Friday, 15 March 2013

Morning sickness and food cravings!

Thanks everyone for your well wishes!  This past week has been slow, but very good.  After my Obstetrician appointment last Friday I started getting twitches in my left food and leg and had to rest for most of this whole week.  I'm usually good if I rest for a few days, and then only run one small errand, then rest again.  Otherwise it's like my left side gets too "worked up" and I get twitches that are very annoying.

On Monday morning we headed to the hospital for more blood work and tried to rest for most of the day afterwards.  Tuesday morning we headed back to the hospital for the x-rays on my left foot.  Normally I would have done both in one day, but I needed to rest in between.  

Getting the X-rays done was interesting! They covered me in one large lead blanket, then had a lead board by my butt, and another circular shaped one that hooked around my leg to catch areas the other two missed.  They meant business! 


It's very interesting getting pregnancy cravings, food aversions and morning sickness.  I've decided that the food aversions and cravings are directly related to the morning sickness.  When I take my prescription for morning sickness I feel perfectly fine and have no cravings and no aversions.  But if I don't take it, I feel like I have to eat every hour or I'll starve!  When I do eat, it was only certain foods.  Carbs of any kind I could eat and anything dairy.  I loved yogurt, ice cream, frozen yogurt, ice cream bars.. you name it and I wanted it!

How I feel when I haven't eaten for two hours...

I don't really like taking medication while pregnant, but this stuff is supposed to be 100% safe and if it keeps me from eating the entire fridge then I'm game! 

I was pretty happy that I hadn't gained any weight, but of course this week I gained 2lbs immediately and now I have a little belly showing!  I'm not concerned at all, gaining 2 lbs actually puts me right on par for weight gain.  I think it's normal to gain 1-5 lbs in the first trimester.

I've been craving fruit like crazy.  Dan surprised me with this snack one afternoon!  I had no idea he knew how to do that with apples!  He is an apple wizard!


Now I'm able to sit at the computer for much longer than I could even a month ago, so I'm hoping I'll be posting more often.  I'm still battling morning sickness and I'm still unable to exercise, and of course I can't lose weight so of course this makes a weight loss blog kinda lame!

What I hope to do is still get out healthier recipes, and to talk about fitness when I can during pregnancy and such.  I just need to start feeling better and get my head wrapped around all of this!

So far I have learned something about pregnancy.  It's very very easy to feel okay eating bad food.  Very early on when you have morning sickness it's really easy to eat carbs and salty foods, and it's easy to keep that going.  I did not want to eat a single vegetable!  I wanted to vomit at the thought of steamed broccoli! I have learned that I have to keep the fridge bursting with fresh foods, especially fruits since they're easiest for me to eat right now.  I find when my fridge and cupboards get bare, it's easy to open a box of crackers and eat crackers and cheese or just bread instead of something that could be more nutritious.  Dan has been coming home almost every day from work with new groceries!

Some more great news! My Mom is taking me baby shopping on Monday!  We're going window shopping and she's going to tell me what's what since I'm a pretty big baby newb.  She asked me what kind of bottles I wanted to use, and I said, "there are different kinds?"  Yes, my Mom never stops being a Mom.  Even when her kid becomes one!

After window shopping she is taking me to Micheals to pick out yarn so I can start crocheting a baby blanket.  I'm pretty slow at crocheting so I'm getting a start now.

I think I felt a lot of dread about this pregnancy until I had my OB appointment.  After my doctor told me to, "enjoy it while it lasts" I just waited for the end.  I hoped that if I was going to have a miscarriage that I had it soon, because I figured the earlier it was the easier it would be.  Now that I saw the baby jump around I'm much more excited and less scared!  I find myself looking at patterns on Pinterest, and looking at different furniture to put into the nursery.  I'm ready to pack up one of our offices and to start decorating already!

I have to keep one thing in mind.  As much as I hate morning sickness, cravings and food aversions.. it means that we have created something wonderful.  I mean, I never thought I would have a baby.  I convinced myself it was impossible. I figured that if I convinced myself that it was impossible, that when I didn't get pregnant I wouldn't be hurt.  I'm not saying this is a miracle baby, but I'm still in absolute shock.  Shock isn't even a big enough word.

Friday, 8 March 2013

Expecting!

Some of you may remember that I started taking fertility medication mid-December.  If you remember that, then you might remember that I was plagued with OHSS (ovarian-hyper stimulation syndrome) as well.  OHSS makes you balloon up, gain extra pounds, makes it physically hurt to eat, and you're incredibly nauseous.  I had a few people ask me, "are you pregnant?!".  Well at the time, no I wasn't.  OHSS can hit anyone who takes fertility medication, whether they are pregnant or not.  A few days after the OHSS started I looked at my fertility chart and noticed I was 11 days passed my ovulation date (you bet I tracked everything!).  I knew it was technically too early to take a test, but I decided to any ways.  I figured I might get lucky.



Well get lucky I did!  I got a positive on January 12th of this year.  I took another one the next day to be sure, and the line was much darker the next day!  It just so happened that I had a doctors appointment that day to discuss my fertility medicaton and to talk about upping the dosage.  Instead the discussion turned to beta tests to check for HCG, due dates etc.  My family doctor was really shocked that I was pregnant and a little concerned.  He said to me, "don't take this the wrong way, but enjoy it while it lasts."  Ever since I've been waiting for the floor to drop out from under us.

I had two blood tests done to confirm pregnancy and I was placed at "just about 5 weeks".  Later the following week I started getting lots of blood loss for about two weeks straight.  Followed by extreme cramping, and excruciating pain.  We rushed to the ER, and eventually had more blood work done and told to come back if it happens again.

At 6 weeks we had an ultrasound to check on our little bean and see how things where going under such stress. (The ER didn't have an ultrasound machine! What the heck?!)  The tech took lots of time, lots of photos and eventually called Dan into the room.  She spent some time pointing out different parts of my body, and eventually zoomed in on this teeny tiny little blob with a flashing heartbeat.  It was such a relief to see it be okay, and alive!

Today was my first appointment with my new Obstetrician, a lovely and sweet Russian lady.  We went through a normal check up, and lots of questions.  She then pulled out a Doppler and we heard the heartbeat for the first time! I loud Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh!!  She also had a handheld ultrasound machine, it looked like a large flip phone.  She found the baby, which is much bigger than a blob now.  It had a distinct head, arms and legs and again a flashing heartbeat!  She would move the ultrasound wand around and the baby would jump around every time.

Now I'm worried about the nerve issues I'm having while pregnant, and the twitching and spasming that I'm getting on my left side.  It's not pregnancy related, and I'm worried that pregnancy and weight gain will make it worse.  So far I've had some morning sickness starting about two weeks ago (and wonderful medication to help), and just some cramping.

So now you guys know the real reason why I'm in maintenance mode!  I'm happy to say that I am sitting exactly at my pre-pregnancy weight still (fluctuating around 222-224lbs consistently), and my weight wasn't discussed at all during the exam.

I still feel like the floor is going to be yanked out from under us.  I mean, how many people with fertility problems get pregnant the first try?!  I owe a lot of thanks to the book "Taking charge of your fertility", for without that book I probably wouldn't be pregnant.

Needless to say, this is surreal.  I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to ever be a Mom.(Funny note, my spell-check doesn't recognize "Mom" as a word!)  That my body was a wreck, I had ruined it somehow.   I still wont believe it's real until I see my baby, but for now I choose to be happy!

Some other fantastic news, I hit over 10 000 page views yesterday!  Thanks everyone for following me through all of this utter crap!

Now I'm off to snuggle with Dan, and dream of baby names.