14 weeks, 5 days - hibernation

Not too much has gone on since we got home from the beach. Was that almost a week ago? Wow. Time flies when you're doing absolutely nothing.

We all ended up with a cold/gross viral thingy within a few hours of one another. Bean's has settled in her chest. Well, actually it STARTED in her chest, and there have been several cough-til-ya-barf moments scattered over the past 3 days. She's stopped that finally because her STOOPID mother finally figured out NOT to give her any MILK or DAIRY products because those didn't combine well with the phlegm (the spelling of that word makes it EVEN grosser to contemplate, don't you think?) and seemed to CAUSE the barfing, plus MILK BARF is the worst barf in the world. Worse than pumpkin crunch, even. Yes, oh yes.

But she's improving and all through her illness I've been horking down the probiotics and the Vitamin C and sucking on the Cold-Eze for all I'm worth. And feeling like I was successfully fighting the cold up until yesterday when I woke up with the raw, yucky gunk-throat and the headache and the general (additional) malaise. My appetite has been NIL, but I seem to recall that Cold-Eze do (does?) that to me, so as soon as I quit taking those (which can't come a moment too soon, by the way) I'll probably want to eat again. The nausea has been pretty fierce off and on this week but we'll chalk that up to my general state of poor health and we'll throw in (or throw up! ha ha) that cleaning up stinky milk barf once a day has not exactly been the best appetite enhancer/nausea stopper in the world. Colds are a real bummer when you can't take the REAL stuff. I'm taking Tylenol in miniscule doses, but that's it. I miss my psudophedrine, friends. Miss it badly.

I can feel how much bigger the baby has gotten in the past two weeks. Well, I mean I can feel how much bigger my uterus has gotten and I attribute that to the baby also being bigger because that's how it all works. My belly is all unswollen and unbloated again now so I look pretty same-ish to the 13 week picture, really, but I can FEEL the ball of the uterus in my lower abdomen now, especially when I bend or squat and super-especially when I haven't been potty in awhile because I think my uterus and bladder are sorta still duking it out down there for space. You know, it feels kinda nice. I remember liking the feeling with Bean, too. It's comforting and nifty and I feel like a walking science-experiment, in a way. I could focus on that feeling for hours on end if, you know, life allowed for such luxuries. But for this week, all free, non-obligated moments are spent sleeping, because I'm super sleepy and I want to do what I need to do to shake off this cold, which will hopefully be closely followed by the shaking off of this confounded nausea.

I read in one of my online pregnancy resources that next week The Girls will begin to produce small amounts of colostrum. I mean, the article says milk, but I think they must mean colostrum. Anyway, sure enough, The Girls are all burny and electrically this week. This bod is a finely-tuned machine - right on schedule. I must say I occasionally get impressed by how it all just goes along - chug chug chug. It's fascinating, isn't it? I mean how all those complex systems in there just work away at their own functions - all the parts fire up in the right order, all those many, many parts respond to the appropriate stimuli, and presto, we have us a baby and everything it needs. You have to appreciate God's careful work there - it's all so intricate and perfect. Really, really amazing.

Wow.

(Are you pondering?)

Bean's been asking to touch and kiss my belly lately. She's just so sweet about the baby. Today she asked if she could put some lotion on my stomach, "So the baby won't be itchy." (We have to lotion up this time of year or our whole bodies get all dried out and start to itch badly!) So I let her. In a few weeks when she touches the belly, the baby will actually be where her hands are. I can't wait until she and Al can feel this Peanut moving, although right now it's nice to just feel him/her myself. Like we two have our own little secret. Right P? Right Mama.

Oh the names. I have pondered and looked at list after list. I told my Mom a few of the names I have in mind and she pretty much hated all but a VERY few of them. Actually maybe only one of them. It would bug me except she really hated Bean's name when I told it to her and looky! *I* still love it and think it's perfect for her. So I reckon whatever we pick for Peanut will please me just the same. And hopefully him or her, too.

I'll be back Friday to post the updated belly photo and additional ramblings.