I finally cracked open The Fifth Season, which I'd been putting off so that I could read less fun books about having a baby (though Having Faith, which is an ecologist's take on her pregnancy is legitimately good, too). But after having been into more sci-fi and magical realism for a while, I've realized I really like fantasy where the whole system of magic or power or whatever has rules and has organized study/history of it and doesn't just seem arbitrary (the same thing is true for sci-fi: you don't need to explain your tech fully but it better be internally consistent). I think this explains part of my love of Harry Potter and also why I find the non-aggravating parts of the Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones series compelling (there are multiple types of magic! there's a school that partially studies it! magic gets stronger when dragons exist!). The Fifth Season definitely is internally consistent, plus it's geology-based magic, and the characters are super interesting and complex. I don't know if it's possible for me to dislike anything N. K. Jemisin writes, though, so I might be biased.
My dad always will wear the associated clothing of whatever university his daughters happen to have affiliations with. At one point, he paired a purple long-sleeve polo from my phd school with a maroon fleece vest from my sister's masters school. It was the absolute best.
This is seriously one of the things I'm really excited about for when my kid becomes an actual person. As a geology professor married to a high school physics teacher, we are going to be the best/worst.
I had absolutely no morning sickness, so sometimes it just doesn't happen to. The first thing I noticed about my pregnancy was my chest expanding a cup size! This happened with the first couple weeks, even! I just figured it might have been due to my body getting used to no BC hormones after 16 years of use, but then when my period was didn't happen, I finally put all those signs together.
Ha, I didn't even catch the mixed up bras. I just assumed regular into maternity.
That Nordstrom advice might be a game changer. Wow.
I have always been ambivalent about having kids, like I can imagine a perfectly good future both with and without them. My partner (male) really wanted one, so when I turned 33, I figured it was the time to start trying if we were going to do it. I have never ever had a strong urge for kids, though I kept expecting a switch to flip; even now, at 5 months pregnant, it still feels surreal.
One more thing! If you're thinking of looking for a doula (this might be super early to think about), which was highly, highly recommended to me for a variety of reasons, it can take a lot of time to find one. I went through interviews with 6 before finding someone who I felt comfortable with AND could work with my due date. I'm an evidence-based, over-researching scientist, and I learned that a lot of doulas just aren't, which may or may not matter to you, so i was being pretty picky. I also live in a city but not a huge city, so that probably didn't help.
I'm trying to go through as much as the summer as possible without buying anything beyond jersey skirts, but I have now gone up to cup sizes and have made some emergency purchases. I've started getting nursing ones so I don't feel like I'm buying a bra for just a few months.
I'm about 5 months right now, and I thought I'd have to do lots of pregnancy stuff, but it really kind of takes care of itself as long as you follow some basic rules about it (rules varying based on doctors and country of pregnancy but whatever).
I ended up getting one book: From the Hips by R. Odes & C. Morris. It's colorful and mostly evidence-based and not full of bummers, but I mainly like it for the month-by-month breakdown. I'm sure lots of other books will give you the same information, though, so use your best judgement. I also kind of use the app Ovia Pregnancy which is also totally sufficient.
One major piece of advice, unless you have super specific questions, DO NOT GO ONTO RANDOM PREGNANCY FORUMS! Everything is terrible on those, and people use them instead of actual medical advice ("I'm too embarrassed to ask my doctor why I'm bleeding"), which terrifies me. I mean, I know there are total issues with the whole pregnancy/medical-industrial industry and not everyone can find a doctor who is accessible for a variety of reasons, but please for the love of anything ask your medical practitioner of your choice about things like BLOOD.
![[Avatar]](/images/avatar26.png){kind=avatar}
Experiment