Chicklet decided to say Hi!

all day Saturday as i was in the midst of my numerous graduation ceremonies, Chicklet decided that this momentous occassion was important enough to say hello. while Cindy started feeling Chicklet move this past week, Saturday was pretty intense. he/she kept popping around: 'Dad! Dad! Congratulations on graduation! Dad! i hope he can hear me...'

On Mother's Day

even though Chicklet has not yet been born, this is the first Mother's Day that Cindy can experience as not just the daughter. technically, we obviously can't celebrate Mother's Day since Cindy is not yet a mother, but we are inhabiting that weird existential region where we kind of are and yet aren't parents. i won't really be a father on Father's Day, yet Chicklet's presence in Cindy's belly makes the concept very real. it's more like pseudo-Mother's Day today. sort of like your un-birthday from Alice in Wonderland (were there un-birthdays in Through the Looking Glass?).

anyway, there hasn't been too much in the way of funny observations lately. aside from the fact that Cindy's belly is starting to pop - she finally had to buy some maternity pants - not a whole lot has happened in terms of pregnancy. Cindy's going to a new job in June, as am i, so there's a lot going on in our non-Chicklet lives. i'm also graduating from architecture school next weekend (finally), and will have a fun few weeks afterwards - helping my sister move to her new pad in NY, going camping w/ my Dad in Canyonlands NP in Utah (he's never been camping before!), and generally getting odds and ends done before work starts.

i should note, though, that Cindy's forgetfulness has continued - full steam ahead! she had a really funny post to write last week, but promptly forgot it. in her defense, i also can't remember it. today she made us lunch while i finished a paper for school, and she forgot to make half the meal she had planned. later i came back to the kitchen to see that she had also forgotten to put away all of the ingredients. she also asked me the other night what i want as a graduation present, but by the next morning had apparently forgotten my answer. i think the problem there was that i answered her when she was asleep.

Hooray Brain!

My brain came back yesterday, and it felt amazing!! I had energy for the first time in two months and I could actually think. It's really incredible to notice a marked difference in your own mental clarity. I've never experienced anything quite like that before. I felt like I could solve any problem put before me yesterday. I mentioned this to my boss, and he seemed a little concerned that I had been having problems up until yesterday. He's probably calling our malpractice carrier as I write this. Anyway, I took advantage of the brain-has-returned thing and worked until about 10pm last night. I got so much done! I hope today is just as good, for the sake of our clients and my billable hours.

That'll teach me to brag about not having morning sickness...

So I've been one of the very lucky few who do not suffer from morning sickness. I've breezed through almost a whole trimester with only one or two brief waves of nausea, and no vomiting at all. Until today. I woke up feeling great, rested despite our quick trip to New York. I ate a quick breakfast of cottage cheese, a piece of fruit, and some pomegranite juice, followed by my prenatal vitamin. I think that may have been my first mistake. I never take my prenatals in the morning, usually because calcium interferes with the body's intake of the iron in the prenatals, and I eat lots of calcium-rich foods for breakfast. For whatever dumb reason (dumb being the operative word for this pregnancy, apparently) I changed my routine and took the vitamin in the morning. I felt fine. I got into the car, and as we drove down the street, I started to feel a little queasy. Then the excessive salivation started in. I was afraid that if I even mentioned it to Kenny, I'd throw up. He noticed something was wrong, however, and suggested we turn back. That suggestion was also based on the fact that I was driving in the opposite direction of where we needed to be going. Chalk that one up to my missing brain. So I floor it home. So many stop signs that I've never noticed before, oh my god!!! As we pulled up to the house, I notice our neighbor walking to his car to go to work. I prayed with all of my might that I would not need to throw up in the front lawn. That would make for an interesting piece of gossip for the neighborhood. When Kenny unlocked the door, I barely made it into the bathroom before I revisited my entire breakfast and prenatal vitamin. They don't look as good the second time around. I felt better for a bit, then, as I pulled into work, started feeling sick again. I never threw up a second time, probably because Carol, one of my co-workers, came to my rescue with some sprite and animal crackers. I'm not entirely 100%, and although it is now lunchtime, I'm not really interested in lunch. I really, really hope that this will pass quickly and that this isn't payback from the pregnancy gods for my relatively easy first trimester. Maybe it's Chicklet saying enough with the pomegranite juice. One thing is for sure, I won't be drinking that stuff again. I also won't be taking my vitamin in the morning. Ever.

Pregnancy might make you dumb

apparently. this past week, cindy's legal assistant remarked that she was getting dumb, and that it was a typical side-effect of pregnancy. something about her forgetting this or that. today, i wasn't intending to prove this hypothesis correct, but in the span of a very short period of time it was quite easy to see that, indeed, pregnancy somehow really does make you dumb. let's all hope it's a temporary setback.

cindy was making some salmon for dinner tonight - a delicious recipe, caramelized in sugar. a wonderful side dish of zucchini, garlic, and onion (sounds horrendous, but is quite good, and anyway we have toothpaste and mouthwash). i noticed that cindy was cooking the whole 5 lb. salmon steak, roughly 10" long, in one piece.

"perhaps that would have been easier had you cut it into smaller pieces." i remarked.
"yeah, i thought about that after i already dropped it into the pan."

then cindy proceeded to fire up another burner to saute the vegetables, and then placed a small pan on the burner. we had a huge amount of vegetables to cook.

"you know, maybe it would be easier to use a larger pan for that." i remarked.
"yeah, you're probably right." so i got out a larger pan for her.

and then cindy noticed that the light in the range hood burned out.
"i know, i told you about that 2 hrs. ago, cindy." i said.

then i walked back towards the bedroom, and noticed that the sliding glass door to the deck was open. "cindy! i asked you to close the door behind the dog 15 minutes ago!"
"oh yeah! i forgot."
"cindy, carol was totally right."
"about what?..."

:)

The wait is absolutely killing me...

Every day, actually several times a day, Kenny comes up with another possible way to tell his parents about Chicklet. I don't think we've found the perfect delivery method yet, but we have another 5 weeks to get it right. As for my parents, we have just under two weeks before we share the news. I'm not really sure how we'll do it. What I do know is that I really want to get it on video. I like the idea of using my "knocked up" t-shirt.

What's harder than trying to figure out how to tell my parents is waiting to do so. First of all, it's just exciting to tell them and we can't wait. But the wait is especially difficult for me because I really want to pump my mom for information on her pregnancy. I'm pretty sure I remember her telling me that she never had morning sickness, so as I'm starting week 6 with no sign of it just yet, I'm still holding out hope that I'll escape from that. I also remember her telling me that she generally felt great while she was pregnant, with fatigue as her only symptom. Although it's still early for me, I have yet to see any other symptoms (other than fatigue) emerge. I did have that weird chocolate craving during my 3rd week. I'm also thinking that the frequent bathroom trips are due to my increased fluid intake. It subsided last week, and I think that has to do with my body getting adjusted to me drinking more water. So really I'm only having fatigue issues. I can certainly deal with that. I enjoy having a good excuse to go to bed early and take naps!

Anyway, I really wish I had paid attention to her pregnancy stories back when she told me the first time around. Now I have to wait for two weeks. On top of that, our first doctor visit isn't until March 14, which is only 2 days before we go up to see my parents. Although all of the reading material we've picked up has been great, it's not quite the same as talking to a doctor, or even better, your own mom.

so there she was...crying

ok emotional roller-coaster - here we come! this afternoon, a few hours after the taco excursion, cindy and i went to a book store to buy some pregnancy books w/ a gift certificate cindy got from giving one of her many fantastic margin tax lectures. we probably spent 30 minutes sitting on the floor looking at pictures of the baby developing through its nine months in the womb. that was kind of cool - do you know that the baby is actually an alien implanted in the woman's uterus? that's what it looked like, at least.

anyway, cindy got a book called 'You & Your Baby: Pregnancy' (i got her 'You & Your Baby: Eating Healthy' for her birthday, and it was so good that we got another one in the series) and i got 'My Boys Can Swim! The Official Guy's Guide to Pregnancy'. it looked like a quick and funny read. little did i know that it had the capacity to bring on the waterworks.

after we got home, i went outside to play w/ the dog, and cindy stayed inside reading our new books. 5 minutes later, as i'm rolling on the ground growling and wrestling w/ the dog, cindy comes out laughing. i know it's cute when i play w/ the dog, but not that funny! but wait - i think she's crying! no, she's laughing! what the hell is she doing?! all and none. cindy was reading my guy's guide to pregnancy, and apparently the story of the author's wife's delivery was something else. nope, actually it was nothing special. she had no idea why she was crying, so she started laughing, but then fell back to crying. it was pretty cute - i love pregnancy symptoms.

ultimately, i read the page that set cindy off. the author was in the delivery room as triplets were born - to his incredible surprise, having expected a single daughter. then his wife woke him up, saying 'honey, you were having a bad dream.' 'no', he replied, 'i was having a nightmare.' take note fathers-to-be, anything can set your wife to crying.

FOOTNOTE: according to p.23 of 'You & Your Baby: Pregnancy', "Don't be surprised if your moods are all over the place during the first few months of pregnancy. Hormone surges can certainly influence your roller-coaster ride of emotions, as can fatigue and anxiety."

cravings or desires?

cindy remarked yesterday how she found it odd that she requested a chocolate cake for her office birthday party. she doesn't really like chocolate. she noted, in fact, that she had a bit of a craving for chocolate no matter its form - cake, candy, whatever. could this be the first pregnancy craving? do cravings happen this early in pregnancy? i don't know - but i do know that i will attribute just about any change in cindy's behavior right now to pregnancy, and that is totally cool. as she mentioned in the last post, i'm loving this!

sleeping, peeing, and nausea

what a trio of conditions! we didn't expect for cindy to really be feeling any pregnancy symptoms so soon, but by about three days ago, she was getting up to pee all the time. starting last friday, she started getting hit by exhaustion - she'd be fine one minute, and practically falling asleep the next. the good part about her exhaustion is that she didn't wake up at all while i tossed and turned and snored (thanks, allergies!). and now, the piece de resistance - this morning, after she finished breakfast, cindy was telling me how great she was sleeping when she decided to pay a visit to the porcelain god. as soon as the wave of nausea appeared, it also disappeared. very finicky, that one.

so here we are - 2 wks into pregnancy (by reality's time measure, 5 weeks by the period count - which seems to be the timetable by which all pregnancies are measured) and cindy is already a classic example of a mom to be. i love it!