Questions people ask me

  Now that it's becoming much more noticeable that I am in fact pregnant, I get asked a lot of questions by strangers out in public or by people at church. I get asked some really personal questions by friends and family and some confusing questions too. I thought I would do a blog post with a list of some questions and answers.

1.) **Most popular lately** Was it planned?
Yes, we planned for this baby. In fact we tried for about a month in December for a baby, but the effects of birth control were still lingering around and we were unable to conceive then.

2.) How has your husband handled you being pregnant. *Usually the first question follows this one.*
He has been superman throughout this whole thing. I found out before he did, I took a pregnancy test because I had a gut feeling I was pregnant. I had been taking them for a couple weeks because I already knew I was pregnant. Anyway, when I told him, I think he cried a little. He laughed and smiled and said "are you serious?" and "Wow" and "Oh my gosh". He was ecstatic. Then when my hyperemesis appeared, he was by my side through as much of it as he could be. He has been there for every ultrasound, where he always has a huge grin on his face. He got me an LA fitness gym membership for mother's day so I can use the pool for pain relief. At night, he massages my feet and back. When I'm emotional or in pain/ extreme nausea, he cuddles me and kisses me telling me it will be okay and presses acupressure points to relieve some of it. In short, he has handled it marvelously. He really is superman.

3.) Do you crave sour things or things like orange juice and sweets? Because that can determine the gender!
I crave sour candies and lemons, but I also crave oranges, orange juice, pears, apples, watermelon. Sometimes I get the hankering for skittles or twizzlers, but that usually passes when I eat fruit. So... I guess it's indeterminable haha

Now for some of the funny/personal questions I get asked...

-Oh you're taking zofran? Do you have hemerhoids (sp?) then?
-How's your cervix/ uterus feeling?
-Do your breasts hurt?
-What was the phase of the moon when you conceived? Was it waxing or waning?
-Have you grown hair in any weird places?
-Oh! What does your belly button look like??

True story. The ones above I left unanswered because I never answer them when they're asked.

I'll probably post my 16 weeks post this weekend. I might blurb here and there before that.

Life is changing!

  The past few days I've been struggling with the decision to do college again this fall or to wait until spring or next fall when the baby is here. I only have a few days in between Pathway finishing and the deadline for Fall 2015 on BYU Idahos online degree programs. But today I made the decision to keep going with my application and do school this fall. I decided I will do Fall, then of course since baby is due the same time Winter semester starts, I'll take a semester off to have our little love and develop my new routine with baby. But then it's right back into school in the spring. Again I will be doing the online degree programs on BYU online in spring.
  It's so exciting to think of the future. My husband is getting so many offers on amazing opportunities in Idaho and mentors who will be able to get him started doing what he loves right away when we move to Idaho next fall. (We are moving there so I can attend on BYU I's campus and get my Bachelor's. Not sure about a doctorate, but I have a few years to decide :) I am so excited to move to Idaho. My husband attended BYU there a while back and loved it and he's also been wanting to return. I just feel so good about it. It is so nice to say that I attend a University and that I already have some college credits under my belt too. It's nice to be able to move forward with my goals and dreams and passions. I am so grateful for a husband who motivated me to move forward with all that. I hope to continue to develop myself as my own person, a much better role model and example for our sweet baby and future children. I can't wait to be a mama in January. I also can't wait to continue my school adventures and eventually graduate with my Bachelor's. The next year will be very life changing for me and my little family. I'll continue with my education, I'll give birth to our first sweet child, My husband will take National Board Exams and graduate with his Master's Degree, and then we're moving to Idaho! Crazy! I think it will be one of the best and most life changing years of my life so far. It's going to be exciting.

Week 15

15 weeks

Baby Meyers is the size of an apple!

 

  Cravings are back!

I am actually really excited and happy to have cravings again because it means my hyperemesis is going away! This week I crave(d) soft nugget ice (like at sonic), watermelon, oranges, bananas, pears, apples, applesauce, grapes and cantaloupe. I have been craving vitamin C BIG time. The more I eat of it, the better I feel. With more energy, color to my face, hydration, strong veins for blood tests, and less vomiting the more fruit I eat! It's like my candy. That's another thing. I don't like much candy or sweet things anymore. I still love skittles, sour patch, and banana laffy taffy. But other than that I can't handle candies, cookies or ice creams anymore. Yesterday my sister and I went to IHOP and I had the biggest meal I've had in 2 months. I had a breakfast sampler with Turkey Bacon (YUM), eggs over easy, hash browns, ham, and two sausage links. It came with pancakes as well but I didn't eat those or the sausages. I felt so good after popping the yolk of the egg onto the hashbrowns and eating the whites of the eggs with ham. It was delicious and I kept it ALL down. I am so happy to eat again.
 I have an appointment with a nutritionist next Thursday to help me and coach me back into eating and helping me to eat what I need to during the rest of my pregnancy.

 Hyperemesis nonesense

Although I am doing much much better, I am not quite out of the woods yet. I still depend on nausea meds to get me through the day. I've been able to wean off of one of them with no problem, but I still need the other two in order to keep hydrated and healthy and functional. Today I'm having a rough sick day, but I am thinking and hoping it's just a little bump in the road and not a relapse into my first trimester misery.

Ultrasound pics from 13 weeks!!

I posted them on facebook yesterday and so did my husband, but I am very late to show off the newest pictures we have of baby Meyers. These were done at 13 weeks, when we opted for genetic testing. They did a blood draw and a big long ultrasound. We got a whole big long thing of pictures of hands, legs, full body, etc. Here are 3 of them:

 

The reason I didn't blog yesterday...

  I know I was going to do my 15 weeks post yesterday (Wednesday), but today (Thursday) is the last day of my last semester in a college program called Pathway. It's through BYU Idaho, and with my hyperemesis this semester has been hard. It's Math too, which is hard enough for a healthy Ashleigh to handle.
  Anyway a "big part" of my grade is attending Thursday night "gatherings" for the religion part and a little bit of the math part. For this semester you supposedly could only miss 4 gatherings before you fail automatically. Because of my bed rest/ hyperemesis I have been unable to go. My teacher told me I was a lost cause. She said BYU wouldn't budge on my attendance so she wouldn't either. I decided I wasn't going to waste all my hard work because one sassy teacher told me I couldn't do it. I've been told that before and it only made my comeback much more embarrassing for the teacher(s) who have told me "you can't do it" or "find a better way to spend your time, there's nothing more you can do." However, we called BYU and they're like "Um, yeah we are willing to budge on your attendance. Especially with how hard you have been working." So I have been spending the past 3 days doing a lot of work to get my grade up enough to prove myself. They couldn't do anything until I turned in all late work. As of right now I have to finish a paper and do my final exam. I have an 83% in the class even before turning those two things in. If this sassy teacher fails me because I couldn't go to class from my medical condition, she is going to get an earful (again) from me, my husband, and BYU.
  Right now I'm taking a break and about to go eat something because I haven't eaten today. I've been pretty sick today. In less than 8 hours I will be DONE with this semester and I will rejoice from finishing my little program because it means I can finally do regular online university stuff.
  Hallelujah.

Almost 15 weeks... Pregnant for about 100 days. Dang!

  Right now as I am writing this, I am one day away from being 15 weeks. I haven't posted for 14 weeks but I am catching up today. I wanted to catch up on my blog writing while I am feeling good. Today I have NOT THROWN UP!!! There have been a couple days like this, but today was the first day I took a one hour break between doses of my nausea meds and didn't regret it completely. Haha. I went one hour without nausea meds and I did not throw up.      
  More miracles though! On Friday night I went grocery shopping with my husband. I remember when we got into the store I told him "Dang, I haven't been in a grocery store in like three months." It was a hard outing on me, I ended up vomiting a little in the Winco bathroom while my husband finished up. I also went home and slept from like 10:00 pm that night straight through to 4:15 pm the next day. My husband would wake me up for nausea meds, but he let me sleep. Wonderful man <3 Then yesterday (Sunday) I made it to church for the first time in TWO MONTHS!!!! I only made it through the first two hours, but it was lovely and a much needed boost in my life. I've also been getting better at eating. I had a huge can of beans the other day with a tortilla. Yesterday I had a bowl full of Tortellini with red sauce. I can manage some smells a little better too. Still can't handle garlic at all.
  Next week is the earliest we can find out the sex of our baby! I'm very excited but I think I'm going to schedule that ultrasound sometime in week 17 or 18 so I can find out at the same time my husband does. He's so excited to be a daddy. I can't wait to see his face when the baby is born. He lights up every time we see our love on the ultrasound screen. It's a sacred experience to see the love of my life slowly become a daddy. He's so wonderful and I adore him.
  I am excited for a post I will start writing next week. It has to do with old wives tales and ways people have come up with to guess the gender of your baby before the ultrasound. My husband and I are going to do some of the experiments and research together and create a tally of the results of those tests. One tally will be the number of times the tests predict girl and one for prediction of boy. I'm excited, and I think it will be a fun date night for my husband and I. I'm thinking about filming the ultrasound that reveals the gender too. We are so excited.
  I'll get back to my normal weekly posts this week on Wednesday when I go to the doctor again. I wanted to update some things before I forget them though. I will also do a baby bump pic on Wednesday because I do have one starting. My husband caught a sneaky stretch mark the other day, but lotion and coconut oil and hydration took care of that.
  Anyway, thanks for reading! :)

Week 13

Sorry I haven't been posting. I've been staying at my dad's house for a few weeks while my husband got some remodeling done at home. I don't remember much about week 13 except that I went back to the hospital again for fluids, but this time I didn't stay the night there (yay!) and they gave me IV nausea meds. This time was a new experience though because they put the IV on the top of my hand. I've never had that before. I think I prefer it, there was only one needle stick and no digging around. It was WAY easy to get the blood draw that way too. Although the IV hurt a little more going in and coming out, it was a lot easier to move around and do things. Maybe I'll request it next time I have to get an IV.
Still sick that week and I had one particularly hellish day. I think that was the day I went in to the hospital. I was literally throwing up every ten minutes. I couldn't keep nausea meds down. It was literally every ten minutes. It was painful and exhausting. Grateful that was shortlived.

12 weeks

12weeks   Baby Meyers is the size of a PLUM!

My Bouncing Baby... boy? Or girl?

Sorry not sorry to keep reposting the old ultrasound picture. I just love this little person so much and I like this picture. There may be a new one next week.
This week has been very hard, no hospital visits (well, admissions anyway) and no ER trips. I did start seeing a regular OB, the amazing woman who took care of me in the hospital the last time I was admitted. Dr. Goodreau. This lady is the bomb. Anyway, I went for my follow up appointment from the hospital visit. I was weighed, we saw baby again, and discussed more nausea meds and vitamins. First of all, I have only lost six pounds since I was in the hospital, which is good. I am now weighing in at 152 and some change. I've lost a total of 25 pounds since I think the end of May. Basically since this whole thing started getting crazy. But I've been able to eat and keep down enough to sustain some form of nutrition this week. I will be going in weekly for weigh ins, baby check ups and talking about meds/what I've eaten. We also got to see our beautiful little love again! When the doctor put the ultrasound goo on my belly (still hate the consistency of the goo, makes me nauseous) I felt a lot of swimming around going on in my uterus. Baby was going to put on a show for us. She put the wand on my belly and almost immediately baby came on the screen. In the old ultrasound pic above, baby is a lot smaller and you can still see the yolk sac. In that picture baby was also very tame and calm. This time we saw some personality. The doctor pointed out the placenta and arms and legs of the baby. Baby was in a weird position where it's bum and legs were straight up and against one side of the uterus and it's head was tucked into it's body and toward the bottom like it was doing a headstand against the wall of the uterus. Corry laughed and all of a sudden baby went WILD. He or she thrust their little body upwards and started swimming all around and kicking. It was a riot and totally adorable and heartwarming. And of course, heart was beating wonderfully. It almost makes me cry to see that little blinking light on the ultrasound monitor. It reminds me of the sacred blessing I have to be a mother and to experience pregnancy. I truly believe pregnancy is a sacred experience. Corry really thinks it's a boy and keeps accidentally referring to baby as "him". I really have no idea. I am just excited that my body is doing well enough to sustain the little life inside me :)
  Also at the doctor, I asked about prenatals or vitamins because I haven't been able to take any since 5 or 6 weeks. She looked at me and said "Flintstone Gummies. Two of them once a day." She said I will get enough folic acid in me for baby and maybe some other things. So my loving husband got me some gummies and I've been able to keep them down for three days each time I've taken them. Today I was also prescribed another anti nausea medicine. So, I am on the Ondonsetron (Zofran), Promethazine (Phenergan), and something else that I think starts with an M... Hopefully it's the extra thing I need to get the vomiting down.

~ I love you~

My sweet husband is seriously the coolest. He is a Chinese Medicine Major and just finished his third year of the 4 year Master's Degree Program at OCOM. He took the Clinic Entrance exams on his last day. Yesterday I think, he got the notification that he passed the first (and more difficult for him) part of the exam. HOORAY! That pretty much means he passed the whole thing, I know it. So now he's on his summer break for a couple weeks. And how is he spending it? Priming and painting our room. He is such a wonderful man. Always working hard at everything he does and always doing something productive. I am so proud of his efforts and how much he works for our little family. He is the love of my life and I am glad I married a man who will be a great example of amazing work ethic for our children. (Yes I said children... you may think me crazy, but we are already thinking of another one a few years down the road!) Thank you honey. You make me so happy. I wish I could help you with things, but I will do my best to do what I can while I'm down. I'll make the most of my time.

****

I'll probably update again this week just to talk about how things go with the new medicine and maybe post some things I've been doing while I am sick. I can't do any physical anything, so I've been reading, drawing and watching a lot of random things. We shall see :) But I am putting up a little survey on the side of my blog, just for fun. Tell me if you think baby is a girl or if you agree with my husband and think baby is a boy. :) We will know in the next 4-6 weeks!

****