LIfe's an itch.

I had a case of hives once in my late 20s. They were medically deemed as "urticaria." What I am feeling now, with baby in tow, is not the same thing at all. It is similar in that it is a deep, maddening itch from within, but there is no visible rash. It comes and goes. It is localized. It is hell on earth. Currently, it lies in wait behind my knees, like a spider. If it's anything like urticaria, it will move to various parts of my body, and always mirror said parts on both sides.

Steve, doting and caring, rubs lotion on me and tries to help. But because it's not a skin condition, nothing helps. I'm sure my incessant scratching wakes him and if it doesn't now, it surely will the more pregnant I become.

I've read that generalized itching of this nature (meaning all over your body), with or without a rash, and late in pregnancy is a sign of a very serious condition and could cause problems. I've also read that the itching in pregnancy could be caused from hormones, or from the liver's production of bile salts which seep into the blood and hang out in the lymph nodes. Neither sound pleasant. The phrase "bile salts" sounds like something that seeps from the mouth of a monster in a horror film.

But, don't worry (Helen!), I've also read itching is quite common during pregnancy, and rare (1%) that something could be wrong or risky. Plus, this is the nature of my skin - it itches. It's known to have hives. Pregnancy or not.

So, then, a few things will ease this itch and my mind:
1. Suck it up and try to ignore it
2. Slather on calamine lotion which has been stored in the fridge to keep it cold
3. Ditch the hot baths I love so much and trade them in for warm ones with oatmeal
4. Moisturize my skin in an obsessive fashion
5. Get blood tests to determine that my liver isn't in danger due to being pregnant (Lordy knows I've done enough to it since I've been old enough to drink).
and, importantly,
6. Have Baby Rowland. The itch will apparently go away upon his/her arrival.

So, come on, Baby Rowland! We have just one more reason out of millions that we can't wait for you to get here, and I have no doubt an itch will be well worth seeing your sweet face.

Eatin' like a horse.

I promise I'm not one of those people who will use pregnancy as an excuse to eat whatever I want, which might include 2-3 hot and now Krispy Kreme donuts in one sitting, or a gallon of ice cream, or an entire bag of tortilla chips with the entire 8 oz. tub of sour cream and a bowl of 2-avocado guacamole. I promise, that ain't me. I am trying my hardest to stick to my regular eating routine - 4-5 small meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. Fine.

It's the small part that's giving me the most trouble.

I get so hungry between breakfast and lunch that I feel like I could eat my own arm off. That my stomach is literally turning inside of itself. It's a dulling pain. Then, I remember to think of Baby Rowland. He or she must be starving in there, if I'm feeling so starved. So I feel okay when I come home for lunch and proceed to consume chips and salsa while my microwave meal is heating up because it's too difficult to wait an entire three minutes, and then after that, proceed to eat a small bowl of last night's leftovers. Then a cashew nut cluster. Finally, my appetite is satiated. And so is baby's, it seems. Where I used to eat a healthy microwave meal or a sandwich, I now eat three meals at lunchtime.

I have the best intentions, I swear. So when I bring an apple and a pear to work to eat as a midday snack, I think I'm doing fine until I get home again thirty minutes later. There's that "eat my own arm off" feeling again. Jalapeno pimento cheese sandwich kicker, anyone?

The bad part, for those of you who know me too well? I don't like candy corns anymore. The mere thought of them makes me sick. Tell me that's not weird. I made my poor husband go to two different grocery stores to find Bleinheim's hot ginger ale. As if that wasn't bad enough, after we bought it with some pie, I made him stand in line again because I saw some ginger salad dressing on our way out that I just had to have.

I think it's safe to say that Baby Rowland likes ginger. I think it's also safe to say that if I continue to eat like a horse, I will grow to look like the side of a barn.

First Trimester Terror.

Not terror, really. But folks have been asking me how I feel, and here's the run-down from most annoying to least:

- I am itchy and my skin is dry, all over.
- I have extremely strange dreams.
- I am verging emotional melt-down at the silliest stuff.
- I feel extremely nauseous, but don't throw up.
- I am dead dog tired.

Why I save the dead dog tired bit for last is because I don't believe I've ever had so much sleep in my life! I like it. It feels nice to sleep 10-12 hours each night and on the weekends. I don't mind, really. I'm told that my energy levels will pick up, and my nausea will subside in the second trimester, which is just around the corner!

Today's doctor visit: meet Baby Rowland!

Today's visit was amazing! I met Steve at the doctor's office and as we were in the waiting room, "Eye of the Tiger" was on the radio. We anticipated hearing the baby's heartbeat on a sonar device, and we joked that the baby's heartbeat would mimic the beat of Steve's favorite Clemson game day song. But, we didn't get to see the sonar device - we got to see an ultrasound!

The lady gelled up my belly and as soon as she put the device on it - there was our sweet Baby Rowland! How surprised were we?! Shortly after, we could hear the rythmic beating of the heart. He or she has a strong heartbeat, according to the ultrasound technician - around 165 beats per minute. He or she also has little limbs and eye buds, arms, hands, legs and feet. I kept pulling up to look at Steve, who was mesmerized. I giggled. He said "wow, now we know there's a little person in there!" Then he asked if we could take pictures home with us and proceeded to steal them from me to show his work clients. After we were done with what must be one of the most monumental events of soon-to-be parents, we walked out of the ultrasound room one giggly mama and one puffy-chested papa. I went through the usual. Put up my pee sample, had my blood pressure taken. All is well there - no fear of odd blood-bourne diseases this go round. We got the chance to talk to the doctor, who told us that we are 11 weeks and 4 days pregnant, and our little sugar plum is about 4 cm. in length. Next visit is Monday, March 29. I will hear baby's heartbeat again, and have blood work done to determine that Baby Rowland is healthy and risk-free. That said, let's hope my blood pressure stays calm. :)

God love girlfriends.

I love my girlfriends. I really do. Thoughtful, caring and experienced - I don't know what I will do without them in the upcoming months.

Shannon sent out a card a couple of days after she found out. Laurie sent me an awesome (really funny) book, "The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy." It addresses everything from constipation to fashion to nipples. I love it! Kendale sent me a prenatal yoga DVD. I think she was scared that I was losing it based on my email rants to her. She has no idea that she's part of my stress relief. Robin just sent me the sweetest little sheep snuggly blanket for our newborn, and two books. Because she's always thinking ahead, from what I can tell, these books discuss what happens after you have the baby. Specifically, they address sleeping habits and consistency so that baby is happy (and mommy and daddy, too). I can't wait to dig into them! Candice has also promised me her pregnancy wardrobe, which I plan to pick up promptly since my clothes are getting tight.

Now, more than ever, I appreciate the girls in my life.

First Doctor's Visit.

So, I hate blood tests. It's a fact. I find them invasive and a little too personal. The mere thought that someone would be standing over my blood and looking at it freaks me out, sans needles, even. Then, there's the unmerited, completely ridiculous thought that I may have caught HIV from a toilet bowl, or Hepatitis from the dentist's chair. All those things that I don't want to think about or know about tend to surface when I have to have blood drawn.

Because of this, my blood pressure was so high that the lady taking it told me she was scared and considered sending me to the emergency room. I eventually calmed down but the next week was laden with fear - wondering if my blood tests came back clean.

They did. All is perfect this visit. No protein or sugar in my urine. My blood pressure was normal after I calmed down. My pap smear was normal also. They confirmed me at six weeks on January 7, 2010. Baby Rowland was roughly the size of a sesame seed. I was given prenatal vitamin samples to help him or her grow.

Starting at the beginning.

Because we are in Atlanta, and away from most of the folks we love so much, we thought it best to create a blog to share this experience: the welcoming of a baby and beyond!

We decided to try and start a family this year, 2010, the beginning of a new decade. I wanted to go ahead and get a head start and decided to remove my bit of contraception, a copper IUD called Paraguard. I figured it might take us a while since we're not spring chickens. We're people in our early 30's who enjoy having fun and traveling often while also mixing in exercise and laziness, respectively. We had no idea how fertile we were, since we removed the IUD on December 18, 2009 and likely conceived Baby Rowland on December 19.

Over the Christmas and New Year's holidays we were so busy with friends and family we really didn't think anything of actually trying. By "trying" I mean tracking ovulation cycles, and noting the texture and consistency of one's cerivcal mucus. All those lovely elements of observation that come along with trying to find the 24-hour window of time required to conceive a baby. We actually didn't find a lot of time to even "have fun" in a biblical sense over the holidays - our first married together. But, as God would have it, we were given the gift we wanted to plan for anyway.

On Friday, January 5th, an ice storm came through and I had to work from home, which worked for me since I'd planned on taking a weekend trip to spend time with my best friend. My last period was December 5th, so I was pretty late. So late in fact, that the previous Monday I took a test that came up negative. This Friday, still nothing, I decided to rough the now melting icy roads to get a pregnancy test. Steve was working from home that day too. So, I came home barely able to contain myself and peed on the stick. The line was so faint! Steve came up to look at it, and said, "yep, it's definitely a line. See it?" I said, "I'm not so sure. I had a lot of coffee this morning. This a two pack, so let me drink some water and take another." The second test showed a less faint line, and in a quicker manner. At this point, Steve began to walk around the kitchen with his chest puffed out like a rooster. Excited that he was able to help me create this miracle that was slowly dawning on us, and very manly at his ability to do it so fast. We sat there and stared at one another. "Surely we couldn't have done it this fast?" we say. We hug. We kiss. We giddily begin to talk about it. I go to the store for another round of tests - just to make sure. This time, I get the ones that spell it out: "PREGNANT" or "NOT PREGNANT" - and it came up pregnant of course.

Because I had so many tests, I saved one for my best friend as proof. I still made the trip, this time without picking up my usual six pack of dark beer and half case of red wine. She was the first person to know, besides us. I couldn't wait to get back home to Steve, though, and begin to plan doctor's visits and Baby Rowland's arrival.