APL and I have some exciting news to share! And I'll bet from the picture you can already guess what it is! That's right....I'm pregnant! We are very excited to announce that we are expecting our second baby this summer!
I've been meaning to write this announcement post for several weeks, ever since I crossed safely into the second trimester. Unfortunately, this pregnancy has been
extremely difficult for me so far. I had "
morning sickness" when I was pregnant with OZL, and I
thought that was bad. Turns out that was extremely mild! I would trade this for that in a millisecond! I have been so very sick with this baby that I had to start taking prescription anti-nausea meds at about week 6. And really all that did was stop me from vomiting all day every day. I've had major issues in consuming enough nutrients and, unfortunately, I've even lost weight since becoming pregnant.
About two weeks ago I reached a point where I couldn't even keep the anti-nausea medication down. I ended up at the OB's office one morning after throwing up three times before 10am. They gave me another form of the medication that dissolves in my mouth (instead of swallowing a pill). With the help of the new medication and, I hope, the advancing weeks of my pregnancy, I am cautiously starting to feel better. And while I am still having a great deal of difficulty planning or preparing meals for my family, I am doing slightly better with eating food that is put in front of me. I'm not gaining any weight yet but at least I'm not losing any more! And, throughout all this, the best news is that the baby is doing great!
And now that I am starting to feel a tiny bit better I am ready to start sharing my pregnancy experiences with the RA community. It's very important to me to share my experiences because pregnancy is another RA topic that I feel is not addressed nearly as much as it should be - especially considering that such a large percentage of people with RA are women and many of us are still quite young!
When I was ready to get pregnant for the
first time I was desperate to find stories of other women managing to survive pregnancy and RA at the same time. Unfortunately, aside from
one book (that I had to order all the way from Australia) and
one brave blogger (who is now also expecting her second baby!!) I just couldn't seem to find very much good information. This is a gap that I'd really like to help fill if I can.
I shared stories from my first
pregnancy on this blog. This time I am really excited to have the opportunity to share my pregnancy stories on
RheumatoidArthritis.net. Not only will that platform allow me to reach a wider audience, but through the search engine optimization work they are doing I may also be able to reach women who are blindly Googling "RA and pregnancy" - like I was before my first baby. So look for my pregnancy stories on the
RheumatoidArthritis.net blog, and I will post links here as well.
And wish me luck that I start feeling better soon - because I still have a long way to go!