Let me start this off by saying it’s pretty interesting to be writing these updates while the world is still in the dark about the fact that I’m pregnant. For my last pregnancy, I announced publicly and then started writing about my journey here on this blog shortly afterwards. This time around, I think I’ll be closer to half way when I announce things. Perhaps Father’s Day when I’m exactly 20 weeks and know the gender already is when I’ll make it all known. We’ll see what happens because so much is up in the air about what life will be like in the world during that time.

My hope is that I’ll be able to film a creative announcement video for YouTube as well as have a photoshoot to share on other social platforms. At this point, God only knows.

Something else that God only knows is how much I’ve thought about certain aspects of the timing of this pregnancy. Back in 2013, I conceived pretty much exactly around the same date that I did this time around. It was around February 12th (my birthday). I took my husband on a surprise parasailing excursion for Valentine’s Day 2013, and–soon after that day–I found out I was pregnant. Me and my husband weren’t even trying to conceive when it happened. Unfortunately, that pregnancy ended in a loss.

This time around, I was hoping to surprise my husband for HIS birthday this year in January with a hot air balloon ride. It ended up being cancelled due to weather and I had to reschedule. I ended up just booking it for my birthday instead, so there we were hundreds of feet in the air again on another floating excursion. Days later, we were pregnant with this child. I always had a small curiosity of what it would have been like if I did end up having that November baby in 2013. We’ll never know, but it’s cool to literally revisit that due date years later.

As the title says, I am currently 14 weeks along, so let’s recap the past two weeks. I’m thinking every two weeks is how often I’ll log on here, but I did do a terrible job last time trying to stay up to date with everything. I take notes in my phone so that I don’t forget what’s been going on, so let’s dive right in.

I certainly feel more kicks from baby, but it’s for sure still sporadic and not really predictable in any way yet. My husband and daughter can’t feel them because they’re so slight. This is very different from Petra. You would have thought she was trying to win a soccer tournament with how powerful her kicks and jabs were. I was super surprised how early I could feel them back then, and I have to remember this time around that her kicks were kind of phenomenal when I wonder “How come it’s taking so long to feel big movements from baby #2?”.

The weather (as well as being on lockdown due to the virus) has played a big role in my day to day activities. There are a few places that we can still go to outside to get some fresh air and give my daughter a way to burn some energy, but there was a big heatwave during week 13 of my pregnancy that made it hard not to feel nauseous and fatigued when we went out. It’s back to being in the 60’s and 70’s now instead of the 90’s. I also usually like to go on drives down the coast, but with so many stores being closed, it makes me a little wary of being trapped in the car when I have to pee often because I’m not able to conveniently pull into a gas station or fast food place for a pit stop.

Even when the weather is mild, I still feel internally hotter than the average person and it takes a little more effort to catch my breath. That’s getting better these days, and my husband always makes sure I have cold water or a cup of ice which helps with feeling so hot. According to my previous blog updates with Petra’s pregnancy, 14 weeks is when I started to feel more like myself. I do experience that happening this time again, and it helps a lot to know that the worst symptoms of pregnancy are almost all behind me.

Two things that are different from my last pregnancy are round ligament pain and lots of excess mucus. I remember mentioning last time I posted that I was trying to cut out dairy and sugary foods because I thought they were the cause of all the mucus collecting at the back of my throat and making me nauseous. Even though I did that, I still had problems with throwing up and literally gagging on mucus while doing so. I looked into it to see if mucus was actually a symptom of pregnancy, and apparently it is. I still have excess, but not nearly was much as a week or so ago. That’s helped me to not throw up as much, and I’ve been having ice cream again. Yay!

The other thing is the cramping sensation from round ligament pain which is the stretching of the uterus. I wanted to make sure this pain was normal since I don’t remember having it this far into pregnancy before, so I looked into that as well. Apparently, you feel it more at this time in the second pregnancy than you would the first. I’ll take that over the sciatica pain I had with Petra that literally made me limp around for a few months.

I’m still currently doing some work from home, but not a ton. Mostly my podcast with my husband that goes up once a week. I’m obviously not socializing a lot, so having to constantly rest is helping with making everything a little more bearable. I’m really hoping by the next time I write in two weeks, there will be more normalcy to life in California and more to update you on. Until then, I’ll leave you with some stats.

Age and size of baby:

14 weeks old, 3.5 inches long, 2 oz in weight.

Cravings:

I remember being all about anything spicy, and I thought that craving would never go away. Suddenly, that left me and my biggest cravings are fruit and sour/tart things like pickles and olives. Peppermint gum helps when I get a weird nauseating taste in my mouth after eating anything. I also have been enjoying fruity popsicles a LOT. I have been craving seafood, and my father in law bought some crab legs for Mother’s Day dinner at their place. It was amazing.

Morning sickness:

Nausea still hits me the worst before bed. I actually procrastinate and put off going to bed as long as possible because I’m mentally trying to prepare myself for brushing my teeth. It’s like a 50/50 chance that it’ll make me throw up. The only advice I would give someone who’s also throwing up during pregnancy is to stay hydrated. When I haven’t had enough liquids, it hurts really bad when food comes back up.

Stretch marks:

I don’t have any new ones, but I do have a lot of visible veins especially in my chest area. The boobs are getting ready to feed again in several months, so there’s a lot of prep going on there. I’m also showing a lot sooner with this pregnancy. I didn’t really have a bump until 16 weeks last time.

Crazy hormones:

I think I have a pretty good handle on my emotions or mood swings. However; I do find myself getting very overwhelmed when my daughter is asking for a lot of things all at once or asking a lot of questions or wanting to play 300 different games throughout the day. She’s not doing anything wrong, I just feel helpless when normal things feel like too much because I’m so tired or constantly nauseous. I also get really irritated with this quarantine sometimes, so I try not to talk about it or think about it a lot because I’ll get into a really negative headspace.

Sleeping habits:

I’ve been getting enough sleep, and don’t have any real body pains to complain of. Just overall soreness. I do have to pee often, but it’s not as many trips to the bathroom at night as it used to be. I also don’t have as many really stressful or vivid dreams. I will say that I do have to change positions a lot if I’m not in deep sleep either due to feeling too hot or just trying to get comfortable. I didn’t notice how much I shift positions until my husband tried to spoon me the other night and I kept feeling bad for having to move around.

So, that’s that for now.  Be blessed and take time to make your dreams into your reality.

-Kytia L’amour