Pregnancy update: Week 5

This past week has been trying to say the least. It had little to do with being pregnant and a whole lot more to do with life giving me lemons. But I won’t lie being a tad more emotional than normal along with the fatigue, meant that I probably did not deal as well as I could have.

That said though I got through it and baby and I are doing well. Baby has decided it doesn’t like red meat. This was made very apparent to me when having dinner with Hubby one night and the steak turned my stomach. To be fair I think it has a lot to do with having to have meat cooked well done when I’m normally a medium girl. It completely changed the taste. Yuck! And just thinking about it makes me queasy. Also baby doesn’t like bacon.

But beyond that we are both fine as long as I eat every two hours and get lots of sleep. Here’s what week 5 looks like

How far along? 5 weeks

Baby is the size of a: Sesame seed!

Total weight gain/measurements: I weighed myself on Friday morning because we went away for the weekend. I am now 56.6kg.

Maternity clothes: Nope not yet, just lots of layers and loose fitting stuff to hide the bloat

Stretch marks: No not yet, but I have already started with the stretchmark cream morning and evening. Especially on my boobs which seem much bigger this week

Best moment this week: Last week was a very hard one both on a personal and a work level. But I would have to say the best moment was chatting about the baby with family around the dinner table.

Miss anything? Still missing coffee and not having a near constant queasy feeling in my stomach. However if this is as bad as the nausea is going to get then I’m very grateful.

Movement: Nothing yet but I’m looking forward to it

Food cravings: No cravings yet. I still find I need to eat really often to keep the nausea at bay.

Anything making you queasy or sick? Red meat is definitely on the no-fly list right now. I can’t stomach it right now.

Gender: Nothing yet

Symptoms: The nausea is still a companion – some days are definitely better than others. Fatigue, sore boobs, bloating, the cramps still come and go but nowhere near as often as they used. I also get sharp stabbing headaches that come and go, but these also seem to be coming less and less often

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy. Although I will tell you that pregnancy rage is a very real and terrifying thing. It comes out of nowhere and packs a punch. I also seem to get moody for no reason then it goes away just as quickly. For the most part though I’m happy.

Looking forward to: Our appointment with the OB on the 30^th.

 

Pregnancy Update: week 4

How far along? 4 weeks

Baby is the size of a: Poppy seed!

Total weight gain/measurements: 56kg

Maternity clothes: Nope not yet, just lots of layers and loose fitting stuff to hide the bloat

Stretch marks: No not yet, but I have already started with the stretch mark cream morning and evening. Especially on my boobs which seem much bigger this week

Best moment this week: Definitely getting the positive result and then telling our moms they’ll be grannies on Mother’s Day. How awesome is that?

Miss anything? Coffee! I haven’t had any in weeks and I’m a big coffee addict. I’m proud of myself for not caving though!

Movement: Nothing yet but I’m looking forward to it

Food cravings: I haven’t had any cravings or aversions, but I have been hungry all the time! And if I don’t eat I feel ill.

Anything making you queasy or sick? I think the prenatal vitamins turn my stomach a bit. But it passes quite quickly. Other than that not eating or eating too much.

Gender: Nothing yet

Symptoms: Nausea that comes in waves, bigger boobs, darker nipples, fatigue, constant hunger, lower abdominal cramping, dizziness, headaches and heartburn

Belly button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or moody most of the time: Right now happy although yesterday I was in floods of tears watching 20 Feet from Stardom.

Looking forward to: Going to the doctor today, seeing my parents this week and hubby’s parents on the weekend.

 

We have lift off!

It happened! The plane has left the ground, the journey has begun; life will never be the same again!

I am actually in a bit of shock. No matter how much you want it, planned for it or suspect it nothing really prepares you for the sight of that positive symbol.

Here’s how it happened:

A and I both suspected something was up based on my completely irrational behaviour last week along with symptoms like on and off nausea, weird things going on with my boobs, extreme tiredness etc. But you kind of explain those all away. You don’t really want to get your hopes up in case it’s not what you think it is.

I will admit to taking a sneaky pregnancy test in the middle of my two week wait, just to see if I could get an early positive, but nothing. So I told myself to hold off until 14 days post ovulation to test again.

Even then I thought I was in for more of a wait. I had read a lot about positives not showing up until later and that not everyone gets them at 14 days. So I was hopeful, but not really expecting anything when I took the test on Saturday morning.

Well, I must be quite pregnant because the positive showed up before the control window could change. I had barely put the thing down and it was positive.

In the spirit of complete disclosure I will say that my first thought was “holy shit!” Then I rushed off to tell hubby.

I took another test again later that day, this time one of those digital ones that tells you ‘pregnant’ or ‘not pregnant’ and gives you the time since conception.

This one once again said pregnant and told me I was 2 – 3 weeks! (I was expecting 1 – 2 weeks. A says I’m focusing too much on the semantics.)

So I have a doctor’s appointment today to get the blood test done. In the meantime I have been getting more symptoms to complain about 😉

I am definitely getting more nausea and I have a suspicion that the prenatal vitamins make it worse. Today has been the worse day by far. 9.30 is my bedtime these days.

I cannot go much past that. It’s like my eyelids are waited.

My boobs are bigger and this is not my imagination! My bras feel tight and they’re starting to hurt now. I also get shooting pain in my right armpit – random but true.

Heartburn is also becoming my companion now. I don’t get it after every meal, but more often than not it rears its ugly head.

I am also getting a lot of headaches. Really painful shooting headaches that pass relatively quickly and seem to come in waves. I could really do without this one.

I also have dizziness and am lightheaded when I stand up after sitting or lying down for a while. Spots before my eyes and all that fun stuff.

Then finally I have cramping in my lower abdomen. Sometime dull aching cramps and sometimes sharp shooting cramps. They normally come in the afternoon or evening.

So that’s it I feel really excited and overwhelmed and happy and terrified. My emotions are all over the place but the predominant emotion is complete joy.

The Two Week Wait

So I am officially in the middle of my first two week wait. I see know why this experience is so nerve wracking.

You end up obsessing about every little thing, talking yourself down from things and swinging all over the place emotionally. I am trying really hard to be rational about it all. I ‘m young, I have time; if it doesn’t happen this month we will try again.

That said I have had a headache for three days straight, am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open (Yesterday was a public holiday in South Africa – I had a two hour nap during the day and was in bed and asleep by 9.30 that night, I slept straight through to 7.30am. Normally naps during the day mean I battle to sleep at night.)

I was also remarkably nauseous on Wednesday and have been so hungry for the past three days.

The annoying part is: there is a perfectly rational explanation for all these ‘symptoms’. I have been really stressed at work, we’re heading into to the winter months and I always get hungrier with seasonal change and so on and so forth.

So I have been on a maddeningly emotional see-saw and quite frankly I’m ready for it to be done now. The thought of doing this again is exhausting. How do women go through this every month for years?

I was talking with my husband about it yesterday. I am either pregnant or getting sick and I just want an answer now so I can move on with my life because there is nothing worse than not knowing why you feel crappy.

Now here’s the catch – I don’t feel sick. There are no flu or cold like symptoms hanging around (aside from a short-lived bout of nausea which could have been low blood sugar) to make me think that I’m coming down with something.

But this persistent fatigue – so tired I want to cry fatigue – is not normal for me. I have this tiny seed of hope that it could be more than stress and at the same time I don’t want to allow myself to believe it and then I’m disappointed at the end of the cycle.

See? Exhausting right. Well, there’s nothing to do but wait it out. I think I’ll go have a nap while I do…