1 down, 2 to go

So, depending on where I look, we're officially through our first trimester! We are 13 weeks today and according to a weekly email I get, our baby is the size of a medium shrimp...about 3 inches head to rump. I have made it, so far, without any sickness! I thank all my lucky stars for that!


This is 11 weeks....please disregard the awfulness of the picture! I'm not at my best first thing Saturday morning!

However, that may be due to the foods I've been choosing to eat...cheesy and full of carbs seem to be my favorites lately, which leads me to my main point. I am not 100% enjoying this stage of pregnancy. My clothes are beginning to get a little tight, but I don't feel like I look pregnant, maybe just like I've eaten too much cheese and crackers over the past few months.

I know that I should be more appreciative of what my body is doing and the safe, comfy, warm space that I have created for our baby. But I have been struggling with feeling like a tank! I know that growing bigger is part of being pregnant and I'm totally prepared to feel like a radiant pregnant woman...would just like for this part to pass! However, it is comforting to know that we've made it this far and everything seems to be going well!!!

I also had an interesting experience at a party a few weekends ago. (I know that a homebirth is foreign to most people, but it is a choice that Eric and I made together after doing lots of research and finding the best option for us). At this party a woman expressed very clearly that she did not agree with our choice of doing this at home. She explained that she's seen this go wrong many times, as she works as a nurse. Before leaving the party, she told me that she hoped she didn't see me at the hospital. Granted, the feeling is mutual as we're planning for a safe and wonderful birth at home, I thought that was a little much! Perhaps I'm a little sensitive these days, but I feel that as women we all get to decide on how we want to bring our children into the world.

I have decided that I need to come up with a good response to those who disagree with our choices, not to prove them wrong but to put their minds at ease. I am currently reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth (a midwife at The Farm in Tennessee), as I was reading a birth story, it was prefaced with a blurb explaining that the midwives do not tell women how to give birth. They were referring to positions, but I think this can be applied to the manner in which women give birth. Hospital setting, birth center, epidural, c-section, at home, etc. We get to choose what is right for each and every one of us and I think we need to learn to be more respectful of these big life choices that we get to make.

I also need to get some home birth stats to post on here...sounds like a good task for the weekend!