Not such a good day...

The physical drain of pregnancy has been much more than I anticipated. (I think I'm repeating myself!) Tuesday I had several projects to work on and classes to attend and so I was on-campus from 8:30am to 4:30pm. Just an average 8 hour day... Ha ha! Lately I haven't had the endurance to spend so many hours at work without leaving to take a nap. But, this day it was unavoidable. So, by the time I left in the afternoon I was wiped out. And when I got home I was too tired to rest, I think the adrenaline was pumping, and too hungry to eat, my stomach was all confused. Eventually I did relax some and eat and went to bed by 9pm, with the motion sickness feeling there the whole time. I thought I'd wake up feeling better and head off to start my next project.
Unfortunately, I woke up yesterday morning feeling like I had already run a marathon. I was EXHAUSTED! I never made it out of the house. I slept another almost 5 hours through the morning and afternoon while navigating some rough stomach issues that lasted the rest of the day. Maybe I was more tired from Tuesday than I imagined. It seems like I'm going to have to do more work from home so I can take a nap in the middle of the day. Only problem is, the software required for my work, and one class in particular, is expensive and requires a large amount of memory, so they are only on my work computer... So, today I'm headed in to work on a class assignment and hoping it goes swiftly so I can come home at lunch time.
With all that said, this Bean better be one cute, happy baby for all this nastiness I'm undergoing. Lord, please create in our baby a pleasant, content personality, at ease with us and our loved ones. AMEN!

Telling

This weekend my parents came to visit. Not long after they set down their bags we shared our ultrasound video with them. They were so excited and happy! We enjoyed watching Bean's precious heartbeat together and being grateful for this miracle. I know how much their hearts broke with ours when we lost our first.
Then Saturday night we saw my brother (P) and sister-in-law(M) to get to share the news with them. They've only been married six months, so M can't wait to spend time with the baby and hopes it will relieve some of her baby cravings! I didn't have the heart to tell her that it will only make them worse! But, I'm so glad they're here in town and will be able to help us or come to our rescue when we need it.

I've started to gain some weight, exclusively in the belly area. I bought a second-hand pair of jeans that fit, size 8. I just skipped the size 6 completely. Because they're a slim cut they fit everywhere with extra room in the belly. "Ambah" will be glad that I'm going to spend less days in my stretchy work-out pants. It's a little crazy to see the scale increase and not really be sure where the weight coming from or "landing" on my body. Normally, if I had gained 5 pounds in a few weeks I would see changes in my face and hips. But, not now. And its hard to tell if I'm really eating more than usual. With the doctor's advice, I've added a big dose of vitamin B6 to my day. This has helped with the motion sickness-like nausea immensely. But, I still get every other symptom, including needing mass amounts of sleep(~12hr/day). Because of the physical toll of pregnancy being more than I expected and having weeks of nausea, I decided to take "Incompletes" in my classes this semester. This will give me more time to complete all the work while focusing on going to class and the day-to-day assignments until i get out of the first trimester. I'm really glad to have this option and have professors who have been understanding.

Happy Anniversary

Hubby and I went to the NC mountains this past weekend to celebrate our 5th anniversary. The drive was a bit long, but we had a great time. I had a lot of outdoor activities planned, but the weather, my Belly Blues, and an overactive bladder slowed us down. We enjoyed some beautiful drives through the gorgeous October-colored leaves and got to see the Linville Falls.

We stayed in a cute cabin at an old fashioned Motor Lodge. I liked having a front porch and trees outside, something different than a regular hotel. Hubby was just glad we weren't off in the woods so he didn't have to worry about "getting eaten by bears." Haha!

We enjoyed eating at the local restaurants. We had Thai one night and pizza another. The third day we wandered around downtown and ate snacks and more pizza. Overall, we were able to relax together and just hang out and be together.

Hubby really was wonderful and gave me the best present ever by telling me that he'd chose to marry me again and then got down on one knee and proposed his love again to me! What can I say? There's nothing I'd rather hear!

Being a mom-in-making did leave its mark on the trip. : ) Swinging violently between hungry, full, and nauseous, to racing for a bathroom to relieve my bladder was comical at times. Plus, I was pretty tired. Our first night I fell asleep while Hubby was watching TV, laying on the bed in the clothes I had been wearing all day. Hubby tried to "help" me sleep "properly", but I'd have none of it and stayed that way until morning! What sheer exhaustion can do!

Since we've been back the Belly Blues have gotten the best of me at times, although each day I'm figuring out how to manage a little better. Mornings are hard as I feel queasy and dizzy, so I try and take it easy. From the time I get out of bed until I get back in at night, I eat perpetually. From this alone I figure someone's going to figure out soon that I'm pregnant. And this advice about eating 6 small meals a day instead of 3 in order to feel better is baloney. The thought of eating a meal at all is more than I can handle. I just snack all day long. Saltines when I wake, yogurt and a granola bar gradually with more saltines, around lunch chicken salad on saltines, then an apple or pear and cup of noodles during the afternoon, probably another granola bar on the way home from campus, dinner eaten in stages over an hour or two, and something to snack on right before bed. I also have a drink with me all the time usually very watered down juice. Hopefully I'll get better at handling it as the days pass.

Belly Blues

I don't like misnomers, and "Morning Sickness" is definitely one, so I've decided to rename it Belly Blues. Maybe it will catch on. Well, I hadn't been feeling any Belly Blues or ickiness at all, until today. I woke up and got the feeling that I needed to eat right away, so I made a PB&J, the usual cereal didn't sound good. But, the first bit was bearable, the second, not so much. Its like the PB was too peanut buttery : \ and the jelly was too sweet. Plus my nose was being super sensitive and everything was a huge hassle; Hubby's wash cloth in the shower, something smelled funny outside, cigarette smell at the gas station. I was not in good shape. So, knowing that I needed to eat SOMETHING, I stopped at the gas station to find something quick on the way to class. 16 saltines and some Ruby Red Grapefruit juice later I was feeling better. Not perfect, but good enough to eat a big meal of BBQ for lunch.
Now its suppertime and I feel okay except I don't have much of an appetite. Hopefully the soup I picked out to eat will actually get eaten!