Just the Facts:
Weeks pregnant: 8 weeks, 4 days. Adjusted to 4 days further along with my ultrasound on Friday.
Weight: 134 pounds
Gain: -1
Waist: I still haven’t measured. I need to find my tape measure.
Size of the baby: .5-.6 inches
Weight: very very light.
Other pregnancy related crap:
Emotional crap: Definitely more mellow than before. I feel pretty calm and centered.
Physical crap: I’m so exhausted, all the time. When I put Anneliese down for her naps, usually I head right into my room and crawl into my own bed for a simultaneous mama-nap. Today, after she woke up from hers, I grabbed my pillow and lay down on Anneliese’s bed while she played for about an hour. She checked in with me every few minutes, stopping to show me a toy or have a quick nursing snack. But for the most part, I was impressed with her ability to amuse herself with her toys, and even if I didn’t get SLEEP during that time, I felt more rested afterward. I love the floor bed. I love the baby-safe room. I love that Anneliese can access her toys on her own. All three are fabulous things for a sleepy pregnant mama of a toddleby.
What I want to devour: I still want a pickle sno cone. I haven’t done that yet. And In n Out. Which I still haven’t gotten. And salmon with lemon juice (or hollandaise sauce!). I’m loving the lemon potatoes I’ve made the last couple of nights. This morning I made fried rice for breakfast, which was the best (and biggest) breakfast I’ve had in probably 2 weeks.
I made a gallon of peppermint iced tea, and that’s been fantastic to sip when I’m feeling queasy. It’s (decaf) black tea, mixed with peppermint herbal tea, and slightly sweetened (I used 4 teaspoons for the entire gallon) with xylitol. SO good. Anneliese has begged me for sips too, and she also likes it.
Coconut water is also so helpful. I ran out though, and need to order more. This stuff is what I got at the store and it’s VERY tasty, despite mixed reviews on Amazon. The chocolate flavor is also incredible.
What makes me want to hurl: Still pretty much everything. See last week’s list. Also, you know the little powdered sugar donuts I couldn’t stop thinking about? I got some. I ate some. Then? Ew… I threw the rest away. Glad that’s over with. blughhhh
Supplements: Still just a prenatal vitamin.
Activity/Training: I’m more tired than before. I don’t think I’ve done a really good long walk with Anneliese this week, and that makes me feel bad. Squatting, tailor-sitting, stretching, all of that is good… but I need more. Hopefully today was the start of a trend (with being able to eat a real breakfast, I felt much less sick today and could eat more) which will allow me to eat more FOOD which will mean I’ll have more ENERGY… I hope. I need to do more.
Boy/Girl?: Still boy feelings. Also at the ultrasound appointment (follow up to urgent care visit) Friday, the first thing the doctor said about the baby was, “Heartbeat seems kind of slow, so maybe a boy?” I know it’s an old wives tale but those are his words, not mine. Still, I would love a boy OR a girl. Gut says boy right now though.
Head to the left, the circle on the bottom is the yolk sac, limbs are pointing up. It looked cuter when I could see it “realtime”… hard to capture a cute picture of a gummy bear I suppose! I have another ultrasound scheduled for 2.5 weeks from now, to check out the fluid in the head and make sure it’s going away like it should.
Birth prep: Does it count if I’ve done a little bit of background research on a midwife (that sounds extreme. really I just facebook messaged a couple of her previous mamas) even if I haven’t called her yet? I need to call her.
Baby prep: Nothing. And with the ultrasound changing my EDD, I even lost track of where I was in my little baby journal I bought. Oops!
Tandem nursing / BOOBS: Breasts are less sore than last week. Anneliese is nursing all the time. She is pinching a bit less but I pretty much have to constantly move her “top” hand and say “gentle hands” about 100 times each nursing session. Hopefully it will stick. She has a little wooden duck toy she LOVES and I tried to get her to hold that with her free hand while nursing today, but it just confused her, and she got all excited about the duck and wanted to suck on its head. Then she was like “but where’s my milk???” and she just kept switching back and forth between me and the duck. We’ll figure this out.
Other stuff: Twitter is an interesting place. LOTS of support and mamas in the same boat. Lots of people bouncing ideas off of each other. Lots of crap too. I got SO many “ingenious” suggestions about trying GINGER for my nausea.
When I finally tweeted, “Attention all helpful well-meaning ginger-advice-givers: Ginger has never ever ever helped my nausea. Pregnant or otherwise. Thank you.” you would not believe the number of people who said GINGER NEVER HELPED THEM EITHER, and in some cases it actually made them sicker.
And my two favorites:
I have major love for these ladies.
Super-attractive self portrait taken at the end of last week. Baby bloat there. Definitely not uterus-bump. But also, as I said before, not exactly cheeseburgers…
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
this is a very good experience to you on a ultra sound to see how your kid is healthy and how nice your taking care of him. I also wish you have the fun in your motherlihood. I also wish you a very happy pregnancy period wishing you the very best.
hey I feel this is a best part for the child and also the a very good experience to you on a ultra sound to see how your kid is healthy and how nice your taking care of him. I also wish you have the fun in your motherlihood. I also wish you a very happy pregnancy period wishing you the very best.
hey I feel this is a best part for the child and also the a very good experience to you on a ultra sound to see how your kid is healthy and how nice your taking care of him. I also wish you have the fun in your motherlihood.
Nice!!! Wish you and your baby is healthy!
you can just hold her free hand ( the one on top and near your face) and just let her feel your face and kiss her little arm..That will give you a joyful feeling and your bond will be stronger.
The ultrasounds looked very nice. I wish that your baby would continue to be healthy. The dish, which consisted of rice, green peas etc, looked delicious and yummy. I wonder where can I buy coconut water in a handy bottle.
Betsy from WU here! ~ Emily, please update us on how the floor bed is going? Any problems getting A to fall asleep versus playing now that she’s more mobile?
I love having a baby ‘bed’ in Avery’s room too. When he’s teething he has a habit of getting up super super early and I just close his door, let him roam free/play by himself in the baby safe room and rest on the bed until we start the morning routine.
I don’t have any kids, but baby floor bed with baby safe room seems like the best idea ever!!
Like you, rice helped a ton for me during those first weeks!! Bacon was good too, I don’t know if it was the fat and salt, or what, but after eating a bunch of it I always felt a little better!
But it is nice if ginger is helpful, because then it gives you a good excuse to eat gingersnaps
It’s probably fine not to use ginger — it’s an emmenagogue in large doses. I know at least one well-known herbalist who does not recommend it for morning sickness.
I do love ginger. Pregnant or not. Pickled ginger with sushi, I eat a ton of it. Shoot, toss the sushi just give me a jar of pickled ginger.
Congrats on the pregnancy! I never had morning sickness with any of mine, but with the third I was a bit queasy. I abhore ginger.
My midwife suggested the following tea, which I made myself and it seemed to help both with pregnancy and with birth. You might want to check into the ingredients and try it if you are interested, it doesn’t taste bad and I especially liked it iced. If you are already drinking peppermint it wouldn’t be too different. I get the herbs from http://www.herbalcom.com/ and you can buy your own tea bags also, I like the ones @ http://www.herbco.com/.
Here’s the recipe:
Oat Straw
Nettles
Rose Hips
Alfalfa
Peppermint to taste
Red-raspberry leaf (only once you are past 16 weeks)
Good luck!
Ginger = eewww,
but Grapefruit juice 1 part to 7 parts water (or mineral water) = happy preggers lady!
Living so vicariously through you! It doesn’t feel quite right to have another baby yet but that doesn’t mean I don’t think about it constantly. I love the idea of giving Sebastian a sibling to play with. You look really pretty and glowy too. I wish I had known/thought of coconut water when I was pg!
Aww I’m a ginger pusher! I have tea, love the candied stuff, and today even had some in a smoothie. When I was pregnant nothing really helped with my nausea other than to keep eating though. I would eat in bed before sleep and immediately upon waking. If I had to walk downstairs to get breakfast, that was too much to do on an empty stomach.