Thirsty.

I think it's almost universally accepted that the first pregnancy symptom is sore breasts. My doctor told me that was likely going to be the first sign that I was pregnant. As it turns out, it wasn't. My first clue that something new was happening was thirst.

Before I ever peed on that stick, my water intake tripled. Literally overnight. I am not the world's most hydrated person. I have a small bladder and have to pee all the time and it's tiresome to be getting up and down all day because I had one sip of water. I have had problems with kidney stones in the past (not fun, p.s.), so I try to drink more water, but in general, I barely get more than a few cups in a day. But right around the time I got pregnant, I suddenly couldn't get enough water. I was drinking all. The Time. And still felt so thirsty. I was shocked to realize one day that I was drinking about a gallon of water per day suddenly. This, from a girl who previously was struggling to get 32 ounces in.

There are many reasons for the increased thirst, but I think primarily it's because you are increasing the amount of blood in your body. Pregnant women have about 50% more blood than when they are not pregnant, plus, you have to make amniotic fluid. In short, you need a lot of water. Even though I am drinking a gallon of water every day, I still feel thirsty. I will drink so much water that I feel sloshy but still have a dry mouth. It's weird. I still have to pee all the time - more so now that my bladder is sharing real estate with a whole person - but at least I work at home and am never far from a bathroom. It's irritating that it's on a different floor of the house, but I'm counting all those stairs as daily exercise.

The reason I bring this up now is because we have the anatomy scan ultrasound looming. In two short weeks we'll be going in to make sure our baby has all the requisite parts and to find out which parts it has. One of the conditions for the ultrasound is you have to drink 32 ounces of water an hour before the ultrasound and then not pee until after the ultrasound is done. I don't think I can do it guys. I'm doing a test today to see how far I can make it. I chugged 32 ounces of water and I'm watching the clock to see how long I can wait to pee. An hour? I highly doubt it.

...

I made it 38 minutes.