Faux-secco?

So I LOVE Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale. We ran out yesterday, and during our hot dog run we picked up a bottle of Seagram's Diet Ginger Ale to hold me over until we could go to commissary for the Canadian stuff.

It tastes SO DIFFERENT. I'm not such a big fan. HOWEVER (and this is a big however), it tastes slightly alcoholic to me. I'm not stupid; I am well aware that there is absolutely NO alcohol in this stuff...but maybe if I put it in a wine glass, I'll feel better? Mmm hmm, that's my plan for later. It looks like prosecco and it fools my tastebuds.

Fun New Things About Me

My tastes are changing every single second.

Tonight I craved hot dogs. BADLY. I was already in my pajamas. My saint of a husband drove all the way to Dillon's with me (the commissary was already closed) and we picked up hot dogs and other goodies :)

I'm loving string cheese...I think the whole pulling it apart thing might be cathartic or something. I don't have to push myself to eat them, which is a nice change. Diet Ginger Ale has been fantastic, but I'm wary about introducing soda back into my life. Not that it was completely gone, but I definitely wasn't stocking my house with it. But it helps with the nausea, so it stays for now.

Ritz crackers and cheddar help to fill me up with little to no effort, which is good. Lean Cuisine pepperoni pizzas are still awesome! I can handle burgers from Wendy's and Applebees, but NOT from Burger King and the thought of a Spangles burger makes me nauseous (which is sad, because I liked Spangles).

The worst thing, though, is my new aversion to the smell of cooked chicken. KILL ME. I can NOT handle it. AT ALL. And seriously, I love chicken. It's so good for you, and so low in fat, and so easy to prepare in numerous ways and WAAAAAAAH. :(

Anyway, another new fun symptom arrived today: painful constipation.

What nobody told me about constipation is that it can mean more than just a giant turd blocking everything up. Oh nooooo. No sir. What I've got is a slowing-down of my digestive tract, which essentially means that all my little turdlets are hard as rock. So it doesn't matter how small they are, they cause my butt some serious ouchies every time I have to go.

Just now I passed a clot. Out of my butt. I THOUGHT I WAS HAVING A MISCARRIAGE. But no...it came out of my butt.

I guess the Metamucil isn't going to be enough...Colace, here I come!

6 Weeks :)

How far along? 6 weeks and 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: no clue. but i'm eating like a pig and bloated as hell.

Maternity clothes? not yet...I did get a BeBand for the bloat though, so my jeans will still be comfy. and i live in my pajamas.

Sleep: sleep <3

Best moment this week: eric being sweet

Movement: not that i can feel

Food cravings: MEAT. and cheese.

Gender: i feel like it's a girl. which means it's a boy.

What I miss: cigarettes, wine, and coffee...and not having acid reflux EVERY NIGHT.

What I am looking forward to: hearing a heartbeat

Weekly Wisdom: no ice cream. NO ICE CREAM.

Milestones: still pregnant...and morning sickness.

Argh.

All I have to do is pee, every five minutes.

Oh and morning sickness? It feels like being hungover, except you never really got to enjoy the party.

I don't want to complain too much, though. I'm really thankful for this pregnancy.

The peeing thing is taking a lot of getting used to, though!

Whoever Named This Morning Sickness...

...should be slapped.

it's freaking 4pm and I wanna hurl. It quietly crept up on my at around noon today. It slowly made its presence more and more known. AND NOW I WANT TO PUKE.

Good God

Holy balls, morning sickness...where the eff did you come from?????

Out of nowhere at like 1:30pm, I got a little dizzy and i've been nauseous ever since. Being a genius, I decided to pick up some Burger King for a late lunch after going to the commissary. The burger tasted like poop. POOP. Luckily, I can still stomach the fries. I scarfed those babies down like it was my job.

So now I'm just sitting here in a state of perpetual nausea. The dishes in the sink are killing me. I really hope this isn't a 24/7 thing :(

E.R. Veteran

In the past year, I have been in the emergency room three times. The first two times were at the Princeton ER, once for acid reflux and a second time for unrelenting nausea. Tonight I went to the Christian hospital in Wichita (the one McConnell uses for its guys...five minutes away), because we suspected an ectopic pregnancy.

Long story short, the pain near my right ovary got REALLY bad tonight. I had assumed it was a cyst, but this pain was scary. Coupled with the brown spotting a few days ago, and I was convinced that my pregnancy was tubal.

My saint of a husband hopped into the car with me and we headed to Via Christi, where I was poked and prodded for hours on end. I had an external and internal ultrasound, and they took my blood more times than I can count. It was exhausting.

Everything worked out well at the end of the day though...it was just my Corpus Luteum cyst! For those who don't know, it's the cyst that every woman gets when she gets pregnant...not everyone can feel it, but all of us have it. Basically, it nurtures your baby for the first ten weeks of pregnancy. Mine is bigger than my last cyst, at a whopping 2 cm (haha) and it hurts like a biznatch.

My baby bean is in my uterus, exactly where it should be :) I did not get to see it, as the doc says it's itty bitty on the ultrasound picture at 5 weeks, but he saw the sac and all and is happy. My beta levels are at about 5500! WOO HOO! The relief that I feel right now is AMAZING. For the first time, I'm starting to feel confidant about this pregnancy.

Just keep sticking, little bean <3

In the Clear..I Think?

NO spotting today. At all. Slight cramping came back early evening, but nothing to write home about.

Acid reflux has returned as of about 30 minutes ago. YAY.

I feel more pain today (and late last night) from what I suspect is the corpus luteum cyst. It's on the right side, directly where my last ovarian cyst is. I keep scaring myself into thinking it's an ectopic pregnancy.

I think I'm just convinced that something will go wrong. It's like I can't sit back and relax and be happy being pregnant; I'm convinced that there won't be a baby in 9 months. How awful is that? I want to enjoy this. I think (hope) that my first ultrasound will give me that peace of mind, but who knows when that will be. I'm not sure they're going to do it at my October tenth appointment.

ETA: 5 days smoke free :)

ETA

Spotting has stopped, for now. I'm still really, really, REALLY freaked out by it.

Here's hoping it was a one time thing. Unfortunately it's the weekend, so I'll have to wait until Monday to call my OBGYN if it presents itself again :(

Blech.

Spotting is no fun, and it's nerve wracking. I think I'm only confident because it was brownish in color and I'm not having any cramps today. UGH. I want it to go away though. It's never happened before!

A River Runs Through It

Good God, I have to pee every five minutes today.

Crampy McTiredPants

My reflux has left me (for now)!!! Two nights of peaceful, deep sleep. Fantastic. :)

I've been experiencing mild cramping on and off for a few days. At first I was entirely freaked out by it, but now I'm pretty much calm. It's normal. As long as it's not severe, I'm fine! Honestly, I keep expecting to go to the bathroom, wipe, and see my period. SUCH an odd sensation.

I'm getting sleepier, but nowhere near the fatigue from last time...yet. I'm sure that'll arrive in a few days. I AM sleeping more deeply (when pain doesn't interrupt me), and my dreams have been super vivid since the moment I tested positive. At least I stopped talking in my sleep!

The worst right now would be the boobies. OUCH. Holy crap, they KILL in the morning. And my nipples are the worst part...the bra hurts them. I'm sure this will come and go.

Anyway, that's really it. Nothing too exciting to report! I have my first OBGYN appointment on October 10th at 10am...yup, 10/10 at 10. My doctor is Susan Breit down by the Waterfront center...the doc on base told me good things about the practice. So here's hoping!

Til next time.

Reflux This.

I've been awake since 5am with the worst reflux I've had in a long while. I had to take three Nexiums to feel any relief. Eff this, there has to be some magical fix!

Well hello there

I'm 4 weeks pregnant, and nobody knows it. Ok...I'm using the word "nobody" loosely here. My husband (clearly) knows, as do three of my closest friends. And that's all folks! We're going to tell our parents at the 8 or 10 week mark, and everybody else at 12-13 weeks.

Basically, we caught the eggy right when it appeared. I was testing clearly positive 6 days before my period was due, which means I'm obviously an early ovulator (I tend to have 28-29 day cycles...so we're talking like cycle day 8 or 9). My last period began the day after I arrived in Kansas and ended a few days before Eric got here. All in all, we got very lucky. This will be our homecoming baby :)

I will not lie...I'm terrified of losing this pregnancy. It's like they want pregnant women to fear miscarriage, I swear. All the information on the net and in the books is basically there to induce panic. I know that it's all meant to be helpful, but good Lord. I'm only starting to relinquish the pee sticks. My husband, who was amused at my insistence on taking two tests a day all week, has no idea that I'm still testing once a day. I'm down to my last internet cheapie pee stick...meep.

In order to calm my mind, I've given up caffeine...at least until the second trimester. I will enjoy my daily small cup at that point. I've obviously given up alcohol. And here's the biggie: I quit smoking today, cold turkey. I WANT TO CRY. It's not so bad, though...I had already cut back significantly and that was half the battle. The next two days are going to be hard, though.

Now as for symptoms, mine are pretty basic. Fatigue, though today has been considerably better than the past week. Breast tenderness, which was at it's worst so far today. The most horrible symptom of all? CONSTANT ACID REFLUX. Seriously. I want to scream. The Nexium (which is a class b drug, and perfectly safe for me to take) works, but only in twice the amount I usually take. And honestly, sometimes it doesn't work. All I can do is lean to the left and sleep on my left. I have a sinking feeling that this will be around for the long haul.

Anyway, time for bed. I get to go to the med center tomorrow for my vitals and a referral! Which of course translates to "Wait two months to see a Gyno and hyperventilate about your pregnancy for every single day in between" but heeeeey, it's something.