Great

Sometimes I think it's too good to be true how easily this pregnancy is going. I have had little to no nausea since the very beginning. I'm getting my energy back and overall feeling really great. This is absolutely, by far, the easiest early pregnancy I have ever had. Who knows what the 2nd and 3rd trimester will bring, but for now I'm just enjoying feeling well.

I think about the baby all of the time. I look at the girls and wonder who the baby will resemble the most. Will she/he have blonde or brown hair? Dark or light eyes? I'm really leaning towards thinking the baby is a boy. I don't know why for sure, just a guess. We'll find out soon enough. This time we're debating keeping the gender a secret. I'm not very good with secrets though so we'll just have to see.

Wardrobe

The last couple of weeks I have been in quite a clothing pickle. See, I gained a bit of weight before I even got pregnant. So, my pre-pregnancy clothes have been getting tighter and tighter. Lately I've been finding myself standing in front of the closet with nothing to wear. Finally I decided to just buy some maternity clothes already. Even though I usually don't start wearing them until the 2nd trimester, it's better than what I have. While we were school clothes shopping for Chiggie I picked up some fall outfits for myself. It' s nice to actually want to shower and get ready because I have something to wear. It was a good decision.

8 Weeks

So far the time is going by pretty fast. I think it will go by even faster once school starts. I can't believe I've know I was pregnant for a month now. So far this pregnancy has been pretty mild I would say. I've been a little nauseous occasionally, had a few headaches, and been pretty tired, but I've also maintained a normal schedule. For me that hasn't always been the case so I'll take it. I think about the baby a lot. The girls talk a lot about their thoughts too. They change their guesses from boy to girl on a regular basis. My next appointment is in two weeks and I'm looking forward to hearing the heartbeat again!

Questions and Answers

Pregnancy seems to be a time when people let their guards down, if they ever even had one, and ask you those questions they're just dying to know the answer to. The questions baffle me, annoy me, and make me laugh. Here's some that I've gotten so far in no particular order:

• How many kids are you guys gonna have??? Hmmm. I'm not sure really. I've said different numbers at different times and obviously things have changed. I've been "done" before.
• Are you going for a boy? This seems an obvious solution to the perplexity of my multiple pregnancies. Clearly we're not insane, we would just never feel our family was complete without a male offspring right? Wrong. Sure a boy would be great, but I didn't get pregnant as a "one last shot" type of deal. We're well aware of the odds. Sure there's a chance we'll have a boy, but there's the same chance we'll have a girl. Either way we'll have a baby.
• How do you afford all of those kids? Honestly probably the same way most people afford their families. Families much larger than ours do just fine on similar incomes. We are blessed to have what we do and try not to focus on what we don't. It's not always easy but it's not always tough either.
• Do you just love being pregnant? Quite the contrary. I'm not really a big fan of being pregnant myself. It's the result not the process that I enjoy. I'm a private person that doesn't like a lot of attention, so it's certainly not a ploy for that.
• Don't you know what causes that? We're pretty sure. After this baby I plan to drink only decaffeinated beverages. We'll see what happens.

How about you? What's the strangest thing someone has ever said you when you were pregnant?

Wishful Thinking

I think I was really starting to believe that I might just get lucky enough to escape the dreaded morning sickness this time. That fantasy sadly ended this week. It seems 7 is not my lucky number. Fortunately, so far, I don't have the miserable all day sickness I had with Boo, but it's enough to make my stomach turn on and off throughout the day.

It seems much worse when I have to get up early and start moving right away. If I'm able to sleep in and move slowly I still feel nauseated but I'm able to keep my stomach contents where they belong. I'm also having the foggy hormonal headaches I love so much. I can't really take anything for them that doesn't make my stomach feel worse so I just try resting when they get too bad.

The good news is time is passing quickly. Early pregnancy can be tough when you have many little ones already, but I'm finding I don't have the time I had in the past to dwell on it. The second trimester will be here before I know it.

Exhaustion

No creative, catchy title, just telling it like it is right now. My first official, major symptom, is in fact utter exhaustion. It doesn't help that we are just so busy right now. I know, this is supposed to be the relaxing time of year right? I can't tell you how much that worries me for the fall. Just today I had to be up bright and early for church, worked in the nursery, and stayed after church for a meeting that lasted until after 2pm. Once home I had to make our dishes for tonight's pool party. By the time that was done it was time to get ready for the party.

It was relaxing to be at the pool because we got to eat dinner there with very little clean up. The girls had a fabulous time swimming with all of their friends and I'm hoping they will sleep good tonight. The hardest part about being so tired is not being able to find much time to rest. I just keep reminding myself how quickly this part of pregnancy passes. I find myself literally feeling like I could fall asleep standing up. Speaking of sleep, I'm off to try and get some.

For Breakfast?

One thing that I can say that is different for me as far as this pregnancy goes is my appetite in the morning. In all 4 previous pregnancies by the time I hit about 5 1/2 -6 weeks, food was not anywhere near my thoughts first thing in the morning. In fact I suffered quite severely from morning sickness. Now I have had moments of queasiness just nothing too severe yet. It's not just that I'm hungry in the morning it's that I am not hungry for breakfast food. Cereal, toast, pancakes, nope none of that sounds good. So this morning I just went with it and I had a chili dog. For breakfast. I know this is wrong in so many ways but yet so satisfying. I wonder what weird craving I'll have in the end????