17 weeks, 3 days

That's how pregnant I am. Isn't science amazing?
(11/16/07 I forgot to say yesterday that the heartbeat is strong, 160 beats per minute.)

The doc took blood to screen or test for spina bifida. I won't have to give blood again for two and a half months. She also says I'm not gaining as much weight as she'd like but she's not worried about it yet. Neither am I frankly, I figure I'm doing all I can not to get sickyface all over the place, so as long as I'm keeping what I eat down, I'll be fine. I also move around a lot, either walking to and from the train station, taking the stairs at work, maybe that has something to do with it. Fear not, I am not starving myself or the little fetus.

These doctor visits are quick, which is rather annoying. It's like being in a drive-through, for God's sake. Not really, the office visit is ten minutes, and I don't think people sit in the drive-through for that long, unless you go to the drive-through of the McDonald's in my old neighborhood.

Oh- I had a freakout last night. I've been watching A Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby as a part of my morning breakfast routine, no big deal. I've seen hundreds of births on these shows, and even an anthropological movie showing everything without hurling. Last night's episode of Private Practice on ABC scared the crap out of me. Women are screaming, a doctor had to reach in and turn a breech baby, women are screaming, in between doctor's proposition each other in the hallway, of course. I started bawling "Oh my God, I can't do this!" Completely irrational response, especially since I can watch these births on TLC without batting an eye, even before I got knocked up (I like using that phrase. It tickles me!)

The moral of the story: Network TV likes to strike fear in the hearts of women and call it entertainment or quality story-telling. If you want to see what births are like, watch TLC.

Other than that, the nausea continues, my fight with water wages on...

People keep asking how my husband is doing and whether I'm driving him crazy yet. He's tired from commuting to another state for work, then coming home and doing chores, because I am either tired, in bed with a heating pad on my back, or in class. So no, I do not pull the "I'm craving jelly doughnuts from the Dunkin Donuts on the West side of Baltimore at 2:30 AM" card, because he's doing a tremendous amount of work for the both of us. I can get up and eat a bowl of instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal, which I often do.

So, "Big Up!" to the father of our child, never ever to be referred to as my baby's daddy (I had to correct a guy a few times about that)