*** This post was written before I gave birth to my son, I just didn’t get a chance to post it on here before he arrived. Enjoy!

I did such a good job of posting updates during my son’s pregnancy, but I feel like I have sort of failed in that department this time around, and the whole blogging department in general, since COVID hit in March. Juggling two toddlers at home, working part-time, having my husband work from home and most recently homeschooling our daughter, has really increased the amount of chaos around here. Finding time to myself and doing things related to self-care has been more challenging, hence the disappearance of blogging. I was supposed to start my maternity leave for this pregnancy at 38 weeks and 1 day, but I decided that between the way I was feeling physically (more on that right away) combined with the mental exhaustion of doing it all during COVID, I should move it up to 37 weeks and 1 day. My daughter arrived at 38 weeks and 2 days and I was worried that if I didn’t move it up, I wouldn’t get any time to catch up on things around the house, prep for baby (do baby laundry, get out the needed items and pack my hospital bag etc), as well as set up the Christmas decorations! Getting the Christmas decor up was a big goal of mine since I didn’t think we would have more time to get it done once baby arrived! I also wanted to pack in some one-on-one time with the kids before we added another nugget to our group. So with that in mind we have had a couple of individual sleepovers (where dad takes one and I take one), a night of Christmas shopping as a family at the mall (before it closed down), and a picnic movie night! I’ve also been able to do some focused learning during school time that has increased my time with them, such as baking and sewing with big sis! So far, it’s worked out well! I originally wanted the baby to come November 14, which would have been 38 weeks and 2 days just like big sister’s arrival, but now that I am here, I am happy to wait a couple more days. My husband and my wedding anniversary is on November 19, so I have a feeling this little babe is going to come that day and steal the show! 

I really wanted to do a quick pregnancy update and pregnancy comparison to my first two, mostly because I can’t remember the details afterwards and I enjoy reading it later on. I also want to include these updates in the kid’s baby books so they have this info as well down the road! So here it goes!

First Trimester:

I had severe nausea this time around more similar to my daughter’s pregnancy during my first trimester. It started hard at 7 weeks and didn’t let up until later during week 14. Even though it let up, it still came and went up until about 17 weeks. And even still, these past couple of weeks (since 35 weeks) I have had it here and there again, mostly in the later evening. I never vomited throughout this pregnancy which I’m actually surprised about, considering how bad I felt in respect to the nausea. I vomited a handful of times during my daughter’s pregnancy and once on an airplane during my son’s pregnancy, so I was fully expecting I would again this time around! Airplanes have always made me feel sick, so I honestly don’t think that I would have vomited in his if it wasn’t for flying as my nausea was very minimal in his. The nausea in this pregnancy had been frequent and throughout the day at almost every meal, which in that sense was worse than my daughter’s pregnancy, as I often experienced the nausea in hers only later in the evening. I found cold items and sweet treats like ice cream and popsicles really helped me feel better in this one, just as it did in hers! My go-to items have been DQ Oreo Blizzards, fudgsicles and chocolate milk, which I also thoroughly enjoyed in hers! I still loved my citrus, which I have loved in all 3, but this time around I craved water with lemon juice, which I NEVER drink. In fact, I typically detest lemon water so go figure! Saltly overall wasn’t my thing in this pregnancy but I did enjoy fries with honey dill sauce often during the first trimester. My son’s pregnancy resulted in me craving many salty treats, so fries were a go-to item in his pregnancy. 

I felt the exhaustion and sleepiness frequently during this pregnancy, which again is similar to my daughter’s pregnancy. I would frequently put the kids to bed and pass out myself from 8 pm -12 am. Then I would eat a fudgsicle or two at midnight and go back to bed at 1 am until getting up for work in the morning. My son’s pregnancy was much better in terms of sleepiness and my energy was really good throughout.

I did get some acne in the first trimester during this pregnancy but it wasn’t as bad as my breakout during my first trimester in my daughter’s pregnancy. It cleared up in second trimester and hasn’t been a problem since. No faint line on my belly during this pregnancy, yet I had it in my other two, however I have had more markings on my body and face as well as cherry angiomas which I never had before! Blame it on age? I did get some minimal stretch marks around my belly button this time, which I had in my son’s pregnancy as well. I have put weight on everywhere this pregnancy like I did in my daughter’s pregnancy so I’ve felt the difference in clothing comfort for sure! In my son’s pregnancy I was all belly!

Second Trimester:

My placenta is posterior this time so I often felt a lot more movement with this babe, than I did in my previous pregnancies, making it a fun experience not just for me, but also for the kiddos! Our more patient 5 year old felt the baby at 20.5 weeks and our son eventually felt the baby at 25 weeks. Ironically, after his initial feeling of the baby, he has shown just as much interest as our daughter has shown during this pregnancy in terms of feeling the baby, which I was somewhat surprised by! My daughter being a year younger than my son is right now, at the time when I was pregnant with him, never cared too much about my belly and his movements. 

At 25 weeks this baby became very, very active and was witnessed quite a bit externally by others. He or she is most active in the evenings especially at bedtime, but is consistently moving throughout the day. 

At 26 weeks the heartburn started which was later than it started in my first 2, but it was much worse this time around. I was popping Tums like nobody’s business from 3:00 pm on, starting at week 26! I didn’t know you could get anxiety around how many you are allowed to eat per day as a pregnant woman! Since I could have 6/day, I would start to panic by my third one in the day, to make sure I had enough supply to cover me at bedtime! I eventually started on medication for the heartburn after 30 ish weeks, which has been a huge help in terms of comfort. 

Third Trimester:

I’ve had pelvic pain for about half of this pregnancy which I didn’t experience before. It was much worse around the half way mark when it came on, and luckily it has improved since. However, since the pelvic pain started, I’ve consistently had a lot of pain on the lower left side of my uterus when I over exert myself, so it has caused me to slow down a lot. I also grew in size a LOT faster this time around which I am sure has increased the pressure in that area! I’m talking gaining the 40 lbs I did with my son at his due date as early as 31 weeks with this one. The aches especially increased at that time and my muscles in that area became even more sore by 35 weeks. I even got carpel tunnel at that point, making work more challenging. Things I never had in the previous two. 

I was out of breath a lot sooner during this one as well, somewhere around half way mark it was quite noticeable, likely due to my belly size and having to do things for two toddlers, like go up and down the stairs often, which was not easy. Bending always resulted in regurgitation and still does, so I am using my feet quite a bit to pick up things! My belly isn’t as round and this babe isn’t sitting as high as my son did, so I am a bit surprised how bad my heartburn and pregnancy, likely due to the lower carrying style, which was more similar to how I carried my daughter.

This baby overall feels on the smaller side despite my body being large! I haven’t had any rib kicks, as the feet have been pointed more towards the side of my belly rather than upwards. I’ve had some vagina lightning hits here and there but not nearly as bad as I had in my son’s pregnancy. He was a vagina puncher and our daughter was a rib kicker, haha so this baby has been the kindest to my body internally! I’m curious what the weight and length will be compared to my other two, as many have guessed this will be a 9 pounder based on my appearance, but it sure doesn’t feel that way internally to me!

At 35 weeks this babe dropped, which was sooner than my first two had, leading me to believe that just maybe he or she will come even sooner than I had expected! Its head was noticeably down that week and hasn’t moved from that position, with the exception of one evening at 36 weeks when it went transverse. It felt awful and was quite painful! I was sitting at my desk at work and could feel it happen. Weirdest experience during this pregnancy for sure! And quite unexpected. By the next morning, baby had moved back on it’s own though, thankfully! 

Sleep in this trimester has been greatly affected this time around, which I guess would be more similar to my son’s pregnancy, but still worse. I find I would push through the initial grogginess around 8 pm like I did during his. Then by the time I went to bed around 11 pm, I couldn’t fall asleep until 12 am – 1 am, which also made going to work more challenging. Luckily with COVID, no one has had a head cold or flu around here since last February, so at least I haven’t been sick due to my lack of sleep! 

Not knowing the sex initially was super hard for me, but I have found that since about 30 weeks it hasn’t crossed my mind as much. I do think that not knowing combined with life being hectic, has led me to feel not as prepared mentally for this little one. I also think not having having a nursery to decorate or prep this time around has also impacted my mental state in terms of preparation! At this point in our previous pregnancies, my hubby and I would have named our baby and would have been secretly calling it by its name when we were alone, also helping increase our connection. This time however, I have to remind myself what the two names are that we have picked out, haha! We’ve settled confidently on a boy’s first and middle name and have settled on the first name for a girl, but are still deciding between two middle names, so we probably should get on that just in case it’s a girl!