Oof!

[rms10]

My goodness, there's a lot going on here! Let me sum up:

1. I finished The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini, and really enjoyed it. Well, enjoyed might not be quite the right word. It was pretty depressing (tied with Sweetness in the Belly for most depressing read ever). But very engrossing. Now I need to figure out what books to bring to Ann Arbor!
   
   
2. My defense is a week from today, and yes, I've actually started writing the talk.
   
   
3. I've also started seriously job-hunting. Blah.
   
   
4. On the plus side, I've been able to play with my new camera. Yay!
   
   
5. Doc has been having weird stomach problems -- refusing to eat sometimes, even -- and we tried re-jiggering his meal schedule. Finally, we took the next step recommended by the vet: Pepcid AC. Yes, people medicine. And one dose has already made a huge difference. He wolfed down his dinner and is peppier than he's been all week. Hooray!
   
   
6. I don't know if being done with my thesis helps, but I seem to have finally reached the second trimester energy boost. Yay! I'm kind of starting to show -- only the eeee! and I can tell, really, but there is a little belly there! It's . . . kind of fun. So far I like how I look while pregnant. Reading online pregnancy fora is so strange, because some women complain about their weight gain -- especially if they were small to begin with -- and I'm all, "Wheee! I have pretty pregnancy curves!"
   
   Which reminds me, I was really annoyed by a nurse at my most recent doctor's appointment. I was about 14 weeks along, and had only gained about 1 or 2 pounds. I was a little concerned about this, because I kind of assume I need to hit the high end of the "recommended" 25-35 pound gain. The nurse was just like, "Nah, the less you gain the easier it is to lose it later." Two things: it's definitely not the end of the world if I don't end up losing all the pregnancy weight. Besides, I know my body, and prior to pregnancy I'd been at the same weight for about 6 or 7 years, with no effort from me. When I exercised more frequently (for fitness, not for weight control), I also ate more. I realize this may be unusual, and it may change post-partum, but my body seems to have a preferred weight.
   
   At some point I'll rant about some of the body issues in The Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy, which I otherwise really like.
   

Now, to watch LOST, whee!

Comments

[vja2.livejournal.com]

If you thought The Kiterunner was depressing, try reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. It's like the Kiterunner without all the lighthearted parts (very good, though).

[rms10.livejournal.com]

Yikes!

I don't really feel the need to read another book by Hosseini, though. I want to go in another direction, especially as I've only read like three books so far this year.

[drspiff.livejournal.com]

The weight gain curve is kind of weird. I suspect that there is a larger standard deviation on it than implied by what gets published. We were all over the board and our doctor never seemed to lend much credence to it on its own as a measure of what was going on.

[rms10.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, the actual weight gain by women is anywhere from 10 to 100 pounds. The "recommended" thing is just crap. I guess it's weird to me because I've never had people comment on my weight before.

[listersgirl]

Ugh, job hunting.

That's all I've got.

[rms10.livejournal.com]

Ha! Exactly. Somebody, please hire me! (Plus, there's the stress of finding a job before I'm obviously showing.)

[astra-nomer.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I gave my dissertation talk at the winter AAS meeting 7 months pregnant. I interviewed for postdocs while 8 months pregnant. I still managed to get hired at the place I interviewed at. Then again, there were already two women (faculty) in that department who had recently had children, so there wasn't too much danger of looking bad.

Also commiserating with you on job hunting. Not so much commiserating on weight gain. I gained 35-40 pounds with both my pregnancies and was roundly chastised for it.

[rms10.livejournal.com]

That's good to know. And if a place doesn't hire me because I'm visibly pregnant, then maybe it's not a place where I'd want to work. (The other issue is that I won't be obviously pregnant at least another month, I think, so I'll just go crazy if I don't have a job by then.)

The weight gain thing is so weird. I mean, if you're growing a baby, shouldn't gaining weight be a good thing? Aaargh I don't understand doctors.

[evil-fizz.livejournal.com]

I think that doctors are as susceptible as everyone else to the "OMG, gaining weight is bad!" thing. There's one midwife in my clinic who is *obsessed* with BMI and weight. No rational discussion can dissuade her that BMI is just not a useful metric for some people.

There's also, I am inclined to think, an element of cultural weirdness associated with pregnancy weight gain because a lot of women don't go back to their pre-pregnancy weight and there's a lot of shaming and whining about how once women have children they "let themselves go".

[rms10.livejournal.com]

Ugh, BMI. Which is useless if you're tall, or muscular, or have a large frame.

There's also, I am inclined to think, an element of cultural weirdness associated with pregnancy weight gain because a lot of women don't go back to their pre-pregnancy weight and there's a lot of shaming and whining about how once women have children they "let themselves go".

I think you're probably right. BAH to it all. On the other hand, I think there is some progress -- look at maternity fashions today. Lots of stuff is meant to be snug around the belly, showing it off, instead of the tents our mothers wore 30 years ago.

[rms10.livejournal.com]

Ugh, BMI. Which is useless if you're tall, or muscular, or have a large frame.


Or are otherwise fit. Or, or, or!

[evil-fizz.livejournal.com]

I didn't gain any weight at all until I was about 5 months pregnant. (I actually lost a few pounds because I was eating much better.) Although there is a range, it varies pretty widely. Some women (and apparently my family is like this), just turn into baby. This is genuinely one of those moments where you should talk to your mom and see what her experiences were.

I also say this kindly: do not spend too much time in pregnancy forums. They make it very easy for you to start panicking when you don't need to and causing all kinds of needless worry and angst. Read the stuff about normal pregnancies, pick up a copy of Baby Bargains, and sail on. =)

[rms10.livejournal.com]

My mom's pregnancies were both pretty easy -- no morning sickness, but lots of fatigue -- and mine has definitely been similar so far. She's a lot shorter than I, but has a similar build, and gained 20 pounds with the first pregnancy and 30 with the second. She claims it's because she was larger going into the first pregnancy, but I've seen pictures of her from back then, and she was tiny. Plus, I was born three weeks early, so right there that's probably five pounds she didn't gain.

The only pregnancy forum I scan is pregnant, and most of the posts are surprisingly low on panic. I think I've been pretty laid back about this pregnancy, too. Last week (14 weeks), the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat with the doppler, and I was just like, "Woo! Bonus ultrasound!" And indeed, everything was fine.