Do mommies get sick days?

I feel like crap. Headache, body ache, earache, sore throat, runny nose....you get the picture. I can't seem to kick this cold and now that I have Parker, there is no time to be sick. Work has been super busy too, so it is just bad timing. I guess I never thought about what my mom did when she was sick; silly me just assumed moms didn't get sick, ha! Before, I would make it through the day and go to bed early when I got home. Not so much now. Now, I have to pick up Parker, let Piper out, make dinner, change Parker, feed Parker, eat, bathe Parker, feed Parker, get everything ready for tomorrow, sleep. Sprinkled in there is a little cleaning and reading for the Koch program. Normally, Brady is a giant help with everything, but this week he has been working until 9 or 9:30 so he doesn't get home in time to help with a whole lot. Not to mention, he is exhausted--that makes two of us. So, I guess I will just keep taking my tylenol AM to get through the day (too afraid to take the PM at night, what if I don't hear him cry!) and hope for the best tomorrow!

"mommy" glow...

...not for me. Dang it. I have had many requests from friends to take pictures of my growing belly (and believe me, it is growing every day), but I'm a little hesitant because what people might see is a giant strawberry. My whole life I've had eczema, and no, as my friend Mel once asked, it is not contagious, ha! However, it does have a habit of making my eyelids look swollen and dry and scaley. This doesn't happen all of the time, but it is often enough that I often go to work with no makeup to let it heal. Lately, it has been a different story. My entire face is constantly swollen, dry and pealing. It has gotten so bad that people have constantly been asking how I feel. When I respond, "fine," they always go, "oh," like really, are you sure? So I have learned to follow up with some response about my allergies driving me crazy, that usually seems to satisfy them.

This week, it finally got to me, I'd had enough and realized that this is not normal so I went to the doctor. She couldn't believe that I had waited so long to come in; she said it was terrible and that usually with cases this severe they use steriods, but that was out of the question because of the bug. She also told me that some people get lucky and babies make their skin beautiful, others, like me, get the raw end of the deal where the baby makes everything 10 times worse than it was. So now I have four different ointments on my face and hopefully it will start to look normal; maybe I will even get that "mommy" glow!

Define "morning sickness"...

I think I am confused. Lately, everyone has commented on how lucky I am that I don't have morning sickness, and in addition to my luck, that I am probably having a boy.

Okay, now, I am not saying that I would be disappointed if I have boy, but you have to know what I am up against. My husband is one of two boys, his dad is one of five. It is not only on his side either, my dad is one of three boys. I am at the point where I feel that if my first child is not a girl, I don't stand a chance. Not that all boys would be bad, I would be very happy, but come on...every mother wants a little girl just as badly as every father wants a little boy. I am actually really exciting about the thought of having a little boy who looks like my husband running around someday.

Determined not to let this old wives tale spell out my fate before I hit my second trimester, I turned to google. I love google; you can find answers to almost anything! Upon looking, I found many definitions of morning sickness, and all of them said you do not have to be physically ill to experience it...YES!!! This sounds ridiculous, but knowing that my twisted stomach and dizzy spells constitute morning sickness, I was ecstatic!! I could still have a girl! Yay!

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I probably should have just looked up whether there was a connection to morning sickness and girls. I did, and there's not. So, to all of you mothers out there turning to your stomach every morning for the answer to your child's gender, rejoice! It doesn't matter!! For now, it is still a surprise!