10 weeks

It's been an eventful couple of weeks! We have now told our families and our close friends, so I guess all that's left is to make it 'Facebook official'. That will probably happen sometime this week. It took a while to get around everyone (I have a large family) but it was very exciting to finally share the news with everyone.

The last couple of weeks have been slightly better, with my vomiting down to a couple of days a week, instead of everyday. I have unfortunately still had nausea to deal with most of the day, with few breaks. I've still been very tired, but I'm managing to get out more. I'm still really struggling to drink enough- I've found if I have any more than a mouthful of water at a time it's making me feel sick. That makes it really hard to get through the 2 litres I'm meant to drink each day. Apart from the fact that I feel really awful if I don't drink enough, I find I have trouble with my bowels if I'm not properly hydrated. A lot of women have trouble with constipation in the first trimester, but I've found the opposite. I don't have bowel accidents very often usually, but I've found I've woken up a few times lately and had to go straight to the shower to clean up.
Another thing I've found is I'm really windy. Not fart windy, but just needing to burp a lot, which, unfortunately, is something I can't do on command. A lot of nights I'll go to bed and find I can't sleep on my back because I feel like I'm going to be sick. Most nights I just go to sleep in the recovery position! That pressure in my chest just makes me feel sick, as if I need to vomit. I've tried bubbly drinks and they do help to an extent, but mostly I've just had to wait it out. Any suggestions on dealing with this are more than welcome!!

Last week we had our first scan! It was all rather exciting. I wanted to look at Tim to see his face when he saw it, but I couldn't stop looking at the screen myself. There is definitely a baby there! And only one, which was a huge relief! This is enough of a medical circus without twins to complicate things even more. At nine weeks, it was looking like a kidney bean with the beginnings of arms and legs, which it was waving around all over the place, which was very considerate. There was a nice strong heartbeat and the lady doing the scan said everything else looks good. I sent a photo of the scan to Mum and sisters etc. Ellie's reply 'was my favourite- 'nice uterus'.

9 weeks old!

After lots of discussion about the pro's and con's of going private/public, I've decided to go public. It's such a small town it makes basically no difference for someone like me who is high risk anyway. I did find however that Dr H will be exclusively private after Christmas, so after all that drama choosing an obstetrician, I won't be seeing her anyway. The good thing is that Dr D, who was my other choice, is the head of obstetrics at the hospital, so I will mainly be dealing with her. Because it's such a small town, I would be delivering at the same hospital regardless and I think really, when you take the wheelchair into account, they will try to get me into a private room asap. Especially if they are going to admit me early, which is always a possibility. 

I definitely don't have a baby belly starting yet, but I have found with my inactivity over the past month or so, combined with my limited food options, I have a very pudgy and squishy belly. My areolas are taking over my breasts, which I didn't think had grown yet. Until I stopped into my local bras and things to just try on a few bras and came away two cup sizes bigger!! So by the time this baby arrives, I may have more boobs than belly!! 

I've been back to see my kidney doctor. My ppht has been a lot better- my nausea has meant I have only been able to eat little and often which has really helped. I've also been better at keeping my fluids up. I still want to find a medication that can help though, because I'm really not comfortable with the amount of strain it puts on my heart when I get it wrong. I left my appointment with a 24 hour blood pressure monitor to see what my blood pressure is doing overnight. The Austin hospital in Melbourne has a number of patients with similar conditions/symptoms who have an increase in blood pressure overnight, when it should actually be lower. I have a follow up appointment this week to see what the results were, other than keeping Tim and I awake all night! 

It's now 8pm, which means it's my bed time. I've been finding I need a good 11-12 hours sleep a night at the moment, or I crash out in a big way through the day. Until next time!