Pregnancy

I never wrote about my pregnancy with Timmy, and haven't yet written much about this one either. I might be setting a bad precedent for this poor baby by comparing him to his big brother already, but I wanted to mention a few things now, before both pregnancies blur together in my memory! I have been very fortunate with both of these pregnancies, I only have common complaints, no major problems or severe symptoms to worry about.

Of course the complaint that all women start with is 'morning' sickness. When I was pregnant with Timmy my friend asked me what morning sickness feels like and I think I came up with the perfect comparison: morning sickness feels like being hungover for 6(+) straight weeks! With Timmy I only actually threw up a handful of times, typically in the morning, but I felt like hell all of the time for about 6 weeks. The more active I was, the worse the queasiness was, oyster crackers became my lifesavers. I threw up a couple times at work, but apparently no one noticed. Tim and I have kept to the "don't tell anyone until you're 3 months pregnant" rule pretty well, and that made morning sickness worse for me, because I couldn't really talk about it without explaining why I was sick for so long! This time around I didn't actually throw up a single time, but the constant nausea lasted for closer to 10 weeks!!! It was really rough!

My next major symptom would have to be exhaustion! With Timmy, during my first and third trimesters I went to bed between 7:30 and 9:00 every single night I think! I could not get enough sleep. I went to visit my Grandma in Ohio during my first trimester and while I was at her house I slept for at least 12 hours a night! This time around I do not have that luxury. My first trimester I napped with Timmy on Saturday and Sunday every weekend, and I went to bed when he did, but that's between 9 and 10! Now that I'm in my third trimester I am probably averaging half a Timmy nap per weekend. ;)

Strange Pregnancy Cravings? Not really. With Timmy I drank a whooooole lot of slurpee's and I had a whole lot of ice cream. (To be fair, we were opening an ice cream store at the time, so I might not be able to blame that part on the pregnancy!) I've come up with a slightly better solution this pregnancy, I'm drinking almost-frozen Gatorade instead. Mid-morning at work I put one in the freezer, and mid afternoon it's perfect! I figure I'm cutting out some of the sugar this way at least! With both of these pregnancies I have had EXTREME aversions though! My entire first pregnancy I had a garlic aversion. I couldn't even stand the smell of it, and I am a garlic lover. You'd be surprised the number of meals that contain garlic in them too! When I did accidentally eat something that turned out to have garlic in it, it would taste awful, and I would taste it for the rest of the day, even with constant gum chewing, mint eating, and teeth brushing. I remember one Saturday evening in particular that Tim was preparing chili for the next day's Redskin game. After I went to bed he added a bunch of spices, including garlic, to the slow cooker. When I woke up to pee in the middle of the night, and opened our bedroom door, the smell of garlic coming up the stairs almost knocked me out. I felt like I was literally swimming in garlic, it was unreal. I almost left the house in the middle of the night for my parents', but I managed to fall back to sleep after opening our window and putting the fan in it! This pregnancy my garlic aversion wasn't as bad, but I had the same reaction to onions this time around. Garlic still smelled good to me though, and even tasted okay, but the taste would stay with me all day like before. Luckily it only lasted a little ways into the second trimester this time!

Peeing. Baby Boy Jones #2 must be using my bladder for his pillow. As soon as I hit my second trimester I had a strange phenomena start happening: every time I stand up, I have to go pee. It does not matter if I just sat down for a moment, when I stand back up, I have to go pee. This is surprisingly more annoying then one might think. Literally EVERY time I stand up! That means every time I get out of the car, every time I stand up at work to get something off the printer, every time I get off the couch to do something with Timmy, the first thing I have to do is go pee! I'm pretty sure it's eating hours out of my day! With Timmy I started needing to pee frequently towards the very end of my pregnancy when he was taking up all the room in my body. I'm scared to see what happens in the next few weeks when this baby is full size!

Also at the very end of my pregnancy with Timmy, my hands and feet started retaining water. If I tried to vacuum the whole house in one morning, my feet would swell considerably and I would have to sit with my feet up for the rest of the day so they would return down to their 'normal' size! I have not had that start this time around, so we'll see.

A week before Timmy was born I had my regular doctor visit and my blood pressure had suddenly spiked after being perfectly consistent throughout my pregnancy. The doctor told me I was officially on bed rest and to go straight home from my appointment. I have to say that was a lovely week of relaxing and sleeping on the couch. But I do hope that I can work right up to the day before Baby Boy #2 is born so I can have my full leave time at home with both of my boys after he comes! With the scheduled C-Section this time around, he'll be born a full week before his due date, so hopefully that will negate the week of high blood pressure I had before.

Now... I do need to say that I certainly do not hate being pregnant. I realize this is a lengthy post about my complaints, but the joys are much easier to remember, and I really had to think about the details from my first pregnancy to write this.

My absolute favorite part of being pregnant is feeling the baby move around! Timmy was never overly active. Tim only felt him move a handful of times too, because most of his movements were during the work day. When he did move though it was so strong I was always sure it was a kick. Baby Boy #2's first movements were ridiculously strong! I was regularly surprised that they were not painful for me because of the force! Those only lasted a little while though, I kept telling Tim that the baby was "rolling around like crazy" and once he convinced me that the baby was not rolling, I decided that he must just be stretching. I'll feel little butterfly movements going across my belly several times a day. I think Tim has only felt this baby move a few times, but we have watched my belly moving around a few evenings. :) When I have doctor appointments and they put the microphone to my belly to hear his heart beat, he always kicks back exactly where the microphone is touching. One woman told me that she frequently has the baby push back, but that she has never experienced that force or the perfect aim like with this baby!

The other favorite part of pregnancy is seeing the sonograms. It certainly makes the baby more 'real' and I can start to imagine what the baby will be like and picturing my life once they come out! Every time I see a sonogram I tear up with excitement!

Timmy

Baby Boy #2

Timmy has spent a little time playing with my belly. We've encouraged him to talk to the baby and give my belly kisses, but he's not interested. I had my mom bring him to my last doctor's appointment, and he heard the heartbeat and watched the doctor feel my belly, and that made him a lot more interested. When he told Tim about the visit he said "That baby is soooo noisy!" and he started rubbing my belly more, we tell him he's massaging the baby. I did make the mistake of looking in the mirror one evening and telling Timmy, "Look how big mommy's belly is!" and now he keeps telling me, "Mom your belly is SO big!" This apparently is not really true though. Even now, 7.5 weeks before I'm having the baby, I have to tell people that I'm pregnant (even my General Practitioner!) and then they don't believe how far along I am. The doctor has said that everything is measuring just fine, so I guess my body type just hides it well, and this baby is leaning into me more then out!

I didn't expect this to be such a novel but I'm glad to have it all written down so I'll always remember! If you've read all the way through, I'll reward you with a Belly Picture from the very end of my pregnancy with Timmy and one from now, this is actually the first I've taken since I'm just not showing that much!

12 Days Before Timmy's Birth

7.5 Weeks Before Baby #2

(Okay, this is pretty clearly pregnant...)

Here's a less obvious shirt, from the front, the next day!