It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Or so I hope.

Wow...I have been off the blog-grid for a little while now.  Why is that?  Well, I found out at the end of September that I'm pregnant.  I felt great for 2 weeks after that and then it went downhill from there.  I felt nauseous all the time.  Vomited 1-2x/day for weeks.  It was AWESOME.  During this time, I did NOTHING.  At all.  Everyday.  I lounged* in my bed or on the couch.  I flexed** at least once a week, so I only worked 2 of my 3 scheduled shifts.  I focused all my energy on those 2 days of work.

Side note:  I work with babies.  There are many sights/smells I encounter every work day that make me want to throw up.  And that's when I'm NOT pregnant with a sensitive nose and even more sensitive stomach.

Around 10 weeks, much earlier than I expected this to happen, I started to have some better days mixed in with the bad.  I could eat on those days.  I felt hungry.  I didn't throw up.  This felt encouraging!  Thankfully, my cousin Michelle's wedding day was one of those good days.  I was so excited to eat wedding food and CAKE. :)  This is an iphone picture from the wedding. (in not great lighting with no flash, sorry for the quality)

At the 13 week mark, I got dramatically worse all of the sudden.  As it turns out, I had some sort of stomach/intestinal virus that has been going around.  As my sister would say,  THAT'S JUST RUDE.  I just started to eat again and I get slammed with a vomit-bug.  I gotta tell you, if vomiting were a game on the Wii fit, I would be not an amateur, not a professional, but a CHAMPION at it.  If you've never played Wii fit, you have no idea what I'm talking about.  That's okay.

       Here's a picture of my belly (or lack thereof?) from 14 weeks.

I'm down 4 lbs since the beginning of the pregnancy.  I'm 14+ weeks now.  Feeling good.  Loving eating.  Not throwing up.  I'm BOUND to gain some weight now!

On to Christmas!  Illness aside, I have been enjoying the holiday season.  Yesterday I made a lot of cookies.  (please refer back to my "loving eating" comment)  So far I've made Chocolate Crinkles, M&M cookies and sugar cookies.

My mom helped me decorate the house and make it look Christmas-y. Note the surprising lack of presents under the tree.  1) This is actually not surprising at all considering I haven't shopped for any yet.  2) Because once I wrap them, if I put them under the tree, the Grinch's little helper-cats like to UNwrap them.  Or at least poke holes in the wrapping paper with their teeth.  They also try to ingest all the ribbons.

I went to Pier 1 to pick up a couple missing items.  Like a tree topper:

And 2 cute candle holders:

I am not a shopper.  Every once in a while I'll get excited about going to look for a particular item.  This was one of those times.  Pier 1 had a million cute Christmas things I could want.  I did well.  I only bought 3 things. :)  Seriously, how cute are the penguin and snowman??

So....life is getting back on track for me.  I am so grateful.  I know tons of people deal with much worse than "morning" sickness, and for much longer time frames.  I'm thankful that this is the only illness I've faced in the recent past.  I'm grateful for a husband who has cared for me well during this extended period of under-the-weatherness.  Scott has been kind to call on his way home from work to ask if he needs to pick up anything for me.  For example, for a few days, KFC's mashed potatoes and gravy was working for me.  Every afternoon he'd bring me some.  :)

Oh, forgot to mention this:  WE MOVED!!  Thanksgiving weekend.  We had planned to stay put in our 1 bedroom place until the baby was 6 months old or so.  All of the sudden, a 1 bedroom with a "den" (it has a door and a closet, that's a bedroom to me) came available for cheaper rent than we were paying.  So, in a matter of 5 days, we moved.  Found out about the available apartment on Tuesday.  Moved on Saturday, thanks to some extremely gracious family and friends.  We're in the same apartment complex, just around the corner from our old place.  Now we have a place for baby stuff!  I really felt like this was a God-type blessing.  It's not a common thing to go up in square footage and go down in rent.  Again, I am grateful.

I'm working on Christmas cards.  If you receive one, make note of the new address.  If you need our new address, email me at baacuff@mac.com.  I'll send it to ya.

That's all for now, folks.  Be blessed this Christmas season!

-BA

*I used the word 'lounged' here because I couldn't decide how to say "I layed on my bed."  Is it "I lied on my bed?"  Lyed?  You see now why I opted for "lounged".  Less controversy.

**'Flexed' means that there were more nurses scheduled to work on that particular day than were necessary for the number of patients (babies) in our nursery.  Sometimes you can request to flex (ie--stay home) if they have too many people.  Sometimes you are forced to flex because nobody has requested to do so.  If they force people to flex,  they go by dates, so it's more equitable.  For example, if the last time you flexed was in October and everybody else on that work day has flexed in November or December, then it's your turn to flex by dates.  Make sense?  Good, now you can too can be a nurse. :)