Family Friday: 11 Weeks

 Warning: Family Friday posts are an open and honest update of our pregnancy.  There will be references to lady parts, internal organs, and bodily functions.  There will also be photos of baby bumps and ultrasounds.  If any of this bothers you, please stop reading now.

11 Weeks

Welcome to our first Family Friday post!  Yesterday we put our pregnancy announcement photo on our blog for the world to see.  We are so excited to be expecting our first baby on October 1st!

I’m the type of person who researches things thoroughly before diving in so believe me when I say I’ve been reading books and blogs for over a year now on the subjects of pregnancy and childbirth.  I love reading other women’s accounts of how pregnancy went for them in order to better prepare myself.  I’m most drawn to information that is open and honest so that is exactly how I plan on tackling the updates here on our blog.  I hope that my pregnancy updates are just as entertaining and helpful to others as the ones I read were for me 🙂

THE BABY:
 –  is about 1.5 inches long
 –  is developing tooth buds and taste buds
 –  is losing the webbing between his/her fingers and toes
 –  can swallow and stick out his/her tongue
 –  actually resembles a (very tiny) newborn baby now!

WEIGHT:  –1.5 lbs  That’s right, I’ve lost weight!  I always assumed that when I got pregnant, I’d have to keep the diet in check to avoid gaining too much.  Surprisingly, my metabolism has shifted into turbo drive!  Before getting pregnant, I had a tendency to gain weight easily if I didn’t watch my diet and exercise.  But now, I’m eating 500+ extra calories a day and not gaining anything!  I am not complaining about this in the least, however.  I know the weight gain will come eventually so for now I am enjoying the fact that I can eat a ton 🙂

BODY:  Despite losing weight, within the past couple weeks I have gained 1 inch on my waist, 1 inch on my lower belly, and my boobs have increased slightly in size but not enough to need new bras.

THE GOOD:  1) Sleeping.  With the exception of having to wake up once to pee every night, I sleep like a rock.  As long as I get at least 8 hours of sleep, I have no fatigue during the day.  2) Moods.  I always assumed that I would be a hormonal, moody bitch while pregnant but honestly I am more calm and even-tempered now than I was before getting pregnant.

THE BAD:   1) Nausea.  I usually feel great in the morning but nausea sets in early afternoon and gets progressively worse until I go to bed.  I’m not throwing up at all, I just have that yucky sick-in-the-stomach feeling.  2) Headaches.  I’ve had frequent headaches most of my life and Advil almost always fixes them.  However, now that I’m pregnant I can only take Tylenol.  Unfortunately, Tylenol doesn’t work for my headaches – never has and isn’t now.  3) Sore boobs.  This is one of the most common symptoms of pregnancy.  They were really sore around 6 weeks but have gotten more bearable in the past few weeks.  4) Gas.  I’ve read about “pregnancy gas” due to slowed digestion but wow!  My farts (which are mostly in the evening) are seriously stinky.  I can’t stand the smell myself so I feel especially sorry for Johnnie and Dulce.  I really hope this doesn’t last the whole pregnancy!

FOOD:  There are a few foods (eggs, most meats, almost all vegetables, and garlic) that really turn my stomach.  There are a lot of other foods that just don’t look or smell appetizing at all.  My diet is fairly limited to the few things that are still appealing.  My favorite food right now is baked potatoes covered with butter and cheese!  I also love protein fruit smoothies, most fruits, Amy’s organic burritos, veggie burgers, peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches, and Subway’s subs on flatbread with mayo (something I would never order before).

EXERCISE:  I’m a runner but running does not feel good when I’m nauseous.  So instead, I’ve been hitting the cardio machines at the gym and using the weight lifting machines 3x a week.  It feels great to work out and I get to eat even more food on those days 🙂

OTHER NOTES:  We had our first prenatal appointment at 6w4d.  I had to pee in a cup and have blood drawn for tests.  We also had an ultrasound done!  There isn’t much detail to see that early but we did see the heart beating!  It was so amazing to see that there really is a little life growing in my belly!  I got a phone call the next day telling me that I had to come back into the clinic because my blood type is O Negative.  I always thought that was a good thing because that means I’m a “universal blood donor”, but apparently it’s a bad thing since I’m pregnant and Johnnie has positive blood.  Our baby will most likely have positive blood and that would be incompatible with mine.  If my blood and the baby’s blood mixes at any point, my body will start to produce antibodies that will attack the growing baby.  Luckily, mixing of blood usually never happens until birth so therefore the first pregnancy is usually without complications.  Later pregnancies however, would have big problems if my body had antibodies.  Thankfully medical advances can prevent this!  I will be getting a Rhogam shot 3 times throughout the pregnancy which will prevent my body from creating antibodies.  Everything with this baby should be just fine but this technically puts me at a “higher risk” than most.  To read more about the RH factor and compatibility, click here.