Tag Archives: Symptoms of Pregnancy

WE ARE EXPECTING OUR 3RD AND FINAL BABY!

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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!

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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.

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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!

Pregnanacy 36 week update

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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!

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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

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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?

5 Tips For Getting Pregnant Easily

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Contrary to popular belief, based on movies and TV shows. Getting pregnant is not an easy feat. There actually is a lot more than just, doing the, you know, that goes into getting pregnant successfully. I am on my current and second pregnancy and from reading articles or checking out fertility apps ai may have some quick answers and tips to questions you might have to make having a baby easier.

Ladies, tracking ovulation does not just have to happen when you decide you want to procreate. There is a whole ton of apps put there that can be used to track cycles. Now, mind you an app is only as good as you use it. If you don’t use it a lot or skip months it will not be as accurate as it can be. If you want to truly know and understand when you ovulate, using an at home ovulation kit may be the way to go. That being said if you are not actively trying to have a child using the kits just for the sake of accuracy might start to become costly. Starting with tracking your first day if your menstrual cycle til the end day can help a lot in terms of knowing when you decide to go further, to start taking the ovulation kits. I have used an app for years just tracking my cycle which I am lucky enough to have it be pretty regular. But for some people who are unsure of their cycle it is a great tool to be able to know approximately how long your cycle can be to find an average length.

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This next part is way easier said than done. When trying to conceive, don’t make sex a chore. When you start scheduling or making it a big deal, to keep it blunt, it takes the fun out of it. There are many ways to drop hints and make sexual gestures to your partner that you do not need to be standing there with a clock or calendar and waiting for the perfect moment. Obviously planning is a huge part of getting a sperm successfully to an egg but that doesn’t mean it needs to be planned. Even having a secret code or something is a lot better than scheduling. And if it does not happen this cycle it will hopefully eventually happen! Making a baby does not normally happen the first month of trying.

If you are in a committed relationship, which I hope you are, I would suggest if you and your spouse plan on having any children and you are on contraceptives such as the birth control pill, have an IUD or have had the hormone shots or patches, I would suggest planning to come off of these long before trying. I also mention committed relationship because if you are someone who thinks having a baby will strengthen a fragile relationship you are wrong. I tall about how relationships change after having a baby here. Making sure you are in a good spot mentally, and physically for a baby is important. Of course, accidents do happen, but if you can prevent that it would more likely be the best. Remember, a baby will not fix your current problems, and if your relationship is already failing chances are it will put even more strain on that.

Being healthy yourself is a major issue. And yes this also includes the men also being healthy to help with better sperm quality and counts also. If you are a women that is way over weight or many health issues that are preventable, than you should be doing EVERYTHING possible to get yourself on the best shape you can. I am not the smallest person around, in fact I am probably over weight myself. However by some chance it was relatively easy for me to become pregnant. There are a lot of reasons why people are unable to get pregnant especially when it comes to health and lifestyle (that is controllable!) that if you find yourself struggling sometimes it may be best to evaluate your life. Are you eating healthy? Exercising regularly? Getting important vitamins and minerals? Another side note is that some people may not be aware, if you are planning on having a baby it is nest to take pre-natal vitamins 3 months before trying. This way your body builds up the reserves needed to have a healthy birth.

And lastly, and certainly not least, have patience! If there is a couple perfectly healthy, each month trying they only had a 20% chance of getting pregnant. Not to mention the same perfectly healthy couple it can take them about a year to have an egg implant also. And if after about a year you still not having any success that is when I would suggest maybe going to see a fertility specialist. If you have previous issues with any reproductive organs maybe before the year is a better option for you, but the rule of thumb is after a year. And if everything else fails there is always the route of adoption even if you have not thought about it previously either.

There you have it! I know some of these may be hard to follow especially patience and not stressing or planning when to make love with your partner. But have no fear there is multiple reasons and multiple ways to become pregnant if doing it completely naturally is challenging for you. The journey have procreation ia not a short one. And it also ia never equal to anyone else’s either. Heck, even your first or second child might be completely different or one may have taken longer to catch than another. It honestly depends on so many factors that enjoying the experience with the one you love makes it all worth it!

Have you used any of these tips before?

What helped you to conceive if you have before?

Let me know in the comments below, I am sure people are eager to hear different experiences!

Pregnancy 16 Week Update

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Where do I even begin! I feel like this pregnancy if some what going fast and some what going slow. It is hard to believe that the next update we will have together will be the official half way point! And I will be also in transition between Quebec and Nova Scotia and hopefully figuring out things with my doctor in Nova Scotia to be able to be referred to get a new labor and delivery doctor to follow me. My goal is to hopefully get everything set up so that it goes as seamless as possible and I wont be behind on blood work or anything else that may be needed.

My energy levels seem to be going back to somewhat normal levels thankfully. That is huge for me already being a Mom to a 15 month old and having to chase him around. I find myself not needing to nap as much as I did before and also not having to lay down as often. The bathroom breaks at night seem to also be a little less depending if I find it is a good idea to drink a liter of water an hour before bed or not. As for nausea, I sometimes feel an upset stomach if my boyfriend makes something gross like fish or whatever and I find myself feeling yucky. Still only ever got sick the one time which I think is honestly a blessing!

I also have gotten blood work previously which you may or may not know I hate doing. The first I think is the hardest due to the fact they take so much. And I am a wimp so I would have loved to have my boyfriend there holding my hand but that wasn’t the case. He was watching our son and I went on my own. I did not cry which was good and I never even looked either. For some reason giving blood stresses me out. Maybe because I never had to do it will I was about 20. And then when I did it again after I was pregnant with my son. Lucky would be an understatement or maybe that asthma does not usually require blood work!

I also had a doctors appointment as well! Which I am super happy about and hopeful to be possibly getting an ultrasound before the big move. It was a pretty standard appointment.

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We talked about my blood work results which are great. The only thing was I am not immune to something called the “5e maladie”. The doctor was not sure what the translation in English was however it is when a child in particular gets a fever or rash for no apparent reason (not like a teething rash or whatever) if I was to get the same thing it could really effect the baby inside. Which would not be good and result in complications. Other than that everything was great. She asked if I would like to have a final check up before I moved which I said yes to! I am getting more blood-work just after 16 weeks and that would be for the 2nd part of my “Trisomy 21” screening. This is to check for abnormalities such as down syndrome and what not. With my son our numbers were extremely low so I am hoping for the same results here.

Next we did a quick check up on me. Checked my breathing and heart rate. My blood pressure was already checked by a nurse when I arrived and that was great. Which obviously was good for me considering the stress of moving and what not! And of course we listened to the heartbeat again which was also great. I still wish my boyfriend would be allowed to go to appointments but it just doesn’t make sense with the pandemic and if that was the case I am sure so many people who didn’t need to be there would be.

And lastly, my doctor put in a request for a 19 week or so ultrasound. Normally this would be done after 21 weeks but I am excited to hopefully have it before. With my son the placenta was in the front so movements were not felt as easily and part of the placenta was covering the cervix. I would like to obviously know this and not have to wait til maybe 25 weeks or more when things happen in Halifax after the move. Oh, and for sure. I would also LOVE to know the gender of the baby too! My boyfriend and I are thinking about names but not entirely til we find out the gender though. It overall would be a great feeling to have this done before we move so we know everything so far is alright!

Over all I am relieved that it went well and cannot wait to hear about an ultrasound. It will be great. I am so happy that I am feeling more like myself again also. That alone can be really exhausting when I am tired and feeling different. Especially with the move coming up I am relieved to be able to finally have energy to get things done. I haven’t felt overwhelmed by anything thankfully I have a partner who can take care of a lot of things on his own. I am starting to plan and pack what we all need to bring for the car and a few nights in a hotel but other than that things are alright! I wont be waiting til the last minute that is for sure! Be on the look out for moving blogs as they come up! I talk a bit about that here.

Oh, and it is probably time we start with belly updates so here is the 16 week one!

Im sure at the 20 week update I will be equally as big by then! I should be in transition to the new house but I will still do my best to update you all on time! It just might be a bit challenging if I have to do it all on a Tablet!

Pregnancy 12 Week Update

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It happened.
I officially threw up from morning sickness.

I know. One would say that I am extremely lucky to have gone so far without throwing up but it happened. It was a Thursday and why do I remember this? Because the day before was Wednesday and I had cancelled a stream due to having an upset stomach. I thought I was going to be sick but I just had poop pains instead and had a bit of the poops. Then the next day I felt the same pains and thought okay, same thing? Wrong. I had the watery mouth which I know is as gross as it sounds, I took a tums assuming it was heartburn and MAYBE it would be cured magically. I was wrong. Before I even had finished the tums I was in the bathroom getting sick. I still am trying to say the reason for this was due to the fact that I had 2 cans of rootbeer that day, I know maybe too much but honestly I could not help myself. It was a warm day and they were going down way too good!

Okay, Now that the gross part is out of the way, I also had my first official doctors appointment. This went well! I had a new doctor since the one I had with my son was off on maternity leave herself. The new doctor was super understanding as I explained the situation where I would be moving and was hoping to have things done if I could before I moved. There was nothing super fancy in terms of check up either since the first appointment is typically 30minutes or so. This is so they go over everything basic with you and answer any questions that you might have, which I did not have a whole lot considering that I legit had a baby a year ago so I feel like things were pretty standard. I was given Advil for preventative measures against pre-clampsia. Which had changed from one tablet the previous year when I was pregnant with my son. Now it is 2 that you take nightly. I was put on this because towards the end of the pregnancy with my son I had a slight high blood pressure and they wanted to be sure it didn’t happen. Even though I know it probably was the best since the moving stress could inherently cause high blood pressure. Lastly at the appointment we listened for the heartbeat! Which we found as well! She listened to the heartbeat with the fetal Doppler for a few moments and the heartbeat was nice and strong! If she was unable to find it she would have used the portable ultrasound to find the baby but she was able to find it with this.

My next appointment will consist of a physical I guess? That is what she said anyways. That is not for another few weeks though, Maybe not for the 16 week checkup but after that I should know. I’m not entirely sure what a physical checkup really consists of but I can only assume that it has to do with you know, all of myself being checked over. The only reason why it wasn’t done on the first appointment is because it normally is so long to begin with that the physical would be even longer.

I also had to get what I dreaded planned. This was scheduling blood work in for myself. This is to test for the trisomy 21 (Down syndrome and other things of this nature) as well as regular blood work and urine samples. Thankfully I scheduled this a bit in advance since it can take a bit to get an appointment due to the fact that with covid appointments are scattered and getting one first thing in the morning can be challenging.

Overall after my bout of sickness and feeling tired I find myself not so tired anymore. I think my energy is starting to come around or it could be the fact we did in fact BUY A HOME! And will be moving back home in less than 2 months time too. This is a huge relief and one of the biggest worries for us. The other things will all fall into place. I find my appetite is not as sensitive either where smells aren’t as strong and bothering to me however there are some weird smells happening. I couldn’t tell you if I was really craving anything a whole lot. If anything I would say rainbow twizzlers, I know weird right? And maybe Sour Cream and Bacon chips. Other than that I haven’t had anything super strange strike me as delicious .. Yet!

My goals now are to also start going for morning walks with my son in order to become more active. I might even keep track of days we go for walks. I think this could be helpful to decompress after thinking about everything there is to do with moving to quarantine and whatever else is happening around that is our of our control. I am also being very mindful about my weight since with my son I started at 235 lbs and went up as high as 270-275lbs. This pregnancy I started at 240lbs and I would rather not go above 260 if I can help it. Obviously I am trying to really make sure that I eat enough to be healthy and I am not dieting but I would like to really incorporate walking into my daily routine as well. I did this a bit with my son however fell off the wagon and with the heat I think this could be a great way to get into the daily activities that we have in the morning before it gets too hot. And will be good to also follow as well once we move and begin to explore our new neighborhood!

Are you on a second pregnancy?
How were you feeling after 12 weeks?

Let me know in the comments below, even if it was a loved one you knew that was pregnant!

– Stacey