All the other pregnancy things

Now that I've gone into polite details of my morning sickness, I thought I'd make note of all the other bits and bobs of pregnancy.

Other symptoms of pregnancy:
-Exhaustion.  I am tired all of the time.  I have a bit more pip than I did first trimester, but overall still ready to lie down at all times.  Forget standing for any period of time.
-Food aversions.  I hate peanut butter.  First trimester I hated ketchup, now I want to drink it.  Meat...I want nothing to do with it.  Raw white onion...red's I'm ok with.  I could care less for sweets in general, other than an occasional hankering.
-Food cravings.  Nothing major.  Currently I would stab someone for a shrimp cocktail, but once I get it I'll be over it.  A few weeks ago I needed a Caramel Frap but after I had it the craving ended and hasn't returned.  I have consistently wanted apple juice for the past week or so, so we'll put that in the craving category.
-Food preferences.  I can eat Mexican at every meal.  What's for dinner?  Probably mexican food.  Chips and salsa, yes please.  Bean burrito from taco bell?  Drool, but hold the onions, please.
-Other things.
1.  In the very wee early stages when I was nauseous/vomiting, if I ate anything, it was strawberry icecream.  I could keep that on my stomach with no issue.  Now I really want nothing to do with icecream.
2.  My eyes are 473x bigger than my stomach.  I eat up to half of anything I order/make/have.  DS has gotten really used to eating for two and only occasionally complains that I'm making him fat.
3.  I get random bouts of heartburn 3-4 times a day.  I have found this to be when G (I will lovingly call her G in this blog) is moving around.  Generally after heartburn I get hawngry, which is my term for starving-need-food-right-now.  Cheese crackers help me out a lot.
4. Constipation is a real thing but not a permanent thing.  My body will swing from one extreme to the next over two days.
5.  I have found that leaning all the way forward when I pee empties my bladder completely so that I don't feel like peeing again as soon as I get up.  On this same note...pregnancy and coughing strenuously do not mix with a full bladder.  There was an incident, I don't want to talk about it.
6.  Mom, do not read the rest of this paragraph.  I have a crazy sex drive.  It started about two weeks ago and thankfully, DS has welcomed it.

One week ago yesterday we felt a flutter for the first time.  Actually, DS felt it first.  We were laying in bed and he had his hand on my stomach.  He told me to quit shaking my foot (chronic habit of mine) and I wasn't...it was G rolling around in there.  Last night I was trying to fall asleep and I felt her kick for the first time and then about 6 times more.  DS missed it, but I've felt her several times today so he will feel her soon.  I'm very excited to finally feel her move.  They're not pronounced jabs yet, kind of like a blunt rippling nudge.  Nonetheless, she's moving in there.

So this is morning sickness...

Since about 4 1/2 weeks I have been sick with what I eventually found out to be morning sickness and not an imbalance of "gut" bacteria.

Turns out, for me, morning sickness is an all-day-and-night-no-matter-what-you-do sickness.  I lost 14 pounds my first trimester.  Thankfully I had weight to lose, so my OB wasn't too concerned...I would regain to my normal and put on a few extra for baby eventually.  I, along with my OB's nurse (who is an absolute life saver!), had a heck of a time trying to find something to relieve me.  None of the usual wives-tale aides were helping.  Ginger anything: nope.  Lemon: nope.  Crackers before sitting up: nope.  Crackers in general: nope.  Broth: nope.  Peanut butter: gigantic nope.

The doctor calls it hyperemesis gravidarum and it affects less than 2% of all recorded pregnancies.  Think morning sickness on the scariest crack you can imagine.  A lot of vomit.  I even had an exorcism moment...absolutely horrendous.

In short, nothing was helping.  Finally turned to medicine and neither helped:  phenergan was basically a sugar pill and zofran provided a small amount of relief but caused horrendous charlie-horses in places I didn't think possible.

An ER trip later for dehydration and something had to be done STAT.

This is where the nurse really came through.  Reglan.  It was a saving grace.  I was on the max dose (one pill four times a day) until 16 weeks.  I was feeling so great, I tried to ween off of it around 14 weeks..that was a mistake.  So I continued on full dose until 16 weeks, then dropped down to three, then at 18 weeks I dropped down to just two a day and I've been sitting pretty.  I did miss a day about a week ago and felt like crap all day, so I can't come off of it completely.

So Reglan is my life saver.  At 20 weeks I still battle nausea and occasional vomiting, but it is nothing compared to what I was dealing with.

Biggest news ever!

Let's recall my biggest news ever...I'm finally going to be a mom!!!

I know, I had convinced myself that it would just never happen, but it did!  I was convinced that I was just too old and past a "good" age to start having children.  I was content with DS (the beau) and our two fur babies, Sheldon and Massimo.

I realized how much I had settled into the idea of never having children shortly after finding out we were expecting.  It hit me like a sledgehammer one day in the car.  I was pregnant.  I was pregnant.  I was going to bring a life into this world and be responsible for it and be a mom and...shew.  It was a lot to take in.  I realized I truly believed that it would never happen to me.

But it did and I'm so thankful and happy.  It brings happy tears to my eyes.

So, my pregnancy story.  How it all happened.  We weren't planning it.  We had talked about it and had decided if we wanted it, we would wait for about two years for me to finish school (more on this later) and then we could talk about it.

Life has a way, you know?  It does what it wants and takes you in directions you never saw coming.  Turns out antibiotics work in much the same way...taking you in directions you never thought and counter-acting on your meticulous birth control consumption.

In August I was sick...like bronchitis sick.  My doctor had to put me on an antibiotic and z-pack.  Thought nothing of it...continued to take the trusty birth control (hey, it hadn't failed me yet), and DS and I went about life as normal.

In September I was sick...like not able to eat, keep anything down, generally felt like utter crap.  After two weeks of being miserable, I went to the doctor again.  Here's a brief script:

Do you think you're pregnant?  "No...I haven't missed a day of birth control in like 5 years."
When was your last menstrual cycle?  "I take my birth control continuously so my last period was about 6 months ago (I did this for medical reasons...it is completely safe and was doctor recommended for me)."
Ok, what's going on today?

At which point I described the anguish I had been enduring for the past few weeks.  Horrible nausea/vomiting, exhausted, unable to eat...yadda, yadda, yadda.  Truly, I felt like death.

My doctor is amazing and has been seeing me for almost four years now.  She knows my body pretty well and knows I have the crappiest immune and "gut" health ever.  So, she ruled that the antibiotics I had taken for bronchitis had wiped all of the good bacteria from my gut and had caused an imbalance that was making me very ill.  This had happened once before about three years ago so it didn't sound so foreign to me.

I would feel better in no more than two weeks, she claimed, and wrote me a script for probiotics and enzymes to re-boost my "gut".  I was ready to feel better asap so I immediately filled and began taking said meds.

Early September, I had bronchitis AGAIN so I was back on antibiotics.  I was super sick for DS's 30th birthday which was super sad, because it was such a fun day.  Train ride with picnic for lunch then dinner with friends: Sonic ice cream and dancing that evening.  He had an amazing day.  I was still sick to my stomach.

In October I was still battling the nausea/vomiting/weakness but life must go on so we went on a bourbon tour to celebrate our anniversary early.  Our very first date was at Woodford Reserve so we thought it would be fun to go back and do a tour.  It was so fun and special to commemorate our first year the same way we started, and I think we will make it a tradition.  It's just so beautiful there in the fall.  Anyways, we were in the mashing room (technical term for bourbon lovers) and I almost lost my ginger ale.  Made it to the cellars and the cool, crisp air made me feel almost normal again.  I decided to celebrate by tasting the special select bourbon and bourbon balls they had for our tasting.  So one shot and one bourbon ball later we were leaving the tour area and I jokingly turned to DS and said "Well, if I'm pregnant, it's either drunk or going to die".  Retrospect:  poor choice of words, it was a joke, don't jump down my throat.

The whole ride home I couldn't stop thinking about what I said and the thought of "what if I am pregnant?" kept rippling through my mind.  I had to know for sure.  This was the first day the thought of possibility even came to mind.  I had been sick for WEEKS at this point...could it be?

As soon as I got home I went upstairs to use the bathroom and found an old pregnancy test shoved in the back of my hair products drawer (remember that menstrual cycle I mentioned 6 months ago...yeah, google made me test it).  I took the test, waited patiently for a whole 30 seconds before both strips were blue.  Both strips were blue.  Ripped the box from the trashcan to double check and make sure.  Gulp.  I called for DS to come upstairs in sheer-panic-voice.  He didn't even make it to the top before I was holding the test out for him to see.  Then: gut wrenching sobbing and wailing.  We weren't planning this.  I was in shock.  I had had bourbon!  Suddenly my joke was no longer a joke.

I have to hand it to DS, he handled the situation with grace and man-strength.  He held me, comforted me, let me sob.  He was amazing.

We bought a second test the next day and I took both only to find the first was not faulty.  Monday we called for an appointment with my regular doctor to have my HCG levels checked.  Friday we found out I was about 7-8 weeks along.  The next week we went to an OBGYN and had our first ultrasound.  I was 9 weeks and due May 12, 2015.  I had never seen DS smile so genuinely than when he saw the first images of baby.  A tear rolled down my cheek.

Here we go.

Well hello there!

Since I am my only reader, I don't feel guilty when I go over a whole year without blogging.  I love writing, and find myself to be quite hilarious, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather live life than sit at my computer and write to myself.  Sometimes by "live life" I mean sleep...but hey, sleep is a luxury and why not indulge.

Exciting things have happened in well over a year.

I met the love of my life and we have been living happily together for a year and three months.  

If you read some of my previous blogs, I was convinced I would be forever alone, but DS came along and we've been inseparable.  I can't imagine life without him.

Wow, it has been ages since I've blogged.

Biggest news ever...we are expecting!!!!!!!

I am 20 weeks yesterday and we are so excited.

We couldn't wait for our normal scheduled ultrasound appointment (which isn't going to be performed until week 22 ...hello, at 17 weeks, this was over a month away), so we went to an independent baby salon and found out she is a girl!

Georgianna Isabelle Stone

I have two more blogs planned for sure.  One explaining my pregnancy so far and one with general life updates.

Such excite.