EIGHT WEEKS

We made it to eight weeks! And lo, our first baby-bump photo. Funny how the belly sticker says "blueberry" while the ticker says baby's a raspberry today... I am thinking we may see several of these sorts of contradictions as we go, but that's okay.

For being a blueberry/raspberry, baby sure is making my tummy stick out a lot. You can see pooching already in the picture. :P I don't think I've actually gained weight yet - maybe a half-pound or so, but my weight regularly fluctuates by about 4 pounds so it's hard to tell for sure. Sorry for the bad-quality pic, but the lighting in our house is not awesome at 6 AM and it's hard to get a good phone photo. Hopefully we'll get better at this as we go along. (A pretty new camera is on my wish list, but we have some debts to pay off before I can justify it. :P)

In terms of morning sickness, for me it's REALLY turning into a misnomer. I actually feel best in the mornings, with the least ickiness and the most energy I'll have all day. Round about 11AM - noon, I start feeling slower and uckier. Usually by the time I get home from work I'm full-on miserable, and bedtime is a welcome escape from the awful seasick feeling.

What's tough is that drinking liquids - doesn't seem to matter what kind - is the worst part. I don't struggle much with food, but liquids make me feel really seasick/carsick, even when I'm sitting still. So I'm trying to pace myself with water throughout the day, and instead of guzzling every 30 minutes or so like I usually do, taking 2-3 swallows every 10 minutes. It's pretty intrusive when I'm trying to concentrate on working, but the smaller amounts make me less queasy in the long run.

There was such terrible news on the NW forums yesterday - two of the hopeful mamas that recently got BFPs miscarried. I am so very sad for both of them, as they're such good and kind people and life is just so horribly unfair. Not that I would ever want to jinx this pregnancy, but I guess I feel a little guilty that so far my luck is holding out. Fertility really is such a fickle thing, with no apparent rhyme or reason to why some babies stick and so many others don't. I am grateful beyond words that we are doing well so far... and heartbroken beyond words for my friends who are facing such loss. :(

So, there's a lot of stuff we need to accomplish this weekend, namely some cleaning and yard maintenance and I have to get a solid start on the SCA project. I think I'm going to have to do most of the work in the morning, since I know when afternoon nausea hits I'll be pretty much useless.

Also, starting tomorrow it's the first level of reduction in the medication I've been taking - I go from 12mg of estrogen/day to 10, and from 800mg of progesterone/day to 600. Hoping that it goes well and doesn't cause any spotting or other scary stuff...

Anyway, here's what BabyCenter says our little shrimp looks like at 8 weeks - starting to look a little more humanoid now, yeah?