Moot Thoughts & Musings

So here I am. At the end of the first trimester. It's been a very easy pregnancy so far. A few blips of discomfort here and there and general tiredness, but for the most part I've been feeling fine...until this week. Well, this last week, and still on today. I'm having all the symptoms I should've been having sooner. In fact, I was waiting for them to give me confirmation that I was pregnant. Well, now that I believe that I'm pregnant, they come. I haven't barfed since last Sunday night, but I've felt varying degrees of queasiness. I'm a useless, tired lump. I cry over stupid things. I wake up in the middle of the night. I have to pee all the time, even for me. What is happening to me!?!??!

So if all this is starting at the beginning of the second trimester, I have no idea what to expect. Is Elvis changing a lot right now, hence giving my body a shocker? Am I going to feel yucky all semester (remember. my life is currently being measured out in semesters and trimesters)? Everything I'm reading about being pregnant says I should be feeling better about now (assuming that I was feeling bad before). So I just had to go and be different. :-P

I guess what mostly freaks me out is not knowing what my body is going to today and the next and the next, and knowing that I have to be doing quite a lot very soon as semesters begin, this kind of unpredictability is not affirming.

But the absolute worst thing to deal with is food...wanting some kinds really bad and not really wanting others (especially since I've had varying levels of queasiness/nausea all week). We usually don't have the first category and we usually do have the second category. The first category carried chips and salsa very strongly this past week, as well as oranges, oranges, oranges (I ate the last one we had early last week). Hamburgers or otherwise a nice chunk of beef also figured prominently in the first category. In between the two categories (as in, it will suffice, I can drum up an appetite for it since it's what we have) is potatoes and eggs, and that is what I've been eating mostly. In the last category is everything else we have, leftovers of seafood stuff (I just can't bear the thought of seafood), leftover Christmas turkey (it's the dark meat that's remaining, and somehow can't seem to get my mind around that either), and whatever else usually clutters one's larder (not much). Food just brings me to my knees in tears and weakness. It affects my whole mood for the day. I've given up watching TV, because I just can't bear the food commercials.

Other than the weird things my body is doing, we have been actually thinking about getting ready. We're definitely excited about Elvis, but I think, compared to a lot of new parents who I've known or read about, we're really low key, which is fine. It's always exciting to have little "sightings" at the doctor's office--like hearing the heartbeat. I forgot to mention that when we were listening to the quick, little "whoop, whoop, whoop" that was the heartbeat, there was a little pop in there. Elvis kicked. Very cool to hear.

Chris started making a list of bare minimum stuff we'll need when we get home from the hospital. Stuff, stuff, stuff. The list keeps growing. Big items, of course, carseat, crib, changing table, stroller, etc. And smaller items, diapers, clothes, bottles, etc. It's a little overwhelming at times, mostly because I've never been a mom, so I don't really know what I need. Like, how many changes of crib sheets? how many onesies? will I need very many bottles early on, since I'll get to be able home with Elvis for the first couple of months? And so forth.

We took a first pass through BabiesRUs the other day just to see what stuff is out there. We first had to find it. I knew I had seen it around. It wasn't too difficult to find. It just felt all weird and novice-y of us, i.e. we're so inept at the whole baby thing, that we didn't even know where BabiesRUs is. Anyway. It was nice to see different things lined up on a shelf and to begin to get an idea of where to start. Chris has been the research guru on carseats and cribs this past week. Occasionally he resurfaces with all this information that astounds me. (And we're definitely going to have to pick up a copy of Baby Bargains.)

Sometimes Chris is so "guy", though. For instance, we walk by some cute little towels with a little octopus embroidered on the corner. They are very cute! And he stops and says, "Look at this! This is selling to the parents. The baby doesn't know that it's an octopus. This is absoutely ridiculous all this cuteness!!" I personally don't see anything wrong with selling tasteful cuteness to the parent. I thought the octopus was adorable. I can see his point, though--about the whole New Parent Market, which is especially apparent at an almost nauseating level at BabiesRUs. But my opinion is that you can always turn it into something the baby can eventually appreciate. "Look! That's an octopus. It's green." We're the ones that teach animals and colors, after all, may as well start early.

Anyway. So I guess this is my End of the First Trimester update.