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;] I think this is worth reviving: it was a great idea.

Hi, um..I've been having a lot of teh signs of being preggie. Though, I took a test today. It came back neg. I feel I might be, but not sure. My mother-in-law, is very sure I am. And I can't go to a doctor. No insurance. And no clinics about here, for free. Any suggestions?

I couldn't tell if it was my baby moving or not (but I felt stuff around 13-14 weeks).. I've had a lot of gas during this pregnancy, and that was all it felt like. I didn't start recognising it as the baby until a friend said that baby movements feel a lot like gas and then I started noticing the difference between the different things I was feeling. Now, at like 20 weeks, almost 21 weeks, she kicks me undeniably. Since Friday, when I had that problem, her kicking got much stronger.
Oh, and her fave place to kick is my bladder, it seems, or just slightly higher, but generally around the middle of the abdomen. She kicks when I eat, she kicks right before bed -no matter what time that happens to be- and kicks at various intervals during the day.

As for popping, I thought it was just when the belly button 'pops' out, but now I'm afraid I have no idea what it actually is. I will Google for it, though.


But... I have a question... I think I am having perinatal depression, and I think I posted about it before.. But, I discovered that one of the symptoms is " Trouble focusing, remembering, or making decisions"... I definitely experience those... I have trouble not getting distracted, I don't always remember things Rofu tells me even when I SHOULD, and I definitely have trouble making decisions (I always have, but I was able to, if given time, think about it and come to a conclusion, instead of getting frustrated, agitated, etc..).. Rofu will ask me to make a decision and I just can't, and instead get really upset about it.. and Rofu does get irritated about these things.. quite a bit, actually.. we've had some, shall we say, loud disagreements, about my inability to make a decision and he feels like he has to do all the decision-making alone, thereby feeling unsupported..
And I hate it when I have to ask him about something, and he says "I told you before.".

I get so upset by the problems that come of these that I've been crying from them, and feeling stressed out. When I need to make a decision, especially if I'm a bit upset or anxious, or just generally not in a good, relaxed mood, I get very upset and the more he pushes me for an answer, the more I can't think... to the point where I can't get any thoughts into words and just clam up, in a way, so he's essentially talking to a lump... if he pushes further, I usually start crying, but still can't explain myself until I've calmed way down, if then.

Some other symptoms I have are, feeling restless or irritable; feeling sad, hopeless and overwhelmed (I don't have much to do around here, either, just take care of the dog, which Rofu helps with, and the few things Rofu asks for.. I do other things on my own, of course, but I don't have any 'duties', so to say.. but I just feel overwhelmed sometimes, anyway, like I can't deal with ANYTHING); crying a lot (though I dunno what 'a lot' is, but I've been crying more than usual, and generally start crying over things much easier); having no energy or motivation (we should have cleaned the house for last Saterday, for guests, and I had a whole week to do it, but I couldn't figure out where to start, felt totally overwhelmed by the task even though Rofu said he'd help me, and just generally couldn't deal with it.. then I ended up not doing it and we had to visit with our guests in our neighbour's apartment, with his permission -our living room is messy, as things are STILL not settled here from when we moved); feeling worthless or guilty (yes, just yes!)... and that's about it, I think.. I found the list on a website here.

Is there anything I can do about this, or some way that both of us, Rofu and I, can deal with this effectively? Because his getting frustrated with it upsets me even more and compounds whatever problem we're needing to solve.

Hmm, Nopen, what you're going through fits exactly with what I'm going through, so you are probably right that it's just normal pregnancy stuff.

I actually did talk to Rofu a bit about it just a few mins ago when we took our dog for a walk, telling him that I thought I might have it and describing the symptoms as I did here.. he actually thought the same as you.

BTW, regarding small decisions, he does usually let them go. Like what to eat, and stuff... I've found, actually, that at first I couldn't even decide what I'd want to eat and couldn't think about it.. so, he would just make something (yeah, he cooks for me on top of the other things he has to do both at and away from home).. A while back, when I was having trouble deciding on drinks, I started just telling him to 'surprise me', and he does that as well. I've found it easier to make those decisions.

I am actually having trouble thinking of an example of a decision he wanted me to make where my inability to do so actually caused a problem..
We both have the problem that, when we're exhausted, we tend to get cranky and shut down, in a way.. which has led to some late-night squabbles if one of us has something to solve or take care of, as you might imagine.. usually not, though, but that has nothing to do with decision-making either way.

BTW, I wake up feeling worn out as well, sometimes.
I don't know when my most productive time of day is, but I'd say probably a 2-3 hours after I've gotten up (eating, drinking and/or having vitamins sometimes helps, sometimes not; often, when I'm up in time, taking the dog for his morning walk helps, if the walk doesn't end up being too stressful or the weather too unpleasant).

Anyway, thank you for relating your experiences to me, and also for your suggestions about talking with Rofu. I do generally try to tell him everything I'm feeling anyway, but sometimes with certain things, it's hard for me to focus to put them into words without some kind of little 'kick'.

Oh, and Rofu gets to experience most of the things I do, just for different reasons. It's kinda funny. Like, I experience mood swings, his responsibilities (his political career, mainly) cause him problems; I gain weight with pregnancy as I'm supposed to anyway, he's been gaining sympathy weight.. I have backaches and can't sleep, he somehow has the same problem. I am exhausted in the morning, he is too.
(Just he doesn't get the food aversions and morning sicknesses.. oh, and unless he's holding our friend's baby or our dog, no one's kicking his bladder, heh..)

Oh god, P r i n c e s s has this great LJ icon that says, "Pregnancy ate my brain," and it is SO TRUE.

I'm having most of those same symptoms. I'm irritable, swing downward pretty easily, I'm exhausted before I even manage to get out of bed, super forgetful [and my memory was horrible before the start of this crying ], and so indecisive. I watch so much more TV then I ever have because I can just stare blankly at it and let my brain rest.

This morning Chris and I actually had a fight because I was queesy and asked him to get me something to eat while I lay down and he kept asking what I wanted and I told him I didn't care, as long as it was food. He brought me fudge. To which I snapped at him and went to get some bread with milk. Needless to say, he got pretty irritated at me for not being specific but when he asked, I didn't care and could not remember what we had in our kitchen, but I sure didn't expect him to bring me pure sugar to put in my empty tummy.

So long story short, you are so not alone in the "I'm a crazy mixed up preggo woman thing."

I am locking this thread.

Since we now have an entire subforum devoted to pregnancy, this one thread is obsolete. I will leave it here for y'all to read though as it contains some great info.

Please feel free to make your own threads now. HOWEVER, if you see an established thread with a similar topic, please post in it instead of making a new one. We still want to keep the clutter down.