12 weeks 5 days

Not much new here. I stopped my progesterone and del estrogen shots, spotting started before they were ever stopped, and it's been off and on, but nothing to worry about. If I can make it through the rest of the day, then the last time I threw up would be a week ago-YAY! I'm still nauseous, but it tends to be worse in the afternoons/evenings than any other time of day. I am taking the zofran whenever I start to feel "off" and most of the time, it at least takes the edge off.

This week I worked Totswap which is a huge kids consignment sale in our area. It goes to 3 locations, and I have worked 2 of the 3 this year so far, the other one I won't do because it's too far away and just not convenient for me. When you volunteer, you get earn a higher rate on the comission of your items you sell. So I usually volunteer for two 4 hour shifts to earn the higher rate. You're supposed to cancel your shift 24 hours prior to the start of the sale setup if you're going to cancel on them. So the night before-no joke, 11:15pm, I get an email from the organizers saying that they had just found out that the location for the sale this time didnt have any air conditioning. Are you kidding me? We were in the middle a heat wave earlier this week!!! And I'm already on IV fluids. I talked to the nurse who came to start my IV Wednesday morning, and he suggested I call my doc and ask them to order me an extra bag of fluids for this week since I'd pretty much be replacing what I was already losing through sweat and the heat. My OB did it, but also thought I probably shouldn't do the sale. She's right, I shouldn't have, but it was too late for me to cancel. I made it through the day fine with some really lame looking neck coolties (hey, it worked) that you soak in ice water and they plump up and keep you cool for about a half hour. I drank 2 liters of fluid in the 4 hours that I was there on Wednesday and never went to the bathroom until 2 hours after my shift was over, so I guess I was just replacing what I'd lost. I didn't feel too bad though, and I tanked up with fluids when I got home. I did the sale again yesterday and while it was still really warm in the building (about 5 degrees cooler than the day before), I didn't use the neck ties, I drank 2 liters of fluid, and I went to the bathroom twice while I was there, so I think my fluid status was pretty good. I gave myself more IV fluids last night and again today. Back to the normal routine next week.

As far as this pregnancy there are some similarities and yet some differences from my pregnancy with Jack. The smell of just about anything cooking, but particularly meat cooking still turns my stomach which was the same as my first pregnancy. My sense of smell is definitely in overdrive, and I don't remember it being like this with Jack. I mean, yes, smells bothered me with him, but I smell things now and am instantly gagging.I am definitely not as sick as I was with him which is great (throwing up 5 or 6 times a day was really overkill). I remember very early in my pregnancy with him, Taco Bell was the only thing that worked to tide my nausea over for a little while. That lasted until about 8 week and then nothing was appetizing and I couldn't even walk through a grocery store to go shopping with Archie without embarassing myself. I craved nothing else through my pregnancy with him except for sleep-it was the only time I felt decent. With this baby, for about a week, I craved Triscuits and squeeze cheese (I know), and ice cream has been a constant craving for me, but I'm careful not to overdo it. I will admit that in the beginning, I visited a local ice cream shop on an almost daily basis for ice cream. Now I haven't been there for about 3 weeks to a month, and I'm doing just fine :) I crave Fruity Pebbles and Fruit Loops for breakfast. I can tell you that I CANNOT tolerate spaghetti sauce or tomatoes. It's the strangest thing because a few weeks ago I could, and I loved tomatoes on my salad, and then the other day, it all came back up. Won't make that mistake again! I'm loving cantaloupe, grapes, and baby carrots. And this is completely random, but I noticed it on July 4th when I HAD TO HAVE IT, my favorite snowball flavor is usually Rootbeer, but all I want now is Skylite snowballs (which I usually do not much care for). Matter of fact, that snowball/ice cream place is close to the library where I have a book on hold to pick up, and I'm thinking it sounds mighty delicious!

I had an endocrinology appointment for my thyroid earlier this week. I was excited to go and be weighed (I know, goofy isn't it?) since I figured it would be a pretty consistent scale. I forgot my doc switched offices, but this is a brand new scale and it matches what my scale at home does, so total, I'm down 3 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I'm still up 9 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight with Jack, but hey. But, I'm starting to be able to eat more than one meal a day now, so I expect my weight to go back up soon. My thyroid was quiet, and he said essentially I am showing no signs of Grave's disease right now, so that's great. He did say that my TSH was a little low, but that's totally normal for even pregnant women without thyroid problems. I have to get labs done again in about a month, and my next appointment with him is in 6 weeks. He said I will probably be able to come off of my medication at that point, and I will still have to be closely monitored (even more so after delivery where he said things can get really wonky), but I will be able to be off of the medication.

I was due for an appointment with my urologist this morning, but his secretary called me this morning to cancel as he had a death in the family last night. I am rescheduled to see him next Friday morning.

Next Saturday, Archie, Jack, myself and my father are going to make the 11 hours in one day trip to visit my Grandmother for an hour. This is the one I have written about before who has really bad dementia. Last time I saw her was November, and she thought I was her neice and that my Grandfather was alive (he's been dead for 18 years). It was a really hard visit as this was the worst we'd seen her mentally. Her kidney disease is getting worse, but she's not at the point where they would think about dialysis (if she was healthy, she's not and would never be a candidate at 92 years old, but even if she was healthy, she's not that far yet to be considered from what I can gather). Every time I go up, I wonder if it will be the last time we'll see her, and it makes it really hard when I can tell she's slipping further and further away. I'm looking forward to seeing her, but not at the same time if that makes any sense.

We forgot to take a belly pic at 12 weeks, so we took one today. I will tell you that while I look pretty pregnant, most of the top part of my belly is just fat (I thought I looked pregnant before I ever really was), and whatever has been pushed out of the way and up by my growing uterus. The lower part of my belly is mostly baby with at least a layer of fat over it, LOL. My uterus is about an inch below my belly button which has me a little worried that either this kid is going to be really big, that I might have gestational diabetes (with Jack, I failed the first test and was sure I'd fail the second but didn't), or that I might have polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid). I know, I'm a little paranoid being an NICU nurse, I can't help it. I also know that your uterus gets bigger quicker with subsequent pregnancies, so maybe that's it, but I still can't help but wonder if this is normal. With Jack I wasn't up to my belly button until 20 weeks and that was normal, and now I'm 2cm below it, that's normal for an 18 week pregnant woman!!! And yes, I'm sure there is just one in there :)