Sprout

I found out I was pregnant right before our trip to Disney World, which is ironic because the last time we went to Disney, I discovered I was pregnant while there. Haha! 

This trip, I was a couple weeks further along and decided it wasn't smart to do any of the big rides.  I am typically the one who pushes to go on those rides with my dad, so I knew I had to out myself quickly.  Our first official day in the parks happened to be my dad's 60th birthday (and a day after Bean's birthday).  I wrote him a birthday card that talked about how 2 years ago I gave him Bean for his birthday, but my timing was wrong this go around and he'd have to wait until Father's day to meet the next baby.  I gave him the card as we were all standing in line for our first ride.  He was down the line from me and he looked up with big eyes and mouthed, "Does your mother know?!" I shook my head "no" and pointed - only you know.  He passed the card down to mom, and so on until everyone read it and knew I was pregnant. 

I felt great the first few weeks, then we got back from Disney.  I got sick (bronchitis) the weekend we got home.  By Monday, I felt so miserable (and being pregnant) deemed it important to just go to the doctor.  She put me on a z-pak and an inhaler to help with the wheezing/cough.  I went to the store, got my medicine, and returned home.  I started to make lunch for Bean and I and took my antibiotic.  15 min later, I threw up. Haha - Oh joys of pregnancy causing a weak stomach! I knew it wasn't the medicine, as I've had z-paks in the past.  The rest of the week was marked by recovering by bronchitis.

After that, it seemed I'd have a good week of feeling fine, then a week of being super nauseous.  I was tired and had zero energy around the clock.  I remember the zero energy when I was pregnant with Bean, but I don't remember being so mentally numb.  This time around, I got plagued with being apathetic.  I didn't have the mental energy to care about things - clean house, what food we ate, if projects got done, if I contacted people, etc.  I just was in survival mode - keep Bean alive/entertained and make it to bedtime.  I dealt with this issue from weeks 7-10.  I got behind on a lot of things - as seen on the blog! It finally got to where I just had to force myself to get up, get out, and do! I had a day where I had set appointments and things I HAD to get done. That did the trick.  I was able to get off the couch and just make things happen.  It made me realize that I needed to keep busy.  As much as I wanted to just lay and do nothing, I had to keep some sort of a schedule with something to accomplish each day.  

While dealing with the mental block, the nausea got worse.  Chewing gum and mints became my constant companions (they help me fight it).  I increased my water in take and that did seem to help.  I learned to eat smaller portions at set times.  I started to track my nausea and realized it was made worse when I was hungry and when I was too full.  So I had to find the sweet spot of not being hungry, but not eating too much - ha!  Aside from the antibiotic incident and a weird night of puking all night, I mostly just feel nauseous.   I started to have more good days than bad days, but I still will have a couple days a week where I struggle. 

How this pregnancy has been different:

- I have to put Bean's needs before my own.  With her, I was able to just lay around all day and watch movies.  This time around, I still need to be a mom and not just rely on the tv to entertain us.  We've set up a system of me being able to color with her and do puzzles with her as I lay on the couch.  She also sits up on the couch with me a lot and we play with her little figurines.  Her favorite thing is to put a blanket over us and "hide in a cave".  

- Have actually thrown up a few times.  I never did with Bean, but I did have nausea medicine I could use with her.  This time, I just rely on mints and gum.  

- Pain/Achy hips.  I already struggle with a lot of discomfort in my hips.  Sometimes it is so bad I can barely walk or it keeps me up at night.  It all has to do with hormones effecting ligaments and my body already knowing what's to come.  

- My tastes have changed.  I LOVE my sweets.  Before this pregnancy, I would eat a sweet each night before bed (and after lunch).  I also drank a couple soda's a day.  Now I can barely stomach sweets.  I can have them in small doses, but just prefer to stick to saltier foods.  I rarely drink soda now.  I went from 2 a day to maybe 2 a week.  I now crave ice water. Before, I'd just drink water because I felt I had to.  Now it's all I want.  I've also lost my taste for coffee.  I had switched to decaf back when we started discussing the possibility of another baby. But once I got pregnant, the thought of coffee made me sick to my stomach. I've been able to have some random cups in the past couple weeks. 

- I can "feel" the baby.  Okay, not really the baby yet.  It's too small to feel the movements yet. But I can feel my uterus.  There's days where it aches a ton and I know it is stretching/growing.  And I'm very aware of its location.  It doesn't help that I often have a toddler jumping and laying on my tummy, too!

- I don't care about being pregnant - ha! With Bean, I took weekly pictures, logged how I felt, and wanted everyone to know.  This time around, I'm 13 weeks and have only take 2 pictures.  I tried to keep the pregnancy more hush hush this time around because I didn't want it made into a big deal.  I'm glad it's public now though, so that I don't feel like I have to hide myself.  Especially now that I'm in 2nd trimester - what?!  

- Last time, I knew right away I wanted to call the baby Bean.  This time around, we finally came up with something to call it other than baby about a week ago.  We call this baby Sprout! (Confession, at home, we still just say baby, but will use Sprout on the blog!)

(We got to see Sprout for the first time at my 8 week appointment! Steve and Bean were both there.  She didn't believe us that that blob was a baby.)

(I chose this time to have some minor genetic testing done.  It's non-invasive, just a simple ultrasound to get some measurements and a blood test for me.  The test will check for down syndrome. We got to have an extra peek at Sprout.  This time, it actually looked like a baby!)

(So I didn't take my first bump photo until 10 weeks.  Then I thought, "Oh, I'll just take a photo every other week."  Well then I realized I missed the 12 week mark and had to take a random 12.5 picture because I didn't want to do it on odd weeks.  Anyone want to take bets on whether more pictures are actually taken?!)

(Bean has fallen in love with getting up on the couch with me.  She'll partly lay on me and likes to play with toys in a "cave" - blanket over us.  Sometimes, she'll start to get crazy, wiggles around a lot, and will put a lot of pressure on my tummy.  We talk a lot about their being a baby in my belly and she needs to be gentle.  She then lifted her shirt to ask about the baby in her belly. We need to work on this baby concept!)