Weeks Seven, Eight, and Nine

FrogBaby

Well, I clearly suck at pregnancy blogging. I missed two weeks - shit. I wish I had a solid explanation that excused my tardiness but I really don't. Or maybe I do. I'm fricken pregnant okay, cut me some slack!

With that said, I can definitely say that the past few weeks have been, interesting at the very least. I've had no motivation to do anything around the house, let alone sit at the computer and blog or whatever. All I pretty much have wanted to do is get through my workdays, come home, eat, watch Breaking Bad, and pass out. There you have it folks...pregnancy is tiring. Lucky for me though, this week I have THREE whole days off, so there is much more time for sleeping in, relaxing, cleaning the house, and blogging.

So. Want to know my number one pregnancy symptom? Wretchedness. Sheer, awful nasty like I-didn't know-I-was crabbiness. Poor Cody. Wait, poor me!

The mood swings started early on and have pretty much stayed at a consistent "PMS-On-Steroids" mode. Of course there have been great parts of my days where I find joy in regular activities and laugh and feel normal...but I've been noticeably angrier at anything life can possibly throw my way. From road rage to snapping at anyone who says something remotely unacceptable to me, to breaking down in near tears from just stubbing my toe. I feel so on edge most of the time, it's just not really like me. I want the old me back. Someone please tell me this gets better, because I have a long way to go (thirty weeks, but whose counting??). 

On a good note, by now I think it's safe to say that the dreaded morning sickness has skipped me, because luckily I haven't really felt anything yet. Well, once on my way to work recently I got a little twinge of nausea but I couldn't explain why it happened, and it went away within minutes. My mom never had any, so maybe what they say about this kind of stuff running in families is true. But then, again, my mother actually told me last night that she felt ecstatic during all of her pregnancies and loved every second of them. Meh.

So while I'm currently shoveling pretzel crackers dipped in queso dip into my mouth (don't judge), I should touch on my appetite these days. It's pretty fantastic. Like I said with the absence of nausea, I can continue my normal food-loving ways, but I eat a lot more now. I feel like I need to keep snacking all day long in order to keep my stomach from getting too empty, which sends me into a weird antsy state that I really don't like. It's almost as if I can get a little shaky if I don't have something in my stomach. I have always been like that but it's much worse now that I'm pregnant. Must feed baby, all the time.

I'm trying to eat healthy but the thought of eating some foods like spinach, and steak (most meats actually), is gross. So I'm eating as healthy as possible while avoiding things that just don't sound good. Yesterday I ate chicken tenders and ice cream for lunch (again - no judgement please).

I always thought that since I'm quite the foodie and lover of weird food combinations (chips and milk, anyone?) that when I'd get pregnant someday my appetite would reflect that and I'd be still craving epicurean delights times a thousand. But no, no, no. For the most part, my palette has reverted back to one of a picky six year old's. I'm finding myself wanting grilled cheese, cereal, PB & J's, mac and cheese, and milk, tons of milk. In fact, one of the weirdest things I find myself doing almost every morning is waking up around five am and getting up for a glass of milk. I think it's because I'm hungry at that time, but it's much too early to eat (or wake up for that matter) and milk kind of satisfies my appetite til I get up. But really, milk? Before pregnancy I hated drinking milk. Now we are going through at least a gallon a week. So weird...

And the most exciting news -

Last week we had our first doctor's appointment and got to see the baby on a sonogram, and heard it's super-fast and thumping loud heartbeat! That was probably one of the coolest things I've ever gotten to experience in person, and it made me feel so much better immediately. He looked cozy and content in there, kind of like, "Oh hey guys, what's goin on out there? I'm just chillin." 

Also the lady giving us our sonogram said everything looked great and oohed and awwed at the little thing over and over again. Getting to see and hear it made if feel so much more real. And I must say, it's a really cute little thing. Kind of looks like a frog in the picture, but on the screen in person I think I could see a teeny tiny human-looking thing in there. So, so cool. 

(Oh, and our due date is March 15th, or the Ides Of March. I hope it's accurate, so our baby can say cool things like that)  

After the sono, we had a long chat with the doctor who was on that day...he seems really nice and it was a pleasant surprise to find out how much time he was willing to spend with us answering any questions or concerns we had. For whatever reason I had this idea in my head that doctors are busy people who really don't feel like talking much or getting too personal with their patients. Glad that one was proven wrong last week. We are really looking forward to our next appointment in September, and all the other ones after that. I need an official person to make sure everything is going good in there. I find it hard to believe that there is really no way of knowing what's happening in my uterus. Why can't there just be a window, like an oven?

Just taking one day at a time and reading about how much the little thing (technically, this week that "thing" is also known as a fetus) is growing each day...it's just so amazing and unbelievable. I need to keep telling myself that my body is doing what it is made to do. It's the most comforting thought I've had so far, so works for me.

See you next week - I promise!!!!

Week Five

My first baby purchase today from the farmer's market.
We are having a gender neutral flower child.
That is all. 

Well, it's been over a week and half now since we've learned the big news of our brand spankin' new pregnancy, and so far so good! 

The initial shock factor is still a little fresh, but it's totally real, and sinking in. I finally tossed the two pregnancy tests I took, which sat on the bathroom counter for almost a week. For whatever reason I needed to leave them out in plain view for awhile before getting them outta there. So yeah, baby time: sinking in. 

However, I think I keep forgetting we're having a baby overnight. I have been sleeping SOOOOO deliciously well (I imagine that has to do with the absence of any alcohol before bedtime). But I keep waking up each morning with a new feeling of excitement and confusion. Like when you're not really quite awake yet and you wonder if the fuzzy thoughts first on your mind are dream-related. Or are they actually real? Yeah, something like that, and yep, uh-huh. They Really. Are. Real. We made a baby.

Not much has changed symptom-wise for me so far. My boobs still ache to high heaven and I'm pretty crampy in my abdominal region...very much like my regular old PMS. I can deal with that. 

The one thing that's really quite pronounced are the mind crushing "flash" headaches I keep getting on and off. I call them flashy because they literally flash through my head, coming on so quick and then gone within seconds. They suck. 

My mood is also a little, welllllll, off to say the least. I don't know if it's the hormones or the stress of coming to terms with such a big change (I think they call this the "good kind" of stress), but I've been losing my cool very quickly. Most of what I'm pissing and moaning about is puppy/dog related, because they're constantly playing with each other. And by playing I mean frantically chasing each other all over the house, knocking things over, growling, biting, and making each other squeal, and of course backing one another underneath my computer desk whenever I'm sitting at it. And lets not forget the puppy pee and poop, ALL DAY LONG. It's everywhere. We go through a roll of paper towels every other day! So I guess this is good practice for our future eh?

So we told a few people about our little secret. First of all we made an appointment for our first prenatal visit. Since I haven't been to the doctor in years and my old family practitioner is about thirty minutes away from us we decided it'd be best to start fresh and find a new one. So we did some research and chose the practice with the most informative and updated website in our area, that participates with my insurance. It's a group practice (meaning I will have four doctors) and they were very helpful over the phone, and it's literally a five minute drive from our house to the office. I read that choosing your OB should be a very careful and choosy process but honestly I just want to go to the first appointment and see how it feels once we are there and talking to them. I really can't see ourselves sitting down and "interviewing" the doctors about their background and education and moral and ethical values. 

We have also told two close friends and our parents. Everyone is excited and they are all sworn to secrecy since it is still very early (5 weeks). My sister is coming to visit this weekend and we are going to tell her the good news right away...she is going to flip her shit. Can't wait!