Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Insomnia and Fine Motor Skills

So apparently now that I'm in my second trimester, my body has decided it just doesn't need to sleep anymore. I lay in bed at night and just don't go to sleep. And it's not that I'm not tired - I just can't sleep. Normally if I can't sleep, I'll get up and read or something until I get tired. But these days my body, especially my eyes, are so tired that I don't want to get up. I want to sleep! I just can't. I have read that insomnia can be a symptom of the hormone changes in pregnancy, so I'm hoping that it will adjust itself soon. I've cut out taking my afternoon naps in an effort to make myself sleep at night. It hasn't worked yet, but surely it will soon!!!

Another strange side effect of pregnancy that has surprised me is that suddenly my typing has gotten really bad! I'm usually a fast and accurate typist. But ever since I got pregnant, my speed is still the same, but my accuracy is terrible! It takes me twice as long to type anything because I just can't seem to make my fingers hit the right keys! And then trying to backspace and type the right one... Sometimes I have to actually stop and do the chicken-peck method to get the right letter on the screen! For somebody who's pretty obsessive about spelling, grammar, and punctuation, this is not a fun thing.

Even though I've spent the entirety of this post so far complaining about my symptoms, I'm definitely enjoying pregnancy at this point! I love my baby so much, and I can't wait to meet it! I spend a lot of each day home alone, so I talk to the baby and sing to it. We have a good time! (It tells me that it's ok to eat that piece of chocolate after lunch! We're going to be good friends.) So I just want to affirm that even though I have some symptoms that are surprising and not entirely pleasant, I'm thrilled to be in this situation. :)

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Finger-Lickin' Good

I've discovered another reason I'm VERY glad to be in Moldova for the first half of my pregnancy. First of all, let me start by explaining that my absolute favorite fast-food meal of all time is Dairy Queen's Chicken Strip Basket. Four batter-dipped chicken strips, hot crispy fries, Texas toast, and gravy. Oh my, I'm salivating just thinking about it. I haven't eaten one in years because, according to the DQ website, the meal tops out at a whopping 950 calories, and that is WITHOUT the gravy, which I don't eat. And of course, it wouldn't be complete without a medium Chocolate X-treme blizzard, which DOUBLES that calorie total. Sooooooo, needless to say, I don't splurge on that treat much. However, not even the knowledge of how devastating this meal is for one's health can stop me from craving it pretty much night and day. And now that I'm pregnant, it is seriously my #1 craving. I'm not kidding - I'm actually having dreams about going to DQ and getting one of these. Thankfully, however, we don't have Dairy Queens in Moldova, and so I'm not having to try to resist that temptation. I must say, however, that upon returning to the States, I'm going to have one as soon as I can. Oh my. I'm getting a little emotional just thinking about it. Hopefully I'll have enough willpower to limit them to maybe once a month for the remainder of my pregnancy... We'll see.

Anyways, all the talk on my last post about cravings determining whether it's a boy or a girl made me think about this being my number one craving. Supposedly, craving salty means it's a boy and craving sweet means it's a girl. Well, seeing as I'm craving both the chicken strips AND the blizzard, I don't know if this helps me much. But I do think that considering my biggest craving is fried chicken, this tells me that our child will most definitely be a Baptist... :)

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Goodbye, Nausea! Hello, Energy!

At least that's what I'm hoping will happen now that I'm officially in my second trimester! Yippeeee! The nausea is mostly gone already - I just have my moments, usually when I get too hungry right before bed. The energy, though, is definitely dawdling in making a comeback. I'm STILL taking a nap every day! Geez! Of course, if I had a lot to do, I'm sure I'd be able to make it without the naps.

So I was reading on AmericanBaby.com about finding out the gender of your baby (which we do plan to do at our next sonogram in the beginning of January). I noticed a little link on the side that said something like "Don't want to wait to find out the gender? Check the Ancient Chinese Birth Chart that will predict with 93% accuracy what you'll be having!" So out of curiosity, I clicked on it. It took me to this page, where the introduction says:
"Legend says that a Chinese birth chart (supposedly predicting the gender of a baby with 93 percent accuracy!) was buried in a tomb near Beijing for almost 700 years. The original is now at the Beijing Institute of Science."
You click on how old you were at the time of conception, then the month you conceived, and it tells you what, according to the Ancient Chinese Birth Chart, you'll be having. So I clicked that my age was 25-31, then on the month of August. It came up with this little chart:
Great! It says that 27-year-olds who conceive in the month of August will be having a GIRL! So it'll be interesting to see if that's right. But THEN, if you scroll down, it says "Based on your age, here is the likelihood that you're having a boy or a girl," and then it has this graphic:
Um, wow. So it's telling me that it's 93% likely that my chances are 50/50 of having a boy or a girl. Gee, thanks. How did they even pick Girl for the first chart if the chances are only 50/50 on the second chart? I'm confused.

So I just wanted to know if any of my readers have ever heard of this before. For those of you that have kids, out of curiosity, will you go to the site and see what the chart predicted you would have based on the month you conceived and your age at conception? I'm interested to see if it's ever right.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

12 WEEKS!!!!!

Yippee!!! Today makes 12 weeks, and I am THRILLED to have reached this milestone! We went to the doctor on Wednesday for another sonogram, and the baby is beautiful and wonderful and perfect so far!We got to see its little hands, its perfectly-formed little skull, and its graceful dance moves! I'm shocked at how much it's already moving in there, when I can't feel a thing! I hope it calms down once I can start to feel it... Yeah, right.

When I sent an email to my family with the update on Wednesday, I told them that I was starting to feel better as far as nausea and fatigue go. Well, the baby must've just been faking me out, because I've felt really cruddy the last couple of days! I think the nausea is worst when I get hungry, but I feel like a person can only eat so much! I mean, come on! So I try to keep myself feeling good without making a gigantic pig of myself. It's a fine line to walk. :) And I'm still taking 1-2 hour naps every day... Have I mentioned how glad I am to be in Moldova where that is possible in my life?! I didn't get a nap yesterday, and I was a beast by dinnertime! Poor Justin didn't know what to do with me. Hopefully this will all get better soon! Second trimester, here I come!