Yes, today I earned two pregnancy merit badges. I entered the ranks of the women who have come before me. My first badge was for graduating from general nausea to actually throwing up. In the fine tradition of the first trimester, I have had official morning sickness. Unfortunately, it came at a rather inconvenient time, but my dear husband heard me and rushed to help – a cold towel for the back of my neck, a hairtie to pull my hair back, the scent of lemon to help. Plus, he sent me to go lie down while he cleaned up for me, and then he came and held me for awhile.

A little later this morning, I earned my second pregnancy merit badge – irrational crying. Admittedly, I was still a little strung out from throwing up a little before. I was taking a hot shower, and Puck was hanging out in the bathroom reading a book (undoubtedly keeping an eye on me to make sure I was okay). He decided to make kissie-face at me through the shower glass. Unfortunately, I had my eyes closed, and when I opened my eyes, I shrieked, hit the glass door and then started sobbing. Poor Puck felt awful, and he gave me a big hug until I calmed down. Even as I sobbed, I knew I was just shaken. I’m very lucky to have the husband I have.

Puck deserves his own merit badges for shopping and preparing my meals, rubbing my belly, hugging me when I sob irrationally and cleaning up after me when I’m sick. He makes me some of the most amazing snack trays. Here is the one he made me today:

I feel very fortunate to have met and married such a wonderful man.

No, I’m not going to talk about the evolution of the species but rather my evolving experience of this pregnancy. Tomorrow, Thursday, is week 8, and the two little ones inside me continue to develop. They are getting closer to an inch in length, and their bones, muscles, fingers, toes, and facial features are starting to form. My belly is starting to grow as well, and it isn’t all Puck’s delicious cooking. While he’s been diligent about providing me large meals with lots of vitamins and proteins, my weight gain has not been as much as I would have expected. A lot of that food is apparently being used to nurture new life.

Still, with my belly starting to show I’m left wondering if I might be “outed” (most likely by a student in my class) before we reach the end of this trimester. As every day seems to bring its new challenges, it might very well be my body that decides to declare itself. While I still have not thrown up, my nausea has increased the last couple of days. There have been other surprises as well. On Monday, I felt short of breath after my walk to my classroom, and a general feeling of shortness of breath stayed with me for the rest of the day. Our babies wanted more oxygen, and they were letting me know.

Last night, after a day of breathing normally, another pregnancy standard hit. When Puck made himself a bowl of bean dip as a snack, the smell just seemed overpowering. I had to move away from the bowl and even ask him to brush his teeth after he ate so I could snuggle up with him again. My super-powered sense of smell didn’t stop there. The next morning the scents of all sorts of things that my normally underactive nose never noticed accosted me, boiled eggs, my makeup, my lipstick, etc. It was an unusual experience for someone who has never been very olfactory-oriented.

I’ve had a little more trouble sleeping through the night the last couple of nights, but my naps have extended to almost 2 hours. It will be interesting to see what the future weeks bring.

This past weekend we had a visitor come to stay with us. She’s a little Yorkshire Terrier named Gracie who is a bundle of energy. She stayed with us once before, but during this visit she really seemed to feel more at home. Though still a bit wary of Shakti’s large paws, she proved herself fearless by running in front of Shakti and barking to try and get the Dane to chase her. When she succeeded, she bounded to the couch, jumped up on it, and headed straight up the pillows or armrest so she could meet Shakti nose to nose. A few quick licks to the big black nose, and she was on the move again.

Shakti and Gracie make friends.

Shakti seemed to enjoy her company, though after playing for a little while, she would head for her bed back in the bedroom for a nap. When she slept on her bed in the living room, Gracie would sneak up cautiously to sniff her nose, then one of her legs, then her back, etc. There was just so much dog to sniff. While Gracie seemed to like Shakti, she never curled up next to her (perhaps afraid Shakti wouldn’t be careful not to roll over on her?). Instead, she would curl up on Puck or me for a nap, and she was undisturbed by any “sofa quakes” that temporarily shook up her world.

Gracie was a darling to have at the house, and she made me laugh again and again at her playful antics and adorable looks. I’m glad Shakti has a little friend to come and visit every once in awhile.

Puck cooks for his sweetie.

Guest Post From Puck:

WifeWatch 2010

I have already covered my three WifeWatch 2010 items (Food, Mood, and Sleep) and here is our update.

Food

Friday I went out hunting and brought down a caribou with my teeth.  I then dragged the carcass back to my cave and buried it next to the fire pit. OK, to be honest I went to Food4Less with a mental list and bought a caribou’s worth of protein which I actually stored in the fridge. Along with the ‘caribou’ came beans, avocado, and spinach which have folic acid, plus plenty of milk, cheese and other things.

Here is where the conversation gets a bit weird. One of the key additions to Mary’s body right now is extra blood. That sounds a bit gruesome so from here on out I’m going to talk about trains which make a nice analogy for what is going on.

Trains are an analogy for Mary's circulation.

There are two things that the body needs trains for:

1. Healing
2. Building Stuff

In order for Mary to build more new trains she needs iron and protein which I’m giving her in large quantities. The new trains are going down to the “Twin-Cities” and the more trains we get going that direction (improved circulation) the better. Likewise, we want the trains to be loaded up with all the good things (nutrients) the Twin-Cities need for building and healing.

As Mary’s trains visit the Twin-Cities loaded with food and building material the twins will quickly develop and grow. That is important right now because later Mary won’t be able to eat as much in one sitting. Her tummy is going to shrink as the twins get bigger. Once that happens, it will be harder to eat and we will need to work on having lots of little meals ready for her all day long.  I’m on a mission to keep her continuously fed right now and that should help keep those trains running non-stop.

That’s the current goal. Help Mary get enough protein to build new trains and make certain those trains arrive at the destination with plenty to help our twins grow.

Lasagna

Last night I baked two lasagnas with hamburger, sausage, sweet Italian sausage, and Spinach for protein and then layered with 4 different kinds of cheese for calcium. Instead of noodles which are loaded with starchy carbs that can spike blood sugar, I replaced the starches with sliced and lightly steamed spaghetti squash and zucchini. (There is no reason to even tempt gestational diabetes and sugars have been mostly cut out.) With two of these baked lasagnas in the fridge, Mary can eat as much of this as possible and hit all her high points in one shot.

Bean Dip

Tonight is bean dip night. I’m going to make a very large serving of Tex-Mex bean dip with grilled hamburger and taco seasoning, picante sauce, lots of cheese, green peppers, re-fried beans, and at least two other types of beans to round it out. Serve that up with sour cream, fresh avocado and corn chips and it will be a go-to snack Mary can eat whenever she wants. The best thing about the bean dip is that it cooks in about 20 minutes in a deep iron skillet which leaves one dish to wash when I’m done.

Recipes?

If there is interest, I’ll post some recipes but it will take me a bit of time to write them up.

Mood

Mary has still been doing pretty well. I think she’s amused at me stuffing her so much, but she’s being very tolerant about it. The worst I have seen so far is that she gets a bit stubborn about wanting to help with things.

The only other thought I had about mood was to warn her that when the babies finally come, I don’t want her to feel like she’s suddenly dropped off my radar. With the amount of effort this is going to take, it is easy to see how postpartum depression might be exacerbated when our attention necessarily shifts to parenting and mom-recovery. I have added this to my mental watch list as a paternal commandment, “Thou shall not allow the state of Fatherhood to eclipse a loving marriage.”

Sleep

Still no compromises here. The afternoon power nap has become a ritual even on the weekends.

Babies Countdown – The Double Header

• Thursday, January 29 is 8 Weeks pregnant. Our goal is to hold the delivery until at least 36 weeks have passed which puts us at 28 weeks left after this Thursday.
• Wednesday, February 3 is our next ultrasound and we will be asking more directed questions and talk about picking a permanent OB-GYN.
• Our 5 week sprint ends on Thursday, February 26 which gets us to 12 weeks.
• Mary’s Birthday is March 3 which gets us to the second trimester.

Next goal? – Assembling the nursery.