Recovery

Well, I spent all day yesterday puking my brains out. Awful. No clue why, but of course I spent the day paranoid that it was more than a 24-hour bug. DH kept telling me it wasn't listeriosis but I kept thinking back to all the things I ate in Costa Rica that perhaps I shouldn't have. It seems to have passed, though my body feels completely wiped out. Perhaps as much from sitting inside, bed ridden, as anything else.

I must officially look pregnant, because people have started to ask. This was in Costa Rica, where I wasn't as covered up in sweaters, but it's nice to finally look pregnant and not just fat. I also had the first people request to rub my belly on Friday. They're friends, so I let them, but I still don't like it. I haven't really figured out how I'm going to respond to this. Chances are I'll just be passive aggressive and silently annoyed. *Sigh*

Last excitement on the horizon is finding out the sex in 2 weeks. I am shocked by the number of people who think it's awful I want to find out . I keep hearing "It's the last great surprise". Personally, I don't want any surprises at the birth. The more boring, the better. Furthermore, the majority of people who give me a hard time have never had a kid. I felt differently before getting pregnant, too. These are the same people who support a woman's "right to choose" but still feel they have the right to tell me what I should be doing. Irony.

Urushiol and mangoes

Just got back from Costa Rica late last night. Amazing trip, will post pictures soon. But at the moment, I feel compelled to write not about our trip but about an experiment I want to conduct on our kid.

When I was in Costa Rica, I ate mangoes. Because they are so, so good. I knew I was a little bit allergic to them, but it's been so long since I had one and I decided I didn't care. Well, as usual my mouth broke out. But I also got a rash on my hands, and yesterday I saw that it had spread to my legs. Itchy but not too itchy. A brief internet search this morning clears all this up. Mango is not actually in the fruit family, but is in the same family as poison oak and poison ivy. Which I am very, extremely allergic to. Apparently the skin of the mango contains an oil very similar to urushiol on the leaves of poison oak and poison ivy. If you've shown a previous reaction to poison oak or ivy you will likely show a reaction to mangoes.

BUT. Individuals from Israel who were first exposed to Mangoes, then to poison oak/ivy didn't show allergic reactions to either. My plan is to have my kid eat mangoes. Hopefully help him develop immunity to poison oak/ivy, which my dad and brother are also horribly allergic to. Any dermatologists out there? This is a study just crying to be conducted. My one data point will hardly be sufficient, but it is a compelling possibility. The idea of limiting poison oak/ivy allergies makes me giddy.

Karate kicks

I've been slacking in the blog department. But no more! I stopped by to see A on Sunday and he did another (short) ultrasound. I posted a few videos here, in particular this one:


Baby was so active!! Just kicking away, it's hard to fully see from these videos because they're so short, but it's amazing to me that I don't feel him yet (somehow all the violence in my abdomen seemed very male.)

But, alas, I must resist further ultrasounds. They're so tempting, because I have such easy access and it's so cool to see what's going on in there. But there is some slight evidence that they may be bad, such as "Prenatal exposure to ultrasound waves impacts neuronal migration in mice". Ours are very short for this reason, but it is likely best to avoid them in the future. *sigh*

Girls who like boys who like boys who like girls

A man got on the bus this morning. A very nice looking, older gentleman, maybe about 50. He provided ample ponderment for my bus ride. His hair was obviously dyed, likely even blow dried (something I put in the category of extreme male behavior). What I could not figure out was whether he was gay or a womanizer. (I realize the extremity of my stereotyping here.) Older gay gentlemen and older womanizing gentlemen are very hard to distinguish. Which I find ironic, because in some ways they are complete opposites. Or at least their tastes are complete opposites. Evolutionarily, this really doesn't make sense to me. You would think that what attracts other gay men would be different than what attracts women, but this is apparently not true, at least not in terms of appearance. Perhaps the only reason we like straight men is because they like us.

Addendum: Shortly before disembarking, I saw his cuff peek out from underneath his jacket. He was wearing a yellow shirt with blue polka dots. I decided he was a gay gentleman.

Note: Ponderment is not a real word. But it should be.

Baby is becoming a real concept. A real creature. In my belly. So it is inevitable that it dawn on me that baby is present for all my most personal moments. Not only present, but actually participating. When I take a crap? Baby feels that. Sex? Baby feels that too. Moments that I would normally not share with anyone, and yet I have no choice but to share them with baby. Maybe this is the beginning of the maternal bond, the loss of all privacy.

I've now begun my fourth month of pregnancy, and it amazes me how far I've come. But when I actually do the math, I've only been aware of Paras's presence for ~2 months, which is only ~33% of the total time I have left. Good lord, it's going to be a long year.

I felt my uterus yesterday; for those of you not up on baby progression, this was an external affair. This is something all the baby books tell you is possible around now, but which I've never really felt compelled to search for. But there it was, kind of unmistakable. A lot smaller than I imagine it in my head. A gentle reminder that all those period cramps that used to fill my stomach emanated from a very small place; a gentle reminder what a small space is capable of. Also a reminder that this beautiful baby belly that I'm getting is really just my internal organs and fat being pushed out.

I think I've left you with enough lovely mental images for the day.