9 weeks!

Another reason to love Fridays, by the way, is that I move from week to week of this pregnancy today! Nine weeks seems big to me. It feels big, too, as today is one of those sausage casing days where my abdominal skin feels too tight for its contents. Still not down where my womb is, but way up under my breasts down to right above my belly button. Things must be really REALLY getting pushed up somehow.

The nausea was REALLY bad the first few days of this week. Like the worst so far. I was likely tired out from the excitement and extra work of having Sissy and Buddy here for a visit. By Wednesday, though, it was better and manageable. I had a weird blip in my weight, too, where for two days I was up around 140 lbs (that would be an 11 lb. gain since Thanksgiving!) and then in these three less sicky days I got back down to 135ish, which sounds more reasonable. So a couple days of concentrated nausea, exhaustion plus water retention. Kindof like a period, almost. Weird. I'm glad that's over for now.

I posted a new photo in the belly gallery at 8 weeks, 2 days. Not much to see, although I look thicker in the middle. There's no bump to look at, so don't get excited.

I'm looking forward to my first prenatal appointment which is coming up in 5 days. I don't know if that office has a sonogram machine or technician. I suspect not, as it is a very small practice, so I may have to have an appointment elsewhere on another date for that. I think it will be interesting to see how far along I actually turn out to be vs. what I've calculated using my vague memory of the dates of my LMP and you know, the um ... things we did that we can ultimately point to as the cause of all this excitement.

I don't feel particularly bonded with this baby. I don't mean that in a negative way, though. It's not that I feel disconnected or passive at all. I talk to him/her on occasion and I'm already starting to gently place my hand over my womb on occasion (when I'm alone or in a private place and it's appropriate to do so, of course. It's pretty low right now and if I did it in public people might construe my maternal caresses as a "gotta pee" dance.) But I mean that not having seen the baby in an ultrasound or heard his/her heartbeat, I suppose the fact that there's a little person inside me is still a somewhat vague notion. I'm looking forward to a glimpse or a listen to confirm and solidify things for me, in a way.

I am sleeping very well now, thank goodness, although having to get up at least one if not two or three times a night to go potty. I have very very vivid dreams almost every night, and I can sleep THROUGH noises and activity that would normally wake me right up. That has been quite a blessing, as getting enough sleep seems pretty critical in keeping me feeling at least human right now.

I still have that AWFUL taste in my mouth. It gets worse later in the day, and by day's end I have the awful taste PLUS everything gets SO STINKY. Really those two symptoms are harder to deal with than the nausea, because it's the taste and smell issues that make it so hard to EAT, or at least make it so hard to figure out WHAT to eat. The smell and the taste are very starchy and gooey and thick, like really gross potatoes. I've been cooking huge meals for all of us (since we have the big kids) and our bedroom is right above the kitchen, so at night I wake up and am just overwhelmed by the smell and taste of whatever I've cooked lingering in the air. Except that the smell has morphed in those few hours, as if whatever it was has spontaneously partially rotted. The best description I can think of is how, after you've just eaten a really big meal, with a huge serving of something you really love, a way too huge serving, so huge you've nearly made yourself sick from indulging, and then when you even THINK of that food, it makes you just feel completely ill. That's how it feels. Only worse, because I can still SMELL it, and now, it's rotten.

Why I feel it's necessary to explain that with such rigour, I do not know. I am certain that when this feeling goes away for good, I will NOT want to remember it.

Happy Nine Weeks, Peanut. This week you'll go from an olive to a small plum.

Mmmm. A plum sounds yummy.