5/11/11

"How are you feeling?" is a very common question to ask a pregnant woman and I have been asked it a lot. In reality do you want to know about the puking, headaches, cramping and the horrible smells that seem to be all new in your home or office? Well, if you do I will honestly tell you how I feel. Most of the time I answer really good. 

Compared to a lot of pregnant women I have been feeling quite well. I have not vomited even once. Which is a really good thing because there is nothing I hate more in this world! If you want to see me cry find me curled up on the bathroom floor with the stomach flu. Now that's not to say that I haven't felt like I was going to. Many mornings while in the shower I was forced to make a quick exit thinking this will be the morning, but after a few sips of water and a rest on the rug I got through it. There were many days that I felt nauseous all day and didn't feel like eating anything. In fact there were a couple days I passed on dinner to have a bowl of whole grain cereal. I seemed to feel most nauseous around dinner time and I'm not sure if it was the smell of cooking or if that's just when my morning sickness really kicked in. 

Morning sickness is a very misleading name because it can really set in any time of day or all day and in some really unfortunate cases it lasts beyond the first trimester.

I remember my sister-in-law had headaches all the time when she was pregnant with my nephew Cole. I have had a few headaches, but they are a totally different kind of headache than I'm used to. I am a migraine sufferer, anyone else who gets these knows the pain you endure when you have a "headache." The nurse told me on my first visit that my migraines might get better during pregnancy or they might kick in more often. It seems that they have gotten better, but I still get headaches. The headaches I'm getting now I imagine are like a normal headache. They are uncomfortable, but not debilitating and I have no sensitivity to light or sound. I can only take extra strength Tylenol for the pain which normally doesn't work at all for my migraines and it will take the edge off these headaches. So in comparison to what I'm used to I can't complain.

I had some discomfort with cramps, but nothing like menstral cramps. It had me worried at first, but I found out it's perfectly normal. Luckily I have a ton of friends and family who have just had babies to run to with my questions.

Like most pregnant women I have a super nose right now. It turns out to be a bad thing most of the time. I can't wear perfume because it bothers me all day. Lotion is as smelly as I can get. I smell everything in the refrigerator when I open it and those smells even if nothing is going bad don't mix well. I can smell the kitchen garbage from the next room. There was one day that I couldn't even go near the kitchen without feeling sick from the smell. As soon as Josh came home I told him he needed to find that smell and get rid of it. He cleaned out the fridge, took out the garbage and bleached the sink. Luckily that did take care of it.

The most miserable thing of all is being tired all the time. I could barely stay awake for work. I had to nap every afternoon and I'd sleep for 2 hours! Then Josh would come home and we'd eat dinner and I'd fall asleep on the couch watching TV. Then I'd go to bed and sleep until my alarm when off and argue with myself over whether or not I could squeeze in one more snooze and still make it to work on time. Forget exercising! There was no way I was going to be able to carry myself to the Y for a workout. I couldn't even get myself in the next room to walk on the treadmill or to take the dogs for a walk down the street. It was awful! I'm starting to get more energy back now so I'm walking the dogs again and doing some exercises from my pregnancy book. 

What was the worst part of your pregnancy? Did you suffer from morning sickness? How bad was it and how long did it last?