14 weeks

Today I officially entered the second trimester- yea!! I am "showing" a lot sooner than I did with the other three. None of my normal pants/jeans/shorts fit anymore and they haven't for about three weeks. I am stuck with one pair of maternity jeans, the shorts I bought last week that have a ribbed waistband thing and elastic waist skirts. None of my maternity tops fit right so I wear loose fitting shirts when I go out in public and feel frumpy looking. I haven't really felt like showing off my "bump" since I'm pretty certain strangers would think "beer gut" or "awe, she really should do some situps".  So... here is picture I took with the self timer. This is just one of approximately 30 very awkward posed portraits. Lucky for me I was able to edit it so you can focus on the belly instead of my weird side glance (and my new second chin).

And now for those you who enjoy the details of symptoms: nausea from just about the moment I took the test... pretty much prevented me from doing anything, eating anything and occasionally kneeling on the bathroom floor (I really don't want to exaggerate on that particular one). The all day "sickness" seems to be subsiding, although it did rear it's ugly head last night and this morning probably because I realized I had been feeling almost normal again.

Hunger strikes at any moment- especially right at bedtime and when I don't have access to any food, such as in the car or during church.

Aversions- up until about two weeks ago nothing looked or sounded good. I especially didn't want Mexican food (bean burritos from Taco Bell were okay, though), salads sounded like the most terrible thing in the world, ice cream actually made me sick...
Cravings- Throughout all that the only thing I ate that was perfect and hit the spot was steak and potatoes. I could eat eggs, cereal, shrimp, pasta- but didn't really like any sort of tomato sauce, cheez its (of all things) and something I'm not proud of at all... chicken mcnuggets- only gave into that craving once and the other was a spicy chicken sandwich from wendy's. (I'm sure it won't be the last time.) I can finally eat fruit (especially red grapes and strawberries) and veggies again (avocado and carrots are my favs so far).

Emotionally- I have started crying at the most ridiculous things. For example, we rented We Bought A Zoo and I bawled during the scene where there is a flashback of the guy's wife. Normally something so incredibly cheesy would simply make me roll my eyes. We watched some new extreme weight loss show and I found myself crying again. I cry when I read happy or sad blog posts. So... anything is game. If T says something nice I cry. If he teases me I cry. I really feel for him... especially this past Sunday at church when he looked over at me during a song and saw that I was crying yet again. He had no idea what was going on! He handles it all pretty well, though.

I feel like I've said way more than enough and will let you go on about your lives. And don't get all freaked out about having to read something like this every week... weekly updates won't start until the third trimester!