Adventures in the First Trimester

Things were a bit rocky in the beginning. I was unable to get pregnant for years because of my progesterone levels and was nervous about losing this pregnancy for the same reason. After vacation, Donovan and I immediately made an appt at the hospital on base to see if we could get my hormone levels checked. It was a very disheartening appt with the doctor telling us he won't even look at my levels and wouldn't do anything about it even if he did care to look. He said I should be happy I was pregnant and I would have to go through a few miscarriages before he would consider hormone therapy. I left the hospital in tears. I was convinced my body would reject this pregnancy and I would lose all the hope I had acquired. I was already set on going out in town for doctor appts but thought I would give the hospital one more try. We made an appt with the OB department. Again, I was convinced they wouldn't see us there because everyone else at Dono's work had been sent to another clinic 45 min away. Somehow, we got lucky and at my 8 week mark, we finally saw a doctor.
This appt went ten times better than the first. She still wouldn't do anything about my hormone levels but I had given up that fight. I was still convinced that I had lost the baby so had a nice surprise when the baby showed up on the screen and I heard the heartbeat. Dono and I held hands as we watched our little Stup on the screen. Our doctor confirmed the development with head size. I couldn't believe I was finally blessed with this experience. Still in the back of my mind, I waited for the shoe to drop but was determined to enjoy every moment along the way. I was so proud of our picture and how well it turned out.
Before heading to this appt I talked to my sister, Mallory. I commented how I never could tell what was going on in other people's ultrasounds. Always looked like a blob to me. We joked that we would definitely be able to tell when it was our own baby. At the appt, I needed no explanation as I could clearly see my child right in front of my eyes. Is it because I am biased or did I just get insanely lucky for my first picture?
Around this time, I had a three week break from school. Since I had nothing else to do, and really desired little else, I spent my days reading online websites, books, articles, and did a LOT of window shopping online. Time CRAWLED by. Those three weeks were some of the slowest of my life. Before I ended my first trimester I had already read all the books I acquired and was turning to repeats online.
Morning sickness, or in my case evening sickness, was short lived with no complaints from me. Starting at 9 weeks and ending around 11 or 12, I spent my evenings keeping my belly full as to not feel sick. I threw up a couple of times, mostly involving milk, but chalked it up to the nausea and didn't think much of it. (Later I found out it wasn't the morning sickness by my stomach's aversion to certain foods).
Before pregnancy, I had envisioned a war at home. With my hormones raging, I pictured PMS week but magnified 100 times. (PMS week is no joke in this household). Along with raging hormones, I pictured me sick all the time, only able to keep crackers and gingerale down. Of course, at least in my case, don't always believe what you read or see on TV. While my hormones were a bit crazy at times, Dono was incredibly patient (unlike PMS week) and loving throughout and did a good job not letting my craziness upset him. On top of that, my nausea was nothing I couldn't control. I learned early on to eat small meals every couple of hours and tried very hard to stick to that. This was not easy since before pregnancy I wouldn't eat my first meal until late afternoon and might eat one more before bed. It was challenging to come up with something to eat every two hours that was healthy but sounded good.
All in all, the first trimester was a breeze considering. Especially after I got over the feeling that it would all be taken away from me shortly. I was just ready to start showing a bit so I didn't have to be the crazy girl shouting "GUESS WHAT?! I'M PREGNANT!!" I wanted people to approach me. Little did I know, or still fully grasp even today. that as soon as that does start happening, I am going to wish I never had that desire.
I never imagined how much this pregnancy would fill my brain. I have no desire to do anything except talk about, read about, shop for, blah blah blah. I know my friends get sick of hearing about it so I just keep a running conversation in my brain, by myself. Who's crazy now? We will just say its the hormones and move on.