Sleeping, napping and blood sausages

Now past the first trimester, my old belly is being pushed by a new harder one.
Sleeping is becoming a bit of a challenge. Sleeping on my side is giving me lower back pain so I'm moving around all night trying to get comfortable. I'm thinking of getting one of those long sausage-looking preggo pillows to see if it helps. The other issue is that I'm using ear plugs to be able to ignore "someone else's" snoring and that is making my hearing all fussy during the day. To add to the mix Mr L. (aka first kid - now 2 yrs, 2 months) decided all of a sudden to stop napping and now we have a new ordeal to get into for the Holidays. I'm sure we will tag team it again and between Google searches and long night conversations (instead of relaxing couple time) the napping issue will be resolved.

Blood sausage is not on the list of things to avoid during pregnancy, or is it? My friends' posts on Facebook about Puerto Rican Holidays and all the food we eat on the island started to get me obsessed about it. Since we moved some months ago all that stuff becomes "the golden ticket" because even though you can probably find around el Barrio some reasonable facsimile it is NEVER the real deal. I got a bit obsessed with the idea of having "pasteles" (plantain cakes), "morcilla" (blood sausage), cuajo (cow's stomach stew) sent over. I know, very appetizing. My mom, being the saint she is (or alcagüeta=person who lives to please others) spent a little fortune looking for the best stuff and sending it over next day. Opening that box to me was like a 15 second trip to the island, the smells, the familiarity of all that goodness. YUM! Now, I'm pretty sure I will need to hide around the house to be able to eat most of the stuff since my husband is very concerned about all I eat while pregnant and knows all the "rules" better than I. For me since this is a second pregnancy I have to be honest and say I'm taking it a bit easier on myself. I still know I have to do my best to get this second baby as much as I gave Mr. L, but since the new baby won't be born on the island at least I can get him/her started with some Boricua goodness filling his/her tummy. ¡A comer!

123 and then they were 4...

Here we are. Almost 16 weeks into it and the "second kid" is already getting the "second kid" treatment.
This pregnancy was a neat surprise. We were recuperating from the loss of a pregnancy when we moved to NJ and all of a sudden "BOOM" we are at it again and very excited. Excited, yes but also afraid. Any person whom has gone through a miscarriage is marked forever and any other go-at-it comes with a decent amount of fear.
I always heard that every pregnancy is different, and even though I honestly don't remember much about the first one, (another symptom of motherhood: I've become dumb and slow) this one is definitely different. Or maybe not, again I don't remember and I have to constantly ask Ed for references.
I've lost like 7 pounds because I don't have an appetite. Which is sorta OK because I gained a lot of weight after I slowed down on the breastfeeding but still I have to eat healthy. Add to that that I am working again from home while Liam is away for 3 hours in Nursery school and that to cook you need time and desire to cook (meaning I will eat something if its put infront of me but if I have to cook it... yuck!)
Next week  I will go and get the second part of the "old lady who wants to have a baby test". Meaning they scare you to death with some percentile crap that should give you an idea of your chances to have a kid with Down Syndrome or other kind of issue. We got and "intermediate risk" and by the time they explained how they get to that "result" I had already cried in the car and made my husband come home early from work. All in all, I actually tested very well (for my old lady age - 35) but they still make some more tests to confirm you will be fine or to scare the heck out of you again and give you more choices that get even scarier.
Right now I want to relax and enjoy the fact that everybody is healthy and happy so I can concentrate on the fun part... Buying cool stuff and deciding on the name!  More on what 16 weeks is like...