9-Week Update

Today marks the beginning of my 9th week. For the most part, I've been having a pretty easy first trimester, though the past week-and-a-half, I've started noticing a significant increase in the nausea. But fortunately, I've started to find ways to manage it. I've been wearing Sea Bands, which are acupressure wrist bands designed to reduce nausea. I didn't realize how well they were working until I forgot to wear them one day. Boy did I regret it! But within about half-an-hour of putting them on, I was feeling much better. Now I wear them 24/7, only taking them off to shower, and I think it's making a big difference for me!

I also discovered that I felt worse in the 4-5 hours after taking my prenatal vitamin. After doing some reading, I learned that the high doses of folic acid can upset the stomach. I've started breaking the vitamin in half, and taking one half in the morning (after a full breakfast) and the other half after dinner. It's made a big difference in how I feel. It seems that the vitamin, that is so good for the baby, is a major culprit in making me feel sick. I'm glad I've found a way to make it work for both of us.

My appetite is definitely off. I never really know from one day to the next what I'll be able to stomach. The only real constants for me are oranges/orange juice and vanilla ice cream (though not at the same time). In general, though, I'm finding the dairy and simple carbs seem to be the best bets for me. Cereal and milk, bagels and cream cheese, mac & cheese all seem to sit well with me...and like most pregnant women, I've found that saltines are my friend! I'm finding that the baby seems to really like broccoli, but other vegetables aren't sitting as well. And, most unusual for me, my normally vicious sweet tooth is all but gone. I can eat a couple of bites of something sweet, but that's about it (ice cream doesn't count). But I'll take something crunchy and salty any time (mmm...tortilla chips).

Finally, one of the things that is bugging me most is the insomnia. Why did no one tell me til *after* I got pregnant that insomnia is such a common symptom? I have been finding it very difficult to sleep at night, even though I'm completely exhausted! I can be too tired to even open my eyes, but still have it take several hours to fall asleep at night. And once asleep, there's no guarantee that I'll stay asleep. If I wake up again during the night, it will probably take another couple hours for me to fall asleep again. It's quite frustrating, especially when I have to get up and go to work having not slept more than 4-5 hours.

So that's what being 9 weeks pregnant looks like for me. While not the best I've ever felt, I know it could be so much worse. I'm not puking, I'm managing the nausea, and trying to keep in mind that over the next few weeks, as I get closer to second trimester, the symptoms will fade, and before I know it, I'll be feeling almost normal again!