First Trimester - Completed!

So it's been a while since I logged an entry here, but I suppose with good reason (or several).  The first trimester has been notoriously rough for me in the past, and this pregnancy wasn't really an exception.  I'm just starting to come out of the going-to-throw-up-all-the-time phase, and entering the brief lull before my expanding waist line makes some things less comfortable.

I threw up.  A lot.  I gagged.  A lot.  My almost 2-year old's dirty diapers could send me running for the bathroom (or kitchen...my favorite place to throw up was the kitchen sink for some reason).  The smell of the cats and whatever job they did in their litterbox (or outside of...eww!) set me off.  Luckily (said with hesitation), my job did NOT set me off nearly as much as last go-around.  That's not to say I never threw up or gagged at work.  There just didn't seem to be nearly as many triggers.

A few things that also helped me to avoid being "found out" at work (which, by the way, no one I work with knows that I'm pregnant.  Pretty sneaky, huh?) was a combination of Zofran, a wonderfully placed winter holiday (Christmas Break), and probably just having been through this before.  I started taking Zofran earlier than during my last pregnancy.  By the time I got the prescription for it last time around, I was taking it every other or every third day, versus really needing it daily to make it through my day.  Sucking on hard candy and preggy pop drops also helped.

Morning sickness was part of it (it's pretty much the major thing I focus on during the first trimester), but also suffering from some pretty nasty constipation as a side effect of the Zofran and being so darn dehydrated, and having a small bleed (sub-chorionic hemorrhage) added to the excitement.  Oddly, I haven't felt the extreme I-have-to-sleep-now-I'm-falling-over-exhausted thing as dramatically.  I'm tired, and I want to sleep more, but it seemed like previous pregnancies were worse for that.

I'm glad for the first trimester to be over (I'm exactly 13 weeks today!), for the first few doctors appointments to come and go, and for the screening tests to come back favorably.  With this kiddo, I'm of "advanced maternal age" (I'm old...hahaha!), but everything has come back with all indications that this baby is just fine.

Now for the hurdles of the second trimester.  "Coming out" and announcing the pregnancy will probably be in about a month.  Starting to plan for maternity leave will come sooner than I realize.  And, of course, all of the other things going on right now having two other kids at home...one of whom is starting kindergarten around the time this little one arrives, and the other who seems to want to start potty training sooner rather than later.  I hope to update more soon!

Why "the pregnant post-doc"?

I figured an entry explaining the title of my newest blogging endeavor was in order. One of these nights, I'll get around to changing the logo to cross off the "pregnant" part, because I'm not actually pregnant at the moment :).

So if I'm not pregnant at the moment...why bother with the title? And I'm clearly not going to be pregnant forever, right?

It's a convoluted reason...but here goes. It's a title that I identified with. The two seemed to go hand-in-hand. I haven't held any other position while being pregnant, and I've been pregnant a fair amount of time that I have been a post-doc. OK...so only 18 months (ish!). I just figure that the two together make for a bit of a unique situation, and there are challenges for undertaking both of those at the same time.

What are some of the things? Working hours being one. Grad students and post-docs notoriously work weird hours. Science doesn't stop just because it's the weekend or evening. The next being the environment. It's a lab! There are tons of hazardous chemicals, biological agents and so on. It isn't a strict "desk" job, so while the physical demands are by no means super strenuous, they are still there. Job stability. Oh boy. Post-doc positions don't last forever. Nuff said about that.

With my first child, I was technically pregnant during an "in-between" stage of my career. I'd been a post-doc for over a year prior, and had suddenly come into a loss of funding from my P.I. I still did some work in the lab, still attended lab meetings and all of that. I continued through the pregnancy doing all of that and working in teaching positions at the university and community college.

With my second (most recent), I was a full fledged post-doc and I became pregnant only about 7 months into starting the position.

Having said all of this, will I be a post-doc still when it comes time for another pregnancy? Probably! And at that point, I can cross off the the cross-off on the pregnant part :)