Belly Blues

Week: 13 (maybe 14)
Weight: 118
Belly: 31"
Next appointment: February 13


Since the last time I posted I had three visits to the doctor, gained five pounds, and popped my belly (I guess the belly popped out of me!). There has been other things going on but apparently non-pregnancy world doesn't seem to interest me anymore.


Let's talk about three visits to the doctor.


Visit #1 - January 14. This was just a blood draw for my genetic screening. The doctor's office was on Lake Shore Drive and the parking rates are just ferocious. But because their last draw is at 4:30, I had no choice but to drive there. I barely made it there on time. The nice receptionist was going to do the blood draw and she completely missed my vein. It hurt so much and she wasn't even getting any blood. Then the other receptionist came. She finished so fast I didn't even know she had the needle in my arm. It was the least painful blood draw I have ever had. I walked back to the parking garage 10 minutes after I showed up. They still charged me $9. Grrrrr.


Visit #2 - January 21. This was the follow-up to the blood draw. The doc had reviewed my blood results and I also had another ultrasound which is where we saw this:

Q is officially over 3" and developing normally. Do you see him waving to you?

I was surprised at how nervous I was before the ultrasound. I couldn't sit still. I thought I would be okay no matter what they would say but that is when I realized that if something was wrong with my baby, I would probably be very upset. I know you are saying a collective "duh" but I really did think that it wouldn't matter to me. I have another round of testing to do to rule out neural tube defects (like spina bifida) in a few weeks. I guess I have plenty of time to work myself into a tizzy until then. The good news is that for now, the doc thinks that Q is perfectly healthy.

Visit #3 - January 23. Just a regular check-up with my OB. For the first time ever, she saw me within a half-hour of my appointment time and I was out of there within an hour. She answered some questions, did another ultrasound, and sent me on my way. It was great.

***

Gaining five pounds - that has come from being able to keep food down again. I have mastered the foods I just can't smell or eat (sadly, chocolate chip cookies are one of those things) and I think the nausea is finally starting to go away. That was not before one last weekend of hell. Last Thursday (yes, the day it was all supposed to magically disappear), I actually had to call in sick to work because I was so puk-tastic, dizzy and with a throbbing headache to top it all. Normally, if I called in with those symptoms, one would just assume I was hungover. In fact, that is exactly what it felt like - the worst hangover ever but without any of the fun. I spent the entire day in bed wondering what I had done to deserve this. Friday was (slightly) better but I couldn't afford two days away from my little guys so I went back.

The good news is I really am feeling much better. The nausea is designated for just the morning and is usually resolved by the time I am teaching my first class. I have an enormous appetite for just about everything so I am enjoying eating it ALL. I am also not feeling as grouchy as I have been which is good news for one RC. The one thing that I still can't shake is this exhaustion. It is kicking my booty and I am too tired to fight back. I am ready to sleep by 8 pm every night. I am teaching my ACT prep class on Tuesday evenings again so that probably isn't helping matters much. But I got two weeks down, eight more to go!

***

And last, my pants don't fit anymore! This weekend after a traumatic Saturday night trying to squeeze into clothes that just weren't working anymore, I gave in and went shopping for maternity clothes on Sunday. My friend who is a mom twice over took me to Motherhood and Gap. Both had good selections in the clearance sections and other than the trousers that I bought, everything was under $15. I also got some belly bands to use with my regular pants. What an awesome invention! It is stretchy cami material that pulls over unbuttoned/unzipped regular pants. And it looks like you're just fashionably layered. Brillant! Though today, I just used a safety pin to keep my pants up and that worked too but hey you gotta' have choices! My problem is that every morning I look longingly at my yoga pants and wish my high school was a little more lax about the teacher dress code. O well. That is what the weekends are for I guess.

But I guess the bump is here and not going anywhere. That being said, please don't ask to see it or touch it. When it is visible you may oogle but until then, I am not going to flash my expanding waistline. My mother and sister keep touching it as though rubbing it will make it grow faster. I don't understand the fascination. I also don't understand what would make anyone think that it is okay to touch someone else's stomach in public - especially without permission! I have always been a weirdo about personal space and I think this experience is going to test my limits.

Your thoughts on this?

Waiting for January 17

Week: 11
Weight: 112 (lost 3 lbs)
Belly: no change
Next appointment: tomorrow! (blood draw for genetic screening)

I know there is no magic number for when the morning sickness goes away. Most people see some relief between weeks 12 and 16. I recently talked to a friend whose sis-in-law is three weeks ahead of me and she hasn't been sick once! This just makes me so jealous as I am totally done with feeling this sick all the time. I am truly making cuisi- into an art. My week 12 starts on Thursday and that is the day that I have mentally assigned to when I am forcing myself to not give into this anymore. What happens if I don't? I am not sure but I am pretty sure nobody wants to be around on Friday if I'm not feeling better.

Generally my food has been staying where it is supposed to, but the feeling that it isn't going to stay that way makes life very uncomfortable. My friend who was pregnant last year swears that the way to get over morning (ALL DAY) sickness is by working out. Seeing as how my energy level is usually only enough to get me through teaching four of my five classes, I am not sure the gym is in the cards for me right now. I have looked into some prenatal yoga but again 1st trimester laziness sets in once I get home. One of the other frustrating parts about this sickness thing is that I have no appetite for much of anything these days. I can't eat anything with tomatoes as that will result in serious reflux and even RC's and Amma's Indian cooking haven't been much of a comfort these days. On Friday night, I got sick after eating chocolate chip cookies!! The only thing that I love to eat pretty much all the time is fruit: the tarter, the better. Favorites so far include Granny Smith apples, raspberries and cataloupe (because they're so juicy). But even that you get sick of after a while.

Whiiiine. I know it's terrible. I am going to stop right now.

In other news, I have a genetic screening test tomorrow. It is kind of an interesting position to be in. RC and I started to discuss what would happen if Q had some sort of abnormality. It's not something that you think about while you're in the happy "Wow. We're pregnant!" stage. People just assume that if they are healthy and treat their bodies right that their baby will be born like them. I don't know if we have decided what would be the end result if something came back that there was something wrong. One thing that I am discovering as we go through this is how much RC and I really do agree on many fundamental things. It started when we were getting ready to get married as we discussed our finances. It continued when we remodeled our apartment. And now that we are here, the process continues. I am really grateful for that I found a partner in life that I don't have to argue with about the big stuff. The little stuff we still argue about all the time. =0) But hey, that's marriage.

BTW - the reason that I call the baby Q is because both RC and I have very curly hair. Since the moment that we got engaged, people have told us that our baby is going to definitely have very curly hair. In fact, on our first date, we talked about kids and he said that he wants to have one biological kid - just to see what all that hair would look like on a kid. I also wanted only one biological kid and I always pictured them with ferociously curly hair. (We agree on the big stuff.) Personally, I think we have jinxed the probability of the kid having curly hair at this point but thought I'd call it Q anyway. RC calls it Curly. (But we disagree on the little stuff.)

Let the updates begin!

Week: 10

Weight:  115 (no change)

Belly: no change

Next appointment:  January 14 (blood draw for genetic screening)

Well, here it goes.  It's official.  If you couldn't tell from the holiday video, the black and white blur at the end of it was an ultrasound announcing our pregnancy.  I am officially 10 weeks and no that's not the end of the first trimester so yes, things could still go horribly wrong (not that I'm a pessimist).  But things could go horribly wrong at any minute for any number of reasons in anyone's life, so might as well enjoy what is here for right now (told you I wasn't a pessimist).  There have been very few changes up until this point as far as my actual shape and size but I look forward to looking like a pear very soon.  I will do my best to update this every Friday.

Many people have asked how I found out and how I told RC.  I am and always have been a girl who is very in-tune with her body.  When things are going a little hay-wire, I know.  So, the weekend before Thanksgiving, I was thinking, I should take a test.  Things just weren't . . .right.  But then, I got scared of telling my family and what would happen if they got their hopes up and then we lost it.  So I didn't.  Instead, I drank two glasses of champagne at Thanksgiving and tried not to think about it.  But when RC sat next to me the next day with a cup of coffee and it was all I could do to keep my breakfast down, I was pretty positive of what was going on.  We went back to our apartment and he was busily unpacking the car.  I ran upstairs and opened up a test and took it.  But this is when the shaking started.  I started to panic about, "What if it is negative - how will you feel?? WHAT IF IT IS POSITIVE - HOW WILL YOU FEEL??"  So I turned it over and decided that even though it would only take 3 minutes to show the lines, I would wait for 10 - just to be sure.  Then I started to clean frantically.  Anything to keep my mind off of what was happening on my bathroom counter.  When I finally turned it over, I just about dropped it.  RC was still unpacking and I was thinking of how I could tell him.  I walked to the kitchen and said, "I went to the bathroom. . ." and he responded with, "O no.  Is there something wrong with the toilet?" I told him no but just to follow me anyway.  I showed him the stick and he whooped it up in delight and gave me a huuuuuge hug.  It was one of the best moments in my life.

But then the real panic started to kick in.  We both started looking around our cluttered apartment and thinking we have to fix this and that.  Then my big fear was telling people.  I didn't want to tell people too early and then lose the baby and have to explain it to everyone.  But I didn't want to hide it from my family either.  It was a big dilemma that was eventually resolved during a conversation on Sunday with a friend.  She told me, "If something bad did happen, wouldn't you want the support of you loved ones to help you get through it??"  That kind of logic made sense to even the wildly-hormonal me so we told our families on Sunday.  

And that's the story of how Q (as in Curly) was introduced to the world.  

Happy New Year!!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful New Year's eve celebrations! We wish you the very best for 2008. Here is a video montage of R past year.