Am I Pregnant: Early Symptoms of Pregnancy

When did you first realize you were pregnant? For me a self proclaimed "mother hopeful" I spent the first few weeks of pregnancy convincing myself one way or the other. That month before I could take the pregnancy test was like a 5 year old waiting for Christmas. It was awful. One day I was sure I was having a baby, the next I was sure I wasn't. What was even worse was the result of the test.

The first pregnancy test I took was clear a big fat "NO!" Really?!?, really???? It couldn't be! I had all the symptoms of early pregnancy. I knew what to look for. My nose was working on overdrive, my breasts were sore, I had taken ample opportunity during the ovulation window...and my period was ONE day late. (I have to admit: that wasn't abnormal.) But when that test came back negative I was devastated. I really wanted a baby, afterall I had already nearly read through What to Expect When You're Expecting.

A few days later, the day after Christmas 2007, I decided to take another HPT. So what if it was my 5th or 6th in a month. I NEEDED to know! Standing in the bathroom I peed on the stick. My husband refused to let me look at the results until the 2 to 5 minutes, or whatever it is, was up. He stood there with his foot just an inch away from the test, covering it so I couldn't peek at the results. When the time was up, he slowly moved his foot....and WHAT??? did I see two pink lines? One was clearly pink, the other could have been a figment of my imagination...but it sure looked like it was there to me, mother hopeful. I ran around our bathroom screaming "I think it may be true, I think it may be true." Now, I'm in a predicament though. I worked overnight shifts, at the time, and had to go to work in an hour. But I also HAD to know for sure and there was no way this could wait until morning. So I ran to the store, picked up a digital pregnancy test and ran the results again. This time there was NO mistaking...it said "PREGNANT" loud and clear. 

We were having a baby! 

Suggested Reading: 

How to Recognize Early Pregnancy Symptoms

Tracking Ovulation To Get Pregnant

What To Expect When You're Expecting: 4th Edition

Baby Names

If you're like me, you had your baby's name picked out long before you even thought about pregnancy. But ,for some it's a decision that's a lot more difficult...even leaving some mothers to decide in the delivery room. Now that I think about it -that could have been me!

That is - had the sonographer who checked out my baby's "parts" not known if she was looking at a "hamburger" or a "hotdog." But apparently it was pretty clear..I had a hamburger..and one who wasn't shy about it! Thus the little girl name, Olivia, that I had wanted for so long was almost set in stone. Okay, so I just had to clear it with my other half.

What turned out to be a lot more difficult was coming up with a boy's name. You know...just in case. My husband is a third and we both agreed there didn't need to be a forth. That was a bit much (although,he's now informed me if the next one is a boy, we may have to consider it). We went round and round on boy's names looking at websites, baby name books, asking other people's advice (not always a good idea). I had a few I liked..and my husband had a few he liked. Neither of us liked the others'.

So we went to the hospital ready to be induced with only a girl's name. I have to admit, although complications forced me to have two ultrasounds a week for the last six weeks of my pregnancy (and EVERY time they said it was a girl), there was still a tiny part of me that was nervous a boy might pop out. Then what would we do? Thankfully, I didn't have to worry about it...I got my Olivia.

So I want to know did you have trouble picking out baby names for your little one? Did you find it harder to pick out little boy names or little girls names? For those of us who still need a little inspiration and help coming up with one or both here's a great article on baby names.

Suggested Reading

Sweet Conversations

The other morning I woke up to the sound of my daughter babbling away in her crib. I don't keep the monitor on at night (that's another posting, I'll get to soon) so I couldn't hear all that well. That's when I thought "I want to hear that sweet little voice" so I turned on the monitor just to eaves drop.

The things I hear through the baby monitor have often made me smile. Before my daughter was really being vocal I would intentionally send my husband in to get my daughter from her crib, just so I could hear their adorable conversations. He could always make her giggle. Usually when he was making some goofy sound or asking her if she went "poooooopppppy." I love hearing the little stories he would tell her about his day or why loved her pretty blue eyes. I wish I could replay some of the little songs my husband would make up to entertain my 4 month old. Songs that 4 months ago he probably would have never thought he'd say in his life. It's amazing what a beautiful baby will do to even the strongest of men.

Nap Time

I know I'm not the only one out there struggling with nap time. The thing about naps are they're when I get my mommy stuff done. But I'm finding I'm getting less and less done because my daughter is napping less.

Maybe the reason I get so concerned about nap time is because my daughter would sleep for hours on end just a few months ago. I'd always have to wake her up to eat. Now I can't get her (she's 5 months now) to sleep more than 30 or 40 minutes at a time. I'm guessing she wakes up after that first sleep cycle and doesn't want to or can't (I don't know which) go back to sleep. (At least I've figured out how to get her to sleep! and how to sleep through the night!) Rarely will she sleep longer than 45 minutes during a nap. I guess I shouldn't complain. When she's awake she's not cranky and she can usually go another 2 hours before another nap. Plus, she's now sleeping 11 or 12 hours at night so she's probably doesn't need as much sleep during the day.
Oh well, I guess my "mommy time" will just have to fit into that 30 minute nap time.

Recommended Reading:

How Much Sleep Does My Baby Need
Get Some Sleep: Turn Off the Baby Monitor
How to Get a Baby to Sleep
Getting Your Baby to Sleep Through the Night
Crying It Out: The Last Resort

The books I found the most useful as far as teaching my daughter to sleep are:

Making Money as a SAHM

When I left my job to become a SAHM one of my biggest concerns was finances. Not that we couldn't afford for me to stay home, we could with some adjustments to our spending and our budget. But I wanted to still feel like I was contributing financially. In the short month that I've been home, I've found some creative ways to make money while raising my daughter.

I'm writing for the website Ehow.com. You can write about anything on Ehow as long as it's in the "How To" format. Articles can be relatively short or as long as you need to explain your "how to." Writers who've been at it awhile make hundreds, even $1500 a month just by writing articles. You get paid when people click on the ads that are posted alongside articles you've written. I've been writing since November 22 and have about 50 articles so far. The money starting coming in almost immediately. Okay, so it was only 8 cents at first, then .13 and so on. Now I'm making close to .75 a day. I'm quickly learning that the more articles I write, the more I promote them and the more work I put in now, the more money will keep coming in. Ehow is a great way to make residual income. The great thing is, once an article is written it has the potential to continually make money without me doing anymore work! Check out all my ehow articles, I'd love to know what you think!.

I've also started selling used clothing on Ebay. Now I have to admit there's definitely a learning curve there. There are lots of ins and outs to learn on Ebay in order to be successful. With each sale I'm learning more and more.

Right now I'm focusing on these two "ventures" if you will. I don't want to spread myself too thin and I need to remember that I stopped working for a reason: to raise my daughter. And let's be honest, right now, I only get nap time to "work." That can be as little as 30 minutes at a clip and we all know that's not much. If you've found ways to make residual income by working online let me know. I'm always interested in hearing what other SAHM do.