Hello Ass, meet My Knees

Now that I have dropped chicken, I've taken up with pizza. Why oh why pizza, why couldn't I get a horrible craving for lettuce or wheat germ. I'm trying to pepper my diet with Korean dishes but that would involve opening our fridge. The last time I opened it, the combination of smells nearly finished me. So if I want eat well, it looks like I'll have to resort to cooking by proxy. I will shout out directions, from a safe distance, which Kris will execute. Not sure how it'll work since Korean cookery involves alot of eyeballing which in turn will inevitably lead to questions such as "how big a pinch, your pinch or my pinch" and "how do I know when it's done." It'll be a good teamwork exercise. Kris and I tried that with a puzzle several months ago. I bought a puzzle of a vintage 101 Dalmations poster and we started off pretty happily, finished the mother and father dogs, Cruella and her minions and most of the pups...then we got to the rest of the poster which is just a yellow background...500 pieces of the same shade of yellow. Our enthusiasm waned. Since then Kris has been skeptical of any of my ideas for team building. Well if he becomes my cooking arm, damn it, I'll finish the puzzle. (I am so glad that I didn't get the 20,000 piece set)

Feel like Sh-t

Just as I started thinking, hey looks like I'm going to have an easy first Trimester, all of the other bad symptoms caught up with me.

Nausea has reared it's ugly head. The mere thought of certain foods and I turn a delicate shade of green. Until yesterday afternoon, I loved chicken, wanted to marry it. Now...ugh. Coffee was an early morning friend, now I'm indifferent. Commercials advertising fast food had me burying myself into the couch cushions...ok gotta stop, this is grossing me out.

Oddly as I found myself dryheaving in the bathroom this morning my first thought was, this is good, this is what pregnancy is supposed to be like. Hey this is what I wanted...but it would be nice if Kris and I could share this part of it, take turns or divide up the symptoms according to our strengths. Kris can have nausea and constipation...I think I can handle the rest.

Otherwise, life is good. Kris and I have set up our group calendar and listed everything we need to get done before the big day. The most daunting task is the flooring. We've decided to install laminate in the bedrooms and carpet in the basement and upstairs hall. To do this we have to take on one room at a time, moving the furniture out, rip out old nasty carpet, paint the room if necessary, put in flooring and trim and move furniture back in and so on so forth. For the carpeting, we have to move everything out of the basement including Nubbly our 500lb couch, Kirby's crate, desks, and bookshelves, rip out the old also nasty carpeting, have someone install new carpeting, put in trim and then move furniture back in. Total, if all goes well we should be finished by September with everything. Then we can go ahead and start putting stuff into the piglet's room. Doing this pregnant will be tricky, beer swilling being a family moving custom, I guess seltzer and pomengranate juice is the best we can do there.

Surreal

I know it's true, I mean the chicken cravings alone prove it, but then I start thinking about how I'm going to go through everything I saw on those baby birthing programs on Lifetime...now I can't even picture myself doing all of that stuff. I may feel differently closer to the due date but for now it's just surreal. My place in childbirth up to now has been as a spectator on the other side of the TV, blubbering on the couch as mother and baby see each other for the first time. Man, and Kris...how weirded out must he be? At least I have the chicken cravings, he's only the guy that gets me that chicken. For all he knows it's just an elaborate plan for me to use him as my butler. The belly he pats in the morning is still flat (ok somewhat flat), the other day he pressed his ear this way and that way onto my lower tum-tum hoping to hear the little guy say "yep it's true and what's more I'm gifted, here I am talking with no lips."

Gazillions have gone through this, I feel kinda stupid thinking the same thoughts that the gazillions before have thought, but I guess that's the glory of it, it never gets old...I'm sure I'll be just as weirded out when I'm pregnant with my second.

So meanwhile, Kris and I have been discussing what our kids will look like...with an Amerasian baby we have no idea where to start. All we know for sure is that he/she will have one massive thatch of hair, we're talking Troll Doll/Suri Cruise/Harry and the Hendersons. I'm hoping for Kris' height and metabolism. Kris is hoping for my skin and teeth.

Planning

New symptoms: strange craving for chicken. I can't get enough of it.

We've scheduled our first prenatal visit with my ob/gyn for next Friday. It's still pretty early so I'm not sure what we'll find out. They'll probably do more tests, draw more blood. It'd be nice if we could do an ultrasound, I'm thinking at that point we should see a worm with a heartbeat.

I'm really looking forward to learning the piglet's gender, are we talking Petunia or Porky here? Kris wants it to be a surprise, so I told him the ob can tell us and I'd keep it a secret from him...needless to say, he didn't like that idea.

Mood Swings

Got test results back, beta levels doubled. We're now at 750. Yay!

New symptoms: constipated, like you would not believe. Felt so bloated that when I got home after having dinner with Kris, I threw up on the front lawn. I'm worried about dealing with this at work.

I'd read about mood swings and I figured they'd be like PMS moodswings. They're worse because you're thinking, hey, I shouldn't be down, it can't be good for the kid to be sitting around in an unhappy womb.

Growing Pains

Still very early yes, but already feeling the hormones take over...

First big symptom, very sore breasts. Enough so that I'm aware of them all day.

Second, so very sleepy. Yawning so much and I've been in a fog for the past few days. I've had to listen to my ipod to stay alert...a good mix of Feel Good by Gorillaz has helped.

Third, frequent bathroom visits. Wow, yeah I'm usually a 2-3/day kinda girl. Now I'm 6-7/day.

Fourth, excess saliva. I'm thinking that I'll start talking like Daffy Duck soon, complete with the gleeking (sp?) and sputtering.

Fifth, small aches and pains. Pulling and sudden sharp pains in the lower abdomen, achey lower back.

Heard back from the doctor's office. Beta level on 02/28/07 was 428. Definitely a positive but a low positive. So I went back in today to do another test. Fingers crossed. Should find out later this afternoon.