Wednesday 27 December 2017

Pregnancy diaries || Week 10 & 11 - Meeting my Midwife and telling friends

Week 10

I'm still throwing up, most mornings and some evenings. I had my first midwife appointment where she asked me all the important questions, weighed me and tried to find the heart-beat with the fetal doppler but as the baby is still quite small she wasn't concerned when she couldn't find it. Hopefully next appointment we will hear it.

How far along?: 10 weeks
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Good
Best Moment of the week?: Meeting my midwife
Worst Moment of the week?: Having a weird relationship with food as nothing appeals
Miss anything?: Not feeling sick
Movement?: No
Cravings or aversions?: No cravings, just careful about what I eat and when
Queasy or sick?: Yes, but mostly just throwing up in the mornings now.
Looking forward to?: Getting a scan of our baby and telling more of our friends at Christmas time.
Mood/emotional state?: Happy and excited

Week 11

I still need to eat every 2 hours or else I feel ill, and my work colleagues are giving me a hard time about eating so often (they probably have guessed already, although no one has asked yet).

Near the end of the week we gathering with friends for our pre-Christmas BBQ. One of my bridesmaids was there and almost instantly guessed our news because my "boobs are HUGE" hahaha. We officially told everyone by taking a group photo and shouting "ERIN'S PREGNANT!" which caused a lot of excitement and confusion. Everyone was really excited and congratulated us.

How far along?: 11 weeks
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Good, but I need a lot of it. I have been falling asleep on the couch most days.
Best Moment of the week?: Telling our close friends
Worst Moment of the week?: Having a weird relationship with food as nothing appeals
Miss anything?: Not feeling sick
Movement?: No
Cravings?: No
Queasy or sick?: Yes, but mostly just throwing up in the mornings now.
Looking forward to?: Christmas day
Mood/emotional state?: Happy and excited

Wednesday 13 December 2017

Pregnancy diaries || Week 8 & 9 - Telling my family

Week 8

We told my family this week about the pregnancy. They are over the moon, Mum cried, as this will be her first grandchild. My brother's girlfriend had her suspicions confirmed (after she saw me gag on the Taranaki hike), while my brother was sitting there confused as to what all the commotion was about and I think my Dad was actually taken by surprise for once too.

I felt really good over the weekend as I was eating all of Mum's healthy and delicious food, so apart from the usual morning water spew session I didn't have any issues. I even went for a bike ride into town. We made sure to buy blueberries and raspberries as they are the size of baby this week and are also a delicious side with dessert.

How far along?: 8 weeks
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Good
Best Moment of the week?: Telling my family about our pregnancy
Worst Moment of the week?: Having to sneak into the downstairs toilet, early on the first morning after we arrived at Mum's place so that no one could hear me spew (we hadn't told them at that point)
Miss anything?: Waking up and not feeling sick
Movement?: No
Cravings or aversions?: No cravings but can't stand chocolate or anything sweet and eggs
Queasy or sick?: Yes, but mostly just throwing up in the mornings now, which is a dramatic improvement
Looking forward to?: Eating more of my Mum's wonderful cooking
Mood/emotional state?: Happy and grateful

Week 9

I feel like I am somewhat getting the hang of this morning sickness thing. At least now I know what to expect every morning and can prepare for it. I have completely gone off my usual favourite foods, such as chocolate, and anything sugary now holds no appeal, which is completely out of character for me. I also flip flop on whether I want to eat eggs or not. I few weeks ago I was eating them every day, this week I have no interest. My life now revolves around which food I want and whether it will make me sick or not. As some foods are worse to throw up and others, that's how most of my decisions are made these days.

How far along?: 9 weeks
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Good
Best Moment of the week?: Getting to hang of my new "normal"
Worst Moment of the week?: Having a weird relationship with food as nothing appeals
Miss anything?: Not feeling sick
Movement?: No
Cravings?: No
Queasy or sick?: Yes, but mostly just throwing up in the mornings now.
Looking forward to?: Meeting my midwife
Mood/emotional state?: Happy and excited

Wednesday 29 November 2017

Pregnancy diaries || Week 6 & 7 - Morning Sickness

Week 6

Worst. Week. Ever. Anti-nausea remedies are no match for my morning sickness. During the first few days of week 6, I was at work and felt horrible the entire time, but was able to keep everything down. I first noticed the sickness on Tuesday morning when I had to get up early and catch a flight to Great Barrier Island for a work meeting. Something I had been looking forward to for a while. We were in work meetings during the morning but spent the afternoon exploring the island and I felt terrible. Clutching at my wrists in a desperate attempt to try to find the anti-nausea pressure points there as we bumped along the winding roads. Come Wednesday I was bed ridden, only half of what I ate actually stayed in my stomach, and I had to eat everything twice. Once to throw up and then again to keep down. I ended up taking the next few days off work and was bed ridden right through to the end of the week. Chris was a life saver, he took on all of the cooking, cleaning and comforting as I was helpless and could hardly stay awake to watch a movie in bed. Pretty much sustained myself on toast and Weetbix. Prenatal pills are essential but I dread taking them. My relationship with food has never been stranger.

How far along?: 6 weeks
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Sleeping most of the day
Best Moment of the week?: Seeing the beautiful views or Great Barrier Island and those few moments where I can keep my food down
Worst Moment of the week?: Being the most sick I have ever been and not understanding my own body
Miss anything?: Food in general
Movement?: No
Cravings?: No
Queasy or sick?: Yes, complete and utter sickness. Bleh!
Looking forward to?: Eating and feeling normal again
Mood/emotional state?: Sick, tired and emotional

Week 7

I am starting to understand my morning sickness a little more so can kind of prepare for it. Every morning I have a few mouth fulls of water and promptly go to the bathroom to throw it back up. Knowing this means that I can preempt it. Plus, throwing up water is a whole lot easier and less wasteful than throwing up food. Otherwise, I have been feeling nauseous all day but no toilet/bucket emergencies at work yet, although I do think some of my colleagues may be getting suspicious. I need to eat every 2 hours otherwise I feel terrible.

How far along?: 7 weeks
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Mostly normal
Best Moment of the week?: Feeling a little more like myself
Worst Moment of the week?: Still feeling sick and having to work through it
Miss anything?: Food in general
Movement?: No
Cravings?: No
Queasy or sick?: Yes, but at least I'm functional again
Looking forward to?: Telling my family about our pregnancy
Mood/emotional state?: Tired and sick

Wednesday 15 November 2017

Early Pregnancy diaries || Week 4 & 5 - When we first found out


Chris and I are so thrilled to announce that we are expecting our first child!! I wanted to document our journey for our own records and for those of you who are also interested. So follow along and let's see where this new adventure takes us. Fair warning, pregnancy can get a bit gross and weird and I don't plan on holding anything back on my blog. So if that's not your thing, proceed with caution. You may learn something about me that you weren't prepared for.


Week 4

I am usually pretty regular when it comes to my periods so I knew something was up when it had been a couple of extra days without showing up.  However I knew that getting such big news, regardless of whether it was positive or negative would be too much for me to receive either before work or before bed time. So we decided to wait a little longer until the weekend. Which resulted in what seemed to be the longest week of my life.
Finally, Saturday 4th November rolled around and it was the day of the test, and boy was I nervous.  I saved my first wee of the day in a throw away container and waited until I was completely awake and ready to receive potentially life changing news. We took the morning to bask in the great unknown, Chris cooked us breakfast, and then we took the plunge.

This was the first pregnancy test I have ever felt I needed to take. As I mentioned earlier, I am pretty regular, but even on those occasions when "shark week" was fashionably late, it didn't worry me. I didn't feel pregnant then. My boobs had become sore and swollen but they have done that almost every month at this time, for years on end with no significance. However this time it felt different and I had a hunch that I would be seeing those two little lines that can flip your world upside down in a matter of moments. Chris and I huddled on the couch with the pre-dipped stick waiting expectantly, upside down, on the coffee table. I was way to nervous to check myself so it was Chris who actually found out first, revealing the result to me with tears in his eyes... "You're pregnant!"

Over the following days we would both randomly pipe up with "Guess what? You're/I'm pregnant!" and "This is crazy" For a planned pregnancy it was surprising how surreal it all felt. Can this really be real? Is this finally happening after 13 years together and at least 8 years trying to imagine it. We had not officially been "trying" but we had not been preventing for the last couple of months either. We nicknamed our little miracle "Spud" as that is the name which Chris suggested for my pregnancy App.

How far along?: 4 weeks + 5d
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Normal
Best Moment of the week?: Finding out that I am pregnant
Worst Moment of the week?: Waiting almost a week to find out
Miss anything?: Not yet
Movement?: No
Cravings?: No
Queasy or sick?: No
Looking forward to?: Growing this little human
Mood/emotional state?: Incredibly happy

Week 5

Day one of week 5 brought with it a couple of light headed moments, when I was getting up too fast, but they passed without significance. There was an hour of light nauseousness in the afternoon at work but that passed too. My Mum didn't suffer from morning sickness, in fact she makes it sound like both of her pregnancies were a walk in the park. It may be rose-tinted glasses but I am hoping I will follow suit. I know that this is wishful thinking and the dreaded morning sickness will likely wallop me when I least expect it. So I plan to enjoy my meals while I can, as who knows how long it will last. My desk drawer is slowly turning into an anti nausea secret storage unit. Containing lemon and ginger tea, crackers and emergency rations. Time will tell if I need it or if it will actually work.

My brother, his girlfriend and I went for an overnight hike along the Pouaki trap at Mt Taranaki with an Auckland based adventure group called "Got to get out". It was definitely not an easy hike but the great views, laughs and accomplishment was well worth while. Chris wasn't able to come as he had already signed up for a car event that weekend. So I was the only one who knew about our exciting news. I managed to keep the secret but did feel like I struggled a little more then usual as I was starting to feel a little queezy and bloated, but not enough to be sick (although I did gag at one point during the second day's breakfast) but it felt good to be continuing on with my normal plans and enjoying time with friends.

How far along?: 5 weeks
Gender?: Unknown
Maternity clothes?: Nope
Stretch marks?: No
Belly button in or out?: In
Sleep?: Normal
Best Moment of the week?: Experiencing an incredible New Zealand hiking trail with friends
Worst Moment of the week?: Being absolutely exhausted after hiking all day and feeling a little sick.
Miss anything?: Not yet
Movement?: No
Cravings?: No
Queasy or sick?: No
Looking forward to?: Growing this little human
Mood/emotional state?: Tired but happy