Galois :-)

8 weeks

Weight: 144.6 (Yikes! Wow! The End of the Morning Sickness Era has unfortunately led to a Renewed Interest in Food which has in turn prompted Dramatic Weight Gain! I need to slow down.)

Physical State: All I have to say is PRAISE THE LORD FOR VITAMIN B-6. 50 mg a day is good for what ails you (at least in the Morning Sickness department). My queasiness is about 99% gone which is FABULOUSLY FANTASTIC. !!!! :-)

Oh yeah, the baby? Would you guys like to hear something about the baby once in a while instead of just these utterly self-absorbed ramblings? Here's the 8-week update from Baby Center:

" Your baby is now 5/8 of an inch long, about the size of a kidney bean. She's constantly moving and shifting, although you won't be able to feel these womb wiggles for several weeks yet. Her embryonic tail is disappearing, and her eyelids practically cover her eyes. Still slightly webbed, her fingers and toes are growing longer. Her arms have lengthened, too, and her hands are now flexed at the wrist. Her knee and elbow joints have formed so she can now bend both, and her feet may be long enough to meet in front of her body. With her trunk straightening out, her head is more erect. Breathing tubes extend from her throat to the branches of her developing lungs. The nerve cells in her brain are also branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. Though you may be daydreaming about your baby as one gender or another, the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl."

And here's a picture:
We're going for an ultrasound of Friday so if possible I'll post a picture of that as well. :-)

Emotional: Happy! Overwhelmed with homework a little bit! Glad the queasiness is gone! Yay!

Must go Homework now.

Love to all,
Neb

7 Weeks (and the Last First Day of School)

Weight: 143.4 (Note: I am only supposed to gain 2-5 lbs by the end of the first trimester, which is Feb. 28th. Around Jan. 1st I weighed 141.0. That means I should weigh 143-146 by Feb. 28th. Apparently gaining weight is one of the few things in life that I don't procrastinate.)

Physical State: Wow! I have a strong gag reflex! Sometimes I almost throw up. But not quite. Still, I crave foods. Like McDonald's cheeseburgers (haven't gotten one yet). And pasta. But if I don't eat enough fruits and vegetables, Bad Things happen. If I am very careful about what I eat, digestion goes better. Sometimes I am too queasy to drink coffee. :-(

Emotional State: I am happy! Euphoric! Optimistic! Ecstatic! I love school! I love studying! I can be happy studying every waking moment! Oh yes, yes I can! I love the baby! Babycenter says [s]he is now the size of a raspberry, or 1/2 inch. That's so big, isn't it? I mean, compared to the sesame seed status of a couple of weeks ago.

Monday was, I suppose, my last first day of school. I wanted to take a picture to show you my pretty new outfit and my pretty, pretty haircut and the fact that I am still Hott [sic] (just for you, Laura!) but alas, our camera lacks digitaliness (that's like truthiness I think). So there is no picture. But, even though I haven't purchased a new 3-ring binder yet, there is an Inspirational Page in the front of my [temporary, too-small] binder- it is the lengthy CS Lewis quote from "The Weight of Glory" that appeared in my blog last... August? September? So this is a good way to celebrate the beginning of the semester. Last semester I thought all the time, I need quotes! I need poetry! I need Something! But I was too busy and overwhelmed and frustrated with the TA situation to do it. So that binder, now filled, permanently has a blank cover.

This semester's binder cover is filled with Beauty. :-)

I have to go to class so I'll cut this short- the other thing I wanted to tell you was that at church Sunday night, I felt God telling me that He wants me to dedicate this semester to Him. I don't entirely know what that means yet.

Love, Nancy Elizabeth

6 weeks

State of the Nebiverse:

Weight: 142.0
Physical experience: My left knee has apparently resigned! I found the following note taped to my pants leg:

"Dear Host Body,

You have taken us for granted for the last time! Remember last May, when we first expressed our discontent and boredom? WHAT were you told to do...? That's right! EXERCISE!! Meaning, let us MOVE once in a while! Take us for a brisk 30 minute walk in the refreshing outside air! Give us the chance to live out the full potential of the Knee we were created to be! Last May's pain was a Warning. Yet still, STILL you never let us get out and experience the world! All day you sit in front of the computer screen in that unnatural position, in which we are cramped and stiff and uncomfortable! Then when you're finally done with the mindless staring at the screen, when you're ready to do homework you FOLD US UP like a paper fan, under layers of blankets and other body parts, on that EXCUSE for a sofa while your mind is busy and active pondering inexplicable things. You restrain us! You restrict us! You make us support heavy algebra books! Most importantly, you TAKE US FOR GRANTED! Then you have the audacity to complain when you get up for the occasional coffee refill/ bathroom break as we stiffly and unhappily do our job.

Well, we're sick of it! We quit! Though Right Knee has not yet quite been persuaded to join us- poor sap! deluded into a proletariat life of drudgery and misuse!- we will no longer tolerate this gross abuse. Now, IN PAIN will you sit down and stand up! IN PAIN will you go upstairs, and, even more horrific, DOWNstairs. (*audible groan*) IN PAIN will you apply the emergency break on your car! Who's ignoring who [sic] now, chump?!?!? Huh? WHO'S IGNORING WHO NOW???

Remember last May how you coped with the Pain? With those frequent doses of... what was that? Oh, ALEVE! You mean that stuff that says "do not take when pregnant"...? Mwah ha ha ha hah!!!

Enjoy those recitations four times a day on the 4th floor of the math building! (no elevator, remember?)

xoxoxo
Left Knee

PS Bet you'll miss us now!
PPS But we're not coming back!
PPPS EVER! Even if you beg!"

In other news, I am Frequently Queasy (but no vomiting- yet).

Emotional Experience: I am Happy!! About the Baby!! Yay!! Also a little weirded out by telling people. This morning I told Professor King. I went into school for a brief [rather pointless] meeting with Prof. Logic (he's the prof I'm working with as a TA) and I had been debating whether or not to tell P.L.... the meeting was short and it didn't really come up, so I didn't. But then I went upstairs and read my course evaluations from last semester (Favorite comment: "You lit up my Thursdays with your beautiful face" !!!) and then Prof. King was there, and we started chatting. And he was like, "So, you're REALLY leaving in May...? You're not going to get a PhD? Why not?" So then I was like, um... ummm... I'm having a baby in September. And he tried to be all cool and non-embarrassed about it (I think he is from the generation when being pregnant is just something you Don't Talk About? Like, you just wait to get big and wear a big sack of a dress and then eventually the baby comes out?) and then he said "Lots of women are in the same situation and manage to get a PhD and do research and still have their kids taken care of very well..." and I was like, "Also, we're moving" and he was like "There are lots of schools" and I won't bore you trying to recreate this whole conversation, but as he was walking away he said, "I'll talk to you more about getting a PhD some time later..."

The ironic thing was that I tried to explain all of this to him in the letter. But I don't know if he gets it yet.

I dreamed last night about telling him. So it was kind of weird and cool that it happened today.

I have completed 2 of the 16 Logic problems.

Love, Neb

It's all about marketing!

So how do you like the New Look? This is the New Look that says, YES, Neb is still Cool, Neb is still hip, Neb is still Hott [sic], even while gestating.

Morning sickness kicked in today for real- enough to actually be a bit bothersome as opposed to barely noticable- but it only lasted an hour or two and was still not too terrible.

I need to finish my logic homework. I'm having trouble going near the book. The alternative is folding laundry, which is actually more appealing at this point. But what I really want to do is snuggle with Nate and watch Britcoms on PBS. Guess which I'll likely end up choosing?

We're out of cinnamon coffee. :-(

NEB
PS Do you have any other suggestions for my blog layout? I would really like it to smell like wildflowers and play "Like a Rolling Stone" when it loads, but don't have the Skillz to pull it off...

5 Weeks (and one day)

Hello, Loyal Blog Readers,

What would you all like to hear about? How about a completely self-absorbed account detailing every nuance of my emotional and physical state? Yes, I thought you'd enjoy that. There isn't really much else to write about at the moment, anyway, because school hasn't started back yet and I'm mainly just hanging out and emoting and gestating and whatnot.

Wow, as I sit here trying to write this, I'm realizing how out of practice I am at this blogging thing. Last semester was a killer; it was just so hard and I wanted to give it my best shot, and I tried to eliminate distractions from my work (like this blog). This semester needs to be easier. I hope everyone is telling the truth when they say Analysis II is easier than Analysis I?

Anyway, here's the State of the Nebiverse:

It has been six days since I found out I was pregnant, and they have been very cool, unique, different kinds of days. Telling people has been fun- though deciding who to tell right away has been a little tricky. Many suggest waiting until the end of the first trimester to tell such news, given that the risk of miscarriage so early on is fairly high. I decided a good rule of thumb is to only tell people now who are close enough friends that I would also tell them about a miscarriage (sorry, I think that grammar was off somehow...?); but that's still a fairly large number of people. I'm still trying to decide whether or not to tell my professors and students when I start back to school in a week and a half; or shall I wait through those awkward few weeks of weight gain later on when they will start to wonder? I just told the math department secretary because I knew she'd like to hear some good news. Maybe I shouldn't tell my students at all; just let them watch me get big and pretend like nothing's happening. Anyway, I also have been disappointed in my rather dramatic lack of ability to come up with witty/creative WAYS to announce the pregnancy. "By the way, I'm pregnant," is rather blunt, isn't it? But I guess it gets the job done. The only creative announcing so far has been the pillow we got my parents that says "Grandchildren Spoiled Here," which was cute, and at least a small improvement over the direct statement of the facts.

Physically? So far early pregnancy has been fairly good to me. The only symptom that has been somewhat troublesome is pretty bad abdominal pain, mainly at night, but improving my diet has helped. (Lots of fiber, small regular healthy meals, going easy on desert.) Jordana said she had the same kinds of pain in early pregnancy so that made me stop worrying about ectopiccy. (Is "ectopiccy" a word? It is now.) I bought a new digital scale to track my enlargement. This morning I weighed 141.4 lbs, which is not bad (for me), being just half a pound into the "overweight" category (going by BMI). I think I lost 10 lbs last semester because school was stressful and I didn't take time to eat lunch a lot of days. I would kind of like to not gain more than 30 lbs with this pregnancy, but I'm open-minded. We'll see how it goes (and how long I can keep up my new healthy eating habits). :-)

Emotionally? I'm very Happy (in case you couldn't tell from the last post.) It's interesting, though, because a friend said "You're not quite as ecstatic as I thought you'd be," given my baby-crazy hysteria that has come and gone in the past few years. Last spring I had Baby Fever badly, and that's when I decided I wanted to go off birth control, which we did in Septemeber. But then I got rather distracted with school, and I think I'll still be rather distracted by school until I'm done in May. I'm not really spending hours gawking at stuff on babiesrus.com or reading name-your-baby books. But the happiness comes in little bursts. :-) Gradually I'm starting to feel more of a connection with this little person inside me. It's funny because before getting pregnant I would have told you I wanted to have a girl first, and I still think it might be easier to parent a girl first, but now that this baby is real instead of just an abstraction, I understand what people mean when they say "Girl or boy doesn't matter- as long as our baby is safe and healthy." I'm trying to trust God completely about the health of our baby (it's hard not to read too much on the internet) and with our future, which I've been thinking about a lot lately. We're probably going to be moving (across the country? OUT OF the country...?) right around the baby's due date. I'll write more about that sometime later.

Anyway, I guess the only other thing to report at the moment is that I am having a brief fit of (for lack of a better name?) "Forever Young-ness," in which I express my (very slight) mourning over the loss of young adulthood and childlessness by 1) getting a "cool" haircut this morning (it is ear-length!!) and 2) looking a little more critically at my (mostly rather dumpy) clothes. I went clothes shopping today with no luck. Perhaps it is psychologically discouraging to realize that anything that fits today will likely not fit in 3 months? But today I am wearing the only shirt in my closet that the people from "What Not to Wear" might (*MIGHT*) consider sparing if they went through my wardrobe- so I feel at least minimally Cool. Also, I'm still drinking coffee. :-)

More next week,
Love, Neb