Week by Week: Week 10

Our Baby:

• Not only has all his/her vital organs, but also has function in many of them now. 
• Can swallow.
• Can kick! It'll be over a month before I can feel it, but it's happening.
• Is literally half head. Half of his/her body is the head right now, and there's a huge bulge in the forehead where the brain is developing. 
• No longer has webbed fingers and toes. No more fish baby!
• Has made it past a major developmental hurdle -- most congenital conditions appear by week 10, so the most critical developmental period is over. 

I (traditionally):

• Am getting more moody. 
• Might actually start looking pregnant now. 
• Am still super tired. 
• Am feeling less nauseated as morning sickness peaks at around 9 weeks and then tapers off. 
• Start to notice big, blue veins now that there's so much more blood coursing through my body. 

I (actually): 

• Am definitely more moody. My community choir had a concert this last weekend, and I probably pretended to sing for half of it because the songs were choking me up. I swear, everything makes me want to cry. Beautiful song lyrics. A purring kitty on my chest. People on T.V. shows who are good friends. I swear, I've never spent more energy on holding back tears in my entire life. 
• Don't think I obviously look pregnant, but I must look different. For the first time, someone came up to me after church and asked if I was expecting because she thought something looked different about me. Granted, it was a particularly perceptive woman, but still. I guess it's starting to show. 
• Napped about a total of 24 hours this last week. About 10 of those napping hours were in the last three days. At this point, I'm upgrading "super" tired to SUPER-DUPER tired. 
• Feel pretty sickly most days now. It could definitely be worse, and I'm thankful that I can keep food down. 
• Noticed my first, weird vein on one of my boobs. At first, I found myself wondering how I'd managed to bruise my boob. Turned out it was just a particularly colorful vein. 

The sickness is one of those double-edged swords. One on hand, I'm incredibly grateful that I feel this way. A real, physical indication that my body has been taken over by a growing baby is so precious to me. On the other hand, sticking to a healthy and balanced diet, which already takes a lot of work for a regular person, is crazy hard right now. Some healthy things sound good, but most don't. And it's not that I'm having trouble eating healthy things (I mean, I'm loving fruit and steamed veggies with just a tiny bit of salt on them), it's more that I'm having trouble eating a balanced diet. Keeping complex carbs and protein in my diet has been tough. Meat is gross right now. Grains are bleh. Dairy is ugh. Levi made himself a bowl of cereal a few days ago and I almost barfed at the sight of it. Sigh.

I might now look obviously pregnant, but I can tell that things are, ahem, spreading. I bought a great maxi skirt that isn't maternity, but still has a great panel that goes up to my ribs. When I tried wearing it I realized that my underwear lines were not only obvious, but that they were also digging into my butt enough to give me quad-butt. Having dealt with quad-boob for much of my life, it was a bit disheartening to realize that I'd need to buy some new undies in order wear that skirt without embarrassing myself and triggering other people's gag reflexes (I'm kidding, I'm kidding). I could always wear my thongs, but I'd rather not add one more discomfort to the long list I cart around every day now. 

Freak-Out Moments:

A few days ago, I noticed a pink spot on my toilet paper. Words cannot describe the instant anxiety and fear that overcame me. I think I was back on the toilet every half hour after that, and thank God, there were no more suspicious spots. I'm not sure what it was, but it was not something I want to see again. Considering that I've had no changes in how I'm feeling, I'm going to let it go. 

Levi spent one night on a trip with some buddies this weekend, which meant I spent one night at home alone. I usually don't like being alone overnight in the house, but my freak-out moment this last week was a bit much. I'd fallen asleep early, so when I woke back up, it was dark outside and all of our curtains were still wide open. I got up to close the curtains and realized that I'd not only left the back door wide open, I'd also left the front door wide open. Realizing I'd been asleep for a few hours in a wide-open house that sits alone among corn fields, panic set in. I scooped up the cat as my safety net, and we checked every single room, closet, nook, and cranny in that house. I used flashlights, I punched through closets of clothes, I ventured into the creepy basement. Of course, I was alone in the house, and felt foolish afterward. 

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Hard to believe I'm pretty much 1/4 of the way through! Keep it real, y'all!