Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Torso dandruff

The other day I noticed that my skin, in my belly button, was slightly peeley. I don't even know HOW I noticed this, as I virtually never look at my belly button let alone inspect it, but I did.

Today, I noticed that my entire stomach/rib/waist area has a very mild case of dandruff. Like teeny tiny flakes of skin coming off, prolifically. This is kinda funny, and I'm willing to bet it is hormonally caused. Maybe I need to eat more nuts, fish and avocados. I should probably do that anyway.

I inspected other parts of my body for this dandruff- legs, arms, boobs, shoulders and all other areas came up negative. It might be on my back, too, but I can't see back there and Matt is out of town briefly.

In other news, I'm starting to look like I've gained weight in the gut. This does not make me look pregnant- it makes me look like I've been overindulging in ice cream and french fries. My waist is still a waist, but it is higher and starting to fill in a bit. One of my friends took a close inspection of my torso on Sunday and said, "You do look different, but it doesn't make you look pregnant." I agree. It looks more like I've never done a sit-up in my life. And it makes me have to shuffle my capri pants down lower on my body when I sit down for long periods of time.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Salcylic Acid

I read yesterday that I am supposed to avoid using Salcylic Acid containing products. Shoooooot... too late- I use a facial wash containing this, every day.

I looked on the label of my facial wash. Nothing about "not for use by pregnant women." So, what is the deal?

Today I did a search through my books and the internet for other opinions and info. Turns out that a "topical wash" like I use is harmless, while deep acid peels, masks, and full body treatments are a no-no. I can, and will, continue to use the facial wash I've trusted and used for years to keep my low-level zit population under control.

Why couldn't the original article have said that facial wash was OK, but the other stuff is bad?

Jerks.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Early photos

I did take a "before" photo when I was 6 weeks along. It is buried in the camera, in Boise. But I wanted to mention that it DOES exist. Also, I will be taking a 3 month photo very soon, namely on September 15th or 16th even though that will be the start of my 4th month. The camera problem strikes again.

Out of the closet

On Thursday, Matt quasi-accidentally told a whole bunch of people that we are expecting. I was a little surprised, but he was so excited about his "mistake" (I won't go into details, but it was a very cute and honest mistake) that I couldn't get too frustrated. Instead, we just agreed that maybe it was time anyway and before the people HE told somehow told our friends, which then would make our friends be the people to know before our family even knows (such a faux pas), we should just start telling everyone ourselves.

Of course, part of me wanted to wait until the 5th of September as we had planned, so we compromised that if I heard the heartbeat all clear on Friday, and the nurses said everything was doing great, we'd call our parents that night and start the ball rolling.

Appointment on Friday went really smoothly. I heard the heartbeat for about 1/2 a second because my uterus has an "anti-tip" that is genetic (mom and sister have it, too) that makes using the baby-listening doppler wand more challenging. But it was in there, the nurse was satisfied with the heart rate reading she got, and all the other stuff looked/felt great.

So there you go! The baby and the blog are going public!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I'm (we're) back!

We (is it the two of us, or the three of us?) are back at home in lovely Missoula. It is such a relief to be back.

Good news reports;

1) I am still pregnant! And I don't feel vomity right this second!

2) My friend (that had an early miscarriage a year ago) successfully vaginally delivered her baby boy on Tuesday. Hurraaaay!! Labor was apparently not too long or very very difficult, which is great. I plan to make them some delicious fresh muffins and deliver them to their house as a tasty and healthy gift. She and her husband named the baby Reuben Michael. Last name starts with B but I won't write it for privacy reasons.

3) Another more distant friend (in a distant east coast location, and not that close of a friend) after trying to get pregnant for over a year is now four months pregnant. Hurray for her, too!

On that note, the pregnancy is going extremely well by all indications. I get lightly nauseous at times, and I still am sleepy a lot, but that is about it. I had two attacks of acute, overwhelming nausea in New Zealand that were really unpleasant- run to the bathroom kind of moments- but somehow the deep breathing, yucky belching, and positive thoughts allowed me to avoid actually losing my breakfast. Both incidents were (I think) precipitated by not enough breakfast followed by taking all my vitamins at once. Add 30 minutes of stomach rumblings and you get a distinct, urgent, "I'm gonna hurl" kinda reaction.

Since then, I've tried to divide up my vitamins across the day and I've been more careful to balance my breakfast intake. Just cereal and OJ, with intent to eat more in an hour or two, is no good. I need cereal, fresh fruit, yogurt, one vitamin, and a small glass of OJ. Good thing it is fresh local peach season! Mmmm...

I look really pretty much the same as I did before I left, as far as I can tell. Any changes are extremely minor- very minor boob enlargement since mid-July, very minor weight gain that is almost imperceptible, and minimal increase in zits. Matt agrees that I basically plateaued in late July and for the last three or four weeks I've just been moving forward internally, I suppose.

I was worried about the trip home- flight 1hr, flight 12hrs, flight 3hrs, flight 1hr, sleep at friend's house, drive 8hrs, home sweet home. And you know what? It did suck, but not as badly as I thought. I was alternately restless and then exhausted, my ankles swelled up so badly that they looked bruised, I felt nauseous on all the takeoffs and landings, and it was generally unpleasant. But really, now that it is over and done with, it was not bad at all. Who doesn't feel crappy under those conditions? I hardly think that Matt was all that better off! And now we are back and I think I'm pretty much over the time change issues.

I read on the internet that Ziggy (my joke name for the baby, i.e. Ziggy the Zygote) is now roughly 1 1/2 inches long. Interesting. Tomorrow I get my first ever real prenatal exam and they'll do the heartbeat, and some other stuff. I'm excited and nervous about this.

Monday, August 6, 2007

Day off

I'm taking a day off from skiing to rest. I've been hiking/skiing without too much trouble, and very much enjoying it. I do get out of breath pretty fast, which is funny yet annoying. I feel sort of mildly vomity fairly regularly and I do wish that my tiredness would ease up, but to no avail. The OB just said that I need to not over-do it, so when I get fatigued, I take lots of breaks. No problems with this strategy so far!

I haven't gotten noticeably bigger anywhere but the bust keeps growing. Matt's eyes bugged out of his head the other day when I was getting changed. Hilarious.

I'm officially in my third month now. That means that by the end of the month (each medical pregnancy month for my body starts on the 5th) I'll be 1/3 through. That is good to think about. I know I'm getting off really, really easy right now with just being sleepy and mildly nauseous. Sometimes I have no appetite, and sometimes I have a ravenous appetite, which Matt finds baffling and amusing. I don't think it is too funny because when I don't eat, I feel more pukey. But sometimes I desperately don't want to eat. Errrr. I just keep reminding myself- better than puking, better than fainting, better than... better than just about any alternative! It is a sensation like I've been reading in the car for about 30 minutes. Yick.

Matt and I went for a nice hike the other day and WALKING, yes walking, downhill made me motion-sick. It was funny in a bad way. I was walking down a fairly steep grade for a pretty long time and the bobbing up and down of walking steeply downhill made my head start to get woozy and I felt like I might vomit. I told Matt and he looked at me like I'd gone totally nuts. It passed after I took a nice scenic break to look at the mountains and take a photo or two.