On the 1st Third of Pregnancy...

"Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch."
-- E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

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Ok - so that "resuming daily blogging" thing didn't go so smoothly.  Oh well.  I actually don't mind.  Not much anyhow.  Must be the gad-zillion percent increase of Progesterone coursing through my body these days.  Makes me very chill.  And sleepy!  Speaking of which, I totally slept all afternoon.  Odd, no?  Well, I hadn't slept last night - so my consolation prize (for surviving a morning of teaching gymnastics, and running hectic errands, plus making a hot lunch for Husband, in spite of recurrent exhaustion-induced nausea) was lying down on the couch after lunch.  For a quick rest.  And waking up just in time to start dinner.  Awesome.  BUT, this is really all ok with me.  Thanks to the Progesterone.  Mmm.

Also amusing is my this whole "smelling the whole world at 1000%" symptom.  (And by "amusing," I mean it causes mild insanity - which I'm whitewashing with the positive, catch-all adjective "amusing."  Even tho' it really is NOT terribly amusing.)  Yesterday, during a sober military retirement ceremony, all that my brain could process was the under-someone's-uniform Calamine lotion, the nearby incessant Chive and Onion Pringles breath, and three different kinds of cologne/perfume.  No kidding.  I thought I might die.  On the upside, I have never (ev-er) been so deliriously happy as when the landscapers mow the greenbelt behind our house, or when a rainstorm blows across the sky.  Ahh, the scents of HEAVEN!

Equally divine is my regained desire for food.  Healthy food!  Real food!  Tomatoes!  Oranges!  Green beans!  Rice!  Salmon!  Yams!  Hard boiled eggs!  Gone are the inexplicable, infuriating desires for Hot Pockets and Mozarella sticks - desires which, if resisted, result in vomiting, and if indulged, result in... vomiting.  Marvelous.  Now I can eat baked potatoes, with sour cream and cheese!  Parmesan breaded pork chops, with corn on the cob!  And I seriously consumed three containers of raspberries in 24 hours.  No idea what raspberry-bound nutrient my body wanted so badly, but hey - who can refuse raspberries?!

My doctor would attribute this vast improvement to the hormonal/placental transitions that occur around this time - but, I'm crediting my sushi.  Yes, I know it's on the "Do Not Consume!!" list, which (naturally) makes a pregnant woman's brain DREAM about it, constantly.  I finally got so batty that I Googled "Sushi and Pregnancy" to see if there was an acceptable alternative (I can't be the only pregnant woman whose cravings are tied directly to the forbidden-ness, or inaccessibility of an item) and I discovered.... ohmylands, I can eat California rolls!  Duh, because they're COOKED!  It's actually safer than a Subway sandwich, turns out.  So I rushed to the commissary, and begged the nice sushi man to use a clean knife, and make me a box of California rolls.  I didn't even cringe at the price for a 13.25 ounce box of completely commercial, fake-crab and sugary-rice.  It was divine.  And I have been better ever since.  See?  It's the sushi.  Really.

And I am so happy to be back in the kitchen.  Husband is pretty happy to have me back in the kitchen, too - tho' he did a marvelous job substituting while I was gone.  I offered him the job permanently, but he declined.  Ah well.

And with that, I need some more green beans now.  With butter and salt, yum.  This must be why women love the 2nd Trimester.  We've got calories-thresholds to meet!