Trip to New York
Week 7 started out with a fun visit to New York City!!

Last week, when I was feeling so sick, I nearly canceled the trip. I couldn’t imagine a 6-hour train ride feeling nauseous nor did I want to be around a bunch of drunk college boys or greasy food.

But thanks to my medicine cocktail, I felt great by our departure day. We had a wonderful time in the city. We decided to tell all of our close college friends because it would look pretty odd for me to not have a couple of pints of beer all weekend. It was very fun to tell them! We’re the second of our friends to be having a baby, so it’s still new and exciting. I saw a bit of tenderness come out of those boys 🙂

Matt and I had breakfast with our good friend Whitney, who is a few days from her due date! [Note she has since given birth to a beautiful little girl!] It was fun to talk about pregnancy with her and all the excitement shared between us.

Could you tell my sweet tooth was running wild!? Bring me all the cupcakes in NYC!

I didn’t stay out very late either night (Matt did!), but I managed to keep my energy up during the trip and felt pretty good. Everyone was checking out my stomach, but there’s really nothing to show yet. My eating habits were pretty normal throughout the weekend – normal meaning I had my old appetite back!
I’m sure this weekend marked the beginning of some old fashioned weight gain because other than some walking and yoga, I did little to counter balance all the great food we ate. Hopefully my body needed it anyways. It was so cold that running outside wasn’t an option and I didn’t feel that tracking down a gym in my condition was worth it. Thanks to Ashley for taking me to yoga though! We had to choose a studio that wasn’t hot yoga, and this was one of the best non-hot classes I’ve done in ages.
That wonderful bagel and cream cheese? Total pregnancy craving. I have been wanting another one ever since!

crap! A Cramp
Back at home, on Tuesday morning, at 7 weeks, 4 days, I woke up in a strange position in bed. My abdomen tightened into a horrible cramp. I figured it was just the position I had been in and flopped over quickly – only to find it worsening.
I bolted to the bathroom, wondering if I was about to have some kind of sickness and (sorry if this is TMI) while I was on the toilet, I started to faint! I’m a fainter in panicked situations, but over the years my mom has taught my sister and me to lie down on the floor so as not to hit our heads if we do pass out. Luckily I didn’t, but my cramp was worse. This wasn’t waves of cramps – it was like a Charlie horse to my uterus. At least I think it was my uterus.
I laid on the floor, crying, sure I was having a miscarriage. Why else would I have such horrible cramps? The pain was awful and lasted about 10 minutes. At that point, I felt the need to throw up and did so a few times. Something about the tightening of my stomach when I threw up made the cramp lessen a bit.
At this point, I crawled back to my bedroom and retrieved my cell phone, still in a lot of pain. I called Matt and told him to come right away – I needed to go to the emergency room and there was a good chance I was losing the baby. He was baking bread and couldn’t leave and asked if I could wait until 10-11am. I don’t think he understood the severity of my pain.
“NO – this is an EMERGENCY!” I responded. “Can you call your mom for me?”
Karen called me right back and said she’d be on her way. I called my mom then to tell her what was happening. This whole time, I also kept checking to see if I was bleeding, but nothing was there.
Karen arrived a few minutes later to find me covered in sweat on the bathroom floor. By this time, my cramp was still there, but it was much less severe. We decided to call the doctor’s office and page a doctor rather than drive straight to the ER.
One of my practice’s doctors called me back within minutes. His first question asked if I was bleeding. I said no.
“You aren’t having a miscarriage then,” he said.
I wasn’t sure how he knew that, but a wave of relief flew over me. He also asked if my pain was on one side (no it was in the middle, under my bladder) and did I have any history of reproductive problems (no, thank goodness). He suggested I go in for an ultrasound. I was so glad his reaction wasn’t to just wait it out. He said I might have had an ovary follicle burst or that my uterus was stretching and cramping in response to baby growth.
After I hung up I thought, YAY AN ULTRASOUND! Then I remembered that it might not reveal good news.
I had to wait until 1:30pm to go to the office. I was able to shower and was pretty much pain-free by this point. Just sore down there. The technician was friendly and I noticed she typed “check viability” on her computer monitor when I arrived. That was scary.
The ultrasound was vaginal, but luckily I knew this might be the case, so Karen stayed in the waiting room. It didn’t hurt, but it was a lot of poking around in there! Within seconds I saw the baby – a nice white blob in an open cavity. Typical kidney bean!!

Up close you could see that it was a little baby.

But I knew it was a heartbeat we were after. She took a bunch of measurements, zoomed in and out.
I was holding my breath waiting to see a flicker of motion others had described.
I thought I saw a flash…
Seconds later, I saw the words “measuring fetal heartbeat” and a zigzag graph – I knew a heartbeat had been found! And then: 166 bpm:

[Note that the gestational age here says 9 weeks, but since I ovulated late and they based that off the last period, it was inaccurate. The measurements had me at 7 weeks, 4 days, which was right on target]
My relief was huge! I smiled. I said “WOW.” A few times. I know many women say this, but I just couldn’t believe there was a baby inside of me. It was this moment that I started to think of myself as two people going through life together.
The doctor came in next and said everything looked great. I was measuring right at 7 weeks, 4 days, so my ovulation calculations had been correct! The baby looked fine, and he had no reason to believe I would miscarry based on the ultrasound’s findings. He did make sure to remind me that “you’re not out of the woods yet” for miscarrying, which of course I knew. His reasoning for my cramp was that the uterus is growing and sometimes likes to remind the body it’s a muscle by shrinking down a little. Humph!
One cool thing is that my father in law is a radiologist and I was able to email him the ultrasound photos to review. His report: everything looks great! He even commented on the amount of fluid present (good), and for some reason that extra tidbit was reassuring.
I’m still not sure what caused my horrible cramp, but a few speculations:
- My uterus stretched, then cramped. Regular growth!
- Round ligament pain, which is often caused by sharp movements from one position to the next, but isn’t usually had this early.
- Constipation. I didn’t feel constipated, but it could have been bowel related. Although nothing like that has ever happened to me before!
- The day before in Body Pump we did some lower ab work – could this have irritated my ligaments?
Ironically, the next day my Baby + Bump app said this:
“As your baby grows, your uterus is also expanding. By now your uterus is almost the size of a grapefruit which is why it’s common to feel abdominal cramping or even a tightening or contraction-like pain. Consult your healthcare provider if you notice bleeding following your contractions.”
WHAT!? I guess it is normal after all. Wish I had known this a few days earlier! So here is my PSA:
Warning! You might experience severe cramps during pregnancy!
Here’s the single photo I took at 7 weeks – I wasn’t feeling my hottest then! I don’t think horizontal stripes first thing in the morning was a great choice for wardrobe either… No bump yet!

Previous weeks:
4 weeks
5 weeks
6 weeks