Hello from the Bubbies!

The bo's are feeling very left out of this whole blog thing...so, here they are! Say hi! :)

A new pillow!

My loving, wonderful, fantastic husband (yes, the same husband who called my stomach "rotund" :) surprised me and bought me a body pillow so I can sleep a little more comfortably at night. I used it last night for the first time, and I loved it!! It gives me so much more support and is MUCH more comfortable as far as sleeping on my side goes! (I am already tired of sleeping on my side, but using this pillow helped a lot)! I recommend it to any pregnant woman...or anyone who has trouble getting, and staying, comfortable at night! ...just fabulous!!! :)

AHHHHHH!!!!! I'M GONNA BE A DENTIST!!!!!!!

We got our last board results today!!! I PASSED!!! ... even better....with FLYING COLORS!!! Don't mean to brag (well, kinda I do!), but damn, how awesome!!! My last exam EVER!! NO MORE BOARDS!!! I told some of you that there was one thing I was worried about regarding my boards, but apparently I had no reason to worry! I got a perfect score of 100% on the periodontal portion and a 98.3% on the restorative section (the fillings). What a relief!! I feel like I can finally relax now!! How great is this....now, I'm REALLY looking forward to graduation!! I'm actually going to be a real dentist!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

6 MONTHS!!

Well, here I am at 24 weeks! I can't really believe that I'm already 6 months into this pregnancy!! Crazy! Well, little Baby K is getting stronger and stronger! She's weighs a little over a pound and is about a foot long!!! She kicks me all the time now...I feel her all day long and before I go to sleep. She's not yet quite strong enough to wake me at night, though. I imagine that will happen later in the pregnancy! Also, FINALLY, Patrick was able to feel her kick! For the past two nights, he actually focused and felt her bumping around in there! :) I'm so glad he can finally feel her...I like for him to be able to share in the excitement! I'm looking forward to her moving even more! The magic jeans are still hanging in there, but my stomach is definitely growing. You can really tell when I lay flat on my back that my belly is bigger. Patrick's exact quote is that my stomach is "so much more rotund" when I'm laying down at night! He said it very lovingly, though! :) So, I think that's about it! We're all doing well! Now I'm just looking forward to graduation!! :) Can't wait!!

Our Last Prom!

So, this was our last formal of dental school! I decided to go get a new dress at the last minute. It's hard to see b/c the lighting isn't that great! You can see a little bump, though...good thing the bottom part of the dress was flowy! I barely squished into it...but it worked for a night!! :)

23 Week Bump!

Hello, hello!! I hope all is well with everyone! Things are going just fine for me here in good ole' Augusta! You can see that my belly is getting a little bigger....I guess....but if you didn't know it...I still just think most people are wondering why I'm allowing my fat to push out from my jeans! :) But, oh well! My magic jeans are still holding up quite well...don't think I'll be washing them too much though! I'm not sure they'd be very magical if I shrunk them!

The pregnancy is still going quite smoothly. One thing I didn't think I'd care too much about...I really miss sleeping on my back! I always thought that I was mostly a stomach sleeper...so, I thought I'd really miss that. But, apparently, I like to sleep on my back. Some of you may know that "they" tell you not to sleep on your back past 16 weeks because of the weight of the uterus on the vena cava (which, for you non-medical folk, brings blood to your heart from the entire bottom 2/3 of your body- kinda crucial)! So, I'm really comfortable on my back...but I get paranoid that my baby isn't going to get enough blood because I'm squashing my vena cava....so, I prop myself up on a pillow. Not quite as satisfying, but it'll do. Also, it doesn't help that I get up about 4 times every night to pee! I mean...geez....our baby girl only weighs about 1 pound, but she really does a number on my bladder at night!

So, I've also discovered that I like it about as cold as Antarctica at night. One night I woke up SO HOT!!! We have a little thermometer clock thing in our room.....I looked at it wondering if it was just my hormones, but it was....SEVENTY EIGHT DEGREES!!!!! Most of you are probably thinking..."that sounds normal to me!" Okay, NOT for me! Patrick is in charge of programing the air, and for some reason, he has something against Antarctica! But little did he know about the wrath of a hot pregnant woman... I marched myself downstairs and checked to see what the air was set on. (I like it set on 68 degrees at night...and Patrick is fully aware of this). It was set at 75 degrees!!! I was so mad! Well, I pushed that dial right down to 65 degrees and put it on hold so it wouldn't turn off!!! Ahhh! Relief! (Even the doggies were panting). So, the next morning (as Patrick was wondering why it felt like December in our bedroom), I told him that from now on, the air needs to be set on 66 all night...and that he was just going to have to wear more clothes!! I was SO not kidding. I already wake up 400 times a night, and when it's too warm, I can't get back to sleep!! ....so, Antarctica = happy, pregnant wife!! I think maybe he'll just wear more clothes..... :)

DMD...here I come!!!

So, today was the big day! My boards! For those of you wondering, I did find all of my patients...I found my last patient just a few days ago! Better late than never! So, I think everything went alright. We wont really know for sure until we get the results in the mail in a few weeks. But there weren't any issues that were enormously huge...from what I could tell!

It was a really long day...I got to school at 7:15 am and was there seeing patients and doing all the lovely, oh-so-necessary sh....stuff... associated with becoming a dentist until about 5pm. All my patients came and were actually early!! ....just as I asked! They were all pretty fabulous patients....especially my wonderful, fantastic brother, Ian who's very first dental restorative experience was today!! He did great, and he left with a very numb right half of his face! (...and maybe his ear was a little numb too)! :) Thanks, Ian!! You are the BEST!!

Half of the class went today (Sat) and the other half will go tomorrow. Those of us that finished today all went to a local Mexican restaurant and took over the entire patio. Everyone got to enjoy many margaritas....except pregnant me. :( But, it was really fun. One of my classmates' wife made some buttons for us to wear...I put a picture of the button I got on here! She made lots of different buttons, had door prizes, and bought us a congratulations cookie cake! She was so thoughtful, and it was a really fun time!! Can't wait for the other half of the class to get done so we can all celebrate together!

Thanks to all of you who were thinking of, praying for, and worrying about me!! Hopefully, I'll get some good new in the mail here in the coming weeks!! I CAN'T BELIEVE I'm actually, really to this point in dental school...

WOW!!

Our new House!! :)

Most of you know that Patrick and I are moving to Gainesville, FL this summer for my pediatric residency. We'll be there for 2 years. We've been down several weekends looking for a house, but to no avail. :( It was pretty frustrating....then we went down again last week and finally found the cutest house ever!!! We put a contract on the house and it was accepted. I was waiting for the inspection to go well before I posted it on here. But the house passed with flying colors! So, here it is! It is our very first house purchase together!! We love it, and we're so excited to get down there and get settled in. Now...I've just got to graduate! :)

Click here if you want to see pictures of the rest of the house!! It has the most fabulous back yard!!! :) To see pictures of the yard, scroll down the online brochure and click the underlined words under the "exterior" section!

I picked PINK!!!

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would pick pink baby bedding! But I did!! I knew I wanted something plain...I didn't really want a pattern of any sort. I found some bedding that I LOVED online by Little Giraffe, but it's $498!!!! WHAT?!?!? ...for three pieces of baby bedding that are going to be pooped, peed, and spit up on!!! No way! So, luckily, my mother is much more wifey than I am and can actually sew! (Sorry, Patrick. Not sure I got many of those typical wife traits)! :) So, I picked out fabric, and she's going to sort of emulate the bedding that I liked so much...for just the cost of the fabric! WAY more affordable! However, I don't want the room to look too girly, so I think we're going to go with a light tan or khaki color for the wall. That way we can just use pink on the bed and for accents if we want! :) I'm so anxious to get this nursery going!!! Can't wait to have pictures to show you!!

22 Weeks!! :)

Hello there! So, I'm 5 1/2 months along now! Everything is going well! She's still moving around, but still no really big kicks, so Patrick hasn't been able to feel her yet. It'll come!

So, I thought I was having Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday, but I'm not totally sure. Not to worry, though! They're also known as practice contractions and actually happen all throughout pregnancy...you just can't usually feel them until the 2nd or 3rd trimester. It's basically your body preparing for birth. So, if it was or wasn't Braxton Hicks...they weren't regular and haven't happened since, so no worries. :)

My belly is slowly, but surely, growing. I can still wear my stretch jeans (although, these aren't those jeans). I think maybe I should start calling them my magic jeans...because there's no way they should still be fitting! I wonder how long they hold out! Stay tuned... :)

21 Weeks!!

So, I'm a little late this week...but I'm still truckin' along at 21 weeks! Everything is still going very well. My belly is getting a little bigger, but unless you know I'm pregnant and are looking for a pooch, you still can't tell very much when I'm in street clothes! I'm sure it will come soon enough! So, our baby girl weighs about 10 ounces and is about 10 inches long!! Can you believe it!? I can't believe she's that long! Wow! I have still been feeling her every now and then. She seems to be more active during the day than at night...which apparently is backwards from the norm??! :) But, I'll take what I can get! :) No other big kicks yet, but definitely some good, solid rumbles! :) Patrick tries to feel her, but she doesn't move enough for that yet. I can't wait for him to be able to feel her as well!

FINALLY!! A Kick!!

I felt her!!! FINALLY!! It was last night when Patrick and I were driving to Gainesville to look for houses! It was so cool! I feel so much better now that I've felt her move around! It's a really hard feeling to describe, but I'll try. Imagine an air bubble at the bottom of a shampoo bottle working it's way up to the top and then kind-of popping when it got to the top. That's kind-of what it was like...except the "bubble" was popping just under my skin in my stomach. Cool, huh?! I was feeling some bubbly stuff and I told Patrick that I think I might be feeling her. Then, about 15 seconds after that, there was a big, strong kick that completely startled me. I actually jumped in my chair and said (to Patrick) "oh my gosh, I definitely feel her." Then, I sat really still for the rest of the ride trying to feel her some more. I felt little rumbles after that...but nothing as big as the kick that startled me! :) How cool is it to feel that there's a little baby moving around inside me! ....so cool... :)

THINK PINK, PINK, PINK!!!!!! :)

Well, today was the day.....so, start thinking PINK! IT'S A GIRL!! :) AHHHHHH!!! I can't believe it! ...I never had a hunch...or a preference...but, for some reason, I can't believe it's a girl!! How exciting to finally know!! :) I must say that after having gone through this today, there is NO WAY in a million years I would have passed up finding out what we're having! Some people decide not to find out and let it be a surprise...which is great! But, WOW!! ...what an awesome experience it was to find out today!! I mean, I have a daughter! And Patrick is going to be a dad to a little baby girl!! :) ...which he will be so perfect at!! And now I get to talk about her and how she's doing....and I can imagine what she'll look like and think about her as my little baby girl...I can't stop thinking about it; I am SO, SO excited and I have never been as happy about anything as I am about our news!! I can't wait to see who she looks like! Whether she is a red head or white head....this baby is going to be adorably and fantastically CUTE! :)

AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

SO, about the appointment, the sonogram was first. If you've been following the blog, you know that I still haven't felt any baby movement. So, lately I was starting to worry...just a little...about why I may not be feeling any movement. One thing I was thinking was that maybe the baby was growing a little slower than normal (and was smaller than usual), and perhaps that's why I couldn't feel the movement. So, when she was measuring and checking everything for the baby, she wasn't saying anything. So, in my head, I was wondering if everything was alright. So, I finally asked, "Does everything look alright?" She said that everything looked great. At that moment, I felt pure relief and immediately got teary eyed (big surprise, I know). Earlier, she asked us if we wanted to know the sex and we, of course, said yes! So, shortly after she assured me that the baby was developing properly, she found what she was looking for....and she said, "it looks like a girl!" I couldn't help it...my breath was completely taken away and...yes, the tears were flowing. I actually never looked at Patrick; I just held his hand the whole time. The screen was on my right, and Patrick was on the left, and I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. I guess I should have taken a look at him to see his reaction...but I couldn't stop looking at my baby GIRL!!! :) We're really very happy. :)

These are two of the sonogram pics that I got. You can click here if you want to see the others. I really like the lady that does the sonograms, but she's not very good at getting the good pictures! She gets such great shots while we're looking at the live sono, but she never hits the "take a picture" button at the best times! She mostly took profile pictures. There were so many good ones that I wish we had. One of my favorites this time was a profile- she was sucking her thumb! :) We could see her mouth and tongue just working away! She looked perfect. ....I said with the first sono that the baby had Patrick's lips....she definitely still has Patrick's lips... :) ;)

What a great day....

HALF WAY THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my gosh!!! I'm already 5 months!!! 20 weeks!!! I can't believe that I've already been through half of the pregnancy! I feel like it went really fast, and I wonder if the second half will fly by. I feel like it can't go fast enough right now...wanting to know the sex of the baby, wanting to have a good baby bump, not just a fat looking stomach. :) But overall, everything is going really well...although, no new excitement. I still don't feel pregnant, still not in maternity clothes, and I've not yet felt Baby K move. :( I know my doc said it could be anywhere between 16 and 24 weeks...but I'm ready, darn it! At my appointment 3 weeks ago, she said it would be "any day." Well, here I am, half way through with no baby movement! I told Patrick that I wonder if it's the extra fat on the outside of my stomach. Could that be?? I'm gonna go with that for a few more weeks....then I'll start to worry. No use worrying now! :)

Well, I've been wanting good, homemade deli sandwiches lately, but Patrick reminded me that I'm not supposed to have deli meats (b/c of some bacteria that may be in them) unless I heat the meat to steaming first. I just think this is ridiculous, but Patrick is a rule follower and he'd like me to follow all the rules. :) (I am also a total rule follower, but a reasonable one..) So, basically, I should just eat fresh fruits and veggies with an occasional piece of lean chicken (I mean, no protein would be unreasonable) for my entire pregnancy. Well, I just got my trusty cell phone right out and called my doctor. (They probably love me....calling all the time with the random "can I eat/do this" question)! The nurse didn't hesitate at all before telling me that deli meat is fine for me to eat. SO, turkey and cheese, here I come!! :) Patrick will be happy to know that I am offically cleared to eat deli meat....I guess it's kinda like following the rules! :)

You may remember that I have a doctor visit this Friday. We'll have our second ultrasound, so we'll be able to see cool stuff like the development of the brain, lungs, heart, liver, kidney.....and hopefully the SEX ORGANS!!! Lets hope Baby K cooperates!! Any guesses on boy or girl??? My dad thinks it's a girl; Patrick's dad thinks it's a boy. My mom is hoping for a girl; I'm still torn! I guess it's good to not have a preference- I think either would be SO FREAKING CUTE!! :) :) Ahhhh! Can't wait to find out and spread the news! Stay tuned...

A little stressed...

So, I'm going to use this little blog of mine as a bit of a rant....therapy if you will! It's gonna be a long one, so feel free to skip this one! So, y'all know that I am a senior in dental school, right?! Well, I've been staying Alpharetta for the past 2 weeks doing an externship in Atlanta. It's been great and relatively stress free being away from the typical bump and grind of the dental school. Well, Patrick and I are heading back to Augusta (school) today, and the past 2 mornings I've woken up with a nervous feeling. Ugh. I guess my mind and body know that I'm going back to that place for more crisis management. Sadly (my Dad pointed this out to me a few days ago), dental students become extremely good at constant crisis management. Dental school can sometimes feel like one big crisis that you're trying to figure out how to fix, correct, or make right. Well, I think the reason I'm feeling nervous is that I have 3 main crises coming up! The first and most troubling- I've got the biggest patient based test of my entire career coming up in just 3 weeks! It is the licensing exam needed to actually become a dentist! Actually, this would normally be alright except that it requires a very specific type of patient of which I have NONE! Non-dental people (no offense) have no idea what kind of stress this causes. Everyone in my entire class is looking for the same 3 type of patient's that fit an extremely narrow criteria. We are entirely responsible for finding these patient's on our own with no help from the school. So, here I am trying to convince family and friends (b/c it's really nice to have a reliable patient-one that actually comes- for the most important day of dental school) to let me take xrays...and I'm finding myself hoping that they have cavities!! How horrible! Well, anyway, no luck so far. (Except, of course, for a not-to-be-named family member that has to go fishing instead of helping this pregnant, stressed mama pass her dental license). Anyway, back to the crises- long story short, I NEED and I don't HAVE any patients for my dental boards. Three weeks and counting. That's crisis #1. You're thinking....there's more??!! Yes! When I get back to school....I still have a few requirements to finish WHILE also looking vigorously for board patients. No problem, we've got a little over a month, right? Wrong. I go back for one week, then we have spring break (we couldn't be in clinic even if we wanted to), then back for another week, and then it's BOARDS! Then only TWO WEEKS left of clinic after that. Crises #'s 2 and 3 are the few requirements I have left to complete. They've recently changed the root canal requirements given to us when we first began. What? You mean they changed a policy 3 months before graduation and expect us all to be able to complete it their way with no problem BEFORE graduation?? Yep. That's what I'm sayin. I love dental school. So, I thought I had all my root canal stuff figured out and almost complete, but not with the new policy! Yipee. Guess I'll be working on that while trying to find board patients. Anyway, crisis #3- this is a case that began very straight forward and then the sh*t hit the fan. Absolutely not my fault, but definitely my problem to fix (dental school again). So, when I get back to school, I'll bring this patient back in and get to start over on a very important, very REQUIRED (for graduation) portion of her treatment. Yes, I said start over. (Another dental school thing). Of course, this entails lab work on my part before sending it to an outside lab which can take up to a month to complete. People, one month is only about a week before graduation! Most people are thinking, great! You have one week to spare. Nope, not unless everything goes perfectly smooth with no bumps or unexpected problems....this basically doesn't happen in dental school....remember that whole crisis management thing?? There's a reason we're all so good at it....there are A LOT of them! This case is absolutely no exception! Of course, I thought I was done with this part before I left for my externship 2 weeks ago....I was ahead of the game! But not anymore, so now I'll be starting over on this patient while trying to create time to find board patients. Ugh! Plus (I forgot about this one) I have a presentation this Wednesday morning on a patient that took me 2 years to complete treatment. Gotta love how everything just falls together, huh?!

So, I think these are the main reasons I have woken with a nervous feeling for the past few days...I just have so much to look forward to! :) I am, however, looking forward to getting back to my fabulous dental school friends. I will miss them tremendously when all is said and done and we all go our separate ways! At least there's always those people who know exactly what you're going through. Without them, where would I be?

So, this one got a little long. Props to those of you who actually read the whole thing.....especially you non-dental folk! Here's to a better than anticipated week...who knows...maybe getting back to dental school will surprise me!