14 Weeks

Well I made it to the second trimester, officially! This is the time when I'm supposed to start feeling more human again... and I'm slowly getting there.  But certain first trimester symptoms are hanging on for dear life, like nausea and fatigue.  I've still had a few rough days here and there, and am not feeling completely myself yet, but I can feel it slowly starting to get better.  Of course, new symptoms have popped up in their place, like headaches and heartburn, but such is life as a pregnant lady.

My worst pregnancy symptom, my crazy "baby brain" (which is so much more than that, but nearly impossible to explain), is hanging on for dear life and probably will until the end, but I am working with our midwives on ways to try to make it better through nutritional supplements, etc.

In the meantime, we're just chugging along with life, trying to get all our last house projects done so that once we're a family of 4 we can feel like we don't have to spend a lot of our free time fixing up the house.  We recently got our dining room painted, so we can check that off the list! Next up is to tackle our home office.

And to answer the incredibly and surprisingly common question I've been receiving lately: no. We don't have names picked out yet. ;)

8 Weeks

I just hit 8 weeks, and am definitely feeling pregnant.  For the first couple of weeks I felt pretty normal - maybe some mild fatigue and queasiness, but it was really very manageable.  Just a few days ago, however, is when it really started to hit me hard.  I'm pretty nauseous in the morning until I get a chance to eat something, and the nausea comes and goes throughout the day, peaking just before mealtime.  So far I've only puked once, so that's good. I guess. Also feeling just plain exhausted pretty much all day.  I thought it would be great that the worst of it would happen during my summer break, so I wouldn't have to deal with going to work while feeling so crappy - but, as it turns out, chasing around a toddler all day is FAR more difficult a task than going to work.  It's been a challenge to entertain Ember and give him my full attention while I've been feeling badly, but hopefully it passes quickly.  I'm bummed the last couple weeks of my time at home with him were marred by not feeling well, but that's how the cookie crumbles.

I can't help but try to compare this pregnancy to the last, mostly to speculate possible gender (even though we all know it's all just wive's tales anyway). So far it's pretty similar... I have thrown up significantly less, but my nausea is more consistent throughout the day than it was with E (with him, it was pretty much only in the morning).  So... we'll see!

Until next time!

12 Weeks

Well, we've finally hit the 12 week milestone and everything continues to be going swimmingly! We've started spreading the news farther and wider, making phone calls to extended family and friends who we wanted to make sure heard the news firsthand from us.  It's exciting to feel like we can talk more openly and freely about everything knowing we are entering the "safe zone."  This also means we are nearing the end of the first trimester, which is another exciting milestone!

On the mama front, the last couple of weeks have been rough... right when I expected to start feeling better, I seem to have hit a pretty big resurgence of first trimester yuckies.  I've had a few episodes of getting really nauseous again, but the kicker is just having zero energy.  It's been frustrating to feel like I don't have the energy to exercise, or get things done around the house, or play with Ember in the way I'd like to, but I know it's all worth it.  I'm just hoping that the end of the first trimester will mean the end of feeling like a zombie!

In other news, I got out all of my old maternity clothes from the basement and washed them this weekend, because it's about time to give in to the stretchy pants.  I can still wear my regular pants with a rubber band, but it's getting increasingly more uncomfortable.  I think I made it to 17 weeks without needing maternity clothes when I was pregnant with Ember, so just goes to show how much earlier it all happens the second time around! I'm alright with it, though, because I know just how much more comfortable the maternity clothes will be. 

Nothing else is really going on on the number two front.. we've had a few brief discussions of names, but so far there are no clear front-runners, so we'll continue on the hunt!

It's a ....

... GIRL!!! We found out about a week and a half ago that our little number two is a GIRL.  We were so convinced we were having another boy, for a number of reasons, so we were genuinely surprised it was a girl.  Deep down inside, we were hoping for a girl, so we were surprised but elated and happy to round out our family in just the way he had hoped we could.  Now, we start diving into names!

10 Weeks

10 Weeks means we had our first appointment at the Birth Center, and passed our first milestone of hearing number two's heartbeat.  Getting to that point was a little nerve-wracking though, thanks to our little guy/gal playing a strong game of hide-n-seek!  Our midwife, Angela, initially couldn't find the heartbeat on the doppler (the contraption they use to hear the heartbeat).  Unconcerned, she decided to get out her other doppler which supposedly works better.  Still couldn't find it.  It's not uncommon for it to be hard to find this early, but she just flat out couldn't find it.  So, we started to get nervous.  She decided to just go ahead and use the ultrasound machine, and upon first look, we see... nothing! Yes, even with the ultrasound she didn't find anything at first.  At this point, no one is saying anything, but Phil and I were thinking the same thing..... no baby. Luckily, shortly after this panic set in, Angela found the little booger! He/she was hiding way on the side of my uterus.  We got to see him/her wiggle around and see his/her little heart beat away.  Once she knew where to look, Angela was then able to find the heartbeat on the doppler in order to get heart rate - a strong 160 bpm.  Everything else checked out, and they took a bunch of blood for routine labs as well as the exciting genetic test that will tell us the gender! We should find out next week if he/she is a he or a she.  Our guess so far is BOY.

As far as Mama goes, week 10 meant a resurgence of the yucky pregnancy symptoms, with more nausea and exhaustion... I fell asleep before sundown two nights in a row, resulting in 11+ hours of sleep those nights and STILL felt completely run down the next day.  Hopefully this is the last surge before it starts to get better! I'm ready to feel human again! As far as the belly goes, it's crazy how pregnant I feel and look already.  I'm already having to use a rubber band to close my pants that are too tight, and I swear I've got a noticeable baby bump when I wear tight fitting clothes. At this time with Ember there were no signs of anything happening, so it's just crazy how different it is this time around and how much sooner everything starts to expand! I'll be in maternity clothes in no time.

Number Two!

Well, here we are again! On June 24th we got the happy surprise that we are successfully baking Number Two! This was by no means an accident, but we were surprised because we didn't expect it to happen so fast. But it did, and we are ecstatic!

We got an earful about waiting so long to tell our immediate families last time (and it would also be a lot harder to hide it, logistically, this time around), so we decided to go ahead and break the news right away.  That being so, we didn't have time to come up with any kind of silly way to announce it, so we just kind of spilled the beans unceremoniously.  But, regardless, everyone is very excited and can't wait to share the news more widely! 

We, of course, told Ember the news, but he, of course, has no real idea what we are talking about.  He has suddenly shown an interest in babies, but we're not sure if this is a coincidence or not.  We'll start talking it up more once we're out of the early phase of the pregnancy. 

Our unofficial due date is March 6, 2018.  We timed it (intentionally) just right so that I should be able to take my full 12 weeks of FMLA which will lead right into summer break, and in theory, I shouldn't have to go back to work until Number Two is nearly 5 months old! What a wonderful thought, and will be so much better than going back at 9 weeks like I did with Mr. E.  

Our first appointment at the Birth Center is on August 10th, at which time we will (hopefully) hear the heartbeat and get my first once-over to make sure everything is going well.  

Some people were curious if we would return to the Birth Center given how crazy my birth with Ember was.  To be honest, we had reservations as well (not because of the Birth Center, but just because of how the birth was, and worries about a repeat performance!), but we sat down with Angela (the lead midwife who delivered Ember), and she allayed all of our fears.  She shared that she doesn't feel like there's any risk going into this pregnancy based on how the last one went down, and she also shared that they now have an ultrasound machine in house - so we can check Number Two's positioning as often as we want to to be 110% sure he/she is not breach!! That was one of our biggest fears, so that made us feel great and very confident to move forward with the Birth Center as our care provider once again. 

Until next time!