Finding Out – My First Reactions

My lifestyle is quite unpredictable. I’m unpredictable. I enjoy being spontaneous and hard to keep up with. I can definitely say that I love to party and run around, if you catch my drift. So you can imagine the first time I found out I was pregnant, I felt like my freedom had been taken away from me. Harsh to say, but becoming a mother at the age of 23 can be a demanding call on a young person. Now, don’t get me wrong, i’m very excited to be a mother and of course would never take back the blessing i’ve been given, but I would of liked to have had more time to myself.

I must of taken those cheap pregnancy tests during the first month ten times. People say that it’s very unlikely that reading a test that’s expired more than a few hours is inaccurate, but for me this statement is false. It can happen. You can take a pregnancy test that comes out negative, and a day later becomes TRUELY positive. So I waited a week later, and re-took it. Positive. I waited another week later. Still positive. I finally scheduled a doctors appointment and in fact I was pregnant. I was happy, scared, but happy. It’s also true that you can in fact become pregnant immediately after your period. It depends on your cycle of course, keep that in mind. But I did in fact have an egg awaiting some time after my period had ended.

Telling the Parents – Fears

Alot of people are afraid to tell their parents when it’s an unplanned pregnancy. I was extremely afraid to tell my parents, even as a grown adult out on my own, living in another state, farrrrrrrr away. My first fears were about my dad disowning me, mainly because I wasn’t financially ready to have children, and wasn’t with my partner more than a month. I hate disappointing my family with anything. I try so hard to impress and keep my parents happy with me. They are extremely difficult to please, thats for sure.

I waited a couple weeks before finally calling them up. I even called my brother first because I was so worried what my dad would say to me. I needed some reassurance from my oldest brother that my dad wasn’t going to “kill” me. I must of bawled my eyes out talking to my dad, but rest assure, he wasn’t upset at all, in fact he was shocked and excited at the same time. He now talks about taking his grand child fishing and into the outdoors when they’re older. All things of which he misses doing with us.

My mother, knowing she was going to be a grandmother, was extremely excited and would surprise me with little baby goodies every now and again. It was nice. It was a huge relief that my family accepted my pregnancy with open arms, and supported me throughout it.

1st Trimester – Morning Sickness, Hunger and Giving up Smoking/Drinking

I had just got a really good job working at the Paradies Shops inside the Airport Terminal, when I had my first week of Morning Sickness. Needless to say, I had a bunch of nausea, but no vomiting. The great thing is, it only lasted a week. I never had it again, not once through my pregnancy. The bad thing was that I had to keep calling off work, and finally quit my job. Not having morning sickness throughout my first two trimesters was quite a nice surprise, because growing up I never did deal with vomiting well. Any time I got the flu, i’d keep my vomit down, I refused to barf.

I never had any hunger cravings either. No pickles and ice cream of the sort, or any other strange pregnancy food combination’s. I did like my juices and veggie trays however, and I had a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup streak there for a while, until the father kept buying them, and I just got so sick of them. Milk! Oh did I love the milk, and I’m not much of a milk person. And of course it’s really good for you during pregnancy too.

The hardest thing I ever had to do was give up smoking and drinking. I have been a smoker for 4 years, and I’ve tried many times to quit throughout the years. Ways that I tried to give up were lolly pops while driving, gum, which was quickly ineffective, and trying to just starve myself of them. Nothing worked, until I found out I was growing another life inside me. I had made a promise a couple years ago that if I ever had a child, that I would give up smoking for my baby, to give them the best life they could possible have. It would be the most selfless act. And I did it. It was not easy and it was not immediate, but it was done cold turkey and I accomplished what I had promised. I slowly deprived myself of cigarettes, and by week 6 of my pregnancy, I was smoke free. Since I’m a social drinker, and only when I go out on the town with my friends, giving up drinking wasn’t really that much of a difficult task to achieve. It was a little depressing that I couldn’t go out with my friends and have a few drinks however.

2nd Trimester – First Doctors Visit, First Ultrasound, Finding out the Gender, Feeling movement

The first doctors visit for me was awful. Not the visit in general, but the blood test they have you do. They take five viles of blood from your arm and ship it off for numerous testing. Gladly enough all my tests came back clean. I must of scared the life out of the doctor and Evan, because they thought I had fainted during the blood test, I guess my face had turned pale white. I had my eyes closed, but only to attempt NOT to look at the needle and truely faint. They had me take a urine test aswell afterwards, and just went over a few things about options, and asked us if we had any questions. I never had any. The doctor always thought I was strange for not asking questions, but I was so entrigued by my pregnancy that I read up on anything and everything I wanted to know in advance. During the second trimester I was scheduled once every month, and then when the third trimester started it was once every two weeks, and during the last weeks it’s once every week up until labor.

Having my first glance at the baby on the ultrasound screen was a really touching experience. I tried not to cry. I was so amazed that a new life was beginning inside me. It sounds so scary when you hear about all the stories from other people who have had babies, because you become under the assumption that being pregnant isn’t enjoyable. It really is enjoyable, if you put your mind away from all the stuff that has to come with pregnancy. It’s not something that you suffer through, but really endure to keep that new life alive to be born. During the first ultrasound I got to see and hear its heartbeat. It was just a little thing, no bigger than my index finger, which is a couple inches. They gave me my first ultrasound photo for my baby album too. The doctors were really nice, pointing out noticable features of the baby. They made sure I knew what I was seeing. I did get an internal exam during my first ultrasound appointment as well. They check for all the normal things that come with a pap smear.

I started feeling her move around 19 weeks. I’m a fairly small person, so it’s easy to feel baby movement much earlier than some other women. It was like a little popping motion. A little moving bubble inside my tummy. I remember her being the most active when I was using my laptop. She responded the most to the sounds of my game I played. The father was extremely jealous that he could not yet feel her move. But weeks later, he was able to. It made me smile.

3rd Trimester – Dealing with Acid Indigestion, Pelvic Pressure, Going on Maternity Leave

Preparing for Baby – What to Buy, Motherhood Goodies

Labor – Contractions, Trip to Hospital, Meeting Baby