Magic Moment

I had my first doctor's visit yesterday evening. My appointment was scheduled for 4:00 so that Brent could be there. Unfortunately, since I was the last appointment of the day, the doctor was running a bit late. Thus, Brent had to leave for class by the time it was my turn. 

After the preliminaries, I got to meet my doctor. He came highly recommended, and I must say that after just 1 visit, I felt completely at ease. This is turning into a wonderful adventure. 

The best part: I got to hear a heartbeat! The doctor said that since it was still pretty early, he wasn't sure if he'd find anything, but he did. I don't know which of us was more excited, me or the doctor. It was a wonderful moment, to realize that the miracle of growing life is happening within my body. The fact that my body can sustain that little being is amazing. Yeah, I'm tired all the time and I think I may have a permanent hole in my esophagus due to the heartburn, but it's an adventure and an honor. I'm looking forward to witnessing the new miracles to come!

Developing Empathy

One of my fondest childhood memories comes more in a montage than a single instance. Every summer, we looked forward to camping in Northern Arizona, usually with cousins. Now that I am older and have organized a few of these things myself, I recognize the tremendous amount of planning and work that goes into a camping trip (probably not as great when it's a regular occurrence, but still substantial). 

In my childhood, though, it was a chance for adventure and freedom. With my brothers and cousins, I enjoyed exploring, discovering, and imagining. One of my favorite memories from our camping trips is always reflecting on the time spent around the campfire. Dinner, singing, story telling - I loved it all. Unfortunately, my dear cousin Dani was always out with the sun. I don't know how much of the campfire experience she remembers because she was notorious for falling asleep as soon as the sun went down. 

I completely understand how she feels now. Since becoming pregnant, I now know exactly what it's like to not be able to keep my eyes open once the sun goes down. It's usually all I can do once I get home to land myself on the couch and not move for the next couple of hours until I crawl into bed.  

Dani, I feel ya!

The World Must Be Peopled! (or, "It's Not So Easy Being Green")

I can't trust my sense of smell anymore, I'm tired all the time, and my diet now consists almost solely of saltines, applesauce, and Gatorade . . . yes the classic symptoms do indicate what you're thinking. We're expecting! (Not so much as you'd notice yet, but that will come).

 I've been sick enough that we couldn't really keep it quiet anymore. I'm only about 7 weeks along, but I wanted you to hear it from me. I haven't been neglecting the blog on purpose - I just haven't had the energy to possibly think about typing by the time I get home from work. 

As for now, I'm happy to say that I am still able to work. I haven't been so queasy that that is impossible. I just have to be careful about what I eat. And I have to eat at least every two hours. It's a learning process, for sure, but we're figuring it out. Brent has been an angel and has been very patient with me in my current state. I certainly couldn't do this without him. 

While feeling simultaneously thrilled and slightly overwhelmed at this new, life-changing responsibilty, Brent and I have been doing our best to plan ahead. We see a snag already. Currently our mattress resides on the floor. No problem for now, however, in a few month's time I am going to have considerable more difficulty getting onto and off of said mattress. And so begins our quest. 

We have several options. 1) Purchase box springs or foundations for the mattress. 2) Purchase a whole new bed set. Option number 2 looks most appealing to me. According to my father I'm going to be uncomfortable anyway, so we might as well make me as comfortably uncomfortable as possible. However, we have, as they say, champagne taste on a beer budget. Beds are expensive, especially if you're getting one of any quality whatsoever. We could afford a new queen size bed. However, the other concern is that my husband is exceedingly tall, and I'm not exactly petite, myself. Thus, I wonder about the logistics of the two of us fitting on a queen sized bed. We currently have a king size mattress. Oh, options, options. 

Being the frugal-minded person I am, I would push for new foundations . . . we can save for a new bed later. Brent says he would rather have me be comfortable. We'll see what we decide. There are just so many ways to spend the money we do make that sometimes it's hard to know what is the best decision.

I know this is getting to be one of those epistle-length posts, but I felt so clever yesterday, that I just had to share. We went to a local mattress factory yesterday (to research our options for the aforementioned problem). The owner gave us the run-down on everything and told us that they actually make the beds right there. 

Me, being my cheeky self, said, "oh, so if we buy our mattress here, you'll teach us how to fold those hospital-tight corners? I've always wanted to learn how to do that!" To which he replied, "No, I don't make beds here . . . I make . . . beds . . . " and then promptly turned a lovely shade of red as he hastily explained that that was his wife's job. Oh, too funny. We all left laughing.