I've been hesitant to post a lot about this pregnancy, not because of superstition, but because I still remember how painful it is to take back pregnancy news. Hence why there have been zero blog posts lately and it took me 3 weeks to announce the pregnancy to extended family and Facebook friends. But I am feeling a lot more free lately, we had an excellent ultrasound at 6 weeks, the baby measured exactly right on and had a heartbeat of 140 bpm. Today, I had my first appointment with the midwifery center(more on this later) that we are planning to deliver at and the midwife was able to find the heartbeat within a few seconds via external doppler(looks like an ultrasound wand, but it only does sound). This was an absolute miracle to me, because I am only 10 weeks, which is super early to hear the heartbeat with a doppler. So with only two weeks left in my 1st trimester and two good appointments with heartbeats and I am feeling very blessed and that this baby is going to stick around!
So some pregnancy info for those interested!
We were supposed to start a different type of fertility medication(we had already done Clomid over the summer with no success) in November, but it was postponed to December. This was impossible because Brian had a trip to go on the exact same day that the cycle was supposed to start. We took this as a sign and decided to cancel all fertility treatments and we were glad we did, because a lot of family stuff started happening and life got busy. We also made some big decisions regarding our future and thought that maybe God was telling us to wait on a second child for awhile.
My next cycle started the day we boarded a plane to visit family in Oregon. 3 weeks and 4 days later, I was late and decided on a whim to take a pregnancy test. Brian and my mom had made a few jokes in the days prior regarding me being pregnant, so that coupled with the fact that I had some weird mid-cycle bleeding(that only happens when I am pregnant) made me a little suspicious. The test came up positive within seconds to my surprise and it was much brighter than the one that I took with Aaron. From that moment, I felt a peace about this baby, that I have never had during pregnancy. With my first, I had spotting pretty much every day from the time I found out, with Aaron I had bleeding for 12 weeks, and with my third the tests that I took weren't positive until I was really late and I started bleeding not long after that. I am so thankful that I have had zero bleeding issues with this pregnancy thus far! The fact that I started my cycle on the day I did, turned out to be a good thing, because without charting, I would have had no idea when my last menstrual period started, which is how they date pregnancies and figure out how far along you are! So while I was cursing my body on the airplane, it turned out to be a good thing in the end.
With our first we announced right away and regretted it, with Aaron we waited until we started having issues and it was kind of weird to tell people we had miscarried and then have to take it back a week later. I had several people(including one family member) who didn't know that Aaron had survived until after we knew he was a boy at 20 weeks! Third time around, I didn't tell anyone except immediate family and very few friends and it was difficult to go through the miscarriage alone. So this time, we threw caution to the wind a little bit! I was able to tell my grandparents via skype the same day we found out, which was really fun! That same night, we were able to announce to our small group. The next day, my other grandma was able to find out the news and I also was able to tell my playgroup friends the same morning. I waited 3 weeks to tell anyone else, but then I was able to announce to my dad's family via skype again. Amazingly, we also found out that same week that my cousin's wife is due the exact same day! Crazy, we were also pregnant with our son's at the same time(they were 5 months apart though, so this is really cool!)
Friends that have more than one child have always told me that your second pregnancy will feel like it's on fast forward. You show faster, have symptoms faster, the whole pregnancy just goes faster because you have another child to look after! I am having some nausea with this pregnancy which is so different because I didn't have any morning sickness with Aaron. It is a blessing though for two reasons: it's a reminder of a healthy baby and I haven't gained nearly as much weight this time around. I had to get my medical records from Aaron to transfer doctors this time and I realized that by this point with Aaron, I had already gotten up to 175 pounds(an approximately 20 pound gain in 6 weeks)! By comparison, this time I am still 5 pounds below what I weighed when I got pregnant with Aaron and have only gained 2 pounds of my weight loss back!
Slightly related to weight gain, my blood pressure is doing great thus far, 100/60, which is low for most people, but especially me! The midwife was pretty confident that this will continue to be a low risk pregnancy because I am so much healthier than I was delivering Aaron. Her only concern was the fact that my labor was so short with Aaron(2.5 hours from first contraction to last) and that the midwifery center is an hour away. So she would like me to form a back up plan both for delivery and for a ride, just in case Brian isn't home when I go into labor, she would like me to leave straight away(obviously not driving myself!) and not wait for him to get home. So we will have to do some planning in advance!
So long story short, I have been accepted into the midwifery center which is such a blessing and something both me and Brian are so excited about! They offer intermittant doppler's instead of continuous fetal monitoring(meaning I won't be strapped down to a bed during labor), queen size beds, jacuzzi tub(for labor and I believe delivery if we choose), and they don't do routine IV's instead letting you eat and drink as necessary(I ripped mine out by accident with Aaron, so I'm sure it did me a lot of good anyway, lol). She spent a lot of time with us and was really great with Aaron, letting him listen to my heartbeat with her stethescope and he got to sit on me while she found the baby's heartbeat with a doppler. It is never my first choice to bring him with me to my Dr.'s appointments, but it's nice to know that when it is a necessity, it isn't a big deal!
Hopefully there will be lots more happy posts in the coming weeks, as long as I can carve out some time! Aaron(and all of his furry and feathered siblings) has been keeping me on my toes!
I can't believe we are already almost 1/3 of our way to a new baby!
P.S. Congratulations to anyone who made it all the way through this post, I didn't realize I had so much to say!
