So sick....

*Originally composed on Oct. 12th, 2012* 

Because we chose not to "go live" with our blog or social media about this until after the first trimester, this blog post will not be showing up until weeks after I actually composed it. :)

We're Due May 13th, 2013. These are the first pictures we have of the baby, taken on Thursday, October 11th, 2012. 10/11/12 - pretty cool, huh?!

For the first month of the pregnancy, I felt completely fine, except for being exhausted. It was difficult to even vacuum the family room! I stopped drinking coffee within a week of finding out that we were expecting, and haven't even had any cravings for it. In fact, it doesn't sound good at all - I know, those of you who know me are probably in shock right now.

Then, I ended up with absolutely terrible "morning" sickness. Let me preface that a bit by saying I've never experienced any sickness as wildly unpredictable and essentially crippling illness ever in my life. Nothing brings me to my knees faster than stomach troubles, but in addition to that, I was unable to eat anything for days. It was awful. Anything I ate came back up, and I was exhausted and dehydrated from losing all the fluids.

We tried everything to get it under control - a bland diet, Tums, drinking tons of water, eating tiny TINY meals - nothing worked. I felt completely miserable. If I wasn't at work or church, I was in bed. Period. And even that was short-lived, since I had to run to the bathroom every 15-20 minutes.

Finally, we had our first OB appointment on Thursday, Oct. 11th. It was pretty routine, as far as I know. Weigh in, talk to nurse, go over history, wait for doctor. (I had a full bladder, as I was anticipating an ultrasound, and I ended up having to use the restroom before the doctor came in - whoops. The nurse caught me on the way back, and said, "We really need to get a urine sample." I said, "Um.... a few minutes too late. I'll try again before I leave." I felt awful! But I couldn't hold it.) So before the doctor came in, Robert told me what I'd weighed in. I didn't even have a chance to look at it, because it all happened so fast and was electronic. I was scared, because it was far lower than what I'd weighed in at when I went to confirm the pregnancy on August 31st at my family practice doctor.

The doctor asked about my eating habits, and when I explained what I was going through (and after he checked my chart), he recommended a low dose of anti-nausea medication. I haven't even taken Tylenol since we found out we were expecting, but I didn't know what else I could do. The doctor confirmed the weight loss, and wanted me to do everything I could to put weight on (or at least not lose much more). So, I'm trusting his expert advice.

Through all of this, Robert has been amazing. Cravings, sickness, discomfort, housework, cooking - anything I throw at him, he's been meeting every challenge and supporting me 100%. I can't imagine how difficult this would be if he wasn't so loving and caring towards me. I look around at the media, other girls in our area, etc., and I'm so thankful for a loving husband, good jobs and fabulous insurance, and a beautiful house. I know that I'm very, very blessed to have all of those things, and I take none of it for granted!

Now that everyone is in-the-know, I should end this post by saying that most of my baby updates will be posted via this blog; not Facebook. I will, however, post the links to the blog on Facebook. So, if you don't already follow my blog, now's a good time!