10 weeks

Week 10!! What an eventful week! First, my bump is becoming rather undeniable (Especially after a meal). No clothes work for me: maternity clothes are too big and my pre-pregnancy clothes don't even come close to fitting. Also, my intense hunger that I used to find cute, I just find annoying now. There's no "I'm kinda hungry and maybe should think about eating soon". It's "I feel fine" straight to holding my mouth and running out of my classroom to get sick. Fortunately, there's rarely nausea associated with it, just a hunger that is deeper than I've ever experienced! I know, you're thinking "Well, Carmen, just eat more often". That is easier said than done. I am typically eating every hour and a half and am still staying htat hungry. This was an ability I would have loved to have had normally, however now, I am just tired of eating! Luckily with the snow days, I am staying more rested and grazing most of the day and am feeling better. I think that God had a lot of mercy to schedule my first trimester around snow days!

Since February 2005, I have been lactose intolerant. However, I have had a few friends that were also L. I. and were able to have dairy products again while pregnant! Lee and I decided to give it a try last week (Something I was very nervous to do). And voila! Ice cream here I come!! I couldn't believe it! (And I just finished an awesome bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream)

Tomorrow, I turn 11 weeks... just 2 more weeks until I can let myself relax a little... eventhough I'm told that my worry-free days are officially over with being a mom. My Auntie is in from Seattle and I get to see her tomorrow and it'll be her first glimpse of my bump!

Follow up visit

Last week, I had my follow-up appointment from my ultrasound. It was on a Tuesday and Lee was out of town at seminary and he had our only 4-wheel drive. Surprise surprise, another huge snow storm hit and my car wouldn't go in the snow; Bigga (my dad) to the rescue!! Dad brought his truck and picked me up and took me to my appointment in Beckley. This time, they were able to find a heartbeat with the doppler!

We also recalculated my new due date which turns out to be on my birthday, September 18. We have a home soccer game scheduled for that day... which totally could give me free reign to yell at the refs!

Some of the best news she could have given me was that I am allowed to go back on my Proactiv. Pregnancy acne is worse than puberty (or in my case, grad school). I've been back on it for a week now and it is starting to clear up again.

Love at first sight

So, we've had our first doctor's appointment which went great. (This was on 2/4 Sorry Allie, I'm a slacker) We met with the midwife for our initial appointment where they asked 1,000 questions and did a basic exam. She tried to find a heartbeat, but I was too early to be heard from the doppler. This got us a straight trip for an ultrasound! (Which you can see above) We were kind of nervous but we got there and the little one's heart was just beating a way. We were both amazed. I knew that I'd been feeling kinda blah and that a whole bunch of tests said that I was pregnant, but I don't think we completely believed it until this moment. Lee grabbed my foot and his mouth fell wide open. Most people think that we would have cried, however we just giggled like school girls. However, the ultrasound did show the baby measuring a week smaller than our original calculation. We now have the pictures posted on our fridge like it was a kindergarten school picture! So excited!

Why did I not know this??

So, I felt that when I went into this pregnancy thing, that I had had enough pregnant friends that there couldn't be anything I didn't already know about. Therefore, when I thought my nose was getting congested and when I had a nosebleed last week, that it was just something that happened. During the weekend, I was going to various pregnancy websites to tell Lee about what was going on with the little one this week. Who knew that congestion and nosebleeds were pregnancy symptoms?! Luckily, I am a champion at the neti pot and am able to get relief twice a day (A fact that hopefully will keep me off of antibiotics for ANOTHER sinus infection).

When I walked into work this morning, people started rubbing my belly randomly; I hadn't realized that my bump grew over the weekend! One of my students said "Look! You're pregnant!" haha With the entrance of my BellaBands, I now have a much larger selection of pants to wear.

The question often occurs: "How do you feel?" Compared to a few of my unfortunate friends, I feel fine. I am tired pretty much nonstop, am very hungry, and have a mild nausea most of the day. (Nothing to say that I'm sick, just enough to feel blah)

My first appointment is this Thursday. According to one website, I'm 8 1/2 weeks pregnant, one, I am 9 weeks, and another I'm 9 1/2. (All which have me at the same due date... so weird) I'm anxious just to talk a professional and figure out exactly how far along I am. Stay tuned for more details!!