Preludes And Nocturnes

I’m feeling somewhat betrayed by this whole Pretty in Pink thing.  Test audiences have made it so a movie was altered into THE WRONG MOVIE.

I’ve almost finished watching Season One of Boston Legal again (with Jim as he was away this past weekend).  It is a good show that you can re-watch less than a week later.

I get an ultrasound this week so we can better ‘date’ the beeb.  I had been on the pill right up until we got preggers so ovulation might have been wonky (timewise - obviously it worked out in all other ways). This is exciting as given how much I’m showing already, I do expect the little wipper-snapper to flash us a big toothy grin and wave while yelling out ‘Hi ma!’ to the camera.  I am starting to show.  For real.  Mom tonight was like “oh my, yes.. you do have a little belly there don’t you?”  I know a woman at school who is at six months and I think I’m going to lap her.  I don’t believe I look like I’m at two months.. *sigh* I’m going to be HUGE.

We bought the halloween candy today.  This means that tonight found me standing in the kitchen being the funniest cliche ever.  I had a fork with a dill pickle stabbed on it in one hand, and a mini-chocolate bar in the other.  The chocolate is too sweet and makes me woogly feeling.  The pickle calms that all down.  Good times. Oh yes.

I am now on a wonderful pill from the Doctor.  I have not been up at night (sick) for days now.  I have had two full functioning days at work.  I still must nap (yesterday at work and when I got home from work, today when I got home from work), but I can make it though without turning green.  I don’t think people take morning sickness seriously.  I don’t mean you all, but I mean society.  I think people kinda think ‘oh yeah, morning sickness - it is just a little thing at the beginning.’  Women are hospitalised over it suffering from dehydration.  My doctor today said that it can be at the same level as what cancer patients suffer during chemo.  We (society) certainly don’t make light of what people suffer during chemo, but I think we wave hands at the idea of this fuzzy little thing called morning sickness.  And I know other women who also felt like they were not prepared for how sick they were and how all-consuming the sick feeling can become.

I probably have more to say on this, but I need to go eat another pickle.  And yes, I am in bare feet.

I’ve been somewhat home sick for the past two days.  I’ve still managed to get in a walk with mom and a stint at the gym this morning.  But otherwise I’ve been taking it easy on the couch and trying to get around this exhausting nausea.  On the upside, mom and dad lent me season one of Boston Legal.

I am loving it!

It has actually made me laugh out loud on a number of occasions  - which is awesome.  I had not ever seen any episodes before, so being confined to the couch without the luxery of snacking away my time has been made much more managable with this to watch.

If you have not seen it, I really recommend season one.  And I was impressed when I realized that Alan on the show is Steph (Steff?) from Pretty in Pink.

You know, the BAD rich boy in comparison to the wussy romantic rich boy.   Molly should have either just gone for Ducky or nobody, but I digress.

Well we are just trucking along at baby-growers-inc. According to a rather nifty website, I have some pictures of what stage beeb might be at right now. The site has some very cool pictures of the progress that will be made on beeb’s hands over the next week or so. It goes from muppet hands to baby hands! In other news, yep I’m still sick. This week has been nausea and dizziness. Praise jeebus for that fruit smoothy place at the uni. I’m staying home tomorrow and my lovely TA has agreed to go to class and pick up the papers. The drive in has been tough to stomach and I’m thinking tomorrow morning I’ll see if I can sleep though at least the morning session of my morning sickness.

The kitties love sitting on my belly. I sometimes have to tell them they are denting the baby. They don’t really seem to care. I suspect beeb will come out with kitty paw prints already pre-indented. And with that, I’m going to go lie on the couch and not think about food.

Oh, and don’t do google search for these pictures, just get a good pregnancy site and use theirs. Google search will just turn up some serious fucked up anti-choicer shit. For real.

Why am I spending all this time on a baby name site when I need to make a quiz for my class tomorrow? Unless I’m going to quiz them on my current top five list of names, this is not productive.

In other news, I’m feeling a bit better throughout the day. This means there are times in the day where I don’t feel like crap. Very nice on the one hand. But, I find at those times where I feel positively OKAY, I then become convinced I have suddenly become not pregnant, and worry.

*fret*

Reason #2135 I should avoid mommy boards? (yeah yeah, they are like a train wreck, I can’t turn away) A post containing way too many 19-20 year olds explaining how some women are not mature enough to have babies and they are the ones who wait until their late 20s/early 30s. They go on to say that they, unlike these women, don’t like to just party their time away… I had not realised it was immaturity that leads some women to wait to have children. Wow. These same posters then got upset at all the elitests who value education and careers over having children.

O_o

oooookay.

 I don’t know who I got this from in the first place (it might have been on a random posting board somewhere), but I wanted to share it with you all.

http://theshapeofamother.com/

Verra important site. (Sight?)

Holy jeebus, there is too much information out there regarding all the rules about exercise and pregnancy. My aunt had indicated how important it is to keep an active core/abdominals while pregnant. She talked about this helping with posture and comfort. I agreed with her completely. I also love the idea of keeping up with weights as I thinking keeping my body strong will be a good thing. Already I can feel how the altered weight distribution could do a number on my lower back. And we all know the pelvic floor exercises ensure you don’t end up with your crotch at your knees or the baby accidently falling out early (or something like that).

That last bit was totally not real. I don’t think.

But hoooboy. I’m browsing about a BABY NAME forum and stumble upon a whole list of what pregnant women should avoid while pregant. This included weights, ab exercises, anything where you sweat, etc. So I took a look around Google for specific info on abs and pregnancy. I found both the caution to avoid all ab exercises, and numerous sites wanting to sell me specific pregnancy workout videos. Oh the world we live in these days. What was interesting is that the more I searched, the more I traced most things back to the actual problem listed as the position you are in while doing ab exercises. Most sites (when I searched deeper) suggest that you want to avoid being flat on your back in later pregnancy. The pro ab-exercise sites were all listing exercises you can do that avoids this position. This leads me to believe it isn’t “crunches” per se, but lying on your back while later in pregnancy that is the problem.

The anti-weight-lifting sites was just weird. It stated that lifting weights draws blood away from your uterus. I am not sure how weights are any more a culprit of this than other exercise. And all the current stuff I have (including the book from the health unit) say weights are awesome to do all the way through pregnancy.

And Meg, I have now found info online saying to not get your heart rate above 140, 150, and 160. So it makes me laugh to think that we’re ever supposed to figure this all out. The funniest part of this is where I actually found the numbers in that order, too. And I think Callie is right too; I think the heart rate is linked to temperature.  I appreciate all my friends weighing in with their takes on things - I like them better than websites.

I will keep you all posted on what I find. Conclusion so far: I’m loving the gym and I feel good about working out. And the websites are really rather unreliable. At this point I’m trusting my one book and my aunt (who works in health care) and everything I’m doing is good.

Well I made it through the night last night, and that was sure a relief. I think it makes a huge difference just sleeping straight through to the morning.

It wasn’t all good to start. I had gone to the gym in the later evening (from 8-9) and felt really good after that. I actually find that the gym is something I really like to do right now if I have the energy. I’ll give you some weird details I didn’t know before (as I’ve not been pregnant before). Those who have had beebs can certainly feel free to offer up their take on any of this as I’m not saying it is universal. I don’t have enough data yet to be making universal statements Anyhoo, I like going to the gym because what I have found out in the last week and a half, is I am continually aware of my tummy/uterus. CONTINUALLY. You know the little pops and twings you get just before your period -(this is obviously for my girly readers right now), well with pregnancy they just get even more poppy and zingy. So much so that I started to worry I wasn’t really pregnant or that it was going to go away because I really felt like my period was coming.

My uterusy-region is heavy. And solid. And feels like a small melon inside me already. I can feel it pulling on my lower back, and I feel kind of nauseated with the stretchy, pully pressure all the time. My legs are kinda crampy, and I get sore in my hips already.

So in a way the gym is nice because for an hour, I can think about some other part of my body. I can think about the muscles in my calves, the burn in my bicepts, or the work of my butt as I walk up an incline. It is 60 minutes of “not thinking about my uterus and how noisy it seems ALL THE TIME.” It is like a constant chatter. And working out drowns that out for a while.

Not that I don’t like knowing I’m pregnant. I’m thrilled non-stop knowing I’m pregnant. I know my students must be starting to wonder because I cannot help touching my tummy and being amazed that this is real. I sometimes think it can’t have happened this fast. But with all that said, there are times when I like being able to “relax” into non-uterus time. And that pretty much can only be assured by working out.

Anyway, I got home last night and felt awesome. That was great as I had felt like shit before going to the gym. About an hour later, I felt like crap again, though, and decided to just go to bed. I was curled up on my side (having taken my pill for the Sickness) and was thinking there was no chance I could sleep. I was aching and feeling like I was on a rocking boat of doom. This is pretty much what I’ve been waking up with at 3am, so I knew it well. The thing is, it isn’t just upset tummy, but it is also just a really discomfort.  Like having the flu.

But the part where I have the best husband ever? He (of course) was trying to help out and got me some ginger ale and a cracker. Then he gently started rubbing my lower back for a few minutes.  He made sure it wasn’t making things worse as sometimes when you have an upset tummy being touched can make it feel worse.  But no, not worse - and after about two minutes the heavens opened, angels sang, and the upset tummy went away. TOTALLY AWAY. You know that moment of relief when you stop feeling like you are going to be ill?  That most beautiful moment of calm and peace?  Oh yeah.

And I slept through the night.  What a good husband *love*.

I have been ill.  Ill ill ill.  The newest part of this is waking up every morning at 3am.  Well, the first night was 3am, second night was 3:02 and last night was 2:58.  I don’t know how splitpea knows the time.. but 3am it is.  And when I wake up I don’ts feels good.  I have found out that if I get up, though, it all goes horribly wrong. So last night I didn’t get up.  Even though I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep, I stayed in bed.  I’m also fairly ill during the day, so my Dr. has given me drugs which pretty much amount to antihistamines and vitamin B.  They seem to be helping. What also helps is that the past two days I have closed my office door at lunch, put my coat on the floor, and had a nap.  Yup.  On my office floor.

By noon I’m usually so sick to my stomache that I cannot fathom making it for another two hours, let alone drive home. But I feel better after the nap. I’m waiting for the day a cleaning person comes in to empty my garbage can and finds me there.

I know. Riveting stuff I’ve got here.  I’ll keep you posted.

Further details: we’re due around June 12th. This is awesome as I’ll have completed my school term and I might even squeeze in a three week intensive summer session course in May.

Even further details: no we don’t really have a name list.  Well, we have many lists. But too soon for a shortlist yet.

The three of us were on MSN and they were all cute and calling each other auntie.  Awww.  But all in all it came up that I should seek to be Angelina pregnant, not Brit-Brit pregnant.  I figured this was a good goal to have in mind.

It seems that if I look hard enough, every single food I ate today can somehow be linked to possible uterine infections, miscarriages, Folk-lore abortions, or the like.  Okay, not every single one - but you know what I mean.  Really, if you start making lists, you eat nothing.

This gets a new category.