"Morning" Sickness Still Going Strong

WARNING: This is a semi-graphic post involving vomit- you've been warned. Feel free to skip the following paragraph.

It finally happened, I threw up at work. I made it to the ladies room, but it was still a personal nightmare. Luckily we have a restroom that is a single, with a locked door. I ran in, turned the water on and went to town. It was especially fun, a carrot chunk flew through my nose. Vomiting while pregnant (for me) is totally different than with let's say the stomach flu. When I've had the flu, there are extra stomach acids breaking down what I've eaten. Well now, I throw up food in the same state I swallowed it. Yes, disgusting. Especially if I did not drink a ton with the meal, it is almost like slow motion at times. Sorry but I want to be detailed for ladies who are considering pregnancy. Also, as I approach week 12, just two days away, I can suddenly "feel" my baby. It's actually my uterus, but when I lay on my stomach it's definitely there, and the bump has definitely started. It's really nice to know that the little one is there and growing rapidly.

Before I threw up, I called Kevin and said "I need my Zofran" and hung up. After that was over, I told my boss that I was headed home for the remainder of the day. I took a two hour nap, and then called to refill my Zofran prescription because I was still feeling very queasy. After calling I discovered that there was a little miscommunication regarding refills. So I had to wait on the pharmacy contacting my OB for a new prescription. Three hours later I finally had the prescription in hand. Lesson learned: never let the Zofran prescription lapse. I am hoping that sometime soon I will be over the "morning" (give me a break!) sickness. It would be great to never refill, but if I get down to one pill, I will be calling my pharmacy immediately.

Almost 11 weeks

In two days I will be 11 weeks pregnant. Lately my nausea has continued, and I feel exhausted in the evenings. I recently had to take my Zofran four days in a row, which I was not happy about.

I crave fruit all. the. time. Seriously. I could not be more happy that it is Summer and the selection of fruit is abundant. I want apples, bananas, grapes, cherries, peaches, nectarines, strawberries, blackberries, well you get it. I am not friends with other food right now, unless it is spicy thai food. Yum! I also cannot stand food smells/descriptions. I mute the tv and turn my head during certain commercials I can't write about for fear of vomiting. I am so tired by dinner that I can barely bring myself to boil water. It is pathetic. Kevin has been a life saver doing dishes, laundry, cooking, dealing with my whining, etc.

I am not wearing any maternity clothes yet. Though depending on the day I sometimes keep my pants unbuttoned. It's mainly due to bloating at this point. I think certain friends/co-workers may think I have simply stopped caring about exercise/eating right. The irony is that I have lost weight, not gained thus far.

It's very difficult to be tired all the time, and not feel like myself. But the worst has been my memory! I recently read the word "grapefruit" and didn't know what a grapefruit was. I had to think for a little while to remember.

I take five pills a day- 2 calcium supplements, a B-complex, a DHA supplement, and a prenatal. Sometimes I have a hard time, and have to try twice before I can swallow some of these giant pills.

Next week is our 12 week appointment. We will get to hear the heartbeat again, but this time via doppler instead of ultrasound. If all goes well at the appointment I plan to drop the bomb, via facebook, here, and in person with those in close proximity. In the meantime I am trying to work up the courage to tell my boss.

Sorry that this post is a bit list-like, I want to record as much as possible. Plus I can barely keep my eyes open.

Also, I will soon dedicate a post to a certain item I ordered online that arrived today.

A Lesson in Sharing

For the last 2 weeks, and the next 3(!) Kevin is in class Tuesday/Thursday from 5pm-9pm. I get off work at 5pm, so you can imagine how much I love this schedule. I try to visit him on my way to the gym (because I have no excuse not to go when he's not here). The past few classes I have managed to walk onto campus at the perfect time as his professor dismisses him for a short break. So tonight I waited on campus, and there was no Kevin.

While I waited I thought about buying a Dr. Pepper from a vending machine (ok, you weird health conscious, organic only, perfectly balanced diet people who read my blog. I was craving a Dr. Pepper, ok? I think you probably crave gross things too). So I looked in my purse- I had a dollar, score! The soda was 90 cents. Then I saw a Pepsi staring at me. Kevin loves Pepsi, and I never let him get it (being the hypocrite that I am). So, I thought it would be so nice of me to buy him a Pepsi. I dug in my purse and found 70 cents. If I bought him a Pepsi I would have 10 cents change, which added to the 70 left me 10 cents short of a Dr. Pepper. I decided to buy him the Pepsi. I reached into the little change drop and found my dime, and a nickel! I looked at the candy bar machine to the right and reached into its change drop, another nickel! This brought me to exactly 90 cents- enough for my Dr. Pepper. I don't want to over spiritualize it, but I think sometimes you are rewarded for putting others before yourself.

Peanut

Here's our little baby at 8 weeks 1 day! Just hanging out upside down. So who do you think s/he looks like? Me or Kevin?

We had our first appointment, and it went really well. We even got to hear the amazing "swoosh swoosh" sound of its heartbeat. I like our Doctor a lot. He is a very laid back guy, and comes highly recommended from close friends. The walls of his exam rooms are plastered with photos of the babies he's delivered. Our visit was simple. The only difficult part is trying to understand the pamphlets on prenatal testing. We have to decide what/if we want testing for downs syndrome among a few other conditions. If you want to know what we decided, please feel free to ask me privately.

Week 7

Week 7 of my pregnancy has not come without a bit of commotion and excitement. On Monday night (June 15) I ate dinner and vomited twice. On Tuesday I left work at 12 with a massive headache. After a three hour nap, I woke up nauseous and hungry. I ate a little something, and the vomiting began. I think I vomited on and off for the next 6 hours. I tried taking Dramamine to calm my belly but couldn't. I couldn't even keep down water. On Wednesday morning I tried to sip a little water, and the vomiting continued. By this point I had not had any fluids since 2pm the day prior. We called my doctor, and were sent to urgent care. I was given two bags of saleen, and some anti-nausea medication via IV, and told that I have Hypermesis Gravidarum. Doesn't that just sound fun?? I basically have severe pregnancy-related nausea and vomiting.

I know that this is a general description, so I want to try and explain what this feels like. In the weeks prior to week 7, I had all-day nausea that was annoying, but not awful. This new nausea is a beast. As soon as it begins I feel like the whole world is rocking, and my stomach feels like I have a horrible stomach flu (you know the feeling where your stomach turns sour, hurts, and you know you are about to throw up?). Well, once I start throwing up, it just gets worse, the pain increases, the moving sensation worsens, and I literally cannot stop throwing up. While we waited in urgent care, Kevin would place his hand gently on my back which would nearly send me over the edge. It was awful. The good news is that I have a prescription for Zofran (the medication I received in the hospital) and our insurance actually covers it! Thank God. Because I had to take it again this morning.

Last night we saw "Away We Go." It is a wonderful movie, and one that I highly recommend. Particularly if you are expecting a baby. I don't really want to ruin it, but it was so timely, and an all-around beautiful, funny, touching, and well-acted movie. We saw it with our friend (who is 8.5 months pregnant) and her husband.

This morning after taking my Zofran and getting over my little episode we went out for bagels and coffee. (which, as a side note- let me be honest here, I am not giving up coffee. You may now be concerned that my little one will have an extra leg because of this. But I only drink about 4oz. of coffee on weekdays, and the occasional small latte or mocha on the weekend. I actually crave coffee, and it's my personal choice). We then went to a Goodwill Bookstore to look for children's books. I was very happy to find a Fraggle Rock counting book, "The Pokey Little Puppy," and a couple of Sesame Street, and Whinnie the Pooh books. We got 8 books for $4. Not bad.

I will be 8 weeks tomorrow, and looking forward to my first OB appt. and ultrasound on the 26th.

Pregnant! Pregnant?! Yep, Pregnant.

So, yes I peed on the thing to the left. Gross to you, but thrilling for me! I can't believe this happened. I mean I can but I can't. Anyway I saw two doctors already this week. Doctor "A" was an absolute nightmare. After waiting 2 hours (at a family practice, not the ER) I was seen for 5 minutes, during which he took a call on his cell. I asked him a question about whether or not it would be safe to go to Disneyland early in my pregnancy and he said "I wouldn't, but I don't know how much you want this pregnancy." ANYWAY, moving on to Doctor "B" she was fantastic! She was very happy to see me, excited that this is my first pregnancy, gave great information and told me to call her any time. She confirmed my pregnancy and wrote the ever essential referral letter allowing me to go to the OBGYN. My first appointment there will be on June 26.

So, here's how I found out I am preggers.

Over the week of May 25-28 I was up in the Bay Area visiting my parents. On May 24 (Sunday) I ate some eggs, and promptly threw them up. I thought nothing of it, except that maybe I ate bad eggs. While in the Bay Area I was fine, a little fatigued on some days, but on the day of my flight home I was exhausted. I went out for lunch with my mom and Stephanie, and it was my second meal that week in which I turned down sushi due to an upset tummy. After our yummy lunch of crepes, I threw up. In the restaurant bathroom. Awkward. Then I was so tired I just wanted to sleep for hours. By this day (thursday) I was a day or so late on my expected monthly visit. That night I told Kevin about some odd symptoms I was experiencing. He suggested I take a test the following morning. Well, Friday morning I chickened out. By Saturday morning(May 30) I had spent the entire night dreaming about taking the test (positive in every dream) and needing to pee so bad. The box said to use first morning urine, and I could hardly sleep. Finally at 4:45am I decided I couldn't wait any longer. I went to the bathroom and took the test. They recommend you wait 3 minutes for a result, and my test showed positive before I could count to 5. I was shocked. I got back into bed, and Kevin asked what was going on. I looked at him and said "I'm pregnant." To which he said "right now? you're pregnant right now?" I said "yes." He pulled me onto his chest and said "I'm so excited, I love you." Good answer. We couldn't fall back to sleep and spent the next hour and a half laying in the dark talking. That is also when I took this picture on my phone.

Office Confrontation, or Why You Should Never Yell at Melody's Pregnant Friend

I would apologize for not having written in nearly two months, but onward and upward, I'm here now.

Anyway, on Wednesday I had a bit of a showdown in my office. For some context:
I work in a housing office, and even though I don't actually work for housing (I know this is confusing, I can explain if you really want me to) the housing staff are my coworkers who I spend 40 hours with each week. We have some residents who are on a sort of a "black list" with us, in other words they either never pay their rent, or they have unending complaints, or they are down right rude jerks.* One such jerk* has raised his voice to nearly every person in our office on one occasion or another. He really yells a lot at my coworker/and friend who happens to be 7 months pregnant.

On Wednesday this man paid us a visit. As soon as I saw him, I watched his every move because of the way he has treated her previously. They exchanged words, and after she told him that she "did not appreciate the way he was talking" to her, she told him she would not argue with him, and that he needed to leave. At this point he said "look, you are here to serve me...."

This was, shall we say: the wrong choice of words. I stood up, and told him that she is not there to serve him, and that what he was asking her to do was well beyond the realm of service we provide. He did not like me standing there. He asked me why I was talking to him, and told me I did not need to be "crappy" to him. I told him that I was talking to him because he was mis-treating my coworker. He proceeded to yell at me, and kept asking me why I was talking to him. Every time he would ask me a question, he would talk over me as soon as I spoke. I told him that he obviously did not want to have a conversation with me, as he talked over my every word. I told him that I would not respond to him any more. He then asked me why we would not do what he wanted (a question I had already responded to, but he talked over me). So, I kept my word of not responding (at least not verbally) I crossed my arms and stared straight into his eyes. If you know me, you may be familiar with my ability to turn cold in 5 seconds flat, and that is just what I did. I kept my eyes fixed on his and stared at him silently as he asked more questions.

Finally he said "Oh, I know what's going on here, I get it." And I said "Yeah, what's that?" And he had nothing to say, and left. Let me just say that I had nothing to lose with this particular person, and as he left I prayed and hoped that he would report me to my boss. Unfortunately for him we are school housing and his absurd behavior is going to effect his academic life and how much longer he will be living in our housing.

It's pretty sad when a man who is twice my age yells at a pregnant woman.


*feel free to insert your own expletive here