New Zealand, pregnant

So far the traveling-while-pregnant has been going surprisingly well. The biggest problem is my general tiredness. I do well for the majority of the time, and then I end up collapsing in a heap of exhaustion at some point. For instance, we skiied for two days successfully, which went extremely well, and each night I was asleep at 8pm and did not wake up until 6:30am. Then, on the third day, I woke up at 7am, ate breakfast, told Matt I needed a nap, slept from 8:45 until 11am, went for an absolutely unbelievably beautiful 4 hour hike, got back, ate dinner, and slept from 7:30pm until 7am the next morning. That is about 15 hours of sleep in a single 24 hour period.

Matt is being very patient with me on this. I send him off to do grocery shopping or email while I nap. It actually doesn't impede on our schedule as much as you might think- I'm usually chipper from about 8am to 5pm (prime skiing/hiking time) and then after that I'm a heap of uselessness. Hot chocolates seem to help, probably blood sugar related.

I don't really see it, but Matt says my waist looks different. Hmmm... I brought only my comfiest, baggiest pants, so I think I just am not noticing. I also left my fairly snug snow pants at home in favor of just wearing Matt's old ski pants. Much better than being uncomfortable.

My boobs continue to grow. Ha! Good thing I got that new lovely sports bra- it is great. Unattractive, but effective.

Such a relief!

Two good things happened today.

1) My friend that wants to have kids sooooooooo much but is facing an unpleasant delay had a big victory today in another realm of her life. She, more than anyone else, is someone I have ambivalent feelings about telling her I am pregnant. I know she will be extremely jealous, and I cannot blame her one bit. I would be too if I was in her shoes. I'm so happy that she had a funny, great thing happy today. Somehow that assuages my fears a tiny tiny bit.

2) A couple that are friends of our that have been trying to get pregnant for over a year told me today that they are expecting in mid- January. Thank god. I feared telling them I am pregnant in a few months and then them not being pregnant, and then them asking "how long were you trying" and then me having to admit it was the first try. Talk about difficult! But they are expecting! Ultrasounds look great! I'm sooooooo excited for them!

Also, my friend with the nice books gave me some nursing bras of hers to try out. One of them is incredibly comfy and fits great. Very exciting! I'm wearing it right now.

D? Good lord.

I told a friend (a recent mother herself) that Matt and I are expecting. This was mostly because she has a million pregnancy and newborn health books but also because I wanted to complain to someone (Matt is out of town). Her mother-in-law is a nurse, too, so I know these books are probably the best books out there. I now am the proud custodian of three pregnancy books- it is a good start.

I was chatting with this friend today and she warned me that the boob thing was bound to get far, far worse. She said she went from 32A (or 32B depending on the brand), to a generous 32C during pregnancy. She then topped out at 32D for the first three months of nursing. Oh my god. She told me that I should just start buying really cheap, fairly unattractive bras because there is no way to tell when the madness will stabilize. Now that her little girl hasn't been nursing for several months, she has shrunk down to a 32A again and says that she is smaller than when she started and can't even wear her pre-pregnancy bras because they all don't fit well.

I need to get a new bra tomorrow, and I suspect it won't be too long until it doesn't fit either. I also need new sports bras ASAP so that I can be comfortable exercising like this. Right now even stairs are an unpleasant experience- too much jiggling.

Can't take a true "before" photo

I normally bloat up about 5 lbs just before I get my period, and some of my more stylish pants and more snug teeshirts don't look quite right for about 3 to 4 days. Then, it goes away. To me, this process has been annoying for around the past 10 years, but no big deal. It has always been the case that all those 5 lbs are located exactly on my normally gently curving belly, which transforms into a bigger, less attractive belly.

My belly is now in a quasi-permanent state of 5lb bloat. Now, I'm not saying that I resent that, I'm actually kind of proud of it for being sort of cute and pre-pre-baby looking. However, I cannot take a proper "before" photo! My "before" state departed about a week after conception, when the only clues were my general weirdness and desire for Good & Plenties. I acquired the 5lb bloat right on schedule, as always, and now... now it is still there. I suspect from what I've read that it should stay just about like that for another two months, and then all hell will break loose and I'll pine for the 5lb days in a haze of increasing unwieldiness.

I guess the first photo will be the 6 week photo. I'll have to wait for Matt to get home to take it properly. If nothing else, my newly enormous hooters are complimenting the bloat. Booooooooobs.

Boobs

My boobs weigh 300 lbs. Each. After about 4 years of 34AA, followed by 5 years of 34A, and then 5 years of 36A, I think I am approaching 36C over the course of two weeks. Certainly at roughly the speed of sound. This is not a comfortable process, and I fear I will need to buy a new bra by the weekend because I am definitely not fitting any of mine, anymore. I keep bumping my upper arms into my boobs, bumping my boobs into things, and I keep thinking everyone MUST be staring at my boobs because good GOD look at them! I feel all booby, all the time.

When Matt comes back from work I fear he will not recognize my torso. "Who are you, and what have you done to my wife's tits?"

Secret Blog

If you create a blog but you don't tell anyone, does it really exist?

I know people will envy us for this, but I never ever ever suspected that Matt and I would successfully fuse our respective gametes on the very first try. Really. The very first try. That seems insane to me, but I guess it seems insane to hundreds of foolish teenagers, too. And you know what? Two days after said successful fusing I thought to myself... "I feel really, really weird. Really weird." and suddenly coffee smelled extremely repulsive.

And then a couple days after that I suddenly wanted to eat about 2 pounds of "Good and Plenty" candies. So I bought a huge box and ate them. So good! Matt started to give me funny looks at that point, and I 'fessed up that I felt really, really weird. He looked at me in a weird, mildly puzzled way. Men!

I've never had a late cycle, ever, by more than 24 hours. Later, after counting on the calendar and discovering I was five days late, I put the pieces together more decisively. My boobs were killing me, I had an inexplicable desire to eat more Good and Plenty candies, I felt mildly carsick when on solid ground about once a day for 15 to 20 minutes, and I felt tremendously bloated. My thought was, "Well now, I should probably go and figure this thing out."



March 11th, here we come!

NOTE TO READERS: because this blog is now "public" this post is no longer quite accurate. It was a secret blog until we told our friends and family about the pregnancy, and now it is a public blog.