the quake
the setting: 1:52 pm, Off-site Pediatric Endocrine Office, Durham NC
SHU: [on phone] . . . so, while her thyroid levels weren’t optimal, they were close. however, i’d still like to push up her dose of levothyroxine just a bit, to 62.5 mcg. i can call that in — hey, the building is shaking . . . i think maybe we’re having an earthquake?!
PATIENT’S MOM: [from phone, actual location ~1 hr away] me too!!
SHU: uhh, i’ll call you back?
*click*
i think the most interesting thing about the little quake we had yesterday was the shared nature of it all. since the event seems to have caused little to no damage, it was like a much more pleasant [and obviously miniaturized] version of the communal terror everyone felt after 9/11. somehow, it made me feel just the tiniest bit closer to . . . well, just about everyone else who felt it too.
but i’m okay if it never happens again!
hmmmm
the graph below looks innnocent enough, doesn’t it?
bottom numbers = weeks of gestation
i thought pregnancy was the one time you were not supposed to worry too much about weight gain. but thanks to babycenter, pregnant women have yet another way to obsess about things.
see that dot hanging out at the very top of the curve? uhh, that’s me! i had my first OB appointment yesterday [nurse visit/lab draw] and to be honest was a little shocked to find out that i had already gained ~3 lbs.
my first thought: how is this possible when i hate nearly every food now !??
my second was: except cheese. and greasy asian take-out. hmmmm . . . plus, my nausea cure has been eating. [it works!]. and i’ve had no vomiting, which i still consider to be a GOOD thing.
i’m not going to worry too much about this yet — perhaps part of it might be a discrepancy in scales. everyone knows that doctors’ office scales ALWAYS say you’re heavier, right?? joking aside, i’m actually less hungry now than i was in the very early weeks so perhaps it’s my body’s cue to even things out a little. and maybe i need to work on finding healthier answers to those take-out cravings.
healthier answers that still involve cheese, of course
i have my first actual doctor’s appointment at the same office on monday, so i will be sure to ask the OB whether i should be concerned [i’m guessing no at this point]. in the meantime, i’ll keep up with my activity and will work on expanding my repertoire of tolerable vegetables. right now, broccoli and lettuce make the cut — and not much else. at least it’s a start!
questions to spur conversation
1. did you feel the quake yesterday?
2. if you’ve been pregnant before and gained more than negative-1 lb over the first trimester, please tell me so that i can feel less ridiculous.
8 Comments
Hey, you’re pregnant. You don’t want to gain absurd amounts of weight, but it’s so not worth obsessing over. I live outside DC and the earthquake scared the pee out of me.
I gained 5lbs during the first 12 weeks of my first pg, a pound a week until 30 weeks, then 20! lbs over the next ten weeks, which I mostly attribute to water weight (up 6lbs in one week alone, which was when my ankles got really puffy), so 37 in total. 25 came off in the first week post partum, then another 19lbs in the months after that (I gained a lot more than you did in order to get pregnant in the first place).
Second pg gained very similarly at the beginning, 5lbs by 12 weeks, a pound a week after that until about 34 weeks when my weight plateaued, total gain of 26 pounds, lost about 10 in the first week, the rest (plus another 6) came off in the months afterwards.
I really really really encourage you to keep eating what seems good to you. It is actually really helpful to have a bit of extra fat on you after delivery because BFing consumes about 500cal / day so having some extra fat stores to start with so that you don’t have to force yourself to eat that much can actually be a really good thing!
Especially as you are still quite thin, I think the 3lbs is a good thing! 🙂
When I became pregnant in 1981, I had cravings for Cream of Wheat in my first trimester, which I hadn’t eaten since I was a child. I indulged, figuring it was better than doughnuts or the Rollo candies I craved in the last 2 weeks of pregnancy. Anyway, by December, 1981, I remember starting to hear about folic acid and spina bifida in popular media. Being 6 months pregnant, I worried and worried. Looking back, I wonder if some of these Cream of Wheat cravings were nature’s way of telling me what I needed. My baby, now 29, was born healthy and roly poly, the later having nothing to do with Rollo caramels.
Didn’t feel the earthquake in Phoenix, although I am a geologist and love plate tectonic talk.
No babies, so no advice. However, I have several friends who were so ill at the beginning of their pregnancies that they lost weight in the first trimester. I don’t know how the graph was made but I wonder if the "averaging" of women who loose weight with those who gain cause for the apparent "no gain" graph trend during the first trimester?
I have no advice about weight gain but the earthquake freaked me out at bit. I was in a meeting at work and thought I was having a bad episode of vertigo (seriously). Never experienced one before so I had no idea what to expect!
if you live in the atlantic coast I asasume you htink the apocalypse is upon you. Earthquakes, aftershocks and then a hurricane Unbelievable
I definitely felt the quake here in Raleigh. Trouble is, I thought it was people moving furniture upstairs! Ha!
As for weight gain in pregnancy, I can’t speak from personal experience yet, but my sister is having a similar experience. She’s already gain 17 lbs, and she’s only 6 months along. However, as your mom so astutely pointed out, I think it’s important not to get caught up in the numbers. We all know you eat sensibly, so relax and enjoy your pregnancy:)
i felt the earthquake yesterday. we’re on vacation in a house on the beach on topsail island, north carolina. there are 15 other people in the house, at least 10 of which were inside with me, and NO ONE else felt it. so i convinced myself i was nuts and didn’t say anything. and ten minutes later, we all heard about the earthquake. so nutty… and now we’re working out plans for leaving to beat hurricane irene…