9 Weeks

The cherry tree in front of our house I wait for to blossom every spring

Today was the best day for the past couple of weeks because I woke up feeling somewhat normal. While newly pregnant, I boasted to my midwife that I never got sick in my first two pregnancies so I didn't need her teaching about managing nausea. I should not have said that because last 2 weeks were a payback, miserable & humbling. I wasn't necessarily nauseous, but how can I describe feeling bloated & gassy, starving & unable to eat at the same time? I wasn't throwing up but getting a whiff of an open garbage can or changing a poopy diaper were suddenly intolerable. The only time I felt mild relief was if I was stuffed with food, which was uncomfortable in itself. Eating sour foods also made me feel better so I made multiple store trips to stock up on kombucha tea, oranges, strawberries, frozen sour cherries, mangoes, kimchi, & lemons.
To top it off, my constant & unrelenting queasiness were combined with overwhelming fatigue. I felt like I was moving in a slow motion, my mind being foggy & unable to process any information besides the next meal & nap times. I would sleep for 8-9 hours every night; wake up; toilet, dress & feed breakfast to the kids & then be utterly exhausteed. I took a 2-3-hour nap on my days off, which usually were Saturdays, Sundays & Mondays. If I was priding myself in being able to exercise at least every other day in my early pregnancy, my desire to do anything but only essential daily tasks was wiped off. I lost all my ambition to pick up any nursing overtime hours at the hospital (money just stopped being that important). I would literally drag myself through the day dreaming of closing the blinds, snuggling under a warm comforter & sleeping, sleeping, & more sleeping. It seemed that laying still & closing my eyes were the only things that made my queasiness stop. A difficult task to accomplish with 2 toddlers! I was pretty cranky, with all of my usual motherly patience gone out of the window. Almost overnight, I stopped being tolerant of Gerritt's little idiosyncrasies. There was a more frequent use of naughty chair for him, more tears & even a never-event of spanking. :-(
But... hooray, a significant relief in symptoms today! Like a light switch turned off overnight. My queasiness is still present, but in milder form. I am a sweet, patient Mommy again. I went to work at the hospital & was able to tolerate a crazy shift with 6 patients, 3 discharges & 1 post-op. I've recently read that by 9 weeks the placenta is well developed & takes over most of the hormone production in pregnancy, so maybe that's the reason for improvement in my condition?


Sophia enjoying the piano player at the Bellevue Square Mall


Posing for Mommy

Sophia's sleeping habits are gradually getting better. She now sleeps through the night on most days of the week (finally!) & when she wakes up occasionally she goes back to sleep right away. She likes to sleep with her BPA-free sippy cup filled with water, but it is a small price to pay for a full night's rest. We haven't banned the formula forever yet, so Sophia gets a warm bottle before her naps & bedtime. We then brush her teeth & put her to sleep. She gets to be almost hysterical every time she sees her "milky", so we are doing the bottle-weaning slowly.
After sleeping in his new Ikea bunk bed (with him on the top & me on the bottom) for 1 whole week, Gerritt declared he didn't like it anymore & wanted to sleep next to me in the "big bed" again. It was "uncomfortable" mattress at first, then his pillow wasn't right. Then, "But I love you, Mommy, & want to sleep next to you!" I tried explaining to him that we wouldn't be able to sleep in the same bed once the baby came, but he responded, "But Mommy, the baby is not here yet!" He then announced that he'd sleep with me anyways. So, we are back to sleeping in our master bedroom. Maybe this attachment parenting is not what it's cracked up to be since I am starting to really miss my husband. My husband even calls the attachment parenting "husband detachment." :-)
Gerritt's favorite books for the past few weeks included It's Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr (he wanted to read it over & over again), Here Comes the Big, Mean Dust Bunny! by Jan Thomas (this one always created the most laughs) & 10 Little Hermit Crabs by Lee Fox & Shane Mcg (a good book for learning counting). Gerritt's favorite word now is "Why?," so I can't simply read books & be done in 15 minutes, but have to explain the meaning behind the words & pictures.

Gerritt's New Bed

Gerritt's new bed


A few finishing touches - a blue star nightlight & Dora pillow (a present from Korean grandma)

We are in the process of restructuring our family life. This time I am not waiting until the last minute & doing a few major changes earlier in pregnancy. Two main things we are working on right now are getting Sophia to sleep through the night & moving her out of my bed into her own bedroom.
It all started with me noticing a few tiny white spots on Sophia's front teeth. Could it be early tooth decay? Certainly drinking formula before bedtime & multiple times during the night couldn't be good for her. She is almost 2 years old. She is healthy & chubby. Drinking milk at night is not a necessity for her, but more of a habit. So Monday was the first night I've started a new bedtime & sleeping routine to break Sophia's sleep association with a bottle. I slept right next to her & she woke up 5 times asking for her bottle. Needless to say, I was utterly exhausted & had to call in sick to work the next day.
The following night she woke up only once around 1 am & cried for about 30 minutes, then went back to sleep. My husband was sleeping next to her crib, so she didn't cry alone. Sophia still continued to wake up once or twice a night for the next few days, but didn't cry for long. Once she received reassurance that Daddy was there she would promptly fall back to sleep. We should have done this way sooner!
Since I called in sick to work & my nanny still came, I've decided not to waste a day completely. After sleeping in for a few hours, Gerritt & I made a trip to Ikea to buy him his "special, big-boy" bed. I preselected everything from bed to sheets & mattress on line prior to leaving the house, so all we had to do was find the items in the store & write down their warehouse pick-up location. What could have been a day-long project, took us just a little over 3 hours (that includes a lunch stop at the Ikea restaurant for my favorite Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sause!). Gerritt was very proud to be my helper for the day & didn't get cranky even though he had to postpone his afternoon nap by a few hours. I couldn't load the heavy bed box into the car by myself & lucked out by getting free help from strangers. Theoretically, the Ikea trips should only be done with husbands, but I took my chances (once I decide to do something, I will accomplish the goal whatever it takes). My husband stayed up until 1 am assembling the bed, but it was worth it!
My hope is that Gerritt & Sophia will share this bed eventually (once Sophia is old enough to understand staying put). Although we live in a 4-bedroom house, with my Mom moving in & needing a private room of her own & a new baby coming, we suddenly don't have as much space as we thought we did.