Pregnancy Journey w/ Our Second Baby
Being pregnant the second time around looks a bit different with a 2 1/2 year old running around every day haha. Time is kinda flying by and I can’t really believe we are in the home stretch of 35 weeks now! I promised a while ago that I would do a pregnancy + baby number two update.. and although it’s coming little bit later than I thought it would I am excited to share a bit more about our pregnancy journey this time, with our second baby!
I think the biggest question is always “was it planned?”.. short answer is YES we had been trying and we’re hoping to get pregnant for several months. I know that trying to get pregnant is a really tricky subject to talk about because there are so many different women’s scenarios, it seems a bit insensitive to go too far into depth about our journey. However, it did take us about nine months of trying & tracking closely each month to get pregnant. We used ovulation tests each day to track my ovulation for months to get a really good idea of how long my periods were, and what days each month I was ovulating. Once I had an idea of what days it was each month, I no longer took the tests daily for the month but just around that time I knew I would be ovulating. I was used to taking test regularly each month, and even though we were trying, it was still a shock to see a positive.
I took the test at night the day after Christmas, when Matt was putting Tay down for bed because I wanted to sort of surprise him this time if I could. I ended up telling him the next day by calling him over to the coffee machine (I said I couldn’t get it to work) and pulled the test out from behind it to show him. It was a different kind of surprise than when we got pregnant with Taya because we had been tracking so closely this time. It was a sweet moment between the two of us, and Taya even came up to us to give me a hug it was so special.
I knew that I found out I was pregnant pretty early this time because I had been tracking everything so closely, but I think I was a full five days, if not six days, before my next missed period, so I was really really early at finding out. This was obviously so exciting and wild because it’s pretty incredible how your body can test positive for pregnancy that early on, literally just a few weeks after conceiving. We had to wait until eight weeks to get our first ultrasound, and it was so special to see our second baby the ultrasound. Gender can not be detected that early on via ultrasound or blood test yet, but we decided before that appointment that we were going to wait to find out gender until birth regardless!
I didn’t end up sharing on social media this time until I was 17 weeks; not really for any particular reason other than I really enjoyed keeping it private and not sharing all of the details to the most important part of our life right away. We told family at around 12 weeks and friends whenever we saw them after that. It was special to me to hold onto this for ourselves for a little bit. Everyone has their own time in which they feel comfortable sharing things & that’s just what felt right for me this time!
Symptoms
In both this pregnancy and in Taya’s, I have felt extreme fatigue as my main symptom first trimester. I obviously found it much harder to take naps with a toddler this time around too lol. I think because of that the pregnancy did feel a bit different in a lot of ways. When I was pregnant with Tay it was 2020 & we really had no plans and nothing going on, we rarely saw anyone, and although it was very isolating, I had a lot of downtime to sleep & have quiet time by myself. This pregnancy (which I am so grateful for being able to be around people this time and have community and have it feel more “normal“) I definitely have felt much more exhausted & tired!
Body Change
Ok I think my stomach has grown so much larger so much faster this time around with baby number two!! At 20 weeks I swear I had people asking me “there shouldn’t be much time left right?” I was like excuuuse me I am only half way haha. I think body changes in pregnancy have helped me become a lot more confident in my body image overall. Instead of having the mindset that I am gaining weight or growing bigger, I am reframing my mindset to be grateful to be growing a human & to embrace the changes with grace for myself. At our 32 week appointment we had a growth test & were told that baby was possibly going to be on the bigger side, which doesn’t surprise me too much because Matt is 6’ 5” and a whole foot taller than me. His whole family has quite a bit of height, and I am the shortest in my family, so it wouldn’t surprise me if this baby was the same size or maybe a little bit larger than Tay I was. She was 8 pounds even, and 20 inches at birth, but at the 32 week point in my pregnancy with her she was measuring average and not above the charts by any means. It might explain why my stomach seems so much larger.. it is measuring 2-3 weeks ahead now so technically it IS larger. It’s all interesting to learn and hear but of course it’s hard to say until the baby is here what size they will actually be! All that being said, I am grateful for the changes in my body knowing it is all working towards growing a healthy baby.
Gender?
We are not planning on finding out gender until birth this time! The backstory to this is that the night after I gave birth to Taya’s, Matt and Tay were asleep in the hospital room next to me, and I heard the family next-door yell “it’s a girl!” and everyone was cheering and it just was so emotional and sweet.. I could tell that they had waited to find out the gender & it just seems like such a special moment. It made me very emotional at the time and I just thought if we could do that and wait, I would love that for our next baby.
Age gap?
Taya will turn 3 on December 1 and this baby will be here at beginning of September so they will be about 3 years and 9 months apart. I was a little bit nervous for this age gap at first, especially because we had been trying for nine months before getting pregnant, I think the expectation I had is that they would be closer in age. That is obviously something that you cannot hold with too tight of a grasp, as it really is not in my control and that is something that I quickly had to change my mind set on. I know their age gap will be perfect and what is right for our family! I had so many encouraging messages via Instagram from so many women who have children with a similar age gap who have loved it, and enjoyed each of the stages. It’s been a blessing to watch Taya grow in her communication & vocabulary, as well as her behavior and emotional skills the past several months. I feel super grateful that we have been able to focus & dedicate time with her to grow and develop her as much as we can, and spend quality time with her before baby is here. Taya also understands a lot more than I originally thought she would, especially in the past few months! She has really taken to rubbing my belly and asking to see baby, wanting to see ultrasound photos, and saying “Tay loves baby” and being such a big help in the nursery. It’s been really special and really sweet for us to watch her grow in that way, and I know that she will have a special relationship with this baby.
Anterior Placenta
This pregnancy I have a anterior placenta, which means my placenta is on the front part of my stomach, which is different than with Taya’s. I actually did not even feel the baby moving or kicking until about 26 weeks this pregnancy, which is wild because I started feeling Tay around 15 weeks. Although that is common with an anterior placenta, it is very different for each woman & her pregnancy.. and I do think it’s a little bit later than what is mostly common. The OBGYN I am seeing did some tests around 26 weeks to make sure baby’s heartbeat was looking good, and every time I had an ultrasound the baby was moving a lot so I felt confident that everything was “normal” although it was still really strange to not feel the baby move. Around week 27 or 28 I felt the first movements, and I am currently 35 weeks now and it feels like a blessing to be able to feel baby moving around as much as they are right now! The movements are not so much small jabs & pokes but large rolling elbows and their back pushed against my ribs haha.