The good - I've been out of bed for almost 7 hours now and no blood so far today! Now I'm not going to declare the bleeding done with because my body listens and would punish me for such a statement, but I can declare a solid 6 hour break from bleeding has now occurred. That's right body, no future predictions, only describing the past. You can't do anything to jinx what has already happened! I win this round!
The bad - headaches. Arg. Low to medium level of pain and it's becoming somewhat constant. I hate taking pain relievers, but it's becoming necessary.
The ugly - pimples. On the earlobe, the crease between my nose and cheek, on the chin, just sexy. When my mom was pregnant with me, she had the mumps so I got a natural immunity to it. It's too bad we can't give our kids an immunity to zits by taking them on ourselves when pregnant.
2 nights ago, I'm fairly certain I felt baby movement. Some kind of solid thump thump thumps. First time I was pretty confident that it wasn't a digestion function of some sort. Still nothing definite, but it's creeping up on me. I'm hoping that in the next week or so, it will become unquestionable, and somewhat consistent.
Showing posts with label pregnancy symptoms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pregnancy symptoms. Show all posts
Monday, February 6, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Coming up on 17 weeks
I hit 17 weeks tomorrow.
I had a moment of click where it dawned on me that it's real that there are babies with me where ever I go. I'm still fighting off that final click when this all becomes real. I'm simply not ready to jump over that emotional cliff, but it's becoming a little harder to fight every day. Did the official announcement on Facebook and that just feels like it's inviting disaster.
I did go back and read my blog from this point in my first pregnancy. There are some very reassuring differences.
When I was approaching 16 weeks, I was complaining of incontinence and a persistent nagging cough I had developed. I was talking about the doctor having me come in to test for a UTI and stuff to make sure the incontinence was baby based and not illness based. This time, I'm still pretty leak free and I don't have any kind of cough. So those first potential symptoms just aren't there this time.
A lot of times, I'm almost feeling like my crotch is pushing itself out, which of course totally freaks me out. I'm running my finger across my crotch more often than I'd like to admit to make sure there's no sac trying to make its escape. In reading other people complaining of this, it's pretty common and it's likely because a baby is lying low across the cervix putting pressure there. In my case, we're actually hoping for that. The subchorionic hematoma is located very near the cervix and we're kind of waiting for the babies to get heavy enough to sit on it, and put some pressure there to hopefully help stop the wound from bleeding anymore.
But the sensation is still rather terrifying given my history. I keep having to remind myself that I was feeling contractions and trying push out a BM pretty darned hard for 2 or 3 hours before the sac began to emerge. It didn't just randomly fall out of my body last time, and it's certainly not going to this time.
Ok, 17 week symptom break-down:
I had a moment of click where it dawned on me that it's real that there are babies with me where ever I go. I'm still fighting off that final click when this all becomes real. I'm simply not ready to jump over that emotional cliff, but it's becoming a little harder to fight every day. Did the official announcement on Facebook and that just feels like it's inviting disaster.
I did go back and read my blog from this point in my first pregnancy. There are some very reassuring differences.
When I was approaching 16 weeks, I was complaining of incontinence and a persistent nagging cough I had developed. I was talking about the doctor having me come in to test for a UTI and stuff to make sure the incontinence was baby based and not illness based. This time, I'm still pretty leak free and I don't have any kind of cough. So those first potential symptoms just aren't there this time.
A lot of times, I'm almost feeling like my crotch is pushing itself out, which of course totally freaks me out. I'm running my finger across my crotch more often than I'd like to admit to make sure there's no sac trying to make its escape. In reading other people complaining of this, it's pretty common and it's likely because a baby is lying low across the cervix putting pressure there. In my case, we're actually hoping for that. The subchorionic hematoma is located very near the cervix and we're kind of waiting for the babies to get heavy enough to sit on it, and put some pressure there to hopefully help stop the wound from bleeding anymore.
But the sensation is still rather terrifying given my history. I keep having to remind myself that I was feeling contractions and trying push out a BM pretty darned hard for 2 or 3 hours before the sac began to emerge. It didn't just randomly fall out of my body last time, and it's certainly not going to this time.
Ok, 17 week symptom break-down:
- Abdomen is still sore and generally heavy. Feels like I've got a gallon of water swinging around in my belly.
- Still have a decent sense of smell but it doesn't seem as bad as it was before.
- Nose still stuffed up.
- Today is day 19 of consistent, but small amounts of dark brown bleeding. Just fabulous.
- Still not sure I'm feeling movement. I can tell that there's something going on, but then I'll feel the same gurgle elsewhere so it can't be baby. Can't tell if I'm feeling my own pulse around the uterus, dinner moving along its digestion course, or babies twisting around. Until I can be sure, I'm gonna say I don't think I feel any movement yet.
- Not sleeping real well. Getting up to pee a lot, and just generally uncomfortable.
- I get tired really fast. The few times I've gone out to the pottery studio, I get completely exhausted and have to give up somewhere around hour 2.
- I'm hungry every 2 hours.
- Occasional heartburn and headaches.
In other news, we've learned that what K was suffering from 2 weeks ago was Salmonella poisoning! OMG! A few of our GP's patients all got it at the same time so various health departments are in contact with K trying to narrow down the source.
We've determined that it can't be anything from our fridge because there's nothing that's been in there that I haven't eaten and I didn't get sick. So that narrows it down to a fast food place he ate at without me, and potentially the buffet we went to. Our plates were similar, but maybe he ate something that I didn't. We're a bit freaked because we've been so careful about proper food prep, keeping raw meats separate from other foods, etc, and yet I still only narrowly escaped while he got hit.
And that's how things are going as I approach 17 weeks!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
It stinks in here
Ugh, I've got robo-nose to the extreme. I pretty much always have a pretty good sense of smell, but when pregnant, I can't get away from it.
We have a cat food dish within 10 feet of where I sit for most of the day. And unfortunately, it has to stay where it is.
You see, it has a prescription kibble in it for the one cat that gets a lot of UTI's (which he currently has one and has been peeing in new and interesting places, but that's another story). It's ok if most of the other cats get into it, except for the one that's diabetic. She has the opposite bladder problems so if she ate this food, it would make her sick.
So for over a year, we've been trying to figure out how to keep the food available to one, but not the other. So we finally figured it out last week. The UTI kitty likes to sit up on one of the cat trees. Well the diabetic cat can hardly get her ass as high as the couch. She just doesn't climb at all. So we put the UTI food up in the cat tree where he now goes to eat, which is in the corner of my office so I get to smell it all day.
And I don't like air fresheners. I'll use one if I have to, but I'd rather not. It's just covering one icky smell with another.
But a couple of years ago, I made these garlic dishes. Small dishes and the bottom is serrated. Apparently you're supposed to grate the garlic on the serrated part and then put in oil so it becomes a dip for bread or something.
They've been sitting in a drawer untested all this time.
I grabbed an orange from the fridge, and swirled it around in the dish, and I now have the lovely scent of orange zest sitting on my desk! And whenever the kibble starts to win, I just zest a different spot. And when I run out of that, I cut up the orange.
I'm hoping to get 2-3 days of fresh smell out of this. I'm feeling kind of brilliant and smug at the moment.
We have a cat food dish within 10 feet of where I sit for most of the day. And unfortunately, it has to stay where it is.
You see, it has a prescription kibble in it for the one cat that gets a lot of UTI's (which he currently has one and has been peeing in new and interesting places, but that's another story). It's ok if most of the other cats get into it, except for the one that's diabetic. She has the opposite bladder problems so if she ate this food, it would make her sick.
So for over a year, we've been trying to figure out how to keep the food available to one, but not the other. So we finally figured it out last week. The UTI kitty likes to sit up on one of the cat trees. Well the diabetic cat can hardly get her ass as high as the couch. She just doesn't climb at all. So we put the UTI food up in the cat tree where he now goes to eat, which is in the corner of my office so I get to smell it all day.
And I don't like air fresheners. I'll use one if I have to, but I'd rather not. It's just covering one icky smell with another.
But a couple of years ago, I made these garlic dishes. Small dishes and the bottom is serrated. Apparently you're supposed to grate the garlic on the serrated part and then put in oil so it becomes a dip for bread or something.
They've been sitting in a drawer untested all this time.
I grabbed an orange from the fridge, and swirled it around in the dish, and I now have the lovely scent of orange zest sitting on my desk! And whenever the kibble starts to win, I just zest a different spot. And when I run out of that, I cut up the orange.
I'm hoping to get 2-3 days of fresh smell out of this. I'm feeling kind of brilliant and smug at the moment.
Monday, December 26, 2011
I did stuff today! Now I need a nap
Pregnancy status - 11w4d and all's well. It's been 2 weeks since my last bleed, a new record.
Ok, seriously now, when I do I get some energy back? When I say I can't do anything, I mean I can't do ANYTHING. I'm just too friggin tired!
I slept through most of yesterday, went to bed at a decent hour, got a full nights sleep (though not as deeply as when not pregnant), and I haven't been asked to expend any energy of any kind. So I should be fully prepared to actually get off my butt.
K spent a good deal of time cleaning the kitchen today. We have a huge kitchen counter that tends to become the junk platform of the house. It's conveniently located near the front door so everything we walk in with ends up on that counter. Groceries, toiletries that made it into the house but not yet into the bathroom, my purse, random things that we use on a daily basis and just set down there for lack of anywhere else to put it. K did a fabulous job of clearing it, finding a place for all of that stuff to go and then actually wiping it down.
My job was to go through the pile of accumulated snacks that he put into a corner and throw out anything I won't actually end up eating. So I did that, and extended my work to a kitchen cabinet that tends to end up packed with crap. I weeded out everything that was past it's "best by" date (which was the vast majority of the stuff) and threw out anything that I tried for a snack but didn't end up liking. That cabinet is practically empty now.
So in this burst of accomplishing something energy, I decided to glaze a few more test cups to go in my next kiln firing. That basically means just standing at a sink, painting cups.
That's it guys. That's all I've done. On my feet for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. And when I decided that I needed to sit down again, I had to eat something right away because I was almost shaking from feeling weak and like I had over exerted myself. I can only guess that I hadn't eaten much protein yet in the day and it was that absence that I was feeling and kind of reeling from. I've since had some leftover ham and cheesy potatoes from Christmas Eve dinner at my parents and am now feeling like my normal, fat, lazy, sitting self. I keep intending to spend a few hours out in the pottery studio, and I keep just not doing it. And that's a fun activity.
Ya know, I'm pretty lazy in real life as it is. Honestly, I didn't think a person could get much lazier than me. But this feeling of hardly being able to move from my seat and getting tired after functioning on my feet for 30 minutes is just obnoxious! At least I've gotten enough energy that I'm capable of staying awake for a full day, so that's an improvement. But wow, I could really use another energy boost in general, cuz being both this tired and yet awake for this many hours per day = boredom central!
Ok, seriously now, when I do I get some energy back? When I say I can't do anything, I mean I can't do ANYTHING. I'm just too friggin tired!
I slept through most of yesterday, went to bed at a decent hour, got a full nights sleep (though not as deeply as when not pregnant), and I haven't been asked to expend any energy of any kind. So I should be fully prepared to actually get off my butt.
K spent a good deal of time cleaning the kitchen today. We have a huge kitchen counter that tends to become the junk platform of the house. It's conveniently located near the front door so everything we walk in with ends up on that counter. Groceries, toiletries that made it into the house but not yet into the bathroom, my purse, random things that we use on a daily basis and just set down there for lack of anywhere else to put it. K did a fabulous job of clearing it, finding a place for all of that stuff to go and then actually wiping it down.
My job was to go through the pile of accumulated snacks that he put into a corner and throw out anything I won't actually end up eating. So I did that, and extended my work to a kitchen cabinet that tends to end up packed with crap. I weeded out everything that was past it's "best by" date (which was the vast majority of the stuff) and threw out anything that I tried for a snack but didn't end up liking. That cabinet is practically empty now.
So in this burst of accomplishing something energy, I decided to glaze a few more test cups to go in my next kiln firing. That basically means just standing at a sink, painting cups.
That's it guys. That's all I've done. On my feet for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. And when I decided that I needed to sit down again, I had to eat something right away because I was almost shaking from feeling weak and like I had over exerted myself. I can only guess that I hadn't eaten much protein yet in the day and it was that absence that I was feeling and kind of reeling from. I've since had some leftover ham and cheesy potatoes from Christmas Eve dinner at my parents and am now feeling like my normal, fat, lazy, sitting self. I keep intending to spend a few hours out in the pottery studio, and I keep just not doing it. And that's a fun activity.
Ya know, I'm pretty lazy in real life as it is. Honestly, I didn't think a person could get much lazier than me. But this feeling of hardly being able to move from my seat and getting tired after functioning on my feet for 30 minutes is just obnoxious! At least I've gotten enough energy that I'm capable of staying awake for a full day, so that's an improvement. But wow, I could really use another energy boost in general, cuz being both this tired and yet awake for this many hours per day = boredom central!
Monday, November 28, 2011
Still standing
Not much to report but you've all shown so much concern (thank you!) that I feel I should give everyone an update.
For the last 24 hours or so, I would describe any discharge or blood when I wipe to be of the "residue" category. Brown, not much there, but it's consistently there.
I'm still doing the endometrin so I CONSTANTLY feel like I'm leaking. I'm trying to limit myself to 1 wiping check per hour because any more than that and I'm going to wipe myself raw and that's a whole other category of discomfort.
Told one of my bosses today that I'm not going to be working for a while. The doctors said it was fine to do pottery, but I also noticed that on the days I did nothing, no bleeding. On the days I spent a lot of time at the wheel, bleeding. So doctors be damned, I'm not doing it until I feel somewhat secure again.
However, my video work is picking up. I currently have 2 video shoots scheduled for this week and the company that I get the gigs through called me to see if they could book another one on Thursday for me. That's fine, but they need to call the clients and make the schedules work, I don't want to deal with that. I know that sounds like work, but really, it's not that strenuous. I interview someone on camera for a half hour and then I film them doing what they do for 45 minutes or so. The rest is spent sitting at my computer putting it together. I'm kind of looking forward to the one on Friday, it's a go-kart racing place. So there should actually be some fun stuff to shoot.
In pregnancy symptom news, most of it has faded away. Currently 7 weeks 4 days.
For the most part, I sit here, just kind of holding still because I'm afraid to jostle anything loose, playing cards on the computer, feeling like I'm leaking, and waiting until the hour goes by so I can see if it's endometrin goo or blood flowing into my underwear. Real exciting life I've got going on here.
Question about bleeding while pregnant - if the cervix is closed, how does the blood escape? Isn't that like trying to pour water out of a bottle with the lid screwed on?
Ultrasound tomorrow.
For the last 24 hours or so, I would describe any discharge or blood when I wipe to be of the "residue" category. Brown, not much there, but it's consistently there.
I'm still doing the endometrin so I CONSTANTLY feel like I'm leaking. I'm trying to limit myself to 1 wiping check per hour because any more than that and I'm going to wipe myself raw and that's a whole other category of discomfort.
Told one of my bosses today that I'm not going to be working for a while. The doctors said it was fine to do pottery, but I also noticed that on the days I did nothing, no bleeding. On the days I spent a lot of time at the wheel, bleeding. So doctors be damned, I'm not doing it until I feel somewhat secure again.
However, my video work is picking up. I currently have 2 video shoots scheduled for this week and the company that I get the gigs through called me to see if they could book another one on Thursday for me. That's fine, but they need to call the clients and make the schedules work, I don't want to deal with that. I know that sounds like work, but really, it's not that strenuous. I interview someone on camera for a half hour and then I film them doing what they do for 45 minutes or so. The rest is spent sitting at my computer putting it together. I'm kind of looking forward to the one on Friday, it's a go-kart racing place. So there should actually be some fun stuff to shoot.
In pregnancy symptom news, most of it has faded away. Currently 7 weeks 4 days.
- My digestion always has a general "not right" feeling to it. A little on the hungry side, a little on the full side, a little on the queasy side, it can't really decide what side it wants to be on so it's on all of them at once. But only a little.
- When I get hungry, I become starving all of a sudden.
- Oh! Spent about 5 minutes last night sitting in front of the toilet wondering if I was going to have a repeat performance of Thanksgiving morning. We really need to sweep the bathroom floor.
- I don't really get cramps anymore, but rather the occasional odd gurgle.
- Shoulders and upper back burn most of the time. Don't know if that's a pregnancy thing or not.
- I seem to be low grade tired all the time, but never solidly sleep. I seem to be up peeing all the time, or just on the verge of being awake at any given moment. I don't feel like I'm really soundly sleeping.
- It still has no dawned on me that there's a chance I'll make it past 10 weeks. I'm not sure why. On the other hand, I can't fully picture going through a miscarriage either. So I have no hunches as to what's going to happen with this pregnancy. For once, I simply can't figure out the future.
For the most part, I sit here, just kind of holding still because I'm afraid to jostle anything loose, playing cards on the computer, feeling like I'm leaking, and waiting until the hour goes by so I can see if it's endometrin goo or blood flowing into my underwear. Real exciting life I've got going on here.
Question about bleeding while pregnant - if the cervix is closed, how does the blood escape? Isn't that like trying to pour water out of a bottle with the lid screwed on?
Ultrasound tomorrow.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Symptoms Week 18
We're 18 weeks along and it's time for another symptom breakdown. Here's what I'm currently experiencing:
- Lower abdomen is very sore. It particularly hurts when going from sitting to standing and taking that first couple of steps.
- I'm not leaking as bad as I was but I'm still wearing a panty liner in case of a little surprise after a cough.
- I'm starting to get headaches. Not the torturous kind, more of the "ugh, I'm gonna feel kinda unhappy for a while" kind. I have yet to figure out if this is associated with something I can fix like low blood sugar or dehydration. So far, whatever I eat or drink seems to have no effect.
- Nose is still full.
- Still have a strong sense of smell but it doesn't seem as obnoxious as it was before. Perhaps it is and I'm just getting used to it.
- Having longer and more detailed dreams. No, I'm not going to tell you about them.
- Sex is considering creeping back on the radar.
- These are not my nipples. I don't know where the hell they came from or who stuck them to the end of my boobs, but these obnoxious pellets that are attempting to reach out and shake hands with everyone aren't mine.
- I'm totally paranoid about falling. Took a bath for the first time in years last night and made K check on me every 15 minutes so he could help me when I was ready to get out. I don't think I'm any more apt to fall right now than before, I just really don't want to.
- Lower abdomen is very sore. It particularly hurts when going from sitting to standing and taking that first couple of steps.
- I'm not leaking as bad as I was but I'm still wearing a panty liner in case of a little surprise after a cough.
- I'm starting to get headaches. Not the torturous kind, more of the "ugh, I'm gonna feel kinda unhappy for a while" kind. I have yet to figure out if this is associated with something I can fix like low blood sugar or dehydration. So far, whatever I eat or drink seems to have no effect.
- Nose is still full.
- Still have a strong sense of smell but it doesn't seem as obnoxious as it was before. Perhaps it is and I'm just getting used to it.
- Having longer and more detailed dreams. No, I'm not going to tell you about them.
- Sex is considering creeping back on the radar.
- These are not my nipples. I don't know where the hell they came from or who stuck them to the end of my boobs, but these obnoxious pellets that are attempting to reach out and shake hands with everyone aren't mine.
- I'm totally paranoid about falling. Took a bath for the first time in years last night and made K check on me every 15 minutes so he could help me when I was ready to get out. I don't think I'm any more apt to fall right now than before, I just really don't want to.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Pregnancy Incontinence
I'm having an issue. It's a very annoying issue. And you already know what it is since it's the title of this post. I've also contracted a persistent cough for the last 2 days or so. Thus my little issue is a constantly recurring issue.
I made a very embarrassing phone call today and because I don't feel humiliated enough yet, I'm recounting it to you now. You wanna know why? Because someone else is going to Google pregnancy incontinence while looking over their shoulder with shame to make sure no one is glancing at their computer screen. And I wanna be that person that they find and say to them, yup, I've been there. I'm there now. It sucks, it's embarrassing and it sucks again.
I called my doctor. No, not to claim I had some weird pregnancy symptom, I entirely blame myself for this problem. I don't do my Kegels like I'm supposed to and have no strength at all. So I call the doctor and with my head hung low, tell them my issue and that at my next appointment, I really need someone to teach me how to do them. I've read how to do them, and I still can't seem to do them. I've bought a device that measures how well you're doing them and it helps you build up strength and according to that device, half the time I'm not doing them at all and the other half, I'm in the pathetically weak range. So I want once and for all to have someone teach me how to do them properly no matter how embarrassing the teaching method might have to be.
So I hear back from the nurse and she says that the doctor says that doing Kegels at this point in the pregnancy won't do me any good. It won't solve the problem. There is no quick fix.
Ok, I wasn't looking for a quick fix. I'm looking to get things strengthened so I'm not still having this problem 2 or 3 months from now.
But no. Apparently with a twin pregnancy at my current stage (week 16 as of tomorrow), the twins are putting so much pressure on the bladder that it's simply going to happen and doing exercises for it right now is pointless.
And just to make sure, they want me to stop by tomorrow and pee in a cup to make sure I don't have a UTI or bladder infection or something. I have no other symptoms so I'm fairly certain I don't have any infections but they want me to give them a sample anyway. Here's hoping I do have and infection because THAT can be treated and maybe the problem will be treated with it. But I highly doubt it.
I'll push the doctor again at my appointment next week because I really do think that starting Kegels now will only benefit me later in this process. I'm not sure why they insist it won't help if I do them now so I'll get more info about that later.
*sigh* I really hope someone can find some benefit to my embarrassment.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Symptoms - week 14
It's been a few weeks since I've done a pregnancy symptom rundown, so here's what I'm experiencing:
Still no nausea. Food preferences still gear towards the healthy (cottage cheese with berries tossed in is a daily snack) but I have a little more tolerance for less than fabulous food. Still can't handle cloyingly sweet though.
Need to eat every 2 hours or so. It's getting really irritating trying to find things to eat that I didn't just eat an hour ago. I've found that Nature Valley Granola Thins are wonderful. They're a new product. Granola that's about the size of half a graham cracker with chocolate on one side. These are perfect when I'm suddenly hungry RIGHT NOW and it's going to take 10 minutes or so to prepare something more substantial. Seems to hit my stomach immediately and cure that hungry ache while not filling me up so much that whatever I was preparing is no longer needed.
I've only gained about 3 lbs. Regardless, I'm so busting out my new maternity jeans on Thanksgiving! All hail elastic panels and a husband who cooks!
I'm still feeling like I've lost 20 IQ points, and several motor skill levels. My typing has gone to crap and I can hardly finish a sentence without confusing words in it somewhere. As a result, I've printed out a calendar and taped it to my prenatal bottle so I can keep track of whether or not I took my vitamin today.
I'm shedding like crazy. I thought pregnant women didn't lose hair so they get really nice thick hair by the time they deliver? Not me. I've had thick hair all my life. Really thick. New hair dressers are frightened to dig in thick. So I can afford to lose plenty of hair and it won't really matter. But yeah. I bought a brand new brush (because the old one was getting too icky to clean) and when I brushed my hair this afternoon, I had what would usually be 10 days worth of hair tangled in it. And I'm constantly pulling hair off of clothes, my arms, it's just getting everywhere.
Lower abdomen always has that feeling like I just ate too much fast food. That kind of heavy, and I might get the runs in an hour, but I'm fine at the moment feeling.
I have more energy than I had for the first couple of months. I've grown accustomed to doing nothing so I still don't have a lot of motivation. But when I do have something to do, I'm more prepared to do it. But I do wear out pretty quickly.
Something is funky with my sleep. I'm waking up around 7am and I can't get back to sleep. So I watch tv for a couple of hours because I don't have the energy to actually get up, then fall back to sleep later in the morning until 1 or 2pm. This is not conducive to any kind of accomplishment in life.
Still hitting the bathroom a lot. I think it might be settling down a little bit, but it still seems excessive.
My nose is always full yet feels dry. Going through a lot of kleenex and there's a touch of blood mixed in. And I'm still sneezing a lot.
I'm getting zits. Damnit.
My cat will not leave me alone! He's following me everywhere. He never used to concern himself with me. When I sit, he lays down. When I try to sleep, he's crawling all over me to get to a snuggle spot. His 17lb frame is not appreciated when it's all stepping on sore boob! Seriously, here's what I was looking at while taking pics for the blog yesterday -
For the squeamish, this symptom and the next aren't for you so, so just look at the pretty kitty! You're done reading now! Bye!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I need a stool softener. Nuff said.
Family members reading this blog, look away, for you, that was the end of the blog post, no really, you don't want to know. The sex thing. It's still not really on the radar. We're counting how many times a month rather than how many times a week. For lack of a better description, my body simply does not want to be invaded right now. Not by a husband, not by a doctor, it just wants to be left alone. Brain is starting to swing back the other direction, so I'm hoping the body will be catching up soon. K hopes so too.
Still no nausea. Food preferences still gear towards the healthy (cottage cheese with berries tossed in is a daily snack) but I have a little more tolerance for less than fabulous food. Still can't handle cloyingly sweet though.
Need to eat every 2 hours or so. It's getting really irritating trying to find things to eat that I didn't just eat an hour ago. I've found that Nature Valley Granola Thins are wonderful. They're a new product. Granola that's about the size of half a graham cracker with chocolate on one side. These are perfect when I'm suddenly hungry RIGHT NOW and it's going to take 10 minutes or so to prepare something more substantial. Seems to hit my stomach immediately and cure that hungry ache while not filling me up so much that whatever I was preparing is no longer needed.
I've only gained about 3 lbs. Regardless, I'm so busting out my new maternity jeans on Thanksgiving! All hail elastic panels and a husband who cooks!
I'm still feeling like I've lost 20 IQ points, and several motor skill levels. My typing has gone to crap and I can hardly finish a sentence without confusing words in it somewhere. As a result, I've printed out a calendar and taped it to my prenatal bottle so I can keep track of whether or not I took my vitamin today.I'm shedding like crazy. I thought pregnant women didn't lose hair so they get really nice thick hair by the time they deliver? Not me. I've had thick hair all my life. Really thick. New hair dressers are frightened to dig in thick. So I can afford to lose plenty of hair and it won't really matter. But yeah. I bought a brand new brush (because the old one was getting too icky to clean) and when I brushed my hair this afternoon, I had what would usually be 10 days worth of hair tangled in it. And I'm constantly pulling hair off of clothes, my arms, it's just getting everywhere.
Lower abdomen always has that feeling like I just ate too much fast food. That kind of heavy, and I might get the runs in an hour, but I'm fine at the moment feeling.
I have more energy than I had for the first couple of months. I've grown accustomed to doing nothing so I still don't have a lot of motivation. But when I do have something to do, I'm more prepared to do it. But I do wear out pretty quickly.
Something is funky with my sleep. I'm waking up around 7am and I can't get back to sleep. So I watch tv for a couple of hours because I don't have the energy to actually get up, then fall back to sleep later in the morning until 1 or 2pm. This is not conducive to any kind of accomplishment in life.
Still hitting the bathroom a lot. I think it might be settling down a little bit, but it still seems excessive.
My nose is always full yet feels dry. Going through a lot of kleenex and there's a touch of blood mixed in. And I'm still sneezing a lot.
I'm getting zits. Damnit.
My cat will not leave me alone! He's following me everywhere. He never used to concern himself with me. When I sit, he lays down. When I try to sleep, he's crawling all over me to get to a snuggle spot. His 17lb frame is not appreciated when it's all stepping on sore boob! Seriously, here's what I was looking at while taking pics for the blog yesterday -
For the squeamish, this symptom and the next aren't for you so, so just look at the pretty kitty! You're done reading now! Bye!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think I need a stool softener. Nuff said.
Family members reading this blog, look away, for you, that was the end of the blog post, no really, you don't want to know. The sex thing. It's still not really on the radar. We're counting how many times a month rather than how many times a week. For lack of a better description, my body simply does not want to be invaded right now. Not by a husband, not by a doctor, it just wants to be left alone. Brain is starting to swing back the other direction, so I'm hoping the body will be catching up soon. K hopes so too.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Symptoms are shifting
We're one day before entering week 10 and my symptoms appear to be shifting.
I seem to have to blow my nose all the time and there's a little bit of blood. Fabulous. And I'm sneezing a lot. I'm not normally a sneezer, but I guess the full nose has brought out my inner Sneezy.
And I'm shifting from not wanting to eat at all to wanting to eat all the time. I just seem to feel kind of sick whenever I'm not eating. Just finished off some veggies, now I've got pudding!
And for the most part, I'm getting sloppy. Not messy, but I mean in the things I'm trying to accomplish. I'm just not on the ball.
And I'm not sleeping very well. I've turned into a really light sleeper and of course the getting up to pee every couple of hours.
A little tip I learned when I was on a liquid diet after jaw surgery a few years ago. When you're going constantly, sometimes things dry and chafe a bit from all the wiping. There is a moist toilet paper from cottonelle I think, and from time to time, a wipe with that instead of regular TP feels a little bit better. You're welcome!
I seem to have to blow my nose all the time and there's a little bit of blood. Fabulous. And I'm sneezing a lot. I'm not normally a sneezer, but I guess the full nose has brought out my inner Sneezy.
And I'm shifting from not wanting to eat at all to wanting to eat all the time. I just seem to feel kind of sick whenever I'm not eating. Just finished off some veggies, now I've got pudding!
And for the most part, I'm getting sloppy. Not messy, but I mean in the things I'm trying to accomplish. I'm just not on the ball.
And I'm not sleeping very well. I've turned into a really light sleeper and of course the getting up to pee every couple of hours.
A little tip I learned when I was on a liquid diet after jaw surgery a few years ago. When you're going constantly, sometimes things dry and chafe a bit from all the wiping. There is a moist toilet paper from cottonelle I think, and from time to time, a wipe with that instead of regular TP feels a little bit better. You're welcome!
Blarg
I drank a cup of coffee this morning and I'm regretting it. I'm normally a latte person (I prefer coffee flavored milk to cream in my coffee) but the hubby was heading to McDonalds this morning and asked if I wanted anything. Since my usual flavored lattes have been too sweet, I thought I'd try a regular coffee with cream and sugar.
It tasted good at the time, but now I'm not a happy camper. I have my hair in a ponytail just in case it makes a sudden reappearance.
I'm hoping I'm just hungry and a small bowl of cottage cheese with grapes and blueberries will make me feel better.
It tasted good at the time, but now I'm not a happy camper. I have my hair in a ponytail just in case it makes a sudden reappearance.
I'm hoping I'm just hungry and a small bowl of cottage cheese with grapes and blueberries will make me feel better.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Sex
I'll be honest with you everyone, this post is the reason I started this blog. I had an upsetting experience and couldn't find anyone else reporting anything similar. So I'm reporting it myself. It's a big topic so I'm going to cover it all at once. You might prefer to read this at home as I can't promise it will be safe for work.
In terms of sex, I think my marriage is pretty average. We count times per week (as opposed to times per day or times per year), the husband has a stronger libido than the wife, ya know, pretty average.
The last 2 months have not been average. We are experience the longest dry spell we've experienced since we've met. Here's the history:
Before egg retrieval, my hubby K had to abstain for 3-5 days. After the retrieval, my cramps were so bad that it just wasn't going to happen. After the transfer, I had to abstain for 5 days.
We finally get the medical green light to give it a go and make a discovery. Orgasms trigger cramps. So at the end of sex, my response went "Yay!.....Owwww!!!"
So not only am I exhausted from the pregnancy, but now I associate orgasm with pain. Swell. We hold off for a little bit again. I test the orgasm = cramps theory on my own to see if it's just a fluke, and nope, it's not a fluke. Damnit!!! My libido drops to practically nothing. Wouldn't yours? When you no longer want to get to the end goal because it's painful, it kind of puts a damper on the whole process!
Around this time, my husband gets the cold from hell. He's miserable and could not be less interested in sex if he tried. My husband has some stomach issues and whenever anything disrupts his body, his body responds by vomiting. So for the first weeks of my pregnancy, he had the morning sickness misery instead of me! *Insert evil laughter here!*
So just as he's starting to feel a little bit better and now I'm starting the cold from hell. I start the bitching of "you did this to me you bastard!" about 7 months before that's usually shouted. There will be no touching me for some time.
I finally start to feel decent and we get back on that horse. Ok, we don't actually get on the horse, we get a foot in the first stirrup, but never actually get fully mounted. Wanna know why? Because it hurts. It really hurts. Even though we've made sure that everything should be ready to go in female arousal land, actual penetration hurts like hell. And then I remember, this hurts just like a few years ago when I had a yeast infection.
Oh come on!!! It's been weeks and now I probably have an infection making it hurt? What deity hates us? Oh well. We've got the 8 week check up in a few days and we'll just wait and ask the doctor at that time.
We discover that a fertility clinic doesn't necessarily have all of the testing equipment that a standard gynecologist has. I ask him to swab and test for a yeast infection but he isn't able to do that. However, he does take a peek, says yes there appears to be some yeast here. He tells me to just get an over the counter medication and all should be fine. We stop by the store on the way home and ready to start treatment.
And again, whatever deity is playing jokes on us strikes again. The package on the medication says to abstain from sex while on it. And just to really fuck with me, I drop the final dose into the toilet while trying to insert it. The toilet that I have urinated in and not yet flushed. I sure as hell wasn't going in after it. Since the box also says to check with a medical professional before using this product when pregnant, and since my medical professional was advising rather than prescribing, I decide to just hope I've taken enough doses to feel better and I'll double-check the status of the infection when I see my new doctor around the 11 week mark.
If you're counting along, you'll notice that we've had about 1 1/2 unpleasant sexual encounters in the last approximately 2 months.
It then comes time to get back on that horse. And this time, we get fully mounted and get a nice ride through the countryside and a standard dismount.
This is when I had the experience that prompted me to start this blog.
I inexplicably got upset. Really upset. And I didn't want the hubby to know. This is the first chance he's had to have sex in about 2 months, it's after 2am and he's going to fall asleep any minute, the last thing I want to do is spoil his afterglow with irrationally crying wife. I head into the bathroom for the usual post coital clean up and I'm crying. I don't know why. He didn't do anything wrong, the experience was perfectly fine, but for some unknown reason I was really upset. It was like my body objected to being messed with so it was triggering a raw emotional reaction.
The next day I google "sex upsetting during pregnancy" and get nothing. I tell myself that everyone's hormones do different things to them both physically and emotionally and this has probably happened to other pregnant women, I just can't find evidence of that.
I sit K down for a frank discussion and tell him what happened. Right now, I just don't want to have sex. And I don't know when that's going to change. I mean, it's my understanding that the hormones flip around in the second trimester so hopefully I'll be getting really horny at that time, but for right now, I just don't want to. I talked to him about my fear of a year long abstinence. I mean, it's entirely possible. We pretty much started it about 2 months ago, and if I don't get a horny streak during trimester 2, we might be out of luck for a while. Trimester 3, I might be told to abstain to prevent the start of premature contractions, and if I do a vaginal delivery of twins, well, let's just say my friend who delivered one child is still having some pain issues 5 months later.
And I'm sure you're thinking "but gee, just because you don't want to doesn't mean you can't perform other wifely duties so your husband doesn't have to fully abstain just because you want to. There are other satisfying options that don't really mess with your body."
Yes, that's very true. But there's also a resentment factor. You see, I can't have orgasms for a while. They hurt. And it's not fair. And while it's not fair to him that he should have to suffer because my body is uncooperative, it's also not fair that he get to have a good time when I can't. So unless I get to punch him in the balls right after every orgasm so that we're even, I kind of resent the idea of providing one for him.
Yes, my goal in life is to provide my husband as much happiness as I can. That's not a duty, that's my desire. So I have to balance his immediate happiness, with the consequences of having a resentful wife.
And I truly have married a saint. The last thing he ever wants to do is upset me or impose upon me. He said that if we abstain for a year, we abstain for a year. And I actually trust him when he tells me that.
I really hope that's not what happens. Seriously, I don't want that to happen. The control is now in my hands. If I want to give it a go, I will control the pace at which we go. And if I don't want to give it a go, he's not going to pressure me.
I'm meeting my new doctor in about 10 days. This will definitely be one of the topics we discuss with him.
In terms of sex, I think my marriage is pretty average. We count times per week (as opposed to times per day or times per year), the husband has a stronger libido than the wife, ya know, pretty average.
The last 2 months have not been average. We are experience the longest dry spell we've experienced since we've met. Here's the history:
Before egg retrieval, my hubby K had to abstain for 3-5 days. After the retrieval, my cramps were so bad that it just wasn't going to happen. After the transfer, I had to abstain for 5 days.
We finally get the medical green light to give it a go and make a discovery. Orgasms trigger cramps. So at the end of sex, my response went "Yay!.....Owwww!!!"
So not only am I exhausted from the pregnancy, but now I associate orgasm with pain. Swell. We hold off for a little bit again. I test the orgasm = cramps theory on my own to see if it's just a fluke, and nope, it's not a fluke. Damnit!!! My libido drops to practically nothing. Wouldn't yours? When you no longer want to get to the end goal because it's painful, it kind of puts a damper on the whole process!
Around this time, my husband gets the cold from hell. He's miserable and could not be less interested in sex if he tried. My husband has some stomach issues and whenever anything disrupts his body, his body responds by vomiting. So for the first weeks of my pregnancy, he had the morning sickness misery instead of me! *Insert evil laughter here!*
So just as he's starting to feel a little bit better and now I'm starting the cold from hell. I start the bitching of "you did this to me you bastard!" about 7 months before that's usually shouted. There will be no touching me for some time.
I finally start to feel decent and we get back on that horse. Ok, we don't actually get on the horse, we get a foot in the first stirrup, but never actually get fully mounted. Wanna know why? Because it hurts. It really hurts. Even though we've made sure that everything should be ready to go in female arousal land, actual penetration hurts like hell. And then I remember, this hurts just like a few years ago when I had a yeast infection.
Oh come on!!! It's been weeks and now I probably have an infection making it hurt? What deity hates us? Oh well. We've got the 8 week check up in a few days and we'll just wait and ask the doctor at that time.
We discover that a fertility clinic doesn't necessarily have all of the testing equipment that a standard gynecologist has. I ask him to swab and test for a yeast infection but he isn't able to do that. However, he does take a peek, says yes there appears to be some yeast here. He tells me to just get an over the counter medication and all should be fine. We stop by the store on the way home and ready to start treatment.
And again, whatever deity is playing jokes on us strikes again. The package on the medication says to abstain from sex while on it. And just to really fuck with me, I drop the final dose into the toilet while trying to insert it. The toilet that I have urinated in and not yet flushed. I sure as hell wasn't going in after it. Since the box also says to check with a medical professional before using this product when pregnant, and since my medical professional was advising rather than prescribing, I decide to just hope I've taken enough doses to feel better and I'll double-check the status of the infection when I see my new doctor around the 11 week mark.
If you're counting along, you'll notice that we've had about 1 1/2 unpleasant sexual encounters in the last approximately 2 months.
It then comes time to get back on that horse. And this time, we get fully mounted and get a nice ride through the countryside and a standard dismount.
This is when I had the experience that prompted me to start this blog.
I inexplicably got upset. Really upset. And I didn't want the hubby to know. This is the first chance he's had to have sex in about 2 months, it's after 2am and he's going to fall asleep any minute, the last thing I want to do is spoil his afterglow with irrationally crying wife. I head into the bathroom for the usual post coital clean up and I'm crying. I don't know why. He didn't do anything wrong, the experience was perfectly fine, but for some unknown reason I was really upset. It was like my body objected to being messed with so it was triggering a raw emotional reaction.
The next day I google "sex upsetting during pregnancy" and get nothing. I tell myself that everyone's hormones do different things to them both physically and emotionally and this has probably happened to other pregnant women, I just can't find evidence of that.
I sit K down for a frank discussion and tell him what happened. Right now, I just don't want to have sex. And I don't know when that's going to change. I mean, it's my understanding that the hormones flip around in the second trimester so hopefully I'll be getting really horny at that time, but for right now, I just don't want to. I talked to him about my fear of a year long abstinence. I mean, it's entirely possible. We pretty much started it about 2 months ago, and if I don't get a horny streak during trimester 2, we might be out of luck for a while. Trimester 3, I might be told to abstain to prevent the start of premature contractions, and if I do a vaginal delivery of twins, well, let's just say my friend who delivered one child is still having some pain issues 5 months later.
And I'm sure you're thinking "but gee, just because you don't want to doesn't mean you can't perform other wifely duties so your husband doesn't have to fully abstain just because you want to. There are other satisfying options that don't really mess with your body."
Yes, that's very true. But there's also a resentment factor. You see, I can't have orgasms for a while. They hurt. And it's not fair. And while it's not fair to him that he should have to suffer because my body is uncooperative, it's also not fair that he get to have a good time when I can't. So unless I get to punch him in the balls right after every orgasm so that we're even, I kind of resent the idea of providing one for him.
Yes, my goal in life is to provide my husband as much happiness as I can. That's not a duty, that's my desire. So I have to balance his immediate happiness, with the consequences of having a resentful wife.
And I truly have married a saint. The last thing he ever wants to do is upset me or impose upon me. He said that if we abstain for a year, we abstain for a year. And I actually trust him when he tells me that.
I really hope that's not what happens. Seriously, I don't want that to happen. The control is now in my hands. If I want to give it a go, I will control the pace at which we go. And if I don't want to give it a go, he's not going to pressure me.
I'm meeting my new doctor in about 10 days. This will definitely be one of the topics we discuss with him.
Food
I'm going to expand on the food symptoms. Some of the issues I'm having and some of the solutions I'm finding.
As I said in my last post, my usual diet pretty much sucks. And wow, my taste buds just won't allow me to get away with that anymore. I've actually lost a few pounds since the beginning of this pregnancy. And if my taste buds were like this all the time, I wouldn't be a fat woman. I now honestly believe that fat people and thin people actually taste food differently from one another.
At first, I just didn't want to eat, period. Every bite was an effort and it was a "have to" rather than a "want to". I found that a 6 inch cold Subway sandwich was probably the best thing I could eat at any given time. It had some protein, it had some veggies, it was basically fresh, and I like Subway so I could pretty much force myself to eat one of those sandwiches even when I didn't want to eat anything. Then I found out about the whole shouldn't have deli meats thing unless it's been heated to steaming, and I haven't been back yet cuz I don't want a hot sandwich.
I started looking at raw veggie platters like they're porn. I knew I had changed when I actually made myself a raw veggie platter for lunch one day because that's what I actually wanted. My sense of taste is leading me to a varied yet healthy diet. I'll want chicken one day and fish the next.
Oh, and milk. I can't drink white milk anymore. No matter how fresh it is, it all smells sour to me. So we're keeping chocolate milk in the fridge and since that's too sweet, I'm pouring myself half white and half chocolate as one of my regular fluids. Calcium, it's a good thing!
I've given up on trying to plan meals. I just can't figure out 2 hours in advance what I'm actually going to be able to eat.
My husband is being awesome through all of this. He actually enjoys cooking (I hate it) and is becoming quite the foodie thanks to Food Network. He's always been the primary cook in the house but now it's more difficult and he's really stepping up to the plate. He's heading to the grocery store pretty much daily on his way home and he calls me from there to ask what I can eat tonight. It seems like no matter how vague my instructions are, he's able to figure it out.
For example, I can't stand anything dry right now. Granola bars, crackers, ick. I really need moisture. So I gave him that info and asked him if he could find some magical product that was moist, fairly mild in flavor, and portable so I could keep it in my purse because I pretty much need food available at all times. I had no clue as to whether or not a product existed that met all of those requirements. He came home with snack packs of mini muffins. How perfect is that? He really rocks my socks.
I'm having trouble with full meals. I've never been able to eat a lot in one sitting and now it's just impossible. I need to nibble all day and I'm full after a few bites until the next time I'm hungry. So every night the husband would ask what I wanted for dinner, and this actually started to turn into a lot of pressure. I don't know! And I'm not going to be able to eat much of it anyway so leave me alone! I was getting sick of packing the fridge full of leftovers from meals that I couldn't finish. I finally told him to just start cooking for himself and expect me to take a few bites from his dinner. So now he asks me "I'm going to make some spaghetti, do you want some?" That gives me the opportunity to change the plan if I do want something specific and doesn't force me to figure out a meal we can both eat from thin air. That system is working out much better.
I generally hate food in the morning. I kind of hold off on eating for as many hours as I can because nothing ever appeals to me in the morning. I used to deal with this by basically drinking a breakfast from Starbucks and getting a bagel or similar plain pastry if I was feeling particularly peckish.
That doesn't work when you're pregnant. You wait up feeling a little nauseous, mostly because you're actually hungry. And my daily Starbucks treat? I'm allowed to do that still. But like I said before, it now all tastes like oily, chemically, horribly sweet badness. So while I still desperately want my usual tall 2 pump white chocolate mocha, what my taste buds remember that as being doesn't exist anymore.
I'm dealing with this by starting every morning off with a glass of orange juice. I don't usually like orange juice, but I do like the low acid no pulp stuff. That gets a few nutrients in my body, helps ease the hungry nausea and kind of jump starts my stomach into being prepared to accept some food. Then I try something mild like a bagel or cottage cheese with fruit slices mixed in.
I was keeping peppermints in my purse for a while. The vomity burps needed a flavor eraser. But the mint got overwhelming. I tried mentos too, but still too strong. I've found a good medium to be peppermint flavored salt water taffy. I've always loved that stuff anyway so now I have an excuse to have it in the house all the time.
So, to recap, here is the list of what are now fridge and purse staples:
Orange juice
Chocolate milk
Assorted hard candies and taffy for a bite of sweet and to erase bad tastes
Various muffins
Ice for ice water
Cottage cheese with a suitable fresh fruit to mix in.
Big fat seedless grapes. nom!
Veggie platter style raw veggies and dip
Shredded cheese to sprinkle on cooked veggies for days that I'm lacking protein or calcium
Thick soups like lentil and chowders
What has exited from my diet:
Starbucks. I'm trying about once a week to find something I actually like, but overall, just not going there anymore. I've saved a ton of money this way!
McDonalds. I tried it today for the first time since this all started. It wasn't horrible, but meh.
Desserts. We still have some in the house and I'll have a cookie from time to time. But generally I'm just enjoying one bite of whatever my husband is getting and I'm good with that.
Spagettios. One of my go to comfort foods. I tried it the other day. Blarg.
Soda. I'd rather have water or juice. But it's starting to make a little bit of a comeback actually.
Goat cheese. I really like this but I'm not supposed to eat soft cheeses. Poo.
Processed foods in general. My diet is much more nature based than it's ever been before.
Basically, my palette is naturally leading me to eat a very healthy pregnancy diet. I now actually want to eat those things that are on all the recommended diet plans.
As I said in my last post, my usual diet pretty much sucks. And wow, my taste buds just won't allow me to get away with that anymore. I've actually lost a few pounds since the beginning of this pregnancy. And if my taste buds were like this all the time, I wouldn't be a fat woman. I now honestly believe that fat people and thin people actually taste food differently from one another.
At first, I just didn't want to eat, period. Every bite was an effort and it was a "have to" rather than a "want to". I found that a 6 inch cold Subway sandwich was probably the best thing I could eat at any given time. It had some protein, it had some veggies, it was basically fresh, and I like Subway so I could pretty much force myself to eat one of those sandwiches even when I didn't want to eat anything. Then I found out about the whole shouldn't have deli meats thing unless it's been heated to steaming, and I haven't been back yet cuz I don't want a hot sandwich.
I started looking at raw veggie platters like they're porn. I knew I had changed when I actually made myself a raw veggie platter for lunch one day because that's what I actually wanted. My sense of taste is leading me to a varied yet healthy diet. I'll want chicken one day and fish the next.
Oh, and milk. I can't drink white milk anymore. No matter how fresh it is, it all smells sour to me. So we're keeping chocolate milk in the fridge and since that's too sweet, I'm pouring myself half white and half chocolate as one of my regular fluids. Calcium, it's a good thing!
I've given up on trying to plan meals. I just can't figure out 2 hours in advance what I'm actually going to be able to eat.
My husband is being awesome through all of this. He actually enjoys cooking (I hate it) and is becoming quite the foodie thanks to Food Network. He's always been the primary cook in the house but now it's more difficult and he's really stepping up to the plate. He's heading to the grocery store pretty much daily on his way home and he calls me from there to ask what I can eat tonight. It seems like no matter how vague my instructions are, he's able to figure it out.
For example, I can't stand anything dry right now. Granola bars, crackers, ick. I really need moisture. So I gave him that info and asked him if he could find some magical product that was moist, fairly mild in flavor, and portable so I could keep it in my purse because I pretty much need food available at all times. I had no clue as to whether or not a product existed that met all of those requirements. He came home with snack packs of mini muffins. How perfect is that? He really rocks my socks.
I'm having trouble with full meals. I've never been able to eat a lot in one sitting and now it's just impossible. I need to nibble all day and I'm full after a few bites until the next time I'm hungry. So every night the husband would ask what I wanted for dinner, and this actually started to turn into a lot of pressure. I don't know! And I'm not going to be able to eat much of it anyway so leave me alone! I was getting sick of packing the fridge full of leftovers from meals that I couldn't finish. I finally told him to just start cooking for himself and expect me to take a few bites from his dinner. So now he asks me "I'm going to make some spaghetti, do you want some?" That gives me the opportunity to change the plan if I do want something specific and doesn't force me to figure out a meal we can both eat from thin air. That system is working out much better.
I generally hate food in the morning. I kind of hold off on eating for as many hours as I can because nothing ever appeals to me in the morning. I used to deal with this by basically drinking a breakfast from Starbucks and getting a bagel or similar plain pastry if I was feeling particularly peckish.
That doesn't work when you're pregnant. You wait up feeling a little nauseous, mostly because you're actually hungry. And my daily Starbucks treat? I'm allowed to do that still. But like I said before, it now all tastes like oily, chemically, horribly sweet badness. So while I still desperately want my usual tall 2 pump white chocolate mocha, what my taste buds remember that as being doesn't exist anymore.
I'm dealing with this by starting every morning off with a glass of orange juice. I don't usually like orange juice, but I do like the low acid no pulp stuff. That gets a few nutrients in my body, helps ease the hungry nausea and kind of jump starts my stomach into being prepared to accept some food. Then I try something mild like a bagel or cottage cheese with fruit slices mixed in.
I was keeping peppermints in my purse for a while. The vomity burps needed a flavor eraser. But the mint got overwhelming. I tried mentos too, but still too strong. I've found a good medium to be peppermint flavored salt water taffy. I've always loved that stuff anyway so now I have an excuse to have it in the house all the time.
So, to recap, here is the list of what are now fridge and purse staples:
Orange juice
Chocolate milk
Assorted hard candies and taffy for a bite of sweet and to erase bad tastes
Various muffins
Ice for ice water
Cottage cheese with a suitable fresh fruit to mix in.
Big fat seedless grapes. nom!
Veggie platter style raw veggies and dip
Shredded cheese to sprinkle on cooked veggies for days that I'm lacking protein or calcium
Thick soups like lentil and chowders
What has exited from my diet:
Starbucks. I'm trying about once a week to find something I actually like, but overall, just not going there anymore. I've saved a ton of money this way!
McDonalds. I tried it today for the first time since this all started. It wasn't horrible, but meh.
Desserts. We still have some in the house and I'll have a cookie from time to time. But generally I'm just enjoying one bite of whatever my husband is getting and I'm good with that.
Spagettios. One of my go to comfort foods. I tried it the other day. Blarg.
Soda. I'd rather have water or juice. But it's starting to make a little bit of a comeback actually.
Goat cheese. I really like this but I'm not supposed to eat soft cheeses. Poo.
Processed foods in general. My diet is much more nature based than it's ever been before.
Basically, my palette is naturally leading me to eat a very healthy pregnancy diet. I now actually want to eat those things that are on all the recommended diet plans.
My first symptoms
I have been really lucky in terms of what symptoms have presented themselves and which ones haven't. Everyone is different, but here is what I've been experiencing.
Fatigue - from the day this all started, I simply don't want to do anything. I honestly don't know if I'm too tired to do anything, or if my laziness has reached epic proportions. I don't want to do anything but surf the internet and channel surf from my comfy couch.
Lack of patience - I'm cranky. Anything that even remotely irks me is being confronted and addressed when I would usually just ignore it before. Now for those of you who DON'T know me, that seems perfectly reasonable. But for those who DO know me, you're asking yourself right now "you mean she thinks she normally holds something back???" I'm not shy about things that bother me and I snark as a matter of course. But now, it's even more severe.
To quantify this - as I mentioned before, I have a pottery shop on Artfire.com. I'm a regular in the forums. It took me about 10 months to get to 1000 posts. In the last month, I've added over 300 more to my post count. Soooooo, yeaaaaaaaah. I'm having even more trouble than usual keeping my mouth shut.
No deep breaths - I'm often trying to take one of those deep breaths and I just can't. I'll have to work a little bit to get that nice breath that you can feel hitting your lungs just the right way. I had to give a mini speech to teach a small group of people what to expect on a video shoot and I found that I had to stop several times and just try to breathe. I didn't have enough air to talk in a monologue for very long.
Morning sickness - This is where I get to say neener neener neener to most pregnant women. I haven't had morning sickness yet! Wooooottttttt!!!! I've gone head first into the toilet once - because I woke up to a coughing fit so severe that it set off some dry heaves, but otherwise, I'm vomit free so far. Notice how I won't tempt the gods and keep adding "so far" or "yet" to each sentence. My mother got through 2 healthy pregnancies (2 pregnancies, 2 children) without morning sickness so I'm hoping that's genetic and indicative of what I'm going to experience.
Nausea - My nausea has been very minor, but it is there a little bit. I get a bit carsick more often. I've put an open garbage bag on my passenger seat just in case I suddenly need to vomit. Figure I can just turn and vomit in the bag making clean-up relatively easy. This hasn't happened yet, but I'm prepared. And we have a bucket next to the bed too.
My tastebuds do a 180 - I'm a pretty typical American fat woman. I daily enjoy a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks. Too many of my meals are provided by McDonalds. Pretty much the only decent food I eat is whatever my husband freshly cooks for dinner.
I simply cannot tolerate my old diet anymore. I am not actively attempting to alter my diet for my pregnancy, my taste buds have done it for me. Anything that's processed, or contains a lot of preservatives, ugh, it just tastes blechy now. I can taste every chemical in my food. My white chocolate mocha? Bleh! It just coats my mouth with the oily, chemically, cloyingly sweet badness.
I'm obsessed with food - Not that I want to eat it, I just can't stop thinking about it. The first several weeks, the last thing I wanted to do was eat. Nothing was appealing at all. So my obsession was with trying to figure out what the hell my new palette would be able to tolerate. I would eat about 3 bites of a meal and I was done. As the weeks go on, it's getting a little better. The last 2 weeks, I'm starting to actually EAT which is probably a good thing.
Robo-nose - Yup, I've got pregnancy nose. This is a bit of an issue with 4 indoor cats and a lot of litterboxes in the house. I'll walk into a room and walk right back out and announce to my husband that a cat laid a bomb and he needs to take care of it.
I'm not allowed to touch litterboxes while pregnant. I'm so milking that as long as humanly possible! But I digress.
Bathroom breaks - I tend to hit the bathroom more frequently than most people anyway. But now, I'm thinking of just putting a tv in there, and nice recliner around the bowl for comfort, and setting up shop.
Burping - I'm like a frat boy. At least 4 belches accompany every meal. The only vomit I'm dealing with is occasionally a burp will bring a little up into my throat and coat my mouth with that distinctive vomit flavor. I keep hard candies on me to combat that because there's no warning, it's a surprise every time.
My stomach feels funny - When I stand up after sitting, I kind of feel like I have to re-strech my stomach muscles because they want to stay in that pinched sitting position. And when I lay on my side, it feels like my insides are sitting very heavy and just kind of hanging off of my body with no support.
Nipples - Wow. I've always had one inverted and one kinda regular but small. Well, they're both alive and trying to make a break for it now! The regular one is now bright and alert all the time and seriously seems like it's trying to leap off my body. The inverted one is now basically normal. And anything brushes against them is very noticed and I'd prefer that it not happen. And boobs that they're attached to are a little sore, but nothing major. Until my 17lb cat decides to snuggle on me and steps on one with all of his weight. Ouch!
Sex - there are some issues. But that's going to be it's own post.
While I realize that's a long list of symptoms, for the most part, I'm feeling pretty normal. Nothing is so severe (other than the laziness) that it's interfering with my normal life.
Fatigue - from the day this all started, I simply don't want to do anything. I honestly don't know if I'm too tired to do anything, or if my laziness has reached epic proportions. I don't want to do anything but surf the internet and channel surf from my comfy couch.
Lack of patience - I'm cranky. Anything that even remotely irks me is being confronted and addressed when I would usually just ignore it before. Now for those of you who DON'T know me, that seems perfectly reasonable. But for those who DO know me, you're asking yourself right now "you mean she thinks she normally holds something back???" I'm not shy about things that bother me and I snark as a matter of course. But now, it's even more severe.
To quantify this - as I mentioned before, I have a pottery shop on Artfire.com. I'm a regular in the forums. It took me about 10 months to get to 1000 posts. In the last month, I've added over 300 more to my post count. Soooooo, yeaaaaaaaah. I'm having even more trouble than usual keeping my mouth shut.
No deep breaths - I'm often trying to take one of those deep breaths and I just can't. I'll have to work a little bit to get that nice breath that you can feel hitting your lungs just the right way. I had to give a mini speech to teach a small group of people what to expect on a video shoot and I found that I had to stop several times and just try to breathe. I didn't have enough air to talk in a monologue for very long.
Morning sickness - This is where I get to say neener neener neener to most pregnant women. I haven't had morning sickness yet! Wooooottttttt!!!! I've gone head first into the toilet once - because I woke up to a coughing fit so severe that it set off some dry heaves, but otherwise, I'm vomit free so far. Notice how I won't tempt the gods and keep adding "so far" or "yet" to each sentence. My mother got through 2 healthy pregnancies (2 pregnancies, 2 children) without morning sickness so I'm hoping that's genetic and indicative of what I'm going to experience.
Nausea - My nausea has been very minor, but it is there a little bit. I get a bit carsick more often. I've put an open garbage bag on my passenger seat just in case I suddenly need to vomit. Figure I can just turn and vomit in the bag making clean-up relatively easy. This hasn't happened yet, but I'm prepared. And we have a bucket next to the bed too.
My tastebuds do a 180 - I'm a pretty typical American fat woman. I daily enjoy a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks. Too many of my meals are provided by McDonalds. Pretty much the only decent food I eat is whatever my husband freshly cooks for dinner.
I simply cannot tolerate my old diet anymore. I am not actively attempting to alter my diet for my pregnancy, my taste buds have done it for me. Anything that's processed, or contains a lot of preservatives, ugh, it just tastes blechy now. I can taste every chemical in my food. My white chocolate mocha? Bleh! It just coats my mouth with the oily, chemically, cloyingly sweet badness.
I'm obsessed with food - Not that I want to eat it, I just can't stop thinking about it. The first several weeks, the last thing I wanted to do was eat. Nothing was appealing at all. So my obsession was with trying to figure out what the hell my new palette would be able to tolerate. I would eat about 3 bites of a meal and I was done. As the weeks go on, it's getting a little better. The last 2 weeks, I'm starting to actually EAT which is probably a good thing.
Robo-nose - Yup, I've got pregnancy nose. This is a bit of an issue with 4 indoor cats and a lot of litterboxes in the house. I'll walk into a room and walk right back out and announce to my husband that a cat laid a bomb and he needs to take care of it.
I'm not allowed to touch litterboxes while pregnant. I'm so milking that as long as humanly possible! But I digress.
Bathroom breaks - I tend to hit the bathroom more frequently than most people anyway. But now, I'm thinking of just putting a tv in there, and nice recliner around the bowl for comfort, and setting up shop.
Burping - I'm like a frat boy. At least 4 belches accompany every meal. The only vomit I'm dealing with is occasionally a burp will bring a little up into my throat and coat my mouth with that distinctive vomit flavor. I keep hard candies on me to combat that because there's no warning, it's a surprise every time.
My stomach feels funny - When I stand up after sitting, I kind of feel like I have to re-strech my stomach muscles because they want to stay in that pinched sitting position. And when I lay on my side, it feels like my insides are sitting very heavy and just kind of hanging off of my body with no support.
Nipples - Wow. I've always had one inverted and one kinda regular but small. Well, they're both alive and trying to make a break for it now! The regular one is now bright and alert all the time and seriously seems like it's trying to leap off my body. The inverted one is now basically normal. And anything brushes against them is very noticed and I'd prefer that it not happen. And boobs that they're attached to are a little sore, but nothing major. Until my 17lb cat decides to snuggle on me and steps on one with all of his weight. Ouch!
Sex - there are some issues. But that's going to be it's own post.
While I realize that's a long list of symptoms, for the most part, I'm feeling pretty normal. Nothing is so severe (other than the laziness) that it's interfering with my normal life.
Cramps, cramps, ouch I have cramps!
The first few weeks of the pregnancy didn't have much going on. We suspected twins but couldn't confirm until about 4 weeks into the pregnancy.
I had a lot of cramps ever since the retrieval process, those were very unpleasant. I'm told that's common because I had someone poking at my ovaries for an hour and they tend to spasm in response. And then the cramps continued as a general pregnancy symptom.
A couple of weeks in though, they got really bad. I was woken up at 6am with the most incredible abdominal pain. I went to the bathroom and tried to relieve it that way but that did nothing. I finally woke up my husband cuz I could hardly walk and I was starting to panic. I had seen a little bit of implantation bleeding the night before so this just really made me freak out.
We called the doctor and he said that it's normal and everything should be fine, just take one of the pain killers we gave you after the retrieval. Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhh, no. You see me and then if you believe everything is fine, I'll believe you. And really? You want me to take a prescription strength pain reliever in the first weeks of pregnancy? Ok, so they can see me in a half hour. Hubby and I get dressed and we're on our way.
They double check everything and insist that everything is fine. And yes, take the Tylenol with codeine. That's what it's there for. Wow, really? Ok. But I'm not taking a lot of it!
So I go home, cancel the gig I'm supposed to be at in 2 hours because the pain reliever makes me drowsy and I can't drive, and hang around in bed taking as little of the medicine as I can while still getting the pain relief benefits. I felt much better, the pain went away, and for the most part, that was the end of my cramps. I still get a little twinge now and then, but not nearly as constant as it was.
I had a lot of cramps ever since the retrieval process, those were very unpleasant. I'm told that's common because I had someone poking at my ovaries for an hour and they tend to spasm in response. And then the cramps continued as a general pregnancy symptom.
A couple of weeks in though, they got really bad. I was woken up at 6am with the most incredible abdominal pain. I went to the bathroom and tried to relieve it that way but that did nothing. I finally woke up my husband cuz I could hardly walk and I was starting to panic. I had seen a little bit of implantation bleeding the night before so this just really made me freak out.
We called the doctor and he said that it's normal and everything should be fine, just take one of the pain killers we gave you after the retrieval. Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhh, no. You see me and then if you believe everything is fine, I'll believe you. And really? You want me to take a prescription strength pain reliever in the first weeks of pregnancy? Ok, so they can see me in a half hour. Hubby and I get dressed and we're on our way.
They double check everything and insist that everything is fine. And yes, take the Tylenol with codeine. That's what it's there for. Wow, really? Ok. But I'm not taking a lot of it!
So I go home, cancel the gig I'm supposed to be at in 2 hours because the pain reliever makes me drowsy and I can't drive, and hang around in bed taking as little of the medicine as I can while still getting the pain relief benefits. I felt much better, the pain went away, and for the most part, that was the end of my cramps. I still get a little twinge now and then, but not nearly as constant as it was.
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