Paranoid about Passing Out

Starting Friday morning, I was super dizzy. I kept thinking I was going to pass out. I tried food and water, knowing the two most logical causes would be dehydration or low blood sugar. Neither one made a difference. Any time I went from sitting to standing --whoa! And sometimes even just sitting there was dizzy-making. Work was not fun. At least the kids were pretty behaved. 

I pretty much went to bed as soon as I got home. I just didn't feel good. With or without movement, I felt on the verge of passing out. 

Saturday was the same thing. I was so frustrated with it. All I wanted to know was if this was an emergency and I needed to go to the hospital or if it was nothing and I just needed to buck up. But the doctor's office is closed on Saturday. So's the pregnancy risk hotline. Mom had no clue. The internet wasn't helpful. So finally we just decided to go to the hospital. 

The nurses were very nice and took great care of me and didn't make me feel like I was overreacting or being a loser. They did some blood work and my labs came back pretty normal, just an elevated white count. Between them and the dr, they decided it was probably an ear thing related to the cold going around and gave me an anti-histamine. I started feeling better last night, so hopefully it continues on today. I'm glad it was something so little, but I'm glad we made the decision to go into the hospital, too. I can't just sleep my life away and worry that I'm going to pass out all the time. 

Luckily, the whole time this was going on, I could still feel baby girl moving around. She was totally fine. It was just me being sick. 

It's a Girl!

aaah Baby feetsies!

All Curled up

sucking her thumb

17 weeks bump

Weight

Before getting pregnant, I was a little bigger than I wanted to be. I tried eating healthier and getting more exercise in during the summer, but you know how difficult that is! However, since being pregnant, I've felt more encouraged to do so. I'd only like to gain "necessary" weight during this pregnancy and stay as healthy as possible, no gestational diabetes, no pre-eclampsia. Just doing what I can to keep me and my baby healthy, ya know? 

Well a few weeks ago Cass came up with a proposal to reward himself $5 of free money every time he exercised four times within one week. I agreed, as long as I could do it too! So far I've fulfilled two weeks to his one :) I've been doing the Wii Fit, which is pretty fun, and one of the days I did some Michael Jackson Experience afterwards for my cardio. That was quite a high energy day! 

The Wii Fit weighs me, so I've been able to keep better track of my weight. I don't know what I weighed before getting pregnant, but I feel like I lost a bit of weight before that first doctors visit. At my first visit (almost 11 weeks) I weighed less than I remember weighing before and pants were still fitting. Last week, a month later (almost 15 weeks) I weighed a whole pound less :) I've also been keeping track of my weight by week on a graph online, and it's been staying right around there. 

I asked the doctor what he thought about my weight, and he totally supports me doing Wii Fit. He said it would be great for a total weight gain of around 15 lbs. So here's hoping! :) 

Wow. I used a lot of smiley faces. That's a little annoying. 

Today I'm feeling a little bit bigger than I have. Pants a smidgen tighter and looking like I have a little belly. I think it's a little bloat from the weekend, but also a little bit of baby bird making her debut! It might be time to pull out the maternity clothes soon! 

Maternity Clothes!

I'm not actually ready for maternity clothes yet, but a few weeks ago Old Navy had a sale on maternity clothes, plus an online sale, and I had swagbucks dying to be spent, so I bought me some cute clothes! They came the other day and I just love them. Some already "fit" with room to grow, and some will fit once I have my "bump." I super love the maxi dress though! It's so cute and comfy! I wore it today & everyone said I looked cute :) 

I'm starting to feel a lot better though, eating, having energy, not needing a nap, it's great! I've even been doing the Wii Fit this week! It's pretty fun, and the competition aspect is great. 

On a Random Note: My hair is growing a ton, and I can't be upside down blow drying my hair as long, so I can only blow out like half of it! I really want an expensive blow dryer! :)  

migraine & growth

momma's got a migraine :/ thankheavensforsickdays!! The pain sucks. Started last night. Pills, heat, cold, sleep. Nothing helped. So, yeah, no work today. The good news is, Season 5 of Gossip Girls is finally on Netflix!!! 

baby bird is about the size of a peach now. it's hard to tell if I'm showing or just bloated. pants still fit, but I'm on my second bra. and it's already a stretch!! 

sometimes, mostly all the time, I don't really feel pregnant yet. april is still so far away, and I don't feel anything inside me, and I can't see the baby's impact on the outside of me quite yet. at least the morning sickness is mostly all gone. the tiredness isn't as bad either. more just a lazy grossness . . . where is my second trimester motivation? maybe next week. 

Blood

At my doctor's last week, they told me I had to come in and get blood drawn before my next visit. They do it just down the hall from the doctor's office, so I could have done it immediately after. Except I'm a big chicken. And I had that nasty cold, so they said it would be better to wait. 

Back to that big chicken part . . . I just get so nervous around needles. Mostly seeing needles in my skin. Blood doesn't gross me out. Even my blood isn't gross. But getting my blood drawn freaks me out. So I needed Cassidy to come with me, in case I got nervous or passed out. 

We finally went tonight. Because of our schedules, we had to go "after hours." They are open 7-7, but their check-in area was closed, so we had to check in at the ER. That was a pain in the butt. Next time, I'll try to man up and go by myself so I can get in faster. ha ha

Once we got through the check-in, it went relatively quick though. She drew something like seven vials, and science is improving every day, because they only had to stick me once! I had it in my head that she'd have to stick me every time! I was doing okay during the draw, breathing, even looked at the blood for a second & thought, "Wow! This is going by fast!" And then she finished. And I got dizzy. 

I'm pretty good at calling it when I get dizzy and preventing passing out, though, so I laid down, kept breathing, and they got me some water. No passing out! Now we'll just have to see if I bruise or not! 

look what I made!

First Doctor's Visit

We had our first doctor's visit today. Our doctor is Dr Bilanzich and he was very friendly! When I scheduled the appointment, the receptionist made it sound like I'd only be doing blood and paperwork, but Cass decided to come with me anyway in case we got to hear the baby's heartbeat. Good thing he came, because we got our first look at the baby! (trans-vaginal ultrasound)  It was so neat to see the baby up there on the screen; it makes it feel so much more real! According to my LMP, I'm 10 weeks and some odd days, but baby measured 11 weeks 1 day, go big strong baby! 

I love the little feet!!! 

Cassidy was so cute after the doctor's visit. He was all, "You said it was the size of a prune, so I was picturing it all prune shaped, but it looks like a baby already! With little hands and feet!" And then he kept staring at the pictures and took them around with him all day to show off! He loves our baby :) 

. . . and the very long nap

So I've been pretty tired lately. I'm pregnant. No surprise. I've been having a hard time sleeping at night, too. Again, no surprise. So I've been letting myself take naps after school when I'm so tired. Working morning and afternoon wears me out! 

Yesterday I let myself fall asleep a little before five, knowing Cass would wake me up when he got home. Well, he tried to! We had an incoherent conversation as I fell right back asleep. Eventually Cass made me move to the bed. I woke up to pee at two, and didn't wake up again til almost ten! Good thing they got a new person hired for mornings and I'm just afternoon now! I did the math, and I slept for about 17 hours! Crazy! 

I texted my momma to ask what she thought; she said my body just must have needed it. One of the ladies at work said the same thing, so I guess I'm good! I figure if it happens again, though, I should call the doctor. Sleeping that much can't be a good sign! 

TheBump.com says week 8 means lots of baby growth, though, and being extra tired. Baby is growing like crazy and sucking up all my energy! They also said this is when the weird dreams start -- sure thing! I had a great many weird dreams last night! The best one was the one of been expecting -- one with my baby! 

I put a lot of stock into dreams, probably more than I should. But I try to take it with a grain of salt and look for the basic root meaning, not take it literally, and certainly not every dream is an important dream. But still. 

So basically, in my dream, we had a little girl. She looked a ton like Jordyn, not at all what my real baby will look like, and kept changing sizes from a baby to bigger and bigger all the way up to Jordyn's size. But she was still my baby. It was weird. We were also in China and there were some other weird factors. But the important thing is that it was a baby girl!  But it was weird, besides she was talking and BLONDE!!,  because she implied that there was still another baby in my belly! 

I have this weird twin thing that I'm trying to get over. Quite a few months ago, I had a dream where I had twins. Normally I wouldn't put stock in that kind of dream because twins are so few and far between, but they were named *the name I like* and Allie. And then twins got stuck in my head. I think twins would be so fun! Crazy, but fun. Also, I would love to have a boy and a girl, so I can get some of everything and have one of each. It would be great. I think, deep down, I'm a little bummed and I feel like I'm behind everyone my age. I know I'm right where I need to be, but I still see some of my former classmates with more than one baby already and I get jealous. If I had twins, it would be like catching up! I'm trying to get over that, because, really, what are the odds? But still . . . 

So when in the dream she said there was another baby, does that mean twins? Or just another baby later on? Who knows . . . but I'm pretty sure come April I'll have a little baby girl!  

Nausea Help

The Zofran has been helping tons, I had to take it consistently for a while, but now I can just take it as I need it, which is great, since it has some pretty nasty side effects. (Bloating and Constipation, way bad, TMI) I've also been using Preggie Pop Drops - 

They're delicious & they help. Placebo? Maybe. But I believe in them & they help me feel better! It's hard, because they say to keep eating & keep full, but sometimes I just don't feel like eating! Nothing sounds good at all. And food tastes different sometimes. The biggest thing that tastes different? Water! It tastes so gross to me, but I know it's important. So I've been trying to stay hydrated, either suffering through the water or flavoring it. We already have some store brand crystal light, so that's great. Hopefully water will start tasting better soon, though, since I miss the way water used to taste! 

Morning Sickness? Ha!

Let's talk nausea. I have it. It sucks. I can't believe my little blueberry baby is causing this much pain! And the past few days have been nasty! As in can't-hold-anything-down, puking-at-the-middle-school, waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-puke, and finally, PUKING BILE! Last night, Cass got me some lemon & ginger tea, since Mom said ginger would help. It helped a little, but not quite enough for me to eat. This morning, as I said, I puked some bile, yuck!, called in to work, and went back to bed. Cass made me more tea this afternoon, and I was feeling okay enough to try some toast. Bad plan. So I finally called the doctor and got me some generic Zofran for the nausea. Let's see how it works!! 

telling the family

We wanted to wait til after the doctors appointment to tell the family, just to make sure everything was really and okay, but instead we told everyone today! 

Morning sickness hit me pretty hard these past few days (read: couldn't hold anything down) and I start work again at the middle school on Monday. I'm a little nervous about running out of class to puke, and about getting found out before I want to! We also wanted our family to know before someone at the school found out, and I was just too anxious to wait any longer! 

Everyone pretty much knew already. Anyone who's ever met me knows I love babies, and my mom and Jenn sort of knew we were trying. And it's a little suspicious when we randomly want to skype with everyone! 

But everyone was really excited! Dylan told Pyper it was a "big surprise" & I don't think it was really the surprise she wanted . . . but I think she'll like the baby when it gets here! Jordyn called me a big fat liar, but Michael was kind of prompting her. Grandpa Johnson didn't even let me get it out; he was so excited, I thought he was going to cry. And Grandma and Grandpa McCoy were cheering! 

Everyone's really excited and so are we, even though we have 34 loooong weeks to go! 

symptoms so far

My body is definitely changing already. My boobs are getting tender and swollen. I'm tired, but that could just be from the cold . . . Either way, I'm sleeping way too much. I'm a little nervous about having to work in a few weeks here! 

I have started exercising a little with my new exercise ball. I hope to be able to keep up with it throughout the pregnancy and use it after. And, it's totally a safe pregnancy exercise plan! And dancing will help more too, I think. At the very least, I'll be standing up 20+ hours a week between my two jobs! :) 

I haven't had any morning sickness yet, but I do get a little queasy at night, although that could be exacerbated by my meds. Yep, I got me some pre-natals already. Go me. But I do feel really bloated and like I'm already getting a tummy on me. . . probably just poor diet and exercise over the summer. I've been really lazy! But last night I couldn't even stand having the band of my g's on my tummy. Bleeeh. 

Oh, I spoke too soon. I don't know how well that lunch is sitting . . . and clearly my pregnancy makes me use ellipsis more? But I haven't thrown up at all yet. Hopefully that lasts!! But sometimes food tastes different - is that normal? The spaghetti last night tasted worse than usual. I just don't like spaghetti. 

But, really, I'm super happy to be pregnant, even if it doesn't seem real yet! 

feelings

Being pregnant is so weird. It doesn't even feel real yet. 

I just keep waiting for my period to start!

At the same time, I'm so excited to be pregnant!

I just wish the baby was here already!

Nine months is a really long time. 

April is very far away. 

I can't wait!!

peed a positive

It's very faint, and there's a glare, but it's positive!!

I was supposed to wait a few days longer to take the HPT to make sure, but I couldn't wait any longer and Cass was asleep, so he couldn't stop me! I'm just so excited!!

And just for my records, for belly growth, here's a before picture. 

[ignore how gross I look. And that I'm so fat already. Can was just blame it on baby?]