The First Trimester

I ended up having an AWFUL first trimester.  I’m still telling Troy there will be no more children.  I didn’t feel great, but I threw up the first day, and didn’t again for about two weeks.  The nausea was AWFUL, and it was worse every day.  Once those two weeks were up, however, all heck broke loose.  Troy’s mom left, and Troy left to go out of town the same day.  I ended up getting quite sick (THAT kind of sick) that day, and called the midwifery, where they were wanting me to keep trying things like ginger ale, sea bands and eating small meals.  I tried and failed. 

The next day I ‘got sick’ 6 times, and called and said that if they wouldn’t give me medicine I was going to switch providers, bawling, and desperate.  The LPN got me a midwife who when we talked about everything, she told me she would be seeing me in the morning.  My neighbor drove me to my appointment the next day, and they performed a test to check on the protein in my urine (ketones), and see how dehydrated I was.  Their specific office had run out of the tests, so they borrowed one from another office in the building.  It was different than their tests, and they looked at it and thought it was negative, but sent the nurse to the office where they borrowed the test to confirm. 

They, in the meantime, had brought me into a room and were talking to me about my ‘desire to medicate’, when the nurse opened the door and said, ‘Her ketones are literally off the charts.  She needs an IV NOW.’  Needless to say, I felt very vindicated.  I ended up spending my next 4 hours getting IV fluids (two full bags), and finally by the end I WANTED food.  My neighbor brought me a frosty, and then on the way home we stopped for another.

They put me on Zofran, which made it so that I could eat, and took my throwing up down to just a couple time times a day, and eventually I’ve gotten to the point where now it’s just a couple times a week.  I tried going back to work after this, but ended up spending most of my time in the bathroom, unable to function, so I’ve been off work until Mid-September, when a co-worker goes back to school.

The next 8 weeks were uneventful.  I’ve lived in my pajamas, and have been fighting a constant battle with my stomach.  I’ve also had very rough acid reflux, which has caused a range of problems. It’s been the reason for throwing up, my throat bleeding, an almost constant bubble in my swollen throat, and most recently my tongue bleeding, among other things.  It’s at the top of my list of things to talk about with the midwife at my next appointment.  I had been put on a couple of natural supplements for it early on, and they helped with my worst issues, but the tongue bleeding has pushed me over the edge, so I will be seeing what our next option is.

My other less severe symptoms were pretty typical.  I had some pretty bad fatigue that made me have a hard time breathing, but I’m starting to wonder again if this is acid reflux related.  My food aversions were extremely intense.  There are still words that are not allowed in our home because they make me want to hurl.  I was pretty weepy… Okay, I cried through Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  So VERY weepy.  Troy hesitantly told the midwife that I am needy.  Ha.  It’s okay, I know it’s true.  I’ve struggled with staying hydrated as water itself has been one of my aversions.  I’ve had a lot of headaches and a sore back/muscles.

I had my 9 and 13 week appointments, and the midwives could find the heartbeat almost as soon as she put the Doppler down both times.  That’s always a relief!  I’ve had very low blood pressure, and eventually put on a whole ¼ pound.   They were happy with that considering how sick I’ve been, as they were anticipating that I could have lost weight.  Somehow I have to put on at a minimum 20 pounds, but more ideally 30.  However with my new appetite, that shouldn’t be a problem.  I want to eat all the food in the world.  All day long.  It’s really time consuming, and not nearly as fun as normal me would have thought.  Bummer.

This is me at 11 weeks

Needless to say, I’m not anxious to get pregnant again any time soon, and have been welcoming all the little bits of relief offered by the second trimester so far.  If I can just get the acid reflux under control, I will be one happy girl!  Less than 6 months to go… unless I’m 10+ days overdue.  Let’s hope not.

We're Pregnant!

Everyone who reads this knows this, but blogs are meant to have these kinds of important updates, right?  So anyway... Here's the first huge chunk of updates on our pregnancy so far!

Finding Out

It was Wednesday, June 13^th, 2012, and I had been feeling a pulling sensation in my lower abdomen for about 3 or 4 days at this point.  I had been disappointed for many months, and didn’t allow myself to believe it was anything, until I felt on my way home from work that I HAD to be pregnant.  Troy had chosen to take a late lunch that day, at home.  This NEVER happened, and so I was so excited he was there.

We had tuna casserole, and after eating, I started to feel nauseous.  I didn’t want to tell Troy my suspicions (as I wanted to surprise him if I was), and so I snuck off to the bathroom to take a pregnancy test.  It was a BLARING positive.  I was so excited, but had planned for years how I would tell my husband, and so I needed to get him out of the house so that I could keep it a secret until he got home.  I tried gently encouraging him to go back to work.  He said he would in 10 minutes. 

No more than five minutes passed between me finding out and the morning sickness setting in.  I suddenly had to throw up.  I told him I didn’t feel so good and ran to the bathroom.  He came in after me to make sure I was okay, but sure enough, I wasn’t.  Between wretches, he was asking me if everything was okay.  I couldn’t keep it in anymore.  I told him to look in my medicine cabinet, and I asked him what he saw.  He told me, “A pregnancy test?”  I responded, “A POSITIVE pregnancy test?”

He suddenly embraced my line from the proposal.  “Are you serious?!”  He couldn’t believe it, and of course we teared up, hugged and avoided kissing, since I had just done the unthinkable.  He still is making fun of my inability to keep a secret for 10 minutes, and that he found out because I was getting sick.  He couldn’t believe it and told me I needed to take another test.  I took a different brand immediately, as I had a variety from trying to conceive for a long while.  Of course, it was positive, and THEN he kind of actually believed me.

Announcing the Pregnancy

It was a lot of fun announcing the pregnancy to friends and family, but there were a couple of reactions that were by far my favorite.  Since we found out a few days before Father’s Day (wouldn’t that have been awesome for Troy if I could have kept a secret??), Troy wanted to wait until then to announce it to his family.  This KILLED me, and so he told me I could tell my family sooner.  It relieved a lot of pressure to get that off my chest to at least my parents.  I’m pretty sure they knew immediately when I asked my mom to put my dad on speakerphone.  Actually the fact that I called at all may have tipped them off.  Ha.  It was so fun, and they were excited for us.

We called Troy’s dad on Skype, and almost all of Troy’s siblings and step-siblings were there.  I told Doug there were two parts to his Father’s Day Gift.  It turns out the t-shirt had already arrived, so I told him the other part I would have to send a picture of.  So I sent a picture of the positive pregnancy test to his facebook, however it wouldn’t open on his phone.  So I asked if he could open it on the computer.  I could see a look in everyone’s eyes of “this better be good” as they were waiting to log in.  When he got in and opened it, I was rambling about something, when I heard Ashley go, “Are you serious!?” Then everyone started clapping and cheering.  It was a pretty great moment.

I also really enjoyed telling Troy’s mom.  We’ve been planning for her to come out when we have the baby long before I was pregnant.  She also happened to be coming out here roughly a week from when we told her.  So we called her on the phone and I said, “I’m so excited for when you come out here.”  Of course she said something about it being so soon, and so I said, “No, I mean in February, for the baby!”  As soon as it hit her what we were saying she was appropriately excited for us! J

Another fun announcement moment was telling my friend/neighbor.  Jewelene had been a huge help to me while we were trying to conceive, and had seen me at my worst.  I know she had been praying for us for months to be able to get pregnant.  I came upstairs to see her, and she was having a hard day.  I came in and asked her how she was, and she just had said, “Not good, but I don’t want to talk about it.”  I didn’t press it, but just said, “Well… I’m pregnant.”  She dropped whatever was in her hands and just INSTANTLY started bawling.  She just hugged me and we cried together for a while. She told me that I just made her whole day better, and we hugged and cried some more.  It was definitely a favorite moment of this pregnancy so far.

I’ll also remember telling my boss forever.  She had been there for me quite a bit through the doctor’s appointments and whatnot.  She actually had taken me to the hospital for my HSG when Troy was out of town.  So I was excited to tell her.  She came into work, and I said, “Umm… Lynn?” with a grimace on my face like, ‘You are going to be so mad.’  And she very slowly and hesitantly said, “What?”  I said, “I need to give you my 8 months’ notice.”  She asked, “Are you pregnant!?”  When I confirmed she instantly hugged me and we both cried.  It was very sweet.

Troy and I had agreed not to say anything until we were 12 weeks along, as the danger of miscarriage is mostly passed at that point.  But as we’ve learned, I can’t keep secrets.  I ended up being extremely sick in my first trimester, which is a strong indicator of a lasting, viable pregnancy.  I figured after I had to go to the birthing center and get IV fluids for 4 hours one day, that it would be okay to announce it.  Whoops!  But everyone was very supportive and excited!