Baby #2 - Part 2: The First Trimester

The First Trimester


So now that we're well into the third trimester, I decided it was finally time to go back and write about the beginning.


We started trying to get pregnant again during the summer last year after Owen turned one.  Month one was a miss but month two worked out for us.  I remember we went out on a date night and I wanted a margarita, but realizing that it was during the window where technically I could have been pregnant but it was too early to know yet, so I didn't order anything, and made the comment to Cody that "there was a chance baby number two was in there".  And well, turns out there was!

Our date night when I didn't order the margarita I wanted just in case there was a tiny growing baby. 

In late August Cody went on a mission trip to León, Nicaragua.  It was during that week that I found out I was pregnant.  I knew that the timing of his trip would line up with finding out and I was torn about waiting to test until he came back or not, and then if I did find out if I wanted to tell him over the phone or wait for in person.  Well when my period didn't come I pretty much knew I was pregnant and the test would just make it official, so I went ahead and did two home tests to confirm.  I decided to wait and tell Cody in person because I didn't want to interrupt his personal thoughts and feelings with his mission trip, and because I wanted to share the news face to face.  So when he came home I told him I wanted him to look at some pictures on my phone from while he was gone, and the pictures included the positive tests.  Just like the first time with Owen, Cody was thrilled again immediately : )

Cody on his mission tip in Nicaragua.

His trip as with Living Water International.  He was part of a team that went to dig and build a well for a community. 

Officially confirmed the news while Cody was gone on his trip.

Two different tests to be sure.

Found out right at 4 weeks.

With Owen we had our first OB appointment at 6 weeks and were able to hear his heartbeat then.  This time they would not schedule us until 8 weeks.  Waiting a whole month to go to the doctor to confirm everything was going well and then share our news was so hard! It felt so much longer than waiting with Owen (technically it was double the time, two extra weeks). Just like the first time we wanted to wait to tell our parents and most friends and such until we had that good confirmation at the doctor, and we like being able to show our parents the ultrasound picture with the news.  So at 8 weeks we got our first pictures of baby #2 and heard her heartbeat.

5 Weeks 

Just like with Owen I started getting morning sickness (I mean round-the-clock sickness) at 6 weeks. I would have said it was pretty bad with Owen, but this time was way worse.  With Owen I never at all threw up, just constantly felt like I needed to and wished I would for some relief.  This time I did throw up but only a handful of times, but the nausea was even more constant throughout the day and somehow more intense.  I would just wish I would throw up thinking that would bring some relief.  Hardly anything sounded good to eat.  I ate a lot of dry Kix cereal because for whatever reason that was one thing that didn't seem to make it worse.

8 Weeks

8 Weeks - already bloated!

I also was more exhausted than I was with Owen.  Just so physically tired and feeling awful that a lot of the time during that first trimester I would just have to lay down on the couch for quite a while each day.  In my head I thought that this time since I wasn't teaching, it would be easier because I could lay down or rest whenever I needed to.  And well it turns out with a toddler running around it isn't the easiest thing to just have rest time for yourself.  I will admit that this is the point when we started really watching T.V. - that being Daniel Tiger episodes.  Prior to feeling so awful he hardly had watched any T.V. at all and didn't borrow our phones much or anything like that.  I did really want to limit technology for as long as possible. However I physically just could not do more than rest and I had to have Owen occupied, so for a lot of the time when he didn't want to play by himself and didn't want to sit by me and read (or if I didn't even feel up to that sadly) then we resorted to Daniel Tiger, and that was way more than I'd like to admit.

First sonogram pictures at 8 weeks : )

There were a few smells that really bothered me and made my nausea worse.  One was red hand soap.  We had some cherry scented liquid soap in our bathroom and I had to throw it away because every time I used it I started gagging and it was so awful!  Another specific thing I remember was one night Cody and I went to a Spurs game with some friends, and walking past one of the restaurants in the AT&T Center almost made me actually throw up.  I think I did a little in my mouth.  It was so bad I started crying walking with Cody to our seats.  What was that horrible smell... I don't know exactly but I couldn't get away from it fast enough.  Sorry Cody for the super ultra sensitive and emotional mess I was that night out!

Sadly we/I have not document this pregnancy nearly as well as we did with Owen.  With how awful I felt I just had zero motivation to bother taking a weekly picture (or even just a random picture ever now and then), and to write about it.  Also as I mentioned in my first post about our announcement, I will be honest and say I had a lot of conflicting emotions during the first trimester of this pregnancy, and part of me really didn't want to document that.  I was completely caught up in the fact that this would end my time with just Owen, and that combined with the normal pregnancy hormones and all, made me extremely emotional and sad - way more than I'd like to admit.  It took quite a while for me to be able to get past that and focus all the positive things and remember why we wanted to get pregnant again in the first place.

We put Owen in this Big Brother shirt to tell my parents we were pregnant!

Another aspect of it all that made me conflicted and sad was that pretty much as soon as I got pregnant my already low milk supply dried up.  I was still nursing Owen, granted it wasn't much at all, when we got pregnant.  My goal with him was to nurse until 18 months.  My supply had already dropped a lot just naturally and he was not nursing much each day at all, but we were still hanging on and I wanted to reach our goal.  I knew getting pregnant would likely dry up my supply but I thought  that wasn't until farther along like the second trimester.  For me at least it was almost immediate.  We made it to 17 months which was awesome and so close, but I was still sad we didn't reach the goal I had in mind, and it made me feel so emotional and upset when at the end Owen wanted to nurse and he would sign "milk" and there just was none.  He did just dry/comfort nurse some at the end but it broke my heart each time he was doing that and would stop, look up at me, and sign milk.  Of course I know it's not like we would have kept nursing forever, but I just wasn't ready to stop quite yet, and I also felt so sad that Owen still wanted it but I couldn't give it to him.

Super excited for a second grandchild on the way!

We told Cody's parents the news over FaceTime, but there wasn't a picture or anything to document telling them. 

This time around I had to start wearing maternity shorts and pants extremely quickly.  (See the above Week 8 pictures in which I'm already bloated.) I had heard it was normal to get bigger in general, and to show and get bigger earlier with each pregnancy, but I really had a hard time accepting that my pants didn't fit as early as it happened.  I think it was at 8 weeks where my shorts hurt SO much to try to wear, but I really felt like it was ridiculous to need maternity pants at only 8 weeks.  I didn't need maternity shirts still until much later just like with Owen, but those pants, that happened oh so quick and I didn't want to accept it.

To wrap up the first trimester, we had our second OB appointment at 12 weeks.  That time we only got one ultrasound picture but heard the heartbeat again like you do every time, and got the confirmation that everything was still going great which is always a relief to hear.  Even with no signs to worry about, with both Owen and this second time, I always had that tiny ever present fear that something could go wrong and we could not know.  Thankfully all was well again and we had another black and white picture to add to our fridge : )

12 Weeks!