Daylight

Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel...Sorry for my absence, but it has been a rough couple of months for the Mom model of the Lockwood family.
My last post announced our happy news, that we are expecting an addition to the household sometime in August. Well, I'm happy to report that the little person has not failed to remind us of that upcoming occasion every. single. day.
For those of you with nothing more exciting to read, here is recap of my fun-filled 2007 thus far:

January: A couple of days after getting back from Christmas in North Carolina, Abigael came down with a bizarre 24 hr bug. She ran an fever for a day and had a horrible hacking cough. Fortunately, in typical toddler fashion, she bounced back pretty quickly. But, as usual, the "germ factory" ramped up production and hit me full-force. I ended up with a horrible stomach flu that put me down (or in the bathroom) for at least three days. Later in the week, it seemed like I should be feeling better when it hit me over the head that the dreaded "morning sickness" had decided it was time to make an appearance. "OK, I can handle this. It wasn't that bad with Abigael. Eat some crackers. Take a few more naps. No problem." For a week or two, that theory seemed to work. Until, that is, I learned first hand, that indeed every pregnancy is different.

End of January: Yet another cold decided to hit me over the weekend. It wasn't too bad. Or so I thought. A few days later I woke with a tightness in my chest and a little short of breath. Over the course of the day, it turned into full-on coughing and wheezing. It apparently was bad enough that one of my co-workers was like "umm...Christie, you really should call the doctor about that." Honestly, I was getting pretty worried because I could hardly catch my breath. The doctor was able to fit me in that afternoon. The diagnosis was acute bronchitis, some kind of upper respiratory infection. I was sent home with an inhaler, a nebulizer and antibiotics. A few days later I was breathing slightly better, but still feeling pretty crappy. Back to the doctor. "Looks like the antibiotics didn't really work, it must be some kind of virus. And your lungs sound awful, must be pneumonia." Good grief. In a nutshell, it's just something that will have to run its course. At our first pre-natal checkup, I told the doctor that I had been nauseous a lot. She prescribed some medicine for that and sent me on my way.

February: While I've been preoccupied with silly things like breathing, my morning sickness has been growing steadily worse. My appetite is practically gone and it's all I can do to force some food and liquids down my throat. And, of course, that's no guarantee that it's going to stay put. I'm now throwing up at least once a day if not more. Surely, it can't get any worse...yeah, right. The utter exhaustion that comes with the body getting used to being pregnant makes it's appearance. When I was pregnancy with Abigael, it was easy to come home and take a nap after work. Not so now. A 2 3/4 year-old does not understand the concept of someone else being tired.
Anyway, last week I finally decided I'd had enough and called the doctor. I was getting dehydrated, so I was given a full liter of saline via IV. She also gave me a different anti-nausea medicine, which unfortunately puts me to sleep. I'm starting to feel a little better, I actually went two days in a row without praying to the porcelin god. They say that morning sickness is supposed to get better when you get to the second trimester(which happened with Abigael), so I'm looking for that light at the end of tunnel any day now. I'm not so sure though, this has got to be a boy. And I am in so much trouble.

I guess that's enough of my moaning for now. I would like to say though that through all of this Brandon has been a rock for Abigael and me. Even with all the obligations he already has (school, cadet school, leg recovery, etc), he has taken on the extra burden of me being useless and taken care of us all. I don't know what I would do without him.
Oh yeah, I wouldn't be knocked up...