What No One Ever Told Me

On one of my pregnancy message boards, people were posting their thoughts on things no one ever told them about being pregnant. That inspired me to come up with my own list:

10. No one ever told me that I would obsess so much daily over exactly what size my baby is, which parts he/she is capable of moving, whether or not he/she has eyelashes yet, etc.

9. No one ever told me that I would spend $1000 on baby furniture.

8. No one ever told me that my face would break out so severely. I thought pregnant women were supposed to have beautiful, glowing skin. Yeah right.

7. No one ever told me that I would have no desire to have sex whatsoever.

6. No one ever told me that I would stress out daily about whether or not my retroverted uterus has flipped, causing me to worry that the baby is getting crushed by my innards.

5. No one ever told me about how a month between doctor's appointments becomes an eternity, wanting to make sure that everything is OK.

4. No one ever told me I would reconsider my career mainly because of worries about not having enough time at night to spend with my child.

3. No one ever told me how insensitive my husband would be to my sickness and pain and that he would be such a baby about doing most things around the house even though I am exhausted and throwing up.

2. No one ever told me how morning sickness lasts morning, noon, and night (especially at night).

1. No one ever told me how morning sickness does not go away for weeks on end.

Momma Said There'll Be Days Like This, There'll Be Days Like This My Momma Said

I have been feeling so much better the last few weeks, but the nausea is still there in full force at times. I threw up several times last night, but usually if I keep food in my stomach I am OK. My students finally started asking me if I was pregnant this week, and they said they could tell because I am showing. Most of my friends and family still don't really think I am showing, but I think students are more observant because they are always checking you out and being critical. After a couple students got up the nerve to ask me if I was pregnant, a lot of the other kids (mostly girls) said they knew I was pregnant but just didn't want to say anything about it (just in case I wasn't). They do have some manners sometimes. :)

I am about 14 1/2 weeks right now which means I am in my second trimester (very exciting to be 1/3 done with this misery known as pregnancy). I have a doctor's appointment next week, and at my next appointment after that, I should be about 19 or 20 weeks, which I believe means I will get the ultrasound telling me for sure whether I am having a boy or girl.

Haha, It's Ugly!!!

Just for fun, I decided to see what it would look like if my mate procreated with Angelina Jolie. I figured it would have huge lips about half the size of its head, but it doesn't. :( It is a very ugly kid, though.



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Baby #2

Why does it have red hair? Did I cheat and forget about it?



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Freaky Spawn

What do you think about my little new baby Asher?
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It's a Boy! Maybe?

Today I had an appointment, and my baby daddy went this time because we were told we would get to hear the baby's heartbeat by Doppler radar. When it came time to listen to the heartbeat, the doctor was unable to hear it the first time, so he went to get a different Doppler that would perform a deeeper reading. He was still unable to hear it and ordered an ultrasound to try to see the heartbeat.

The ultrasound tech. lady tried to perform a belly ultrasound first, got nothing, then did an internal one. When she did, we got a good view of the baby. We saw a little dark spot down between the baby's legs at first, and my baby dad said it looked like a girl to him. After changing angles, the ultrasound tech. agreed with me that it looked like there was a penis and some boy parts, and the baby dad saw it too. She said it is really too early to tell, but if she had to guess, it looks like a boy to her.

I asked my baby dad if he would still love it if it turned out to be a he/she.

It's Near Midnight in the Garden of Eden

I have been so sick during this pregnancy that I often wonder why. I understand physiologically why it happens, but it still doesn't make sense to me. Supposedly our bodies are made to accomodate certain natural events...like exercise, sex, etc. Our bodies are made to accomodate such things and adjust so that these things are safely possible. So why does my body hate being pregnant so much? Why is my body rejecting a natural process? I was wondering and complaining about this to my hubby a few days ago, and he said, "It's because you ate the forbidden fruit."

Now, he has a point there, and my first thought was, "Wow, you're right!" But my second thought was, "Why doesn't EVERY woman get sick then?" In the Bible it says that woman would pay for her sin by pain in childbirth and man would pay for his sin by breaking his back in work, and here I am in the 21st century having to do both. And on top of it, I don't think I should have to pay for that B Eve's sin any more than I should have to pay reparations to African-Americans for slavery. HELLO! I wasn't there.

Unfortunately, it's not my choice.

8 Week Fetus

This is what my baby looks like right now.

So what? I'm still a rock star.

No one ever said rock stars can't be sick all the time and throwing up every other day. The only difference is that usually rock stars are throwing up from excessive drug and alcohol use, and I'm throwing up because my baby wants to punish me while it has a chance since I am going to be the one doing most of the punishing for the next twenty years. My vomiting has mostly been under control while taking my medicine, and I have mostly been throwing up only when I forget to take my medicine; however, it is different now. I am starting to be sick even while on the medicine. I guess the pregnancy hormone is getting stronger in my system--to the point that my medicine can't conquer the illness. It is terrible. I feel totally incapable of participating in life. Being sick all the time blows chunks.

Chemical Party and the Outage

I got some medicine yesterday for my morning sickness. It has worked wonders for me so far. I am eternally grateful, because there is NO WAY I would have been able to function as sick as I was before I got this medicine. I am not even having the tired side effects, as far as I can tell. I am tired all the time from the pregnant thing anyway.

On another note, I got outed today at work by one of the few coworkers who knows I am pregnant. We are going to a conference Thursday through Saturday, and some of the people who are going are wanting to drive their own cars and ride separately. The lady who knows I am pregnant, the one who outed me, is in pretty bad health and knows I have been very sick, so today at lunch when she found out that we would be riding together alone, she said, "Now, somebody else needs to ride with us. With me being too tired to drive and her having morning sickness, we might not be able to get up there." Of course, no one else in the room knew that I was pregnant until that time. I felt badly for her. She was very embarassed and apologetic. At least I can be spared telling everyone now since they all know already.

Three Days Running

Today is the third day I have been throwing up. It is really getting old already. The good news is that I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and I am going to try to see if there is something they can give me for the nausea. I am sort of scared to take anything because my mom took some medicine for morning sickness that is now banned because it causes deformities (she thinks this is why I was pigeon-toed when I was little and had to have braces on my legs). I am hoping, though, that the doctor will be able to tell me that there have been long-term studies on certain medications and that there are some that are definitely safe.

I have been trying the home remedies (lemon, peppermint, ginger ale). So far, nothing has really helped significantly. As a matter of fact, I threw up my lemon shake-up that I have been sipping on today. Plus, the lemon burns when it comes out my nose. It is not very pleasant being prego. I just wish I could enjoy it more.

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

So I have found that pregnancy really doesn't agree with me. Perhaps I will adopt next time.

I am tired constanty, which is not really a big deal. Sure, I don't always have time for a nap, but I can tolerate being tired for a while.

What I can't tolerate is being sick all the time. I could deal with it if it was just "morning sickness," but I am just sick all day. My stomach is constantly queasy, and I am having a hard time keeping any food down the past couple of days. I didn't start throwing up until yesterday, but I threw up several times last night, over and over. Anything I ate came back up. I guess the baby doesn't like Saltine crackers or mandarin oranges. Now, I can feel it coming on again today. If I let myself, I could probably go hurl now.

Strongly Considered Names

For boys, Dad is really feeling Asher. We also both like Dexter. I know it is supposedly a serial killer or whatever, but I don't know how relevant that will be to most people since the show hasn't been on very long. We like Camden (Cam) too.

For girls, we like Essie and Claire mainly. I am getting very mixed reviews on Essie. It's one of those names that people pretty much love or hate, I think. It would be pretty hard to make fun of, though, unless kids called her Bessie. Maybe I just like it because I made it up.

Oh, Baby!

This is about what my baby looks like right now. Crazy...It is actually sort of starting to look like a person!

Names

Here are some names that I/we are currently considering:

Girls:
Claire
Essie
Carsten
Riley
Brylee
Lilliana (Lily)
Brynna
Emlyn (Emmie)
Ella (Ellie)
Hadley Ceana (dad doesn't like)
Kendall
Reagan
Kiera
Jael
Paige
Teagan
Vivienne (dad doesn't like)
Carlyn
Laine
Abby
Addison
Reece
Keegan

I am sort of leaning toward the simpler names like Claire or Paige. We will see. There is plenty of time to decide. We both like Essie, and it is the sounds of the first initials of both of us (S.C.). It is a unique name but has a classic sound, so I like it. No one else I have talked to cares for it that much, but Daddy liked it, so we will see if it stays on the list after some more discussion.

Boys:
Asher
Camden (Cam)
Thane
Egan
Dexter (Dex)
Landon
Sawyer
Spencer (Spence)
Adrian (dad doesn't like)
Julian (dad doesn't like)
Brooks
Jarrett
Isaac
Emerson
Ethan
Dagan
Dieter
Drake
Duncan
Braden
Pierce
Channer
Keegan
William would be the middle name

Saw that I had Cooper on my saved names on babynames.com, but that is the name the BFF likes. You can have it, dawg. It is not one of my favs anyway. I have Reegan on there also, but again, not one of my ultimate fav picks.

How Not to Deal with Stress

I am not sure if the pregnancy is making me emotional, if my job is making me emotional, or if the consideration of having a kid and having to bring home this much work is making me emotional. But I am EMOTIONAL right now. Hardcore EMO possibly. I cry almost every day, usually to the point of hyperventilation. I am very upset most nights when I stop and think about everything I have to do. Every second I am doing something like this, I feel guilty and don't enjoy myself because I know I have so many other responsibilities that need to addressed. I want to quit my job and do something else. I am sick of dealing with kids who do not give a shit. Don't get me wrong. Most of my kids are great. BUT the five to ten kids who do not care about themselves, their classmates, or me are causing me to dread going to work every day. Even if every kid was great, I think I would still be unhappy because of the amount of grading. I don't know if I would like the next step in my career any better, so do I stick this out and wait to move up (on the chance that I will like it?), or do I count my losses and run, then do something else?

Time to Breathe Easier

I decided to start this blog so I could have somewhere to post the html code that shows what my baby looks like at this time. I thought it might be a good way to keep a sort of journal of what is going on throughout the pregnancy too, though.

Today I had my second blood test to measure my hCG levels. It was terrifying waiting to find out today if I had miscarried or not. My levels are good, though, so I am very relieved. I do have to have an ultrasound next week, and although the doctor is ordering that to make sure I am not having an ectopic pregnancy, I am really not worried because I am not displaying most of the symptoms. It is just precautionary. I am actually pretty excited about getting the opportunity to see my baby. I hope I can see the tiny speck in my uterus that will eventually become my son or daughter. The whole process is pretty amazing.

My Baby at 4 Weeks