First, I would just like to say THANK YOU for all of the pregnancy support. I was overwhelmed by the congratulations and joy that was showered upon us when we announced we are expecting a baby on New Years Day.
For those of you who are just jumping in: We have a three year old son and are expecting a baby girl in June! We are feeling so unbelievably grateful and lucky. We just had our anatomy scan yesterday and all is looking well so far (fingers-crossed).
We found out October 10th — it caught us by surprise! It was overwhelmingly good news although bittersweet as we had to re-assign some weddings we were due to shoot. Thank goodness for lovely clients & the phenomenally talented photographers who stepped up to the plate.
(Left: In the city 8 days after finding out and about 30 seconds shy of being sick in the bushes behind me; Right: I loved this skirt so much I bought it in my regular size and had to hide the fact that it was slightly unzipped to fit!)
So far my pregnancies have been very different. Without wishing to bore you silly, I will elaborate on how they have been different BECAUSE I kept googling it when I was having wildly varied symptoms to see if it meant she was a girl (like google could tell me), and it was fun to read how other people were doing.
With R, our son, I was nauseous and very bloated in the beginning with a strong aversion to scented candles/shampoo/perfume and quickly adopted a daily nap from 4-6 PM (I know very lucky to be able to do that because we work from home).
Top left: A few days after the new year, felt so good not to hide the bump anymore! Left: taking a nap before co-hosting the Roller Rabbit opening in Charleston! Bottom: living in flowy dresses when not in said joggers!
With this little one, the first trimester was like that movie where all of a sudden the protagonist is throwing up into the trash can and wonders what’s going on. Think: The Exorcist. Where was I not suddenly ill? I threw up in airports. Parking lots. Whole foods. Parties. Once while I was driving into my very own lap! You name it, I did it. It was an anti-social time for me. I ended up having to squirrel myself away, living exclusively in Zara joggers and a Hanro bra (please, everyone, get one), and I relied on Zofran (the anti-nausea elixir sent straight from the heavens) to get through the remainder of Wedding season! This was also about the time that we added a team member who very graciously put up with my profuse apologies for being either in said joggers or pajamas for most of the day!
Was very grateful for the wind this day and baby growing!!!
I did end up losing weight (no worries, we have packed it back on!) whereas with R, I think I had gained at least ten pounds (more? oops!) in the first three months. Anyway — we giggled our way through it and it was comforting to have such strong, prevalent symptoms. And, now we’re feeling spritely 🙂 The severe nausea passed around 15/16 weeks for those of you who are in the thick of it!
The other thing that has been so different is that I started to feel the baby move really early. I didn’t feel R until 19 weeks, and with this one I was 13.5! I know it sounds unbelievable, she must be in a very different place but I was very certain and it never really relented, it just got stronger. So that has been fun.
Our hearts just about exploded when we told our son. We had been teeing it up and it truly wasn’t going well — we would read books where there was more than one child in a house and introduce the concept of a sibling much to his dismissal/borderline disapproval. We got so anxious that we couldn’t bring ourselves to tell him! Finally, one day over Christmas break we were all lying around in the front hall (very odd) and we told him there was something special in my tummy and his eyes filled with happy tears when we said it was a baby and then he threw his arms around my middle and I said, “oh thank you so much” and he said “I’m not hugging you! I’m hugging the baby!”
R the day we told him and me currently at 20 weeks!
It was awesome. We are SO proud of him. There hasn’t been a day that he hasn’t volunteered (unprompted) to hug or kiss the baby, tickle the baby, ask when summer is and why the baby can’t come now? Perhaps he doesn’t quite understand that she will be living with us, but I get the impression that he does, and that he’s ready, and that he’s going to be an incredible big brother. Xxx