19 weeks

This was a big research week. I tried to space out the "big" items on the task list so I wouldn't get overwhelmed, but somehow decided that childcare and car seats should go together in one week, rather than, say, childcare and slings (which should take about 10 minutes to research). So now we've decided on the car seat for now (pending a cross-check against Consumer Reports), but childcare threw us for a loop more. For some reason we had been convinced that having a nanny would be the cheapest way to go - especially since our basement would work for a live-in nanny - but apparently that's not the case. I'm not that interested in daycare centers at this point, and since au pairs don't really make the most economical sense until there's more than one kid (since the cost is per family vs. per child), it looks like that plan will be put on hold for now too. We're basically leaning towards doing in-home care now (or "family day home", as the Dept of Social Services refers to it), and it looks like there's some good possibilities right near our house. The only problem is that (so I've read) the in-home providers usually don't know their availability more than a couple months out, we pretty much can't make a decision until the baby is here. Which is a little nerve-wracking, since it would be preferable to have that decision taken care of already, but at least we can try to do all the research beforehand so hopefully it's just a matter of interviewing a few of the available providers (and keeping our eyes peeled for a cheap nanny, just in case).

As far as symptoms go this week, I've continued feeling ridiculously hungry all of the time, and of course, I still can't sleep. I'm actually considering getting a pregnancy pillow sooner rather than later, since while my size doesn't really warrant it yet, I wonder if part of my problems with sleeping through the night is from some subconscious worry about sleeping on my back. While some places recommend to only be sleeping on your left side at this point, other places recommend sleeping however you can get comfortable, and your body will eventually work out when you should stop sleeping on your back to avoid cutting off blood flow. So I didn't feel too concerned about it - especially since I've been waking up on my left side more often than not lately - but since I'm also still waking up every time I shift positions, I wonder if locking myself in place more with a pregnancy pillow would help. Continuing with the blood flow theme, I've also had some weird blood pressure issues this week. We had driven up to Pennsylvania last weekend to visit friends, and I think driving three hours and then sitting down at home too was just not enough activity to get my blood flowing well - so I almost passed out. It hasn't been that bad since then, but I have noticed that I'm getting light-headed more easily, so I'm just going to need to be more careful with the sudden movements (which I should be doing anyway, given how clumsy I've been lately).