Monday, May 23, 2011

Pregnancy:harder than it looks!


By popular demand (okay, three people asked me--but hey, that's like half my readers!), I am writing a little update on my pregnancy and life in general.

I am happy to report that I am feeling generally normal these days. I had a fair bit of nausea from about weeks 6-16 which kept me from being very productive and which lasted longer than I expected. Actually, what I expected was that my pregnancy would be like my mom's pregnancies--meaning NO nausea at all. I pictured that for my first 6 months of pregnancy, I'd go skipping along and barely notice. Yes, I was so naive! Reality was a lot harder than I had imagined.

I can't complain too much, because I know a lot of women have a MUCH harder time than I have had--vomiting all day long and losing 20 lbs and such. I myself hardly ever vomited--I just felt like I was going to all the time. Plus, my advisor has been understanding about the whole thing and hasn't given me (much) trouble about hardly getting anything done for a couple of months. So that's good.

And what is also good is that the nausea seems to be over and done. The last 2-3 weeks I have felt WAY better, with just an occasional upset tummy here and there.

Another thing I was naive about was that I also told myself I would be uber careful with my eating when I was pregnant, to make sure I got all the right nutrients and everything for the baby. The sad reality is that my eating habits have been WAY worse, because most everything seemed disgusting and if something sounded actually good to me, then darn it, I was going to eat it! Plus, I had no energy to cook (and cooking SMELLS so strongly which was hard to handle). So we ate a lot of packaged or frozen stuff, which we usually rarely do. Thankfully, though, I am doing much better now that I don't feel so nauseous. I am back to cooking and can even stomach vegetables. :)

I am to the point where my clothes don't fit for the most part, so I've been venturing into the world of maternity pants (or shorts, since it is already MUGGY around here). Actually, they are surprisingly comfortable, although they don't stay up very well. I feel like I am getting pretty big, but I know I have a lot more to go!

I do have to take shots of lovenox to my tummy everyday to make sure my blood doesn't clot. They sting a bit, but are not too bad. Plus, we have good insurance through Kevin's company so that I just have to pay $65/month for it instead of $4,000/month! Yay!

I've had two ultrasounds so far to check that everything was okay (I am a high risk pregnancy because of my blood clotting disorder) which was really fun to watch but were too early to see the gender. I have another one scheduled for June 10th (I'll be at 22 weeks by then), so hopefully that will be the date of the big reveal (assuming the baby is cooperative, of course.)

Besides spending lots of time planning and dreaming about various baby-related things, Kevin and I are both desperate to GRADUATE! I am still hoping to finish in August (although I am behind because of my morning sickness "vacation"), and Kevin hopefully will be done by Sept. We're going to stick around in Urbana until at least December, though, so if Kevin's not done by then it wouldn't be the end of the world. I, however, gotta get DONE. Aaaaah, I can't wait to get there! So much work to do first, though....

4 comments:

Beth said...

YAY! Thanks for the update.

Sorry your first weeks were so hard! I hear you on the maternity pants thing -- comfortable but sort of uncomfortable in that they keep falling down (I hate to tell you, but it only gets worse!). I think it's good of you to want to eat healthy; usually I use pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever sounds good. :-D Sorry about your shots; that sounds pretty not-fun. :-( Glad you have good insurance, because that is a hefty price tag!!! And glad there is something you can do to treat it. I was wondering how your blood clotting thing (thing -- a technical term) would effect your pregnancy.

Eagerly awaiting your June appointment!! And sooooo excited for your graduation plans!!!! Early congrats to you both; you have worked so hard!!

Amy said...

DOUBLE YAY!!! It's good to hear how you are. Sorry the first part of pregnancy has been rough. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing for you from here on out. Amazing what we can do when we have to, huh? Those shots don't sound like any fun but I'm impressed you can do it. I can't imagine doing that and yeah, thank goodness for good insurance. The full price would break the bank!

Kudos to you for trying to eat healthy. If you can do it, it's really worth it but I didn't even try with my first!

Hooray for having graduation on the horizon!! You two have worked so hard. I wish you absolute best in your efforts to finish!

Ali said...

I didn't buy any pregnancy pants the last time around.I don't know why. (probably just because I wore stretchy pants most of the time) But this time I have a pair and I didn't know about that falling down thing. It's so annoying!

And I use pregnancy as an excuse to eat crap too. Which I am about to go do. Right now. I'm thinking Chinese food. Or chips and salsa. Hmmmm.

And I swear, I just feel fat until month 8 or so. And then it's so close to the end, I don't care about anything. I wish I was one of those people with a cute little belly that pops out of their otherwise trim body. That is not me.

And I'm sure your graduation will go on without a hitch. You are Mindy Tonks! I would expect nothing less!

Heather said...

Mindy, this is so exciting!!! Congratulations and I hope everything goes well with your pregnancy. Also, so excited about the good news on graduation!!! I know you're super glad to be done.