Here it is!

So all that browsing, and really this is what I was looking for in regards to eleven weeks: "If you're like most women, you're feeling a bit more energetic now and your nausea may be starting to wane."

I felt really good yesterday and all morning and it kind of made me nervous, not feeling pregnant anymore. Of course, be careful what you wish for, I ended up struggling through my lunch and am not feeling so hot now. I hate the throw-uppy feeling. But I told myself if it returned, I would just be happy to still feel pregnant. That was, however, BEFORE I found the reassuring comment above. Regardless, I am feeling better overall and I'm happy for that.

Read a Book, People!

I swear, sometimes it seems like I am the only pregnant woman out there reading about pregnancy. The pregnancy sites have all these groups you can join and some women post the dumbest questions - questions that could be answered by Google or a pregnancy book or THE WEBSITE THEY ARE POSTING ON in five seconds. Seriously, people, you are stupid. Even dumber, women post about the dumb things people say to them. And they don't have enough knowledge to refute these dumb things, so they can only get upset. On top of that, many are freaked out by something that happened at their doctor's appointment, and instead of asking the doctor, they post their worries and questions to the group. Granted, there are plenty of women out there who give reassuring, and smart answers. Which goes to show that there really are a lot of informed pregnant women out there, but I am just getting carried away about the dumb ones.

Math Joke w/ Question

I'm curious how many of my math teacher friends feel that this joke is true. I'm on the fence. I think it could easily be argued that at the lower levels especially, we teach the illusion of hard-core, universal facts. Or we could just say that all facts are relative.

Thursday

I have spent the day at home alternating between such activities as planning my summer course, yard work, receiving dirt with 15% compost from Farmer Bob (which I paid dearly for), attending to the cats (Dora puked up all that dry wheat grass she loves chomping on, and Olivia has mostly slept all day), making a healthy (though not terribly appetizing) lunch, feeling throw-uppy, talking (via email) to my department chair about my fall teaching options, talking on the phone with my sister, and wondering if I should join Olivia in my bed for a nap. She really is a great role model for someone like me. Though I think I may opt to sit in my lawn chair on the deck now that the sunshine has reached the backyard. It's a really nice warm day.

Other plans include going to Target to check out the Snoodle Original and maybe buy some cute socks, followed by helping Adrienne unpack her moving boxes, which turned out to be a pretty fun thing to do last night.

Meanwhile, Dirk is on a train to Pennsylvania. He will be on that train until 1:30 pm tomorrow, and he got on it at 5:15 this morning. That's a whole day and a half on a train. He does have a sleeper car, and he brought an oversized beach towel for a blanket. He also has an exorbitant amount of PB&J sandwiches in his possession, among other snacks. Every time I think of Dirk on the train for an excessively long period of time, with a towel for a blanket and lots of sticky sandwiches, I just laugh and laugh. It sounds so hysterically funny to me that this is his idea of fun, and I am so glad that I did not have to do it too. I imagine that he truly will enjoy his ride. God bless him!

Dora and Olivia

Dance Baby Dance!

Supposedly there is somebody inside me doing a similar dance.



Sonogram of a baby at 10 weeks pregnant.


http://www.i-am-pregnant.com/encyclopedia/U/Ultrasound

At Home with the Girls

We've taken in a short-term visitor. Dora, a calico, long-haired cat is visiting for about ten days. She stayed in the downstairs bathroom for four days, while Olivia hissed and growled at any sign of her. I was away visiting my parents at this time. I returned on Thursday night. Friday morning (yesterday) I let Dora loose on the house. To her credit, she is bold, but not reckless. She explored slowly at first, sticking to the lower level. Olivia hissed excessively, but Dora remained calm and found ways to skirt around her, or simply retreated. It would seem that Olivia's hiss is worse than her bite, as she hasn't put her money where her mouth is yet. Actually, after a peaceful night (where Olivia camped out on our bed the entire time, and Dora mostly got the message to stay away), Olivia has rushed Dora several times this morning. The noise level has gone up as things get tenser. But for the most part, they are finding ways to share this space. Dora's won us both over with her sweet attitude. Olivia has probably put us slightly in the "disappointed" parent category as she shows her worst side. I miss my sweet girl who loves to be held and purrs like crazy. She never hisses at us, and now odds are good that if we go to her she will hiss rather than purr. But she is calming down too. It's a mixed bag of reactions from her, and who can blame her? Her territory is under dispute. Both Dirk and I enjoy having a second cat in the house, and Dirk is secretly hoping that my friend, Adrienne, will let us keep her when she returns. I'm pretty sure that her answer will be an emphatic "no."

In other news, I think the disconnect between the embryo and fetus time frame, eight versus ten weeks, returns me to the "how to count issue." I've decided that it's ten weeks from your last period and eight weeks from conception. Either way, as of tomorrow, we have a fetus on our hands for sure.

Our yard is doing exciting things - the white lilacs are in bloom, and the row of little purple alternating with white lilacs is cute. Our blueberries and strawberries have blossoms, and we have two large spaces of dirt. One is destined to be a vegetable garden, the other a flower garden. There are hostas planted along the side of the house, along with rhubarb and asparagus plants that need a few years to mature yet. The seedlings are growing on the deck, as we have to have nicer dirt brought in before we start the gardens.

One last thing, I watched this documentary yesterday, "Fat: What No One is Telling You" and found it to be rather informative. I especially liked the second half of part seven, which discusses a whole "brain-like" system in the gut that rivals the system in our actual brain.

Olivia is One!

Happy Birthday to our favorite kitty. She's enhanced our lives more than we could've expected.

I'm Tired

I'm really tired.

Eight Weeks Down

According to most of my books and web resources, Baby Awesome has now graduated from "embryo" status to a "fetus." However, another book claims that it's not until ten weeks that the "embryonic period" ends and the "fetal period" begins. So whatever, I'm not clear on the difference. Our first prenatal appointment is on Thursday at 10 am. I am hoping to hear encouraging news.

Yesterday, Olivia actually jumped into my lap and stayed there for a bit while I was grading papers. We'll make a lap cat of her yet.

I finished all my grading yesterday, and now just have to figure out and post final grades. I also have lots of gardening/yard activities I would like to pursue soon afterwards. And Olivia's big haircut is today! I hope she doesn't look ridiculous when it's over. She's so soft and fluffy now, it seems almost cruel to do this to her. But she's shedding so much, and I've heard this will help. (Though she may be angry with me for a day or so.)

Odor Issues

I always thought it would be fun to have a super sense of smell. The women in my family already have a fairly acute sense of smell, and I thought maybe pregnancy could turn that into a minor super power. The reality is that this is simply not true. A super sense of smell means that things that normally smell good can now overwhelm, and often have a direct line to your stomach lining. Yesterday, I made rice & quinoa, something I love and that I would consider rather benign in the smell department. I swear, the whole house reeked of it. I had to open a window. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fun. Some greens also went bad in the fridge and now I have to hold my breath when I open it, and especially when I open the freezer. Why do odors from the fridge collect up there?

I shouldn't complain too much. Still not vomiting, just nauseated. And tired.

That was a Surprise

This morning I stopped at Walgreen's to purchase mother's day cards for my mom, my sister, my mother-in-law and my grandma-in-law. As always, the cards were pretty and sentimental and they tugged at my heartstrings. I have heard that pregnant women are particularly susceptible to sentiment, but hadn't experienced it myself yet. A few minutes later I was weeping in the mother's-day-card aisle... tears, runny nose, sobbing breaths, the whole thing.

Quick Update

I've been feeling pretty well. Saturday was an extremely busy day, and included a lot of bike riding. On Sunday I was pretty beat and struggled with not feeling well. But I caught a break yesterday and today. I'm still tired, but the nausea has abated somewhat. I appreciate the reprieve for certain.

Embracing Nausea

Nausea is an unfortunate side effect of over half of all pregnancies, and I have found myself located in the overpopulated half of pregnant women. While I have yet to vomit, I experience the aforementioned sensations several times daily, and the thought or smell of certain food can rush them to the forefront. This can make it very hard to eat, and certainly takes much of the pleasure away from what is one of my favorite activities.

The subject of nausea, or me feeling nauseated, has come up so often lately, that it's led to Dirk clearing up the proper use of each word. I kept saying "I feel nauseous," when I should be saying "I feel nauseated." Or so Dirk asserts. But Merriam Webster appears to be backing me up when they say:

Main Entry: nau·seous

Function: adjective

Date: 1612

1 : causing nausea or disgust : nauseating
2 : affected with nausea or disgust

— nau·seous·ly adverb
— nau·seous·ness noun

Usage Those who insist that nauseous can properly be used only in sense 1 and that in sense 2 it is an error for nauseated are mistaken. Current evidence shows these facts: nauseous is most frequently used to mean physically affected with nausea, usually after a linking verb such as feel or become; figurative use is quite a bit less frequent. Use of nauseous in sense 1 is much more often figurative than literal, and this use appears to be losing ground to nauseating. Nauseated is used more widely than nauseous in sense 2.


On the flip side, I have now had two mystical experiences with Papa John’s mushroom pizza. Last night, on the way home from work, I got it in my head that I wanted pizza. I was leery of this desire, having heard a few “pizza triggered my morning sickness” stories, so I settled on the personal size, as a test. That little pizza showed me the world. I experienced every nuance of flavor – from crust, to sauce, to cheese, to mushrooms. Obviously, I went back for more today. After each pizza, my stomach was burning with hunger for MORE PIZZA! To feel a strong desire for food is a godsend; a beloved reprieve from the world of nausea.