Insomnia and other "symptoms"

I love how they call them "symptoms" of pregnancy, as if it were an illness or disease. Just another reminder that the medical field has been dominated & defined by men.

But in any case, the signs of pregnancy hit apparently before I even knew I was pregnant-- that's why my friend made me take the test. I took the nap of all naps. She called me in the middle and I never heard the phone. I ALWAYS hear the phone, even if I ignore it. This time, I honestly never even heard it.

Once I knew I was pregnant, a few weird things I had been experiencing made more sense, most of all the fatigue. But the signs didn't become really pronounced until last week. I have been fortunate so far to follow in my mother's footsteps and avoid the so-called "morning sickness", which plagued everyone I know all day long. Dizziness has been my real problem so far. I have to be very careful whenever I stand up and I usually get a headrush. Food has been ok but a little weird. At first, I wanted to eat fish all the time; every day I wanted fish for lunch, fish for dinner. Maybe I had a mercury deficiency. The first week after we found out, we were doing a sort-of "cleansing" where we were eating only whole grains, no wheat, lots of green leafys and other veg, and only chicken breast or fish. I felt great when we were doing that. Then we went back to eating regular and I have been craving cold food (salads and hummus and such), which is not typical for me. Over the past three days, the smell of any kind of meat cooking-- chicken, fish, or steak-- makes me feel gross and I can barely choke it down. I'm going to have to start just eating salad all the time. Rabbit food. Yum.

The other big problem has been insomnia but I am not sure if that is actually a physiological change because of the pregnancy or just anxiety. :) I didn't sleep for the first three days after we found out. Since then I mostly sleep but wake up three or four times a night and have crazy dreams. I've had insomnia a couple of other isolated nights since that first week, but I've also slept for 10 or 11 hours straight other nights. It's pretty inconsistent.

VH has been fantastic so far-- doing laundry without me asking (which can be a mixed blessing but is much appreciated), cooking dinner every night which I then only pick at, coming over and helping me up when I stand up and then just sit down on the floor to avoid falling over from the headrush. I just hope he doesn't get tired of it too soon! This is the best part so far!

Also, some pictures at 5 weeks. They're really unattractive, but whatever. I don't think there's much to see yet except how out-of-shape I started. But when I eventually look pregnant, I think it will be fun to look back at how I was at the beginning. For easy reference, I am at 7 weeks as of today. More pictures next week.