I can't describe the emotion felt when I saw that tiny little bean on the screen. There's really a baby in there. My baby. I let it all sink in as the tech pointed out the flashing white dot in the center indicating a heart beat.
"Here's your baby gummy bear", she said.
So incredible.
I am blessed to report that baby was wiggling and looked healthy at this point. Gummy bear's heart rate was 177 and measures 2.2 cm. Due date remains August 16th just as I predicted!
How I'm Feeling
I have a little more energy this week which has been making me feel better than last week. Last week was rough. I feel better rested, although I'm waking up 1-2 times per night to use the bathroom or to toss and turn. I've been able to work out 3 times so far, just cardio for 45-60 minutes. Yesterday I felt well enough to run! I only ran for 30 minutes but I took walking breaks every 5 minutes. I started getting nervous that my heart rate was getting too high. It's been almost two months since I last ran but it felt so good. I am incredibly sore today. I haven't been this sore from running in a long time. I don't know if I'll run farther into my pregnancy, for now I'm just going to listen to my body. When running no longer feels good I will stop. In the meantime I think I'll have to start wearing my heart rate monitor to make sure I keep my heart rate under 150.These days I am battling constant nausea. No actual getting sick so far, just nausea all day long. I have a love/hate relationship with nausea. I hate it because it makes me feel awful but I love that it reminds me of the little baby inside of me. I go from being perfectly fine to starving in a matter of minutes. Having low blood sugar makes me feel 10 times more sick. I've learned that making sure I eat frequently helps. I make sure I have plenty of snacks on hand. Some of my favorites at the moment include cheese sticks, dried figs, honey wheat pretzel sticks, greek yogurt and granola bars. My nurse practitioner wrote me a prescription for Zofran, however, I'm trying to only take it when things get bad. I also have some awesome preggie pops, ginger chews, and candied ginger that seem to help.
Food is a touchy subject. For someone who loves to cook and eat, I've had zero desire to do so. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day because those are the types of foods that are most appealing to me. Thinking of lunch and dinner makes me cringe. A week ago Sunday I made a huge pot of turkey minestrone soup. I thought it'd be great to have the soup for lunches and quick dinners. While I was cooking my mouth watered for a taste. I had a little bowl for dinner and thought it was delicious. Well, I ate the soup for lunch the next day and then could no longer stand it. The smell of it was too much. Just the thought of the soup (and seeing it in my fridge) was enough to make me queasy. I tried to eat the soup for dinner one night and instead ended up eating 2 mini whole wheat bagels with veggie cream cheese. I never ever eat cream cheese unless it's cream cheese frosting. I've been having to hide vegetables in my food. They are just not appealing. Meat? No thanks...chicken is about the only thing I can force down. Carbs are my favorite thing right.
Cravings:
-Carbs! Pasta, bread, pancakes, cereal, oatmeal, rice
-Almond butter/peanut butter
-Greek yogurt
-Cheese, especially string cheese
-Green Smoothies (gotta hide the veggies where I can)
-Harvest cheddar sun chips, tortilla chips, white cheddar popcorn
Dislikes:
-Anything that smells strong
-Meat
-Cooked vegetables
-Being in a car (motion sickness)
-Anything not on the "like" list
Weight gain: I don't know what my pre-pregnancy weight was. I never weigh myself. At today's appointment I had lost a pound since last week's appointment. I don't know if that is pregnancy related or just my body returning to normal after the holidays and vacation.
