great timing baby
more non-news, since i've been sitting on this one for half a year, but i am pregnant again. 26 weeks, and of course it feels like it's been forever again. on the other hand, it has caused almost zero disruption in our lives, which sometimes annoys me. let me count the ways below:
other details that pregnant women, or whoever, might inquire about:
2) what feels different: I DON'T REMEMBER! i never thought i would forget what it felt like to be pregnant, so here's life with a cold shower. i have no idea, and have to reread my journal for refreshes. generally, i would say i had a very easy first pregnancy, and this one so far feels even easier, if possible. the difference is that i didn't have to do constant physical work up to week 26, like last time, and of course with the quarantine i am moving less. back in winter i used to work=commute 3 days/week, and b. bought me a fitbit to count my steps: on school days i would always easily do more than the 10 000 steps/day that people seem to be aiming for. on days with no school but where i get out of the house (nowadays walking with rada) i do a bit above 5000 steps without trying, if we go shopping i do much more. i can't wait for warmer weather so i can take the kid out in a stroller for the whole length of the nature reserve.
i haven't had a lot of ligament pain. i have leg cramps, but so far less than last time. i had one instance of spotting, but i calmed down quickly because it was literally 2 drops of blood. i have heartburn, but i am eating Tums for it (left over from last time, notch!) and it helps.
OH MY GOSH: nose...bleeding...crusts. i will assume this is a side effect of pregnancy, because i've never had this before in my life. i feel like picking my nose constantly and certainly i have to clean it in a separate ritual each morning. really strange.
am i more emotional? it's very hard to say, because this overlaps the social isolation bit, which is liable to drive one up the walls nevertheless. so i'll say a no to this one (the last tantrum i threw - today- was because i had erased about 1 hour of work on a document - justified, don't you think?)
falling asleep is usually easy, because i go to sleep with the toddler, with relaxing music on. (in the mean time we have acquired one of those long round huggable pillows, but i don't use it at all). what i THINK might be different is, i wake up at night and can't go back to sleep - but no complaints about it! with no literal work that can fire me, i can afford to wake up whenever during the night, and consider that my personal alone time (if the kid doesn't have nightmares).
fun things like cravings: i wouldn't raise this to the rank of craving, but for a while, especially back in winter, i wanted to eat a lot of tomatoes - i would go to the corner store specially for them, which, if you know my opinion of canadian tomatoes (and of my corner store), enough said. now i'm back to wanting icecream every day and arguing with b. that it SO IS an essential purchase.
i put on about 6 kilos, which i think is on track with the last time. it might be less actually, but i started out from an extra 4-5 kilos i had packed on after rada, so yeah, it's not brilliant overall. i certainly feel like a whale, but consider that i'm wearing normal (stretchy) leggings 90% of the time now, and only put on the maternity jeans to go to the hospital. i think i look pretty normal. they generally say with a second pregnancy you show faster or put on more weight, but it has certainly not been the case.
3) reactions. oh well. i was more scared and cautious this time (pre-corona madness) about telling people, because i'm old, higher risk etc. i know last time i was telling people after the 8 week visit, now i waited to tell most until the trisomy 21 test came back (week 16) and am still not sure i told all my friends. oh yes, another girl! i had wanted a second girl, and was bracing up for a boy, so that i became firmly convinced i was having a boy, so finding out it's a girl ended up being a bit of a let down. i also feel that some more distantly involved people (family) would have cared more if it were a boy, but feel a girl is just more of the same. not to mention people (my mum) who think i have no business having a second kid at all, at my age. she's a hard lady to please: do give grandchildren, but not too many etc.
over all, i feel this baby has been robbed of a lot of thinking and talking about her and uh-ing and oh-ing, which hardly feels fair. people (including us) are too interested in /amused by rada and her daily doings to wonder about how this other one will turn out etc.
even my doctor is very like "you know what to do next" (meaning mostly, take off your pants and go under the paper sheet - but also generally).
4) preparations. none, zero, zilch, nada. poor this baby. since it's a girl, i already have tons of bags of clothes left-over; most of which, when you stop to think about it, are third-hand at best, but i conducted an investigation into the bags some time in february i think, and there is a satisfactory number of wearable items, especially for summer. the saving grace is that at a 2.5 year difference the overlap of seasonal clothing will mean she's likely to wear the least worn-off items the most, i.e. nice thin white shirts as a newborn, a snowsuit for 6 month olds during her first winter etc. also she'll have stuff available even if she's a giant baby.
no new toys, clearly. no new bed, carrier (though that's debatable, we might spring for something later), bassinet, bottles, whathaveyou.
as for rooms, that is pretty much down to rada's willingness to start sleeping alone at some point.
i imagine i'll co-sleep with the baby for a while, and that they'll share the kids' room before they go to school (why am i thinking so far into the future, no idea) - between those stages it will be all improv.
and, oh, joy! no pregnancy clothes for me. i am wearing the 2 pairs of pants i had bought last time: black ones to the store, jeans to hospital. i have enough tent-like dresses to last me through summer i hope. and not wearing bras!
i am always stressed about going to the hospital for ultrasound/ clinic for check-up, but so far it was very normal every time, no delays, no strange happenings (except for being given a mask, but that's fine). my next appointment is actually set six weeks from the last, so a bit distanced, and we'll see how we move forward, cause during the third trimester i'm usually supposed to go every two weeks, which, i don't think so.
5) i'm already used to hearing "was it planned?"; slightly new this time: "was it wanted?" !!!!
i mean, cause if it hadn't been wanted, i would be perfectly ready and willing to share that with you?!?!
 |
| 1)i have zero pictures of myself from all these months! i always take pictures of rada, and b. doesn't take any. i wasn't really showing for a while (or it was that thing, indistinguishable from winter fat) and then when i started to i was indefinitely confined to sweatpants and the same sweater for a week (and it's still not getting warmer!!) and no opportunity to dress up (for zoom meetings i will just put a clean hoodie on top of the sweater). this is from week 19, the last time i went out somewhere (dinner at my friend eric's). it was the tail end of spring break in quebec, the last weekend we had childcare so we could go out alone, and we had actually done quite a lot of going out on break week: b. took his week off so we could go around and show his mother and grandfather some nice places in montreal. it was still cold, but the highlight of the week was visiting a couple of food halls (the time out market and le central) : lots of churros, seafood, pastries and overall good fun. i am shaking to think that just a week later everything started to close - whatever, i don't think community transmission was going on already. back to picture/outfit: my little black dress from linda, which i'd worn at about the same time on my first pregnancy - and, depending on the angles, masks my belly a bit; and a new cardigan that i bought last month at winners for the exact purpose of wearing it over dresses in a work environment - so now it's going to wait its turn a bit, but i find it very pretty. |
2) what feels different: I DON'T REMEMBER! i never thought i would forget what it felt like to be pregnant, so here's life with a cold shower. i have no idea, and have to reread my journal for refreshes. generally, i would say i had a very easy first pregnancy, and this one so far feels even easier, if possible. the difference is that i didn't have to do constant physical work up to week 26, like last time, and of course with the quarantine i am moving less. back in winter i used to work=commute 3 days/week, and b. bought me a fitbit to count my steps: on school days i would always easily do more than the 10 000 steps/day that people seem to be aiming for. on days with no school but where i get out of the house (nowadays walking with rada) i do a bit above 5000 steps without trying, if we go shopping i do much more. i can't wait for warmer weather so i can take the kid out in a stroller for the whole length of the nature reserve.
i haven't had a lot of ligament pain. i have leg cramps, but so far less than last time. i had one instance of spotting, but i calmed down quickly because it was literally 2 drops of blood. i have heartburn, but i am eating Tums for it (left over from last time, notch!) and it helps.
OH MY GOSH: nose...bleeding...crusts. i will assume this is a side effect of pregnancy, because i've never had this before in my life. i feel like picking my nose constantly and certainly i have to clean it in a separate ritual each morning. really strange.
am i more emotional? it's very hard to say, because this overlaps the social isolation bit, which is liable to drive one up the walls nevertheless. so i'll say a no to this one (the last tantrum i threw - today- was because i had erased about 1 hour of work on a document - justified, don't you think?)
falling asleep is usually easy, because i go to sleep with the toddler, with relaxing music on. (in the mean time we have acquired one of those long round huggable pillows, but i don't use it at all). what i THINK might be different is, i wake up at night and can't go back to sleep - but no complaints about it! with no literal work that can fire me, i can afford to wake up whenever during the night, and consider that my personal alone time (if the kid doesn't have nightmares).
fun things like cravings: i wouldn't raise this to the rank of craving, but for a while, especially back in winter, i wanted to eat a lot of tomatoes - i would go to the corner store specially for them, which, if you know my opinion of canadian tomatoes (and of my corner store), enough said. now i'm back to wanting icecream every day and arguing with b. that it SO IS an essential purchase.
i put on about 6 kilos, which i think is on track with the last time. it might be less actually, but i started out from an extra 4-5 kilos i had packed on after rada, so yeah, it's not brilliant overall. i certainly feel like a whale, but consider that i'm wearing normal (stretchy) leggings 90% of the time now, and only put on the maternity jeans to go to the hospital. i think i look pretty normal. they generally say with a second pregnancy you show faster or put on more weight, but it has certainly not been the case.
3) reactions. oh well. i was more scared and cautious this time (pre-corona madness) about telling people, because i'm old, higher risk etc. i know last time i was telling people after the 8 week visit, now i waited to tell most until the trisomy 21 test came back (week 16) and am still not sure i told all my friends. oh yes, another girl! i had wanted a second girl, and was bracing up for a boy, so that i became firmly convinced i was having a boy, so finding out it's a girl ended up being a bit of a let down. i also feel that some more distantly involved people (family) would have cared more if it were a boy, but feel a girl is just more of the same. not to mention people (my mum) who think i have no business having a second kid at all, at my age. she's a hard lady to please: do give grandchildren, but not too many etc.
over all, i feel this baby has been robbed of a lot of thinking and talking about her and uh-ing and oh-ing, which hardly feels fair. people (including us) are too interested in /amused by rada and her daily doings to wonder about how this other one will turn out etc.
even my doctor is very like "you know what to do next" (meaning mostly, take off your pants and go under the paper sheet - but also generally).
4) preparations. none, zero, zilch, nada. poor this baby. since it's a girl, i already have tons of bags of clothes left-over; most of which, when you stop to think about it, are third-hand at best, but i conducted an investigation into the bags some time in february i think, and there is a satisfactory number of wearable items, especially for summer. the saving grace is that at a 2.5 year difference the overlap of seasonal clothing will mean she's likely to wear the least worn-off items the most, i.e. nice thin white shirts as a newborn, a snowsuit for 6 month olds during her first winter etc. also she'll have stuff available even if she's a giant baby.
no new toys, clearly. no new bed, carrier (though that's debatable, we might spring for something later), bassinet, bottles, whathaveyou.
as for rooms, that is pretty much down to rada's willingness to start sleeping alone at some point.
i imagine i'll co-sleep with the baby for a while, and that they'll share the kids' room before they go to school (why am i thinking so far into the future, no idea) - between those stages it will be all improv.
and, oh, joy! no pregnancy clothes for me. i am wearing the 2 pairs of pants i had bought last time: black ones to the store, jeans to hospital. i have enough tent-like dresses to last me through summer i hope. and not wearing bras!
i am always stressed about going to the hospital for ultrasound/ clinic for check-up, but so far it was very normal every time, no delays, no strange happenings (except for being given a mask, but that's fine). my next appointment is actually set six weeks from the last, so a bit distanced, and we'll see how we move forward, cause during the third trimester i'm usually supposed to go every two weeks, which, i don't think so.
5) i'm already used to hearing "was it planned?"; slightly new this time: "was it wanted?" !!!!
i mean, cause if it hadn't been wanted, i would be perfectly ready and willing to share that with you?!?!
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