Pregnancy 2.0

This pregnancy has been soooo different than my pregnancy with Taysom. I decided to look back through Facebook thinking that I would have recorded some of our milestones and wanted to compare, but apparently I didn't. So, I have decided I want to be better about telling our story. I'll start with now and pregnancy #2.

We had been trying to get pregnant for a while and Chris's Doctor wanted to put him on a medication for his Crohn's disease that is known to cause Birth defects. We have been putting off the medication so that we could try and have a healthy baby. It was starting to get frustrating and our family practice doctor suggested that if we weren't pregnant that we might try some testing this summer. Normally, they wouldn't be worried, but because of Chris's health issues and all of the medication he has had to and is currently having to take, it could cause complications. Any who, a week before Easter (the first day of Spring, actually), we had a surprisingly beautiful Sunday and decided to go have a picnic outside. I laid down on my stomach and my chest hurt so bad that I had to turn over.  My hips had also been hurting, but I didn't think much of it until I realized my chest was tender. I decided to take a pregnancy test but didn't think those could really be symptoms. My chest didn't hurt until about 2 weeks before I had Taysom and my hips didn't hurt until my third trimester. After not really thinking about it for a couple minutes, I glanced and the test and the word "not" was missing. I stared at it long and hard before I convinced myself that it REALLY said "Pregnant"!

I decided that with Easter only a week away that I would wait and tell Chris on Easter morning. I had it all planned out cute and the basket was ready to go. Here's proof!

However, the anticipation was KILLING me. I had told my sister, Kristen and a few very close friends, but I wanted to tell Chris, my BEST friend. So, Thursday night came around and I had to tell him, so I threw a little something together and am SOOO glad I did! I took a real egg and hollowed it out and put a little announcement in it. We went on an evening walk around the temple and on one of our rounds, I "dropped Taysom's binkie" and took a few steps back to "get it" and planted the egg.

On our next circle around, I pointed out the egg. I'll spare the explanation, and you can watch the announcement yourself.

Notice the four very distinct faces as Chris goes through his thought process.

"Oh crap... we ruined somebody's scavenger hunt!"

"Oh CRAP! We ruined somebody's PREGNANCY announcement!"

"Wait a second... that's OUR pregnancy announcement?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

Pure Excitement!!! (Probably secretly thinking "Finally... I can get on my medicine!")

So... needless to say, we are very excited about this pregnancy. I finished off the semester (and my internship) strong. We had a week off for Spring Break and prepared for the coming semester. We were both signed up for 14 credits (shoot me now). I started getting sick and all of a sudden all the horrid pregnancy memories came flooding back all at ones. I was terrified and didn't know how we would do it. By the pure and simple grace of God, Chris was offered a full time position working for the custodial department as the supervisor over the Taylor building at the school. This was perfect timing and such a huge blessing. The position came with full insurance and retirement benefits, as well as some pretty awesome tuition benefits. This took so many financial and academic pressures off of our shoulders. Chris dropped down to part time now, but decided to just take one very very hard class this semester. He got on his medicine (Imuran) and it seems to be helping, at least somewhat.I was going to try and push through my over full-time schedule. Chris tried convincing me to defer and focus on Taysom and the baby and just take a break, but I was adamant that I went to school while I was sick and pregnant with Taysom and that I could do it again. BOY! Was I WRONG! I got into my second day of classes and was absolutely miserable (little did I know it was going to get worse). I was in the middle of a developmental psych class when I realized that I was so out of it, I didn't hear a single word the professor had said. I decided that Chris was right and walked out of class, requested a deferment, and dropped my classes. (This was only fair since I had received a few overrides and this would have been my 6th straight semester, when we usually go 2 semesters, than have 1 semester off, called our "off track").

So, no school, no obligations, just survive the first trimester and enjoy the summer. Super easy, right? NOT!

I was soooo sick. I must have forgotten how bad morning sickness was. I remember being sick with Taysom, but not like this. I was completely helpless, and not just in the mornings, it was an all day thing. I couldn't eat a thing. I lost 20 pounds. I would just turn on Netflix and supervise Taysom and try to keep us both alive. I expected to get better right around 13 weeks like I did with Taysom, but once again, nope! I am 18 weeks and I still get nauseous in the mornings. It's better for sure, and I have started gaining weight, but it's not gone. Between the nausea and the horrid back pain, I have been absolutely miserable. I am SOOOO glad that I choose to defer school. I literally have no idea how it would have worked.

Another way that this pregnancy has been different is that I felt Taysom around 16 weeks. Around 20 weeks Chris was able to feel him too. Like I said, I am 18 weeks, and I still haven't felt baby. I mean, sometimes I think I can feel him/her, but it's not super obvious and definitely not consistent. This pregnancy has been so different, I am convinced it's a girl. I even looked up a list of baby gender wives tales. According to those, there is about a 75% chance that I am having a girl. Each of my siblings first child was a boy, and the second a girl, so... I am convinced. WE SHALL SEE!

Long story short... We are sooooooo beyond excited to add another little baby into our family. We can't wait! (But we will!)