Home again

We got back from London on Monday night. It was a fun trip, though punctuated by me being sick one way or the other for the last ten days. I had a sinus headache for the three days before we left, and since I can only take Tylenol, I pretty much had to wait for it to go away on its own. It finally broke on the plane to London Tuesday night, which was an incredible relief.

We arrived in London on Wednesday morning and started our theatre binge weekend. We had tickets to see 8 West End shows in four days, so we had quite a busy schedule. (I'll make another post about what we saw.) We had just a couple of hours between shows on Wednesday, and we picked a little Italian restaurant next to the second theatre for a quick dinner. I ordered spaghetti with meat sauce, and didn't think anything of it -- until about 2:00 am when I was completely miserable. I threw up a couple of times that night and spent Thanksgiving morning huddled in bed until noon. Poisoned by meat sauce -- who would've guessed?

And that pretty much affected the rest of the week. My digestive system was screwed up and I had sharp cramps in my stomach every time I ate, which made eating very un-fun. I tried to focus on keeping hydrated, but even that is hard when everything makes your stomach cramp. We basically spent every morning at the hotel until around noon until my digestive system calmed down enough that I felt confident enough to go out. It didn't stop us from going to the theatre or having fun in the evenings, but we basically did nothing else the entire trip. :-P

I had the last of my stomach cramps Tuesday morning on my way to work, happily, and I think my body is finally getting back to normal. But that afternoon I realized I had picked up a cold as well. Last night I had a fever and was achy and shivering and generally miserable. Doug had to leave immediately Tuesday morning for California, so it was just me and two very clingy cats. I don't seem to have a fever this morning, but my throat is sore and I'm coughing up all sorts of fun stuff. :-P

I'm hardly ever sick, so I guess I'm not used to being out of commission for so long. Of course, now I can't help but wonder how I will manage when Boo is born and Doug is gone if I'm sick. For now, Boo has been helpfully kicking my noisy intestines. I'm sure he's sick of all the rumbling going on in there. Last night I fell asleep on the couch and woke up with my stomach growling, which set off a round of kicking. At least I know he's doing fine through all of this.

Doctor's appointment this morning

Despite feeling icky, I had an appointment with the OB this morning. I warned them that I had a cold, but they didn't seem particularly concerned.

I've gained one pound since my last visit a month ago, and while they don't seem concerned about that, I was told that I should have gained ten pounds by now. I'm still down ten from where I started, so I may finish just about even. I'm not intentionally restricting what I eat; I eat when I'm hungry and eat until I'm satisfied. I'm just not packing it on like most people do. As long as Boo is growing like he should be, it's not a problem. But I don't particularly feel like I'm eating for two, either. I remember reading somewhere that you really only need to increase your calorie intake by about 350 calories a day, which isn't a lot. And heh, the holidays may take care of this for me anyway. :-P

I have to do the glucose test at my next appointment in January. Blech. They gave me the little bottle of orange goo to keep in my fridge until then. Not looking forward to that, mostly because I really despise sweet things these days. I have a weird aversion to sugar lately, and I know drinking that isn't going to be fun. At least it's a pretty small bottle...

I had a great conversation with the CNM (who oversaw my appointment) about the birthing philosophy of the practice. As luck would have it, they are one of the only practices in town that is committed to supporting natural childbirth. ( More details under the cut. )