Pregnancy 1 Weeks 6-8

The goal for me right now is to make sure to try and tell you as much of the "cold hard truth" each week. So I will start with a "Symptoms & Weight section" and then will be followed by a "focus" which will include unique thoughts, worries, or details of that week. Thank you for following our journey!

Week 6- Symptoms: The main symptoms I experienced throughout this week were morning sickness, fatigue, breast soreness/itch. First of all morning sickness truly is a joke! It is a constant nausea feeling that I experience all day every day so far! Nausea is not vomiting though! Vomiting was something I only experienced one day this week but that isn't to say constant nausea is okay. It is so uncomfortable, makes it hard to eat, and definitely influences what I was eating. Tomek and I did a lot of research and found that peppermints and peppermint tea were both very helpful with the nausea AND Tomek had me start drinking Pedialyte, since I was struggling to eat. To try and help with the breast soreness and itching I bought some stretch mark cream and aragon oil that were recommended and hopefully they will be helpful throughout.

Weight: This week I weighed in a comparison from 5 weeks and have gained 0.5 lb. This could obviously be general fluctuation or even a difference in the clothes I was wearing, which is why all of my future weigh-ins will be at the same time of day in the exact same outfit.

Focus: What BIG News?! I want to tell everyone! But I can't. How do I contain this?? Normally Tomek and I both have an "open-book" mentality with our family and even close friends. So already it is so hard not to tell anyone about our baby on board or what we are experiencing. So what do I recommend?

1) Well first of all it is hard not to tell people and you may really want to. Why didn't we then? My logic, that I would really recommend, is that if you aren't comfortable going through the emotions you may experience with a miscarriage with all those you share the news with then you should hold out as close to your second trimester as possible. (Consider looking at: https://datayze.com/miscarriage-chart.php) I found that if we told people when we found out the chance of miscarriage would have been around 18%. Instead we have decided to wait until the percentage drops to around 1% (though we are still deciding when)! So because of these thoughts we didn't tell anyone yet. But here are some other options so you aren't bursting out the seams for weeks:

• A) Join a pregnancy forum! No one gets on these unless they are pregnant. There are so many applications on your phone that you could find with these, I use the Baby BumpPro application. Women join the forums and talk about the symptoms, how their pregnancy is going, share ultrasounds (and make guesses as to boy or girl), and more than anything support each other throughout their pregnancy! I loved doing this being able to share things that I am sharing with you (after telling everyone) that I could actually tell them immediately.
  

• B) This is still something to be cautious about but I went to a baby store that I knew none of my family would know the workers or people there and so I briefly shared my new excitement as I was checking out.
  

• C) Lastly is of course this blog! Now of course you can just up and post it on a running website that your family or friends can see but it is nice to get it all out in writing. I also love the idea of being able to one day share these with my child, which is why I am also writing in a journal that they will be able to see one day.

2) Key note is that I started my Kegel trainings on the 8th as well. These are very important for your delivery and recommend attempting to do them daily. (Also a note, flexing your butt -- which some think is right-- is not you flexing and relaxing your kegel muscles. If you aren't sure you are doing it right when you go to pee attempt to stop the flow, allow, and stop, etc. That is your Kegel muscles.

3) Birthing Worries: So this week I started doing a lot of research about birthing techniques, and I promise not to shove a certain perspective on you but I will let you know that the plan I will be utilizing is natural. This means that I won't be utilizing pain medication, epidurals, and won't be laying in a bed for the entire duration of my labor and delivery. At first I was nervous about this because I wasn't sure if I could handle the pain, how bad the pain would be, and what I should do to prep for this plan if I wanted to follow through with it. So why did I conclude this week with the definite yes natural birthing only? Well, I did a lot of research and was uncomfortable with the idea of what an epidural does to my body, I hated the idea that they ask you to be very still while they insert it into your spine though you are probably experiencing contractions, and I also didn't want to have a procedure done that required me to be in a room with only the person doing it (aka my husband wasn't allowed to be in the room, YIKES!).

7 Weeks- Symptoms: Morning sickness has definitely picked up and is worse for me than last week was. The flu is definitely bad this year so between that and feeling nauseous all the time I have told many that I myself am sick and let them make their own assumptions of what it is. This was partially because I feel so crummy but also I am able to stay at home, other than work, and focus on growing a healthy little one inside my healthy body! I have avoided family a bit more also because of the fatigue and just wanting to lay around but also so I wouldn't accidentally tell them. This is a rough part of the pregnancy because I don't want anyone upset for me lying to them so I avoid them, but then they are even more worried or confused as to what is wrong with me...it will be good when we are able to tell everyone but like I said above, not yet! Weight: The little bit of weight gain I noticed I have already lost so like I said above probably just standard weight fluctuation. so this week just consider me zero'ed out. :)

Focus: There really hasn't been a whole lot to talk about this week. We decided that we would tell our family the weekend after valentine's day mostly because we figured it was an easy way to not raise suspicions and actually be able to surprise them. For Valentine's day each year we do stuff for loved ones and/or random acts of kindness for others instead of ourselves, we like the idea of spending all year randomly loving on each other rather than feeling obligated to on one specific day each year. This means our family shouldn't expect anything when we tell them we got them a gift or want to take them out. :)

8 Weeks- Symptoms: This week I still am experiencing morning sickness but previous weeks I was basically only on a cracker and sprite diet and this week I have actually been able to eat real food again, so hopefully that is a good sign. I am also still experiencing fatigue and breast soreness. Weight: I have lost 2lbs.

Focus: First mood swing & FIRST OB APPOINTMENT!! Yay!

Let us hit the not so nice topic first. Yes, mood swings happen! I honestly looked at them as a joke before but with the hormone fluctuations and quick changes in your body it is no surprise that this is something that happens. I went out to eat with my husband, super excited to get my beef burrito with queso on top (make sure it is pasteurized ladies!). I ordered my meal, the one I get literally EVERY time I go there (I'm not a good foodie, I don't try new things, I fall in love with a plate at a restaurant and that is what I always get!), BUT when it comes out they used the taco shredded cheese on top instead of my melted cheese, what?! I went from 0 to 100 and I didn't even realize it until Tomek talked to me after I calmed down. I was so angry. I went up to the front and said "Can I please have the queso that I asked for on my burrito the wrong cheese is on it." Eventually they got my server to come back and I repeated it to him and he said that it would cost more and I was just so upset I said "Yes but that is what I ordered!" Fortunately, Tomek to the rescue, he asked for a small bowl of cheese, which came out super fast, poured it on my burrito and I was immediately happy. I didn't understand why Tomek was so shock-faced. He told me that I literally looked like I was going to murder the waiter with my eyes. I felt so bad I was super nice the rest of the time but since we hadn't even told family yet we couldn't even explain that it was a pregnancy "episode."

We had our first OB appointment on the 29th which included our first ultrasound appointment. I was a little bummed that my first appointment was actually scheduled with a NP instead of my doctor but either way our ultrasound is done by a technician and we were excited for that. So I first come into the office, they have me go pee in a cup (get used to that, apparently it is every appointment), and then go back for the ultrasound, eek!! First the tech utilizes a transvaginal ultrasound (because it was so early) and left the sound on at first, I assume on accident due to how quickly she turned it off, but because of this we were able to hear our new baby's heartbeat (180bpm) and then she showed us the image. Our little one was in the top left (ramzi theory says boy, we will see) and we could see where the little eye was on the side of the head, where the limbs were developing, and it just made me so happy!! Tomek told me he saw a bean/alien but once we got home I flipped the ultrasound around and pointed out each part to him and it made so much more sense to him, he asked why they didn't point that out. I will say going in for the regular OB portion I was a little nervous about the baby's heartbeat and my blood pressure because earlier in the day I left work and was hit my another car on my way home and they kept driving. Fortunately, I was okay and so was my car (minor dent and paint transfer). Before I went into my appointment I decided to utilize some relaxation and meditation techniques (MHC for the win!) and I think those really helped because when I went in my blood pressure was in the ideal range and actually better than before I was pregnant and as I noted above baby had a strong healthy heartbeat at 180bpm. This appointment officially makes our little one CLINCALLY OFFICIAL! :)

The last thing I will note is all the medications I am taking. Everyone is different and make sure you consult with your doctor. I made sure the NP was fine with what I am currently taking. I take a prenatal multi-vitamin, allergy pill, calcium vitamin, D3 vitamin, and 2 vitamin C's a day plus my lactose intolerance pills as needed. Many ask why I am taking the other vitamins when I am taking my prenatal vitamin and the true answer was because so many have been sick and I am forced to be around students all the time and didn't want to get sick myself so D3 and vitamin C both help with that. I doubled up on calcium because I have low tooth enamel already (birth issue) and so my calcium that is pulled from my body for my baby needs to really be supplemented so I don't end up with a higher chance of cavities. Again everyone takes the medications they think are best for them but please talk to your doctor or NP first.