Large and in charge

Alright, I gave in. I went yesterday and bought 2 pieces of maternity clothing. Tired of attempting to walk around with unbuttoned jeans (it works, but then I have strange pokey forms marring the bottom of my shirt) I gave in and bought a maternity jean skirt and a pair of maternity jeans, both with the nice round fabric belly panel. The jeans fit SO well that I'm frightened that they won't last long. I tried on the large (only SM, M and L in the maternity world) and they were just so ill fitting every place else, that I couldn't bring myself to do it.

But I'm glad I did it. Winter's coming (LA winter - ha!) and I might need some long pants at some point. I was just tired of having to wear dresses every second. And my wardrove shrinks day by day. I think I'm going to start a box of unwearables, and just hide all the stuff that I cannot wear from myself to make it easier in the morning. The dance of pulling up pants and then getting stuck there is old. And after having lost so much weight in France that I took my old size 8 fat pants and tossed them, keeping only the 6 fat pants and some 4's, I screwed myself. I also gave away my really big, old mommy jeans about 2 years ago, so none of that - although that's a blessing. Size notwithstanding, they are just so outdated in color and shape that I knew I'd never wear them regardless.

I still do need a good pair of sweatpants or jogging pants that don't lend towards camel-toe or any other unfortunate wardrove mishap. And some more longer tshirts would be nice. All my tees are now baby tees and I just look sort of round and strange. Not fat, just weirdly shaped - not big enough to be obviously pregnant, but big enough to look strange.

I'm almost through the first trimester, where a lot of people don't even show, but I appear to be about a month bigger than I am due to my fibroid. So I look about 4 months pregnant. I think I might be relieved when I'm finally large enough to be visibly pregnant all the time.

List of No-No's for Pregnant Women

Upon getting pregnant, somebody should present you with a golden list of no-no's. But alas, they don't and you usually find out that you've eaten or used something you shouldn't have after the fact!

Here are some fun ones I found out about:

Food

• Honey - some say it's fine to eat while pregnant, but not fine to eat while breastfeeding and universally forbidden for children under the age of 1 (unique type of botchulism)
• brie, camembert, mexican queso, goat cheese - basically anything soft and white is suspect, also no bleu or moldy cheeses
• hot dogs
• cold cuts unless warmed to steaming (listeriosis)
• soft serve ice cream and yogurt (haven for Listeria)
• sushi, raw shellfish or any shellfish if you or spouse have allergies in your family
• tuna and a couple of other fish like shark, marlin, swordfish (high mercury content due to age and size of fish)
• wine and alcohol, of course
• caffeine - coffee, tea, green tea
• ginseng, echnicacea and almost all types of herbal supplements - many stimulate contractions
• a couple of herbal teas, black cohosh, among them
• peanut butter (experts are split)
• soy products (controversial)
• pate
• liver

Medications

• Benzoyl Peroxide (experts are split)
• all topical acne medication, retina, fade creams
• Ritalin
• psychiatric medications
• ASPIRIN!
• vitamin a supplements

Ill-advised Activities

• Hot baths or jacuzzi
• High temperatures for any reason, especially w/in first trimester (linked to lower birth weight and IQ)
• standing in front of the microwave (questionable)
• breathing in secondhand smoke
• avoid high altitudes
• high risk of falling activities like horseback riding, waterskiing, rollerblading
• amusement park roller coasters
• changing kitty litter

Wow. I didn't know the world was so dangerous! Peanut butter? Really? They can't seem to decide if early exposure causes peanut allergy or not, so to be safe, I just avoid it even though it was one of my favorite, safest food the 2nd week of my pregnancy (technically week 4).

Mostly, my food habits haven't changed so much, other than being a slave to cravings, but the cheese thing has been harder to live with. I pass the cheese counter, gazingly lovingly, wondering how many weeks until I can eat it again. Well, it's 28 weeks and some change until my next Brie sandwich or greek salad!

It's weird going out with friends and family, trying to not order questionable things while simultaneously not tipping them off to why. Everyone is skeptical. If these things were so bad for pregnant women, wouldn't we know it? So obviously, I'm just a paranoid nelly, making it up. I read it several books folks! And although I don't believe everything I read, and I know that people who don't know eat these things and give birth to healthy babies everyday, you wouldn't risk it if you knew. Ignorance is bliss, and being a grown woman with a lot of time on my hands, I have significantly less bliss than some. I may have had one week with cold cuts where I didn't know, but I started reading early and all the goodies got taken away.

Talk to you soon. I need to go figure out what I'm not eating for dinner.

11 Weeks and counting

Welcome to my update. It seems like it's been a week or so, but I'm now at 11 weeks! Time is flying and dragging at once. Some days I feel like the baby's taking forever, and yet the tickers keep changing weekly. I think the time might move differently also according to how you feel about your pregnancy. Whereas somebody who's not so thrilled is probably dreading getting bigger and showing and having to deal. those who are very excited about their pregnancy can barely stand the wait!

There's a bun in my oven

Two Fridays ago, I decided that I'd had enough of peeing. There had to be a cause to this. I'd awakened several times the night before to pee and I woke up with resolve. I'd decided to go to Trader Joe's for the first time on my bike, with my spiffy new dual grocery baskets.


I called my OBGYN and made an appointment, on principle, for next Wednesday. This way I could skip home testing and if something else were wrong, we could handle it all at once.

No home pregnancy tests for me, no sir. I had wasted a good $12 or so the previous month, when in a fit of anger, my aunt convinced me that I must be pregnant and hormonal, rather than just fed up with some folks, I purchased a kit and used it a couple of days before my cycle was expected. The test was negative immediately.

This time, I'd waited until the day on my cycle, and even alloted a couple days for pilot error or funny counting. I was now about 2 days late no matter what type of math I was using. So I bought the test, silently with no word to my husband or anyone. Then I rationalized that I'd still wait until the end of the day to take the test, to still give Aunt Flo a chance to catch up.

No such thing happened. While riding home, I crossed paths w/my husband driving the opposite direction in my SUV, so I knew I'd have a chance now to take the test alone. Since he'd scoffed at my assertion at being pregnant the day before, I wanted to know first.

I get home, now a pro at test taking, get a dixie cup (no stream chasing for me, buddy) and prepare. When I insert the test into my vitamin-rich collection (gotta get your folic acid before you conceive, even if you're not sure you will) it started IMMEDIATELY to get the 2nd pink line. It said to wait three minutes, so I put it down and walked away, pretending to not know the answer just in case some funny business happened and it ended up negative despite the initial hint of YESSSSSSSS. I come back and, of course, it's TOTALLY positive. I smile, in awe, and go grab my camera to now document this most historic pee moment in my life to date.

6 pictures later, I hear Mark return from the bank. "There's something you should see in the bathroom," I tell him and he looks at the sticks and bursts into laughter. Then he hugs me and I proceed to photograph him with the stick. I tell him that his response is better than I'd expected, considering his scoffing the day before. He informs me that I thought I was informing him of a food baby when I'd showed off my tumescent belly the day before during some work deadline he was busy with. Silly boy.

So now, we're pregnant. And I'm nervous because the reason I knew I was pregnant, in addition to the constant need to potty was the fact that my ribcage felt like it was stretching and imploding in a manner similar to what I expect Michael Jackson's nose has done, and it didn't feel so good.

So I call my OBGYN to get an appointment, and I get one for Wednesday of the next week, the same day Mark's parents are coming to town.