Weeks 9 & 10

It's Thanksgiving tomorrow!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!  I appreciate all the comments I've had the pleasure of receiving so far.  It makes me want to suck it up and really start to plug away more at getting more useful information up here for my readers. 

The last couple of weeks have seen me cut back on the anti-nausea medication.  I worked my way down to just 1 first thing in the morning for a while and then, in just the past 3 days or so I've completely cut it out.  It's a little tough because without it I do still get sudden urges to be sick, but I found that a couple of things really help me.  First, I always need to have something in my stomach.  The minute I start feeling hungry I also feel really nauseated.  The other help is to just sit and relax after I've eaten or done anything physically demanding (which can be unloading the dishwasher for me these days :o/~ ) .  Sprite has been helpful too.  I honestly think it's just because it doesn't irritate my stomach like ginger ale or 7UP and it helps me burp up some of the gas that I suspect is causing some of the discomfort.

Physical complaints right now still consist of digestive discomfort, lots of gas, difficulty sleeping, breast issues, and fatigue.  The list of OTC medications approved by my Dr. that I received at my first prenatal visit included: Tums, Gaviscon, Pepcid, and Zantac for indigestion/heartburn.  Gaviscon works good for me, but they kind of fizz up while you chew them and the taste isn't great so they aren't very appealing.  I stopped taking them when my nausea got really bad.  Tums have started to taste more like candy to me.  I've found that taking 2 before I go to bed really helps my bubbly stomach and discomfort.  I'm just starting regular Pepcid today in hopes that it will help.  The difficulty sleeping is partly due to yucky stomach and partly due to the fact that when I do sleep I often have crazy dreams that leave me feeling like I didn't rest at all.  I am in dire need of new bras.  I have vastly outgrown my old ones, even my sports bras.  I'm also having a lot of breast tenderness as they go through their little (or not so little!) growth spurt.  Thank goodness my fatigue is slowly decreasing.  I do still feel totally wiped out after little errands or chores, but it's not as bad as it used to be and after a little down time I feel better. 

I have noticed two main emotional changes in myself.  The first change has actually mostly passed.  Around the beginning of week 9 I suddenly got this intense fear in me concerning my pregnancy.  These sudden realization occured to me: I am pregnant-like actually growing a living human being inside of me,  My life will never ever be the same again, and this baby is going to continue to grow and I'm going to have to find a way to get it out.  These thoughts had often occured to me before I got pregnant, after I found out we were pregnant and were often repeated with great solemnity by my husband before we started trying.  But for some reason, it all became very real and scary to me.  I started to worry and even lament a little.  I think what put an end to all this though was the day I picked up my 8 week ultrasound picture and, instead of seeing a little grain of rice in a sac, I was able to make out a little head, torso and even faint little legs.  I wondered why I had never seen it before.  It made such a difference in my perspective.  It was like all of a sudden the thing taking over my body and causing all these changes was more human to me.  Less like something I was suffering for and more like a baby I was nourishing.  The second change in me I guess is more spiritual than emotional.  More and more I've felt a strong desire to nourish myself spiritually.  Lets just say my husband and I aren't the best at making it to church meetings.  Recently, however, I've found myself spending more time at my prayers and scripture study.  It's really helped me deal with my worries and even my physical symptoms.  I think these desires stem from the realization that in a matter of months I will be a mommy; responsible for the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of a little human.  So, I want to be as prepared for that as I can be. 

~Jessy