Jan 19 2009
My Baby, the Tadpole
Awww, my little baby resembles more of an amphibious creature than my own offspring. Isn’t that just darling? Thankfully, it is much cuter than this Bullfrog Tadpole:
Well, at least a little cuter, anyway.
Six weeks of pregnancy is a magical week for me. The week I suddenly feel really freaking pregnant but still look like I simply ate too many Ho Hos. I knew it was coming. I mean, I have been pregnant twice in the past four years, it’s all pretty fresh in my memory. Still, I hoped this time I would get lucky and not have to experience the dreaded morning sickness. Alas, I am not so fortunate. I have felt a little blech a few times the past couple of weeks, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. Today, one day before I hit the 6 week pregnancy mark, I started to feel really yucky.
Morning sickness, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing it, is a very odd concept. Obviously, it doesn’t feel good to be nauseous, which makes you loathe the way you feel. At the same time, morning sickness usually means a normally progressing pregnancy, which is a reassuring thought in the early days of pregnancy.
As far as how it physically feels, that’s pretty strange too. For me, and I’m sure many would agree, the nauseous feeling of morning sickness makes you feel like you have nothing in your stomach, even if you just ate an hour before. So, your natural instinct is to put food in your stomach, anything that is appealing (which is usually pretty bland stuff like crackers). The crappy thing, is that once you put food in your stomach to alleviate the nausea, it makes you feel even more nauseous for a while. Then, God willing, your morning sickness will subside for an hour, maybe two, and the whole cycle starts up over again. It’s quite exhausting.
I have a tendency to loathe morning sickness when I’m experiencing it, but then freak out if it subsides for days on end and worry about miscarriage. Pregnancy seriously messes with your head, I tell ya.
Friday was my first prenatal checkup, the usual rundown of paperwork, medical history, blah, blah, blah. I always love it when they get to the question, “Do twins run in your family?” because I get to say (with a big stupid grin on my face), “As a matter of fact, my mom and dad are both fraternal twins, as well as my mom’s brother and sister.” I just like seeing their reaction to this little tidbit of information.
I told the OB nurse that I was concerned about my heart rate. Resting, I have a 105+BPM heart rate and it’s more than a little annoying. I will be sitting on the couch, doing absolutely nothing, and feel as though I had run a mile and sat down. It’s nuts. Anyway, she checked my pulse to make sure I was still getting enough oxygen, and I was, and then ordered up some extra blood work to check thyroid and anemia as possibilities for the increased heart rate.
When I was sitting in the blood draw chair, chatting with the Phlebotomist, the OB nurse came in holding my pregnancy test in her hand. My heart sunk, thinking she was going to tell me it was actually negative. I remembered that there was one other pee cup in the little metal cupboard and I wondered to myself if she got them mixed up.
She waved it at me, smiling, and said, “You are definitely pregnant!” and went on to tell me that if my heart rate became uncomfortable or made me anxious or short of breath, to come in as soon as possible. After the OB nurse left, the Phlebotomist looked at me, concerned. I explained to her my high heart rate issue.
“You have a boy and girl already?” she asked.
“Yep, and I have never experienced this before,” I explained.
“You know, that could very well mean twins, right?” she grinned.
“Uh huh!”
So, naturally, her next question is if twins run in my family, and naturally, I get that cheesy grin on my face again and explain my genetic history of twins. It’s a hoot watching people’s reactions, you gotta believe me.
How cool would that be?! Twins? I mean, crazy, yes. Blogging would probably be my only connection to the world for quite a while, but still, very cool. I have been told my entire life that I’m destined to have twins. It resulted in an amazing “you’d better not have sex” talk from my parents.
“Lindsay, do what you want, but if you get pregnant, you’re probably going to have twins!”
That was solid enough of an excuse to keep it in my pants for much, much longer than my female counterparts. But now, I’m cool with having twins, let’s do this!
Fortunately, I won’t have to wait long to find out. My next appointment is February 13th and they said I will be getting an ultrasound then. If it’s not twins, that is entirely okay. But if it is, Turk and I are so ready.
