TGIF. That's all.

I'm so glad it's Friday... it's been a wild past two days!

I was at a seminar for work yesterday (hence blog silence in the recent post-a-day-madness!)...

So baby had been quiet the past few days (which is just LOVELY for PgAL brain...) and Wednesday night during a trip to the movies (Olympus has Fallen - excellent movie.  Gerard Butler? *SWOON*) I noticed some BH and tried to note the times of them...

The tightening would go away very quickly and was sometimes only in one little inch square spot, so I'm wondering if some of the "BH" weren't just baby rolling around sticking out his butt or noggin...

But I wanted to keep an eye on the frequency in case I got more than 1-2 an hour...(*I know the rule of thumb is to call when you get between 4-6/hour, but hey - try to rationalize with a PgALer...)
I didn't say anything to E yet, so as not to panic him - I didn't really see the need for EITHER of us to worry, yet... They never got more frequent than 2 per hour, and basically stopped when we got home and I downed a glass of water before bed (yes, I stay very hydrated throughout the day - had to leave the movie twice for potty breaks!)

So yesterday morning I got up and got out the door (late of course) for the seminar.  The drive over had me SO FREAKING LOST in my own county - I'm sure it was like this:

So I finally walk in (10 minutes late) and grab a seat in the back and proceed to (I'm sure) annoy my neighbors by crunching on my bag of dry cereal, enjoying my banana and guzzling my water bottle.  (I also had yogurt but felt like I needed a picnic blanket or something at that point...)

I had decided the night before, if the regular BHs continued, I'd be that patient and call up the doctor... Well they happened on the hour, every hour from 8-11am during the seminar. And then came every 30-45 minutes.  I decided I'd (obviously) rather be "Safe than Sorry" in case this was PTL or anything that could POSSIBLY go wrong and called the nurse, who said no problem - we'll fit you in at 1pm.

Soooo I played hookey from the seminar's second half and took off at the lunch break... met E for a quick bite (and to let him know of Dr appt) and got to doctor's office to have weight taken, BP taken (which got an "all good" from the nurse), a urine sample (which was clear of whatever they test it for) and the barrage of questions: Any headache? Any faintness or dizziness? Any cramping? Any bleeding? Any blah blah blah

They have me undress from the waist down - and then I proceed to sit and, for lack of better description, wet the paper-covered table (not really PEE-wet, just... you know, pregnancy-discharge-wet... its awesome) while waiting 20 minutes for the doctor...

He finally comes in and, lo and behold, I get what I think's a BH and I'm like, great! here, feel! (*Because usually, you know - you go to the doctor complaining of XYZ symptoms, and you get there and the symptoms are gone...)

So he nods, and confirms my description of RLP (something different than the BH but still a pain in the ass pubic bone) and he physically checks my cervix (which was, yea - uncomfortable - what was he digging for, gold?!)

But it's all good: "very thick, long and closed" with a physical indication:

(Not my doctor... just to clarify)

Ok, PgAL brain at ease after, I'll confess, two mornings in a row of checking in on baby with the doppler...


In the meantime, my brother (who lives in Washington state with his wife of 3.5 years) has been bugging me since Sunday to Skype - because they were dying to see "the belly."

And then it hit me, as we were on the way home from the movies with a planned Skype date that night - this is how WE acted when WE had big news to announce in person - bugging and bugging them to Skype! "I bet she's pregnant!" I blurted out to E and explained my reasoning...

Why yes, yes indeed they're due September 30th - they just had a great NT scan and shared pics and videos with us!!!

And what the %**# is wrong with me that, way deep down - so far underneath the happiness I felt for them - I still feel pangs of ... jealousy? fear? envy? upset? Hello Kate - don't you REMEMBER you're 23weeks pregnant yourself?!

It's like I can't shrug off the AL me, the one that was stung by every pregnancy announcement - even through my own first 13weeks - because things could still go wrong and then you'd have daily reminders by women that aren't even as far along as YOU SHOULD BE...

Or is it that I am still jealous of couples that appear to get pregnant so easily/quickly?  Do I think that no one deserves to "get it right the first go-around?"

My brother is a private person so we only knew that SIL was off BCP when she mentioned it to my mom 2 years (or so) ago, but they also carried the tag line "We don't want kids for at least a few years..."

I know I pulled out passive statements similar to this when we were TTC - so in case it took longer than we expected, no one would really know...

I have no idea the path my brother and SIL took to get where they are at 13w.  I don't know of the journey they have taken, any roadblocks they might have encountered along the way...
I just need to remind myself (still!) that everyone's stories are different, their struggles are individual and I have no right to know them all. 

So (even though they don't read this) A HUGE CONGRATS to my big brother on his first child, I can't wait for Baby Boy to have a cousin basically his age to play with!!

(ok, thanks for following the epicness of this post... Here's some Reward Hotties - I was going to do one, but I couldn't chose!)

RDJr...	Jeremy Renner	Chris Evans	Mark Ruffalo (dont know WHAT it is - I find him SO sexy)

umm... can you tell I watched The Avengers last night?!



Happy Easter weekend y'all!!

(p.s. worked on Easter Project #2 last night - the papermache nests... after 24 hrs drying, I'll check them out tonight and will let you know how they came out!)