An Off Day

I don't remember waking up feeling icky, but I felt nauseous by the time we were on our way to church. It's continued despite my best efforts, which is unfortunate because we have tickets to see Jim Gaffigan tonight at the Hard Rock. Hopefully I'll feel better soon so I can enjoy our plans. We've been looking forward to this for weeks.

For the record, I do think it's totally rude that I had morning sickness, had none just long enough to be comfortable about not having it, and now have it again. There should be a rule that once it's gone, it's gone for good. At least I'm still feeling better in the energy department.

This time last week, I was so sure I wouldn't need bigger or maternity clothes for awhile. I have officially changed my tune. All my clothes are so uncomfortable as of two days ago. I bought a Bella Band today and will try that with a pair of jeans tonight.

I also bought a body pillow. I didn't splurge on the so-called pregnancy pillows since I figure a body pillow will do the same job just as well. I am very excited to use it. My lower back has been hurting consistently the past couple of weeks and some days are awful. Hopefully the pillow will help ease various aches and pains and make it easier for me to catch some zzz's.

Second Trimester Par-tay!

At 13 weeks 3 days, I'm officially in the second trimester!!! Let's party! Supposedly, I should be starting to feel much better and sleeping amazingly. It's true that I'm starting to feel better, but sleeping is getting harder. The whole limbs-falling-asleep-within-minutes thing puts a damper on that.

I had an appointment this morning. I was nervous about this one because I knew I wouldn't be having an ultrasound. The doctor found the heartbeat on the Doppler, but it took what felt like forever and I thought for sure there wasn't a heartbeat. We finally heard it, though, and it's the most amazing sound ever! I just wish we could have listened to it longer. The doctor said the heartbeat is nice and strong. Grow, baby, grow!

I was terrified during that awful time when the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat, and even though I now know everything is fine, I still have that fear. My own heartbeat has finally calmed down a bit, but it's taken me the better part of the morning to get over the physical manifestations of that stress. I hope I'll be able to concentrate on my non-baby-incubating duties.

My next appointment will be in three weeks, and then two weeks after that at 18 weeks, we should be able to find out the gender. Even though it's normal for people to go every four weeks, I'm excited I don't have to wait quite that long between these next two appointments. That goes a long way in easing my anxieties.

Motherhood Maternity Experience

I popped into Motherhood Maternity over the weekend. I had no clue what to expect in terms of sizing or anything, really, so the saleswoman showed me around the store. I do not yet need maternity clothes, but maternity underwear is a different story.

My normal undies started fitting tight a few weeks ago. I had an unattractive double-belly situation going on. I mentioned to Junior that I thought it was time to get a bigger size, and he responded that I should get some maternity underwear. Um, no! I probably rolled my eyes. I was not mentally prepared for such a leap. I envisioned baby pink, huge granny-panties (you know, the pair Kevin Bacon held up and looked at dismally when comparing them to his wife's pre-pregnancy pair in She's Having My Baby). I joked about this with a new-mommy friend, but she seriously told me I needed to go the maternity route. I'm so glad I did! The style looks the same to me, but the bands don't cut into my belly. And they're cute. Woot!

I also tried on a pair of the secret-fit jeans. That was a trip. I even strapped on the six-month padded belly they had in the dressing room. I think I'm lucky I'll be pregnant in south Florida during the hottest part of the year because I won't be wearing jeans often. They weren't so cute. Let's just say there was severe butt sagging. The saleswoman tried to tell me it won't be a problem once I have a bigger belly, but I don't believe her. Ugh, jeans. They're never easy.

Ouch reached a whole new level...

Um, either the minor pains I felt in the last week or so were super mild round ligament pains, or they weren't such pains at all. But what I felt in the middle of the night when I rolled over to my other side definitely was. (And this was no dainty-lady roll by any means. It was very much a beached-whale-flopping-around-crazily moment.) Oh mah gah! The sudden, sharp pain low on the right side actually knocked the breath right out of me for a few seconds. For a second I wondered if perhaps one of those ligaments actually tore right off and my uterus was left dangling. So gross.

But, it really only lasted for a couple of seconds and now I'm all better. Whew.

Ouch!

I'm 12 weeks 3 days. One week until my next appointment and the official start of the 2nd trimester! Woot!

I've been noticing some changes. My lower back has been killing me this week, which I think my be due to my retroverted uterus. It's supposed to "unretrovert" itself during the pregnancy, I think, but right now it might be pushing against my back as it's growing. I've been getting some great massages from the daddy-to-be, though!

I'm having some mild aching and cramping here and there, too. It goes away if I change position and is common during this stage. Some round ligament pains might be mixed in there a little bit, too. It's hard to distinguish everything that's going on in there.

My legs have started bothering me at night. I have a hard time getting comfortable in the first place, but I get pains that are a weird combination of my legs falling asleep and charlie horses. Ugh! I was hoping for a few more weeks of easy sleep. Maybe sleep will get more peaceful as my back pain eases up.

I'm still a hungry hungry hippo. I had oatmeal for breakfast. That would always fill me up until lunchtime before pregnancy, but it's been 1 1/2 hours and my stomach is grumbling again. Off to raid the fridge...

Ooh! And not-so-ouch thing: My energy just might be coming back a wee bit. Hooray!

Confession

Today I've eaten breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, and now I'm hungry again. It's 4:00. I've had lots of protein and fiber, I swear! My stomach has become a bottomless pit.

So, my confession is I'm off to serve myself some of the chicken and noodles that are ready in the crockpot now. And then again when I eat dinner with Junior.

I have no shame.

Aches and pains

I'm keeping this blog largely in an effort to chronicle my experiences and help me remember what things I felt and what happened when.

So, that being said, I cannot believe I've forgotten to blog about the headaches. Oh, the headaches! I get one every.single.day. And Tylenol doesn't do anything for my pain. I'm trying to avoid caffeine, which has always been my go-to headache annihilator. So I have to suck it up. I'm using hot and cold compresses, but they really don't get rid of the pain.

Before I forget (haha! see number 5), here are the other aches and pains I've experienced:

1. Mild cramping off and on until about week 7ish.
2. Low back pain around weeks 4-5.
3. Morning sickness, which started dissipating weeks 10-11.
4. Gagging and puking. This lovely symptom didn't start until after the morning sickness eased up, which doesn't make sense to me. But, ick.
5. Pregnancy brain. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

These baby dreams are sending me conflicting information!

I've had another couple of baby dreams over the past week. In the first dream, we had twin girls. When I told Junior about my twin dream, I laughed it off: "At least we know we don't have to worry about that." He was a little freaked out and said "twins have been missed before!" I don't remember much about the second dream, but I know it was about a baby girl. That brings the grand total of dreams this pregnancy to two boy, two girl. Come on! How is an anxious pregnant lady supposed to get any mother's intuition from that?!?

I'm 11 weeks 5 days and feeling OK. My cold/cough turned into a terrible sinus infection, so I'm on a round of antibiotics. The morning sickness stays away just long enough for me to start thinking it's gone for good, and then bam! I get another bout of it. I'm still getting pretty tired when I do too much. (And it doesn't take much to get to "too much," so don't judge me for not dusting in, um, three weeks. OMG! Did I just admit that on the Internet?!? Delete now! DO IT!). I think I may have had some minor round ligament pain a couple of nights ago. I got some sharp pains low on the right side whenever I moved much or turned onto my other side during the night.

The pooch is growing a little bigger, but my clothes still fit. Maybe I was wearing too-big clothes before? I've lost one pound of my pre-pregnancy weight, but I know my lack of exercise and poor nutrition are going to catch up to me in no time if I don't get it under control. I blame the sinus infection. And ice cream. And Easter candy.