how are you feeling?

This is a question I'm getting a lot--which I totally understand because it's the first thing I think to ask my friends who are pregnant!!--so I thought I'd document it here, for my own records and also to share.

I started my pregnancy feeling great, but began to feel exhausted and food-adverse by week 7. I felt the worst in weeks 7 and 8, I think, but still sometimes feel a bit carsick at night now. I feel like my energy level has started to come back in the last week or so, although my sleep schedule seems to have permanently shifted... I have trouble staying awake at night (I know, nothing new really!) and I have trouble sleeping past 6 AM. I think my body is subconsciously preparing me for parenthood!

I'm getting some mean headaches, which is also nothing new for me, but I'm really missing my Aleve and Excedrin treatment. Regular strength Tylenol is not doing its job.

I'm having vivid dreams too, many of which involve babies, and some that are the classic the baby came early and I've done nothing to prepare. It seems WAY too early for that dream. Two nights ago I had an awesome dream that was like my own rendition of the Jason Bourne movies, and woke up at 5:30 AM and immediately put the Bourne movies to the top of our Netflix queue. Why are they not here yet???

It's still hard for me to think of anything that I want to eat, although some random things have consistently been good... I can always eat an egg on toast, always... I am obsessed with the udon noodle soup with tempura at one specific Japanese restaurant a 15 minute drive away... I will completely slurp down pho (an oxtail-broth soup) at the Vietnamese restaurant I've mentioned before... I had a short love affair with this Indian chickpea dish... And Ellen made a big pot of chicken and dumplings that was also delicious to me. I think that about covers it. Everything else is just sustenance, which is pretty sad for me, loving food the way I do.

I want to document too the growth of my belly in pictures, but so far it's been pretty uneventful. I'm starting to "thicken" a bit, as they call it, which basically just means that I'm losing my waist and feeling fat. But this too is part of the process, so I will take a picture of it, as I've been meaning to do for almost a month now. So, pictures to follow soon...