Hyperemesis Gravidarum

The words I never wanted to hear again after watching my kid sis go thru what she did while pregnant with my niece: Hyperemesis Gravidarum. It is the most awful thing I could ever imagine to go thru outside of a disease. My sister was hospitalized over 30 times to get nausea and vomiting meds and fluids to rehydrate her after vomiting non-stop. That's just what the condition is... severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

It seems to have hit me full force at 6 weeks and is only getting worse. I have already made 2 trips to the ER because nothing will stay down. If this goes on for too long it can cause a miscarriage. (The dehydration part.) So naturally I'm toughing it out as much as I can but if anyone has ever had this, you know you can only take so much. It's horrible. I'm completely miserable and I won't lie, I don't want to leave the hospital.

In a nut shell, there is not one second of the day or night that you do not have nausea. Sometimes it's intense enough to vomit and all the other seconds of the day you just don't know if you are going to vomit or not. You are starving but scared to eat. Nauseous but trying to eat for your baby's sake and the sake of the awful hunger pains to go away. You vomit pretty much everything you get down whether it be food or drink. You feel like death and honestly death sounds like your only way out at times.

I don't leave the house unless I have to. I'm never far from my puke bucket or a place to throw up because you never know when it will hit. There is no warning, you just vomit. There is no way to tell sometimes because the nausea is so bad all day that there is no deciphering the difference. This gets so bad for pregnant women that they have support groups just for the condition. Crazy right? It seems to run very high in the family and was so generously passed to me this time around. I thought I had it bad last time when I would get nauseous here and there. Now I'm never not nauseous!

On a good note this last trip... They looked at baby this time and we are measuring not 1 but 2 days ahead now! I don't know if I should be worried with Nick being nearly 10 lbs at birth lol! I guess we will see if this growing streak continues. They admitted me to keep watch for 24 hours which I was not expecting. My potassium was very low so they had to give me supplements for that. I had 3 bags of fluids and nothing to eat for 2 days. That part was awful. A cup of jello and some broth in 48 hours. My stomach was in so much pain.

I'm praying on everything good in the world that this ends after my first trimester. I'm not very faithful in this prayer tho because my mother and sister had it last the entire time. I mean puking while giving birth time. No breaks. No mercy. I must end this to get sick now... Bye.

My ultrasound went great!

This was not my first u/s but I did not get pics from the last one because gummy bear was just a blip on the screen. So here are my first pics!

So, baby is measuring a day ahead with a heart rate of 176. I guess we are keeping my EDD of Jan. 19th the same for now tho. I was 7 weeks 6 days Monday and baby came in at 8 weeks. I'm ecstatic about this because Beldon always measured small and it was nerve wracking. I'm also extremely nervous and anxious about my NT scan in 4 weeks. The NT or nuchal translucency test is an ultrasound where they look at the nape of the neck to check for any spine problems like spina bifida or a marker for Downs syndrome. Now with Beldon this test didn't come back with any problems so I'm feeling good about the scan. That same day tho I go for bloodwork to test for everything and that coincides with the scan. This is where we got the bad news about Beldon at 14 weeks :(

I know in my heart that everything will be ok but I also never thought something so bizarre as the Triploidy would happen to my baby either. So as confident as I am about our little bear, I am also on pins and needles until I get those results. The condition with Beldon was thankfully just 'one of those things' that sometimes happens and not likely to ever happen again so I'm definitely positive about things. That's all I can be at this point right? So here is to nothing but good news in 4-6 weeks :)

I poo'd mommy! I poo'd!

Yes it's true! I am 2 and a half all over again haha. i don't even feel silly about announcing i went potty either. Not after how things have been going for me. I went for an entire week last week without one movement. And no I don't mean a religous awakening. My pregnancies have never been good to me in that area but this one has got to be the worst for absolutely everything. Poo being one of them. Or should i say no poo lol.
I had the worst experience last week with a laxative and thought I was going to die - literally. I took some "gentle, over-night relief in 6-12 hours" pill and laid down for a nap. MY ASS gentle, overnight relief! (No pun intended). Little did I know I would be awaken an hour later to the most awful pains in my back and a horrible cold sweat. I threw myself in the bathroom and just moaned in pain while I borke into a freezing sweat and went pale and dizzy. I was alone and seriously contemplated dialing 911. I was scared to death I was haveing back labor pains and would miscarry. That's how bad this was. 20 mins later Nick came home and didn't have a clue what to do as I begged him to help make the pain stop. He suggested a bath which I threw myself into and provided no relief at all. So 40 mins pass and the pain subsides enough so I can stop rolling around on the floor moaning in pain. I lay down in bed covered in sweat and fall asleep.
I awoke 2 hours later to a slightly less painful reoccurence of the first scene. Another hour later finally went. It was awful all together. I vowed never to take another one probably for the rest of my life but definitely not while I was pregnant. So I went back to taking extra stool softeners thruout the day. Finally after another 4 days I was able to go! Yippie! Every four days is better than nothing I guess. Never thought I'd be happy about poop until I was changing diapers but it seems to have started somewhat earlier then I expected ha ha. You know you have lost all shame when you blog about your BMs huh? These things should come with a TMI button. Can't wait to see what wonderful things in my future happen to create more interesting writings like this... ;)

6 Weeks - MS arrives

So I guess the hormones have taken a sky rocket for the worst. The worst for Morning Sickness that is. Even tho we all know the 'morning' is the worst way to describe the time of day that we feel like we have a volcano in our stomaches just waiting to erupt allllllllllllll day and alllllllllllll night. I asked for it right? How stupid was that!? ha ha. Well I'm thankful to know my body is reacting strongly to the hormones and it does give me great piece of mind that tiny baby is doing well. But would someone please turn it down a notch?!?!

The last couple days it has gotten so bad that I am unable to sleep for any period of time, let alone fall asleep on the first place. Then I'm hurdled over my new friend, the bathroom wastebasket, all day. If I'm not eating, what feels like every 5 minutes, my entire middle burns and churns. I feel like I can't get a 5 minute break from it. I've lost about 7 or 8 pounds but of course no one can tell with all the bloat ;)

So I admit, I wake up crying. Got to bed crying. I'm miserable. I am scared for gummy bear too. I know if I get too dehydrated I can lose 'her'. I hope it settles down some and I don't end up in the hospital getting an IV drip. I saw my sister go thru it with her last pg and it was awful. I'm not at the HG (Hyperemesis Gravidarum) point yet, but I don't feel from from it either. Hoping this is a first trimester deal and I can get a little break in about 6 weeks. Just praying for now. Sigh...

Early Dr Appt - Our first little scare

I was originally scheduled to go back to the dr 3 weeks from my first appt. But yesterday I was a little concerned, ok more than a little, when I had some brown spotting that night. I remained calm but concerned and said if it was still there in the morning or anything got worse i would call right away. Well morning came and the spotting continued. I was relieved that it did not get pink or red like I had feared it may. I was thankful for that much. I went back to bed and decided maybe to ask my girlies what they thought before I called the dr. I really hate being that paranoid person but can't really blame myself with my "wonderful" history during pregnancy.

I wrote to my lovely fairy God mama Dawn, wonderfully sweet Jamie and my long lost twin Jessica. I told them what was going on and everyone agreed the dr would be my safest bet. Dawn suggested a drop in progesterone which would have made some sense since I was weaning myself off the cream. I called the dr and they got me right in like always. Gotta love their treatment I have to say. They moved me into the ultrasound room and I was scared of not seeing anything on the screen. I held my breath and the dr struggled to find the heart beat. But not because it wasn't there but because my teeny tiny gummy bear is so teeny tiny :) He said I was measuring right on and he couldn't find a bleed. Told me to take it easy, any problems call and he'd see me back in 2 weeks. My new appt is June 7th.

I wish I would have asked for a pic but honestly there was not much to make out. It would have been simply for sentimental value :) But in 2 weeks I shall have some nice pics of a nice sized little gummy and a nice strong, easy to find, heart beat. So thankful to know everything is well so far.

My Niece is sick - Need prayers

Some of you know about my 15 month old niece, either directly from me, or on WTE.

Short story: She was sick and vomitting over a week ago. My sister took her to the hospital and they did some blood work. Her red blood cell count (cbc) was very low. They sent her to Arnold Palmer hospital for children in Orlando and they did more bloodwork and tests there. Her count came back even lower so we were all very worried. The words leukemia and bone marrow disease were thrown around and everyone has been holding their breath. So no answers up to that point...

Rest of the story:

So, I wanted to see her and be there for her next appointment so my mom and I drove up to see her and be there to support my sister. If anyone knows how it feels to fear something being wrong with their baby it's me. We arrived late that night and my Boogs was sleeping. Mom and I passed her back and forth during the night to keep an eye on her. She woke up that morning very lethargic and not her usual self. She wouldn't eat and drank very little. We were in high anticipation for her appointment that morning.

We drove the hour to the hospital and she slept most of the way after being fussy. We took her up to the waiting room and she had horrible diarrhea so mom changed her twice just in the time we were on there. When we took her into the exam room she started to get really fussy. The poor thing remembered what happened when she was there last time. The nurse came in and laying her on the table was a chore. She flipped out and started crying. Then when the doctor came in she really went wild. No one was even doing anything to her yet. Just checking ears and belly and stuff but she was a tiny crazy woman.

The doctor said he was glad she was fighting him tho because it showed she had the energy too. I on the other hand was balling like baby myself the whole time she was kicking and screaming. I felt helpless and obviously way too hormonal to watch her go thru that. The nurse actually asked me if i was ok haha. I was like yea don't bother with me just worry about my niece!

The doctor said they were going to check her cbc again and also testing her for parvo virus. He said that was the only other thing they had suspicions for at the time. I asked if there was risk to my sister and I as we were newly pregnant and he said yes. So if her results are positive I need to run to the dr. If her numbers went down anymore and/or the parvo came back negative the next step is a bone marrow biopsy. Jesus, I can't even think about that. I've seen it done, heard of it and it's just an awful proceedure to endure. But good new was the leukemia was pushed further down the list of possibilities.

Next came the blood draw :( This part she freaked out soooooooo bad that the nurse had to grab the other nurse to come hold her down. I've never seen this kid fight like that. I almost lost it again but managed to just tear and not cry. They finally got the samples and told us they'd call sometime that day with the cbc results. The parvo test in a couple days. We left the office and took Van to try to eat something. She ate a little bit of soft serve and a bit of tomato but that's all she had the entire morning so far. We decided to go to the mall and hang out. I got her to repeat Aunt Nikki which came out NiNi but she said it all day and it made me the happiest aunt in the world. We were there a couple hours and the baby started laughing and playing a little. Not long before we left my sister got the call from the doctor and I was looking at some shirts while mom took Van for a diapy change. I turned around to see her crying but smirking at the same time so I rushed over. She said 'her numbers went up' and it was like someone took their foot off my chest. I knew how much relief I felt, I coldn't imagine what my sis was feeling. Mom came back and she told her the good news. Mom freaked out like always and we all shared a hug and a cry. Van ate a fruit cup and we were all very happy about that. Her numbers went from 6.8 - 7.1. Nothing drastic but these numbers mean a lot in small doses so anything higher was much better! So we thought we'd celebrate a little.

We decided to grab something to eat at Olive Garden and sis ordered the baby's favorite for her in hopes she would eat- fettucini alfredo :) She ate! She had her fettucini and some tomatoes and some breadstick and of course aunt NiNi shared her breadstick with her whenever she opened and said ahhhh. Ha ha. She was being a little funny girl and doing the most hilarious stuff. We had a wonderful time. The day went so much better than anyone could have asked for. We now wait impatiently for her parvo results and the next step depending on the outcome. They will keep monitoring her if it's not the parvo and they think the virus, if that's indeed what it is, is leaving her system thru the diarrhea and such. I will be sure to update with the results as soon as we get them. For now I ask that everyone please keep this sweet baby in your thoughts. Thanks girls.

POAS-aholic!

9DPO

10DPO

10DPO DIGI

11DPO

12DPO

13DPO DIGI

13DPO DIGI and FRER

16DPO

20DPO