onto the fun stuff!
since i'm already in my second trimester, i decided to jot down a few things about my first trimester (and what feels like is still my first trimester, since not much has changed). and for those of you who like to guess the sex using old wives tales, some of these may help you formulate a guess :)
* i was sick, but not as sick as i was with june. it's been very hit or miss and gradually gotten better. i have fewer days where i feel bad, and it's usually when i overdo it on the amount or content of the food i eat.
* my face looks like a teenager's, i.e. serious acne. that is one thing that has gotten better since the second trimester's arrival. thank goodness!
* my energy is gone. it's never coming back. i'm convinced...ok i'm half kidding, but dang! i'm wiped out. around 15 weeks with june i felt like a new woman. i enjoyed almost everything about pregnancy except for the sciatic nerve pain (which i don't have this time). i'm still waiting on that energy burst. yesterday i laid down for a "cat nap" while my toddler was napping and woke up two hours later (thank goodness for long toddler naps). and i was still ready for bed at 9:00.
* half my life is lived in the following conundrum and internal dialogue:
"mannnn i've gotta pee so bad!"
"i really don't want to move."
"but i have to pee!"
"empty bladder? comfy couch? empty bladder? comfy couch?"...the scales are never balanced
(at night just exchange "couch" for "bed")
* and on that note, i'll add that having a newly potty trained toddler is incredibly easy when you're pregnant. because every time we leave the house, i have to pee as much (if not more) than she does. thus, no forgotten potty breaks.
* on a second semi-related note, i'll also add that the 3-day potty training bootcamp is THE BOMB. long story short, june had been half trained since around 19 months. we also cloth diaper. being half in cloth diapers is worse than being all the way in cloth diapers. and that's saying a lot. (can you tell i really love cloth diapering?) i couldn't bear the thought of dealing with another dirty diaper while i was on the verge of vomiting half the time, so i did some desperate online searching. 3 days later, no diapers. done. bam. it works, people.
* back up to the comfy couch note. how has dealing with a toddler been, you ask? and not just any toddler, but the very active toddler, who, when introduced to the new kids in her once-a-week gym class earned the title of "physical risk taker"...yeah, that one? well, other than the week where i caught a nasty cold that made me feel like death, it's been better than i thought. there are
* i'm carrying an ice baby. that's what i call it. ice, ice baby. i'm kidding (kind of). with june i was a flaming torch. hot all the time. i radiated heat from my body. if i was in a predator movie, i would have been dead in no time. this time around, except for the occasional hot flash, i'm always cold. i've slept in a sweatshirt once or twice. in church we have to switch seats seven times before i find one that isn't directly under an air vent funneling the polar vortex to the seats below. it's winter! turn off the a/c!
* i discovered that coffee makes me feel much worse than without. but i remember last pregnancy going through caffeine withdrawals while pregnant and that was AWFUL. so i found a ginger tea (yay for ginger, the nausea fighter--and this one had real ginger, which is really freaking hard to find) that also happens to be pretty caffeinated. and that did the trick for a little while. BUT...it's still not coffee. i can pretend to be a tea drinker and fool no one. i love coffee. i've loved it since i had to stand on a stool to make it (which, at 5'2" probably wasn't all that long ago). so i've discovered that if i make a 1/3 heated milk and 2/3 weak, non-flavored, non-sweetened coffee concoction, that i can handle it. so that's what i do.
* i must be some kind of delusional fool because i signed up for a prenatal yoga class. i'm trying to focus on staying physically active during this pregnancy, for many reasons. first, it helps me feel better. secondly, my midwife swears by it for a quicker labor. and lastly, it's something i've put off for way too long as a general health practice. so, in addition to my walks and at-home exercise, i found a once a month or so class and i'm going to go. and look like a total idiot. fairhope moms walk around like they've all just been to a yoga class. and they probably have. there's 4 studios in a 1 mile radius. i wear yoga pants because that's all that fits me these days. so i've got one foot in the door. ha! not...
* chia seeds. my digestive best friend.
* not finding out the gender has been helpful for evading the "name game." you know the one. where you start favoring this darling little name, you tell it in confidence to someone you think you can trust, and then they drop a bomb like this: "ooooh, yeah. my great aunt was murdered by someone with that name. no. no you can NOT name your baby that." well, thanks. certainly don't want any murderer babies.
so listen up. we're not sharing any names with you. any of you. nothing personal. i just don't think your kindergarten teacher's name has anything to do with our baby. and really, with the way it went with june's naming, i don't trust myself to name a baby before he or she is born. just seeing june's little face, all bright and round and sticking out from her tight little bundle ruled out so many of the names we had considered. she is a "june." it was meant for her. and i couldn't have known that without meeting her first. or if i'm in a bind and feel like being mischievous, i'm going to start making them up:
"ooh what's your favorite girl name so far?"
"well, we haven't decided for sure, but right now 'halo' is in the lead."
* and lastly, i've found a heavenly midwife for my delivery. i had a midwife for my last delivery and...actually, no. no i didn't. because she wasn't there for my delivery. my 30 hour of grueling, strapped to a bed, labor and delivery. i delivered a healthy baby. bottom line. but i was not at all pleased with the staff or progression of events. i stayed sane only because of my support team in the room. this new lady. Y'ALL. she walked in and heavenly light shone down on her. she beams joy, and she told me verbatim "i'm so glad you're choosing the natural route. this is going to be wonderful. this--THIS is why i became a midwife." and i beamed. i confessed that i had such fear about this delivery until i met her. and now i have a total peace about it. and then she beamed.
i'm delivering in a hospital, just like last time. and if there's anything i've learned, it's that delivering naturally at a hospital is near impossible. it's just not something the staff is comfortable with or used to. i don't know what's going to happen this time. i really don't. it probably won't go as planned. but knowing that i have someone who will be there the minute i arrive (and who doesn't keep doctor's hours but is instead on-call 24/7, barring some unfortunate coincidence of sickness or major emergency) and who will fight for all the things i want as the same things she wants--that feels really good.
and this time, i'll know what they really mean until they say "stay home until you can't talk through a contraction." because they mean literally, it is impossible to utter anything except a low groan. ;)
whew. that was really long. and took days to put together. so naturally, expect the same long ramblings at the end of the second trimester :)
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