Online Pregnancy Calendars

I was trying to find one last week, so I could see how far along I would be at Christmas if this pg lasts that long (so not a usual one that just tells you how far along you are now). My partner and I usually go away that time of year to someplace warm and exotic.

With some help from the gals on the Ovusoft board I've tracked down the following pg calendar links.

Amazing Pregnancy - Pregnancy Calendar

About.com - Pregnancy Calculator

Evidently BabyZone (requires registration) has one as well.


Other calendars
These ones just showing week by week progress, but not tailored to your pregnancy

About.com Pregnancy Calendar

BabyCenter.com tracks you by the present week you are in based on LMP (requires free registration)

Pregnancy Weekly has a little ticker when you register with them that tells you how far along you are, how many weeks left, and your percentage to completion. This is an online pregnancy journal if you want to track appointments and sensations.

You can find others by doing a search on the terms "pregnancy calendar", "pregnancy calculator" and so on.

Blood thinning foods

I looked these up for a friend of mine who was diagnosed with some clotting disorders. I had come across reference to blood thinning foods a couple years ago while researching about fibroids. In chinese medicine fibroid are linked to blood stasis, the western equivalent being excess estrogen or clotting issues.

Here are some links and information about natural blood thinners and liver support that I think may be helpful.

This link about thrombosis prevention has info about halfway down the page about foods and supplements that will help thin the blood to prevent clotting:
Thrombosis Prevention

Increase consumption of:
* Tomato Juice/ tomatoes
* Garlic
* Onion
* Omega-3 fatty acids -- found in fish, fish oil, flax seed oil, olive oil
* Vitamin E

Exercise will also help thin the blood and reduce estrogen levels (which causes blood thickening)

You will also want to increase your consumption of fiber and leafy green vegetables which aid in liver function -- which helps to get rid of excess hormones in the body. Oatmeal is great, also barley and brown rice. I've got some good recipes for greens -- it's hard to know how to get more but through trial and error I've found some good ones.

Here are a couple links about how your liver functions to detoxify your body and what nutrients are required.

http://www.liverdoctor.com/03_detoxpathways.asp

http://tuberose.com/Liver_Detoxification.html

Fashion Nightmares of a Bloated, Tired and Cranky Woman

This week the bloating picked up big time. It was increasing day by day until last night I look at myself in the mirror and was shocked at how big I looked in my pajama bottoms.

This morning when I took a shower my rounded belly of six weeks pregnant bloat reminded me of how round my belly was post myo. Nice. My underwear is giving me panty lines, or rather my butt is giving my panties too much to enclose and it's just spelling disaster for my caboose. I've got to go shopping (I don't really like shopping very much) and in the meantime I have broken out the granny knickers I bought when I had my surgery and yes, they are fitting well (grumble, so much for slightly low rise pants unless I've got really long tops on)

My thighs are a problem as well, changing the dimensions of my clothes just enough so that no longer do I feel like I might be able to pull off looking a little sleek. I'm height-weight proportionate normally and I'm not eating too much, it's just that I easily put on 10 pounds of weight early on in pregnancy -- it's happened twice before as well.

I don't know what to do, wear more skirts or buy more clothes -- something's gotten happen because I'm feeling like a poorly styled lump at the moment. I guess I'll see if there is reason to go shopping very soon (like Tuesday).

I told my good friend today about my pregnancy and she was really excited for me; she knows how long we've been trying (four years). She wanted me to be excited but I explained how crying when I scheduled the appointment really put a damper on things for me.

I talked to her about how I do hope things go well with our scan on Tuesday since that will be easier to deal with than having another loss, logistically speaking, at work. We are sort of waiting to see what comes and then going to start recruiting and hiring to try to replace me if we get our heartbeat. If things are bad again it's going to be doubly rough as we are still a bit short-staffed and I'm going to have to make time for depression and emotional breakdowns. Lovely that I know what miscarriage brings so well now isn't it.

Overall I feel pretty neutral about it all emotionally, and physically I just feel like crap. We were talking about it with a friend over dinner last night and basically being pregnant, at this point early on, feels a lot like a really bad hangover coupled with coming down with the flu. I don't feel like doing anything though I did do laundry today, cook a little bit and vacuum the upstairs. I did also take a nap and have been knitting.

I feel like nothing will really make me happy right now, because all this bloat makes me feel awful. No music, no TV shows, no movies, no books, no projects, nothing. I just feel like crap.

I guess feeling worse is a good sign?

Work Worries

I'm co-owner of a small firm and it's been hard to recruit and hire enough skilled people to be able to do all the work that needs to be done. This has only gotten worse now that I'm pregnant since I can't carry as much of the load as I was prior; I'm just exhausted.

My partner is also my business partner so that makes things hard as well. He's used to relying on me and he needs to adjust to the fact that I just can't do as much right now.

Yesterday was a really strenuous day at work and I was exhausted at the end of the day. I have a new project manager and she seems to need more training than I can handle right now. My sales person is a part-time mother but even on the days when she's supposed to be at the office I'm having to do flex time with her -- she comes in late, leaves early. She's diligent but she doesn't create enough of a buffer between her work and life. I don't think she had an ideal childcare situation and now her nanny has given notice.

I ended up fighting with my partner last night when he came home, I was so over-tired and he wanted to talk business even though it was midnight. He doesn't get how much has changed for us right now, in some ways this is worse than the flu since I feel like if I push myself too much right now I'm going to kill this pregnancy. I told him that things will probably go badly next week and then I'll have to deal with another loss, and if things happen (by an act of God) go well, then I'm still screwed because I just don't have enough energy for this level of responsibility.

I feel so frustrated. And tired.

My stuffy nose and sinuses

Since Joelle asked last post, I actually think the stuffiness started around 2-3 dpo. I ovulated on CD17 (Saturday May 27), after a painful bout of pelvic pain that started the evening before which made me feel very poorly and continued the next morning. I still had EWCM on Saturday morning, a lot of it (not what I was expecting since the pain from the night before) so we gave it one more go that AM.

In addition to not wanting to drink this cycle, I also didn't schedule that pelvic massage that week after I ovulated because my body kept telling me not to interfere with it. It was kinda weird but I just kept feeling like my body was telling me that so I didn't call to see about an appointment.

I believe implantation was on Friday June 2nd, which is why I felt all hot and nauseous that day and I had to leave work early. Over the next few days I felt a lot of qi moving around in my back and limbs, not typical for just hanging out but definately a sensation I'm familiar with from qigong and acu.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I'm just trying to listen to what everyone says and take it day by day. Just one week now until my scan. Surely they will see something then.

As for symptoms, my breasts are sore, sometimes more and sometimes less, but if I press on them they are always more dense and sore. My temp is up, if I just take it before bed or whatever its usually up by several tenths of a degree -- 98.9, 99.0 etc. I have a stuffy nose, it's been going on for weeks now. I think it has to do with whatever my body is doing to my CM -- the chemical changes there are causing my sinuses to behave the same. My scalp has little pimples on it, it reminds me of when I was a teen[&:], my skins oil production seems at an all time high and yet my cuticles are a bit dry. And then there is the fatigue, I spent most of the weekend resting.

Yesterday at work I did surprisingly well and wasn't that tired, but it was such a busy day that I didn't drink enough or eat enough all day (bad me) -- I'm going to try to not let that happen again. My typing has gotten more sketchy though -- I am making so many typos all of the sudden. I also can't remember anything from a meeting a week ago except what this potential client does and what their office looks like -- not helpful when you need to help write a proposal, though thankfully I wasn't the lead on that. I'm just forgetting random stuff, and I'm known at work for my good memory. It might be that my getting up to pee at night and/or waking up early has disturbed my sleep cycle enough. Kinda weird.