Suck on this
Can you imagine throwing up for three months straight … or even longer?
Blah, yeah, I don’t want to think about it either. But the reality is that being preggo can be super, super-uncomfortable — and morning sickness is a big part of it for most women.
I fear I will be one of those women who get hit hard with it, based on my track record for motion-sickness, sea-sickness, and Merry-Go-Round-sickness. So naturally, I am already on the case looking for relief … before I’m hugging the toilet, unable to shop online.
I did some Googling and found something called Preggie Pop Drops. They’re sour fruit hard candies with essential oils, and can help with nausea and dry-mouth.
Candy? Great! Sounds much more appetizing than drinking gross anti-nausea tea!
Have a little … faith?
Before a couple gets married within the Catholic church, they have to undergo a little thing called “The Marriage Course.” As a matter of fact, soon-to-be-married Best Friend is on hers today!
At the course, you learn valuable lessons about finances, fighting fair, touching yourself, and securing a mortgage.
Yeah, I said “touching yourself.”
Since having kids is a majah part of getting married in the church, part of the pre-marriage course is a lesson about the Billings Ovulation Method. Observe:
It’s a natural method of “pregnancy prevention and postponment.” Which basically means that if you don’t want a baby yet — the church would never consider “ever,” but the accept “yet” — you do not have sex on any of the “baby” days (i.e. the ones with babies). And if you do want to conceive, you aim to have sex on the “baby” days. Everybody wins!
Science is really Little Sis’s strength, not mine, but basically it works by the woman touching herself everyday and recording how, ah, her “down-theres” feel. Don’t want to gross you out with TMI, but basically wet means baby-makin’-a-go-go, and dry means you won’t get knocked up.
Since the cycle depends on each woman’s individual goings-on, it’s not an exact science — yeah, obvs. But ovulation is about two weeks after the first day of your last period (see the cute calendar I made), so technically that is when you should not have sex unless you want a bambino.
Back when Darling Husband and I attended the marriage course, I was totally intrigued and wanted to go off the pill immediately. He was … how should I put this … extremely, really, and totally against it?
Since I’ll be officially off the pill in one week, it’s safe to say we will not be following this method. I somehow — somehow — doubt it’s as effective as a Trojan!
Dear Baby …
Sometimes
I feel your breath
Warm against my chest
Your weight in my arms
I close my eyes
And melt
And dream
You are so close
I can almost touch you
You are so close
I can almost touch you
I open my eyes
To this empty feeling
You are not here yet
But already, you are missed
International naming
When Victoria and David Beckham named their son Brooklyn — the NY borough in which he was conceived — my first thought was, “What were they doing in Brooklyn?”
My next thought, of course, was, “That is a cute name!” There are plenty of baby names taken from cities, states and countries. If you have no real connection to the place, that’s fine. But if your baby was actually conceived there — how perfect!
I was thinking of this on the drive to work today, after Darling Husband jokingly said we should start trying on the trip we will be taking shortly before My Best Friend’s Wedding.
I quickly shot down that idea — since I am so in love with my matron of honour gown — but said I liked the idea of naming our baby after the place they were conceived.
Here are just a few “place names” to consider … with stars by my favourites!
- Brooklyn
- Orlando
- Jackson***
- Kingston
- Troy
- Cheyenne
- Florence
- Geneva
- Marseilles
- Medina
- Odessa
- Phoenix
- Rome
- Savannah***
- Venice
- Vienna
- Madison
- Hudson
- Victoria
- Olympia
- Austin
- Alexandria
- Bailey
- Paris
- London
- Augusta
- Adelaide***
- Helena
- Catalina
- Virginia
Hmmm, maybe we should postpone our trip until after the necessary hold-off — perhaps a jaunt down to Savannah, Georgia?
Oops!
In a little more than a week, I will be changing up my morning routine. I’ll wake up to the radio, lie there half-asleep for 10-30 minutes, take a sip of water, and shuffle off my bathroom. Notice the part where I will not be taking my birth control pill?
Yes, Operation Bambino kicks off — sort of — in about a week, when I will finish my current pack of birth control pills and quit ’em cold-turkey. Even though Darling Husband and I are absolutely not trying until the late summer, I want to get the pill out of my system in plenty of time.
This means for five-odd months, we’ll be back to our pre-married days of condom use. Sigh. The hubs and I have been together since high school, and have only ever been with each other. Technically, we could have skipped the condoms since I was always on the pill, but being the good paranoid Catholics we are, we opted for double protection.
With nothing stopping the baby-makin’ process except a condom, it got me thinking about unplanned pregnancies. I did a little research, and more than half of pregnancies are not planned. Holy!
This is definitely a good argument for taking a prenatal vitamin way before you think about trying to conceive — as my doctor has been insisting for years.
In that first month, it’s so important to get all the right nutrients, so if it takes you almost a month to even realize you’re preggers, at least you’ll already be giving your baby what it needs.
All this talk of oopsies has me feeling nervous! How effective are condoms, really? Like 99 per cent? Geez. I have planned for too long to wind up having an un-planned one!
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Heather's Handmade Life 