15 weeks worth of changes!

Alright, So I am 15 weeks and 3 days pregnant today. So what has changed? Oh, boy... where do I begin? :)

Well, after finding out I was pregnant, I had very similar symptoms to those pre-period. Therefore, I had no clue that I would even be possibly pregnant. The first week after I found out (I was 5 weeks at the time) nothing really was going on. My appetite I remember picked up for about 3 days, I randomly started eating A LOT, and would just get hungry, don't know if this was pregnancy related or just typical me, but that was the first thing I noticed. Once my 6th week started... you can definitely say I felt " pregnant"... and not in a good way.

My very good and CLOSE friend...Nausea decided to spare me a visit. And ever since, we have been very good friends indeed (NOT.) And since then, I have gone through different phases of nausea, none of which are fun! During the 6th week, I very rapidly could not eat anything. I wouldn't throw up food; I would throw up because I would have an empty stomach. But I could not eat anything at all. Everything smelled and tasted disgusting. And even though my body was somewhat hungry from not eating basically, I could not eat. Therefore I would be weak, and sick, and throwing up for a whole week, it was bad. 

I started looking online and trying to see what the heck I can do! Into the 7th week I slowly started to eat, but the nausea would not go away. At this point I started to try everything. I bought preggie pops, they were ok I think for a day or 2, but weren't AS effective as I hoped. I tried sour candy in general and that sometimes helped. Eating crackers like everyone says or small things to keep something in your stomach wouldn't really work for me. Ginger ale helped sometimes, sometimes not. Sometimes I would drink it and then it would come out. But most of the time my nausea is simply all this excess SALIVA I have and coming out with bile (TMI, I know, hah.) But honestly, I've never heard of this before, SALIVA... like LOTS of it! I can literally stand in front of the sink and just spit out a river of drool non stop sometimes, that's how much I have of it, it's insane! I looked it up it's a common symptom of pregnancy, but man… it's crazy!

So with battling nausea, I've had it for weeks. I still have it now but I can definitely say it's improved. When I started eating, I started eating very specific and random things. Hellooo, cravings!  I don't even remember the first things I started to crave. But if I found a food, and I liked it... I would eat it all day, every day until I didn't want it anymore. And I didn't care, at this point I already lost about 5 pounds and I needed to eat something and hope it doesn't come out! I started eating spaghetti... breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And a specific kind of spaghetti! It would have to be with sauce, butter, and lots of cheddar cheese. I ate that I don't even remember for how long. But it definitely lasted a while. Until one day, I threw it up, and ever since I haven't really craved it as much :)

Leaving my spaghetti phase, I entered a chilli phase. And once again I wanted chilli, and that was all I ate. And maybe it's not the best kind if it isn't homemade, but I adore the Campbell’s roadhouse brand. And I actually still eat chilli, not everyday like I did, but it is still one of those foods I still find enjoyable and comforting to eat.  I started trying new foods so I had SOME sort of variation in my diet. Some things I just could not handle, some were tolerable. Mrs. T's pierogies. Ha, the funny story with them. I randomly saw someone post a picture of them on facebook and in that instance I wanted them, and I wanted them NOW. We ended up going food shopping and had to go through 4 stores before we could finally find them. Let's just say we bought SO many packages of them, that once I got over my pierogie stage, we still have a few boxes in the freezer. There are only certain things I randomly want and CAN eat... transitioning from one food to another and possibly going back to other foods. Proceeding pierogies, I started eating shrimp dumplings, then grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches, pelmeni- but only a certain brand, fried potatoes with egg and cheese, Russian bologna ( certain kind)... that's pretty much it. Reading this list aloud to myself some of these things just sound NASTY to me. Bleh, what was I thinking!

One thing I noticed is I haven't been too fond of meat. I marinated chicken once, and threw up while marinating it. It looked, smelled and felt disgusting! Good thing I have Zhenya, he always eats and finishes everything I don't want! :) 
Overall, I more or less have learned to cope with my nausea. I have lost 9 pounds since pre-pregnancy. I weighed 140 in August I remember, and now I am 131.  I am definitely eating a lot more now. I've learned to respond to my cravings and eat more often when I want to or need to, or else I can throw up because I am so hungry and this excess saliva basically makes me throw up. Nowadays, I don’t throw up as often. If I get a whiff of an unpleasant smell, like cigarettes or garbage, that can definitely make me go running to the bathroom right away. Minty gum has also been a very effective aide all this too. Other than that, I just have random vomit sessions which I can't really explain, sometimes I go back to blaming this random excess of saliva, and if I happen to have a full stomach obviously food comes out. More or less, it's a little more tolerable now and I hope it will get better because this is what EVERYONE is telling me and I am reading everywhere! Because feeling like you have the stomach flu every day is definitely NOT fun!

 Nausea I have to say is probably the biggest symptom I have... the next big one I have been battling with is exhaustion. More than I can explain to you. This hasn't been from the start; I can say it really kicked in the past 3-4 weeks. Even if I get a full night of sleep 7-8 hours... I still feel tired. If I don't get that amount, I am just a non functioning zombie basically. But the past few weeks... I would sleep, wake up in the morning (if I don't have to work of course) and go back to bed. This one day... I literally slept from 12:30- 1:30 the next day... and the only reason I woke up is because I received a phone call from my boss or I would have continued to sleep! I crawled out of bed, worked for 3 hours, came home... passed out for another 2 hours. Woke up at 8pm, and went back to bed at 10-11pm for another 8-10 hours. It's crazy...  no matter how much sleep I get I am just beyond tired! It’s mono status here!
Another symptom I have been experiencing is back pain. Which is weird because that usually happens when you have a big stomach straining you, but for me I have no idea what the case is. I always had a sensitive back. In the sense that I would need to lean against something I wouldn't be able to sit on a chair without a back too long. But recently it's been bad. I spend all my free time in bed basically; I know I'm a loser... but this past New Year’s I understood why! I can't stand for long periods of time, I get weak, exhausted and my back begins to scream with pain. I have to lay flat for a few minutes for it to be a little more tolerable before continuing doing what I'm doing. With that said, I've been trying to sit and lay down more so the pain doesn't get too excruciating to handle.

Those are probably the biggest symptoms I am suffering from... other minor ones include making frequent bathroom trips. Hah, bathroom has become a great hang out place for me. If I'm not puking all the time, I am peeing! In the beginning I think I made frequent bathroom visits because I think I started drinking more. Which makes sense... but recently I think I am definitely urinating more because I notice I don't even drink that more and I don't get a gradual urge, it just hits me- BAM... and I HAVE to go... NOW! But that's more or less tolerable. I've also been growing hair and nails very fast! The nail part is definitely good since I am a big nail biter; it's just amazing to watch. Hair- not so much. Shaving has definitely become a more frequent thing... good thing it's winter though, it's not as MUCH of a worry ;)

That is pretty much it, up to this point. I also have veins everywhere showing... which is normal due to blood increase, and doesn't bother me much. I am basically waiting for all the fun stuff to start happening!  I am showing a little... and the past 3 days seem to have drastically made me randomly show, which is making super excited. I wore maternity pants for the first time yesterday, and they were amazingly comfortable and didn't restrain my belly so it was definitely showing a bit. I am going to probably start taking weekly belly shots from now on to watch my gradual growth. I have taken a few up to this point but they are several weeks apart and not much really showing. But I know in the coming weeks and months I am supposed to undergo much growth and changes, so I definitely want to try to keep track of that!
Right now I am anticipating a few very exciting things. 1. To have a distinct belly bump (which is getting there ;)) 2. To feel the baby move! I know some say they can start feeling movement starting from 16- 20 weeks... so I am really waiting for this! They say first time mommies don't feel it too soon because they don't really know what the feeling is, but 2nd time + mommies can feel it much sooner. So I'm patiently waiting! We actually have a home doppler that we got on ebay for $30, and I have been listening to the heartbeat frequently. It says you can't detect it til' 12 weeks, but I have been hearing it since 9 weeks! And recently I have been trying to listen more intently and maybe see if I can catch any movement while listening but for now all I can hear is the heartbeat, which is also very nice to hear. 3. Finding out the GENDER. This is a big one and I am way too impatient. Once again, to each his own, but I feel life is full of surprises as is, and there is so much that you don’t know about labor and delivery and I don't want or need another surprise as is! So I am impatiently waiting for my sonogram to find out if it is a boy or girl!

I think this pretty much covers the past weeks worth of changes and symptoms... from now on I can start doing weekly -shorter posts concentrating more on just one week of symptoms and changes.

Speaking of one of my favorite symptoms- exhaustion... taking a nap before work sounds wonderful about now. After all, while I can I should take advantage of all the hours of sleep I can get! :)