Symptoms at 8w3d

So I thought I’d write a little bit about my symptoms at 8 weeks (8w3d, to be exact). I’m still not feeling as many symptoms as I think I “should,” but they’re definitely present.

Tiredness: This peaks after lunch, at about 1 p.m. I have to fight the urge to fall asleep at my desk. For a while I thought I wasn’t very tired in the evening, but I think that’s because I’ve been resting - one night I was out and about and had to go home at 8 because I was so tired. Then last night I went to a friend’s house to catch up on Mad Men and got home at 10:15, and you would have thought I was coming home at 3 a.m. by how “late” it felt.

Boobs: Nope, not sore, although they might be a tiny bit bigger.

Peeing constantly:  I’m definitely peeing more, but I am also drinking a ton of water – I have a cup at work that holds 20 ounces, and my goal is to finish three of them before I leave for the day.  Then I keep drinking in the evening but don’t keep track.  I figure I end up drinking at least 80 ounces of water a day!  So am I peeing more because I’m pregnant, or because there’s all this water sloshing around in there?  Who knows.

Hunger: I have to force myself to eat my breakfast, but once it digests for about an hour I’m suddenly starving. I stay starving until about lunch, and after that slowly get less and less hungry throughout the afternoon.

Nausea: I still only get this a tiny bit, when my stomach is empty or I’m confronted with one of my food aversions (see below). I can prevent the hunger-nausea in the morning by eating breakfast (toast with peanut butter and a glass of milk – aka a mix of carbs and protein) as soon as I wake up. Sometimes it gets a little worse later in the evening, but even then I wouldn’t call it nausea as much as lack of desire for food.

Food aversions: Chicken salad – the thought of it can gross me out. In fact, just did. Other than that, I’m turned off by anything I ate yesterday;  yesterday I ate and liked almonds, and today they made my stomach turn. Tomorrow I’ll probably like them again. I also don’t like eating in restaurants – the two times I’ve done it have been my worst days.  My first theory was that it’s the grease in the food, but getting take out doesn’t cause the same problem.  So maybe it’s just the smells of a restaurant subtly turning my stomach?  Or maybe being out makes me more tired and that upsets my stomach?  It’s a mystery!  Finally, I used to love dessert but now, while I don’t hate it, I don’t really care about it.

Food cravings: Impossible to tell. Yesterday a cheese stick was the most delicious thing to ever cross my lips. Today it was a cranberry nut muffin. I consistently love classic Utz potato chips, though. So salty and delicious! At the moment I really want a BLT on a plain bagel. We can put some avocado on it, too, since that’s a “pregnancy super food.”  And cheddar, for some calcium and a little more protein.  Mmmmm.  For the record, a BLT on a bagel was pretty much my favorite hangover food before pregnancy, so it’s not that strange that I want one now.

Cramps: Yesterday I felt crampy for the first time in about 5 weeks. Of course I immediately started worrying, so I Googled it. Turns out that 8 weeks is about when another round of cramps shows up because your uterus is starting to expand even more. It was great to be a textbook example of something!

Other: This isn’t directly related to being pregnant, but I tried to make the switch to a “natural” deodorant without aluminum.  Well, apparently my body prefers the chemicals, because my armpits are currently covered in a red, scabby rash.  And they stink.  Gross. 

So those are all of my symptoms! I feel so incredibly lucky – they’ve barely interfered with my normal life at all. The nurses have all been shocked that I feel so great with triplets growing in there.  Woo for being 2/3 of the way through the first trimester!  One more sonogram with my RE next Tuesday, and then I “graduate” and am like every other pregnant person (well, every other person pregnant with triplets).  Once this last sonogram is past we’re going to start telling a LOT more people, so that will be really fun!