My weekly pregnancy pictures were among those that were damaged when I was trying to get the pictures off my phone. I'm so sad about it!
This pregnancy has been pretty similar to my pregnancy with Chandler. My nausea started almost immediately but became full force around 8 or 9 weeks. I would always wretch when I first got up in the morning. Through out the day, the nausea would remain, but sometimes was more powerful than others. I could barely eat and when I did, I often ended up throwing it up. By the end of my first trimester, I had lost about 6 pounds. It was pretty brutal. One time I was so weak and miserable, I just brought a big bowl over to the couch so I wouldn't have to get up and would just wretch over it once in a while. Chandler saw my bowl and started whining for it. Since I needed mine, I just went and got him one of his own. He immediately picked it up, stuck his face in it, and started making gagging noises. Apparently, I make morning sickness look fun. Anyway, I started feeling much better around 12 weeks, which was welcome relief.
The exhaustion kicked in right away. I have been super tired throughout this pregnancy. Fortunately for me, Chandler still naps, so I have been able to nap, too. Between the tiredness and the sickness, a lot of my time was spent laying to the floor while Chandler danced around me, tearing the house apart. It's so nice to have family nearby. On days that I was particularly miserable, I could go over to my parents and my Mom would watch him for a little bit so that I could have a break.
Also like last time, I've had some cramping this time. While cramping will always freak me out, I wasn't quite as paranoid as last time, just because I knew it was something that was normal for me.
One thing that has been different about this pregnancy is my skin. With Chandler, I had glowing pregnancy skin. This time, I've been prone to slight break outs. Maybe that means there is some more estrogen in there and it's a girl? I have no idea...I've never had that "feeling" or instinct in either of my pregnancies. Josh and Mom think it's a girl, though. No matter what, we'll be thrilled. Having a girl means we have one of each, so that would be great. But a boy would be fun, too, because how fun would it be to have brothers that close in age? We'll see what happens...
We had a little bit of a scare at my first ultrasound. The doctors found a subchorionic hematoma (spot of blood in the uterus). Fortunately, it hasn't caused any complications so far. Apparently, they are relatively common and usually harmless.
Because of insurance changes, we had to switch doctors (but we would have had to anyway because the hospital my old practice works through can't do VBACs). The list of doctors we could go to was pretty limited and we weren't familiar with any of the practices on there. So we ended up picking the closest one. That was a disaster. The office was gross and unimpressive. The doctor was really scatter-brained. He asked me if I'd felt any fetal movement at 5 weeks. Really?! And he immediately shut down my request for a VBAC. So we started looking for a new doctor and got a great recommendation from a friend who is a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital where we will be having the baby. Our experience with them has been pretty great so far! The doctor I've seen twice is so nice and very supportive of a VBAC. The other doctor in the practice I saw was super nice, but not supportive. Hopefully, the former is the one on call when I go into labor...
Three cheers for surviving the first trimester!
