7 weeks

We have a heartbeat! I need to start this post with that.

This week was an emotional roller coaster.We were out of town, and at times I really wanted to be home. The night before we left, I had one of those whole body sneezes. Well, I wasn't expecting it and when I sneezed my whole stomach squeezed so hard that I had to catch my breath and it hurt really badly. It was like a charlie horse- my stomach muscles were so sore the next day. I looked it up online though and I guess this is normal with the growing muscles but it still made me worry. Then as we were driving out of Boston with our rental car, someone rear ended us. The car two behind us hit the car behind us. I actually heard that impact and was about to ask Dave what that sound was (sounded like cars hitting each other) when we felt the 2nd impact. Thank goodness it was really light but I freaked out a bit. I called the midwife center and they said that the damage was done if it was going to happen; there wasn't anything they could do to prevent a miscarriage from the accident. And since I had the ultrasound scheduled for less than a week later and was out of town, it wasn't worth going to the ER.

With all of that, and symptoms subsiding, I had a melt down in our motel one day. Poor Dave.  I ended up just sobbing in his arms and telling him I thought this pregnancy was over. It also made going to the ultrasound just plain scary. On one hand I wanted reassurance that things were ok but on the other I was scared to death that we'd find out again that we had lost another baby.

Wednesday (6 weeks 6 days) we went to the imaging center for the ultrasound. I was actually dreading it. But about two hours beforehand I started googling images of the baby how it would look at around 7 weeks. And that got me so excited. I started bouncing in my chair at work. Sitting in the waiting room, my heart was racing. And when the heartbeat started pulsing on that screen and the technician pointed it out, I just couldn't believe it. I was so shocked and I started crying. She was asking when our previous losses were and I was crying so much I couldn't even respond. So she handed me a towel to wipe my eyes and said, it's ok, I can wait. They also gave us a picture!!! which I told Dave to take with him or I'd be waving it around work. And I did NOT get much work done after that, I was just bouncing around the rest of the day. Still not really ready to tell people but so happy and excited.

How many weeks: 7


Size of baby: 8mm, blueberry (measured about 7mm at 6 weeks 6 days)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm down 1.5 pounds.  I swear, I AM eating.  And it's mostly junk- pizza and pasta seem to be the easiest things to stomach right now.

Maternity Clothes: Not yet. Regular clothes still feel fine, too. I'm trying to wear my tighter stuff while I can since it will be awhile before I'll fit into them again.

Sleep: I'm sleeping pretty well other than having to get up to pee.

What I miss: We were in New Hampshire and Vermont visiting family and Dave and I went on some brewery tours (Sam Adams, Harpoon, and Magic Hat). I really missed doing tastings during the tours. And we weren't ready to tell people yet about the pregnancy so... we tried to avoid the topic and didn't correct people if they thought I drank at the tastings as well as Dave.

Cravings: None.

Aversions: None. Although at times I'm just not hungry.

Symptoms: My symptoms have mostly seemed to go away. I still have the super sense of smell but I've been able to roll onto my stomach and even there I don't feel crampy anymore or anything.  I also tend to get light headed pretty easily so I think my blood pressure is still pretty low.

Best moment this week: Seeing that beautiful heartbeat. The technician was also pointing out where the head was, etc. That was by far the best thing ever.

Looking forward to: I'm so excited about the heartbeat I'm not really thinking past it yet!