It's a long one......

This may not interest those of you who read my blog; however I felt that I needed to document some of the things that I have experienced during the pregnancy so far that haven't made it into the scrapbook or into a diary. I'm 9.5 weeks pregnant now and these are some of the things I've felt and craved:

Before taking the test and getting a positive, I just had that feeling that something was different - somehow I just really felt I was pregnant. I didn't want to get set on those feelings though in fear that they were phantom signs/symptoms. I was measuring my body temperatures every morning and saw a temperature rise (but I saw the same thing the month before), but this time I saw a second temperature rise and it stayed up which was a clue. So I basically developed a "triphasic chart" for those of you who have ever done this. I also started to have cramping about a week and a half before my period was due which was strange. A few nights before I took the test, I wasn't sleeping well - I would wake up several times but then just thought it was because I was thinking about getting pregnant so much.

After the first 2 weeks once finding out I was pregnant the nausea started to set in. It has never started in the morning, it actually would come on in the early afternoon and get worse into the evening. At first it was just aversions - nothing really sounded good to me. My usual snacks sounded gross. Then I did start to feel nauseated pretty much all the time once the morning was behind me.

Things that got me through the nausea:

Graham crackers and saltines only were a comfort for a few days - now I don't want anything to do with those things. I sipped on ginger ale for a few days but now can't stand the thought of drinking that stuff. I really craved McDonald cheese burger and fries for about 2 weeks (that started to worry me - how was I ever going to watch the weight gain?!), thankfully that craving has ended. Now anything sour seems to do the trick (sour skittles, sour patch kids, limeade...) as well as really wanting to drink juice. Preggie pops were also nice. I was on Zofran every 8 hours for about 2-3 weeks which I pretty much stopped taking this past weekend. Thankfully the nausea seems to be getting a little better. Something I also need to mention - Sam was soooo sweet during my worst, he would make me a half of a mini bagel (toast it and spread a thin layer of PB) before bed.

The worst parts of this pregnancy have been finding out about the cyst on my ovary (which hasn't turned out to be an issue but was to me at the time), worrying about miscarrying (knowing too much being in the medical field), the nausea, looking fat, not wanting to do anything, and the constipation with most recent surgery as mentioned in my previous blog entry. I've really learned to put my worries, fears, and struggles in God's hands - once I realized that I'm not at all in control things just changed. Like Sam put it one evening - "just like our money really isn't ours - its Gods; this baby is Gods too and we're just carrying it and raising it". It helped me put in perspective that if God want's this baby to flourish it will and if not then it wasn't meant to be ( a really hard thing to grasp for me in the beginning).

The best parts of this pregnancy has been having more regular ultrasounds because of the cyst, hearing the baby's heart beat for the first time with Sam and my mom there, seeing the baby move yesterday and hearing the heartbeat again, finding out 4 of my close friends are also pregnant at the same time, and not being as sick or fatigued as some women unfortunately experience. So far this has truly been an amazing experience and though it's been tough I feel blessed that God has chosen us to carry this wonderful life growing inside me. I can't wait to meet him or her and shower them with kisses and love.