It All Happened So Fast!

I bet you are thinking I am talking about getting pregnant right? Just 2 weeks of care free sex and laughter.... No. I am talking about the signs and symptoms of pregnancy. As I have said before, I grew up around pregnant women in my Mother's midwifery practice. I thought you walked around feeling and looking very normal for a while and then BLAM! Your belly popped and you looked/felt pregnant. Well, let me tell my inner child something. I felt pregnant 3 days after having that morning sex. Three days later my breasts looked odd. They felt heavy and hot and were sensitive to my shirt through my bra. By 7 days they were busting up and over the top of the bra. I had quadraboob. I had to revert back to my heavier days bra and man alive did these things feel heavy! Walking downstairs to the bathroom before bed with nothing but my t-shirt on I cried out in discomfort as they felt like they were 4 feet out infront of me and totally unsupported. Ouch! By day 10 I was tired. Really bone crushingly tired. I also ached. I felt like I had the flu. No nausea but profound exhaustion, mild body aches and intermittent dizziness. I was still in the halucinating the little pink line at this point mind you so it was "possible" I was just gearing up for the mother of all periods. Then the period didn't come, the blue cross confirmed it and whammo! I was in the running to become someone's mother.

The first thing I might need to explain is that when they calculate "how far along" you are they add the 2 weeks before you would even ovulate. So when someone says "I am 12 weeks along" they have been actually knocked up for something like 10 weeks. The first 2 weeks are a gimme since it would be really really hard to determine when exactly you ovulated and conceved so they just start things off from the first day of you last period as that is 1. The scientificly accepted Day 1 of your cycle that month and 2. A day most women can at least sort of pin point.

Ok, so by the time I was 5 weeks along (pregnant for 3 weeks) I could 1. pee on a stick and make it change colors 2. Sleep for days on end if I had the chance 3. Eat ALL the CHOCOLATE (eventhough I am not really a very big chocolate fan in real life) 4. Get winded running like I was some kind of closet chain smoker 5. Cry over nothing like a day time soap star. I had pretty regular nightly body aches which were really bad if I had not taken an afternoon nap. The unfortunately timed emotional outbursts were well, always unfortunately timed and over absolutely nothing real EVER! I also started getting really nauseated if I got hungry. As long as I ate though I was fine.

Week 6 we were at the country fair and I honestly was so excited to go to fair but was so sick for just about the entire 5 days we were there. I puked a few times, tried to nap but it was like our tent had been set up on the surface of the sun! It was HOT durring the day. I just felt generally crummy. Ocassionally I would be able to push through it when it wasn't so bad. I could take a tylenol and make it work somethimes. Other times it just sucked. I felt sad that I wasn't feeling 'fun'. Every meal was a potential land mine. I had to FORCE myself to eat my favorite cheesecake in the whole world people! Nothing was sacred. I made it through the fair and all in all had a good time, even if I didn't really feel like myself for much of it. And possibly, most importantly, The Hubbs was seeming to adjust to me being less than my ususall up for everything and anything self. He was patient, loving and continued to have a sense of humor for both of us.

When I was heading home from the Fair I puked on the bus. Can we just take a second and mourn the innocence that I lost bending over the toilet in the bus? I thought I had seen gross up close and personal....nope. This trip home marked the start of super sick week 7. I had been doing a really good job with food and vitamins and water up until this week. I had even been avoiding drugs like zofran, an antiemetic very good at knocking down nausea and shown to be totally safe in pregnancy. I was trying hard to just muddle through with ginger tea and naps. This week that was no longer an option. Turns out I have a very strong stomach and I can be really really nauseated for a super long time before I give in a puke. Work involves me waking up at 0245 to start my shift on the ambulance at 0400. Ass early! My stomach really hates this. I was almost late several days this week 7 rotation because I was SURE I was going to puke and I just needed another second with the toilet. Well, no, I just waited until I was pulling in to work and puked in the dumpster there. Uggh! I then proceeded to feel generally green for most of the rest of the day. This lasted the entire 4 days. I caved so hard! I took the zofran. Sometimes twice a day just to make it through my 12 hr shift. My work partner, bless his soul, is a father of two adult boys and a happy grandfather of one (so far). He told me about his wife's pregnancies and puking into the popcorn bucket at the movies. Awesome. He is sweet and considerate and asks me how I am doing. He even bought me a sprite which sounds stupid but at the moment it happened I had been driving and feeling so awful it was all I could do to just grip the wheel and get us from point to point. He went into the store to get lunch and I was literally, just trying to sit still and not yack in the ambulance. When he smiled and handed me the sprite with a ton of ice I could have cried.

I think feeling lonely in all of this is one thing I never expected. I thought, oh, people love pregnant ladies. This will be all sparkles and joy. Instead, I have found this early period a little lonely as we are not telling people until we make it to 12 weeks, with the exception of best friends, work partners and eventually family. I am dying to tell my mother. I will see her just as I round 9.5 weeks. I want to tell her face to face and see her face when I tell her I am going to give her a grandbaby. That means though, that I am forgoing all the advice and nurturing my mom is renound for as a midwife. Somedays that is harder to maintain than others. Like today when I am missing her like crazy.

So, yeah. I think this has been the biggest whirlwind I have ever experienced. It all seems to be on the up and up. I have battled the crushing fatigue, the ginormous breasts, the emotions, the cramping, the burping and am currently working on the nausea and food aversions. I am moving right along. Before I know it we will be 2 months in and it will be time to make some decisions about testing and ultrasounds and painting rooms...But lets just keep it simple for a little longer shall we? Can we? Please?