Can I please relax?

I still have no morning sickness and it’s a fantastic thing. It makes being pregnant infinitely easier. But I’m having a hard time accepting my luck. A little voice tells me that no, I can’t just be one of the 20% of lucky women who don’t get it. Perhaps there is something wrong.

This is week 6, when the websites say morning sickness is supposed to start. It may start any day. So I put off making any plans – like scheduling a brunch for Mother’s Day. I don’t want to pay $50 if I can’t eat a good meal.

This morning I went back and looked at my chart from my first pregnancy. I had nausea from the day of implantation. By this point, I had already been sick for weeks and the little x’s stretch across the sheet indicating day after day after neverending day of nausea.

What a joy to not experience that. It makes dealing with work and living life so much easier. Aside from a little extra fatigue and an increased appetite, I can almost forget I’m pregnant. It makes the weight issue more of a challenge and I’ll have to pay more attention to that.

I saw one mention on a forum that the older a woman is, the less likely she is to suffer morning sickness. I have no idea whether or not there is any validity to that. If so, it’s a great benefit to “advanced maternal age,” as I expect I’ll be categorized. But miscarriages also rise with advanced maternal age and I hear the voice of a friend who miscarried recently at 8 weeks and felt no morning sickness leading up to it. She’s pregnant again now and nauseous.

Is this easy ride a sign of bad things to come, or am I just luckier this time around?

Sharing the news

I told Mark last night. Or rather, he guessed. Earlier in the evening, he asked if I was happy and I said yes. He asked why and I said I’d tell him a bit later. He read it from me there.

I knew he wasn’t thrilled about more children, but he handled it calmly and we spent some tender moments together that evening.

But he found himself up between 2 and 5 a.m., unable to sleep due to stress. “My conscious took the news OK. But I guess my subconscious didn’t,” he said.

I feel bad that he feels stressed out. But I think he had similar feelings about River. And now he loves River and is glad to have him in his life. And, finally, River is starting to show some positive attention to dad. So I hope it’s just a general resistance to change and that it will all work out for the best.

As for me, I’m doing fairly well. It’s pretty thrilling to have an appetite and energy. I’m setting myself ambitious exercise goals to fulfill while I still can. Yet, the beginnings of nausea appear to be coming on. It is still minor and still doesn’t affect my rather significant appetite. But I kind of feel I’m on a boat at sea, with a little rock here and there that doesn’t let me forget I’m floating.

One symptom I definitely have is fatigue. Oh, for the opportunity to take an afternoon nap at home. Where are you Latin American schedule with a two-hour lunch break? By 3 p.m. I am seriously ready for a nap.