Random thoughts

Okay, so I was a bit off about when my next appointment will be. I said it was going to be the day before
Thanksgiving, because normally, Thanksgiving is on the last Thursday of the month. But, Thanksgiving is actually the FOURTH Thursday of the month, and this month, there's five Thursdays. My appointment is the last Wednesday of the month, so it will be almost a week after Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I felt the baby move again today! This time, it felt like the baby was hanging out on the right side of my belly, and flipped over or something. It made me feel so giddy and happy! I can't wait until the motions are stronger. Only a little over four weeks until I know the gender! I am counting the days! By then, I should definitely be feeling the baby move a lot stronger.

It seems like the milestones are happening early for me. I started showing a couple weeks before all the websites say I should. Now I've started feeling movement a couple weeks before the websites say I should. But, then again, I already know I'm going to have a big baby. Every woman in my family has had big babies, and at my first ultra sound, the technician said the baby was about a quarter of an inch longer than average. So, I guess that's probably why.

Looking down at my belly is such a strange feeling right now. I'm not used to looking down and seeing my belly. Every time I go to the bathroom, I admire it. When I'm walking, I look down and watch my belly wiggle back and forth with every step. It's really cool! My belly feels so WEIRD! It's like a tightness. It doesn't hurt, it's just very weird. And my whole stomach feels firm now. I like to poke it.

Last night, I almost went to the hospital. I got a really bad stomach ache, and diarrhea, and I was nauseous. I was pretty worried, there for a little while. But every time I went to the bathroom, my stomach felt a little better, and the nausea slowly passed. Around ten, I felt mostly better, so I decided to go to sleep. By the time I got up this morning, I felt completely better, so I am okay. Today, I have been feeling pretty good, if not a little depressed. My emotions have been so off the wall. Depression seems to come and go pretty regularly. I might need to mention that next time I'm at the doctor. But I think I know what it feels like to be bi-polar. The depression is frequently off-set by feeling elated and extra happy. I have the memory of a goldfish right now, so if I've already said some of this, I apologize.

I've also had some pretty crazy dreams. In one dream, I was growing what I can only describe as udders. I was thinking, "Nobody told me this was going to happen." And I went to a doctor, who said, "Oh, that's perfectly normal." In another dream, the baby was born able to walk and talk. In most of my dreams, the baby is a boy, but a few times, it's been a girl. I like the girl dreams. I'd be really happy if I found out it was a girl. But, I have been psyching myself up for it to be a boy, so that I won't be disappointed, either way. I know that when my mom was pregnant with me, she was sure I was going to be a boy, and with both of my brothers, she was convinced she was going to have girls. Anyway, I'm going to leave it there for now. I know I've been jumping from topic to topic. That's my ADD coming out, lol.

Catching up!

Well, I've had a couple milestones since my last post! First of all, I felt the baby move! At first, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. It was like a muscle twitch in my belly. I suspected it might be baby movement, but I wasn't too sure, because it's still kind of early for me to be feeling that, so I mostly kept it to myself. A week later, I got a really good movement. It was like a ripple that went up the front of my belly. There was no doubt in my mind what that was. It was the strongest movement I've felt so far, and I got really excited!

A couple days ago, I went to my second doctor's appointment. It went much quicker than my first did. They did not need to take any blood this time! I heard the baby's heart beat again, and managed not to cry this time. I got the results of all my lab work, and found out that I'm in great health, except for a mild bacterial infection, which she assured me is pretty common during pregnancy. This appointment, like my last one, was with my nurse practitioner. I have not actually met my OBGYN yet. So she made a note that my next appointment needs to be with my OBGYN, so that I can meet her. My next appointment will be my 20 week appointment. It will be the day before Thanksgiving, and I will have my second ultra sound on the same day. They should be able to tell me the gender! I'm completely excited about that! I can't wait to know! Boy or girl, I really don't care. I just want to know whether to call it Anthony or Alexandrea. Andy or Lexi?

Today, I had my first, truly weird pregnancy food. Pickles with chocolate syrup. In my defense, I only decided to try it after my mom mentioned that she'd seen chocolate covered pickles for sale somewhere, and that they were big sellers. Since I'd already thought about trying it, I simply had to, after hearing that. I totally expected it to be disgusting, but instead, it was really good. I ate three pickles with chocolate syrup. I wouldn't say it's something I'll crave, but it's definitely not bad. I think I must be crazy!

Anyway, I'm going to try my best to keep up with this better. I haven't felt too great for the last week or so, but I want this blog to be a good way for people to keep up with what's happening with me. :)

Busy Day

Today was kind of fun. My husband and I finally got the first SSI check for our son, which included back pay since March. So, needless to say, we had a good bit of money. We took our son to Walmart and got him a BUNCH of stuff he's been needing. School clothes for the winter, socks and underwear, pajamas, sandals, a robe, sunglasses, a new back pack, a light jacket and a heavy jacket. He picked out everything himself, except the school clothes. I guess he's growing up, because instead of going for Spider Man or other little boy things, he kept picking camo. He got a camo back pack, and underwear, and both of his jackets are camo. His robe is red and black plaid. Plain brown sandals. Red, reflective sunglasses. The only thing remotely childish was his pajamas,which are covered in Angry Birds.

By the time we finished that, my feet were already hurting. We stopped at McDonalds for a snack, then went to Winn Dixie for groceries. The grocery shopping took longer than I would have liked, because we weren't familiar with that store, and we had to hunt for everything. But, we did get off cheaper. After all that, I was so completely wiped out! But I would still have to say that I got through that a lot better than I would have a week ago. I have so much more energy now. It's nice.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. I will get to go spend some time with a good friend I haven't seen in over a week! I will really enjoy that!

Also, I think I'm showing more, because I can finally buckle the seat belt under my belly. I'd been a bit worried about that lately, because I was showing a little bit, but not enough to go over the seat belt, so when I buckled up the belt went just over the bottom of my belly. I was afraid if we did have an accident that would cause some problems. But now, I can tuck the belt under my belly and I feel safe. :D

And the second trimester officially begins!

All day yesterday, something kept bothering me. Well, okay, to be honest, lots of things kept bothering me. I was angry at everything all day long. But in particular, what kept bothering me was that I didn't FEEL pregnant. I couldn't figure out why I didn't feel pregnant. All day long, I was looking at my belly wondering if something was wrong.

I went to sleep, and woke up this morning, with the first thought in my head being, "I STILL don't feel pregnant!" It took a few minutes before I realized, "OH! I'm in my second trimester! I'm SUPPOSED to feel better!" I just want to dance and sing and celebrate! The hardest part is over! Well....until labor anyway. And today, another second trimester symptom hit me. HUNGER! I can't seem to snack enough. And I don't want to eat us out of house and home, so I'm trying to control it. But GOSH I'm hungry!

Well, I'm excited. And in only about 7 weeks, I should be able to find out the gender of my baby! I am looking forward to that SO much!

How it all began

Well, I thought I'd start this blog as a way of putting down all my thoughts and feelings about my pregnancy, and later on, about my child. I will try to keep up with it, though I've always been bad about forgetting to update blogs and stuff like that.

I am 13 weeks pregnant. It was a surprise pregnancy, and came at a really bad time financially, but I'm still thrilled about it. How can I not be? I've known I wanted kids since I was 7, have felt like I was ready since I was 21, and had begun to fear that I'd never get a chance to experience it, as I watched everybody my age having kids. Now, at 27, for this to finally have happened to me, I couldn't be more excited!

I found out I was pregnant at 5 weeks. That month, pregnancy had been the farthest thing from my mind. I knew my period was late, but I have had some late periods every once in a while, so at first I didn't think anything of it. I just thought that I COULDN'T be pregnant. On the 7th day after my period should have started, I began to feel nauseous. The day before that, I'd accidentally eaten some raw chicken, so I thought that was causing it. My biggest tip off was my coffee. I am a self-proclaimed "coffee-holic". When I got my daily coffee that morning, it tasted nasty to me. That was the first time I thought, "Maybe I should take a pregnancy test." But even then, I really didn't believe I could be pregnant. Still, I decided I'd take the test the next morning. When I woke up, on the 8th day after my period should have started, I thought I was cramping. I debated whether I should not take the test after all. If I was cramping, then surely I'd start my period soon. But, I decided that I'd go to the bathroom, and if I hadn't started yet, I'd go ahead and take the test. Once I got in there, and found that I hadn't started, I reluctantly opened a test, feeling certain that I was wasting it. I took the test, set it on the counter, wiped myself, and glanced over to watch the lines appear. I fully expected to see a minus sign, but instead I got a plus. My first reaction was to say, "OH!" and start shaking violently. It took a minute before I even felt I had the strength to stand up. When at last I did, I was still shaking like crazy. I picked up the test, ran to my bedroom, and climbed back into bed next to my husband. I shook him awake. Groggily, he turned to me and said, "What?" Feeling unable to speak, I simply thrust the test at him. The poor man was only half awake. He blinked at it a few times, then said, "Okay...How are you feeling?" I shrugged. "I don't know yet. I can't quit shaking." He hugged me and told me everything was going to be okay, and then we spent some time talking about what we needed to do.

A few days after that, I went to a free clinic to get an official pregnancy test, and a "proof of pregnancy" to take to the medicaid office. Even at that point, I really didn't fully believe that I could be pregnant. I kept thinking, "Maybe the test was wrong." After they did the test there, the woman came back into her office and let me know that the test was positive. I felt light headed, as she wrote me up a proof of pregnancy, and we talked about what I needed. This clinic operated as a charity, and everything they did was free. Before I left, she had given me an entire wardrobe of maternity clothes.

Not long ago, I had my first doctor's appointment, and later, my first ultra sound. Both were extremely mind blowing. At my first appointment, I got to hear my baby's heart beat for the first time. I was overwhelmed by emotions, and bawled. They also took so much blood from me that I fainted. Woops! At my first ultra sound, I got to see my baby for the first time. It wasn't moving around much. I think it was sleeping. It did move once. I cried there too, but not as much, because I was too busy watching it. I just kept saying "Wow!" Even now, when I look at the pictures they gave me, I get teary eyed.

By now, I am starting to show, just a tiny bit. I'm finally starting to wear the maternity clothes that the clinic gave me. I can't wait to be much bigger, and obviously pregnant. I can't wait for a random stranger to walk up to me, touch my belly and congratulate me. All of this is something I've wanted to experience for so long, and even the uncomfortable parts, I am glad to be experiencing, because it's all part of a miracle.