Wednesday, July 5, 2017

New Baby on the way!

Regular readers will not be shocked to hear that we are expecting another little one! :) This makes Baby #10 on earth - double digits! 

 Nine week ultrasound - yes, there's only one!


I am currently 12 weeks pregnant, with a due date of mid-January 2018. That will make five babies in my 20s, and five babies in my 30s. Who knows what my 40s will bring?!?

Anna's 'family'


Now for the million-dollar question: How am I feeling? In a word: fantastic! This has been my best pregnancy by far. It has only taken me almost two decades to figure out how to overcome hyperemesis! I will do a detailed blog post on what new improvements I have discovered this time around.




And now for a fun little fact that was entirely unique about this pregnancy: I did not know I was pregnant until I was almost 8 weeks along! (TMI coming, so stop reading now if you don't want to know) When I was 4 weeks pregnant, for the first time ever in 15 pregnancies (five of which ended in miscarriage), I had a cycle after becoming pregnant, at the exact time that cycle would normally have been due. It was a little lighter and a day shorter than a normal cycle, but I thought nothing of that because the difference was so minor and I was still nursing Chloe every few hours. Just before my next cycle was due, I had a few days of nausea that felt an awful lot like morning sickness. I took a cheap little Dollar Tree test in the middle of the afternoon a few days shy of 'being late'. Normally, only the super sensitive early pregnancy tests show up for me, if taken first thing in the morning, after I am a couple of days or more late. The fact that this cheap test, taken in the afternoon, days early, came back BRIGHT and BOLD positive was a first for me. Plus, my morning sickness does not start quite that early. I knew this could only mean that 1. there was more than one baby in there, or 2. I was farther along than I thought. It was at this point that I remembered my previous, lighter than usual cycle and the penny dropped. I did go for an ultrasound the following week just to make sure of dates and rule out multiplicity, both of which it did. 



In spite of having done it so many times, pregnancy is still not my cup of tea. Being four weeks further along than I usually am when I found out was a huge bonus, because I find every day of being pregnant a chore. Babies are a blessing, no doubt about that, but I think pregnancy and birth are part of the curse. It's definitely not the wonderful, magical time my romantic brain imagined it to be as a child. With this pregnancy being so much better in regards to nausea, I actually did for the first time ever almost enjoy the first trimester. I only felt despondent for one day, when nausea and fatigue coincided with a day that my little people were all sick and throwing up. In bed. In the middle of the night. Yeah, that was rough... Thankfully, my big boys volunteered to do all the cleanup and laundry the next morning.

I was able to stay active and go bike riding with my husband many evenings. I was able to eat sensibly and healthy and only gained a couple of lbs during this time, compared to the typical 15 lbs in the first trimester alone as the only way to stave off nausea in previous pregnancies was to munch on something non-stop. I was down to being within 6 lbs of my Weight Watchers free lifetime weight when I found out I was pregnant, and no longer allowed to go to the meetings (they do not allow pregnant members). Needless to say, I didn't want to undo much of my hard-earned progress in a matter of weeks. 

Size M maternity clothes for the first time since my first pregnancy? - Yes please!


The other kids are excited. They could hardly keep from spilling the beans to their friends before we were ready to announce it. 


Cute little Boaz in church

Enjoying some cereal on the sofa with me on a particularly tired day. 



I'm hoping for a little sister for Chloe. It would also settle the score of five boys and girls each. Plus little girls are just the sweetest!