Valentine's Day, Some Belly Pics and Maybe a Little TMI...

I’ve definitely had better Valentine’s Days. I guess I’ve also had worse as well.  I’ve been sick for the past week. It has seriously sucked. I haven’t gotten sick much in the last couple of years, but seeing how your immune system is so much less effective while you are pregnant, I haven’t easily fought this one off and it has really dragged out. It started out with a slight sore throat early last week. I thawed out a bunch of homemade chicken broth from the freezer and started drinking it around the clock. Normally, this nips things in the bud immediately. I guess I made the mistake of discontinuing that once I started to feel better on Thursday, because after a good day Friday, it came back even worse Friday night. My throat was so sore, it hurt to swallow my spit. It felt like little pieces of glass were poking around in there. It was awful. I was up throughout the night trying to gargle salt water, just enough to fall back asleep. I didn’t get much sleep that night.

Joe had left town for work Thursday night and wouldn’t be returning until late Saturday night. Saturday morning I was really hurting. I called my mom (thank goodness she lives less then a mile from me) and she so very kindly came and picked up the munchkin to hang out with her for the day. I laid around all day, drinking more chicken broth and eating whatever I could that I thought might help me feel better. I definitely wasn’t up for going to the store, but luckily we had a bunch of oranges in the house so I could try to stock up on some vitamin C. I really wasn’t feeling much better by Sunday morning, so I started googling home remedies for sore throats. Joe was home now too, and was also feeling pretty crappy, so we were a pretty sad pair.

I came across a website that recommended gargling with cayenne pepper. I remembered hearing this once before. I started reading all of the comments in the forum and came up with a concoction based on what other people had had some luck with. In a coffee mug, I put 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp unrefined sea salt, 2 Tb apple cider vinegar,  and 1 Tb raw honey. I boiled some water, then poured it into the coffee mug. Once it cooled enough, I started gargling it for about 30 seconds or so. I took a break and then tried again. I kept doing this till it was gone. It took me about and hour or so to finish it. It was pretty nasty, not gonna lie, but it was doable and it did not make me want to gag or anything.  By the time I was finished, my throat was feeling considerably better. I was amazed! I did this a few more times throughout the day and by the time I went to bed, I was actually able to get some sleep that night and was feeling better by Monday morning. 

My sitter called me bright and early Monday morning to tell me that she had come down with something herself, so she wasn’t going to be able to watch the munchkin. It was snowing pretty badly out and my tires are pretty bald, so it actually worked out. And I got to stay home and snuggle with my favorite little kiddo. Now my throat was less sore, but I was beginning to hack up gross stuff and cough constantly. Yay.

I seriously couldn't believe that throughout the whole ordeal the munchkin didn't get so much as a sniffle! I was so relieved.

So then we came to Tuesday, Valentine’s day. Joe had class anyway, so me and the munchkin were mostly on our own. We all had dinner together, before he headed off to school. I got a hair brained idea and decided that it would be cute and fun and romantic to do something with my nappy hair and maybe put some make up on my face. I was feeling much better, and it was Valentine’s Day, it might be nice to have some “romantic time” with the hubby that night. After I cleaned up a little, I decided to throw on a dress, then one on the munchkin too, so we could take a few fun pics of my baby bump ( I hadn’t done this in a few weeks anyway, and was long overdue). So I got out my tripod and we took a few shots. 

The munchkin is getting pretty good at assisting me. I can now hand her the remote and she will push the button for me when I ask her too.  She loves being helpful and I think she really enjoys taking pictures with me. So technically, the munchkin took this pic below.

Not too long after we started taking pictures, my stomach started hurting really really bad. Like really bad. I knew I was in trouble. I hurried up and moved the equipment into the hallway where I could keep an eye on it and ran into the bathroom to take care of some business (sorry if this is too much TMI... but being pregnant makes me really just not care I guess). I started to feel a little bit better in just enough time to put the munchkin to bed, then I was back in the bathroom again. Then I got into some comfy clothes and hoped I was back to normal. I decided to take a few more pics while I had everything set up.

Looking at these pictures, you can’t even tell there was a war going on in my belly. There sure as f@#% was though and it was awful. I spent the next hour running back and forth from the bathroom. So much for my romantic evening with the hubby. He came home to find me balled up on the couch. 

We watched Monday’s episode of the Bachelor (he is a good guy to let me get away with this), and sat on the couch sipping some pregnancy tea with honey, hoping the worst was over. Thank goodness it was. I went to bed and actually got a good night’s sleep. I really needed that.

So that was my Valentine’s Day. I hope everyone else has a better story then me.  At least I finally got some belly pics in. Tomorrow I will officially be 20 weeks and halfway there! I hope to do an update on where I am in my pregnancy and how I have been feeling.

Just as I was finishing up writing this, I felt the baby move for the first time from the outside! So exciting!!! Only 5 more days till we find out if this little bugger is a boy or girl!

Happy Hump Day!