Monday, November 3, 2008

Inquiring Minds Want to Know...

photo by Oberazzi

...how I'm feeling, apparently. It's very kind of everybody to ask. And since I won't be needing this blog for issues of conception prevention anymore, I thought I'd go ahead and use it as sort of a pregnancy diary. That way, as with the birth control issue, those readers of our regular blog who are interested in the minutiae of our reproductive life can tune in, and those who prefer more general fare can stay over at MattnKatie. So consider yourself warned!

How I'm feeling: for the most part, great. In the VERY early weeks of being pregnant (when I didn't know but suspected), my major symptom was feeling incredibly hot all the time. This is unusual for me, because I usually run a little chilly. It makes sense though, because my basal temp was up (and has stayed up--this morning was a record 98.5, when my normal basal was around 97.0).

Then I had the classic--breast tenderness. Hard to differentiate it from premenstrual tenderness at the beginning, but it seems now to have shifted into a more distinct category (though still very tolerable) and also seems to be translating into having... a little more up top than I did previously. I'll take that!

Energy level: Matt and I both noticed that I also seemed to bound out of bed at 5am in a way that was distinctly uncharacteristic. A friend who's been pregnant before asked me, "Do you find yourself waking up really early, feeling all one with the earth and natural?" Yes, I do. Though if I do go back to sleep, I could stay there all day. Throughout the day, my energy level has been great, maybe even a little better than before. Is that hormones or excitement? Hard to tell.

Every so often I'll start to get the smallest twinge of queasiness, but it seems to go away if I eat something. I've beefed up the protein content in my diet (more on that later), and also made it even more of a priority to eat at regular intervals, and I'm praying that morning sickness might just pass me by entirely. Probably wishful thinking, but heading into 5 weeks, I'm cautiously optimistic since I've heard a number of people say they were really sick before that time.

I've been a little bit achy and crampy, but only just noticeably so.

And I peed about once an hour before I got pregnant, so if anything, I'd say that might even be a little less.

For the record, my hunch is saying boy (yes, we've talked about names, and no, we won't be sharing them ahead of time), although I'm notoriously wrong about other women's pregnancies --even more often than the 50/50 statistic would project. Does that mean it's in fact probably a girl, or are my powers of prediction more astute now that it's my own? Either way--we're ALL going to have to wait nine months to find out.

Beyond that, I might be a little quicker to tears than I was before, but we've always had a pretty emotionally open household and so that isn't anything dramatic. My main emotional symptom has been sort of disbelief--especially since I'm feeling pretty good so far, I don't really "feel" pregnant, and so Matt and I are prone to saying to each other "Dude, you know what's weird? We're going to have a baby." I'm sure it will all start to feel a little more real with time.

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