This baby.

Whoa. This baby has already changed my life.

I'm now in my 10th week of pregnancy! I cannot believe I'm hurtling toward the second trimester. This body is already being stretched. That's why I was scared to read on BabyCenter the other day that "he or she is poised for rapid weight gain." Gulp. Guess that means I am, too!!

I'm amazed to think that our baby has every major organ in place at this point. Makes abortion even more unthinkable — especially when we were able to hear our baby's heartbeat at 8 weeks!

I have dreamed of this experience my entire life. I used to tell everyone that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I wasn't prepared for what this would actually be like — how my body would actually feel. I haven't actually puked (yet), but my life is admittedly pretty miserable on the nausea front most days (Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs pretty much sums it up perfectly!). It's hard to wake up. It's hard to get up. It's hard to eat, but I have to do it all day every day. I don't like the smell or taste of anything I liked before. Everything is highly offensive — including the honeysuckles growing by my car! Sometimes, oatmeal tastes like green beans. Sometimes my spit tastes like copper pennies. My house smells like death and vomit and dirt. I'm really very pleasant to be around.

My birthday is May 12 and I'm celebrating with a beach vacation. The next day is Mother's Day; that will definitely be special for me this year. Please, Loving & Merciful God of all the universe, let me be over this sickness by then.

The last time I was distracted from my nausea was when I was hearing the heartbeat of my baby for the first time and seeing him/her on the ultrasound. If only I could be reminded of why I'm suffering through this at least once a day :-) Anyone got an ultrasound machine??

Here was my fave picture of Nugget (and to think how much he/she has changed since this photo was snapped!):