Prego, Prego, Everywhere

I prob just wasn't paying attention before,

but now I see them everywhere,

and several today.

I think they decided it was time to get out of the house too,

past several weekends.

It's nice to have comrades around :-)

Is Craving:

* Biscuits (the American kind)

* Cream Of Wheat

* Mexican (clarify: good and cheap Mexican)

* Hummus & Pita Bread

* Hashbrowns (especially Mom's homemade Southern style)

* Fake Meat (the frozen kind-no dried soy-curd stuff) (especially Morningstar sausage)

* Good Ice Cream (Ben&Jerrys, Tillamook...)

* Salads with Spinach Leaves


I know I'll be missing some local food when I leave here--but prego cravings can only be stifled so much by local fare.  I'm basing it on as many burritos and pasta dishes I can find/make.

Don't Cross A Preggo Woman, Or She Might Bite Your Head Off

My older sis told me a story one time about when she was pregnant (with her 2nd or 3rd kid, I don't remember).  She was driving (in Memphis traffic-which could make any non-pregnant person want to react the same way) one day, when another car cut her off (actually, I think it was an SUV that cut off her SUV).  She was so pissed that, when they pulled up to the next red light, she took her slushy (that she had just bought), got out of her car and went and poured it all over the other car's windshield.  Obviously, the other person (I think a woman) was in shock.  She feels bad about the incident, but at the time, it was what the lady deserved.

Honestly, (never a road-rager) I never fully understood that story--until now.

I have yet to feel that crazy road rage, but I have been faced with other situations.

I've been a good girl and haven't poured slushy down someone's back...yet.  :-)

Hormones are creepy.

I'm Getting Cankles

Ew.

And chipmunk cheeks.

Ew.

And have outgrown half my shirts (in the past two weeks!)

Ouch.

Now I'm just waiting on my pants.  To pick up and leave as well.

I need to go preggo sundress shopping.

:-)

Except I still won't be able to hide the cankles...

Or chipmunk cheeks...

Here's to the rain coming so I don't feel too sweaty to work out and be more sweaty...

(When it does come, I'll have to work out like crazy before it just turns muggy!)

Oh, and my legs/butt are going to go soon as well, as I just traded in my bicycle for a xe om to and from work.

So much for sleeping off the fat lol

And they say this is normal...

Oye, oye, oye

they come in 3's, 4's, 5's, ......

It seems like every other week I'm finding out that another friend is pregnant!

At the moment, I can count 5, no, 6--besides myself,

(that makes 2 sets of three's...) (does that make for double luck?)

--ranging between about to pop-to-due about when I am.

Honestly, very exciting!

There had been a lull in my friend's pregnancies--it seemed to clump in the early-mid 20's and I assumed the next group would be in the early-mid 30's.

Really nice to meet some other late 20's/early 30's hanging with me.

(and none, None--married or not--i take that back, maybe one was planned-the rest-no planO---How's that for learning with age ;-}  --but the couple who did plan already had one, so they don't really count--although another couple, who didn't plan, had one as well--when you have one, go ahead and have two, or two more--your kids will thank you later :-})
(You will thank you later!)

*I have word that my next one will be adopted*
that's Okay

12 weeks might be over...

...but some 1st trimester symptoms are not...

on and off nausea and headaches are the main things--which lead to fatigue when they don't let me get much rest

hunger is back, and stronger than ever

here come the midnight runs to...whatever street cafe is open?  ugh...

i'll do my best to stock up before i go home at night, i think, instead...

Nesting!!!

Is it too early to nest??

I'm gonna go with...it picks up more the fatter you get.

And I'm getting fatter!!

halitosis

...is apparently a side effect of pregnancy.

Who knew?

I feel for my students the most!

This means one of two things: I'm short on calcium or I'm short on water.  or both.

Unless, of course, brushing after meals is not enough for basic hygiene.

I found out that cheese, not milk, has some of the largest sources of calcium.

Esp. parmesan---whoah...my fave cheese too!! (aside from feta, which i'm not allowed to eat right now...)

Here's to hoping dairy isn't too far gone out of my system--i won't be lactose intolerant (I've haven't cut out dairy completely), but I still feel the affects when I'm back in the States and eating healthy portions of it...

I Waddle

...already...

              ...not cool.

:'('''''

hormones have kicked in.
hard core.
and have only been getting worse over past several days.
a pmsing day, i can handle.
non-stop ragers where i either want to cry or wail someone in the head (or peel their face off), or both, are not fun, or cool.
talk about having to do some serious 'ommmmm'ing' before walking into a classroom.
and the rest of the day.
i have become more blatant, more truthful (in the overly open context), more adamant.
(well, in a way, some of it does me good!)
just doing my best to be careful.
i just hope, as with the rest of my symptoms, that this doesn't stick around long as well.
i might go mental.
i think i almost already am.

A Wise Artist Recently Said...

http://stuffnoonetoldme.blogspot.com/2011/02/65.html#comment-form

hehe-I know I will enjoy the future as well, of course.

But there is nothing compared to complete and total independence

Tofu: Yes? No?

Oh no...
I don't like this debate.
Being a Mostly veggie and anti-cow's milk, I live for soy milk and tofu and other soy products.
I don't eat them all the time, except when I have cereal, then I have soy milk almost every day.  I live in Asia, where tofu is more of the common diet than even in the States.
So, how is it that the States say it's terrible to eat when you're preggo, but Asians think I'm crazy when I mention that it could be bad.
They say that tofu has estrogen properties-and that women who are/have had breast cancer should never eat tofu.  I keep hearing tofu.  What about other soy products?  There has been some talk about them.
They say it's worst for the pregnant woman if she's carrying a boy, for obvious reasons.  However, you can't find that out for a bit.
Some say that moderation is the key-just don't overdo it.  If you have a soy product once or even twice a week, it shouldn't be a big deal.
Others say don't eat it at all.
If you read message boards, you see the debates.
However, if you look at pregnancy websites where they list healthy food and recipe options for pregnant women, they all state tofu somewhere, and soy in general.
Debate goes between doctors and nutritionists-some doctors and nutritionists say yes, some say no.
So, who is right?

40 Weeks = 9 Months

Was talking to a couple friends and think that maybe we solved this mystery.

As some months have 4 1/2-5 weeks, it is possible to add on a couple extra weeks-ish.

This was established early.  However, I was still not convinced, as it still didn't tack on 4 extra weeks.

BUT, and I don't know if this is the final reason--but our current hypothesis is that it actually has to do with the first 2 weeks of the pregnancy.

These two weeks, you are not actually pregnant!  The doctors start counting from the 1st day of your previous period, not from date of conception.

So, if this is taken into consideration, than, yes, technically, you are only preggo for 9 months.  If you look at months, and not weeks.

Yoda told me that she never figured out why they counted the way they did--in two pregnancies.

So, tip is to just not let it worry you--stick with the weeks, bypass the details, and concentrate on the pregnancy itself.

Sounds like a good plan.  :-)

Healthy Food

...is something I definitely need more of.  Like the kinds with little to no preservatives.  Beyond making cooked veggies and noodles or cooked veggies and rice, I feel a bit out of 'safe' options.  Enter ordering food, as I feel more comfortable eating their prepped veggies to ones from the market...currently.  Expensive.  Especially the more 'organic' the food.  Supposedly I'll get more energy within a few weeks--which is good, as I've already started getting some back.  Then maybe I'll have energy to go to the market and make my own meals.  Until then...I'm salivating over what Tango Juice is about to deliver (except the avocado pannini that they're sold out of today...).  Some things here will never change...

DOB

This is one thing I fear I will never understand.  For sure it will be one of the first questions when I get back to the States to an American doctor.

Why the heck do they say we are prego for 9 months??     It's a lie!

You check any pregnancy calendars and they clearly state about 40 weeks.  That's roughly 10 months.

And the 2nd trimester has 16 weeks (roughly 4 months), not 12.

So, do we somehow repeat month 6?

We spend the 1st trimester counting toward the month.  Then we spend the 3rd trimester counting after the beginning of the month.

So how do we count during the 2nd trimester??

I like math to be simple.

This is not fair for someone who is already fighting for brain power.

Sore Back

Whenever I get stressed, my upper back always gets the brute of the tension.  I keep hearing that during pregnancy, the lower back is supposed to hurt.  Now, I'm not expecting this for a bit.  However, this morning, after I got up and started walking around a bit, I found that (along with my calves) my lower back was aching.  Not cool.  After the bike ride to school, with my backpack, the pain has receded to the upper back again.  Oh well, I'm sure it will even out eventually.  :-)

I Like Pasta Best

I've always been interested to know exactly what I would crave while prego.  My friends have always given me a hard time for liking foods like peanut butter with pickle.  I honestly never expected to want to eat only Italian food.  I live in Asia.  I love Asian food.  Right now, most of it makes me sick to think of.  I can think of Asian noodles.  :-)  Especially rice noodles, as they don't usually have loads of oil.  :-)  But, now, I do not like rice, chicken cooked Asian style, chicken in general, fish in general, Asian seasonings, unless it's on small pieces of grilled beef, anything oily....

I like only rice noodles to be eaten with small strips of beef (sometimes egg rolls if I can choke down the oil) and a couple leafy greens.  I like ramen with very little seasoning and no extra oil (a common addition in Asia).  Sometimes I can stand beef noodle soup.  And that's about it.

Otherwise, I order Italian pasta from about 5 different restaurants in town.  Sometimes pizza.  Or I cook my own pasta and only add a little salt and parmesan.  Yum!

I once ordered Indian food from my fave place here (I LOVE Indian food).  Once.  Leftovers have been in the fridge ever since, and my stomach churns even thinking about scanning the menu again.

If I can find them, I like crackers.  And cereal with soy milk.

I've also been craving salad bars.  You can find one salad bar in town (that I'm aware of), and I finally went today.  Fairly lame bar.  But, better than nothing, I guess.

One Thing I Forgot!

Pee Pee Pee Pee

I gotta pee! I gotta pee! I gotta Pee!

I sound like one of my 2nd graders.  Feel like one too, sometimes.

It's a freaking water cycle.

I can't get enough water, or I feel super dehydrated.

But even when I make myself not drink so much water so I can make it through the next class, I STILL GOTTA PEE!

And no matter how much water I drink, it doesn't come out clear.

This sucks.

Things That Made Me Go 'UUuuuuhhhh......uh-oh.'

For me, I watch my body closely, and had a vague idea that I was more than just pmsing several weeks before I actually went in to the doctor to get checked.  I was quickly growing a mental list of things that were happening, didn't take long to do the math.

Symptoms that may tell you you're pregnant (in order of remembering to jot them down):

1.     crazy gas     (sucks)


2.     crazy nightmares     (weirds you out)


3.     crazy thirst     (can I not get enough water???)


4.     nonstop nausea / nausea from smells     (this is particularly hard in any large city-even harder in a city where I am still getting used to the smells, and used to plugging my nose)


5.     craving of foods / need to eat     (specifically bland-like pasta!!!)


6.     abundant exhaustion     (passing out after work, every day, and still sleeping through the night)


7.     constant, mild headaches     (not migraines, just enough to remind you they're there)


8.     nonstop constipation     (with random bursts of diarrhea)  (in a third world country where you're used to having only diarrhea issues-and on call, if you so desire, this is a hard one to come to terms with--and also the big kicker on my list that I may be prego)


9.     huge, tender boobs     (especially when the cat walks across them.  ouch)


10.   stronger sense of smell / causes bouts of nausea     (can make the bike ride to work a bit...nauseating)


11.   congestion / runny nose     (for someone who already deals with sinus problems, this is very annoying.  what is more annoying, is that even through the harsh congestion, you can still smell better than a dog)


12.   clear skin [at first] / building acne     (whoever said that pregnant women have beautiful skin, lied)


13.   that 'glow'     (though my coworkers thought my new glow was to getting fat while on winter vacation.  possibly.)


14.   harder fingernails     (less chipping--yay!!!)


15.   sore muscles / leg cramps     (I thought these weren't supposed to show up for another few months...)


16.   dizziness     (apparently, fainting is a real problem for pregos who stand for long periods of time...I tried to request a stool at work for helping to teach my classes.  Denied.)


17.   forgetfulness     (I hope this doesn't get too much worse...)


18.   I smell different.