just a few of the never.ending things i've learned since becoming pregnant:
one. although water melon is out of season and therefore out of our price range, a craving is a craving, and pinching pennies all of a sudden becomes a little less of a priority while battling first trimester morning sickness.
two. a male clearly invented the title "morning sickness" and i'd really like to petition to rename this lovely feeling "morning.noon.&.never.ending.night sickness." anyone with me?
three. i will never in my life pray for a heightened sense of smell. i continue to be amazed, and often times overwhelmed by these crazy little senses that have only semi.controlled my life and my appetite recently.
four. pregnant women sacrifice much more than fine wine and their favorite overly caffeinated morning coffee beverage while growing and nurturing their little beans . . . and the fred meyer deli counter is currently playing the role of the evil temptress in the drama that has become my pregnancy. and let me tell you . . . i've never craved a fresh turkey cranberry sandwich plus a refreshing glass of iced tea with a splash of sweet.n.low more intensely than i have over the past four months. just. say. no.
five. cravings are oh.so.real and cause me to become oh.so emotional. the one morning during this pregnancy that my sweet husband did not wake up early enough to prepare our usual bacon, egg & cheese breakfast sandwich, i drove to work wiping just a few tears from my eye. yuup.
six. it is not wise to wolf down an entire box of mac & cheese two minutes before jumping on the scale at your monthly doctor's appointment. oh no no...unless you wan to hear, "i'm sorry to say this, but it's time for you to enjoy less bread and pop and more salad and water." thank you for your care and concern, dear midwife, but i think i'll skip the advice for now and hit up mcdonald's on my way home...
seven. hormones do crazy things to my dreams. last night i sat straight up in bed & woke jordan up proclaiming, "the walls! look at the walls!" jordan jumped out of bed, turned on the light and looked to where i was pointing. "what do you see?" he patiently asked..."they're on the walls! look!" i then layed my head back down on the pillow & drifted off into dreamland. when our alarm went off this morning my confused husband asked me what i thought was on the walls: it was a sting ray.
eight. not only have i picked up an aversion to many, many foods and smells, but i also cannot. think. or. talk. about. YARN. or any other crafting supplies.
Today began as a difficult day. I woke up continuing to fight a strong and oh.so.pesky migraine that lingered from the previous morning. For more than twenty hours, I felt tight in my shoulders, weak in my muscles, and incredibly excruciating pain radiating through both of my tired eyeballs. I texted my boss at 4:30am to inform him I would be arriving to work late. He told me to take care and take the day off.
Why didn't I listen to my boss? Why didn't I listen to my body when it was so clearly telling me to stay in bed? Why don't I simply rest and let myself heal?
Would have been too easy. And much too boring...
So instead, I rolled out of bed and got dressed for the day. I told myself I'd only go into school for three hours, to assist with the AVID classroom and to meet with students in my office during first and second lunch. On my way out the door I rather confidently thought to myself 'this will be the first time in seven days that i'll be driving my car out of the driveway...little miss independent is growing up!'
You see, our town was hit with a seemingly never ending snowstorm a week ago, and since then, I have yet to see any signs of grass, sidewalks, or asphalt. Just white and brown snow & ice, blanketing the ground for days. Because our driveway is very steep and also happens to be covered in a few layers of ice and snow, Jordan has been in charge of navigating the cars in and out of the garage each day. But today was a new day and with the snow slowly melting away, I figured I could handle backing out of my driveway on my own.
Oh, how presumptuous of me.
It only took a few seconds for me to find myself stuck in a slanted car down an icy driveway. The left side of my vehicle was comfortably resting on a sheet of ice, while the right side had become rather engulfed in two and a half feet of snow. With my exhaust pipe filled with snow, and no sign of my right tires, I was officially defeated. Couldn't drive forward, couldn't reverse backward. After twenty minutes of shoveling, sweating and snowing through my work attire, and filling my non.snow boots to the brim with snow, a kind and oh.so angelic stranger pulled over and offered to help. He went around the neighborhood in search of a rope, and thirty minutes later was pulling me down my driveway. Sweet victory!
