Same Old, Same Old

It's just another manic Monday (whoa-oh-oh). You know, I was beginning to get a little worried. I felt pretty darn good last Thursday and Friday. Then, despite a few waves of nausea on Saturday and Sunday, I actually felt well enough to go out to eat a steak lunch with my husband. "Is this normal?" I wondered. "Could something be wrong with Peanut?" Then, this morning, it all came back. Eat breakfast, brush teeth, puke breakfast, repeat. I was even late for work...bonus! Peanut must be fine. Peanut, by the way, is what I call my fetus. Or embryo. I'm not exactly sure when an embryo becomes a fetus, but at a little over 8 weeks I figure I'm about there.
It seems like every week I'm trying some new food that I hope I can eat when I start feeling sick/hungry. This week it's cottage cheese. I loooove cottage cheese, but I don't think I'd had any since I got married because hubby won't eat it. The nurse at my doctor's office said that it was a good thing to eat, though ('cause of the calcium) so I tried it. And while it doesn't really settle my stomach, it doesn't make it any angrier, either. So this morning I was sitting in the lunchroom at work spooning the stuff right out of the container, hoping that nobody would walk by and think I was really odd. It was an emergency, though! I have yet to yak at work, and I didn't want to start today! I also bought some 'Nilla Wafers, but they aren't quite as awesome as cottage cheese. Oh, and potato chips are out. Just because they got boring.
Is anyone tired of hearing about my nausea yet? You are? Well, good. Because I'm tired of suffering through it!

Still Plugging Away

Well, I am still alive. But barely! Ok, I'm probably being dramatic, but let's just say that I did not fully anticipate the unpleasantness of the first trimester of pregnancy. I will never again be unsympathetic towards a pregnant woman. They are not exaggerating...they feel wretched. It's like having a stomach virus for weeks (or even months) on end, which is bound to make anyone crazy and bitchy. Today I'm doing pretty well, because I have discovered the miracle that is potato chips. I have never been a huge potato chip fan, but they go down so easily and sit so well right now. Not like the saltines that I upchucked yesterday morning. I had the worst experience yesterday...it was the sickest I've been yet. I felt just gross all day, and then when I was driving home from work I actually had to pull over to throw up. It was a bit embarrassing. Know what? A cop drove right by and didn't even seem to notice. Thank God for everyone else on the road that I was puking up yogurt and not booze. And you know what else is irritating as hell? The gas. I would normally not mention it, but I'd like to just get it all out there for my readers' informational purposes. I am getting worse than my husband, and that's saying a lot! My pants are getting too tight, and it's not because I am "showing" yet. I haven't even gained any weight - in fact, I think I might have lost a pound or two. It's just that I'm so freakin' bloated. Let's just say that I am really looking forward to the second trimester. Not only do most women feel a lot better then, but the chance of miscarriage drops dramatically. That's the only way I can deal with the sickness...I just keep reminding myself that if I'm sick, that means that my pregnancy hormones are still swirling around, doing (hopefully) all the things they should be doing to make sure everything goes right.
Speaking of that, my husband brought home a rocking chair last night to put in "the baby's room." I keep telling him that it is a little early to be spending money. I'm only about 8 weeks pregnant, so things could still go wrong. He said that we needed another chair in the living room anyway. I just know that if something bad happens, it will be torture for me to look at that chair everyday. But he means well. It's so cute how excited he is. But, anyway. I better get back to work! Need to be making that money. I belive that our insurance only pays 80% of maternity costs, which means that we'll be shelling out about $3000. Good thing we started that savings account!

Not What I Expected

Well, I guess I shouldn't have been that nervous about my appointment. Basically, they made me pee in a cup, weighed me, took my blood pressure, and then just asked my husband and I a bunch of questions about our family's medical histories. They didn't even ask him to leave the room so that they could determine whether or not I was a victim of domestic violence! I heard that they usually do that at a first prenatal visit. I mean, he doesn't abuse me or anything, but what if he did? They didn't give me any opportunity to let them know! Geesh. I do have a tentative due date now, though. June 9th, 2006.
The "fun" part was when I got to go across the street and get my blood work done. They took 5 vials! That may not be a big deal to some people, but I do not react well to getting blood taken out of me. I almost passed right out. The poor lady who actually drew the blood had to get me a cold towel and some orange juice. Then she said that, the next time I have blood work done, to let them know beforehand that I might pass out. Then they can have me lie down. My bad.
Well, that's it for now, I guess. I'm going back on November 15th (assuming things are still going well) so that I can get a physical exam and maybe hear the baby's heartbeat! I'm very much looking forward to it, but it seems so far away!

So Nervous

In less than one hour my husband will be coming to pick me up from work to take me to my first prenatal appointment! I didn't think that I would freak out quite as much as I'm freaking out right now. I mean, I have no reason to assume that things aren't going well. I have had 5 positive pregnancy tests in the last 2 weeks (I told you I was hard to convince), plenty of nausea, fatigue, boob issues (sorry if TMI again) and no cramping or bleeding. But I just have this horrible fear that I'm going to get to the doctor and they're going to tell me that something is wrong and I have lost or am going to lose this baby. I suppose these are natural fears - especially with a first pregnancy - but knowing that they are natural fears do not make them any less scary! Anyway, I hope that later I can report to you all that I have medical confirmation that I'm going to be a mother, and that things are going extremely well so far. And that my mother-in-law's predictions that we are going to have twin girls are not true (we haven't told our families yet...she predicted this a while ago). Wish me luck!

Ah, Sweet Relief (Sort-of)

Well, yesterday afternoon I broke down and read 18 pages worth of morning-sickness remedies that mothers had put on a webpage for other poor souls to read and try. I'm not going to buy Sea-bands, drink ginger tea (I don't like tea, so I don't see how that could help me) or sniff listerine, but I did try a couple different things that have seemed to help today. As soon as I got out of bed this morning, I immediately downed 3 saltines with a bit of peanut butter on them. Granted, I had to just about choke them down due to the already present nausea and it took me almost 10 minutes, but I did it. And I could actually get through my morning without having to lie down more than once or twice. Then, once I got to work, I started sucking on some lemon drops. They worked pretty well, too. The only bad thing is they only worked while I was actually sucking on them, and you can only make them last so long! I think this weekend when I go grocery shopping I'm going to pick up some gingerale. I read that helps, too, and I figure it's worth a shot.

Only 4 days left until my first (and hopefully not last) prenatal appointment! Just thought I'd throw that in there. Everyone have a great weekend!

I Asked for It

I've decided to make this a pregnancy blog now. Not filled with a bunch of technical information, necessarily, but just one where I can bitch about the yucky side of it and gush about the good side of it. And if things end up going wrong somewhere, so be it.
For those of you who have not been pregnant (which is probably everyone who reads my blog, since I think there's 2 of you), it is not fun. At least not at first. I am 6 weeks today, according to the online pregnancy calendars, and for the last few days I have been sick, sick, sick. Today is the worst so far...I actually had myself convinced earlier this morning that I was coming down with a stomach virus of some sort. Then, right around 7:00am, all of the "I'm going to throw up" feelings mysteriously vanished. So I went and quickly ate a bowl of cereal so that they wouldn't come back. It is now about 8:45am, and I'm sitting at my desk choking down some saltines that the secretary gave me and feeling pukey again. She's the only one at work that I have told, and I only told her because she was the only one that knew my husband and I were trying to conceive. She knows how to keep her mouth shut, and I had to tell someone! She and her husband never had children, but she is sympathetic none-the-less. Which is nice. I know all of this will be worth it if I end up with a healthy baby at the end, but I have to keep reminding myself of that as my stomach gurgles ominously. Let's hope that I'm not like those poor women who are sick all through pregnancy. The first trimester (which ends after week 12, for those of you who may not know) is quite enough.

Oh, My Tummy

I would just like to say that I don't care for "morning sickness." And I call it "morning sickness" even though the sickness is not exclusive to mornings. Although it sure is the worst in the mornings, in my experience at least. Which is so far limited. It didn't start until yesterday, and it was relatively mild. Today, however, I spend half the morning sitting or lying down, trying to stop the waves of nausea from overtaking me. The worst part of it is that, even though I felt like puking my guts out, the whole time I was also very hungry. It is an odd and rather disgusting feeling. At any rate, though, I am at work now and feeling almost all better. I got some cereal into myself...eating always seems to help. Let's just hope it's morning sickness, I guess, because if it's not then I'm sure coming down with one strange illness.

Oh My Lord

Ok, ok, so I haven't posted in forever. Our computer at home has a virus, and I've been trying not to post at work. But I had to go ahead and do this very short post just to say that, this morning, I took a pregnancy test that came up POSITIVE!!!!!! I realize that, very rarely, you can get a false positive. And that's easy to believe since I really don't feel pregnant. On the other hand, though, I will take another one tomorrow and make a doctor's appointment. And freak out! Yes, definitely freak out. It will (probably, hopefully) be a long 9 months.