Ultrasound

We had the first ultrasound Thursday. The doctor said we have a "good looking baby," (as of course you can see by the picture).

Yoga Mama

I went to a prenatal yoga class yesterday. My neighborhood yoga studio closed late last fall to change locations. It reopened last week, so I made my way to the new studio yesterday afternoon. It is a very pretty new studio, light green walls and smooth hardwood floors. I had a hard time finding it because I was on the even-numbered side of the street, determinedly looking for 641. I was SURE I was on the correct side of the street, thinking, "Okay, here's 658, 650, 641 should be coming up!" Pregnancy brain?

It turned out the teacher of the class also teaches the class I am currently signed up for at another studio. I haven't been to that class in weeks: it is at 8:45 in the morning, and these days at that hour, I'm too busy being queasy to go to a yoga class. It was nice to be able to explain to the teacher what had been going on, and I like her a lot so I was glad to see her.

At first I was nervous about being around all of the other pregnant ladies. It was a LOT of pregnancy. I am pretty sure I was the least far along of the group, which sort of made me feel like an impostor. I just don't have the impressive 25, 28 or 31-week belly that some of the other women have. But then I realized that was silly. Probably all those women feel better than me anyway (I certainly hope so). There was a woman who was 13 weeks along, just a week ahead of me. She was talking about how she "felt so much better this week," which gave me a lot of hope. But then she said she had never actually thrown up, so I hated her a little bit, just for a moment.

It was nice to be in the class. It felt good to be back on my yoga mat, and I enjoyed the slow pace of prenatal yoga. We did a lot of "breathing into the baby," which was fun. The teacher talked a bit about birth. It makes sense, especially for the women who are farther along, but it surprised me. I just have a hard time thinking that far ahead. I think going to a prenatal class as opposed to a regular class will be good for me as far as adjusting to the pregnancy. Also, I slept better last night than I have in weeks: I only got up 3 times to pee (it's sad that that's a small number), and didn't have to get up at all to go downstairs and eat. I think I could go to a prenatal yoga class every day. Maybe I should get a videotape.

Heartbeat

I heard the baby's heartbeat at my appointment with the doctor this morning! He put some goo on my belly and said, "This sometimes takes a few minutes, so don't panic until I panic." I agreed, and listened.

It DID take a long time. At first I was fascinated just hearing my own heartbeat and inner noises on whatever machine he was using. It sounded like weather, intense stormy weather on a plain. Then I felt like it was taking forever. I kept thinking, I MUST be pregnant, I've been so sick! But finally he said "there it is," and I heard it. Very, very fast! He had moved the little searching device all the way over to my right side, down low, just above my hipbone. The baby was hiding in there? I read that it will move if my abdomen is probed, so maybe it was scurrying away as he looked for it. Anyway, it was really neat. I could have listened for a long time, but after a minute or so the doctor took the device away.

According to the doctor, "it was a good heartbeat."

Seeds (2)

Baby Stuff

Yesterday, I met a friend for lunch and a trip to the Pentagon City Mall. She had kindly agreed to make the dreaded trip across the river with me because I wanted to get these hard candies that supposedly help with morning sickness. They are called Preggie Pops--actually, the ones I got are Preggie Pop Drops. (I am sucking one now. I suppose the nausea I felt before sitting down at the computer has eased, but that could just be because I sat down and stopped paying attention to Dean packing his lunch.)

Anyway, they sell the drops/pops at Motherhood Maternity. When we went in, I was immediately overwhelmed at the maternity clothes, but my friend Laura was enchanted. She started looking through the clothes and pulling things out for me to try one.

"Well, I guess I could try on a pair of jeans...," I said. Over an hour and at least 20 garments later, I had a pile of really cute clothes that I wanted to buy. After adding up the prices, I decided I couldn't get them all, but I ended up with a short, lightweight jean skirt, a dress, a pair of very soft cargo pants, and a few tops. Interestingly, the pants and skirts all fit NOW, which is only half-surprising, since my regular jeans have started to feel pretty tight around the waist. I actually didn't buy a pair of jeans, since the ones that had were all made from very heavy denim, and it gets so hot here in the summer that I really want to find some lightweight ones. I only plan on having one pair. Laura has kindly offered to go with me tomorrow to Old Navy to see what they have. I figure if I don't do it over spring break, it won't get done till summer (unless I get the rumored 2nd-trimester-manic energy that I am wholly hoping to get VERY SOON).

It was great to have Laura there. If I hadn't gone with a friend, I probably would have bought the candies and walked out, possibly in tears. But she is an excellent shopper and found great stuff! It's funny, I hadn't expected to have a friend here in DC that would be able to help me with these kind of things. I have known Laura a while but she and were originally "school friends." I nervously told her about the pregnancy a few weeks ago. I wasn't sure how she would react since she herself is pretty far away from wanting to start a family, but I had to tell her something, since, as my friend, she had noticed that I was not myself, to put it mildly. (I think she was starting to think I had mono or cancer or something.) Anyway, I was afraid she would think that by having a baby I was making a huge mistake and ruining my chances at being a poet. I most likely was just projecting some of my own reservations, though, because she was super-excited and super-supportive. When I told her, she got all teary and hugged me across the table and was just generally very happy, even saying, all on her own, that this was a great time for Dean and I to have a baby. It was great, very reassuring.

So! Three cheers for Laura! To get back to the shopping story, I tried on a lot of the stuff with the fake baby bump/ strap-on pillow thing in the dressing room. It was alarming. I hope my real baby isn't so lumpy. After leaving Motherhood Maternity, we went to Pea in the Pod and stayed there exactly 23 seconds, which was long enough to see that all their cute T-shirts were $85 or more. The one pair of jeans I looked at was $118. Honestly, I don't pay that much for regular jeans that I can wear a long time! No Pea in the Pod for me.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, which is remarkable, because I usually get a headache in the mall. I didn't feel sick all afternoon!

FYI, in case anyone's interested, while writing this post, I finished the first Preggie Pop Drop (lemon) and got another (apple). They ARE soothing.

The other picture above, the one that isn't clothes, is a collection of baby stuff we have so far. My friend Corrie sent the cow rattle (note the udders), my mom sent the socks (see how the sneaker socks have laces?), and the bottle was part of a free gift from the maternity clothes shopping. It freaks me out a little, honestly, but it added nicely to the picture.

Another Post About Morning Sickness

First, a few things I've learned due to my "Pregnancy Nausea and Vomiting:"

1. How to spell "nausea." (All the vowels confuse me. I still can't spell "nauseous" without looking it up.)

2. That it is possible to vomit in the sink the entire 60 seconds my Whole Foods latke is heating in the microwave, and immediately after the beep, rinse my mouth and sit down to eat the whole thing, garnished with sour cream.

3. That I can go back to sleep within 15 minutes of eating a 3:45 AM bowl of cereal.

More interesting, though, (to me anyway) is my own personal list of ways to cope. It's quite possible that this list will help absolutely no one else, since what may help one person is likely to totally gross out another person. Still, I want a record, because I hope to forget all of this very soon.

1. Eat many times a day, in small amounts. (Yes, this tip is on many other lists.)

2. Put lemon slices or a dollop of lemonade in drinking water. This came up because the smell of the refrigerator was disgusting me, and the water tasted like the refrigerator smelled. (We use Britta pitchers. I have since figured out that the smell is cold apples.) The lemon pleasantly flavors the water, allowing me get closer to the 64-ounce per day goal. (I don't think I've ever actually reached the goal though.)

3. Having something beside the bed to eat in the middle of the night, or the every-two-hours I have to get up to pee, is helpful. I started with crackers and rice cakes, but these are dry and crunchy, so they take a long time to chew and swallow, and they result in many crumbs. So I switched to strawberries, which are excellent.

4. Watermelon is also helpful. Fruit in general has been a good bet, except for the few weeks that anything sweet made me sick.

5. Lemon drops, peppermint, and ginger candy.

6. Eating heavier foods soon after getting up seems to help in refilling the empty stomach that results from sleeping. I like the aforementioned latkes and tapioca pudding, as well as biscuits with grape jelly.

7. Any type of breakfast buffet is great. Also, a few nights when nothing seemed tolerable for dinner, we went out or ordered takeout. It seemed to help not to have to think too much about what I was going to eat or to have to smell it as it was cooked.

That's all I can think of for now.

Finally, a theory: I was thinking the other night about what purpose morning sickness served, and my theory is that it requires you to fundamentally change your routine from early on in your pregnancy, perhaps in ways that foreshadow the changes that are to come due to the actual baby being born. For example, as someone who loves sleeping, perhaps it is good for me to realize NOW that I can get up in the wee hours to care for myself, and technically also the baby, and the world will not fall apart: eventually I will feel better and go back to sleep, and still be able to function the next day.

I don't know, just an idea. Perhaps other mothers have some thoughts. (Yikes, I just implicitly referred to myself as a mother!)

A few good things to come this week: it's spring break! And on Friday, I go to the doctor again, and we get to hear the baby's heartbeat. (I haven't heard it yet.) The following week, I have my first ultrasound.

Week Ten

Not much to report, really, just more of the same nausea, except maybe even worse yesterday and today. My grandmother died last Thursday, so Dean and I drove down to NC on Saturday and came back yesterday. Last night I thought maybe the getting worse had to do with the long drive (8 hours) and the general stress of the funeral.

My grandmother had Alzheimer's and had been sick for a long time, so the family was somewhat expecting her death. Everyone is relieved that she is not suffering anymore, but still very sad. Yesterday afternoon after coming home and throwing up the tiny amount of food in my stomach and being hungry, I cried because the only food I could think of what wasn't totally disgusting was food my grandmother made. If I could just go sit at her table and eat what she put in front of me, I think I'd feel better. Of course that was impossible even before she died because she hasn't been able to walk much, or move around a kitchen and make a huge meal.

Still, I have such vivid memories of those meals, the table packed with food. Chicken and dumplings, biscuits, gravy, potatoes, beans, tomatoes and cucumbers peeled and salted... She also made fabulous spaghetti and meatballs. And delicious French toast, so crispy around the edges. It's remarkable that it does not disgust me in the least to think of any of these foods, even though the mere thought of literally every single other food makes me gag.

I'm sad she's gone.

Snow Day

We got about 4 inches of snow from the big storm that made its way from the south to the northeast last night and this morning. It was a little disappointing since they had built us up for 6 to 10 inches--and because although I had the day off Dean had to go to work--but still pretty.

About two hours ago, I was working on the computer and heard a knock at the door. I knew it was someone wanting to be paid to shovel our sidewalks, so I scurried to the bathroom and hid till the person went away. I only have about four dollars in the house, plus we have our own snow shovel now. After a while, I went out and shoveled snow myself--quite the burst of energy for someone who had two naps this morning. I also shoveled our neighbor's steps--he's very old. The only problem is that we must have had sleet before the snow, since there was a very thin layer of unbreakable ice underneath the snow. I guess we need salt. Still, I feel proud because the sidewalks in front of our house are safe for travel!

Seeds

About four weeks ago, we started seeds for our summer garden.

About seven weeks ago, we started a different kind of seed...

Here are pictures of how both are doing so far.