Feeling Pregnant Now

After my last post (written on Monday) I heard back from Stacy's doctor and apparently OBGYNs here in Omaha don't do "meet and greets" anymore because they were taking too much time away from patients, so you have to schedule whatever appointment you need with them instead. I was able to make an appointment for December 30th so I am looking forward to meeting Ann then. Problem is, it's my OB check up (basically the same thing as the annual exam I had in Sept) so if I keep my appointment with my original doctor in January then I will be having three exams in four months! Therefore, I've decided not to return to my original doctor even one more time after I meet the new doctor on the 30th so that I can avoid having an extra exam. So, it's official. . .no more Dr. T.

If I'm not sure about Stacy's doc, then my next step will be to meet with Chris' midwife, Lydia, as I already know her answer -- no way would she tell me right now that I'm guaranteed a c-section. I know all midwifes agree that c-sections should be a last resort and she would spend these next several months doing everything she can to help me have another vaginal birth. I thought it was a good sign that my mom was given Lydia's name as well when she asked for a recommendation for a midwife in Omaha. There are quite a few here so that was a comforting coincidence that it was the same woman who Chris used & loved.

I had hoped to meet both Ann and Lydia simultaneously before making a decision on which one to go with, but it sounds like I will already be hiring Ann on December 30th and will keep going to her unless I decide to switch to Lydia.

My friend Melissa who used to be a nurse in Omaha (and now lives/works in Arizona) suggested I have all of my medical records (including Logan's birth at Bergan) sent to the new OBGYN or midwife so that they have all of the info they need on me. So I will try to get over my "feeling bad" if Dr. T learns where I will be transferring. :p

In other news, around the same time that I put Logan down for his nap on Tuesday (12/14) I began to feel de ja vu. . .nausea!!!! :( :( :( I thought maybe it was due to the stress of finding out that morning that Logan was still not given the seal of approval to return to his babysitter's house, as his doctor didn't even have to do an x-ray -- he could tell that there was still fluid in Logan's lungs from the pneumonia! :( (Until then I had been on a mood-high since two days before I found out I was pregnant, but I've come down from that.) Logan's pediatrician put Logan back on the nebulizer for another five days and is confident that on Tuesday (my birthday) when we bring him back he will be 100% recovered. It has been five long weeks so I could really use a break! My friend Brooke and I went to the movie theater on Friday night so that was very much enjoyed!

My nausea was gone by the time Logan woke up from his nap and so otherwise that day I felt normal, however on Wednesday morning I woke up and started dry heaving! I ran downstairs and stuffed some breakfast in my mouth (I've now put crackers next to my bed like I did while pregnant with Logan so that should keep my blood sugar from getting low during the middle of the night). My nausea went away, however late afternoon (when Logan got up from his nap) it returned. The fear of thinking that it could become like last time made me want to cry! What if it was just two weeks delayed but my previous experience would be repeated after all? I recalled how this was my worst week of my entire pregnancy with Logan, so I told myself "just get through this week eight!" I was disappointed that after being SO CLOSE to being out of the woods. . .I did not make it. (As I wrote in my December 6th post, supposedly if you can get through week 8 without any nausea then you won't have any during your nine months of pregnancy. But since I didn't get to be in that category that means now this could continue.)

On the bright side, it is still not as bad as my last pregnancy. On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being last time, I would describe Tues & Wed as a 1. Thursday, however, it lasted all day so I'd describe that as a 3-4. But the degree to which I had it didn't make me feel like I was dying which is how I felt during week 8 with Logan! (Although I still say nausea is the worst feeling in the world.) Friday I only had it in the morning and on Saturday it was only at night, so I am hoping that today (Sunday) I won't have any and that will be it for this pregnancy since today I start week 9!

I don't know what it is about week 8 that makes me so nauseated! Although, it was the week the heart completed and the brain broke into two hemispheres so I guess those are pretty important body parts!

Last week at this time you still could have convinced me I wasn't pregnant because I hadn't had one symptom, however also during this past week my boobs came back! (I lost them when I stopped breastfeeding. They feel like they are breastfeeding again, too.) With Logan I never had any digestive issues, but this time I am. I also started the "frequent urination," my face has started breaking out (and even my chest which I don't think has ever happened before), my hair has grown dry and limp, and my hunger has increased. I have to eat breakfast the second I wake up (usually I am slow to get going in the morning and that includes not wanting breakfast for an hour or two after I wake up). I've also had one craving -- one evening I just HAD to have a baked potato (I then realized that I'd never bought or cooked a baked potato in my life but I had a total of 3 over the week and they were great)! Needless to say, I've gained 3 lbs which is the same as I had at this point with Logan and considered fine, but if you've been reading this blog then you know I don't want to gain as much weight by the end as I did with him so I had preferred not to gain any during the first trimester since it's not necessary like it is in the second and third trimesters. Plus I started out with five pounds above my old self. :(

So it's good that just like with Logan, I have a food aversion to sweets. Usually I am a chocolate-aholic. I have to eat chocolate every day or else I become irritable. However, that was one thing that I guess did start immediately. I had to force myself to eat the cake that I brought on TG announcing my pregnancy to my family, and I haven't had many sweets since. The idea of making Christmas cookies is not appealing at all to me this year! With Logan, this fell around Halloween -- I remember buying our candy 2-3 weeks in advance and not sneaking any! (Shocking.) It went away by the third trimester, though, so it probably will again this time, too. (I don't, however, have a food aversion to vegetables which I did with Logan.)

So far my energy has continued to stay up. I gave the eliptical another chance after the last time I wrote about it, but discovered that yeah, I can't do more than 30 min on the eliptical while pregnant. That is fine. (I took this past week off since I felt nauseous.) I'm sleeping better, thankfully. (Only waking up energetic in the middle of the night 1-2 days a week opposed to every night). Today I haven't had any nausea so only time will tell for sure -- but I still think this pregnancy is going to continue being way different (meaning, better) from my last.