Tip for the Day

Keep something that you can safely barf into in your car. I learned this recently, when having some random trash on the floor of my Focus finally came in very handy. I am finally justified in driving a car that has perennial cups and bags floating around. Do NOT attempt to drive while barfing.

Hooray for Fertility

I realized yesterday that I'm very nervous about letting people at work know that I'm expecting. I've been trying to figure out why, and the best way to express it is that I don't want my whole identity to be about being pregnant. I don't want people that I don't normally interact with to suddenly start asking about the gender or if we have names picked out. Or, God forbid, wanting to touch my belly. Yeesh. I know this is unavoidable on some level, but I still dread it. Maybe I'll feel differently once my pregnancy is more public, I think the "reveal" is just freaking me out a little bit.
It's funny that a most private act seems to become a most public project.

New Clothes!

At any other moment in my life, the thought of buying new clothes would have made me very, very happy. Anyone that knows me knows that I loves the fash. Yesterday was another story. At just over 3 months along, I'm getting a dough-boy belly - not a little yoga mom bubble like the girls with the $500 strollers in Back Bay - no, a shapeless, wandering belly that has not stated its purpose to the world quite yet. As a result, I can't fit into any of my stylin' threads, and I've been reduced to creating fakey extendo-waist pants with the aid of a plain old rubber band. But now the threat of elastic failure has overcome my utter dread of buying maternity clothes, so yesterday I wandered out in search of comfort. I'm almost out of the zone of being able to buy the trendy empire waist and baby doll tops that are so hip and available at the moment, so I went to Motherhood maternity. I met another shopper there and we chatted for a bit - she's not much bigger than I am and she's 26 weeks, which made me nervous for my future immensity. She also wasn't at all sick in her first trimester, which made me feel at once happy for her and just a little bit vengeful. At any rate, I braced myself and tried on some large ladypants, and actually, they weren't bad. Kinda cute, actually, once you get a top on over that hideous panty-hose band. I guess it was time to face the inevitable and drop some dough, so I tried on 10 things, being careful not to bend forward too much as it makes me gag, and found a few things that I felt good about. I'm ready to rock the brown cords, the black velvet jeans, the cute hoodie, and the adorable polka dot eyelet dress as I become large. Then I drove home, put my stuff down, and fell asleep sitting up.

It Ain't Pretty

At 13 weeks, I am still feeling nauseated pretty much all of the time. I've tried eating before bed, eating immediately in the morning, eating more protein, taking B6 vitamins...none of it seems to be making a dent. The one thing thing that seems to help is Unisom. Yep, that's right, the OTC sleeping pill. Before you draw your breath in shock, my doctor told me to take it. Apparently it's ok for pregnant gals. Apparently in Canada, they combine it with a B6 vitamin just for pregnant gals. Let me tell you, it's magical. I was totally in the world of nasty on Wednesday, and I took 1/2 a pill and slept through the night and awoke Thursday morning all fresh and peachy, ready to work, grocery shop, feel like a normal person. I haven't felt like that in weeks.

Of course, I am so nervous about taking any drugs at all, I decided Thursday night not to take one, lest I become addicted or add undue chemicals to my body, or worst of all, inadvertently discover the new Thalidomide. So yesterday was back to grody land for me, which was ok b/c I didn't have to work.

The day went by in a typically nauseous, overly exhausted fashion until last night, when, perhaps due to the enormous lead of Tampa Bay over the Red Sox, I suddenly started power hurling as I sat on the couch. Luckily I had placed a small trash can next to the couch last week for just such emergencies.

When I went to the bathroom to clean up, I noticed that I had broken blood vessels around both eyes and in my neck, due to the force of the hurl. I looked like I'd lost a bar fight. And today, I still look that way. I really hope no one I've run into today (the furnace guy, the taco stand girl) worry that my life is in danger.

So, for those of you that think carrying a child makes you glow, thickens and shines your hair, and makes you ecstatic to be creating life, I'm here to tell you, there's more to the story. It's an amazing process, and seeing a little human bean floating around in your womb on an ultrasound screen will bring tears to your eyes, but it's also a lot of work, it can be rugged on your body and your mind. It's kind of like the worst day of PMS stretched over months, combined with a constantly angry stomach, and lots of people (sometimes seemingly incongruously) being really, really happy for you.

Day One of the Blog, Week 13 of the Pregnancy

I'm Betty V. I'm a 40-year-old first time mom-to-be. My husband and I are absolutely delighted to be expecting a baby in late April.

I'm starting this blog because it's been a long road getting here, and I wanted to document my experience of growing a tiny person, and all of its accompanying ups and downs.