Hanging In

According to my baby book (What to Expect When You're Expecting), there's a lot going on with our little one right now. He or she is about the size of a blueberry and new brain cells are being generated at the rate of 100 cells per minute! Also taking shape are baby's mouth and tongue, and the kidneys are now poised to begin their important work of waste management. His or her arm and leg buds are forming, which are beginning to sprout into paddle-like appendages and to divide into hand, arm, and shoulder segments--and leg, knee, and foot segments. My first doctor's appointment is 2 weeks from today and I am so excited to go and start that part of this journey. We may even be able to hear the baby's heartbeat by then! (Hopefully Richard will be able to go with me - I don't think he'll be in California for pre-deployment training yet.) Since my last post, my severe itching has been replaced with all day "morning" sickness. (What a silly thing to call it as it certainly does not apply to only mornings.) I'm trying to stay positive and do everything I can to prevent and quell the queasies but right now the rest of the first trimester sounds like an eternity. I guess we can at least take it as a sign that things are really happening in my not-yet-showing body. :) Thank you, Lord, for this amazing blessing!

Losing my Mind

The last couple days have been pretty good without too much nausea (and without much exposure to food smells), and I think I've pretty well beat this virus. There is one major thing, however, that I was not expecting... I have had terrible uncontrollable itching for the last 3 days. It's especially the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet and sometimes randomly everywhere else. It feels like a bad bug bite that itches SOOO bad and when you finally give in a scratch, it feels really good while you're scratching but doesn't take away the itch. I feel like I'm losing my mind because there is nothing I can do to help it! I read up on it and it sounds like some women experience this due to the increased estrogen production and the only advice seems to be staying well hydrated and using lots of lotion. I put some lotion in the refrigerator because the coolness feels good and I will continue to try that, but my skin doesn't really feel that dry. I don't know - maybe it's just something I will have to get used to... if that's possible.

Reality setting in

Richard and I called our parents and siblings last night and they are all very excited. It's going to take a little while for it to sink in for all of us, it's still hard to believe it's real! Now that I'm feeling a good bit better from the virus, I am starting to be able to distinguish my other physical feelings and changes. The nausea I mentioned yesterday is definitely not virus related... smells are so magnified to me right now. Richard's breakfast of eggs and bacon - terrible. Vegetable soup - disgusting. Walmart grocery shopping trip - horrendous (way too many food smells mixed together there). I haven't actually thrown up (yet) but have felt overall nauseous for most of the day. I feel pretty ready for everything that is happening and am excited about experiencing each phase of this journey.

Sick and Pleasantly Surprised

Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat and achy body. Over the next couple days that moved to a stuffy head, and yesterday went deep into my chest with a bad cough and a touch of nausea. After a really long day substitute teaching in a 5th grade class (and being scheduled to have that class all week) I decided that I really should go to the doctor. Not only did I feel terrible, I didn't want to risk getting an entire class sick too. This morning I woke up at about 7am so I could take the lesson plans back over to the school and start calling the doctor's appointment line to get an appointment for today. I am a couple days late for my period, which is not really unusual, but thought I should do a test so I could tell the doctor if I thought I could be pregnant or not when she asked. The test was positive!!! I couldn't believe it! I read the testing instructions again and yes, the plus sign really does mean positive! I turned on the lights in the bedroom and woke Richard up to show him... it was really cool that he was even home because he's usually at PT at that time of the morning. So we were definitely excited but not too trusting of the test - didn't want to get our hopes up too much. Well when I went to the doctor for my appointment I told her that I had a positive home pregnancy test this morning. She ran some bloodwork and along with finding out that I have a virus that has to just run its course, she also confirmed that I AM PREGNANT! How awesome to know so early and how good it feels that it happened right when we stopped worrying about it! :) I have an OB appointment scheduled for May 13, but without seeing the doctor yet I am estimating my due date to be about December 22.