4 Months Pregnant

I'm am at 17 weeks now. A couple people on Sunday actually saw a baby bump! Here are my thoughts so far:

I only vomited once last week. The disarray that our apartment is in is starting to get to me. I feel like I have no time for cleaning or for exercise. I basically put myself on bed rest as soon as I get home from work everyday because of how sick and tired I feel. I'm still struggling with having to be at work for 8 hours each day. I can't concentrate on anything anymore when I have to be conscious about how frequently I need to eat and drink. Today was the first day of work for two new people in my group. So, I definitely need to come in to work on time so that my office mate can get into the room before she gets her key.

I feel impressed that I should quit work after the baby comes, but I told my boss that I'm looking at just working part-time. So, that option is theoretically still on the table. I was thinking that I could try the part-time thing and if it doesn't work then quit. I'm just nervous about Steve's employment.

Beaches

I finally finished uploading the photos that we had taken this summer.

Childbirth Preparation

As I'm technically in my second trimester, I've been thinking a lot about what I need to decide and do before the third trimester and before the baby's birth. I've been leaning toward a more natural birth since I have somewhat of a general distrust in medication. Though I am terrified of even giving birth.

Here is my plan so far:

1. Prenatal visit every 4 weeks; ask about H1N1 vaccine?
2. Already scheduled the ultrasound for October
3. Pre-Register with Holy Cross Hospital in November
4. Register for a Lamaze class for February in November
5. Attend KP's Prenatal II class in January
6. Register for the hospital's prenatal tour in January
7. Possibly hire a doula?

15 Weeks Pregnant

I feel like my belly is bigger now but it's still not evident to other people. I plan to delay as much as possible getting maternity clothes. Most of my clothes were already too big since I've had to settle getting sizes that are actually sold in stores. I still can't distinguish an baby movements from digestive movements.

We camped on Assateague Island during labor day weekend. I vomited at a restaurant on the way there but not at all for the rest of the weekend. The next time I vomited was after I returned to work on Tuesday. So, I guess that work-related stress aggravates it. I'm not sure whether sleeping in and minimizing the amount of work that I do helps or not.

It appears that, for the past week, instead of throwing up every day, I've been throwing up every 2 days or so. So, I suppose that the sickness is slowly subsiding. I haven't expanded my menu of foods yet though. I hope that I'm not psychologically scarred by certain foods for the rest of my life like I had been with shrimp when I got food poisoning. I should expect not...

It's been Steve's job to do the dishes and cooking while I lay about feeling sick. Luckily, I will only eat foods that are easy to make like pastroni and corn dogs. But, no matter how much I'm laying about, I still sometimes throw up my meals.

The featured food of my latest dream is tender barbecued chicken.

The apartment had been a complete mess for my whole pregnancy until last Saturday when Steve and I spent a few hours folding laundry and clearing the table and floors off. It makes one more relaxed to spend time in a somewhat livable space. Perhaps next Saturday, we'll sweep and vacuum the floors and wipe down the bathroom.

I've also been getting urinary track infections, causing some extra discomfort. I still hate being pregnant.

I've lately been extremely grateful for my calling at church. I've been the pianist for the primary kids for two years and it keeps me more busy and distracted from my sick self at church than, I imagine, any other calling would for me.

13 Weeks Pregnant

Looks like they swapped doctors on me. The new one seems better though, so it's all good. I'm 13 weeks and 3 days pregnant today. I'm due on March 7th, but I'll be pessimistic and expect the baby to be born on March 28th, since both Steve and I were each born 3 weeks late.

Steve came to the appointment yesterday and was able to hear the baby's heartbeat. It looks like I've stopped losing weight as I've been 105 lbs for the past 9 days. I haven't been eating any better or vomiting less though, so maybe I've just lost most of the fat that I have and there's just muscle left or something. Yes, I have been taking and keeping down my prenatal vitamins. The doctor said that I should be drinking 10 glasses of water. How in the world... ?

I go to the Kaiser near PG Plaza, so after the appointment, Steve and I went to the movie theater. It is crazy that matinee tickets were $8.50 each and 2 hotdogs, 1 nachos, and a soda cost $20. Good thing that I had a plastic grocery bag with me in the theater because I had to use it. It's also a good thing that there were only two other people in the theater and we were seated far enough from them.

After puking a bunch of nachos and water, I was able to eat and hold down my hot dog and some more nachos and water. That's usually my routine when I eat anything solid. After getting rid of the first half, I'm good to eat the second half. It is aggravating when this occasionally happens twice in a day though and that it's been like this for 6 weeks.

Okay, so I'll be scheduling my big ultrasound for when I'm 20 weeks, and I'll take Steve to that. Even though I usually like to be surprised, I always wanted to know whether it's a boy or a girl ahead of time. This way, we'd only have to think of one name for him/her and people would know what kind of baby clothes to give us.