The Storm Before the Calm?

December (18 weeks) began with the storm before the calm. I got home from work and I was surprised to see Jacob's car in the garage. I usually beat him home from work, and I found him at home lying in bed. His laptop was no where in sight, which meant he didn't come home early to work on a coding project of his own. He was sick as a dog. I climbed into bed next to him, because I was extra tired. We both slept most of the evening, and Jacob was home for the next day and a half. I too started feeling extra yucky, but I wasn't sure if I had the flu or if I was just experiencing more pregnancy sickness. At this point, I'd been so sick for so long that I just couldn't tell the difference. One day at work that week, I complained of some minor cramping to my co-workers. They knew how sick I'd been, so they made me call the doctor. I'm sure my mom was grateful for them finally telling me what to do. The nurse told me I MUST take the Zofran every 8 hours-no matter what. I had been taking it only when I had a rough day, but apparently I was waiting too long. She also said I need to make sure to drink 5 20oz. glasses of water daily to avoid dehydration. After about 3 days on the Zofran, I did finally start to feel better.

By 19 weeks I had a few days of feeling up to decorating the house for Christmas. I would have liked to have started putting up the tree on December 1, but I was lucky to have felt well enough to do before May 1st. I even found a cute little mini-stocking so the baby would have a place on the mantle next to our stockings. My, how Christmas will be different next year. Another exciting part of week 19 was that I felt the baby move! I thought maybe I was feeling movement, but I wasn't sure. It felt like my stomach was gurgling (gas), but was lower (in the uterus, obviously). I was sure I felt it when Jacob and I were at the Penguin Piano Bar for my work holiday party. Either the baby loves "Sweet Home Alabama" or was begging for us to get the heck out of there.

I felt sporadic movements, and was able to share them with Jacob fairly early on. One night we were watching Christmas episodes of T.V. shows on Netflix and YouTube. We were watching Will Vinton's "Claymation Christmas" and were either on the California Raisins or the Wisemen when I showed Jacob just where to put his hand. He felt a little kick! It was so fun to share the excitement of feeling a moving and growing baby with him. Not only were were enjoying our active baby, but we were enjoying many more days of feeling healthy (minus nausea and flu).