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!!!
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!!!
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