Baby On Board: Suddenly Life Just Changes

Unless you’ve already seen my Instagram feed, or you’re friends with me on Facebook, this may come as some sort of a surprise… But hey-I’m pregnant. I’m going to have a baby. Can you believe it? ME!?!?

Finding Out About the Baby

C swears he knew since the moment of conception. I just kind of roll my eyes at him… But I guess he wasn’t wrong.

I Thought I Was Getting the Flu

Two weeks ago I stood up to go to lunch at work and was suddenly hit with a wave of nausea. I spent a half hour in the bathroom, and when I got out I begged my manager to send my home early. I was too sick. I went home, crawled into a pile of blankets on the couch and slept the entire rest of my day. The following day, I left work an hour early because I still felt off.

Taking a Test

That night we ran to the grocery stuff to get Easter stuff for C’s boys and he made me grab a pack of pregnancy tests. I waited until the next morning, while C was still fast asleep, and took the test. I thought for sure it would be negative, but the test did its thing, and it didn’t even take the full 3 minutes… It was about 2 seconds and then bam-a very visible positive sign. I was in shock.

Telling People

I ran down stairs and immediately woke C up, I said “Well, you were right. I’m pregnant.” and then I burst into tears. It’s scary-even if the baby is wanted-and in that moment I was utterly terrified. I texted a few friends, who were all extremely over-the-moon with the news. Otherwise, I figured I’d keep the news to myself for a little bit.

Telling My Family

We waited until Easter Sunday to tell my family. I bought some adorable children’s books about grandmas and grandpas and wrote a little note in the cover that said “Dear Grandma/Grandpa, please read this to me when I get here in December.” My mother looked at me in sheer confusion, and I just looked at her and said “Yep.” She raised her eyebrow, still not getting it, and then my dad caught up and said “Are you really?” by this time my grandparents were wondering what was going on, so I blurted it out. Everyone was very excited.

Pregnancy So Far

I’ll be 8 weeks along tomorrow, which means it’s almost time for my first OB appointment. I’m anxious to see the OBGYN and get an ultrasound, something about seeing the fetus and hearing it’s heartbeat will make everything so much more real. It hardly feels real, when you know it’s in there but you can’t really feel or sense it.

How I’m Feeling

I’ve been fairly lucky to not experience actual morning sickness, not a lot of vomiting or running to the restroom. However, I live in a constant state of exhaustion and nausea. I’m never not nauseous these days. Sometimes I have to force myself to eat, and sometimes in between bouts of nausea I’m suddenly starving-even if I’ve eaten recently. Such a demanding little bundle of cells.

Also, I managed to come down with a severe chest cold over the last week that had me completely knocked down for 3 days-and I can’t take a dang thing for it. Herbal remedies only get you so far, but cold meds are super risky during the first trimester. That’s been pretty miserable.

Giving Up the Things You Love

The hardest part of giving things up for me has been coffee and my medication (ADHD/Anxiety). I quit both cold turkey the minute I found out I was pregnant, and even though my regular doctor gave me the go-ahead to have a little coffee/caffeine every day, my body rejects it. I can only get through a few swallows of coffee before I feel ill, so I’ve given up on it. Pretty much the only thing that makes me feel okay is vitamin water, and it’s not even something I drank before I got pregnant. I just tried it because it’s full of B-vitamins and I’m exhausted. Turns out that it works!

My Diet

Surprisingly, my diet has drastically improved since being pregnant. More often than not I’m craving things like fresh fruit and turkey burgers, and I’ve been eating really well. Trying to take time to snack on things like cheese and almonds in order to keep my energy up. I may end up coming out of this with a much healthier lifestyle after all.

Slowing Down

One thing being pregnant, and subsequently giving up caffeine, has taught me is that I need to slow way down. Most of you know that I’m an overachiever, and often I sign on for WAY too much. I can’t do that anymore. I need rest. I need extra sleep. I need to not overdo it.

Two Jobs

I put in my two-week notice at my second job, but after discussing it with my manager there I’ve decided to stay on for a once-a-month shift to help with floor sets. I love floor sets, and I love the people I work with, so this will be kind of fun and I’ll get to keep my discount which is awesome.

Back to Blogging

This will also give me some time to get back to blogging and work on my home business I’d like to get up and running before the baby comes. You’ll seem ore about this soon, but expect to see me around here more from now on. 🙂

Have any pregnancy/baby advice for me?

So far, I’m just taking this one day at a time. We have plans for things we want to buy, names in discussion (but it’s still so far until we know whether it’s a boy or girl that things seem to be mostly on hold for that knowledge.) We’re both so very excited for this baby. I couldn’t have picked a better partner to do this with either… He’s been out running errands on his bicycle in the rain for me when I have a craving or need something. He’s just the sweetest, and he can’t wait to be a dad again.