7 weeks, 5 days - a little relieved, but a little nervous

Yesterday I had virtually no sickness, all day long. There were occasionally little washes of mild nausea, but nothing compared to three or four days ago. It was a bit more manageable Christmas Eve, as I did get all of those ham biscuits made (120 of them!) and delivered and a few other things done, but then yesterday was even far better than that.

I am trying not to let this completely panic me, because it IS nice not to feel so awful and everything is likely fine. I've had several nights of very good, long sleep, which may be making for my feeling better in the days. Also, I've been breaking up my vitamin B6 tablet and taking it in little pieces throughout the day instead of just taking one big dose in the morning - so maybe that's helped. Whatever the reason, as long as the baby is fine, I am so happy, as this may mean I can get back to eating a normal, healthier diet and not eating so much and so often trying to fight the sick feeling, and I'll be able to get back to walking every day. I've been starting to feel HUGE all over and have gained several lbs. already from all the bad eating and the not-exercising. Which I am not stressing too much over, but the generally unhealthy practices food and activity-wise WERE starting to get me down. My pregnancy with Bean was mostly a healthy one, and I'd like THIS one to be even healthier. I gained 36 lbs with her, which was a nice gain - felt good on my frame and didn't require me to be hungry or neurotic about it and then came off completely within a year, I think - so I'd like to stick within that range again. As I recall, I put on several lbs. more in the first trimester with Bean than everything I read said was "normal," and I worried and wondered about it, but I was REALLY hungry that trimester and then as I recall the hunger and the weight gain slowed a bit in the second trimester and I gained more "normally" then. Maybe my body just wants to gain a bit more in the first trimester - that's just my own little thing? It's okay by me. Though clothing may soon become an issue not because of my big belly but because of my big BEHIND. Oh well!

ITWILLCOMEOFFITWILLCOMEOFFITWILLCOMEOFF.

The day yesterday (Christmas)was really lovely in every way - great morning with Bean and Al opening presents and stuff. We had a great breakfast that I made myself with no queasy, grossed-out issues at all, of smoked sausage, homemade chocolately cheese danish which were OUT OF THIS WORLD GOOD because they had Nutella drizzled over them, and a fresh fruit salad with oranges, grapes and delicious, juicy chunks of pear. After we ate that, I made my two dishes (carrot casserole with plenty of horseradish - a favorite of mine, and green beans with butter and almonds) and then we all got cleaned up and dressed and went over to my friend Elaine's house to celebrate with her family. It was peaceful and sweet and perfect, with the kids playing together and the wonderful food and just the closeness of family. We got home right at Bean's bedtime and tucked her in - she was asleep before we got out of the room, and then we curled up on our bed and went to sleep really early as well.

And other than the lack of nausea, I feel very pregnant - in fact more pregnant than I should be feeling for less than 8 weeks, at least in my opinion. My breasts are still hurting, and I can still feel my little uterus all blown up and filling my pelvis firmly and noticeably. My intestines are clearly all squooshed up already and by nightfall for the past 4ish days I've felt gigantic and floppy and bloated all around my midsection. But way above the waist of my pants, so I know it's just bloating and my organs being shifted upwards, not like a huge womb or anything! It just feels really pregnant in there. I don't remember registering those feelings in my first pregnancy until WAY later. Months later, in fact.

And I still get that gross taste in my mouth and that goopy yucky fingery feeling at the back of my throat here and there. My coffee tastes as weird this morning as it did yesterday, too.

I woke up this morning with a LOUD ringing in my right ear. Like our alarm system was going off or something. My head is SO FULL of mucus and ick right now, but I don't have cold symptoms, just this thick, cloggy feeling. I'm sure that was causing a weird pressure in my ear canal that caused the ringing. I sat up in bed and tried to clear everything out by sniffly snorting and releasing pressure from my ears, but still the ringing persisted and I started to get scared. I reasoned with myself that all would be well, there's increased bloodflow all over and maybe that was the cause. I continued to move around, sit up, and kindof shake my head around, but the ringing just kept on. I finally got up and walked to the bathroom, got some water, went to the potty, and grabbed my laptop and headed for the guest bedroom. By the time I'd logged on and started Googling "pregnant and ringing in ears" the ringing had all but stopped and I relaxed. Incidentally there were multiple related mentions of pregnant and ringing in ears that the Google search found, but when I clicked on each of them, the articles never actually SAID anything about it. Weird.

So that crisis seems to have passed for now. It's funny though, with that ringing going on, my brain had tried to explain it to myself in my sleep by dreaming about a dolphin swimming and playing in a lagoon as I stood on the shore and watched it while talking to my old friend and co-worker, V, who was pregnant with her daughter while I was pregnant with Bean. It was nice to see her again. She was still fabulous in my dream and made me feel like a cloddy little ball of frumpiness. Hee. Some things never change, even in dreams. She was, of course, the owner of the dolphin, as well. Naturally! And a condo in downtown Atlanta (which was coastal, in the dream!) right next to the hospital, and we were there because she was offering to let me stay there in the latter days of this pregnancy so I'd be able to just hop across the street when I was ready to deliver. What a funny dream.

Hm. Here's one of those little surges of mild nausea washing over me. Time to go eat something. Surely this means everything's fine with the baby?

Oh and I forgot to do the belly picture, but I'll do it sometime today, maybe. I hope. There's nothing to see but a fat lady who has had too many carbs in the past week and is now sporting a wicked muffin top.