Halfway Update

Aug 6, 2024

This week I am 20 weeks pregnant! Assuming I deliver baby girl at full term, I am half way. When I tell people this, mostly they say, "Wow! You're already halfway?! It's gone by so fast!" I'm pretty sure its gone by fast for everyone except me. In a few ways, December does seem to be quickly approaching, but mostly I'm glad to finally have half of this pregnancy under my (expanding) belt. 

I loved hearing and asking about people's pregnancy symptoms long before I ever got pregnant.
And one day, when I'm old and gray and being pregnant is so far in the past that I don't remember the grimy feeling your teeth have after throwing up all day... I want to have a comprehensive list of my symptoms. So here we are, sitting down on a warm summer evening in August, compiling every normal and maybe not so normal symptom I've had since this baby started growing in my womb. 

1. SORE BOOBS: Starting off strong, this was my earliest symptom. While it was a normal experience for me when my period came each month, this time around was SO intense, painful, and long lasting. Gone were the days of not wearing a bra for fun, cause I needed all the support I could get. Even sleeping was hard, cause nothing could be touching them. I thought this would last my entire pregnancy, but I'm happy to announce that around 12 weeks, I could finally free the nip again. 

2. CRAMPING: If I hadn't been religiously taking a pregnancy test every morning and night to watch the line get darker in the first few weeks of pregnancy, I think I for sure would have thought I was having a miscarriage again multiple times. The cramps were so bad, and very similar to when I had miscarried. As concerning as it was, I felt myself feeling quite peaceful about it. I think my mind knew that everything would be okay. Thankfully, laying down or moving positions often helped ease the cramping, and this too went away around 12 weeks. 

3. FATIGUE: "There's tired, and then there's pregnant tired." I don't know where I heard this, but it is so true. Pair this with the alarmingly small amount of food and water I was able to consume, and you have a recipe for daily 3pm naps. And 11am naps. And maybe a 6pm bedtime...  I could literally feel my baby sucking the energy from me, to use for her development. 

Right after graduation, I had planned to sub here in Utah until the school year ended. Not only would it be nice to have some income after Dallin's paid internship ended, but I also wanted to do as much teaching before I took my predicted 5-10 year break to have a family. Well, this dream was quickly sucked out from under me when I realized that I physically could not teach and be pregnant at the same time. Not only would it probably be traumatizing for an 8 year old to watch their substitute teacher throw up in the classroom garbage can, but I could barely get through the day when I was hardly accomplishing anything. So no, I didn't sub at all, and I attribute it all to the pregnancy fatigue. 

4. NAUSEA: I'm a broken record at this point. I've talked it into the floor with the fact that I have had a hard pregnancy. But to summarize, I shall share three statements:

"Morning Sickness" is a false phrase, we should re-coin it to be "All-Day Sickness That Gets Worse When You're Hungry But You Can't Eat Anything."

It's not a matter of "what weird cravings am I having?" but, "what food can I first of all look at, then smell, then eat and not throw up?"

and finally, on a less dramatic note, All pregnancies are different. Every woman's body will handle the hormones in different ways. There is no right or wrong way to be pregnant. There just is. 

    And one more update to note... since being a bit more heavily pregnant, I now pee my pants when I throw up sometimes. 

5. THE HUNGER: Imagine its thanksgiving morning. You wake up, eat a light breakfast in preparation for the afternoon/evening festivities. You put on some stretchy pants, throw up a cute hairstyle, and feel your tummy rumbling in excitement for the feast. Soon you've become ravenous for the meal, and can't think of anything besides the turkey that's been slow roasting all morning, and the annual pie recipe you whipped up last night. Now take that feeling, that hunger, that desperation for food, multiply it by 12, and then imagine all the food available to you looks and smells like poop. That's pregnancy hunger for you. Oh yeah, and after you've forced yourself to eat some of that poop, 15 minutes later, the starvation returns. 

6. FIRE BELLY: I'm well aware this might just be me haha, but from weeks 9-12, I created the term "fire belly" to describe the sensation that my insides (my intestines to be exact) were on fire. When I described it to my doctor, he simply told me I was experiencing gas pains from the hormone changes. It felt much more intense than just a built up fart. 

7. CONSTIPATION: Next up is pretty self-explanatory. I had some pretty intense constipation. There were a variety of factors contributing including: the Zofran, an iron supplement, Progesterone, and then just being pregnant. I guess it probably didn't help that my eating habits were out of whack too. Let's just say I graced many mornings with a nice cup of Miralax. 

8. ROUND LIGAMENT PAIN: This symptom started around week 13, and I would describe it as like a tense cramp on your lower belly. It mostly happened when I would raise my legs, sneeze, stand up, or exercise. So pretty often haha! Apparently this happens just from your uterus stretching and growing, so although annoying, I was excited to be progressing!

9. NERVE TINGLING: I have yet to confirm with a doctor that this symptom doesn't mean I'm dying, but from my brief interactions with Dr. Google, I'm pretty sure I'm okay. Basically my lower right belly and right leg just all of a sudden get the chills/nerve tingling when I am sitting. It has been happening for like 3 weeks now, all day long. If you're a doctor... is this normal??

10. GROWING BELLY AND FEELING HER MOVE: And finally, in this list of 10 symptoms that have been making their presence in my life, my most favorite is my growing belly and feeling baby girl move. At 17 weeks, my pregnancy app told me I should start to feel my baby move. Up until this point, I was constantly analyzing every sensation in my belly, and questioning if it was her. And then there I was. Sitting on the couch watching Call the Midwife (for the second time by the way, and its much more intense now that I actually have to birth a baby), and I feel a tiny kick! I sat there with my hands on my belly for the remainder of the episode and cherished the sporadic little flicks coming from inside. Since then, she had only gotten stronger, and I've only gotten better at recognizing her presence. Today, I could literally feel her rolling in my womb. Like I was feeling her all the way across my belly, and I could outline of her little body rolling around. And of course as soon as I Facetime my mom to show her, she stops haha. 

Oh! I forgot a symptom. The weirdest one: hairy belly. This isn't code for anything, I literally just have a hairy belly now. 

Also something exciting to note is that none of my jeans fit anymore! I've been doing the hair-tie around the button to expand them trick. It's been working pretty well. I'm also going to a prenatal work out class that I really enjoy, and I bought a subscription to an online birthing course. So we are getting prepared over here!