13 weeks.

Here’s where we are today:

— 
I'm making all kinds of fancy facial expressions.
   
— If you could get a look at my private parts, you could now tell if I am a girl or a boy.
   
—  My intestines absorb the amniotic fluid I swallow.
   
—  My nose and lips are in final form.
— Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.



The Details:
How far along: 13 weeks

Total weight gain: According to my Drs. scale (while dressed), +3.  According to Natalie’s naked scale, +2.

Sleep habits: What is sound sleep?  I’ve forgotten.  I can fall asleep easily, but staying asleep or going back to sleep after waking up is a true challenge.  I think this is due in part to a lumberjack husband sawing some logs next to me.  If I wake up in the middle of the night to pee and can’t fall back asleep, I usually watch an episode of The Golden Girls, and I’m able to relax enough (and block out the snoring) to fall back asleep.  I’ve been having super vivid and bizarre dreams, too.

Maternity clothes: While I don’t have much of a bump at all, I still prefer to wear my maternity jeans.  My stomach will start out flat in the morning and bloat by the end of the day, so regular jeans are unbuttoned by mid-afternoon.  Why even deal with all that hassle?  Maternity jeans it is!  All of my tops fit just the same. 

Best moment of the week: Hearing the baby’s heartbeat at today’s appointment (more details below).

Food cravings: Fruit, smoothies, milk, Mexican food

Aversions: After hugging the toilet after eating chicken salad, I’d have to say anything with chicken in it is on my aversion list right now.

Symptoms: I’ve been very luck to have very few symptoms with this pregnancy.  Other than mild nausea, this baby has been very kind.  I do have to say that I get winded very easily and have had some pretty significant indigestion the past few days – almost like something is sitting on my chest. 

Movement:  No conclusive movement yet.  I say conclusive because I feel movement in my stomach, but I can’t tell if it’s the baby or the Mexican food I ate for lunch.

What I’m looking forward to:  I’m looking forward to being pregnant in the winter this time.  I think baby bumps in sweaters are so adorable. Plus, it will be nice to not be so darn hot this go round!

What I miss: I miss having the ability to eat and drink whatever I want without having to worry or check Dr. Google if it’s OK. 

Next appointment: November 1.

_____________________________________________________

So, this past weekend the women in my family and I went to St. Francisville, Louisiana to celebrate our annual Girls’ Weekend. 

It started out wonderfully – we all met at Alexander’s in Baton Rouge for lunch and chatted away for hours. 
Can you find me?


My wonderful Aunt Elaine and me.  I <3 my family.


Then we caravanned to St. Francisville and purchased some tickets to tour The Myrtle’s Plantation.

The tour was great – our guide was fantastic.  I felt fine the entire time, but by the time we got back to the room, I was feeling anything but.  I tried to hang in there when we all played the Bad Santa game where you each pick gifts and then steal them if you want them (not sure what the technical name for that game is), but by the end of the night, I was feeling…off.

Then after a few hours of sleep, this is how I spent the next few hours.



Granted, I’m not a black lab, but this is much cuter than the real thing. 

I’m really not sure if I had food poisoning, if my body was haunted by a ghost from the Myrtle’s or if I had some weird bug, but it was not pretty, and it was beyond ridiculous that I had to suffer with this ON VACATION!  In a room with three other women.  All of whom got to hear the beautiful orchestra playing in my bathroom. 

Thanks to the miraculous healing power of Zofran, I was able to keep the urge to purge at bay most of the next day, but whatever demon I was battling took all of my life force and kept me from doing anything but sleeping and lying outside on the grass.  I missed out on an entire day of fun because of this crap.  I was not too happy.  However, how amazing is it to be surrounded by loving women (most of whom are nurses) while you’re sick?  It was like having my own personal staff of moms to take care of me.  Not to mention my own mom was there to make sure I was OK.  I’d have to say this was a decent sick experience just based on the love I felt from everyone.

I managed to recover the next day (the day we left) and got to go shopping and eat with my aunts and mom.  Here we are right before we left the place:

Standing: My Aunt Cyndi, my Mom: Seated: Me, my Aunt Elaine

This is where we stayed:


This is the view I had while I was dying in the grass:


I want to especially thank my wonderful mother-in-law and father-in-law for watching Anna while I was gone!  I came home to a clean house, a cooked meal, a cut yard, a cleaned off patio and a happy husband who got to spend lots of quality time with his parents.  It was wonderful!  I should go away more often!

_____________________________________________________

So, this blog entry is getting super long.  I do apologize if you’ve made it this far.  Only a little more to go.

I had my monthly checkup today to check on the baby.  It was kind of a tense appointment because the first girl who came in could not find the baby’s heartbeat on the Doppler.  Then my own Dr. couldn’t find it!  It was a very surreal few minutes when she kept going back and forth trying to find the h/b.  I don’t think I’ve ever been more scared.  Honestly, I was already preparing myself for the worst, but then I could hear that sweet little whoosh sound, and I saw a look of relief on my Drs. face.  She reassured me that it’s very common this early on to not hear the h/b on the Doppler.  The baby’s h/b was a perfect rate at 152 – 155 bpm.  She said it was a perfect heartbeat, so that made me happy.

Things to do:
Get a flu shot
Make a final decision on 2nd trimester screening for genetic abnormalities (still on the fence about this)

Now that I’m just a few days shy from 2nd tri, I’m going to get my flu shot.  I wanted to wait as long as possible to get it, but my Dr. really wants me to do it sooner rather than later.  She wants Joe to get one, too. 

That’s about it for now.  I’m just trying to finish the final touches for Anna’s Super Hero birthday party on the 15th and just hoping/praying that people show up!  Her costume came in, and it’s just too cute for words!  When she puts it on, she puts both arms up in the air and runs back and forth like a super hero.  She really plays the part well!  I love that little girl!

Week 12.

So, I’m nearing the end of the 1st trimester, and I’m truly ecstatic to have these weeks behind me.  While I’ve felt pretty fabulous this entire time, it’s always a little comforting when you have the first part behind you – just for peace of mind. 

Here’s where the baby is today:
—  My weight increased more than 75% just this week!
   
—  All my bones are getting hard.
   
—  My fingernails and toenails are coming in—just like the big kids.
   
—  The right and left sides of my brain are connecting with each other.
   
—  I now have my very own fingerprints.
   
—  When my upper eyelid is touched, my eyes roll downward.
— From crown to rump, your baby-to-be is just over 2 inches long (about the size of a lime) and weighs half an ounce.



I spy baby crack.

I feel like I haven’t been to the Dr. in ages.  My next appointment is on October 4th, and it can’t come soon enough!  Hopefully I’ll be able to hear the heartbeat on the Doppler.  I’m pretty sure I’m far along enough (I’ll be 13 weeks at the time) for that to occur.  If not, maybe they’ll squeeze me in for an ultra-sound.  Nah, probably not.  If I had the money, I’d seriously buy a machine and just walk around with it all day.  As it is, I can peek in on Anna throughout the day while she’s at school (thanks to the webcam there).  I should be able to do the same with my unborn child, too, right? 

Too much?  Yeah, probably so.

Being the impatient person I am, I decided to waste money on the Intelligender test. I say waste because how accurate can a urine gender prediction test be, but it was accurate for my sister, so why not?  I’m at least 8 weeks away from finding out on an ultra-sound what I’m having – that’s pretty agonizing for a person who can’t even wait for a bag of popcorn to pop.

Anyway, after testing with FMU (first morning urine), I got this result…

Wait for it…

Wait for it…



Here’s what it would’ve looked like had it been a girl:


Yellow…just like pee.

According to the Intelligender site, the tests have an 87.6% accuracy rate if tested with FMU.  Of course the odds are pretty darn high seeing that it has a 50/50 shot of being right, so I guess we’ll see!

Needless to say, Joe was pretty darn ecstatic at the prospect of having a son. 

How I’m feeling:

I’m feeling pretty great.  I have very mild nausea, almost non-existent.  I’m not really that fatigued.  I mean, I go to bed at 8:30 or so, but I’ve always done that because that’s what boring people do. 

I’m still only up about 1 lb.  Maybe 2.  I haven’t weighed myself the past few days.  I’m not concerned because I know it will eventually start piling on, and then I’ll be like WTF is wrong with me? 

Still not much of a bump, but that’s to be expected considering I didn’t show ‘til about 24 weeks the last time.  Once I actually start showing, I will be posting weekly belly pics comparing last time to this time.  You’ll just have to excuse my white trash clothes in these photos as most of the time I’m wearing pajamas and have my head cut out so as to not scare the children.

My hormones are much more in check.  Joe thanks Baby Jesus for this.  I feel much more stable and generally happy and well adjusted now.  For a few weeks there, I was fully expecting my head to rotate 360 degrees. 

What’s scary:

My sister and I are exactly 3 weeks apart in our pregnancies.  She and I both had our first babies exactly 3 weeks early.  So, if I go to 40 weeks and she has her second child early, we could technically have babies born on the same day.  Our hospitals are 2 hours apart.  My mom can’t break herself into two people, so what will we do?!  I guess we’ll just worry about that when/if it happens.  Let’s just hope that I go at 37 weeks again and she goes to 40.  That way, there will be 6 full weeks between the babies, and I can be there while she’s delivering her baby and not still be drugged up on pain pills.

What’s also scary to me is that I had a really easy labor and delivery with Anna.  Textbook.  Will that happen again?  My concerns at this point are that the on-call OB who delivered Anna said it was a good thing she came early as she wouldn’t have fit through my pelvis if she’d gotten any bigger.  That’s a bit alarming.  Will my body know to kick into gear again or is it too old to realize what the hell it’s supposed to do?!  Again, I’ll just worry about that when it gets here. 

In other news:

The count down ‘til Anna’s 3rd birthday is on!  Just a little over 2.5 more weeks until my baby gets to blow out three candles on her cake.  I can’t believe I have a 3 year old!  And let me just state, for the record, that terrible twos are a joke.  A JOKE.  That’s kid stuff.  3 is when it gets real, yo.  Prepare yourself.  Call in an exorcist.  Say a few Hail Marys ‘cause you’ll need them.  The good thing is that in between all of the madness, 3 year olds are the most hilariously cute and sweet kids on the planet.  My child is no exception. 

Our fridge is on the fritz.  It’s only 8 years old.  We’ve already had it repaired once when the fan went out.  Now we think it’s a compressor.  So, we had to just bite the bullet and buy a new unit.  The bad news is that it’s somewhere in Asia right now and won’t be here for another three weeks.  Lowe’s (the place where we bought it) is kind enough to give us a brand new loaner fridge for the next three weeks.  Now my child won’t starve!

Frigidaire SUCKS.  I will never own another Frigidaire appliance again.

I get to leave for my annual St. Francisville girls’ trip in just a few days, and I can’t tell you how excited I am.  I always have such a wonderful time relaxing with the women in my family.  Hopefully some of them will be up for touring The Myrtles Plantation again.  We all know about my ghost obsession!

Week 11. How ‘bout ‘dem Saints?

Here’s where we are today:
—  I open my mouth and can even move my tongue.
   
—  I have eyelids, but they are fused shut.
   
—  I can drink whenever I want.
   
—  I sigh, stretch, and move my head.
   
—  If I am a girl, my ovaries now contain my very own reproductive cells.
   
—  For some reason, I love sucking my thumb. Usually the right one.
   
—  Did you know I can grab things with my hands?
   
—  Sometimes I just feel like yawning so I yawn!
—  My vocal cords are forming. I can't wait to use them.




The good news is that the baby is looking more like an actual baby and less like some weird alien life form. 

What’s happening…

I’m feeling pretty good.  Most days I don’t even feel pregnant which can be a blessing and a curse.  It’s a blessing because I don’t need to haul around Anna’s potty training toilet in case of sudden yack attacks, but it’s a curse because I often freak myself out thinking that something might be wrong.  My symptoms were so strong with Anna that there was never any doubt things were moving right along in there.  The 1st trimester is such a pain in the ass.  I’m looking forward to at least feeling some kicks or stretching or something just letting me know that things are as they should be inside.

I have had some very mild cramping lately that I’m going to chalk up to growing pains. 

I’m a little bumped out at this point.  It’s not bloat bump, it’s baby bump.  However, to most outsiders, I don’t look pregnant – just like I’ve eaten a huge meal.  So, basically I’m in that horrible in between phase where people just think I eat a lot. 

My main issue at this point is clothing.  I can’t really wear my tight shirts because of my gut, but maternity stuff is overkill.  Joe and I went on a little shopping excursion the other day, and I walked out empty-handed.  Plus, we’re in the midst of a season change, so all of the cute summer shirts I’d traditionally like are out, but it’s too hot to start stocking up on turtle necks and sweaters. 

Hurry up and change, weather!  Mama is impatient and in DESPERATE need of some new clothes.

I just got over a head cold that may be a result of a recent weather change.  It feels nice to be able to breath out of both nostrils again. 

I haven’t weighed myself lately, but I imagine I’ve gained a few lbs.  Maybe +1.  I’m still able to wear my pre-maternity jeans, but I have to leave them unbuttoned.  Most pants still fit me in the butt/thigh area.  My pee stick hadn’t even dried yet when I was out of regular clothes w/ Anna, so this pregnancy is certainly different. 

I’m a hormonal bastard on speed this go ‘round.  I’m one fava bean shy of gnawing off someone’s face.  I certainly hope that the 2nd trimester will bring some relief from these insane mood swings.  I know Joe is hoping this as well.  He’s been wonderful throughout this entire process, thankfully.  I need to give him an award of some kind when all of this is said and done.  Maybe I’ll win the lottery and can surprise him with a navy, black or silver Z28 Camaro – <--- his dream car. 

One can dream.

How ‘bout ‘dem Saints?!
So, Joe and I decided to take the little bean to his/her first football game!  We bought tickets for the Saints/Bears game on Sunday, September 18 – a surprise from Joe for our anniversary.  We had a blast!  How could you not enjoy a butt whooping game like that?  Well, unless you are a Bears’ fan. 

Sorry, Cutler.  Perhaps your fans will be less douchey the next time we play you on your field.  You know what they say about karma, right?

Here are some photos from the day:

Saints running in.


Glorious dome behind me!


Champion Square in the background.

We were idiots and didn’t bring cash with us, so we spent the better part of an hour running back and forth to ATMs to pay the parking attendant.  This meant that we had to skip the Champ Square festivities and run to our seats to get there before kickoff.  Oh well, you live, you learn!

It was all worth it since we finished with a  beautiful score of 30 – 13 with 6 sacks on Cutler.  It was a fantastic game.  I’m just glad our offense AND defense were on fire this time.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them play with such fury! 

The baby enjoyed the game, I think. 

Anna got to stay home and play with grandma, so it was a great weekend!

See ya soon!

Quotable Quotes to Quote.

Now that Anna’s vocabulary has expanded, she has turned into a 3’ ball of hilarity. 

The other day it dawned on me that I need to write this stuff down somewhere because it’s just too cute not to.

So, if she keeps it up, I will share it all with you!

Quote 1:
While taking a bath…
Anna: Shut up, Shut up, Shut up (a lovely new phrase she must’ve learned at daycare)
Me: Anna, what did you just say?
Anna: Mommy, I said I love you.

Quote 2:
While sitting at the dinner table, Anna’s Uncle Chris was talking about a guy on TV and said…

Uncle Chris:  That guy is SICK!
(Anna thinking he said “six”)
Anna: Yeah, he’s SIX…seven, eight.

Quote 3:
While watching an episode of Golden Girls, Anna stands up, points her arm to the sky (SHE-RA style) and shouts…

Anna: I AM ROSE NYLUND!

Week 10 and more.

Here’s where things stand this week:

—  I breathe in and out once in a while, even without air.
   
—  My skin is getting thicker and harder to see through.
   
—  I often prefer moving one hand more than the other.
   
—  If I am a boy, I am now making testosterone just like dad.
   
—  I roll over and can even do flips!
   
—  My joints are a lot like my parent's joints.
   
—  I already have more than 4,000 body parts—just 500 more to go!
   
—  Today I am a little embryo. But tomorrow I'll be a big fetus.
   
—  My hair is starting to grow on my brow and near my mouth.



Remember the adorable jeans that I bought from Old Navy?  Yeah, they were horrible.  They fit cute enough, but the belly band was just as tight as regular jeans.  By the middle of the day, I was wishing I could go home and just slip into my comfy pants.  Totally miserable!  So, I’m bringing them back today. 

THESE JEANS SUCK:


I’ve replaced them with these Secret Fit jeans from Motherhood.




Admittedly, most of their jeans make my ass look like a square, so I was apprehensive about buying jeans from there.  This fit, though, makes my ass look rectangular, so I guess that’s a step up.

What’s happening:

- My OB’s office called me yesterday and told me that I was negative for Toxoplasmosis which is a relief since I still sometimes change out the litter box if Joe has ignored it for a few days.  I do wear gloves, though, and our cats are pretty much inside 99% of the time.  I also no longer have Vitamin D deficiency which I had prior to getting pregnant.  I take 5,000 units/day, so it would be a bit ridiculous if I still needed more.

- I’ve filled out all of my family history paperwork and am done with all of the boring OB office visit stuff.  I have another appointment in a few weeks where I’ll hopefully get to hear the h/b on the Doppler. 

- I’m feeling pretty great, actually.  Very, very mild nausea that typically goes away when I eat and stays away most of the day.  My fatigue is bearable, no worse than it was prior to getting pregnant.  I’m extremely hormonal, though, which is one super crappy aspect of pregnancy.  Thankfully I have a very understanding husband who has been doing everything within his power (most days) to keep me from having a breakdown.  My hair loss has subsided, and I’m finally getting to the place where I don’t think I’ll be losing any additional hair this pregnancy.  This is good because I was seriously contemplating ordering a wig if the hair loss continued.  It was a bit unsettling!

- Up until a few days ago, I’d had no weight gain.  I weighed myself this morning, and it looks like I’m +1. 

What else is going on in our lives…
Anna Kate is officially weaned from the paci!  Words cannot express how elated we are that this thorn in our side is GONE.  It took us nearly 3 years, but we’re here, and we still have our sanity (some of it). 

Basically, I cut the tip off of one of her pacis.  She took it and was like WTF, mom.  She still used it, but I kept filling her head with mom lies.  “Anna Kate, pacifiers are dirty and have poo poo on them.  Pacifiers are only for little babies.”  So, the more she associated pacifiers with poop and little babies, the less inclined she was to take one.  Granted, this is probably not the best approach, but when you’re desperate, you do what you can.  Even if it means telling your child her pacifier has crap on it.  Don’t judge.

Anna is now officially night potty trained, too.  After putting countless pull-ups on her and her waking up dry, I decided it was time to just put her in regular panties at night and hope and pray it worked.  Thus far, it has!  She did have an accident the other night, but this was the first time in weeks she did, and I blame myself for letting her drink lots of fluids before bed. 

Anna’s 3rd birthday is coming up in about a month!  The party theme this year is Super Hero because she’s obsessed with all things super hero related.  My good friend created an adorable graphic in Anna’s likeness (and other little super hero kids), and I made this invite for her party:


And as luck would have it, Zulily.com had a sale on the most PERFECT super hero girl costume ever:


The mask is a little scary, but everything else is perfection!  Plus, I can put this on her for Halloween, too!  $18 for a dual purpose costume?  I’ll take it!

That’s it for now!  See ya soon!

Week 9.

Here’s where we are this week:

—  My heart is almost complete.
— I now have testes if I am a boy and ovaries if I am a girl. 
—  I can turn my head from side to side.
 

—  As the notches in my hands and feet grow, my fingers and toes emerge.
 

—  Sometimes I hiccup, sometimes I don't.
   
—  My hands touch each other and my feet touch too! (7 wks, 4 days)
   
—  My new knee joints help me bend my legs. (7 wks, 4 days)
   
—  Two hands, each with five free fingers. What fun! (7 wks, 4 days)
   
—  I have ten free toes and they're beautiful! (7 wks, 6 days)




I ordered my official first pair of maternity jeans this past week after experiencing a very uncomfortable day in my regular jeans.  Some days I’m more bloated than others, so I don’t think I’m 100% to the point of needing to be in maternity clothing full-time.  I have to admit that I’m kind of looking forward to wearing maternity clothes again.  I mean, it’s like wearing scrubs all day long.  You can’t beat it!

Then by the end of my pregnancy I’ll be dreaming of zippers and buttons and a flat stomach again.  I’m never happy, I tell ya!

Here’re the jeans I ordered from Old Navy:

When I was pregnant with Anna, it was in the middle of summer, so all of my maternity clothing from before is all summer.  Granted, it stays warm down here a lot longer than most places, so I can still wear most of it, but the cute summer dresses and tank tops won’t be making their grand appearance this go-round.  I guess this just means I’ll have to buy new stuff.  Darn.  What a pity.

Actually, it is – I hate shopping.  I’m a dude, I swear.

Anna is still not really feeling the whole brother/sister thing.  When I tell her I have a baby in my belly, she tells me that she also has a baby in her belly.  Then I ask her if she wants a brother or a sister, and she always says, “No.”  A few times she’s said she wants a sister.  I guess we’ll know soon enough!


Oh, and I found out yesterday that my sister is also pregnant and is three weeks behind me.  My poor mom.

Symptoms

My hair is hopefully on the mend.  It better stop falling out soon or I’ll need to invest in some propecia.  It’s pretty unsettling how much hair I’ve been losing. 

The nausea isn’t as bad this time as it was with Anna.  I get periodic waves of it, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.  I’ve taken Zofran a few times just because I didn’t want to feel nauseated at all, but then I feel guilty for taking medications when not absolutely necessary. 

I only crave crappy food – french fries, bread, mashed potatoes, has browns, tater tots – basically anything that doesn’t have vegetables or fruit in them.  I’d like to say this is abnormal for me, but I’m this way when I’m not pregnant, so, eh.

I went to the Dr. today and did my OB paperwork and went over my blood work/lab results from my last visit.  Everything checked out A-OK, fortunately.  My Dr. wants to test me for  Toxoplasmosis since I have cats (even though Joe has been cleaning out the box for me). 

I haven’t gained any lbs. thus far.  My Dr. didn’t see too concerned.  The incessant vomiting from the week before could be the culprit. 

I’m on the fence about the genetic screening test that is coming up soon.  I still need to weigh my options with that. For now, I’ve opted out.

I have to get a flu shot in the next few weeks. 

That’s it for now!  See ya next week (or in between if I get off my lazy butt and load some cute pictures of my daughter).

Week 8 - A hellacious day.

One thing I’ve been pretty stoked about with this pregnancy is that I don’t have the all day long, never-ending nausea.  I’ll have random bouts of it throughout the day, but it’s nothing I can’t handle, and it’s far less than the first go-round when I was pregnant with Anna.  However, I’d trade daily nausea for this one day of pure hell that I just experienced.

Warning: If bodily fluids gross you out, leave now.

I woke up around midnight on Monday morning feeling out of sorts.  I wasn’t necessarily nauseated, just not feeling quite right.  Trying to fall asleep next to a snoring husband is nearly impossible, so I grabbed my gear and went to lie down on the living room sofa.  After a few short minutes, all hell broke loose, and the demons were released.  When I say demons, I mean poop and puke – fun stuff like that. 

I figured, eh, it’s probably just that little bug that Anna had last week.  She was only vomiting with this thing for a few short hours.  A few shorts hours of vomiting for me turned into an entire day of not keeping anything down or in.  Every sip of water came right back up.  The worst part about all of this was that I was on mom duty all day while Joe was at work.  I couldn’t even fix my child food without running to the bathroom sick to my stomach. 

After about 12 hours of this nonsense, I could no longer move.  I called in reinforcements.  Joe came home from work loaded down with essentials like orange sherbet (the only “food” I could think of that didn’t send me rushing to the bathroom) and bottles of Gatorade.  My mom left work early to come and watch Anna for me.  At her urging, I called my OB’s office to see what they recommended.  Had I not been pregnant, I would’ve sucked it up, but at this point I was concerned about the lack of fluids and how it would impact my baby. 

After waiting for what seemed like forever (and two calls later), the on-call nurse told me to head to the ER stat.  How am I supposed to do that when I’m too weak to even walk?

I forced myself to shower and get ready, but halfway through, I needed help to even do that because I was just so darn weak.  Then right before we left, the last bit of drink and sherbet that I managed to keep down finally made an exit.  At that point, I knew I was making the right decision by going to the hospital. 

We get there and only had to wait about 30 minutes before they put me in a room in the ER.  I was hooked up to saline and given a shot of Zofran right away.  That drug is nothing short of miraculous – within a few minutes, I felt like my old self again.  No more nausea, no more pain, no more urges to purge.  It was wonderful! 

I guess from all of the pain of getting sick so much throughout the day, my entire abdomen, back and legs were cramping up.  So, they took all kinds of blood and then decided, later on, to let me get an u/s to make sure that everything was OK with the baby.  The blood results came back showing that I had high levels of ketones in my urine which is an indication of muscle breakdown due to vomiting.  Other than that, all of my other levels checked out OK which makes me think I’m Super Woman! 

I had to keep drinking tons of the best drink on the planet – Ocean Spray Cran Grape – to fill my bladder enough to have a clear u/s.  Unfortunately, I was so dehydrated that even with an entire bag of saline and four boxes of Cran Grape that I couldn’t fill my bladder quickly enough.  I had to wait and wait and wait.  The worst part is that my mom and Joe were back in the first room where I was treated, so of course they were freaking out since it was taking so long. 

We eventually managed to get a decent shot of the baby, and everything checked out well in baby land.  I had visions that all of the amniotic fluid had dried up, but everything checked out fine.  It’s amazing how you can be on your death bed, practically, and your baby is completely unharmed.   The u/s tech told me that the baby will always take what it needs from you, no matter what.  Selfish little thing!

I was wheeled back into the first room and started feeling a little nauseated again.  Oh, hell no!  I started begging for more anti-nausea meds just to avoid that horror again.  The first Dr. mentioned Reglan.  Uh, isn’t there some class action lawsuit against this drug because it causes birth defects?  When I told him that, he started naming off issues with it.  Uh.  No thanks.  I’ll just deal.  Then the next Dr. on call recommended a shot of Phenergan.  She said it would knock me out pretty quickly, so that’s why they always give Zofran – way less side effects. 

The idea of being knocked out sounded good at that point, so I agreed.  And they weren’t kidding.  I was slurring my speech and unable to walk after just a few short minutes.  I wonder if there are any Phenergan addicts out there.  I can see why.  It’s was pretty darn nice!

We finally got discharged after the Dr. went over all of my test results and said everything checked out fine.  They wheeled me out to the car which was a good thing since I couldn’t walk by that point, and I got in and immediately fell asleep.  After that, I don’t remember much except Joe stopping for gas and feeling bad for my mom that she had to drive back home this late at night.

I guess I forgot to mention that we dropped Anna off at my cousin’s house down the street.  She watched Anna for a year, so Anna feels right at home there.  I am SO thankful that she was able to help us out like that and care for her while we were at the hospital.  After Joe brought me home, he took off and picked up Anna from her house.  I vaguely remember Anna crying for me when she got home, but after that, I was totally out until 1 a.m. when she woke up screaming for me.  She eventually came into our bed and slept with us the rest of the night. 

So, now I’m feeling 100% better, weak, but better.  Thinking of yesterday and the horror of it all makes me shudder, but I got through it having a whole new appreciation for women who suffer from hyperemesis throughout their pregnancy.  Bless you. 

Today will be an all liquid diet day, and tomorrow I’ll start on soft foods like mashed potatoes, breads, etc.  I’m actually able to think about food now without retching, so I’m definitely on the mend.

Here’s where the baby is today:


I am 8 weeks pregnant.


—  If my face is touched, I turn away.
  
— Someday, my new diaphragm will help me breathe real air.
  
— The nerve connections in my spine are forming.
  
— I've been told I have nice ears.
  
— My belly now has an appendix.
  
—  Now I have brains AND brainwaves! 

—  My collar bones and jaw bones begin to harden. 

— Something else is moving. It's my hands!

Aversions: Water, fruit, vegetables, basically anything healthful for you

Cravings: Chili cheese fries, mashed potatoes, french fries, basically anything horrible for you

Symptoms:
Hair is starting to look normal again
Mild nausea periodically
Aversions, cravings
Sore boobs

There are some days where I honestly don’t even feel pregnant which can definitely be scary at times, but I’ll just be glad that my symptoms are few and far in between. 

See ya next week!