I you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you already know: I’m pregnant!
Much like last time, I don’t have a detailed week-by-week account of things, but I have notes and a gist. And I’ve been feeling very different from when I was pregnant with C, so I want to have a record that both can be normal.
Weeks 3-6
A little backstory: I thought I was pregnant every month from September until I actually was in January. When asked if we were trying, we mostly told people we were open to the possibility of another baby, but we really, really wanted one. If you’re like, “Um, wow, you had an 8-month old…” yes. By the time she was six months old, I had baby fever again.
But logically I knew that getting pregnant again so soon would probably not be possible with as much as I was nursing, so I tried not to get my hopes up. (I had my hopes up.)
And then in at the end of August, I felt so sick right before we moved. I would double over retching at random smells. I was nauseated all the time. Of course I was pregnant. That’s exactly how my pregnancy with C started.
But I wasn’t. This horrible nausea became my only postpartum PMS symptom. I suspect that this was when my fertility hormones sort of normalized.
Same thing in October, and November, and December. I was so sure I was pregnant each time. And I wasn’t, and that was frustrating. Sometime in October or November, I started nursing a little less frequently and offering more solid snacks when C seemed hungry. If she insisted on nursing, I did it – it wasn’t time to wean her yet – but most of the time she was just hungry and fine with any calories. I figured if the amount of prolactin I had going on was preventing me from producing enough progesterone, maybe this would calm that down.
And then in January, I actually waited a good 5 days past when I would usually have tested, and got a positive test.
I’d been feeling just as sick as I had every other month, and I kept telling myself it was probably just like the last four months, but it kept happening several days after it usually would’ve ended. So, we were in Atlanta, and I took a test the morning we headed back home because: 1) I’d get to see Jack later and celebrate if it was positive, and 2) I’d be kept very busy for a few hours after if it was negative.
We waited a little longer to tell even the people closest to us this time because I was so nervous. It had taken me a little longer to get pregnant, and I was still nursing, and I was kind of convinced something would go wrong.
This is not how I thought I would feel. I had thoroughly planned to tell people even sooner this time. But I had way more anxiety than I anticipated.
In the middle of the night on my fifth week, I was up for two hours with insane pain. Logically, I didn’t think it was low enough or specified enough to mean anything bad. But I was experiencing a ton of pain in my abdomen and newly pregnant, so I was totally freaking out.
The pain concerned my OB and they did an ultrasound the next day, emphasizing that they probably wouldn’t see a heartbeat no matter what at that point. They just wanted to confirm the pregnancy wasn’t ectopic.
I barely stopped crying the whole time I was in the office. The ultrasound tech was mostly silent, which freaked me out more. And then the doctor came in and said there was no sign of ectopic pregnancy and there was a tiny dot in my uterus. She couldn’t promise me it would grow or that there was a heartbeat, but I wasn’t bleeding, the pain had resolved, and all signs were good at that point. She gave me a stern but kind talking-to about relaxing and how I can only control so many things – my nutrition, my exercise, my stress levels – that may affect how this pregnancy goes, and I should focus on those.
I got bloodwork done then, scheduled an appointment to come back for more bloodwork in two days, and scheduled a follow-up ultrasound for the next week, so they could confirm growth and heartbeat.
The bloodwork was all fine, and the 6-week ultrasound showed a bigger baby and a heartbeat. So, I calmed down.
7-8 weeks
Until at 7ish weeks, I had a little bit of bleeding. If I hadn’t already been paranoid, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed it. I rested, hydrated, and tried to chalk it up to being on my feet all day. Also, I was nervous and overanalyzing every single weird feeling in my stomach/pelvis. And pregnancy messes with digestion, so there were lots of random weird feelings. The next day, it had resolved and my doctor didn’t want to see me, and I was back to catastrophizing. So, we scheduled an ultrasound at a place that just does ultrasounds for the following morning.
Everything was fine (except the tech said she thought it might be twins before confirming there was just one baby). So, I calmed down again.
And then I really started to notice the differences in my two pregnancies, and I got nervous all over again. With C, I was annoyingly nauseated every other day, at first and then all day every day, until I was over halfway through the second trimester. I never actually felt like I could throw up, except the one time I did.
With this baby, I started being violently nauseated, often but not always related to an activity or a scent. I bent over to scoop dog food and would start retching. Filling up the coffee machine would make me turn away, retching. And sometimes I’d be sitting on the couch and suddenly gag at nothing.
I was exhausted and napped a lot when I was pregnant with C. This time, I’ve taken a few weekend naps at convenient times, but mostly just power through the day. But I suspect that’s the difference between having a toddler while you’re pregnant and not having a toddler while you’re pregnant. I crash pretty much the second C is in bed, and I would go to sleep earlier than she does some nights if that were an option.
It started being really hard to stay hydrated because drinking water always sounded like it would make me more nauseated. In reality, being hydrated helps with the nausea. I ate a lot of fruit at first, but my appetite was nowhere near what I was used to. I can usually eat a lot of food, but I found myself leaving food on my plate because I was getting full so fast. It felt the way I felt in my third trimester with C, where there was a baby taking up stomach space… except at this point the baby was teeny and not really encroaching on my stomach space.
And while I’ve certainly been tired and unmotivated, I’ve mostly kept my workouts the same as pre-pregnancy. I do heavy full-body lifts 3 days a week, one lift mostly focusing on strengthening my posterior chain since pregnancy and momming pull me forward so much, a Peloton ride or two, and a day or two of a lighter workout (usually either barre or walking) most weeks. I think the only exceptions during pregnancy, like pre-pregnancy, have come when either C or I have been feeling under the weather and/or sleeping particularly poorly.
My diet has been pretty normal. I prioritize eggs and organ supplements for extra nutrition. After almost two years of being pregnant and nursing, I figure I probably don’t have the most robust nutrient stores. I also have no idea if this actually helps anything at all. It still amazes me how little a part of prenatal care focuses on lifestyle at all. My doctor pretty much skipped it this time since I was pregnant so recently and presumably know what to do.
9-12 weeks
I started feeling the waves of nausea less frequently around 9 weeks, and that also made me nervous. As did the fact that everyone emphasized how much earlier you start showing after you’ve already had a kid. I looked basically exactly the same as I did with C. By the end of the day, though, I feel like I need to trade my jeans for leggings.
But my appointment at 10 weeks was good, and I had another one scheduled for 12 weeks, and I told myself I’d really stop being so nervous after the 12-week one. And that one was also fine. By 12 weeks, I could see slight changes in my stomach before the end fo the day.
Around 11 weeks, we found out we’re having a boy! Name TBD because every time we agree, one of us starts second-guessing.
The reprieve from nausea that started around 9 weeks ended around 11 weeks.
13-14 weeks
I get occasional waves of nausea still. Now, it usually happens when I’m doing particularly icky activities like changing diapers or cleaning up after dogs. But I still don’t love the smell of coffee or dog food.
I feel a little more bloated in general now (though I’m struggling with constipation again), and clothes are starting to feel tighter around my chest.
My workouts are still similar to pre-pregnancy, but I’ve moved to mostly incline pushups to protect my core, and I’m down to one pull-up at a time. I’ll have to move to inverted rows soon. I think this is a little earlier than I started regressing those moves last pregnancy. They were also the two for which I hadn’t fully recovered my pre-pregnancy strength.
I bought some maternity shirts from Beyond Yoga and I am so, so obsessed. I knew I would want some good summer maternity clothes, since I didn’t need those last time. The tank tops I bought fit me now (there’s extra fabric, but I can easily tuck it away) and are so stretchy I’m confident they’ll fit me all summer. Also, they are the softest things ever.
And that brings me to now. I’m almost 15 weeks. I’ll aim for every other week updates this time, so I still have some bandwidth for C posts.
