Weekly Check-in 10/27/25

emeraldmaybythebay · October 27

FTM/STM/TTM+:

EDD / Weeks + Days:

Team blue/pink/green:

Upcoming Appointments:

How are you feeling?:

Rants/Raves:

Questions:

GTKY:
Do you dress up for Halloween, your kids? If so what is everyone going as this year?

emeraldmaybythebay · October 27

FTM/STM/TTM+: 6th

EDD / Weeks + Days: woke up in the 3rd trimester!!!! Under 3 months to go time!

Team blue/pink/green: 💙

Upcoming Appointments: I fasted 3 times for my glucose test and each time the phlebotomist left the office during my appt. I finally went Friday and was sent to labcorp they couldn't get me in until 3 so again I fasted all day for a 4th time.... when I tell you I was ravenous, and then a lady cut in line at the place I stopped to get food at after. I was angry! I called her out and she said "so" with a smug smirk. Staff did nothing. I am so sick of the entitlement of society. No class. Class is gone. That same lady complained about her meal and got a discount. Like we always say in our business "some customers you just don't want".

How are you feeling? I feel surprisingly well. I am doing less lifting. Less bending. My boys are saints and can see life is harder at the moment for me and are picking up the slack all their own. I have an idea as a thank you gift to them post baby. I am so blessed. I'm tired and round, but I feel him moving all the time. I'm praying it all comes to be and I just can't wait to meet this little guy and see who he is.

Rants/Raves: the EBT shutdown has my little area in a tizzy! Anyone else?
Our stores are talking about doing online only. Which is frustrating, I pay in cash as often as I can. I'm very anti-banks. During Covid I vowed to stop shopping at places that refused cash or had strange demands. To this day I still haven't.
It dawned on me that everything that is locked up at stores is not covered by EBT. Expensive meats and food items aren't locked up. I looked into Walmart and how much of EBT is spent there and it is insane. Walmart really needs to give back to communities with how much of our tax dollars are handed over via EBT holders. The next few months are going to be wild and I just pray people are sane and have what they need. I hope children get Christmas still and that this doesnt hinder it.
Necessity vs luxury always get me. I have friends on EBT. I love them dearly. They work, but they spend so frivoulously they have their eyelashes done, hair done, nails done, new clothes, etc. Everything on payments. I cut my own hair, paint my own nails, what are fake eyelashes? Lol, I am in the same clothes as college and prekids. I have maybe 5 maternity items ever bought with all my pregnancies. My kids wear hand-me-downs and thrift store finds. We save meticulously and go without to save. I dont understand this mindset of luxuries over stability. We have no payments or mortgage from years of sacrifice. I prefer to look poor than wealthy and have some meat behind me than look wealthy and not have anything backing me. One thing is for sure, no one is breaking into my vehicles. Haha we look poor as can be and I love it.

Donate to food banks if you can. Children will go without and during the holidays to boot. 🙏

Questions: N/A

GTKY:

Do you dress up for Halloween, your kids? If so what is everyone going as this year?

We don't but the kids do. This year they are going as a skeleton, werewolf, Batman, and Marshall from Paw Patrol.
My youngest says they are going as bone head, wolf hat, batman and Marshal!! 🤭 he's not wrong. Haha

ahume131 · October 28

FTM/STM/TTM+: FTM

EDD / Weeks + Days: Jan. 14/28w6d

Team blue/pink/green: Blue

Upcoming Appointments: None til mid-November

How are you feeling?: I've been better. We did a lot of walking at the end of last week and over the weekend, including going to see my SIL and BIL's new place in the city and walking quite a bit all over with them. It was enjoyable in the moment, but I seem to have done something to my knee. Lots of pain yesterday and again today. Yesterday, I was out and about at Target and the grocery store, which probably didn't help, so today I'm trying to take it easy.

I passed my glucose screening last week (yay!) but my bloodwork showed I'm anemic. That explains some of the fatigue over the last few weeks. Iron supplements it is!

Rants/Raves: Politics are just making me so sad right now. I'm avoiding a lot of the news for my mental health, to be honest. I know that's not the most responsible thing to do probably, but man, it does not seem like there's much good news out there these days. My husband and I are lucky and privileged enough not to be affected by things, at least not yet, but my little brother and his wife are both furloughed from government jobs. I'm really worried about them, especially as my brother is not one to ask for help if he needs it. He has the dubious honor of being an "excepted" employee so he's working long hours while not getting paid and wondering if he'll even see back pay, or if he'll be laid off at some point during this mess. This is so tough with the holidays looming as well.

Definitely looking into donations to food banks and to gift drives for children this season, as we are lucky enough to be in a position to give.

Questions: I had one, but it's slipped my mind now

GTKY: Do you dress up for Halloween, your kids? If so what is everyone going as this year?

We don't typically dress up, and we even kind of half-ass things if we're going to a Halloween party, to be honest haha. I don't get as enthused about Halloween as a lot of people seem to. Christmas is more my holiday. I'm already starting to think about family Halloween costumes for next year though, so maybe having a baby will change my attitude toward Halloween

acleverusername · October 28

Thanks for keeping the weekly threads alive @ahume131 @emeraldmaybythebay! I've been inundated. Will review the last couple of weeks of updates and post my own shortly!

acleverusername · October 29

@ahume131 seconding your feelings on politics right now; I'm Canadian, living / working in the US, so some of the stuff is directly impactful to me, but as an "alien" I can't do anything about it. So it's kind of like being a passenger in a runaway train: effing scary. Also, a couple of weeks you mentioned jitters around "losing yourself" to motherhood and I will say... things WILL change... so I think it's healthy to set some space aside / get comfortable with that prospect. But, you will emerge a modified person. I'm using "modified" here, instead of better, because "better" is absolutely in the eye of the beholder. I have certainly changed as a person since becoming a mom. Primarily, what's changed for me is my values. I used to value advancement at work / striving for continues pay increases / more responsibility. Now... I don't give 2 f*cks about that stuff. My health, my family's health, our happiness as a unit trumps all of that. My husband is very supportive of me pursuing things on my own, and those things are different than before, but they're also extremely fulfilling. And I am also supportive of my husband doing things for himself (they're still kinda the same as before, but that's just the kind of people we are).

@emeraldmaybythebay I am very sad for the people who'll be losing their EBT benefits. I'm looking for ways to give back as my husband and I are fortunate in that area. But we do live in a place that has a high number of agricultural (immigrant) workers, as well as elderly, so ppl are gonna get hit hard. Oh, and re: baby name... any progress there? We had a name picked long ago (family name), and it worked out that baby's sex is "the right one for the name." Ha!

FTM/STM/TTM+: STM

EDD / Weeks + Days: Jan 11 (but induction somewhere in the 39th week). 29+3

Team blue/pink/green: Fake green

Upcoming Appointments: OB checkup this morning

How are you feeling?: Oh man, to echo what everyone has said last week, feeling round and definitely getting ready for the wobbling stage. We have a single story house (which is quite large) and I am out of breath walking from my office to the kitchen (opposite sides of the house). Definitely in the 3rd trimester! I also had - what I call - "structural vomiting" this morning... not hormonal like in the 1st tri; rather caused my organs being squished and not in their proper place.

Rants/Raves: Well, I was MIA for a couple of weeks because work stress has been over the top. So much so, that I've had to go to L&D 2x to get checked out. Once was directly triggered by some disrespectful / unprofessional comments from a colleague (I reported them to HR). The 2nd time I was having regular contractions, which were getting crampier. We ruled out preterm labor, thankfully. I do have protein in urine, so we're keeping a close eye on my blood pressure, to make sure I don't develop pre-e. Luckily I'm already on Lovenox for a genetic hyper-coagulability condition, and Lovenox is - I'm learning - 1st line defense in all kinds of later pregnancy baddies. So, I feel reassured by that. I'll be talking to my OB today about starting my pregnancy disability leave early because I certainly don't want work stress to cause preterm labor / a premie baby. It is NOT worth it.

Questions: nah

GTKY:
Do you dress up for Halloween, your kids? If so what is everyone going as this year?
Like @ahume131 I'm more of a Christmas person. My son doesn't appear to be interested in costumes whatsoever. I think he'll dress up in his bmx riding gear even though we have an astronaut and pirate costumes lined up. I also have a "blow up cow costume" that was a prop at a friend's wedding in September so I will be dawning that on for the neighbors. Lol.

kbmt · October 29

FTM/STM/TTM+: STM

EDD / Weeks + Days: 29 weeks (but measuring 6 days ahead)

Team blue/pink/green: Blue

Upcoming Appointments: I had an ultrasound yesterday. My next appointment is Nov 13

How are you feeling?: I've been having a good amount of pelvic pain. Breathing has always been a struggle while pregnant, but is definitely worsening. I'm ready to no longer be pregnant, but realize I still have a full trimester to go.

Rants/Raves: We are under contract on a new house! However, the inspections showed some issues that we need the sellers to remedy, so we are hoping that all goes well and they don't push back. We are supposed to close in just a little over two weeks. The goal is to spend December moving so that we can be in the new house for Christmas.

I also only have two more weeks of my hip hop dance troupe. I perform on Nov 8. It's becoming more difficult to dance for sure, but I'm glad I've kept up with it for as long as I have and am able to participate in the performance.

My rant is that I'm struggling to determine whether or not I should travel for work in mid-November. I'm technically okay to travel if I want to. I fear that not going may set back my career slightly (or it may not at all). However, the trip is to Florida. I don't want anything to happen to me where I have to go to a hospital in Florida as I don't have confidence that I'd be taken care of as I would here at home. We're also moving into flu and RSV season, so there are risks there too. I need to decide soon if I'll push back on travel or go along with it. I'm leaning toward pushing back.

Questions: None

GTKY:
Do you dress up for Halloween, your kids? If so what is everyone going as this year?

I won't be dressing up, but my son picked out his costume. He is a zombie doctor. It's pretty cute. I'm also more of a Christmas gal for sure, but we do enjoy Halloween too.

emeraldmaybythebay · October 30

@kbmt a zombie doctor sounds amazing! Hip-hop dancing also sounds pretty amazing! Go you! And congrats on the house!!! I hope they fix the issues and you have some treasured 1st Christmas memories in the new home!

@ahume131 I completely agree with your feelings on politics. It's so draining. I hope your brother and his family will be OK. I am so angered by how easily they can halt government yet expect us to just continue on. It thankfully won't affect us either, but we all know someone it will and it's infuriating. I already have a handful of families I'm going to be gifting to in some way this Christmas so their kids can not be touched by this mess. Politics and times like this should not divide people but unite. It's so odd how polarizing everything has become.

@acleverusername that is so scary when you think it's labor so early. I'm glad you are OK. I wish work was going smoother for you. I can not imagine being in the "traditional" workforce and dealing with peers while pregnant. I know many women do it daily and props to all of you ladies. I would get fired lol 😆 I just know it. I hope it gets better. Maternity leave is not far!!! 🙌

We are Christmas folks over Halloween too. We never did Haloween before kids, but it is so fun with kids. They love it. We don't do the week long trunk or treat stuff though. It's one night. We are building a tent in the basement so they can watch Halloween movies and trade candy that night. They are so excited!

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Weekly Check-in 10/27/25

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