Negatives and POSITIVES

SO its been a few weeks since my last weekly update. I am now 11 1/2 weeks!

Nausea has been a problem in both of my other pregnancies during the first trimester and this one was no different.  My weeks change on Saturday, and Beckett's 2nd birthday party (small family party) was on Saturday, September 14th. That was the first day I felt really sick.  It was kind of funny, because I was beginning to think I was home free from the nausea this time, and then BAM!

With Cash, I was sick from 6 weeks until 12 weeks. I didn't take any medication with him because I didn't know much about it. I was throwing up anywhere from 4 to 6 times a day. It was AWFUL!

With Beckett, like this pregnancy, I didn't start getting sick until around 7, 7 1/2 weeks and I thought maybe I wouldn't be sick with him. Of course, the nausea came, and I was very sick until around 9 weeks. I took some medication to help me be able to eat, and keep down what I ate. If I remember correctly, I was only taking one, sometimes two pills a day (way under the maximum amount). That helped, but I was still very nauseated without it. I prayed and prayed and PRAYED that it would go away because I couldn't handle the constant throwing up with a toddler running around. Thankfully around 9 weeks it subsided. I told myself that if the nausea went away, I wouldn't question why, but of course I was a little bit worried. At 10 weeks exactly I heard Beckett's sweet little heartbeat on a fetal monitor I bought.

This pregnancy has been difficult to compare to the others. Like I said, around 7 weeks I started getting really sick on a constant basis. I called my doctor as soon as I found out I was pregnant and told them I needed a prescription for Ondansetron, my nausea medicine. I started taking one pill in the morning. I quickly figured out that wasn't going to cut it.  By 8 1/2 weeks I was taking almost the maximum amount allowed in the instructions on the bottle, although I found out later that I could have taken more. It helped significantly BUT I was still sick, and throwing up.  The food aversions were pretty bad also.  Almost nothing sounded good. Things that may have sounded good one day, would be something that made me gag the next day.  Again, I prayed and prayed and PRAYED  that it would go away and I could feel normal again. Around 9 1/2 weeks it started to subside.  I am 11 1/2 weeks now, and I still feel nauseated sometimes, but its leaps and bounds better than constant nausea.

Everyone always says that after you give birth, every negative experience during that time is a distant, foggy memory afterwards because all you can remember is the happiness of holding your baby for the first time. I feel the same way about pregnancy.  Of course, I remember the hard parts of each of my pregnancies, but sometimes its hard to remember the hard parts in terms of how hard they actually were.  If I can remember correctly, I am experiencing some symptoms in this pregnancy that I didn't have  a lot of in my others.  I have been having headaches almost everyday that don't seem to want to go away. I have been having some stomach aches too, which I don't remember having with the other two.  My skin has been pretty dry, and I am getting a little bit of a rash on my shoulders and chest. I got the same rash with Cash, and I had it throughout my entire pregnancy. 

NOW for the postives! Haha! I just re-read this and realized that it sounds so whiny and negative.  Yes, there have definitely been some rough patches, but don't think there is a day that goes by where I don't thank God for this baby multiple times. We talk about the baby all the time with the boys. They both refer to it as "her".  I don't know why, because we never refer to a gender when we talk about the baby.  I am definitly showing a lot faster this time. I started really showing with Cash around 16 weeks. With Beckett it was around 13-14.  This time...11 weeks. I've heard that after your first pregnancy, your body just knows what to do, and how to move to accomodate the baby.  Not to mention my uterus expanded to hold an almost 10 pound baby about 2 years ago, so I expected the early show this time.  I know some of it is bloat, but I can definitely feel a little bump.

The MOST exciting thing that has happened today, is I finally found the baby's heartbeat with the fetal monitor this afternoon! Like I mentioned previously, we found Beckett's heartbeat at 10 weeks.  I have been using the monitor almost daily for a few minutes at a time to see if we could find it.  I started worrying that I wouldn't know that it was his/her heartbeat when I heard it, and confuse it with mine.  Today, I laid on my bed, and put the monitor on my belly. Within the first few minutes, I found it! It was much faster than mine, and very strong.  I'm going to try recording it later tonight!  I just so happen to look at the clock the minute I found the heartbeat and it was at 5:01pm. THEREFORE my prediction is that this baby will be born on May 1st (two days before the due date).  :)  Its weird how hearing the heartbeat makes you look at the baby as a real part of the family. There are 5 of us now, even if we can't see him/her.

On a side note, we got Cash and Beckett's halloween costumes today! They are both going to be policemen.  We let them pick out their own costumes and Cash was deciding between Harry Potter and a policeman.  Beckett was deciding between the Hulk, Batman and Superman.  He originally chose Batman, but had an absolute meltdown when he tried it on. We think he didn't like being constricted in the costume because it was a full body suit.  After that he was in no mood to try on anything else, so we got two policeman costumes. He plays policeman all the time so I think it'll be a winner. We had a lovely day going to Acropolis for lunch and getting their costumes. I love having Colt home during the day with us!

I have my second OB appointment on Tuesday, and we'll get to hear the heartbeat on their fetal monitor! Exciting! Talk to you soon, and thanks for reading!!!