Laying low

I've been keeping a low profile because I've been busy gestating!   Lily will become a big sister in mid-June.

Pregnancy is different after the first baby.  The first time around I could get home from work and collapse on the couch and have a Lean Cuisine for dinner if I ate at all - now there's an active 2 year old to take care of.  Mark's work schedule makes it more stressful since I handle the parenting solo four weeknights and all day Saturday.  He takes over on Sundays and on Monday evening so I can get a little break but many nights I'd get Lily home from daycare, throw up, cook chicken nuggets or mac & cheese for us, and then let her watch Sesame Street or Signing Time.  I'd get her in bed and then wind up on the couch where I inevitably fell asleep by 8 PM, only to be woken up when Mark got home - and then I'd be asleep in bed within a half hour!   The house's level of cleanliness was getting shameful and none of us were eating nutritious foods for a while there.   The fatigue situation is still pretty significant but is slowly improving.    I have pretty severe nausea again, actually worse than when I was pregnant with Lily.   Thankfully my OB got me on Zofran at my first prenatal visit.   It doesn't take the nausea away totally, but it does take the edge off and reduces vomiting (I went from 3+ times a day down to once and sometimes none).

I admit that I sucked at work in various degrees from around 6 weeks until, well, now.  On many occasions I abruptly left a meeting to go throw up and I dozed off at my desk more than once.  I spent numerous afternoons sitting at my desk clenching my jaw and concentrating on NOT hurling.  Once we got Zofran on board I found myself a lot more able to get work done and be productive.   I also needed to avoid spending time in the lab and at our test facility unless really necessary due to the presence of radiation sources and potentially teratogenic chemicals.   While the radiation sources are very safely shielded and I don't use the really nasty chemicals I still prefer to not even go near any of it during my first trimester.   Just like last time I haven't told anyone at the office and so it's taken some creative pawning-off of work onto others.   I've ended up calling out sick or going home early a few times because I felt so crummy.   I think some of my colleagues have become suspicious (probably since I've been in maternity pants since 10 weeks and have now started maternity tops because they're actually long enough to cover the panel).   I plan to tell my boss in the next week and then whoever finds out will find out.

Things with dates were a little weird but worked out in our favor.  I went for my first OB appointment at what we thought was 8 weeks 4 days and found out I was actually 9 weeks 2 days.   While my dates were solid, my cycle is shorter now than it used to be and I must have ovulated early because the baby was measuring big, and I wasn't going to say no to fast-forwarding five days! I had my NT scan earlier this week and the maternal fetal medicine doctor measured the kiddo right on schedule with the new due date so we're sticking with it.

Early/mid October was full of some crazy emotional stuff for us and our families.  First, Mark's dad's companion of 10+ years passed away after a hard fight with cancer.   I found out I was pregnant 10 minutes before leaving to go to her wake.   Saying goodbye to someone who had been a de facto mother-in-law and a grandmother figure to our daughter was very difficult.   At exactly 4 weeks (since LMP) my maternal grandmother passed away.   While we were not close, my parents flew to Michigan for the funeral, leaving their dog with us.  And a week after we found out about the pregnancy I developed a major infection around my dental implant which prompted a trip to the emergency dental clinic (and a call to my OB to find out what the heck was safe to do/prescribe) and several visits to my own dentist, including two weeks on pretty large doses of amoxicillin.   Because of all of the upheaval and craziness I was terrified that something would go wrong with the pregnancy - I don't know why, it just felt like we were waiting for the other shoe to drop.    Fortunately I've had no signs of a problem and have had two ultrasounds now which show everything looking great with the baby.