Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Here we go (grow?) again!

Turns out we aren't joining the "One and Done" club, although I'm sure most people probably thought we'd paid for that membership far in advance.  Instead, I think we'll be a part of its sister organization, "Two and Through."  That's right, Connor's going to be a big brother!

In an effort to treat both my kids (Ack, did I just say kids?!) as equally as possible, I'm going to reference my first pregnancy announcement post and answer the same questions.

So was McBaby #2 planned or another accident unexpected blessing?  This one was planned.  We tried for about three months before the stars aligned.  That's how these things work, right?

Did I tell the McHusband in some special way?  You'd think with three months to plan I could come up with something better than handing over a recently-peed-on pregnancy test.  How about having Connor hand it over?  I had gotten groceries from Walmart and in between putting them away and getting picked up by Heather for our Bad Moms movie date (appropriate, right?), I took the test.  When I saw that it was positive, I had just enough time to task Connor with delivering it to the McHusband before I kissed the boys goodbye and flew out the door.

Will we find out the baby’s gender?  We already did!  One advantage to my advanced maternal age (37) is being offered a genetic screening test for three disorders at 10 weeks and in doing so they can tell you the gender.  I had the test on a Friday and it was supposed to take 7 to 10 days to get the results.  I got the phone call Monday afternoon, 6 business days after the test.  It was great to hear that the baby is fine and know so soon what we’re having.  Looks like I will remain the queen of the castle since we’re having another little boy!
The cake I picked up to share the boy news with the McHusband.
On that note, I actually thought it was going to be a girl.  Unlike when I was pregnant with Connor, I had a few weeks when I just didn’t feel that great.  One afternoon while eating my salad with grilled chicken on it, I thought I was going to puke.  It took a lot of effort to get the bite down and even now several weeks later, grilled chicken does not appeal to me.  Fried chicken in the form of a Chick-Fil-A spicy chicken sandwich however?  I could eat three a day.  So solely based on that difference between the pregnancies, I was thinking girl.  And yeah, hoping a little, too.

Other than the occasional bouts of nausea, my main symptom was being tired, but I remembered that from the first time around.  I have done my best to keep up with the workouts I was already doing and only missed one boot camp because of feeling bad.  I remember some more-than-normal fatigue lasting on and off through about 15 weeks so hopefully I don't have to worry about that symptom much longer, if at all.

I’m starting off this pregnancy heavier (about 15 pounds) than my first so I know I need to watch the weight gain for the duration.  I will need to take off what I put on PLUS the extra weight I was already carrying.  I’m hoping breastfeeding will help a lot with that like it did the first time around, but I had supply issues and stopped breastfeeding when Connor was about four months old.  We’ll see how things go this time around.  I’ll be happy if I make it to four months again, thrilled to reach six months, and ecstatic with any number of weeks after that, both for me and for the baby.
12 weeks pregnant - and looking it!
How pregnant AM I anyway?  I am just shy of 13 weeks and hope this baby doesn’t come early as he is due on April 28th.  I’d hate to have to share my birthday (April 24th).  I got lucky and Connor came a day after his Valentine’s Day due date so let’s hope this baby arrives on or after his due date.

I had a check-up yesterday and everything sounded good.  No ultrasound since we did that genetic testing, but I heard the heartbeat.  And found out I need to lay off the snacks and up the exercise.  :( #stupidscalerealitycheck

We are excited (and, yeah, a little nervous) about being a family of four but are happy that we can give Connor a sibling.  I have two sisters, the McHusband has a brother, and while all those relationships had their ups and downs growing up, I know we both consider ourselves to be very lucky to have our siblings now.  We wouldn’t be the people we are now without them, and we truly appreciate them and consider them friends.
I don’t how regular a blogger I’ll be, but I do hope to check in at regular intervals so I can document this pregnancy like I did my first.  I have enjoyed going back and reading about what was happening and how I was feeling so I don’t want to miss out on that the second (and last!) time around.