pregnancy post #1

So I figured this is the absolute best way to keep everyone updated on our baby news as it happens. Right now I'm pretty sure the only people reading this regularly are people we care about, so I'm willing to leave the blog public for now. If things start to get too personal or I feel that the privacy of our little *growing* family is being breached, then we'll come back to that.

I know of so many women who just sing the praises of being pregnant. How wonderful the whole experience was, how easy their 9 months turned out to be... blah blah blah. They can kiss my ever widening butt. I have not had an enjoyable experience thus far. I have morning sickness. I hate throwing up, and I hate that this kind of vomiting is something completely different from anything else. Once I start, it's hard to stop. Gross, I know. You can pity my poor husband who has to listen to it. Actually, it's quite cute, Jethro is very much bothered by my sickness so while I'm in the bathroom, he paces nervously outside before he's brave enough to come into the bathroom and whine in my ear. He is such an affectionate animal. I have already told Roger that I think we may have to put a dog bed in the nursery for him. This is the dog who also can hear me crying, no matter how quietly I try to do it, from any place in the house and is not happy until he's in the room with me, with his nose firmly pressed against my cheek. I so love him.

That's another thing. The emotions. I suppose it explains why I've been so moody lately. I feel like I've been lashing out at people, and usually I'm not like that. Usually my poor baby brother bears the brunt of my fury when I need to really dig at somebody, and he's such a sport for doing it, but I also know he can take it and not overreact. Well, lately, I've noticed that if one person does one itty bitty little thing wrong, I'm mad for no (real) good reason and I never want to speak to them again, rawr and so forth. And the crying. I watched Rudolph and the Island of Misfit Toys the other night and cried. I cried during Home Alone 2. If you know me, you know I do not cry during movies. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was an exception, let's not bring that back up. It really isn't fun. Zach's been a champ about it though.

Eating is horrible. I don't usually eat very much in a day, now if I don't eat at least every couple of hours, I get a horrible stomach ache and a lump in my throat that makes me gag every time I swallow. But I hate the excessive eating. I feel like such a whale already! I am super, super sensitive to smells and so far, if something smells wrong, be it food or a household smell, it's bad. I asked Zach to go get me two burritos from Rosa's the other day and when he got home with them, one of the tortillas on one of them had been singed a little bit and the smell of that slightly burned flour dough made me sick to my stomach. I had to just throw them out because I couldn't bear to eat them. I had to resort to a bowl of Honeycomb cereal and was so nauseated by the smell of the burned tortilla, I couldn't even finish that.

Right now I'm really into pretzels, and my sweet parents came up today and my mom insisted on going to the store and getting me stuff to eat. She got me pretzel rods and cream cheese and I've already gotten them out twice. They got me tortillas and sour cream as well, but that's not as appealing as the cream cheese. They brought Zach a stack of Thanksgiving left overs so he's pretty much set too. And the smells from those foods didn't seem to bother me too much, so it's safe for him to heat up with me in the house. He got some chicken tender things from Dairy Queen the other night that were just awful smelling, but he'd gotten me ice cream, so I held that close to my face and didn't let the fried chicken smell get me too much. Oh and I also am fond of peanut butter and white bread, but I forgot to tell my mom about that so I think Zach will be going to the store for some white bread tomorrow. And more pretzels. :)

All in all, I am spending my days on the couch and in our bed. Zach can't stand to sleep with me right now so he's moved onto the couch until the First Trimester is over and I'm easier in my own skin. I'm restless and have trouble falling asleep, so I keep him up with my tossing and turning and kicking and constantly throwing the sheets off and pulling them up again. Poor guy. I really do have a great husband. He is the best. I am hoping that my next "pregnancy post" will be much happier and we'll have a due date and some more concrete information. Right now, though, I'm dealing with the discomfort as best I can, because it's already been so worth it. The reaction of the 4 *future* grandparents was priceless. They are all so, so excited and I'm so happy that they are all so pleased. There really is nothing in the world like telling parents that they're going to be grandparents. This baby is going to be so spoiled! Roger's already gotten the baby a teddy bear, I've gotten the baby a stuffed lion from the same line as my precious bunny and a bib, Mom has gotten the baby a "tickle" that's just as cute as can be and my parents stopped at the Academy in College Station today and bought the baby a beanie. They've known since Thanksgiving Day! Haha. Roger's already thinking about murals for the nursery-- we already have a theme-- and Mom's already picked out the stroller she wants to buy. Dad's already looked into a time share at Walt Disney World. We're very excited, and as things start to really progress and I start to feel better, I know we're all going to have so much fun preparing for our little guy/girl.