14 Weeks

Also known as, the second trimester!!!

Text message from Alex to mark the occasion:

"I just got a text that our baby has started peeing! Hahaha. You have pee in you!!!"

In addition to peeing, our baby can now also frown, squint and suck its thumb. Which I guess means we should start saving for headgear now ... S/he is the size of a lemon or a small navel orange, but still less than 2 ounces. I wore maternity jeans for the first time yesterday, just because I wanted to sport some new clothes. The funny thing is that I actually looked more preggo in the maternity outfit than I do in my regular clothes, which still (barely) fit. I now understand why all women in Mom Jeans look like they have FUPA's.

I was hoping to also have an accompanying picture of the baby, instead of just another one of me. But alas, the Occupy Portland protestors helped to "suspend" MAX and I was unable to make it to my OB appointment. Damnit. I'm re-scheduled for Monday morning with a different practitioner. I just want to make sure the little thing continues to wiggle around in there.

My nails are still great. I still have the occasional bout of diarrhea. I can't eat enough bagels with cream cheese and tomato and cucumber. Cheerios no longer smell like urine. My boobs are still too big for my bras. I sometimes feel cranky for no real reason. And I oscillate between sleeping a regular 8ish hours and the unnecessary 10+ hours per night.

Now that everything is a-okay with my position as a fellow at the VA, I feel like I have a load off my shoulders. I spent nearly 6 hours at the Portland campus yesterday to fill out paperwork, wait in the lab, get my blood drawn for a TB test, wait for a hearing exam, get a physical, wait in HR, then get fingerprinted. Both the PA who examined me and the HR Specialist who assisted me led me to believe I might need to start searching for a new job. Turns out I am technically considered a student who is receiving a stipend for a temporary placement, therefore I am not an official VA employee and not covered by all the same HR policies/benefits.

I decided to bite the bullet. I marched over to the Audiology/Speech department and spoke with Mika, the department secretary, telling her my whole spiel. I'm pregnant. I don't know whether or not I want to do MBSS and be exposed to the radiation. I will need (unpaid) maternity leave. But I still want to complete my CFY in the given time. Turns out - it's no big deal! They didn't have one problem with it, and basically told me not to worry. So now I just wait for HR to give me the official go-ahead to join Michael up at the Vancouver campus sometime next week.