Looks like this MOM won't be having any MERLOT again for quite a while....
Surprise! I'm pregnant with baby No. 2. Here's the story of how I found out.
A few weeks before my firstborn's first birthday, I had a feeling that I just couldn't shake.
I was pregnant again.
Truth be told, I didn't want to know. It was less than a week ahead of a fun reunion weekend with my high school friends, where the drinks would be flowing freely, there would be water sports aplenty -- and I had every intention of partaking. Plus, I hadn't yet weaned my daughter, so I had yet to fully reclaim the body autonomy that I enjoyed (and took for granted) prior to getting that positive pregnancy test in December 2017.
And since I was still breastfeeding, I hadn't had a regular period to miss. I had no earthly idea what kind of cycle I was on. (I did and do know that it is possible to become pregnant while breastfeeding, but I didn't feel it was likely to happen to me. My husband and I also thought: We already have one baby, and she's pretty great. What's the worst that can happen? *Insert shrug emoji here*)
Days went by and it became impossible to deny what my body was telling me. My first clue was a dramatic, sudden dip in my milk supply. At 11 months, I began supplementing Everly's diet with a bit of formula and increasing her intake of solids, while continuing to breastfeed as regularly as possible.
Having already experienced pregnancy once before, some familiar old "friends" quickly began showing up again...
Exhaustion -- Just when I had gotten into a groove of completing chores and taking care of myself while Everly napped... Bam! I couldn't keep my eyes open. Like, ever. I could barely keep my head up to watch or play with her when she was awake, and I'd fall asleep the instant I got her in her crib. Her naps, and even nighttime sleep, never seemed long enough for me to catch up.
Crazy Vivid Dreams -- When I did get to sleep, the wild and colorful, Alice in Wonderland-esque dreams of first trimester danced around in my head. Once, I had a vividly clear dream about giving birth to a puppy.
Breakouts -- I've battled my fair share of pimples, but thankfully never suffered from severe acne in my teen or adults years. I certainly never experienced acne on my forehead -- until my first trimester with my daughter. (And it was relentless.) So when those little bumps started showing up above my eyebrows, I knew there could only be one culprit.
My spidey senses were tingling pretty fiercely by this point, but if I had any doubts, my uterus was happy to squash them with some undeniable movement. No, I couldn't feel that tiny embryo kicking, but I could feel some fresh stretching and cramping that I had forgotten about since giving birth. Then, a sharp, quick pang that stopped me in my tracks.
Welp, there it is. I muttered to myself, knowing undeniably where that sensation originated. That was definitely in my uterus. I'm pregnant.
I dragged my (truly, very excited and eager) husband along to the drugstore for a pack of pregnancy tests and within an hour, saw those two undeniable pink lines. I've never been less surprised by anything.
And I spent that reunion weekend sober as a bird.
With so many signs and symptoms, I wondered how far along I must have been in order to experience them so strongly. As it turns out, not very.
I went to visit my OB one week later, where we measured the fetus and attempted to piece together some sort of calendar. It took three visits to settle on a due date, but apparently I wasn't even five weeks along when I took that pregnancy test. Crazy!
We are thrilled to be due with Baby No. 2 in April 2020!
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