So Far, So Good...
Yesterday, I received The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy and In The Womb from Amazon.
The Girlfriends' Guide is a rather humorous, bluntly honest, in-your-face sort of manual. I appreciate its candor. The whole premise is that it's full of all the things that your doctors and pregnancy books won't tell you, but that your closest girlfriends would confess in a private session about the whole ordeal. It mentions individual's encounters with morning sickness, stretch marks, what ACTUALLY happens to your boobs during and after pregnancy, your sex life during pregnancy, and so on. It talks frankly and openly about the more unpleasant side-effects, not to frighten you, but so you can have realistic expectations and so you don't freak out when you start to notice odd things happening that nobody ever told you about. One topic that had quite a lot of mention in the portion of the book I read last night (which was probably nearly 1/2 of the book) was hemorrhoids, and how the poor author had no idea what they were and went into hysterics, fearing the worst, until she was informed that they are a common problem of pregnancy. So the book's primary aim seems to be to help expectant women avoid those frightening experiences that could have been prevented with ample education.
In The Womb is full of incredible pictures of computer generated images and award-winning models, depicting the full journey of the fetus from sperm & egg to fully-developed baby. Since I am more than a little preoccupied with what Baby looks like with each passing week, this book is really special for me, and I have to admit that looking at the images makes me teary-eyed.
The morning sickness seems, overall, to be improving. I've got my definite good days and my definite bad days: some days, I feel fine and can eat whatever I want all day (like yesterday). Some days, I feel like I barely have the strength to sit up straight, and I fear that each passing minute will bring a frantic trip to the bathroom, toothbrush and toothpaste in hand (like today, unfortunately).
Throughout it all, though, there is a growing sense of excitement and fascination with Baby. I see my stomach starting to edge its way out, and while I know right now I look more chubby than pregnant, I anxiously await the day when people start noticing and asking when I'm due. I'm trying not to get TOO far ahead of myself (i.e., thinking of names or how I want to decorate the nursery) until I know more, like the gender of the baby, etc. I have a nagging feeling that I'm carrying a little girl, but maybe that's just because before, I had a hunch I was carrying a boy, and this time, everything seems so different. I'm not going to put much stock in that suspicion; I'll just wait for a later ultrasound to confirm gender before I start going totally crazy with it all. :o)
It was nice reading in The Girlfriends' Guide last night that I'm not the only woman who becomes immediately obsessed with their pregnancy, from the very moment they start to suspect they might be pregnant and right on all the way through... It's nice to know that other women find it impossible to concentrate on work when there's a life developing inside them, that lots of women suddenly forget about everything and everyone else in the world and view their pregnancy as the ONLY thing of import on this planet.
It's also nice to see that I'm not the only one who's going positively insane and tormenting their spouse with irrational hormonal behavior. ;o)
Anyway, I suppose I should be working. I just needed some time to focus on Baby. :o)
The Girlfriends' Guide is a rather humorous, bluntly honest, in-your-face sort of manual. I appreciate its candor. The whole premise is that it's full of all the things that your doctors and pregnancy books won't tell you, but that your closest girlfriends would confess in a private session about the whole ordeal. It mentions individual's encounters with morning sickness, stretch marks, what ACTUALLY happens to your boobs during and after pregnancy, your sex life during pregnancy, and so on. It talks frankly and openly about the more unpleasant side-effects, not to frighten you, but so you can have realistic expectations and so you don't freak out when you start to notice odd things happening that nobody ever told you about. One topic that had quite a lot of mention in the portion of the book I read last night (which was probably nearly 1/2 of the book) was hemorrhoids, and how the poor author had no idea what they were and went into hysterics, fearing the worst, until she was informed that they are a common problem of pregnancy. So the book's primary aim seems to be to help expectant women avoid those frightening experiences that could have been prevented with ample education.
In The Womb is full of incredible pictures of computer generated images and award-winning models, depicting the full journey of the fetus from sperm & egg to fully-developed baby. Since I am more than a little preoccupied with what Baby looks like with each passing week, this book is really special for me, and I have to admit that looking at the images makes me teary-eyed.
The morning sickness seems, overall, to be improving. I've got my definite good days and my definite bad days: some days, I feel fine and can eat whatever I want all day (like yesterday). Some days, I feel like I barely have the strength to sit up straight, and I fear that each passing minute will bring a frantic trip to the bathroom, toothbrush and toothpaste in hand (like today, unfortunately).
Throughout it all, though, there is a growing sense of excitement and fascination with Baby. I see my stomach starting to edge its way out, and while I know right now I look more chubby than pregnant, I anxiously await the day when people start noticing and asking when I'm due. I'm trying not to get TOO far ahead of myself (i.e., thinking of names or how I want to decorate the nursery) until I know more, like the gender of the baby, etc. I have a nagging feeling that I'm carrying a little girl, but maybe that's just because before, I had a hunch I was carrying a boy, and this time, everything seems so different. I'm not going to put much stock in that suspicion; I'll just wait for a later ultrasound to confirm gender before I start going totally crazy with it all. :o)
It was nice reading in The Girlfriends' Guide last night that I'm not the only woman who becomes immediately obsessed with their pregnancy, from the very moment they start to suspect they might be pregnant and right on all the way through... It's nice to know that other women find it impossible to concentrate on work when there's a life developing inside them, that lots of women suddenly forget about everything and everyone else in the world and view their pregnancy as the ONLY thing of import on this planet.
It's also nice to see that I'm not the only one who's going positively insane and tormenting their spouse with irrational hormonal behavior. ;o)
Anyway, I suppose I should be working. I just needed some time to focus on Baby. :o)
posted by whitkay | 8:07 AM
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