15 Weeks – Pregnancy Update

We’re expecting! Assuming everything continues to go well, then we are expecting our first baby in mid-August! There are so many reasons why it’s taken this long to get around to sharing the news of my pregnancy but each of those reasons can be categorized under “fear”. This is my 3rd pregnancy and even though we’ve finally made it into the 2nd trimester, anything can happen. Especially now that I’ve found out that I have a blood clotting disorder that could cause a whole host of problems, including a sudden loss of the baby I’m carrying – officially making this a “high risk pregnancy”. I went in this morning to learn how to self-administer a daily shot of blood thinners to increase the chances of a full term, no complications pregnancy. 

With the previous 2 pregnancies, I bought pregnancy journals not too long after finding out only to have the story torn to pieces before it really began. In this post, I want to focus on my journey with this pregnancy so far. I haven’t bought any journals for this pregnancy and I haven’t particularly been keeping any kind of record of this pregnancy… I know it’s something I’ll regret if I never get around to it so I’m going to start here.

There aren’t enough words in the English language to fully describe the depth of pain that comes after miscarriage but it is a journey and a process that I would like to share in a future post. I can’t believe we’re going to get our rainbow baby. <3

Finding out I was pregnant

After my D&C last August, I had a longer cycle than normal for a couple months and so it wasn’t a big surprise when I was late heading into our Disney World vacation in early December. I had been pretty sick with an upper respiratory infection leading up to that vacation and then I was focused on enjoying the time we had in Florida while we were there so the possibility of being pregnant was far back in my mind. The day after we got back, I stopped by the store to pick up a test with my younger brother in tow. He peeked in my cart, made a silly face at me, and was the 2nd to know (after me) that I was going to be taking a test. The test was positive and though there was a lot of underlying fear, I did have an overwhelming sense of warm joy from finding out we were pregnant again. 

Brady had just interviewed for a new job that morning so that whenever we got pregnant again, we would have better health benefits among other things  (he accepted that job and just started a month ago). It was his late day so I went in after he was done so I could tell him (ans so he could do a quick treatment on my plantar fasciitis I’d developed while at Disney – PT husband perks!). It’s a precious moment to share with your spouse when there’s that overwhelming sense of love and knowing (hoping) we’re going to have a baby.

We told our families for Christmas by using a little ornament we could hang on the tree for them to find. It was luck that I was able to get away with buying the ornament in secret since I was out shopping with my sister at the time. They are all overwhelmed with joy for us and it’s such a blessing to have great support nearby.

15 Weeks – Pregnancy Update

Size of baby 

Different apps and websites have different items they measure by but currently the baby is about 4 inches and 2.5 ounces; roughly the size of an apple.

Weight gain

I have yet to gain any weight due to the intense nausea and food aversions I’ve been experiencing the last couple months. In fact, I’ve lost 6-8 pounds since finding out I was pregnant.

Symptoms

The worst symptom that I’ve been experiencing has been nausea and food aversions. Around Christmas – 7 weeks –  I began to start feeling pretty sick and really tired all the time. It was hard to eat but I was usually able to think of something that didn’t make make me want to vomit. Within a couple weeks I could barely eat more than a few bites of a meal even if I was hungry. Eventually that became a I can’t really eat anything at all.

To give an idea… There was one night that I felt so incredibly sick that it took me 45 minutes to an hour just to nibble down a small portion of rice and lettuce. This was a general trend and of course the less I was eating, the sicker I was feeling so it was a bad combination overall. I’m still having intense nausea on a from time to time but it’s more under control and I am eating more regularly. I’m really hoping this doesn’t last the entire pregnancy.

Cramping. It’s pretty unfair that cramping is a normal symptom of pregnancy, one that I’d never even heard of before I got pregnant! I haven’t had any cramping really since about 9-10 weeks which is a relief.

Fatigue. I had a lot of fatigue in early pregnancy which subsided for a while but in the last 2 weeks it has come back full force. It feels so bad sometimes that even after plenty of rest, I feel like I’m falling asleep mid-conversation with someone. I stayed up “late” the other night so that I could at least watch the 3 American ladies skate their short programs at the Olympics but staying awake until 11 was pretty hard. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been going to bed between 8-9 pm, sometimes earlier and on most nights I’m getting 10-13 hours of sleep. Well, “sleep”. I usually wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and then toss and turn until morning. Either way, I’m trying to keep well rested!

Food Cravings and Aversions

Aversions. There’s only one very specific thing that I can say I’ve been averse to this pregnancy and that is CAVA. Cava is a Chipotle style restaurant that serves amazing Mediterranean food. I had CAVA a few days before Christmas and since New Years, I can’t think even think of the name CAVA without feeling like I’m about to throw up. Random, but it’s intense.

Otherwise I have been having a tough time with sweet things. For a while I didn’t want to eat anything that was sweet at all and even though I like sweets better now, the taste in my mouth right after I’ve eaten something sweet makes me feel really nauseous. I did pretty well with juice because even though it caused the bad aftertaste, it was really helpful for the nausea.

Cravings.

My only “real craving” so far has been for homemade potato salad. It was so intense one night that Brady did a run out to the store to pick up a couple different types of potato salad. It didn’t hit the spot because it wasn’t homemade, but it temporarily satisfied the craving. I’ve been craving potato salad for a week but I don’t have the energy to make it so it’s on hold for now. 

I also craved Moe’s hard core for a few days but there weren’t any close by so that craving never got satisfied either. That was a rough one since it came at the height of my nausea and I didn’t think I’d be able to actually eat it anyways.

For the most part my food wants/cravings have been for savory/salty foods and even for just plain steamed vegetables. Things like soups, plain salted pasta noodles, and homemade mashed potatoes have really hit the spot. As I sit here writing this, I have a strong hankering for some cucumber slices with salt…

Currently Reading

The Mama Natural Week-by-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth (<affiliate link)

I started reading this book during my last pregnancy and I really love it. I read a lot of pregnancy books and it felt like once you’d read one, you’d read them all. The Mama Natural book gives so much more information than a lot of these other books. If the pregnancy progresses well, then the hope is for a “natural” and unmedicated birth as possible and this book gives a lot of tips on how to achieve that goal and as to why it is beneficial for you and the baby. I can’t recommend this book enough. I say “natural” just because that is how an unmedicated birth is typically referred to not because I believe that other methods of giving birth are unnatural.

Exercise

Exercise? Haha. Between the terrible weather of the last couple months and the insane nausea and discomfort I have been dealing with, exercise has been on the back burner. We’ve had a few nice days where we’ve been able to get out for walks but there has been no consistency up to this point. My plan going forward is to try and ease into some consistent movement like prenatal yoga, daily walks, and some moderate strength training. It will probably be a slow process over the next few weeks as the weather is likely to keep me indoors, but as the outside starts to cheer up, I know it will be easier to get in some regular exercise.

Baby/Maternity Purchases

So far I only have a couple small things that I’ve bought for the baby like a clearance Christmas outfit I picked up at Target and a set of animal print footie pajamas. For myself I just got a pair of maternity jeans that came in my latest Stitch Fix (<referral link) that I’m in love with. I didn’t think I’d bother with jeans at all this pregnancy since I’ll mostly be pregnant in the warmer months but I know I’ll get at least 2-3 months of wear in these before the weather gets too warm. They’re stretchy in the legs and the over belly panel feels great. I may never buy a regular pair of jeans again.

Around 10 weeks I started looking into a heartbeat monitor online since I knew it was going to be a few weeks before we were covered under our new insurance plan and I was almost desperate for peace of mind. A lot of reviews said they were able to find a heartbeat around 10 weeks or earlier but I knew that if we bought it and couldn’t find a heartbeat, I would have a really hard time emotionally so I didn’t buy it. 2 weeks later I was in a pregnancy forum where someone was talking about using their monitor for their peace of mind and I immediately went on Amazon and purchased the SonoLine B Heartbeat Baby Monitor Sound Listening Tool (<affiliate link). I’d waited so long and I couldn’t wait anymore. Brady was worried that I would stress myself out if we didn’t find it but after about 10 minutes of searching around, there was our baby’s heartbeat going nice and strong. I instantly teared up and again we shared an immensely beautiful moment together since this was the first time we’d ever gotten to see/hear life in one of our babies. Worth every penny.

Overall feelings

In general I feel like there has been a strong sense of emotional detachment in the day to day. The greatest moments of joy have come with each time we hear the heartbeat and seeing the baby dancing away in my belly while getting an ultrasound. I am happy and I am excited but I still don’t feel like I can say, “when the baby comes” only, “if/when the baby comes, then…” I’m trying not to take anything for granted since I don’t know what the future holds. I’m also trying not to get overwhelmed by the feeling that my life now kind of revolves around my daily shots and feeling like a pin cushion. It’s a big adjustment but it’s still an exciting journey to be on.

 

If you’ve been pregnant, how did you tell friends and family that you were expecting?

What are your best tips/foods for dealing with nausea? <- I’d love to know!

What have you been up to since Christmas? Any exciting plans/trips coming up?

 

Linking up with Amanda from Running with Spoons for this post