As a quick background, I got a positive pregnancy test on March 12 with an EDD of November 21, 2014. We couldn't have been happier!!! Six months isn't a long time, but we weren't sure how many more months it would be, if we could get pregnant at all. I announced the happy news to my dear hubby with a "Welcome Home, Daddy" banner to greet him after his work day.
March 12 was Wednesday in the first week of Lent and despite extreme fatigue and a little morning sickness, we were able to keep it a secret from our families until Easter!!
Symptoms
As I recall now (the memories are already not so crisp), the fatigue started immediately (even before the positive test) and my chest was extremely sore/bruised feeling (starting several days before the positive test).
About six weeks along, the fatigue increased and I started feeling "icky" every day. It wasn't distinct nausea, but just an unsettled stomach and cruddy feeling. I had kept at our Paleo menu as we had been doing for the previous five months or so, but my food aversions ramped up and after about six weeks along, I couldn't handle the food prep anymore. Being on my feet for long periods of time in the kitchen was already hard, and the sight of raw meat made it worse.
So we abandoned the healthy meal plan in favor of foods that were at least semi-appealing to me and our diet became much heavier in processed foods. I'm not thrilled about that, but ya gotta do whatcha gotta do.
During Passion Week and Holy Week and continuing into Easter Week (when I was 7-10 weeks along), my fatigue peaked. I would sleep ten hours at night, wake up at 8:30 in the morning, and literally be able to take a 3-hour nap by 11:30 am! My eyes would burn and my head couldn't focus on anything other than the need to lay down.
Toward the end of Easter week, my fatigue seemed to ease up but I was a lot more "gaggy" from Good Friday/Holy Saturday (9 weeks) onward.
I've thrown up a few times (first time was Palm Sunday/8 weeks along; second time was Holy Saturday/nine weeks along; the third time was April 30/10-1/2 weeks along; the fourth time was just a few days ago - the second Sunday after Easter/11 weeks along) - each time has been more due to an overactive gag reflex than because of nausea. Twice was on an empty stomach; twice I had food on my stomach.
As of now - Wednesday, May 7 and 12 weeks along - I still feel nauseous/gaggy/icky from time to time, but it isn't constant; and although I wear out easily if I start doing an activity (walking, shopping, even just sitting and talking), I have a little more stamina than I did a few weeks ago. I am hoping that another week or two will see me feeling much more energetic again - especially since I have a storage room to convert into a baby's room and freezer meals to make for the end of the third trimester and postpartum!
Telling the Family
After what felt like forever, but was actually 5-1/2 weeks, we finally shared the good news with our family on Easter!! We told them by means of a little card inside of an Easter Basket:
I captured (very briefly before I was attacked with hugs!) their reaction on video!
Is it Twins??
My first prenatal appointment was on Tuesday, April 29. DH was able to get off work a little early to come with me. I had lab drawn and was told what the routine for visits would be, got a packet of information from the nurse, and then waited to see the midwife.
The midwife had a list of questions regarding family history and our personal habits and then we finally got to the highly-anticipated part of the visit where she would use the Doppler to listen to the baby's heart-tones. :) Before she got out the Doppler though, she felt my uterus to gauge its size. According to my dates, I was 10w3d along at that point, but she was pretty sure my uterus was measuring 11-12 weeks! We had been joking about twins all along, but when she recommended getting an ultrasound to confirm dates and "rule" out twins, I couldn't believe it!!
We proceeded to listen to fetal heart tones, which she was able to find pretty quickly near the top of my uterus. 170 bpm and we could hear them crisp and loud and clear!
The next day, she scheduled an ultrasound appointment for us here in SM. 3:45 pm on May 1. DH was once again able to get off work a little early to be there with me. After mounting suspense, the ultrasound showed just one little baby in there. He/she was measuring 11w2d, so they moved my official due date up to November 18. I had actually been hoping that we'd find out it was twins, so I was surprised and a little disappointed to find out it wasn't; but nonetheless, very happy to have a healthy baby in there, growing right along!!! It was a bonus that we got "baby's first pictures" so early too. We had not expected to get a sonogram until 20 weeks along.
Here is our little one (at the time, slightly smaller than the size of a kumquat, according to BabyCenter.com - about an inch-and-a-half long from crown to rump). So cute!!
My next prenatal appointment is scheduled for Wednesday, May 28. I'll be about 15 weeks along.
This picture, taken last night, shows my "wannabe" bump at 12 weeks along, haha!
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