15 weeks

Finally, finally, finally reached the end of my first trimester a couple weeks ago. I kind of thought I'd wake up on the day of my 14th week and feel 100% better. It didn't really happen that way, but I'm starting to feel a lot less nauseous and a lot more energy. I was greeted into my 2nd trimester by a couple gnarly migraines that flare up from time to time, but honestly I'd take blinding head/neck pain over feeling sick to my stomach any day.

And just in time for Thanksgiving, my appetite is back! Mostly. These past few months I've been saying that I should volunteer my super-smelling nose powers to the FBI or something. I could smell the soap on Matt's hands after he washed them for hours and it made my stomach turn (enter: peppermint essential oil stirred into scent-free soap). Half the time it wasn't even my nausea that kicked my appetite, it was the idea of having to smell whatever was cooking. Or look at it. Or clean it up afterwards. My sweet, patient husband kept me properly fed and abided by all my obnoxious preferences. It's going to be a long time until I can eat salmon again. Ugh. Or until I can type the word out without flinching..

Some of my favorite snacks and meals are plain pasta with butter & parmesan cheese (actually, that's always a favorite), tangerines (I eat about five every day), ginger mints and the occasional bowl of cottage cheese. Maybe. Meat or other forms of incredibly high protein always immediately relieve my nausea, but it takes a lot of convincing to keep those down. 

Matt and I were able to spend the weekend with my family earlier this month. It was so wonderful. The Northwest was on it's best behavior while we were there; no rain, crisp air and exploding colors on all the leaves. I felt so good that weekend too. I had a lot of social energy from being around family and friends, my parents provided all my favorite snacks and their soap smelled really good. It was such a great weekend, but of course it blurred by. It was so hard to leave! Spending time with my family really made the pregnancy feel real. At that point, no one else really knew and it was the first time I'd seen my mom since I told her over Skype almost two months earlier! Isn't she a good secret-keeper? (I almost told her the day after I found out after receiving a text from her that read "I had a dream last night that you were pregnant, are you?" Sheesh. That mother's intuition runs deep.)

It was such a gift to be able to spend time with family, tell a few people in person about the news and experience some fall weather. It's just starting to get cold down here (as in, we turned the heater on for the first time all year about two days ago) and feel like fall/winter. Just in time for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite. Christmas season is my favorite time of year, and I feel like Thanksgiving is a great kick off to that. I love how relational it is, I love how much food there is, I love getting excited for Christmas and I love my husband's fried turkey. This will be our third Thanksgiving spent in this house with Alan & Cynthia. They have graciously invited us to join them year after year as none of us have family in town! Today I'm baking a few pies, prepping a few side dishes and maybe sneaking a little Christmas music in.