Bumpdate Weeks 5-12

This is going to be information overload - so fair warning - but if you have any interest in a week to week look of how things have gone....have at it! 

You'll notice a few different things below if you followed along with my first pregnancy (weeks 5-12 with Leo here). I was much sicker this time around, had some light spotting, have not kept up with weekly pictures and basically felt like a shadow of myself for the entire first trimester.

A lot of relief came with each passing week - but you'll see how it progresses below.

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 WEEK 5

How Far Along? 5w4d (my week's turn on Thursday's)

Gender: No clue

Weight Gain: The day I took my pregnancy test I weighed 1 pound more than I did the day I got pregnant with Leo....not that anyone really cares, but that's about 3/4 pounds more than I had been weighing the last five or six months. I'll be curious if I lose those 4/5 pound the first few weeks of being pregnant or not. Regardless, I'm hoping to stay right where I gained with Leo which was 25/30 pounds.

Maternity Clothes: No, but I can already tell they will make their appearance sooner than they did the first time around.

Nursery: Nothing for a while.

 

Movement: Nothing for a while 

Symptoms: Prior to finding out that I was officially pregnant, I was crampy and generally moody. Just like last time, I thought for sure my period was just late, especially since this time we were not trying at all.  Since finding out that we are pregnant, I've been exhausted. I'm trying to get into bed around 8pm, and I'll sleep until about 6am. Last weekend I was able to sneak in an hour nap which felt amazing, but overall, I'm just operating in a state of really tired all day long.

One weird symptom I'm having that is new is that my C-section scar is itching like crazy. For the last 19 months, I've honestly not even remembered that I have a scar, so that's been weird.

I'm really hungry, especially in the morning, but overall, feeling really happy and excited.

Sleep: Can't get enough.

Joel: Very excited! He was less shocked than I was when I took the test and told him the news, and it took him no time at all to get used to the idea that we have a little baby growing!

Workouts: Since finding out....I think, 3? Again, I know I will be very glad to have a gym membership while pregnant. Not only is it a nice break since they have childcare, but I need the endorphins from my workouts most when I'm pregnant. For whatever reason, I haven't loved running....I feel heavy and haven't been able to get passed that feeling and just jog, but I'm hoping once the weather is nice it'll be easier to get outside and run.

Mood: Wonderful. When I was pregnant with Leo, I suffered from a lot of anxiety. When Leo was six months old, I found an amazing therapist who literally changed my life. I'm in such a better place emotionally walking into this pregnancy, and that alone is wonderful. My therapist is back in LA, but I can't quit her, so her and I actually have our sessions over the phone now.

Cravings: Bagels and coffee

What I Miss: Nothing yet! I've actually really enjoyed a forced break from drinking - I know I'm only like a week in, so it's nothing all that impressive but I am more enjoying not drinking for right now than I am missing it.

Random Things: I had to tell my mom.....I'm with her everyday, and I know she would have caught on, so I told her but I'm going to try and keep it a secret until we get an ultrasound. It's going to be really tough....I have my birthday this weekend (still not sure how I'm going to pull off the not drinking part), my dad's 60th (same issue), and mother's day (same issue), all before my 8w4day ultrasound. 

I may just have to tell my family with a lot of reserved optimism.

Best Moment This Week: The shock and awe of seeing two pink lines.

Looking Forward To: Seeing a healthy baby forming and hearing that sweet sound of a healthy heart.

WEEK 6

How Far Along? 6w4d (my week's turn on Thursday's)

Gender: No clue

Weight Gain: -1

Maternity Clothes: No, but I can already tell they will make their appearance sooner than they did the first time around.

Nursery: Nothing for a while.

 

Movement: Nothing for a while 

Symptoms: I am so damn exhausted I cannot even stand it. The exhaustion feels like mono, and I just can't quit it. I feel like I'm in a cloudy fog and each day seems like a mountain to climb. I've been falling asleep in the afternoon for 45 minutes, and I sleep from 9-6am, but it's just not enough. I'm not sure if it's related to the exhaustion or not, but I have a heavy feeling headache that just sits right above my eyes begging them to shut.

My skin is a disaster zone!

Sleep: If I can get a nap in the afternoon, that seems to help a lot.

Joel: As far as pregnancy goes - great. He's excited, can't really get over the fact that we're going to have another baby to love as much as we love Leo, and made sure that my birthday was perfect.

Workouts: I can already tell these weeks are going to mush into each other, because I'm on week two of knowing that I'm pregnant and I can't even remember! I made it to the gym two or three times last week, and then went for a few long walks when it was nice out.

Mood:  Tired, impatient, and excited

Cravings: Bagels and coffee...and I'm overall hungry it seems....and sleep.

What I Miss: Nothing yet! My mom opened a really nice bottle of red wine on my birthday and I poured some in a glass to taste. I missed being able to drink the entire thing but, having the glass in front of me made almost forget I wasn't drinking it. Almost. 

Random Things: We told my parents, my sisters, and a few of my best friends.With it being my birthday, it made it virtually impossible to hide. Turning down glasses and glasses of veuve just isn't like me, so I wanted to tell them before they told me!

We had Leo give my dad a little gift bag with a book inside that says "I'm going to be a Big Brother!". My parents were so excited, over the top, and really, really happy for us.

I printed a picture out of Leo holding said book, and wrote underneath it "Time to Study Up" and gave that to my sisters to open when we celebrated my birthday. It took Hannah a second to figure it out (ha!), but they couldn't be happier to be adding more babies to love on.

Best Moment This Week: Sharing the news with my family.

Looking Forward To: Seeing a healthy baby forming and hearing that sweet sound of a healthy heart.


WEEK 7 
I couldn't even drag myself to write a blog post. This week rocked me. I had to call into work (I was still working at this point) and needed long naps every day in order to even half function. I think I was sleeping 15 hours a day and feeling really sick most of my waking hours. It was not fun.


WEEK 8


How Far Along? 8w4d

Gender: We will know in just a few weeks time. One of the tests we will complete at 10 weeks will also determine the gender. I'm not sure how long the results take, but I would assume we will find out close to 12 weeks.

Weight Gain: -1, and I'm 2 pounds lighter at the doctor this time around than I was with Leo.

Maternity Clothes:  No

Nursery: No

Movement: No, but we could see it!!!!!

Symptoms: This pregnancy is quite a bit different than mine with Leo. I have headaches, nausea, utter exhaustion, and not a lot of desire for food, until I'm starrrrving, and an overall bleh feeling. I've found that looking at my phone or computer really wrecks me, so I've taken quite a backseat from both. I'm thankful that I'm not vomiting but I just don't understand how women feel like this and go on to have tons of kids. It's tough to do anything around here.

Sleep: I need a lot of sleep, and by 12:30 my eyes roll into the back of my head. I've been getting back into bed when I put Leo down for his nap and don't typically get out until he is up. If I didn't have this as an option, I don't know how I would function.

Joel: He's been awesome. He knows that doctors and pregnancy can give me a lot of anxiety, but he's been really supportive in making me feel like we can absolutely handle whatever gets thrown our way. We were both giddy when we saw a healthy baby moving around with a great heartbeat and feel like we can really start to talk about it, visualize it and let it sink in as our new reality.

Workouts: 1 gym, 1 bike ride, and a few walks

Mood: Today was our doctors appointment and I was working with lots of adrenaline and then happiness, and felt good to feel like myself again.

Cravings: Cereal, chips, and on our way home from the doctor I was starving and sort of out of it, and decided to order a sprite at wich wich. It's probably the first soda I've had in years.

What I Miss: Feeling like myself and being motivated to do anything.

Random Things: I am SO much happier with my doctor here than I was in LA. The entire staff is nicer, I like the office better and feel so much more comfortable which is a huge relief. Also....I stopped my part time job.

Best Moment of the Week: Oh seeing the baby looking great takes the cake for probably the next month.

Looking Forward To: Getting out of the first trimester, telling Joel's parents, and feeling more normal.


WEEK 9

How Far Along? 9w5d

Gender: I go in on Monday (like 6 days from now) for the blood test that will tell us the sex.

Weight Gain: Haven't been on this week but nervous!

Maternity Clothes:  No

Nursery: No

Movement: I know this is very unlikely, but on Saturday night, I went upstairs for 15 minutes to lay down. I was so exhausted so I was laying still on the bed and I swear I felt the muscle twitch movement that I felt with Leo at like 19 weeks. It's only happened once, but I would've bet $100 bucks on it. Who knows!

Symptoms: I'm feeling slightly better actually, so I do have to praise everything for that. I'm not totally out of the woods just yet, but I have more energy, more of a diverse appetite, and less headaches, and overall hangover-ness. I'm not back to myself yet, but I can maybe, sorta, kinda, see the light.

Sleep: Trying hard to avoid napping for more than an hour, but I do feel a lot better in the afternoons if I can lay down and nap for a bit. Over the weekend we were so busy and I totally pushed it, and by Sunday I felt like absolute hell.

Joel: He's a good one. He doesn't ever sit down and totally goes overboard in helping me out with house stuff, Leo when he can, and pretty much everything else when he is home. It felt like an absolute vacation to have him around for the long weekend.

Workouts: 1 gym, 2 bike ride, and a quite a few walks. Trying to be active everyday. I was really active when I was pregnant with Leo and I think it helped in so many areas, so I'm trying to keep that habit up this time too.

Mood: Emotional

Cravings: I started to crave actual nutrients this week. I keep feeling like I'm not getting enough protein, so I'm trying to increase that. I'm also trying to start eating a little bit better - and really trying to cut that cereal for breakfast habit!

What I Miss: Mainly my energy and motivation to do things.

Random Things: Not much that I can think of.

Best Moment of the Week: We told Joel's parents this week. Joel's older brother had a baby last week and we didn't want to take away any attention, so we stayed tight lipped. They were so excited, and apparently started taking bets with one of my sister-in-laws on when it was going to be happening the night before we told them! We're going to try and tell Joel's brothers families in person when they get here over the 4th of July.

Looking Forward To: Getting out of the first trimester, test results that reflect a healthy, perfect baby, and feeling back to myself.


WEEK 10

How Far Along? 10w4d

Gender: Took the blood test today, and get the results in 7-10 business days.

Weight Gain: +1 at the doctor on Monday


Maternity Clothes:  No

Nursery: No

Movement: Nothing

Symptoms: As you'll see below, I was super super sick this week, but if you take away that, I think I'm starting to feel better. I haven't needed to take naps, I'm forgetting about nausea (!!), I can stomach more than a little coffee and even had my first latte in weeks (!!). Of course, because my mind likes to be rude, the disappearing of symptoms started to make me a little nervous today but my mantra is working so I'm sticking with it; "it's possible to choose peace over worry".

Sleep: I spent 36 hours laying in bed, and since I've felt well again, I haven't wanted to do much sleeping!

Joel: He had to step up big time because I was so sick Wednesday, Thursday, and then poor Leo got Strep too and was sick Friday until we took him to the doctor on Saturday. We had so much help this week with our parents too, it's really remarkable and we are so grateful for the amount of support and help we have.

Workouts: 1 gym on Monday before getting sick, and then on Sunday we took a little bike ride and long walk around the lake which was nice.

Mood: Sad! I had such a pity party. After feeling crappy for the last few weeks and then getting so sick this week, and then with Leo getting sick...I was hanging on by a thread - but I had a nice reality check and am feeling much more grounded.

Cravings: All of the Gatorade!

What I Miss: ADVIL. HOLY COW did I miss Advil. Before I was on antibiotics, I had the worst body aches and my glands were SO swollen, and Tylenol was just so subpar. I called my OB before I knew it was strep and he told me to stay ahead of my fever every 4-6 hours...and by hour 3, I was counting the minutes before I could take another dose.

Random Things: Strep + Pregnancy = A really, really, really not fun time.

update: On Sunday night I had kind of a weird pregnancy symptom (light spotting) that didn't sit right with me. When I went into the OB on Monday afternoon I mentioned it to the nurse and she said, "you know, we better check with the doctor before we do the blood test". Right then and there, I started to majorly panic and I'm pretty sure I told her I was going to pass out.

Thankfully when the doctor came in to do an ultrasound, we saw a moving and kicking baby and the heartbeat. It took them like two minutes, but those two minutes were painstaking. I didn't anticipate much more besides a "Oh hun, that's totally normal, you're fine", so I was rattled but any concern or anxiety I had about the symptom was put to rest, and seeing the baby kick and move was a huge relief.

That is, until Wednesday, when it started to happen again, and even a little worse than it did on Sunday. I called the doctor and the nurse said, "I really think it's the same thing that was happening on Monday, but if you want to come in for an ultrasound for some peace of mind, come on in".

I don't get peace of mind often, especially when things get a little shaky, so I called my mom to come sit with me because I was so scared, and then at 12:30 went over to the doctors.

This time, I had an even more official ultrasound, and was so scared I thought I was going to pass out. The ultrasound nurse found the heartbeat right away (143bpm), measured the baby and compared the growth to the 8 week ultrasound (baby is getting big and growing right on track), checked my cervix, ovaries....basically everything...and said, try not to freak it. It's a thing, it happens and everything looks good.

Best Moment of the Week: Feeling better, having a perfect Sunday followed by dinner with both sets of Grandparents.....it restored me in a big, big way.

Looking Forward To: Getting out of the first trimester, test results that reflect a healthy, perfect baby, and the 12 week Ultrasound in 2 weeks, and feeling 100% back to myself.


WEEK 11

How Far Along? 11w5d

Gender: We got the results yesterday and it's a GIRL!

Weight Gain: -2 at home


Maternity Clothes:  No

Nursery: No

Movement: Nothing

Symptoms: Very, very light spotting continued for 1 week. I absolutely hated it, had slight panic attacks every time I went to the bathroom, and basically had to give myself pep talks every hour. The facts are that the baby is growing, looking healthy, my insides look healthy, and there is nothing concerning my doctors, so I'm trying to follow their lead. We're in the first trimester, and this isn't the craziest thing to happen.

Sleep: I sleep the best with half a unisom, but still find myself awake well before 6am (typically right about 5:20). I'm still taking an afternoon nap or rest most days.

Joel: He has been a pillar of support this week, remaining unshaken in his faith that everything is ok, everything is looking good, and it's been exactly what I need. And he is in equal parts shock that we are having a baby girl.

Workouts: None. I was told to keep it really easy, so we've been taking light walks when we're up for it.

Mood: Anxious but trying hard to not slip down the rabbit hole and my mental strength is tougher this time around, I do know that.

Cravings: sweets!

What I Miss: My exercise

Random Things: Our test results came back on Monday, June 12th around 12:30pm. I was sitting on my parents screened in porch playing cars with Leo when the nurse called. She introduced herself and then told me that all of the screenings had come back and that we were having a very healthy baby. It was a huge relief, and I was so thankful that they called on Monday so that I didn't have to think about it the rest of the week. She then asked me if I wanted to know what we were having. I told her, yes, but asked if she could call back and leave it on a voicemail so that I could listen to it with Joel.

When Joel got home that night right about 6pm, I had turkey burgers on the stove cooking, and he said, let's just listen to this. He picked Leo up and I grabbed my phone. Joel asked Leo - "What do you think buddy, boy or girl?" And, without hesitation, Leo said "Gurllll".

The 15 second voicemail played.....the nurse building our anticipation on the voicemail....and finally finished the message saying that we were having a healthy, Baby, GIRL!

We couldn't have been more shocked or more excited!

Best Moment of the Week: Getting a handle on my anxiety and leaning on the facts and doctors, getting great test results that the baby is looking healthy as can be, hearing and seeing the baby twice in the last week, finding out the baby is growing perfect, my body is looking good, and finding out that we're having a baby GIRL!

Looking Forward To:  Next Monday we will go for the 12 week ultrasound which I'm looking forward to for the continued reassurance that the baby is looking perfectly healthy, growing right on track, and leaving the first trimester.


WEEK 12

How Far Along? 12w6d

Gender: GIRL

Weight Gain: +.5 (at home)


Maternity Clothes:  No but jeans and shorts are tight

Nursery: No

Movement: Nothing

Symptoms: Much better week overall. Still really tired, but have gone a few days without taking a nap and have had a few days of no nausea at all. I feel a lot of pressure on my bladder, and remember this exact feeling when I was pregnant with Leo. It's so annoying.  My bump is starting to show up and it's especially evident in a bathing suit which isn't so fun either!

Sleep: I do have to get up to pee a lot through the night, especially right when I lay down and feel tons of pressure on my bladder.

Joel: He had a great father's day (of 2!)! He was able to come with me to the doctor this Monday which was really nice. The doctors appointment was perfect and boring - just the way I want them all to be - and I was happy that Joel could hear the heartbeat along with me. He had to travel this week for work which always reminds me of how much he does around here, he is incredibly helpful and we miss him that much more when he is gone!

Workouts: I am cleared to resume working out again, but I'm still a little anxious too if I'm being honest. I walk a few miles pretty much everyday, but haven't really pushed much. I'm thinking I might go to the gym this weekend to do some row and stair stepping and see how that feels.

Mood: Good this week.

Cravings: sandwiches and chips and queso! 

What I Miss: Nothing major this week.

Random Things: For whatever reason, I have really little desire to post on social media that we're expecting. I don't know why, but I'm enjoying keeping it close to the chest for now. We are going to tell Joel's brothers next weekend (one in person when they're here in IL), and maybe after that I'll have a stronger urge?

Best Moment of the Week: Hearing a healthy heartbeat (clocked in at 144bpm) and all of the kicks and swooshes she was making on the doppler, a normal, boring doctors appointment, feeling better, and getting out of the first trimester!

Looking Forward To:  Our next doctors appointment is in four weeks, so I'm looking forward to enjoying the benefits of the second trimester, popping out a bit, feeling the babe start moving and enjoying the fourth of July and the many friends and family we will be seeing over the next few weeks.