A Mommy Story

OK, clearly nature designed motherhood to wipe out any memories of pregnancy so you would want to go through it again. The memories of my first trimester last time are blurry and fuzzy and all I can remember is the excitement of being pregnant and the constant 24/7 nausea.

The good news is that today I am 6 weeks pregnant, and while I have passing bouts of nausea, lasting only a few moments at most, generally I am OK. Last time, at exactly the 6 week mark, I stopped eating anything other than saltines and ginger ale, which lasted for six more weeks.

But I forgot about the fatigue. God, the fatigue! I am so damn tired, and even on the days I do manage 8 hours of sleep, once midday hits my eyelids suddenly gain 10 pounds each and I can barely keep them open. I feel like I could easily join Cordy on her sleep schedule – 12 hour nights, plus a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Actually, that would be fantastic.

I understand I’m growing another human being, but that human being barely needs any extra calories (I disproved that whole “eating for two” myth last pregnancy), so why does it need every last ounce of my energy?

Most of my coworkers know I’m pregnant now. It’s hard not to tell them when they look at me and say, “You look like hell! Are you sick?” And I have received that comment from no less than 4 people, so officially I do look like hell and appear to be ill.

At my main office location (I’m located at a suburban campus most days of the week), I’ve been tempted more than once to shut the door to my office and take a short nap. We have few staff up here – surely no one would notice, right? Besides, my office manager is also pregnant with her second baby (3 weeks ahead of me), so we both understand this chronic exhaustion.

Along with the fatigue is short term memory loss. I called a student today, in response to a message she had left me. Turns out I had already called her last Wednesday, and she was puzzled as to why I was calling about it again.

Only 6 more weeks to go until the fog lifts, right?