The good news is that I'm still pregnant, chugging along at 5w5d.
The bad news is that "occasional bouts of queasiness" has turned into full on morning sickness. For the last few days, right around lunch time, the nausea would start and stick around for a few hours. At first I assumed it was because I was hungry but eating didn't help. And this morning, I was actually sick to my stomach. That one snuck up on me; I wasn't even feeling nauseated until suddenly, I was overwhelmingly so. Also, stewed prunes have recently become part of a complete breakfast. Those go great with the nausea...NOT.
So, in the span of a week, I've gone from feeling mostly ok to feeling mostly like this (though considerably less cute):
But I am not complaining. I will take whatever crap I need to take as long as it means baby is staying.
I always promised myself I'd never test that early but starting at about 5 DPO, I began feeling really weird. By 9 DPO, I was a hormonal mess and my temperature, which usually takes a dip on that day, stayed up. Then, on the drive to work that morning I saw one of these:
Full disclosure: this was not on the drive to work. I was too busy driving to take a picture. This was taken from my driveway two days prior. Multiple rainbows this cycle = definite sign when you are getting desperate.
I decided that if that wasn't a sign, I didn't know what was and tested as soon as I got home. My initial reaction was "I KNEW it!" followed by "I can't wait to show DH the second he comes home!" followed by "holy shit, it's only 9 DPO, what have I done?!"
Needless to say, we are extremely nervous about this. Excited but also really nervous. As of today, I'm 4w6d, which is three days farther than I made it last time. We have a viability scan coming up on Oct. 3rd with the RE, at 6 weeks, when we will hopefully see everything in the right place and a beautiful little heartbeat. If all goes well, EDD is May 28, 2014 - just a few days after my own birthday and just about a year after our first BFP.
For the most part, I've been feeling pretty good. From 5 DPO to about 12 DPO, I had lots of symptoms but they've settled down. Now I've just got major bloat, occasional bouts of queasiness, and want to sleep 24/7. Oh, I can also smell everything now and it turns out that everything smells bad. That's been fun.
Over the weekend, we told our parents by giving them each one of these:
They were a hit!
We are trying not to get too excited or attached yet, but we are so grateful for each day that this baby sticks around and are hoping that we get to bring this one home.
[Today's usual TTC Friday post is going to be a few days late. I haven't been feeling great this week and I've been sitting on this review for a while, so it will have to tide you over. I'll be back soon!] The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope, William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
Audiobook
Rating: 3.0/5.0
Like China Road earlier this year, this is a book I only discovered because the author was interviewed on The Daily Show. Being a physics teacher, the story of William building a windmill for his village after teaching himself about electricity sounded interesting and potentially inspiring.
Here's a condensed description, taken from Amazon.ca:
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is
the immensely engaging and inspiring true account of an enterprising
African teenager who constructed a windmill from scraps to create
electricity for his entire community. William Kamkwamba shares the
remarkable story of his youth in Malawi, Africa—anation
crippled by intense poverty, famine, and the AIDS plague—and how, with
tenacity and imagination, he built a better life for himself, his
family, and his village.
William's story is amazing to me for a few reasons. First, William grew up in a superstitious community. People tended to explain things away with magic and didn't really encourage scientific curiosity. William, however, never stopped asking questions no matter how many times the adults around him tried to dismiss them. Also, this young boy takes it upon himself to make his own education. He goes to the library to read books on the subjects he would have studied in school. He works to improve his English so that he can understand the physics books that captivate his interest. His determination and drive are inspiring.
As a teacher, I found myself wondering how many of our North American students would do what William did if they couldn't go to school? The way that our students take their education for granted often frustrates me, especially when I read books like this (see also: Three Cups of Tea, Little Princes, or Reading Lolita in Tehran). When my physics class began our electricity unit last semester, I showed my students a TED talk that William gave and told them his story, hoping to show them how the concepts they were learning are fairly basic but their applications can be life changing. I hoped that they, too, might get something out of William's determination and ingenuity. Unfortunately, it sparked nothing with that group. So disappointing.
All of this sounds like great stuff but the enthusiasm is entirely mine. The book itself is actually very dull. It's marketed as the story of the windmill but that part is just a very small portion toward the end. The majority of the book talks about William's childhood, some of his parents' history, his village, and Malawi. I get that all of those things are important for context and to convey the significance of the windmill for the people in William's village, but it was long and meandering, and at times just boring.
If you're interested, here is the second of the two TED talks that William has given:
There is also a documentary in the works. The video at that link has a more current interview with William and talks about what he's been up to in recent years.
Overall, William's story is worth hearing and learning about but the book may not be the best medium to do it.
Doesn't it feel like I start every post with an apology for being MIA? This is one is no exception! I have so many things waiting in the wings to be written about, just haven't had the time. I will be playing catch-up again next week but for now, something short and sweet...
A friend who was TTC a few years ago found a song that she'd use to help her every time CD1 came around and after she had her baby boy, it became "their" song. It was Michael Buble's Just Haven't Met You Yet. I loved that, but never really found a song that conveyed the same thing for me.
A few days ago, I got this Rascal Flatts song stuck in my head and everytime I got the part of the chorus that goes, "while you're out there getting where you're getting to, I hope you know somebody loves you..." I started to get a little choked up. Call it PMS hormones or whatever, but this is my song:
My wish for you
Is that this life becomes all that you want it to
Your dreams stay big
Your worries stay small You never need to carry more than you can hold
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to, I hope you know somebody loves you
And wants the same things too, Yeah, this, is my wish.
