Becoming a Junkie

Used to be, I viewed people who watched hour after hour of TV with derision. I mean, I had my shows I liked--I could watch three hours in a row of Law & Order. Sometimes I could watch an episode I'd already seen, sometimes one I'd even seen more than once! (The one that starred Katherine Moenning, Shane from the L Word, I watched a few times. And the one with the lesbian stalker/murderer of her lover's husband.)

Since I've been pregnant, I'm clocking a lot of couch time. I'm almost embarrassed about it, but in a way, I'm psyched that I have an excuse to watch so much TV. I have a new obsession though: Without a Trace. I'm so much more into it than L&O now. I had known Anthony LaPaglia was on the show, but other than that, I didn't watch. WAT follows Cold Case, another of my favorite crime drama shows, on Sunday nights, and once I stayed up late and watched it. I'm hooked now. A friend of ours who has worked with Poppy Montgomery, the hot, sassy blonde FBI agent (above), said, "She is one crazy bitch. The craziest actor I've ever worked with, besides a drunk Tom Berenger." I love her even more for that!

More exciting is the second to last night of The Biggest Loser, tonight. I'm not SO into the show, but I love the last 30 seconds, when the person kicked off the ranch gets a minute at the end, so that we can see what s/he looks like today. The transformations are incredible, and so miraculous. I feel they spend too much time on the weigh-ins though.

In between reruns of WAT last night, I read a pretty useful book called Balancing Pregnancy and Work. A lot of the stuff I already knew, and I'm lucky to work for a company that has a great maternity leave, but if you don't, check out the book.

Aliens

The front cover of the New York Post made me laugh today. Headline said "Bimbo Summit," with a pic of new BFFS Linds, Brit, and Paris--the latter two of whom have showed their snatch in public without any underwear. Wow, Britney's divorcing the bum, but she's not exactly taking the classy road thereafter.

This week we'll be at 12 weeks of pregnancy. The morning sickness is supposed to be tapering off, but far from it. I still feel as nauseous as ever, and to make matters worse, I've got my second really bad cold since I became pregnant. Are pregnant women more prone to colds and other infections? My doc says there's nothing I can do but try to take it easy, drink a ton of fluids and lay low. Am doing that, but flying on Thanksgiving in a packed plane didn't help.

I feel like an alien has invaded my body. An alien who is very, very hungry. This morning, I felt like crap but forced myself to eat breakfast so I wouldn't puke on the subway. I had a piece of peanut butter toast. When I got to work, I was hungrier than ever, and ate two bowls of Rice Krispies. WTF?? I am craving, and eating, things I never even liked before. Or at least, things I didn't admit I liked, or didn't allow myself to eat. Things like pizza, and pasta (my days of craving fish and lean meats are really over. The thought of fish makes me sick now), and cheesesteaks, and great big pieces of carrotcake, and burgers and fries and milkshakes. The other day I saw someone on the street with McDonald's, and I almost tackled him.

I eat dessert twice a day now, and it shows. I've gained at least five lbs since this all began, and my boobs are a half cup size bigger--that's a general estimate anyway. And I think I have a small bump! Ingrid says it's just because I was concave in my stomach before, but I think I looked good, and cut. Now, I've got the definite beginnings of a tummy. I first started noticing it last weekend, over Thanksgiving in Dallas. When I ate about as much as I ate during the entire month of November last year.

NYC, with a 7-year-old from Mechanicsburg

Ingrid's friend from home, Katie, visited with her 7-year-old daughter (8 in early December), Samantha, this past weekend. Have you been to the American Girl Doll store on 5th Avenue? It's a scene. Whomever thought of the idea of creating historical dolls, with a salon, a cafe, books, clothes, all the off-shoots, is rich now.

Sammie bought a new doll with the "Injury Outfit"--crutches, two casts, a finger splint, and other injury accessories. She didn't buy the wheelchair. She loved the store, and then, we wanted to go to Dylan's Candy Bar, this amazing candy store on the Upper East Side that Dylan Lauren, Ralph Lauren's daughter, owns.

"I'm booooooored," Sammie wailed. "Can we take a caaaaab? It's too faaaaaar!"

Once we got there, to the Willy Wonka-like caverns of Dylan's, she loved it. She bought three feet of bubble gum, $17 worth of multicolored M&Ms, and some chocolate coins.

Then we went down to Chinatown to look for fake purses for Katie, and yes, for 7-year-old Sammie. When we first exited the cab, Sammie said, "Chinatown is weird. No one here speaks English." Anything unfamiliar, she calls "weird."

Katie and Sam wanted Coach bags. We mentioned it to someone, and we were guided through blocks and blocks of Canal Street, no idea where we were going, through throngs of people, into a storefront with no name, way into the back, into a private door, into a tiny room with, indeed, some of the better-looking fake brands we had seen. Sammie and Katie each got a fake Coach bag, Ingrid a fake Chloe wallet, and Katie, some purses for friends back home.

At Pearl River Mart, Sammie bought Chinese pink slippers, and now she wants a Chinese outfit for her birthday. The next day, she said, "Chinatown was so cool! Can we go back there??"

"Morning" Sickness?

All the books I've read on pregnancy say morning sickness is a misnomer; that you're really sick morning, noon and night. I'd been doing ok for the past few weeks, just feeling a low-grade, constant nausea, but nothing too dramatic. Dr. Dodson said the nausea peaks around week 8, and it certainly has. Yesterday and today have been pretty rough. Riding the subway is bad. Taking the 4/5 to Grand Central, well, from Grand Central, especially, during rush hour, is the worst. It's so crowded, everyone is just squished together, all up in your face, and there's no fresh air--really worsening the nausea. I've almost vomited on the train a couple times, and more times, almost passed out from feeling nauseous, then subsequently weak. Like there's an alien in my stomach that is eating up all of my energy, until I feel faint. That sounds negative, more negative than I mean, but the feeling of loss of equilibrium is intense and unpleasant.

Today I had a normal lunch, or so I thought. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a tiny bit of chili and rice, and a fruit cup. Well, honestly, it was 3/4 of a pound of fruit. Then all of a sudden, I felt really full from the fruit, and all of a sudden, really nauseous. I tried to hold it back but after about 10 minutes, threw up all of the fruit. Then immediately after, I craved Tasti D-light. It was so powerful, the craving. I went out in sheets of rain. Tasti D-Light was closed. I walked the other direction, toward Crema Lita, and tasted pistachio, and then vanilla. I got a small serving of half and half of each. With a side of Diet A&W root beer. The root beer really satisfies. The Crema Lita, not so much. It tastes creamy, but not rich like ice cream. And the consistency is more creamy/fluffy than the frozen yogurt I like. I've also been nursing the flu, but after that Crema Lita, I started to feel worse. I didn't throw up again, but felt nauseous for the rest of the day, and cranky. My staff was also being particularly annoying today. I'm sure that when I tell them, they will blame my recent moodiness on the pregnancy. Is that fair, if I get annoyed because they aren't doing their jobs efficiently? Here's to hoping I feel better tomorrow, especially for my meeting with Bloomie's.

8 Weeks, and the Adventure Begins

Yesterday was a landmark day. We visited our new ob-gyn, Dr. Cara Dodson, at Spring OB-GYN. My friend Alexa recommended her, saying we'd love how young, mellow and competent she is. We really did. She made me very relaxed and comfortable. She gave me a pelvic exam and asked me the normal litany of questions about my medical history, and then gave us a sonogram. Bonus: There's a heartbeat!! Back story: Two years ago, we got pregnant but at our first sonogram, there was no heartbeat, and the pregnancy resulted in a miscarriage. This feels like a major hurdle, that we made it past the finding of the heartbeat. Ingrid was so cute. She asked how big the embryo was, and Dr. Dodson said it's about two centimeters: about the size of a large grape. We couldn't tell what the sex is yet, and we're not sure we want to know anyway. Dr. Dodson took a picture and printed it out for us. She said the morning sickness should be peaking right about now. She also told me that as I'm of advanced maternal age, I will need to speak to a genetic counselor, and think about whether I want to do prenatal testing to see if our baby has any chromosomal abnormalities. I never thought I'd be "of advanced maternal age," but I am 35. That's a bridge we're crossing next, I guess... Right now, we're reveling in the fact that we made it past 8 weeks. Thump, thump.