Now that our wonderful news is finally out in the open (thank goodness) I thought I’d share this post that I’ve been working on the past 8 weeks.

To say this pregnancy has been rocky would be a bit of an understatement, but it also has made us so incredibly grateful for this beautiful blessing.

Let’s start back where it all began – finding out I was pregnant.

We were trying to have a second child for several months, so of course I was very aware of my body and over analyzing everything as a “symptom” that I was pregnant.

I took a test early one morning about 3-4 days before my miss period and saw the FAINTEST line. When I say faint I mean I highly doubt that anyone but me would have said they saw something too. During our first pregnancy, I desperately wanted to surprise Wes with the news but was so excited I just screamed and blurted it out the first time I saw the positive test. This time I really wanted to try to surprise him again so I kept the news to myself for the first 2 days.

The following day I ended up going to my parents asking them if they’d keep Easton while I went out to run some errands. I have done this before so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to them or to Wes. I ended up heading to the grocery store to buy more pregnancy tests. The only ones I had at home were the cheap strips so I wanted to try a more expensive test to see what it would say.

I even went into the bathroom in the grocery store to test. It wasn’t glamorous but I didn’t want my parents to find out. I tried a First Response Test since I knew they were meant to be sensitive and that showed a much clearer line! It was still faint but I had faint tests with Easton early so I knew that was normal. I took a digital test that day as well and it came back “not pregnant” which I somewhat expected because those tend to be much less sensitive.

I left and went to Target and decided even though it was still so early to buy a cute “World’s Best Brother” shirt from Target. I put it in a bag and decided I couldn’t keep the news to myself any longer. When we got home that evening I gave Wes the bag and let him open it. He was surprised and we both cried and it was a really wonderful moment.

After that is when things started to get a little bit scary. I kept testing (even though I know they tell you not to). I noticed my tests were getting darker but I didn’t really think that they were looking that much darker after 48 hours like they say.

I went in the following Monday to get some blood work done and it came back at a level of 49. My levels started around 70 with Easton so it didn’t worry me they were so low since I hadn’t even missed my period.

After 48 hours I went back in to get another reading and it came back at 63. I remember when we found out I was a the gym and I started to panic. I sat in my car and didn’t know how to respond. For those that don’t know, levels are supposed to double every 48 hours. They obviously hadn’t doubled and if you plugged it into any calculator online you’d see that it put me WAY below the average.

I continued to get my levels drawn and instead of boring you with a lot of numbers I will say that only one of my draws actually doubled as it was supposed to. It was a crazy time full of lots of ups and downs. All my levels with Easton were right where they should be so I didn’t know what to think.

Doctors weren’t optimistic but they also never told me that it wasn’t a viable pregnancy. We just kept getting levels drawn and kept praying.

Our goal was to tell our parents once we had more confirmation but after my levels kept being lower then they were supposed be we finally just needed to share. I remember calling my Mom wanting to be so excited but crying instead because between the hormones and just the constant up and downs I had to tell her I was pregnant but there was a 50/50 chance it go either way.

 

My OB finally was able to get me in for an ultrasound at what I thought was 7 weeks 3 days. Wes and I sat so nervous and scared in the waiting room. She called me at 1:00 pm that day asking if I could be there at 4:00 pm. I immediately called my Mom to see if she could come watching Easton and Wes to see if he could get off to come with me.

They took me back to the room and I tried to stay as calm as I could. I knew a lot would be answered in this ultrasound but knowing it could go either way was nerve racking. Finally they started the ultrasound and we saw it – that tiny beautiful heartbeat! It measured 110 bpm at that point.

The only bit of a surprise was that I was measuring about a week behind – 6 weeks 3 days. My OB didn’t seem to make a big deal about it but after the crazy start I was nervous.

I went back a week later for my first official appointment with her and she could tell I was still nervous so she ordered another ultrasound for 8 weeks 4 days. She wanted to give it at least 2 weeks between ultrasounds.

At our second ultrasound we saw that beautiful heartbeat again this time measuring 180. I was now measuring 9 weeks so I was ahead of the last ultrasound some and finally for the first time in almost 10 weeks I was able to breathe. I felt like the first 9-10 weeks were just a constant up and down and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t relax.

Now let’s get to the fun details! I am due May 12, 2019. I have a feeling this little one is going to be here before that but they didn’t change my due date after the first ultrasound.

We don’t have anymore ultrasounds until the anatomy scan around 20 weeks, and yes we will be finding out the gender again with our second.

We’ve been much more quiet about this pregnancy than we were with our first, but I am so happy now that it is finally out in the open!

 

So, I’m sure some of you are wondering how running is going?

After I started getting the draws I took a few days off of running because I was honestly just so scared. If you remember from my pregnancy with Easton I didn’t run from weeks 4-7 but this time around I have been running more. Everyone (including my doctors) have been very supportive of my running and said as long as I am listening to my body there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it!

I was VERY nervous at first but the more I run the more confident I have become in my body. After that ultrasound I did feel myself feel better with running more miles and overall I am enjoying it!

I am currently averaging around 40 miles per week and we will see what the rest of the pregnancy holds.

 

How has this pregnancy differed from Easton?

It has definietly been different! From about 5 weeks on I have dealt with nausea. I had zero sickness with Easton and while I have never thrown up I have felt nauseous many times a day throughout my first trimester. Eating every couple hours does seem to help but still it comes and goes at random times and I never really know when to expect it.

I have been really exhausted too; which, I do remember being with Easton but more into the 2nd and 3rd trimesters. Running takes a ton of energy now and then chasing a toddler around makes the end of most days pretty tough. I find it hard to do much of anything in the later afternoon/early evening.

I’m hoping that as I get more into the second trimester that the nausea will die down some and I’ll feel a little more like myself but right now I just take it a day at a time. I’ve never been more thankful to feel nauseous though!

I’m also showing much quicker with this one. When I went in for my 10 week appointment my OB said my uterus was measuring 16+ weeks which would probably explain why I feel like I’m already starting to show. While we may have kept the news to ourselves a little bit longer, I had a feeling I wouldn’t be able to hide it anymore in the coming weeks.

If you’ve made it this far, CONGRATS! I know this is long but when you don’t share something for 13-14 weeks it sure does make for one LONG blog post!

I was very open in my pregnancy journey with Easton and I hope to be on this one too! If there is anything you’d like to know – ask away!

Let me know what you’d like me to share and what you’d like to see during this new journey. I want to be open but I also don’t want this blog to be over run by it.

Thank you all for your wonderful support! We are so excited about this next step in our family’s journey!