First Trimester Pregnancy Update + Answering Your Questions!

Nov 18, 2020

First Trimester Recap

How far along: 14 weeks when you’re reading this. This pregnancy has flown by compared to the first one!

Name Situation: As of writing this I am pretty sure we have names for both a boy and a girl picked out, including middle names which is miles ahead of where we were at this same time when I was pregnant with Jasper. I do keep going back and forth between two girl names though.

Gender: I have zero clue what the sex of this baby is. With Jasper I was SO sure. I instantly knew. But I’ve got nothing for ya this time. I want to do a sneak peek test because the idea of waiting until 20 weeks sounds like torture but we’ll see.

Sickness: My morning sickness was way worse this time around. I still didn’t actually get sick, thank gosh, but the nausea was WAY worse and would last all day.

Cravings: Any kind of fruit (except bananas), garlic anything

Aversions: The first few weeks nothing sounded good ever but so far my food aversions have not been nearly as bad as they were with Jasper.

What I'm Wearing: Leggings and t-shirts. But seriously, thanks to COVID and the early winters in Alaska, the guesswork has pretty much been taken out of my maternity wardrobe. I did swap my maternity leggings for my favorite Elevate Power-Soft Leggings from Old Navy in the 7/8s length. They’re much more comfortable (in my opinion) I just sized up to accommodate for belly growth.

Movement: Around this time with Jasper I could start to feel flutterings and I’ve definitely had a few instances of feeling movement over the last couple of mornings.

Physical Changes: Man does the bump show up way earlier the second time around!

Workouts: Workouts are basically nonexistent at this point but I’m trying to get Jasper and I outside each day for 20 minutes before lunch and 20 minutes after he wakes up from his nap, regardless of the temperatures. Pulling him around on a sled is a workout.

What we're most excited about: Next summer! We had so much fun adventuring around Alaska last summer and I can’t wait to explore our favorite places again and check a few new ones off of the list with our newly expanded family.

What we're least excited about: Is this even truly a question in 2020? Potentially delivering in a COVID world.

Answering Your Pregnancy Questions

Do you want to find out the gender or leave it as a surprise?

Initially I floated the idea around that we would wait until birth to find out the gender but now that I have absolutely not idea whether this baby will be born a boy or a girl I’m really curious so I think we will definitely be finding out the gender around 20 weeks if baby cooperates.

Do you have any feeling so far as to what the gender might be?

Absolutely none which is so shocking to me because I absolutely knew in my heart that Jasper was male. I do feel as though I am destined to be a boy mom but so many people have said that they think I could be having a girl this time around. We would love a girl since we are planning for this to be our last baby but I’m trying not to get my hopes up.

How long did it take for us to get pregnant the second time?

We got pregnant the month we started trying. Don’t ask me how because it was truly a shock to both of us. There was no waiting to tell my husband or anything. I got one early symptom while we were still on leave and kept joking that I was but neither of us thought it would actually happen that fast (since Jasper was a surprise we had no idea). Joke was on us because the next month I got back an almost instantly positive pregnancy test.

What does Jasper think if he knows what’s going on?

To put it bluntly, he has no idea. Partially because I have no idea how to tell him. That’s something we’re going to start working on in the coming months and I’m planning to include a lot of “big sibling” books as part of his Christmas gifts.

What symptoms have been different?

My first symptom last pregnancy was tender breasts. I haven’t experienced that at all this time around. My nausea was definitely way worse. My food aversions haven’t been as strong and I also haven’t experienced as much fatigue as I did when I was first pregnant with Jasper.

Will you wait to share his/her name until birth?

I honestly haven’t decided this yet. My original plan for announcing the pregnancy was to wait until we knew the gender so that we could do a simultaneous gender and name reveal but then I couldn’t keep up with the mental capacity of keep that a secret anymore. We will most likely share the name before the baby is born but I have no idea when or what capacity that will be.

Was this pregnancy planned or a surprise?

Both? We made a conscious decision (kind of) to start trying but expected it to take way longer for us to actually conceive than it did. Now that we are pregnant, I’m convinced that this is meant to be the last edition to our family (at least biologically) and I couldn’t be more excited about what the next year holds.

Have you felt more or less anxiety for #2 and how does COVID play into that?

Truly, my anxiety around pregnancy and labor and delivery has been so much less than it was the first time around. Obviously, that’s kind of a given since I had never experienced those things prior to my first pregnancy. I do have some anxiety about COVID but I think a lot of that is just the same or residual anxiety from the fact that we’ve been in a pandemic for now almost a year. I’m trying not to think too much about how COVID will impact delivery since it’s so far away but it has made going to appointments a bit of a pain since I have to coordinate childcare for Jasper.

What worries/fears do you have about this pregnancy?

I think with all pregnancies mothers want to know that their baby is developing normally and without any issues. That’s really all that I can think about right now. Aside from maybe the fear of still having to be on lockdown next summer once they’ve arrived and how Jasper will handle everything.

How/are you preparing a new nursery?

I spent much of the first trimester clearing out my office to make room for a nursery. I haven’t really thought too much into the details aside from one of the quilts my late grandmother made that I want to use as inspiration but I have started gathering some thrifted pieces of decor from around the house that I think will work nicely in there.

Do you prefer a bassinet or a crib and what brands do you recommend?

When Jasper was born we were about to move across the country in less than a month so we didn’t really bother with either. Instead, we used the bassinet that comes with the Uppababy Vista as our bassinet (it’s rated for safe sleep) which was nice because we lived in a one level home and could wheel him back and forth between the bedroom and the living room. Now we live in a two story so obviously that’s not an option. Rather than buy the stand for the stroller bassinet we opted to go for a Moses basket and stand which I scored second hand. The basket will be easy to transport up and down the stairs and the stand doesn’t take up that much room next to my bedside. I’ll do a full review once I have a baby to put in the bassinet!

How did you know you were ready for another baby?

The short answer of this is that we didn’t, not really. But I wanted to get it over with, honestly. I’ll be writing a full blog post on this since it was asked a few times as well as a few other subjects so stay tuned for those!

First Trimester Pregnancy Update + Answering Your Questions!

First Trimester Recap

Answering Your Pregnancy Questions

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