Little Blue Sailboat: A special announcement...

Yep...you saw that right. We're adding another superhero to our squad in May 2016!

We are so thrilled to be expecting baby #2 in the spring! This baby is due on May 26, 2016. Max was due May 25, 2014. It seems as though God wants us to have May babies! Max was born a week early, though, so he should turn 2 before his brother or sister is born. But I suppose it goes without saying that we will have one big birthday party for our two littles in years to come!

So far in this pregnancy, I've noticed some similarities and differences in my symptoms compared to when I was pregnant with Max. I know every pregnancy is different, so I will take this one at face value, but it's hard not to compare.

Similarities:

Fatigue. I was SO TIRED all the time during the first trimester with Max. I was teaching kindergarten full time then, so I think it was even worse the first time around. By the end of the day, I was a zombie. After we announced we were expecting Max, my friend and coworker said, "I knew it. I kept thinking, 'Either Rachel is mad at me, or she's pregnant.' I was so worn out by the end of the day that I was quiet and short-tempered...I just wanted to take a nap! I even almost fell asleep at the dinner table once! This time around, I'm still feeling the exhaustion, but it's different. I don't feel persistently exhausted like I did in my first pregnancy. If I'm really tired, I can take a short nap during Max's naptime. I was so tired on Monday afternoon that I willingly slept through the Ellen show...that's a big deal, guys! If I'm in the house, I always watch Ellen!
Spidey-sense of smell. I've always had a very talented nose, but my skills increase ten-fold when I'm growing a baby. Victor and his family love red wine. I've never been a huge fan of it, but I would drink it occasionally (when NOT with-child, of course). However, when I'm pregnant, I can smell a glass from across the room, and it's not a smell my nose appreciates. Also, the smell of tuna/other canned fish makes my stomach turn.
"It's just emotion taking me over." Do you remember that song? I believe the Bee Gees sang it first. Then Destiny's Child covered it (I love their version). Anyway, I digress. I feel all the feelings when I'm pregnant, which can be quite overwhelming when I'm already a sensitive person. I cry at the silliest things. I watch the Ellen show every day, and her little acts of kindness make me bawl my eyes out. A little boy who loves the James Bond movies got to meet Daniel Craig last week on her show and when he went in to hug Daniel, I started to well up. 5 Seconds of Summer's "Amnesia" came on the Ariana Grande Pandora station during one of Max's dance parties and I started crying while really listening to the lyrics. I also might be a little irrational from time to time. Sorry Victor.

Differences:

Nausea. I was not very nauseous when I was pregnant with Max. I could get occasional waves of nausea, typically when I was a passenger in a car, but I wouldn't say it was a persistent symptom. It's a different story this time around. Almost every night (yes, night), I get hit with nausea right around dinner time. That's why I'm not referring to it as "morning sickness," because it's rarely in the morning. How disappointing is it when you cook a yummy meal for your family and then you can't even eat it? I made salmon a couple of weeks ago and ended up eating cereal for dinner because I took one bite of the salmon and almost tossed my cookies. The other night, I went to bed fighting nausea. What the what?!
Heartburn. Flippin' everything gives me heartburn these days! I had some heartburn with Max, but I could usually pinpoint what caused it (Simply Lemonade with Raspberry would always cause it), it was later in the pregnancy, and it was pretty infrequent. I don't think it bodes well for the remaining 28-ish weeks of this pregnancy that my heartburn is pretty bad this early. Send me your TUMS coupons...I think I'm gonna need them!
Still not in maternity pants. This is a big win. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE maternity clothes. I vowed never to go back to regular clothes after spending 6.5 months in them last time. They're so comfy and forgiving. I was regularly wearing maternity pants at 10/11 weeks when I was pregnant with Max because I was so bloated and uncomfortable that I couldn't bear wearing regular pants. Not this time. My box of maternity clothes is still in our back garage right now, and I don't have plans to pull it out until this bump pops.
Cravings. I haven't had too many. Last time, I wanted Chipotle burritos all. the. time. Not so much this time. I saw Eugene Levy eating a bagel with cream cheese in a movie a few weeks ago, and it was ALL I could think about for 3 days until I went to the grocery store and bought two sesame seed bagels and some whipped cream cheese. Other than that one incident, I basically want sweet stuff, mostly fruit. I'm having a love affair with apples right now (sorry, watermelon).

Again, we are so very excited to become a family of four next year, and we are praying for a healthy baby and pregnancy. We will be finding out the gender of this baby so we know if we need to stock up on girl clothes or if we're all set with Max's overflowing bins of outgrown duds. We got all gender-neutral reusable baby items for Max (swing, bouncer, car seat, etc.), so we won't need to get much else in that department. If this one is a girl and we end up having a third baby, we'll likely keep that one a surprise. But we're definitely finding out this time.

I don't think I'll do weekly "bumpdates" with this pregnancy, but I will update you on some pregnancy-related things from time to time. I plan to share how we told our family next week!