I guess that this is something that I should have assumed but pregnancy is not comfortable!
First you get sick to your stomach and stay that way for a few months. Some people throw up. I didn’t but felt like I wanted to through the whole first trimester—all day and night long. Eating was tricky. I only wanted toast, cheese, pasta, tomato soup and melon. I lost weight in the beginning but was good about taking my prenatal vitamins. I remember figuring out towards the end that frequent, small meals kept me feeling okay so I would literally walk around with crackers in my pockets.
You have to pee all the time. This symptom has not ceased since January.
In the beginning I felt that I could have slept through for three months. Of course I was working full time so I would come home, try to eat and go to bed. All day I was tired even if I had a marathon thirteen hours sleep the night before. It was crazy because I kept reading how small this little human was and yet they were capable of sapping all of my available energy.
As soon as the first trimester ended I started throwing up when I brushed my teeth. I was left with the thought, do I brush them again or just forget the whole thing? Also your gums bleed—like a lot. This only increases your bodies inability to not gag. Seriously its gross. I went to a dental cleaning (after canceling it twice because I just wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t gag and be miserable) and it was not as terrible as I expected.
For some reason pregnant women have stuffy noses. For me this coincided perfectly with allergy season. Also I had stopped taking my prescribed nasal spray months earlier since I was pregnant so I had zero relief from the sinus problems that plagued me. One particular time I got a sinus infection and suffered for about ten days before my appointment with the midwife. She gave me the all clear to take sudafed and I seriously wanted to hug her. She also wrote down a list of safe meds that I could resort to when needed. We also went out and bought “penguin”—our humidifier that is an adorable blue penguin who blows me cool kisses while I sleep. Penguin has saved me.
They say the second trimester is a kind of break and it is in comparison to the others, but for me that is when the heartburn began. I would get heartburn from drinking water in the middle of the night! Water! I have been eating tums everyday for several months because it has not gone away. I get heartburn from water and waiting too long to eat/drink. I have noticed I get it more at work so maybe it is stress induced? Not sure but I feel that I have now officially joined the club that my mother and sisters belong: the Heartburn Club.
As baby keeps growing I am experiencing all kinds of new growing pains. First my ribs were being pushed out and that is terrible. All the books say to sleep on your left side but it was excruciatingly painful for me to do so. I can only sleep in one position comfortably and that is on my right side. Funnily enough it hurts to hold the phone up to my right ear now. I remember being at Gautham’s place on the fourth of July and just thinking “It hurts to just sit here. This sucks!” I had to stop riding my bike to work and now I waddle there at an annoyingly slow pace.
One night maiki and I were watching Naruto (my favorite show!) and I had to pause it because I felt baby move right onto my sciatic nerve. The pain ran through my back and down my leg in an instant. I was almost in tears and wanted to throw up from the pain. Luckily for me she moved away within a few minutes and I could breathe again, but wow that was so freakin scary! It has not happened again and I hope it never does. Please God or whoever, NO BACK LABOR!
Baby Emma, I love you and I am only writing this because maiki has been bugging me about for seven months. I know that you are growing quickly and I am now twenty pounds heavier. Friday I felt you very heavy and maybe drop. I now have super sore pelvic muscles and the ligaments are stretching out and I waddle even funnier than before. I have begun to see why everyone keeps telling me that I cannot work and continue to live like I do until you are born because I will not be physically able. We still have about six to eight weeks of you growing and developing before you can safely come out so I will try to take it easy.
