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June 22, 2003
Week 5
Somewhere this week I decided that the Feb 24th due date was for the birds, and adding 38 weeks to my most likely ovulation day was the only sensible thing. So I hit five weeks on Sat, June 21 and Feb. 21 became my unofficial due date.
What symptoms will I find today?
Monday morning I had to fight off sleep during a meeting, so I’d like to say that my fatigue is pregnancy-related, but I tend not to be bright-eyed during most morning meetings, so I don’t know if that counts for much. That evening, I started a trend of napping while Dan made dinner, though. I still easily sleep through the night, so I think my body’s trying to tell me that sleeping from midnight until 7am isn’t going to cut it anymore.
I get motion sick easily when I’m not pregnant, and riding the bus has not been kind to my stomach this week. It takes an hour or so for the funky bus feeling to go away in the morning. It seems that I should simultaneously solve the bus-sickness problem and the fatigue problem by sleeping on the bus—I’ve been known to snooze on my commute before. I’ve got to try that soon.
I’m not sure if my constant peeing is a pregnancy symptom. It only happens at work, where I consume 2-3 16-oz Nalgene bottles of water. I think it’s just the water. I don’t ever wake up in the middle of the night, and I don’t even really have to go when I wake up. In another 5 or 6 months, then I’ll know what it’s like to have to pee.
I'm wondering if my sense of smell is getting stronger, or if I'm just imagining it because others say they noticed it during pregnancy. Someone made microwave popcorn in my office and I asked the guy in the cube next to me if he had it--not only did neither he nor anyone else in our aisle have popcorn, but he couldn't even smell it! And I thought it was within 10 ft. My stomach churned at the smell, so I won't be getting any myself any time soon.
My chest doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s somewhat tender, maybe, but no real achiness for the past week. For me at least, it seems like a painful chest leads to a growing chest. I’ll be glad for the opportunity to keep sleeping on my stomach for awhile longer.
What’s going on in there?
I’m getting used to the idea that my period really isn’t coming, but that doesn’t mean I’m confident that everything is happening as it should. Without a blood test or early ultrasound, I don’t know whether the baby is growing on schedule. It seems like every time I start getting really paranoid, my stomach starts churning or my chest aches, so I haven’t gone completely off the deep end worrying. In the meantime, I’m plowing through all the library books we picked up. I’ve already gone through the two light-hearted ones and I’m working my way through the first chapter of Dr. Sears’ month-by-month guide to pregnancy. I’m also still temping. Seeing those temps stay at 98.2 and higher (usually closer to 98.6) is really comforting. To me, temping tells me what’s going on, and as long as my temps look good, I won’t freak out too much. It’s still 5 weeks until my first CNM appointment, where I’ll hopefully be reassured that I’m measuring on target, even if I don’t get to see or hear the heartbeat yet.
The Before Shot
On Tuesday we took my first belly shots. I tried to find clothes that I’ll be able to wear for most of the pregnancy. I’m wearing my “apartment pants”—very loose cotton drawstring pants (remember that episode on “Friends”?) that will fit over my belly for a long time, and I could tie under my belly once I near the end. On top I have a tank top. My idea is that for now, the tank is tight enough to show my shape. Later as my belly grows, more of it will stick out from under the tank. We’ll see how this works.
Hopefully my Last HPT
On Wednesday, I took my third HPT. I would have survived without it, but it came with the first two, so I didn’t have to spend anything to get it. It was a week since I took the first faint one and this one was SO DARK--even darker than the control line. It’s easy to feel pretty good about the pregnancy after seeing how fast that dark pink line showed up!
Weight and Nutrition
I was a really picky eater as a kid, and my tastes haven’t exactly matured since then. I don’t try to avoid eating vegetables, but I’m pretty sure that eating more would be a good idea, even if I wasn’t pregnant. My MIL and I signed up for an organic farm co-op this summer. We pre-paid, and each week my MIL will pick up a crate of fresh organic vegetables that’s delivered nearby. I’ve heard others who’ve done this say that they had a hard time eating everything before it went bad, so we’re hoping that by splitting a half-share, we’ll get to try a lot of new things that we’d never pick up at a store. The first delivery is this week, but we haven’t gone to my IL’s to retrieve it yet. Hopefully, that won’t be a common occurrence.
I'm sort of glad I don't have a scale at home. But my official pre-pg weight will be my weight at 9 weeks, since that's my first appt. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. If I gain before then, it'll make my overall gain seem like less, but it could be disturbingly high starting point. I lost 10 lbs between Jan and May by going to spinning class 2-3 times/wk, and since quitting in mid-May, I've hovered between 2 and 5 lbs over my lowest mid-May weight. Well, last Thursday I was at the 5 lb over mark, then this past Sunday, I'd gone down 2.5 lbs. (weighed at my parents') I seem to be eating less than usual in the evening because I feel nasty otherwise, but I eat more at work during the day. I haven't had any big eating spurts because we don't have any sweets in the house and because I'd be belching for hours (lovely, eh?) if I ate like that. I'm trying to take longish walks in the evening, but I'm certainly doing minimally on the exercise. Dan and I are thinking about getting bikes from his parents’ garage and going on rides along the Mississippi River (we live 4 blocks away). That should be an activity that will get me moving, but not raise my body temperature or heart rate too much.
Along with just incorporating more vegetables into my diet, I’m thinking about trying the Brewer diet. I looked it up yesterday and need more info on it, but it involves lots of dairy and protein. It isn’t low-carb (yay!) and Dr. Brewer encourages people to salt food to taste. He says the most important thing is to get enough food. Seems like it makes sense, but I’m not sure how to combine the portions it lays out.
Spread the News or Hold my Tongue?
My big dilemma this week has been deciding whether or not to tell my non-immediate friends about the pregnancy right away. I have a friend getting married this weekend and tons of people are coming to town that we won't see for the next year. I'd love to tell people in person while we can, but 5 weeks just seems really early. My family has had no problem sharing the info with everyone who crosses their paths. Thanks to my parents and sister, their cleaning lady, multiple neighbors, their lawyer, financial planner, and my mom's garage saling buddies all know. My sister-in-law, who hasn’t stepped into church in two years, somehow ran into a confirmation friend and told her, who told her mother, who asked my MIL about it. The mother is in the church choir, which probably means their whole church knows by now. Amazing.
Speaking of Family…
My parents gave us a card yesterday that said it was from Grandpa Ron, Grandma Miriam, and Aunty Kelsey. Awwww. Apparently, they're dealing with our news okay. My mom is also determined to find us a stroller and a year worth of clothes at garage sales. I had her repeat the phrase "Quality, not quantity" a bunch of times, so hopefully this will turn out well. After the first garage sale day, she found a number of onesies and a few other odds and ends. No big furniture or anything yet. Apparently, the baby stuff is now taking over their dining room table for lack of better storage areas. I think it’s just Mom’s way of telling anyone who enters the house.
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