A Glut on My Gut

The news is out: I got knocked up.

If you're a dedicated reader, first of all, kudos to you for remaining dedicated.  I mean, I haven't posted in months.  If you still check this page you're incredible.  Or crazy.  Second of all, you know that I struggled with getting pregnant for about a year and then just decided to give up for a while.  The Man and I decided early this year that we'd try to get pregnant by October so I could have my baby in the summer (yay for teaching making maternity leave so hellish!), and since it took so long last time we thought we'd be safe trying in January.  Two weeks later I was pregnant.  So...that was unexpected.

Due to my background of trying and failing to get pregnant, I'm going to try my hardest to limit how much I talk about it on Facebook; I know how much it hurts reading those posts.  However, this post is for everyone who wants to know everything about my pregnancy so far (which isn't much), so consider yourself warned.

Um, I guess I'll start at the beginning.  Well...how about a couple of weeks after the beginning.  I don't want you scarred for life.

My brother got married on Valentine's Day this year, and The Man and I drove up to attend (with lil' sis in tow).  That whole weekend I just felt...fat.  Everyone I've talked to has said something like, "oh, my first symptom was my incredible sense of smell!"  or "oh my goodness my boobs started hurting out of nowhere!"  Not me.  Just fatness.  And a brief memory of smelling someone's bad breath from across the kitchen.  On the drive back home from the wedding The Man and I talked about the possibility of me getting a motorbike this summer, but since I had missed a period (pretty par for the course for me) he said that we'd wait to decide until I took a test.  If I was preggo, no bike-o.  After that conversation a tiny bit of me hoped I wasn't pregnant.

I took a test on Monday, and the second line showed up immediately.  No "waiting 2 minutes" crap.  I nervously laughed to myself, then called The Man over:
"So...I'm definitely pregnant."
"Oh..."
I've lived with this guy long enough you'd think I would have expected the look of terror and lack of excitement, but I was still a little upset.  To be fair, I probably had the same look on my face.

Now, don't get me wrong, we WANT a baby.  Getting pregnant so soon just...changed things.  Suddenly we realized that I probably wouldn't get another year of full-time work in to make bills easier.  Suddenly The Man would be a dad before he graduated college.  Suddenly I would be going into the labor in the middle of his midterms.  Suddenly life was real.  And it was scary.

We decided to call the baby Stormageddon, because we're nerds.

A week went by without us telling anyone.  Then I went to visit a good friend.  This was the friend that I always talked to when I was struggling with not having a baby, because she was going through the same crap (and she went through it longer than I did).  She kept asking what was new in life and I kept biting my tongue until she let it slip that she wouldn't be able to go hot-tubbing in the summer and then had to admit to me that she was pregnant and she'd been really scared to tell me because of our history.  So of course I admitted that I was pregnant too; we're two weeks apart.  It's been awesome having someone to confide in/commiserate with from so early on.

The rest of my pregnancy has all been the same: constant nausea, some heartburn, food aversions (like...all food), and exhaustion.  I've thrown up in the middle of teaching four times now; I kind of feel hardcore when I puke in the middle of a lecture and then continue on like nothing happened.  I've thrown up quite a bit in the mornings (brushing teeth is the worst), and a few times in the afternoons.  I guess the throwing up is the weirdest part for me.  I mean, before my first puke of pregnancy (chocolate milk, yum!) I hadn't thrown up in...6 years.  I forgot about the noises you make.  And the snot.  And the watery eyes.  So weird.

Smells are also stupid now.  The Man bought some meatballs (because I specifically asked for them) and it turns out I can't stand the smell.  The faculty room during lunch makes me gag a bit.  Even going to the produce section of the grocery store can make me queasy; I have no idea how I teach hordes of unhygienic teenagers every day.

We've now seen the baby (it looked like a grey jellybean) and heard its heartbeat (sounded swishier than I expected), and I'm out of the first trimester (for those of you who aren't good at math, I'm due at the end of October). No weight gain, no maternity clothes, and nobody but me has noticed that I'm getting "micker around the thiddle*."  I'm still planning on teaching next school year, but I'm dropping down to part-time.

Any unanswered questions?  I think I got it all...

*Runny Babbit, by Shel Silverstein