I'm making some progress in the all day nausea department! Happy Days!!! When I am hungry, I am nauseous. When I have eaten I am nauseous. And forget about eating any real food after 4 pm. It comes up every time. Eating has almost become an art form.

So if I eat/drink something as soon as I get up in the morning and then every hour until 11, I can get in a decent lunch (meal) and be only somewhat miserable afterwards. It looks like up to 8 oz of milk/juice or, maybe, half that of food every hour, will work. I experimented with that formula today and the nausea has been a little more tolerable. Lunch will stay with me until about 8 pm and I will eat easily digestible food like crackers and peanut butter and a banana for dinner and an evening snack. If I do it right, I can get in some decent nutrition and calories, too. Nothing sounds good, anyway, so I am picking the healthiest foods I can stomach.

I've been losing weight but my belly has been expanding due to bloat. I've read it's pretty common. I certainly don't remember from last time. My clothes don't fit me. Can't button any of my pants/shorts and the elastic on the sweats is very uncomfortable. Not sure what I am going to do about it, yet. I can't fathom buying larger clothes, and I am not big enough for maternity, either. I've tried the hair-tie trick with the buttons and it hurt, too. I just don't like ANY pressure on my abdomen right now. Prince Charming says to just go maternity and deal with constantly pulling up the pants. That seems like a better option, but I haven't decided. I might go to one of the maternity places over the weekend and see if I can make it work.

I made my first impulse purchase. Perhaps ever. It was an above-ground pool for us. Well, it was almost impulse. I bought it about an hour after thinking about it. I thought: "How hard can it be to level out the backyard for a 16' pool?" Answer: "I'm pregnant and have no business outside in 90+ degree humid heat with a shovel! Duh!" So I quickly called a couple of concrete contractors and they came and gave me an estimate for an 18' slab: $1,000. I so wasn't expecting that. And these guys, apparently, have had no work since the economy crashed and are hungry. After swallowing hard and taking a good look at the finances, I decided to go ahead and do it. It will be EXTREMELY nice to have a pool in the backyard and I know it will get used constantly over the entire summer. The pool was only $700 and I've heard people say they've had theirs for three and four years and still going strong. I can be okay with that kind of return on investment. And, if we sell the house, the slab can easily be used for patio furniture so it should all be good.