cravings

I can't believe I have to wait three more weeks to see my midwife. I can
hardly wait! Everyone on the BabyCenter forums are all talking about their
HcG levels and whatnot, and I feel a bit left out.

I have been so good about not drinking caffeinated beverages. Sometimes
I'll have a glass of sweet tea, but I haven't had any coffee and when I
drink a soda it's been a ginger ale or sprite. I may have a Big Red this
afternoon. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water!

Last night I was at the store and went way out of my way to the freezer
section to get some nasty Totino's pizza rolls. I just really, really
wanted pizza rolls. I might get some wonton wrappers and pepperoni and try
to make some at home myself that have fat free cheese and some spinach and
other veggies to try to add a little nutritional value to them if I'm going
to be craving them every day!

I have been so crampy. It worries me, but so long as there's no spotting,
then I try to just roll with it and tell myself that it's perfectly normal.

****

Symptoms, and not good ones.

Very light pink spotting today and some cramping. I know they say cramping
is normal, but it makes me really nervous. The spotting I don't worry about
since it's not heavy. If it were a heavy red, I'd probably freak.

****

Home from Vacation

Lots to update!  I just got back from a two week vacation in Hawaii.  I survived the 8-hour flights without barfing!  I felt pretty awful on the trip over and continued to have bad nausea in the evenings, but no barfing.  Huzzah!  I bought some ginger candy at a Japanese grocery store and it helped a lot, but I noticed in the second week (week 7 of my pregnancy) I wasn't feeling nauseous at all anymore, so that's good.  My breasts have been pretty sore and I've had a fair bit of cramping.  One day near the end of our vacation, I noticed some brownish spotting, but I googled it and this is apparently caused by the placenta attaching.  I really noticed an increased rate of respiration on our hikes, and I wasn't as energetic as usual, but I really didn't have fatigue too badly.  I was bummed that I couldn't do my SCUBA certification and couldn't go on a hike on the lava fields (too many unhealthy fumes), but I did go against recommendations and drive to the top of Mauna Kea to watch sunset.  It's at an elevation of over 13000 feet, so they don't recommend pregnant women go up there due to the risk of altitude sickness.  But I've read that sleeping at a high altitude is really the only risk factor, not maximum elevation reached during the day for a short period of time.  I definitely didn't feel like doing any sprinting while I was up that high, but I really don't think it affected me that much.  Also, I got really ill during our travels and had a few days of running nose, coughing, sneezing and congestion and a day of fever.  My husband has it now.  Poor thing.

I went to a cocktail birthday party today and kept drinking cranberry juice, telling everyone it was a vodka cranberry.  No one seemed to suspect anything.

A good day

Feeling good today. Breasts aren't feeling too terribly tender. Stomach is
reasonably settled. No cramps. Let's hope this holds out for the next two
days at least because I'm going to be on a plane tomorrow to Houston and
then the big leg from Houston to Honolulu which could be miserable if I'm
puking. Sucks that our flight had to be re-scheduled to cover two days
instead of one. I could really use that extra day at home to get some more
done. I'm stopping off at the store after work today and stocking up on
snacks for the plane. Can you believe they're not serving a meal on a
flight lasting over 8 hours?! I'm indignant. I mean, I don't mind buying
food, but when I booked the tickets they weren't offering hot meals on that
flight, which is ludicrous to me. Even not being pregnant and sick to my
stomach I can't go 8 hours on snacks alone without getting grumpy. At least
now they're offering a small menu of "real" food. There's a salad and a
wrap and burgers and fries available for purchase.

Tonight is Girls' Night! I'm so glad. Then I'm picking my mom up and
taking her home with me so she can house sit while we're out of town.
Sadly, my uncle had a heart attack yesterday and she's pretty nervous about
his condition, so I'm hoping she doesn't get too upset.

****

Peppermints to the rescue.

Been feeling slightly nauseous all day. So I tried some apple sauce. Nope,
still feeling icky. How about some rice cakes? Nope, still icky. Oatmeal?
Nope. Finally, with a half an hour left in the work day, I pop a peppermint
into my mouth (one of the green ones) and that does the trick. I'll have to
remember that!

****

Is it naptime, yet?

Am I sitting here at work with cold compresses in my bra? Yes. Yes, I am.
I have some conveniently-shaped, round, refrigeratable gel packs that I need
to find and start carrying with me, but today I improvised with napkins
wetted with cool water inside of sandwich bags. It really helped, too :) I
was a bit startled by the web of big, fat blue veins I saw in my breasts
last night. I'm very fair skinned, so I can usually see veins under my skin
anyway, but these were new and there were a lot of them. Very interesting.
I had to take a nap yesterday afternoon. I was starving when I got home from
work and then we gorged on Chinese food, and I think I put too much food on
my stomach and got sickly feeling, so I laid down and napped for three hours
until the worst had passed.

Today I have a bit of nausea and am feeling like I'd like another nap, but
there are three hours left in the work day, so I'm going to have to tough it
out.

****

Root Beer

Fooled my buddies at the pub tonight.  I ordered a root beer (that they have on tap) before everyone got there and no one suspected it wasn't a real beer.  Dodged a bullet.

Not many symptoms today.  Sore boobs, but not too bad.  No nausea today.