Monday, February 23, 2009

Welcome to the land of the Queasy.

The other day Annabelle was telling me her tummy hurt. She said "Mommy, I am going to throw up on you and then you are going to throw up on me." Greg chuckled, but mainly because the statement was irritatingly true. I am that kid, the one where if someone else got sick on the school bus, I quickly hurled right afterwards, mostly due to the odor alone. It is a bit of an unwritten rule in our house that Mommy doesn't clean up vomit of any kind, and no pet poop either, otherwise it just becomes a bigger mess for Daddy to clean up. I will admit, it is a bit ridiculous and annoying as well. Honestly, it's no fun to start gagging just because someone has blown their nose really loudly or something else just as disgusting.

With my first pg, I had a feeling that I might be pregnant when we were out with Greg's folks while they were visiting us in Las Vegas. We had taken them to see the Knight's of the Round Table show at the Excalibur. Not really top notch entertainment, but fun nonetheless. At these particular shows, you get the joy of eating like a Knight, without any utensils. On the menu for this particular evening was Cornish Game Hens, and tomato soup as an appetizer. I hate tomato soup. I hate tomato juice as well. As the soup was brought out in tureens for everyone to enjoy, I quickly passed mine over to Greg. Usually this is just fine. Well, little did I know but that simply was not going to be sufficient. My throat started to swell. My eyes started to water. I tried to to breath thru my mouth. Nothing worked. It was ugly, and gross. Greg's folks left for the airport the next morning and I was too sick to even go along for the ride. The only time after that that I recall being nauseous at all was while dining on the delightful Ruffles & Reser's Clam Dip combo, which I should have known better.

One thing that stands out in my mind about my first pg was that I had a ridiculous craving for Izzy's pizza buffet. Unfortunately we lived in Las Vegas, and there are no Izzy's there. I thought about it all of the time. The pizza, the delicious cinnamon rolls, the potato rounds. In reality, Izzy's is pretty gross. Now that we are back in the NW, one of my least favorites. But I dreamt about it daily for at least a month. I even went as far to visit their website and see if they might have a CA location that we could just drive to. No such luck.

With my 2nd pg I do not recall having any morning sickness at all. I was exhausted as I am now, but that was probably my most significant symptom.

Now on my 3rd (and hopefully successful) pg, I have been experiencing just about each and every symptom. And I foolishly thought that I would be so busy with the girls that I wouldn't even have time to notice that I wasn't feeling great. Ha! The exhaustion is hilarious. Each night I find myself asking Bella if she wouldn't mind eating dinner and then coming upstairs and watching a movie from Mommy's bed just so I can go to bed early. My poor boobs are so swollen and huge, they now start under my armpits and look more like weapons than decorations. Just sad. Don't get me started on the gas and bloating. But so far, nausea wise, it has just been generally mild. I thought that a lot of it was related to the stress of everything. I feel ok as long as I keep snacking and don't eat anything too extreme or greasy.
Until Saturday night. I had won tickets to the Nicolle Shops Portland 3rd Annual Shopping Event. Woohoo! We had a babysitter, free tickets and a night out with an open bar. Good news for Greg at least. Well the shopping event was a bust to say the least. After standing in line outside in the freezing wind, they finally opened the doors 10 minutes late. Everyone was so excited to be there. But there wasn't hardly anything to buy :-( A hat vendor, Mia Donna Diamonds, Chocolates, and a small clothing section. Needless to say, Greg downed his free drink and we hit the road to get some dinner. After arguing about where to go, we ended up at Izzy's Pizza, which while still not high on my list, is one of Greg's favorites, and it's close to the house. We sat and enjoyed our child free dining and then hit the road. I was feeling a bit queasy, but nothing horrible. Mainly the smells were offensive since my nose has been on high alert lately.

I ran outside to the car and as I was getting in, I heard it. "RRRRRIIIIIPPP"
"Did you just fart?" I asked him. "It was outside, what more do you want?" he replied. I had an answer, but all of a sudden it was all I could do to keep my mouth closed. Which was bad news, because that meant I continued to breathe in that awful odor through my nose. My stomach started to spasm, I swallowed hard, convinced I could avoid the inevitable. "Really?" Greg asked, "You need to be that dramatic?" As soon as I opened my mouth the most powerful wave of vomit came over me. I reached for the baby blankets in the back and did the best I could to contain the mess. "Do you want me to pull over?" he asked. "Just shut up will you?" was all I could muster. About 5 minutes, a bunch of tears and a huge mess later, I was done. It was awful. Not only did I have an ass whooping case of morning sickness (at 9:30pm mind you) I was the first one to throw up in the new car. A minivan if you must know.

~Christine

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Could this really be happening?

So I guess it is really for real. I got the call from the nurse, and after blood tests on Monday, and more testing on Wednesday, it looks like not only am I indeed preggers, but so far everything is growing and progessing normally. Not that I should be suprised, if there were ever going to be a time when everything goes fine, this would be the time right? When I have a 4 yr old who thinks she is the center of the universe (as she should) a 6 mo old who is honestly the easiest baby ever, and I just got laid off. Of course I would get pregnant now. Greg and I have not been "safe" for about 5 years, so now would be a perfect time, right? ugh.
But honestly, as ironic and hilarious and frustrating as it is, I am really, really, really excited. Granted, trying to figure what kind of vehicle I am going to buy (and trying to figure out how to finance it while unemployed) that will hold three car seats and not be a mini van sucks, and the fact that I am going to Las Vegas in two weeks for a raging girls weekend that was originally supposed to be 3 days of drinking, hot tubbing and dancing and will now likely be eating, sleeping and complaining about my sore boobs is kind of a bummer; but overall I am really stoked. I thought that this could never happened. I thought that my body had betrayed me. I made peace with the fact that people would never come visit me in the hospital to see the new baby. I was ok that not once would I ever be able to say "No, I am not just fat, I am pregnant." But now I am! I feel absolutely blissful. Well yucky and blissful. But thrilled nonetheless. I suppose after two miscarriages I should be more conservative. After all, there is still the risk of something going wrong. But I cannot think that way. I have to be positive, and let my mind run 90 miles a minute. What name will we use? How can I decorate the nursery (hilarious since Tessa still doesn't even have curtains)? Will I be one of those giant pregnant women who can only wear Birks after 7 months?
So, as many times as I have cussed at God in the last week, wondering why He finds it so amusing to mess with MY LIFE over and over again, now that it has been confirmed, and looks like everything is going well, I find myself, as nonreligious as I am, thanking Him, and praying, praying, praying for a healthy baby. Even if it does mean driving a mini van.
~~~Christine