Pregnancy Journal 9-19-13

I'm about 9 weeks along (according to my latest missed "time of the month"), and I'm feeling much better. The nausea is still there, very much so, but after last week, I don't think I could get much worse (as I cross my fingers and knock on wood). I at least have a little bit of energy.

I went to the gym last night. I just did some machines and walked on the treadmill. The whole time I was there I thought I was going to puke, so I had to take it super easy. I promised myself though that I'd try my best to stay active through my pregnancy, so that's what I'm doing. Blake has been nothing but supportive and encouraging this whole time. He's so incredible. 

A big reason I wanted to wait as long as possible to tell people we were expecting is because as soon as you say you're pregnant around young moms, they HAVE to give you their two cents about everything. I hadn't had any experiences like that yet because, well, no one knows I'm pregnant, until last week. I had been coaching gymnastics again for a couple weeks and I just couldn't do it anymore. Some of my gymnasts were as big as me if not bigger and I was expected to fully spot them in a back handspring or tuck. A couple times while spotting, I honestly thought I was going to throw up on them as they were tumbling. Images of that were playing over in my head and I just couldn't take it anymore. Plus, I don't think it's good for me to be lifting that much weight like that while I'm pregnant. 

I told the owner I had to stop. I felt bad because she really needed me, but what else was I supposed to do? She understood perfectly and just said if I started feeling better, I'm more than welcome to come back. My last day there, one of the girls who had been coaching there for years started talking to me about it and it came up that she had 3 children. Apparently with her 3rd child, she actually started having contractions while spotting. She ended up finishing out her day of 4 more hours of coaching and went straight to the hospital. 

She told me that she coached with all 3 pregnancies and felt perfectly fine. At this point I already wanted to either punch her in the face or sarcastically give her a blue ribbon for being awesome. Then she proceeds to inform me that as long as I stay active the whole time, then the nausea will go away. I wanted to laugh out loud. I am the most active person I know and I've been to the gym several times at the beginning of the pregnancy. You want to know what it did for my nausea? Made it worse. I love that people think staying active has anything to do with your pregnancy hormones. I've taken every anatomy class available at ASU and no where does it say that those are at all related. Staying active might help you swell less later on, it might help you sleep better, it may even make you happier, but it has NOTHING to do with lessening nausea. 

That is the exact reason why I don't want to tell people I'm pregnant. Once someone becomes pregnant or has a child or two, they become experts on the subject. I've heard the way my closest friends talk about their pregnancies and labor experiences and raising their children. They are pros now apparently. I had one friend who actually gave a cloth diaper kit to a new mom at her shower. Then she proceeded to say "You HAVE to cloth diaper. It's the best thing you can do for your baby." Well, it looks like I'm already going to be a horrible mom, because I am NOT cloth diapering. No thank you. That's great for some moms, but to push that kind of "advice" on someone in the middle of their shower, so inappropriate. 

So call me crazy, but I am not equipped to deal with that kind of "advice" just yet. I'm so looking forward to the future judgment of all my parenting mistakes. I guess I just thought that kind of stuff stopped after high school. Guess not. 

Pregnancy Journal 9-9-13

We ended up caving and telling our parents this weekend. It wasn't what we wanted to do, but I work with my mom, and she sees me hunched over a trash can for 8 hours a day. Eventually, she's going to ask questions. We haven't told anyone else yet, but we won't do that for a while. At least now I don't have to explain myself every time I sit at the dinner table and just move my food around with a fork. 

I can't eat anything!! I had a handful of Honeynut Cheerios this morning and a bite of chocolate ice cream. It's the only thing that tasted good. Both ended up making me more nauseous. I am so freaking hungry! I can't keep anything down though. Absolutely nothing sounds good anymore, and if it doesn't sound good to begin with, it's definitely not going to stay down. 

This pregnancy thing sucks!!! I'm stoked out of my mind to have a baby, but come on! Are you kidding me with this? Blake of course is as sweet and patient as ever. He is always so worried about me. I definitely couldn't do this without him. He's been so helpful. 

Goals for this week: Eat SOMETHING! Anything, really. I know that baby will be fine either way, but I don't know how much longer I can go without any energy. Today I'll try more smoothies. That shouldn't be too nauseating. You gotta love the miracle of pregnancy! haha 

Pregnancy Journal 9-3-13

With all the excitement of finding out we're pregnant, it's been hard to read any pregnancy signs from my body. Until now. Man, when that "morning" sickness hits, it hits hard. And whoever came up with the term "morning sickness", wasn't pregnant. Starting about a week ago, I've felt nauseous 24 hours a day!

As if that isn't annoying enough, I can't eat anything. Everything either makes my stomach even worse, or my stomach is already too bad to eat anything at all. The only thing that's been good on my stomach so far is fruit, so I guess there are worse things.

I'm so exhausted. That could either be from being pregnant, working 3 jobs or both. I'm sure it's the latter. I work 16 hour days on some days and I can barely keep my eyes open. Now that I say that, I'm going to chalk that one up to the fact that I work 3 jobs. Not the pregnancy.

I haven't gained any weight yet, so that's good. I can tell my stomach isn't as flat as it normally was, but I'm already mentally prepared for that, so I don't mind that one. I'm still trying to work out as much as possible and two of my jobs (coaching cheer and gymnastics) keep me active, so I should be able to keep on top of my weight gain.

I'm trying to be energetic and upbeat for my incredible husband, but I can definitely tell I'm not doing the best job at that. He is getting kind of sad that I'm not myself lately. He's definitely supportive, he just misses my energy. He's been so great through everything so far. I don't know how some people go through these experiences alone. I couldn't do it without him.

We made our first appointment with the OBGYN for the beginning of October so we're not positive, but according to my monthly cycle, I think I'm 7 weeks pregnant. I'm excited for the fact that by the time I start showing, it'll be boots and long pants season. That way I can hide my bump a little better.

We still haven't told anyone yet. My mom had 7 miscarriages during her baby carrying years and my OBGYN confirmed that it was hereditary. We decided we wouldn't tell anyone until we had our first appointment, which is at the beginning of October. I'll start taking pregnancy pictures to track my belly growth at that point as well.

Something that really helps me feel better is knowing that almost every pregnant woman out there has gone through the exhaustion, nausea and my favorite, breast soreness, so I'm definitely not alone. Awe, the joys of pregnancy! :)