When I first found out I was pregnant I was planning to write a lot more pregnancy updates. But so far they have been pretty few and far between, mainly because I don’t feel like enough changes from week to week to actually warrant a whole update.
But I guess now that almost ten weeks has passed since my last pregnancy update it might be a good idea to post about how things have been going…
Symptoms:
First off, happy to report that whatever morning sickness I was having seems to be completely gone at this point. I can tell because I’m no longer gagging on my toothbrush in the mornings. Nausea wise I feel better than I have for years (literally since before my last flare over two years ago) so that’s a pretty awesome feeling.
Unfortunately the food aversions and lack of appetite have not completely subsided yet and for some reason I still have a harder time eating in the evenings. It is starting to improve though, so I’m hoping that whole, “When the baby needs you to gain weight you WILL be hungry” thing is true.
Strangely enough, pregnancy dreams have been the most frustrating and unabating symptom that I’ve had. I feel like I’ve stopped sleeping (even though I actually sleep a lot!) because my dreams are just so dang real. Some of them are very mundane dreams about like, hanging out with friends, going to dinner, going into the office, but they are so detailed and feel so real that when I wake up I feel confused about whether or not I was sleeping and if what I was dreaming actually happened or not. Last night I had a dream that there was a spider flying through the air at me and I woke up trying to bat it away! Other dreams are so ridiculously crazy (like the one about the zombie apocalypse or the time I dreamt that a wizard hid my friends in a tapestry to keep them away from the “bad guys” and I had to figure out where to hide the tapestry (which I stuffed down my shirt)) that I wake up knowing they weren’t real but marveling at how incredibly intricate they were and how I remember almost every detail. This is every single night and even if I just fall asleep for a ten minute nap – I feel like I’m never going to actually SLEEP again! I am so desperate for the kind of blacked-out sleep where you are dead to the world (including the dream world) and wake up refreshed! Funny because this is a symptom I had NEVER heard of before getting pregnant. I was not prepared for this!
That being said, the constant exhaustion of the first trimester has lifted. Strange since I feel like I don’t sleep (I guess it’s because I actually do) and since I’m starting to be more anemic, but I’m not complaining. I still take the occasional nap but for the most part I can make it through the afternoon without one these days.
I am still embarrassingly gassy. Which probably has to do with being mildly constipated. Of course, the iron pills Dr. D put me on last week haven’t been helping things, but I’m hoping the Ac.tivia I put on the grocery list for this week will!
I’m starting to get an assortment of aches and pains, and I must say I’m sort of loving it! This is probably going to sound weird (and masochistic) but everytime I feel any round ligament pain or my tailbone/back starts to hurt, I feel happy. I know it’s my body stretching to fit the baby and I’m actually disappointed that I haven’t had more RLP. The tailbone/back pain has been a lot more frequent but it’s totally bearable and way better than the upper back pain I would get during a lupus flare. The pain in my tailbone feels like someone is stabbing me in the tailbone, I was a little worried but my doctor said it’s because the uterus actually gets wedged into that area early on so that’s why it hurts like that. It should subside as it moves higher up but then I will get more of the lower back pain I’ve already started feeling. I’ve only felt RLP a couple times where it’s been that really sharp pain that lasts a few seconds and then stings for a little while after. I also had one episode in the middle of the night where it hurt for about 15 minutes straight, on the pain scale it was only about a 4 but I wasn’t sure that it was RLP since it lasted for so long at the same pain level but the on-call nurse assured me that it was. Anyway, all the pain I’ve had so far associated with pregnancy has been so much milder than my usual arthritis pain and I enjoy it (okay, maybe enjoy is not exactly the right word) because it feels meaningful and important as opposed to my lupus pain which just hurts like hell and sucks and means my joints are being destroyed for nothing.
About the next symptom, I’m really hoping someone will pop up in the comments and say, “Don’t worry that totally happened to me too!” because it’s really pretty embarrassing. Lately I will think I’ve finished peeing, go to wipe, only to find that, nope, I have not finished but instead have now dribbled on my hand. Ew.
I’ve been noticing my uterus hardening at times, the doctor said these are “practice” contractions and it’s totally normal for them to start this early.
Cravings:
Sushi! Which, yes, I have indulged with the blessing of Dr. MFM. I know it’s controversial in the U.S. but after doing a lot of research and clearing it with my doc, I feel fairly comfortable with my decision to eat sushi on occasion. From what I’ve read, the risk of eating fish is not related to listeriosis or toxoplasmosis (which are bacteria that can cross the placenta and hurt the baby) but just from regular food poisoning, which is much less dangerous for the baby. If you eat at high end restaurants, the sushi should all be flash frozen and the food handling should make it so that the risk of contracting regular food poisoning is relatively minimal (like probably lower than eating at your local taqueria or average chinese restaurant). Mercury is a concern but I am avoiding the major no-no fish (shark, king mackerel, swordfish and tilefish – none of which I normally eat anyway) and drastically limiting the higher mercury fishes like tuna (which sadly, I love). I’ve been enjoying the lower mercury fish like ocean trout (soo good!), salmon, baby yellowtail and butterfish. I don’t plan on eating this more than once, maybe twice, a month.
This kiddo is LOVING spicy food! Last night Paul was joking that it better not come out half Korean because lately I’ve been tolerating so much more spice than I ever could pre-pregnancy. I’m normally a huge wuss when it comes to spice, I can take a little bit but not much at all. But over the weekend Paul made me my favorite eggs, scrambled with pepper jack cheese and he apparently added an entire jalapeño which I swear I didn’t even notice! He told me at dinner and I was shocked because normally I do like jalapeño but I’m definitely very aware of eating it while it burns my mouth. We had sushi that night and I found myself completely slathering wasabi all over my nigiri and asking Paul if the wasabi was really weak. He said it was actually really strong and that’s when he mentioned the entire jalapeño in my eggs that morning. Then last night he made korean lettuce wraps that had red pepper paste in them and it didn’t even faze me! I barely noticed spice in them at all. So weird.
State of the Bump:
Because my appetite still isn’t that great I haven’t gained much weight at all. In fact I seem sort of stalled out at +3lbs. I actually lost about 2-3lbs in the first trimester and up now +3 over my pre-pregnancy weight so does this technically make me +5-6lbs? Either way I’m a bit concerned because I don’t think I’ve really gained any weight for the past month or so. Maybe a pound? I think my appetite is starting to (finally) get better though so hopefully the pounds will come soon.
I haven’t really gotten any comments on my bump yet except for people noting that I’m not showing much. Boo. I think I’m still in that stage where I just look like maybe I ate too much dessert last night. My pregnant coworker assures me that I should start popping more in the next couple weeks and I really hope so! Here again I have to compare pregnancy to my last flare when I gained 20lbs of water weight, most of which was in my belly. (To put this in perspective, Dr. D has recommended I gain about 25lbs total during this pregnancy). I absolutely can’t wait to have a cute pregnant belly filled with a healthy, wriggly baby! I know (from experience of carrying around 20lbs of water in my belly) that it’s not the most comfortable thing in the world but I just know it’s going to be so, so worth it. In a way I’m grateful for the lupus because I know that while pregnancy can be physically hard, there are things in this life that are way worse and that don’t have the goal of a healthy, happy baby at the end. I can’t help sometimes but feel like those who complain about how hard a totally average, normal pregnancy is are kind of wusses (sorry ladies =x).
Movements:
After this post I didn’t feel anything for awhile, until last week in the afternoon on September 4th around 4:00pm again. It started with one thump and then it felt like bubbles in my tummy. Since then I’ve felt a lot more of that. It’s pretty faint and it could definitely be gas but I’m pretty sure that at least some of it is baby because of how low it is. I can’t wait until the feeling becomes more clear and I know for sure it’s baby.
Blood pressure:
Still running about 110/70 – perfect!
Medications/supplements:
150mg of Imuran (except I actually alternate every other day taking 100mg)
5mg prednisone
Iron supplement
Prenatal with DHA
Gender:
Still pretty sure it’s a boy, but we’ll find out for sure at our anatomy scan on Wednesday!
Coming up:
Anatomy scan and first fetal ECG on Wednesday 9/12
46 days til viability!
Ok I have to comment!
– The peeing thing – yes! To.tall.y happens to me too! If I lean forward when I think I’m done, it helps to empty out the bladder better.
– That’s so hilarious about the spicy food! So glad the baby loves it so much! Enjoy it! 🙂
– For weight gain, I so know what you mean. You’ll definitely get hungry when you need to replenish resources or pack them on before a growth spurt. My OB said gain 1-2 pounds a month in 2nd tri only so it really isn’t until the end that we really have to *pack* it on anyway.
– As for the bump, I thought I had totally past the weirdly fat stage too but apparently not! I guess that just shows you’re not putting on weight that doesn’t need to be there. But just FYI apparently at 20 weeks you pop big time! 🙂
Here’s to a happy, healthy, uneventful 46 days!
Yay! So glad not to be the only one and I’m definitely going to try the lean forward thing from now on to avoid any more mishaps lol. My OB told me 5-10lbs in the first 20 weeks but 1lb a week after 20 weeks! We’ll see how that goes haha. I still need to come see how big you’ve gotten!