So I try not to talk about it too much to those women I know on message boards and in real life who are pregnant, but had it not been for my lack of a period, I would not have even suspected I was pregnant.
You see, to begin with it was the second week after my last monthly (which was the last three days of January). Valentine's day was the beginning of the 2nd week. Normally around that time I'm getting all sorts of creepy attention from guys both cute and not so cute. This is always odd to me seeing as I am overweight and most men won't even give me a first glance. But a week before my period I'm like freaking Aphrodite! I hate it. One time, as I was walking into Wal-Mart, this guy was on his way out and looked at me then when he did the double take he literally stopped right there, smiled real big at me and said, "Hey." I was like *nervous laugh/grin* "Uh, hi," and I walked on. Then another guy was full on staring at me as I walked by and he was with his really pretty, fit girlfriend. And another guy! I'm thinking these people are insane! I'm wearing jeans that are two sizes too big so they are all hanging on me and I'd chopped them off at the knee for summer. I was wearing a HUGE ratty old t-shirt that I smuggled away from my ex when I was still with him and never gave it back. And I was in pig tails and only had yesterday's mascara on (of course with the racoon stuff all cleaned up). I looked like crap. But for some reasons these men were all oggling me like I don't know what!
Well this time I wasn't getting out much so I didn't notice. But then, by the 16th or 17th I started having my normal period symptoms. I was suddenly all kinds of flubby because of water weight gain, my boobs had gotten bigger, I was a little over emotional, and I was wanting to eat more than normal. I didn't think anything of it. I always had these symptoms around this time. But when the 3rd week came and I was peeing like mad I began to wonder. I'm incredibly in tune with my body and I always start going to the bathroom way more often a day or two before the day of the 3rd week after my last period. And my period didn't arrive. I figured, well I'm not on the pill so it's not going to come on the exact day anymore (even though normally it does, even when I'm off the pill). So I didn't start to worry until the end of the week. I didn't test until a week and a half after the day my period was due. When it said positive I thought again about what had been going on and realized that those few nights where I was so restless and didn't get much sleep due to being too hot under the covers and too cold without them was the weird sign. That and the not peeing a bunch.
As more days into the beginning of my pregnancy went by I still had no nausea and I hadn't had cravings since I got my spicy Thai food fix the week after conception. I didn't even feel the need to eat more. The only thing going on with me was I was in LOVE with fruit and always wanted an orange or some pineapple (the more acid the better!) and water was the only thing keeping me alive. If I did not have it I knew I'd die. Sweets had become even more repulsive to me than they already were and because of that I can no longer eat my favorite sandwich at Quiznos, the roadhouse steak sammy. The sweet and uber spicy sauce has no spiciness to it and taste incredibly sweet. And the other repulsion, Asian food. I love Asian food. Thai, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, it's all so yummy! But now the thought of any of it makes me want so vomit. Most notably, fried rice. I'm also having issues with fried food. My baby only wants healthy thing! The most recent craving is mangos! Which I will be having with sweetened rice and coconut milk tonight!
To get start on this pregnancy I had $8 in my pocket. I was on unemployment at the time and still looking for a job. It was the weekend when I found out so I couldn't even ask a clinic to prescribe me prenatals and let me pay later (some do that). But luckily, my friend Shannon told me about Flintstones Complete vitamins. Shannon has an adorable little girl who will be turning 2 this July. She said when she was pregnant, she couldn't keep the prenatals down and so the doctor told her to get Flintstones Complete and take two every day. I had enough money for a small bottle.
Then I had to fill out my Denali Kid Care application and get it sent in and make an appointment at the birthing center (a place where it's all direct entry midwives, I was ecstatic to find out DKC covered them). It took a while for the DKC because I had to have a job but luckily I got one quickly and then just had to wait for my first paycheck.
I almost didn't get my DKC stuff done on time because I didn't know the birth certificate was required and mine is lost somewhere. I would have had to spend some money and wait at least two weeks to get a new one. Luckily the case worse was awesome and tried to get stuff verified on her end instead. At first it didn't go well but that was because she didn't know I was born abroad. Ancon, Panama to be exact. Once she knew that things went smoothly.
By the time that got done I was heading in for my first actual appointment. But before I talk about that, let me talk about the ultrasound which was done a week before at an imaging place in town.
Two weeks or so before my appointment I had some bleeding, which scared the mess outta me. I called the birthing center to ask about it and the woman said it could be normal if I'd had sex recently, which I had. But she did hear how concerned I was to know that the baby was doing alright and so said she'd fax over stuff to the imaging place and they'd call me to schedule an ultrasound. I got the appointment scheduled for a week before my 1st appointment.
At the imaging center they were behind quite a bit so I had to wait nearly 45 minutes after my scheduled time to be seen. When I got into the room I was instantly cold, despite the warm temperature. It was so bad my teeth were chattering. The woman first did an abdominal one and I saw a blob that was the baby. Then she had me go pee and take my bottoms off and have this pink paper sheet wrapped around my lower half and get back on the table. She then did the vaginal scan or whatever it's actually called. This was better for early pregnancy since the baby was so small still. I was just over 9weeks at this point and baby was the size of a raspberry!
She had to check some stuff just off to the side of the baby and while she did that, I got my first good glimpse of my child. So cute and tiny and it was wiggling from side to side like is was dancing. Well it looked like it was doing the little chair wiggle dance I do when I get yummy food. hands up near the head on either side and wiggling from side to side. I laughed at it. So cute! I got to see the heart fluttering and hear it, too!
When she was done I got some pictures and I left. It was so awesome! And everything was fine. The tech even said the baby was measuring a day ahead. It was 2.9cm.
So then, the night before my 1st appointment I had some more bleeding but I figured out what was causing it and it's TMI so I won't go into it here. But the next day I went to my appointment and my mom went with because she was having to pick up a rental car while her truck was in the shop.
Did all the normal 1st appointment stuff like checking family medical history and whatnot. Talked a little about food. Then the midwife got out a doppler thing to listen to the heartbeat. Took her a while to find it. After trying for a few minutes she asked if I'd felt like the baby was on any particular side. I said that it could be the right side because that morning as I was lying on my stomach trying to sleep I felt a little pressure there. She checked and there it was! Of course my mom started crying. Hehe! I knew she would. But it was a good kind of crying. It's been a week since I told her. I showed her the ultrasound picture and she'd started crying then but more because she was worried about the situation. She asked me if I knew how hard it was going to be and then we got to talking about what had been happening and what I was doing to make sure things would be okay. By the day of the ultrasound she was a lot better.
Here's the picture I show everyone:
I would love a girl but I'll be happy with whatever I get. I've chosen Asa Kay as the girl's name (pronounced Ay-suh). I did have the name Devon Scott picked out for a boy but I'm not loving it so it'll change a lot if it ends up being a boy.
I'll be having the baby shower in July because my sister Katie will be visiting with her daughter and husband and it means I can have both my sisters at the shower. I want to have it in south Alaska but it's all about getting my mom to agree to driving from Valdez to Palmer which is a 3 hours drive or something. We'll be down in Valdez fishing, well I won't be fishing, not after getting caught by the hook every single time. I miss fishing. But yeah, I'm hoping we can have the shower in Palmer or Wasilla cause we might could have it at a restaurant. There aren't any spectacular restaurants in Fairbanks really. Well there are some really good ones but I want something different.
So that's my baby! And another long post. I swear they won't all be so long!
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