I love being pregnant a second time. The changes of my body; knowing that it is working hard and precisely, growing and nourishing this lovely soul who has joined our family. How content and fulfilled I feel in knowing that this was the right decision for me, Jonas and Jordan. Of course, there are the nagging questions in the back of my mind, how will this change us? How will manage? What will we gain and how will we grow with this new little being. Its never a question as to what we may lose because it is not the huge leap of having no children to having a first child. Now THAT was an adjustment! I know what to expect and I also know that there may be surprises. I know about the fatigue and the lack of sleep but I also know all that completely outweighs the difficulties.
I am now into the second trimester. Thankfully I am nowhere near as bone tired as I was earlier-that is truly the worst type of tired. Tired because of something you cannot control. Even with 8 hours of blessed sleep, naps and a general slowing down does not seem to help that type of tired. There are some similarities to the last pregnancy such as slow/no weight gain for the first trimester and a decreased appetite. Also food aversions as before. This time around, though, I am having definite food cravings to greasy salty food. I also have nauseousness that started about a month ago. It sucks. It can happen anytime throughout the day and it can make it difficult to cook. Jordan now does more than half the cooking - normally he will do it half the time. I am glad he is a great cook. I can already feel the Braxton Hicks and its still so shocking that my little belly can get so tight and not harm the baby. At least I know I will have a well tuned uterus when its time to push the baby out!
Jordan is in full on school still which is just great with me. He is minutes from him classes and does all of his research at home. He makes time to do lots with us and still stays on top of his work. I must say, and he will hate me for posting this, but I am so proud of him and all that he has accomplished this past year. His supervisor asked if he would be interested in teaching a 4th year forestry class for next semester. He said it would have to wait another year because he would never have had the time and the baby is due at the end of the semester and it would all be too stressful.
I am also very proud of Jonas. He is such a sweet little boy - still as sensitive as ever and almost always so much fun to be around. He loves his art, music class, gymnastics, books, walks, trains and marble tower. He is now a champion sleeper and falls asleep at 8:30 and gets up at 6:30. Never wakes up during the night. He has a big boy bed thanks to Grandma Janet. He has also decided to be out of diapers and although he was going in the big potty before he was one, he always reverted back to the diapers. He is now quite good at being consistent with pottying except with a little mishap on Thanksgiving in front of me and Soren. Jonas was just beyond exhaustion, but because Uncle Soren and Andrea were visiting he was on high gear and running around his bedroom bottomless. He said he had to pee and would be peeing on a pillow and we were saying No! go to the potty and he was all wild and just did it on his marble bag and pillow! It was so crazy because we were all laughing and couldn't stop and I knew we shouldn't be laughing which made us laugh harder.
Besides growing a baby, I continue to work with clients pre and postnatally. I am on call at the moment for a birth and lucky for me it will be my first birth with a midwife rather than a doctor. I imagine it will be vastly different and possibly more satisfying for this young couple. OB's are essential when there are complications but in my small bit of experience it seems that our regular system of hospital birth with nurse and doctor actually cause more intervention and complication than need be. Of course this is a generalization but this has been my experience so far. The upcoming delivery will be at Women's Hospital which will be new for me because I have only worked at Lions Gate and Burnaby General which are fairly basic rooms but I think Women's might be a whole new experience because they also have the birthing tubs and larger rooms and possibly more comfortable for the Dads. It is also designated by WHO to be baby friendly which is the only hospital in BC with this distinction. I am also going back to SMILE to help support the young pregnant moms during the childbirth education classes and possibly some of their births as well. I am trying to pack in as much as possible before April so that I can feel really good about my change of focus which will be happening in the Spring.......phew.
Jonas with his favourite music group 'Bobs and Lolo' at the Aquarium at the membership party in Sept. He was stoked!
