Baby #2 FAQ

If you’ve been living under a rock over this last week, let me catch you up: we’re expecting baby #2! We are so excited & are so thankful for all of the well-wishes & congratulations that everyone had shared!! Seriously, you guys are the best.

Over the last week since our big announcement, we’ve gotten asked a lot of questions (all in the absolute sweetest way). Since so many people seem to be so curious about this pregnancy, I figured it would be fun to write a post & answer all of your burning questions!

How Have You Been Feeling?

Well, I’m not going to lie: the last 8 weeks have been rough (to say the very least). Pretty much from week 6 until week 14 (this past Friday), I’ve fought nearly 24/7 nausea & extreme exhaustion. I know the exhaustion is fairly common with first trimesters (I remember being just wasted every single day when I was first pregnant with Braelynn), but the 24/7 nausea thing has been new. I had morning sickness with Braelynn, but it was just in the mornings & then would subside for the rest of the day. Not so with this pregnancy! Week 7, I basically laid on the couch all day, every day, and thought I was going to die. Okay, that might be a tiny exaggeration, but I truly did not know how I was going to survive. I began researching & in utter desperation ordered a few things from Amazon. Thankfully, those few things I ordered (along with a few other things) really worked together to keep me from dying & I survived.

I’ll be honest: that “Week 7” that I spent on the couch (thinking I was going to die) I started to get really scared about the weddings I had booked. My season has been abnormally early this year – meaning I had just as many weddings booked from January thru May as I had June thru October (which, is really very strange). If I couldn’t even get off the couch, how was I going to pull it together to shoot a whole bunch of weddings (with a double-header weekend right in the middle)? That’s probably what inspired my desperate search for remedies more than anything. I am beyond thankful to report that I survived. I shot every single wedding I was booked for and thanks to a rock-solid post-wedding workflow, I have turned all of those weddings around in my usual time. That is: a rock-solid workflow plus a super understanding & helpful husband, and having my sister come to babysit for me whenever I needed to catch up on work (or take a nap). I only had one moment at one wedding where I got a little queasy, but it passed, I was able to continue, and no one was the wiser! Thankfully, adrenaline seemed to be the best antidote to nauseousness & since photographing a wedding day is full of adrenaline rushes – I made it! Along with those couple of things I’d ordered off of Amazon.

So, what did I order? In my research (and talking to a very helpful friend, who I kinda sorta lied to about being pregnant) I learned that taking ginger by itself, though helpful, isn’t always enough to calm morning sickness. I learned that if I was low in either vitamin B or magnesium (or both), taking ginger would do very very little. That being said, I found something called “Sparkling Mama Fizzelixir” (I mixed it up & took whatever flavor was most appealing depending on the day: raspberry & mint or citrus & ginger) – it’s a powder that you dissolve in water & drink once a day – and it has both vitamin B, magnesium, ginger, as well as a bunch of other helpful pregnancy stuff (folic acid etc.) After drinking that for about 3 days, I noticed a huge improvement & was actually able to get up off the couch & go see a movie with my husband & siblings (something that would never have been possible just a few days prior)!

I also ordered Preggie Pop Drops Plus (the “plus” stands for added vitamin B). Personally, I think they have the worst name possible, but they were so helpful to just suck on whenever I was feeling a little bit queasy (they’re a hard “candy”), but not enough to land me on the couch. They’d soothe my stomach & allow me to keep functioning.

Last but not least, I started wearing Sea Bands. My Mom has a pair and she lent them to me and I think they, combined with the powder drink, were really the magic formula for survival! If you are unfamiliar with Sea Bands, they are a bracelet that you wear that have a “nub” on the back that needs to be pressed into a certain acupuncture point on your wrist. My Mom has a set for whenever she & my Dad go on a cruise & they have a rough day at sea. That acupuncture point in your wrist doesn’t just relieve morning sickness, but nausea in general. I know acupuncture can sometimes be a weird “voodoo” like medicine, but I’m telling you – these things work.

(I also started reading the Harry Potter books and I must say, many hours have been spent laying on the couch, resting, reading Harry Potter, and being distracted from my stomach revolting against me!)

Will You Find Out If It’s A Boy Or Girl?

YES. We found out at our 20-week ultrasound that Braelynn was a girl & we will absolutely be finding out if this little “bean” is a little brother or sister! We had the ultrasound tech write Braelynn’s gender on a piece of paper & seal it in an envelope so we could have a fun gender reveal party and be surprised right along with our friends & family. This time, I think we’re going to do things a little bit differently, but we’ll still find out, and probably still have a mini-party to announce the baby’s gender to our family!

Do You Want A Boy Or Another Girl?

Personally, it really doesn’t matter to me. I’m just content to have a happy & healthy baby. Seriously (I’m not just saying that to say that). Derrick is cheering for a girl – he says he’s confident in taking care of another girl, so that’s what he’s leaning toward. Braelynn’s answer changes daily: some days she says she wants a little brother & some days she says she wants a little sister. I have to admit: we have all the stuff to welcome another little girl into our family quite seamlessly – but it would also definitely be fun to have a little guy running around our house – so we’ll see!!

Do You Have Any Inkling As To Whether It’s A Boy Or Girl?

I honestly have no idea. I didn’t have a strong feeling one way or the other with Braelynn either.

There are quite a few “old wives tales” regarding pregnancy & predicting a baby’s gender – I’ve heard a few of them, but unfortunately, they deliver conflicting answers. For example: they say if you crave sweet things, you’re having a girl, and salty things mean a boy. Some days I crave sweet and some days I crave salty – so that one is no help. I’ve heard that a girl “steals” her Mom’s beauty & causes more breakouts & less clear skin during pregnancy. Again, this one is no help because for Braelynn, I had wonderfully clear complexion, but this time around I seem to have crazy acne that just won’t go away! And of course, they say that the sicker you are, the more likely you are to be having a girl, which again, doesn’t help much because I have definitely been sicker this time around than with Braelynn.

What Does Braelynn Think?

Braelynn is super excited, right along with Derrick & I! She talks about the baby in my belly every single day. She is only 3 years old, so I know she truly doesn’t understand the major change that is about to take place in our house, but she is excited none the less! We’ve been reading books about being a big sister & have watched the Daniel Tiger episodes where he has a baby sister lots of times. She also has 2 brand new cousins who have just been born in the last few weeks! Unfortunately, she’s not really been too sure about them – she’ll look at them (from a distance) and talk to them (from a distance) but getting close & actually touching them or holding them is a compeltely different story!! I guess we’ll see what happens when December rolls around and a little baby comes home to live in her house!

How Has This Pregnancy Differed From Your First Pregnancy?

I’ve already mentioned a few ways that this pregnancy has been different from my first pregnancy. I’ve definitely experienced morning sickness to it’s full degree this time around whereas last time, I was only ever sick first thing in the mornings. With Braelynn, I remember my skin being clear & clean and this time I have terrible acne that just won’t go away. With Braelynn, I had a ton of food aversions: things that I just simply could not stand to even look at or smell, let alone eat. I haven’t really had many aversions to food this time, but I’ve definitely noticed a sharp difference in how much I can eat. I know this will change as I move into my second trimester, but these last few months, I’ve eaten about half of what I normally eat – I’m just full faster. And if I try to eat more – I end up sick. With Braelynn, I really didn’t have any cravings – just those aversions. This time, I have had a few cravings – what makes them kind of hilarious is they are all things that Derrick does not like! For a solid 2 weeks, all I wanted was cole slaw & potato salad – it’s all I could think about & the only things I really wanted. That seems to have passed now & even though I still love those things, I don’t really need them anymore.

Are You Still Going To Be Photographing Weddings?

YES!
We’ve been talking about having a second baby for a while (the last 18 months), but since I already had weddings booked & scheduled out, we wanted to be very “strategic” in our trying. I mean, it literally would have broken my heart if I’d had to cancel a wedding or two due to suddenly being pregnant & being due too close to someone’s wedding date. With that being said, my very last wedding of the year is the last weekend of October (it’s actually a double-header weekend) and I’m not due until mid-December. I will have just 1 day shy of 7 weeks after shooting that last wedding before my due date – so plenty of time to get those last weddings edited and my business prepped for a little “maternity mode”. I already have weddings booked for 2019, but nothing until summer so far! So, my plan is to go on “maternity leave” toward the end of November & take “off” as much time as I need – after all, that’s the beauty of owning one’s own business, isn’t it?

WHEW – good gracious that’s a lot of words!! If you’ve made it this far & read that entire thing – I should owe you an ice cream cone or something (yummm – ice cream).

Like I said at the beginning – I so appreciate everyone’s love & congratulations! We are so pumped up to welcome this new little babe into our family & can’t wait to have you along on the journey!