Third Time's a Charm

This pregnancy has been very different for me, symptom-wise, from my first two.  With both of my first pregnancies, I was lucky to avoid nausea and morning sickness (don't hate me, please), and general discomfort for the first trimester.  Around the end of the first trimester/beginning of the second (about 14 weeks) with both babies, I got hormone migraines, which were rough.  With #1, I actually ended up hospitalized due to dehydration because of the migraine.  I was with a very conventional OB practice at that point still (I switched around 28 weeks to a CNM), and I think that led to a lot of those complications.  I also did not yet have a chiropractor in the area that I could visit.  With baby #2, I got the same migraine at about the same point, and I was able to keep it under control with a combination of natural treatments, homeopathy, and chiropractic care.  On the day it was the worst, I was able to drop my daughter off at an amazing friend's house to head to the chiropractor, and then I came home to take a nap, and I slept most of it off.  It certainly takes a village, and I am so lucky to have an amazing one.

This time, I started with constant nausea.  Nothing sounded good.  The thought of any food was horrible.  The only thing I could manage to even think about was french fries (much to my children's delight).  After the nausea subsided around 11 weeks, I had a good week.  Then I got a horrible stomach pain, which lasted almost a week, and again, kept me from eating for almost that whole time.  It could have been stress, as we were moving the next week.  It could have been reintroducing dairy into my diet, after being dairy-free for more than two and half years, due to breastfeeding my dairy-intolerant son.  It could have been all of that or none of it.  But it was a long, rough week.  After that, I had another good week.  Then, around 15 weeks, the hormonal headaches started.  There is nothing quite so unfair as waking up with a headache.  And you know its going to last all day.  And you will go to sleep with it, and wake up with it again the next day.  This time, the headaches have not been so intense, but have lasted longer.  They are, in fact still hanging on.  I usually wake up with one, and I have it for a few hours, until the "morning fog" has lifted from my brain.  And sometimes I go to bed with one.  But most of my daytime hours are without a headache lately, which is good.  I am glad for that.

I am looking forward to the next few weeks, which are usually pretty comfortable for me during pregnancy.  Although, so far, this pregnancy has certainly not followed my past patterns.  We will see if things are different!