ten weeks!

Today: 10W0D

TMI Factor: */5

Bedside survival supplies

MS has been notable the past couple of days. It's been shifting to the late afternoons and evenings. My routine, recently: Wake up feeling pretty good; eat something easy for breakfast - as of late, it's been pudding, an English muffin, and orange juice; for the rest of the day try to eat small meals and snacks with protein, like crackers and peanut butter, until dinner. Dinner is usually pretty normal-sized. After the PIO shot and just before bed, I usually have a snack so I can take my prenatal. I know I should tweak things so that I'm eating protein first thing - eggs, peanut butter, something.

For lunch today we had chicken/mozz sandwiches and a potato-filled chicken corn chowder. Took a nap and just now had a turkey burger and OJ. It used to be that as soon as I ate, I'd feel better. Now I feel slightly better, because the empty stomach feeling goes away, but still queasy. However, as my next appt isn't until Sept. 25, MS reassures me that things are okay, that baby is happy (sick mommy = healthy baby, right?) so I will be just as sick as I have to be for as long as I have to be. I'm trying to drink lots of water, or at least as much as I'm supposed to be drinking, but sometimes water tastes so gross that I get by with juice instead. (And again, the sugars.)

Felt like I was raring to go this morning, so I vacuumed, moved some (very light) furniture around, stripped the bed. At about 11:30 I felt completely exhausted and sick, so Scott went to get our lunch and I pretty much collapsed on the couch til he got back. The heat has been disgusting lately.

Last night we went to Babies R Us to look around and "get some ideas." I thought it was going to be fun but for some reason I mentally checked out right after the car seat aisle. It's all so overwhelming. There is too much to look at, it's ridiculously expensive, one thing depends on another, reviews are mixed, etc. Breast pump, $400. Car seat, $300. Stroller that fits the car seat carrier component, $300. Pack N Play, $200. Video baby monitor w/infrared night vision, $250. Plus all the things that are just "nice" to have but deemed by veteran parents completely unnecessary to puchase: Diaper Genie, wipe warmer, bottle disinfection system, pump accessories, etc. It isn't even the money (although sticker shock was undeniable.) It was the sheer quantity of choices you have for every imaginable (and thus-far unimagined) product available. Colors, models, functions, styles, materials, systems.

ARghghghghghgh.

But then an incredible blessing shone through the Clouds of Overwhelming Despair. Karlene texted that her colleague was giving away - as in, for free - a very high quality car seat with several bases, a breast pump, a swing, a Boppy pillow and a high chair. On top of this, Dad found a Pack N Play that might actually be usable.

!!!

I am making a mental note that for all the kindness and prayers that people have been showering us with, we need to pay it forward in a big way.

That's it for now. I leave you with this, a picture that made me LOL in Babies R Us but may well be my near future: