Kicking, Moving, or Punching...

I have finally felt the baby moving.  I have been looking forward to this from the beginning.  They say that with your first baby it's hard to distinguish gas from the baby's movement.  But I remember the exact moment that I felt this little one move.  I was in a morning meeting at school and I felt this little movement in my lower stomach...and then again.  I dismissed it as gas because it didn't feel like "butterflies" like all the books had told me.  It felt more like when you get a muscle spasm.  Well, the next day I felt it again.  And on Sunday I felt it more.  Each day I felt baby move more and more.  I don't know what he's doing in there, but it seems fun.  It's hard for me to concentrate when baby starts moving because I just want to stop and enjoy the moment.  Chad still can't feel it, but I assure him that something is going on down there.  What a wonderful feeling!!! 

Pneumonia

It started off like a cold, and then seemed like the flu.  Chad was achy, stuffy, coughing, and running up to a 103 degree fever.  Well,  after a couple of days of this Chad was not sleeping and just seemed to be getting worse.  I looked at his tongue, and with all that white crap on there, I diagnosed him with strep throat.  It was a weekend (of course) so we took him to emergency care to get hooked up with some meds right away.  The doctor looked him over and did a flu swab and a strep swab and they both came back negative.  She took a chest X-ray, and low and behold...Chad had pneumonia.  So, I waited on him all weekend because he was so weak to do anything.  We wanted to be super careful that I didn't get sick, so we slept in different beds and didn't hang out too much.  But, I missed my husband and wanted to watch a movie with him.  He made me wear a medical mask to avoid germs, and Kansas even joined us for a while.  

Bottom line is - Pneumonia is no fun for anyone!

16 weeks

Information from pregnancy.org  

Our Adventure in the ER

I woke up Sunday morning about 9:00 am and ate right away to protect my body from any nausea...my usual morning routine.  I throw-up once, so I thought I would eat a little more, thinking that I was just hungry.  We had had a youth retreat the night before, so I went with Chad to take the kids home.  About 10 minutes into the fabulous van ride I realized that I was going to throw-up again.  I tried my hardest to take deep breaths and focus, but I couldn't keep in it.  I ended up sticking my head out the window and throwing up all over the road.  And I was really so sick that I didn't care what I looked like or what the kids in the van were thinking.  I got home and just thought I was tired, so I took a 2 hour nap.  I woke up with the same headache I'd gone to bed with, but I thought I should try that "eating thing" again.  Little did I know that I had a 12-hour journey of throwing-up ahead of me.  I called a nurse around 5:00 pm and she said it was probably viral and gave me some suggestions.  After I continued throwing up (what could have only been my insides by now), I decided that I was really sick.  Chad made the executive decision to take me to the ER.  We arrived about 11:00 pm and waited in the waiting room for 2 hours (I threw-up once while waiting), and then we were moved to a bed in the hallway.  They started my IV, and I really wanted to sleep, but with others in the hallway moaning about their spastic colon...sleeping was not really possible.  About 3:30 am we were moved into a room.  I got another bag of fluid and some medicine, and plenty of nurses and doctors checking in on me about every 20-30 minutes (we didn't really sleep in there either).  They took a urine sample, when I could finally provide them with one, but they said it was "dirty".  What that means is that now a nurse was coming in to get a "clean" urine sample by using a catheter.  OH MY GOSH!  I wish I could describe to you how that felt...not pleasant, that's for sure.  The only truly wonderful thing to come out of this night was that the doctor did a sonogram to check on the baby.  And there he (just a general term) was.  He was so big compared to the last time I saw him.  And he was definitely sucking his thumb.  The doctor said the heart was beating fine and the baby was moving, so everything looked okay.  And after all of this, at 6:00 am, they finally told me that I have Hyperemesis (definition below) and that I could go home.  After seven long hours in the ER we could finally go home and get some rest.  

HYPEREMESIS GRAVIDARUM:  "excessive vomiting of pregnant women" is a severe form of morning sickness, with unrelenting, excessive pregnancy-related nausea and/or vomiting that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids.  

Lexi's Visit

Over the MLK weekend, one of my best friends from high school came to visit from San Diego.  We had a fun time doing a whole lot of nothing.  I just pretended that she lived here and we were just hanging out all the time.  I was still throwing up at night, so sometimes we just took it easy around the house.  One thing we did do was go to GAP maternity and try on some clothes.  The fun part was that we tried on clothes with a pregnancy belly to see how they will fit later down the road.  Now, Lexi is not pregnant...but it was still so fun!  We also had one day of snow while Lexi was here so we took Kansas for a walk and played in the snow a bit.

14 weeks

I have hit the 14 week mark!  Apparently I am supposed to be feeling better by now.  But...I still get sick almost every night.  Even though I am still feeling sick, I am so thankful that my sickness is at night and not during the day while I am trying to teach.  AND the second trimester has come with more energy.  I can stay up well past my first trimester bedtime (about 8:45).  AND with the second trimester my stomach continues to grow.  I am now wearing maternity pants (they are so comfortable).  My little pooch seems so obvious to me, but I think others just think I am sitting around eating all day.  I am looking forward to the official "baby bump" to go along with this whole experience.

9 weeks

I had my 9 week appointment today.  The doctor did a sonogram and we got to see our precious little one.  He/she moved a lot while on camera and we got some great shots.  This one is my favorite.  There's nothing like seeing what's happening inside my body and thinking about what's he/she is going to be like when they come into this world!