Week 7: Holy Cramps Batman!
My life, and specifically my body, never has “traditional” experiences, and this pregnancy is no different. Most women have morning sickness, sore boobs, exhaustion, heightened emotions, and the lucky ones get to go up a bra size or two.
Not me.
My version of “morning” sickness has been a steady state of queasiness, where nothing sounds or looks good to eat, and I’m constantly battling between being so hungry I feel like puking, and forcing myself to eat which results in feeling like puking…but no puking relief is to be found. Let’s just say my normal instagram feed of beautiful dishes and food creations leaves me feeling rather repulsed, contrary to the usual inspiration I like to glean from it.
My biggest “symptom” thus far is cramping. Man am I cramping. And yes, for your information, I mean menstrual-like cramps. But before you begin putting in your two cents about how it could be early signs of miscarriage/ectopic/tubal pregnancy, let me assure you that I’ve talked to my doctor and as for now, what I am experiencing is total normal. Lucky me.
*FYI though, in case you are curious. While cramping is normal, typically it’s when the cramping is localized to one side (indicating a tubal pregnancy), is very severe, and is accompanied by bleeding that may cause concern for a real problem.
Instead I just feel like I’m on my period 24/7, with cramps waving in and out all day, and ALL night long. Sleep has escaped me. I’ve resorted to trying to set up an elevated situation in the bed because it’s the only thing that seems to bring about some relief. Supposedly all this cramping is due to my uterus and ligaments stretching and making room for the baby or some blah. Oh, and it’s usually worse for first time mothers.
I’ll be honest, this isn’t what I was expecting when I thought about pregnancy. So many of the women I’ve known, while looking tired and maybe a little pale from hugging the porcelain throne, have in general, been happy and talked about how great they felt.
I do not feel great.
I feel like taking naps every hour or so through the day should be perfectly acceptable. That putting time in at the gym is laughable. That putting in time doing anything is laughable. I can’t get enough water, but at the same time water doesn’t really taste that good. I crave cold liquids to quench the incessant burning in my stomach. I tear up at stupid things, but I’m not emotional really. Oh, and Will has taken to calling me the “seed carrier.” Thank you darling. Thank you 😛
Rounding out this week, I finally called the doctor again about the cramps and my ultrasound appointment was moved up a couple of days. Nothing urgent or really to be concerned about, but the sooner they can ensure everything is in the right place and progressing as it should, the better.
It’s President’s Day weekend, Will had Monday off, and we took advantage of the few day break in snow to head back to Fort Collins. It was a bit different this time since alcohol was not on the menu for me. On our last visit we spent the majority of our time touring the plethora of breweries in town and hitting up the best cocktail spots. This time we took it a little easier. We still made a stop by New Belgium, and I sip tested a couple of Will’s beers, then we drove into Estes Park to see The Stanley Hotel where Stephen King wrote The Shining, and as we found out, a major filming spot for the movie Dumb and Dumber. The hotel was just gorgeous, and we thought about staying there for the night (although, it being one of America’s most haunted places didn’t really strike my fancy), but we couldn’t cancel our reservations back in Fort Collins. So after lunch at the Cascades restaurant we drove up to see the Chapel on the Rock, then made our way back into town for a nap and dinner.
We learned that I needed to be filtering the water I drink to take out the fluoride, since the baby’s teeth buds were already forming. While I did a good job of this at home, and had purchased a water bottle with a filter in it for the road, I had resorted back to drinking water from the tap at the hotel. Will put the nix on me and relegated me back to filter bottle water only. Adding that to monitoring my eats for unsafe soft cheese and properly heated lunch meats, we made it through the weekend pregnancy banned food-free 🙂
Thankfully we made the whole trip without being blasted by a surprise snowstorm. The wind was horrific, but we made it back in good time and spent Monday night relaxed on the couch. Our big appointment was the next day.
