First Trimester for the Third

Wow!

God is so good and totally works on His own timing!  And you know what?  His timing is always best.

I'm not planning to publish this post until mid February, but I figured I'd keep adding to it over these weeks to keep track of our changes.


12/23/2016:
On December 19th, I had a doctor appointment to ask the doctor what could be done about the flabby belly I've developed over the last 6 months or so.  A few weeks ago, I switched from coffee to herbal tea and eating more whole foods and really really limiting my processed food intake and sugar intake.  I was desperate to try anything to get tone again!  After both of my previous pregnancies, I lost the baby weight in months and kept it off until Michael's diagnosis of Type One Diabetes when I turned to food for comfort in the wake of our lives being turned upside down.

Since August, I've been working out consistently and since October, I have been hitting my water-intake target every single day (minus only one day when I was a couple cups shy).  So, I was frustrated with why I weighed 4 pounds less than my Delivery Weight with Noah.  I knew Aaron & I wanted to try to have a baby in the late fall and all of next year, but I wanted to be back in my normal weight-- not this new "I didn't take care of myself" weight.  The doctor gave me bad news.  She said it's just flabby skin from having two kids and it won't go away.  I was distraught.  Wondered if I should even continue to exercise at all.  Wondered if it made any difference.  She asked me if I needed to take a pregnancy test.  I told her I had randomly taken one that morning (for a reason I'm not even sure of) and I told her that I wasn't due to even miss my period until the next day. I talked to my husband, mom, mother-in-law (pro-fitness expert), and older brother (fitness product distributor) about this.  All four of these family members told me "you can absolutely lose that weight.  It's adipose tissue-- that's fat.  It can be lost."  So, I vowed to continue my exercise regime and even go harder on my eating of whole foods.

The next morning, after my sons left to go to my mother-in-law's house for the day, I had to go to the bathroom again, so I told myself "If I haven't started, I'll take a test."  I hadn't started.  So I took my final pregnancy test.  I left it on the bathroom floor, washed my hands, and headed back to work (I work from home)-- assured that it would be negative.  In a few minutes, I wandered back in there to check and end the questioning I had within myself.  I squinted at the test on the floor because the words didn't appear as long as they once had.  I picked it up and I saw it-- "Pregnant."  I couldn't believe it.  I was shocked.  I immediately took a picture of it and sent it to Aaron.  He replied "Please don't be kidding me."  I called the nurse line for the doctor and told them I'd received a positive on the test.  They called me back within a couple of hours and told me that they hadn't drawn all the blood that they needed to the day prior and told me to come back in that afternoon and they'd draw blood for my thyroid levels, and to see how far along I was.

Aaron and I schemed how we'd tell our family and how long we'd wait to tell friends and social media-- aka, the world.  We decided to tell family that upcoming weekend since lots of family would be in town.  We decided to wait to tell friends and the world until the first trimester is nearly over-- which will be late February.  We planned how we would tell our family, and we planned what we'd do to announce the pregnancy officially in February.  Those ideas are all coming together now, and I'll put a little pause right here because we will tell our family tomorrow (Christmas Eve) and on Sunday-- Christmas Day!


Update:

On Christmas Eve, I wore an Auburn maternity shirt that said "War Eagle, Baby!" and decided that's how we were going to tell my family.  I imagined them reading the shirt and jumping up and down with excitement.
Note to pregnant self: Things don't always go as planned.
What really happened was that no one said anything.  We had radio silence, people.  They went about their usual business and no one made mention of my shirt.  The men decided to go to the range-- so off went my dad, my older brother, and Aaron.  Bryan (my younger brother) stayed behind because he had to work that night.  So, as he fiddled around in his room, my mom, my sister in law, and all of our little ones went out to the back deck.  Once my sister in law went inside to get some cider, I looked at my mom with a frown and said "didn't you see my shirt?"
She said, "Yes, but I wasn't sure if you meant it as a maternity shirt. People say the phrase 'war eagle, baby' and I didn't want you to be embarrassed if I brought it up."
I said, "But I don't say 'war eagle, baby!' I'm pregnant!"
Of course she was happy for us, and then had lots of questions like how far along I was, how long had I been keeping it a secret, how was I feeling, etc.  Later that day, in the kitchen, as my sister-in-law prepared a Christmas snack, I told her we were expecting our third.  She said she knew as soon as she saw the shirt but wanted someone else to say something first.
Guess my shirt plan was not the best plan. Too vague.
My mom actually had to tell my dad when he returned from the range, then he walked up to me and said "I see your shirt here.  Do you have something to say?"  And of course he was happy for us too.  Just didn't go as I imagined it would.  But it was still fun and a different way of telling family.

On Christmas Day, we went over to my in-laws house after church.  I wore a regular shirt and comfy pants.  We had gotten each grandparent a little gift (My husband's mom, his stepdad,  his dad, and his stepmom)-- we were over at his mom's house and everyone was gathered there.  We waited until our boys had opened all their gifts and then we handed out the presents we had bought.  To his dad, (who had lived across the country for both other times we were pregnant), we handed a jar wrapped in kraft paper and string. One of his favorite movies is "Sound of Music" and I told him his Christmas gift would be a brown paper package tied up with string.  He opened the gift and took out a jar of "Three Cheese" flavored Prego spaghetti sauce.  He looked perplexed and stared at the jar.  My step-mother-in-law said "what is it?"  He held it up to her and she gasped.  Then he said "No way!"  Then my other two in-laws looked up and realized what was going on.  Then there were hugs all around.  We told them we were not planning to tell any of our grandparents until after our first appointment on January 13th, and that we didn't want to tell Aaron's brother until after his baby was born during the second week of January.  We didn't want to steal their thunder.

*****

Eventually, January 13th finally rolled around and I went to my first OB appointment. My mom was off of work that day and came with me.  We had our early-ultrasound to count how many babies, and to check for proper measurement and heartbeat.  Everything checked out well, just one baby, and the heart rate was 148. Michael's heart rate was 141 at his first ultrasound and I think Noah's was 136 or so.
The baby measured one day behind how far along I thought I was, so my due date went from August 29th to August 30th, which is the same due date as I had with Michael! The due date won't change again.  From here on out, if the baby measures big or small, the doctor will not adjust the due date as other OBs would.  He says he prefers to find out why the baby is measuring that way and work on finding a solution to that issue.
I left the appointment with my starting weight and my targeted weight gain in mind.  I'm heavier this time around than I was with either boy and I attribute most of that to a headache medicine that I took for most of 2016.  Anyway, the doctor and I talked about what I could do to limit weight gain this pregnancy and we talked about how I would go ahead and act like I had gestational diabetes since I had it with Noah and probably went undiagnosed with Michael.  He says the odds of having it again are high, but that if I tested positive for it at 27 weeks, I would not have to endure the 3-hour fasting blood test again and we would just assume I had it and would press on.  I said I'd go ahead and adopt the low carb diet again and be prepared as if I had it.

Then came the grueling process of waiting 4 more weeks for an appointment.  I have felt so much sicker this time around than I did with either pregnancy before.  My cravings have been very similar to past cravings I've had, but I do believe my tiredness has ramped up significantly in this pregnancy.

I'll update soon with the types of cravings and how Baby 3 has progressed in size.

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba