August 8th, 2024

I had my first prenatal appointment last week and it went well! As I type up this post, I’m almost 11 weeks along. I don’t have any pregnancy-related pictures, so I’ll just include some life ones in this post so it’s not all text.

Some thoughts: I am still struggling with nausea. You guys are going to crack up at this story. For some reason, the only thing that has been getting me through the day food-wise is soft pretzels.

So, I was ordering Doordash soft pretzels like daily. I thought, okay: this has to stop! So I bought a pack of frozen soft pretzels at the grocery store. Guess what Jimmy ordered in the mail the same day? A huge box of soft pretzels. LOL. Pretzel overdose! But not really because they’re just the best. If you live in Pittsburgh, the best soft pretzel in the city can be found at…. Sheetz (a gas station!!). No joke 😂 So to sum that up, the baby is 95% soft pretzel, Sheetz has the best ones, and Jimmy is way too good to me.

The other food I’m currently obsessed with is Chick-fil-a grilled nuggets. Jimmy thinks it’s so funny that I literally couldn’t have cared less about Chick-fil-a a few months ago and now it’s my favorite. I’m just rolling with whatever will not make me feel sick. My sister’s sourdough bread also tops the list! I am glad to report that coffee is okay now. I am celebrating over that 🥳

Driving in the car and evenings are especially bad for my nausea. I’ve never had nighttime nausea with my other two pregnancies, but now I just dread 5:00 pm and on because I feel worse and worse. Don’t even get me started on driving. I get so car sick. I usually read and blog while Jimmy drives us to church but that has been impossible. I can’t even look at my phone or out the window or else I’ll have to sit with my head between my legs for a good 10 minutes.

Okay, enough complaining! Back to the appointment. The midwife who saw me was the one who delivered Sadie in 2018! She still remembered her precipitous birth and thought it was so interesting Mordecai’s birth was longer. It had me thinking about how with each pregnancy, birth, and baby I have had to just drop all my expectations. They’re all different!

I have no idea what the rest of this baby’s pregnancy will look like, how the birth will go, or what the baby will be like. And that’s okay. I can’t wait to learn who this baby is. God already knows the story of this sweet baby and I trust Him.

I did all my bloodwork at the appointment and had eight tubes of blood drawn. Eight!! I scoop cat litter, so they tested me for toxoplasmosis, then did the usual bloodwork, plus a test of my ferritin (since it was a 3 in June 🥴). The midwife was concerned as to why we don’t know why my body has like zero iron despite having more iron infusions than I can count. She really urged me to look into the why with my hematologist instead of just treating it, if that makes sense. I have a hematologist appointment and iron infusion scheduled for November buuut knowing me, I’ll be there sooner since my children tend to take the hemoglobin right out of me 😂

The bloodwork came back showing me to be anemic. Ugh! Even after that heavy duty iron infusion in June. I’m sure we’ll continue to monitor my iron levels and I’ll be in touch with hematology by November at the latest!

I was also given a script for genetic testing. I have always been in the mindset that genetic testing is great because if we had a child who was predicted to have a chromosomal abnormality, I’d like to know so I can be prepared at the birth and during the child’s life. The interesting thing about genetic testing is that since they’re looking at chromosomes, they can also tell the baby’s gender with a 99% accuracy rate. So, we may find out the baby’s gender in the next couple of weeks?!

If it’s a boy, I really really don’t want to go through circumcision again. I still cringe and cry and get so upset when I think about what happened with Mordecai. I feel like it’s something I should probably go to counseling for because it was truly traumatic and ended up being a life-threatening situation for our ten day old child. Not a way to start out, right? But we’ll see. I want to respect Jimmy’s wishes (he always wants any boys we have to be circumcised) and I know the likelihood of that happening again is low. I’m just not going to think about it until we know if we’re having a boy or girl

Other things on my mind include birth. When I first found out I was pregnant, I thought oh boy… I have to give birth again! Then stopped and reminded myself how blessed I am that I get to give birth, no matter how it happens or what it’s like. Meeting each of my children for the first time? Top moments of my life. I get to do that again?! How amazing is that? I think looking at birth in a positive light, without fear, and with full trust in God is a huge game changer. I also started an awesome pregnancy devotional journal.

We still haven’t told anyone but my mom and dad. I’m just not quite ready! I’m still most excited to tell Sadie. She is going to be over the moon! I think I’m not ready to tell people yet because I don’t feel like answering so many questions (which make people forget that I’m a person, not just a pregnancy) and the body comments. I had so many body comments during Mordecai’s pregnancy that made me cringe. I know I can’t control what people say, but I just don’t love the unfiltered comments!

I have an ultrasound at 14 weeks, and I’m almost to 12 weeks. Maybe we will tell people at 12 weeks, or maybe after the ultrasound. We’ll see! I know I can’t hide my belly too much longer, lol. It’s definitely rounding out!

I’m excited to see the baby during the ultrasound and just can’t believe this is real. At times, it’s easy to forget I’m pregnant. When I’m with the kids and we’re busy, it doesn’t cross my mind because I don’t have a big bump yet and haven’t felt kicks. Other times, it’s all I can think about. Mostly due to the nausea, but also because I’m just wondering… is the baby ok?! There’s no way to really know. So I just pray and leave it to God. That’s all I can do aside from take care of myself and keep eating soft pretzels 😉

We don’t have any decision made about our housing situation. Right now, we are kind of okay with staying in our 900 square foot house and just trying to squeeze another baby in… somewhere? We’re looking at houses, and if we see the perfect one, we would move. So far, we haven’t seen anything we love. We also debate things on the daily like… what if we moved our bedroom into the basement or let two kids have the master bedroom? What about bunk beds? We can’t really figure it out, but we don’t have to make a decision right this second because the baby will be in our room for at least a few months. We’re pretty creative people, so I know we can find a solution if we stay put!

We also know we need to purchase another car soon, but that’s totally Jimmy’s wheelhouse! I will drive anything, He is way, way more picky and particular so I just let him do his thing, lol. Currently, we have a BMW x3 and we love it. Jimmy picked it out not long after we had Sadie, and I’m so glad he chose such a great car for us. I trust him to do it again. If anyone has vehicle recommendations, let me know. I think we want something with third row seating?

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So, that’s the update I have for now! I am almost through the first trimester, still a little sick, still so, so thankful and excited for this sweet baby!

Past Updates:
Our Family is Growing Again!
Finding Out About Baby #3
First Ultrasound and Telling My Mom
Morning Sickness