8 weeks

I'm 8 weeks along now. As far as development goes, the books say my uterus is the size of a grapefruit and the baby is a size of a bean. Theoretically, it has all of its organs now, its heart is beating and has webbed fingers and toes that are futher differentiating this week. Things are going well. I'm still very tired and in bed by 9:30 most nights -- strange for a night owl. I don't have a lot of morning sickness but I am steadily queasy -- usually queasy and hungry at the same time, which is an odd feeling. My rash has cleared up and it was my deodorant (the one that I'd been using for 4 years). I guess body chemistry does change with pregnancy.

So, things are theoretically going well. But there's a lot more going on underneath the calm water. I'm really nervous and anxious. I've known 5 women who have miscarried in the past year alone. 4 of them are good friends of mine and 3 of them miscarried at 8, 9 and 11 weeks. One happened just two weeks ago. I feel for them. Their loss, sadness, frustration. I imagine what it would feel like. By this point, I've become used to being pregnant. Broccoli instead of cocktails in the evening. All of the tiredness. Knowing to avoid the bus and tight spaces because it makes me queasy. But despite all that, I somewhat enjoy the pregnancy and catch myself looking ahead, planning due dates, thinking of the happiness to come. But then, poof. It could be all gone. I would be very sad. I feel for my friends and what they are going through. And it's not like the first trimester is the "happiest of times" when you're feeling like a box of peaches, rainbows and sunshine.

So, here I am at my 8 week mark. I'm nervous. My first doctor's appointment is at the end of next week. Is anything in there? Is it alive? Healthy? I'm hoping they do an ultrasound and check if there's a heartbeat. I've read the chance of miscarriage goes down to 5% once they hear a heartbeat (right now it's at 20%). But despite my hoping, I've heard ultrasounds don't always happen at first appointments. So, even after next week, I may not know any more than I do right now. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed and trying to continue to eat healthy and stay upbeat. But honestly, right now, I feel like dead man walking. I'm just going through the motions. Hoping for the best. Preparing for the worst. And I can't even have a drink to calm my nerves.

My family

From this year's Santacon (December 2008). Mindy took this picture slightly before they got kicked out of the bar.

Endless possibilities

I saw these online today and they're just too awesome. Make your own lottery tickets. They made them as valentines, but I can see lots of other options for them. Enjoy!

Allergic to Pregnancy

In addition to being hungry and queasy at the exact same time, I've become incredibly itchy these past few days. Little itchy on my face and legs, but especially around my armpits where I've developed a nasty red, raised rash. A friend says maybe my body chemistry has changed and I'm now allergic to my deodorant or soap (which I've been using for years). Whatever it is, it sucks.

Chocolate Cake for Teens

Last night was the teen cooking class, chocolate cake edition. It went really well... much better than last week's class which was a disaster.* This week, I had lots of stations laid out (dry, wet, fat, acid, loading and icing). Each teen drew a number from a hat to see which step they were in charge of... (they will fight over the best jobs if there isn't some order). They were excited about drawing numbers and being in charge of a station. Then they all got to help each other complete the cake. It was great to see them working together and hearing them talk about why we're keeping the dry ingredients separate from the wet ones.

The cupcakes came out of the oven with 10 minutes to spare. Plenty of time for icing and eating. There were a few grumbles about "I don't like cream cheese icing!" in the beginning but, wouldn't you know, every kid (but one) put icing on their cupcakes and ended up saying they preferred it that way.

Modesty aside, these cupcakes were amazing. I got the recipe from the Best American Classics cookbook. I found the recipe for the cream cheese frosting on the internet. Both were winners, especially together. And the kids loved them -- which you could tell by the batter and icing covering their faces. And the ooohs and aaahs as they bit into them.

Here are the recipes in case you'd like to give them a whirl. This has replaced my previous favorite chocolate cake recipe:



*Last week was spaghetti carbonara. I wanted them to have an alternative to spaghetti with tomato sauce, so I showed them this egg-based sauce where the heat of the cooked noodles cooks the raw egg into a creamy sauce. It would have been fine except it took 50 minutes for the water to boil. A big problem for the 50 minute class. Especially when there weren't enough steps in the recipe for 9 kids to divvy up and not be bored. Utter chaos. That said, they loved it when they ate it. And 2 out of the 9 made it at home for their families this past week! So I guess, despite the boredom, the class turned out better than I thought although I learned the important lesson of always have something for the kids to do. Boredom is trouble.

A diet of soup and graham crackers

No morning sickness, but my appetite is very fickle lately. The fried rice that I made for dinner last night smells completely unappetizing and I had to put it away immediately. Instead, I ate some soup with udon noodles and graham crackers.

I've been sleeping a lot (10 hours a day, minimum) athough very ach-ily. Hurts to turn at night. I also slept on my arm for so long last night that I woke up to it completely numb. Even now, 7 hours later, it hurts to make a fist and I have to use my left hand to hold a mug of tea. I guess I won't be punching anyone in the face today. :)

Weekend Plans

Are few and far between. I had a cold last week and have been pretty exhausted. Ken had the same cold a few days ago. Andrew has it now. We're all pretty tired and looking forward to some R&R.

The things I would like to finish this weekend are:

Frame out the basement soffits. Most of them are finished. We rerouted our gas line last weekend to get everything to fit. Now it's just a matter of framing in the last bit (near the fridge), adding the drywall and start the mudding.

Finish the 3rd coat of drywall on the main area. I did all the taping and first two coats of mud this week. Only the final coat is left, so I've been saving that for a time when I have enough energy to power through it.

Prime the ceiling. Once the 3rd coat is finished and sanded, it's priming time. Can do this in steps.


Later this week and to come:


Paint the ceiling. I've been waiting to do this for months. I have only primed the ceiling because I wanted a perfectly even coat when the paint came along. Once this step is finished, I will do a small happy dance because....

Install the flooring. For longer than I've wanted to paint the ceiling, I've wanted to have some sort of floor in the basement. Originally, I was thinking of doing an acid etch. Then a stain. Then a paint. But now, we're leaning towards installing a wood laminate floor down there. I was hoping for something like that but I thought Ken was against it. He was hoping for it but thought I was against it. Communication is a good thing. We'll be looking into products this weeekend.

Install the baseboards. Oh sweetness, the project is coming together. Once the flooring is in, I can install the baseboard to clean up the look of things. Then, it's time to...

Move the office down to the basement. Putting all the furniture back and having an office for all of our paperwork would be divine. I can hardly wait.

Install the moldings. This isn't a necessary step per se, but I think it will really enhance the look of things down there. This can come later. As can...

Install a 2nd bathroom. But, like I said, that's down the road.

Cooking Class

A student in my cooking class wrote an article about the class for the Community Center's newsletter. Very cute. Enjoy.

Pregnancy with a Science Twist

The twist is I enrolled in a clinical study.

The study examines nerve control and pelvic floor strength before and after a woman's first pregnancy. Since my background is in hormones and nerves, it seemed like a logical choice after having left the lab. If I can't do research, at least others can do research on me.

The pretests involved an MRI of my pelvic region -- they could see me ovulating at the time, which apparently looks like bruising on one side. Bizarre. Then, I had the main appointment, which consisted of some measurements, an ultrasound and then nerve stimulations & recordings. It was scary, painful at times, but ultimately pretty cool. The doctor allowed me to see all of the waveforms and what everything looks like on the inside. My inner researcher definitely came out in the appointment though. When they were doing some of the nerve conductance tests, I told them they could run it again if they needed since you never know which data will be publication/grant worthy. After all the pretests were complete, I had two years to get pregnant. It took us less than a month.

My next appointments are 6 weeks and 6 months after the baby is born. I'm excited to read the results of the study when they come out. That paper will definitely be on our fridge. Although, it's a long way off since they're enrolling 200 women and they're only 40 in right now. But every bit counts. Plus, it's pretty cool to see research from a different side of things.