Pregnancy and heightened sense of smell

These days, I can't the smell of dinner after dinner.

Last night, Matt cooked liver for dinner. I usually have no problem with the smell of liver. That night, I kept smelling liver in my sleep, and I even dreamt about liver. I felt so sick in my sleep. Then I woke up from the sleep. I could smell cooked liver from dinner - it was coming from Matt's jersey. I had to open the bedroom windows in the middle of a cold winter for fresh air and put his jersey out of the room. My stomach was churning big time. I felt totoally nauseous. It only settled down after I had a cup of warm water.

I can't stand the thoughts of food as it tends to trigger a sense of smell which makes me sick.

The body is funny at the moment. I'm 6 weeks pregnant.

Present Diet

My daily diet consists of tiger’s milk if I can be bothered to make it in the morning. Otherwise, I’ll have a cup of raw milk yogurt. I also try to include bone broth in my diet daily, either in rice porridge or soup. We have organ meats, especially liver at least once a week. We also include lamb’s kidney and chicken hearts in our diet. I take cod liver oil daily and folic acid supplement as instructed by the mid-wife. I’m in two minds about taking supplements but I suppose the risk is too high in the event of insufficient folic acid in my diet. I also drink Kombucha, and take lacto fermented food.

Discomfort and concerns

The tummy was rather sore last night. I did a rather big one this morning. Since, my tummy hasn’t felt too bad. At the moment, I prefer soupy food to solid food. Also, there was a slight spotting this morning - just a trace of blood. I’ve given up being concerned with traces of spotting as it’s out of my control. Besides, if the pregnancy isn’t successful I would rather the body picks up the signal sooner than later. It’s less traumatic for me, anyway.

Extreme Tiredness

I have been plagued with extreme tiredness since week 5 of the pregnancy which started last Thursday. It hits the hardest from 1pm to 3pm daily.

Sore Tummy

Tummy been sore this week continously, week 4 of the the pregnancy. I'm quite regular at the moment.

I remember getting weeks of tummy ache during the first pregnancy at week 3, week 4 and week 5. I was badly constipated the first time round.

A quick search on the internet revealed that it's quite common to get stomach ache during pregnant. It's apparently a kind of morning sickness.

Liver

According to the Weston A Price Pregnancy diet, I'll need 3 - 4 ounces of fresh liver weekly.

1 ounce = 28g
4 ounces=112g

I’ll need 112g of fresh liver once or twice weekly.

A lot of fantastic information on why pregnant women should eat liver.

I'm Pregnant!

The doctor has confirmed the pregnancy! However, she warned against being too excited as every pregnancy these days has a 50% chance of a miscarriage. But I don't think this will stop me from sharing the information with close friends as I need their support most at the worst scenario.

I just have to hold my excitment for another 8 weeks as the chance of miscarriage is reduced by then. While at the doctor, I've requested for Vitamin D and B12 tested along with the routine pregnancy blood test.

Pain and stain

The period is 5 days overdue. This evening, I'm feeling a bit of lower abdominal pain and there is slight staining. I can feel fluid flowing down. A pad is in place just in case.

Funny thing is, I'm feeling nausea at the moment.

Although slight staining is normal but when accompanied by lower abdominal pain is not good. Probably, my body is not ready for another pregnancy. I'm trying to be as pragmatic as possible. I've prayed to God and asking for a miracle if it's at all possible.

I'll make an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow.

Great Anticipation

My period is now 3 days overdue. I’ll give it another 2 days before making an appointment with the doctor. I need to remind myself to get the blood tested for B12 and Vitamin D.

To ensure that I supply the body all essential nutrient, I’m trying to eat a nutrient dense diet with a daily intake of 2 raw egg yolks, Cod liver oil day, lacto fermented dairy and vegetables products,and fresh fruits and vegetables.

The focus is to get enough Vitamin A, Vitamin D and folic acid to the body in the event that there is a bun baking.

More pregnancy symptoms

Mild morning sickness started this week and it hasn’t gone away. I have been waking up around 2am everyday for the last week feeling absolutely toasted regardless of the climatic temperature. I decided to take my temperature at 2am and it read 36.3°C. But, at 7am it will read 36.6°C. The body has an amazing mechanism to cool the system down.

My 28 cycle should start again today but only the slightest brown spotting arrived. I’m not sure how much the miscarriage 2 months ago has mucked up my regular cycle. I’ll wait till next Monday before making an appointment to see my doctor. It’s all very exciting.

More symptoms

My body temperature gets extra hot in the night even when the outdoor temperature was -2°C. It started 2 nights ago. I’m getting a feeling of heartburn – an uncommon feeling for me.

 

pregnancy Symptoms

I started feeling nausea mid day yesterday. Last night, in the middle of a freezing winter, I felt so hot. And I’m feeling nausea again mid day today. These are very similar to the pregnancy symptoms I had the first time round. We’ll see….

 

Fertility Awareness

So, how do I know that I’ve ovulated? We use the fertility Awareness method of measuring and charting my base temperature in the morning. This is Matt’s responsibility.

My body temperature is around 36.2°C when menstruating, and it will rise to about 36.7°C when ovulating. It usually hovers between 36.6°C and 36.7°C until the next menstrual cycle beings.

The high temperature is the result of the production of progesterone - a sex hormone produced in women, first by the corpus luteum of the ovary to prepare the womb for the fertilized ovum, and later by the placenta to maintain pregnancy. If the ovum isn’t fertilized, then the menstrual cycle will start, and hormone estrogen will take over, and the base temperate will drop to 36.2°C. And the whole cycle will repeat again

Even if I suspect that I’m pregnant now (due to all the pregnacy symptoms), I won’t know for sure until the next menstrual cycle is due as the pregnancy test kit measures the level of progesterone in my body. But if my menstrual didn’t come, and the body temperate reminds between 36.6°C and 36.7°C, then the result from the pregnancy test would more or less be accurate

Post Miscarriage

After the miscarriage, I continue to eat nutrient dense food (raw milk, raw yogurt, eggs etc), drink red raspberry leave tea, take cod liver oil daily. My menstrual cycle started 28 days after the miscarriage. And I ovulated in that same cycle. I’m so pleased that my body has recovered so quickly.

Although the mid-wife advised to wait for 3 cycles before TTC (trying to conceive), the results from my research on the internet lead me to the conclusion that if my body is healthy, there are absolutely no problems trying. Also, I’m of the opinion that if the body isn’t ready for it, then I won’t get pregnant.

Emotionally, I recovered surprising quickly from the experience. I can think of a few reasons. I didn't keep the news from my friends and it was really good to get their prayers and support when the pregnancy didn't work out. I did adopt a wait and see attitude till the first scan at week twelve. Reading the forums on other mothers' experiences and how they coped with their miscarriages and writing down my own experience have really helped me to get it out of my system. Having the faith and knowledge that God's design is perfect, I'm thankful that the body knows when not to allow unhealthy conception to continue.

Natural Miscarriage

This pregnancy ended in a natural miscarriage in Mid-May 2008. Spotting started on 8^th May, a natural miscarriage took place a week later. The total period was exactly 2 weeks

Soon after the miscarriage I started on Red raspberry tea, and still drinking it. I also had lots of ginger on the first week after the miscarriage to help warm my body – a Singaporean Chinese post-natal practice. A miscarriage equates to a mini birth, in my opinion.

I feel the need to share my experience to help with my healing process and also to provide info for others who may need to know what to expect to minimize the fears and confusing and pain.

(Wednesday)
I was 12.5 weeks pregnant. The midwife couldn’t detect any heartbeat with the fetal Doppler. The next day, I started light spotting with brown traces. The spotting continued for the next 4 days. The midwife was concerned and arranged for a hospital visit.

(Sunday)
An informal scan was performed and a pregnancy sac was found but no heartbeat was detected. I had to return the next day for a formal ultra sound scan.

(Monday)
The scan revealed a sac of 9 weeks pregnancy but a 6 weeks fetal development. No heartbeat detected. It was bad news. I opted for a natural miscarriage although the doctor talked like DNC was the natural way to do it. I stood firm by my decision.

The doctor gave a specific instruction: if a fever developed and bleeding is bad, come back to the hospital immediately.

I started searching the internet for information on a natural miscarriage. All I could find were expect heavy bleed suddenly, and cramps.

(Tuesday)
The spotting got heavier the next day. I was at work. However I decided to go home as I didn’t want to be caught out, as I did read that it would come suddenly. On my way home, I bought 2 packs of maternity pad in preparation for the inevitable. That evening, mild cramps and backaches started. It seemed more intense at night.

(Wednesday)
Cramps stopped during the day but the backache continued. I was a wearing pad in preparation for that moment, the whole time. That night, the cramps and backache intensified. After midnight, I woke from my sleep, I could feel the pad soaking. I couldn't get up fast enough to the toilet to check it out. Sitting on the toilet bowl, clots of tissue were dropping rapidly into the toilet bowl. I had to change pad every 3 hours. More tissue dropped out each time I went to the toilet. The cramp and backache continued. My tummy did feel flatter. I hardly had any sleep after that.

(Thursday)
The next day, I was exhausted from the lack of sleep. Bleeding was heavy but it wasn’t soaking heavy. By end of the day, there was hardly any bleeding. I thought the miscarriage was over. But I couldn't be more wrong. The cramps in the tummy were increasing painful. The cramps intensified as the sun set further. At the end of the evening, the hot-water bottle was refilled 4 times just to ease a bit of the most intense pain. The cramps got worse after midnight, and there was an intense pain at the lower pelvis. The feeling was a mixture of bad constipation and intense menstrual cramps. I was going to the toilet every 15 minutes to try to push something out. I was in intense pain when I lied down to get some sleep. This went on all night. At one point, I just wanted to sleep sitting on the toilet bowl out of the exhaustion. I was worn out by the numerous trips to the loo and the none relenting pain. At 3am. the pain was progressively intensifying every minute, and the waves of cramps had now turned into a continual sharp pain at the lower pelvis. The backache was a mild pain in comparison. At one point, I thought I was dying. I nearly called an ambulance. Thousands of thoughts came to my mind – maybe I was constipated and that I need to go for a walk to get things moving. So I started walking around the round, jumped up and down, squatting, did every possible things that came to mind to ease the pain. At the same time, I felt that something was trying to come out but it was kinda of stuck. This was because the pain was felt specifically at the lower pelvis area.

Finally at about 5:30am, when I was squatting on the bedroom floor to ease the tummy pain, I suddenly felt a sharp pain at the opening of the cervix, something was trying to squeeze through the hole. I couldn’t bring myself to the toilet quick enough. As soon as I sat on the toilet bowl, a piece of something dropped out – it was the size of a hand-span. Unlike other tissues I passed out previously, it was in one big piece. The bleeding returned. As soon as that thing passed out, my entire being relaxed, and the cramps eased soon after. I suspected it was probably the sac with the placenta but I was absoluted knackered. All I had energy for was to crawl back into bed to catch some rest. I flushed it down the toilet bowl.

(Friday)
I slept till mid morning the next day. The pain was gone but I felt sore muscles around the tummy. The bleeding continued. I was weak. My tummy was bloated all day and continued into the evening. I was physically weak, mentally in a state of blur.

(Saturday)
The next day, the bloatedness continued along with physical exhaustion. The bleeding had now turned into heavy spotting.

(Sunday)
The bloated tummy finally went away after my bowel was cleared. So, it was probably caused by the constipation. Spotting got heavy each time I stood too long or walked for about 5 minutes continuously or when I mildly exerted myself. But I only needed to change the pad twice a day for hygiene reasons.

The spotting continued for a few days, and it got progressively lighter and it stopped completely 2 weeks into the miscarriage. An utrasound sound scan showed that the miscarriage had taken place successfully.