14 Weeks

Well, here we go again!

Total Weight Gain: I haven't weighed myself recently. When I was in the worst part of morning sickness a few weeks ago, I had lost 6 lbs from what I weighed at my first doctor appointment. When I went back to the doctor a couple weeks ago, I was down 1 lb from my first appointment weight.

Size of Baby: Baby is the size of a lemon!

Maternity Clothes: Yes! 

Sleep: Okay. A couple weeks ago I was having trouble getting to sleep, but it's a bit better now. 

Movement: I think I've felt something 3-4 times in the past week. Exciting, and always a little shocking when it happens! With Claire my placenta was anterior, so I didn't feel movement until much later, but this time it's not. It will be fun to feel the differences between this pregnancy and the last!

Cravings/Aversions: I'm craving Mexican food a lot. Most of my aversions seem to have passed, but I went through a period where handling any kind of meat was a real trial. A lot of times Claire has pieces of deli meat with her lunch and just the thought of that was enough to send me over the edge. That sounds so funny now, but boy is it intense when you're in the throes of it!

What I Miss: Not much at the moment. 

Gender: Not yet! I'm dying to know. We should be able to find out mid-late June. 

Mood: Pretty good now that I'm through the first trimester and feeling better. The main source of my stress at the moment is insurance! Cam's work switched insurance companies at the beginning of this month, which is a little inconvenient mid-pregnancy and more expensive (thanks "Affordable" Care Act!), but I thought it would be figured out by now. Well, the transition has been a nightmare for Cam's company. It's been two weeks and we haven't even been able to print temporary cards. Finally our real cards came in the mail yesterday and lo and behold, Humana screwed up all our information. They signed us up for the wrong plan and think Claire is Cam's spouse and I'm their child. How cute. I know it will work out, but I have a baby who needs shots and an OB office that is waiting for my new insurance info so they can have me pay them a big deposit when I go back in two weeks. Not fun at all. 

Symptoms/Medical Concerns: It's been a very rough first trimester and I'm glad it's over. Just like with Claire, this pregnancy started out with bleeding, to the point that I thought it was a period and assumed I wasn't pregnant. Just to be sure, I took a test once it had been long enough to get a result and it was positive! Since this has happened with both of my pregnancies, my doctor and I have concluded that I just have very heavy implantation bleeding. Then a couple weeks later I caught a nasty stomach virus. Oh gosh, that was fun... 

When we did initial pregnancy bloodwork at my doctor's office, my progesterone was very low. In early pregnancy, your progesterone level should be 10 and mine was 0.5. Since progesterone is what helps you hold on to a pregnancy, we thought we might be heading for a miscarriage. It was scary, and no one knew except me and Cam at that point. My doctor put me on progesterone suppositories and had me come in for frequent bloodwork. Since then, thankfully my progesterone level has been normal. As far as why my progesterone was so low, it might be that I had just finished nursing Claire so my hormones were out of whack or it could just be that this bloodwork was early in the pregnancy. Apparently doctors don't usually check progesterone early on, so it's hard to have a clear baseline. Whatever the case, it's a relief that we got it straightened out. I was able to stop the progesterone and bloodwork a couple weeks ago and everything's been fine since, thankfully. At this point, the placenta has taken over and progesterone becomes irrelevant.

Around 7-8 weeks, the nausea, vomiting, and exhaustion kicked in full force. It really hit me hard and I have been miserable. I took Zofran and while it helped some, the side effects were horrible! Then my doctor had me try a new medication called Diclegis. It's the first medication on the market made specifically for morning sickness. It has helped some but nothing completely knocks it out. I can only take the nighttime dose because the daytime dose makes me way too drowsy to take care of Claire. A couple weeks ago, I decided it wasn't helping me much and made the mistake of skipping the nighttime dose. The next day I got sick seven different times! So yeah, it's definitely doing something. Last week I woke up one morning and got going and then realized I felt somewhat normal. I've been feeling better for a week now...not 100%, but considerably better. I'm not taking any chances since my sickness lasted until 15 weeks with Claire, so I'm still taking the Diclegis every night! 

Differences from Last Pregnancy: I'm showing a lot earlier this time than I did with Claire. It's really nice to have all those maternity clothes from last time! And I'm so glad my L&D nurse didn't let the other staff cut my favorite pair of maternity jeans off the night I broke my ankle...those jeans are so comfortable and cannot be replaced!

I feel like the nausea and vomiting were a little bit worse this time around. That may be due to taking progesterone. Anytime you add additional hormones on top of all the other ones it can definitely increase your symptoms. It could also just be that I'm trying to keep up with a very active little girl all day!

I guess the other main difference is I just feel more uncomfortable earlier in the pregnancy than I did with Claire at this point. It's manageable though, so I can't complain!

Milestones: Stopping the progesterone, entering the second trimester, and feeling better!!! So thankful! 

Anything Else You'd Like to Share: I know I sound very whiney talking about all the throwing up, but I'm well aware that it's all for a good cause! I am very blessed.

What I'm Looking Forward to: Finding out the gender! When we had an ultrasound a couple weeks ago, it was too early to tell anything, but Cam and I both had a feeling it was a boy from the facial profile. We will see! We will be thrilled either way!