8 weeks?

Do you know how frustrating it is to know that your pregnancy timeline is dragged back to a week earlier? Do you know what 1 week means to a pregnant lady like me?

1 week is 1 week closer to trimester 2.
1 week closer to end the tumultous journey.
1 week closer to safety.
1 week less worrying.
1 week less of morning sickness!

I regretted being worried over the lack of pregnancy symptoms a couple of weeks back. Come this week, the nausea heightened and ladies & gentlemen, welcome to the puking club!

There I was a few weeks back, appetite turned on to the max. Semua benda aku nampak, semua rasa nak sumbat dalam tekak. Nausea was there too, but it lessened the moment I shoved something into my mouth. No vomitting yet. Happily I piled on weight like nobody's business.

Came this week. Suddenly I woke up and brushing my teeth is no longer just an irritating business, it's a full-blown risk of throwing up. Then mid-week, I started to throw up. Now I throw up in earnest. My routine is, makan and then wait for one or two hours. Then go to the toilet and heave it out. Then makan again.

But I'm trying to think positive of the vomitting. I am thinking, 'well, at least I won't put on too much weight and I can eat again after that (and repeat the whole process).' Only, the not so positive part is, getting down with that awful headache just before I throw up, and then my inability to control my vomitting and I will vomit till nothing else will come out and this sour-ish, bile-ish thing come out (which makes me want to throw up more).

Deep breath. Ok Carneyz. No complaints. No crying. This is normal pregnancy symptoms. As long as you have these symptoms, your baby is doing ok in there.

Anyway, the reason why I blog today is because we had our ultrasound check-up again today. Our first check-up was two weeks ago, back then I had spotting and we were so worried that I checked around for a clinic that could carry out vaginal ultrasound coz the normal ultrasound is not good enough to detect any heartbeats this early.

I'll discuss more about this spotting issue later on.

So, my dearest friend Bib helped us out and told us about this one clinic she went to last time when she discovered that she had miscarriage. The clinic is in Jalan Tun Razak, and it's a maternity specialist clinic. So we went there, registered ourselves and waited for our ultrasound turn. The doctor is a nice Indian lady, and when we finally get to see (albeit briefly) the heartbeats on the ultrasound machine we were so relieved.

Back to this afternoon. The clinic was half empty in the afternoon. I was the third patient. When I came in, the nurse asked me to pee in a cup, weighed me and then sent me in to see the doctor. I managed to see that my sugar level is ok, my blood pressure is ok and according to the doctor, the weight I put on is reasonable (0.7kg). I better check this up on the Internet later. I don't want to gain weight too rapidly coz it might risk the pregnancy.

After all the check-ups are done, it was time to hop on the examination bed and have the ultrasound. Unfortunately Suami Terchenta did not join us and therefore, missed the whole experience which he had been looking forward to since last week.

At first the ultrasound only showed a bigger sac compared to last time and a still image of something blurry in the middle of the sac. I asked hesitantly, thinking 'Oh dear, here we go again, no heartbeats!' 'Doctor, where's the heartbeats?'

The doctor started to measure the fetus, and confirmed that it is only 8 weeks and 2 days old (I thought I was already 9 weeks!). Then she zoomed in the image, and pointed to the middle of the fetus. I could see something moving rapidly. 'There's the heartbeats. You can even listen to them.'

She turned on the volume, but I guess the equipment was not as canggih as the one in Pusrawi, so I couldn't really distinguish the sound from the echo of the ultrasound, but I could see a steady sound wave on the screen which I guess, I could settle with.

Alhamdullillah. Despite the repeated spotting and our misgivings, the fetus is still surviving and growing steadily in my womb. I hope the fetus will keep on fighting for its survival, and develop into a perfectly healthy baby. However, from here to the 9th month is still a long way to go. Even from 8 to 9 weeks seems ages!

In the end, even though the nausea, the headache and the vomiting are really pulling me down, I do not mind going through them all if it means my baby is doing ok.

I hope that my nausea will subside in my second trimester because by that time, I'm doing a new job and I'm starting my Masters at the same time and I need my health back. Amin.