All good!

Things are all good at the moment! I finally went back to the clinic to get the band adjusted and thankfully it is much better now - I am able to eat salads and breakfasts again which are really important to me. Salads of course because I want to get the vegies into my diet and breakfast because I had not been able to eat it and then would feel sick and seedy for the rest of the day - booooo!!

I have to admit that this week has not been the best health wise but I have been soooooo busy at work and so exhausted when I got home that it was all I could do to have a few mouthfuls of food and then fall in to bed. I am still waiting for the second trimester burst of energy that is supposed to be coming my way but so far, no luck - it is not anywhere in sight!!

I am still having the weekly scans and at the moment all is really good, the baby is growing nicely and I am feeling pretty good apart from the fact that I have been mega tired and I have been getting bouts of dizziness lately - the OB has said it is because I have low blood pressure.

We have been having hot weather forever here in Melbourne and I have to say, I am sincerely over it!! Normally I love the hot weather but it has been really knocking me around! It is supposed to be Autumn now but it still feels like summer!

Tight Band...

Well, I have to admit it - the band is too bloody tight. I have felt this way for two weeks but it has been very up and down so I hadn't been too worried about it. Now it is consistently causing me a bit of grief so I am going to have to get something done about it. Also, the problem now is that I am getting pain when food is going down - this is a new thing, it hasn't happened to me before so I am keen to get it checked out. I am going to go in for an emergency appointment tomorrow.

I have been a bit worried that the baby and I are not getting enough nutrition with the band being so tight and I have thrown up a few times which has not just been pleasant as it has been not just food getting stuck but has turned into normal morning sickness throwing up - blech. I am hoping that it will all be better after tomorrow.

Had a pretty good weekend, though I am very, very tired now because I had a lot on. Got my tax done of Friday as well as having the first of the weekly ultrasounds which showed everything is going well. Saturday we went to country Victoria to visit my sister in law and her husband and then today (we had a public holiday in Melbourne) Jen came over to hang out. I know it doesn't sound like it was that busy but honestly, I am totally exhausted and not looking forward to work tomorrow, just because I am so tired - hopefully this week will go quick!!

I'm back and............I'm PREGNANT - whoo hoo!!

Is anybody out there still reading? I hope so!

Okay - first let me apologise for me lack of blogging over the past couple of months. As you can see by the title, I am pregnant - YAY and that is the reason I haven't been blogging - I wanted to get to a safer part of the pregnancy before I announced it to you all. I am now 13 weeks pregnant and we couldn't be happier about it. As many of you know, the main reason that I got the band in the first place was to help IVF. We have been trying for years and now to be pregnant, well, I just couldn't be happier.

So, some updates - what has been going on?

Firstly, the pregnancy is a high risk one because of the multitude of issues that I have. I am seeing a high risk OB and so far everything is going well. The first 12 weeks were tough with the morning sickness and I realised that I don't really know the difference between feeling nauseous and feeling hungry - certainly one of my previous issues, that's for sure! Thankfully the majority of the morning sickness has now passed though I am still pretty tired. Gosh there were some weekends where I didn't even go outside I was feeling so sick and exhausted! I am hoping that I will get some of that second trimester energy soon - our house needs some organising before the baby comes and that is for certain!

I have found that many of the feelings that I had before I had the Lap Band placed have come back. I started to document the growing stomach from 6 weeks onwards and my mind was in such a bad place sometimes that I felt that I was back to my heaviest weight and I would be very surprised to see my 'not too bad' figure in the photo's that the husband has been taking. I always thought I would be one to cope fine with putting on weight in pregnancy because I had lost and gained weight so many times before but I have had to handle some pretty serious panic attacks about my weight over the past couple of months. I feel I am getting better and better though.

Being pregnant with the band is interesting. My OB's first question when he knew that I had a Lap Band was 'have you had all of the fluid taken out?' - to which the answer is a resounding 'no'. Though I did tell him that I was able to eat well and I could always go back to get more taken out if I need to. I haven't in actual fact had any fluid taken out since before Thailand and have not had any put back in. It has been tighter some days that others but generally it is at a manageable level at the moment and I am certainly able to eat a variety of foods and get enough calories in for myself and the baby. The most important thing to me at the moment is the health of the baby and myself so I am concentrating on eating as healthily as possible. That doesn't mean that I haven't had some slip ups, I certainly have but I am trying not to beat myself up over it and now that the morning sickness is abating, to be more organised with healthier options. I am having a big cookup tomorrow to be organised so I have healthy snacks available and food in the freezer in case I can't be bothered cooking (or the smell is too revolting - I tell you, I have a bionic nose at the moment!!).

An interesting side effect of being pregnant and my changing shape is that I don't know how the hell to dress!!! All my life I have been a classic pear shape and I have become pretty adept at dressing to enhance my good points and skim over my not so great ones. Now that I am pregnant, my boobs have gone up two sizes, I have no waist and of course, my stomach is growing! Any pointers that any of you have to dress appropriately for the 'looking fat rather than pregnant' stage of pregnancy for pears shapes would be most appreciated!

Another interesting side effect of the pregnancy (which of course we all would expect) is that the hunger is back. I had so long without really feeling any hunger, to now get hungry again is a bit strange. Sometimes I still panic because I think 'oh crap I feel sick' and then I realise that I am just hungry but I do have to be careful not to get too hungry because I do actually feel quite sick if I do feel very hungry. It is an intesting time to look at hunger - previously, I have had a lot of trouble with hunger - I have feared it. After the band, there was still that fear though I always have the option that I can fix it by going to get a fill. Now I am working on dealing with my fear of hunger and one of the ways is to realise that it is a way of nurturing the baby.

Emotionally I am finding it quite tough. Tough because I am constantly worried which I suppose is normal after having so much trouble getting pregnant in the first place - that, however, does not make it any easier to take. I tell you, my emotional coping strategies have been put under some serious strain of late though I am happy to report that I am not emotionally eating anywhere near what I used to. I go to weekly ultrasound appointments (because of the high riskiness of the pregnancy) from this Friday onwards so that should be able to alleviate my fears on a weekly basis (I hope!).

Great to be back, gang - boy do I have some reading to catch up on!!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to you all!!! I hope that you have had some fun celebrating and made some resolutions! I haven't actually made any resolutions as yet - I have been a bit busy with getting back from Thailand and then celebrating Christmas and such! I am sorry to have been a bad blogger of late, that will certainly be high up on my resolutions (though I am not a fan of calling them that, I like to call them goals) to be a better blogger!

Firstly, let me talk about Thailand and let me say, I heart Thailand!! This was my third trip and it was an absolutely fabulous one again. My husband and I stayed in Bangkok for 8 days and mainly we shopped and ate and slept and swam and shopped again - there are some great bargains to be had, that's for sure! We had a great day trip to Kanchanaburi where we went on a boat trip down the river, rode an elephant, went on the hell fire pass on the death railway (Burma - Thailand railway that was built by POW's in the Second World War - many allied troops died in the building of the railway) had a yummy lunch and then went to have a look at the Bridge on the river Kwai. It was a wonderful day trip.

For the remainder of the holiday we stayed at a very luxurious resort in Hua Hin (3 hours drive South of Bangkok) and basically relaxed. Honestly, I can say that I have never been more relaxed after a holiday - I had so many massages and treatments that they pummelled all of the stress right out of me - I loved it!!

Eating wise - I had quite a bit of fluid taken out of the band before I left because the last thing I wanted was to get sick and the band close up - booooo! The good thing was I was able to eat things that I hadn't been able to eat for awhile - mmmmm, steak, lots of chicken, salads and even small amounts of bread. I hate to admit it but on our honeymoon, I put on around 5-6kg's on our 2 week trip to Thailand and I am unhappy to say that I did put on weight while we were away, it was around 1.5kg's which I consider pretty good - I lurve the band! I wasn't great with my food but since I have been back I have been eating alot more healthier which has made me feel alot better! I am back to see the wonderful Doctor Caroline on Thursday so I am sure an adjustment will be happening and I will be straight back on track!

So, a brand spanking New Year for us all - let's all wipe the slate clean with old behaviours and start off the New Year making some long lasting changes - good luck to all of us!