As if I didn't know better....

My previous pregnancy had me yukking it up on a plane at eight weeks (not in the sense that you're having a good time cajoling and whatnot with your neighbor, but rather that you are experiencing what lunch tastes like in reverse).  I should have learned my lesson then.  However, silly me, I've chosen to be on airplanes yet again.  At seven-and-a-half weeks, I managed to survive all the way through take-off and landing a few times, but alas... did not survive the last landing without tossing it.

During the last pregnancy, I vomited eleven times total.  I'm pretty sure I can survive without as many pukings this time.  Of course, the large part of it is managing my intake of carbs and other sugars, protein (ah, blessings), and not doing silly stuff like texting or reading while passengering in a car.  Motion sickness (turns out) plays a rather large part in the general nausea.  I've read that if you are prone to getting motion sick, you will also have the pleasure (probably) of experiencing morning sickness.

Morning sickness is not an automatic sign things are going swimmingly, so if you don't get it just count your blessings (and fetal kicks, when you can feel them) and be happy.  About 50% of women have both nausea and vomiting, 25% have just nausea, and 25% have neither.  Ginger helps, but B6 is even better (although you can't have too much of it because it could cause problems).  One thing I swear by is taking the prenatal vitamin close to bedtime.  As long as you've eaten within the past 2 hours, your stomach still has enough gunk to help it break down without irritating your stomach.  It's always good to take it with a glass of milk if you're able to do that.  The extra calcium is a bonus, plus milk soothes the tummy as well.

Tummy soothing is about the best thing a girl can ask for these days.

Six-and-a-half weeks

Week six is upon us. I'm happy to report that I have no morning sickness yet, but just to be prepared I bought a jar of sushi ginger to chew on. Ginger is the best way to combat the nausea. Okay, second-best. EATING is the best way to combat the nausea. Eat a little and eat it often.

At six weeks, "Deuce" (our nickname for our number two baby) looks like this. Kind of like a manatee. The neat thing about that site is if you have Java, you can click on a 3-D rotatable image as well. Or, you can pop on a pair of 3-D glasses and look at the image like that. Pretty neat.

We are starting to think of baby names now, and my mother will be glad to know that we've decided to find out the sex of this baby. If it's a girl, we shouldn't really need anything new besides diapers and wipes. If it's a boy, we'll need a whole new wardrobe. I'm hoping to count on my husband's brother for this one since they have two boys.

No matter what, we're looking forward to being parents again. It will be an adventure to say the least. Aside from the poop, pee, vomit, crying, lack of sleep, and complete dependence of the baby, we'll also have the jealousy, anger, betrayal, acting-out, and behavioral and emotional regression of our older child. Ah, but such is life.

Sleep, how I love thee

"Pregnancy Brain" has already set in. This is when you forget where you've put your keys because you're holding them in your hand or you write everything down because you know you can't remember ANYTHING... and then misplace the paper/notebook/etc. where you wrote it all.

Being in the military means you have to pull out your ID card for every little thing. To come on base, to pick up prenatal vitamins from the pharmacy, to check in for an appointment at the hospital or clinic, to eat lunch in the dining facility, to buy stuff from the commissary... really, EVERYTHING. So my first experience with pregnancy brain came when I checked in for an appointment. The clerk took my ID card AND GAVE IT BACK TO ME while we were holding a conversation about said appointment. I asked him for my ID back, and he just looked at me with the, "Are you really serious or are you just messing with me?" face. He calmly replied that he already did, so I had to check my wallet. It, of course, was there.

That's not the end. I sat down and flipped through a magazine and got the sudden intense feeling that I had misplaced my ID card (which I would need again when I saw the people in the lab downstairs to supply them with six tubes of blood and a cup of urine for various tests). So I pulled out my wallet AGAIN to check for it. Perhaps ten minutes had elapsed between checking the wallet for my ID.

I guess there is a lot going on in our lives right now, so that is part of it, I'm sure. Pregnancy brain is a huge thing you deal with while pregnant, though. I couldn't remember from last time that it started this early. Another thing I forgot about was how early I went to bed.

Apparently, during my first pregnancy I went to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 routinely. I questioned my husband about this when he made fun of me for it the other day. Now, during Game One of the NBA finals, I approached him and said, "I'm tired. I'm thinking of going to bed." He laughed and pointed at the clock. It was 9:10. I'm now toughing it out so I can try to pretend I will watch the game until half time. But for the most part, I'm probably half-asleep as I write this, and will not likely make it to the beginning of the second quarter.

Now, where is my ID card?