Well hello, old friends! It’s been awhile since I’ve dusted off my editing page on here, and the familiarity of it all sure feels nice to come back to.

If you don’t follow me on social media, you wouldn’t have heard the news, but as you can see… we’re expecting our second child! We’re so very excited and feel extremely blessed to be welcoming this new baby in early October. I made mention of this on Instagram, but I’m not going to be sharing the infertility aspect this time around. It still took us a while, but I’m not going into detail… UNLESS you honestly are curious! I really am an open book, but just feel like by now, you know we have fertility struggles, so if you want the deets on this time around, don’t hesitate to ask. Even if you’re just feeling nosey! I really don’t mind and always feel like sharing these topics helps to normalize the conversations surrounding them.

Anyway, I guess I just sort of decided, why not document this pregnancy too? I’ve found myself looking back at my recaps of my last pregnancy to see what things lined up and so on or to remind myself what to expect. I’ll use the same format as before, so here we go…!

Symptoms

Nausea - oh boy did this hit me like a ton of bricks right off the bat. I was puking every day (sometimes multiple times!) until i started taking a combo of Unisom + B6 around week 7 or 8. The nausea didn’t disappear, but it did tame my puking which I so desperately needed. Though I did learn walking and eating for some reason really set me off. Once while chewing a bite of pbj, I gagged a little too hard, and THANKFULLY Tom scattered barf bags all around the house because I snagged one in the dining room and lost it right there. Haha.. definitely funny in retrospect!
Tired - there is nothing quite like first trimester exhaustion!
Sore boobies - I miss laying on my belly to sleep haha
Metallic taste - this was new and bleck!
Food aversions - it seemed like they’ve been a lot stronger this pregnancy. Almost NOTHING sounded good for the first mannnnnyyy weeks. Maybe until week 11? I mostly ate fruit, drank juice or chocolate soy milk, ate granola bars, and sometimes potatoes or eggs. So. much. gagging. Also lots of crying at the dinner table when I couldn’t stand to eat anything on my plate but was so hungry.
Sensitive to smells - oh the joys of dog food, poopy diapers, coffee, and the trash can.
Crampy - just occasionally. I remember feeling more cramping in the first trimester with Silas.
Spotting - this was a new one and a bit scary. I spotted in the 6th week and the 9th week. Thankfully it resolved and didn’t get serious, but I didn’t experience that with Silas, so I had an ultrasound right at 7 weeks to check things out. All was fine.
Emotional - hello hormones! All the cheesy things make me cry. Also a little more moody this time around. Had a harder time being excited and honestly felt sort of depressed for most of the trimester.
Acne - ugh such a bummer
Vivid dreams - I love this part of pregnancy. Such weird, insanely vivid dreams!

Cravings

Nothing I craved - just finally a break in the food aversions and something would sound good. Once it was my mom’s pot roast and potatoes (they were in town), and puddings and ice cream hahaha

First Trimester Journal

Weeks 4-8

I found out about this pregnancy REALLY early. I went in for confirmation bloodwork on week FOUR. In that bloodwork they check all your hormone levels, and they again put me on a low dose of progesterone to help support the pregnancy (my HCG was perfect, though). I was on it with Silas too. I spotted for a day or two on week 6, and promptly got in for an ultrasound on week 7. Baby was measuring EXACTLY on track based on my dates! It was such a relief to see and hear that tiny heart beating. Tom, unfortunately, was home with Silas so he missed the only ultrasound he could have been to (since Covid-19 restrictions started a few weeks later). They said the spotting likely came from an ovarian cyst that was resolving itself. Tom had a lot of travel during this time - a trip to Idaho, and another just a few days later to DC. This was honestly a lot for me just because of the timing and the intense nausea while taking care of a busy, needy toddler. Cooking food during this time was just horrendous. My parents were planning on stopping back through after spending the winter in Florida, but I called them up, spilled the beans, and asked them to come early and stay while Tom was out of town to keep me company and give me a break from Silas. Thankfully they were happy to oblige and my mom made us some delicious meals. We even snuck in a little date while they were here!

Weeks 9-12

Already started peeing all the time again - including in the night. We brought my lovely pregnancy pillow out of retirement (I cannot for the life of me stay on my side at night), along with all my old maternity clothes that I washed and tried on :) On week 9, I spotted again. It lasted a couple days and I tried not to worry, but it certainly crept in.
Week 10 on the dot, I had my first regular OB visit. Tom came along with Silas and we all got to hear the heart together. Always a relief - especially after spotting the week before. Silas got too squirmy, so the boys left and I got to have a great talk with my OB. She is seriously just the BEST and I’m so incredibly grateful a friend referred me to her when we moved here! The following weeks were more of the same with food aversions and nausea and just trying to survive while taking care of Silas and getting us fed without throwing up. I stopped taking progesterone at 13 weeks, and we announced around this time.

This time around was in many ways the same, but of course, extremely different too (is anyone surprised? Different pregnancy, different baby, etc…). I think the biggest difference this time around was how irritated I felt. Maybe not irritated… but… I can never find the right word or description. I just wasn’t very excited. I was excited, of course, but the overarching feeling I had was frustration. Frustrated that it kept me from being a “good” mom to Silas and we spent too much time watching shows while I was curled up trying not to vomit. Frustrated that I wasn’t grateful enough. Frustrated that I felt like such a shell of myself.

So then on top of all these feelings, Nashville schools were shutting down over illness, so I stayed home to avoid getting whatever everyone else was getting.
Then the horrific tornado ripped through and they asked any extra people to stay off the backed up roads, so I stayed home.
And then Covid-19 hit. And I’ve STAYED HOME. I’ve stayed home for nearly two months by now.

It’s a weird time to be pregnant. We have our anatomy scan in May, and Tom can’t come. It all feels very anticlimactic. Like I got pregnant, and have been home practically ever since. Our church family doesn’t even know! So when we get back to worship, they’ll all be in for an obvious surprise - haha!

Anyway. It feels so much better to be in the second trimester, now. My weird/sad mood has lifted, I’m starting to feel movement, and Silas now sticks his finger in my belly button when I ask him where the baby is (haha it HAS to be directly in my belly button, not just my belly - it kills me hahaha). But he gives the baby kisses already and the thought of him being a big brother is super sweet and exciting. Though also a little sad he won’t be my only baby anymore! He’s such a mama’s boy and he is about to get the shock of his little lifetime!

That’s all for now! See you at the end of next trimester ♥️