My Big Fat Belly 2.0 - Weeks 5-7

**Actually written on March 14, 2014**

Instead of doing each of these beginning weeks separately like I did with Carter’s posts, I decided to just put them all together because not much changes over these weeks.  I’ve copied the same categories as I had in my pregnancy posts with Carter into these as well, for my own comparison purposes.

I should start this first pregnancy post by telling a little bit of unknown information.   The whole purpose of these types of posts is for me to have something in 20 years to look back at and to remember what I felt when going through pregnancies with my children.  With this pregnancy in particular, it would be impossible to discuss how I feel without first sharing something that Justin and I went through in the journey to this baby. 

Sadly, Justin and I lost a baby before we became pregnant with this one.  We got pregnant in December 2013 and discovered that I lost it that same month.  After several blood tests to look at what my beta was doing, it was determined that I had an ectopic pregnancy.  These are extremely rare….about 1% of pregnancies are ectopic.  What it means is that the embryo never implanted in my uterus, but instead implanted somewhere else-likely in one of my fallopian tubes.  This is also a very dangerous type of miscarriage and most doctors want it to get taken care of immediately.  A D&C wasn’t an option for me because my beta was never big enough to determine via ultrasound where the embryo was located.  So instead, I had a methotrexate shot.  It’s the same medicine that they give chemo patients and it supposedly dissolves the embryo quickly.  I had one of these shots and then we did blood tests about twice a week until my beta went back to normal and I was no longer pregnant.  This process took about 4 weeks to complete.  I was devastated obviously, but I leaned on my trust in God and his plan for our family.  He knows way better than we do what our future holds and what is best for us. 

The doctor told us to wait a cycle before trying again, which we did.  We were also warned that the shot that I had could cause scarring in my tubes which could affect getting pregnant again.  I was so worried, but again, just let God take control of everything.  We tried again in February and were able to get pregnant that month.  I was shocked.  Basically, baby 2 and 3 were both conceived the first try.  Carter took about 3 months, so you can understand our shock when both of these pregnancies happened so quickly.  Anyway, the ordeal is over and done with and we are now pregnant again with a successful pregnancy (so far) and are almost out of the first trimester.  We are sad about what we lost and what could have been, but we are also very happy to have a healthy pregnancy in the works.  I just wanted to give at least the basics of what happened because that experience completely affected my feelings towards this pregnancy.  Ok now back to happier things…

How far along:  Weeks 5-7

Symptoms:  Frequent trips to the potty (Yes, I said potty.  I have a 2 year old).  During week 5 and the beginning of week 6, I got really tired at night but seemed to be fine during the day, however mid-way through week 6, I started being tired around the clock.  I’ve been doing my best to stay awake until 10 at night, but I tend to be completely asleep by 9pm.  Sore boobs happened around week 5 1/2 and they still hurt now-and in fact, I don’t remember them hurting this much with Carter.  It’s just downright painful right now (even at 12 weeks).  Other minor symptoms that I have noticed include my face breaking out around 6 1/2 weeks, increased sense of smell and some bloating.  Also the vivid CRAZY dreams began around 7 1/2 weeks.

Maternity Clothes:  Not yet.  I actually lent these out to my friend that’s having a baby boy in April.  I know you show much sooner with a subsequent pregnancy, but I’m still hoping to only need the belly band during the first trimester as opposed to actual maternity clothes.  Right now I’m still wearing my normal pants.  The good thing about my recent weight loss with Advocare is that I have plenty of pants that are size 6 and 8 that didn’t fit me anymore but I kept them, so that should help me in the department of not needing maternity clothes for a while.

Weight Gain:  About a pound and a half by the end of week 7.  My beginning weight with this pregnancy was a whopping 10 pounds less than what it was with Carter.  Thanks Advocare!  I weigh  myself everyday so honestly, it’s hard for me to tell how much I’ve gained.  If I eat really bad one day, I can gain up to 2 pounds, but if I eat really good another day, I could lose up to 2 pounds.  So my weight is honestly all over the place, but overall, I would say I’ve gained about a little over a pound thus far.

Sleep:  Not too bad.  Some nights I need unisom to help me stay asleep for longer periods of time (usually don’t have a problem falling asleep-only staying asleep), but for the most part I’m good without it.  This is different than with Carter.  The first several weeks with him I was popping unisom nightly because I could never fall asleep!

Cravings/Aversions:  Starting around week 6, I began to be hungry ALL. THE. TIME.  I was never like that with Carter.  When I did Advocare, I changed my eating habits to eating 5 small meals a day.  So I was eating every 3 hours or so.  That started being impossible by week 6.  It was more like I needed to eat every 2-2 1/2 hours or I was going to die of starvation.  I’m trying to eat good healthy stuff and for the most part I am, but I find that I am REALLY craving carbs and I’m not used to eating a bunch of carbs.  Even though I hate giving in to cravings, I find that if I eat a larger amount of carbs than usual, I’ll stay fuller longer.  For example, I just now drank my morning protein shake that usually holds me off a good 3 hours before I’m hungry again.  I drank it 15 minutes ago and my stomach is growling.  OMG!!

Gender:  Thinking pink this time around, but after what happened to us in our last pregnancy, I will be jumping through the roof for a healthy baby, no matter the gender.  Daddy desperately wants another boy.  Carter appears to think it’s a girl.  One day he told me that the bedroom across the way from his room was also “Car car’s room”, but I had to tell him that the room would one day be baby brother or baby sister’s room.  He said it was “baby seesta’s room” and has been saying that ever since.  I’ve also had to tell him to not bounce on mommy’s tummy because we have to be gentle since baby brother or sister’s in there.  He points to it and says “baby seesta in there”.  He also will just randomly say “baby seesta” when we talk about various things.  So clearly he thinks it’s a girl.

Exercise Routine:  My exercise routine is so much better than it was with Carter at this stage.  With Carter, it was April, right after my busy season during which I worked out ZERO.  Since I have no busy season as a stay at home mom, I’ve been able to keep up my workout routine.  I workout about 5-6 days a week.  I go to a Pure Barre class one day a week and the rest of the days is P90X workouts.  Don’t worry, I modify my workouts as needed for this stage which honestly isn’t much.  As I get out of the first trimester I won’t be doing abs laying on my back so I’ll have to switch that stuff up and come up with new stuff.  I’m not running only because it’s just not convenient for me.  With P90, I can do it at home while Carter sleeps but if I wanted to run, I’d have to have someone watch Carter.

What I Miss:  Not much.  I’m good right now :)  I could do without the worry.  I pray about peace often and I do think God delivers.  I’m not worried 24/7 anymore, especially since our last appointment where I did bloodwork (see Other Comments section below).  But naturally, like any other mom that’s had a previous miscarriage, I still worry a lot.  I honestly don’t know that will get better when I hear a heartbeat though.  I think this miscarriage may have left a permanent scar on me and I will always have a level of worry until I’m holding this baby in my arms.  But maybe I’m wrong and maybe once I hear a heartbeat I will have no more worry and an abundance of peace.  The whole “get past the first trimester and you’re in the clear” thing means nothing to me because I now have TWO friends that have both lost babies in the third trimester and had to deliver stillborns.  I struggle with my worry about these kinds of things.  I even feel like a bad Christian because I should be trusting God and have no worries.  One day I read something that made me feel better about my worrying.  I can still trust God and his plan and have a healthy amount of fear for the safety of my unborn child.  What happens will be his plan and I trust that his plan is better than mine, but it doesn’t take away my motherly instinct of worry.  I’m working on it though.  It’s a daily struggle, but my prayers for peace of mind do seem to help.

What I’m Looking Forward To:  Our ultrasound is scheduled for Friday, March 21st at 10am (as of now that would make me 7 weeks, 5 days-though that will change once we measure baby) so I’m certainly looking forward to hearing a heartbeat.  Fingers crossed and prayers lifted!

Milestone:  We now have eyes, ears, knees and toes!!!

Who Knows:  My 5-7 week posts from Carter have big huge paragraphs in this section.  Not so much this time.  The ectopic pregnancy scared me into trying not to even think about this pregnancy.  If I told people about it, I would allow myself to plan.  To get excited.  So I opted to keep it a secret and only tell an extremely small handful of people until we heard a heartbeat.  Even when/if we hear a heartbeat, we still won’t tell social media until we hear it again at the next appointment on the doppler at around 12 weeks.  Sorry blogland, but that means that assuming everything is fine, you’re reading this 5-7 week belly update and really I’m already close to 13 weeks pregnant now.

Other Comments:  I found out I was pregnant several days before leaving to go to Israel.  I didn’t call my doctor immediately because it wouldn’t change anything.  I planned to call him when I came back.  I called to make an appointment when I was in the Newark airport on my way home and they wanted to see me that day.  Immediately.  I had to break it to them that it would have to wait until the next day, Friday March 7th, because I was traveling all day on the 6th.  I went without Justin because he had to work and since we hadn’t told his parents at that point, I didn’t want to lie to them just for him to be there.  So I did have company, but my company was a blonde 2 year old.  He was a hit :)  They didn’t do an ultrasound because we wouldn’t have seen much so instead we drew my beta and progesterone.  They said they would call me when the results came in. 

With the ectopic pregnancy, my beta was never over about 128.  Beta numbers should be significantly higher during a pregnancy.  Also, my progesterone was very low during that pregnancy as well (apparently the progesterone number can usually determine if the pregnancy will be successful or not-if it’s too low, you are likely to miscarry).  So naturally I was freaking out about the results.  My doctor called me Friday afternoon and informed me that my beta was 11,900 and that my progesterone was 21 and that they were both very great numbers and indicated a healthy pregnancy.  MUSIC TO MY EARS. 

Picture:  No pictures for these weeks.  I am not showing yet obviously.  Even for a 2nd child it’s still too early.  I will start taking pictures when I feel like I can notice a difference.  With Carter that was around week 11, but I know it will be sooner with a subsequent baby.