I've Been Exhausted

If anyone out there is already super in love with my baby blog, then my apologies.  Week 8 of pregnancy was filled with exhaustion and going back to work.  For those of you who don't know, I am a third grade teacher.  And I love my job.  I also love sleeping in, having nothing to do, going to the pool, doing things on a whim and having no plans whatsoever.  Becoming pregnant in July was a huge blessing because I had time to be nauseous, sick, exhausted and have nothing to do.  If you're not a teacher, you may be unaware of how much "free time" we have during our work day to have personal problems.  I could not imagine feeling morning sickness while having to teach 19 eight year olds the main idea of a text.  I. Could. Not.

With that being said.... week 8 wasn't terrible as far as the nausea, but it was full of exhaustion.  Along with the exhaustion was back to work for teachers!  This started last Monday and was filled with exciting meetings, PD's and setting up the classroom.  Now, setting up a classroom is ALWAYS an exciting yet stressful time.  You spend a lot of summer time on Pinterest coming up with new ideas and swearing that "this will be the year everything matches."  To make it MORE stressful, throw on top changing classrooms and having all your classroom shit piled on tables that were once organized, and over the summer the movers have rearranged it all and it's all one big damn mess.  What a shit show.  AND YOU'RE PREGNANT!  So, my apologies for 100% missing week 8, not getting a picture and almost forgetting I had this blog to track my journey.

In other news... school begins on Monday, for real, and I am having strong feelings of denial, sadness and excitement.  Last year was a rough... and I mean ROUGH... class for me.  I am praying this school year will be different, especially since I am pregnant.

Today I hit week 9.  For some reason week 9 feels really good to me.  Like, I feel as though I am almost out of that dark zone where I can begin to not worry so much.  Although, I am sure once I hit the 2nd and 3rd trimesters new things will pop up for me to worry about.

So, here is what's been up with weeks 8/9 so far!

How far along? 9 weeks

Maternity clothes? No.. but I am definitely starting to feel thicker in the waist.  Not sure if jeans still fit and I am too scared to find out.

Stretch marks? No!

Sleep: Sleeping well but having lots of weird dreams that I can't remember too well.  Some consist of breastfeeding in public and the next will be a teaching nightmare.

Best moment(s) this week: Finishing up my classroom and hitting week 9 today!

Miss Anything? Pumpkin beer... because it's right around the corner!

Movement: No

Food cravings: Nothing specific 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Strong smells make me very nauseous or the smell of a food I am not craving.

Gender: Still thinking it's a boy but Darius dreamed it's a girl.

Labor Signs: No

Symptoms: nausea, sensitive to smells...so sensitive

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On  

Happy or Moody most of the time: Have to say more moody lately but I think a lot of it is the stress of going back to work.

Looking forward to: Next Friday for my dating ultrasound!

Week 7

Eeeekkkk!  I am thrilled to have hit week 7!  I know it may not be much, but each day is a milestone for me!  My first prenatal appointment was yesterday and it went very well.  I really like my doctor, the nurse and the ultrasound tech.  I feel a sense of relief having met my doctors and that I LIKE them.  Everyone's advice for me has been to be with a doctor that I trust and like... but we all know switching and finding doctors is a pain... so I am just thrilled to like mine.  There are 4 in the practice, and I will see all of them over the course of my pregnancy.  This is because any one of them could deliver if they are on duty.  I am fine with that - to each their own.

I was sad, but not surprised, to find out that my pregnancy would be considered high-risk.  This is due to my medical situation with my blood clotting that I talked about in my first post.  My doctor wants me to see a Maternal Fetal Specialist to decide if I will need any certain medications, blood thinners, or even just a baby aspirin through my pregnancy.  They do feel good about how things are looking so far, so that eased my nerves a bit.  Although, let's be real, finding out I was high-risk led me to shut down pretty quickly, wanting to run to a corner and cry.  I just continue to have faith in God that this will work out for us.

All in all, due to being high-risk they wanted to do an early ultrasound to just make sure everything was cooking okay in there ;)  Darius and I went back at 4 o'clock to have our first ultrasound.  The doctor had warned me in advance that we may not be able to hear a heartbeat with it being so early and not to panic, but I was panicking.

Little bean baby at 6 weeks 6 days

We saw the little bitty bean baby and she captured some pictures.  It was AMAZING.  Then, without telling us, she played the heartbeat.  And OH. MY. GOD. it was the MOST BEAUTIFUL sound I have ever heard in the entire world.  I will never forget how amazing that sound was!  Little bean had a heartbeat of 112bpm which the tech said was a strong heartbeat!

Just being super bloated with my blueberry - I think it's fat, not a bump lol

How far along? 7 weeks

Maternity clothes? Not yet- but I checked out a couple of stores for fun ;)

Stretch marks? Nope, and I plan to pick up some lotion soon, just for safe measure.

Sleep: Like a baby...lol...but really bizarre dreams

Best moment(s) this week: Hearing that heartbeat and seeing that blueberry!

Miss Anything? Having ACTUAL cravings and a real appetite.

Movement: None

Food cravings: I don't crave anything anymore.  I have no appetite.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Almost everything makes me nauseous, every once in a while I crave something random and after I eat it, I never want that thing again.

Gender: Thinking a boy

Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Same old... sore breasts, nausea, tons of heartburn, loss of appetite, EXHAUSTION

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or Moody most of the time: I would say happy recently but who knows what Darius would say... 

Looking forward to: Going back in 2 weeks to get the most approximate due date!

Week 6 - Update

I did NOT forget to update after the "dad reveal."  I just have been overwhelmed with the nausea and exhaustion.  Are you sick of hearing me say nausea yet?  Me too.  It's okay.

Let me play out how this whole "we're having a baby" surprise went for my dad...

Darius and I hand him the little gift bag with the onesies inside.  My dad is always making jokes, so he joked the entire time opening it, trying to guess what it was.  He knows this makes me furious.  He opens the onesie and holds it in front of him.  Laughing he says, "Well this won't fit me!" - seriously though guys, he still hasn't caught on - and thank to Theresa, her eyes beam as she asks "ARE YOU EXPECTING?" and I say YES!  My dad, still confused, asks "You're EXPECTING?!"  Yes dad, I am.  We hug, laugh and I cry...

That, my friends is how my father and stepmom found out.

Going to dinner that night was great.  I found out I am allowed to eat shrimp as long as they are cooked through!  I JUMPED ON THAT SHRIMP!  It is the ONE thing that sounds delicious all the time.  I think this is because it's not heavy and it doesn't have a ton of strong flavors.

Moving forward from Saturday...

The nausea will NOT go away.  I wish there was someone out there, anyone, who could give me a remedy to this problem.  I know eventually this will subside but every day feels like a long day when you feel like this.  And, because I have learned it mostly occurs AFTER I get out of bed... it's harder for me to get up knowing what is coming.

My dreams are INTENSE lately.  Most recently my dreams consisted of the following:
1. Me having an affair with the husband of the kids I nanny (note: I do not nanny and I am not a home wrecker.  Also- the kids and husband were not familiar in this dream).
2. Darius cheating on me with all friends via text while on vacation in Ocean City.  This included me running away.
3. A room full of spiders which seemed to bother no one in the room except myself.
4. A miscarriage (which I have heard is common in the first trimester when this obviously wears heavily on you).

The dreams do make for a great story though.  I would prefer them to be less harsh and real but I've never had such vivid dreams in my life!

I should update on Friday after my first official appointment!

xoxo!

Week 6 - Holy Morning Sickness

Okay, so I know previously I was very confused about which week I was on. But, I think I finally settled that little problem, and I am 90% sure today marks the beginning of week 6! I will update again once I have a confirmation from the doctor when I have my appointment on Friday.  Until then, let's just imagine we are in a happy little world where I am officially at 6 weeks!

Although today is just the FIRST day of week 6... I understand what all the pregnancy websites and blogs are talking about.  Week 6 is rough... for me.  I had read that morning sickness hits hard around the sixth week and this couldn't be more true for myself.  Yesterday (although that was only 5 weeks 6 days but let's get real) was the WORST morning sickness I have had so far.  And I didn't even vomit.  Which scares me for what possibly could come in the future.  Anyway- the nausea has hit hard.  It feels like a super intense hangover, minus all the "head" symptoms.  I feel like I am starving (because I am) but anything I THINK of eating makes me gag.  Then, when I do eat, I feel better for about 10 minutes and then I am either starving again or more nauseous.  The cycle repeats.... think of food, gag, eat, gag, repeat.  The mornings for me truly are the worst.  My morning sickness continues to last until between 1-2pm from the second I wake up.  Yesterday morning, I just curled up on the couch, didn't even have the desire to turn on the TV, pulled the pillow over my head and slept.  I slept for about 2 hours and then I woke up STARVING.  I ate some cereal and that made me feel better.  Since then, I have been doing okay.  Now I am in this consistent state of "I feel nauseous but nothing sounds good and if you mention food I may throw up on you."  People who believe in those old wives tales tell me they think it's a girl because of all the nausea, which is nice because so does my mom and aunt.  I don't know what I think.  My husband has been so obsessed with having a boy since we first started talking about having kids (like just in general conversation- not talking about trying to make one) that I think he's convinced me that it's a boy.  All we truly want is a happy, chunky, healthy little bean.

It's starting to get really difficult to not shout our happy news from the rooftop with every amazing day that continues to pass.  I truly want to wait until the end of my first trimester to officially announce the news, and Darius and I pray to God every day that we can continue to have this blessing.  Speaking of announcements, we are telling my dad tonight!  He is definitely one of the people who I want Darius there for.  This was the first opportunity I had to get my dad to come up and have Darius here, so we are looking forward to it.  We plan to give him the same boy/girl onesies that we gave my mom and just let him figure it out on his own.  I am trying to figure out a way to videotape it without being too obvious ;)

I will update with the reaction later but until then...

How far along? 6 weeks

Maternity clothes? No, but they're super fun to look at online! I am getting excited about it!

Stretch marks? No!

Sleep: Sleeping very well lately!  I'm not having any dreams that I can remember but I am getting about 8-9 hours so I feel pretty good.

Best moment(s) this week: Telling my dad and Theresa!

Miss Anything? Let's just be honest... Alcohol.

Movement: None

Food cravings: I WISH I was craving SOMETHING... oh wait, I have really wanted a Chick-Fil-A milkshake lately and that still sounds yummy...

Anything making you queasy or sick: Well just about every single thing in the world.

Gender: Counting down the weeks until we can find out!

Labor Signs: None!

Symptoms: Let the list begin: nausea, sore breasts, cramping, back ache, exhaustion, food aversions...to name a few.

Belly Button in or out? Still in!

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or Moody most of the time: I think I have been a good mix of both lately.  One minute I am just so happy and then one little event will set me off.

Looking forward to: Telling my dad and hopefully feeling normal sometime in the NEAR future.