Pregnancy things

Since I've officially reached the halfway mark in my pregnancy, I've been doing a lot of reflecting on pregnancy, the little baby inside of me, and how my symptoms and feelings about pregnancy have changed since we found out. I'm always so curious to hear people's experiences with pregnancy, especially how it can change from one baby to the next, so I thought I'd write my own down so I can look back and (hopefully) remember how "difficult" my first was in comparison to all the rest.

I kinda doubt that's going to happen but a girl can dream, right?

The first couple months of my pregnancy were not at all awful. I was, and still am, really lucky and have been blessed with a worry-free pregnancy basically the whole time.

I didn't bother to take a pregnancy test until I was already about 8 weeks along, because my cycles are crazy long and irregular so I wasn't surprised that my period hadn't come yet. We weren't really trying for a pregnancy, so I had no reason to check for that reason as well. But I took a test sort of on a whim/feeling on October 11, and it came back positive.

Needless to say we were surprised/shocked/amazed/etc. -- but had no time to really process the info because we left the next day to visit my brother and go to a Husker away game! Since we hadn't told anyone we spent the entire trip trying to not talk about it when really it was the only thing we wanted to talk about.

Basically right after we took the test, I started having morning sickness - which for me, apparently, meant I felt nauseous around 11:00 a.m. every day for about half an hour, sometimes again if I stayed up late around midnight, but other than that was pretty easy. I didn't want to eat anything for about 6 weeks solid, which meant I lost about 6-7 pounds total. I think I counted that I only actually upchucked 6 times, which was good because I HATE throwing up. With a passion. Before pregnancy it had been about 12 years since I'd last vomited, so I was really not looking forward to it. Thank the Lord it wasn't too bad.

My first cravings were for Arby's, Jimmy John's subs (#1 with BBQ chips) and for sour gummy worms, which I had never really liked before. I think I made David make me pancakes one night pretty late, but other than that I didn't crave anything too crazy.

yummmmmmm

I slept a TON during the first trimester. Luckily I work from home, so sneaking in naps and sleeping late wasn't an issue - I just worked later in the day. But every day I was amazed at how easily I could fall asleep, how long I could sleep for, and how many naps I needed to stay sane.

Now that I'm past the first trimester and well into my second, I can totally understand why they say the second trimester is the best. I have way more energy, I eat anything and pretty much everything in sight, and I'm just in a better mood overall. According to the husband, I'm much more prone to mood swings, and I do cry a lot easier, but that's not too unusual for me. I am having some back pain now that my belly's starting to come in, but it's certainly bearable.

I am getting more and more excited to meet the little guy or girl that's living inside of me! We're starting work on the baby's room this weekend, which means taking out the plaster/lathe walls, drywalling the room, painting, and hopefully fixing the door frame if we can figure it out. I'll take some pictures to document the before/after! Color suggestions for a gender-neutral room? I'm leaning toward a gray/blue that's not too dark, but I'm not set on that yet.

Hannah