My Pregnancy To Date:

I started out the New Year by coming down with a pretty bad cold with a sore throat, cough, runny nose and seriously low energy levels. On Saturday, January 3rd, I was 2 days late and really hopeful that this would be the month! I had not told Tony that I was even considering it. I got out of bed quietly and went into the bathroom. I read the directions and took the test. It tells you that you have to wait 3 minutes to read the results, however I could see after several seconds that both lines were turning pink (which indicates positive). I waited the 3 minutes and looked again. Sure enough, it was positive!! I was SO excited!!

I debated how I would tell Tony and finally decided to just leave it sitting on the window sill next to the toilet so that he would see it as soon as he got up. I tried to calm myself and wait for him to get up. Tony was still trying to sleep, but I pushed for him to get up. He was reluctant but finally did. I tried not to let him know that I was behind him coming into the bathroom. He got to the test and said, "oh, that's why you wanted me to get up". Then he looked at it and said, "Wow, Really?!" I came up behind him and hugged him. He said he wasn't expecting me to be pregnant yet, but he was thinking earlier that he wonders how long it is going to take. He was excited also!

Now, I'm not sure if the exhaustion was the cold or the pregnancy or both. I did go to the doctor first thing Monday morning to have my progesterone levels checked. They prescribed me progesterone just in case. My tests came back fine, but the doctor decided that I should stay on the progesterone through the first trimester to be on the safe side.

I started out my pregnancy at 218 pounds. I had hoped to lose some weight before getting pregnant, but ended up gaining over the holidays instead. I started out the pregnancy eating healthy and trying to get my body moving at least a little bit. In the first couple of weeks I lost a couple of pounds just by eating healthy and watching my portions.

We decided not to tell anyone until I had at least been to my first doctor's appointment. It was SO hard though to keep it quiet. My first doctor's appointment was not until January 29th which was at my 8 week mark.

I was really tired a lot during the first part of the pregnancy. There were a couple of days when I was So exhausted at work that I just wanted to lay my head down and take a nap. It became kind of difficult to hide it from my coworkers because I also was a tad bit whiny about being tired. The morning sickness did not start right away though which was a blessing. Occasionally, just talking about gross things would make me feel queasy though. I started having some morning sickness just before the start of my 8th week. On Tuesday, Jan. 27th, I took one swig of my morning cup of coffee and was completely nauseated! I even thought that I might have to pull my car over since I was driving to work at the time. Once I had started feeling queasy from the coffee I still felt sort of yuck off and on for awhile. I found that eating helped some, but I didn't ever feel totally ok after that. Tony made spaghetti for dinner that night and just the smell of it was getting to me. I ate a little, but was fighting nausea the whole time. After that day I have not made my morning cup of coffee at all. I do occasionally drink coffee now, but I only have about a cup and it is rare.

January 29th was my first doctor's appointment. I woke up that morning, showered, brushed my teeth, and then threw up. It was not fun. I finally got it together and got to the doctor's office. I got there at 10am for my appointment and didn't end up leaving until 1pm! It was a detailed visit to say the least. My ultrasound went well. I have a tiny little 1.8cm blob ;-) of a baby and I got to hear it's heartbeat. She also found a 7cm cyst on my right ovary. She said it isn't anything to worry about too much, but just good to know and keep an eye on. Everything else checked out ok so far. OH, the Worst thing for me was that when I stepped on the scale my first "official" baby weigh in was 222!! I had hoped to be at like 215 or so when I weighed in with the doctor. But the week was a difficult one with the onslaught of the morning sickness.

My parents were going out of town the next day for the weekend, so Tony and I went by and told them after work that afternoon. We showed them the ultrasound pictures and they were totally excited! My dad told Tony that it is going to be a girl, because that's all we can have around here. Tony called and told his mom and dad over the weekend. I also told my grandparents and sisters over the weekend. Then I told my supervisor and coworkers in my unit. Everyone is totally excited for us.

The morning sickness never got extreme but feeling queasy was never fun. I learned that eating small snacks throughout the day really helped to keep it at bay. I also ate a lot of bad for me foods because that was about all that sounded appealing to me. There were days when I would bring a healthy lunch to work and only eat part of it because it just seemed gross to me. The only cravings that I seemed to have were for fried foods. A couple of nights I really struggled with not being able to eat the dinner that Tony cooked. I feel like it usually happened when I was overtired and/or did not get enough food in during the earlier part of the afternoon/evening. For the most part now I don't have any more morning sickness, but I do still have to make sure that I don't go to bed on an empty stomach. If I don't eat before bed, then I feel a bit queasy in the morning when I get up.

My second OB appointment was on February 25th when I was 12 weeks. Tony went with me so that he could hear the baby's heartbeat. I weighed in at 225, which was a three pound gain. My midwife, Jeri, told me to try not to gain more than 3 pounds a month for the next 2 months. She said that would allow me to start the second half of the pregnancy with no more than a 10 pound gain. My blood pressure was 120/70 which is really good. Then we got to hear the heartbeat. It was pretty cool. The heartbeat sounds very whooshy. I started to giggle and it made it harder to hear the heartbeat. So Jeri said to stop giggling which just made me laugh harder. Tony didn't have a major reaction, but he did admit that it was "kinda exciting".

On March 1st It snowed! It is not pregnancy related, but it was really cool! We took lots of pictures and I thought it was neat that I was pregnant when it finally decided to snow in Macon again.

I am not really showing yet, but my "normal" clothes are starting to get a little bit tight and uncomfortable. My supervisor gave me some of her old maternity clothes, which I appreciate tremendously. She gave me 4 pair of capri pants - blue jean, khaki, & 2 black ones - and about 7 or 8 shirts. I also managed to pick up three pair of used maternity pants at Goodwill. Then my sister & I hit a local consignment sale and found some good buys. I ended up getting 8 shirts and 1 pair of shorts there. We also picked up some classic pooh bedding for the baby's room. I've decided to go with the classic pooh theme just cause I think it will be cute and I love Disney. Anyway, I've already begun wearing my maternity clothing at least half of the time just because it is so comfortable.

Well, that is my update so far in the pregnancy. Stay tuned for further exciting details! :-)