Well, it's true!! We are expecting Baby Altenhofen #2!!! Due date is 4/4/14 - (I love all those nice, even numbers - I'm such a nerd) But, we are absolutely thrilled - we can't wait to add another precious babe to the family and give Will a sibling!
I am now 12 weeks along - and 2 weeks ago we got to see the baby at my 10 week appointment!! It was really sweet, it just never fails to amaze me at how tiny these babies are, and how they grow into these real-life people!! And just how Will was that size too, and now he's so big! I do have to gush a little about how wonderful my OB is - I go to Regan Wittek at Womens Health Associates, and just love her!! She told us that the sonogram person was gone for the day, and I was kind of bummed and she said, NO--that means I get to do it, and I love that part!! She went on to talk about how beautiful our little gummy bear baby is, and how he/she looks absolutely perfect (seriously, the exact words you want to hear from your OB--not that things look good, or ok, you want to hear perfect, and I love her for that) Even when we were leaving, Patrick was like, I really like Dr. Wittek. Hopefully this time she will be there to deliver this baby!!
So, we are slowly wrapping our heads around adding another member to our family - I will admit sometimes I get a little anxious about the whole newborn stage again, the lack of sleep, the constant feedings, the battles to get them to sleep---- it's a tough time, and I'm sure will be harder also having a toddler as well. But, as my friend Lauren told me when Will was going through that, it's funny how quickly you forgot those times, they go by so fast, and you will get through it! Then, I think about cuddling up with my sweet baby, having them sleep on your chest, nursing them again (good and bad to this, a lot of good though - let's pray for no blep this time - holy cow, I STILL do remember how painful THAT was---worse than labor :)), and just watching him/her grow into themselves. I hope I remember how to handle a newborn, and looking forward to three months off in the spring/summer just being a Mom.
Lots are asking how I'm feeling. It's a loaded question people . I want to be the positive Sarah that I usually am - but let's be real.....the first part of pregnancy is pretty rough!! Here is what you can read about experiencing, but I truly am going through this right now:
- Frequent peeing, (I should say urination to be more PC, but who cares?!) - this was actually one of my first clues that I was pregnant.... waking up every night to have to go to the bathroom, and barely being able to hold it from a car ride from work back to home.
- Irritible - uh, let's just say you could ask Patrick about this one. One afternoon in late July - I was throwing this big fit about him not getting home from work when he said he was (seriously, I promise the normal Sarah would brush it off and not care) but this time I was seriously ticked and put me in a bad mood all the way down to the lake. Pregnant Sarah just gets worked up about some silly things, luckily I can usually recognize it, and luckily my patient husband is pretty understanding and now we can laugh about it.
- Nausea - ugh, seriously. This didn't start for awhile, so I was a little concern, but probably around 8 or 9 weeks, I would wake up feeling so sick, and then pretty much all morning. The only thing that would make me feel any relief is to eat something. I have a co-worker who is also pregnant who had a big tub of animal crackers - there were a few days that I was just constantly putting animal crackers in my mouth to try to settle my stomach, yikes! Just like with Will, the mornings are tough, but from like 5-7pm is also a hard time, which makes dinner interesting. Let's just say, I feel like it's my job to eat, and I am completely just eating whatever sounds good: like pasta, pizza, sandwiches, salads (thankfully that sounds good!) -- basically nothing that is really healthy....fruits are good though, but veggies make me want to gag. So, trying to not gain weight is a challenge, and I have already vowed to not look at the scale when I go to my appointments and just try to make as healthy choices as I can. The nausea has gotten a little better, but still not great, hoping in the next couple weeks I will be back to normal with food cravings/aversions.
- Heartburn - oh heartburn, my old friend, how I have missed you-- NOT! Goodness, I have read that the hormones completely relax the esopheus muscles, which is why digestion is more difficult when pregnant. I have a strong feeling this baby will have a full head of hair, like the wives tale says - and the heartburn is here to stay. (I now have a pack to Tums in my purse, and will likely start popping them like I do gum ---another weird thing, my gum doesn't even taste good anymore!! For all those that know me, this is really weird, but saving us some money.....this happened to my sister too with her kids and me with Will too)
- Sluggish - I must say the mornings are VERY difficult to get going - I have like zero energy and just feel like I am dragging along. By about noon I am feeling better, but I apologize to any co-worker I come in contact with before 11am. I actually had a meeting with my boss Gayla, and as we were discussing some important things ,she says, I can't read the look on your face, after thinking about it later, I realized, I was probably just in my fog and it's hard to pull out of it. I told he rmaybe we should move our meetings to the afternoon for the next few weeks :)
Anyway, that's all the complaining I have for now :) ha! I felt it somewhat important to record not only all the high's that comes along with pregnancy, but also some of the lows as well. Obviously well worth it all in the end, and we can't wait to meet our little baby soon!!
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| We are having a baby!!! |
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| Patrick farting during the middle of our family photo shoot - his facial expression is priceless (obvious where Will gets all of his many expressions :)) |
