I am truly amazed at the things I completely forgot about my pregnancies with Ave and Isaac that have reared their ugly heads this time around. Maybe it's just a evolutionary-based coping mechanism that keeps us reproducing, but how in the WORLD did I block these things out?
1. Nausea I was really lucky with Avery and only got a little queasy here and there. I only think I truly threw up maybe twice with her? It was much worse with Isaac. But can it really be so much more horrible this time that I'm this unprepared? I'll only be 8 weeks on Monday and other than some mild nausea before this week, things have been pretty clear. But starting last weekend and getting progressively worse, all I do is fight my disgust with all things food and anything with ANY odor. For instance, onions in any form, normally a food I have in everything I cook, make me leave the room. Eggs? No way. Cereal? Instant trip to the bathroom. Coffee? Lucky if I make it through half a cup (thereby creating a caffeine ban that I never bothered with before; my doc said as long as I stick to two cups per day, we're good....I can barely smell it now). Besides some crackers and ginger ale, I never really needed anything to help me through the "morning" sickness. This time, I'm desperately searching the internet for solutions and chowing down on candied ginger and lemon drops. The pregnancy message boards, which I have found myself perusing like a first-time-mom, also gave me the good news that it doesn't usually hit its worst point until 10 weeks.
2. Cravings And yet, there are those weird cravings that pop up early on that seem to fly in the face of what should make my nausea go away. Basically, anything spicy, sour, and salty really get my salivary glands going. Yesterday, Chris made jalapeno cornbread and gave me a slice of jalapeno from our canning stash. I've been able to think of nothing but those jalapenos since. Salty condiments, like A1 or Heinz Ketchup (specifically the balsamic one, lately) or Frank's Red Hot? Yes please...on everything. And pickles. But this time, only the Mt. Olive Baby Kosher Dills will do. It's a taste and texture thing, much to the chagrin of my husband, who looks longingly at the homemade jars still sitting on the shelf. Oddly enough, while the nausea mimics (and exceeds) what I went through with Isaac, the cravings are exactly what I wanted with Avery. Since we're not finding out the gender this time, I thought I'd at least be able to count on some old wives' tales to point me to the answer. No dice.
3. Headaches and Illness Oh, the headaches. As soon as I got the first one, like a PTSD flashback, I began remembering the migraine-like pains of my previous pregnancies. Crap. And what are my solutions to these headaches typically? Excedrin Migraine and ibuprofen. Both off-limits. THEN I caught Isaac's cold. I usually have a better immunity than this, so I looked it up and apparently women's immunity goes down the crapper when pregnant. Once again, I'm left to deal with it without any of my go-to remedies (hot totties, anyone?).
4. Exhaustion AND Sleeplessness WTF? How is this one fair? I remembered the exhaustion, actually. It was one of my first clues with both kids. But not being able to sleep or get comfortable at night? Completely forgot about that. I already have 4 pillows (and a husband, in a double bed...boy does THAT need to change; I mean getting a bigger bed, not kicking the husband out), including a body pillow, trying to prop me up in semi-comfortable positions, as my already-crappy hips loosen up even more and my corpus luteum cyst causes weird, inescapable aches. Then the headache kicks in. Ugh. This only gets worse. I keep forcing the kids to take naps, even though neither really needs them anymore, so I can attempt to catch up on an hour or so of z's.
5. Bloating We are attempting to wait until 14 weeks before telling family and friends that we're expecting. But between water retention, bloat, and loosening ligaments, that's going to be damn near impossible. I haven't gained any weight, but my pants are tight and my stomach looks awful. Just crossing my fingers and counting on the big shirts and inattentive relatives to get me through 6 more weeks...
All that said, I really don't want to complain. I'm so thrilled to have made it this far and am willing to let all of it get much worse if it means a healthy baby. But wouldn't it be so much more fun for everyone if I wasn't so sick and tired all the time?
1. Nausea I was really lucky with Avery and only got a little queasy here and there. I only think I truly threw up maybe twice with her? It was much worse with Isaac. But can it really be so much more horrible this time that I'm this unprepared? I'll only be 8 weeks on Monday and other than some mild nausea before this week, things have been pretty clear. But starting last weekend and getting progressively worse, all I do is fight my disgust with all things food and anything with ANY odor. For instance, onions in any form, normally a food I have in everything I cook, make me leave the room. Eggs? No way. Cereal? Instant trip to the bathroom. Coffee? Lucky if I make it through half a cup (thereby creating a caffeine ban that I never bothered with before; my doc said as long as I stick to two cups per day, we're good....I can barely smell it now). Besides some crackers and ginger ale, I never really needed anything to help me through the "morning" sickness. This time, I'm desperately searching the internet for solutions and chowing down on candied ginger and lemon drops. The pregnancy message boards, which I have found myself perusing like a first-time-mom, also gave me the good news that it doesn't usually hit its worst point until 10 weeks.
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| The breakfast of (queasy) champions |
3. Headaches and Illness Oh, the headaches. As soon as I got the first one, like a PTSD flashback, I began remembering the migraine-like pains of my previous pregnancies. Crap. And what are my solutions to these headaches typically? Excedrin Migraine and ibuprofen. Both off-limits. THEN I caught Isaac's cold. I usually have a better immunity than this, so I looked it up and apparently women's immunity goes down the crapper when pregnant. Once again, I'm left to deal with it without any of my go-to remedies (hot totties, anyone?).
4. Exhaustion AND Sleeplessness WTF? How is this one fair? I remembered the exhaustion, actually. It was one of my first clues with both kids. But not being able to sleep or get comfortable at night? Completely forgot about that. I already have 4 pillows (and a husband, in a double bed...boy does THAT need to change; I mean getting a bigger bed, not kicking the husband out), including a body pillow, trying to prop me up in semi-comfortable positions, as my already-crappy hips loosen up even more and my corpus luteum cyst causes weird, inescapable aches. Then the headache kicks in. Ugh. This only gets worse. I keep forcing the kids to take naps, even though neither really needs them anymore, so I can attempt to catch up on an hour or so of z's.
5. Bloating We are attempting to wait until 14 weeks before telling family and friends that we're expecting. But between water retention, bloat, and loosening ligaments, that's going to be damn near impossible. I haven't gained any weight, but my pants are tight and my stomach looks awful. Just crossing my fingers and counting on the big shirts and inattentive relatives to get me through 6 more weeks...
All that said, I really don't want to complain. I'm so thrilled to have made it this far and am willing to let all of it get much worse if it means a healthy baby. But wouldn't it be so much more fun for everyone if I wasn't so sick and tired all the time?
