Blgh.

Well, the 6-week mark has proven to be a difficult one...for Ash's stomach. Her only symptoms before were a larger appetite and being exhausted all the time....now, along with that, she's feeling queasy most of the day. She's discovered that the cure (for her at least) for this nausea feeling is eating...ya...weird right? What is the LAST thing you normally want to do when your feeling like you're about to lose your lunch- eat right? Well, apparently prego ladies are the exception to the rule, because eating is exactly what Ash needs to do to hold off the gagging...yes, gagging. She's not so much puking, just walking around gagging every 30 minutes...she sounds like a cat with a hairball...pretty attractive! So every day, whether Ash packs a lunch for her and Jas or not, she packs a whole bag of *SNACKS* to munch on ALLLLLL day...yes, all day...she can go about 30 minutes or an hour without having food in her, but by the time she feels hungry, it's too late and the gagging starts all over again. She's been munching a lot on String Cheese, yogurt, dried fruit strips, baby carrots, cookies, popcorn and triscuts. And while there haven't been any overwhelming food-specific cravings yet, the one thing Ash desires all the time is to be FULL. Which is again, kind of weird. We think that it may be because normally, Ash eats a little bit throughout the day, but never engorges herself with a large food amount....and realistically, she probably wasn't getting enough food to begin wtih, so what her body is telling her NOW is to just EAT EAT EAT EAT EAT until you can't eat NO 'MO! SO what does that mean? Well, it means eating 3/4 of an entire box of Velveeta Mac N Cheese by herself, it means going to In N Out and ordering a cheeseburger meal w/ fries a drink and an EXTRA order of fries...and eating it all. True, this isn't the healthiest stuff to be eating, but Ash's breakfast, lunch and snacks throughout the day are pretty well balanced so it's dinner time when she lets loose. Poor Jason, has tried to be so helpful and he cooked some chicken and squash up the other night- gave Ash a piece of squash as she was running out to do an errand and it almost came right back up....Jas has learned pretty quickly that if it doesn't sound like a good idea to the Mamma To Be...it isn't. Every day Ash takes a Pre-Natal vitamin and a DHA vitamin (The prenatal vitamin is basically a multivitamin that has all of the vitamins that Ash needs to help the baby grow and develop, while a DHA pill is full of Fatty Omega-3 which is very important for a pregnant ladies diet). Ash is going along with the philosophy that as long as it sounds good, and relieves the gagging then it's Ok to eat. Even though it's not all super healthy food, the vitamins are hopefully counteracting most of that and getting the baby what it needs. Most of the books we've read say that while the first trimester is a crucial one for brain development and the overall initial growth of the fetus, as long as the mother is GETTING food (And not throwing it all up) then everything should be fine.

That's the update on the Laubster's so far....our next Dr. Appointment is on November 19th. We should get to see the heartbeat and get a picture of the little bun in the oven- we're very much looking forward to this appointment! Ash is also getting the H1N1 vaccine on Sunday at a free clinic in LA...pregnang ladies are strongly encouraged to get both the regular flu vaccine and the H1N1 flu vaccine so that the baby is protected as much as possible since Ash's immune system is compromised by carrying the baby...hopefully it all goes well.