the first trimester of pregnancy (tater tot style)

tater tot's 10 week ultrasound

So it's not really my style to keep secrets. I hate it. Let me re-phrase, I don't mind keeping other's secrets, I just don't have too many of my own. I'm a share-er. So the fact that we kept our pregnancy a matt-cora-me-and tater tot exclusive secret, I have some updating to do now...

Want to hear about the first 3 months of pregnancy, this second time around? I thought so!

Matt and I had finally just this January started talking about, hey we could probably have another child. Before that I wasn't ready physically...and we were adjusting to our new lives. I thought that perhaps getting pregnant may be hard again (it took us a year with Cora), and I wanted our babes to be about 2-3 yrs apart, so perhaps we should start thinking about it. Matt agreed- lets start getting pregnant after summer (ha.) And if we got pregnant now... it would be ok.

4 weeks(Feb 18th)
My initial symptoms? Flushed face. Weird right. Matt even commented- why is your neck all red?! I didn't know, so weird. I wasn't nervous or anything. Then I just missed my period by a day... so I took a test- negative. Still no period, some period-esq cramping and MAJOR grumpies towards matt. Oh man, I was awful and couldn't even help it. So 3 days later....took another preg test for the hell of it. Pregnant. CRAZY. I walked out to show Matt (and Cora)...we both smiled in disbelief. Seriously?! We didn't even try. This was too easy. No way. Seriously?!

We did the math super fast. I would be due in October. Cora and tater tot would be 18 months apart. WOW. That means a super prego- summer. I hadn't planned on that. We were going to be stress-free trying to get pregnant this summer, meanwhile camping the hell out of Idaho. Hmm. Interesting.

5,6 & 7 weeks
Still just fine. Minimal cramping...moderate grumpies...pretty exhausted. And just a tad bit of feeling uneasy, but not super nauseated. I just find that if I eat all the time, no empty stomach I feel better. (...yeah, I have no idea why I gained 50 lbs with my last pregnancy) But the first time I was much more nauseated, so I was pleasantly surprised.

We had our first prenatal appointment with our midwife at 7 weeks... she was ecstatic to see us. I think because we are easy patients- no questions, just happiness... pure joy.

8,9 & 10 weeks
Some nausea- uneasy days and days that kicked my butt, but mainly so incredibly exhausted. Last time during this stage I was able to loaf-around, sleep (when I wasn't in nursing school or working nights) but you know... not take care of a super mobile almost 1 yr old. So that's new. I constantly felt like I was so groggy ...like I just woke up from not enough sleep and needed a coffee badly...or that it has been the longest hang over of my life. All day, everyday. Didn't matter how much sleep I had. Night shifts- grueling. But I knew I would get my energy back in a month. It was short lived. And thankfully I had matt to let me sleep/take naps.

11 weeks
At 11 weeks we had our first ultrasound. We thought it was week 11, but turns out I was only 10 weeks along, so the due date was re-calculated to a November babe. We could have had an ultrasound earlier, but quite frankly I wanted to see a baby...not a comma or a gummy bear. I wanted to see our little tater tot. So I thought we could wait. Even though it killed me everyday- feeling like this whole pregnancy wasn't really real. For three reasons...#1 we didn't try #2 we didn't tell anyone to celebrate #3 all I had was some positive pee sticks. So an ultrasound could have helped, but we waited.

At the ultrasound we saw 2 arms, 2 legs...a beating heart and a sweet wiggly body with hiccups. The U/S tech said...oh wow... looks like you have an active baby. Ha! Well that will be brand new to us. Cora in utero was flopping all around, hiccups galore... and hasn't slowed down yet.

At 11 weeks all of our family came into town for Cora's birthday party. On friday morning we planned a breakfast for all to convene at. I put cora in her big sister shirt and put a zip up sweat shirt over it. When all were around matt took off her sweatshirt... the first to notice was my sister and matt's sister jenni. It was all so fast, but they basically said...umm...cora is not a big sister. Like I had accidentally bought the wrong shirt. But I don't buy shirts with words on them- its a pet peeve of mine. Anyways, I said...yes... she will be a big sister in November. They were all so excited and shocked. It was grand.

12 weeks
I feel great, my energy is mostly back, a little uneasy from time to time. But good. I almost forget that I'm pregnant chasing after Cora. Still some food aversions... but that's not hard to navigate. My waist line is increasing... I am feeling fat, but I have only gained a pound. But overall this pregnancy is much easier. Which makes me think it will be a boy. We shall see!

And just like that it seemed like the first trimester flew by. It was fun to have it be our little secret but difficult. For those 3 months we kept on secretly looking at cora and beaming that we will have a second one just as awesome, but totally a brand new human being. Pregnancy is exciting, I love it. And I love even more being done with the first trimester hang-over.