During a Pandemic… While Quarantined…
First things first, I apologize for my lack of posts. I have had quite a big secret to keep… and not much else to talk about lol!
Let me just start out by saying, pregnancy is a whirlwind of its own. Throw in the added stress of a global pandemic and being confined to your same four walls, and you got yourself a typhoon!
From the day we found out we were pregnant; it has been a never ending roller-coaster. To start, my husband is quite the planner… so yes, this pregnancy was planned (pre-corona), but it still happened way faster than we expected. After multiple negative tests, something just told me to take another one… sure enough it was positive! We were honestly in shock; it took some time to actually register. Don’t get me wrong, once everything clicked, we were elated! But I will say it was nothing like the movies, shock and confusion were the first to hit… then came the happiness and joy. At this time, we also had no idea what we were truly in for. The next day I called my doctor to schedule an appointment, which was scheduled a few weeks later at my “7 week” point- the anticipation was killing us!
Then, quickly… everything Corona virus started to go down. Cases started to rise, and the unknown started to become unnerving. About a week before my initial appointment, my husband and I thought it best for me to stop working. With all the unknowns and working in two different gyms, we just thought it was better for me to stay home. A few days later the state actually closed all gyms. I Then received one of the hardest calls during this time… I received a call from my doctor’s office informing me that I would need to come to my appointment ALONE. My husband was not able to come with me, not able to see our baby for the first time with me, not able to be there to support me during this unfamiliar time (especially being my first pregnancy). I just cried. I considered not going to the appointment at all, but also knew that was not a good idea. I was just so crushed, and I know my husband was too- even though he hid it pretty well for me. Now I know there are tons of women that do this alone normally, and I respect them immensely, but it was not what I expected or planned for my experience.
My first appointment came, and as expected it was… weird. My husband sat in his car waiting, not even being able to go into the building. When they brought me back for my initial ultrasound, I was honestly a bit nervous, I had no idea what to expect. My ultrasound tech was super nice and made me feel comfortable, but not having my husband there just made me sad. When I first saw that little blip in my tummy, I had a ton of emotions running through me, but I just kept them all in. We also found out that I was actually only 6 weeks and 2 days along, not the original 7 weeks we thought. After the ultrasound I was sent back to the waiting room to wait to speak with the doctor. Luckily, my doctor is wonderful, and everyone is trying to be as accommodating as possible. I was able to have my husband on speaker phone while she went over everything with me and answered all our questions. She made us feel better, but even she wanted to give me hug- which of course she could not. When I got back to the car with my ultrasound my husband and I just sat there, hugged, and shed a few tears. It was starting to feel real.
As for the pregnancy itself, I feel pretty good! Around 6 weeks I started to get some mild nausea, enough to make me not want to eat, but noting too bad. Luckily, it was not followed up with any vomiting, however toward the end of week 7 the nausea became just about 24/7. I’ve had a few random cravings, but nothing crazy or weird. Which is lucky, considering during this time it’s not as simple to get groceries and random snacks. I also oddly obtained an aversion to chicken, but only at home. I can eat chicken if we order it from somewhere, but for some reason if we have it at home it just does not sit well.
Week 8 I was due for my OB-workup and blood testing, so back to the doctor I went. Again, my husband could not join me, but he was there waiting for me in the car. The day after this appointment my Nurse Practitioner called me, she didn’t have all of my results yet, but wanted to go over something with me. When she asked if I knew what my blood type was, I thought that was a little strange (which of course I did not know). Well, turns out I have O-negative blood, one of the rarest blood types. O- blood is a great blood type for donating, as I can give to everyone, however I myself can only receive O- blood. What this means is that (unless my husband was also rarely negative- which he is not) my body would reject and kill off any other blood type in my body, aka my baby. This luckily does not affect my current pregnancy, but would for any future babies we plan on. To avoid any future issues, during this pregnancy I will need to get two additional shots called RhoGAM, at weeks 28 and after delivery, this is used to prevent Rh immunization. Although not a huge deal right now, this was still a little unsettling to find out, but luckily everything else with my tests came back great!
Towards the end of week 9 my nausea finally started to subside a little, and I luckily really didn’t have many other symptoms. Other than of course just feeling like a bloated whale and the occasional killer headache. My husband and I decided we really didn’t want to tell anyone until the end of the first trimester. Although so far everything was great, you just never know. We also hadn’t seen the baby since week 6 so we really wanted to get another peek before making any kind of announcement. To say the least, we were just a little eager! Lucky for us we actually planned to do genetic testing, since neither one of us really knows much about our family history, and we had that scheduled for week 12- which included an ultrasound. What seemed like the longest 3 weeks had finally arrived! We drove over to the doctor, but this time they actually allowed me to FaceTime my husband during the ultrasound. Definitely not the same as him being there, but we actually got to see our baby together. It finally started to take baby shape and we saw the little arms and legs and even got to see a little pose. The nurse said everything looked great! I then spoke with the doctor for a little while to go over the testing, and then they drew some blood. Results would take about a week to receive… but we will also find out gender!
That night we started making phone calls to all our family and close friends. What a relief! We were so happy and excited to finally be sharing the news. We made our official announcement to the “world” a few days later, on Mother’s Day (see below). That is where we are currently at. I am 15 weeks now. Our genetic testing results all came back perfect! We still don’t know the gender quite yet… I picked up the results, however my friends are surprising us with something for the final reveal. Since things have been so weird not being able to have my husband with me during appointments, this is something we wanted to find out TOGETHER, and we cannot wait!!
As for everything else baby related, I have been a little overwhelmed and stressed. To be honest, I have also felt quite alone. Bless my poor husband, but its hard not to be able to see friends and family during this time. Not being able to actually go to physical stores to look at things has made making a registry extremely difficult as well. Thank goodness I have my sister to help, but I still want to actually see and feel things before I commit to something for my baby. I’m also stressing out about maternity wear. Luckily all my clothes still fit, but soon they won’t. Not being able to try anything on, I do not even know where to begin… so that will be my next interesting journey in this adventure- I’ll keep you posted.
So needless to say, this pregnancy has far from been what I planned or expected, but that is life. Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches. There are days I am sad and “feel bad” for myself, but then I remind myself it could always be worse. I still have time, some other moms out there did not… they had to give birth during this craziness, they had to cancel showers, change plans, not allow their families to see their newborns- I feel for them. I don’t know what the rest of this journey has in store, but all I can do is hope. Hope things get better, hope I’ll be able to have a shower, hope I will be able to see my family that I have had to avoid, but most importantly… hope that I have a happy and healthy baby!
What I’ll leave you with is this…
As things start to open up, I now have to be more careful than ever. I have more than just myself to worry about now, and we still have so many unknowns with this virus. A lot of people don’t understand why I have been so secluded, but that is why… I can’t put my baby in jeopardy. Even in just a few days I have seen the lax of caring and seriousness to what is going on. Although I know it is important to go on living our lives, just remember there are some people out there that can’t just do that (for many different reasons). So be respectful, be caring, be smart, wear a mask in public, and follow the simple rules. We are all in this together and will get through it.
Stay tuned for more updates on this journey!
XO
