Asking my partner to take over tasks:
Involving others in activities with my son:
Adjusting my activities during the 3rd trimester:
Tag: Motherhood
How to get decent sleep during pregnancy
I’m 34 weeks pregnant, and I’m still sleeping (relatively) well. How do I do it?!
Explaining to my son that “Mom can’t do the same things as before.”
Setting realistic expectations with my son.
Bye bye, pregnancy cravings and aversions!
I had more energy to exercise during the second trimester.
I ate more normally (for me) during the 2nd trimester and said goodbye to cravings & aversions!
I started asking for help from friends in the second trimester.
The second trimester–such a relief!
My tricks for getting more protein in during the first trimester.
Finally, second trimester and lots of energy!
I could finally stick to a schedule again during the second trimester!
First trimester: A gentle schedule?
Establishing a gentle schedule for the first trimester.
My main priority for the first trimester was to rest.
Food cravings and aversions are so tough during the first trimester!
Pregnancy time management is a real thing
Pregnancy time management: Is that even a thing? Oh yes, it is!
Pregnancy is such a unique time in one’s life that it requires a unique type of time management.
The first trimester is my least favorite! Fatigue, nausea, food aversions… Need I say more?
Trying to conceive again after loss
As I mentioned last week, I’m pregnant (now 29 weeks)! We’re very happy about this baby, and we’re hoping everything goes well. Today, I’d like to talk about what it’s been like trying to conceive after a loss.
The losses
We have a three-year-old son, and when we decided to start trying for another baby, we experienced two losses: one at 21 weeks in December 2021, and one at 7 weeks in June 2022. The first loss was devastating. The second one happened early in the pregnancy, so it’s very common (unlike the first one), but it was still sad. And since it came after the first loss, it was extra heavy.
After the first loss, everyone said, “Next time will be fine. You’ll see.” And I hoped that would be true, but it wasn’t, and that made things even more scary next time around.
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Sooo, I’m pregnant!
I’m 28 weeks pregnant! (That’s a little over 6 months.) So officially into the third trimester, woohoo!
I’m feeling pretty good about it at this point, and I finally feel ready to share with people that I’m pregnant, although I started showing super early, as usual, so people who see me regularly have known for a while. If anything, when people see my belly, they expect that I’ll be having the baby anytime now. “Nope,” I say. “Another 3 months to go, almost.” “Phew,” they say, “good luck!”
The first trimester was tough for me, as it usually is. It came with the typical nausea, food cravings and aversions, poor blood sugar regulation, and fatigue. This time around, this phase was also a bit longer than usual: from week 5 until week 16. Wow, was I happy when it was finished!
Then, the second trimester came around, I had more energy, and I could eat my usual foods which made me feel good. I had stable energy and generally felt like myself again. What a difference that made!
While I was glad and grateful to be pregnant, this pregnancy was accompanied by many fears. I’ve spoken at length about how we lost our baby at 21 weeks of pregnancy in December 2021, so this fear was real until at least 24 weeks or so. What I haven’t mentioned is that we had another loss in June 2022: at 7 weeks, so much earlier but still sad.
These two losses meant that I went into this pregnancy with apprehension as well as hope. I didn’t know what would happen this time around, but I was also happy to be pregnant.
I still have 3 months to go, and there are no guarantees about how things will go, even though all indications are good. The tricky thing is that now we’re much more informed, and we know about many more things that can happen at any stage of pregnancy or birth. This means that the feeling of security (“Oh, things will go just fine for us”) is no longer there.
But I have a great deal of hope, and I have lots of gratitude. All I can do is wait; in the meantime, I can have hope and appreciate the moments when everything is going well.
Don’t Wish the Time away
William is asleep.
The sun is setting.
I’m picking up toy after toy,
revisiting the day.
My baby turns one! One year of motherhood
Last Tuesday, our son William turned one year old. Time really does fly! I’m starting to understand what Gretchen Rubin meant with, “The days are long, but the years are short.”
He is wonderful, fun, crawling all over the place, laughing, biting our noses (it really does hurt!), and always ready for a cuddle. But there’s something else worth celebrating…
A mother and father were born one year ago.
My husband and I became parents for the first time. We have learned a great deal about taking care of another human being and also about each other. I’ve discovered that Jacob can be surprisingly resilient at times when I have no more patience left. That’s amazing because it means that even if I’m spent, he has us covered.
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A Good Life 