fetus in transverse presentation. The amiotic fluid volume appears to be normal. The placenta is posterior in implantation, grade 0 in appearance and there is no placenta previa. {then there are the same measurements shown in an earlier post} The average gestational age is 17 weeks 2 days +/- 7 days. The fetal cranium appeared normal in shape. The choroid plexus was well visualized, the lateral ventricles were not dilated and the midline structures were not deviated. The cerebellum and cisterna magna were visualized and appeared normal. The fetal face appears normal. Anatomy of the fetal thorax appeared within normal limits. The cardiac size and structures appea...

My schedule really got busy today. Here's how my day went. 6:00am woke up, ate and bathed. 7:30am made lunch and got swim clothes and towel ready for DS8 to go to camp. 7:45am drove DS to camp bus rendezvous. 8:00am fed and dressed both little boys. 8:40am drove with housekeeper to drop off DS4 to first day of preschool. Reminded her to pick him back up at 11:30. Asked her if she would mind, in the meantime, driving DS16 to Knotts by 10:15am for the start of his work shift. She said OK. 9:30am left for work after wolfing down some more food. 10 to 2:30 worked at office and cranked out 4 med-legal reports. 3:15pm went to get oil changed and tires rotated, after the men promised I could get out in time to pick up DS from his camp bus. 4:30pm relieved housekeeper of the kids and paid her 1/2 hour overtime plus gas. 4:45pm picked up DS at camp bus rendezvous. 5:15pm served chicken dinner to 3 youngest. 6:40pm still waiting for call from DS16 that he is done going on rides at Knott...

Here is a shot that includes my face. I have gained a total of 6 pounds so far, which is great. It turns out that whether I eat ice cream and milk shakes or not makes all the difference in terms of my weight gain. That is pretty powerful stuff. He he. I can't believe in 1 more week I'll be halfway through the pregnancy already. It has been great not to have to worry anymore about the genetic complement of the baby. There is still a 2 to 3% chance of background birth defects, but that rate is true no matter the age of the mother. Certain other damage or syndromes can and does affect babies. But part of life is taking risks. No guts, no glory.