It has begun...

The nausea, gagging, and throwing-up is in full force. Yesterday it lasted all day long. I'm hoping for a better day today, but so far it's been pretty rough. This morning I was determined to go on my morning walk (I didn't go yesterday because I was feeling so horrible). So I walked with my I Pod in one hand and a bag of pretzels in the other. I don't know if I burned any more calories than I consumed, but at least it felt good to get out and exercise.

As I was leaning over my toilet bowl yesterday trying to keep down the handful of cherries that I had just consumed, I had a moment of laughter as I recalled all of the memories of past first/second trimesters of pregnancy.

While I was pregnant with Katelund, I was in the middle of one of my most intense semesters at BYU-Idaho. I was in the middle of methods (a semester filled with teaching full time, creating an insane amount of lesson plans, and taking 12 credit hours to top it all off). I would drive down with a group of girls everyday to Idaho Falls in order to teach/observe in the third grade. Stopping on the side of the snowy road in order for me to throw-up became a part of our daily routine as we traveled to and from I.F. and Rexburg. I was also teaching water aerobics at the college. There were many times where I would have to jump out of the pool and run to the bathroom. The life guard freaked out the first time it happened, but once I explained to him that it was either me running on the side of the pool or him cleaning up throw up, he backed down.

After that experience, I swore that I was not going to get pregnant again until after my student teaching. We moved back to Texas and about one week into the semester, I found out that I was pregnant. My student teaching was quite the experience. It was almost a daily occurence for me to stop mid sentence and run out of the classroom to find the toilet bowl. Everything would trigger my gagging reflex. The smell of the Kindergartners after they came in from recess, picking the kids up from the cafeteria, and cleaning myself up after 3 kids threw-up on me (I actually just gagged from even thinking about that one).

When I was pregnant with Clairisa, I was so thankful to be in my own home and sitting in front of my own toilet bowl. It was definitely not easy being sick and taking care of my 2 and 3 year old daughters, but I had an AMAZING neighbor/friend who helped out a TON!!!

This time is not all that different. I still gag everytime I open the kitchen cupboard or fridge, whenever I kiss Cory (sorry honey), or everytime that I even think about brushing my teeth. But, even though those things are all the same, it is still very different. My perspective is different. Although I may physically feel miserable, on the inside I couldn't be more happy. It is all worth it and it could always be so much worse. I just feel so blessed and thankful. I am pregant with my 4th child. I have two healthy beautiful little girls, and I am married to a man whom I have completely fallen in love with all over again this last year. Life is good, even if the next few months are spent by my toilet bowl. :)