3/21/2016
Y'all - we're halfway to having a baby! My tune definitely might change as I continue to grow and get more uncomfortable during the hottest months of the year, but for now, I feel like time is going TOO fast! We still have so much to do! So many projects to complete! So many baby things to buy! The list is really never-ending. Don't get me wrong, I'm SUPER excited to meet this little one, but there is literally more things on our to-do list than we could possibly get done before the baby gets here. I guess it's time to prioritize.
Aside from that, we're really excited!
To celebrate our half way mark - I decided to do an extra post to reflect on pregnancy in general so far. So many things are different from what I expected, so it will be interesting to look back and see how my perspective changes over this pregnancy and through the next.
So far, I can say that I have loved pregnancy. No, it's not easy. Yes, there are definitely bad days. I've had a few really bad days. Overall though, it has been great! When I'm not feeling well, I just remind myself WHY I'm not feeling well and it helps SO much. I love knowing that I'm growing a little blessing that is half me and half Josh. I love getting to feel the baby wiggle around inside my belly. I love watching my bump grow! All that makes the negative stuff SO worth it! Early on, I accepted that there were going to be things about pregnancy that I didn't love, but without those things, we wouldn't get to have a Baby K at the end of it all.
Accomplishments -
So far, we have:
- Almost completed our registry. I'm sure we'll make some tweaks here and there, but we've done most of the research on the products that mean the most to us. The one BIG thing that we haven't decided on yet is a baby monitor. We keep putting this research off for some reason. It's just not very exciting to us right now.
- Moved my office into the bonus room (it is a disaster area right now and it needs some major attention, BUT, we do have a dedicated nursery)
- Organized the guest room closet
- Removed EVERYTHING from the nursery that doesn't belong in there - closet included
- Bought crib bedding
- Started our cloth diaper stash (Oh yea, we decided before we were pregnant that we were going to cloth diaper and I'm way more excited than I should be about this)
- Stacked our washer and dryer (not directly baby related - but it allows us to close the laundry room door - this wasn't a possibility with our washer and dryer sitting side by side. I definitely don't want our little one going in there and playing with bleach or dragging dirty clothes all over the house, so this was a must do item on our list)
- Organized the baby's closet (to the best of our ability at this point. We haven't purchased any baskets or anything to help with organization yet. We still have to decide what works best for us. This will likely happen after we decide what to do about the dresser/changing table)
- Gotten rid if quite a bit of clutter that we didn't need - but we still have a LONG way to go
- Researched getting a breast pump through insurance - now I know what we will need to do to get this taken care of
- Made our announcement - you know, just a few weeks ago.
- Booked a babymoon that we'll be taking in April...then booked a second babymoon that we're taking later in April because our first one was cancelled! Woohoo! Yay vacation! We've both been itching to go on a trip, so we're really excited.
Now that I list all that out, I do feel a little more accomplished.
Expectations vs. Reality
I will say that pregnancy has been a lot different than I thought - for the most part.
Food -
I couldn't have been more wrong about the food thing. I thought that I would want a lot more of the junk foods that I loved. In reality, I didn't want sweets very often. I have a huge sweet tooth normally. At first, I was a little turned off by sweets, then I just didn't WANT them. I would say in the past week or so, I've started to get my sweet tooth back. I still limit my sweets because I do want to eat healthy for me and for the baby. Most days now though, I will want a piece of chocolate or something and sometimes we'll treat ourselves to dessert after dinner.
I didn't think I would NOT want to eat anything unless it made me sick. That was also very wrong. Early on, NOTHING sounded appetizing. The most appetizing things I could think of were cereal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I did go through a phase where I made a black bean dip and cheese quesadilla for lunch every day for about a week. I did NOT want veggies at all for several weeks. I normally love veggies, so this caught me off guard. I would still make sure I was getting a few a day, but I would have to sneak them into my food and I wasn't getting as much as I should. I felt like I was feeding a picky toddler, except it was me. I would sneak spinach into pasta. I started buying the pasta that had a serving of veggies in it. I would eat veggie soups so I could dip grilled cheese in them...things like that. As far as having a side of broccoli with a chicken breast...ugh. I was not a fan. As far as my current view on veggies, I would say I'm back to normal. I'll even eat a salad if it has some protein in it. Otherwise, I get hungry again so fast, it's not even worth the time it takes to eat it.
As far as cravings go, I would say that I didn't have any real cravings during the first half of pregnancy. What makes it a craving though? There have been times where I want something, but not any more intensely than I would have before I got pregnant. It's usually something that I can't have, like something specific from a restaurant in MD. (When we go to MD in May, I WILL have Poutine from
Victoria's and spaghetti with meat sauce from
Mamma Roma). Those are things that I have often wanted since we left MD, and probably just because I can't have them when I want. As much as I didn't want sweet things, I did want salty things. Maybe that counts?
Pregnancy glow -
By glow, do people really mean breaking out with acne like you're going through puberty again? If so, I've got that covered. Otherwise...yea, I don't see it.
Emotions -
(Caution - HTGAWM spoiler below)
I expected to cry at the sight of everything. Every cute little baby. Every cute little puppy. Every sad commercial, etc. While I have cried over some silly things, this hasn't been nearly as bad as I expected. The dumb, sappy Super Bowl commercials got on my nerves just as much this year as they did last year. I did cry one time because Josh told me I was eating slow (if I don't eat slow, I'll eat too much and get too full and I'll feel like I have to throw up). Another time, I REALLY cried - like, ugly, shaky, got mascara on Josh's shirt from crying kind of cry, because our pantry wasn't finished in the week that I thought it would be. That was probably the dumbest thing I've cried over. Now, the pantry is done and I'm fine. If I hear sad stories about babies, I will cry. I cried when we watched
Blackfish and the baby whales were kidnapped. I cried when Annalise Keating lost her baby. I cried when a couple at church talked about giving birth to their stillborn at 23 weeks. I've gotten more emotional over some other small things that wouldn't normally phase me, but again, this hasn't been as intense as I expected. I wouldn't call myself an emotional wreck by any means and that's more of what I expected.
Symptoms -
(skip this part if you don't want details. Some of them might not be pretty)
Breast tenderness -
I underestimated this one big time. I knew it would be a thing, but it was much more intense than I expected. I previously had no fears of breastfeeding. Now, I do. I'll tough it out and do everything I can to make it work, but I know that it won't be easy and that I've just seen the beginning of the boob pain.
Increased sense of smell -
I thought I would be able to smell EVERYTHING, but it hasn't changed much that I've noticed. JUST this past week, I noticed that I smelled some things in the grocery store that I wouldn't normally expect. On election day, I could smell the lotion that I had put on my belly while we were waiting in line. We have woven baskets in our bedroom (that have been in there since we moved) and I noticed the smell of those earlier in my pregnancy. I hadn't noticed the smell before unless I was right beside them, so I asked Josh if he smelled them and he said yes, so maybe the lack of me not smelling them before was just me being unobservant. Those are the only cases I can recall where I smelled things that I may not have been able to smell before being pregnant.
Morning Sickness -
I thought I would have constant morning sickness for a LONG time. Maybe this is because the people closest to me who have been pregnant had REALLY bad morning sickness. My sister was diagnosed with
hyperemesis gravidarum and another really close friend had to get prescriptions to help with morning sickness. Maybe I expected it to be really bad to try to prepare myself for it. Either way, when I thought about pregnancy before, I just assumed that I would spend the majority of my days in a bathroom, hugging the toilet. I thought I would throw up multiple times a day, every day. I thought foods I loved would make me throw up and it would cause me to hate them forever...and that I wouldn't want to eat anything as a result. I thought I would throw up in very public places and get super embarrassed. This wasn't my experience. I didn't feel much morning sickness before week 8, with one exception.
My first real issue with nausea was when we visited Josh's grandma in VA only about a week after we found out we were pregnant. I was a little over 5 weeks. Visiting the nursing home really did a number on me. I was nervous, because we were waiting until Christmas to tell family, so we were still hiding it. I was worried that I would get sick in front of everyone. I drank tons of water, had a Ginger Ale and sucked on Preggie Pops. They helped a lot. I had to step outside to get some fresh air a couple times, but I ended up not giving away our little secret.
Before 8 weeks, I only threw up 3 times (unless you count throwing up from brushing my teeth. I stopped counting that number because it was happening too often and I think that's separate from typical morning sickness). Once was in the middle of the night right after we found out. I threw Oreos up on the wall in the bathroom with absolutely no warning. Since nothing similar happened for a while after that, I'm assuming this was just my nerves getting to me over the realization that there was a person growing inside me. The second time, I bit into a moldy apple. I don't count this because that would have made me throw up pre-pregnancy. The last one, I was in the middle of doing yoga and I started to get hungry. I thought about what I would cook and I remembered we had breakfast sausage in the fridge. The thought of those little links made me lose it. That, I definitely blame on pregnancy. I love breakfast links. I wish now that I could remember which week that was, but I can't. I know it was still before I started to feel sick though.
After those things, it was smooth sailing for a bit. My app warned that it hits most people hardest around 6 weeks, so I thought I was getting away without any real morning sickness. I didn't, it just hit me later and passed quickly. Weeks 8 and 9 were bad. Great timing because that was right at Christmas, when we were telling family AND we had a week off work together to be productive or go do fun stuff AND we were having visitors. In the end, we didn't get much done during that time. On top of just being tired, I felt hungover, minus the feeling hungry part. Josh got Sea Bands and these ginger lozenge things to put in my Christmas stocking and both of those seemed to help a lot. I drank tons of water and Ginger Ale and snacked on Goldfish Crackers, olives or salted almonds. I snacked a lot in general and ate small meals (large meals made me feel awful). I napped often and did prenatal yoga. I think all those things helped quite a bit too. I also think that not having a crazy sense of smell helped me out. In then end, I did more dry heaving than actual throwing up. I think I probably threw up only a total of 10 times or so (again, if you don't count when I was brushing my teeth). I slept with the trash can beside the bed, but I never had to use it (around bedtime is when I would usually feel really bad - so I guess when I was most tired? This is why I think naps helped). I would feel nauseous when I woke up in the morning, but once I ate, this usually went away. The one time I got sick in public, I made it to a bathroom, so it was no big deal. I thought I was going to get sick in the car several times and I was prepared with a bag to throw up in, but I never did. Thank goodness! There were a few days during our break when I just felt awful. I laid on the couch all day and napped on and off, trashcan by my side. I ate whatever I could, got sick a little bit and napped some more. This is more like what I thought I would feel like for several weeks, so just having a few days of this was a win for me!
Gag reflex -
See all above comments referencing tooth brushing. This improved a lot once I stopped using the Sonicare. I could NOT brush my tongue with that thing to save my life, so Listerine and I became very good friends. For a while, I was getting sick several times a week just from brushing my teeth. One morning, I was so frustrated that I cried and told Josh brushing my teeth was my least favorite part of the day. I've come a long way since then. The old fashioned toothbrush and I don't fight too often. I have a rule that if I can make it through brushing all of my teeth without almost throwing up, I'll brush my tongue. Otherwise...Listerine. I think it's a combination of trying to brush my tongue and the toothpaste. Pregnant me just doesn't like either of those. I have an appointment for a cleaning in May, so it will be interesting to see how that goes...
Heartburn -
I haven't experienced much heartburn yet (although I do realize this is much more common as the baby gets bigger and pushes up against my stomach), but I have experienced some acid reflux. It's gross, but so far, it's just been the acids coming up without any real pain and it's only happened a handful of times. I've noticed it most when I've eaten chili and laid down at bedtime.
Headaches -
I've only had a couple headaches so far. There were a couple minor ones that I wouldn't have taken anything for even if I wasn't pregnant, I would have just dealt with them. I've had a few that I would have taken Ibuprofen for if I wasn't pregnant. I know I can take Tylenol, but I've chosen to tough it out. I decided if I'm going to deliver a baby in a few months, I should be able to deal with a headache.
Vision -
I haven't noticed any serious vision changes. I have noticed that my eyes are dry more often, but I don't know if it's because I get less sleep or if it's a legit difference due to pregnancy.
Boobs growing -
Yes
Fatigue -
I way underestimated this. I definitely didn't expect to be so tired so early. I was exhausted all the time. For a long stretch, I used my lunch break pretty much every day to take a nap. If I didn't, I was literally ready to go to bed for the night at about 7:00, no joke.
The bladder thing -
If you know me, you know I already pee a lot. This got worse pretty much immediately. I started waking up to pee in the middle of the night probably at 5 weeks. I still do some nights, but not every night like it was earlier on. This did catch me a little off guard since I didn't expect to see a difference at least until I started to show.
