17 weeks

We had our 17 week appointment and ultrasound on Wednesday and all looks good. We don’t have pictures to share as there weren’t any really clear images. I thought the belly was the head if that tells you anything. According to the Dr., all is going well, the baby has long legs and from what I could see a big body. Heartbeat was fine.


The doctor said she could tell if it was a boy or girl but I don’t want to know so she didn’t tell us. I think my husband may find out later. We’ll see at the next appointment. I think it may have been a little early to tell but although I may feel like a doctor after the year we’ve had, clearly I am not! My mom and best friend at home also want to know for logistical reasons. My mom wants to stock up on baby clothes in the States before she comes for the birth because it is so much cheaper. Well that and let’s face it she can’t take surprises. This is the lady who we hide her Christmas presents unwrapped in her closet until Christmas Eve so she won’t find them. Counter intuitive I know but it works. Then every Christmas Eve my dad and I get together and wrap them. Once we hid something at the neighbors. If they are wrapped under the tree she will unwrap them and wrap them again and you’ll never know. While she claims she wouldn’t do this anymore, we don’t think it’s true. As for my best friend, she had twins last September, a boy and a girl and she is going to keep all the clothes for which ever sex I need. This is awesome, I am so excited. Our kids will be almost exactly a year apart so seasons won’t matter and I’m not kidding you in the pictures I get of them (almost daily) they are never wearing the same clothes

Back to the appointment, the Dr. said I had put on a little too much weight (about 6 pounds in 3 weeks) so I have to watch what I eat a little more. Basically I’m a fat ass but what do they expect when they won’t let me exercise? Hopefully it will settle itself out since my appetite is back to normal and I don’t want to eat everything in sight. No threats yet of being put on the fat ward like my mom. I kid you not, she gave birth to my brother and I at a military hospital and she said they kept threathening to put her in the fat ward if she didn’t stop gaining so much weight. I need to figure out how much she gained. I think I’m going to blame it on my giant chest, I think I could give Dolly Parton a run for her money. I went from a 36C to a 38E and looks like I’m still growing. I’m talking porn star boobs. Too bad they aren’t good for anything as we are on a Dr. order sex ban (more on that later.)

Good news…it doesn’t look like we are going to have to have a clearage. The other ultrasound tech will check again at 22 weeks but so far so good. What a relief!! I was not looking forward to that.
My husband’s grandma is here from England visiting so we invited her to the ultrasound. I think she enjoyed being part of the experience. I say I think because while I’ve been here a year, I still don’t speak Greek and she’s lived in Engand for about 40 years and doesn’t speak English. Actually we both speak about 10 words of the other language so communicating is entertaining.

All in all things are going well. Though we’ve seen this kiddo quite a few times with the ultrasound and heard its heart beat, it still doesn’t seem real. Even when I went to look at maternity clothes yesterday I thought I was an imposter. Maybe when I feel it kicking or when my bump gets bigger. Guess this is the life of the infertiles, we are too cautious and scared to believe it is real.

The Bathroom

I can’t believe about to do this but yes, this will be a whole post related to the bathroom. It seems to be such a big part of my life right now and I wonder if I’m normal. While I hope that you aren’t going through the same thing, it would be comforting to know that there are others out there.

It started a few months ago when I started to get super constipated. I’m talking a week without going #2. When I finally did go it took a lot of work for little results and it sounded like I was having a baby. I would lay on the couch in pain from being so backed up. I had some spotting (info for another post) and wound up in the hospital overnight. The dr. came in when I was on the bed pan and I told her I was having trouble going to the bathroom. While I was talking about #1, she thought I was talking about #2. She said the nurse could give me an enema. At that point it had only been 4 days and the thought of my insides exploding while I was spotting and had passed a blood clot scared me so I declined. 3 days later I took some over the counter (dr. approved) laxatives. It took them 2 days but they finally worked. Thankfully I’m a little more regular in the #2 department, the down side I’m taking iron pills so everything that comes out is black or dark green which is GROSS.

All in all though I thought I was out of the woods, then the need to pee every 30 minutes began. I keep reading online this happens in the 1st trimester, gets better in the 2nd and worse again in the 3rd. For me, it was so, so in the 1st trimester and has gotten progressively worse. Before I got pregnant, I would drink about 1 ½ gallons of water a day and only go to the bathroom 5 or 6 times. I never had a problem. Now, I drink less and go all the time. I’m talking about 10 times from the time I get home from work till I go to bed, a minimum of 3 times in the middle of the night but on average 5. We even went to the beach this weekend a mere hour drive. I had to stop half way home, it was an emergency!! Then, when we got home I had to run to the bathroom.

And the best story of all, a couple of weeks ago I was asleep on the couch and had a dream that I had to pee and I went. A while later I woke up and had to pee for real, only to find out that I had not only peed in my dream, but all over the couch. How gross is that. I’ve never been a bed wetter and here I am at 35 peeing in my sleep. I thought my husband was going to joke about it after I told him but he didn’t. Have I become so gross that these things aren’t even funny? A few days later he came back from the grocery store with some bed pads that I think old people use when they wet the bed. Yes, this is what it has come to. I haven’t peed in my sleep again but it is comforting to know that if I do I’m protected!

Hope you are all doing better in the bathroom department than me.