Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Pregnancy Thus Far
First of all, thank you ALL for your kind comments and tweets! We’re so excited to meet this little baby in November.
For the most part, my pregnancy has been pretty easy. (KNOCKING ON WOOD) Don’t get me wrong, though, the first trimester was ROUGH. I was exhausted all the time and just crabby. I didn’t expect that the exhaustion and bloat and bad skin would set in so soon and all at once. I didn’t REALLY have morning sickness, though there were some pretty bad bouts with extreme queasiness. I tried all the ginger ales and with great pleasure, I can tell you that Vernor’s Diet Ginger Ale is the best one, if you cannot get that, then you can get Thomas Kemper in the glass bottle. Do not even bother with anything else. I lost about 6 pounds right off the bat because very little sounded good enough to eat (and maybe also because of the absence of my friends Cava and Oregon craft beer).
The bloat is really a funny, funny thing. Some days, my pants would button just fine – other days they wouldn’t. Because of this, I bought a few pairs of maternity pants right away, even though I found that I really didn’t need them just yet. Then, I remembered that WAY back in the day, the lovely Whoorl mentioned a neat little add-a-button kit and I bought that and have been golden ever since.
A recommendation: when trying to hide your pregnancy from your coworkers, avoid stripes. On the first morning of my 10th week, I was in Eugene (GO DUCKS!) for our big annual conference and I packed this. Now, you might not see much there, but when I looked down? I saw a giant belly. I went downstairs to the conference and was sure that the cat was out of the bag. Either nobody noticed or they all thought I over-ate the at the reception the night before.
I finally have a note from my doctor to continue on with my beloved Bar Method classes and I am really, really looking forward to getting my tuck and shake back on. While my goal to look like Olivia Wilde may have to be put on hold for a bit, I can still aim to look like her pregnant sister, perhaps.
And, I am now accepting recommendations on what to do for super, super dry and itchy skin. Particularly about the legs and tummy. GO!
And, now here is a link to belly pictures and such if you are into that sort of thing. You should at least go over to see the wee wooden shoes that my brother-in-law brought back for the baby from Holland.

Comments on this post
Yay for the wee wooden shoes! When my mom was pregnant with me, my grandmother brought some back to put in their hope chest – Mom still has them, but when I have a proper place to display them, I’m going to claim them from her!
10. May - 1:06 pmYou look absolutely adorable!!!
Glad you’re doing well!
10. May - 1:08 pmKristabella´s last [type] ..22
You look fabulous!
10. May - 2:06 pmI say you get yourself to Zenana Spa for a nice prenatal massage and ask for their recommendations for lotion!
You look fantastic! As for dry, itchy skin…I recommend Eucerin. I use the daily replenishing moisturizer all over and I use the calming creme for the really dry itchy patches.
10. May - 4:42 pmMy cousin recommended early on that I use Palmer’s cocoa butter so I’ve been slathering it on everyday and haven’t really had an itchy belly yet (20 weeks along). For some reason, my knuckles got super dry early on and once I started putting the cocoa butter on them, they went back to normal.
10. May - 4:47 pmHi Rhi! You might want to try Shea butter on really itchy skin….it’s much more intense and thick than typical lotion, and can even prevent stretch marks on your belly if you massage it into your skin often enough. My mom’s baby store in PDX sells it, so email me if you are interested :)
10. May - 6:01 pmI had the dry itchy skin thing too, but I cannot STAND how thick and greasy so many of the really emollient lotions are for ages after you rub them on. I especially couldn’t stand that in summertime when I was hot and sweaty anyway. So I used jojoba oil (purchased at Trader Joe’s in the health/beauty section, but you can probably buy it lots of other places) like lotion and it’s wonderful. It moisturizes really nicely but soaks into your skin and disappears.
I’m glad to hear you have had a relatively easy pregnancy so far! I had those both times, lucky me. But I still hate being pregnant. :-)
10. May - 9:57 pmbethany actually´s last [type] ..seven
I’m glad to hear you are doing so well with your first pregnancy. Lots of women who have really rough first pregnancies choose not to go through a second one. I’m anxious to follow your progress. You look so cute! Baby bumps are awesome.
Input as to dry itchy skin … If you can find it try Corn Huskers Lotion and use Palmers Coco Butter on your belly to avoid stretch marks.
11. May - 4:40 amLinda Stewart´s last [type] ..Coming Soon …
I am a huge fan of Glaxal-based lotions. They work wonders.
So! excited for you guys, and am off to check out the belly shots. :)
12. May - 3:17 pmAngella´s last [type] ..Powerless
Yay for Baby on Board! I would recommend some sort of exfoliating scrub that will moisturize and also scrub off all the dead skin cells. That, followed by a super moisturizing lotion, has always worked well for me.
17. May - 5:04 amAudrey´s last [type] ..So Long- Old House
I love the belly pictures. You’re adorable.
With Babboo I used the Palmers DAILY. With Rerun I used this cocoa butter lotion my husband bought at Sephora. I can’t remember what it was called but they told him it was the best one out there. (For the record I never got a single stretch mark!)
I hear you on trying to hide the ever growing belly. I didn’t tell my work until well past 20 weeks. Dude, it got really hard. At the end I was walking around with a pile of paper in front of my belly at all time. :-)
17. May - 7:05 amIsabel´s last [type] ..In which Rerun leaves on a jet plane
I’m a little bit late to this belly picture party, but I still totally have time to favorite them all.
#creepycommentsthatarereallyjokes
23. May - 10:42 amKerri Anne´s last [type] ..This paper contains facts And this paper has the eighth highest circulation in the whole wide world Right Plenty of facts “Pregnant man gives birth” That’s a fact
The medical community consensus for dry skin is Eucerin products – it should be the thickest of thick creams, that you have to SQUEEZE really hard to get out of the tube, or dip into a tub to pull out. If it’s that thick, it shouldn’t be too greasy.
http://www.amazon.com/Eucerin-Therapy-Original-Moisturizing-16-Ounce/dp/B001FB5IIC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1306615594&sr=8-4
http://www.amazon.com/Eucerin-Therapy-Calming-Creme-Ounce/dp/B001FB5IN2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306615594&sr=8-1
You should really have to work to get it out of the container, if it’s thin enough for a pump or easy squeeze out of a tube, then it’s not the good stuff. Good Luck!
28. May - 12:49 pm