4 | Life around week 10

It's been some weeks since the first gynecologist visit and life goes on. The tracking app I've been using gives accurate predictions on the progress of the embryo. Some weeks ago, they started rendering comparisons of the embryo size with objects. It started with an embryo the size of a blueberry (~week 8), then to an olive (~week 9) and now to a strawberry (~week 10 and counting...).

Changes to the body

It has been some months and I'm struggling with nausea. It's probably not as severe as some go through, nonetheless it's a daily struggle. I haven't thrown up yet (crossing fingers to keep it that way), but the overwhelming hypersalivation is imminent every afternoon. As soon as I feel this, the body feels battered and most energy is lost. There's very little adventure left in the body and mind after/during nausea. You just want to sit, do nothing and smell nothing. For some food, Koen has starting cooking outside in the backyard!!

I'm not particularly craving any food or getting any hunger pangs when it comes to food. However, chicken, fish and meat, etc. make me lose my appetite and the smell of frying onions bother me quite a bit lately. I prefer vegetables over meat and fish for sure. Some days I even made myself boiled rice and potatoes - additionally a little fever made somewhat worse. It has been better since then.

In the initial weeks of the pregnancy, I did feel more hunger than now at week 10. The body weight isn't really increasing. The afternoon nausea hopefully should dissipate by week 14, says the doctor. That's still some time to go before I get there. For now, it's dealing with 1 day at a time.

The rest of the body is changing very slowly. I feel stiffness in the belly when laying down or when letting out a cough or a sneeze. I definitely need to visit the toilet more often for pee-breaks. Night's sleep usually involve at least 1 toilet break, compared to none weeks back and mostly throughout my life. Not enjoying waking up around 4 am so much! It's a struggle to get back to sleep and can take >1h most days, resulting in me waking up tired than usual.

Self-made remedies

While talking about my nausea to the gynecologist, she mentioned some remedies and supplements that I could take. Some involved ginger and according to her, ginger did wonders against nausea. Koen went and got some blocks of fresh ginger and some candied sweet ones. They did help. I converted the fresh ginger to baked, dried and salted strips that I would snack on now and then when feeling nauseated. I did feel some degree of relief by them. 

Fizzy (sparkling) water helped too. Especially, in letting out those belches that relieve nausea so much. I do consider myself lucky for the control I have so far over this situation. I have been able to keep my food down. Am I eating selectively? I sure am. But I'm glad that I'm able to eat most foods and at the same time continue working.