My temp went up a lot at 16DPO the day after my last blog post, so even though I planned to test at 16DPO, because I did so the day before and had a darker positive line, and then got a great rise in temperature in the morning, I decided not to test that day. My temp has gone up a touch each day since then - I had my highest temp yet this morning! :) I did my last pregnancy test today and was really thrilled and relieved to see a line that, at first, looked almost as dark as the control line! It faded a bit but it's still good and dark. I took a photo of all my test sticks for prosperity (!) - the top 3 are the more sensitive tests (10 mIU) at 8, 9 and 10DPO, and the bottom set of 5 are the less sensitive (25 mIU - standard pregnancy test strength) test sticks. I tried to write the DPO on them but I only have a thick sharpie marker, lol! The numbers haven't come out too clearly therefore! Oh well! ;)
Top one is 10DPO, the evening test after saving my wee a LOT longer than I had for the morning test on the more more sensitive stick. Then 12DPO, 14DPO, 15DPO (see the difference in one day, compared with the minimal difference from 12 to 14DPO?!), and today's is at the bottom - 18DPO.
So excited and thrilled to relax a little bit more (I know, I know, there are no guarantees, but I will enjoy it for all I'm worth for as long as I have it!) and just BE pregnant!! I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant!!! Wheeeeeee! :D It just feels SO surreal, and I feel incredibly blessed to be allowed to sit here, pregnant at the age of almost 37 (it's my birthday on Thursday - hello Advanced Maternal Age!), for the seventh time! Praise the Lord, oh my soul, and let all that is within me praise His name!!! :)
Well, some newsy pregnant (eeeep!!) things:
Yesterday evening we ate late - after the boys went to bed. It was supposed to be "date night" but Neil has come down with a cold that he's picked up at work, and we were both sooooo tired. We did eat and chat, but let the more romantic side of the date night go this time! ;) Anyway, it was later than we usually eat. While I was waiting for the food to be ready, I realised I was feeling a tad queasy. I get queasy quite a lot, because I'm prone to it as an expression of anxiety, and also it's a really common symptom of IBS for me - full on nausea is more like it, often. Anyway, THIS wasn't the same type of queasy. This was suspiciously travel-sick queasy, and that can only mean morning sickness, for me. I recognised it straight away. But I was only 4 weeks and 3 days - aaaaargh!! With my first 4 babies, I could time the start of my morning sickness to the day - it ALWAYS started on the dot of 5w6d. Bizarre, but there we go! With Samuel it started a few days earlier, which threw me off! And then Elijah's started on the dot of 5 weeks, exactly. Which was "different", so I wondered if he would be a girl. But no! ;) His started earlier and ended later, but was milder, as though it was "diluted" somewhat by being spread out a bit more - funny analogy, but that's how it felt!
So I thought, SURELY not?! Surely not earlier than 5 weeks?! And what does it mean for the level of intensity that it might reach when I'm between 5 and 6 weeks (when it really starts to kick in normally)? Nervous. I felt better for eating dinner. Evenings are my worst time for morning sickness - they always have been. And morning sickness is always worse when my stomach is empty. So a touch of queasiness one evening when I hadn't eaten isn't too surprising, it just slightly unnerves me that I was barely 4 and a half weeks pregnant! I am not sure if I have had any sort of quease that early before, but I will have to double check my blogs and my chart notes to be sure.
I am trying to eat protein-rich meals and snacks this pregnancy, to hopefully see if there's any improvement on how much morning sickness I experience, and also to try and sort out these frequent spells of dizziness and lightheadedness that I've been getting since before my tests showed lines properly. I think the dizziness is a bit better, but maybe that will just clear up on its own anyway, and that's why? Anyway, I bought some trail mix, some salted cashews, and some brazil nuts. I love brazil nuts, but eating them yesterday afternoon left me feeling a bit... yacky. Not quite as far as queasy, but not far off. It seemed to stay with me into the evening and then not eating until late pushed that sensation juuuust into the realms of nausea. Hmmm...
Today I do NOT want to eat brazil nuts! I was chewing my fingers (gross habit, but yeah) just a little while ago while I was setting the laptop up to update my blog, and noticed that it was quickly making me feel a bit sick. TOTAL confirmation for me, that this is morning sickness starting. The only time ever in my life when biting my nails/fingers makes me feel sick to my stomach is when I am pregnant. Even if I am desperately needing to bite them, and I do, the nausea is right there to make me stop, as soon as I start. First trimesters are the only times I ever have nice long nails and smooth fingers, lol! I really like it (I hate being a nail-biter, but it's almost impossible to stop), and try to continue it, and I usually make it to my 3rd trimester before I cave. So anyway, yay for my nails about to get nice. Boo for nausea! ;)
On the other hand, I'm excited to be starting morning sickness because I know that it means things are going well in there with my little beany person! In fact, I announce to the general world at large much earlier than many people do, because I can't keep it to myself any longer (mainly), and also because I want the world to celebrate with me, even if I lose my treasure. Even more reason to celebrate with joy while the little one is with me! I have a bit of trepidation early on, usually because I am bleeding in some way, but also because you never know how things are going with the pregnancy, if there are no particular encouraging symptoms yet. So, I tend to announce on Facebook and to friends and family everywhere (except my grandparents...) when either I have an early scan for bleeding and get visual evidence of my dear little person, OR when I start morning sickness, which is good evidence that the baby is growing well.
But I'm not quite ready to announce yet. My idea for announcing my pregnancy is to tell the boys in some way, video them finding out, and make the video my announcement! :) I can count on my kids to be absolutely ecstatic about us having a new baby, so their excitement makes for a good announcement when it's your Nth baby in a row, close together, and many frown on that. I am trying to think of ideas for cute ways to tell them. So far my favourite idea that I've had is to make gingerbread men for us all - a large (adult) one for Neil and I, and then small ones (I have a cutter set) for all the boys, including this little baby (who needs a nickname, now I think of it! I'm sure the boys will be eager to oblige - they've been suggesting nicknames for "the next baby" for months!). I could pipe smiley faces on them all, and then each boy's initial on the tummy of each one. I want to write "October" on the baby's one, but I am not sure if I can fit that in with icing on a small gingerbread man, lol! Another idea I had was to send them a letter with clues inside, to send them on a treasure hunt round the house for more clues, until it reveals the news. Not sure how easy it would be to take a video of that though...
Anyway. I am open to ideas! :) It's so much fun that some of them are old enough now to really get creative with ways to announce to them that they will be having a new baby brother or sister in October! :)
Okay, I saved the above in draft because I was writing it mid-morning today while Elijah was napping and Neil was out at the park with the boys. Elijah woke up and so I put the laptop away, and here I am now (mid-evening) with my next opportunity to continue.
Since this morning, I have most definitely started morning sickness! Noooo mistaking it. I feel sick all the time, it's so very familiar to me. My protein snack and meal ideas are either not appealing at all, or else not helping in the least! :S Oh well! Unless they actively make me feel worse, I will persevere, because I am sure I need protein. I did have fish fingers, mashed potatoes and veg for dinner, because my children won't eat them and there were lots left over! Anyway, I felt gross starting to eat, but I felt about 90% better immediately after eating, which was wonderful! It lasted maybe 5 minutes, if that, and then the nausea came right back. It's not too horrible, it isn't nice, but I just hope it doesn't get much much worse as the next couple of weeks go by.
Today is such a huge change to yesterday! Yesterday evening I was digging into a tub of Ben and Jerry's ice-cream happily, and today just looking at the tub makes my stomach churn! Yesterday I was dutifully drinking water to get my fluids in, and today I have sipped at two glasses of water and only managed to actually finish one of them, because water makes me feel sick. This is exactly my experience with my other pregnancies, so it's not a surprise or anything. A cup of tea went down fine this afternoon though. And milk is fine. Tropicana tropical fruit juice is AWESOME. Like nectar. Mmmm.... :)
My little bean is visible to the naked eye! :) 1mm to 1.5mm in length, and has a neural groove and blood cells! Everything changes so fast at this stage. There are only 5 days until a tiny heart starts beating. Incredible.
I weighed myself today and I'm 9 stone and 7.5lbs. So that's my starting weight. Not my best starting weight ever, but never mind. Last time I'd had the "benefit" of a kidney stone and a tummy bug, so I was a whole stone (14lbs) lighter when I started my pregnancy with Elijah. Otherwise this is a pretty normal weight for me to be at 8 months postpartum, as it's still coming off at a steady rate, and hasn't finished yet! ;)
I forgot to post a conversation I had with Arthur last week, which I'd posted on Facebook - I must post things in my blogs as well that I post on Facebook. It's hard (if not impossible) to find really old updates on Facebook, whereas they're easily accessible here and saved properly for prosperity. Anyway, I'll copy and paste. Elijah is awake and crying in Neil's arms, and he's pretty clingy to me at the moment (just age 'n' stage, not so much to do with me being pregnant, I think) so I think he would prefer me to hold him if I can for a while. I have breastfed him already but he's still cross! Here's the conversation with Arthur:
"Arthur was sighing in a sad way a few minutes ago, so I asked what was wrong. This is our conversation (word for word):
A: "Mummy, Elijah is 8 months old, and it feels like I've been waiting for 8 or 9 months forEVER!"
Me: "Why?"
Arthur: "Because then a new tiny baby (flaps his arms in excitement on the word 'baby') might be growing in your tummy!"
Me: "Oh? You're looking forward to that?"
Arthur: "Oh YES! I love seeing you be pregnant! It's so exciting for us, and we love catching the updates (?!) with the scans and (flaps arms again) hearing the heartbeat and things like that. And Heather comes to visit a lot. And (strokes Elijah's little head - he's standing next to Arthur at the sofa), I love seeing the babies grow along their line - you know, see them develop and learn new things."
Isn't that lovely?! I'm so pleased and relieved and happy when he says things like that (Matthew and Nathan do too, regularly, but Arthur has been the most pestering child of the lot of them, about WHEN oh when can we have a new baby, lol!). I love it as well because he's the eldest of 6 already at the tender age of 8, and many would think he's a poor boy because of it, but here we have some nice evidence that he isn't poor at all! :)
Elijah is very cross now! Must go! Back soon! :)
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