Pregnant woman gets punched

Saturday, October 27th

So, I haven't gone out since I've been pregnant because of risk of getting bumped into and whatnot. Not that I'm back in Colorado, I've really wanted to go country dancin' at this bar I used to go to with my mom and sister. It's a no smoking bar and people usually don't get that rowdy, but it isn't a good environment to be in pregnant.

We were able to get tickets to the "Shining Ball" at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park (tourist town just outside of the Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park). It was a big deal! I made the tickets so my husband and I could go, a trade. They were $85 each. People paying that much for a Halloween Party are serious!

For those of you who don't know, The Stanley Hotel is where Stephen King was staying when he got the idea about the book/movie The Shining. The hotel is very old (opened in 1909) and there are a lot of haunted stories about experiences there over the years. In May 2006, investigators with The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) investigated the hotel for the SciFi Channel program Ghost Hunters. TAPS returned to the hotel on October 31st, 2006 for a live, six hour follow-up investigation. The people on the show are plummers who use scientific equipment to debunk/disprove haunted claims. That may be the reason she show isn't more popular, because more often than not, the "hauntings" they investigate are leaky pipes or breezes from cracks in windows or doors. TAPS did catch the closet door open and close on it's own on a night vision camera, and the glass sitting on his nightstand broke and the pieces were inside the cup, not on the table. The Today Show filmed a piece for their Halloween show. Here's a small picture:



Anyway, we were having a good time. We went as a white trash couple. Preston put holes in an old shirt and dirtied himself up, he looked great! I'm 6 months (24 weeks Monday) along, but I'm not showing as much as I'd hoped, so I put a pillow under my shirt, wore slippers, used my make-up to give myself a black eye and wore too much red lipstick. We were both holding cigarettes and I was holding a beer bottle.

This lady came up to me when we were sitting by the fireplace and leaned in a little. I thought she was gonna tell me something. She made a fist and punched my stomach. It really hurt, like, she actually PUNCHED me. I looked at her and said, "I'm really pregnant!" and she didn't believe me. I was like, "No... I'm REALLY pregnant!"

She felt really stupid and apologized over and over, but it really hurt! I played it off in front of people (there were another couple sitting across from us), but when Preston and I went outside, I told him how hard of a hit it was. I thought I'd be fine, but I really didn't know because it IS my first pregnancy. We stayed about 15 minutes more, then decided to go to the ER to make sure.

I got right in (the luxuries of living in a small town) and the nurse put two... what looked like over-sized stethescopes on my belly. She couldn't find the heartbeat for about 30 minutes, but just because my baby wouldn't stop moving. She said that was a good sign. We finally got the heartbeat, between 120 and 190, depending on how much he was moving around. It was neat to be able to hear all the movement :)

Everything was fine and I was able to get out of there in less than two hours. Thank god! It just scared me. Who punches someone? At a party? An adult richie hoity toity party? She looked to be in her early 40's or late 30's. It was so weird. She wasn't even drunk. Some people!

Oooh baby !!!!!!!!!

My 23 week old baby: photo taken 12:37:20PM
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007





Baby's heart rate: 160 bpm
Unfortunately, we couldn't determine the sex, we couldn't see :(
The nurse (she was awesome!) said, "During this whole ultrasound, I haven't seen any little boy parts, but I cannot definitely see little girl parts."

23 weeks preggo

There are 117 days until your due date on February 17, 2008.
You are 163 days pregnant.
You are 5.3 months pregnant.
You are in your 6th month of pregnancy. (huh?)
Your 1st trimester: May 13, 2007 to August 11, 2007. (0 - 12 weeks)
Your 2nd trimester: August 12, 2007 to November 24, 2007. (13 - 27 weeks)
Your 3rd trimester: November 25, 2007 to February 17, 2008. (28 - 40 weeks)

This week your baby's length, from crown-to-rump, is approximately 8 inches! Your growing baby has finally reached one pound. Your baby is about the size of a small baby doll and looks very human. The baby's face and body look similar to that of a newborn at this time. Your uterus can be found about 1.5 inches above your navel. Your total weight gain should be approximately 15 pounds at this time.

You might notice some Braxton-Hicks contractions around this time. These contractions are not regular and they should not be painful. Braxton-Hicks contractions prepare your body for the upcoming labor and they will get stronger as your pregnancy progresses. You might be able to feel the contractions if you put your hand on your abdomen and your baby can probably feel the uterus gripping and massaging her. It will not harm your baby, so there is no need for concern.

Fat is still being deposited at a rapid rate, but your baby still looks red and wrinkled. Skin is being produced at a higher rate than the fat is, so the skin hangs loosely. Your baby looks red because the skin is losing its transparency and pigment is beginning to form. You should be feeling your baby moving quite a bit throughout the day as she will kick and punch the uterus walls. Babies also run their hands along the umbilical cord and touch their body parts while they are in the womb. Your baby now can suck her thumb for real, where she was just sticking it in her mouth. Your baby will continue to swallow amniotic fluid and recycle it as urine. The liquids and sugars that the baby retracts from the fluid is a supplement to the nutrients that the placenta delivers. You might be able to feel small `jumps` inside of you when your baby gets the hiccups from swallowing fluid. The pancreas is developing and it will responsible for insulin production, to help break down sugars.

Oily fish in your diet could help boost your baby's health. (Women who eat oily fish while pregnant have children with better visual development, a major study at Bristol University suggests.)

As the baby continues to grow, it has less space to move around in the uterus. Bones, muscles and organs are growing steadily.

Your baby's lungs are in major growth mode this week, with blood vessels expanding and preparing to help her breathe after she's born. Although she's making breathing movements in the womb (so cute!), it's still just practice with amniotic fluid; your baby will get all of her oxygen delivered from the placenta until she's born. But here's why this lung development is so fabulous: If your child should happen to arrive early (though only 2 percent of babies in the U.S. are born before 32 weeks), her odds of surviving are significantly better now that her lungs are up and running. Of course, these and other important organs still have a long way to go to become fully developed, but most experts count weeks 23 and 24 as important, reassuring milestones when it comes to long-term healthy outcomes from preterm labor.