So my real excuse for not writing for two months is because I am 14 weeks pregnant and the last two months (during the first trimester), I have been too exhausted to do anything but sleep, exercise, work and sit on the couch watching TV. There are a few exceptions to this, but honestly, I have never been so tired. I know it was all for good reason and that I should enjoy my pregnancy, yadda yadda, but honestly, it was not fun. I can say that more easily now because this last week I have started to feel pretty good again and am getting back some energy and am not disgusted by the thought of 80% of the foods I used to love (only 40% now).
Let me back up. On August 25th, I was supposed to be on a sailboat with my handsome husband cruising between the Andaman Islands in Thailand. About a month earlier, I had been notified that I had “made the cut” and was one of the project managers in the new common firmware organization at HP. This was very exciting news since three firmware labs were combining into one and therefore there were a few project managers out of jobs. Since I was new to the job, I was definitely not a shoe in, so I was thrilled to have a job and to be working for a new management chain who I respected and had heard good things about. The unfortunate part about the situation was that the workforce reductions were to be announced on August 25th, while I was supposed to be carefree, sailing through the Thai Islands. My new manager thought this was not a good message so I reluctantly canceled my trip. While I agreed the message was not good, I am still bummed to have missed the trip.
Instead, after a grueling day of work, I went home and sat on the couch. I felt so exhausted and at first chalked it up to one of the most emotionally challenging days I have ever had at work, but then on second thought decided to take a pregnancy test because I was really much more exhausted than usual. Andy’s sister Erin was meeting me at my house to walk to Lulu’s Pizza for dinner and wine. Just as she arrived, the test showed what looked like a “+” sign but one of the lines was faint, so I asked her what she thought. She wasn’t sure, but I said that I thought I was pregnant because when they are negative, no line shows up at all and it looks just like a “-”. We were both excited about the news and talked about it on our walk to dinner. On the day when I could have used wine more than any other, I abstained figuring there was a pretty good chance I was pregnant.
The next morning I took a digital pregnancy test and it quickly came back with “Pregnant.” I was really excited and only wished I could share it with Andy who was unreachable at sea for another two days. I ran with Becca and Kelly that morning and about 40 minutes into the run, when Kelly was talking about how she found out she was pregnant, I softly said, “well, I took a test this morning and it was positive.” There was a pregnant pause and they both said, “WHAT? You are pregnant?” And then we all got excited and Kelly started talking about how she needs to get another goat because there are going to be so many kids in the running group and Owen (Lindsay’s son) loves the goats… 
Anyway, it was fun. Slowly as I saw my close friends and family I told each of them I was pregnant while Andy continued to sail in the Andaman Islands oblivious to the news.
Finally, on either Wednesday or Thursday morning (I had found out Monday evening), Andy called and I was able to share the news. He was thrilled and in short, we are very excited to be expecting a baby.
A few days later, Andy returned from China. All I can say is that it has been SO great to have him back. We have spent a lot of time hanging out, going out to eat, visiting friends and family and exercising in the hills. Andy’s China-induced exercise hiatus is over and he has been enjoying running in the foothills and getting out on his mountain bike again. I think he has already gone through two bike chains since he has been back.
We received our goods from China in two different sittings. The first had our air shipment and things from storage and then a few weeks later we received our sea shipment from China. Andy led the charge to get everything put away since I was pretty exhausted and now we have the first floor of our house unpacked, the basement empty since it is being remodeled and the garage jam-packed full of boxes of stuff that would normally be in our basement.
About a month ago, we ran into Andy’s uncle Dennis downtown while we were eating dessert at Le Cafe Paris. Andy asked him if he still had his old catamaran and Dennis said that he did but that it hadn’t been used for over ten years. Andy later inquired about if Dennis would be willing to sell the boat and Dennis just ended up giving it to him. Andy has been spending a little time and money beginning to spruce it up. It now has a trailer with inflated wheels that is licensed. He towed it to our house and it has a home behind our garage. I think that Andy is excited to have a sailing-related project and hopes to have it ready to sail next summer. If you are interested, Andy is blogging his experience refurbing the boat.
Since I have been dealing with the negative effects of the first trimester, I got to the point where I was not looking forward to many things. Mostly this was because I was either exhausted or did not feel well. So even if we had a fun dinner with friends planned, I did not look forward to it because I did not know if I would like what food was offered or worried I would feel bad (as I so often did) after eating, so I really just looked forward to the mornings when I felt good and sitting on the couch with Andy after work, oh and bedtime. Pretty pathetic! One thing I was able to get excited about was the idea of having a Halloween party. Andy agreed to the party and we sent out the evite to a few friends and started planning.
It was really fun to get into the holiday spirit since we had pretty much ignored holidays since we moved to China. We spent an hour on Saturday trying on costumes at the costume shop. We both decided to be pirates. We also enjoyed decorating the house with fake cobwebs and other Halloween decorations and even put a fake skull and gravestone in the front yard. Andy put the finishing touches on the house Friday before the party by covering half the basement in black plastic in the shape of a maze that ended with crossbones marking the spot along with scary music that sounded like wolves howling. I even made cupcakes that looked like spiders. Then, Friday evening, some of our friends came over dressed in costume to celebrate Halloween. It was a lot of fun with way too much sugar to be had by all.
Yesterday, I ran the Zeitgeist 1/2 marathon. My doctor said it was okay since I had been running close to this distance since before I was pregnant. His only concern with running distances is if you run too long where the blood gets diverted from the baby to your limbs. I kept this in mind and ran the race slower than I would have two months ago and didn’t push myself. It was fun because I was able to run half the race with Erin (my sister in-law) and my friend Kelly and then the entire race with Anna, my sister. A ten-mile distance would have been perfect, but we made it the whole 13.1 miles. Andy came and cheered us on as did a couple of the other significant others and friends. Afterwards there was good food and a decent jazz band and we enjoyed time in the park on what turned out to be a pretty nice day.
This morning we went to breakfast with Andy’s family to celebrate his dad, Ray’s birthday. It really is nice to not be missing out on our loved one’s events like we did when we were away. Later today I am meeting my friend Sage to go to Babies R Us to check out all of the stuff we need to buy in the near future.
Okay, so I think that gets is caught up to present day. I plan to be much more religious about writing again, even though I am not sure if anyone is still reading after the hiatus. If nothing else, I want to document the pregnancy and having a baby. So the topics have definitely changed, but I am still here writing.
I hope all is well with everyone!
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