11 Weeks! The struggle with hyperemesis gravidarum.

Well, I spent some time in the hospital last week due to dehydration and not being able to hold anything down. We waited a good 4 hours to get taken back and then I was given a few rounds of fluids and Zofran (finally! an anti-nausea medication that WORKS). They monitored me for a while and checked on the baby as well and I caught a peak at the baby on the ultrasound and my goodness(!) s/he has grown! I am so excited to be nearing the end of the 1st trimester, hopefully I can leave this nagging morning sickness with it as I advance into the 2nd trimester and get some control back over my daily life.

I have another baby doctor appointment on Friday, I'm not sure what to expect since I've already had 2 scans so I'm not really expecting another one for a while now. They are doing two biopsies then so I am a bit nervous about the pain and how the procedures are going to work, and whether or not they're actually doing both of them at the same time, I just can't imagine having a needle anywhere near that area can feel very pleasant... But luckily I have the weekend off so I can rest and recover if it's too terrible. (Of course, in my mind I've already played out that they're removing a third of my "V" and I won't be able to walk for a month, although I'm sure that's not the case at all and it'll be simple with barely any pain.)


Before I leave I thought I'd share some things I find pretty humorous that trigger my morning sickness. (It's funny and I chuckle about it only AFTER I pull my head from the toilet... Ugh.)

• Opening my purse - no seriously... If I open my purse and can smell the inside of it (the mixture of money, make up, hand sanitizer, and whatever else is floating around in there) makes me retch. I've started carrying bags in my purse just. in. case.
• The smell of my job.... Yep! My job makes me physically ill! Not the work involved or the people, though. The lobby I work in just has a particular smell to it that I guess I have started to associate with throwing up... Yuck.
• My car. Riding in it, driving in it, BEING in it = instant vom. The smell of it has started to get to me as well, so I crammed 4 Strawberry Lemonade air fresheners in the a/c vents.... It seems to have done the trick for now. And smells delicious.
• Peanut butter crackers. I  simply overused them. They were a godsend in the beginning but you can only throw something up so many times before it becomes absolutely repulsive. Keep those nasty little devils away from me.
• The feeling of throwing up. That's right... Throwing up causes me to throw up again. It's a never ending cycle of vom, then crying, then voming again. Over it... I'm so, so over it.

And here's a picture of our little peanut from 7 weeks 1 day:

your baby's the size of a lime!

Your fetus is about 1.6 inches long, and she's got about a 1:1 head to body ratio. She now weighs in at about .25 ounces.

your baby at 11 weeks

• You can't see it, but she's moving fluidly and gracefully in there.
• Her skin is see-through, but she's on her way to looking more like a baby.
• Her fingers and toes aren't webbed anymore.
• Tooth buds, hair follicles and nail beds are forming.

Trading in our Silent Nights

Thursday November 20th, 2014 started out like every other morning (well, technically afternoon – being that I work overnights). I rolled over, groggy, to the sun shining in my eyes through the blinds of our little house. The past couple of days I’d been feeling completely exhausted, drained, I mean I couldn't even peel myself out of bed type of tired. I just knew. I knew that something was different. I got out of bed and walked to the restroom, grabbed a box from underneath the sink. Chris, my boyfriend, has just woken up as well. We began joking back and forth, “I don’t know why you even bother, and you know what it’s going to say.” I tried to downplay my thoughts and emotions. Thinking over and over in my head, nah, it couldn't be. A couple of minutes had gone by before I finally looked down; the pregnancy test that was lying on the counter clearly read “Pregnant”. I gasped and my hand instantly covered a smile that had instantly and effortlessly formed across my face, Chris had brief a look of shock before we both started smiling and laughing. My eyes watered up. I knew it... We’re pregnant!

 I went to the clinic and had the pregnancy confirmed. As I’m writing this right now I am 4 weeks and 4 days. Our estimated due date is August 4th, 2015. I have also set up my first prenatal appointment; it will be on the 17th of December. We’re both just over the moon about it, and we’re both a little bit nervous. The waiting period from seeing that positive test (… or 7 positive tests, ha) to the first appointment to confirm viability is a true test of patience. We both just want to know that our little bean is doing okay in there and progressing as it should.

 I've decided to publicly blog my journey through pregnancy so that our family and friends can follow along with everything that is going on in one place. I also wanted to be able to look back and remember the little moments, the silly cravings, first baby kicks, and to document the changes that my body will be going through.