I received a message from my OB a few days after our first Nuchal Translucency test that everything looked normal, yay! There are two parts to this test, the first was an ultrasound and blood work, the second part will be follow-up blood work at my next appointment. I will also have the quad screening blood work preformed at my next appointment. The quad screening is similar to the Nuchal screening, whereas they both detect chromosomal abnormalities in the fetuses.
My nausea seems to have completely disappeared, which is pretty scary because now I find myself craving junk food and it's so hard not to cave into those desires, ESPECIALLY when the smell of fresh doughnuts is the ONLY thing I can smell when I walk into Cub foods to get something "healthy" for lunch. Damn you Cub foods, I am sticking to my guns, but you make it SO hard some days! I don't know how long I'll make it. Today I gave in to banana Laffy Taffy and a bottle of squirt. I saw a woman drinking a can of squirt and was determined to do the same.
I have terrible acid reflux at night and I can only imagine it has to do with having the extra added pressure on my already very sensitive and squished stomach. I've resorted to taking Pepcid AC, which, according to my "safe during pregnancy" fact sheet that I so often resort to, is ok. And....it works WONDERS! It gives me cotton mouth, but it also eliminates about 2 times out of the 6 times I seem to have to get up to pee at night. Bonus!
The worst symptom of all, which I'm sure almost every pregnant woman can empathize with, is E-H-A-U-S-T-I-O-N. I have very low blood pressure to begin with, and I continue to make nurses question their reading. There are some days when I manage to get through a day feeling tired, but a manageable tired and with little to no help from half cup of coffee. Other days, I'm not so lucky. Some days I seriously wonder "what the hell is HAPPENING to me?!", I can barely even make it through a shower at that point. Blinking my eye-lids wears me out. BUT, I still can't complain. I am moving along nicely, we're healthy, I'm not bleeding, I have no other complaints and am so happy as things are really starting to get underway.
For the past couple of weeks, I had been promising T & Y a "belly pic". But when it came down to it, I felt ridiculous taking one because there was nothing to show for it. I waited until today, at exactly 14 weeks, to take my first ones. I realize that most people might not think so, but I feel like I am already HUGE at such an early point in the pregnancy. I kept chalking it up to being bloated and the fact that I've never been a "regular" person, if ya know what I mean, and I'm especially not regular now (sorry if TMI). I didn't begin to have even the slightest "bump" until I was about 6 months pregnant with Kaleb. I know, I was quite a bit younger and it was my first, but still. I'm excited to have this little bump, but also very scared about the strong chances that I will get to be pretty big. I carried very low as well, I think because I have such a long torso, more on that later. So I hope these babies will take full advantage of the extra freakish space I have and stretch out up-and-down before they start to stretch outwards :). A pregnant woman can dream, can't she?!
I learned the brighter side of getting bigger. Three words, maternity clothes shopping! In the beginning of this journey, I poo pooed buying maternity clothes because I was lucky enough to wear my normal clothes throughout my pregnancy with Kaleb and I was NOT about to let a moo-moo maternity outfit cramp my style at this point. No siree, not this girl. Saturday I finally took the plunge and looked for maternity clothing. I figured I'd just look for some jeans, because the little bump that I do have, is sitting pretty low and makes wearing jeans, pretty uncomfortable. Insert my love of yoga pants. I could wear them all the time. But yoga pants don't fly at work, not even on "casual-day". Target's maternity jeans were not impressive, but their clearance rack was :) I found a few springy shirts and went into the fitting room. This should be noted in history, ALL items fit and were purchased......this NEVER happens. I couldn't believe it. All this time, I've left stores feeling defeated and depressed because shirts don't fit my abnormally long-ass torso and ape-like arms. I joke about how my "tank tops" are really "normal peoples' dresses", but I'm dead serious, I really DO wear tank tops that are meant to be dresses! Buying bigger shirts just makes them baggier, not longer, and I'm slender. So I wear colored long tank-tops (dresses for most people) under every shirt that I wear. It turns out that some maternity shirts, the "non-tentish style ones", fit awkward shaped people like me, perfectly! Halleluiah! I was on such a happy-high from this revelation that I went to JcPenney's after Target, but quickly noted that they do NOT have a maternity section. I found plenty of longer tops that will suffice and bought a larger size of cute capris in case spring/summer does decide to visit Minnesota, afterall. I also bought two colorful tube tops to use as "belly-bands", just like I did with my own pregnancy. On to Old Navy......oh Old Navy, where do I begin? Their clearance section makes my head spin every time I go there. When I shop, just in general, I'm extremely indecisive and most store employees probably assume I'm staking out the store by the way I pace and pick things up, put them back, pick them up, put them back, etc. I spent a LOT of time going through Old Navy's clearance racks and they were having a massive sale, which would make most people happy, but nervous-nelly, buyers remorse ridden, return-aholics such as myself, can't take the pressure of having so many deals just waiting to be taken. Although they did not have a maternity section, they certainly DID have several maternity items that had been returned from their online store and I jumped at the 50% discount. I bought some maternity jeans that look less maternity-ish, so I was happy with that and I found several very colorful tank-tops that are long and fitted, to hopefully add some serious style to my spring and summer months as I get bigger. I will not lie, I receive a "maternity clothing allowance" from my intended parents (this is very standard and means that I get reimbursed for a certain amount of maternity clothing), and it turned what used to be a nightmare of an experience, into a fun one for once. I'm very appreciative. It should also be noted that, aside from Kaleb's clothes, I shop for clothes about once every 2-3 years for myself, if even. I still wear clothes that I've had for over 7-8+ years. So I'm joking about being stylish, because I'm not, and the point that I am not a shopaholic...well maybe now I am, should also be noted. I just felt the need to share my awesome Saturday :)
That exhaustion is hard core. I never had it as bad with my pregnancies as with my suro one. It's hard to function being that tired. Keep up the good work and I hope you get some energy back soon. Good job on the maternity clothes. I suck at clothes shopping. :)
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