Avery Marie: When the Excitement Settles and Reality Kicks In

February 23^rd: When the excitement settles and reality kicks in (aka morning sickness)

When I first found out I was pregnant I thought, “Wow! This isn’t bad at all! All I want to do is eat right and exercise. I feel great!” Maybe I was blinded by all the excitement, or maybe I just wasn’t as far along in the pregnancy as we originally thought, but right around February 9^th, I started feeling horrible. I would start feeling sick right around breakfast, and it would last until after lunch. Then it came back in the evening... all evening. There were days I was certain I came down with the flu. I was nauseous, achy, tired and felt like I had a constant head cold. I guess I was living in this “bubble” of excitement and as soon as that burst, the symptoms of morning sickness came flooding in!

Of course, this had to start right before my trip to Las Vegas. Before my flight, I prepped my carry-on luggage with medication (approved by my doc), crackers and other snacks to keep me from getting sick on the plane. It worked!! But the second day in Vegas, I was stuck in bed… ALL DAY!! I had to send my poor sister off to explore wonderful Las Vegas all on her own. I felt like the WORST traveling companion, especially since she won this trip through her company and chose to take me… I’m so grateful that she was so understanding! Luckily, I was feeling well enough to go see a WONDERFUL show, Le Reve at the Wynn. I highly suggest you see this show if you go to Vegas. Probably the best show I've ever seen! Here's a link to some photos: http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/Shows/LeReve/Photos

Since Vegas, I started to get worse and worse… until Sunday, February 19^th when I started running a fever… Yikes! I freaked out and went straight to Google to research… BIG mistake! I kept reading horror stories about women that had a fever while pregnant. This did NOT make me feel any better! My fever hit 99.9 degrees and my paperwork from my doctor said that 100.4 or higher is considered an “emergency.” So, my goal was to keep my temperature down as low as possible. I was chugging cold water, keeping a cold washcloth on my head, and keeping Tylenol in me. It seemed to work because I slowly got my fever down! And now I’m mostly tired, but being tired is the new norm for me…

Update (April 13): Turns out, my doctor told me that anything below 100.4 for a pregnant woman is not considered a fever, But anything over 102 would be cause for concern… I wish they put that on the paperwork!! I’m just SO glad that part of my pregnancy is over!!