{written on 4-12-12}
I’m almost at that “magical” 12 week mark, and frankly, it can’t come soon enough. I’ve been feeling like utter crap, and I can’t wait for this part to end. I do take comfort in that I guess that means the baby is doing well, but it’s been kind of a rude awakening after experiencing none of this with D. Does that mean it’ll be a boy this time? Who knows.
Since about 6w, I’ve been nauseous, exhausted, and just overall feeling like shit. After my 1st OB appointment, which turned out to be at 7w4d, the bad stomach juju really hit. That appt was on a Wednesday, and by that Friday I was puking. I puked all that night, then called the after hours line for my doctor on Saturday morning. I couldn’t even keep water down. They put me on Reglan, an anti-nausea medicine, which helped me be able to eat and drink that weekend, but by that Monday I just felt like it wasn’t really doing anything anymore. So I stopped taking it Monday night, after which I actually felt better for that whole week.
Then the nausea came back and has been surfacing off and on in varying degrees until now. I haven’t barfed again, but there have been days I’ve certainly felt like I was going to. Especially around dinner time after work. Thank heavens I have R to help take care of D at nights, because some days I’ve seriously felt like I didn’t even have the energy to sleep.
Plus we’ve all been sick. R’s had a cold for 2.5 weeks now, D had a double ear infection plus pink eye 2 weeks ago, and I had an upper respiratory infection with the worst coughing of my life last week. All that to say I haven’t exercised in weeks either, which is the exact opposite of how I wanted to start off this pregnancy. Fortunately we’re all finally on the upswing from the illnesses so I should be able to get some good walks in every day down in St. Thomas next week. At least I haven’t noticed my butt expanding nearly as rapidly as it did by this point last time – nausea, exhaustion, and illness aren’t really conducive to shoving cheeseburgers in your face, which was my fare of choice when I was pregnant with D.
I had my second appointment yesterday and am happy to report that despite all my sickness, everything appears to be going swimmingly in there. The doctor confirmed that all the junk I’ve been feeling is completely normal, and even told me something I hadn’t known previously – amoxicillin tends to intensify nausea. Excellent. No wonder these past couple days have felt especially sickening, since I’ve been on that the past week for the respiratory infection. But yesterday was my last day of the meds, so hopefully now that that is done and I’m approaching the week 12 mark things will start feeling better. Too bad this morning my stomach hurt badly, so I haven’t gotten relief yet.
Here are some stats, before I forget them all:
- Weight: 149.5 starting (home)
153 1st appt (home) / 155.9 1st appt (dr)
155 2nd appt (home) / 160.6 2nd appt (dr) – a 5 lb. difference between our scale and the doctor’s? I’m calling shenanigans.
- Heartbeat: 162 at 2nd appt (11w4d). The doctor found it, we heard it for a couple seconds, then the baby moved and it was gone. She said don’t worry, the baby just moved, it didn’t disappear. Since it’s still pretty early to hear the heartbeat she wasn’t surprised it was hard to find. She said since I’m thin it makes it easier to find too, so she doesn’t have to dig under my pelvic bone as much. I thought nice and thin, eh? I was just lamenting the fact that I’ve seemingly gained about 3 pounds in the past 4 days!
My next appt isn’t until May 9, at which point I’ll have the quad screening blood test done to check for signs of Down Syndrome and a couple other health issues. Then at the appt following that one is when I’ll probably have the main ultrasound. I can’t wait for that.
Hopefully this nausea lessens soon so I can fully enjoy vacation next week and start spreading the good news. 3 friends know right now, we’ll tell our families this weekend when we get to STT, and we’ll start telling any friends who ask this weekend as well. That always makes it seem more real, too.
Fingers crossed for continued health of little Spook.
**ETA: Unfortunately that 12 week mark wasn’t so magical for me. It took until a solid week 14 for that nausea to go away for good. Ugh.