{Baby3} Bumpdate: 14-16 weeks/2nd Trimester

Bumpdate: 14-16 Weeks

HOW I’VE BEEN FEELING

The start of the 2^nd trimester rolled in and unfortunately, I didn’t get an immediate “yay now I feel amazing” feeling…instead, I still felt pretty sick and out of it! It took until about week 16 to finally, finally – FINALLY start feeling slightly better & get some of my energy back. Now in week 17 I can say that I feel like I’m officially over the hump and in the “sweet spot” of pregnancy (because we all know there’s definitely a peak & then it starts to go downhill again towards the end!). I still have moments where I feel kind of sick here and there, but I’ve been able to start cooking again, and I’ve slowly been getting my energy back & have even started to exercise again (thank goodness for pilates at home!). I did look back on my pregnancy with Arden and realized that I didn’t start feeling better until after week 16 with her too, so I guess that’s my MO. I’m just happy we’re finally here!

WHAT I’VE BEEN LOVING

Healthy foods sound appealing again, hurray! I’m still indulging in treats here and there, but very thankful that fruits & veggies, oatmeal, nuts, yogurt, and just generally healthy foods and meals sound good again.

I’ve also come out of my sickness slump enough to start thinking about using good lotion twice a day (when I can remember) on my tummy, which is definitely starting to look like a baby bump at this point. The funny thing about being early pregnant in winter is that for the most part I’ve been wearing bulky layering clothing so every now and then when I’m in a more fitted tee, I get a little shock of surprise to see my stomach growing. I finally took my first bump picture at 15 weeks (not the best picture ever, but 1st time documenting!):

I also started going to the chiropractor weekly again and it’s one of my absolute favorite prenatal self-care things to do! I feel so much better after getting adjusted & Café of Life just takes the best care of their pregnant mommas.

Warm bubble baths with lavender Epsom are another favorite act of self-care that I try to make time for while pregnant & they usually on days post-chiro visit. I stick my phone in a ziplock & read a Kindle book and savor a piece of chocolate for a good 20 minutes and it’s the most relaxing thing ever. Interestingly enough, my tastes have changed a bit with this pregnancy (and really with Turner’s too, but it happened again) and I’m preferring milk chocolate over dark!

BABY’S GROWTH

Dec 18^th we had our 10-week appointment where they just covered the basics: my weight (still the same), general feelings so far (more nausea meds, please!), & listened to baby’s heartbeat (170 BPM, normal). We also opted to have the genetic screening/blood test done where they are able to identify any genetic abnormalities as well as gender! Results took a few weeks to come in…

Jan 11^th we had our 14-week appointment and got to hear the heartbeat again (152 BPM!). This appointment (and hearing confirmation from the doctor that Baby#3 was still doing well) gave me the peace of mind to be comfortable with 

publicly posting our pregnancy announcement (which was fun!):

Aren't their shirts adorable!? From this cute place.

There’s just something about this being our “rainbow baby” (ie baby post-miscarriage) that has made me a lot slower at sharing all baby-related news. It’s like I still don’t want to fully believe this is happening again…guarding my heart maybe? But as the weeks go on I’m becoming more comfortable, which is why finally at 16 weeks I decided to start taking official bump pictures (I'm going to keep these up each week!):

I also got our girl a special rainbow outfit:

AND a few days later, we decided we were comfortable to share the news that we’d learned a few weeks earlier…our tie-breaker baby is a GIRL! (oh and genetic tests came back normal!)

All the heart eyes for the bows, am I right? These two are new ones I just snagged with newborn headbands - AND Arden has matching ones!

We are so so so excited to add another girl to our family! I had a hunch it was a girl right from the beginning, and I think Taylor secretly was hoping to same thing, even though he was convinced it was going to be a boy. And I guess we should have just trusted Arden’s instincts too because she’s been calling this baby “sister” from the beginning!

I’m starting to feel a little “flutter” here and there (and have been for about 2 weeks) but nothing super definite yet. Soon!

Our next appointment is Feb 15^th where I’ll be 19 weeks, and shockingly this is already the official “midway” appointment (usually around 20 weeks) where we’ll get to have another sonogram & they’ll do an anatomy scan to see how baby girl is developing.

MOMMA UPDATE

Weight

Thanks to feeling so terrible, I actually lost 5 lbs in the first trimester, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not out of the norm for me during early pregnancy, and don’t worry, those pounds did come back. By Jan I was up 3 of those pounds, and now a few weeks into the 2^nd tri, I’m back to just slightly under where I started. Like last time, I’m trying to generally keep track of my gains along the way, just to hold myself accountable (mainly when I’m wanting my second bowl of ice cream at night, ha!).

1^st trimester gains

Arden: 2.7 lbs

Turner: 2.1 lbs

Baby #3: -0.5 lbs (which is probably good because I started almost 10 lbs heavier than either pregnancy before, whoops).

2^nd trimester gains

Arden: 14.4 lbs

Turner: 11.4 lbs

Baby#3: 0.2 lbs so far

My goal for this pregnancy is to gain around the same amount of weight as the last two times, around 25-30 lbs total.

Currently I’m still wearing all my regular clothes, jeans included, but they are definitely starting to dig into my stomach. We’ve hit the point where if I’m in any kind of fitted top people are side-eyeing me at work if they don’t already know I’m pregnant. It’s definitely preferable to put on comfortable yoga pants as soon as I get home so I know it’s time to bust out my box of maternity clothes!

PREPPING FOR BABY

Taylor and I have started talking about where we want the nursery to be…and we haven’t come up with a plan yet. Our new house has our master bedroom on the first floor, which gives us 2 real options for a “nursery” downstairs: our master closet or the guest bedroom. We’re not big on having a newborn in our bedroom for very long, but we do like having them relatively close by,  mostly just because we realize the reality of how often you have to go to a newborn in the middle of the night and walking further than a few steps just seems pointless (and exhausting). In our old house we converted one of two master closets into a nursery, which worked out really well. The room was small but fit a crib and a changing table/dresser and had a door we could close. We had the glider in our bedroom so basically Taylor could change the baby & then I could feed the baby & put them back down all while more-or-less being about 10 feet from our bed. There are two bedrooms upstairs and I think eventually 2 kiddos will share a room, but right now we’re trying to decide if we should put Arden & Turner in the same room and convert the other room to a nursery…or if going alllll the way upstairs in the middle of the night will kill us (it might). 

So TBD on this.

I also created a little registry for baby #3, yay! We already have a LOT of things we need, but there are just a few things that I know we need to replace (our bumbo) or that we borrowed from people previously (a rock n play was a lifesaver last time) or just that we need a second (or third, ha!) of like a play-yard. And then of course just a few things that baby #3 needs of her own (special blanket, baby book, etc.). And then bows, all the bows! The list is mainly for my OCD self and my sanity, but it does help to have it ready when people have asked!

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14/15/16 Weeks with Arden
14-16 Weeks with Turner