Baby Valentine

I’ve spent a lot of time blogging about my two girls so they have a record of their experiences, but I have yet to write about baby number three.  Today, I decided to remedy that.

We found out we were pregnant on June 4th.  I had suspected for a few days that I was pregnant, but a week earlier, the tests showed up negative, and so I decided to give it a few days.  TJ took the girls up to bed, and I went and took the test, and it showed up positive fairly quickly.  You can tell that the line was fairly dark, much darker than the Goose’s was.

On the one hand, I was shocked.  It took us four years to get pregnant with Magoo and nine months with the Goose — could we really have gotten pregnant on the first time around?  On the other hand, there was a part of me that knew I was pregnant.  A couple of days before, I was driving home around 9PM, and I all of a sudden felt flu like.  I was racking my brain trying to remember when I had last felt this very specific feeling, and then it hit me — when I was pregnant with the Goose.  Add to that the fact that for the three days before hand, I had felt like someone stuck a needle in my arm and drained out all my energy, and I had some inkling that it could be pregnancy.

I was so excited when I got the positive, but I didn’t want to just run in and interrupt TJ, and so I decided to go for a run.  I made it about 3/4 of a mile, and I all of a sudden started to feel really whoozy.  I walked the rest of the way home, and TJ was done putting the girls to bed.  He saw me and gave me a confused look wondering why I was back so soon.  I just looked him in the eye and said, “It’s a lot harder when you are running for two.”  The look on his face was priceless.  He also couldn’t believe just how lucky we were.

I went to the doctor the next day to get the blood test, and all was good.  A couple of weeks later, we went to get a dating ultrasound, and they saw the yolk sac but nothing else.  It was just too early.  We went back the next week and sure enough, we saw the little beating heart.  I was over the moon.

At that point, I wanted to share the news with the world, but I was still hesitant.  I knew that the chance of miscarriage went way down once the heartbeat is detected, but I was still scared, so we waited until they heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks.  Then, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I told the world… if the whole world consists of my 150 Facebook friends.

Overall, this pregnancy has been so much different from my last two.  With both girls, I was nauseous pretty much nonstop and vomited nearly every day.  This time, I haven’t thrown up once, and I’ve only had three really bad bouts of nauseousness.  My anxiety and depression kind of spiral out of control in the first trimester (you may have noticed an uptick in anxiety posts lately,) but that happened with my last pregnancy as well, so I’m hoping things start to clear up in the next week or two.  Emotionally speaking, I was at my worst in my first trimester with the Goose and my best in my second two trimesters with her.  I wish I could make some glib comment about how there are worse things in the world than crushing anxiety and depression, but it’s hard to joke such things off, so I’ll just let it go.

I have had the oddest experience this time around which has been weird aversions.  I have not had any food aversions.  With the girls, I had so many it’s hard to even keep track.  I have had these other aversions, though.  When I think about these things, I start to feel almost car sick — dizzy and a bit queasy.

• Instagram.  I love Instagram.  I could spend my life looking through other people’s photos, and I love jazzing mine up, but I have not been able to see a single Instagram since being pregnant without feeling almost car sick.  I need to look away.  The mere thought of the program makes me want to hide under the covers.
• My blog.  This one is starting to get better, but for over a month, the thought of blogging would also give me that car sick feeling.  Perhaps it’s the movement of the type on the screen?
• Mary, the mother of God.  I know this one is very odd, but we went to a talk on Mary at church one night when I was feeling particularly anxious and a little bit sick to my stomach.  We bought a book, and now whenever I look at that book or think about Mary or rosaries or anything of the sort, I get that car sick feeling.
• Cleaning/Organizing.  I’m not sure exactly how this one came across, but every time I think about putting away toys or laundry or cleaning anything, I start to get almost dizzy.  My house is a mess, but I blame it on my “delicate condition.”

 

I think there are a few others, but these are the big ones.  Just like with the mood issues, I’m hoping these clear up in the next week or two.  Otherwise, we are in for a very Mary-less, tech free, messy six months.

And that’s about it so far.  I am quite excited to be able to experience this for a third time.  I still get surprised at the thought that I got to do this once, so doing it three times makes me feel like the luckiest mama in the world.

I’m really looking forward to getting to feel him or her move for the first time.  I’m hoping in that regards, this will be like my first pregnancy.  With Magoo, the placenta was in the position where I could feel her move the most, and with the Goose, it was the opposite.  All I had to do was sit still for about 5 seconds, and I could feel Magoo move.  With the Goose, it was difficult to get 5 in an hour.  I remember being able to see Magoo’s knee or leg sticking out, and I loved being able to see her move creating a big tidal wave in my belly.  I still remember sitting in a faculty meeting about a week before she was born, and having the whole back half of the room watch her hiccup through my stomach.

Anyway, I have six months to go to prepare for this little one, and I’m going to do my best to enjoy this time when I get to share a body with him or her.  I think I’ll start calling him/her Baby Valentine because my due date is February 15th.  It will be awhile before me know the gender, and I need some type of nickname!

And without further adieu, here is Baby Valentine’s first picture.  Quite a looker, don’t you think?