Appetite

I thought about food all day today. This is not that unusual, as I tend to go on these food fantasy benders, but today, it was all about trying to think of various foods that didn’t make me gag. My food observations so far:

• Sour/tart/vinegary foods seem to keep my nausea away. I had a couple of tiny cornichons the other day at brunch with my husband’s cousin and his girlfriend while we were down in LA, and I’m still thinking about it. I also downed a couple of pickles today. 
• Skim milk really hit the spot today! That was weird, as milk is not my thing. I generally only use milk for cereal, coffee, tea, and ice cream.
• Fatty things make me queasy. This was something that had almost always been true when I was younger, but as I got older, I had gotten past the queasiness to the down-and-dirty deliciousness of most fats. But now, I find that fatty, greasy things (unless in spicy or soupy form) make me really nauseated. I find breaded, fried things to be particularly off-putting. The mere thought makes me want to vomit.
• Keeping food in my mouth, whether it’s actual food-food, snacks, gum, or candy seems to keep the nausea at bay. Barely.
• It’s the worst in the mornings and about 20 minutes after a meal. I feel worse than I usually feel when I’m legitimately sick. It’s also bad when I move too quickly.

In other news, my doctor left me a message saying that the blood tests all came out clean, confirming being clear for various diseases (I’ll need to call back to figure out exactly what this list entailed), and that my rubella shots seem to be up to date (I had no idea you could tell from a blood test), but that I seem to have a bladder infection that needs to be treated right away. Ugh. So they called in a prescription of antibiotics for me, which I’ll be picking up and starting tomorrow.

I read up on it and it’s apparently not a big deal unless it travels to the kidneys, which the antibiotics should prevent. A kidney infection could mean premature delivery, so it’s important to get rid of the infection. And the antibiotics are supposed to be perfectly safe for fetuses, so hopefully everything is ok.

Back to appetizing food talk — a perfect segue from talk of bladder infections, I am sure… 😐 Anyway, tonight was delivery from a place nearby that specializes in Northern Chinese cuisine. We got some awesome handmade dumplings with a vinegary sauce, pork w/ preserved vegetables noodle soup, spicy chicken & dry-fried string beans, and pea sprouts. I think the preserved vegetables were mainly pickled mustard greens, which hit the spot with their tartness, as did the sauce on the dumplings.

I told you about the tart thing. 😐

I even contemplated at some point today, if I could chug a little vinegar. Would that be bad? Probably. But it provides relief. I honestly had not anticipated that I’d be overwhelmed by such crappy feelings during the incubation of our future baby. I had sort of smugly imagined a perfectly happy, healthy pregnancy, untainted by even the tiniest of discomfort. I have no idea why I was so pre-smug about things. What a humbling experience. Heh.

Blood!

Today, I went to a phlebotomist near my work (or, rather, my husband drove me) instead of going back to the lab near my doctor. This person stuck me within 2 minutes and got blood almost right away and sent me on my way. And she was really pleasant the whole time too. Ah, the small pleasures of interacting with nice people…

I sucked on Jolly Ranchers all day, which was strangely helpful. The dear husband unit ran out in the evening to get me some sugar-free candies and gum so I don’t rot my teeth out. It seems like the gum is helping! Good! I could live with that.

Second Doc Visit

This past weekend and some was truly full of barforama. Things moved from indigestion and heartburn to full-on nausea and vomiting. AND I’m still hungry all the time. This is a bad combo.

We saw our official doctor (as opposed to the nice nurse practitioner) today together. She answered a buttload of questions for us, as well as conducted a transvaginal ultrasound, as I believe it is called. We saw a little ultrasound pic of the fluttering heartbeat, which is truly strange. The measurement came out to 9.7mm, putting the age at 6 weeks and 6 days, and the due date at October 7th, 2009, exactly as my charting calculations had shown. Hee! She said it’s one of the rare times that the date based on conception and the date based on the size has been so dead-on.

We have to call to schedule the prenatal tests and I have to go get my blood drawn tomorrow for some of the screening tests. I hope this time they will be able to get some of my blood! I am going to a facility near my work, which had a woman that was able to draw my blood in mere moments, so I have high hopes.

I will be posting the ultrasound pics of the embryo soon. 😀

This is not a drill

Oh yes. We went to our first doctor’s visit yesterday, and we’ll be going back next week. The doctor’s test also checked out positive, and they gave us a ton of information. We’ll have to make a list of questions to ask for Tuesday, because we were kind of caught like deer in headlights yesterday. Heh.

On the drive there, I joked to the husband unit that I felt like the doctor/nurse practitioner was going to laugh hysterically at us and ask us how we could have confused a “food baby” with really being knocked up. She didn’t, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had!

Today, I am feeling like the vomit is only being held back through sheer will and my esophagus. There is a sharp burn in my chest up to my throat, and I am salivating in that “gonna vomit any second now” way that I’m familiar with from years of motion sickness. I just want to put my head down on my desk and go to sleep.

I’m totally tired, always hungry, but the more I eat, the worse my close-to-vomiting state gets, to no one’s surprise. It’s like the food is stick in my throat and my stomach is hungry because no food is reaching it. Oy. Plus, I think I’ve already gained three pounds, which is too fast, too early.