I found out I was pregnant on January 18th, 2011. It was the day before the spring 2011 semester for UAlbany where I was enrolled as a psychology major. As soon as the test read pregnant I ran into Derek and I's room and laid next to him on the bed. I turned towards him as he slept and laid there watching him. I couldn't contain myself any more and woke him saying, "Guess what?". He opened his eyes slightly and seeing my face asked, "You're pregnant?" and wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in close as I burst out, "YES!".
A few weeks later I went to the doctor and heard those magic words, "You're definitely pregnant."
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| 2/15/2011 |
Soon after the doctor, I was driving an hour away with Derek to surprise my mom. Derek and I bought an 'it's a girl', and 'it's a boy' helium balloon to tell her the news. When I rang her doorbell and she saw me she was ecstatic to see me. After we hugged and I came into the house is when she noticed the balloons. She looked at me and asked, "What is this? Did your cat have kittens?" I burst into laughter and gave her a look. It took several seconds after I said, "I'M PREGNANT!" for her to get it.
The rest of my family took the news with hugs and a happy shock.
Around that time I became extremely sick. I started getting very light headed and weak. I knew something was wrong after a few days of vomiting profusely in the mornings while opening the store I worked at. I had to call my boss in and I felt like such a huge failure. I was always an extremely hard worker and could push through all the health problems I've had throughout my life. Once I began to get so sick that I couldn't get out of bed, I had to quit. I literally couldn't keep down any kind of food or even water. I was trying every trick in the book that I read or heard about for 'morning sickness'. 'Morning sickness' is a joke term by the way. I was sick from the time I woke up to the time I cried myself to sleep.
I forced myself to go to my classes, but that could only last so long. I eventually had to drop my classes one by one because of the fact that my body couldn't handle getting out of bed. I was vomiting anywhere from four to seven times a day. After probably three or so months of being bed ridden and in complete misery, the doctors gave me some medication that slightly helped the nausea. I was still nauseous 24/7, but at least I was able to keep a little food and water down. At this point I had lost about 12 pounds and needless to say I was not a happy camper. I ended up in the hospital late one night because I felt so dehydrated and weak from not being able to keep food down.
Around this time I figured out what I've been suffering from since I was around eleven years old. Half my life I've been extremely sick with terrible stomach and esophagus pains. I went through dozens of tests such as x-rays, scopes, biopsies, surgeries and blood tests. I'd been to specialists and been put on every stomach and acid medication on the market. Besides GERD or acid reflux, the doctors couldn't tell me much. "You're fine." Well, I wasn't fine at all. I lived in pain and depression from being sick constantly. I laid in bed most days.
So finally at age 22, while being pregnant with my first child, I was doing some research and experimenting with my diet. I figured out that I was gluten and lactose intolerant. I've always known I couldn't handle milk, so lactose intolerance wasn't a surprise. I've already had to dodge acidic foods for my acid reflux all my life. So adding gluten intolerance to the mix was nearly impossible. Most all foods seem to have gluten in them. So for the rest of my life I will struggle with avoiding gluten, lactose and acidic foods. But at least I won't be as completely sick as I have been for the past eleven years.
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| 4/26/2011 |
After vomiting and not being able to leave bed for several months I felt so hopeless and helpless. By the end of May I didn't know what to do with myself. On top of that, our landlord decided to evict us that month. He claimed that the neighbors were complaining about us and since we were under a month to month lease, he could basically do whatever he wanted. We had been living there for almost a year now and I had gotten very close with the family downstairs. I'd watch their kids and play with their dogs, and we all loved each other. Everything was great until this young coupled moved in next to us and threw loud parties every weekend. They would block our cars in and be up all hours of the night yelling. One night I called the cops on them because the kids downstairs couldn't sleep. The landlord took their side and evicted us even though we never caused one problem. Pretty messed up.
Although still very sick, by the end of May I was feeling slightly better. We packed up our apartment and put most everything in storage. The only place we could find to live was with one of Derek's friend's over an hour away. The situation sucked all around and Derek's drive to work was long. The apartment was run down and a mess to say the least. There was constantly glass all over the floor and the toilet was broken our entire time their. It was definitely not ideal living conditions for a pregnant lady. I was starting to put weight back on though and was able to keep food down.
During June we were offered an old mobile home for free. For weeks we looked for a piece of land to set up the trailer on. We thought it was going to be a wonderful opportunity to have a place to raise our son. Then at the last minute the guy giving us the trailer decided he didn't want to give it to us. This totally screwed us over. We had wasted a month of time looking for a place to live and were now really behind on getting a home for us and the baby. When July came we decided to build an addition on to Derek's parents house. We started construction on our two rooms.
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| 7/15/2011 - 30 weeks pregnant |
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| 8/8/2011 |
Over the next couple months we poured foundation, framed up the floor and walls and were slowly but surely on our way to our bedrooms.
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| 8/10/2011 |
August 21st I had my wonderful jungle theme baby shower.
September came and construction on the house was slow. We moved out of Derek's friends house and into his parents house. With our rooms not being built yet we stayed in his brother's room while he was at college. It was pretty cramped because of the fact that all the baby's gear, clothes, furniture and everything was crammed and stacked in the room with us. By the middle of the month we were waiting on someone to help us install electric and heat in the addition. We also still had to buy shingles and finish the roof. I was getting extremely anxious because we had to get these things done before we put up the drywall and installed the flooring. My due date was September 23rd.
To be continued...
