Here is Brian with River while in car on the way to Utah to see Batman. We discovered early on that she does not like car rides. We have a carrier for her, but she starts freaking out and ramming her head into the metal bars. For fear that she will hurt herself, or panic too much we have taken her out. The strange thing is she prefers to be up on our shoulders instead of being down in our laps.
I don't think this will work for the drive to California though. So hopefully she will mellow out this time since we have been trying to take her on more car rides so she will get used to the movement. The vet did give us some medicine to give her that is supposed to calm her down, and she does usually get pretty sleepy while on it, but she usually fights it and tries to stay awake.
River also likes to constantly have our attention when we are home. One of these days while we are in the shower I swear she is going to jump in. She has already taken to jumping on the ledge of the tub, but hasn't taken the plunge yet....thankfully. In the mornings while I am getting ready she likes to jump up onto the sink and then sit in my makeup bag. Strange kitty.
Last Wednesday, August 1, we took River to the vet to be spayed and declawed. Normally I would not think to have a cat declawed, but I have been scratched by River so many times I was paranoid that she would accidentally hurt our baby when it arrives. She has been such a trooper since we brought her home.
We were instructed by the vet not to let her lick her stitches on her belly or paws, and since she has been home she has tried to whenever she thinks we are not looking or are too distracted. The second day home we tried just taping her paws so she wouldn't like, but she would freak out each time we would try to apply new tape. I then had the idea for little booties that are made for animals, we couldn't find any so we decided to try newborn socks. They were a little big and so she kicked them off right away. So we ended up just taping the top, which is so much better than her whole foot and the socks are much more breathable too. She still tries to get these off, usually when we come into the bathroom in the morning she has at least one of them off. The sneaky little kitten.
Here she is resting with Brian, who is feeling sick right now too. Aren't they cute?
I am officially in my 2nd trimester of pregnancy now, currently I am 14 weeks 5 days. It is so strange to me to think that I am 1/3 of the way done. I keep thinking that January seems so far away, and yet at the same time Christmas seems like it is just around the corner, which also means the baby is just around the corner. I have been really blessed in this pregnancy thus far. I have only thrown up a couple times despite what sometimes felt like constant nausea. They say the morning sickness subsides in the 2nd trimester and I can see that my nausea is a lot better, being worse in the evening. The worse thing that I am having to deal with right now is the exhaustion and the headaches. I had horrible headaches pre-pregnancy and it's unfortunate that they are continuing and most days becoming worse than what I had previously.
Insurance is so frustrating. We have applied to several places in California since we will be moving, and have been denied coverage to most of those places because they count pregnancy as a pre-existing condition. I have looked into PCIP, which is insurance for those with pre-existing conditions, but we can't even apply for that because you have to be without coverage for 6 months in order to qualify. I am not sure what we are going to do. We will definitely apply for Medi-Cal, but that surely wont cover as much of the costs as a normal insurance would. I try not to stress too much about it, but it is definitely a huge concern. I want to find a doctor in California as soon as possible that way we can set up an appointment for the anatomy scan, I want to know if this little baby inside me is perfectly healthy and if it is a boy or a girl.
We had our last appointment for who knows how long this morning, and we asked to have an ultrasound since we hadn't seen our little one since it was 7 weeks and still had a tail. The midwife said she wasn't a trained ultrasound tech but said she would try her best to get us a face shot. It was so reassuring to see the baby. We have actually started calling it Baby "C" because both of the names that we have in mind start with "C". Baby "C" was doing flips all over the place. I have already packed my printer which has a scanner, so to show the ultrasounds I needed to take a picture on my phone. Here is Baby "C" at 14 weeks 5 days:
This is a face shot, Baby "C" looks kind of alien in this one, but it is still super cute. You can actually see the two hemispheres of the brain. And then one of Baby "C"s hands at the top.
Here is a profile of Baby "C". It has a cute little bump of a nose, so I am hoping it has my nose instead of Brian's. You can see a hand again, and then also one of the legs on the right. It was so cool to see our cute little Baby "C" and how much it has grown since the last time we saw it. During some of the utlrasound you could perfectly see its spine and ribs. Then we also looked at Baby "C"s brain, you could see the two hemispheres again really well. Baby "C" was moving around too much to be able to tell much between the legs. I thought I may have seen a nub, but it could have been my imagination. Again Baby "C" was moving around way too much for us to be able to tell. Either way I am super excited and happy that our baby seems to be growing healthily at this point. I am debating with myself whether or not we want to go to an elective utlrasound place that has a gender determination package. It would be nice to know for sure if Baby "C" is going to be a boy or a girl, but I don't know that I want to pay the money. Another question if we were to go would be how long should I wait. The one place I was looking at said they have a 99% guarantee for a gender determination, with a free rescan if necessary, at 14 weeks and up. So would I wait until 16 weeks, which would be our anniversary (August 15th), or do I wait until I am further along to make sure the results are more accurate? Not sure right now.
In other news, we are finally moving this week. We will pick up the moving truck on Thursday, and should be driving out of Rexburg on Friday. I feel comfortable with the amount of stuff we have packed right now. I told Brian I want to be finished packing, minus the fridge stuff, by Wednesday. Currently we just have the most of the kitchen stuff, a few things in closets and the laundry room, and then all the pictures around the house. I am so excited that moving day is almost here. I can't wait to be in a house that has air conditioning again. And I am excited to narrow down the colors I have for the baby's room and then paint it. Life is just exciting for me right now, and for Brian. He starts graduate school in less than a month now. I hope he doesn't get too stressed out by it. I am content with life right now. Until next time....hopefully with news on Baby "C"s gender.
