Round One

Let the agonizing routine begin. I had my first round of liquid IV manna today after a night of nearly continuous heaving. I'm 6.5 weeks along.

In spite of the 2 bags' worth of saline solution coursing through my veins right now, I am still feeling rather like a dull pencil. So here's a jumbled list of thoughts/updates:

1. The first thing I ate (and kept down) today was a small bowl of KFC mashed potatoes, at 3pm. Laaa! Remember when KFC used to sell the mashed potatoes in those round styrofoam containers? Well, they changed to these reusable plastic tupperware-style containers and I think that's their excuse to jack the price up. I can get a 5 lb bag of potatoes for the same price as one palm-sized scoop of KFC mashed poatoes! But since I can't make my own mashed taters right now, I guess the KFC price is right. At least the ear-grating sound of a plastic spork scraping styrofoam is eliminated. 

2. I am overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of my dear friends in our ward here. They rallied the troops the instant I mentioned my pregnancy, and we've already had 3 dinners delivered to our door. Plus, people are getting in line to take Jay and Rose each day--this week they are booked every single day! If I think about it all too much I inevitably start crying so I'll just say I love these people so much. They make the Yakima Valley worth living in.

our insurance through the school district is awesome--generic prescriptions have zero copay!

3. Even though I knew exactly what I was getting myself into when I decided to try out the prego thing again, IT'S STILL HARD. Excruciatingly hard. I'm trying not to think about how much longer this will last (6 weeks bare minimum). 

4. Jeff is at the store getting me some oatmeal cream pies. My stalwart mother never bought those for our lunchboxes back in the day, but I must've sampled a friend's cookie at some point because I love them. And they randomly sounded palatable just now. 

5. For our book club this past month, we read Heaven is Here by Stephanie Nielson (LDS blogger who got 80% of her body burned in a plane crash). I cried through most of it because her experience hit kind of close to home. Of course her months of coma and recovery were lightyears beyond what I go through while pregnant, but the way she described her ward and family stepping in and taking care of her kids and cleaning her house and helping her with everything sounded exactly like what my ward and family do for me when I'm sick. It was a beautiful, touching story, and it reminded me that people are GOOD. They help. That makes me feel so toasty inside.

6. Now I'm eating an oatmeal cream pie and it actually tastes good!

7. The nurses in the outpatient services at the hospital recognized me today from my last bout of pregnancy-illness 1.5 years ago. 

8. Jay seems to be coping with my sickness by ignoring me as much as possible. It's kind of sad to me. I can't talk as loundly anymore because that requires pressure from my diaphragm which does not feel good. So half the time Jay doesn't hear me, and the other half the time he just pretends he can't hear me. Before bed at night, Jeff has the kids come over to my chair and hug  me goodnight. Jay hugs me quickly and then runs off without saying anything. I think he assumes I'm cranky based on the nauseated look on my face. Sigh. It will pass.

listening to  the Piano Guys together after Rose woke up from an impromptu floor nap the other day.

9. Rose, on the other hand, has no qualms about jumping onto my chair and jiggling my stomach into queasy oblivion. She gobbles up the rest of all my half-eaten snacks--dry toast crusts and all. She's loving this new setup!

10. The nurse numbed my arm before inserting the IV today--I've had my fair share of IV needle-pokes, and never once have they numbed me first. It was amazing! No cringe-worthy jab of that fat pipe-like IV needle at all. Just the light tap of the numbing needle, and then nada. It was a revelation. So far this time around, I think my doctor's plan is for me to go get an IV at the hospital's outpatient rooms whenever I need it instead of inserting a full-fledged PICC line like last time. If they keep numbing my vein before the pokes, I'm all for that! Convenience minus the high-maintenance vein-flossing PICC line tube. We'll see how things go.

Ok, that's all I've got so far. My oatmeal cream pie is gone. It left a weird aftertaste, and now I must focus on dreaming up the next palatable food.