I have half written a bunch of posts since I defended my dissertation, and we moved to Irvine. I obviously never got around to finishing them and publishing them. We’ve had a lot to do.

But just to summarize the past few months: I successfully defended my dissertation, we moved to Irvine, I started my new job, and Storm started in a new daycare. Lots of stuff happened around and in between these things, but let’s just leave it at that, and move this blog into the present and away from half -finished posts that never see the light of day.

The one piece of major news I do want to share is that we are expecting a baby! Due in mid May. This is very exciting. And it’s also a scary prospect to go from having one kid to having two. But obviously, we think that we’re up for the task.

As I’m writing this, I’m almost 24 weeks pregnant. Just like when I was pregnant with Storm, I was nauseous during the first trimester. Except this time, the nausea began earlier and stuck around for longer. It even lingered well into the second trimester, although I felt noticeably better after 14 or 15 weeks. But I found the first few months of pregnancy to be really, really challenging this time. Even though I in fact only threw up once during this time, all day and night constant nausea coupled with fatigue made work and household chores difficult. I also had, as I did in the last pregnancy as well, this strange taste in my mouth, which made the nausea worse. And as an extra bonus this time, I also experienced excessive saliva production (gross), and a super-sensitive sense of smell. Everything smelled! The two worst offenders were coffee (especially brewed with the water in our house, which takes third place on the ‘this-is-gross-list’), and the strange smokey smell by the creek on my (otherwise scenic) bike-ride to campus. Yuck.

And now, I have a very noticeable belly (it’s so much bigger that at this point in the first pregnancy!), and we’re all happily settled in our new surroundings. More to follow soon. Maybe.