17 Weeks

We're getting close to the halfway mark and I am feeling much better than I was a few weeks ago. I went through approximately two and a half months of nausea (without vomiting), mostly feeling sick and completely fatigued through the afternoon and evenings, but looking back, mornings weren't great either. While we don't each much in the way of processed foods in our daily life (I find that homemade versions are healthier and better tasting) I pretty much lived on Cocoa Puffs, Fruit Loops, and peanut butter toast for breakfast, Beef Top Ramen or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for lunch, and fruit or cereal again for dinner. As long as I stuck to this regimented diet, the nausea was manageable. The tricky part came when Jesse wanted to eat real food, which introduced intolerable smells into my home, horrible aromas including chicken, fish, and garlic. Bless his heart, one night I came home after he had made (and eaten) chicken, and before getting all the way through the door I started gagging and asked if we could please go right away to anywhere else at all. He lovingly obliged and we spent the evening at a coffee shop nearby where I ate my deli macaroni and cheese. I felt like a crazy person!
Now, although I'm back to eating mostly normal foods, I feel like a crazy person in all new ways. I am normally more of a "crier" than many people and cry pretty easily at movies, songs, books, etc. But now I cry at nothing (although it never feels like nothing at the time!) which is weird! My mood swings fast and I can acknowledge that my feelings and reactions are nothing rational, but they still are difficult to control. I am tired most of the time (although the first trimester fatigue is gone) and have been trying to get some good sleep so I can better control my irritability. Good sleep is hard to come by when I get up at least one time a night with the immediate need to pee, but at least I have been falling back to sleep fast afterward.
The strangest thing the last week or two is how restless I feel, and I think that might be related to wanting to know whether we're having a boy or girl. We have an ultrasound scheduled for July 2nd (only 25 days now!) and I am so impatient for the weeks to go by quickly. There are absolutely gender neutral clothes in most of the stores I've popped into that are worth buying. Oh, they may have made an attempt to have a gender-neutral section but they're ugly - all bright yellow or bright green. Where are all the cute sage green with pale orange combos, or deep red? If there are any red clothes or almost gender-neutral clothes, they inevitably have either a truck or a flower smack in the middle of the outfit. I can't imagine what people buy for friends who aren't finding out whether they're having a boy or girl! Maybe they just wait and buy stuff after the baby is born, but I have a feeling that might just kill me, my mom, and my friends! So I'm glad we're having an ultrasound and I'm praying that this baby cooperates so we can know one way or the other.
To back up my observations on the rarity of gender-neutral clothes, I found this funny post from someone not finding out the sex: http://wiredfornoise.com/gender-neutral-baby-clothes-the-bigfoot-of-baby-clothes

And I found a link to this website that is a bit over the top but has some adorable Dr. Seuss clothes: Check out The Retro Baby