Week by Week: Week 8

Our Baby: 

• Is still considered an embryo, officially, but now contains everything that an adult human being contains. Woah. 
• Can now contract his/her muscles. 
• Now has a visible nose.
• Almost doesn't have that tail anymore . . .
• Is already moving those arms and legs a lot!
• Is about the "size" of a gummy bear or a raspberry (when they say "size" they usually mean length. 

I (traditionally):

• Have my first doctor's appointment this week. 
• Am finally in the real throes of morning sickness, which will last me for another four to five weeks before miraculously disappearing one day. 
• Continue to have a heightened sense of smell and taste, leading to various food aversions and sometimes contributing to the nausea. 
• Have a uterus the size of a grapefruit! 
• Have 50% more blood in my body now. 
• Might have a strange dream or two. 

I (actually):

• Have my first midwife appointment tomorrow. I can't wait to see the blurry and wavy lines from the sono. When my first pregnancy reached 8 weeks, we were able to hear the heart beat, and that was such a gift. I'm hoping that I'll get the same chance this time. 
• Am finally starting to feel unsettled. I might just be one of the fortunate ones, because I've only had one instance where the nausea was great enough that I began shoving bread down my throat with regard for nothing else. It worked, by the way. Besides that, I spent most of the weekend walking around with a strange sort of "pit" in my stomach which would begin to expand into nausea if I didn't keep something in it. The hard part about all of that is the fact that food doesn't sound exciting or delicious. It's weird to feel so hungry that I ache, yet have nothing in mind that even sounds appetizing. 
• Possess the nose of a bloodhound. On Friday night, I just knew that something was rotting in the fridge. Levi had no idea what I was talking about. I ended up finding a container of whey gone bad and yogurt a week expired. I keep smelling garbage every time I open the fridge, though, and I'm starting to think that I just need to throw everything away and wash the whole thing to get that smell out of our kitchen. It takes most of my self-control to believe Levi that the fridge just smells like "old fridge." Sure. 
• Still don't look pregnant. Even though this is my third pregnancy, my uterus has never been past 11 weeks, so I don't really have a pregnant shape to return to. 
• Gave myself away at church yesterday, though. I had to sing in front of the congregation, and I had morning sickness paired with my normal nerves. And sitting still actually didn't make it feel any better, so I walked around holding my sleeve of saltines. Turns out that's a dead giveaway to most every woman on the planet! 
• Haven't experienced more than one weird dream. I did wake up from that one weird dream in a fury, though, and it took a few hours for me to convince myself that it wasn't real. Good thing I was home alone at the time. 

My moods have been more under control this week. This could be because I am learning how to stay rational and clear-headed through the hormonal fog. *scoffs* Yeah, right. I'm sure the real reason is the fact that I spent more of last week feeling too crummy to get worked up about anything. If I wasn't feeling nauseated, I had a headache just bad enough to stay in bed during most of the daylight hours. The headache didn't quite behave like one of my migraines because I was still hungry and able to eat during it (not that it was in any way enjoyable), but I'm grateful for the years of experience dealing with intense head pain paired with nausea. Looks like this pregnancy will include headaches. Joy.

Freak-Out Moments:

Nothing for two weeks in a row! Woot! Let's keep this up.

---

Second Time Around: 

• Again, my first midwife appointment is tomorrow. I have an ultrasound AND Levi gets to come with me. I can't wait to see that little nugget moving around in there and hear the heartbeat. 
• Have real-deal morning sickness. Unlike my pregnancy with Junior, I have already vomited from the nausea in this pregnancy. My current state is I-hate-all-food-because-all-food-hates-me. No matter what I eat I feel nauseated before, during, and after ingestion. Sounds awful, but it's wonderful to have a constant reminder that things are happening with this pregnancy!
• Pregnancy super-sniffer strikes again. The kitchen is the worst room in the whole house. Everything reeks. The refrigerator. The cutting board. The dishwasher. The sink. The disposal, oh my, the disposal. I absolutely dread opening the fridge, which, of course, does nothing to help my already dismal appetite. 
• Look bigger. Not pregnant. Just bigger. My weight has skyrocketed due to miscarriage and grief, but it has remained stead for the last two months. That doesn't mean I don't look, um, fluffy. Just like last time, I can't wait to have a noticeable bump. 
• No terrible weird dreams so far.

A fun story from last week that I shared on Instagram and Facebook: 

"Anyone interested in a humorous story involving morning sickness, baby poop, and bad timing? Well, here goes. Two things to know ahead of time: 1) Morning sickness has hit me hard in the last week, and I am rejoicing for it, and 2) It's early days, but we're starting to let Lee run around naked for a period each day so he can start watching what his body does. Ok. So. Lee wakes up from his nap too early for me to get a shower in. I want one desperately, so my solution is to shower with the curtain half open while Lee plays in the bathroom. It's worked like gangbusters before, so I thought I'd step it up a notch and kill two birds with one stone. Off comes his diaper, and he gets some extended "free pee" time in the bathroom. I'm thinking this is a genius idea. I get my shower. He gets to watch himself pee and learn about it. Clean up will be easy. All begins well. I wash my hair. Lee pees in a corner. I condition my hair. Lee pees against the toilet. I wash my face. Lee stands still and concentrates. I know the look. Yep. Two gigantic pieces of poo plop to the floor right next to the shower. Now, I try to excitedly show Lee what he did while simultaneously urging him to stay away from the poop. I rinse myself off as quickly as possible and count it a pretty good mom shower even though I didn't get to wash my body. As soon as I step out of the shower I throw my hair into a towel and pull off some toilet paper. All the while the odor from the poo piles has mingled with the warm steam in the bathroom and it seems to just cling to everything--including my throat. Uh oh. I hurriedly wrap up the poo and flush it down the toilet while Lee sings "bye bye!" to it. Grabbing a wet cloth and some cleaner I swipe the spots on the floor and manage to push down the building nausea. Success! Disaster averted. But then. Then this annoying, hacking cough of mine sets in and I'm hacking so hard I realize I'm gagging more and more with each bark. After about four with no end in sight I resign myself to the fact that my lunch is going to make a reappearance. And, just as a reminder, Lee has on nothing, I just have a towel on my head, and pee spots still dot the floor. As I kneel over the porcelain throne my coughing turns into retching and I realize Lee is pressed tightly to my side, worried. He's never seen his mama like this before. So I do my best to laugh and sing between expulsions, attempting to reassure the sweet little boy whose poop started the whole thing. He relaxes a little and apparently decides I am in need of comfort, so he offers it the only way he knows how. He raises up his hand and starts slapping my back with all his might. I suppose he knows I pat his back when he's upset and this is his attempt to return the favor. So there I am. Kneeling over the toilet, not a stitch of clothing on, getting a loving beating from my toddler. Ah, motherhood."

I am generally ecstatic to be pregnant again and feeling so physically miserable. With a busy and hyper toddler running around I generally have less time to brood and let my thoughts swing with my hormones, so that's helpful. I do, however, tend to overstretch myself with chores and tasks, so I end up thoroughly exhausted come 8:00. Overall, though, I'm taking this pregnancy one day at a time and savoring each moment with our little nugget. 

-

Keep it real, y'all!