Outfit Details: Dress (out of stock in beige, similar here) | Kimono | Necklace
Hi friends! I just wanted to start off by saying THANK YOU so much for all of your love after our exciting announcement yesterday! This pregnancy hasn’t been very easy (a lot more on that in this post) but reading all of your sweet comments has me so excited for what’s to come. Since I’ve been pretty MIA the past few months, I wanted to share all about what these past 16 weeks have looked like. I definitely plan to post a lot more bump updates throughout this pregnancy and look forward to sharing this journey with all of you! I’ve missed you guys and am so happy to be back!
How far along: 16 weeks
Baby size: An avocado! (roughly 4.61 inches and 3.5 ounces)
When we found out: November 11th. Totally didn’t realize it was 11/11 until I looked back in my phone just now to find the video of me telling Colton!
How we found out: I had a strong feeling I was pregnant and had been taking tests for a few days that kept coming back negative (I was taking them too early) and then I started spotting so I figured I’d started my period. I was super bummed and chalked up the “feeling pregnant” to wishful thinking. The next morning I continued to spot but I STILL couldn’t shake the feeling that I was pregnant. I was in the shower when I got the sudden urge to take just one more test so I showered as quickly as I could because I was just so anxious. I felt a little crazy for wanting to take another one because I legitimately thought I was on my period. Sure enough, I could see the faintest second line! Turns out, I had implantation bleeding which I didn’t even know was a thing since I didn’t have it with my first pregnancy.
When I found out I was pregnant with Scottie, I was so shocked that I ran into the other room to tell Colton right away so this time around I wanted to do something to surprise him. I knew he’d really be shocked because I’d just told him the night before that I had started my period. My mom and step-dad were coming over to watch football shortly so I rushed over to Carter’s to buy Scottie a “Big Sister” shirt. I was hoping to put her in it before they came over but I didn’t have enough time so I anxiously waited for them to leave — Sorry Mom! Lol. They left during Scottie’s nap so I decided to put her in the shirt when she woke up and called Colton into the room. He noticed the shirt right away and at first thought she was wearing it because we were trying for a second baby but after a few seconds he figured it out and was so excited and couldn’t believe it! I’d share the video but he dropped a few profanities in the middle of all the excitement. Keeping that secret from him was the longest three hours of my life!
How we told our families and friends: This was very anti-climatic compared to my first pregnancy! We told my sister and brother-in-law the day after we found out. That’s when they found out with Scottie and it was so nice having someone to talk to about it other than each other, so we decided to do that again. We had wanted to wait until Christmas to surprise the rest of our family all together but extreme nausea hit right before 6 weeks and I only lasted about a week after that before telling my mom and mother-in-law. We see them all the time so I knew I couldn’t fake it around them for weeks! We took our Christmas card photos right after finding out we were pregnant so we decided to take a few with a balloon that said “baby” (see photo below) to surprise our families with. Like I said, we’d planned to give them the photos on Christmas but I couldn’t wait. Instead, I printed them out a bunch of pictures from our photo session and gave them each copies with the baby photo mixed in. I always print out photos for them when we have pictures taken so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. As soon as they both saw the photo they freaked out and were so excited! We then texted Colton’s dad the photo because he was in South Dakota and FaceTimed him to see if he got it. He said he did and thought it was a cute photo. He totally didn’t get it. He thought we were holding the “baby” ballon because Scottie is a baby. LOL! Once we told him what it meant he was super excited! We also told my two aunts that I’m super close with and talk to daily right around this time. Aside from that, we really didn’t tell very many people. We told a few more family members right after Christmas and that’s about it. I just felt so lousy that I wasn’t very excited about it and I knew I eventually would be so I just wanted to wait. Colton told a handful of his friends and a few of my mama friends knew (it was so nice being able to talk to people who could relate!) but other than that we didn’t share our news. I literally just told two of my very best friends a few days ago! We thought it would be fun to just surprise everyone with our announcement at this point and you guys absolutely blew us away with all of your support. It makes me so excited to continue to share this journey with you!
Gender: Unknown, we find out in a few weeks! We don’t have a preference at all but we both have strong feelings of what we think baby will be. The funny thing is, I think it’s one gender and Colton thinks it’s the other. I’ll wait to tell you what we each think it is until after we find out because I really think I’m right this time. 😉
Movement: I think I may have started feeling flutters this week! I never had any flutters during my pregnancy with Scottie and just started feeling real kicks around 20 weeks with her so I’m not 100% positive if what I’m feeling is the baby. I can’t wait for the full-on kicks, it’s my favorite part of pregnancy!
Symptoms: I want to preface this by saying I feel so incredibly grateful to be pregnant but the first 15 weeks of this pregnancy were really hard on me. I just want to be real and share all parts of pregnancy, the good and the bad. I woke up with extreme nausea at 5w6d and it was constant until about 13 weeks. At that point, it would come in waves and lasted until just a few days ago. Knock on wood, but I think I may finally be in the clear as long as I’m eating every few hours! Weeks 6-11 were the absolute worst and happened to be the whole month of December. I was super nauseous and dizzy and nothing made me feel better. I would just lay on the couch because laying down was the only thing to keep me from feeling dizzy. I’m so thankful for the help of my mom, mother-in-law, and sister during that time! They majorly helped Colton and I out by watching Scottie so I could rest while Colton was at work. I’ve also had pregnancy insomnia this time around. I fall asleep pretty easily but when I wake up to use the restroom I have a hard time falling back to sleep. I was pretty excited to find out that the Hallmark channel played Christmas movies 24/7 so I could watch them in the middle of the night when I wasn’t sleeping, lol.
On a more serious note, the hardest part of the first trimester wasn’t the physical sickness but the emotions that came along with it. Again, I don’t want this to come off as complaining because I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to safely bring this baby into the world but I want to be open and honest and hopefully help other mamas going through a similar situation not feel so alone. I had an overall pretty easy pregnancy with Scottie and I don’t think I was nearly empathetic enough to other mama friends (and my sister who threw up almost every day until she delivered) as I could have been. Of course I told them I was sorry they weren’t feeling well but I didn’t realize how emotionally hard it is to not know when you’re going to feel like yourself again. I felt very isolated and so down that I wasn’t enjoying the holiday season with my family like I wanted to. We still went out and did a few Christmas-y things but everything just felt like I was going through the motions and nothing brought me joy. I just felt really flat. That’s the best way I can describe it. I can thankfully say that I’m out of that stage and I’ve learned to be so much more compassionate to friends/family going through pregnancy. It’s definitely not all cupcakes and rainbows for everyone and that’s totally okay! I know for certain what’s to come at the end will make it all worth it.
Physical changes: It’s definitely true what they say, your bump shows a lot quicker the second time around! (This was me at 17 weeks during my first pregnancy.) My boobs have also grown a lot in the last few weeks. Oh, and my skin has definitely not been glowing this time around! I haven’t experienced too much acne but I’ve been getting big dry patches all over my face that burn and take forever to go away. On the bright side, my hair is definitely getting thicker and growing fast!
What I Miss: Wine. Ha! I didn’t miss it at all with my last pregnancy but a nice chilled glass of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc sounds amazing. 5.5 more months to go but who’s counting, lol.
Food cravings: Not a whole lot of cravings this time around. Lately, I’ve been eating Salad And Go (a local chain) salads almost everyday for lunch and I have French toast bagels with peanut butter every morning for breakfast. Tracking down a grocery store that sells them year-round was quite the dilemma but we found that Walmart always has them in stock! Lol. I went through a weird phase where I wanted Chipotle’s cilantro lime rice with just their mild salsa and guacamole. I also went through a bean and cheese burrito phase. Oh, and you can give me alllll the lemonade! The more sour the better! Chick-fil-A’s is my favorite. Lemonade has been my one constant craving throughout this pregnancy. The sourness definitely helps settle my stomach.
Food aversions: So many!! I’m starting to be able to eat more but for the first trimester I was literally living off of carbs, fruit, and lemonade. I went about a month straight eating bagels, ramen, saltine crackers, and rice. I’m thankfully over that phase and my body is starting to really crave healthy foods again which feels so good!
What we’re most excited about: I can guarantee Colton is most excited about me feeling better! He has been an absolutely amazing husband and dad through all of this and I seriously don’t know what I would’ve done without him. When he wasn’t working, he was at home taking care of Scottie and I and keeping up with all of the cooking and cleaning. I think he’s happy to be back to sharing some of those duties with me, lol. Aside from feeling better, I’m most excited about finding out if Scottie is getting a baby brother or sister! We truly don’t care and will be so excited either way! On one hand, it would be so great to have one of each. On the other hand, I know how fun it is to grow up with a sister so I’d be really excited for Scottie to get experience that. Just a few more weeks until we find out!
What we’re least excited about: Honestly, nothing at this point. I’m in no hurry for the baby to get here and I’m feeling a lot better so I’m just trying to soak it all in!
Thank you so much for reading!
xo Brie