Thursday, June 30, 2011

Pregnancy #3: 8 Weeks Along

This pregnancy has been the easiest by far, so far, although there have been some notable moments and a few scares (already!)!

The scares began shortly after we found out that I was pregnant. I started having sharp pains. Not like the ligament pains that I've had in the past during the first trimester. I described them to the doctor as "it's-time-to-go-to-the-hospital-to-have-this-baby-type contractions." They'd last for over a minute at a time and made it difficult to stand, much less walk. I discovered after a few days of this that if I drank a ridiculous amount of water they were greatly lessened, although when I went for a checkup she said that they were probably from nursing, and since we're not weaning Mae yet (we're planning on tandem nursing since Mae's only going to be 18 months when the baby's born) they're likely to continue (she didn't seemed concerned, so I'm feeling much better about it!).

I have been getting them much less frequently, they're much less intense, and they usually do come after a marathon nursing session (like last night when Mae took a couple of hours to go to sleep and kept screaming if she wasn't nursing... I will admit that I don't enjoy bedtime between the 10-12 month marks!). That was our initial scare this time around!

The contractions added to my desire to wait as long as possible to announce the pregnancy to the whole world! I've always thought, next time I'll wait until twelve weeks before we make the announcement, but so far, I've never made it past the middle of the first trimester. And this time the reason was fairly obvious. I felt like I had a baby bump five minutes after taking the pregnancy test. One week I was looking in the mirror thinking, "My waist is starting to go back!" and the next week I was looking in the mirror thinking: "baby bump!" The muscles just seem to remember what to do and instantly relaxed as the pregnancy hormones hit my body. It's like an insta-bump!

While the insta-bump has appeared, and I'm eating like a crazy person (between nursing and this baby I'm almost constantly hungry) I was surprised to step on the scale and discover I've lost betwen 5 and 10 lbs depending on the time of day when I weigh in. I always kind of roll my eyes when I see doctor's on TV who say "you only need to eat an extra apple a day to get the extra calories when you're pregnant." Pregnancy metabolism (for me at least) is a little crazy (I am kind of enjoying it at the moment!). And I do kind of wish my metabolism was like this when I wasn't pregnant!

The best part of this pregnancy has been the notable lack of morning sickness. With Sadie the morning sickness lasted from somewhere around 6 weeks to 12 weeks and was severe. With Mae it started at around 4 weeks and went to around 12 weeks but was much milder than the first time around. This time I've had a few bouts of mild nausea in the morning and one day of being sick, but that was pretty much it (and I'm hoping it stays that way!!!). If I get hungry the nausea will begin to come back, so I'm keeping snacks around to munch on and keep the morning sickness at bay and this time it seems to be working.

The lack of morning sickness leads to speculation on all sides of whether it's a boy or a girl! And I love hearing different theories because guessing what this little one is going to be like is one of my favorite pass times at the moment.

And that is the rather long pregnancy update! The picture above is actually from last week (7 weeks)!

10 comments:

  1. :-D

    Nursing while pg is definitely not the easiest thing to do but I would be doing the exact same if I got pg that early... I nursed Kalila for 5 months into ZJ's pg and she was a bit older. Just hang in there and you'll be fine. Btw if the water helps then make sure you're drinking a bit more of it... dehydration can cause pressure waves too so it may not be the nursing that's doing it.

    Glad you're doing well! And looking forward to more updates :-)

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  2. I've always thought, next time I'll wait until twelve months before we make the announcement...

    I think you mean twelve weeks, unless you're going to announce baby's arrival 3 months after his/her birth. :)

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  3. Maybe it's a boy! ;-0 For whatever it's worth, in my pregnancy with my son, I had zero morning sickness. With Anne, I was sick every day. But in the end, it's pretty much 50/50. :-)

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  4. Thanks for the pregnancy update! I think it is wonderful that you are continuing to nurse during your pregnancy. It can be pretty draining, especially in those early weeks, but definitely worth the effort. I nursed through my second and third pregnancies (my kiddos are ages 3 yrs, 23 months and 11 weeks) and found that I needed to eat and drink almost constantly to keep my milk supply up. My husband would tease me that I ate like he did when he was a teenage boy in a growth spurt :) I also experienced the strong contractions you described with nursing, but thankfully they lessened for me as I neared the second trimester. Hopefully yours will ease up soon. Congratulations on your pregnancy!

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  5. I had similar type pains in my pregnancy with my daughter. I was still nursing my son at that point, but only a few times a day. They went away after a few days never to return. While nursing can stimulate contractions, it generally doesn't cause a problem because the receptors needed to actually cause the cervix to dilate aren't activated until the end of the pregnancy (which is why nipple stimulation to start labor only works if you're really truly ready to give birth). Nursing through pregnancy truly does mean that you need extra calories, particularly since Mae is still largely dependent on your milk for her calorie intake. You may find that your milk supply decreases no matter how much you eat, but Mae will continue to benefit no matter how little milk there is there. Just follow her lead on her other calorie needs. I had a friend who nursed through a pregnancy where she was already tandem nursing her second along with her first (the first weaned before the baby was born). The new baby was just fine and she tandem nursed him with his big sister for nearly the next two years.

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  6. I think I'll be nursing through this pregnancy, we'll see. I just read Adventures in Tandem Nursing which had lots of great info, I really recommend it if your planning to tandem nurse :)

    Are you planning to do a VBAC this time? I was looking through some of your old posts and saw you had c-sections for your other two and was just curious since I know you want to have a big family. I know some doc's are more willing to do VBACs after 2 previous c-sect, but not after 3 since the risk increases with each one :-/.

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  7. For what it's worth... I had absolutely no morning sickness with my son. I had a little with my daughter.

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  8. It must be twins :) but that wasn't a viable poll option - J

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  9. Heads up for future (God willing) babies: a mom of 9 recently told me that she always knew the next was coming as soon as she started getting her figure back ;-)

    Your baby bump is beautiful!!! I pray everything goes well from here on. Tandem nursing... you will drop that baby weight like nobody's business!

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  10. You look lovely! I'm so happy that your family is blessed with another baby!

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