wretched (and alive)
Posted: January 2, 2007 Filed under: Uncategorized 7 Comments »Baby is alive and measuring to date. All is well in my uterus. Except that my bowel was so distended it was as prominent a feature in the ultrasound as the baby.
Wes and I ate something very, very evil last night. The suspects are either lettuce or carrots – I lean toward it being the carrots, as they were pre-cut (fun waffle shapes! ack.) and we didn’t think to wash them. Wes washed the lettuce so that seems less likely.
In any case, I woke up at 4:30am sweating and cold and knowing I was going to throw up. And oh. I. did. I chalked it up to a big increase in morning sickness, since I’d been feeling bad all day. But then it just kept coming. My body seemed to be insisting, "No, I need you totally and completely EMPTY." At 8am, Wes joined me, taking turns in our single bathroom. Oh. the. joy.
I went to the OB, foolishly, because I had naturally assumed that the baby was now dead or dying from my wretching. And if it was just dying, I thought I might as well go see if we could save it. Turns out my doctor was completely unconcerned about the food poisoning (although I am to call if I can’t keep anything down for 24 hours – we are now at Hour 10 or so) but did a speedy ultrasound once I told her the deal with my last first OB appointment and what a scary day this was for me. She was very pleasant and kind and good and there were handouts. I like a handout. She supported all our testing plans and gave me the info to schedule the nuchal in roughly 4 weeks.
And I don’t see her again for 4 weeks.
Gulp.
I had planned to push for a visit in 2 weeks but frankly it was all I could do not to throw up on her. Wes wasn’t with me (do you know how daring that was? just chalk it up to how very resigned I was to dead baby sonogram. well, and also that he was still throwing up when I left.) and I just didn’t have it in me to tantrum. She just kept saying how perfect the little thing was and how it was just doing perfectly and I was lulled along. Who knows – maybe I will last. I plan to get a Doppler by 9 or 10 weeks so maybe that will be enough. If I start to have a breakdown, I definitely felt like I could call her and let her know. Wes liked that she is pregnant and had an elective amnio as we plan to. Oh – and she is only taking 2 weeks off for maternity leave in March so I won’t have to see too much of the weight crazy one. Although this doctor also told me to watch the weight, but I liked how she put it – I am to eat whatever I want and whatever I can until 15 weeks. After that, we’ll adjust. So that’s fine.
OK. Must go back to slow, slow rehydrating. All the water I managed to drink in the cab on the way home just came right back up the second I walked in the door. Happy new year.
oh good good good that the baby is well!
did you know that everyone and her brother has been having a terrible stomach virus in the tristate area? almost everyone i know has had it. just be aware that it may be that… . let me know if you need anything.
Yay for the healthy baby! This is great news.
I’m so sorry about the food poisoning/virus/or whatever. That’s just torture.
the throwing up sounds horrible but the ultrasound was nice news.
hope you can rehydrate and get some electrolytes into you soon.
ps- are you trying gatorade? it’t the only thing i can even vaguely keep down ever- in small, small sips.
Eeeeew. Sounds awful. Glad your little alien is looking good. What are you calling it these days? At least the 1st OB hurdle is over. Yeah, and hydrate with something with electrolytes. Smart Water is good if you can’t do Vitamin Water (which is better than Gatorade).
GREAT news! Not the food poisoning, that is. Sorry about all that throwing up. I hope you are feeling better and keeping things down. Nothing is worse than throwing up. But great news about the baby and the doctor and the no-weight-nag thing and the testing support! Four weeks will the nuchal! Awesome! That is a nice long look at the little bean on the sonogram while they do all the measuring and you get the fold measurement before you leave! Very reassuring. The four-weeks-till-the-next-appt-thing sucks. I just went through a long haul myself, and I must admit the time does fly. Plus, like you said, if you are at week 3 and can’t take it, just call and go in.
I’m so glad the u/s was great. I am so, so sorry you are violently ill. (Doppel: so was I last December. I have never thrown up so forcefully in my life. I was terrified I’d hurt Harpo. I *did* puke so hard I burst blood vessels in my neck and face. Repulsive.)
As for neutral – do the best you can. It sounds to me like you are doing pretty damn well. I drifted between various states including terror, apathy, numbness, despair, hope, pessimism, jealousy towards first-time pregnancies that were progressing without incident, occasional excitement and many other emiotions for AT LEAST the first half of the pregnancy-that-produced-Natalie. And it didn’t help that one of my major coping mechanisms during the molar mess was reading infertility and loss blogs – it meant that the second time I knew so many new ways things could go wrong! Even after the 20 week ultrasound I still had moments where I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Also, I think you know this, but during the first pregnancy I tried really hard to eat well and stayed off caffeine. The next go-round my attitude was: fat lot of good THAT did; I’m going to eat what I want! Including daily libations from the Fount of Cola. That caffeine was the only way I made it through work a lot of days, and it appears not to have harmed Natalie in any discernable way. (I know, I know, anecdotes are not data. But.)
Finally, on a related note, my advice regarding weight gain and doctors is: in one ear and out the other. If these docs meet your needs on many other counts, try to let the weight advice/lecturing slide right on by you. You know, the way it is with the kids when you give detailed directions that have ALL the information they need, and the first thing they do is say, “How do you_________?”
Hope you feel better soon.