We've gone preggo-blog

Last week, I finally reached the point where I can no longer wear my fat jeans. It was time to stock up on maternity clothes. On Friday, I went to the Old Navy on State Street (one of the few in the city that carries maternity clothing), and for less than $100, I got a pair of jeans, two pairs of pants, two shirts and a dress.

My love for Old Navy has never been stronger. Neither has my love for elastic waist bands. Now that I've gone elastic, I'm not going back. Seriously, maternity or not, all pants should have elastic waist bands.

In other preggo news, I have my 20-week ultrasound coming up in a few weeks. This is the one where we could find out the gender, if we wanted. Right now, we're leaning toward not finding out. We've also decided not to tell people our planned baby names. Basically, I know that no matter what names we pick, someone will say something like, "Oh, I knew a girl with that name. She was a total bitch." Or, "that name makes me think of (blank). You should try (insert some horrible suggestion) instead." So, we're just going to make everyone wait until the name's a done deal, and then they'll just have to live with it and talk about how horrible our choices are behind our backs.

My secrecy led one of my co-workers to name the baby "Baby TK," which is really only funny if you're in publishing. But, the name's stuck, so I think that's how I'll refer to it on this here blog.

At work, it's now pretty common to hear people say, "I think Baby TK wants you to eat some of those leftover brownies in the kitchen," or "Baby TK wants you to get ice cream on your lunch break."

Like most offices, ours is filled with all kinds of baked goods and leftover sweets. It's amazing we all still have our teeth. Resisting these treats was difficult pre-pregnancy. Now, it's next to impossible. It's so easy to convince myself that because I'm pregnant, it's OK to eat junk food. But in reality, I'm only supposed to have 300 extra calories a day, and those 300 are supposed to be healthy choices. I'm doing OK in the eating-well department, but I also snack on junk food more than I should. In fact, between my six-week and 12-week appointments, I gained five pounds. I'm only supposed to gain between five and 10 pounds by 20 weeks. And at 12 weeks, I wasn't showing yet at all, at least not in my belly. Instead, those extra 5 pounds went straight to my butt.

Although I do have a good excuse for gaining so much weight. I was fortunate enough to not get morning sickness during the first trimester. Everything I read said the best way to combat morning sickness is to eat every two to three hours, so that's exactly what I did. And although I tried to make healthy choices, sometimes when I felt that icky feeling coming on, I just grabbed what was closest, whether it was those brownies in the kitchen or Doritos from the vending machine.

Luckily, now that I'm through th first trimester, I'm feeling pretty good, and I'm back to eating five or six times a day, instead of eight to 10 times a day. And, as of my last appointment, I had only gained one additional pound. Also, I'm now officially "showing," so I think some of that extra weight has moved from my butt to my belly. It's probably not obvious to people who don't know me, but for those who see me regularly, I have a definite bump. One of these days I need to get around to taking weekly pictures of my belly. Chris and I did this for about two weeks right at the beginning, then forgot about it. Hopefully, we're not so forgetful about stuff related to that bump when it emerges in five months.

Damn. Five months.