I'm Pregnant!

This is a LONG post because I haven’t posted in a while and feel the need to catch up. =-)

6/18/06, Fathers’ Day. My husband, D, and I spent the whole day with my 3-year-old niece, soon-to-be-6-year-old nephew, and their father. We went out for brunch, to the pool for 3 hours, and then an early dinner. We’re driving home and D says “I’ve finally figured out why I’ve been in a funk all day.” (Mind you, I didn’t realize he was in a blue mood.) His exact words were: I don’t have a fucking father and I’m not a fucking father.” How could I respond to that: “Uhm, you have a father-in-law”? Nope, I didn’t say a word.

Once home, I went upstairs to shower and something told me to take a pregnancy test. Lo and behold, I found out I am pregnant!!!! =-) So, after going off the pill on 2/05, taking pre-natal vitamins since 9/05, and officially "trying" since 12/05, I am pregnant at the tender age of 37. Our child-to-be was conceived in Greece.

7/10 – According to the scale, I haven't gained any weight but my body is already starting to bug out. My boobies are hard and you can see blue veins and my tummy is protruding. Oh lord. Maybe that's TMI but, seriously, I barely recognize it and it's only 7 weeks! After 37 years of being the Energizer Bunny and being 100% OK with 6 hours of sleep a night, I can now barely keep my eyes open during the day. I need to nap every day and I'm out by 11:30. Ugh, I hear it gets better.

7/12 – I am 7 weeks pregnant but my doctor says my uterus feels about 10 or 11 weeks pregnant. The first words out of her mouth were “Are there twins in your family?” D and I looked at each other and started laughing because he has 16 sets of twins in his family (including his brothers)! Oy vey. But, before we get excited it could also be my fibroid. The last time the doctor checked (a few months ago) it was 4 centimeters (about the size of a plum) and it had shrunk from the previous year. I’m having my first ultrasound next Wednesday afternoon to confirm. She’s going to monitor the fibroid but she assured me that it wouldn’t harm the pregnancy or me.

7/18 - I went to the dentist this afternoon because of pain in a tooth where the old filling had fallen out. Turns out that I needed a root canal!!!!!! I called my ob/gyn from my cell and handed the phone to my dentist to make sure the Novocain, antibiotics, process, etc. was OK with her. The infection in my tooth was so bad that I would have lost the tooth in about a month and the repercussions would have been much worse. I walked in for a re-filling and walked out with a freakin’ root canal! Unreal. I feel so, so guilty about the antibiotics even though it’s totally safe for the baby. Besides, it would have been incredibly worse if I had waited.

7/19 - We went to have our ultrasound today and they botched my appointment. They had me in their system (it was another location of a facility I've been to) but not for an appointment. They would've taken me except all the technicians went home. AAARGH! I was disappointed but didn't talk too much because I didn't want to cry. It's silly I know. I mean, it's not like she gave me BAD news, ya know? Well, we're going to my regular imaging location tomorrow morning to see if they can squeeze us in.

7/20 – We had our first ultrasound today and it’s one tiny little human being. The technician said s/he is now the size of a gummi bear. (That cracked me up.) It was incredible seeing its tiny little heart beating and to actually hear it . . . well, it was just amazing. It sounded like whale mating and it hit me – holy SHIT I’m going to be a MOOOOOTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEERRRRRR!!

7/31 – My child-to-be is kicking my ass!

Thursday, I went to pee in the morning and was spotting. I called my ob and they scheduled me to come in for an emergency visit at 1:45. I kept it together while on the phone with the nurse but broke down big time in D’s office. (My husband and I work together.) D tried to calm me down (telling me this is normal, don’t worry, etc.), got up from his seat and gave me a hug, but HE had red eyes and a puffy nose. Anyway, I tried to put it out of my head as I went ahead with my day.

D cut his day in half and took me to the doctor. Like an ass, I told him that I would drive myself there and call him when I was done. Seriously, I need to get over this independent bullsh*t, at least while I’m pregnant! =-/

They did a pelvic exam, urine analysis, and vaginal ultrasound and everything is fine THANK GODDESS. The baby is growing well (s/he is now the size of a full, unshelled peanut) and my fibroid is getting bigger but is still not near the baby or harming the pregnancy in any way. WHEW. We saw its little arm move!!!! =-) D cracked us up by commenting to the technician “Gee, it sure has an unusually large head.” That night, we had our first birthing class that evening. That was pretty cool meeting other expectant couples.

Then, I wake up Friday morning with horrific bed spins. It was AWFUL. Kind of like being extremely drunk on a rapidly moving boat. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I woke up at 7:00 a.m. terrified and went to the bathroom. After 5 minutes everything stopped spinning but I couldn’t walk, sit, lie down, kneel, crouch, nothing without a tremendous amount of dizziness. I called my ob at 9:00 and they were adamant that I cannot drive and have to get myself to my GP or the ER. At 10:00, I force myself to take a shower. I had to hold on to the wall every time I looked up (e.g., to get the shampoo) or close my eyes. Looking for a blouse in my bureau, I almost fell into the drawer.

Once again, D drops what he’s doing and takes me to the doctor where I was diagnosed with vertigo and was told that it will be “a tough weekend” for me. Lovely. They gave me a prescription but I told them I didn’t want to take anymore drugs, I didn’t care if it IS a “class B” drug. Oh, and I yacked for the first time when I got back. Thoroughly disgusting and quite painful. That night, I was forced to sleep on my sides (which I don’t like) and every time I switched sides, I had to battle with the ceiling going berserk and the ceiling fan threatening to swallow me whole.

Soooooooooooooooooooooo, I spent the weekend stuck at home, considerably dizzy and fighting major nausea. I had to walk real slow (like from the couch to the bathroom or from the couch to the table to have lunch) and do everything extremely slowly (like shifting my eye focus from D on my left and the TV on my right). Not my most attractive moments but it’ll be worth it to give birth to a healthy child.

D has been superb. He made me cry on Saturday by saying that he loves me for all the suffering I’m going through for our booger and, that since I am carrying our booger, he will carry me. Then again, he also made me cry when he said “maybe our child will actually like Christmas” - referring to the fact that I’ve always hated the holiday . . . THAT’S a long, sad story by itself.