Meds

After waking up this morning and feeling immediately like barfing, I decided to call the doc and ask for meds for nausea. I gagged the whole time on the phone. They called in Reglan, which I promptly picked up after work and took. Half an hour later I was raring to eat. Made pancakes. Ate 4 of them. YUM.

A day away from 10 Weeks

And feeling like major..... crap.

I have had this endless stomach-sick-acidy-nauseaus-pukey feeling all day. It doesn't help that I made a pot roast for dinner so our entire house smells like onions and roast and veggies (BARF) which has made me heave more times than I care to think about. (note to self: do not make pot roast for a looooong time)

We skipped swimming tonight. I'm glad I did as I'd definitely have ralphed in the pool.

I'm now sitting here feeling soo hungry, yet nothing sounds good and all I can smell is- yep- onions and meat and veggies which is making me queasy as I type.

Ugh.

Sorry for the whiny post. Thats about all I have to update. Other than.. I bought a pair of "maternity" pants today. They're the "real waist" pants... no panel or anything, and they have a drawstring. My dress pants are getting really snug. Uncomfortable snug.

Survey:

Got this from Kim's blog!

Survey about your First Born-

1. Were you married at the time? yes.
2. What were your reactions? Excited, cautious, nervous, thankful.
3. How old were you? 24
4. How did you find out you were pregnant? I had just been feeling "off"... craved KFC like I had to have it or die, felt a little nauseus that weekend when we were camping. I took a test at like 11pm and about freaked out. (its all documented here)
5. Who did you tell first? Ryan. He was sleeping, so I ran in and woke him up. Then I called Jessica at like 11:30 at night.
6. Did you want to find out the sex? Of course! I am impatient.
7. Did you deliver early or late? 9 days early
8. Did you have morning sickness? Yeah. Nausea during the day, and I threw up most evenings until 10 or 11 weeks or so.
9. What did you crave? Oranges, chocolate pudding, KFC (in the beginning), uhm....
10. Who irritated you the most? My husband, definitely. Same with this pregnancy.
11. What was your first child's sex? Boy
12. How many pounds did you gain throughout the pregnancy? 41 or 46lbs
13. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Just my hips... I had some "sacroiliac joint dysfunction"... basically I walked like an old granny for a few months because my hip joint hurt so bad.
14. Where did you give birth? Foote
15. How many hours were you in labor? I think total it was like 14 hours. I started having contractions at 1am at home. I just thought I was cramping or it was braxton hicks. At 8:45am I went in for my appt and I was dilated to 4cm. They broke my water at 10ish, I think I got an epidural at 12:30, started pushing at 3:30, and Porter was born around 5:30. (story here)
16. Who drove you to the hospital? I did. HAHA! I went in for my 38 week appt and I was already 4cm dilated, so they sent me to L&D.
17. Who watched? Ryan, my Aunt Dawn, Cathy (Ry's mom), Dr. Pastoriza and the nurse (well, she like to hang back in her rocking chair... yeah...some nurse!)
18. Was it natural or c-section? Natural with epidural
19. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? I had an epidural
20. How much did your child weigh? 6lbs 12oz
21. Did your child have any complications? No, thank God.
22. What did you name him/her? Porter Evan
23. How old is your first born today? 20 months

OMG

My little floaty baby... we have ARMS AND LEGS!!! Awwww...

Girl or Boy... gut feelings?

Of course, with every pregnancy there is the excitement and wonder of guessing/finding out the gender of the baby (whether it is at your 20w u/s or at birth). We will definitely be finding out at one of our kazillion ultrasounds. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

With Porter, we discussed names from the beginning (well, and even BEFORE we were pregnant). Ryan is 100% convinced we'll have 3 boys. He even laughed at me when I tried discussing girl names with him.

While we both agree that we'd love to have 3 kids, I could also see us (err.. me) calling it quits after this baby if it is a girl. Pregnancy is such a blessing and I try to enjoy every second of it, however, I hate that it takes so long to get your body back to normal, only to get pregnant again and (being me) you pig out and lose all inhibitions. However, I don't think we could make the "no turning back" decision until this baby is at least 5 or 6. By then, I would have to know if YES I want to go the baby route again, or NO we're happy with two independent kids and don't want to do the baby thing again. Feelings change SO quickly about getting pregnant/having more kids, I wouldn't want to make any rash decisions too early (look how quickly my thoughts changed on having a second child! Literally overnight!!)

Here is my "Reasons" list:

Reasons I'd love for this baby to be a BOY:

• I love being a mom to a little boy. And, since we'll probably have a 3-4 year age gap between Child #2 and Child #3, it'd be great for Porter to be close in age to a brother.
• We already have lots and lots of cute boy clothes!
• We have a boys' name picked out already, and girls' names... well... lets just say we don't agree.
• It'd be easy for the boys to share a bedroom if we needed them to.
  

Reasons I'd love for this baby to be a GIRL:

• A little girl would "round out" our family...we'd have a girl and a boy, and if we decide to have Child #3, I wouldn't feel pressure/anxiety in wanting that final child to be a girl.. kwim?
• I would feel content saying "no more kids" after this baby... (see bullet above: we'd have a girl and a boy. Queer, I know. I just think, if we find that financially its only feasible to have 2 kids, I wouldn't feel like "Oh gosh, if only I had the chance to raise a daughter...")
  
• Zillions of cute girl clothes. 'Nuff said.
  

Before I got pregnant this time around I was really hoping we'd have another boy. A brother for Porter to play trains with (not that he can't do that with a sister...), and if we needed, they could share a room easily (meaning: I could decorate boyishly and they could share a room).

However, for the past few weeks I've totally had "girl" on the brain... thinking of girl names, when I try to envision how we'll set up the nursery once P has a big boy bed, I envision it decorated girly. So, I guess my instincts say girl. Maybe thats stemming from the fact that if this baby is a girl it could possibly be our last... I am so ready to just get my body back to myself and be able to stay in shape and not worry about getting pregnant a year or two or three later. Maybe I'm just secretly hoping for a girl and its giving me girl premonitions.

Honestly, though, I'd be totally happy with either gender. I really just want to be holding a healthy baby next May. While I have these "girl" gut feelings, a boy would not surprise me in the least, and I'd be 100% happy with another little man in the house. Which would mean... we'd 90% definitely be going for baby #3 in a few years and you'd better bet my fingers would be crossed for a little girl.

So... do you have any gut feelings about Baby Barczak #2? I put a poll in the sidebar. What do YOU see us having? (leave it in the comments too!)

We have a heartbeat!

I went in today for another scan. We were able to see and hear the baby's heartbeat: 180bpm. It was relieving to hear. I have a home dopplar and I think I might attempt to try to find the heartbeat at home. I know some moms on the May Due Date board were able to hear it this early. I can't remember when I could hear it with P. 10 weeks? 12 weeks?

He/she was moving around and it was so cute to watch! Like a little jumping bean. The baby measured 8w6d. I'm sure those measurements change often, but I decided I like that further along date than 8w3d, so I changed my floaty baby.

Its hard to tell that this isn't just a gray blob on the screen. Its not near as cute as Kim's little baby but she does have a few weeks on me. I *think* that the baby is curled up (check out floaty baby over in the sidebar) and facing us (is that right LeeAnn? Mom?). The head is to the left... you can make out the shape of it... its close to half the size of the blob. We were able to see the little arm nubs on the scan when the baby was moving around. I love being able to peek in at the new little one. This pregnancy still seems so surreal. I mean, half the time I forget I'm pregnant, but then I realize "DUH! There is a reason I'm barfing all day and feeling like crap." And then I get to check in him/her and it makes it so much more real.

Where did this exhaustion come from?

This is getting ridiculous. In the past 2 weeks I have sat on this couch and watched more tv than I have probably all year. I get home from work and even though I have a million things I could be doing, the mere thought of getting up and exerting energy to do those things makes me want to just close my eyes and fall asleep. I do not remember feeling this tired when I was pregnant with Porter. And I was student teaching full time then! I don't really remember feeling this tired even after Porter was born and I was getting up at all hours of the night. What the hell! So, I sit here yet another afternoon.... doing nothing but watching tv and blogging. I really really want to take a nap. Yesterday Ryan got home from work and sent me to bed to take a nap. I slept for about an hour and felt SO much better when I woke up. I should probalby take a little cat nap since its just Porter and I all night (Ry has class).

What else is daily life like lately...

• My pants are getting tight. THAT is ridiculous. 7 weeks... thats IT and my ass and thighs and gut are already packing on the pounds. Its so hard to eat healthy when the only things that sound stomach settling is junk food.
  
• My boobs... GAHHH! They're bigger already. Help me! I just started to notice that instead of saggy, deflated boobs they're actually looking..... uh.. "fuller" is that the term? Kind of nice but then.... I really don't want a bigger chest.
  
• I've been pretty good as far as getting sick goes. I feel nauseous on and off all day long typically, but as long as I keep something in my stomach I don't throw up.

6 week doctor's appointment

Pretty routine, nothing much happened.

She (the midwife) is going with my ultrasound dates, so my due date will be June 1st, 2008. So, as of Sunday I'm 6 weeks along. Holy crap that doesn't seem that productive.

Since my "annual female appt" at the end of July I've gained 6lbs. GAAAHHH! Look who hasn't been eating very well...

So, my starting weight was 124 (I was 130 today). I swear in just the past month I feel like I've gained that whole 6lbs. I feel bloatier (is that a word) and my thighs and butt feels chunkier. GRR. She wasn't too worried... she said "Just look at it this way, if on average you gain a pound a week (for a total of 40), you're right on track with gaining 6lbs for being 6weeks along" HAHAHA! Way to try to make me feel better. Its hard to eat healthy when there is usually only one single item that sound good enough to not bring on a fit of gagging and dry heaving over the toilet. And, let me add that that single item that sounds good is 99% of the time NOT fruit or something healthy. I'm on my way to gaining that 40+lbs again HAHA! Oh well. I view pregnancy as my time to be big and fat. I'll never be one of those cute, tiny pregnant girls, so why even try? The weight can be lost afterward. Lets just hope I have the motivation like I did after I had Porter.

Is this all in my head?

I swear I've had mild heartburn all weekend. I eat something spicy and I feel acidy in my chest and throat. I haven't had heartburn since I was pregnant with Porter, and I do not remember it being this early.

Other than that... I've just been feeling "icky" on and off all day. When I get too hungry, I feel nauseous. And, of course, not much sounds good... until I think of that "perfect" food. Saturday I ate about 9 pieces of toast with butter, cinnamon and sugar.

Every evening around 10/11pm I am starving for a nighttime snack. Oh, that'll do good for the waist and butt.

Let's try this again...

Apparently, I'm going to fully experience the FULL 10 months of this pregnancy. For the past 3 weeks I've been thinking I was 5 weeks pregnant. I had another (I know, I know....) ultrasound today and we can see the yolk sac now (YAY!) and I measured 5w4d, with a due date of June 1st. I am assuming I took those pregnancy test THE DAY that my levels were high enough to be detected.

Holy moly. Its going SLOWLY. Hopefully now that I *for sure* know how far along I am it'll go a little quicker. But, dang... I like the 7wk gestation a little better than 5wks... that just means more time feeling worried/scared about the pregnancy ending. UGH. Hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll hear the heartbeat at one of my "self scheduled weekly scans". I called my mom today after lunch:

mom: Hi

me: Hey, what are you up to?

mom: Oh, nothing. Just getting ready to scan a patient.

me: Ok. I was going to stop in.

mom: Oh?

me: Yeah, you know, for my weekly scan.

mom: Oh yeah, ok. I'll be ready in 15.


HAHAH. I love that my mom can do my scans for me. She said the receptionist at her office is also pregnant, as is the receptionists sister. So, they've been having her scan them often. She'll be sick of all of us bugging her to scan us every darn week.

So, whats up with my "not as far along as I assumed pregnant self":

• I've been feeling nauseous for the past 5 days or so... threw up a few times last weekend, threw up OJ this morning (OJ has got to be the nastiest, most acidic thing to vomit. EWW)
• Exhaustion. I feel like such a slacker mom. I'm SO tired by the time 4:00 rolls around. I could take a nap every day. Tonight, after dinner, I put on Little Bear for Porter and we laid on the floor and I took a 30 minute cat nap while he watched tv. So. Tired.
• I feel like a bottomless pit lately... like I can keep eating and eating. But then other times I eat a few bites and thats about all I can keep down.
  
• I really really love mashed potatoes. KFC, if possible. I was the same way in the very beginning of my pregnancy with Porter. Weird.
  

Other than that... nothing much has changed. Things seem to be going ok so far, and pregnancy thus far is tolerable (minus the migraine).

6w5d or 5w5d?

I *think* my little calendar buddy is a week off over there. I had a second ultrasound last Thursday and my mom measured me at 5weeks. So, I think I'm a week behind what I *thought* I was. I'm going to bug her for another sonogram this week (haha... you'd better bet I'll be in there like EVERY freaking week HAHA!).

This past weekend, if you read my regular blog, you'll know that I was super sick with a migraine. I started getting really nauseous on Saturday, throwing up a few times. I ended up throwing up 4 or 5 times over the weekend (which was NOT fun with a piercing migraine, let me add), and foods were making me really nauseous. I thought it was just because I had such a bad migraine. One of the worst I've had yet.

Sunday I told Ryan... "I NEED KFC for lunch. Their mashed potatoes. YUUUMMM." That is exactly what I craved when I found out I was pregnant with Porter.

Today I woke up feeling fine. Ate pancakes and syrup with Porter for breakfast and even had a granola bar snack at school (gotta keep Ryan happy). But, by the time I picked Porter up from my grandmas (around 12:30) I was starving and getting a little queasy. We went to Pollys where I picked up a big box of Hungry Jack Mashed Potatoes, corn dogs and some other misc. foods.

I'm sitting here now typing... getting hungry. Getting nauseous. I should go eat and get to bed.