Tag: Pregnancy

Posted on

Thoughts the 2nd time around…

{written on 2-23-12 – 4w5d}

It’s funny, because as obviously thrilled as I am that I’m pregnant again, it feels totally different than when I found out I was pregnant the 1st time. The shock and awe of that one has been replaced by an “Awesome, let’s do this!” mentality this time around.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic that we’re having another baby! That was the whole point of trying again. I just have a completely different mindset right now.

Instead of “OHMYGOD I have no idea what we’re going to need!”, it’s “Ok, we have all the baby stuff and clothes up in the attic and the furniture in D’s room.”

Instead of “Holy shit what is my body going to do?”, it’s “Ok, I’ll just wait for my body to do this and this and this again.”

Instead of “I AM FREAKING OUT!!”, it’s “Yeah, this great! We’re gonna have another baby, and D’s gonna be a great big sister!”

Much calmer now, as you can see.

I know every pregnancy is different and I can’t necessarily predict what will happen with this one based solely on how the first one went, but it’s not totally uncharted territory for me anymore. We’ve been down this road before and I’m now  much more confident the 2nd time.

Even R’s reaction last night was different. He was certainly happy and excited too, but he was funny when he went to bed. He gave me a kiss and said, “Well, congrats, I guess. You ready for this?”

Nerd. 🙂

Of course I’m ready. I replied, “Yep. Are you?”

He’s such a great dad already I have no doubt that he’ll be even better with more.

That’s the other thing – we’re already parents, and I think we’re pretty good ones. So now I don’t have the same “What if I fail?” feeling that sometimes crept in when I was pregnant with D. We’re not heading into the great unknown.

Yeah, we’ve got this.

Bring it on Rauling #2! We can’t wait to meet you.

I don’t have my 1st OB appointment until March 14, but right now my estimated due date is October 31, 2012. A Halloween baby! Our own lil’ spook.

Squeak and Spook. I like it.

 

**ETA: I’ve obviously had that 1st OB appt., and my due date is October 27. So I wasn’t too far off. 

 

Posted on

Friday Funk – 18 weeks

Moving right along with Dv2.0…

  • How far along?  18 weeks, 6 days
  • Total weight gain: Haven’t weighed myself this week, but hopefully it’s not a whole lot more than the 15 lbs. (ugh!!) I was up as of last week. As you can see though, my butt has begun its expansion again. Why? I’m not carrying a baby back there, geez.
  • Maternity clothes?  More and more. I’ll take stretchy pants over regular ones held up with a Be-Band any day, so they’re becoming a staple. With D I didn’t wear maternity pants exclusively until 22 weeks, but I doubt I’ll last that long this time. Regular tops are still fine. I did just buy a whole new round of maternity gear this week so I am looking forward to its arrival.
  • Stretch marks?  Thankfully, no. I didn’t get any from D, so hopefully Dv2.0 doesn’t give me any either.
  • Sleep:  When D sleeps through the night (which is almost always), it’s pretty good. Sometimes I have to get up to pee, but that isn’t a constant yet.
  • Best moment this week:  Getting my hair trimmed and the grays covered back up tonight. Finally! (yes, i get my hair dyed while pregnant. it’s ok.)
  • Miss anything?  Beer, especially now that the weather’s warming up.
  • Movement:  Started feeling some tiny flutters here and there during week 16, which is about 3-4 weeks earlier than I felt D move. Still not very regular or strong yet.
  • Cravings:  In general, no, but when I get really hungry I want protein – meat, cheese, etc.
  • Aversions:  Food, no. Smells, not nearly as bad as last time, fortunately. I just get sick of scents quickly and have to get rid of them completely.
  • Gender:  Not finding out.
  • Labor signs:  No.
  • Symptoms:  Still a little heartburn off and on, but it’s pretty fleeting. I have started getting sacro-iliac pain already though, which is much earlier than I experienced it with D. Especially if I’m really active during the day, it hurts my butt to stand up and walk by the night. Literally.
  • Belly button in or out?  In. Never went fully out with D, just a little crooked.
  • Wedding rings on or off?  On.
  • Looking forward to:  Ultrasound next week.

 

 

Posted on

Friday Funk – 17 weeks

Well I’m really closer to 18 weeks, since that’s how far along I’ll be tomorrow, but I obviously don’t have a picture from that yet. So you’ll just have to do with an almost week lag.

I have some comparison shots for you, though, between the day we found out I was pregnant and last Saturday’s 17 week pic. And I did find one of those little surveys that I filled out below. Almost halfway, wow!

  • How far along?  17 weeks, 6 days
  • Total weight gain: I’m actually really embarrassed to reveal this, and I usually couldn’t care less about telling people my weight. But I’ve gained 15 lbs. so far!! Ugh. This better slow down – I gained 33 total with D, so I’m almost halfway there now but not even to the halfway mark of this pregnancy!
  • Maternity clothes?  Some. I got some maternity capris that I love, so I will be wearing those and my gauchos much more frequently now. I have noticed that my pants/shorts are starting to get tighter in the butt, but at least that didn’t happen nearly as quickly this time as it did with D. Tops, I’m still fine wearing regular ones.
  • Stretch marks?  Thankfully, no. I didn’t get any from D, so hopefully Dv2.0 doesn’t give me any either.
  • Sleep:  When D sleeps through the night, it’s pretty good. Fortunately her wake-ups are back to her normal zero lately now that the HFM subsided. Sometimes I have to get up to pee, but that isn’t a constant yet.
  • Best moment this week:  Um, it’s Friday? 🙂
  • Miss anything?  Beer, especially now that the weather’s warming up, and oddly enough sushi. Sushi isn’t even one of my favorite or most frequent meals, but lately I’ve been thinking how good it would taste.
  • Movement:  Started feeling some tiny flutters here and there last week, which is about 3-4 weeks earlier than I felt D move.
  • Cravings:  In general, no, but when I get really hungry I want protein – meat, cheese, etc.
  • Aversions:  Food, no. Smells, not nearly as bad as last time, fortunately. I just get sick of scents quickly and have to get rid of them completely.
  • Gender:  Not finding out.
  • Labor signs:  No.
  • Symptoms:  Nausea is finally gone, THANK GOD. And I feel pretty much back to normal. A tiny bit of heartburn here and there, but nothing major. Kind of weird, too, because I didn’t have any of that until the 3rd trimester with D.
  • Belly button in or out?  In. Never went fully out with D, just a little crooked.
  • Wedding rings on or off?  On.
  • Looking forward to:  My next appointment and ultrasound in a week and a half. And a long weekend for Memorial Day!

 

 

Posted on

D v2.0

{written on 2-22-12 – 4w4d. i have a couple posts that i wrote before we shared the news of this pregnancy that i’ll be putting up in the next few weeks.}

So I think I’m pregnant again. YIPPEE!!!!

I won’t know for sure until this afternoon when I get home from work and can take a test, but I’m pretty sure. And here just last week before we went to Tucson I told R I thought our efforts had failed again this cycle. Guess I’ve proven myself wrong. Thankfully!

**Warning: This post may contain material not suitable for those not wanting to know the ins and outs of my body’s monthly cycles, so if you fall into that category, TURN BACK NOW!**

We tried for 4 cycles this time around, whereas with D I got pregnant on our 2nd try. Well actually we could technically call it 5 cycles, since the very 1st one we did have good timing, but I think I was more ready to get this ball rolling than R at that point and it wasn’t a very concerted effort. So I guess that one doesn’t really count.

Then there was 1 cycle in there where I was frustrated so didn’t keep track of anything, and we totally blew our chances. Well played, body, well played. I kept track from then on.

So in all, we tried for 5-6 months.

Like the 1st time around when we were trying for D, I did keep track of my morning temps, signs from my body during different phases of each cycle, and used ovulation predictor strips. TMI? Sorry, I warned you. I didn’t feel like doing any guess-work this time either.

There were a couple cycles in there where I thought we had excellent timing, so I was starting to get discouraged when I thought this one was a bust as well. I was even going to call my doctor to chat if this cycle didn’t work. Yes, I realize 4-5 cycles is really nothing to be worried about, since it can take perfectly healthy couples a year or more to conceive, but I was just hoping there wasn’t something wrong since it took a shorter time frame for D.

Plus, charting and counting days can really wear on you when all you want and hope for is that one positive sign. It starts to suck the “fun” out of the whole process, if you will.

What did I do differently this cycle than the last that may have made a difference? The only real things were cutting out coffee drinks in the mornings and actually eating breakfast (i do still usually have a caffeinated soda at lunch, so i didn’t cut out caffeine completely) and drinking 8 oz. of pomegranate juice every day.

I’ve heard that pomegranate juice is supposed to help thicken the uterine lining, thereby lengthening the luteal phase of the cycle and making a more hospitable environment for implantation. Plus it’s just good for you.

My luteal phase tends to be on the shorter side, so I was afraid that was causing our lack of success. I had drunk the juice in some of the other cycles too with no luck, though, so I can’t put all the credit on that. But maybe it did help?

I’ve really had no symptoms that would clue me in, mainly just a lack of my little monthly friend. I did read back to my journal entry from the day I found out I was pregnant with D (yes, an actual pen-to-paper journal!) to see if there was something I could be watching out for, but I didn’t have much to report then either. Just really sore boobs, which I don’t have this time.

Here’s what I can report:

  • Light cramping on 8dpo, then more crampage around 10-12dpo, which was when I totally thought the jig was up. The 10-12dpo cramping didn’t really feel like menstrual cramps though – they were more like a gas/bloated feeling, so that’s kind of when I started thinking ok, if it hasn’t shown by 11dpo (which was when it usually did before) then I may just stand a chance.
  • Pretty hungry and peeing a lot, but that also could have simply been because we went on a couple of long walks in Tucson and I was trying to drink a lot of water after the flights out, since they always seem to dehydrate me more than usual.
  • Very tiny, fleeting waves of nausea and barely heartburn over the weekend. Like if I weren’t on high alert hoping I was pregnant, they wouldn’t even have registered on my radar. Maybe just a “hmm, that was a weird feeling”.
  • Temp was up higher than the rest of my luteal phase this morning. I didn’t take the thermometer to Tucson (temping on vaca? no thanks), so I was just curious to see what it would read today even though I really didn’t need it.
  • Super emotional today. Actually, that’s just really about 1 thing – this morning I found out I’m being inducted into my high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, and the wonderful comments I’m getting from all my friends on my Facebook page are practically making me cry. Maybe I’d be doing that even if I wasn’t pregnant.

Other than those very minor symptoms (which can hardly be counted as symptoms), I’ve really felt zero difference so far. That was another reason why I was still pretty skeptical until yesterday and today (14-15dpo). I assumed that since my body’s been through this once already maybe the 2nd time around it would get more of a head start feeling stuff. Dumb idea? Maybe.

I did weigh myself this morning in anticipation of a positive test this afternoon. Starting weight this time = 149.5. That’s exactly 5 pounds lighter than my starting weight last time. I actually did weigh myself last Friday morning before we went to Tucson thinking maybe if I was pregnant this time I’d take a 10dpo reading, and I weighed 151. Why I now weigh less after eating a ton over the weekend (In-N-Out = YUM!!), I have no idea. But that’s where I’ll call my starting weight, 149.5.

Whatever’s going on in there I’m just praying that the pregnancy sticks, and I hope this feeling great continues the whole time! I really shouldn’t get ahead of myself until I take that test this afternoon, but now I finally have a pretty sure feeling that I will see those 2 pink lines this time. And I have a really cute way to break the news to R if I do see them.

 

**Edited on 2-23-12: I was right – I’m pregnant!! I bought some pregnancy tests after work yesterday and took one right when I got home, and there were those 2 pink lines, bright as can be! I took D into her bedroom and put an adorable little “Big Sister” t-shirt on her that I’d gotten a few months ago, then sent her out to show Daddy. Needless to say, R was very surprised, since I’d told him last week I thought we were out again this time. I took another test this morning just because I had 3 and I could, and there were the lines again, even brighter than last night. Here we go again!

 

 

Posted on

For those curious, here’s the real story…

All right, so you know how I’ve been a little MIA lately? A post here, a post there, maybe not another one for a couple weeks?

Well yes, we were on vacation for a bit (St. Thomas pics are coming, i PROMISE!). But that wasn’t what was preventing me from being around much.

The real reason is because I have been sick and have had, oddly enough, a blogging aversion. I know, sounds dumb, but it’s true. Since D and I got back from Tucson near the end of February, I have had at least 3 wicked colds plus an upper respiratory infection that I thought was going to send me to the hospital.

Couple that with that 1 night of barfing and roughly 8-9 weeks of almost constant nausea, and that left me with very little energy to spend here.

Oh wait, you caught that? A barfing episode and over 2 months of nausea? Yep, that’s right…

Dv2.0 is on the way!

I’m due October 27, so that makes me 15 weeks and 5 days pregnant today. I just had my 3rd OB appointment yesterday, heard the heartbeat again, and all appears well, so I felt like it was time to spread the word here too.

Fortunately I think the worst (and hopefully all) of the sickness has passed and I feel much better than I did a few weeks ago, but there’s 1 word to describe why I think I felt so shitty:

BOY

(but no, we’re not finding out the sex)

So there’s a whole new ride we’ll be going on here in the land of ScooterMarie. Care to join me? And I never did any of those pregnancy surveys or anything with D, but if you’re curious and want to know my answers along the way, go ahead and toss me one; I’ll fill it out and post it for ya.

Oh yes, the belly pics have begun too, so you can count on seeing those here and there. I can tell you’re just thrilled by that prospect!