Cats...

My cat, Paka, seems to have an affinity for my baby belly, even when it's not a proper "belly" yet. When I was pregnant with JJ and now again this time, she insists on sleeping on my belly. When I'm not pregnant, she sleeps on my legs - but not now. It's almost like she "knows" (although my theory is that I'm just awfully warm with all the extra blood volume). There is some evidence to suggest that pets can sense and do react to the pregnancy of thier owner. All the evidence seems anecdotal at best, but that doesn't stop Paka from snuggling up to her latest playmate and purring away. Of all the cats, she's the only one who lets JJ touch her - in fact, she will seek him out and snuggle up to him, rubbing and purring. Best buds...and hopefully she'll be the same way with the new little one.

Not fair...

Morning sickness - or rather, morning, noon, and night sickness - and pounding headaches. Granted, I was having this problem last week too, but last week I could blame it on the weather. Now, I've got another 9 months of this, potentially. Yikes! It is definitely going to be a test of wills finishing this dissertation. A toddler, morning sickness and data collection. Wow.

Poor JJ is starting to get so picky about his food too. And not in any predictable pattern either. One day broccoli is the rage. The next, he doesn't even want it on his plate. The power struggle around that is becoming interesting too. He's always game to try something, but once he decided he doesn't want it, he'll pick it up off the plate and drop it on the floor, one piece at a time. John and I have tried telling him "no" firmly, holding his hand to prevent him from doing it, and just plain removing the offending item and he just looks puzzled. Definitely not sure what we're trying to say. Makes me feel stupid - like if I were just a little smarter I could explain it to him. Oh well - maybe Mommy and Daddy will get smarter once we get some more sleep (insert maniacal laughter here).

SURPRISE!

I've been feeling really off lately - clumsily running into things, getting really snappish with John, horrible runny nose, feeling dizzy when I'm sitting for long period of time, constantly hot, sometimes nauseated....and I thought "allergies, sleep deprivation, period fixin' to start" Oh yeah - shouldn't my period have started like 4 days ago? So, just to be on the safe side, I took a pregnancy test. Given my symptoms, I should've known. It came back 2 lines - that's POSITIVE.

Oh my.

I mean, it's not like I don't know what causes this or that we weren't interested in having another. It's just that last time we had to try so hard and have "help" and all and I sort of thought it would be the same going forward. WRONG! I'm scared to death because I haven't been taking my prenatal vitamin like I should, I've had loads of coffee and tea, and I had a glass of wine last night to celebrate finishing my proposal for my chair. And here I am, in the middle of trying to schedule my proposal defense, with the beginnings of pregnancy brain, and not sure if I should be delighted or hysterical.

I think I will settle for cautiously optimistic.

Sweet boy.

What a helper!

Got to love it - JJ helping clean the spa.  What a good kid!  Now, if he could only reach the lawn mower handle....