Woohooo for Baby Number Two!! We are happy to share some good news in the midst of all that is going on in the world right now. Even in these uncertain times, one thing we know for certain is that Royce Vaughn is going to be the BEST big brother! Baby V2, we love you so much already!
I was 16 weeks the Saturday we announced on social media. Today, while writing this, I'm 17 weeks and 4 days. I'm due in September but if our family tradition holds, it'll be in August. Royce was 5 weeks early, I was 4 weeks early, Bennett (my brother) was 4.5ish weeks early, my mother and her brother were both about that early... there's a trend. Wonderfully, everybody is and was perfectly fine!
Gender
As for the gender, we could have found out weeks ago but decided not to. We're going to wait until we meet him or her, just like we did with Royce! Now before you say, how will you prepare?! Well, because we didn't find out with Royce, all of his baby items and clothes are mostly white or completely gender neutral. We're wonderfully all set when it comes to gear except for a few additional items. There will be things we'll be doubling up on but really other than that, we wont have to buy much for the new addition.
As for names, I feel like we're so all over the place. Oddly, we're picking names that could work for either a boy or girl - works out for not knowing the gender! We may have to wait to meet this baby and see what fits.
Lovenox for Factor V
Like my pregnancy with Royce, I am taking Lovenox everyday. Luckily, it's one self-injection, once a day (better than twice a day like with Royce). Each one feels like a wasp sting, that I give myself, I'm bruised, and tender/sore but it's all worth it for this baby!
First Trimester
I made it through the first trimester only throwing up once! I was probably more drained and exhausted this round though - mostly cause I wasn't able to just lie around. Chasing Royce has definitely made me more active. Really have no complaints outside of exhaustion, which left completely with the first trimester. Had occasional afternoon and evening "morning" sickness but it was totally bearable. I took ginger pills, pure organic ground ginger capsules, and they would absolutely do the trick if I felt a little wave of nausea coming on.
Food, Cravings, Vitamins
For a few weeks I strong cravings for red meat, steak mostly, which was probably my body smartly asking for iron. Blood volume doubles during pregnancy so iron is necessary. Got back all my blood work around that time and I had amazing iron levels so I don't have to be on any additional supplement.
I had decided on Ritual's Prenatal vitamin and have really enjoyed it so far. I took Mega Food's Baby and Me the entire time with my 1st pregnancy and in that 1st trimester, I remember it was sometimes hard to swallow. Ritual also has a wonderful citrus smell when the bottle is opened - just makes me happy in the mornings to take it.
No aversions, except for a few weeks when the smell of cooking vegetables made me gag. While eating them I was perfectly fine - so weird. Oh and there was one week in there where cooking anything at night made me green. It was a lot of takeout in a row, sorry for that Jeremy.
Favorite Meals Lately:
Right now, I am oddly craving poke or sushi and can't eat it for so many reasons. I would be eating Volta's spicy chicken stew every night buttt thanks to all of these shutdowns, I'm unable to get that fix. Other than that, no crazy cravings.