Hellobee

As I reach the half-way point of my third pregnancy, I marvel at how different each of my pregnancies have been. My first two pregnancies were polar opposites, and this one floats somewhere in the middle. Here’s the scoop on each of them:

Round one – Colin – the pregnancy of dreams:

I found out I was pregnant right at the four week point, and spent the next few weeks waiting for symptoms. The only one that set in heavily was exhaustion. I was tired all the time. Super tired. But otherwise, I had no morning sickness, no noteworthy ailments except for excessive excitement and obsessiveness about every spec of information about pregnancy and childbirth, and a desire to record and celebrate every single step of the way. I couldn’t wait to be in maternity clothes, I took a zillion bump photos and eagerly awaited each monthly appointment when I would get to hear the baby’s heart beat. I spent my days wanting to eat all the comfort foods. Kraft. Mac. And. Cheese. We took hours of natural birth classes and a breastfeeding class, to be as prepared as humanly possible. When we found out he was a boy at the halfway point via ultrasound, we were super excited and couldn’t wait to meet him.

Aside from my growing belly, some issues with my asthma taking a turn for the worse and my obsession with feeling his movement (of which there was a TON of – this boy liked to roll, kick, punch and stretch), my pregnancy was completely non-noteworthy until the end when I was super uncomfortable – mostly because it was getting hot out and my body just refused to go into labor. Since I had posted and shared my due date with everyone I’d ever met, I got to respond to 17 million texts after my due date wondering if I was still pregnant, and “when is that baby going to arrive?!” Suffice it to say, I learned quickly not to share my due date for future pregnancies. After trying every home remedy known to man, I was induced at 41w5d, and aside from the Pitocin and having my water broken, I had an intervention-free and med-free labor and delivery. Colin was born weighing in at 6 lbs 11 oz, was a terrible and vicious breastfeeder early on, and was absolute perfection in my eyes.

Round 1.5 – the missed miscarriage:

It’s worth noting in here that while I’m writing about my “three” pregnancies, I also had nine weeks of a missed miscarriage pregnancy between the boys that ended with a D&C. In short, the symptoms were there, and then they weren’t, but I kept getting bigger and still looked very pregnant until we found out that development had stopped, there was no heartbeat, and there would be no baby. It was an awful and sad time (and if you want to read more, I wrote about it on Hellobee here).

Round two – Asher – the tough pregnancy:

Moms who have suffered a loss will tell you that pregnancy is extremely different after – it’s very hard to stay positive, to plan for the future, to remain carefree and lighthearted when you’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. When we found out we were expecting again, we were much less compelled to share the news with friends and family, even though anyone who saw me could probably tell right away. I was showing from the moment I peed on a stick, and the bump just kept growing because the only things I could stomach were greasy fried foods. I bought a fetal doppler and used it excessively, partly because I was paranoid, and partly because I was terrible at using it, so it took forever to find the heartbeat. While my morning sickness rarely reached the point of actual vomit, the nausea was ferocious and often lasted all day long, eventually shifting to evening sickness.   This lasted for months, and not only did my belly grow but I carried my weight all over, and everyone and their mother felt the need to point it out, telling me that they were absolutely sure I was having a girl this time. I was not. We found out at our anatomy scan that it would be another boy, and suffice it to say that there were tears – lots of tears (clearly I was crazy, looking back now that I have a wonderful little guy, but I digress).

While the tears faded fairly quickly, what didn’t fade were the fluke-ish sneeze fits that I had like clockwork nearly every day at 4:30 am throughout almost the entire pregnancy. So random! My fatigue lifted at the end of the first trimester with my first, but this time the exhaustion didn’t fade at all (I attribute much of that to chasing a toddler while pregnant). I still managed to take a handful of bump photos once a month or so. There was no other baby prep, aside from planning to borrow a mini-crib from a friend for baby’s first few months. In my third trimester, my sciatic pain got so bad that I began visiting a PT once and sometimes twice a week for massage and exercised to help manage the pain. By the end, I was an aching, walking zombie, and you could tell that even the baby was sick of being in there – he liked to stretch his legs as though he was trying to break free out of the right side of my body. I was absolutely thrilled when my water broke the night before my due date. This time, aside from antibiotics for Group-B strep, I had a completely intervention and med-free labor, which was quick. Asher was born less than 8 hours after my water broke, only three of them with any noteworthy contractions, and he came fast and furious in one fast push. He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz, was a great breastfeeder from the beginning and again totally blew our minds with his absolute perfection.

Round three – “Baby Clorox” (as nicknamed by her oldest brother) – something in between:

This pregnancy has floated somewhere in the middle in terms of symptoms and general well-being. Because this is the only pregnancy that caught us a bit more by surprise, we weren’t charting, and I didn’t even know the date of my last period when I took the pregnancy test. This was a bit of a bonus because I didn’t even know I was pregnant in the first early days when I’ve been prone to be hyper-aware of symptom spotting in the past. We confirmed the pregnancy at the midwife’s office around 6.5 weeks, and at that point and in the weeks that followed, fatigue was really my only noticeable symptom besides my rapidly growing belly. Like last time, although the paralyzing must-nap-all-the-time fatigue has lifted, I’m perpetually exhausted because of my small collection of maniac children who are constantly keeping me on my toes. I never know how far along I am when someone asks unless I open the app I downloaded just for that purpose (and the only time I open it – or read anything about pregnancy – is when someone asks how far along I am). I needed maternity clothes very early on, but after two other pregnancies (and some loaning of my clothes), most of my maternity wear is battered to hell, and aside from a few items grabbed on Amazon and at Target, I haven’t made much effort to buy much, instead just squeaking every last day of wear from my non-maternity clothing until it bursts at the seams.

In the land of weird pregnancy symptoms, I’m not waking in sneezing fits or having unexplained asthma attacks, BUT instead I’ve been blessed with crazy pregnancy-induced eczema all over my hands and arms that is ridiculously itchy (and that I can’t treat with anything stronger than aquaphor). I am twenty weeks and change and have yet to take a single bump photo. I am however beginning to enjoy those amazing little wiggles and kicks, and I get asked daily by my eldest child if he can feel them (no, not yet buddy – still too faint for you, but soon!). Also, I’m already dealing with sciatic pain again, but this time, I’m being proactive and already started PT so I will hopefully stave off the debilitating pain. I have no major expectations this time about being early, on-time, or late, and we’ll be at a different hospital than with babies #1 and 2. While I’m expecting to have another natural birth, I’m not worrying much about it, though of course we have our doula lined up again (used one every time). Mr. Confetti dreamed in our first week after finding out about this baby that it would be a girl and that she’d be born on our living room floor, so I think I’ll be happy as long as we make it out of the house.

Since I’m only halfway through, I can’t say much else about this time around, other than that it is truly amazing how different pregnancies can be. Not surprising really, when I look at my two children and see just how different they are in nearly every way. It really makes me so curious to meet this little girl, see her and get to know her.

How were your pregnancies the same? How were they different?