Swelling

Holy crap. My feet are HUGE! My legs and feet and fingers are all so puffy, I don't even recognize them as my own. It's so uncomfortable. So of course, I had to research online. Probably not the best idea because I'm not a doctor and if it was that easy to diagnose, there would be no need for doctors. However, I have 2, possibly 3, symptoms of preeclampsia. According to preeclampsia.org the symptoms are:

• Hypertension
• Proteinuria
• Edema
• Sudden Weight Gain
• Nausea or Vomiting
• Abdominal and/or Shoulder Pain
• Lower Back Pain
• Headache
• Changes in Vision
• Hyperreflexia

Again, I'm not trying to diagnose myself but the swelling is crazy and yes it's hot, but I've been in the a/c. I also gained 7 pounds this week, probably from the swelling, but that really concerned me when I got on the scale yesterday. Today, I was at my parents' house and they have blood pressure cuff so I decided to take my blood pressure. I'm almost always 112/72, today I was 133/91. While this doesn't fall into the hypertension range (140/90) completely but it's way high for me. I did have a headache all day today but it's gone now so I don't think it counts.

I'm not concerned enough to call the doctor but I will definitely mention it to him when I'm there on Thursday. I hope it's nothing abnormal.

Here's a picture of my nasty swollen foot (take my word for it, it's big):

Grotesque

While getting ready for bed last night, Bill pointed out that the veins in my chest were very dark. I looked down and was surprised at how prominent they were. I ran into the bathroom and was shocked to see that they were even more noticeable in the bathroom mirror with bright lights shining on me!

I tried to calm myself down by saying, it's the veins in your boobs, no one sees them but you and Bill. Then something caught my eye, a blue mark above my breasts. Holy crap! They go up to my collar bone! So I officially feel like this:
No skin, no organs, just veins and arteries. An anatomy teacher could use me as the diagram for his/her class!

Pregnancy sure does strange things to your body huh?

Damn Hormones!

Yesterday was a glorious Saturday. Glorious because I had absolutely no plans! My sister, Joelle, came over to watch the SU basketball game with me and to just hang out. We ended up watching the game, this week's Jersey Shore, and Sweet Home Alabama. A great way to spend a snowy afternoon. When Bill got home from work, we decided to go grab some dinner together. Joelle ended up deciding not to go as we walked to the car. I'm not quite sure why but I was kind of miffed about it because I had to change out of my sweat pants and 13 year old rugby shirt and get off the couch (the horror)!

She went home and Bill and I started driving toward the restaurant. As we got close we realized that the parking lot was overly full and I didn't want to sit and wait too long for a table. Right next to the restaurant is a Wendy's. Hour wait at a restaurant or delicious fast food? Not really a question is it? We got our Wendy's and went home to gorge. I got a side ceasar salad, 5 piece chicken nuggets (to put in the salad), and a frosty. I couldn't wait to get home! That's when the hormones set in.

I opened my ceasar salad to find copious amounts of cheese. I HATE unmelted cheese. I figured there would be a bit of parmesan (I can handle that) but this was some unknown kind and a lot of it. I started to pick it off and got more and more angry as I realized that there was just ridiculous amounts of it. Bill asked me what was wrong and I could hardly get out the words, "there's too much cheese on my salad" before the flood gates opened up. I began to bawl. Like hysterically crying. Over cheese. Damn hormones.

Bionic Fatigue

One of the pregnancy books I'm reading, The Pregnancy Countdown Book: Nine Months of Practical Tips, Useful Advice, and Uncensored Truths, refers to the crazy exhaustion pregnant women experience in their first trimester as bionic fatigue. This is a pretty accurate description of how I've been feeling lately. No matter how early I go to bed, I am yawning and struggling to stay awake past 8:00pm. A friend of mine texted me on Thursday asking if I wanted to hang out, drink wine, and talk that night. Obviously wine was out of the question so that was a deterrent to hanging out but knowing this friend, leaving at 7:30 to go home to bed would have been unacceptable. I turned her down and said I had dinner plans with my parents (I ended up going over to eat with them but they understand when I leave early).

Then this same friend called me yesterday, Friday, to see if Bill and I wanted to go out to dinner with her and her boyfriend. I was willing to suck it up and just go since it was a Friday but Bill had a terrible day at work and was not in the mood to go anywhere. Secretly I was thrilled. I was in bed by 8 and asleep by 8:30.

I'm afraid our friends are going to start thinking we're avoiding them. I feel like a drug addict, passing up friends to get my fix. My drug of choice being sleep.

The books say this should go away by the second trimester. I'm not really complaining because I don't have much in the way of morning sickness so I consider myself to be very lucky in the pregnancy symptom department. However, it will be nice to finally wake up and have a life before the baby gets here!