A Diary of Early Pregnancy.4

11 weeks, forward

--At  this rate, when the baby is born, he'll only be able to fall asleep if I sit the computer on top of him. 

--Receiving communion is even more wonderful than before--realizing that the baby gets it, too. 

--I find it so, so hard to travel while pregnant! My favorite things in Slovakia--Bryndzova halushky, deminovka, zlaty bazant, all off limits. I ate some of the traditional braided sheep cheese, but I'm not sure if I should have. I broke down and took one bite of halushky and a couple sips of zlaty. Basically, the only thing I could have that I love is lemon ice cream. Sigh. 

It is so inconvenient, however gracious your host is, to travel while pregnant--I have to pee and eat constantly; I'm scared of traditional food, because, um, there aren't enough vegetables. At the wedding, I couldn't drink to celebrate. The jet lag was horrible. I was a little nauseous on all the trams and buses. It just makes you just want to stay in your house so you can eat like the baby-growing machine that you are. 

But there was a great moment at the wedding--the eastern slovak uncle, with whom I drank a lot when I visited his house several years ago, blessed me with the sign of a cross immediately when I told him (through his translating son) that the reason that I couldn't drink is that I'm pregnant. What a wonderful blessing for me and for our child! He also said that if I drank just a little, the child would be more Slovak. 

--Sayers sent me non-alcoholic pink wine to celebrate the start of my second trimester. This is seriously the nicest gift ever, since mostly I feel like I'm missing out on things. (This is the second time she's mailed me wine--the first was on my 21st birthday to a dry college campus where I was an RA.) We started the bottle together, and I finished it the next morning in bed, while eating (pasteurized) goat cheese and crackers and feeling, for once, like a human being, rather than a baby-growing, protein-consuming machine.

--I'm enjoying the last week or two of being allowed to lie on my back--my favorite position. 

--My second doctor's appointment (midwives' appointment?), 14 weeks: I'm super healthy--my labwork is all good; the baby's heartbeat sounds good; you could even hear him moving in there; the only thing--I only gained half a pound since last month (not for want of eating everything in sight all the time)--so the midwife suggested having a bowl of ice cream every night! Besides the deep and continual joy of knowing there's a baby inside me, this is a really, really great moment of pregnancy.