I refuse to call it "morning" sickness...

I sailed through the first six weeks of pregnancy. Easy enough since you only know you're pregnant for about one week of those first six. But then came the sickness... (I refuse to call it "morning" sickness, a name no doubt given to it by a man who never experienced it, and have instead opted to call it "all-day-and-night" sickness.) And I tell you, as one experienced in illness, surgical procedures, and medical maladies, I have never been so sick in my entire life. There have been more than a few times, lying on the bathroom floor, that I have thought, "I'm just not going to make it."

After one particularly rough few days, my OB sent me to the ER for a refill of fluids and IV anti-nausea meds. She also requested the ER doctor do a sonogram, just to make sure our little raspberry was weathering the storm better than I was. As this was to be our first sonogram, we were more than a little nervous: Was there really a baby in there? Would it have a heartbeat? Had all this nausea, vomiting, and inability to eat or drink anything been harmful? But as soon as the sono wand had settled into position, we could see the tiny yet strong flutters of a beating heart. Of course in the ER, they won't point anything out or give you any specifics other than "looks good," but we had seen our little love's heart pounding away and were absolutely captivated.  

I went to my OB for our first official sonogram a few days later, where she took the time to point out all the cute things to us- head, rump, arm buds, etc. We again saw that glorious heartbeat and this time, we got to hear it. It sounds exactly like our washing machine, which makes doing laundry a little more tolerable now. Though the "all-day-and-night" sickness is still going strong with no foreseeable end in sight, we have seen our baby with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears and know that it's going to be worth it.

Our little raspberry at 8 weeks