Morning sickness

So, today is the second day in a ROW that I haven't experienced any morning sickness at ALL! You have no idea how giddy this makes me, so let me tell you a little about when I was pregnant with Levi and compare it to this pregnancy. I also want to be able to remember my first pregnancy, even though it was so rough, so this is also for posterity.

I remember when I started to experience morning sickness the first time being pregnant. I had been playing Portal with Austin, and got nauseous from the movement of the screen. I had played it before without getting nauseous, so I was a little confused. I remained a little bit nauseous that night and then it never truly went away until Levi was born. Thankfully, my nausea was mostly limited to the morning, but it could last into late morning and was very intense. Pretty quickly, I had to start waking Austin up to make me breakfast so I wouldn't have to get out of bed, because moving or walking around before eating made me feel worse, and I was almost sure to throw up. The food that would make my nausea better and not make me throw up changed about once a week, though, so I'd have to wait until I could think of something that didn't make me nauseous just thinking about it before I woke Austin up. Then one day was much worse than the others before it. I had done my normal morning routine and caught a ride to work. About an hour or two into work, I knew I'd be useless for the rest of the day, so I called in those wonderful home teachers of mine. They found someone to drive the 30 minutes to my work and take me home again. (Side note: my visiting teachers would have been just as happy to help, but both of them worked). I am so thankful for home and visiting teachers!

Anyway, I was pretty bad the next day, too. I called in sick again and stayed in bed all day, sleeping most of the time. Even reading a book made me nauseous! I was doing much better on the third day and was able to go into work again.

We didn't have a car, so I caught rides to work and Austin and I took the bus or walked where we needed to go around town. Sometimes the walks were too much for me. Even though just months before I'd been in college regularly walking 0.8 - 1 miles speed walking uphill from the engineering buildings to my math class or Spanish class in 15 minutes or less, at the time I was pregnant I was having problems walking more than a quarter mile at a very slow pace and stopping to rest every little while.

I experienced more car sickness while I was pregnant than I was used to before, as well. It probably didn't help that I was getting a ride and wasn't able to drive myself either. I never threw up while in the car, but there were a few times that I thought I would. Sometimes we'd get to work and I'd go straight to the bathroom. Yes, I threw up at work. The thing that saved me was a bag of peppermints that my sister gave me. When I started feeling nauseous at my desk, I'd suck on a peppermint for a few minutes and then I'd feel better. I was a chain peppermint sucker. Food also helped; hungry pregnant Katie was not a pretty sight.

This lasted pretty much the whole pregnancy. I had a morning routine where I'd throw up, then eat breakfast and finish getting ready because I knew I was going to throw up anyway. I figured that I might as well get it over with before I ate anything. I also couldn't eat cereal made with milk that was more than a few days out of the store, because I almost always lost my breakfast if it was made with milk that was even a little bit old. A week away from the expiration date, and my body couldn't take it.

In the last month or so before Levi was born, I stopped barfing as much, but I still experienced nausea pretty much every day and the thought of eating certain foods still made me feel gross. After he was born, I almost cried because I was so happy about being able to enjoy food again. Anyone that knows me really well knows how important food is to me and how much I love eating good food. While I was pregnant, that whole part of me went missing. It was kind of like being a missionary and not being able to read novels to relax on P-day.


Anyway. Let me tell you about my current pregnancy up to this point. I have always been able to get around and do things. Austin hasn't had to get up to make breakfast for me once. I have always been able to take care of Levi (maybe not as quickly as he'd like, though). I've been really tired, but taking time away from doing other things to sleep is nothing compared to being sick all day every day for months on end. This pregnancy, if I get (*got? hehe :) enough sleep the night or day before, my nausea the next day isn't as bad. And, and, AND I've had TWO DAYS in a ROW without ANY nausea! Hallelujah! Also, I haven't really noticed any car sickness very much more than usual, which is also fantastic.

I know that I'm experiencing much less stress than I did when I was pregnant before, so that's probably a factor. I'm just happy that I'm feeling so much better this time around.


*I said "got" because hopefully my morning sickness is staying in the first trimester!

Look what I did!!!

I finally finished it!

It took soooooo long, but I finally finished it, border and all :) I love that it's a wave and not the sharper zig-zag pattern.

I just had to share. Now on to smaller projects that I'll be able to finish in a few days, instead of years (because I get tired of them in the middle and take year (or more) long breaks). No more blankets for me! Unless of course it's a baby blanket; then I might consider it.

Goals - what now?

When I was a teenager, I attended Young Womens classes at my church. Those classes are essentially Sunday school classes for young women from age 12-18, often with supplemental activities during the week.

Anyway, sometimes we'd talk about goals: What do you want to be doing in 5 years from now? 10? It was pretty easy to set those goals since I was in high school and planned on going to college. I also wanted to get married and start a family.

By now, I've reached those goals. I graduated from the university I attended with honors and I'm now married to a wonderful man and have an adorable son, with another kiddo on the way. I don't think serving a mission was ever a serious goal for me while I was in high school, but I ended up doing that, too. I'm glad I did.

I've heard that many people arrive at this point and feel at a loss as to how they should continue; they now have everything they wanted out of life--what now?

I don't think I've ever felt that way. I get fulfillment out of learning to be a better wife and mother, to understand and work with my husband better every day. However, those are very indistinct goals, and I feel like it's beneficial to have more than just that kind of goal to work with.

Everyone will have different goals, because everyone is different and has different strengths and desires. However, here are some of my goals:

1. Strengthen neighborhood unity by throwing (simple) neighborhood parties, especially after moving out of Wymount (we already have a lot of neighborhood unity, and extra parties here would probably be overkill, haha)
2. Help kids in single-parent families to have the attention they need (and also to give their parents a break if they need it!) by helping with homework, transportation, or whatever else is needed.
3. Make my home a positive place my children and their friends will love to be--with acceptance, support, and snacks!
4. Get training for a job I'll love (so, probably not engineering) and go back to work after my children are old enough.
5. Meet new people by participating in community activities such as toddler time at the library (I had thought of another way to meet people in the community, but it escapes me right now. Edit: Aha! What about game night at the game store?)

You can see that a lot of these goals are based off of me loving to be around people and meeting new people. An introvert would have different goals that would reflect his or her own strengths. My goals also involve my children and their friends. Someone who doesn't have kids would have the opportunity to focus on something different.

I encourage anyone reading this post to set goals for your life, especially if you've already gotten the "big goals" or if achieving them is out of your control. Make goals both for making the world around you better and that will make yourself better or happier.