15 weeks

Weighing in at 132.5 and undeniably starting to grow.  It's been fun to start telling people and a relief to my dwindling wardrobe that I can wear things that cling to my midsection a bit without having to worry that someone is going to figure it out.  At 15 weeks the baby is the size of an orange.  His/her ears have moved to the side of the head (glad to hear it), and the baby is starting to move around- although I probably won't be able to feel it for another month or so.    

Sorry for the poor self-photography skills BTW, but I was in a hurry when I took this and decided I could live with it featuring the closet door.

I feel *almost* completely normal now, which is a huge relief considering how hot it's been here.  It's nothing compared to down south, but 90-something degree days every day get old no matter where you are.  Let us all bow our heads for a moment of prayer that the campus water chilling plants continue to stay online so our building won't be forced to shut down its HVAC system like last year.  And if it does, I'm working from home.  No questions asked.

I've been busy getting adjusted to being back at work and Daniel has been very very busy teaching his computer science summer school class.  The biggest work news for me is I found out that my first publication as first author has been accepted.  I have no idea when it will actually be published, but stay tuned.  We are planning to either go to the union terrace or to the top of Observatory Rd. to picnic and watch the fireworks with some friends but otherwise have no plans for the weekend other than to stay cool and possibly do a rain dance in the hopes that all the grass in the entire state doesn't die.

Also, I PROMISE that I'm going to put up the London pictures soon.  Really, really, really.  AND, once I go through and make sure there's nothing way too inappropriate typed in any of these posts (need to delete our address from one...), I'm going to open the blog back up to be publicly accessible if you want to share the link with family, etc.

The Honeymoon Begins

I'm now at 14 weeks- the beginning of the 2nd trimester- which is the "honeymoon period" of pregnancy that is book-ended by the flu-like state of the 1st trimester and the walrus-like state of the 3rd trimester.  And it's true that I've been feeling much much much better.  My nausea and headache symptoms have eased up considerably in the last couple weeks, and I've felt much less fatigued.  I'm continuing to incorporate more foods back into my diet- long gone are the granola bar only days- but I'm beginning to think there are things that just won't taste the same to me.  Sweets, meat, soda, gum... they just don't have the appeal they once did.  Maybe that will change as time goes on.

Am I showing?  A tiny bit.  You be the judge.

It's hard to get a good picture when I use the automatic timer.

Right now the baby is about the size of a clenched fist (a slightly cuter image than "large cocktail shrimp", which is what you get for 13 weeks) and only a few ounces, but by 18 weeks it will be about 5.5 inches long, so things are about to start changing rapidly.

I had my second OB appointment yesterday and we (Daniel came along) got to hear the heart beat using a fetal doppler.  It was a boring appointment otherwise, but it was a nice reality check that, yes, the baby was still in there and doing fine.  I definitely felt pregnant when I was super sick and tired all the time, but now that I'm doing better but not really any bigger, sometimes it's hard to remember that there's really a little someone in there.  The doctor said that I should expect to start really looking pregnant and feeling the baby at about 18 weeks.  It seems so soon but also so far away.

Anyway... enough baby blather.  Stay tuned for pictures and a recap of our trip to London.

12 weeks

Still looking about the same.  Weight still 131.  The baby is about the size of a large plum.

Even though I'm not *actually* any bigger or heavier, I feel like I'm at the point where I really need to suck in my stomach so that tops still fit, but sucking it in is getting hard.  Fortunately with the preponderance of pregnancy blogs on the internet I've learned that I'm definitely not alone.  The strange thing is that it seems like most women need maternity pants way before tops, but while I'm not having any trouble fitting into my regular (fat) pants, I'm down to a very few tops that aren't waaaayyyyy too clingy.

I broke down and bought my first "maternity" clothes last week.  I needed a new pair of running shoes and decided to get a couple pairs of shorts that were on clearance.  They aren't actually maternity shorts, but they have a wide, flat front and LOTS of stretch in the waist.  The thing I have learned is that there is no such thing as legitimate pregnancy workout gear.  It all looks like it comes from Victoria's Secret but with different words written on different body parts.

Did you think I was kidding?  I wasn't kidding.  Did everyone besides me get pregnant at Daytona Beach on spring break?

Even though I'm uncomfortable in my own skin, in general, the nausea, food aversions, and headaches have been better this week.  It's like a bad zombie movie though.  Just when I think it's all over, some nasty symptom sneaks up behind to attack.  The best news is that I've been MUCH less fatigued, which is a good thing for going on vacation.  I did have one headache this week that was so bad I decided to self-medicate with a Diet Dr. Pepper.  That was the first caffeinated drink I'd had in about 3 months, and I was so hyper I went home and vacuumed 7 times.  Not really, but I could have.  And it really did help my headache.  I think if the baby lost an IQ point because of the formaldehyde in the diet soda, I'm okay with it.  

In other news, 53% of Wisconsin voters have no soul. 

Inspired by sweet pictures like this one

on Tuesday evening we went to the observatory to try to view the transit of Venus.  But it was cloudy so we had to wait in line for 1.5 hours while the sun went behind the clouds and came out from behind the clouds and people took their sweet time looking through the astronomy department's telescope to see a little black dot on the sun.  Finally I had my 5 seconds- just me, Venus, and the sun.

This is an artist's rendering of what it looked like through the telescope:

That's an hour and a half + 5 seconds of my life that I'll never get back.  Good thing Venus won't be back around to trick anyone again until 2117.  That was a full two episodes of Murdoch Mysteries watching time I missed out on.  We're not going to know if Dr. Ogden and Murdoch get back together again before we leave for London!

Thanks to the miracle of the Amazon lending library, I'll have this to keep me company on the flight overseas.

Yes, it's real.  Yes, I want to read it.

I'm super excited to begin our vacation tomorrow.  YAY London!

11 weeks

 Looks the same as 8, 9, and 10 weeks.  Sorry for the blurriness, but that's the kind of photo quality you get on a picture taken at 6am.

Weight is still about the same- about 1/2 lb less than last week- due to a more moderate junk food intake and higher activity level.  Compared to last week, this one has been easy.  I've felt more energetic and less head-achy and sick in general.  Getting out of bed in the morning is still really tough, but I can live with a few more weeks of morning sickness that's actually restricted to the morning.

Part of the improvement in running/ difficulty in getting out of bed is that it's cooled off quite a bit around here.  We're dipping down into the high 40s/low 50s over night, which is great for exercise and overall energy levels, but it makes the bed magnet even stronger in the mornings.  We pulled out the air conditioner last weekend because it was so hot, but that left us with a giant hole in the wall and no way to heat the apartment other than turning on the oven.

At 11 weeks the baby is the size of a lime - about 1.5 inches and 1/4 of an ounce- and half head and half body.  Not so cute.  On the plus side, the fingers and toes are no longer webbed.  This week it should grow another 1/2 inch and 1/4 of an ounce.  Because of the weird way pregnancies are dated, different resources consider 12 weeks or 14 weeks the start of the second trimester, but no matter how you measure it, every day is a day closer to being a cute pregnant lady instead of a tired, sick, fat lady.  I'm glad I only have one more week of work before we leave for London and I have my next OB appointment before I have to go back, because it's starting to get hard to wait to tell people.

This weekend is all about getting ready to go to London: checking AMT fees, checking on cellphone issues, hair cuts, printing out maps, reading tour books, and buying any last-minute supplies (thanks M&D Myers for the travel pillows, etc.).

We also have brunch baby shower #1 at Nostrano on Sunday.  This is a pretty snazzy place (owned by the brother of the dad-to-be) and not normally open during the day on the weekend, so it sounds like we're going to have our own private party.  Daniel better come up with his great invention sometime soon because I could get used to that kind of lifestyle ;).

And that's about it!  Have a good weekend.