Pregnancy #2 – The First Trimester

Now that I am through the first trimester, let’s talk about about it went–how I’ve been feeling, when I found out, how I told Craig, and how running has been going.

In general, this pregnancy is entirely different than Cullen’s. I escaped with much less sickness, was running more, and felt overall a lot better. (You can read about Cullen’s first trimester HERE.)

I picked some of the most popular questions that I thought might interest you guys, but if you have any other questions, be sure to ask away in the comments section.

How did you found out?

I had a gut feeling I was pregnant a few days before I was able to take a pregnancy test. When the Friday rolled around that was 4 weeks after the first day of my last menstrual cycle, I took the at-home pregnancy test first thing that morning. It didn’t take long until that blue ‘plus’ signed showed up to confirm my gut feeling. I had a run planned with a friend, so it was still pretty early and Craig was sleeping. I went running with my friend–the whole time thinking how surreal (yet also not too surprising) it was I was pregnant. I didn’t say anything to Craig when I got back home because it’s usually just a ‘tag-you’re-it’ as he is heading out the door to work. Plus, I wanted to surprise him this time since last time he practically called it before I even knew.

Was this a planned pregnancy?

Yes, yes it was. Very planned as we planned around my marathons and Craig’s hunting season. Ha!

To be honest, the hardest thing about figuring out when to try for #2 was the timing around my competitive running since it is easily a 1-1.5 year break of not being able to train at the level that I would like. (On that note, why can’t each spouse take their turn being pregnant?! It would be so much more fair!) While Craig and I talked about being done after having only Cullen, we also knew that deep down we wanted more kid(s). For a few years, a second child got put off because I was doing well with my running, and I was working so hard to break 3 hours in the marathon. But then injuries kept popping up more frequently, I wasn’t getting any younger, and I knew if we wanted to have another baby it was going to have to be sooner than later. (I just turned 36 in March.)

How far along are you?

15 weeks, 4 days

When are you due?

October 18, which is 6 days before Cullen’s 5th birthday.

How have you been feeling?

In one word: MISERABLE. Forget morning sickness, I had all-day sickness–all day nausea and no appetite where nothing sounded appealing. I would open up the fridge and pantry knowing I needed to eat something yet wanting to puke at the sight of everything. I would force myself to eat something because I knew that was better than nothing. Usually that something was carbs of some-sort. I never threw up mostly because I’m not a puker, but if I was, I don’t think I would have kept much down because I would gag often and every time I burped or coughed too. I also had EXTREME tiredness. Tiredness that didn’t even compare to being up with Cullen 3-4 times every night for the first 18 months of his life. I would literally just lay on the floor any chance I got. I slept 10-11 hours every night, would nap 1-2 hours some days, yet still feel SO tired. This went on for several weeks. The bare minimum of work got done, I wasn’t cooking, there was minimal cleaning going on, and it took every ounce of my being just to stand up and do anything.

I finally got on some medication from the doctor at my 9 week appointment. It is a new drug called Bonjesta, which is a combination of Unisom and B6 vitmains. I first got a sample and thought it helped but still didn’t feel 100%. However, then I ran out of the sample, and I knew right away that it indeed helped. For those three days I didn’t have the medication, I literally laid on the couch or my bed all day long. I was so exhausted that I didn’t even have energy to get out of bed. The other odd thing about it was that I would be so tired during the day but also have insomnia at night. I remember trying to go to bed at 7:45 p.m. one night, but not falling asleep until 11:15 p.m. I then woke up at 1:30a.m. again for two hours trying to fall asleep. Finally, I had to drag myself out of bed at 5:00a.m. to go coach. I think I slept maybe 3 or 4 hours that night, which is very similar to being up with a newborn for those of us who can attest to that!

How’s running been going?

You may have noticed that my running has been lacking these past couple of months–no long runs, no big tempo workouts, and a lot less miles. My mileage has been low and my pace has been about 60-90 seconds slower–sometimes more, and I take several walk breaks during my runs.

I have been incredibly out of breath all the time–and unfortunately still am! (This breathlessness got better during Cullen’s second trimester but not this time around.) When I was extremely tired, I was sleeping in and taking naps, which left less time to run. However, the part that was worse was trying to motivate myself to run when I had a stomach ache and felt nauseous all the time because who wants to run with a stomach ache (not me!). Needless to say there hasn’t much running running going on. My weekly mileage has ranged from about 12 miles a week to 30 miles, which is still something.

I know how I feel is entirely out of my control, but it is frustrating when you can’t do what you love to the level you enjoy doing it at. And yes I can still run (thank goodness!), but when it doesn’t feel as enjoyable, that also makes it frustrating.

I am going to write a more detailed post on how I’ve approach running during the first trimester (and pregnancy in general), so stay tuned for that if that interests you.

How did you tell Craig and Cullen?

I didn’t do anything too extravagant to surprise Craig with the pregnancy. I had bought a ‘Promoted to Big Brother” t-shirt for Cullen when we started talking about trying for #2, so I had Cullen put that on when Craig came home from work the evening I had taken the pregnancy test. I told Cullen it said “I love my Daddy” (because I wasn’t ready to tell him what it actually said) and talked it up so he was excited to show it off. Craig didn’t notice his shirt right away, so I finally told Cullen to show his shirt to Dad. Craig didn’t have too much of a reaction right away. It was probably a combination of “I already knew,” and “holy cow, what have I gotten myself into.”

Since Cullen is now 4 years old, and he definitely gets-it, we didn’t tell Cullen about the pregnancy until we were ready to tell everyone because we didn’t want to risk him telling someone we weren’t ready to share the news with.

When we did tell him, Craig said, “guess what Mom’s going to have?” He first turned the question back on Craig, but with some insisting that he answered the question, he guessed “baby” right away. He didn’t necessarily show a lot of excitement right away as he was probably trying to process what that actually means, but now when you ask him, he gets super excited about it.

Any food cravings?

Yes, a lot! But it changes all the time. Ha!

When I was so sick, I was especially particular about what I ate. Most foods sounded repulsive, so if something did sound good, I got pretty fixated on it and would seek it out. (Whereas when I’m not pregnant, I can easily talk myself out of most cravings that I shouldn’t be eating or spending money on.) For a while it was Fire Island Bakery. First it was their savory scone, then the chocolate croissant. One night it was Mexican food. Normally I hate Mexican because it’s so heavy and rich, and makes me feel gross every time I eat it, but one night, I requested Mexican, so Craig went to Taco King for some Tex-Mex. Other food cravings: an espresso protein smoothie from Espresso Expressions, pizza from the Pizza Hut inside Target, the Bacon and Gruyere sandwich from Starbucks, and quiche at Kaladi Brothers. If I did want something to eat, someone else almost always had to prepare it because the thought of making food did not sound appetizing. Luckily each craving didn’t last long. I would purchase it once or twice, and then I wouldn’t crave it again.

Most of my cravings at first were sugary carbs, and I was lucky to have a one serving of vegetables per day, but I’m pretty sure I went most days without vegetables there for a while. More recently (with the help of the medication) vegetables have come back into my life, which I’m very happy about.

Any food aversions?

It felt like I had a lot of food aversions because I didn’t want much of anything during the first trimester. Like I said before, if I did want something, it was often a carb or something more on the sweet side, which made everything else feel like an aversion. With that being said, there were a handful of foods that I definitely didn’t crave or want like normal, which included: coffee, vegetables, sparkling beverages, nuts, and yogurt.

And last but not least, probably my most asked question, “Will you be finding out the gender?”

Most likely yes. I did the early genetic testing around 12 weeks where they can also determine the baby’s gender, and I actually have the results in an envelop at home, but we are just trying to figure out a (small) gender reveal that we are both excited about.

We did not find out if Cullen was a boy or girl until he was born, and part of me wants to wait, but Craig really wants to know this time around. I’m split down the middle. Mostly I feel guilty for finding out early because I feel like I should wait.

I’m going to wrap this up now because I’ve been working on this post for far too long, and I’m ready to be done with it, but if you do have any more questions, leave them in the comments below!