A Proper Announcement, and FAQs

[abracanabra]

I've told enough people face-to-face now, I suppose I should make a proper announcement: I'm pregnant!

How pregnant? 12 weeks.

When will there be a baby? If all goes well, August 2nd.

Is it a boy or a girl? Too early to tell. And yes, we will find out early, because I am sooo not good at delayed gratification. My parents always let me open my presents Christmas Eve.

Was it planned? Yes! My husband and I have been trying for about a year (as soon as I was off the narcotic painkillers after knee surgery). After one misfire, hopefully this one will be sticking around.

Uh, what can't you eat/drink again? It's a long list. Soft cheeses, including goat cheese etc. Cold cuts. Caffeine. Booze (duh). Chamomile tea. Tofu. Runny eggs. Sushi. More than minimal amounts of properly cooked fish. Buffet food. I'm avoiding canned foods because of the BPA thing. And I have particularly severe food aversions for garlic and red sauce.

Are you showing yet? Not really. My girth has widened, but I don't have a noticeable bump. I'm still wearing pre-pregnancy jeans, though I can't fit in one pair anymore and another pair is more comfortable unbuttoned. This despite me actually having lost a couple of pounds.

Are you going to keep working afterward? It's not a good financial option for us. Quality childcare in Minnesota is expensive, and my irregular work hours mean that I don't make much more money than it would cost. Since neither Phil nor I have family in the area, "Grandma daycare" isn't an option. But hopefully I will still be able to get the occasional work-from-home project to do, and some weekend hours if needed. Money will be very tight, but we should be able to scrape by.

How is the baby? Although I had an early ultrasound to make sure it was not ectopic, all you could see is a dot. Next week, we're getting the first "it looks like a proto-human" ultrasound done (this is also where they test for Trisomy 18 and Down's Syndrome, so fingers crossed for a healthy result). Yesterday, I had my first "normal" doctor's appointment, and there was listening to the heartbeat, which was small and fast like a bird's.

How are you? Feeling semi-human for the first time in two months. In the beginning, I was puking up to three times a day and was basically constantly nauseous. (For reference, usually if you're puking four times a day, they hospitalize you.) Then the doctor got me on extra B-6, I figured I needed to eat every 1 1/2 - 2 hours, and it got better. I was only puking once or twice a day, with a couple of spells of extreme nausea, all-day background queasiness, and extreme fatigue. I want to smack whoever called it "morning" sickness. They should have called it "evil, debilitating all-day vomiting and exhaustion." I still have pretty extreme food aversions, but the nausea is receding.

It's only in the last couple of days, as I reach the timing milestone where the nausea usually eases off, that I've felt well enough to do basic things like cooking dinner (while wearing nose-plugs), folding laundry, and sitting at my computer desk.

I've been doing nothing for the last couple of months. The morning sickness laid me out flat, especially when combined with a nasty and prolonged cold that my weakened immune system couldn't fight off. Fortunately, there wasn't work at my day job during this time--I don't think I could have gone. Though it means we're stony-broke. Most of my time has been spent on the couch. My house is entirely trashed. I haven't gotten any writing done (Sorry, Circus of Brass and Bone readers!). I didn't get my market list out last month. I haven't finished my writing group critiques from last month. My Christmas letter is written, but none of the Christmas cards have been sent out yet. I did absolutely zero Christmas decorating this year (this makes me honestly very sad--I love celebrating seasonal changes and holidays). I haven't been socializing, and if I did, I probably looked quite ill. I am sorry if I missed your social event, but, well, that's why. Especially if food was involved.

Comments

[jasondwittman.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! And good luck!

[braddr.livejournal.com]

Hey.. congrats!

I'd noticed that you'd sort of dropped off the online map, but not so far that I'd gotten around to asking if you were ok (I'm overly patient sometimes).

Fingers crossed that the ooky phase of the pregnancy is indeed passing and into the glowey happy phase.

[aamcnamara.livejournal.com]

Congratulations and best wishes!

[misslynx.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Now that's a project that's worth delaying Circus of Brass and Bone for... :-)

[marydell.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Hurrah!

[aliseadae]

Congratulations!

[tesla-aldrich.livejournal.com]

We're SOOOOOO happy for you two! (Also sorry that you have to deal with what sounds like truly horrible "morning" sickness.)

[(Anonymous)]

Glad you are finally starting to feel better, hopefully it will continue until you can cook without the nose plugs! For me that came around week 15, but I wasn't feeling at all better until week 14 so you have a head start on me there. (-;

Next question is of course, "Will you post ultrasound pics? Please!!!" and how many are you expceting to get during this pregnancy? It seems like each Dr is different and of course your history plays a role too. With my last pg I got two, one at 18 weeks and a second at 28 weeks (only because the first one showed placenta previa). With this one I got an early one at 8 weeks due to my previous loss, and another because we asked for it at about 20 weeks. The first was ordered by my family practice Doc. Since we are with midwives this time around we wouldn't have necesarily had any but I really wanted one (also bad at the delayed gratification thing) so the midwives said we could have the one.

Anyway, we are so happy for you, and every time I hear your parents talk about it their faces totally glow!

[ms-curmudge0n.livejournal.com]

Congratulations to you both! I hope the "morning" sickness lets up very very soon.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I wish you all well!

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[happy-l-devil.livejournal.com]

Waaaa, congratulations!

[bitwise.livejournal.com]

Yay! Seeing the 12 week ultrasound is super fun. Seeing it live on the screen is way cooler than the still photos show.

[fayde.livejournal.com]

Yay!!! I'm super excited! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help out.

[half-double.livejournal.com]

You forgot the most important FAQ of all:

Have you confirmed that it's a regular human baby and not tentacled eldritch spawn of Vhoorl?

We must be careful about these things.

[cjad.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I know how you feel. Well, I have a good guestimation. My wife was throwing up five times a day for the first five months. We hit the ER and they put in like 5 quarts of fluids once. Then they put her on some medicine that helped a lot. She also went through a bad adema and gained 50lbs of water weight and spent the last two months on full bedrest. So take heart that it could be worse. Hang in there and enjoy the miracle building. In the immortal words of Rosie the Riveter, 'I make babies, what do you do?'

[jongibbs.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, Abra!

I'm sure you'll make a wonderful mother :)

[careswen.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased for you guys! Baby baby!

[green-truth.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I haven't been on LJ for ages, weeks, maybe more. It is lovely to sign back in and get such a lovely piece of news. I hope that all goes well with your tests and that you continue the uptrend on feeling better yourself. =)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Congrats!

[mapache]

Congratulations! May you have a healthy child with no complications.

[gunn.livejournal.com]

Congrats and good luck! Hope the morning sickness wears off soon.

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

Woo! As I said before, good job getting knocked up. Hope the worst is well and truly over.

[wiredferret.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! I'm so happy for you and Phil! That's truly excellent.

[seabream.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!