Week 10: Morning sickness & other things

I went into the office yesterday for the first time since before Christmas! (Holy crap!)  I won't lie - it was tough.  I ended up leaving the house an hour late because I had morning sickness, and then I had to pull off an exit on the way there and pace around the car for a few minutes waiting to projectile vomit on the side of the road. (At least I have experience with having an audience now, haha!) Luckily my stomach settled a bit and I got back in the car and made it the rest of the way to work without incident.  I did puke once while at work but was lucky enough to make it to one of the private single bathrooms on the other end of the building so that was a silver lining I guess.  I was also EXHAUSTED by 3pm so I rescheduled my afternoon meeting for today and left early.  In all, I was at work for just 4 hours...pitiful.  It's a start though I suppose.

 
MORNING SICKNESS:
In case you are interested, I really don't have any tricks for the nausea and vomiting right now.  I ordered Sea-Bands online which are just little stretchy wristbands with a small plastic ball in them. Placed correctly, the ball hits the acupressure points in the wrist and this apparently relieves nausea.  I *think* they work some of the time...  They're really tight and sort of cut off the circulation to my hands though so I only put them on now when the nausea is starting. I've also noticed that when removing them after wearing them for more than a couple hours, the veins in my wrist look like they're about to pop so I'm not sure that's a good thing. A mere papercut would probably be the end of me.

Besides those, I also have Preggy Pop Drops which are mostly just sour candies with some other stuff in them and they seem to work okay.  I sort of wonder if just sucking on a Jolly Rancher might do the same thing though.  But they taste good (mine are sour lemon and sour raspberry) so I like them and like to pretend that they work! 

Besides those, I've been eating a lot of oyster crackers/ saltines/ dry cereal/ toast when I'm nauseous because there's no chance I'd be able to keep down anything beyond that.



CRAVINGS:
During the times I am mercifully NOT nauseous, I crave red meat. All I want is steak, hamburgers, pot roast, and more steak. Good thing I'm not a vegetarian! Me thinks I may have an iron deficiency? I also often crave cooked carrots (random!) so I've been eating a lot of those.  A few weeks ago I was obsessed with soup (especially thick stews and chowders) but now that sort of grosses me out and I want cold things.  Small cold fruit cups are delicious right now, as are fruit smoothies.  I also HAVE to eat something every 2.5 - 3 hours or my stomach gets empty and I get sick. 

Moving on...
I got my Snoogle the other day and I think I'm gonna like it! I can't really use it quite yet because it's huge and makes it very difficult to get out of the bed quickly to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but once the sickness is gone and my belly is bigger I think I'm gonna love it. It supports me in all the right places.  When I tuck it between my legs it sort of has tail which I wedged under my tailbone. SWEET RELIEF! I had no idea how good it would feel to have my tailbone supported!  Go figure.  Ah Snoogle, I love you already.

I also tried my Belly Band. Dislike. Technically it's Target's version called the BeBand.  The idea is to put this stretchy band of fabric over the top of your pants so you can still wear your regular pants even if they no longer button and it's supposed to hide that and keep them up at the same time. Uhh, no.  Instead, the BeBand just rolls down making me constantly pull and fuss with it and my pants fall down under it anyway so I end up with the band bunched around my stomach and my pants falling below it. Obnoxious.  I may end up in maternity pants sooner than I would like.

Finally (since this post is getting long):
Yesterday at work the office gossip asked me if I was pregnant.  Actually, specifically she said: "Don't be insulted okay?? Buuut...are you pregnant?", while pointing at my bloated belly. Awesome.  I didn't want anyone else at work to know until I am securely into 2nd Tri so I was NOT thrilled that she asked but I am a horrid liar and she caught me off guard so I said yes. I told her it's still early and no one knows yet so please keep her big mouth shut but I know she won't and most likely everyone will know by the time I come back into the office next week. UGH.  I am not prepared to deal with this yet.  However, my big bloated belly seems to have other plans!  There's nothing I can do to hide this sucker right now and apparently it's even more obvious than I thought.  It just wants to say hello and make itself known! I guess I will just have to embrace it and hope it turns from bloat to a legit belly bump soon. 

(Who asks that though?  What if I WASN'T pregnant and just really fat?  Um, yeah, I would have been insulted.  Hint: If you have to preface a question with "Don't be insulted, but..." then you probably shouldn't ask that question.)