6 Weeks!

Today is the last day of week 6! It isn't a milestone or anything big, but I am glad to be one more week closer to the 12 week "safe" mark. I have my first prenatal appointment set for the 2nd of October, which will be about 8 1/2 weeks in the pregnancy. I am praying everything is fine and the baby is developing on time.

I have been doing pretty good so far I think. I have only gotten really sick once, and even then I didn't throw up. I feel pretty good except for being very tired and really bloated. My diet has been really challenging. I don't really feel like eating most of time, but when I do I just want bad food. It is kinda hard to eat healthy when all I want is onion rings, lol I am still trying to eat decently though. I allow some crappy food when I really really want it, but I am trying to keep it as a treat and not an every day thing.

Being tired has made my days pretty rough. I get a lot of sleep at night, but am still very tired all day long. Little walks help some, but not for very long. I am getting at around 200% daily value of iron, so I shouldn't be anemic. It seems like I can't really do much about it, besides wait for the second trimester to fix it. It was the worst this week so far, and I am hoping it will let up a little for next week. School has been nearly impossible with how tired I've been. It isn't so fun for my girls when their teacher keeps failing asleep during school, lol Thank goodness we home school, the flexibility has been a life saver.

The bloating has made finding comfortable clothes nearly impossible. I finally got out some of my old maternity clothes to have pants that aren't really uncomfortable. It is kind of embarrassing to be wearing pants with stretchy tops when my baby is only the size of a pea, but at this point I care more about being comfortable than looking nice. I can't wait to be done with the awkward bloated stage and actually look pregnant instead of just really fat. Only a couple more months!

I tried being a part of an online forum for encouragement, but I gave up. After the 20th person posting a picture of their bloated belly at 5 weeks asking if their "baby bump" was big, I couldn't stand it anymore. I know there are some clueless people out there, but seriously, doesn't anybody do any research anymore? At 5 weeks the baby is the size of an apple seed! It isn't going to be causing any kind of bump that early. I thought it was better to just not look at the forum anymore than to become one of those angry pregnant ladies screaming "it's not your baby, you are BLOATED!" Besides, I need all that anger for when we go shopping and people are rudely standing in the middle of the isle talking for ten minutes. Just kidding of course. I've only lashed out once, and that was when I was pregnant with my first baby. Some teenage girl tried to run over me in her car at Walmart. I do believe that was the only time I have swore directly at a person, or seriously wanted to injure someone. Seriously, who doesn't stop for a very pregnant woman in a cross walk?

Speaking of being pregnant and having babies, I should get back to school with my kiddos. They aren't heartbroken to be watching Scooby Doo for a couple minutes, but it isn't exactly educational. We have a few books to read yet, and I need to do that while I can still stay awake.

BFP!!

I planned on posting after taking the pregnancy tests. I didn't think it through all that well though. I guess I was assuming it would be negative. Well, it wasn't! I am just posting now, because I wanted to inform close family before putting it up on the internet.

When I tested at 9DPO, I thought I saw a very very faint line. I honestly couldn't tell if it was a line or if I was just seeing things from staring at it so hard. At 11DPO, I got a definite line. It was still pretty light, but there was no questioning whether it was there or not. When I tested today (one day late) the test line was almost as dark as the control line. I am taking the darkening lines as a good sign.

So far I have had some symptoms, but it has been mostly being tired and brain dead. I imagine the morning sickness will kick in next week or the week after. I have had some cramping, but it feels like normal round ligament pain from stretching (zero blood so far, hooray!). I have been quite emotional as well. Yesterday I actually had tears forming because of "My Little Pony." Who cries during a children's cartoon?! (especially "My Little Pony"). I guess, if it wasn't for little things like that I wouldn't feel pregnant at all.

We are excited and are praying for a healthy baby. It will be really interesting to see if the baby is a boy or a girl and if our swaying worked or not, but mostly we are just praying for the baby to be healthy. I am feeling pretty positive about this pregnancy thus far, as does my husband. He seems confident that we will have a little boy this time, but I don't really have much feeling one way or the other yet.

I haven't changed my eating too much so far. In the past two weeks I have lost about 6 lbs of the 15 I had gained while eating the "boy diet." I am still eating pretty low carb, so no sugars or refined starches. I am still staying away from starchy vegetables and keeping my dairy cut back to just a couple servings per day. I am allowing some berries and am using almond milk to boost my calcium intake some. I am eating pretty close to 2000 calories per day, which seems pretty reasonable to me. I am also trying to eat more fats from coconut and olive oil since I have cut back on my red meat consumption. I am feeling pretty good so far, and hopefully my midwife doesn't have any issues with my diet. I don't really know what to expect from my weight. Being as heavy as I currently am, I will need to gain less than 11 lbs during the entire pregnancy (I would like to keep it the same as it is now honestly). I wouldn't be surprised if I lose some more weight, but I am not willing to eat poorly just to maintain my weight. I firmly believe that the baby and I would be better off if I lost weight while eating plenty of good food, than if I had to stuff my face with nutritionally empty food to maintain my weight. We'll see what the midwife has to say in about a month though.

My due date, using first day of last menstrual day, would be the 11th of May. I will be having my third cesarean section however, and they usually do those 2 weeks before the baby is due. I will probably be having the baby the last week of April or the end of the week before that.

Praying everything goes well, this will be our first spring baby. This is good news, because this means the baby will need fewer clothes and blankets, which will be easier on our budget. Maybe my husband will get an awesome job and money just wont be an issue by then, but really, when does that ever happen in real life? I am thankful that we won't need much for the baby besides a new car seat. We still have our old highchair, the Graco pack n play, blankets, and a few baby toys. Diapers will be the biggest expense besides the car seat (ignoring the obviously outrageous hospital bill of course). Sam's Club is going to come in super handy for buying diapers! I remember Sam's being the best place to buy diapers with the other kids, and now they have those E Values. This month they had $5 off a box of diapers (both Huggies and Pampers brands), so I'm hoping they still offer E Values like that next year.

On a last note, the season premiere of Doctor Who was awesome tonight! I totally did not see the twist at the end coming. My husband wants to go back and watch the episodes of Doctor Who that he missed, so maybe we will watch one before bed tonight. I wouldn't mind watching them again. I wouldn't mind watching the old series, but I'm not sure how to without buying them all on dvd (way too expensive to even consider right now). Netflix only has the movies/specials of the old show and not the regular series.

I probably won't post again for a few days. I hope to relax some tomorrow, then we will be back to school as usual. Hopefully I'll post before next week is over though.