Tag Archives: Pregnancy Journey

WE ARE EXPECTING OUR 3RD AND FINAL BABY!

I know. This is wild and insane and we will soon be part of the 3 under 4 club which is crazy and I know we will have a lot of things to do but I am so looking forward to never being pregnant again. Spoiler Alert: This is the hardest pregnancy I have ever had!

Photo by lucas mendes on Pexels.com

I also want to say too that before I even begin, I am nearly out of the first trimester. By this time this is published and I am releasing it it will be just over 13 weeks. I had full intentions to actually write how I was feeling week by week as an update because with Felix I had given an update every 4 weeks. I will start doing weekly updates though going forward after 12/13 weeks. I am more so wondering if this is harder because I have 2 under 3 right now and am literally busy most of the time.

Right now I have had more morning sickness than I have with both pregnancy combined. Just the last week alone as I write this I have been getting sick multiple times a day. I know that I could have it way way way worse but for this it was a lot. There has been a lot of sleeping. I feel like I am up every 2 hours to the bathroom which is totally insane because I do not remember being up that much at night so early on and I am already sore. I have been taking baths regularly and also even showers where I just stand in the steam and just relax as much as possible. I have been pretty regularly trying to just sit on the couch in my housecoat and relaxing because I feel like I need to. I am counting the days till this is over because I feel like its another chapter that is closing.

As for the gender. A lot of people we know are assuming it is a girl. Due to the fact I am way sicker however I won’t be really thinking about gender till it is confirmed due to the fact that Vincent and Felix were so different pregnancy that I really have no idea. I will say the being sick if that is in fact a thing more so with a girl I would be kind of leaning towards a girl. We do hope to find out the gender like we always have though because we are super impatient and unable to hold it in. I think if it was a girl or boy it will be such a nice ending to our family since we will be done with children.

Another thing I thing I am looking forward to is that this pregnancy we will be due the beginning of August. With the boys I was pregnant through the entire summer and that made me miss out on so much. Obviously I am not saying I regret anything either, I love my children and wouldn’t change it for the world. Having our own home and a nice large back deck where we can sit and enjoy the weather and animals at night has been so pleasant that I am so looking forward to it this summer. Also I am looking forward to having some puffs too because I do miss smoking a bit of weed but it’s something that I have just gotten over and I quit fairly easily. Just like every pregnancy, I even talk about it in a post here.

Photo by Somben Chea on Pexels.com

As for cravings I don’t think I have really been craving a whole lot. Lots of salty and some sweet. More specifically Wendy’s Fries and dipping them in Frostys. I have been kind of craving slushies but NO WHERE in Halifax seems to have any and if that ain’t disappointing I honestly don’t know what is. I had some thing similar a “Misty” from dairy queen but that wasn’t the same. I also had a craving for a hot fudge sundae from dairy queen so I got a peanut buster parfait without the peanuts. And for my birthday this past January I had to specifically order the cake because I was dying to have something that had real buttercream not the window front store cakes with the whipped cream icing that isn’t sweet at all. I also have been trying to randomly eat different things because I swear sometimes I have eaten things and within a few hours I know I’m about to be sick and low and behold I end up getting sick.

I have been trying to keep busy though and have been trying not to nap in the day time because I feel like its such a wasted opportunity when the boys are sleeping to be able to get things done. Or I have been trying to do things as I go while they are doing things or I am cooking supper. Like if I am in the bathroom with Vincent I will try to tidy a few places or change the garbage. Stuff like that which is helping to get back on track. I swear though this pregnancy I have been unable to get enough sleep. Even sleeping in the day when I try to nap at night I am exhausted and then I find myself having trouble sleeping for long periods. One thing I need to start doing is reading beore bed. I need to stop being on my cell phone because it’s not making me sleep any better if anything its making me stay up later. I have some great books that I need to read and what better time to do so than now.

Overall I am hoping the next 2 trimesters go by way smoother and I am super scared about the actual birth which is a whole other blog topic as well as something I won’t be even thinking about until later when it is way closer to the due date but still. Here is to the final pregnancy that I have and hoping things go great. I cannot wait to meet our final missing puzzle piece to our family!

Prepping for Final Baby

There is no secret here that I am pretty open about our family and how big we want it. My partner and I are planning on having 3 children provided that everything is alright though and everything aligns right. As you know having a baby can be challenging. I even talk about the 5 tips to get pregnant easier here in a different blog post. These are the things that I have been doing for the past little while in order to prep for the final baby we hope to welcome to our family!

Photo by Melike Benli on Pexels.com



One thing I have been doing since August was taking prenatals. They say you should be starting to take these 3 months prior to trying to conceive. That being said though, prenatals will not make you become pregnant faster. The purpose of this is to build the vitamins and whatever else up in your body to help carry a baby better. Obviously there are times though that people are not able to do this with surprise pregnancy’s and things however if you are actively planning like us than yes, take them 3 months before hand to help your body become ready!

Another thing that I am trying to do is continue to lose weight. Having 2 kids and thinking about another pregnancy I want to make sure that I am not tired and sluggish. I want to hopefully lose maybe 25lbs (Hopefully since you know I write these in advance I will have you all updated on the Thursday’s Self Care) and I want to also be able to have munching and snacking in control so that I don’t have to worry about over eating. With my first pregnancy I gained a lot of weight and it was hard. With my second I didn’t gain that much. Which was great however I want to hopefully lose weight and not gain like I did with my second. Chasing kids around will be challenging so I really want to make sure that I am healthy and at least not carrying around extra weight unless it has to do with the growing baby!

Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com



I am also slowly thinking about bedrooms. Currently we have 3 bedrooms upstairs and right now my youngest is in the biggest room with the crib and my oldest in his own room in a big bed. That being said, whenever number 3 comes along hopefully it happens the same as it did with my first two which was relatively quick, that I would really like to low key plan the babies room. Chances are my youngest will have to be in a big boy bed. Not to mention I will have to put both of the boys in the same room. Then move the baby to the little room. I am not in a huge rush obviously due to the fact that I am hoping that we can keep the newest addition in a bassinet for a period of time but I would like to at least mentally prepare for the changes of rooms.

This also may sound super silly, but I am also mentally preparing myself for another c-section. It was really hard on me, so hard in fact I talk about the 3 things that were the hardest part of a c-section here as well as the parts of a c-section that no one talks about here. Maybe it was part of my fault because I never really thought “It could happen to me” and I knew literally nothing about it. All I knew was that they cut open your stomach. Not the time, what happens in recover, or anything like that. I want to be fully prepared to have another c-section if that is the route that is safest way for myself and for the baby to make it to this world. I know recovery won’t be easy because of the fact that I will have 2 little fellas who would be running around and I really hope that at the end of the day we do not have to go that way however if it does I want to be prepared as well.

And finally, I am also prepping for the fact that this will be my last pregnancy. We always planned on having just 3 children and as much as I feel like an alien and that I was low key not a huge fan of it. I will say that we were pretty lucky. I was basically minimal pregnancy symptoms and was able to do a lot more than friends of mine were though. That being said though, every pregnancy is different. I know this will be the last time that I can feel little kicks on the inside. I know that this is the last time my body will carry another human. I am okay with that and I hope the 9 months fly buy. I am ready to also take this time to really reflect on the fact that our family dynamic will be changing for a final time also too.



It feels super surreal though to sit here and be thinking about a 3rd pregnancy. From the first and to the third it will be a total of 27 months of pregnancy. That is over 2 years being pregnant. I still cannot believe that such a short time ago I was announcing that we were pregnant with our first and soon we will be announcing that we were pregnant with our last. It marks the end of an era so to speak. My partner and I always wanted to have our children close together in age for many reasons, maybe because we are a little bit crazy but still! Before we know it we will soon be out of diapers, and they will be off to college! Never do I ever wish memories and time away, but boy does it ever pass fast! I still am in shocked that my youngest is nearly a year old and here we are, going to be trying yet again!

What People Wish They Knew About Pregnancy – Part 3

Before I begin, I want to say this is something that I had asked the people on the app “Peanut”. This is an app where mothers sign up and can meet other moms around their towns and essentially become friends and hang out (Not a sponsor). However for me I felt it was far too overwhelming and in typical fashion I stopped using the app. I did however ask a question to the community, that question was “What is something you wish people told you about pregnancy or birth”. These are some responses and once the other parts become active I will be posting them below with links. And you are more than welcome to check them out yourself too!

What do you wish people told you about pregnancy and birth Part 1
What do you wish people told you about pregnancy and birth Part 2

Photo by Burst on Pexels.com

Fundal Massage for uterus was something that I had NO IDEA about when I had given birth the first time. I will say having a c-section for my second I did not notice if there was any massage which I assume there was not due to the fact I had just been cut open there. However with my first vaginal birth HOLY MOLY it was tough. The nurses literally will put their palm or even their fingers and wiggle it around your abdomen to see if your uterus is shrinking back and it does not tickle. They check this periodically and it is absolutely not comfortable at all. Yes it is important and needs to be done but just know that it does not feel great though at all. I know when it comes to having our third and final child, as much as I am hoping to have a vaginal birth similar to our second I am HOPING that this massage happens quickly and it becomes short lived!

*** If you would like to support this blog financially you are more than welcome to do so by clicking this link here to bring you to my Ko-Fi website. Supporting the blog via tips is NEVER pressured however if you feel so inclined to help out in another way this is a perfect way to do so! You can see some behind the scenes items as well as insider info on the store updates and uncensored blogs also coming soon!


Forceps or vacuum was something I knew very little about and thankfully with the 2 children I have (And hopefully the 3rd when the time comes) we dont need to know anything about these! This is where you have to have these tongs to help pull your baby out. And the vacuum is just that, it will suction to the top of your babies head to help them come out of you. I was only told about these in my 1st pregnancy when the doctor was half threatening me with gaining too much weight and how this may be something that is needed if I kept gaining. Luckily I never needed them as my son came so fast however I have heard of these being essential in giving birth for whatever reason. In the moment I can imagine they are horrifying and worrisome.

Lack of sleep from labor to months later is something that you may think is assumed however it isn’t. I will say that with my first two son’s they have been nearly incredible sleepers compared to stories I have heard from friends. As obvious as it may be no one really talks about the lack of sleep you get after a baby is born. For my second pregnancy I found it was a lot harder to sleep the bigger I had gotten however I don’t remember that with my first. Afterwards you are also looking at about 2 months of lack of sleep where the first month you are basically a zombie in the process. I know it sounds crazy but it is true. Babies do drink every 3 hours so they need to really be up that much. After about 2 months both of my son’s slept alright averaging maybe 6-9 hours a night. What makes this challenging is that when you have multiple children. With my first I was able to sleep when he slept and catch up on sleep. However with my second that was not entirely possible due to the fact that he was on one nap per day and the newborn didn’t exactly sleep when you wanted them to!



Mom Guilt is something that I dont think anyone ever can prepare you for. This also can be parenting guilt too. One of the first things I know I felt guilty about with mom guilt was not wanting to breast feed. It is hammered down our throats as a mom that if you don’t you are depriving your child of certain things that they never talk about all the reasons why breast feeding may not be right for your family. For me, mentally I just was unable to breastfeed. I did not enjoy it, I felt wrong doing it, and when my son had jaundice and feeding was super important to make it go away it scared me and made me paranoid that he was not drinking enough. That is not to say that it doesn’t work for other people but for me I loved the fact that my spouse was able to feed our children and I was able to sleep a bit, or that I wasn’t hooked up to some sort of pump the entire time or waking every 2 hours trying to make things happen. The guilt I felt this for my first child was tough. It was extremely hard to even get past. I have a friend who breastfeeds her kids and she said flat out fed is best. There is such a stigma about parents who choose to formula feed that it needs to be stopped. It would probably help with things like postpartum depression as well if we never had so many pressures on us parents before the baby has even been born!

As you can see there is multiple things that may seem pretty obvious to others however this is not the case. This is something that maybe by writing these out a new parent may know before the situation arises! And if you are pumped to read this I can’t wait for you to read the other ones when they come out too!

If you would like to purchase the book you are more than welcome to do so here, though the link is for the Canadian site you may need to be redirected to the Amazon sited for your Country to be able to purchase a copy for yourself!

What People Wish They Knew About Pregnancy – Part 2

Before I begin, I want to say this is something that I had asked the people on the app “Peanut”. This is an app where mothers sign up and can meet other moms around their towns and essentially become friends and hang out (Not a sponsor). However for me I felt it was far too overwhelming and in typical fashion I stopped using the app. I did however ask a question to the community, that question was “What is something you wish people told you about pregnancy or birth”. These are some responses and once the other parts become active I will be posting them below with links. And you are more than welcome to check them out yourself too!

What do you wish people told you about pregnancy and birth Part 1
What do you wish people told you about pregnancy and birth Part 3

Photo by Daniel Reche on Pexels.com

One subject someone said was the decreased sex drive while breast feeding. This could be strongly because while in the first few weeks and months after the birth of your child, if you choose to breastfeed, you will spend a lot of your time with them attached to your chest. Maybe you are pumping for relief though so others can also feed your little one however if you are exclusively breastfeeding you will be spending a lot of your energy with them attached to your breast. Which obviously to some extent will make you maybe not have the sex drive you once had before giving birth.

*** If you would like to support this blog financially you are more than welcome to do so by clicking this link here to bring you to my Ko-Fi website. Supporting the blog via tips is NEVER pressured however if you feel so inclined to help out in another way this is a perfect way to do so! You can see some behind the scenes items as well as insider info on the store updates and uncensored blogs also coming soon!

How long to feel normal varies from person to person however it does not happen over night. If I remember correctly I feel like giving birth vaginally made it so that I was able to feel normal a whole lot sooner than it did when I had a c-section birth. I even went as far as talk about the two difference between them in a blog here and I also talk about how there were challenges that I had to overcome with having a c-section in this blog post here. The fact is giving birth to another human has a lot of challenges. However no one prepares you to ever have to wait a long time to feel normal and healed or even yourself again. When will it stop hurting when you walk up the stairs? Who knows but that is something to think about as well. And if you take longer to feel normal compared to your friends who have had kids there is absolutely nothing wrong with it taking longer or maybe quicker. Times vary from person to person.


What to buy what not to can be a bit subjective. In the fact that what someone might recommend might not be needed for other families and whatever. That being said, I know someone out there needs to hear that, there is NO NEED to over buy every single toy you see on the shelf or every single type of shirt, pants or outfit on the rack. If you have enough clothes to go through a week without doing laundry or even a few spare clothes because accidents do happen, you do not need everything under the sun. You will find that as your child ages there is also people who will be buying different things that will continue to fill up your home. I’m not saying don’t buy anything just ask yourself if you need it. For the most part my children have so many toys from friends and family and holidays that I even hide half of them in the other room and swap them out every few months so that they have new things to play with and it is a surprise too.

Second hand shops save money as well as Facebook market place. There are some specific things I wouldn’t buy from those places like maybe stuffed animals because at the time some things may be hard for cleaning purposes however if it is a plastic toy or something that you can clean regularly there is so many things that people can re-use instead of buying new. And if you want to get some sort of savings or even be a family with toys every where (guilty) then this is a great way to save money.

Photo by lucas mendes on Pexels.com

How lonely it gets is something that I dont personally thing that I feel a lot however I do understand it. Especially with Covid and people with babies are trying to limit contact with people outside of their immediate family however it is lonely. When you have multiple kids you might even be finding yourself isolated, and not on purpose, from people who are like minded. Sure it is great to hang with your children all day but it is also important to get out and have adult interactions. I have a spouse who is home nightly who I talk to and I do regularly talk to friends on messenger and things. That being said I am also looking forward to doing things like walking and little play dates in the summer with friends too. It is import to also have your own time whenever possible away from your children even just for some self care.

Drastic hair loss is something I have been fortunate to not have with either of my pregnancy however I have seen the mental damage it has done to people and friends who have encountered this not talked about enough issue. It is something that may happen every pregnancy, maybe one or two of your ones, or maybe it has different varying degrees too. It also has no timeline on how long it will last. I know for myself, as a woman, even though I have thick hair I can empathize with how it would make a woman feel when they have clumps of hair that have fallen out.

As you can see there is multiple things that may seem pretty obvious to others however this is not the case. This is something that maybe by writing these out a new parent may know before the situation arises! And if you are pumped to read this I can’t wait for you to read the other ones when they come out too!

The First Month After Giving Birth

As I begin to write this, I am exactly 3 weeks from having had a C Section. I feel like it is incredibly hard to believe that we had a C Section for our second baby. Or the fact that it already has been 3 weeks since we met our second son! If you want the details about the birth, check it out in this blog post here. Having had 2 children with such drastically different births has been no easy feat. It has been an experience for sure. I hope having had one, that I never need to have another C Section again. The only thing really helping me through that if by some freak chance we do need to have yet another C Section for our 3rd and final baby, is that it will be the last C Section that I will ever be having!

Photo by Bu00fcu015franur Aydu0131n on Pexels.com

Physically, I am feeling on the mend. At my son’s two week appointment I had the doctor check out my incision (My family doctor took on both of my son’s when we moved back home to Nova Scotia!) and gave the go ahead on having a bath since the outside was healed. The main thing he said was lifting and to really not lift heavy things as that is where a lot of damage can be done. As for Driving I feel like maybe after Christmas I will be well enough and healed to be driving then. It isn’t even like I REALLY drove all that far honestly. I just miss the fact if I needed something I could go and get it if I did quickly. The lifting thing is getting to me though. I find myself lifting my son slowly and more often. My 1st son that is since I’m only really allowed to lift my newborn! I am trying to keep busy and do more around the house as well like baking things and also dishes are something I have been trying to do more too. Laundry I have been doing the folding and gathering but really trying not to carry the baskets over the stairs just in case one were to slip and I went to grab it and accidentally hurt myself trying to compensate for the slip.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Now on to actually having a second kid! Call me crazy but maybe I find that having a second kid is not as challenging (yet!). It could be the fact that I have been primarily on baby duty while my spouse has been on our toddler duty due to having a C Section. I assume once he goes back to work in January it will be different and I will finds things far more hectic however at the moment I feel like it is not as hard as it was with our first. Maybe because we know what to expect with feeding every so many hours, changing, sleep schedule and what not also. I did however forget how much laundry can be done when you have a new baby though! Thankfully we are able to mix both boys clothes in to a load so it actually makes a complete one too! I swear I have gone through 3+ receiving blankets in the run of a day multiple days so far.

I will say in terms of recovery between having a completely natural birth, to having a C Section birth which is anything but natural. Not to say having a C Section is not totally natural, some people can only have them when having children. However my 1st I feel like we were incredibly lucky in terms of healing. It happened so fast that I had no chance to receive pain medications for one, and for two I never really tore or had any issues in that sense either. I had a very very small tear that did not require anything in terms of stitches or interventions. In terms of healing I would say without a doubt vaginal birth was far easier. Sure it did suck to have to walk up and down the stairs for the first little while, And it was hard to sit and stand for a little. The C-Section though I needed help to physically do things at all. From having my 1st shower afterwards and getting my boyfriend to help me bathe, to remembering medications for the first week and a half to avoid being in pain to the point it was not a good time.

**If you like what you are reading through out these blogs, and are looking at ways to financially support the blog, please consider checking out my Ko-Fi link here. You will NEVER be pressured to contribute to towards put any type of money towards the blog however if the thought has crossed your mind, here is a great way to help a stay at home mom provide some financial relief for her family.

I think having had my son just before the holiday’s that has also helped as I have been busy doing things like wrapping presents and baking. If I was not having him during that time and say I had him in the summer and was unable to swim, I think that would be very hard for me to really not strain myself. Time passes so fast when you have children because you are always on the go, however when you are unable to do things for fear that you could re-injure yourself and in a big way, it makes things very gloomy. Ive said this in blogs before, I even think I mention it here where I write about the birth story of my 2nd son, I have absolutely no idea how someone with little to no help and multiple children does it. Especially when it comes to household things and just flat out moving around! One of the hardest things for me was just sleeping and getting out of the bed in the middle of the night for a bottle or just going to the washroom. The more I moved the more sore I became, and the less I moved it was the same situation, Balance was key in this.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Do you know someone who had a C Section and needed some help too?
What do you think the hardest part of having a C Section was?

Let me know in the comments below, I would love to hear what you think about it too!

The 3 Hardest Parts of a C Section

Having a C Section is scary. There is no sugar coating that part at all. As someone who had an all natural birth for my 1st child (You can read all about that here) and a surprise C Section for my 2nd (You can also read that story here too!) I would have to say there is nothing that could prepare me for how hard a C Section is. There is so much that they don’t talk about for varies reasons. To say I was unprepared for a c section is an understatement. Sure, I knew it could be possible due to the fact that obviously I knew it could be an outcome of getting pregnant. I never thought it would happen to me though, especially since I had a natural birth for my 1st. I thought hey, if I had a natural birth with my 1st the following ones must follow the same suit right? I was so wrong. Here are the 3 things that I found the hardest with having a C Section.

Photo by Vidal Balielo Jr. on Pexels.com

Mental health is something that obviously can vary drastically from person to person. Before having a C Section I would like to think that I had pretty good mental health. I could handle most situations and what not. Having a C Section for sure impacted my mental health for various reasons. One being that I am unable to do anything. Since you are unable to lift for the first 6 weeks or so, anything heavier than your baby, it really impacted my mental health especially hen it came to not being able to pick up my first son. I am so used to grabbing him up and having hugs and kisses and tickling him on the couch that not being able to do that was really hard for me. Another thing that was hard for me was not doing any house work. No laundry, no dishes because standing for that long was really hard for me, I couldnt even bend over and put my left over food in the compost bin under our kitchen sink. The mental aspect of having to know you are unable to do simple every day tasks is incredible hard to come to terms with especially in my case where I was able to have a fully natural birth before hand and was able to do things pretty normal compared to this.

*** If you would like to support this blog financially you are more than welcome to do so by clicking this link here to bring you to my Ko-Fi website. Supporting the blog via tips is NEVER pressured however if you feel so inclined to help out in another way this is a perfect way to do so! You can see some behind the scenes items as well as insider info on the store updates and uncensored blogs also coming soon!

The physical recovery I do not think is talked about far enough. The pain you are in for the first about a week and a half was horrible. After having the surgery you are made to get up within 6 hours to walk around. You are encouraged to move around and walk around frequantly. It is really a catch 22 because you are encouraged to move around a lot to help with healing however you also are told to watch you dont push yourself too far because you will really be feeling it. Not to mention in the hospital I was pretty lucky with nurses really taking the time to make sure that I had gotten pain meds at the right times so I was pretty pain free. At home I know I slipped a bit and let to much time pass between doses and I know I was feeling the difference for sure. It was incredibly hard to adjust to getting up in the middle of the night because you really cannot move super fast. I found after the intial days of being home it was hard towards the end of the day. I found I had a lot of energy to start the day and little to no pain. However afternoon I would start to feel a bit sore, and by early evening to over night even just laying on the couch for an hour felt like a bolder was over top of me when I tried to get up.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Asking for help was extremely hard for me. Though I do like having help with certain aspects of my life I really struggled with this. Something as simple as picking up a bag of garbage to change the bag or laundry basket was hard. My first shower back home I also had to ask my partner to help me because bending and twisting in the shower was challenging. He was a huge help to making sure i had everything cleaned and felt fresh. Even getting bottles in the middle of the night because getting up so fast to make sure that my little guy was not super fussy was challenging. Asking for help is hard when you are so used to doing things on your own. Something as simple as turning in the car while waiting on an appointment to look back or pass something to your first son is hard. Getting in and our of a vehicle was hard. I really cannot say what wasn’t hard in the first week anyways. But again, No one really talks about how challenging it is to physically move around after having a C Section. You rarely hear about the aftermath and how you really need to plan things out. I was so thankful to be able to have my spouse home during the holidays and able to have the time off to really help with the first little while.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

I know I have said this time and time again, I have no idea how a single mother can physically do this on her own especially if she has had other children before that she needs to take care of also. This was something that I had no idea the scope of how hard it will be until it actually happened. I am thankful that myself and my partner are planning on having 1 more child so that if it did come to another C Section (Which OBVIOUSLY we hope it does not) that I will at least know what to expect for it all. Even talking to people who have had a C Section before really does not prepare you for actually having one. I am glad as I write this I am nearly finished the 6 weeks after (Though obviously this will be schedule long after I have healed!) but I would not wish this on anyone. It is so very hard to remember that this is considered a major surgery.

Pregnancy Paranoia

Being pregnant is something I have done before. Some of you may have even stumbled upon this blog based on my 1st pregnancy and the adventures we went through with my son. Though, with no exceptions friends of mine had said that every pregnancy you will find yourself paranoid about different things. I am here so say that they are most certainly correct. I even wrote about things that made me paranoid in my 2nd pregnancy here if you want to check that out also. Here is the things that have made me paranoid about this pregnancy.

Number one that made me very paranoid and still does as I am sitting here at 32 weeks is movement. I think because in the beginning I felt movements way earlier this time than with my first I feel like I should have felt stronger ones more often. This is not the case because obviously the baby is a lot smaller! Now that I am nearing the end I am finding myself panicking I don’t feel the baby moving enough! Which logically doesn’t make sense because the baby would be running out of room here! Another thing that I do which does not make any rational sense is that I have these thoughts always after I am doing physical activity. Therefore he is most likely sleeping inside not moving! I never wonder if he is moving enough after Ive been resting it is always after movement! Silly right?! Normally when I try to relax and focus on feeling him move, everything is fine. I never was one to necessarily do kick counts because I felt if I did I would be super paranoid and over analyze whether or not I was getting enough in the time I should be getting them. This is another reason why I never purchased a fetal Doppler either. I know myself and if I did get e I know that I would be obsessed with it and continuously stress myself out more than I need to trying to heart his heartbeat.

Another major paranoia I had was if the baby was head down. An ultrasound at 31 weeks had showed that he was already head down which was a huge relief. With my 1st pregnancy I never really thought a lot about this. For this pregnancy and some reason I did! Maybe because I felt movements it almost tricked me to think the head was up and not down already. Now I also know that at some point there is a chance that the baby MAY flip back however the chance of that happening when their head is down already is down. I feel like I have felt his head being down for a while but sometimes it can be tough. I cannot say I have felt him drop or anything because it is far too early for that as I write this but it still has been crazy though. I feel like I can feel he is head down a lot ore this pregnancy than the last one though. Maybe because I felt my hips or joints loosening far more this time but I really am not entirely sure. It is crazy to think about how in a few more weeks we will be bringing our second child, our second son into the world!

Overall I don’t think I am that paranoid with being pregnant a second time. Nearing the end I feel like time had passed super fast. Maybe because I had so much happening during this pregnancy it felt like it flew by. Especially with our cross province move as well as not receiving out things for 5 weeks also too. There has also been I think more stress this pregnancy due to certain events and not to mention the uncertainty of things like covid and the changes surrounding the rules. Thankfully my partner has been vaccinated for a while so when incomes to the recent vaccination mandate in our province we have not had to worry about it.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Though I also realize everyone is different and I am sure that there is people who are not paranoid at all during pregnancy. For me it was little things that I get paranoid about. After I vent or talk about it with a friend or my partner it seems to make things a lot easier and my minor fears loosen up also. That being said. If there is any legitimate concerns you may have being pregnant do not hesitate to contact your doctor or see professional help to make sure everything is okay! I personally have not had to ask you doctor anything except for if they do sweeps in this province and when they do it also too. I will explain why I asked this at the 32 week update also! Which you can expect to see in the next few blogs

Regardless if this is your 1st pregnancy or 5th one, I feel like some level of being paranoid is normal. As long as you don’t let it consume you. If that begins to happen it might be time to talk to a professional because the excessive stress may not be good for your baby! For me I never fixate on something for long, and if I get worried I talk about It or I try to occupy my mind with a chore or something too! It is crazy that one pregnancy you can be very worries about certain circumstances and this time around it be a whole new set! Thankfully I also have a partner who is level headed so he understands that can over worry about things sometimes and knows how to settle my mind too!

Is there anything that worried you with your pregnancy or your spouses?

How do you settle your mind when you start to get those slight paranoid feelings?

Let me know in the comments below! Maybe others will be able to learn from you and your coping strategies, or maybe they also have small fears that are the same!

Pregnanacy 36 week update

I cannot believe we are actually HERE and we are nearly finished growing this human being inside of my freaking body! How incredible is that. By the time this is released I will probably be about 37w since it is nearing the end of the month and of course I have to put the monthly update up also! But it will be up none the less!

I would be lying if I said that I was not nervous. My boyfriend has said he is not as nervous since we have done this before but I am still just as nervous. You really never know! Maybe the fact that his ultrasound was measuring ahead also has me slightly freaked out. But at the end of the day I just cannot wait to not be pregnant again. The waking up every few hours for the bathroom is something I forgot about. The heartburn also sucks equally too.

One thing I am slightly nervous about is that my partner is away from Tuesday this week until Friday, and home for Halloween weekend and then next week from Monday to Friday. Thankfully he will be only an hour away so I can call him in case this little guy decides to make his appearance earlier than his due date! The other thing is I really have to make sure that I have all of the bags packed. Myself, and the little guy. Plus a write up for Vincent who will be staying home. I have a friend who is going to come over and hopefully watch him until my Mom is off of work and can come over after. I wont be contacting my sister as I have mentioned before about her Anti-Vac ways and my brother and I are not exactly on speaking terms currently due to his attitude towards myself. So this is the best case scenario happening.

Other than the usual things that I need to do, I want to make a little to do list for myself to be able to get things going for the time it is just myself and Vincent. Just little things to get done around the house and to help time pass also too. Like Organizing bottles, cupboards, microwave stand, things of that nature. I do not want to push myself because being home alone can be challenging as I am afraid of the dark anyways, but I would like to really keep busy so the time passes. Might I add nesting perhaps? I want to not be rushing or left with things undone. Not to mention Vincent is current sleeping in the Baby’s room because we will use a bassinet for the 1st 6 months, so we can get a twin bed for him and what not eventually. But with this set up I need to make our bedroom a bit better suited with a basket of diapers or wipes, obviously we will not be running into the room to change diapers if our 1st son is asleep! So things like that are what I need to get done. Thankfully I just bought some new note bad paper for my clip board so you KNOW i am excited to organize this and plan!

Another thing is now that we are at 36w we will be having a doctors appointment every week. This week we have an appointment and also get checked for the dtap? Maybe it is called. It is the bacteria where if you have it when baby is born you have to get antibiotics in your IV to prevent anything from happening. I never needed it with Vincent, but every pregnancy is different.

Overall I think we are anticipating that he arrives sooner than later but as we all know babies will come when they come! I still have some more things I would like to accomplish before he does come however I have been slacking on that too. I really need to hammer out another list and get that done. Not to mention the moving may help to efface more and dilate to prevent any time of inducing too!

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

I also feel like this pregnancy I am a lot more awkward in terms of shape now. I know it sounds weird but I feel more round and whale like. I am longing for the part where I begin to have my body back and I am able to feel like myself again, not that I dont completely now but man is getting in and out of bed a challenge. We recently bought a new sectional also and well, getting on and off from a laying position is not the easiest thing I have done in my life either! I am not too sure how many more updates I will be posting since in a week not much can be changing, Simply put I will just be looking at hopefully getting sweeps done to make labour start hopefully but even that is a 50% chance it may do nothing too!

Even though this is our second child, it still is a bit surreal to think we will have yet another baby here and be doing the entire thing about getting up every 3 or so hours to feed him, and change him, his snoozing and him being tiny! I hope the transition from one child to two is easy even though I do expect some challenges! I also hope Vincent understands and will be the best big brother ever! Which I know he already will be even if he does have his little nearly 2 year old attitude too!

Is there anything I should know about a second pregnancy that you remember being different, Or any tips or tricks to help it go along smoother?

Let me know in the comments below!

Pregnancy 20 week update half way

I know it has been a while since we have had an update. Between the move from hell, appointments and what not I am back tracking to provide this to you all! That being said I hope I dont leave anything out.

Flutters have been happening and even though this is the second pregnancy I can say it still feels so surreal! It feels almost fake because with my son Vincent he had an anterior placenta (front one) so a lot of his movements were muffled for a while. To be able go feel them so early is refreshing and very cool. They obviously were not that strong since the baby was so little but still feels like flutters! For anyone who is reading this and may not have experienced pregnancy yet the best way I can describe it is, think if there is a little fishy inside of your belly that sloshes around. Or if you have ever drank a whole lot of water at once and when you get up you almost feel the little wave of movement from all the water. That would be what it feels like!

I also had my very last prenatal appointment in Quebec before the move. Everything was alright as far as I know. It felt great to be able to finally be leaving this province and heading home. I had gotten all of my files while my boyfriend will need to translate the french parts to be able to give to my new English doctors. Which is a huge help since obviously none if them will know french unless the word is the same in both languages. Planning about a family doctor and what not seems a bit stressful but I think Ill be able to manage it. At least they speak the same language as me right!

We also were able to get an ultrasound thankfully. Now, this was an entire process that I hope to never have to repeat but in the end it worked out. The referral that I had gotten to the same hospital I gave birth to my son in was booked and was unable to fit me in. I received this in an email so close to our moving day that it was worrisome we would not be able to get an appointment. They suggested another hospital close by but as typical Quebec style they put you on hold and reaching the actual department wad a nightmare. To the point that they even hung up on me once I reached an actual person. Next was my boyfriend tried calling because maybe him speaking french would help them to answer, wrong. He had the same results that I had. Lastly there was a hospital near his job that he felt like trying. He brought my referral and talked to them and it was super simple in order to get an ultrasound. Not to mention the hospital is far from the size of the others so navigating them was easy. So we finally were able to get an ultrasound!

The different hospital made things a bit weird. In Quebec you need to get a hospital card. In Nova Scotia you do not need those at all. So once I arrived I went to get that done. My partner waited in the car with my son because no kids are allowed in. Which was okay. This hospital they also want you to strip down to just underwear and a hospital gown. Which is super strange compared to the other ultrasounds where you just fold up your shirt and fold down your pants and then you just have it like that. No removing clothes at all. At this point I was about 19 weeks which is still a bit on the early side.  The ultrasound went relatively okay. The actually doctor that came in to check the ultrasound was a bit short I felt like she was a bit pissed that it was so early she asked me about the trisomy 21 test that I had and I said it came back fine as far ad I knew. Which then made me feel very paranoid something was wrong. Afterwards she said that it was hard to get all the measurements needed because I guess the baby was face down and some parts are hard to see with it being so small. Overall she just did not seem thrilled. And then stated that it wad basically incomplete due to the time and position of the baby. I left there feeling a bit uneasy to say the least.

And finally, THE GENDER! That was something we were hoping to find out before we moved as my spouse and I are very anxious and would be finding out the gender as soon as possible. We do not have the patience to wait which is no surprise as we never waited with my son either. She wrote it down on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. I am so glad I wasn’t tempted to look because she used a black permanent marker which was OBVIOUSLY able to see the gender when I got in the car afterwards.

We are having ANOTHER BOY!!

I had no guesses with this baby like I did with my son, well 1st son. I had a feeling since people said it would be a girl that we would have another boy! Regardless a healthy baby is the thoughts we have and gender is not super significant in terms of disappointment or expectations! Though my boyfriend hopes our 3rd and final baby will be a girl! I still have a feeling we may end up with 3 boys! A busy household indeed!

Did you find out the gender of your child(ren) if you have any?

Pregnancy Scares in the First Trimester

Being pregnant is one of the most exciting times of your life. Whether you are pregnant or your partner is. Being one of the most exciting times does not make it any less scary though. There is a lot that can potentially go wrong especially within the first trimester. For me, I feel like my second pregnancy I was more nervous in the 1st trimester than I was in my 1st pregnancy. Why? I honestly have no idea. Maybe it was due to the fact that I had more symptoms during my second pregnancy than I did for my first. These are some of the things that scared me, and hopefully reading this will help you or someone you love feel a bit easier during their first trimester also too.

One of the major things I was worried and scared about was a miscarriage. I had never been pregnant before but for some reason it really scared me. It also didn’t help that I was using a fertility app where there was a bunch of people symptom spotting and nearly everyone was searching for their rainbow baby. This is when they have had a miscarriage and the next baby is the rainbow baby. I dont even think anyone in my family had a miscarriage either. One thing I did find comfort in if you can even find that, was researching that if there is a miscarriage chances are it was something to do with the chromosomes. It made me feel a little better knowing if something did happen that the chances are it was at such a cellular level that there was nothing that could be done to prevent it. It also helped to stop looking at the app and reading all of these stories because it certainly did not help me not panic about it or become paranoid.

Another thing that barely happened with my 1st pregnancy and happened a bigger time with my second was spotting. No spotting in pregnancy is ever considered normal. But spotting is a common thing that happens to people. With my first it was such a small amount that it was not a big deal. It scared me but I talked to a friend and it was alright. This second pregnancy I had wiped once and it was a pink color and that scared me. I booked an emergency appointment. They said it was my cervix and booked an early ultrasound about 7 weeks. Everything was fine!

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Another scare that I had with both pregnancy’s was morning sickness. You always panic and worry when you hear the horror stories. People who can barely get out of bed or barely eat and what not. With my 1st pregnancy I was very luck in terms of morning sickness. If I was sick I would go to bed. Or if I was tired I would nap too. With my second pregnancy I felt more nauseous and would try to nap more when my son napped. Or where there is covid and some reduced hours in work places my boyfriend would be home early and I would nap when he was home. I still feel extremely lucky when it comes too morning sickness. Most of my yucky feelings was in the evenings when my son would be going to bed or already in bed. When it came to combating this I would have little candies to help suck on. Some instant breakfasts that helped to drink something so I wasn’t feeling so empty when I woke up. I would have ginger cookies around to munch on if I needed it also too. And ginger ale also was used. All these little things helped when it came to feeling icky and trying to make it through the day easier without feeling like I was dragging my butt along.

And finally, not so much a scary thing, kind of exciting but also something to worry about, when do you tell people! We ended up telling my boyfriends parents early with my 1st pregnancy due to the fact that we went to visit them. And I told a few friends who I was close with who also had kids early in their lives. That way I had some folks to talk to about it with. Then we waited to tell my family til we went home which was about 10 weeks. With our second one we told people publicly about 10 weeks because we were buying a home and were frustrated with how the housing market was and figured why not share some great news with our friends and family. With our family though we told them a lot sooner, maybe like 6 or 7 weeks and just kept it quiet til we told everyone after. A lot of people suggest waiting til after 12 weeks because thay is nearly out of the first trimester. That is in case something were to happen. Really, I think it is a personal choice. Whenever you want to tell family or friends that is your choice to do so.

As you can see, even with one of the happiest and exciting times of your life, there can still be some scary things happening. For me, I tried not to dwell on what scared me and I tried to wait til I knew for sure. Thinking about what-ifs can be very taxing and stressful. And as time progresses during pregnancy you lose some of this fear and the excitement gains more control than being scared. Or your fears change, or evolve too. I know it is harder to say than do, bur don’t let your fear overshadow the miracle of bearing a child and creating a family!

Have you or someone you know been pregnant, and did they or you have the same things that scared you also?

Was there anything different that you had to deal with that you were fearful in the 1st trimester of pregnancy?

Let me know in the comments below! Maybe others or even myself have had the same fears.