5-6 weeks - My boobs hurt

September 26^th, 5 weeks, 4 days – Have to attend a mandatory sales meeting and my patience is about lost 3 minutes in. I find my tolerance for bullshit is slim to none these days. I mostly try to grin and bare it. Feeling gross bloated so attempt to do a bit of a “Speedwalk” around the ol’ cul de sac with 2 lb weights strapped to my legs. I do this for about 2 miles then did some arm lifting programs by way of Exercise on-demand. Feel less gross/healthy for the first time in 4 weeks. Brava!

September 28^th, 5 weeks 6days – Have 2 events today and being on the phone for 4 hours has given me a headache and made me feel completely drained. Officially in the “I want to take a nap under my desk stage”. On top of a fun workday, have an hour long commute to my Komen meeting, which lasts a good hour and 45 minutes. Have dinner with GBFF and avoid any baby talk and try to hide bloat. Good times!

September 29^th, 6 weeks! I weigh about 148.2 these days.Discover that my boobs have some blue veins in them on top of the Montgomery Tubercles. <-- black and white medical drawings from the 70's are scary.

 MY BOOBS ARE CRAZY YA’LL! I’m hoping they keep increasing in size so I can feel like a real lady for the first time in my life. Well, in the boob department that is. Glenn and I go to see Fela in DC at the Shakespeare theater. Have dinner at a Thai restaurant and I miss being able to drink a glass of something with my meal. Water is so boring. The show was awesome and we don’t get home til Midnight. Clonk out at approximately 12:05. This pregnancy thing is doing wonders for my insomnia! We have crossed the first scary threshold of 6 weeks – supposedly rates are decreasing week by week of loss. I am confident that there is a lil bugger in there still sticking.

September 30^th – 6 weeks, 1 day – Friday half day-day, hooray ray! Am currently typing this at work because my brain and will has ceased to function on legitimate work oriented things approximately an hour ago after fumbling through back and forth emails with a highly impatient client. So yeah, that happened. We are headed home to Pittsburgh to see Glenn’s fam (and share the news) and to see some of my best college girlfriends (2 of which currently  have little beebees of their own). I am excited to enmesh myself in a sea of estrogen and share all this joy with the girls. I am predicting Glenn’s mom will freak out, cry, hug me really hard and probably start praising Jesus. I know she really wants a girl but I am thinking this kid is a boy. Still a blessing! The girls will also be excited – however I predict Val will yell at me for telling them so early. No matter what, I have no regrets – they’d be the same people I would share any not-so-happy news with as well. This shall be fun as some of the new mommies wanna booze and it’ll be interesting to be that sober one. I hope I don’t get completely exhausted.

4- 5 weeks pregnant -- bloated observations

16 DPO, September 19^th, (4 weeks 4 days pregnant) – Wake up very bloated, casual twinges of cramps here and there. Still excessive saliva. Boobs definitely hurting. Is it also possible that nipples have grown in length? Have been told I have porn star boobs so this is especially hilarious. Glenn states that they feel “fuller”. Randomly take temperature and it’s in the higher 98s, when usually my temp is around 97.  Obsessively reading things on the internet and trying to be really in tune with body. Read that miscarriage rate from 3-6 weeks is 10% and risk after 6 weeks is 5%.

17 DPO, September 20^th, (4 weeks 5 days) – Still very bloated, constant swallowing and thirst. Starting to feel really tired, especially after lunch time. Took a walk after dinner with Glenn to get some exercise, and it was nice to get some fresh air, if only a mile and a half. Discussed what we are going to do about football. Glenn and I agree that it’s not a good idea, limited contact or not. If I’m not even running right now like usual, I am not about to run all over the field. Plus our team is a jolly good bunch of folks who enjoy their beer on the sidelines. It is going to be ridiculously obvious. As of now I am skipping this weekend to “help out in WV”, and next weekend we will be in Pittsburgh and by then we will be at 6 weeks.

18 DPO, September 21^st (4 weeks 6 days) – Not as bloated today as yesterday, but I feel like it comes more in the afternoon? Boobs till hurting. Slept like a BRICK last night. Did some sort of introspective reading about meditating and being authentic to how you feel. Have joined some “baby boards” where every cramp, change in temp and appearance or disappearance of symptoms is documented by pregnant ladies everywhere. This and a number of friends personal stories have filled my head with negativity about the viability of a pregnancy. What I want is to feel like this baby is meant to be – it is wanted, it was conceived, and I am thankful for everything I have experienced thus far. Why be worrisome and negative until there is something to be worried about? I just feel intuition wise this is meant to be. Tomorrow will be 5 weeks – we are getting closer to the first 6 week “safety zone”. After that, 11 days until our first visit! (Approximately 7 weeks and 5 days at that time)

classy

and attractive

September 24^th – 5 weeks, 2 days – Off to a camping trip with friends. End up sharing news with majority of the crew because it’s hard to not drink autumny beers and not have a reason to. Take a hike through the woods and enjoy the fresh air. My girlfriend on the trip is  bigtime protective of me and won’t let me step over big logs or touch any fungus. Adorable. Am bigtime bloated still. Meet mom the next day for brunch on the way back home and she provides me with 3 massive baby books. Quality reading indeed!

September 25^th , 5 weeks 3 days – Sunday night, slept for about 2 hours on the couch during football, exhausted. Then of course as I always do on a Sunday after a trip, I can’t sleep for crap. Fall asleep from approximately 3:00 – 5:30AM until Glenn wakes me up because we forgot to get our car from the dealership after an oil change. Am peeved and exhausted then sleep another hour upon arriving home. Feel like I am in slow motion all day and have no common sense. Pregnancy makes me feel dimwitted. Or maybe it’s just the exhaustion. Arrive home from work and don’t even attempt to take work clothes off – sleep from 6PM until Midnight. Wake up and shower, sleep from 3-7. BALLING!

Oh look - another baby blog!

Sept 2 – Ovulated but wasn’t aware….after a week of medical issues (blood in pee, possible UTI). Had bought Ovulation strips and only on Saturday morning did it show positive. No sex during the week, just that Friday night = Night we conceived!

1DPO – Sept 3^rd, went to visit my mom in West Virginia. Mad at Glenn for leaving me during ovulation weekend. Little did we know! “I got that super sperm – it’s all, invading your fallopian tubes bein like, what’s up eggs! I’m here to party! Where’s the keg at?”

babydaddy

2-6 DPO – get terrible acne. Current weight – 147.

7DPO – September 11, flew on a plane and drank lots of wine. Got to destination at 3 AM, slept for about 2 hours, got up at 6am. Felt like HELL all day, but figured it was no sleep/slight hangover. Was shakey, dizzy and nauseous all day. Laid down for about an hour, which didn’t help. Went to dinner that night with coworker, had one drink but everything in my body said NO to it. Was exhausted, slept at 10PM

9DPO September 12^th – Tuesday. Flew home, thought “hey maybe I am actually pregnant and that’s why I feel crazy?” Made sure to eat a nice breakfast and get some OJ to stop shakes. Still felt quite nauseous. As soon as the plane landed drove to the closest Dollar Tree to stock up on cheapie pregnancy tests. Took home and peed on 2. Very very faint lines showed. I thought this must’ve been a negative until I did further research and learned a LINE is a LINE = pregnancy. Excitedly researched the internet all hours of the day/night and waited frantically for Glenn to get home from work at approximately 10PM. Brutal. Was also very hot/sweaty, had a temperature of 99.3 (beginning of implantation?) at this time. Felt crampy and like my stomach had a lot of warmth. Headaches begin. Constantly thirsty but have excessive saliva?  Glenn finally arrives home and I share the good news and we both are in shock and cautious excitement. He is exhausted and we are both just, dumbfounded and full of joy. Decided to keep POAS every day to track any changes.

holy crap guys - can you see the faintness? IT'S THERE!

10DPO September 13^th – First day back in office, completely swamped with work and catching up on emails. Terribly frustrated at the inability to further enjoy this experience, document my changes, adjust to this new life. Ongoing headache, dull at times but consistently there. Bloated feeling, warmth, twinging in lower abs/pelvic area. Ongoing gross excessive saliva. Constantly swallowing. Cease use of caffeine and fake sugar products, glass of wine with dinner out. Suprisingly easy to do.

11DPO September 14^th – Pee on more sticks, continual darkening of color. Send photos of these to Mom, and share the news. Still cautiously excited. Bloated, crampy (not like period cramps, similar but different in the same way), still having headaches. Still having excessive saliva. Call my favorite doctor ladies to make initial payment, am bummed to find out that my Gyno does not delivery babies. Am referred to 3 different doctors, one of which is on the Baltimore’s Top Doctors list and works out of GBMC, the hospital we will ultimately deliver. (She seems to have a really warm bedside presence, doesn't she?)Have first week appointment (around 8 weeks) on October 11^th. Glenn will take off work for this special occasion.

I can't figure out how to make this horizontal - note the lines, bitches

12DPO, September 15^th – Pee on more cheapie sticks, and first official REAL stick, aka we paid more than $1 for it. There is a definite plus sign and I am feeling confident! Go to an art show and dinner with a friend, exhausted. Had an interesting conversation with said (full disclosure, male) friend about women’s fertility and basic anatomy and was shocked by his ignorance about how a baby is made.. Delighted to be pregnant and able to bite my tongue.

Ma & Pa pulled out the big guns for the expensive test

13DPO, September 16^th – Bloated, exhausted. Take a night to myself to just sleep on the couch. Chill night at home with Glenn. Sleep approximately 11 hours.

14DPO September 17^th – Have a birthday dinner for a friend where a number of other folks will be drinking/notice I am not. Drink mocktails of cranberry and soda water and noone seems the wiser/assumes it’s “Glenn’s night” for beverages. Am still bloated and tired, wear a dress because I figure if I didn’t wear it then, may never get an opportunity to wear it. Am still somewhat crampy (on and off) and after standing around all night lower back hurts. Perhaps mom was right about the heels. Notice that when hugging friends goodbye my boobs hurt. Smelled something like burgers on the way to dinner that turned my stomach and gave me mouth sweats.

Thank goodness for jackets that hide bulge -- favorite girls at dinner

15DPO, September 18^th – (4 weeks 3 days pregnant!) Join babycenter.com in the May 2012 forum. Excited to hear about other people’s experiences/get support from some questions. POAS and line is darkest it’s been yet! Trying not to obsessively pee on sticks…may need to make another Dollar Tree run. Go to a clothing swap party, share news with one friend who is excited for us as she knew we were trying. Another pregnant lady is there, 6 months along and I desperately want to discuss all things baby with her but try to hold  back. Picked up some good pieces of wardrobe in the swap, realize majority of it would be too small in upcoming months. Go home and pass out on couch at 6AM – sleep til 2AM. Up from 2AM until 6AM, have very vivid weird dreams. Also dream multiple times about peeing on sticks in recent days.