11 WEEKS!

It's Sunday and I'm making the time to update this blog properly for a change. Symptoms for this week have been much the same as last week. The nausea is virtually non existent now (yay!) and more foods are starting to sound appetizing. I'm able to eat a little more at each meal so I should be putting some weight on soon. The extreme fatigue is still pretty bad but I'm coping with it pretty well. I'm making sure to get to bed early and rest when I feel like I'm about to give out. A new symptom for this week is round ligament pain. Wow, I had no idea how uncomfortable that would be. Some days it's much stronger than others. It mostly feels like a dull aching that gets stronger from time to time right under my belly. I can't really compare it to period cramps since it's not even remotely the same. There have been a few times where I had to stop and breathe for a few seconds. And it hurts really badly when I sneeze. I'm getting more emotional but I think that's mainly due to stress. All of the uncertainty of the near future is wearing on us but God will see us through. It's hard not being able to make plans more than a few weeks at a time. It could all change at any day. But if we move and I have to drop out of the study then I'll be free to choose the home birth that I wanted!

Last Tuesday was my first official OB appointment and Steven went with me. I didn't need a pap since I had one recently with the last pregnancy so she just did the tests required by law like the STD cultures. She tried to find the baby's heartbeat on the Doppler but he/she was being evasive. Which was fine by me since she did a quick ultrasound instead to double check! It was just a very quick ultrasound, enough to see the flicker of the heart and grab a profile shot. She didn't do any measurements or measure how many beats per minute. We did get one picture though! Steven and I were amazed and I really wish we could have watched the screen for longer. She gave me an information packet and explained the optional tests we could have done. But I think we are going to opt out of those tests since any information we found out wouldn't alter our decision on whether to keep the baby or not (and our insurance wouldn't cover anything). I had my blood drawn and that was about it. We will have an anatomy scan up at the hospital around 19 or 20 weeks and find out the gender at that time as well. We'll see her monthly until closer to the end so our next appointment is March 23rd.

Without further delay, here is our little babe at 10 weeks 2 days....



And this is me.

10 WEEKS

I wish I could sit down and update this every Sunday as I originally intended but it seems to be difficult to find the time. It's Tuesday but I'm writing about last week. But what a busy week full of changes it has been!

My symptoms have been pretty much the same. Sore boobs, very tired, some nausea, not much of an appetite, not sleeping well, frequent urination, very thirsty. My tummy is no longer bloated and is now very firm to the touch. It feels like the swelling is pushing upward and not just in my lower abdomen. I think I might have lost some more weight. My pants are all baggy in the rear and leg areas but tight around the middle. My shirts however are all too tight from my growing breasts and belly. I feel very out of porportion. I really need to get a new bra (again) but as soon as I buy one I outgrow it! On Sunday I had a lot of pains in my pelvic area and was starting to get worried. I guess it's just from everything growing and being rearranged in there. It was quite uncomfortable!

Another thing has come back...and that is being teary and emotional over EVERYTHING! I haven't really been angry but little things like seeing the sink full of dishes, or wanting to sleep but can't, or seeing some stray dog makes me tear up. Steven and I decided to get rid of our catfish becuase he's a brat face and picking on everyone in the tank. When he was trying to catch the little guy he got his fin stuck in the net and I was crying the whole 15 mintues it took to get him free. He wasn't hurt and after the trauma wore off (about 3 mintues) he was back up to his old tricks but I insisted on leaving him in there for another day. You should have seen the look on Steven's face like I had lost my senses but I was so adamant about it that he didn't fight me and took the little guy back to the store while I was gone the next day. I have a feeling this is only going to get worse.

The fatigue has taken on a whole new level I never thought possible. I honestly feel like I've had the worst flu of my life for a week and am trying to move around again. I get winded so easily and dizzy. My heart feels like it's working overtime and nausea is always lurking around the corner. I'm eating only a fraction of my usual intake becuase I get full so quickly. But if I let my self go without eating for more than 3 hours I start feeling sick. I feel like I could sleep for a week at any moment but when I try to sleep it's not restful.

Almost everyone at work knows now and another girl said she was a few weeks behind me! It's exciting to have another preggo buddy at work. People kept commenting on my weight loss and how tired I looked so I had to spill the beans. Honestly I was surprised because I felt like I looked fatter! LoL I'm so glad to report that even though I feel awful and have the energy level of a sloth, my work performance has not suffered at all! Even the owner's husband told me what a great job I'm doing and how thankful he is of my hard work and he's not the type to give compliments. Me and the Sales Manager are the only ones who met our sales quotas last month and exceeded them enough to recieve extra pay from the bonus structure. My paychecks have really been helping us out and if I can keep that up we may have enough for some extras around here like a new mattress and strobes for my home studio. Not to mention all of the baby things that will need purchasing. God has been so good to me! I just take things day by day and do my best to not worry about tomorrow.

I bought my first two pregnancy related items the other day. It's called "The Belly Book" and I found it at Barnes and Noble. It's a really cute book to document your pregnancy in with all of fun nuances my body is doing. There's also a place for weekly belly pictures and ultrasound photos. I haven't started it yet as part of me thinks as soon as I start it I'll lose this baby. I wouldn't really call it a superstition becuase I don't believe in that. I'm sure I'll feel much better after my OB appointment this afternoon and seeing the baby moving around. The other thing I bought was my first piece of maternity clothing. A pretty green shirt I found at Old Navy for $5! Woot! And it's nice enough to wear to work. I think in a few short weeks I'll be able to wear it.

Steven is continuing his job search and some recent added stresses have caused that to be kicked into full gear. So far he's had some good leads so we'll see if they turn into anything. We're open to moving anywhere for the right job at the moment so we're praying hard for the right opportunity to present itself. I'm not going to worry until May when our health insurance is up.

I just found out that I can turn my blog into a book for a very reasonable price! I'm so excited! Now I'll be able to keep all of these memories long after this pregnancy is over. I'll have to be more dilligant about writing (and spell checking). :)

Here is the latest belly pic. It's not much bigger but it's changing shape I think.

9 WEEKS!

Sunday was 9 weeks for me and the past week has been pretty uneventful.

I still have huge sore breasts, and ocassional nausea. I'm still very tired and not sleeping well. I wake up often to pee (about 4 times a night) or have really bad dreams. My whole body aches so I can't seem to get comfortable. I don't have as much cm as the previous weeks though. I'm getting little annoying headaches all of the time and can't for the life of me find the huge bottle of Tylenol I know we have. The bloat has gone down tremedously and all of the chub is starting to get firmer. My appetite has picked up some so I should be gaining weight soon. At my last EAGeR appointment I had lost about 9lbs.

So far so good and 9 weeks is a record. I've never made it past 8 before so I'm feeling good about this babe. I still haven't bought a book to record the pregnancy in as I'm afraid as soon as I start it this pregnancy will end. My next OB appointment is on the 23rd and after I see the little one swimming around I'll feel better about buying things.

Here are the pics!

8 WEEKS!

Today is 8 weeks! I think this is the farthest I've ever made it!

Symptoms for this past week have been:

Nausea is better under control. I still feel queasy many times a day but not enough to run to the bathroom. If I keep eating small meals and taking my B6 I seem to do ok. Food is gaining back some of it's appeal also so I feel more human. When I eat though I get full very quickly. A few small meals is usually all I can manage a day.

Boobs are HUGE! I'm busting out of my bras to the poin that it hurts to wear them. My nipples are incredibly sore and red and seem to be having stuff oozing out already. From what I've heard it's a bit early for this but maybe I'm crazy.

Fatigue has come back with a vengeance. I thought the bone numbing tiredness was on it's way out but this week it has returned and I am a victim of constant napping. Even while out running errands I had to stay in the car and sleep while Steven ran in. I just couldn't face walking around. It's crazy how tired this makes me.

Cravings are starting a little bit. I woke up at 6:30 this morning thinking Dorritos sounded awesome! Then I immediately felt stupid for thinking that. haha.

My dreams are crazy. Not only did I wake up wanting Dorritos I was angry at Steven half the morning for a dream I had in which he made me angry. Poor guy, he kept asking "What's wrong?" "What did I do?". I didn't have the heart to tell him I'm nuts and he pissed me off in a dream of all things. It generally takes me a full hour to wake up and clear my mind so by the time he was ready for the day I was much nicer.

As far as symtpoms go that's about it. I told my boss that I'm pregnant and she was very nice and understanding about it. I'm not sure what I expected but it wasn't that. I promised them a year commitment and won't be able to fulfill that as this baby is due in Sept and I started in Nov. I told her vaguely of my history of loss so if I need to have another D&C (God forbid) at least they won't be surprised at my taking time off. But she said that she loves me working there and that they'll do all they can to accomodate me and keep me on whatever happens in the future.

In other events one of our platys had babies! We have about 40 tiny little fishies in our tank now and need to figure out a solution for them soon. Apparently platys do this quite frequently so I think this will be the only "litter" we're going to raise. They grow so quickly! I think it's fun watching them all grow.

Here's the belly pic for this week. I don't see much change.

7 WEEKS

Sunday was 7 weeks but I've been so busy I haven't been able to post until tonight. Hubby had us running errands like crazy all weekend and Monday was the first ultrasound!

Everything went great! It was amazing to see the heartbeat. I honeslty wanted to cry, I was so surprised! I had prepared myself for bad news but God is good and our little one was just beating away. The tech measured it the first time at 144 bpm and the second time at 146. She said it was measuring perfectly at 7 weeks 1 day which is exactly what I was! She said everything looked perfect and let us hear the heartbeat and she recorded it all for us on a DVD.

Steven was really happy. While we were walking back to the car he says to me "now we have to decide what kind of box we're putting you in" and drove straight to Babies R Us to look at baby things.

Symptom wise, my nausea was bad at the beggining of the week. I couldn't eat anything for a few days and felt like I had the worst flu. It seems to have tapered off and although I feel slightly queasy all day long, I'm still able to function. I have a lot of frequent headaches and I get tired very easily. After working a full day all I want to do is go to bed. My boobs are growing and very sore and somehow Dare always aims right for them when she needs attention. My belly is still very bloated and I look pretty chubby. I'll be happy when it rounds out and looks like a baby belly instead of just chub.

We told both sets of parents and soon the everyone else will know. We're so happy and I feel incredibly blessed! I'm praying hard that this little one will continue to grow healthy and strong.

Here's the belly pic and I'll post some ultrasound pics below.