A blast from the past

In contemplating a second pregnancy, I made the mistake of hunting down the handwritten journal I made during weeks 4-8 of my pregnancy with Maya while I was doing field work in Australia.  I had no access to books or internet while I was gone, so I literally wrote everything in the back of a field notebook.  I have transcripted the entries here for your *enjoyment*:

3 April 2013 - 4w0d
Officially 14 dpo (minus half a day for the time change)!  Two positive tests, no sign of period.  No sore breasts, and no awesome pregnancy boobs :(  Biggest complaint: BUSH FLIES.
Earlier: was dizzy days 5-10 dpo, but much better now.  Overall, I have felt great, although it’s not super easy acclimating to the temperature change.  I am a swollen balloon and can’t get my wedding ring off.

4 April 2013 - 4w1d
Third positive test!  No longer ambiguous, line is much darker.  Slight nausea all day, but overall, all is well!  P.S. It is hot.

5 April 2013 - 4w2d
Uber crampy all day :( Good thing I read so many pregnancy books, otherwise I would have been really worried.

6 April 2013 - 4w3d
Cramps are MUCH better today :)  All appears well! Not even feeling pukey…but still no sign of awesome pregnancy boobs. [author note, 2016: I *never* got awesome pregnancy boobs, so this was a wasted hope.]

11 April 2013 - 5w1d
Still intermittent cramps, last night was pretty bad.  Woke up a little pukey-feeling this morning, but felt much better after I was up and moving.  Still very swollen.
I am covered in insect bites.
Oh, plus, boobs are finally sore. Still all going well!  No bleeding at all.  Neural tube closure begins today!

17 April 2013 - 5w6d
Boobs SO SORE that last night I dreamed about how much they hurt. Fairly continuous low grade nausea and cramps.  Otherwise, still doing well - 4th positive test, hCG line went pink before control :)

22 April 2013 - 6w4d
SO SICK I WANT TO CRY.  Since last entry, nothing but paralyzing, all-consuming nausea.  Down to eating very little, as bland as possible.  So sick all the time :(

29 April 2013 - 7w4d
STILL SO SICK.  SO SICK.
Smells of everything (food, plastic, tires, myself [=dirty]) makes me want to yark.  No sign of abating, I’ve had debilitating nausea for two weeks straight.
So sad :(

2 May 2013 - 8w0d
STILL VERY SICK, but learning to tolerate the pukey-ness a little better.  Cramps started up again yesterday, still going today.  I guess I’m making it, but…. 
***************************

I had forgotten the sore boobs entirely, actually, in my memory of the pukey-ness. These entries remind me that I have approximately 10-12 days from getting a positive test until I begin wanting to die.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Two Week Wait

First, before anyone gets excited - NO, I'M NOT GETTING PREGNANT.  The "two week wait" is a common phrase for people trying to conceive to describe the stressful, intense waiting time in between ovulation and the earliest pee-on-a-stick test that you can take to figure out if you're pregnant or not.  As I have only experienced this once, and mostly I didn't expect to actually get pregnant, I had a pretty mild experience with it. However, I've also never felt anything quite like it - great excitement, mixed with great fear, mixed with a very sincere sense of impatience.  And yet!  I've found another experience that feels *exactly* the same! So my paper got editorially rejected from Science - although it was quite a kind and positive rejection - and so now we are waiting at Nature.  I wake up every single morning fervently both hoping for and dreading the decision, and feeling distinctly impatient that I can't just know now  (and praying that someone...
Read more

Attempting the impossible

In response to my good friend Lesley’s very valid comment question about how on earth I get any work done with the baby in tow, I’ve decided to do the post that I’ve wanted to write for a while.  I am, in fact, attempting the impossible for the next four months: working as close to full-time as possible while not putting the baby in day care. (Edit: I wrote this really long, flowery, idealistic post below, but the short answer is that I work - poorly - while the baby sleeps.  So I also do everything in my power to help her sleep in long chunks, which is perhaps instilling bad sleep habits, which I will also probably pay for later.  And that's about it :)) Over the course of my world travels, I have always been inspired by the women in less industrialized societies than ours.  They truly bring their babies everywhere with them as they go about their daily business.  They simply strap the babies to their bodies in some kind of carrier and go, nursing whenever...
Read more

41 Weeks

Image
A place where no woman should ever have to go!  No, there is no baby yet. We're off to see the midwife again now for more membrane stripping/non-stress test - I'll try to update afterwards. Here are some photos from this weekend: One of the many (fat) squirrels that inspired the cookies Friday's "Ugly Sweater Party" - husband won, actually! We got some snow this weekend, offering the opportunity to try to induce labor with.... ....snow shoveling!  I did our house (front and back) and all of our neighbors' houses too.  Clearly didn't work, but was fun anyway. Best part of the weekend - husband's parents came to visit, YAY!!  It was so great to see them :)  
Read more