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: