Saturday, July 31, 2010

How I'm feeling now

It's really amazing how my life has changed in just the last almost-12 weeks. I turn 12 weeks on Tuesday and have an appointment on Wednesday and I can't wait to hear the heartbeat again. I don't know if I'll see the little peanut on ultrasound but just to hear the heartbeat will be great.

My symptoms have been crazy and I thought I'd write them down just to remember where I've come from when this is all over (remember this is as much for Mike and me as it is for sharing with you all).
  • I started with dizziness and overall not feeling fabulous.
  • By 5 and a half weeks I was definitely feeling the nausea and exhaustion but the dizziness went away.
  • Around 8 weeks, I was still nauseous except then it was constant. I'm talking feeling hungover but nothing making it go away - not sleep, not greasy food, nothing! And of course, don't forget the complete and total lack of energy. Seriously, by the time I got to 4 PM at work I was barely able to keep my eyes open, and that doesn't help when you have until 7 PM to go.
  • Around 9 weeks I started getting headaches. For the most part they would come and go but this past week I was nursing one for about 3 days.

So how I'm feeling now is still exhausted (I have learned that pregnancy and night shift - when I haven't worked a night shift since February - don't really mix well), a tiny bit nauseous here and there but overall much better. And I don't talk about all this to say that I'm a baby and want to whine about it all the time, I just want to remember what I was feeling so next time I'm in my first trimester I'll have something to remember this by and the next one to.

BABY STUFF!!!

Our house is already overflowing with baby stuff. I think both my mom and Mike's mom have been just waiting to hear that there is a baby on the way to put the boxes in the mail, in addition to my friends.

First my friend Lindsey sent me a box of clothes - very appreciated clothes, I might add - and some great newborn/infant toys. Then when I got to Kansas, mom said that she has had something for me at home for ages and would put it in the mail to me as soon as she got home (after she just happened to bring the Baby Bjorn to share for whenever we did decide to have kids; she says she was shocked when I told her but I think deep down she was hoping I'd have news to share!). In addition to that, she put all kinds of little toys and gadgets and burp cloths in as well. Then just yesterday we got a large box from Mike's mom in Indiana with some of the most adorable things ever! Add that to all the things I'm getting from the girls at work - tanks, t-shirts, scrubs that will fit when I have a belly - and our house is getting taken over.

I'm so excited and must admit that something about going through the baby clothes and toys in the most recent box made it all seem more real. I'm so excited to start deciding on how to decorate the nursery, making little things for baby, deciding if we're going to find out if it's a boy or a girl (I still vote no)... there is so much to look forward to over the next 6 months, I'm getting more and more excited!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Trip to Kansas

I went to Kansas to meet up with my mom, sister, and nephew who were there for a conference for my sister's work. Since it is much closer than Atlanta, I decided to get in the car and take the 8 hour road trip to hang out for a few days. I got there on Sunday and stayed until Wednesday because I had to be back at work bright and early on Thursday morning for an 0700 shift (lucky for my I was cost contained so I didn't actually have to work on Thursday and did nothing but rest instead). It was really one of the most fun times I had gotten to spend with my family - just us girls - in a long time! And I hadn't seen my nephew since he was 5 weeks old (WAY too long of course) so that was a blast as well.

The most important part of this trip was to break the big news to my mom and sister. So needless to say, I was waiting with the camera when I shared the news and this is what I saw:
Unfortunately I could not see my mom's face, but I'll bet that it looked something like my sister's. And as you can see, Tilden is quite excited to be wearing his big cousin t-shirt!

Can you believe that he is only 17 months old - he looks like he's at least 2! I'm completely in love with him and can't wait for him to meet his cousin. Unfortunately, it's going to be a little while before we move back towards family (no plans at this point) but we're going to work hard to get home as often as possible and to get family here, too.

So I told my mom and sister on Sunday night then we spent the rest of the week just hanging out. My sister was in meetings all day so mom and I took Tilden out and about. They tell me that he never falls asleep in the car but there must be something about my car because he fell asleep almost every morning when we were running around. I did some research to find a fountain for him to play in because I knew how much he loved water and it was so hot while we were there. At first he wasn't a fan at all but after finding a stick to play with, he decided to go put the stick in the spray of the water and the rest is history. This is the best picture of him from the whole week - and I think the best composition of a photo I have taken in a while (maybe since my photography course in college?!?).

I also gave in and got some maternity clothes. Just for the record, I am not OK with the fact that I'm buying some maternity clothes and I'm only 8-9 weeks pregnant. That said, they are the most comfortable things I own! I'm loving how there is minimal feeling fat though since I'm at the stage where I don't look pregnant, just pudgy. While I know it will eventually become baby right now I'm just a little self conscious.

The week was so much fun although it wasn't fun at all to have to leave on Wednesday (especially since I hadn't been feeling great and I was exhausted) but all in all, it was so worth the long car ride to see them. For a full breakdown of the week - and more pictures - head over to my mom's blog.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Our first picture

I know I said I'd update and post a picture of the ultrasound as soon as I got it uploaded. Well, I got it uploaded but failed to post. So now, here goes!!
This is from our first appointment at 8 weeks and he gave me an official due date as well - February 15th, 2011.

The month of February was never a big one in our family until my mom and my stepdad got married - his birthday is Feb. 5th. Then about 8 years later, my dad married my stepmom and her birthday is Feb. 7th as is my nephew's. Now we are going on our 4th birthday in the same month. Everyone is pulling for the baby to be born on their special day but I want him or her to have its own special day so I'm pulling for closer to my actual due date, so we'll see!

There's just one!

We had our first appointment on Tuesday and we were so excited to see the little peanut moving around on the screen of the ultrasound. My doctor is fabulous and the practice came highly recommended by the ladies I work with. I asked him how many ultrasounds we would get and he said as many as I needed to feel comfortable. It's really nice to know that he understands where I'm coming from as a nurse who works in PICU and occasionally NICU and that I want to know that my baby is healthy and things are moving along well. Will I be so crazy as to want an ultrasound every time I'm in the office? I sure hope not! I'll need my husband to be a good influence on that one.

But on to the appointment... I had a day of appointments so I met M there. For some reason, Denver traffic was bad so I was afraid that he wouldn't make it on time. He finally got there right as we were about to go back. The doctor was there right away - I don't think I have ever had to wait long in this office - and asked how I was feeling. I said that I felt hungover all the time and was exhausted and he said good, you're pregnant! He did the ultrasound right away and it was SO incredible to see the little heartbeat on the screen. Then he zoomed in and we were able to HEAR the heartbeat, too! The little ticker was going at 162 beats per minute!! I'm serious - it was incredible! I made him verify that there was only one baby in there (there was). He gave me his pager number if I ever need to get in touch with him outside of office hours. He said if I'm feeling anything weird at all just come by and he'll take a look. He verified that I should be eating whatever I want at this point and that my weight will all even out as I start to feel better and can exercise more and eat better.

All in all it was an awesome day. I look at those pictures a lot! I can't wait to show them to my mom and sister tomorrow. Since I have had the appointment and he said that now the chance of miscarriage is less than 5% (since we've seen the heartbeat on ultrasound) I'm feeling better about telling people about it. I have told one or two more people here and there and we are going to finish telling family this weekend. Then I just have to figure out who all I need to tell before it gets to them from someone else - maybe on my drive tomorrow I'll work on calling all my girlfriends.

I think we both are still feeling a little like it's not quite real at times but seeing the heartbeat definitely made it more real for us. Since I have been feeling so crappy, I think I am feeling more real about it but it took M seeing and hearing the heartbeat to feel like it was more real. I'm sure as we go through the next 31 weeks we will have many instances where the reality slaps us in the face, but for now, we'll just go with the flow.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Happy 4th of July

OK, so it's only the 3rd of July but since I'm working the holiday I thought we'd blog "celebrate" today. I was supposed to have a week on my own but it turns out when Mike made his plane reservations to Indiana for a wedding, he made them for a month prior to when he meant to. So he got to the airport to get his boarding pass and they told him there was nothing they could do for him. Unfortunately for him, he missed time at home, but fortunately for me, we get to spend the weekend together! (Maybe I should make plane reservations from here on out...)

I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week so yesterday was a lazy day to catch up on much needed rest. Mike started working on putting rocks out on the portion of the lawn he calls the hell strip - the grass/weed area between the sidewalk and the road. Every year that area becomes an awful overgrowth of nothing more than weeds. We talked about sodding but that's a lot of sod so we instead decided on rocks (pictures to come) which makes me very happy - I HATE pulling those weeds every year.

Today I ran errands while Mike did more rock work and then off to a burrito party for dinner and back home early since I have to work tomorrow and Monday then start getting ready for my trip to Kansas to see my sister, mom, and nephew next weekend!

Today has got to be better than yesterday

So I'm still having problems with morning sickness and yesterday was the worst yet. All day I could barely get out of bed or off the couch and I couldn't think about eating. I think I had a banana, applesauce, some tortilla chip, and three pieces of my quesadilla at dinner. The mere thought of having to eat something just made me more ill. And I couldn't actually get sick - that would be too easy. Today, I thought I was doing good because I was interested in breakfast. Then, I went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch (unfortunately, greasy food like fries and chicken sandwiches are the only things that actually sound good) and that wasn't a good idea. Whereas last week, CFA was good at settling my stomach, no such luck today. I hope this isn't an idea of things to come for the next 5 weeks. Oh yeah, and the trip to Kansas - 8 hours in the car - to finally get to tell Jenni and Mom should prove to be interesting at the least next weekend. . .

On a more positive note, I changed my first appointment to Tuesday!! I can't wait to see the little peanut on the screen and hear the heartbeat for the first time! I'll post as soon as I can get the picture scanned in to the computer, don't worry!