8 weeks (and 3 days)

I'm still going to do my photos on Saturdays even though the ultrasound showed the baby measuring three days ahead of what I thought... so now these are "and three days" photos.

From 7 to 8 weeks I look basically the same except that I made an effort to improve my posture this morning. I was feeling slightly better at the moment that I took this photo than I did taking last week's photo.

A new symptom has reared its ugly head in the last few days: constipation. Woohoo! I never had this issue with the first pregnancy, but this baby seems hell bent on giving me every pregnancy symptom in the book, which is fine by me, and Mr. Ibis seems to love it. Every time I mention something going kooky with my body he feels like it's one more sign that the baby is growing. Which, hopefully, it is.

I'm sure it's a little TMI in a marriage, but given his glee at my pregnancy symptoms, I let Mr. Ibis know this morning that I have acquired a new one. He guessed, "diarrhea?" I said, "No, the other end of it kinda." He guessed puking. I said, "No, same end of the body, other end of the spectrum from diarrhea." He guessed, "Rock hard poop?" Haaha... that's one way to put it.

Grocery shopping was an interesting chore this morning, as the sight of pretty much every single food item in the place made me want to hurl. To say nothing of the smells. Sometimes I think that my morning sickness has gotten milder than in the 6th week, when it first popped up and seemed so atrocious, but then other times I think maybe I am just getting used to it and learning to tune it out.

Sadly, what triggers nausea more than anything for me is food. Proteins most especially, which is rough, because especially as a vegetarian I need to eat some protein. But ever since the first time chili made me gag, all beans are off limits, my once-beloved tempeh is just as bad, and I don't eat meat, so hmmm. Other food aversions are more unpredictable. Sometimes I'll get a craving and then when I actually start eating, I can't stand the taste of what I thought I wanted. The absolute worst time of day for me, sadly and ironically, is dinnertime. No matter how hungry I am (and usually I am quite hungry by then), I struggle with dinner. On a good night, I start off fine but hit a wall and have to stop eating quickly. On a bad night, each and every single bite of my food makes me want to retch, and I just get down as much as I can until I can't take it anymore.

The only really safe foods are fruits and popsicles, and I also bought some OJ this weekend. I'm trying not to overdo it because that's a lot of sugar, but if I could live off of peaches, orange juice, and popsicles, I would.

I am still glad to have morning sickness and food aversions... everything that makes me "feel pregnant" makes me feel better. I'm coming up on the toughest part of my pregnancy, psychologically, because we lost our first pregnancy on a Saturday when I was 9 weeks 3 days - and next Saturday I will be exactly that. I do feel like if we can get past that milestone I'll feel better. The following Wednesday we'll have another appointment and will be able to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler, which should be immensely reassuring. Hopefully then I can exhale a little more.