Puppy in the Window

Is there anything cuter than a puppy in the window? Especially when it is MY puppy? Our front picture window is just the right height for someone with stumpy legs and a long body to put his front paws on the sill and look out. He's just so sweet peering out at you, and it is impossible not to pause after backing out of the driveway to wave to him (or, if you are Shannon, flip him off, laugh hysterically and speed off). It is really hard to leave in the morning though if you are the last one to leave him - his watching you drive off makes you just want to zoom up the driveway, run in the house and scoop him up. We especially love when we come home at night and he pops up there with his bat ears outlined by the light of the tv. I wish I could get a picture, but I keep forgetting my digital camera. I'll have to see if I can get a decent one on my camera phone.

Other than that, not a lot to report. Last week I worked 68 hours and this week I worked 67 - tiring even when you aren't pregnant! We had a lot going on at work (our typical busy season), plus we were down a person with one of our 4 taking another job. Tuesday morning, we move to our new digs while our floor is being renovated and Tuesday noon I fly off to Memphis to take my citizenship test and interview.

Right now, I need to get to bed!

Another pregnancy update

First, I am feeling SO much better. I am still coughing a little and still tired, but the tiredness could also be due to the pregnancy. I had an appointment at the OB's on Wednesday and met with the same nurse practitioner that I saw for the last bout of walking pneumonia and she couldn't get over how much better I looked and sounded.

The pregnancy is still going fine. I got to hear the heartbeat on Wednesday again and it was loud and clear as soon as she put the doppler on my stomach. We couldn't get a reading on the rate because my heartbeat was interferring and the nursing assistant didn't have a watch on to do a manual count, but it was still quite reassuring to hear it so steady and strong. I had been nervous after all the drugs I've had to take. (Speaking of which, gotta run and take my prenatal!)

(back) I'm still nauseous a lot of the time, although it is not as bad as it was prior to me starting to drink real ginger ale (with ginger, not ginger flavour). Until tonight, I hadn't been sick to my stomach in almost 2 weeks. I had been taking my prenatals in the morning because I was less likely to forget, but when I started actually being sick, I was afraid of not retaining any vitamins - now I take them with dinner, although I don't tend to eat much at night.

It's hard to believe I am a quarter of the way there!

Miserable

Ugh ... what a great holiday it has been. I am still sick. I had almost cleared up all my illness (save for a little coughing) right after Christmas, when I came down with another cold, which has since turned into a worse version of walking pneumonia. I started on the antibiotics again on Wednesday, took Wednesday and Thursday off work, attempted work Friday and ended up on the doctor's again by noon Friday. This time the coughing has been much worse - coughing to the point of throwing up (because I knew you wanted to know that). The nurse practitioner was very concerned and told me that if I didn't get any better, or worse, got worse, this weekend I was to go to the OB floor at the hospital (ER doesn't really care about the baby until you are at least 20 weeks along), do not pass go, do not collect $200. She gave me a killer prescription cough syrup and a puffer - the risk to the baby is much less than me being so sick. Shannon's been afraid that I was going to cough the baby loose - I'm just afraid that s/he will be born with an extra arm or something.

Today I am doing better. Still have a nasty cough, but not nearly as frequent as it was. The cough syrup has also been helping me sleep, which was something I was heavily lacking before. The silver lining? When I went to the doctor's on Wednesday, they decided to see if they could hear the heartbeat. You usually can find it between 8 and 12 weeks and the nurse said not to be alarmed if we couldn't find it since I was only 9 weeks. It took several minutes, but there it was! Once again, the big goofy grin came on my face. On Friday, Baby wasn't coorporating and we only found the heartbeat for a second, but at least we heard it - reassuring in light of all this sickness and medication!

Pregnancy tip: I have found the magic elixer (for me) for morning sickness - REAL gingerale. The stuff in the grocery stores are just flavoured. If you go to a health food store and get gingerale made with real ginger, it is a miracle worker (at least for me). A bottle of that after I get up and I'm fine for the day (provided I eat enough during the day).