It's definitely time for a little updating. Though a lot of things have happened this month, there is one thing whose impact is greater than all of them put together.
And this is my first belly photo at 15 weeks. I don't remember showing this much the last time around this point.
I have already felt the little flurry of movements, starting around 14 weeks. They say people normally don't feel them till they are at least where I'm at now, but I don't know why I'm an exception to that.
Going through this for the second time, there are quite a few symptoms I didn't have before. Morning sickness didn't seem that much worse than the first time, but I have sure felt more exhaustion. Hardly makes sense when I was struggling to graduate from college the last time and now I obviously don't have to worry about finishing my assignments on time. It could be that I got better exercise then than I do now because I had to walk uphill to classes and back in the snow. That was all the workout I needed at the time. Now I have to make time for that kind of exercise and it doesn't always happen. So I'm more tired than usual.
I am also more aware of growing pains this time around, which my doctor warned me about. You would think that once a balloon has already expanded that it would be easier to blow it back up again, or at least that it wouldn't hurt, that is if balloons could feel. Well, my assumption is false and the second time isn't as fun. I only hope it doesn't become more painful with each one, but I don't think that would stop me even if it did. I just have to be more careful when I stand up or do anything too quickly, so I'm working around it.
As is the case with the first child, you don't typically have a little one running around during your very first pregnancy. I'm sure veteran moms with two or more kids are shaking their heads right now, but we all have to experience things for ourselves. I never noticed how roughly my daughter climbs in and out of my lap until I became pregnant, how she uses her elbow for support and how she digs her heels in for balance. The doctor reassures me that it hurts me more than it hurts the baby, but that doesn't change the fact that it still hurts! There are times that I absolutely refuse to let her sit on me, because I am usually experiencing some growing pains or some other ailment at the time, but I do encourage her to sit next to me instead. Sometimes that works and other times daddy has to intervene. Taking care of a toddler at all while pregnant is definitely a challenge, because they are so active and yet so dependent. It is something I will have to get used to for sure if I plan to have more children.
As usual with pregnancy I get headaches and migraines and Tylenol can only do so much. I'm kind of a whimp when it comes to not feeling well, so headaches pretty much put me out of commission.
On a more serious note, I've had more scares with this pregnancy than before. In February I celebrated my birthday, and later that evening as I was driving home from a mutual activity (because my calling is in young women's), I suddenly sensed that I was bleeding. It was just a hunch, but I got home and discovered I was right. I was devastated, because I thought there could only be one explanation for bleeding during a pregnancy, and that it was I was going to miscarry. I alerted David and he called the doctor for me. We were told to make an appointment the next day and that I was to stay on bed rest until I could get checked. I asked David to give me a blessing, to which he complied. After that I felt calm about it all and knew I could handle whatever the doctor had to tell me. The next day it couldn't be determined why the bleeding began but the assumption was because the placenta was lower than usual. He tried to find the heart beat with the device, but I wasn't surprised he was unsuccessful, because they couldn't find Lucy's without an ultrasound until I was almost 20 weeks. So I wasn't any more concerned by the fact that he couldn't find it. He turned on the ultrasound and tried looking for it that way. At first the baby looked still, but it didn't take long to notice the heart beating at a steady pace. All of the sudden it became very active and started kicking and moving up and down on the screen, so everything looked good and I could rest easy. As long as the baby was alright, we had nothing to worry about. Since that night, the bleeding did not come back for at least a month. Then, out of the blue, it started again. Once again, I called the doctor to get checked, and they still couldn't determine the source of the blood, but that appears to be normal with bleeding in general. And he found the heartbeat without an ultrasound, and it was just fine. One thing they could tell was the blood was not coming from the baby or the womb, which was a comfort to me. Now things are okay in that regard and I have decided not to worry about it anymore while at the same time being careful not to take on physical activities that I shouldn't. The doctor gave me the okay on going back to my regular routine, but I still take it a little easy.
So despite all the complaints I've had with this pregnancy thus far, I am still excited to be pregnant again and would not change that for anything right now. As is expected, the anxiety has already hit me of what it will mean to have two little kids and the changes that will take place to compensate for it, but I'm also optimistic about it. I'm addicted to how it feels to hold them when they first arrive. That seems to be enough to make you forget the pain and discomfort you experience leading up to that moment.
I realized I never mentioned the due date on here: September 20th. We will reach the halfway mark in May and will hopefully know the gender by then. For no explicable reason, I sense it is a boy. But we'll see how right I am, because I'm not exactly psychic, even if I was right about our first one being a girl.
Lucy will have had her second birthday before then, and I wonder if she will comprehend what's going on by the time her sibling arrives. She does show a little jealousy when the dog is being played with instead of her, even though she gets more attention than the dog in general. So it will be curious to see how she responds to having another baby around. We try not to spoil her, but who could say no to that face.
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