4 weeks pregnant!! :)

Wheee, my first weekly milestone! :) I am now 1/10 of the way through my pregnancy, haha! That feels so silly, to say that I'm a certain proportion of the way through my pregnancy when I've only known for a few days and it's still so early on! ;) Four weeks. I like that. It means 14DPO, and my longest luteal phase ever was 13 days, so I know I must really be pregnant, hehe!

My temp went up a touch today - it's now rocking up and down in the 36.8 - 37.0 range, which I like muchly. I peed on yet another stick this morning and it was reassuringly clear. It's the first time I have seen the positive line show up before the window cleared properly - in the first minute I think. It's a touch darker than yesterday's, and I am not going to test tomorrow, but I will do at 16DPO. I think I will also test at 18DPO for the last time. I really like to see those lines getting darker. 18DPO is the official "you're definitely pregnant by now!" mark that the book, "Taking Charge of Your Fertility" talks about - I bought that book years ago when we were TTC our first baby and it wasn't happening, and it was great and very informative! Anyway. I like to temp up to 18DPO, and after that I (reluctantly!) stop. I feel that there has to be a cut-off point otherwise I'd just temp forever and my charts would be annoying to look at as you'd have to scroll miiiiiles sideways to view it all, hehe! Also I wanted to temp to a certain point, the same each pregnancy, just for comparison's sake. So I chose 18DPO. Four more days of temping! :) I like it! I always miss it when I stop.

I feel like there's not really much newsy stuff to say today, and I won't be doing daily updates forever, because though I can waffle about nothing for many MANY paragraphs, I think it wouldn't be the best use of my time (or that of my readers, ha!) if I did! I just hope that this time around I will be better at updating at least weekly so that I don't miss any stages out. Each week is precious, and something I want to look back on or compare with another time when I'm (hopefully!) pregnant.

So the only big things today are:

1) Having the odd achy/crampy sensation in random parts of my pelvic area and low abdomen. It's very on and off, and doesn't always last more than a few seconds. Not usually longer than 5 or 10 minutes at most. It's sometimes like a bothersome dragging pain over some part of my pubic bone, or just to one side or above. I have felt generally a little crampy front and back today at times, but only very mild crampiness now. Right now I have a really bothersome "boring" pain over the far right part of my pubic bone. It's very dull but distractingly uncomfortable. I'm hoping that's just part of what's going on it there with the tiny one getting cosy.

2) Tiiiiiired. Just tired, physically. If I exert myself, I come over a bit "funny" - just lightheaded and breathless, or else weak and queasy, or something like that. Not morning-sickness queasy though. Just as though I had gone for a run and painted the house and been shopping and THEN tried to do the washing up and come over a bit weak and tired! ;) Except that I haven't actually done the stuff before the washing up! My body is busy though, inside, using up my energy on important baby-building and placenta-initiating things! :)

3) Protein. O Protein. How I love thy ways! I know I said it yesterday, but today is even more so - I would almost call it a craving, already! Weird. I just NEED lots of protein, and whatever we've got in the house doesn't seem to be enough. For lunch today after much restless rummaging in the kitchen, I finally ate toast with boiled egg, cheese and cold chicken, and then a yoghurt, and I washed it down with a glass of milk! And then felt like I wished I had some protein with a little more "kick", even after I'd just finished that lunch! It was GOOD but it still didn't quite hit the spot. It's not a meat craving as such, in fact I have so far just wanted eggs or fish or cheese, but I'm not much interested in anything else, such is my overwhelming desire for the PROTEIN part of the meal. I want to just get all those different sources of protein, mix them up in some mayo and tuck in! Blech! But mmm, prooootein...

I do not remember desiring/needing protein this much in my other pregnancies, or at this particular stage (except I do remember wanting EGG quite early on with at least two of my little ones - later than this though, more like 5 weeks or later). I presume it's to do with the needs of my body for what it's giving out in this particular stage of pregnancy. I mean, the beginnings of a little body is forming right now, and the beginnings of circulatory contact between me and said little body. That's got to require some protein, right?! I googled protein cravings in early pregnancy, but the only thing I found was a list of things that mean a certain gender according to old wives - guess which gender protein cravings were under?! I'll give you a clue - it starts with 'b' and ends with 'oy'. ;)

So that is all really. I haven't noticed any spotting yet today, though I haven't been to check for a while. The spotting that I've charted for the past 3 days has only been very light brown spotting, and not much of it. Because it's THERE, I've charted it, that's all.

We moved Benjamin out of the Amby hammock today :( Nathan also moved today, into the toddler bed that Matthew first used, and out of his cot :( My baaabies!!! Nathan loves his new big boy bed! We set the cot right up in the other bedroom for Benjamin to move into, and he's sleeping in it right now (no motion! He has always had motion with the Amby! So far it's going fairly well...). It was good to get that done, but I felt such a pang packing the Amby into its bag to store in the loft! :( And while I was clearing space for the cot (which takes up more space than the Amby in the room) I ended up packing away a bunch of other baby stuff that was lying around, like the soft mats for tummy time and the activity gym/mat thingy. And the huge pile of white terry towels that sit on the bed for months, and I cycle through three dozen in just a couple of days, over and over and over, with all the leaky breasts and milky eruptions and blow-out nappies and little fountains when you take nappies off, etc, that come with a new or very young baby. I felt sad packing it all away, because it's packing my memories and my experience (that I love SO MUCH!!!!) away too. I commented to Neil that I was so glad to have another on the way already when going through a milestone like this with the littlest boys! It must be harder to pack those things away not knowing whether it's the last time or not :( *sniffle* I remember I BAWLED and sobbed when Nathan moved out of my bedroom and in with "the boys" before Benjamin was born, and Matthew moved out of the toddler bed and into a bottom bunk. Even though I was in my 3rd trimester with another baby, it was still so sad to see my babies grow older! But comforting to know I would be able to see it happen all over again soon! :) I'm so glad of that again! How wonderful to be able to look forward AGAIN to the joys of a tiny snuffly newborn, night time nappy craziness, my milk coming in and the delight of feeling that first real ZING of the let-down as the tiny weeny person attached starts gulping and gasping on that first real milk! All the precious little milestones (and big ones!), the first smile, baby coos, photographing my FIVE children together, sooooo much wonderful stuff. I am even excited about the birth, and that's not even mentioning all the exciting wonderful things ahead in the pregnancy! Seeing the little one at the scans, finding out whether we're having another dear sweet little boy or (surely not?!) our very first daughter, feeling the first kicks, hearing that precious heart beating on my doppler, stroking my belly and just ohhh EVERYTHING!! I love being pregnant! I'm so overjoyed and glad and thankful to be here again! I pray that it will be a healthy pregnancy with no complications, and also a healthy baby (or two!). I just can't wait to experience it all, and drink it all up and cherish it!

I MUST get round to writing Benjamin's birth story, or else it will be getting a bit silly (if it isn't already, whoops!)! Also I need to hurry up and find photos of the boys to email to Jennisa for her to change the header at my main blog, because right now it still has 3-year-old Arthur, 2-year-old Matthew, and 10-month-old Nathan, with Benjamin just a scan picture from 12 weeks into my pregnancy!!! Reeeally out of date, especially in light of this new pregnancy! Need to change it.

I'm somehow smelling faint car fumes (someone just parked next door and somehow it has rolled in through a crack or something!) and it seems horribly strong to my nose even though I know it's only a faint whiff of fumes, and surprisingly nausea-inducing. Yuck. Smells have been enhanced all day today, especially in the kitchen. It doesn't make me feel sick as such, but I certainly want to avoid smells that aren't nice, and they seem too strong for me all the time. I don't like these car fumes though, however faint they are. They are making me feel proper sick. I think I will finish up for now and go to bed. I'll update again soon, but probably not tomorrow unless there's something I want to write about.