Fabulous Miss S.

Nesting complications

I had planned to sit down last night and upload a plethora of pictures from the last three months and perhaps even update with a few pregnancy-related details like, I'm not nauseous anymore, really, and no hemorrhoids yet!, and perhaps Whew, 17 weeks went by in a flash, yeah right!.

But, the nesting urge kicked in full-swing and I found myself busily scrubbing the ceramic tile of my kitchen floor, by hand, one tile at a time because it was just filthy, filthy!  Truth is, I don't ever wash my kitchen floor.  I vacuum it several times a week because there is nothing I hate more than stepping on crumbs and having them stick to my feet.  So it was necessary to wash the floor at this particular time.

Meanwhile, we've been doing some simple things like going to the feed the ducks....

 

And napping, of course.

Swine Flu + Pregnancy

I'm a big germaphobic pussy when it comes to this H1N1 Swine Flu virus that is threatening us all this coming fall season.  I actually have some valid concerns mainly because in my glowing and sweaty gestational state I'm about a million times more likely to DIE from it than you are. 

I wrote all about it, factually, of course, over at DC Metro Moms.

15 weeks, headaches and burps

Whew. First trimester, my ass. I don't recall pregnancy being so hard.  I know I have a toddler to take care of day in and day out, hour after blasted Dora-Super-Why-filled hour.  But, still. 

I'm 15 weeks now and only starting to feel better like, today.  Earlier this week I was taken down by an on-the-threshold of a migraine headache that lasted intermittently for about two and a half days. Tylenol helped me as much as chewing a gummy-bear would help.  I found peace in retreating to my bed with a massive cold compress wrapped around my head and covering my eyes.  This rendered me semi-useful as a mother for a few hours at a time. 

The nausea, oh the horrid room spinning nausea ended a few weeks ago, only to be replaced with food aversions to anything that could be called food.  Eating was a miserable task.  Feeding Noah was a miserable task.  Breathing was difficult at time because every air molecule seemed to contain some hint of food smell. 

Alas, that has passed.  I ate a good sized dinner tonight and only burped about twenty times.  Deep, chest-rattling, wake-the-neighbor's-baby, rumbling belches.   Gross, yes, but it felt good. 

I'm very often hungry and have no idea what it is that I want but at least I can eat food and it usually tastes pretty good. 

I'm absolutely smitten with all the delicious local produce, tomatoes, squash, beans, berries, apples, peaches ... I can't get enough and I am thrilled to pieces with how healthy I am eating and how I feel.

I actually felt good enough to take Noah out yesterday, twice (!!).  My return gift was that he slept through the night instead of blattering for me at the unpleasant hour of four goddamned o'clock. And this morning I took him to the playground and for a walk around the 'hood. 

There is absolutely nothing else interesting right now to write about but I promise to upload some pictures very soon. 

Book Discussion: Birth Day by Mark Sloan, M.D.

August 2009 Silicon Valley Moms Group Book Club Discussion:  Birth Day, by Mark Sloan

There are a lot of books out there for pregnant women to read.  You can read all about why C-Sections are good and why they are bad, you can read about diets that tell you to eat one hundred grams of protein each day, or to take certain vitamins or do certain exercises.  You can read books that tell you week by week exactly how much constipation and nausea you probably have. 

Or, you can read one book, about the history of child birth, how women in decades and centuries prior to now have negotiated the work of birthing a child.  That one book fell into my lap, for this month's book discussion in my first trimester of my second pregnancy.  Birth Day, by Mark Sloan is interested, detailed, intriguing, engaging and inspiring. 

I am going to try and refrain from stating facts about this book but I must say that to a mother-to-be (again) the chapter about the first five minutes of life was riveting.  If you have ever wondered what happens to the part of the umbilical cord inside the baby's body after birth, this book will you.  I'm  a super geek, apparently because I did wonder about that, just, you know, never out loud.

Did you know that the first successful Cesarean delivery was performed by a woman who practiced medicine disguised as a male because women couldn't be trained as doctors or join the British Army in the mid-1800s? 

I promise, my final did you know is this:  If you give birth in modern day Europe or Canada or one of several hospitals in California you might be offered a tried and true pain control option that fell off the radar with the popularity of the epidural.  You might be offered Nitrous Oxide.  It is safe, controlled by the laboring woman, and wears off with a few room-air breaths. 

There is really no stone left unturned in this book that documents an exhaustive spectrum of issues faced by newborns and pregnant women.  Every page was filled with information that made me think, consider and ponder my current state as a pregnant woman, the wonder that Noah was born via C-Section and we both lived through it and did NOT experience any infection or life threatening bleeding or injuries and made me aware of what my newborn will experience in his or her first seconds of life outside the womb.

This is a great read for anyone interested in this subject, pregnant or not. 

Click here to read more discussions about this book from other SV Mom Bloggers.