On Being Pregnant: First Trimester

I am 27 weeks pregnant this week and our baby is somewhere around the size of a rutabaga, apparently. I get weekly email updates about my pregnancy and in each one some item of produce is used as measurement for the size of my growing child. I just thought I should mention this for anyone who doesn't get weekly updates like these. They're not very good measures. For example, it could easily say:  27 weeks: "This week your baby is the size of a rutabaga!" 28 weeks: "This week your baby is the size of an even larger rutabaga!" Or like the week when I was told my baby was the size of an avocado-- okay, well is that an avocado from Walmart or the Mexican food market? There's quite a difference.

Anyway, I thought I would give a little update on my exciting experience of growing a human being inside of me. Next week marks the beginning of my third trimester and I figure I should share some of my experience with the blogosphere.

Here's a little recap on what went down this first trimester:

1st Trimester: 

Brenden and I found out we were expecting a baby on January 26th. I took a few different pregnancy tests to confirm it and Brenden laughed at my excitement with each positive answer. It was a wonderful day! 

I contacted an OB/GYN in Athens the next Monday. Because of my chronic illness and other exciting health things, I'm considered a high-risk pregnancy. I've had more check ups and ultrasounds than a normal pregnancy would. I had an amazing rheumatologist in Atlanta who took great care of me and stuck me with needles every single visit I had to keep track of basically anything and everything. We learned our baby is at risk for fetal heart block. This is something we are currently keeping tabs on. Also, I have a particularly large uterine fibroid which is basically a noncancerous tumor. It can grow during pregnancy so my doctors are keeping track of that as well. Luckily, its location shouldn't be a problem for a normal delivery for me. It just takes up a bit of space that the baby could use so I get to grow especially large and uncomfortable during pregnancy. It could become particularly painful sometime during the pregnancy but it isn't likely.  

I experienced quite a bit of morning sickness during my first trimester. I learned to be okay with throwing up. I became adept at distinguishing when I was just feeling sick and when I was about to expel my last meal. I prided myself on always knowing the exact right time to run to the toilet. 

Even though I didn't throw up ALL the time, I did feel sick almost all the time. I had plans to volunteer and work during Brenden's last semester at UGA. Those plans fell through as I spent much of my time in bed, feeling miserable. But happy miserable! After my illness and stint in the hospital last year, being pregnant sick was awesome. I had a wonderful reason behind my sickness.

While being sick, I was unable to hold down a lot of my favorite foods so I discovered some "comfort" foods that I found tolerable. I stockpiled those particular items. I am opening myself up for judgment here but I don't care. All I could eat some days were cheap pizzas from the frozen aisle at the grocery store and Spaghetti-o's. I literally mean "all I could eat" since there were days I would make myself healthy meals with all of the nutrition and nourishment the baby needs to grow big and strong just to throw it all up while the only thing I could hold down at the end of the day was a can of Spaghetti-o's or a Totino's pizza. I tried my best to be healthy-- I bought the calcium enriched Spaghetti-o's. I figured not starving while pregnant was a better alternative to starving while pregnant. I think in general not starving is a better alternative to starving but particularly so whilst pregnant. 

So first trimester I was sick a lot and ate junk to stay alive. I had doctors' visits and blood tests galore. The End.