Baby #4 Pregnancy, Weeks 1-12
So here's all the dirty deets on my first trimester, in case you've been wondering. I'm going to do this post in the form of answering a few of the questions we've been getting since we announced baby #4. Mostly, I'm trying to document things for my own memory's sake here, so sorry to be long-winded!
Four kids?!?! Wow. Was this planned?
Yes and no. M and I had been talking off and on about having a fourth, and whether we thought it was financially and logistically smart, and whether we felt it was the right thing for our family. The desire to have "one more" existed for both of us, we just wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do.
Around September 2014 I was having some weird side effects from our birth control method at the time, so we decided to switch things up. Let's just say that we switched from 99.9% effectiveness in birth control to 92%. I think we were both aware (although we didn't really discuss it), given the fact that I got pregnant with C while using birth control, it was sort of likely that this would happen again. And.... it did.
In late January, after finding myself five days late, I took the at-home pregnancy test. Ironically, I took it in the wee hours of the morning after being up with C who was having a rough night coughing. I was thinking to myself at that time that it had been so long since I had been up in the night with one of the girls. I looked down and... two stripes on the pregnancy test. Hah. More sleepless nights in my future!
I can't say I was surprised, but I was a bit shocked I think. I mean, it's always a bit of a shock when you're using birth control and suddenly find yourself pregnant, right? I held myself back from being happy because I worried about what M would think. This happened before we had officially made a decision to "try", so I just hoped he would be okay with it. I told him immediately when he woke up that morning-- I'm not one of those girls who thinks of a creative and cutesy way to tell her husband-- every time I've told him immediately after I take the test, mostly because I can't keep a secret from him I think.
Anyway, he grinned a big, silly grin, laughed, and all my fears went away. Pure happiness after that. My heart had really been longing for this child for over a year, and now it's really happening!
How have you been feeling?
Nausea has been the worst that I remember out of any of my pregnancies. It started just a few days after I took the home pregnancy test and has been gradually letting up within the past week or two. The tough thing about the nausea is that it's happening at a time when you haven't told anybody about the pregnancy yet, so you have to be clever about hiding it. I'm still not sure whether my sister-in-law noticed that I was wearing sea bands at her wedding! Luckily they matched my dress!
M seems to think that I'm more sick this time because it's a boy-- I guess we'll find out. I think it might just be because I'm older and not quite as spry, and also because we have way more irons in the fire with school schedules now. It's kind of not an option for me to slow down. I think morning sickness is the body's way of saying "Whoa, slow down Mama, you have a baby forming vital organs in there!" because I noticed that the times I felt the most sick were when we were rushing around trying to get ready to go somewhere (and I usually didn't have the option of resting in those times!). But that's just my guess about it.
I have been forcing myself to rest in the afternoons during quiet times, despite the fact that the dishes pile up in the sink or the toys don't get picked up and sometimes we go for days without clean underwear because Mama hasn't done the laundry. Also, unfortunately, it meant that school for N went by the wayside in the past month to six weeks, since we usually have our most concentrated school time in the afternoon while little sisters are resting. We had some good days, but plenty of days where we didn't do any school. Luckily she's a bit ahead of the game as far as what I want to accomplish for the first grade year, so I didn't feel too bad about it.
I am excited that I seem to be feeling a little better lately and having more energy. Despite Monday's post, I have had far more feeling-good days than sick days in these past few weeks. And really, it was only a 3 or 4 week period where I was really suffering. A very short time in the grand scheme of things, and very much worth the reward!
There's more to talk about but I think I'll stop there and do a part two later on... stay tuned...
Four kids?!?! Wow. Was this planned?
Yes and no. M and I had been talking off and on about having a fourth, and whether we thought it was financially and logistically smart, and whether we felt it was the right thing for our family. The desire to have "one more" existed for both of us, we just wanted to make sure it was the right thing to do.
Around September 2014 I was having some weird side effects from our birth control method at the time, so we decided to switch things up. Let's just say that we switched from 99.9% effectiveness in birth control to 92%. I think we were both aware (although we didn't really discuss it), given the fact that I got pregnant with C while using birth control, it was sort of likely that this would happen again. And.... it did.
In late January, after finding myself five days late, I took the at-home pregnancy test. Ironically, I took it in the wee hours of the morning after being up with C who was having a rough night coughing. I was thinking to myself at that time that it had been so long since I had been up in the night with one of the girls. I looked down and... two stripes on the pregnancy test. Hah. More sleepless nights in my future!
I can't say I was surprised, but I was a bit shocked I think. I mean, it's always a bit of a shock when you're using birth control and suddenly find yourself pregnant, right? I held myself back from being happy because I worried about what M would think. This happened before we had officially made a decision to "try", so I just hoped he would be okay with it. I told him immediately when he woke up that morning-- I'm not one of those girls who thinks of a creative and cutesy way to tell her husband-- every time I've told him immediately after I take the test, mostly because I can't keep a secret from him I think.
Anyway, he grinned a big, silly grin, laughed, and all my fears went away. Pure happiness after that. My heart had really been longing for this child for over a year, and now it's really happening!
How have you been feeling?
Nausea has been the worst that I remember out of any of my pregnancies. It started just a few days after I took the home pregnancy test and has been gradually letting up within the past week or two. The tough thing about the nausea is that it's happening at a time when you haven't told anybody about the pregnancy yet, so you have to be clever about hiding it. I'm still not sure whether my sister-in-law noticed that I was wearing sea bands at her wedding! Luckily they matched my dress!
M seems to think that I'm more sick this time because it's a boy-- I guess we'll find out. I think it might just be because I'm older and not quite as spry, and also because we have way more irons in the fire with school schedules now. It's kind of not an option for me to slow down. I think morning sickness is the body's way of saying "Whoa, slow down Mama, you have a baby forming vital organs in there!" because I noticed that the times I felt the most sick were when we were rushing around trying to get ready to go somewhere (and I usually didn't have the option of resting in those times!). But that's just my guess about it.
I have been forcing myself to rest in the afternoons during quiet times, despite the fact that the dishes pile up in the sink or the toys don't get picked up and sometimes we go for days without clean underwear because Mama hasn't done the laundry. Also, unfortunately, it meant that school for N went by the wayside in the past month to six weeks, since we usually have our most concentrated school time in the afternoon while little sisters are resting. We had some good days, but plenty of days where we didn't do any school. Luckily she's a bit ahead of the game as far as what I want to accomplish for the first grade year, so I didn't feel too bad about it.
I am excited that I seem to be feeling a little better lately and having more energy. Despite Monday's post, I have had far more feeling-good days than sick days in these past few weeks. And really, it was only a 3 or 4 week period where I was really suffering. A very short time in the grand scheme of things, and very much worth the reward!
There's more to talk about but I think I'll stop there and do a part two later on... stay tuned...
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