Slowly getting better

I finished our taxes yesterday - which is a huge accomplishment to even start. I've been to the museum three times with friends in the last month. This weekend Peter and I are going to see a movie with another couple from church, and I'm going to help a girl with making her prom dress. I'm getting out of the house more often, and developing relationships with other people. On the other hand, Miriam is moving this week, which I can hardly admit to myself because it's such a huge loss. When I'm not out with other people, I'm at home sitting at the computer reading random webpages, and rating music. I have weeks of laundry to do, and the house is messy. Jonie says that I'm making progress,but it frustrates me how slow it is.

Food Stress

OK so you know that when I get stressed out, I don't want to eat, Right? Well, at the moment stress is here, and eating is gone. I absolutely cannot decide what to eat, and even when something is put in front of me, I sometimes can't eat it. Last night when Peter suggested a TV dinner, I nearly had a panic attack -- My heart started beating really fast, and I got that feeling in my stomach like I want to throw up. It's gotten to the point where I've skipped so many meals this week that I'm kind of light headed and headachey most of the time, and that doesn't help things.

I kind of feel like if somebody else took care of all my eating decisions for about a week, I might be able to get beck to normal, but as it is, every meal makes me more stressed and crazy. I tried asking Peter, but all he could come up with was pot pies -- eeck.

My First Pregnant Picture

Here's my first pregnancy profile. I'm 7 weeks along, so it's pretty much normal. Waist size 31" Weight 169 lbs. Unfortunately, when making the small image to post in the blog, I saved over the original one. I'll have to be more careful next time.

Symptoms I'm noticing at the moment:

Acne is still really bad.

I've had some spotting the last few days. I'm kind of worried about it.

I love the Bean, too

It's hard to tell sometimes what Peter thinks about me being pregnant. He's pleased -- that's for sure -- but sometimes I feel like it's a "Oh, that's nice" kind of pleased rather than a "Hooray!!! We're having a baby!!!" kind of pleased.

The other day, I was reading about week 6 of pregnancy, and saw that it says "Right now she's about the size of a small lentil bean." That night while we were watching TV, I told Peter that it was amazing how much energy it takes to make something the size of a bean (I have to take a nap or two most days). He sort of smiled, and went on reading his email. Later though, he said, "I love you" in that random way he does, then added, "And I love the Bean, too."

Sometimes he can be so romantic without even trying.

New symptom: Acne! Ugh! I had always been told that getting pregnant might finally deal with my acne problem once and for all. I had no idea that it could make it worse! Oh well, chalk up one more to the hormones. On the plus size, they say that acne indicates that the baby's a girl... so that would be nice.

my new blog

So I'm finally getting on the blog bandwagon. I recently found out I'm pregnant - tentative due date: Sept 18, 2007. I want to have somewhere to post what I'm feeling.

I've wanted to have a baby since...forever. It's been a long time coming what with the troubles of finding the right husband, getting out of a very stressful - and not at all family friendly job, getting healthy after the job put me out of comission for months, and then getting off the meds used to help me get healthy. Well I went off birth control at the start of November, and here it is January and I'm pregnant! That sure didn't take long (though as I said it was a long time coming).

I found out on Wednesday the 17th of January. I wanted to tell Peter first, but I didn't want to do it over the phone. Wednesday is my day in Riverside for our women's group meetings, so I went up to spend the day with Miriam. She was thinking of heading to Colorado to be with her sick mom, so was a little down. Then Tracy came over feeling very upset with her girls, and more upset with herself. I decided it would be best to cheer everybody up, so I told them the news, and they were SOOOO excited. When Mike and Mitch (their husbands) came home, they quickly learned the secret because SOME PEOPLE couldn't keep from making silly jokes. We went out to dinner at the Thai place to celebrate. Then I drove home. Peter was watching American Idol. I told him during a commercial break. He was happy, but not especially surprised.

The next day I called Mom. She was THRILLED!!! I told her not to tell anybody yet (I wanted to spread the word myself, and wait until I had seen a doctor and gotten a due date). Well that waiting lasted about a week. The Doctor doesn't want to see me till February, and I don't want to wait that long. So about the 24th, I started to spread the word. Everybody is happy (Grandpa Roly was speechless). Here's how the calls usually go:

• Me: I have some good news -- do you want to guess?
• Them: Are you pregnant?
  
• Me: Yup!
  
• Them: Yaaaaaay! When's the due date?
  
• Me: September-ish
  
• Them: Make it such-and-such date in September -- that's my birthday, anniversary, baptism date, mother's birthday, whatever
  
• Me: I'll do my best.
  
• Them: So What are you hoping for -- a Boy or a Girl? And don't tell me you'll just take whatever's healthy and be happy, you have to have a preference.
  
• Me: I'm kind of hoping for a girl -- there are none on my side of the family yet, and they're SOOO cute. Of course it's not like I'd send a boy back...
  
• Them: Any names yet?
  
• Me: Well, there are the names we've been thinking about since High School -- I'd like to name a little girl Elizabeth Anne after My Great Grandmother, My Mom, and Me, but really we're going to wait until the baby is a little more real to decide.
  
• Them: So are you sick at all?
  
• Me: I get a little queasy in the morning and at odd times, but since I've spent most of my life being queasy at odd times, it really doesn't make much difference.
  
• Them: Well congratulations! You'll make the best mommy there is!
  
• Me: Thanks!
  

As for symptoms, I may not be puking up my breakfast (thank goodness), but I do have my share (Warning: if you don't want to read about what my body is doing, then this is not the blog for you. Go read something else):

1. Frequent Urination -- this was one of my first clues -- even before the pregnancy test
2. Tender breasts -- they really hurt, though a supportive bra helps
3. Fatigue -- I've been taking naps more, and I just get tired out by the evening
4. Abdominal cramps/pain -- This may or may not be related to the pregnancy since I have them often anyway, but I think some of them are
5. Queasiness -- I know I'm often queasy anyway, but there's a different quality to this queasiness that makes me think it's related
6. Emotions -- I get weepy easily -- especially if I'm reading about baby stuff
7. Hunger -- I'm really hungry all the time. I often feel like it's been 12-15 hours between meals when it's really only been 3-4. I've only been eating two meals a day lately, and it looks like I'll need to double that at least.

Well, I think that's enough for now. I'll try to update often.

-Karen