I know that is has been a few weeks since my last post. I have been very busy in my real life plus one of my main symptoms is being very tired. I think if I wasn't working from home/social distancing I would be exhausted as that happens when I have a to go outside of the house. So I am grateful for being able to be at home.
My grandma has been doing chemo treatment for over a year now. She has a type of leukemia that is chronic and many people live with it for a long time, but when/if it develops to acute it can kill very quickly, a few months. So the treatment is to maintain the chronic leukemia not to get her in remission. She has been able to go from 5 days every three weeks to 4 days every three weeks and a smaller dose which is good because the chemo does make her feel poorly near the end of the week, but makes day-to-day better than how she felt prior to chemo. Well on the 9th she was doing her treatment but she felt very sick from it and she had to go to the hospital for a few days. After some tests the doctors didn't see anything that would cause her to feel bad except and she was already feeling better (but not as well as she was on the 8th) so they sent her home. My sister who is a PT decided to go down to Tucson to visit her and try to help her with the nausea and dizziness. I went with her to help her with Naomi while she helped.
It was the first time that year that we were able to visit. We all wore masks and I kept my distance too. I have been social distancing and working from home so I don't think I have been exposed but I did not want to get my Grandma sick. While there my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin's wife and second cousin once removed also came to visit us. They haven't seen Naomi since prior to the pandemic. So I was able to also work from my Grandma's house. It was so fun. Naomi had been taking a step or two prior to that but without realizing it, so this was the first time that she walked on purpose and she took 7 steps! It was so cool to see. She also loved seeing my cousin's daughter who is a year and a half older than her. She hasn't interacted with a lot of other babies/toddlers because of covid.
My sister was able to help G'ma with some exercises but she didn't know why she was dizzy it wasn't from vertigo or a normal cause. G'ma had an appointment with a PT the next day which she was reluctant to go to because she thought the exercises would be too hard now that she was feeling bad, but my sister explained that the PT would do different exercises then the week before since she wasn't doing well. So at least Caitlin was able to convince her to go.
That night I was so tired that I went to bed before 9 pm. That is one instance why I know that I would be more exhausted if I wasn't working from home/social distancing.
At the end of week 7, I had another ultrasound. My OB wanted to do their own ultrasound for their own records. I like to see the baby so I didn't mind. They let me bring 1 guest and any children under 8. So I invited my Mom to go with me. The baby looked reptile like or baby bird like. But it was moving around and had more noticeable parts than the first. I could even see a tail! I got to hear the heart beat again! 161 BPM! So cool. They also said that the baby was measuring like the due date is May 29th (my birthday), but the day of my last missed period makes my due date May 31st. Since there isn't a big difference most OBs will go off the lmp. They were willing to go off the May 29th day, but I decided to go with May 31st. In expecting science website they said that 280 days is not the average number of days of gestation, nor is it the mode, nor is it the most common (mode). It is 280 because someone decided that Mary was pregnant with Jesus for 10 lunar months (28 days). The average day is a little complex because the increase use of scheduled c-sections (which usually happen in week 39), but taking out those or looking at averages from the 1990s first times mom's average 284 days and two or more mom's average 282. So you should really count 282 from lmp. So I would much rather have the later due date then the earlier, even if it's only two days.
I decided to do a NT scan which would scan the back of the neck to look at the fluid and the bridge of the nose. These scans can tell you if their is an increase risk of chromosomal abnormalities. I was not too concerned because my only risk factor is my age and I have been reading that 37/38 is when the risk really increases. I still wanted to do it because it was another scan. It was scheduled for November 13th. So long.
Other then the exhaustion I have been feeling pretty well. I haven't felt to nauseous since changing my prenatal from lunch time to bed time. I did physically get sick 4-5 times but it was usually because I was eating something that I was averse too. Like I made a Sunday roast one week and I had left overs for a couple days. But by the third night my body was said no to more pork! I froze the rest of the pork but I was able to finish the veggies. I have notice that one of the time when I ate something that was a something I ate recently. Like I usually eat salad kits every lunch time, but if I have a salad kit more than twice I will feel nauseous or get sick even if the kit is a different flavor. I still want to eat salads but I try to do every other day/every few days. Of course I have no problem eating oatmeal or other cereals every morning, so go figure.
Another symptom I have experienced was being thirsty. It is very frustrating because even when I'm drinking water I feel thirsty. I was extremely thirsty last week (week 12) my lips were very chapped too and I felt like I was getting a cold sore one night. So I got out of bed to put sunscreen on my lips which can help you not get a cold sore if you feel it coming! Then I went to fridge and drank a cup of water (but no more I know if you drink too much water at once you will just pee it out and not quench thirst), Well I think the sunscreen really helped me feel less thirsty too. So I started putting sunscreen on my lips once a day and that has helped. I don't know why this has helped, but I think since chapped lips are sometimes caused by being thirsty, moisturizing my lips with sunscreen had my brain thinking I was not as thirsty. I guess I should still wear sunscreen even if I'm at home all day since I don't usually moisturize with anything else.
Last week I had more breast tenderness than any other week. It wasn't like the muscles were sore more like the skin was raw/hurt. I notice my breast fill my bra better especially the left side which is typically the bigger side in women. I haven't needed to go up a cup size yet and I don't need to go on the farthest clip.
I have also started to have some tenderness/soreness around my abs and also in my hips. It is like sore muscle pain but sometimes can be sharp. It hurts more if I change positions. I know this is more common in the second trimester so I think I will probably be a person that gets sore in third trimester.
Those are my main symptoms (urination too but that might be because of being thirsty). So I really like the scans since I don't feel pregnant.
On the 24th, my cousin texted to say that he, his wife and daughter would be in town for the day (they needed to pick up something from his mil) so he wanted to meet up after Naomi and Ainsley's meeting at G'ma Lulus. So we met at my sister's and craved pumpkins. My cousin brought beer and a flavor that I normally love! So it was hard to refuse without giving it away. Plus I had a headache/migraine that day (is that a pregnancy symptom?) so I had to ask my sister for Tylenol and not aspirin/ibuprofen, My cousin's wife saw that so I thought it was suspicious but my sister said it didn't sound that way.
Naomi and Ainsley had fun playing with Naomi's toys, Ainsley pushed Naomi around in a toy cart for a while before we started carving pumpkins. The kids were too little to carve pumpkins but the rest of us did it.
The next weekend was Halloween, my brother had a party at his house. I wanted to go but I didn't want to be around a bunch of youths who could have covid all night. So I went over early to help set up and only his roommates and one early arrival was there. I dressed up kinda like Wednesday Adams. I stayed until my sister, Naomi and Dave came which was when more people were arriving and left when they left about an hour or so later. There were more people than I thought would be there at that time, but not as many as ended up being there. My brother had told all his roommates that I was pregnant and then kept telling people all night. I don't really care that his friends know, but if you want something to be a secret don't tell Tyler!
Both these weekends were other examples of how tired I can get from a few hours of stimulation. I have been doing a lot of other day to day things but nothing exciting enough to blog about, but I'm grateful that I am working from home because I think not commuting and interacting with a lot of people helps.
Around week 9 I wasn't feeling well enough to keep doing my yoga, but in week 12 I was able to do it two day. I did the week 9 and 10 yoga though because I don't want to skip. I will catch up to my current week soon and try to do every day again. My app said that around week 10-11 your hormones aren't as high because the placenta starts to take over so a lot of the first trimester symptoms go away, but it doesn't happen over night. Like I said the week that I was the most thirsty was week 12!
So on week 11 I had my most recent ultrasound. The one that scans the back of the neck and nose. Everything looked really good. The fluid was perfect and I could even see the bridge of the nose. The scan was much more like a baby, there was no tail and a clear head/body as well as limbs tho the limbs were skinny and the head is still bigger than the body. The heart beat was 167 so the wives tale says that is a girl right? At first the baby was still but started moving around a lot probably because baby was being prodded with a ultrasound wand.
After the PA (doctor?) asked gave me a few options for the blood test and I decided to get the NIPs test. I would give my blood and that would be sent to a lab then the baby's dna from the placenta are separated from my blood. Then they look for extra copies of 13, 18 and 21, as well as X and Y chromosomes. So I would also get to know the sex. During the blood draw I was told it would take 14 days, but guess what I got the results in 7 days. Maybe the labs aren't as busy with covid going on. So I will be doing a gender reveal on Thanksgiving with my family and a zoom call. My brother is going to livestream for facebook. I haven't told my Aunt, Uncle or cousins that I'm pregnant so this should be fun.
