7 Weeks

You can find Shane's seven week pregnant post here.

See this poor, lonely blueberry? I snatched this blueberry from the jaws of death (literally, Shane was about to eat it) and it was the very last one. Why did I have to save this blueberry? To show you the size of Baby this week! This week Baby is the size of a blueberry, or about half an inch. 

This week Baby is growing its hands and feet, and will double in size. My uterus has also doubled in size in the past seven weeks!

Pretty neat, huh?! With this pregnancy I started the nausea at about 5 1/2 weeks and it was pretty extreme. The past few days I have not had much nausea at all, although the thought of food is still not appealing.  With Shane my nausea didn't start until about week seven so I was a little earlier this time, and week eight with Shane was when I started the fainting business so I'm wondering when that will happen! As with Shane, I eat a few bites of my meal and feel stuffed to the gills full but am starved, stomach growling, just a short time later. I'm trying to keep my eating really healthy to avoid gestational diabetes or excessive weight gain, but sometimes the only thing that sounds edible is chicken noodle soup! Or fruit. I find myself wanting fruit a lot, and I excuse eating it by telling myself "it's not processed sugar!"  I haven't had any heartburn yet and I had that with Shane before I even knew I was pregnant. The other symptom I had with Shane before I got a positive HPT was an extremely sore chest which only got worse throughout the first tri and this time around I'm just a little tender. I attribute the lack of pain to breastfeeding!

Exhaustion is definitely the hardest thing I'm dealing with at the moment. I have a very energetic toddler and quite a bit of schoolwork plus a house and laundry and cooking and dishes and and and.... Needless to say, I'm very tired pretty much always. I'm gone 4 days a week minimum for school and so I feel like it's really hard to keep on top of everything. I will admit, the house cleaning is sliding, but my priorities are Shane and schoolwork so anything I accomplish beyond that is a bonus. As I was doing the dishes this afternoon I was thinking, "You know you're in the first trimester when: You feel like its a huge accomplishment that everyone is fed, bathed, and wearing clean clothes." Sometimes I nap with Shane during the day but most often that's when I do homework so I'm not up all night doing it. Obviously that didn't work today! I'm not griping, I promise. I'm just keeping a record because I like to look back on it! I knew that it would be hard to be pregnant with a toddler, although I didn't bargain for how much stress school would add and I'm kind of regretting enrolling this semester. Nathan is also working nights and only has Sunday off every other week so EVERYTHING falls to me. It's not that I'm not accustomed to that since Nathan works out of town for a large part of the year but I honestly prefer when he is working out of town because at least then he's home some weekends.It's also a lot easier to resent him for not helping out when he's sleeping down the hallway! Single parents, I truly empathize with you!

I had an appointment with Emily (my midwife) last week to do the basics: weight, urine, bloodwork, etc but mainly to start nutritional counseling in the hopes of avoiding repeat diabetes. A lot of the things we went over were things I've learned in the past few months but I did learn three things that I thought were pretty neat. First, apple cider vinegar (use Braggs in a glass bottle please) helps lower your blood sugar as well as being a natural heartburn preventative. A few tsp in a glass of water and sip sip sip. I know. Ick. Second, coconut oil is the ONLY oil that doesn't turn carcinogenic at a high temperature, making it best for cooking. Olive oil is another healthy oil but best not to heat. Coconut oil also lowers blood sugar levels. If cooking with it isn't enough you can actually swallow spoonfuls. I hope I don't get there!  Third, TUMS.  I seriously ate five bottles plus when I was pregnant with Shane. I even checked with Dr. H to make sure I could take them. Now I find out they are full of sugar and the kind of calcium they advertise having isn't even good for you--in fact if you are pregnant they can calcify (and kill) large parts of your placenta!!!!! Wow. I'm so thankful Shane turned out healthy, and I wish I'd asked to see my placenta. I had planned to but I got too caught up with Shane. Next time!

If you've made it through to the end of this tome, pat yourself on the back and head to bed. You deserve it!

First Midwife Visit

Today, the day after I got my positive pregnancy test, I went to interview the midwives closest to us. I was really impressed! First they gave me a tour of the birth center, which is lovely. When you first walk into the birth center there is a large open area that contains their office corner, a corner that is set up like a living room, and another corner of the room that is full of toys for the kids. They have a bathroom in this front area also that is mostly for the checkups but also has a big comfy tub so that after the baby is born the mom and baby can take a soothing herbal bath together. Then, down the hallway is the exam room with an extra wide table so that your children can get up there with you to “help” with the exam. Further down the hallway is a kitchen for use during labor, and down the hallway from that are There are two bedrooms equipped to birth in and then there’s the water birth room, which is where I plan to give birth. They have a big, jetted, padded tub that just looks SO perfect! There is also another bathroom at this end of the house. You can see pictures of the birth center here.


The midwives (currently a mother/daughter team) spent SO much time with me just getting to know me, answering questions, and making me feel comfortable. An average appointment at the birth center is an hour. That is not 45 minutes in the waiting room and 10 in the exam room and 5 with the doctor. That is a full hour with your midwife! Talk about personalized care! After talking to Nathan I decided to use Emily, who is graduating in February (I think) but will be under Molly’s supervision. She is super nice and very knowledgeable.

I couldn’t be happier or more excited about this experience. I am VERY excited to get to know these lovely women, to have such special care, and most of all to have a lovely waterbirth! I actually talked to Molly and Emily about having had gestational diabetes with Shane and my concerns about getting it again with this pregnancy. They said that they start off from the very beginning of the pregnancy with nutritional counseling and a lot of attention to nutrition throughout the pregnancy, as well as homeopathic remedies should it come to that and that most of the time their moms who had gestational diabetes in previous pregnancies don’t end up with it again. Yay!

I have my first appointment at on Sept 20th at six weeks. Usually they don’t schedule appointments so early in the pregnancy, as they won’t be able to hear the heartbeat, but we wanted to get started right away on the nutritional counseling. I am so excited! Shane can go with me to every appointment.  He loved the toy area and the midwives and had a lot of fun.