Anyway, I'm 10 weeks along now. Close enough, anyway. Still no nausea, but I have had more episodes of feeling unbearably cold. My bloodwork shows normal red cell counts, so I'm not anemic. I suppose it's just my own, personal, pregnancy symptom. It isn't such a bad one, as these things go, but we spent the weekend in Williamsburg and our hotel's heater wasn't working well and it was awful.
I forgot to report on all of the things I learned at my OB visit last week. The best thing was that we got to see one of the Things move! It did a half-flip right there in front of us during the ultrasound! It was awesome. The doc says it's not totally clear which one is Thing One and which one Thing Two anymore, so I don't know which one it was that we saw move.
Despite a visible belly and my previous history of gaining a pound a week in early pregnancy, I still have not gained any weight. This is not a concern, and I'm actually quite happy about it. But I've heard that gaining 100 pounds is not unusual. That scares the crap out of me.
I had feared that I was going to have to go in for routine prenatal exams more often than every month in the beginning, but luckily, that is not necessary. What will happen is that, around 20 weeks, they'll start testing me (I think weekly) for fetal fibronectin. This is a substance that is almost always present before a woman goes into labor, so a negative result is valuable as a way to rule out the likelihood of me going into preterm labor in the next week. A positive test doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to go into labor, but if other symptoms are present, we'd take precautionary measures such as bedrest and steroid injections to help the babies' lungs develop more quickly. The situation from about 20 weeks on is going to be very fluid. I have to be prepared for bedrest, and possibly even hospital stays. I already knew this, so it's no surprise. But I am disappointed that I might not be able to go to OCON in July, when I'll be about 27 weeks along. Adam is giving a course so he's going for sure, and we'll plan for me to go, but we're going to have to be flexible.
I'm having a first trimester screening test in two weeks - it's a standard test to screen for Down's Syndrome and some other common problems. The OB actually tried to talk me out of it because the risk is so low with 29-year-old eggs, but I don't see any downside in doing the test. The false positives have been greatly reduced (and the test is done earlier) since I was pregnant with Sam. I'm going to take advantage of modern medicine!
My parents have booked the RV park nearby for the month of September, so hopefully they'll be here for the birth. Now I have to check with Grandma Mossoff about coming in October. I need coverage, people! Come visit and help me out!
My appetite has increased a bit since last week. Our trip to Williamsburg was a work thing for Adam and we were being hosted by some people - they took us out to dinner and hosted a brunch and all that kind of stuff. The first dinner was at a rec center where the kids got to play on moon bounces, and dinner was pizza. I was starving, but pizza was not going to cut it for me. I ate two pieces but didn't bother eating more. I needed real food. The best I could do was a chicken sandwich from a fast food joint afterwards. And for the brunch, we were served bagels and pastries and other breads. I had eaten a light breakfast beforehand just in case, but all that bread was just useless for my body. Again, I had to go out and get a hamburger right afterwards. It's true that I never do well with carby foods, but now it's even more intense. There's just no point at all in putting those empty calories in my body.
So that's all that's going on this week. Oh, I almost forgot. I finally took a photo for you. This was taken at 9 weeks and 1 day. It's hard to tell because I'm so fat (3 goddamn pounds for each of the 4 lost pregnancies!) but I hope you can tell that that is a pregnant belly. I'm not THAT fat. It started as a hard bump way down low, but it's already moved up so that I have a smooth, even curve from ribs to pelvis, which is very strange. Usually it remains lower and "bumpier" for longer. And I swear, it's been 5 days since this photo and I'm way bigger than this now. I'm going to get crazy-huge. I can't wait!
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