Pregnancy Journal (Weeks 14-15)

May 18 - May 31, 2014

14w0d - Decent day - can't complain! Even made an easy cake plus homemade ice cream for our back-to-school party! Wow!

14w1d - Managed to start school today! I set up all of our new supplies, etc., and Daddy took the boys to get our now-traditional first day of school donuts for breakfast. We just covered math today. Tomorrow we'll add handwriting.

14w2d - Wow, yesterday was an amazing day. I managed to start the school year, teach math, keep up and going for almost all of the day, cook dinner, dust, and help with vacuuming. For fourteen weeks, this is nothing short of a miracle!

Today was not quite as awesome, but I still managed to keep going. I love the math we've chosen! Mmmm. I'm also starting to do short read-aloud sessions with the 7yo. Hoping to work back up to our 45-60 minutes a day. Then there's reading time with the littles, which has also been neglected - wanting to get back to that soon.

14w3d - (Forgot to journal.)

14w4d - Feeling tired and out of it. Managing to get through the day (and do math!), but that's about it. I was hoping to feel better faster, but looks like it's going to be a long haul, as usual.

But it is lovely to be cooking again, that's for sure! Only problem - I can't keep up with my appetite. I find myself going back for seconds (thirds?) and then for leftovers before bed time. Only rarely is anything left till the next day. Real food. Mmm.

So tired.

14w5d - A better day overall! DH took the children to a local homeschool function at a farm. Instead of crashing on the couch for the whole time, I actually did some laundry, straightening up, and dishes, and then blogged for an hour! Wow! Big improvement.

Oh, and that article on HG-prevention that I was going to "take the entire summer to write"? Yeah, well, it's pretty much finished. That's what those "gotta write" urges do to one. I'm still going to wait till baby's birth to publish (famous last words), and there's a lot of editing to do and additions to make as I think of them. But on the whole, the rough draft is finished.

Last night was the first night I have tried not taking my nightly half-tab of Unisom.

Also, this morning, I felt what may be have been baby's first discernible case of hiccups! Delightful.

14w6d - This morning was yuck! Got up, ate breakfast, fell back into bed. Thankfully it was Saturday! It's so odd how NVP just goes up and down! Very unpredictable. After a rotten morning, the rest of the day was better than normal! Goodness.

15w0d - Better day overall! Whole family home from church, and made taco soup again for dinner - a double batch. So hungry!!

15w1d - Another "get up and fall back into bed" kind of day.

15w2d - Better day! Stayed up and productive all day, taught an extraordinarily long math lesson, did tons of dishes, etc. Starting our second week of our homeschool year - adding handwriting to the mix. A gradual start to the year is working well for us, for sure!

We're getting so close to 20 weeks! Scary. That's always what I call "crunch time" - not actually that long before baby makes his debut! So much to do in that short time period!! I am in so much awe of those mamas who manage to welcome a baby every two years. I feel stretched and it's going to have been almost a three-year gap between babies!

15w3d - What a day. Felt yucky, and then the kids really decided to kick it up a notch. The toddler was throwing things and escaping from the play pen, and the 7yo decided to go into one of his moody overly-emotional spells. Spilled his cocoa and broke the mug - tears. Didn't want to do his math - tears. I kept thinking that I needed to get my Michelle Duggar groove on, but that was rather difficult when my mind was aching with the desire to wring that child's neck. Not one of my best days, for sure.

15w4d - So-so day. Not feeling great, not feeling horrid. New eating phase is cheese and crackers (crackers = cucumber slices). Yum. Pregnancy cravings are hilarious. They move in, take over, and ruthlessly eliminate all other dietary choices. And then, just as suddenly, they're gone and another moves in. My experience is that the worse the nausea, the shorter the duration of the craving - when I was seriously sick with other babies, sometimes I couldn't even buy what I was craving before the craving moved on and the item became indescribably nauseating. Now, with minor nausea, I can get a week or even two out of a craving before it leaves - much preferable.

Math lessons were easy today, which is always a plus! It's very obvious that our homeschool year is going to be completely different than last year, which is a bit disorienting - it's going to take some time to get our schedule down and figure out what's going to work for this year.

One good (bad!) thing about the nausea at this time of year is that it is keeping me away from all the yummy used curriculum sales that I want to be attending right now. No energy to manage them! I am super-bummed at missing them... but I have no money to spend anyway, so it's just as well. I guess.

One interesting subject keeps coming to mind. Yes, by the grace of God we avoided hyperemesis. But how could I have improved this? How can I improve next time? I still had a yucky first trimester (continuing into the second trimester). How could I do better? Time to start thinking of some improvements for next time.

15w5d - Okay sort of day. Not great, not bad. Looking forward to the approaching sixteen-week mark!

15w6d - The last day of this journal! Hurray! AND I made muffins for the family! Y'all should be very impressed! I know I was!

Still dealing with lots of nausea and fatigue, but am getting better. It's just a slow process. My original hope was to be completely better by now, but that was perhaps a bit idealistic. I need to keep my eyes on the main point. Fifteen weeks, no vomiting, no Zofran. Anything beyond that is just extra credit.

Tomorrow.... sixteen weeks!