12 Weeks 4 Days

Ok, so I'm a big nasty slacker, and I have been terrible at slacking in my still relatively new blogging duties. So spank me. Seriously. I'd like that.

But guess what? I have pretty much one of the greatest, non-trumpable excuses ever. My wife is pregnant. Hey, she uses the excuse every time she asks me to get her a snack or has a "headache", so I might as well suckle a bit at the teat of that excuse (Wow -- I've been reading way too many baby books).

So how have the Dunkley's been? I'm pretty sorry to say, things have been miserable. We're both tired and cranky (her for obvious reasons, mine because, well, I'm such a wonderful husband that taking care of the zoo and house and her have me pretty beat; yes, that's a bit of self-pity, and I realise what's she's going through is waaay beyond comparisons, but damn, this is MY blog and I'll bitch if I want to). Nicole is still sick, and the heartburn has not lessened at all. She sleeps ok; when she's not up every hour peeing (yes, already), which is 50-60% of the time. Her appetite is making her hate her favourite foods (Pizza night?? Nooooo! Come back!) and crave items I've never seen her eat in the decade we've been together. It's a wild ride, and we are only now approaching the end of the first trimester.

An old English teacher of mine taught us to always close an article on a positive note, so I did keep the good news for last. We had our first prenatal appointment today (excluding the "I need to stop throwing up", "my tummy hurts", "my stomach burns" and the actual "I think we are pregnant" appointments). Which means, for the first time, I got to hear the sound of my SON'S heartbeat. Pretty neat. I guess the little bugger really is in there, and my wife isn't faking it to get me to do the dishes. Now if only he would stop beating up on his mom so we could enjoy it a little more. Next appointment; in one week we get the first ultrasound. I'm hoping we can once and for all settle the matter that he's a boy, but that's hardly guaranteed this early.