Super Hectic last days

Just got home from doing a ton of last minute stuff around town. We are so exhausted but I am soooo happy I got to see my friends Liz, Crispin & Millie and my sister one last time before we left. Liz cooked us a full gourmet meal of baked chicken, salad, buttery garlicky mussels, sourdough bread and an ice cream cake to celebrate Crispin's birthday. Oh, and 4 whole heads of roasted elephant garlic to smear on everything!! It was a fabulous meal, and I am so glad we got to share it. She also let me make rice crispy treats and bake cookies in her kitchen for our road trip to Texas.

I had my phone interview with Texas Medicaid and the very friendly gentleman said i was all signed up and ready to go with my benefits going active on July 1st. Yippee!! Being pro-active really pays off, and it's a survival necessity in this day and age. The only problem is, he needs copies of my birth certificate (which I don't have), my Social Security card (which I don't have), my Georgia Medicaid termination letter (which I don't have - yet), and my pregnancy verification form (which I actually have!!). So we went downtown to the Health Dept. to get my birth certificate right before they closed and of course it wasn't that easy. She had my certificate in her hand but wouldn't give it to me because my last name changed from my stepfather's surname to my mother's surname. Which only made me angrier at my mom for wanting me to have her surname after I graduated from college. Oh yes, up until I proved myself it was OK for me to have his last name, but she's got to cash in on some of that prestige once I became an "architect".

So that's gonna be a hassle. But I can handle it, hopefully.

I felt fat and ugly all day, Its because I've barely had time to wash my face today after all the packing, loading and running errands. It was nice to take a break and hang out in the middle of it all, though. I am really gonna miss my friends and my sister.

My mom took a quick dig at me when Chris stopped in to get some cash from her so we could pay for gas and a birth certificate. She said something like she couldn't believe her daughter was on welfare. Which I'm not. It's insurance. Whatever, she can take all the digs she wants it wont affect me anymore.

So.. tomorrow we head out. Hopefully the earlier the better. I have to go to the WIC office and do a few last minute things and clean. Then it's off to Texas with the Beep, Meow, Papa & Me.

Healthcare Finally!

Yay, I finally got confirmation of my Medicaid and Wellcare enrollment! I made my first prenatal appointment with In-town Midwifery on June 2nd. I also applied for the WIC program and have an appointment for that on June 8th. Now all I need to do is find a dentist to take care of these awful toothaches and I will be golden!

So my first prenatal visit will be just right around the beginning of my 2nd trimester and I will have an ultrasound where I get to hear the baby's heartbeat!!! Right now I am at 10 weeks and the baby is the size of a prune, with organs beginning to function and little arms moving around.

Chris will be coming with me to this appointment, but we will have to open the restaurant late in order to make it. I wonder if they will give me a copy of the heartbeat sound file... I will have to ask cause it would be soooo cool to have that!

Still no morning sickness, and I am handling the tiredness pretty well. I come home from work and pass out. I also eat A LOT. Still hovering at 170 lbs, which thank god I'm not gaining anymore weight at the moment cause that really concerns me. I am eating tons and tons of fruit, trying to keep my protein intake high too. I ate half a watermelon by myself in the past 2 days. Watermelon is so freaking good right now. I'm also really big on jalapenos and lemonade. Otis Spunkmeyer cookies are also a weakness...they make a killer Oatmeal Raisin. OH!!! and I FINALLY found a milk substitute that I can handle - Sugar-free Vanilla Almond Milk is the shit! I eat my morning cereal with that and I am good to go! Soy milk was making me feel sick and of course I can't drink cow's milk anymore thanks to being completely lactose intolerant now.

Anyways, keep on thinking of girl names everyone, cause that's the tough one to pick. I got some ideas but none of them have really stood out. I'm not saying it's a girl, but just in case....

I'm Pregnant!

As of today, exactly 9 weeks pregnant. I feel pretty good, considering all the hard work I've been putting in at opening my restaurant. No morning sickness, but sometimes I get slightly queasy. I eat a lot of saltines and cheese, with diet Ginger Ale and I'm fine. I was pretty tired for a couple of weeks but since I'm so busy now I'm just plain exhausted all the time anyways.

Today was a rough day because I keep having to delay the grand opening of my restaurant due to some equipment that still needs to be repaired and I can't find anybody with common sense to fix it for me. I won't go into detail about that, but it is the reason why I am enjoying a TINY glass of red wine right now. I've only taken one sip and I feel like I could go to sleep on my desk right now.

I'm also eating BBQ fried pork skins with my wine. Leave me alone. It was a frustrating day.

I already have a belly forming!! It may just be fat because I'm gaining weight (I gained 5 lbs already!). I weigh 170 lbs now. Well, actually that's how much I weighed a couple weeks ago when I went to the Medical Center to take my official pregnancy test, so I may actually be heavier than that already.

According to a bunch of sources, it would be normal for me to gain between 25-35 lbs. But I heard that Kate Hudson gained 70 lbs with her last baby and she's a toothpick now!

A lot of people have concerns that I may not be getting enough food to support a baby, but trust me, I am eating more than plenty. I've done a lot of research on the topic and there's absolutely no risk to the baby as long as I take enough vitamins. Which I am. Yesterday for lunch I had some weird African cassava leaf curry which looked like grass clipping soup, it was healthy and I ate more of it than I should have, plus an entire apple and a whole banana. In fact, I wolfed the fruit down one right after the other and had to take a few moments while they battled it out in my stomach.

I've been craving a lot of fruits and cheese. Also anything crunchy or with peanut butter. In fact, I think I could eat just about anything put in front of me at this point. For a whole entire week I wanted Sonny's BBQ salad bar so bad I almost cried about it, but I never got to go there. It was very disappointing. So yeah, I'm eating plenty. All I do is eat, eat, eat. I'm probably going to blow up like a whale.

I am a little worried about gestational diabetes because I have a sweet tooth now, which is weird because I never really had a sweet tooth when I was big. Now I just crave crave crave cookies and cake. Ice cream, smoothies, pie.....mmmmmm.

OK enough about food. What else... I wont be able to see a doctor until my Medicaid comes through which is a pain in the butt because the people around here (sorry but this may sound racist, but I do live in downtown Atlanta a.k.a. the Ghetto) don't seem to give a shit about their jobs or being helpful to the people who rely on them to actually DO their jobs. So I'm pretty sure my Medicaid application has gotten lost in the shuffle since it's been almost a month since I filled out the application and I haven't heard a thing back. So I applied again, this time I did it myself online so hopefully that will take.

I have a Midwife picked out that I want to go to for my prenatal care, they are located right across the street from the hospital where I will likely be having the baby - which coincidentally is the same hospital I was born in 32 years ago.

Well... that's about all I have the energy to write about for now. I will try to put up some pictures and add some more information later about Chris - the baby's daddy.