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| Christmas dinner in Los Alcarrizos with Tim, Paola, Ana Leah, Rachel, and family! |
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| Going to the Escuela Caribe Christmas Banquet |
Our baby is the size of an apple!
What's been happening this week:
I got my third ultra-sound this week and the baby is looking good, he/she (couldn't tell which yet) was moving around a LOT, all over the place, Dave said it looks like a DeYoung baby, always moving and can't wait to get out already, which made me start laughing and the ultrasound machine started going crazy, jumping around and making all these loud noises, and Dave didn't know why and he was like are you farting Kristin, right in front of the doctor, which made me laugh even more and make the ultrasound make more noise and go even more crazy, and all the while the doctor did not think it was one bit funny... on top of that, while Dave was late getting to the appt., I told the doctor about all the things I've been reading in my pregnancy book that doctors are supposed to do at appts. (like take my weight and blood pressure, so he did, but looking a bit irritated about always being told by the high maintenance American girl how to do his job) so after all of that, the doctor charged us more than double what he usually does and was not in the cheerful mood he usually is (but I have to be careful cause he's the best doctor in town and a parent of a student from school so I don't want to mess up that relationship). We tried to leave on a good note by saying Feliz Navidad, but I don't know if that really helped... He also was concerned that I haven't been gaining any weight, I have only gained 2 pounds in the whole 15 weeks so he told me to take Ensure, we went to PriceSmart in Santiago yesterday and bought a big $28 container of it but the directions are confusing and in Spanish, they say 6 scoops for each shake and 2 shakes a day, but Dave is scared I'm taking too much and will be like 200 pounds by the end of next week (and I am getting pretty fat from it already!) For those who don't know Pricesmart is like the Dominican version of Costco or Sam's Club, so I was drooling over everything I saw... including Totino's pizza rolls which I have been craving badly so Dave bought a box of 160 of them for me for Christmas - I was a happy camper. :)
I have been feeling a lot better lately since my transition into 2nd trimester but there are still some of the same symptoms... the weird dreams are still vivid and super weird, like craaaaaaaaazy stuff, lots of dreams about alien invasions and UFO's and that kind of stuff lately, really trippy kind of stuff. Also lots of headaches and still super tired, but better than the first trimester. The doctor gave me the go ahead to go off the hormones I've been taking for the past 3 months, so I'm wondering what that will do to me, we'll find out.. And like I mentioned before, I have started having cravings, in the beginning I didn't want to eat anything at all, but unfortunately for Dave I usually crave things now like PF Changs and Applebee's or things you can only buy from a Meijer's - he got to point the other night where he was like "Do you want me to make you some Fiesta freaking lime chicken, sit down cause I'm going to make you some" cause I was talking about it all day, but I fell asleep like 10 minutes later before he had the chance to.... seriously he has had the patience of a saint always trying to accomodate to all my needs and I don't know what I'd do without him.
I have been feeling a lot better lately since my transition into 2nd trimester but there are still some of the same symptoms... the weird dreams are still vivid and super weird, like craaaaaaaaazy stuff, lots of dreams about alien invasions and UFO's and that kind of stuff lately, really trippy kind of stuff. Also lots of headaches and still super tired, but better than the first trimester. The doctor gave me the go ahead to go off the hormones I've been taking for the past 3 months, so I'm wondering what that will do to me, we'll find out.. And like I mentioned before, I have started having cravings, in the beginning I didn't want to eat anything at all, but unfortunately for Dave I usually crave things now like PF Changs and Applebee's or things you can only buy from a Meijer's - he got to point the other night where he was like "Do you want me to make you some Fiesta freaking lime chicken, sit down cause I'm going to make you some" cause I was talking about it all day, but I fell asleep like 10 minutes later before he had the chance to.... seriously he has had the patience of a saint always trying to accomodate to all my needs and I don't know what I'd do without him.
This week we had lots more Christmas activities and fun, we were invited to the Escuela Caribe Christmas Banquet at the boarding school where we used to live, which we didn't realize was a very formal affair, girls had prom dresses handmade in town and poor Dave showed up in flip flops and blue jeans, oops (I wasn't that much better in leggings and a sweater dress). Then we took the bus down to the capital on Christmas Eve and stayed just outside the capital in Los Alcarrizos where I used to volunteer and live in 07 and got to see family and old friends, and the most exciting part was meeting my new neice Rachel who is absolutely gorgeous. Meeting and spending time with babies has become all the more exciting when you know you have your own swimming around inside. Christmas Day we spent with family and friends at the old "camp" where I used to live and it was a very multi-cultural dinner since most of the dinner guests were doctors from different countries who volunteer at the hospital there, we had a mix of Ethiopian, Indonesian, Australian, Bolivian, and American dishes for Christmas dinner then lounged around poolside. We met another couple from Ethiopia who are expecting this summer who we enjoyed spending time with, talking pregnancy and baby stuff (I really wish I had some pregnant friends here!). On the 26th my sis-in-law Pam flew in to visit from Boston and whoa did she bring the Christmas treats, so a big GRACIAS to all of you who sent them, especially my mom who sent me an entire new pregnancy wardrobe, which I'm already loving, maternity pants are the most amazing thing ever. Also I had a meeting while in the capital with CONANI, which is the child protective services agency here in the DR and also licenses NGO's here, about the safehouse and they were eager to get involved with us (which is exciting, if they actually follow through :) Okay that's it for this week since this was an extra long update. Love and miss you all!
