8 week photo

Bloat or the beginning of a belly? Either way, I'm starting to feel a bit rounder. I know I'll laugh at this in 30 weeks when I'm the size of a house.

...Like burning

It's a sad day when a bland dinner of rice, corn, and chicken results in killer heartburn. Oi! Pretty soon water will cause a flare up!

The incredible edible...embryo

I have an embryo the size of a blueberry inside my uterus. A blueberry! I'm not sure why that's so exciting, but it really is. I'm eager for the next step--an olive--but not as eager as I am to get out of this darn worrisome first trimester.

Mammary tissue gone wild

I bought a new bra last night. The normal ones I wear just weren't cutting it, and I was down to using just one old one I'd found that was working. I'm completely filling, nearly spilling over, this brand new C cup now, which I find just a bit silly. I'm scared of what the girls are going to grow into in the coming months!

So THAT'S how you figure it out

At my sister-in-law's house last week my wonderful five year old niece, Kaitlyn, decided to inform me of something very important:

"When the baby's born, you have to look and see if it has a wiener. If it has a wiener, it's a boy. And if it doesn't have a wiener, it's a girl. So you have to look so you'll know what you can name it, okay?"

Got it, Kate, I'll be sure to check :)

6 week photo

Second verse, same as the first. Quite literally. I haven't gained a pound, nor have I been feeling terribly bloated lately. Every now and again dinner hits me wrong, but daytime has been kind to me. I'm interested to see when there will actually be a physical change outside of my rock-hard boobs.

The first hint of stomach upset

A few waves of nausea came over me today. Nothing serious enough for me to think I was going to lose my breakfast, but definitely enough for me to stop, think, take a breath, and grab a sip of water or a Tic Tac. I'm glad I had so many years of dull nausea as a kid that I learned to use Tic Tacs to cope. They still calm my stomach quickly and easily. Hopefully this isn't the start of something much worse as far as "morning" sickness goes; working would be very difficult being sick to my stomach all the time!

In other gut-related news: I'm bloated. Nothing severe, but dinners don't sit with me well and I blow up like a balloon in the evening. They tend to sit on my stomach leaving me tasting them when I'm laying awake, restless, in bed. My jeans were actually snug from having such an air-filled belly the other night. It'll be nice when it's an actual baby, not a food baby, making my clothes snug.

Non-health related work issues

I don't know if an aversion to my boss's cologne could officially be considered a sensitivity to a smell, but I certainly couldn't stand catching wiffs of it yesterday. It's not that it made me nauseous, but I really wanted to avoid it at all costs. Nothing else has caught me like that just yet. Or maybe I'm subconsciously urged to avoid him since he's the only one at work that doesn't know yet. I'm confident in my decision to wait until after my first midwife appointment when I'll be 8 weeks along; it just so happens that will be when he returns from his vacation and might be in a happy and receptive mood to me giving my 9 month's notice. I'm sure it'll go over fine, but I can't help but fear the potential bomb I'm dropping.

Spilling the beans about our bean

Sharing the news with everyone has been awesome so far. We called Art's sister, Kim, first. We knew she'd be able to hold the secret for a day or two while we decided how far the word should spread so soon. We called my parents the next day and told them while they were each on one of the phones. Art called his mom, and the following day told his entire department at work in a single email. I've been slowly leaking the news at work and everyone has been thrilled and incredibly excited. I've yet to drop the bomb on my boss; I think I'll try to wait until after my first midwife appointment before sharing with him that I'm essentially putting in my 9 month's notice.

It's fun to let people in on this secret. Most people are completely surprised, and we typically get "well you didn't waste any time!" as the primary response. And no, we didn't waste any time. We've been together for going on eight years now, living together for two. A honeymoon (or more like Father's Day) baby is freakin' awesome, if you ask me. I just keep hoping for the absolute best right now.

Early pregnancy symptoms

While I don't feel like I'm going through all the "text book" symptoms, I'm definitely experiencing a few notable differences. For starters, my breasts feel like sacks of boiling potatoes--full, hot, and not fun to touch. "Morning" sickness is totally absent, though I've been getting heartburn on and off since before we even knew I was officially pregnant. I'm urinating more than normal (who would have thought that started NOW?) and I'm extra tired all day long. I'm not sensitive to smells, but I have been having difficulty sleeping on my back; it leaves my lower abdomen sore and extra crampy. Oh, and the cramps have lessened since what I assume was implantation, but they still show up mild and intermittent. Not much to complain about so far...All I want is for everything to go right and as healthy as possible.

4 week photo

So, here's my first official belly photo. Or rather, absence of a belly photo :)