Pregnancy = Superpowers!!

     The pregnant woman is her own variety of superhero - who would've known, right?? You always think of "Moms" as super-heroes: able to multitask 10 things at once; always prepared with a zillion crazy things necessary for daily life with kids; keeping her cool and leaping tall buildings in a single bound!!  But what about pre-Moms?  As with every superhero, there are a few strangely acute changes and heightened senses which are countered by the various responsibilities, curses, nemeses, and those dreaded-pesky-weaknesses. 

Super-Smell!!  This is definitely both a blessing and a curse, and more often a curse. Saying that suPer-mom (capital "P" for Pregnant) has heightened smell doesn't quite depict the level of acuity we're afflicted with. It'd be amazing if the world was made up of flowers and fresh breezes, but sadly, that's not the case.  When caught in the same room with stomach-turning foods, cigarette-smoking-fiends, and ghastly trash goblins (keeping in mind that we also have a side of morning-noon-night sickness already pushing our stomachs into our throats), it's a wonder all pregnant women don't lose 10 pounds in the first trimester.  

     On the plus side, I can smell a cigarette burning from 3 floors away; I can smell if foods are bad even without an expiration date; and who needs smoke alarms when the slightest smell of burning can wake you from a catatonic sleep?  And, that's all through the 2-months of sinus funk I've been constantly breathing through. I got into the elevator last night after another guy got off, and yeah...totally smokin' the bud...I never would've guessed had I not smelled that green, grassy smell. Maybe I should go apply at the airport; I could be a freakin' drug-sniffing-dog if I needed to be right now.

"With power comes great responsibility" - and foes, and weaknesses:  The obvious down side to super-smell I covered briefly above...trust me, you don't want the explicit detail (cigarettes smell like rotten peanut butter). But, there are many more things un-thought of that rival the suPer-mom on a daily basis: nemeses, kriptonite, and even keeping a healthy disguise in certain situations. 

     The disguise is definitely necessary in the first trimester for a few reasons: waiting until the "safe period" is over; not letting work know too early in case they decide to find replacements for you earlier than expected; and even simple pride - that desire to still be able to do everything you did before being pregnant.  "I can totally still go on that hike this weekend!"...(ffw 3 hrs).../wheeze/dizzy/cough/"water!!", annnnnd maybe not so much.  Keeping up this disguise in the face of morning-noon-night sickness is about as easy as hiding that red cape under a business suit. 

     Weaknesses: migraines, fatigue, super-smell (also counts as a weakness, even though it's our super-power), uncontrollable volcano of emotions, fatigue, and more (mentioned in previous posts).  I don't think these really need detail...plus I'm getting tired of writing. Did I mention fatigue?

     Nemeses: People who smoke & eat stinky foods otherwise perfectly acceptable by normal society; Sappy commercials, movies, and tv shows which completely blind us by watery-eyes ("curse you!!!" /fist to the sky/); Idiots (because they help perpetuate the volcanic explosion of "GRRRRf#*%@*^!!!", which in turn perpetuates migraines & fatigue);  and our bladders (because they seem to work overtime in our sleep causing us to get 3 hrs at a time between mid-night potty breaks). 

     Responsibility: Through all of this, pregnant women face the added responsibility of keeping themselves healthy, vitamin-rich, and emotionally-happy/low-stressed so that the internal bubble of baby is encouraged to grow big and strong.  There's numerous tricks and tools: multivitamins, yoga, special-food-lists, baby-Mozart, etc.  I'm planning on singing a lot more and listening to more relaxing music starting next week to balance out the stream of obscenities, "RAWR", and Taco Bell I've already afflicted on this poor little sprog. Note to self: go to yoga next week, work on music & singing, sing when angry instead of yelling or holding it in, start going to the pool to relax, and finally - breeeeeeathe....and buy flowers so breathing doesn't offend the nose so much.

     

♪♫ If I Only Had a Brain ♫♪

Oh brain, how I miss thee...
Your witty charm, your quick response-time...
Your keen focus and ...something....
...something something...


That's about the short of it...
I swear I have NO focus lately - today is the worst yet...and go figure it's the day that nothing mechanical is going right (and not because I mucked it up - it broke on its own & I just have to figure it out).  So the other day, I had forgotten that it's been 2 months since I've had any caffeine...and I subsequently drank 2 glasses of RC-Cola and was bouncing-off-the-walls-WIRED for a good 3 hrs until I got some awesomely heavy yummy pasta in me....which leads me to my 3 topics of today: Cravings-Gone-Wrong; pADHD; and ...what was that other thing??....right! More weird changes. 


Preliminary happy update!! - went to the Doc's on Thursday!! :D  I'm officially 8wks and 2 days (as of today) - my uterus is the size of a grapefruit, approximately; and my bloodwork all came back today checking out good - aside from a pesky uti and needing Vitamin D....antibiotics and vitamins for me woohoo! :D  It does wonders for the mood to find out you're ok tho.  It's like getting a report card that's AWESOME when you're 7 yrs old.  I also got quite a few new tops I can wear throughout and after baby - awesome pretty flowy hippie tops! :D  AND a baby bag.  I had to get it - it was the only one and it was staring at me from the top shelf!! :D


brain...train of thought...where'd I leave that thing?....
...right: CRAVINGS- GONE-WRONG!!
Egg-salad sandwich sounded so good.  ESS with BACON sounded even better!! (and lettuce, tomato & mustard) I ate about 1/2 of it and my "OOO! YUM!!" quickly turned to: "blaaaaaah, get it away from me!"  So sad. 
This brings up an interesting facet to the whole "cravings" part of pregnancy, though.  It's not a simple matter of black/white, want/disgust.  There's definitely an area of "MUST HAVE NOW" which instantly switches into "OMG, I'm gonna yack!"  Discoveries in error thus far:
     - Egg-salad-sandwich with bacon, lettuce, and tomato
     - Steak and Cheese w/ added mushrooms and other slimy gooey gross things which would normally be amazing!
     - Velveeta Shells & Cheese & Turkey (amazing until the texture gets to you)
Texture seems to be a huge factor in this whole pregnancy thing.  Stuff I would normally love has turned out to be disastrous. Cravings are on a daily/hourly/minute-basis...aside from fruit and veggies....I seem to always be able to handle those. I swear I'm gonna become a veggie-saurus again just by way of what I physically can/can't eat right now....oh yeah, other typcially-safe-food: Easy Cheese & Crackers. :)


next topic was....
pADHD! (Pregnant Attention Deficit Disorder)
Did I mention the caffeine episode 2 days ago? Yep...there it is...right in the first paragraph...So I'm at work, things are blowing up around me, I'm multitasking like usual - or what seems like usual - until I realize that it's almost been 10 hours of work and I haven't documented anything I've done today.  CRAP! What did I do today? There was that thing....and that other thing....
I do so miss my brain.  Does this get better in the 2nd trimester like the morning-noon-night-sickness? I'm somehow doubtful.
...we'll just skip this section for now - I can't focus on it much...it's almost time to go home...


More Weird Changes:
So today - for about 4 hours, then a break after I ate a lot, then again now for 2-3 hours, I feel like my skin is crawling.  It's the most irritable, horrible, insatiable sensation I've ever felt and IT HAS TO GO AWAY NOW!!! Omg...I'm gonna strangle something....or punch something...It's making me more hyper and unfocused...and did I mention irritable? I think I need to wrap myself in plastic wrap with some lotion or something....I googled it: plenty of people saying that we (pregnant women experiencing this) must be crazy or have something wrong and should contact the doctor immediately! (thank you yahoo answers) because they never experienced it so it has to be weird and crazy.....but then there's that comforting handful of equal-crazies-like-me so I don't feel so bad.  I am going to chalk it up to hormones....and drink water...and go home and get hubz to rub lotion all over me.  He needs to do more of that anyways. ;-)


This concludes today's update!! :D

I miss food....(and other changes)

Well....I'm officially 7wks2days pregnant...I was feeling nauseous before and it's only getting more fun, let me tell ya.  There's common known changes pregnant women are expected to go through: weight gain, morning sickness, mood swings, cravings...Those are all simply words on a page until you get to fully experience their deep, intimate meanings.


What they don't tell ya:
Morning sickness: doesn't necessarily reside only in the mornings. In fact, mine appears to be all day long, after every meal, and gets worse into the evening.  In the movies, pregnant lady gets sick in the morning, yacks once, and then goes about her business like nothing happened.  Right now, I want to string up whomever dubbed it "morning"-sickness.  


Cravings: don't simply stop at ice cream & pickles.  They're intricately wound around what the stomach can handle at the moment without the sight/smell making the crave-ee want to yack, yet again.  That spinach dip and crackers sounded and tasted completely awesome...until I realized after that when making it, my taste buds were in pregnant-mode and added WAY too much garlic...which now lingers in my mouth and stomach like the Pit of Eternal Stench.  Thank God for the awesome admin who has a handy stock of gum at her desk.  One thing that doesn't ever make me feel ill that I crave ALL the time: fruit & ice-water! :-9 yum!


Mood Swings: Crying at silly AT&T commercials, happy one minute and overly-cranky the next....that's to be expected. Crying/upset because you got sick and had to push someone away to do so; Balling because of a happy commercial on tv; Or falling apart because your pregnant-brain* couldn't make simple connections it normally would without all the hormone overload, in turn, making you feel like a complete idiot; Crying because you're crying....that's the reality of it. 


* Pregnant-Brain: Seriously??? I'm smart...I *love* my smart-brain.  I've worked YEARS to get my brain to where it is. I've done plenty to break it down as well, but then rebuilt it. It's an awesome little organ. WHY didn't anyone mention that you go instantly dumb when a little thing the size of a blueberry starts growing inside of you?  I mean, I know I'm blonde - I'm used to occasionally being overcome by moments of ditsy...but ongoing ditsy things that just word-vomit out of my mouth uncontrollably and leave me (and everyone else) shaking their heads....I'm about to just post a sign on my forehead that says, "Please disregard anything that comes out of my mouth for the next 7 months."  I miss my brain. 


Pool of Never-ending Mucus: I thought I had allergy problems before. I was quite familiar with random colds/sinus infections.  2 months of constantly draining sinuses with no relief = more than just a tad annoying and only adds to the lovely morning-shower-sickness.  When trying to hold down food isn't enough, getting through a morning shower without the daily need to wrestle the shower curtain in time to get the toilet seat up only adds more fun to the day.  At least my abs are getting a good workout. I was educated by my friend who recently had a baby that the body builds up more mucus during pregnancy - further research explains:
     "Higher amounts of estrogen during pregnancy can contribute to swelling in the mucous membranes lining the nose and even cause you to make more mucus. What's more, the amount of blood in your body increases during pregnancy, which may cause swelling in the tiny blood vessels in the lining of your nose and congestion in the surrounding tissue. "


Sleepy-Time: Every day at precisely 5pm-about 8pm, I get this wave of overwhelming exhaustion...sleepy-time.  It'd be great if I could take a nap every day, but my work schedule is from 1pm-11pm.  There's got to be something dietary to fix this.  I typically forget to eat much before about 4pm.  At that point, after I eat and deal with the nauseous post-food-blech, I seem to cycle into this sleepy-time thing.  I think I need to try and wake up with crackers or something...and make sure to eat on my way to work.  On the positive side, when I get home and relax for about an hour or so, I'm completely ready to go to bed and I typically pass right out and sleep through the night (give or take a trip to the bathroom to pee once or twice).  Hooray for no longer needing sleep-aids. :D




In short, I miss food - I miss my brain.  I need more than 1 yoga session a week to combat this attack on my little happy bubble, me thinks.  Or possibly a strawberry milk-shake....and maybe some pickles w/ easy cheese on them....obviously not together - that'd just be gross. 


*Note to self: Get some of THESE!!!  





And thanks to my awesome friend Terry, get THIS book: