12 Weeks Pregnancy Update/ Bradford Pear Tree

Yesterday, I entered my 12th week of pregnancy. I'm almost done with my first trimester (second trimester starts with week 14). Praise the Lord. When I was about 12 or 13 weeks pregnant with Rylee, my nausea finally started wearing off, and I am PRAYING that happens this time around too, because to be honest, it's really starting to get to me. I feel like I've had a stomach virus for 7 weeks straight, and that is NO FUN, especially since I have a very active one-year-old to keep up with. I also feel like I'm failing as a stay-at-home wife, because I'm not getting ANYTHING done around the house. There is so much to do, but I just don't have the energy or feel well enough to do any of it. It takes all I have just to take care of Rylee until it's time to put her down for a nap, and then I head to my bedroom to take a nap as well until I have to get her up again. Meanwhile, dirty dishes continue to sit on the kitchen counters, dirty laundry is piling up in the hampers, floors aren't getting vacuumed... the list goes on and on. Jordan does what he can to help when he's home, but he works so much and so hard, so he doesn't have much time, and when he is home, he's usually in bed sleeping (what he needs to be doing). I just don't want to be a disappointment to him, because he works so hard to take care of me, and I feel like I'm not really returning that "favor" (for lack of a better word) right now.
The last few days have been especially rough, in the way of my nausea and other symptoms. It's almost as if I'm starting to feel worse instead of better, and that scares me (because I don't want this to last the entire nine months). Somehow, by the grace of God, I still haven't actually gotten sick, but my nausea has been coming on stronger and more frequently. I have to keep food in my stomach to help ease the nausea, and usually, that will put me "in the clear" for at least a good hour or two. Lately, however, it seems like I start to feel sick again not even half an hour after I've eaten something. I like to eat, but this whole HAVING-to-eat-ALL-THE-TIME-so-I-hopefully-don't-get-sick thing is getting really old. I'm running out of things I feel like eating, and I'm running out of food in my house, because I don't even feel well enough to make a grocery list, much less venture out to the store. I ended up breaking down and calling my mom this evening after Jordan left for work, because I was feeling so bad, and she and my dad were nice enough to come over for a little while and visit with me/entertain Rylee so I could try to catch my breath. My mom also brought me some pancakes so I have something I will hopefully actually feel like eating for breakfast in the morning. (Thanks, Mom!)
I have also had some mild headaches the last few days, which haven't helped matters any. Thankfully, they haven't been severe headaches that have just completely wiped me out, but at the same time, they're just bad enough so that they're really annoying, and although I've taken medicine a couple times to try to get rid of them, it hasn't seemed to be doing the trick too well.
On a positive note, my sciatica hasn't been acting up much at all the past week, which is definitely a blessing. After the way I was feeling during Rylee's birthday party, I was afraid it had set in for good, but thankfully it has gone easy on me the last several days. I'm still sleeping pretty good (I haven't started waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom yet), but I do toss and turn constantly throughout the night now - something I don't normally do. I usually sleep on my left side - and stay on my left side all night, but now I turn from my left side to my right side, and back again, all night long. I'm not sure if I'm just getting hot because it's summer, or what, but I hope I'm not disturbing Jordan. I haven't had any dreams lately (in the past week or two) that I can remember - thankfully. They were starting to get really weird/upsetting/disturbing. (I had a dream the night before Jordan and I left for our anniversary vacation that we were walking through the Walmart there in Pigeon Forge, and Jordan walked to a separate aisle from me, and a really creepy guy on the aisle I was on tried to grab me. It might sound silly, but it seriously scared me to death.)
I don't think I've had any major food cravings lately - I just don't really feel like eating anything that we have here at home (go figure). I did tell Jordan today, though, that I would really like some fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, simply because I haven't had any in months. I also have a coupon for a free chargrilled chicken garden salad from Chick-Fil-A that I've been thinking about since Jordan and I were on our way home from our vacation (that's what I was going to eat for lunch, but we couldn't find a Chick-Fil-A). (Just now, I realized that I just mentioned wanting chocolate chip cookies and a salad - the same two things I had an emotional break-down about when I was pregnant with Rylee, because I was craving both, and we had neither. Wow. Deja Vu.)
It's still weird/surreal to me that I'm actually pregnant again. I mean, I'm sitting here blogging about it, but it still doesn't really feel real to me. When I was pregnant with Rylee, it was a whole new experience to me, and I remember constantly worrying that everything was okay (especially during the first trimester). Now, I guess I'm just so busy keeping up with her that I don't really have time to think about it. The only thing reminding me that, yes, I really am pregnant is the fact that I don't feel good all day long. I'm looking forward to hopefully feeling better soon so I can start enjoying this pregnancy a bit more. I can't wait to start feeling movement, and to really start looking pregnant and not just fat/bloated. I loved my baby belly when I was pregnant with Rylee, so I hope I look that "cute" this time around too. Guess I'll have to wait and see.
Anyway, that's about all I can think of in the way of a pregnancy update for now. I had Jordan take a belly picture of me last night. Here are me and Baby at 12 weeks:

On a totally separate note, we had a severe thunderstorm come through our area yesterday evening, bringing with it some strong winds, and guess what... Remember that big Bradford Pear tree in our front yard, part of which fell on Jordan's truck less than a month ago (I blogged about it in a post on June 1)? Well... guess what happened during the storm yesterday...

That's right. Dang tree fell on my car! I'm telling you, that tree doesn't like our vehicles for some reason. Once again, though, we got really lucky. God was definitely looking out for us. The tree did not fall on our house (a few of them limbs are resting on our porch railing, but didn't do any damage), and although it did fall on my car, the majority of the weight of the tree (the bottom of the limb where it split from the trunk) is on the ground. Only the top of the limbs landed on my car - essentially the same thing that happened when it fell on Jordan's truck. So, my car escaped with minor scratches on the hood - nothing more. Thank you, Lord! I still can't believe it actually fell, though, although it should come as no surprise, since this is just what Bradford Pear trees do. I just can't believe the tree got us twice. When the storm really started to pick up, Jordan opened the front door so he could see what was going on, and he told me that he heard the tree limbs cracking. He said he knew it was going to come down, and sure enough, he stood there and watched it when it happened. Obviously there was nothing he/we could do to stop it at that point. Anyway, our house is fine, and my car survived, so we are blessed and thankful. Believe it or not, there is STILL a bit of the tree left standing (as you can see from the pictures). It will not be there for very much longer, though. Jordan's going to go ahead and take the rest of it down before it has the chance to fall on anything else. We will have the last laugh on this tree.
Anyway, I guess that's it for now. Until next time...