All About Pregnancy T5: 10 Weeks

I'm 10 weeks along today, and feeling a little better everyday. 

Pregnancy highlights...

Nausea:  I started out feeling terrible - not throwing up - but wanting to morning, noon and night.  I would literally lay awake at night because my stomach bothered me so much.   In fact, there was an entire week that we ate take out everyday because I couldn't stand that lingering smell of food after cooking.  By the time that smell hung around the bedrooms for a couple hours and began to smell old-ish, it made me sick.  Enter vitamin B6 and my stomach began to improve.  Then I switched to a high quality, whole food, expensive prenatal that I took with Smooch, and I am *almost* a new woman. (That would be the New Chapter Organics Perfect Prenatal vitamin in case you're dying to know.)  Now I generally feel good most of the time unless I  - oops - wait too long to eat something then I have to run to the kitchen and eat something as quickly as I can find it lest I have to run to the bathroom instead.  Still no vomiting, so that is great. 

With Princess (#1), I threw up a lot but my stomach mostly only bothered me prior to throwing up and then would feel better the rest of the day.  My sickness was also limited to the morning.  With Smooch (#2), I never felt too terribly sick, never threw up  (minus that one time I got the stomach flu), and my queasiness was also limited to the morning hours.   With both girls, nausea was completely gone by 9 1/2 weeks.  No such luck this time.

Energy:  My energy level is MUCH better than it was at say...6 weeks, when all I could do was lay around the house.  I also credit my vitamins for the change here because I remember noticing the same difference when I began those prenatals with my pregnancy with Smooch.  I still am pretty wiped out, but now I can at least muster up the energy for an occasional outing, a craft, and some housework. 

With Princess, my energy level was the highest and with Smooch it was middle of the road compared to this time.  This is the most tired I have been.  As much as I'd like to think it is because I now have two children to look after, I have to remind myself that I cared for other babies/toddlers in our home full time when I was pregnant with Smooch. 

I think this is a simple case of "my body is two years older each time."

Cravings:  I basically hate all food and eat for mere survival and to hush my queasy stomach.  I eat all day long, and I eat a lot of terrible, no good convenience foods because I can hardly stand to prepare the food that I hate.   Don't get me wrong, once I began to eat, I sort of like the food, but it's the thought of food that I can't stand.  I am not really cooking again yet (which I hate) because I can hardly think about food long enough to meal plan.  Spicy Mexican food if one of the most tolerable foods. I've actually been putting hot sauce on random things...like egg rolls.  Once in a while I crave fruit (peaches and mangos), and on Sunday I begged my husband to grill burgers.  However, those moments are uncommon. 

With Princess, I craved citrus and more citrus...and fried food like chicken fingers.  With Smooch, I consistently craved beef, citrus, and coffee.

Aversions:   I have never hated cooked vegetables more in my entire life.  They are tolerable raw, but the mere thought of cooked veggies makes me feel ill.  Unless they're in something like a pot pie.  Oh and I can hardly stand the smell of coffee.  It's really nice that it's not a temptation for me this time because I loooove me some good coffee.  Normally. :-)  I don't even like herbal tea these days.

With Princess, I can't remember my aversions besides coffee, though there were many.  (See why I'm trying to get this stuff written down?)  With Smooch, I had almost no aversions, probably because I felt the least sick.

 

Belly:  I feel like I look huge, but people assure me that I do not.  I swelled up a bit at 5 or 6 weeks and have looked almost the same since then.  The uterus doesn't push out past the pelvic bone until week 12, so I read, so it makes sense that it's mostly a bunch of bloating and displacement of flab at this point. ;-)

By 10 weeks with Princess, I didn't even have a hint of a belly.  With Smooch, I was just beginning to pooch out the tiniest bit, so of course I took my first belly picture of that pregnancy.  

Check out the difference between Smooch's pregnancy and pregnancy T5 (as is the 5th T. family member).  Also, note my pale skin this time. Ha ha.

Weight:  I have gained pretty much nada.  Maybe a pound or two, but I fluctuate anyway, so that's hard to say.

With Princess, I had lost weight at this point from throwing up so much (I was at least 10 lbs heavier before I got pregnant with Princess than I weigh now, so that was not concerning to the dr. or to me).  With Smooch, I had gained about 5 lbs. by this point, but I had been probably too thin, and I didn't feel very sick, so I ate a ton.

Pregnancy symptoms "kicking in" earlier than ever:  Some days my hips, knees and even ankles hurt - even when I'm chiropractically in alignment.  I also walk a little funny at moments already.  Annnd I can't hold a chiropractic adjustment longer than two weeks (maybe one is more like it) but everything is loosened up so that I will often pop back into place on my own just as easily as I slide out of place.  I think it's safe to say that the friendly hormone called Relaxin is a little over-achiever and I'm nearly prepared for birth (as of about 6 weeks along).   With Princess, Relaxin loosened me up in the third trimester, and with Smooch during the second trimester.  I have read that your body kicks into high gear earlier and earlier with each subsequent child.  This is true.  And it can mean that first trimester nausea and lethargy is laced with some of the aches of later pregnancy.  Rude.

I finally fulled weaned Smooch a couple of weeks ago (she was nursing just one time before bed), and now I'm already making colostrum.  Isn't that great!?  :-/ 

All joking aside, I feel so privileged to carry this baby, and I don't take for granted one moment of our miraculous journey.  Do I feel anxious to hurry up and begin the beautiful days of second trimester during which I'm reminded how much I enjoy being pregnant?  Absolutely!  But I'm also content to be right where I'm at in this moment, soaking up as much of the good as I can, thanking God for this sweet blessing.