Friday, October 20, 2006
I Heart Oyster Crackers! (or) Food is Not My Friend.
(Flashback #2: The weekend before I found out I was pregnant, we went to Branson with my parents and my brother's family. We spent Saturday at Silver Dollar City riding rides! So if this baby comes out with it's pieces and parts all in the wrong place, blame the Powder Keg!)
The first couple weeks, I didn't have any problems with morning sickness or nausea. As long as I drank some chocolate soy milk first thing in the morning, I felt pretty good the rest of the day. Then, soy milk started making me sick! Starting about the 6th week, food stopped sounding good. I'm very lucky that I haven't actually thrown up yet, but I have to force myself to eat anything. Drinking is even worse. I can't drink things that are cold, so I just drink room temperature water REALLY slowly and put up with how nauseous it makes me!
I just have to keep telling myself, "this is worth it, this is worth it." It sure does make dealing with high school students every day less fun! My genetics students picked out a movie to watch called Body Snatchers, which was all about how a fetus "hijacked" its mother's body and all of the terrible things that happen to her. I sat there sweating trying to pretend I wasn't paying attention. Not a movie that newly pregnant women should watch!
One of my co-workers just had a sweet baby boy in January, so she knew to bring me oyster crackers. I eat a few at a time, all day long. If one more of my students (it's always the boys) asks me "how come" I get to eat class and they don't, I'm going to scream, "As soon as you get pregnant and feel like crap 24/7 you're welcome to bring your own oyster crackers!!"
The first couple weeks, I didn't have any problems with morning sickness or nausea. As long as I drank some chocolate soy milk first thing in the morning, I felt pretty good the rest of the day. Then, soy milk started making me sick! Starting about the 6th week, food stopped sounding good. I'm very lucky that I haven't actually thrown up yet, but I have to force myself to eat anything. Drinking is even worse. I can't drink things that are cold, so I just drink room temperature water REALLY slowly and put up with how nauseous it makes me!
I just have to keep telling myself, "this is worth it, this is worth it." It sure does make dealing with high school students every day less fun! My genetics students picked out a movie to watch called Body Snatchers, which was all about how a fetus "hijacked" its mother's body and all of the terrible things that happen to her. I sat there sweating trying to pretend I wasn't paying attention. Not a movie that newly pregnant women should watch!
One of my co-workers just had a sweet baby boy in January, so she knew to bring me oyster crackers. I eat a few at a time, all day long. If one more of my students (it's always the boys) asks me "how come" I get to eat class and they don't, I'm going to scream, "As soon as you get pregnant and feel like crap 24/7 you're welcome to bring your own oyster crackers!!"
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Shocked the grandparents-to-be and upgraded doctor!
Flashback: I went shopping with Sarah Humphrey the day that this kid came into being. We spent the day at Town Center and talked about her baby that is due in early May and how excited we are and how early pregnancy really is fairly unpleasant. Sarah told me she was ready for me to start a family too so that we can share this together. I told her that Mike and I would probably be ready to start trying in January, but I really thought it would take us a long time since I've had that cyst/surgery and my cycles are WAY crazy and whatnot. Little did I know...I called her 2 weeks later to tell her that I'm pregnant! She screamed like a mad woman and I cracked up! It made me feel better to hear her get so excited! I got excited too!
Ok, so after my bad doc's appointment where she told me I wasn't pregnant, I took 2 more pregnancy tests the next 2 mornings (if you're counting, we're up to a total of 6 tests...don't judge!). They were getting darker and brighter, so I knew I wasn't crazy and I called to make an appointment with the closest OB, I didn't care who it was as long as I didn't have to go back to my doc.
In the meantime Mike and I went to my family reunion and his cousin's wedding and had to keep this secret the whole time. In the midst of my sister-in-law Brooke asking if we were ready to have the baby furniture because Ryan was graduating to a big boy bed and people asking about how my weight-loss competition with my brother was going (SO called off!). I did NOT like keeping this secret!
So we finally got to tell our parents at a lunch on Sunday 10/8. (I called Eric and told him right before, I always told him secrets first!) Mike told them that we needed to decide what his parents were going to be called because my parents are already called Grandma and Grandpa by Erica and Ryan. (This will be Mike's parents' first grandbaby.) It was quiet for a few seconds before Mike's mom finally looked at me and said, "Are you pregnant?" I nodded and she started waving her arms and screaming! My mom started crying "My baby's having a baby!" and both our dads started laughing! It was a cool moment! There were hugs all around, which took a little while!
Anyway, then I had my first doc's appointment on Monday (the 9th). He drew blood and did a sonogram. I saw this itty-bitty dark spot where the sac was growing and that was it. It was still pretty cool though! I had to go in again on Wednesday for more bloodwork. I was feeling great until I got home late Thursday night (from working at the homecoming football game!) to hear a message on our answering machine from the doctor himself saying he wanted to talk to me that night. I just about burst into tears! I knew something was wrong...doctors don't call their patients themselves! So I paged him and he called back in 2 minutes. He just wanted me to come in the next day because my bloodwork came back higher than he expected and he thought we had a chance at seeing the baby! So I went in at 10:30 thinking that this man is crazy and there is probably something wrong that he just wanted to tell me in person.
Well, we saw the baby and its heartbeat! It was insane! All I could think was, "How did that get started?" I mean seriously, how does a heart just start beating? My doc sighed and said, "Yeah, tell me there isn't a God!"
So now I completely adore my doc. He even printed out a pic of the sonogram for me complete with pink, blue and yellow border and a sweet poem below! (Click the link to see it. The baby is between the 2 asterisks.)
I have another appointment on the 30th, so I'm taking the whole day off to enjoy it!
Ok, so after my bad doc's appointment where she told me I wasn't pregnant, I took 2 more pregnancy tests the next 2 mornings (if you're counting, we're up to a total of 6 tests...don't judge!). They were getting darker and brighter, so I knew I wasn't crazy and I called to make an appointment with the closest OB, I didn't care who it was as long as I didn't have to go back to my doc.
In the meantime Mike and I went to my family reunion and his cousin's wedding and had to keep this secret the whole time. In the midst of my sister-in-law Brooke asking if we were ready to have the baby furniture because Ryan was graduating to a big boy bed and people asking about how my weight-loss competition with my brother was going (SO called off!). I did NOT like keeping this secret!
So we finally got to tell our parents at a lunch on Sunday 10/8. (I called Eric and told him right before, I always told him secrets first!) Mike told them that we needed to decide what his parents were going to be called because my parents are already called Grandma and Grandpa by Erica and Ryan. (This will be Mike's parents' first grandbaby.) It was quiet for a few seconds before Mike's mom finally looked at me and said, "Are you pregnant?" I nodded and she started waving her arms and screaming! My mom started crying "My baby's having a baby!" and both our dads started laughing! It was a cool moment! There were hugs all around, which took a little while!
Anyway, then I had my first doc's appointment on Monday (the 9th). He drew blood and did a sonogram. I saw this itty-bitty dark spot where the sac was growing and that was it. It was still pretty cool though! I had to go in again on Wednesday for more bloodwork. I was feeling great until I got home late Thursday night (from working at the homecoming football game!) to hear a message on our answering machine from the doctor himself saying he wanted to talk to me that night. I just about burst into tears! I knew something was wrong...doctors don't call their patients themselves! So I paged him and he called back in 2 minutes. He just wanted me to come in the next day because my bloodwork came back higher than he expected and he thought we had a chance at seeing the baby! So I went in at 10:30 thinking that this man is crazy and there is probably something wrong that he just wanted to tell me in person.
Well, we saw the baby and its heartbeat! It was insane! All I could think was, "How did that get started?" I mean seriously, how does a heart just start beating? My doc sighed and said, "Yeah, tell me there isn't a God!"
So now I completely adore my doc. He even printed out a pic of the sonogram for me complete with pink, blue and yellow border and a sweet poem below! (Click the link to see it. The baby is between the 2 asterisks.)
I have another appointment on the 30th, so I'm taking the whole day off to enjoy it!
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Spilling the beans!
I honestly thought that I would want to keep this a secret for a while! We weren't expecting it to happen this early (hadn't officially started trying yet) and I felt unsure that everything was going to work out. I have been pretty scared of miscarriage since the moment I got a positive test! Well, it turns out that I'm not very good at keeping my own secrets! I went to the doctor on Friday to confirm the pregnancy and who knows what else. Well, the doc that I saw was a real jerk and kept asking me how long we've been trying and I kept saying "we weren't." Eventually, I thought she was trying to make a point or something so I told her that we are happy about this, it's just a surprise. Then she said, "Well, the test is negative." Then she just sat there writing in my chart. Why did she let me go on and on and then tell me 1/2 way through the exam that it was negative? Luckily, I'm smarter than her and I didn't believe her. Afterall, I'd just taken that 3rd test that morning and it was more obvious than the previous two! I told the doc to do a blood test and she looked at me like I'm a moron. She did it after I kept telling her too. I went to get another pack of pregnancy tests on the way home, 'cause I was feeling like I was insane. I took one and it came back positive. All that worry for nothing. I felt like Rachel in the FRIENDS episode where Phoebe tells her the test is negative just to show her she wanted the baby! I was thrilled to see that 4th positive test! Yay! Robin called to ask a question about going out with Amy and Rebecca that night and I totally spilled the beans to her! Oops!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Mike and Heather are gonna have a baby!
Well, I took a home pregnancy test on Wednesday (9/27) morning. My first thought as I stared at it was, "How funny, it looks like 2 lines!" Then I put on my glasses and looked again...there were definately two lines and immediately I was embarassed! I'm 26! I'm a biology teacher! This should not have snuck up on me!
I went straight to work and didn't say a word to anyone. I just pretended that nothing was new! It wasn't easy because my Genetics students started their disorder presentations that day so I got to sit through hours of all the different things that can go wrong when sperm meets egg!
When I got home I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy, so I took another test (they come in packs of 3) and it too was positive, no question about it.
I didn't even tell Mike until I blurted it out at dinner that night. He was talking about something and I just said, "I think I'm pregnant."
He said, "Why?"
We sat there and talked about it for a while, and ended up deciding that we are lucky. That night we were a little more scared than happy, but we knew that would change eventually.
I went straight to work and didn't say a word to anyone. I just pretended that nothing was new! It wasn't easy because my Genetics students started their disorder presentations that day so I got to sit through hours of all the different things that can go wrong when sperm meets egg!
When I got home I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy, so I took another test (they come in packs of 3) and it too was positive, no question about it.
I didn't even tell Mike until I blurted it out at dinner that night. He was talking about something and I just said, "I think I'm pregnant."
He said, "Why?"
We sat there and talked about it for a while, and ended up deciding that we are lucky. That night we were a little more scared than happy, but we knew that would change eventually.
