The Details

My gut told me I was preggo pretty early on.  I just felt different.  I had bad cramps and back pain, but they weren't "normal" pains for me.   I tried to wait on testing, but I was too anxious.  I took a test as early as a test could detect and it came back very positive.  I took 1 more just to be sure.  The only bad part about finding out so early was that I had a while to wait before my first dr. appt.  The dr. wouldn't see me until I'm between 7 and 8 weeks.  So we went through the long 4 week wait until finally we saw the dr.  When my appt. finally arrived, I was really nervous (much more so, than with Emily).  But thankfully, everthing looked great!  The heartbeat was 172.  I got a sonogram and I forgot how neat it was seeing and hearing your baby's heartbeat!!  It's one of those moments that I'm so thankful I get to experience.  The baby even measured a few days ahead, so I ended up measuring 8 weeks at my appt, instead of the 7.5 weeks that I thought I was.  Even better - less time to go in the first trimester! 

So far this pregnancy has been WAY different than my first!

 - I'm EXHAUSTED by the end of every day and on the weekends, the only thing that gets me through is to take a nap while Em is napping.  I remember being tired when I was preggo with Em, but nothing like this!  I pretty much feel useless when it comes to getting stuff done.  I usually put Em to bed around 7:45 or 8:00 and then I go straight to bed myself.  I'm sure chasing a toddler around this time has nothing to do with how tired I am.  :)  And that's my excuse for my lack of blog postings in November.  I've been WAY too tired to blog at night.

 - The nausea has hit earlier and harder.  With Em, as long as I always had something in my stomach I felt ok. This time from week 7.5-10, I had absolutely NO appetite, which didn't help the nausea at all!  I would try to force myself to eat food so I had something in my stomach, but there wasn't any food that appealed to me and when I did eat, I was stuffed after just a couple of bites.  I dreaded meal time!!  And since I wasn't eating much, the nausea would come and go all day!  Luckily I have only thrown up once and it was on a night that I didn't eat much dinner (I had no appetite).  Thankfully, the day after I turned 10 weeks, my appetite returned!  I remember I got Jersey Mike's for lunch at work and texting Shawn that it was the best thing I've ever eaten in my life.  I forgot how good it felt to actually eat and be hungry.  I've gotten a few hits of nausea since 10 weeks, but now it's more similar to my first pregnancy. . .if I eat, I'm ok (and it's not a problem now because I'm starving all the time!!).  Having had more nausea this time, I can't imagine what it's like for the women that are sick their entire pregnancy!

 - When I was preggo with Em, my thoughts were always about the baby.  I was constantly reading books, checking the internet, planning the nursery, etc.  Our world basically revolved around the new baby.  This time, I can go days without remembering I'm even preggo (except for the nausea reminding me).  While we're super excited about this baby, our main concern each day is to make sure Em is taken care of.  I'm sure it will change though once I feel those little kicks (the thing I am most looking forward to again).  I am so looking forward to seeing Em with a sibling!

 - I'm more nervous about the pregnancy this time.  I'm not totally sure why.  Maybe I felt a little more naive when I was preggo with Em and just assumed everything would be fine and she would be healthy?  And since that pregnancy, I've seen close friends go through so much with their pregnancies.  Deep down my gut still tells me all will be well with this pregnancy and I will have another healthy baby, but it's still hard not to worry!

So while this pregnancy has definitely been harder on me than my first, I still feel very lucky to be preggo and up to now, be having an uneventful pregnancy.