Sunday, March 14, 2010

The pregnancy post

Basically, pregnancy is awful. I really am not one to complain too much and I do have good things to say, but I will get to those later. I hate being pregnant. I just want to be normal again. Some people seem to handle it quite well, but not me. I’ve got one of the worse cases that I know of.
First of all, I have been sick the entire time. What was annoying too is people don’t seem to understand how sick I really was/am. People who were or are pregnant would tell me, oh just make sure you eat regularly and you’ll be ok, or eat right before you go to bed and that will help a lot, or drink a lot of water and you’ll feel better. Yeah right, believe me I tried everything to help but nothing really did.
The first half I was throwing up about 3 times a day, sometimes just once, or sometimes 10 times. The worst day was the day before my ultrasound when I didn’t keep anything down the entire day except a popsicle and half a can of ginger ale that I had right before bed, but then threw up again in the middle of the night so I’m not sure if it counts. I only threw up twice in public, once in a trash can on campus and once outside our church building with people going into church, I’m sure they loved that. But it was ok, I covered it up with snow. I kept plastic bags in the car and I needed them twice, once was when I was driving home from work, that was not fun. Several times my throat would bleed, I hate that. And it just happened again last week.
My 24 week appointment was the first one in which I gained weight, and it is probably about that time that I started averaging about once a week and that is still where I am. It is great not to be throwing up as much, but I still feel nauseous at some point everyday. I did get medication, but it didn’t help like I wanted. From what I read online most people considered it to be a miracle drug, they took it and felt a ton better. I took it and maybe didn’t throw up as much but still felt pretty awful. When I took it after 24 weeks though, I did notice a big improvement in how I felt. Now that I’m out of medication I don’t feel like getting a refill so I get by without. (This is beginning to be very long and I am definitely not done yet-oh well.)
My second complaint is related to the first- food. For the first time in my life I hate having to eat. I like some foods still but I hate the fact that I have to eat multiple times a day. I’m sure this sounds odd, but I never feel hungry anymore, instead I feel nauseous. So I know I have to eat when I feel like eating the least. What I would love is a pump that would give me all my calories and nutrients directly into my stomach at a constant rate so I would never have to worry about eating. It is so bad I would seriously give up tasting anything for 9 months if I could have that pump and not be nauseous.
Another complaint is my face, I look like a before photo for an acne commercial. I’ve always had acne, and I’ve always had more than other people, but now it is 10 times worse. Chris says he doesn’t really notice it but I definitely do and it is bad. Never before have I felt like I need to wear face make-up everyday so I don’t scare people, and putting on face make-up everyday is really annoying. So I’m really looking forward to clearing up a little bit.
Another complaint is saliva. I have way too much of it and hate to swallow it because that makes me feel sick. So I spit, a lot. It has gotten better though, but I still have a little plastic cup by my bed for spit. Sorry Chris.
And since nothing in this blog is pleasant I’m not embarrassed to share my last unpleasant experience (that I can think of right now) which only lasted about a week, so I’m fine now, is incontinence issues when I would throw up. There was a week when I went through every pair of pajama pants I have and the bathroom rug. Not to fun but there was nothing I could do. I do have to say though that being pregnant has prepared me for all the bodily functions of children. I’ve been terrified of other peoples vomit but now that I’ve had to clean my own up several times from not making is to the toilet or sink in time, I might be a little better at handling my child’s.
Now I do have good things to say like I promised. Nothing is “I like being pregnant because…” because there is nothing that I like but more its “things could be worse and I’m glad there not…”. 1) Heartburn-has not been too bad. I do get it occasionally but nothing too terrible. 2) thanks to genetics and not being able to gain too much weight, I don’t have any stretch marks (yet). 3) Not being able to gain too much weight-I haven’t held back at all or am trying to be food conscious, I eat what I can and don’t worry about it and am not ballooning so that is good. 4) I’m still quite comfortable. I can sleep rather well and don’t have any back pain or swelling like I hear a lot of people do. So at 33 weeks I feel like I’m doing better physically than a lot of other people. I’m sure the constant un-comfort will come, but thankfully it hasn’t come yet. 5) There haven’t been any complications with the baby. 6) Hating pregnancy so much makes me so excited for labor. I’m excited for painful contractions because then I know the end is near. I have no fear at all. 7) I know it may be sappy but I love Chris so much more now because he has been so nice and willing to take care of me, I really don’t know what I would do if I was pregnant without him (though without him I wouldn’t be pregnant!)
All I can really say is, this kid better be worth it because he has been so hard on me so far!
And now a belly shot because Mom wants to see them. This was at 30 or 32 weeks, I really can't remeber. I think its 30. We took a 33 week picture but I look even worse than I do here so I'm not posting it.