Upon Request: Pregnancy II

Look at me, two posts in one day! Too bad I don't get paid for this.

In regards to this pregnancy, it has been quite different than the first. I felt MUCH worse in the first trimester. I have a friend whose misery during the first half or so of her pregnancy could be calculated at like a ten (as in, she is basically unable to function or she throws up). This second pregnancy was probably more like a three, maybe a four, where there were some days that I wasn't up to doing much but lying around and I threw up a few times. Though this is what other people simply expect, this seemed pretty unpleasant since my expectations were that this would be another one/two (on this very scientific scale I've made up), like when I was pregnant the first time. The biggest problem I had with Pregnancy I was that I was very, very tired most of the time. By the end, my back was uncomfortable, but overall, I felt very little nausea, and if I ate often, then I felt almost like normal. Oh, and I had to use the bathroom a lot.

Pregnancy II has now become very much like that, actually, now that I'm in the second trimester. I think I may be less tired overall, so that's actually an improvement. So, as far as it goes, the first trimester was just slightly worse this time than last time, but it's now about the same.

I feel like I ought to be able to say more about it, but that seems to sum up my experience. I don't have the munchkin's baby book at hand so I can't say at what point I felt each of them. This week (18 weeks according to doctor), I've felt the baby moving and it's stronger than the fluttery movement I originally felt with the first pregnancy. I expect that with how strong it feels that Patrick will even be able to feel the baby soon.

In any case, I gotta go. Munchkin #1 is feeling deprived. See 18 week picture below. (Sorry for all the extra space around me. Should have cropped it, but didn't have time.)

Ah hem... Upon Request: Law School

It amuses me to have suggested posts from friends. It makes me feel that I need to work on my communication. It's useful, though, because now I know where to focus my energy.

Law School

The first year of law school is finished with the second semester now completed. How did it go? Well, it tends to take a month or so for grades to get posted. The two grades that were posted are above average and this makes us happy and hopeful. The ones that aren't posted were the classes that Patrick enjoyed less, was less interested in, and was more challenged by. However, I expect that he will probably get at least average marks in those as well, so it will be good overall.

Before going to law school, Patrick was advised to watch the movie The Paper Chase and was told that was what he should expect in the realm of competition, even if he wasn't going to Harvard. We found that was not really true. Professors mostly want to help and are interested in the students. This university at least tends to be (I suspect) about as family-friendly as any school ever will be short of BYU. The students are mostly respectful and kind to each other, even if they are in competition with each other. It seems that while you hope that other people overall will do poorly when compared with you, you hope specific people will do almost as well as you.

The thing that causes such great stress in law school, I think, is the fact that the entire grade rests on one test. Bad test day? No sleep last night? No excuse. That test is the end all where that class is concerned. Patrick thought, "No problem," because he is a great test taker, but these are essays and not multiple choice (which is his particular strength), so they are eight hours (for one test, that is) of grueling, stressful examination. What that means is, you have to learn to keep up on your reading and outlining throughout the semester so that when you get to the end of the semester you can just review what you already know pretty well and you don't have to learn everything anew and organize your notes for the first time in that last stressful week. I think really understanding how to study and prepare is what makes the first semester so hard -- you don't get the system until the second semester. Patrick, at least, certainly improved at his efficiency in studying and organization in the second semester.

Internships

Students in their first year across the United States are required not to begin submitting resumes for internships until December 1. I think this is to keep them as focused as possible during the first semester since they really do need all the help they can get trying to understand how it all works and get into the legal world. This is why we spent some of Christmas break at mingle events with two Milwaukee law firms. Though those didn't pan out, it certainly helped give us a final goal perhaps for the law firm itself and particularly for the environment and culture we most enjoyed for a law firm. So we found it valuable anyway.

For his internship this summer, my dear husband is interning with a professor. This involves mostly doing research for books/supplements the professor is working on. Patrick really likes this professor, is interested in this area of study, and he is very glad to be working for this professor. Plus, this internship has the advantage of being paid, not high-paid, but it is paid, and since many of them aren't we are grateful for some income for the summer.

The disadvantage to this type of internship is that it is not very true to what he will be doing as a lawyer. It is much more difficult to get into the research when it is not part of a problem-solving puzzle. In the future, when he is working with clients, he will research previous cases to make a case for what to expect in his particular case with that particular client. Here, he is researching cases, but it is more make making a list than doing any sort of puzzle. It worried me at first when he wasn't enthused about this research, but when he explained why that made sense to me and I do think there is hope that he will still love being a lawyer. Phew! I was getting nervous there for a little bit.

Conclusion

Hopes this helps satisfy your curiosity, Cami. Let me know if you're dying for even more details. I suspect that I overkilled on your question, anyway, but now you know. Welcome to the wonderful world of law school. I suspect it is not any more stressful than doing a master's in accounting, in reality, especially with the low-stress husband I've got going through the process.

May Day Post

Okay, it isn't "May Day," but it is a day in May, so whatever. As though I wasn't posting too little previously, I am warning you that my posting frequency is about to decrease. Why? Well, we have made the BIG decision to go without Internet connection. We had been "sharing" with our neighbors, helping pay their bill or paying it off with a little math tutoring (Patrick tutoring, not me -- don't you worry about that), but we (I, actually) decided that I was wasting time with it -- after all, Facebook only changes so often. Furthermore, I've realized that everybody I'm REALLY interested in hearing about regularly, I am in contact with in some other form than Facebook, so that's been an interesting discovery. Someday, I'll probably have the self-control to put this knowledge into action if we had the Internet, but I'm actually sort of enjoying my unwired, disconnected freedom, as long as I get the Internet about once a week (which I can do while picking Patrick up on campus and at a few other locations in the area) and Patrick checks my email while he's on campus.

My dad told me that when I told my parents we were going without Internet, they looked at each other and asked, "Can they do that? Is it possible to not have Internet?" Then they commented, "Well, what did we do? We didn't have the Internet either." Of course, that was about thirty years ago, back when they drew pictures on cave walls to communicate and, as it turns out, the world has gotten more wired since then, so they may have some cause for concern, but we're not completely disconnected, so it's working out okay.

Progress

So this month marks 4 years of marital bliss. We tend to plan pretty low key anniversaries (for example, we watched the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on our first anniversary and then went and played games with friends in the evening), so we are celebrating this Friday by going out to Subway and eating some Edward's cake (which I got with a coupon). Sometime in the next couple days, we also intend to watch the movie Fireproof which my oldest brother absolutely insists we must see. I'll let you know what I think. It's crazy to think that we've been married four years, but we're both loving it and we have a lot of fun together. I'm grateful to be married to such a good man.

This is also Patrick's birthday month. We've been saving our dating budget for wherever he wants to go out for his birthday. He is also anticipating a good birthday breakfast. (This made me think that for my birthday, I may try my hand at crepes for a birthday breakfast.)

Also, we've discovered that there's a recall on the munchkin's crib (a Simplicity drop-down crib). We are planning to return it and get a new crib and a toddler bed with the money. Too bad because we liked the crib pretty well. We were kind of reluctant to worry about returning it, but I would feel pretty stupid if some fatal disaster happened with my kid because I decided not to take advantage of the recall system. I'm pretty interested in the idea of a toddler bed and a little nervous too, but it will have a big advantage of me not having to lift him high into bed when I'm nine months pregnant, and I already am looking forward to that.

Finally, I have had an epiphany that I am pretty comfortable in the kitchen now. After only six years of living outside of my parents' house, I feel that I can handle dinner (and even making a mistake with dinner) without having a panic attack or breaking down into a tearful frenzy. This, I feel, is what is known as progress. That and the fact that I can bake bread (though I've only done it twice), bake banana oatmeal chocolate muffins, cook waffles or pancakes from scratch, and make whipped cream and frosting from scratch (which I'll honestly tell you I didn't even know was possible as a child). My long-term project is figuring out this couponing business so that I can get a grip on how to make it work for us (which is one of those things that could possibly be helped by regular Internet access, but oh well). My next project is learning about gardening. I'm not interested in pretty so much as practical gardening. I would love to grow things I can pick and bring inside and especially consume. My plan is to study about it this year and dig into it next summer. I have also joined a classics book club my friend started and I completed The Brothers Karamozov for the first book. It only took me three months.

Anyway, gotta go take care of the family (namely a whiney little critter carrying on behind me), but that's the latest with us in Virginia. Over and out.