Pregnancy Update

How far along: 14 weeks

Cravings/aversions: I crave salty stuff, not big on sweets with the exception of Dr. Pepper and my favorite iced chai from Starbucks!  I ate buffalo chicken dip for lunch a couple of days earlier this week.

Feeling: Mostly okay, the worst thing is the insomnia which hits a few nights a week.  This pregnancy has been very different from the last since I haven’t had to take progesterone supplements.  They exacerbated the nausea last time.  I usually throw up once every morning but then I’m good.  I threw up every day of my last pregnancy so we’ll see if that happens again this time, so far it looks like it.  My appetite is significantly smaller than usual.  My energy level has rebounded now that I’m in second trimester.

I am showing much earlier this pregnancy.  I can still wear my regular jeans but they ride down and I’m constantly hiking them up.  Time to buy more maternity pants!  I’m ready for summer and maxi dress/skirt season.

Gretchen changes her mind all the time about whether it’s a boy or a girl.  She wanted to buy the baby a pacifier to help it “stop crying” so we bought a turtle wubbanub this week.  She’s currently using it on her dolls.

I definitely felt movement for the first time this week.  Much earlier than last time which I think is pretty normal for second pregnancies.

We are hoping to do some work in the finished basement this weekend to get it ready to become our new guest room. Haven’t made any nursery plans yet since we haven’t found out the sex yet (about 5 more weeks til that ultrasound).  Toying around with a baseball theme if it’s a boy.  No clue if it’s a girl.  I feel like I used up all my ideas on the first kid!

Our Happy News

(photo credit Legris Photography)

It was a long road.   We spent all of 2015 doing fertility treatments, save for a couple of months after I had surgery to try to get to the bottom of whatever our problem was.  With IUIs the egg and sperm were in the right place at the right time and conditions were perfect but still, month after month they failed. By September when we went on our early 10 year anniversary trip we had pretty much accepted that a second child wasn’t going to happen.

When we got back from our trip and I had bloodwork done to start our next cycle we found out I was pregnant.  I ovulated and conceived on our vacation, and without any assistance!  Sadly it was a chemical pregnancy, over before it ever really began, but it gave us a little glimmer of hope to keep going a bit longer.  We agreed that after 3 more rounds of treatment we were going to stop for both emotional and financial reasons.

2015 came to a close (and our insurance deductible reset at zero of course!)  I lost track at some point but I believe January was our 6th or 7th IUI, and my first time trying acupuncture (figured it couldn’t hurt even though insurance wouldn’t cover it).  I resisted the urge to start testing early but towards the end of the second week I felt crampy but in a weird way. The next morning I ripped into the box of pregnancy tests and got the second pink line we’d been waiting such a long time for.

I will be 12 weeks in a few days and while we’ve had 3 ultrasounds so far and heard the heartbeat at each one it still hasn’t really sunk in yet.  This pregnancy has been night and day different from my first one, mostly because I’m not on progesterone supplements.  If it weren’t for a bout of nausea each morning and my growing stomach I don’t think I’d believe it.

Sharing the news has been the absolute best, as we’ve had so many friends and family that have hoped with us and prayed for us the last year.

We meet with a high risk doctor (MFM) next week to discuss options for trying to prevent another premature birth.  Likely I will need to do progesterone shots for several weeks in my second and third trimesters (thought I left shots behind with fertility treatments but I guess not so much!)  We will be finding out the sex but not until closer to 20 weeks, so sometime in May.  My intuition told me it was a boy last time so I am just ignoring any “hunches” I have.  Tyler keeps saying “maybe it will be a girl and you won’t have to buy any more clothes” and I just laugh and laugh.  Apparently after almost 10 years of marriage he doesn’t know me at all 😉

Thanks for rooting for us!