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! :)

My health... then and now

I think this week is going to have a lot of posts. Well, mainly because I am 15 weeks pregnant and have so much to say up until this point and scoping it out in what organized manner I want to relay this information. 

In reference to my previous post I mentioned I had a colonoscopy scheduled that was cancelled due to the fact we found out about the pregnancy. Not getting into all details and stuff, but before the pregnancy I had what you can say a few issues in some aspects of my health. Nothing too crazy, but nonetheless “issues."

When we moved back to upstate, I at that point was insurance-less, and was for a couple months before we moved, because  I needed to re-apply for it, and since we were moving I would have to re-apply a second time the minute we moved, so I didn't bother and just waited until we would move. It was of course a process, and we got our insurance around the beginning on August. So finally- doctor hopping for me!

After some bothersome symptoms and testing done... they found I was 1. Severely anemic. Like the doctor phrased out “you have close to nothing in your body." Oh, wow... thanks that's reassuring! Ha. 2. I have a possible inflammatory bowel disease (either Crohn's or ulcerative colitis) that can be detected through a colonoscopy. 3. I have a vitamin D deficiency. And lastly... 4. ( this wasn't until a little later) but my thyroid was not producing enough thyroid hormone.

  So, WOW... a lot to take in huh?

 So, I started taking iron supplements, in addition B 12 and Folic acid as recommended by my primary care provider to help my blood absorb the iron or something like that. I also started taking vitamin D. For now, that was it. 

Thyroid... That was a separate issue. My primary doctor said it was slightly low, but nothing to be concerned about. When my gyn (note this is all pre pregnancy!)  saw the same blood results she insisted I see an endocrinologist just in case, to be safe... which sounded good to me. 

 Anyway, amongst all this mess... I took all these supplements for about 2 months, and surprise, surprise I am pregnant! Of course, the first question that pops into my head is if and if yes how are all my current health issues reflecting on the baby and baby's health . Well my stomach thing they said it’s not really a big deal, aside from painful visits to the bathroom making it just basically an additional discomfort to me, there is no issue really. The only concern was (maybe a little TMI) that my stomach wasn’t digesting all my food properly and thoroughly- hence I wouldn’t absorb the vitamins and nutrients from it. But with starting to take prenatal vitamins they said it would not be a concern, and that pregnancy  can actually reverse my symptoms and make this go away on its own… or for at least the duration of the pregnancy. Which in the beginning it didn’t really, but then gradually it did reverse the symptoms. I had issues in the complete opposite spectrum.

 The iron… now if you know… iron is very important in pregnancy. A lot of women BECOME anemic during pregnancy due to the fact that you basically increase 50% more blood in your body or some crazy statistic like that. So the fact I was anemic- and as mentioned- SEVERELY anemic was a concern. But again, I was taking my iron supplements for two months, but have not yet had an additional blood test done to confirm if it went up or not. And at this point my doctor said he would make the decision to either continue me on the pill supplements or give me injections depending on how my body was absorbing the iron. To my benefit, my iron went up. It was still low but they said much better, so it was not an issue to be concerned about.

Back to the thyroid, I haven’t really gotten in depth about that yet. Well, like I said my primary doctor didn’t see a big deal but my gyn did. And I decided I would go see the specialist, what the heck, and by the time I finally got an appointment and the day came I was already pregnant. Yeah, they scheduled the appointment like 6 weeks away, because they were booked.  The endocrinologist looks over all my blood work, and says that if I wasn’t pregnant my thyroid is low but not to the point to be really concerned about it. But because I AM pregnant it is in fact a concern. And they told me to thank my gyn for detecting it so early to start treatment on time.  Basically what she explained to me, was that it’s crucial during pregnancy because the first few weeks or months the baby does not produce its own thyroid hormone, and if it does not get enough, it can affect baby’s IQ. So they put me on synthroid- levothyroxine.  

The fact that this isn’t a supplement or a vitamin worried me. I’m sure the doctors know what they are doing but I double checked to make sure this was safe to take, after all this is a HORMONE I am taking. They assured me it is exactly the kind of hormone my body is not producing enough of that the baby needs. They gave me a printout about hypothyroidism and pregnancy and all so I guess there wasn’t anything else I could really do, and couldn’t find any other downfalls really.

So, where am I today? My iron levels, last I checked was probably about 3 weeks ago at my WIC appointment they did a finger prick, are wonderfully high – in a good way. They said it’s a great range, which was so good to hear after originally starting with “close to nothing.” My thyroid is being checked once a month, and I am expected to take the hormone throughout all of pregnancy and from there on a decision will be made whether or not I will need to continue taking it. I had my 2^nd visit about  3 weeks ago, and they said it went up, so that’s good, but it’s in a range where it can go down if I stop taking the hormone and bring me back to where I was. I have my next appointment approaching so we will see what they say then. Vitamin D, I am still taking them, because I haven’t been instructed to stop yet, but I am seeing my primary care provider this week so I will ask him about that because if my vitamin D levels are okay, I really prefer NOT to take an additional pill every day( in addition to the other 5 I take daily.) As far as my stomach goes, I have been going from inflammatory bowel symptoms to pregnancy constipation on a very weird day to day basis. It varies. The iron was causing a very big reverse in my original symptoms, so I was instructed to not take it as much since the levels went up. I’m just scoping it out for now, there is definitely an improvement, so I am hoping maybe my body will just somehow fall into norm on its own and I won’t need to reschedule a colonoscopy after birth. Regardless that is too far in advance for now and I will cross that bridge when I get to it!

For now, I am happy my iron is up, and hope it stays that way. I am happy my stomach symptoms have slightly improved, and I am happy my thyroid seems to be in a better range and I can continue to maintain it at a good level for the baby. I obviously don’t have ideal health maybe, but I am thankful and blessed everything is going well and hope the rest of the pregnancy continues to proceed this way as well! :)

Here's the story...

Whereeeee to start! Well today is January, 2nd 2013! Happy New Year all, and this year will definitely be a new and exciting year for us! I am 15 weeks and 2 days pregnant today! And can definitely say there has been a numerous amount of changes I have already experienced with this pregnancy til today.

Let me unravel the story from the beginning. That's always a good place to start! :) I found out I was pregnant October 25. I remember this because my long awaited colonoscopy (I will explain why later) was scheduled  on October 29th, and naturally last minute it gets cancelled- but it was thanks to good news so that was okay! I wasn't really experiencing any symptoms that were indicating or making me have any feelings or intuitions about pregnancy, I just happened to be a few days " late" and  with my colonoscopy approaching I had slight paranoia knowing my "luck" heh, I would go through all my fun prepping for the colonoscopy (  if you don't know this prepping involves drinking lots of laxatives the day before, not eating, hanging out  in the bathroom all day basically and being awesome like that) and then I would show up all ready for my procedure and they would do a rule of thumb pregnancy test there, and guess what it would be positive and all my fun activities the day before would go to waste! :) I was pretty much sure I was SO wrong, but I knew I would totally regret and not forgive myself if I just DIDN'T double check- especially with it running through my head as is.

Well, as it turns out I took a home pregnancy test and what seemed to be a very faint second line appeared. And note- I am not a morning person at ALL. I give myself the minimum amount of time in the morning to get ready before work because every hour, every minute, scratch that, every second is dear to me when it comes to sleep. Call me a bum... but I love my sleep. So I do whatever I need to do the night before, so I can solely just wake up, go to the bathroom, get dressed and go. So, I usually give myself about 10- 15 minutes. That specific morning I added an additional thing to accomplish before I was to head out the door. So I am half asleep still and suddenly see what seems to be a faint positive line. I get a rush of adrenaline suddenly, rub my half asleep eyes to makes sure I'm not seeing things here, and it is still uncertain. I pull out another brand, and that one becomes instantly positive, and suddenly I am more awake than after a shot of espresso, and with so many thoughts and feelings running through my head. All good of course :)

Aside from all the typical happy and exciting feelings, and needing to tell Zhenya ASAP, I was also thinking I need to call my doctors this very minute to make accommodations to reschedule my colonoscopy and such. And of course a blood test. This is probably so strange to hear, but I told Zhenya through TEXT. Yes, say whatever you shall say, impersonal, cold, mainstream...but honestly... we both are working in the morning and do not really have the opportunity to make phone calls, and I obviously could NOT wait to tell him! Nonetheless, his reaction was definitely funny, and thank you dear iphone for letting me do screenshots and having that memory to save for an eternity! 

Anyway, that day ended up working out very well. I worked half day at my babysitting job, and was able to contact all the needed doctors. My colonoscopy was obviously cancelled, and a blood test for the same day was ordered. Which, once again worked out great because I got out of babysitting early and usually head straight to my other store job, but had a few hours to spare to  head to the doctor's and get my blood test. They promised it would be ready half hour before I was supposed to head to my other job. Those 2-3 hours were probably the longest hours of my LIFE!  I ended up calling the doctor's and naturally the results were not ready. And called one more time right before I headed out the door, and YES... my blood test was in fact POSITIVE! And so my first prenatal appointment was scheduled, and you can say my pregnancy became “official" from that point on. 

It was a very exciting, emotional, nerve wrecking day. And in the end, even though it was confirmed, it obviously did not seem real. I could not stop grinning and it kind of just seemed like a day dream. But from that point on, we had to get used to the thought we were expecting a BABY and we were going to become parents! I mean, MIND BLOWING!

And once again- to each his own... but keeping a secret like this was probably one of the hardest things for me to do! When it comes to other people's secrets, okay... no big deal. But when it has to deal with you and it is such HAPPY and WONDERFUL news, you just want to tell EVERYONE and shout it to the world. At least I do :) Aside from my burning desire to tell everyone, I think I did pretty well. We of course told our close friends and family - some even the very same day we found out. Yes, we were THAT excited!  Zhenya didn't really see the big deal in keeping it a secret to the 2nd trimester point. As much as I wanted to share this news with everyone, I knew it was probably the "right" thing to do. And if of course I were to miscarry it would be awkward I guess then telling everyone about it. Zhenya saw it as a natural thing. That even if God forbid I was to miscarry it is a natural thing and nothing to be ashamed of really. Not really the most pleasant thing to share with others, but nothing to be ashamed of.  And I completely agree, it's mainly I think the way society came up with these rules now.  I mean there are a lot of people with such a variety of opinions, especially when it comes to pregnancy and how to go about it, just... so controversial that no matter what you decide to do there will always be those few people that will mentally judge you, or say comments behind your back and disagree with you. You can't avoid that.  “Oh, wow… I can’t believe she announced her pregnancy so early” “Oh, she posted it on facebook” “OMG, she is this far along and was hiding her pregnancy.” The list is endless; the opinions just go on and on. Honestly…I am happy with how we are doing things and that is all that matters.  When it comes to such news, I don’t understand hiding it. It’s GOOD news, why would you want to hide it? I want to share it with all my friends, it’s a joyous thing! That’s how I see it, and that’s the stance I am taking in this.

So we waited til’ the 13 week mark, and you can say we went “facebook official!” And we are super excited about this and really thankful for everyone’s congratulations and sweet and warm wishes, definitely nice to see this big community share the joy with us.

This is when and how the pregnancy came about and how it became known and official… and from this point on we are just taking it one day at a time and slowly getting each and every day closer to meeting our little one! :)

Introductory Post

Well, I am once again attempting to start a blog and actually keep it updated with posts. For those who know, I have attempted to keep a blog many times, and FAILED! I think this time it may be a little simpler since I am classifying this blog to a specific topic and it is mainly just concentrating on one major topic. Of which has a certain time frame and changes and experiences that I can definitely concentrate on to blog about. So this should be fun! :) 

Why am I here? Well, I am PREGNANT! Woohoo! I should have perhaps started this earlier, but there is still so much of the pregnancy to experience that it is definitely not late to pick up from where  I am, and not too much to catch up on to where I am now.

I don't have a plan really how I am going to organize my posts and in what fashion I want to present this blog yet, I am just going to take one step at a time and see how it goes. But I definitely want to have at least one post a week, giving at least a weekly update to any changes or news for that week. Just to have... for memory for myself, as well as relay any important or fun information to all my friends and family- of course to those who are interested in reading and following! :) Because even to the 15 weeks  I  am at today, I am already starting to slightly forget certain things and experiences that have happened, that would be good to always go back to and read over and be like " Oh, I remember how I felt this week!"  or " I remember that day or feeling this way that week!" The little details that my brain may not remember, just to be kept for record, memory and sharing! For me this is a  very new and extremely exciting experience and I want to document every little bit as possible to create an everlasting memory. With keeping a journal like this, documenting feelings, experiences and such, and with photos too. Just every way possible, I want to save and cherish every moment, because you are only pregnant for the first time ONCE. You don't know what to expect and it just makes it all so much more interesting and exciting! So come along, if you'd like and join us throughout our first fun and exciting pregnancy journey! Yay! :)