Great Expectations: Emily @ 26 Weeks

Okay, I'll give the bad news first: nausea the past two weeks has been awful! I've had to cancel and say no to many fun activities with friends and family, and I feel like I'm barely making it through the workday before collapsing at home. And then, I can only stomach one or two chores around the house every day, so I feel like my house is falling apart. I have all of these grandiose ideas of how much I will do my pregnancy workout videos, but I get to them only about half of the time. Plus, I've had a bunch of schoolwork due as part of my doctorate program, and I don't even want to get started on how behind I am on my dissertation work. My husband, Joe, has been working long days into the evening as a high school golf coach, which makes him super busy too. Less than five full weeks of school for both of us and I am in major countdown mode!

I've been trying to capitalize on any time that I feel good to prepare for baby boy. I'm itching to get things ready around the house! We are so thankful that we have many people in our lives that are helping us. My sweet dad blessed us and came over one day and painted the nursery. I loooove the color--it's a light, fresh blue. A family I know from school gave us a small changing table/dresser that I repainted white, and I can't wait to fill it with little diapers, and onesies and'¦.whatever else you need for a baby! My sister gave me her boys' old crib and it's sitting in the nursery ready to be assembled. On my list to buy for nursery: Curtains, a bookshelf, wall décor, and a rocking chair of some kind. I've put my husband in charge of finding a model airplane to suspend from the ceiling, as we love the transportation theme. My father was a train engineer and my husband's father was a pilot, so it's kind of in our blood.

My sisters and friends are starting to talk to me about baby shower plans. It looks like we are having two: one with my large extended family, and another with the womenfolk at our church. My work friends and our neighbors are each having a small shower for us too! We feel so blessed. Joe and I decided not to start a baby registry because we trust others' more experienced opinions on baby items. I think we are the last of our family and friends to start a family, so we're positive that they all know better than we do! As of now, we don't have any baby books, toys, feeding supplies, bathing products, or other baby items. I'm excited to start collecting and organizing these things. I find myself walking down the baby aisle at the grocery store on purpose just to peruse all of the cute baby items!

We had a doctor appointment last week, and I found that I've averaged gaining one pound per week so far. Yikes! It's hard to see these new numbers on the scale, but she said that I'm within normal range and that it's okay if I continue at this rate throughout the rest of pregnancy. With my nausea, I find that it helps to constantly have something to munch on, so there's really nothing I can do about that. I also asked her about these red spots I've developed on my face and chest, and I found out that it's some random, pregnancy related, blood vessel thing. I'll have to wait until after baby comes to see if a dermatologist can do something about them. She also gave me some meds that will help with my increasingly painful heartburn, which she thinks may also ease my nausea. We'll see about that. Most importantly, the baby had a perfectly healthy heartbeat, my uterus measurement was just the right size at 25 centimeters, and I feel him moving around almost constantly. I'm not quite sure when the kid sleeps! We are scheduled to have our next sonogram in a month for the regular checkup on the placenta issue.

Pregnancy hormones are in full swing, too. When I feel really bad all I can do is lay in front of the TV, and I'm not proud to say that I recently had to pause an episode of Grey's Anatomy because I was not just crying, but convulsing while watching a particularly sad episode! I made myself switch to watching a different show--one that doesn't involve so much drama and baby-related incidents. That show used to be my favorite veg-out, guilty pleasure, but it's too much for me to handle right now!

Next up: Birthing classes and birth plan decisions.