Our Little Alien Baby

I went for another baby visit today. The morning sure didn't start out all that great. I haven't been sleeping well, so I've actually been awake since 5:00am, which is way too early for me. I got up to take my husband to work. He had a dentist's appointment, so he wasn't going to be able to take me, and I needed the truck to go to my visit. So I drove through the horrid fog to take him to work at 5:30am, then came home and tried to go back to sleep until 7:00am. The attempt was futile. So I got up, let the dog out to go to the bathroom, and got dressed. I let the dog back in and gave him some food, then went to the bathroom to finish getting ready. The cat decided to join me. I left the bathroom and went to go downstairs to eat when I thought I'd better check the bathroom to make sure I hadn't locked the cat in when I left. Then I checked the bedroom to make sure I'd grabbed my water bottle off the nightstand. I went to go back downstairs and had a coughing fit at the top of the stairs. I coughed so hard I nearly gagged. And then my stomach decided that I had coughed too hard. I had to turn around and go right back into the bathroom. I thought I was going to be able to stifle the sudden, awful, strong urge to vomit, but I was wrong. I vomited what water I had drank earlier that morning. It was the first time I had actually gotten sick this entire pregnancy. I didn't know what to think. But I couldn't sit there and ponder the inner workings of my ever-changing body. I was going to be late if I didn't get moving. So I brushed my teeth to get the taste out of my mouth, I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat anything. I went downstairs and packed some food, since I wasn't sure how long this appointment was going to take. I finally left, just to run into the same fog I had dealt with earlier, and the traffic that goes with it. Everyone was going about five miles per hour slower than they usually do. So I ended up nearly being late. But I made it.

When I got there, I had to fill out Pap smear paperwork. Wonderful, I thought. I've had so many of these in the last three months. I started out in one exam room, where the nurse took my blood pressure and my weight, then moved to another room for the exams. The doctor came in and we talked about my medical history, what problems I had before and if they were still bothering me, and he asked about any concerns I might be having. I told him about my shortness of breath and accelerated heart rate, both of which he said were normal. I also told him about an abdominal pain I've been having, which he attributed to ligament pain as my insides get heavier. We talked about diabetes, which runs in my family, so he said he'd monitor me for that. He palpated my abdomen, making sure I wasn't feeling any pain, and listened to my breathing. Then he left so I could get ready for the internal exams. He and the nurse came back in a while later, and he performed the cervical exam, taking a few cultures for lab work and a Pap smear as well. Then he moved to the pelvic exam. He said everything felt great, he didn't find anything to be concerned with, and then we moved to yet another room. This time it was the ultrasound room. He was new to the clinic, so he asked another doctor to join him. I had to undress yet again so they could put the gel and instrument to my belly.

I got to see our baby for the first time. It was very much more formed than I expected. You could easily discern the head and extremities. At one point, the baby started moving around a lot. They measured the crown-rump length, which determines the gestational age of the baby, and I was 11 weeks and 2 days, which put my due date at June 16, 2007. That's my birthday! The doctors said it was close enough to the original due date that they weren't going to change it, but it was still quite interesting. I also got to hear the baby's heartbeat. It was so fast! But it was steady, so that was a good sign. And the baby wasn't in one of my fallopian tubes, which I was concerned about with the abdominal pain I was having. So all my fears and concerns were addressed and soothed. But seeing the baby, actually seeing it, changed this from just a pregnancy for me to "I actually have this little life living and moving around in there!" It looks like a baby now, not just a weird-looking group of cells slightly resembling a human. But it still looked odd. The first view we got of him was a profile view, from which they took the length. But as they started looking for different views, he started moving around a lot. They were able to freeze the view on his face. In the picture, he looks like a little alien baby, with dark spots where his eyes and mouth are. It's kinda funny.

I picked Bryan up for work about an hour or so after I got home. He asked how my appointment went, and I just handed him the paper with the pictures on it. "Uh, oh," he said. I just smiled. I was still feeling really nauseous, so I wasn't too animated. But he was happy for the pictures. When I told him I got to hear the heartbeat, he sounded a bit down when he said he really wished he'd been able to be there since they did all that. But, I told him it couldn't be helped. Things happened the way they did, and we couldn't change that, we would just try harder the next time.

That next time won't be for six weeks. I went to make my next appointment, and she said I had to call back after December 4th to get a date and time, since they didn't have their schedule out for January yet. But I was given the number to the Women's Health nurse's line in case I had any questions between now and my appointment. I also have to come in for a glucose test sometime near the date of that next appointment, just to keep an eye on it, since again, that was something that I had expressed concerns about.

Bryan mentioned on his way home that someone at work had offered to give us some clothes in neutral colors. But he didn't know for what ages or season they were, so I told him they would have to be summer clothes, since the baby's due in June. But after he grows out of those, of course we'll know the gender for sure, so we will be able to buy gender-appropriate clothes in those first few months. I'm hoping very hard for a boy, and so far, every dream I've had in which we've had the baby, it turns out to be a boy. So I'm hoping my dreams are telling me something that we won't know until June. I went ahead and told the doctors doing the ultrasound that we did not want to know the gender, even though I knew and he confirmed that it was still too early to tell. Unfortunately, I realized we may not be able to watch too many more of the ultrasounds in case the baby decides to show off. Bryan may not be able to tell, but I've seen enough ultrasounds that, if the baby does choose to display its genitalia, I might be able to tell, at least if it's a boy. If not, we'll not truly know until June, of course.

But anyway, I'll leave you with that to ponder. I'm still trying to figure out the image feature on this site, hopefully soon I can post pictures of my pregnant belly and our little alien baby.

TTFN!!!

Apparently I Look Pregnant?

As I approach 11 weeks along, I am greatly anticipating the end of this oh so lamented first trimester. Of course it's not like all this gas, bloating, nausea, and random pain is miraculously going to disappear the day after I hit 12 weeks, but I just don't think about that too awfully much.

One thing that this pregnancy has done for me so far is getting me to eat so much healthier than before. And it seems that, in turn, has done wonders for my digestive system. I've never been more regular in my life! I've always had a slow-moving bowel, but now, even though pregnancy is supposed to slow it down even more, I'm eating so much fruit and whole grains that it's counteracted both of those! It's amazing. I can't believe I'm so excited about having regular bowel movements, but for me, that's an accomplishment. Unfortunately, the gas that goes along with that isn't all that great. It likes to set off my nausea, which seriously dampens my excitement over my newfound regularity.

I have good news to impart: My mom came out of surgery just fine. She went in for surgery on a herniated disk in her neck on Monday morning. My grandma went down to Florida to be with her, since everyone else in the house has school or work and couldn't be with her much of the time. But she came out okay, and went home this morning. They went in from the front of her neck, having to bypass her esophagus and her windpipe, so her throat is really sore from that. She now has a metal plate and pins in her neck to replace the parts that were damaged. She's wearing a neck brace right now, which has to stay on for a week. But the feeling returned to her arms and fingers just fine. She'd been dealing with pretty severe pain in her shoulder and numbness in some of her fingers before the surgery, which was symptomatic of the particular disk that had herniated. But things seem to be going well other than the sore throat. I was really scared for her. The night before her surgery, I woke up nearly vomiting from worry. But things seem to be going well. My grandma's going to stay with her this week, and celebrate Thanksgiving with her, so that will help everyone out. We won't have to worry about something happening and she be alone with no one to help or call an ambulance.

In other news, my neighbor just found out that she's pregnant as well, making four of us. Ashley's due December 7th, Audrey's due somewhere in February, I'm due in June, and Sam is likely due in August. It's the Pregnant Parade! If Audrey lived on our street, the hormones would really be flying. Three of us live on the same street of our apartment complex. No one on this street's getting any sleep after December.

This is Sam's second pregnancy, and she seems to be having it pretty rough with the nausea. She actually goes so far as vomiting when she eats something her stomach doesn't like. So I gave her the Preggy Pop Drops we bought a while back. They worked really well, but they had edges on the candies that cut up my mouth. Sam was the one who actually told me about them. So I gave her those, and I'm just drinking my Sprite and eating hard candy like Runts and Gobstoppers to stave off the nausea. It's off and on these days. I'm coming down with a cold, AGAIN, which on one hand, makes me drink more since I'm a mouthbreather again, but on the other hand, makes me eat less since I don't feel good, and can't taste much. I've got my Flonase, which opens up my nasal passages so I can breathe during the day, and I guess I'll have to start taking Benadryl at night to dry me up and help me sleep. It's the same darn thing I dealt with at the same darn time last month. But at least I don't have to suffer for as long. I know what I can and cannot take now, so I can start feeling better faster. I had to suffer for nearly a week before I found the number to the nurse's line for my hospital. I bought some Tylenol Head Congestion, which helps with the sinus pain and headache, but it doesn't do much else that I couldn't get from regular Tylenol and what I'm already taking. The hardest part is finding the happy medium between rehydrating myself and not getting bloated from regular water. I don't like to drink soda when I'm already dehydrated, not even Sprite, but I have to watch how much I drink at one time or it will try to come back up.

My doctor's appointment is next Monday, and I'm coming up with a wonderful list of things to talk about. It's supposed to be a 45-minute appointment, I may end up making it more like an hour. I'm hoping I'll get an ultrasound, and we can finally see a picture of this little one. I need to ask her what ranges of blood pressure she's comfortable with during pregnancy. At my last visit with my primary physician, my blood pressure was 145/80. He was concerned, and told me to keep track of it. So I used the cuff at Walmart about a week ago, and my systolic was lower than I've ever seen it: 105/70. I normally run anywhere from 110/60 to 120/80. I can feel it when my blood pressure changes, but I don't know if it's spiking or bottoming out. Bryan has problems with his blood pressure as well, he's supposed to be on medicine for it, so we're probably going to get a monitor for ourselves, to keep better track of it on both of us. That may be the cause of the headaches he's always getting. So that's yet one more thing that I need to ask the doctor about on Monday. So I've got my test results to go over, I want to talk about gestational diabetes, she will probably talk to me about the genetic stuff that the appointment was for in the first place, I need to ask her about blood pressure ranges, and maybe bring up depression medications. The RN that ran my OB class seemed to think Zoloft, which I was on before we went off birth control, was a category B, which is one of the safer categories of drugs. But I looked it up myself before I stopped taking it, and read it was a category C drug, which the doctor that prescribed it seemed to think as well. I don't need it right now, I'm doing okay with my depression, but I'm worried about the long six months ahead, the feelings of looking like a cow, and maybe not feeling good the majority of the time, and all those not-so-good emotional issues that I've heard go along with being pregnant.

Finally, in reference to the title of this post, Bryan told me last night that people would be able to tell I was pregnant. I had been eating pretty much nonstop for the two or three hours before I went to bed. I had cottage cheese, an apple, some baby carrots, and a few cookies. My stomach was pretty distended. When I looked in the mirror, my stomach was further out than my breasts. I told Bryan that if people saw me now, they'd just think I was gaining weight, getting fat. But he told me that since my stomach was the only big part of me, they'd be able to tell I was pregnant. I've had what people call stress fat on my belly for a while, and that's what Sam called my baby bulge a week or so ago. But last night, it was definitely out there. Bryan pushed a little on my stomach and said it was pretty solid. It was all food. This morning when I woke up, my belly wasn't nearly as big, or as firm.

I've started looking online for things to add to our baby registry. I know it's way soon to start buying stuff, but with Christmas being so close, it might be better to get gifts for the baby now, and not have to worry about buying so much later. We're not getting a crib, since we'll be moving a month or two after the baby's born. There's no need to get one that early, and then have to deal with moving it halfway across the country. We're probably going to try to stay pretty minimal on the extra baby stuff right now, like mobiles and special clothes, and lots of toys and things like that. There's no need for any of that stuff right away, and it would just make it more difficult to move later. I know the grandparents are going to want to spoil us and baby with things like that, and we're not going to say no, just that it's not necessary. If they want to do that after we get moved, great, go ahead. But we're trying to avoid lots of unnecessary stuff for those first two months of Baby's life.

Well, this looks like a good place to end today's post. I need to go get warm, and maybe munch on something else. I had my cereal already, but it's getting close to time to eat something else. My appetite's still the same during the day, just not quite so demanding at night. I guess Baby decided I could get some sleep. :)

TTFN!!!

My First OB Visit

Yesterday, I went for my first OB visit. I had to fill out this paperwork while I was waiting with my medical history, my husband's medical history, my pregnancy history (of which there is none), and other random things. This appointment was supposed to take 3-4 hours! I didn't know when we got there that it was going to be an orientation class, a group thing. It wasn't so bad, I just felt bad for my husband, since all he could really do was sit there and twiddle his thumbs while I listened to the RN talking about things to avoid, things to expect, when to call a doctor, and other information. It was good that he was there, because he can help keep me on track with things, but I know he was bored to death. A nutritionist came in for a presentation, and it was obvious she didn't like talking in front of groups, she went through things very quickly and seemed very nervous. We watched a slide presentation on cystic fibrosis, then we signed a form saying if we did or did not want to be tested. I signed yes, since that is something that needs to be detected earlier for better care. We filled out more paperwork, then some of us went to the lab for urine and blood testing, and the others stayed for one-on-one interviews with the RN to go over histories. I went to the lab first, got the cup for the urine test, took care of that, then gave NINE vials of blood, NINE!!! The last time I gave that much blood at one time, I was giving it to the Red Cross for a blood drive in high school. And that didn't turn out very well. But then we went back to the orientation room to wait for our interviews. We got into the room, she looked over our paperwork, told me that mine was the best out of the group as far as the details she liked to see, and asked a couple of questions about some of my answers. She scheduled an appointment with an OB/Gyn doctor and we were done within ten minutes with the interview part. All in all, it took nearly four hours from the time we arrived to check in to the time we left. What a way to spend the morning! We got home, and Bryan took a nap while I played a bit on the computer. I started to get tired, so when he left for his PT, I laid down for a nap myself. He woke me up when he got home, and I went upstairs for another nap. I needed to rest for all those red blood cells to rebuild! But that's how my first OB visit went. I might get an ultrasound at this next visit, I'm not sure. I'm hoping she'll listen for the baby's heartbeat. I'm about 10 weeks now, I'll be about 12 weeks when I see the doctor, so if they have a Doppler, they should be able to detect it.

My nausea's starting to show up again, whoo hoo... And my appetite seems to have decreased a bit. I'm not waking up in the middle of the night due to stomach pain, and hunger doesn't hit me until about an hour or so after waking up in the morning. I'm not sure what's up, maybe just that particular stage of pregnancy is over. I can't seem to eat enough to make the serving requirements on my food pyramid, even eating every two hours, and now that I'm not eating as often, it's going to be even harder. And I'm supposed to be drinking a half gallon to a gallon of water a day... yeah, that's not going to happen. I drink as much as I can handle, but I'm lucky to get down a quart in a day. I bloat very easily, and I have a dysfunctional gastroesophageal sphincter, which doesn't keep lots of fluids down very easily. Basically, the junction between my esophagus and my stomach doesn't work right, doesn't close correctly, and if I drink too much fluids at one time, it doesn't keep them in my stomach. The churning of my stomach as it digests sends it back up my throat, which doesn't feel or taste very good. I'll try to remember to address that at the doctor at my next visit. Anyway, I think that's all for now. I'll write more after my next doctor's visit.

TTFN!!!

Sprite is a Wonderful Thing!!!

Those weeks after we found out I was pregnant, I had SO much nausea to deal with. It would hit me about noon or so every day, and last all day long. I hated it SO much. I can deal with bodily fluids of all sorts, from humans and animals alike, but I detest dealing with vomit, especially my own. Luckily for me, there was no rushing to the bathroom to empty the contents of my stomach. I managed to keep everything down, but I was miserable.

I was drinking a lot of water to keep my fluid intake up. I normally don't drink but a glass or two of anything during the day, and am usually on the verge of dehydration most of the time. But I know how much water goes into the production of the amniotic fluids, and into the baby's development, and I knew I had to change that. Plus, right after we found out I was pregnant, I came down with a horrid cold. So I breathed through my mouth at night while I slept, and could never seem to drink enough water during the day to get rid of the dry mouth I woke up with each morning. But I grew tired of plain water. I used to drink a lot of fruit juices, but those contain lots of sugar. My neighbor suggested Sprite to help calm my stomach, so I bought a 20-oz bottle. I didn't have any nausea that day, or any of the days following. I tried to keep my fluid intake even between water and Sprite, but water bloats me, whereas, oddly enough, the Sprite didn't. Eh, who knows, it's probably a psychological thing on my part.

But, I've changed my diet around a bit. I'm drinking more calcium enriched orange juice, since I can't handle any more milk than what goes into my cereal in the mornings. I only eat the cereals made with whole grains. Right now, that includes Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Kix, and Lucky Charms. Lucky Charms are made with whole grain oats, amazingly enough. I bought a box of Fruit Loops as well, but there is too much sugar in those, so I eat them sparingly. I bought whole grain wheat bread, whole grain Wheat Thins, a cantaloupe for Vitamin A, tangerines for Vitamin C, bananas for Vitamin K and potassium, grapes for the moisture and whatever vitamins they provide, apples just because they're healthy, cottage cheese for the protein (a serving actually has more protein than calcium) and low sugar granola bars, for the late night hunger attacks.

I am almost literally eating every two hours. I eat small meals, a bowl of cereal for breakfast, some fruit two hours later, a sandwich and Wheat Thins two hours after that. At night, I go a maximum of four hours before I'm woken up by my stomach. If I eat right before bed, I can make it through the night, at least until 5:30am, when my husband gets up for work. And my stomach seems to have forgotten the steps it used to take to tell me to eat. It completely skips the growling phase, goes straight to the hurting phase, and then right into the "If I don't eat soon, I'm going to be sick" phase. It does that at night, too.

It's bad enough that I'm a light sleeper, but these days all it seems I'm allowed to do is doze. It can take me an hour and a half to fall asleep, and then if my husband's restless, I don't stay there very long. Any little noise will wake me up, or prevent me from sleeping at all. As much as I don't like to, I've started taking an approved sleep aid before bed. At least I manage to sleep at night, and don't want to sleep all day like I was doing. I felt so bad for my husband, I laid around on the couch all day on bedrest, asleep most of the time, so he felt he had to tiptoe around the house. My poor dog Sabre feels the need to be near me wherever I am, including sleeping at my feet, so he slept all day, too. Poor baby, though, he'd get so much pent-up energy that he'd ask to go outside every hour. We hadn't taken him to the dog park in a few weeks because I hadn't felt up to it, or was asleep all afternoon.

But now, with the nausea pretty much gone, we're getting out and doing things more. Now I sleep during the day only out of pure boredom. I've lost interest in my video games, so I spend my day watching movies and reading. Then when Bryan gets home from work, we go out and run errands, or take Sabre to the dog park. Things are a lot better now that I'm sleeping a little better, the nausea's gone, and I have a little more energy. I play catch with Sabre during the day, or go out and kick the soccer ball for him, he's a pretty good goalie for a dog. At least the weather here is nice. It was 75 degrees at 5:30pm tonight. It's been pretty crazy weather, cold and hot off and on all month. I left the house at six this morning wearing sweatpants and a long sleeved t-shirt. And I only got a little chilly. I can imagine what my family in Missouri is going through.

In other news, our cat had kittens on November 7th. My mom said I get to be a grandma before I'm a mom, heheh. The cat had four kittens, each of them distinctly different. One is an orange tabby, one is all black, one is a gray tabby, and one is a white/cream color. I was hoping one would be a calico, because then my husband said we could consider keeping it. Lilo, the mom, is a black tortoiseshell, I guess you could call her. She's mostly black with brown and gold patches of fur, and a white patch under her chin. I have no idea what the tom looked like that bred her. She escaped from home in early September, and was gone for five days. This is her first, and we plan to make it her last, litter. I love kittens dearly, I would keep every one of them if I could, but the dog would go crazy, and so would my husband. The litterbox was his job before I got pregnant, she's his cat, but I couldn't help out with them now if I wanted to, and I wouldn't feel right asking him to clean up after five cats. We plan to either sell them to a pet shop, or give them away if we can. Right now, we have eight animals in the house, not counting my husband: a dog, a cat, a rabbit, a snake, and four kittens. Don't worry, the snake's only 14 inches long and a half inch thick, not nearly big enough to eat my rabbit. And we made sure to get one that wouldn't grow big enough to be able to eat my rabbit. That was my only stipulation on getting a snake. We've had him for a couple of weeks now. I'm trying to get him to eat. He ate the night after we bought him, but he hasn't eaten since, and we've been going through pinkie mice like crazy trying. He gets one more week, and then we're going to try some more desperate measures. Anyway, that has little to do with my pregnancy, just a little hitch in my day.

Well, it's time to eat, then check to see if our snake's eaten, and make preparations to go to bed. So this is my update.

TTFN!!!

Our first month

We found out we were pregnant on October 20th, 2006. I'd been getting really stressed out over silly things, and had no idea why. I had an infection that I needed to see the doctor about, so I figured I'd have him do a pregnancy test while I was there, just to rule that out. We had just come off the birth control patch, and I was still waiting for my period to start. I was about nine days late, but not worried. I knew things could be a little weird, just coming off birth control. It was a Friday when I was going to the doctor. I was curious, and we had a couple home pregnancy tests from a previous suspected pregnancy. So I took the test, and it came back within 30 seconds: positive. I wasn't sure that I'd done it right, but I called my mom anyway. She was ecstatic. My poor husband had a horrible headache, so he just looked at the test and laid back down. I went to my appointment, and naturally, my blood pressure was up, I was SO nervous. My doctor congratulated me on the home positive test, and prescribed some pregnancy-safe drugs for my infection. Then he sent me to the lab for a blood test to confirm my pregnancy test. I didn't get to the lab until 2:30, and they close at 4:30. My doctor said he'd order the test stat, but it was no guarantee. I was told to call back at 4:20 to see if they'd gotten the results back yet.

So I went home and told my husband. I called my mom on the way, and told her not to get too excited until it was confirmed. Bryan was still in pain, and laid around most of the afternoon. I called the office, and kept not getting through. I was afraid I was going to have to wait until Monday anyway. I finally got through, and the receptionist had to find a doctor to tell me the results. So this lady doctor I've never met got on the phone and told me it was positive. I shook Bryan's shoulder, "We're pregnant!!!" The doctor said congratulations, and told me to call and make an appointment with Women's Health. I had to wait to call my mom until at least 5:00pm, because she got off work at 4:30, and would be on her way home. So I called my best friend Christy. She said exactly what I thought she would: I'm happy for you, but I'm also jealous. She's been with her boyfriend for nearly four years. They were engaged at one point, but that got called off. They are living together, but no more committed than boyfriend and girlfriend. He's afraid of commitment. So she's watching her best friends get married and now start families, and she's stuck at the girlfriend phase. Anyway, we talked for a little bit, but I was too happy to let her rain on my parade. So I got off the phone and called my mom. She had already been grinning from ear to ear. The confirmation just totally made her day. She'd already told my grandma, her mom. Bryan started making his phone calls. He got a little more excited with each person he told. It took his mom a few minutes to digest the news and fully realize what he was trying to tell her. But she got all excited when she finally realized she was going to be a grandma.

Over the next week, I called as many of my family members as I could get numbers for. I tried not to let this news just get around through the grapevine. I got asked a lot of questions, and heard lots of advice on what to do and not to do for morning sickness, stretch marks, and plenty of other pregnancy-related things. I also managed to get my father on the phone. He and I hadn't communicated in over a year and a half. I got an email from him on January 9th, 2005 saying he wanted nothing more to do with me or my brother, since the only thing we ever seemed to contact him about was needing money. Then I didn't hear from him again until this past June, when I got an email saying he'd sent me an email on my birthday, but had apparently sent it to the wrong address. He got my current email address from his parents. I emailed him back, but never heard anything. I left messages at home and on his cell, but wouldn't tell him why I was calling. He called my house back, and we talked for an hour and a half. He seemed genuinely happy to hear that he was going to be a grandpa, and admitted that it felt a little strange.

My poor grandma, my mom's mom, feels really old now. She says she's too young to be a great-grandma. I told her she's not old, we all just had our kids young, in our early twenties.

Anyway, I called Women's Health the next week. They told me I was six weeks along, and due June 13th, 2007. That's what they call the LMP date, calculated from the first day of my last menstrual period. That's two weeks from the actual conception date. It's really strange to think that my baby's only a month old, but yet I'm six weeks along.

We're hoping for a boy first, so he can be a big brother when the next one comes. But if it's a girl, that's no problem either. If it's a boy, we're thinking of naming him Thomas Jennings, T.J. for short. Thomas is Bryan's middle name, and Jennings is his dad's first name. Bryan is also Jennings' middle name. I thought that was where his parents got the idea for my husband's name. So that's where I came up with the name, but it turned out that wasn't true. He was named after someone they knew with the last name of Bryant. But Bryan still really likes the name. So it's still a consideration.

If it's a girl, her name will be Aurora. We're still working on a middle name. I had Aurora Rose in mind, but Bryan thought saying her name would be a tongue twister. So we're looking for a different middle name that might not be so hard to say. We're trying to stick with the initials ARL, since those are my initials, but I don't mind if we have to deviate from that to find one we agree upon.

About a week after we found out, I started feeling nausea. I can deal with any pain my body throws at me, I can deal with cramping, gas, bloating, and reflux. I HATE feeling nauseous. My neighbor told me about Preggy Pops, sold at Babies-R-Us. We went to get some, and found the drops instead. They helped some, but they cut up my mouth. So I resorted to different candies. It helped for the most part. I also started waking up around 4:30 in the morning, hungry. I tried to ignore it, but I ended up not being able to. So I had to get up and go eat something. I'm still doing that, two weeks after finding out we were pregnant. I'm hungry nearly all the time, so I'm eating smaller meals at least every four hours. I do my best to eat healthy. I eat lots of fruit, some cracker type munchies. I find myself not wanting most regular entree type foods, but I can eat pasta and vegetables and stuff. I'm on prenatal vitamins now, so I'm hoping that will help compensate for any vitamins I'm missing out on. Unfortunately, fast food seems to be quite appealing, though I'm trying to stay away from it as much as possible.

The infection I had gone to the doctor for back in October came back this week. So I scheduled a doctor's appointment to get it checked out. It was a vaginal infection, and that would prevent me from having a vaginal birth if it's present at labor. So I wanted to get it taken care of now. He did a pelvic exam (Yay...) and mentioned that there was some bleeding. He said it was a yeast infection instead of what I had originally thought it was. But then he wanted to discuss the bleeding. He said it could be caused by the infection, but it could also be signs of early miscarriage. Yeah, he said the M-word. The word no pregnant woman who wants to be pregnant ever wants to hear. He said to watch out for pelvic pain, abdominal cramps, and fever. If I have any of those symptoms, I am to go immediately to Urgent Care. He said other than the bleeding, everything looked good. But he was concerned. So I got dressed, left the clinic, walked to my truck, and called my mom. I was in shock. After I told her about the M-word, I started crying. I was honestly convinced that the bleeding was from the infection, but he still scared the crap out of me. I've had bleeding from vaginal infections before, worse than it was today. I was just really really scared. I called Bryan just to tell him I was coming home. I didn't tell him anything else. I needed to be able to drive. So I went home. I walked in the door, sat on the couch, and started bawling. Bryan rushes over, puts his arms around me, asking what's wrong. I told him, "He said the M-word..." "No..." I explained about the infection, and what I thought it was, but that I wanted to be on the safe side. So I took my mom's advice. She suggested I go on bedrest for a couple of days, elevate my feet, and do no lifting. So that's what I'm doing for now. Lots of TV, and I'm writing this on my laptop. I'm laying on the couch with pillows under my legs, trying to stay calm. I haven't told anyone else besides my mom and Bryan yet, no need to unnecessarily worry anyone until we're sure there's something to worry about.

Anyway, so today's been pretty scary. I need to go now, I'm overheating. I need to get the laptop off my lap, and eat, since it's been a little over four hours, and I'm starting to feel hungry. My husband just got me a granola bar. Talk to you later!!!