Meeting the consultant, kinda.

This did NOT go as well as I'd hoped. It started off well with Mark and I actually finding a parking space at the hospital, (No easy feat.) which was followed by a very short wait. However, that's where the goodness ended. The midwife who walks in is none other than "Allison." She was the surly midwife who showed us around the hospital in Paisley, basically scoffed at questions and generally looked like she was having a bad year.

We went into the little check-up room and she asked me a few questions even though she didn't seem to care what the answers were. Since yesterday I've been getting really intense pelvic pain on one side and it's been making it hard to walk so I definitely wanted to ask someone about it. She shrugged it off saying it was ligament pain. I tried to explain that I know what ligament pain feels like and that this felt completely different. She obviously wasn't going to listen. I'm just a dumb patient who doesn't know anything. When I told her I'd been able to feel the baby moving occasionally she rolled her eyes at me and said it's far too early for that. (Can you believe her? Rudest midwife ever!) After she took my blood pressure, without explaining it to me at all or even saying, "that's okay then." She said she'd pop outside to see if she could find a doctor. A doctor?? A doctor? What happened to the Dr. Ellison that my appointment was scheduled with? No one ever explained where Dr. Ellison was.

The doctor who came in was actually quite nice. At first I was worried because she asked me why I was here and when I said that it was because I had hypothyroidism, she said "ah, overactive thyroid." Um no. Under. It was only when I told her my medication that she looked up at me and said.. "Oh you mean under active." Ahem. That IS what I said. She asked me most of the same questions the midwife had and despite the fact that mean midwife was still standing there I decided to voice my concerns all over again. Mark says I probably teed the midwife off even more doing that but I didn't care. I wanted someone to actually listen to me. The doctor was much nicer when I told her about the pain. She thinks it's just muscle related, but did tell me to see my GP or go into A&E if it gets worse or I get any swelling.

Here comes the bit I was waiting for- time to listen for baby's heartbeat! Doctor is writing something in my notes and midwife pulls out the doppler. She attempts to find the heartbeat but is just getting a lot of static. After about a minute she asks me if I had just put lotion on my belly. Umm a few hours ago. That convinces her. It's all my fault, the lotion is causing interference. uh huh.. Depsite it being all my fault she goes to get a new machine anyway. While she's struggling to find the heartbeat the nice doctor suggests that we just go next door and do a scan. Yaay that would be awesome! Alas.. mean midwife makes an interception. She frowns at the doctor and says "Someone's in there." Like we wouldn't have happily waited to be able to see baby again. Allison decides that she's found something that sounds like a heartbeat to her. She holds it up towards my ear but all I'm hearing is static. She does try to reassure me at one point and says, "I do hear baby moving around." Apparently this is enough for her and we're done. :( I was really looking forward to being able to hear the heartbeat and she couldn't bear to spend 10 minutes with me? Mark says I need to learn to speak up a bit in these situations.

It's all over quicker than any of my appointments thus far. I'm so glad Mark had the day off and didn't have to miss work to take me. Midwife hands me the hospital's folder of my notes and tells me to take it to the receptionist who will make a 28 week appointment for me. We wander back to reception but there's no receptionist so I flick through my notes. They are MY notes after all. Uh oh. Allison comes in and sees me looking at my notes. She actually takes them out of my hands and puts them on the receptionist's desk and says. "We'll put this over here so she can see it." The nerve! They're MY notes lady. I felt like picking them right back up but of course I'm not that brave.

So I have another appointment to see Dr. Ellison on November 23rd, but who knows if she'll be there then either. Hopefully 'Allison the evil' won't be there when I go back for my 20 week scan... and that just maybe she'll be on holiday in February when it's time to actually have the baby!

Evil bubbles of pain!

Managed to go 9 whole days without throwing up! Can you believe it!? I was so excited.. up until the point where I threw up. :) I've still been queasy a lot of the time but it's definitely starting to get to a more bearable level.

Okay and now onto the subject of trapped wind aka. I'VE BEEN BRUTALLY SHOT IN THE GUT BUT CAN'T SEEM TO DIE. Yes. You read that right. That's what I wrote. So, because I don't have the most health conscious diet going my pregnancy-slowed digestive tract decides that pain is the order of the day. It had only happened twice, after cheesy burritos (obviously my own fault) and after some homemade macaroni and cheese, (I'm sure Mom will blame it on some blood type A aversion to cheddar or something) but Thursday night we had fajitas. Simple, healthy, relatively good for you fajitas. The next morning at 6am I woke up with a dull ache in my stomach. "Ah gas." I know this feeling. It's going to hurt for a bit but it'll pass and I'll be fine. Not SO! about 10 minutes later it had progressed to a non-dull ache which steadily increased in pain as the minutes ticked by. By 6:30 I was writhing around, throwing myself to the floor, stumbling around. Basically looking like someone who had completely lost control of their body. I hadn't woken Mark up because I knew there wasn't anything he could do and didn't want to worry him, but by this point the pain was freaking me out and he had to be woken. (Poor guy was subsequently woken by my death moans of pain.) I can honestly say this was the most painful thing I have experienced, EVER. It surpasses having my tonsils out. That's how bad this was. Eventually I was able to breathe again and Mark didn't have to call the ER. Yes. I'm alive and I'm okay now.

So later that day I made a point to research how to make this go away quicker if, heaven forbid, it ever happens again. Chamomile tea apparently should help. Mark's insisting we get some chemical strength tablets from the store as well. I'm not arguing.

Morbid that I am, one thought that popped in my head while I was struggling to breathe was... "I bet this is what being shot feels like, except being shot probably doesn't hurt as much because you're losing blood and eventually you pass out." :D

Tomorrow we're spending the day at the in-laws so we can see everybody before they scamper off on a lovely little holiday to France. (If trains weren't so expensive we'd be going too!) Should be fun. They're cooking for me and I don't have to move. :)

We meet the consultant (aka. actual doctor) on Monday so I'm sure I'll have more interesting and less morbid things to chat about then.

Take care!

16 Weeks!

Okay so ignore the strange look on my face.. my nose or my hair or whatnot looked strange in all the others. Oddly enough the bump looks smallest in this one. With the magic of the crop tool my face is gone in the second one but you get a better view of the bump. I may not look huge but I feel huge.



Baby was doing some weird stuff this morning. When I woke up my stomach looked very odd. There was a large lump on one side and nothing on the other. I poked a bit at it and the left side didn't feel hard at all but the right side felt like a brick. Baby had smooshed itself completely over to one side! It was a bit disconcerting to say the least! Mark asked if I had broken the baby. I assured him that it was normal. It is normal right?

Okay I'm starving, Mark's starving, time to go forage in the kitchen for food. :)

Last week

Sorry I haven't written in a while, the start to last week was really rough. Here, I'll do a flashback... *think warbly lines*

Monday morning I had an appointment to get some blood taken to get my thyroid levels finally tested. (I know they took blood at the scan appointment to check my levels, but when I called for the results the receptionist told me the paperwork from the lab stated that no blood had been provided with the sample... or something odd like that. So someone out there in Greenock is trying to clone me.. erm or just very absent minded. I wasn't thrilled - to say the least, considering how complicated it was to get the last sample of blood from me, not to mention that I really wanted these levels checked WEEKS ago. I think I've mentioned all this but am repeating myself cause I can't remember for sure.) Moving on... I booked in at the treatment centre at my health centre have the blood taken. The nurses on staff pretty much take blood day in and day out so I was hoping they'd be better at it than the practice nurse. When I explained to her that they'd lost my last blood after it was so hard to get it in the first place, she decided it would probably be best if I was laying down. Eureka! Success! and on the first jab too. I was impressed. Treatment room for the win. I also managed to finally have someone take a sample to test for toxoplasmosis too. Finally that's all sorted. This is where it takes a downward turn.

I was feeling a normal level of nausea but it always gets worse if I haven't had enough sleep and waking up at 7:30am to get to my appointment was definitely too early for me and baby. We left the health centre and were in the car less than 2 minutes when that horrible, overwhelming need to throw-up hit me. I fluttered my hands, whimpered, whined and generally looked like a dork but I couldn't make it go away. The little paper bag I've had stashed on the floorboard since I found out I was pregnant was going to finally get its big day. I freaked. I did NOT want to throw-up in the car, who cares if I had a bag? It's still horrible and Mark was right there. Ugh. Yes. I threw up in the car. *sigh* I will have nightmares forever. Mark had to immediately stop because while it was all in a bag, said bag was paper and no way was it going to hold. So me and my bag got out of the car and walked along the road in the rain to find a bin. Get back in car, head home. Lay in bathroom for 10 minutes before my stomach decides that it's not finished with me yet. This goes on intermittently for the next hour. I feel like dying. Finally I fall asleep again. Wake up around 4pm. Eat lunch. Lunch laughs at me and goes to join breakfast.

Tuesday: Another early appointment. This time me and Mark have an appointment at the dentist. Dentist is lazy. He's supposed to do a full scale and polish. He de-scales all the teeth but then only does the brushing bit on the top teeth. Lame. Good thing I'm pregnant and not paying for it or I'd be really angry. I have horrible pregnancy gums though. When he's through with me I look like a vampire after a big meal. He laughs and says it's just my gums having an exaggerated response to plaque because of the new hormones and that it will all go back to normal after I give birth. We get back in the car to head home.. I think I'm going to be okay. Then it hits again. This time though (after much yelling from me at the other traffic for not moving) I make it home before Mt.St.Becky explodes again. More sleeping. More being sick. Life is fun.

I spend the rest of the day in a queasy haze between asleep and moaning. At midnight Mom calls... never a good sign. My parents had taken Indiana to the vet to get him a check-up. He'd only been home a day, but was having trouble walking and his breathing was incredibly laboured. They were hoping to get him on some pain medication but the vet found a whole host of things wrong with the poor guy. Not only did he have multiple tumours, arthritis, larynx problems but cancer as well. The prognosis wasn't good and the vet advised putting him down. It was hard on everyone. I can say that my raging hormones did not make it easy on me but it must have been incredibly hard for my parents. Having him home for only a day before they were forced to make the hardest decision a pet owner ever has to make. At least I was able to see him and talk to him (via Skype) one last time. I want to say that it would have been easier if he had never come home again... but just the thought breaks my heart and I wouldn't have given up that last day for anything. Now we have all three of my beautiful labs together again and my parents are planning to bury their ashes next time I can make it home. For the next few days whenever I tried to tell anyone what had happened I burst into tears. I'm going to miss that puppypotamoose so much. It's the end of an era. I can't believe our labs are all gone.

I'll catch you up with the rest of week and baby baking process later.

It's ALIVE!!

Baby Meatball is making his presence known!! I wasn't expecting to feel any movement till closer to 17 weeks and since today is just 14+6 I was a bit surprised. (What am I saying, I was completely shocked!)

It was the middle of the night and I woke up feeling a bit strange, definitely nothing new there. At first I thought my belly was just making the traditional, "feed me" or "I'm digesting a cow" kind of noises, but then I realized there was definitely something different going on. My lower ab area would start to feel really heavy and then there was some swooshing. Like something was rolling around. I discounted it and went back to sleep, then I woke up again with the same feeling. Someone was definitely moving around down there. The house was quiet, I was quiet,.. so I laid there for ages and tracked it. The heavy feeling would disappear and the come back immediately before the swooshing feeling. Made me wonder if the little one was doing back-flips. The next time I woke up it was around 9:30 so I figured I could wake Mark up and tell him. He was definitely excited. I told him not to get his hopes up though because I was only feeling it on the inside, I wasn't making anything out with my hands. But I decided that if he laid his head on my belly he might be able to hear a swishing noise when the baby moved. It worked!! He heard the swishing! and then amazing enough he said it felt like tiny faint kicks!

For being so early on this baby must be HUGE! Hopefully the growth will slow down to a normal speed and I'm not faced with the prospect of a 13 lb baby or anything crazy like that.

So excited!! It was amazing to feel the little one moving around and know that it's still there! I'm still feeling queasy all day but it seems a bit less intense.

I need a hug.

Ugh. Today has been bad. Okay well, yesterday AND today have been bad. As soon as I think things are getting better, they get worse. It was just the residual effects from the magic pills that kept me feeling okay on Tuesday. The wretchedness is back with a vengeance. It's worse than before. Nothing I'm eating is staying down. Well, I take that back. I had a granola bar at 7:30am when I got up with Mark but went back to sleep afterwards for a few more hours, so that stayed down. Can't exactly vomit if you're asleep now can you! :) I should just sleep all the time.

Mark talked to a few of his friends who have kids and they've all said that their wives didn't stop feeling ill until 16 weeks... (so why did so many people tell me that it would go away at 3 months?) So the countdown starts again. 1 week and 4 days then it'll magically disappear. Right?

and now the world knows!

You will all be thrilled to hear that my allergies have calmed down again. I seriously have no idea what it could be. (Well I guess it could just be an overdose of cat hair - but you'd think if it was that, with my housekeeping skills, I'd be suffering all the time.) Either way I'm just happy they've disappeared again for a while. :)

Mark and I had another wedding to attend this past weekend. You can really tell that we're getting to be a certain age now because this was our third wedding of the year and before now I'd only ever been to two weddings, mine and Maggie's! I took my magic prescription pills and while the morning we were supposed to leave for the wedding was horrible the rest of the weekend was actually bearable! As long as I had something to munch on and could sit down every 5 minutes or so I was okay. It was a lovely wedding reception AND we managed to squeeze in some quality time with some friends we rarely get to see anymore. PLUS I got to visit another castle. Always a plus.

So today's big news is that I've finally announced the pregnancy to my Facebook world. There's been a lot of great replies and it thrills me to death that I have so many friends who are interested and care despite how bad I am at keeping in touch! So it's official! The world now knows about the growing meatball, which is a good thing but otherwise people would just start thinking that I'd eaten a LOT of meatballs. Yes. The bump is starting to become a tad obvious.

Oh and more blood-taking issues have arisen. Some of the bloodwork that they were supposed to take at 10 weeks but couldn't and wound up taking at 12 weeks didn't actually make it to the lab. I have no idea what happened. I called my GP today to ask about my thyroid function results and the receptionist kindly informed me that the paperwork they got back from the lab said "sample not received" so apparently, the little vial of blood she was supposed to put in the little envelope bit of paper never arrived. Which means... yes. More blood needed. I have an appointment bright and early Monday morning to get my thyroid checked AND the toxoplasmosis test that I've been wanting to get since I found out I was pregnant. Hopefully all my blood winds up in the right place this time. Then Tuesday morning it's off to the dentist.

Morning sickness has been considerably kinder today, especially taking into account how abysmal the end of last week was. I managed to do two loads of laundry, make dinner, AND take a bath. Can you believe it? No, me neither. ;)

Allergies..

I was reading over my last post and the amount of word repetition, inverted word order, or instances of just plain using the wrong word was incredible! I really should try re-reading these things first. Well at least I explained that I was exhausted right? I use that as justification for my less than stellar literary attempt.

Not to much change in my morning sickness the past few days except that it seems to be a little tamer during the day and more intense at night. Morning sickness my foot! I've never seen anything so inappropriately named.

When we first decided that we'd try this baby thing out my biggest concern for the following nine months was my allergies. I'm not exactly sure what I'm allergic too. I'm pretty sure it's a mix of dust mites, cat hair and mold. My doctor prescribed me some lovely tablets that totally did the trick. My head wasn't even stuffy when I was trying to fall asleep. But he most vehemently explained that I would not be allowed to take these pills while pregnant and that actually, I should just go ahead and stop right now if we were trying. My thoughts = "Eegads!! I won't be able to breathe for 9 months and we'll have to buy stock in Kleenex!" Long story short, I had apparently developed a bit of a dependency on the allergy pills and the longer I took them the harder it was to stop. I could go three days before it got so bad that I needed to take another one... but magically one day (this was before I even got pregnant) I managed to get through an entire week without taking a pill and suddenly everything was okay. Don't get me wrong.. that was one HORRIBLE week. But afterwards I was fine. So strange.. like withdrawal or something. (Okay that was a lot of back story just to get to the next sentence.) 2 days ago my allergies have fired back up and I have no idea why. I've had no issues at all for a good 2 months and now they resurface? How is that fair? Isn't morning sickness enough?

I'm going to try burning the sheets tomorrow (ahem, I mean washing them at the hottest temperature my weak washing machine can handle) and hopefully that will help a bit. It's always worse when I'm laying in bed so I'm thinking the cat invited some friends over and had a party on my pillow case.. or it's MardiGras for dust mites. Either way something needs to be rectified here.

I've made it 13 weeks! Can you believe it? I was sure my body would have self-destructed by now leaving an oddly colored pile of goo on the living room floor.

Oh and my super happy fact of they day? (because obviously there's been a fact of the day before now) Indiana is moving home!! I can't wait to see him again and am thrilled to bits that my baby is going to be able to meet my puppy one day.