We Are Excited To Announce...
I can't tell you how excited I am to write this post. We are expecting baby Bylund in March of 2017!
I am in my 13th week, so at the end of my first trimester. I have been very lucky. I have had very little morning sickness, mostly nausea. Some days are worse than others but nothing that I couldn't nap away. I was worried about this from before I even got married. My mom had severe hyperemesis gravidarum when she was pregnant with my brothers and myself. Some of you may recognize the term from when Kate Middleton was pregnant with both of her children. For those of you who don't know, hyperemesis gravidarum is categorized as severe morning sickness that results in the mother losing an extreme amount of weight and unable to keep nutrients in her body to maintain both her and the baby's health. My mom experienced similar symptoms and was hospitalized several times during each pregnancy. At some points it became so bad that nurses would come to the house every other day to administer IV treatments, for several months on end. Many people had told me over the years that morning sickness was not hereditary and I wasn't necessarily going to be as sick as my mom. The problem is that not only was my mom very sick, so was her mom and her grandmother. I had three generations of women who had severe morning sickness fighting against me. A study published by UCLA in 2010 showed that women who had direct family members who had hyperemesis gravidarum were 17 times more likely to have it themselves. I decided that I would set the expectation that I too would be very sick. Then if I was, no surprise. And if I wasn't, AWESOME!
We decided to try to start having kids this year. We weren't actively trying, but as I told a few people, we were not not trying. If it happened, great! I began feeling a little different in July but attributed it to a nasty cold and ear infection I caught while in Utah. I wasn't sleeping through the night, I was always tired and my weight was a little off. But I wasn't sick. Finally in August, I was reading Katey's post on Chronicles of Frivolity announcing their baby. I read some of her symptoms and began to wonder. So on my way home, I stopped by the grocery store and bought four pregnancy tests. I didn't actually think I was pregnant but I figured I would take the test just to put myself at ease and rule it out. The instructions on the test said to wait 2 minutes for your results. All four test showed up as positive right away. The Husband was working late so I took them with me to pick him up and asked him if I was crazy. Of course he wasn't expecting that but agreed that they were showing up as positive. We didn't want to get too excited until I had a confirmation blood test from the doctor. Luckily my GP's office is open on Saturdays so I went in the next day and they took some blood for a test.
We had to wait until Monday to find out the results. They called Monday morning and indeed I am pregnant, and I was 8 weeks along! I was really surprised it took me that long to figure it out. On the upside, it meant my first trimester was close to being over! We started telling our families that day. This is the first grandchild for my parents, the third for The Husband's parents. Everyone is incredibly excited.
As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I stopped taking my Adderall. I probably should have stopped taking it awhile ago, but I didn't know I was pregnant. I will be talking more on Wednesday about what it has been like with no meds and how I have been coping.
I crave fruit and carbs. I have discovered that when I don't eat well, I feel worse. I can't eat very much chocolate/candy without it making me feel terrible. Mornings are the worst but I can usually keep the nausea at bay by eating something right away. I sleep a lot. I don't usually sleep through the night but I can always get back to sleep. I have been taking late afternoon naps, which help with my energy in the evenings.
I did experience some break through bleeding around when I would have had my period in July and August. This is probably why I didn't think I was pregnant. Apparently this isn't that uncommon though and everything is fine!
I will be keeping you all updated on gender, pregnancy updates and all things baby through this process! I am so excited to be a mom!
Photos by Emma Juneau Photography
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