6 things I’ve experienced during the past week: two more bouts of visual disturbances, rather like the beginnings of an optical migraine (white dazzling lights creating blind spots, no funsies and very awkward when you’re meeting a group of students on the very first day of classes, let me tell you!) serious ramping-up of Braxton Hicks [...]
Things are pretty much the same as usual, except that I’m doing course prep to get ready for my return to teaching/commuting next week. At the end of last semester (in late December), many of my students and colleagues were still unaware of my pregnancy; I hardly think they could miss it now! Two random [...]
Earlier in this pregnancy, I filled out my “Initial Health History” form for prenatal and birth care. You know: check the box if you’ve experienced severe headaches, diabetes, all sorts of things. After the usual “Emotional abuse,” “Physical abuse,” “Sexual abuse,” I got to this very interesting item: ”ANY unwanted/undesired physical or sexual contact.” And I [...]
Last week, I got sick again, the third illness in a row without breaks. Fortunately, that cold passed pretty quickly (though not before getting me snotty enough to vomit bile twice after not having thrown up for quite a while, ugh). I’m just pregnant-sick now, not additional-illness-sick, and I’d like to stick with that, please. Other [...]
Welcome to First the Egg, a collection of practical information, links, and cultural criticism. This site is a feminist intervention in our rigidly-gendered culture of childbirth and parenting. It aims to provide a nonsexist space for people who want to learn, reflect, commiserate, or laugh about being pregnant, giving birth, and helping children grow up whole and happy.
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this week in pregnancy (why-I’m-not-medicating-more edition)
So in the middle of the night after I said I was grateful that I hadn’t woken up because of heartburn, I woke up (for three and a half hours) because of heartburn. And boy does that totally suck. Fortunately, it has not yet recurred. It actually seems, in some mysterious way, to have gotten [...]