17 weeks

After almost two weeks on bedrest, I am back to being vertical with the rest of the world.  I'm back at work now (and it's been oh-so exciting) and feeling good, for the most part.  I'm still bleeding, but my doctors don't seem to be too concerned about it even though they never figured out what caused it all to begin with.  The bleeding gets a little worse after each work shift, so I try to make sure to rest and relax on my first day off and that seems to help out.  My co-workers don't let me carry anything heavier than a patient's chart anymore so I don't strain myself.

One of the things that hasn't really improved during this trimester is my food aversions.  I've always hated picky eaters, but this baby is turning me into one.  I have aversions to meat, especially cuts of meat.  I seem to do okay with ground beef or shredded chicken (specifically in Albertos chicken burritos from San Diego), but anything else makes me gag just thinking about.  I haven't been able to eat seafood either, and crabbing season just started.  *sniff*  I've been getting my protein needs from peanut butter sandwiches, various nuts, tofu, cheese, and milk.  For someone who is lactose intolerant, it's been odd that I've been craving tall glasses of cold (lactose-free) milk.  Michael's been great in making meals that cater to Baby B's latest whims.  I'm so appreciative of everything he's done for me so far with this pregnancy.  I try not to turn into the "mean pregnant lady" that he seems to run into with other pregnant women at his workplace.

In non-baby news, I think we 

have a jungle of creatures living in the greenbelt behind our house.  We always hear a chorus of bird chirps and songs coming from various feathered friends we see around the house, from the woodpecker that pokes holes into the dead tree in our neighbor's backyard to the little finch we've named "Tweet" who made itself into our house one afternoon when we left the door open and took a nap.  (Tweet was found on top of our fridge, but apparently he danced on top of the papers on our kitchen table as well.)  Lately we've been hearing and seeing squirrels, and just the other day we heard howling and barking of coyotes or some other kind of wild dog.  We've also seen deer in our neighborhood grazing on the empty lots, but I don't think they make much noise.

July 16 is the day we find out if Baby B is a boy or girl.  According to the poll on our blog, most of you think it's a boy.  Michael wants a girl, and I'm okay either way as long as the baby is healthy and not a picky eater.  :)