Flashback: 8 Weeks

Still no belly pics, because this was pre-ultrasound, but here we are as a family at Izzy's - because if I could eat nothing else, at least there was still ice cream!

Due Date: February 25, 2012

Weight Gain: Didn't weigh myself at all.

Symptoms: Very nauseous almost all the time. Threw up twice, once in the morning after eating a cracker, once after trying to eat 2 bites of a bolognese sauce Ben made. Nausea seems to be worse in the evenings. Feel extremely gassy all the time, but am pretty constipated. Really tired but not sleeping that solidly. Still up to pee most nights. All around just feel like crap most of the time.

What's different this time: Not much actually - I'm feeling very deja vu with this pregnancy, especially since my due date is just a few weeks after Annie's, so the seasons line up too. Going back and reading my emails to myself from early pregnancy last time and I'm finding that apparently I felt pretty much exactly this same way, except I had more headaches last time. I also was very addicted to ibuprofen last time and thankfully don't have to deal with that this time. I can only hope that the pregnancies will continue to be similar! One thing that is different is that I'm not nearly as obsessive about this pregnancy - I rarely go on message boards and haven't cracked open a single book or looked at a single website other than to figure out my due date.

Cravings: Kraft Macaroni and cheese, bagels, overall crappy food.

Aversions: Anything that could be considered good or healthy.

Sleep: Got a lot better, I gave in to going to bed as soon as I want to, which some nights is 8:30. I still think I'm awake a lot but it's not as bad.

I am loving: just being pregnant - even though I don't feel good right now I'm still really grateful to have gotten pregnant so easily. I am also loving Ben even more than normal because he is just always so understanding and basically is doing everything around the house and for Annie while I am feeling crappy. He's awesome.

I miss: Still energy and my appetite.

I am looking forward to: The ultrasound on Monday and hopefully seeing a healthy baby. I really want to tell our families.

I'm spazzing about: Nothing really, but just am a little sad about probably feeling crappy for the rest of the summer.

Best thing about this week: Told Nate and Molly - it felt good to let the cat out of the bag!

Milestones: I'm not sure - I think baby is developing arms and legs.

Movement: Just painful gas. Yay!

It's a...: Whatever.

Exercise: Only if going down the stairs to pee during the night counts.

Diet: Horrible, but I'm able to have a fruit/spinach smoothie most mornings. Today I choked down part of a salad. I went to Target and stocked up on pregnancy food: jolly ranchers (which have saved me from dry heaves many times already), string cheese, crackers, granola bars, cereal bars, cereal, mac and cheese, PB&J, pretzels. I'm pretty much eating every 1.5-2 hours or I feel horrible.

**I'm also going to combine this with a written account of our 8 week ultrasound, purely for my own records - this happened 2 days after the above was written**

We had our 8 week ultrasound today. As with last time, I was very nervous, but not quite AS nervous as last time. Knowing that my body has the ability to create and sustain a life like Annie is very comforting, it turns out. I still knew there was and is the very real possibility that this pregnancy doesn't work out, but I also know that it's possible that it WILL and that possibility is more likely. Our appointment was at 1pm, so neither of us were particularly productive before that. We got to the office at about 12:45pm, and we were the only people in the waiting room for awhile. Ben was talking about normal things for awhile, so I told him to pipe down because I just didn't want to talk. We got called back by a familiar looking woman, who may have either done our 8 or 20 week ultrasound last time. She asked if it was okay if a med student observed, further making our experiences very similar. We went in and she asked a few questions and we got on with it.

Almost right away, she said "and there's baby, I'll just measure from crown to rump" and I could see the flicker of the heart beating - what a relief. Ben then said "so, is it a boy or a girl?!?" and laughed. Ugh. So annoying sometimes :) The tech couldn't tell he was joking apparently and said "oh it's one or the other! Way too early to tell that" so I told Ben to just not speak for the remainder of the appointment. She then turned on the sound and measured the heartbeat, so we got to hear that, it was at 168. She then moved on and measured my cervix and my ovaries. It lasted about 10 minutes, and as soon as she was done, I texted the few friends I had told to tell them all went well! I measured at exactly 8 weeks - I thought since sometimes I have a 26 day cycle I might be at 8 weeks, 2 days but guess not, so that means my due date is February 27th.

We then met with a nurse which was kind of annoying - since it felt like we'd JUST been over this, and nothing has changed. I got bloodwork today, and I asked if it was simple to be tested to see if I'm a carrier for PKU (just because Becca's kids have it so it'd be kind of nice to know) but she said we'd have to meet with a genetic counselor. Um, no thanks - not like I'm going to do anything different if this baby DOES have PKU, so whatever! We got literally the same packet of information and photo-copied sheets of lists of what not to eat that I got last time too, which I found funny. The nurse asked if I'd be willing to participate in a study on the effects of some chemical on infant development, so I said sure, but I kind of regretted that because it took forever for the woman to explain the study. Right as we were finally walking out, the power went out, so I couldn't make my next appointment and we had to take the stairs. After a brief time of getting lost, we got to the lab where luckily there was no wait and I gave something like 8 vials of blood. Fun! We heard them say that the place was running on generators and that the AC was down - glad we got out of there when we did on this 120 degree day!