12 Weeks

Twelve weeks already.  I would love to report that I am feeling better, but now it's more like intermittent horribleness.  One day I will be feeling awesome (and then I stupidly say something like, "Jeremy!  I think I am turning a corner here!") and then the next day I will be back on the couch unable to lift my head.  But at least I am having some good days!


On Thursday I was actually thinking about posting about how much better things were getting, but I decided to wait for Friday.  Friday morning I was feeling fantastic.  I had a morning meeting at work (still feeling fantastic) and then I was driving home and ... BAM.  I threw up in a Tim Horton's bag while driving on the expressway.  It was so freaky and came out of nowhere!  Most of what I have been dealing with is just that overwhelming nausea feeling, and I wasn't even feeling nauseated when this happened!  I called Jeremy panicked and crying (which turns out, didn't help), and then got home and took a 3-hour nap.  What a weird day!


Anyway, two more weeks and the first trimester will be a distant memory!  This week the baby is the size of a lime ...

... and I am apparently already the size of a house! :)


But amazing things are happening this week.  The baby is developing REFLEXES!  Reflexes!!  I told Jeremy (through sobs, of course) and he was just as shocked as I was that the baby is opening and closing its little fingers, curling its toes, and making SUCKING MOVEMENTS!  It is just too amazing.


Nerve cells are forming rapidly now, and synapses in the brain are forming furiously.  The face also looks more human now.


The baby probably looks something like this today:

Except, let's be honest -- my baby probably already has a MUCH bigger butt than normal babies at this point! :)


The next doctor's appointment is this Thursday, and Jeremy will get to go with me to hear the heart beat!!  I am so excited!  Maybe they will also tell me it is twins, and that is why I am already as big as a moose!

Call Morgan Spurlock, Because I Think This McDonald's Relationship Might Be Official

I went back to work today ... let me just sum it up by saying it is TRULY embarrassing to have a hard time teaching a college class because standing up and speaking is enough to exhaust you and make your voice all wavery.  A few times I pretended that I was searching for a word so I could take a few deep breaths.  So now my students think I am so out of shape I get winded from standing AND I am inarticulate.  Maybe not the greatest strategy, but it was the best I could come up with at the time.


I also learned that the only reasons I was not experiencing certain pregnancy symptoms that people asked about was because I was living on the couch and the nausea was so overwhelming I could not feel anything else.  Well, standing up straight for 10 minutes in fancy shoes was enough for me to develop such an ache in my lower back I had the urge to grab at it like you can only get away with when you look nine months pregnant.  Yikes.


I have to say, though, I think the only reason I didn't end up on the floor in the fetal position, rocked by nausea is because I stopped for an Egg McMuffin again.  The only other day I remember not feeling like dying was the first day I stopped for an Egg McMuffin breakfast, so I have a sneaking suspicion that it might be the key to my success.  I guess it could be worse.


I also stopped at Taco Bell on the way home and got a Strawberry Fruitista Freeze, and OHMYGOD, I loved those things before, but NOW?  I want need a million a day.  Thankfully, I had found a recipe an hour before that for a strawberry-lime freeze, and Jeremy said he would make me one tonight.  Yumlicious.


There was one highly odd and scary moment today: I sneezed, and there was such a deep, stabbing pain across my abdomen that I gasped and nearly swerved off the road.  I have never felt anything like that before, and I am hoping there is someone out there who can explain it and ease my worries.  So, get on it! 

Meh ...

There has not been to much to report around here, except for the fact that I have been experiencing some serious ups and downs.


One minute I am feeling awesome and the next minute I have crumbled to the couch, my whole body overcome with ... horribleness.  I think the good moments are actually making things worse, because I get all excited and do exhausting things and forget to eat a nibble every hour, and then I plummet to the bottom of my "feeling like dying" meter.


My cravings lately have consisted of kalamata olives, Claussen pickles, and melted American cheese (on ANYTHING, but I can mostly only eat it on while grain bagels).


I am also VERY anxious to get to the doctor.  I need some proof and some questions answered.  I have been having some very slight cramping on and off, and I have read in a million places that it is normal, but I won't believe it is normal until she can say I am safely pregnant and things are progressing normally.  I am also VERY hopeful that I can get an anti-nausea prescription!  I start back at work tomorrow, and I really can't have any of this "bad day" nonsense.  I can't teach college composition classes from my couch.  I asked my dean, and he said no.  Booo.


So, more updates some time this week on how I manage to teach without puking or crying!  I am optimistic, but, you never know what the soybean has planned! 

Here Comes the Nausea!

I have been feeling okay these past few weeks.  Queasy and exhausted, but nothing I can't handle.  Until today.  Oh.  My.  Word.  At about 3 PM it hit me like a ton of bricks.  

I was sitting on the couch, minding my own business, when a wave of nausea like I have never experienced hit me.  I about fell over.  So I laid down, and I didn't get up until after Jeremy got home from work at 5.

I was laying on the couch, horrified and dying, when Jeremy walked in the door.  I asked him to come over to me and he didn't immediately -- he had the audacity to take off his shoes (slowly) -- so I started sobbing.  Jeremy asked me if he could bring me toast to make my stomach feel better, and I gagged so hard Jeremy took a few steps back!  I cried for a solid 20 minutes, telling him how horrible I felt, until he left (escaped) to walk the dog.  

I felt a little better after my cry, but when I stood up to go to the bathroom, I had to sit back down and stay down.  It wasn't until I finally thought of something to eat that wouldn't make me sick that I felt a little better.  But then I would feel better enough to get up and do something and I would over-do it and be back on the couch again.

I have been trying to eat little bits every hour, but it is hard to think of things that won't make me sick, and eating every hour is harder than I imagined!!  Once a few hours pass, I feel horrible again, and the thought of food is impossible.

I certainly hope this was a fluke or it will be over soon, because if this is what pregnancy is going to feel like ... well, this will be a LONG eight months!