Hi everyone! It's about time I wrote a blog entry for this second pregnancy! And why, at 32 weeks, am I finally writing? Because it's finally hitting me...there's going to be another BABY in this house soon. Your response might be along the lines of "well, duh." But seriously...this pregnancy has flown by and I haven't been nearly as attentive to this growing human inside me as I was the first time around. Now, with our to-do list expanding and my 3rd trimester symptoms starting in earnest, my excitement and anxiety are growing by leaps and bounds.
Aron and I are already joking about how the second child gets shafted based on the way we've treated this second pregnancy. In many ways, I feel significantly less bonded to this baby than I did to Parker when I carried him. I don't love this baby girl any less; the whole pregnancy part just seems like less of a big deal. We've only taken a few pregnancy photos, I never read the weekly update emails on how my pregnancy is progressing, and half the time I can barely remember how far along I am. This whole time, my due date has been sort of this vague date to plan for in the future, but it wasn't until January 16 and we were officially just 2 months away that my mind started swirling with the thoughts and fears of just how much our lives are going to change when the due date rolls around.
Because I'm starting to feel so anxious, I want to get a quick recap down on how the pregnancy has been going for me/us. The past few days I've been reading through my old entries from carrying Parker and it's made me realize how neat it was that I documented everything. If we ever decide to have a third child, maybe I'll want to look back at these entries (um, this entry) and compare the second pregnancy to the third.
The first trimester already feels so long ago, but while I was in it, it was never-ending. It was sooo much worse than with Parker. Almost as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I started getting morning (ALL DAY) sickness. I stopped going to play dates, ditched all my Mom's Night Out events, and basically spent all my time on the couch or in the bathroom. Weeks 6-8 were downright hell. There was one weekend where I spent the entire time in bed, and all I could eat was cheese and mayo on rolls a few times a day. Which Aron lovingly prepared for me, while taking on 100% of the parenting duties. He was amazing those first few weeks, going to work late, coming home at lunch to help out, and leaving work early. Thankfully at my first OB appointment at 8 weeks, the doc prescribed me Diclegis, which was a lifesaver. I still had some nauseous moments, still threw up every now and then, but overall, it made me feel like a human again. I thought I'd only be on it for a few weeks through the end of the first trimester, but ended up needing it until Week 23. There were a lot of moments when I couldn't believe I still felt so miserable, but eventually I learned to take it in stride and be ok with the fact that this second pregnancy just might not go as smoothly as my first did.
Because I still was feeling so queasy all the time, I never really got that second-trimester energy burst that I had with Parker, and which all the books say should happen for most women. There was no urge to jump out of bed in the mornings and start doing "nesting" type things, or any real desire to do much of anything at all. Even when we had our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks and found out we were having a girl, I didn't get all excited to decorate the nursery or go out and buy baby girl things. That did kick in towards the end of the second trimester though. Family and friends started giving us hand me down baby girl clothes, and as soon as I was done bawling over how adorably cute and pink everything was, I wanted to start getting little girl's room ready. Of course, I continued to be lazy and did nothing.
The funny thing about this pregnancy is that when symptoms or pregnancy-related things happen, it feels both new and old. There's so much I had forgotten, and every few weeks when something new would pop up, I'd think "Oh right, I'm pregnant. This is happening. It's new, but I've been here before." Even with feeling sick and now having a very active baby girl in my belly, there are still so many times I forget I'm pregnant. Even with having my belly pop at 16 weeks and instantly having to switch to maternity clothes. Even with having basically all of the same symptoms as the first time around. I think it's because this time, my attention every day is still on Parker and my days are actually busier. Unlike the first pregnancy, I don't have the luxury (haha) of sitting at a desk all day, just working along and delighting in every baby kick and being able to put my feet up whenever I wanted.
Essentially everything that happened during the first pregnancy has happened again this time, but on a larger (more worse?) scale. The morning sickness, of course, But also the round ligament pains, the restless legs, the heartburn. I started getting round ligament pains early on this time, and they would hit fast and brutal. My hunch is that it's because my belly popped so early and became pretty big pretty fast. Sometimes the pain would be so sharp it would literally knock me off my feet. I'd try to stand, only to have my body be all "nope, you ain't goin' nowhere." Throughout the end of the second trimester, I got restless legs bad every night. Now it's sort of back again, but if I remember to stretch out before bed it doesn't seem as rough. I think I'm also much better hydrated now, since I'm drinking a ton of water to keep my dry skin at bay (which is possibly one thing that isn't actually as bad or worse as it was the first time). Or maybe the restless legs thing is as bad, but I'm just already awake so much more during the night now that it doesn't bother me. I've definitely hit that 3rd trimester insomnia phase, where if I wake up to pee or readjust my massive body pillow, it might be an hour or two before I get back to sleep. Hate that!
And the heartburn...damn. It deserves a blog entry all it's own. It started out just in the evenings, similar to what I had with Parker, but now it's an all-day thing. I've started taking pepcid once a day (at my doc's recommendation) to help prevent it a bit instead of just taking the reactionary tums. Which I do still have to take a couple times of day too. Bonus - I'm getting a lot of extra calcium! I tried adjusting my diet but it doesn't seem to matter what I eat or drink, whether I lay down or stay upright after meals, or how often I snack or eat larger meals. I think I'm just stuck with it for these last few weeks.
Now that I'm on a writing roll, I feel like there's so much else I could say! But I think I'll end it here for today, and maybe make an effort to blog at least once a week for these last two months. Recalling the last few months the first time I was preggo, it seems like both a lot happened and nothing happened at all. Of course my biggest fear is that I'll get pre-eclampsia again at week 36. That was a whole lot of stress for the 2 weeks before Parker arrived. I'd rather not deal with that this time around, although it did have some neat side effects like the non-stress testing where I got to see and hear Parker twice a week. :)
I'll post pictures in my next entry!!
