Oh my gosh, y’all, I was laughing so hard at everyone’s craving stories yesterday! I’m glad I’m not the only one who would burst into craving rages out of nowhere. Hilarious!
I know it’s a baby-content heavy week, but I’m ready to get caught up to current, so here’s the remainder of my first trimester story…
By the time week 10 hit, pregnancy nausea was wearing heavily on me. I do not remember it being this bad with Hailey. Last time the evenings were rough, but this time it was all. day. long. I ate continuously, thinking it would help, but it never did. In the middle of week 10 I broke down in tears on the phone with my mom. I cried about how terrible I felt, both from being exhausted from continuous nausea and guilt because I wanted this baby so badly, but was so over feeling so sick.
I would often fall asleep at night by 8:30 or 9, wake up maybe once around 4am, have trouble falling back asleep, and then the long days would start over again. I felt like a lackluster mom to Hailey. She watched a few more Curious George episodes than usual and I fretted that she’d never think I was any fun again.
When I was almost 11 weeks, I had another doctor appointment. Finally, David got to come with me! The baby was busy, moving his or her arms and legs all over. It was so much fun to watch David’s face as he saw our new little one for the first time. It gave me just the lift in spirits I was after! I got an ultrasound and got to see a happy, busy baby with a heart rate of 165. Baby was measuring 4 days ahead. We left on a high.
Over the next week, the nausea became a little less intense. It was still there, but I could start to function again. I took almost daily naps, or at least would sit and relax while Hailey napped.
I got on a tomato kick. I couldn’t eat enough.
I was still averaging 4 workouts a week with a combo of 2-3 mile wogs or walks and strength circuits. Exercise would offer a brief relief from symptoms, even though I had to push myself to do something.
On October 29, I went in for my first trimester screening. I was just excited to see the baby again! The heart rate was 176 and baby was again, super busy! At this point I was feeling a little better every day, eating mostly quality food again and even thought I felt the tiniest flutter when I was laying in bed at night.
I was giddy, feeling more confident about the pregnancy and ready to share the news!
So I announced it!
I was on cloud nine, but 2 days later I got a call from my doctor, telling me he had some concerns. For those 10 days of waiting for test results I stayed busy, but mentally I sunk into a hole. I might have worked out once or twice. Honestly, that time is such a blur to me now.
Once we got the good news, nothing else bothered me. I proclaimed I’d happily be sick for the rest of pregnancy and not complain. Sure my hips burned, my face was still breaking out, occasional naps were still needed and nausea still reared its ugly head at least once a day, but I didn’t mind anymore.
My belly pictures this time have been less-than-inspired. Sorry for all the gym bathroom shots. I’ll work on it 
By 14 weeks, like was feeling pretty good. I picked back up working out about 4 days a week, looked into prenatal yoga, started being able and willing to cook a little bit more. I had another doctor appointment and the baby’s heart was pounding away at 138-141 beats a minute. I swear I’ve felt a slight wiggle or two, too.
Now I’m 15 weeks along and for the most part feeling pretty darn good, almost normal. My belly is bigger and I already find myself smiling and rubbing it unintentionally. Nausea is more mild and only coming once a day in the afternoon. My face isn’t bad, but I’m definitely still having more skin issues than normal. Salads still sounds amazing… as did the chips and salsa I downed for dinner last night.
I’m now getting more excited to know whether Hailey will have a little sister or a little brother.
Oh, and have I mentioned that the answer to that question has been taped up inside an envelope for over a week?
We’re considering opening it soon…
Did you wait to find out the sex of your baby?
Did you find out early?
Did you do anything special for the reveal?
John J. says
You really haven’t peeked in the envelope? Hard to believe. Maybe we could open it together at Thanksgiving!
jodi says
I am with you John, they should tell you at Thanksgiving! hint, hint Brittany… (well that’s mainly because once they tell you, Brittany would surely share with everyone else???!!! 🙂
John J. says
Jodi,you are obviously a wise woman. Certainly Brittany would take your advice, others, and my solicitation, into account for the grand announcement!
jodi says
Man, you have self control. With Avery, we told everyone at Thanksgiving ironically. I think we put something under everyone’s plates that said it was a girl. With Emmy, we waited a lot longer because of all the complications early on. We knew for sure we were having a girl bc the amnio does the DNA confirm, so that just backed up the guesses on the ultrasound. We were just worried everyone would get too attached (if that makes any sense, we were kinda in a blur from weeks 13 through 25 ish… ugh). So when we got our second amnio results that she did n’t look sick, we did a cake with pink icing on the inside. We went out to Si Senor with both of our families and announced most importantly our second amnio was great. Then we had everyone put on their color ribbon they thought it was and after dinner we cut into the cake. It was so much fun to celebrate our healthy baby GIRL! I will look forward to how you tell everyone! So much fun! I have enjoyed your pregnancy blogs, fun to reminisce! (but still doesnt give me baby fever for a third… PHEW!!) Glad you are feeling better!!
Brittany Dixon says
My heart still aches that you had to go through all of that and I’m just so happy that it turned out with such a happy ending! (or beginning?? :)) Two beautiful, healthy little girls- what a lucky lady you are!
Karen says
We waited. It honestly did not matter so why find out, was our thoughts. We knew we would love it either way, and that’s all that mattered.
Glad to here everything is going well:)
erin says
I have no idea how you haven’t looked yet!
With my first I found out at 14.5 weeks because we had some abnormal results, had to see a specialist and got an unexpected high level ultrasound. Everything was fine with the baby and I was shocked when they asked if we wanted to know right then. I didn’t do anything special to announce. I was so happy that the results looked good and couldn’t hold in the news.
With my second child I debated not finding out at all, but then I realized there was no way I could make it the entire pregnancy not knowing. We found out at the regular 19 week anatomy scan and immediately called everyone to tell them. I am clearly not a patient person:)
Glad to hear you are feeling better! Here’s to the rest of your happy and healthy pregnancy!
Brittany Dixon says
So glad everything turned out ok for you! We briefly talked about not finding out this time, then I burst out laughing. I love when people can wait, but I’m just not one of them 🙂
Shari says
Oh boy, you have a LOT of willpower not to peek into that envelope! So glad to hear you’re feeling better and getting to enjoy the pregnancy! 🙂
Madeline @ Food Fitness and Family says
I have zero clue how you have managed not to look. I think Thanksgiving sounds like a great time to open it! Something to be exceptionally thankful for 🙂
Beth says
We are finding out the sex on Dec. 18th, but not opening the envelope. We are taking it to a bakery and doing a gender reveal cake with the family on Christmas Day!!
With our first one, we had them put it into an envelope and my husband and I went out to a nice dinner and opened it together – so that was special too! 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
Oh that will be such a special moment!!! What a fun idea 🙂
Susanne says
I’m due Tuesday – and I still deal with nausea on almost a daily basis! Zofran has definitely been my friend, and I hope this isn’t a sign of what all my pregnancies will be like! But I know it’s all worth it in the end!
Brittany Dixon says
You’re amazing. I really am not sure I could have handled it. You are super women to me. And I’m so happy for you!! Hope you have a smooth labor and delivery 🙂
Lauren says
Open it!;)
Sara @ lifebetweenthemiles says
I have NO idea how you can wait!! We went for our BIG ultrasound at 18 weeks and I barely slept all week waiting to hear if we were having a boy or girl. I was so excited.
We didn’t do anything special for the reveal bc I literally could not wait one min after we walked out of the appointment to text and call all my friends and family.
I’m so glad you are starting to feel better!
Paulina says
You and David have some strong willpower! I didn’t feel very connected to the baby during my first pregnancy until we found out the sex, so I knew I didn’t want to wait this time either. Plus, it makes choosing a name a bit easier. This time, I asked the ultrasound tech write it down in a sealed envelope. After the appointment, my husband and I got ice cream and walked to a nearby park to open the envelope. We wandered around for about an hour feeling giddy, watching families with two kids close to the age gap of our kids, imagining that would be us soon.
Brittany Dixon says
The excitement is building for us, and like you, I loved being able to connect and bond with Hailey once I knew she was a girl. After the health scare, we were just both so relieved that I wanted the time to guess and have fun with the baby’s gender. I’m getting more anxious now though 😉
Love that you two went for ice cream- so sweet!
Chantal says
You need to find out now and let us know! lol
Heather says
I don’t know how you maintain such self control – if it was me that envelope would have been opened the same day! Ha ha. I get a little more excited and as Paulina said, I feel more connected once I find out the gender and can go pick out that first outfit. 🙂
Alexandra says
Ok, in definitely thinking boy then if they already know! Found out we had a little guy at 12 weeks pregnant!
Brittany Dixon says
I wish that was a hint for us! We actually only have it because of the genetic testing we had to do. So they either did or didn’t find a y chromosome.
Love that they could tell with your guy at 12 weeks! David would have said ‘that’s my boy!’ 😉
Kristen @ notsodomesticated says
OK are you doing a baby reveal party? Is that why you’re waiting to open it? We did our baby reveal at Thanksgiving last year! Hard to believe it’s been about a year since we found out that we were having a sweet baby girl! 🙂
Brittany Dixon says
No reveal party for us; we just want to make it a special date night out like we did with H. Hoping we can make it happen soon.
PS- a year flies by, doesn’t it?!
Jen says
Ok now I think we’re both having the same thing. We’ve both been sicker this time around plus the hips burning, terrible skin, and needing naps are my biggest problems too. That or we’re just having opposites of our first kiddos. Haha.
Open that envelope already! Hope to see you soon! <3
Brittany Dixon says
Gahhh I can’t believe we will both know soon! So excited!!
Lauren B. says
I definitely would have to rip that envelope open ASAP! Yes, we found out the sex at 19 weeks with our first, as we will with this baby. We don’t have any family near us, so we don’t really have a reason to wait for a gender reveal party or anything like that. We just call our families, how boring. Maybe we will do it on Skype this time! 🙂
Mrs FF says
My baby is 17 days old and for once I was willing to wait.!We only found out the gender when she was pulled out of my tummy!!! Almost found out at 30 weeks but my gynae said he wasn’t telling since we had to told him we would wait and hubby was willing to wait so wait we did for the entire 39 weeks and 6 days. YAY to will power
I had nausea for almost 36 weeks
Brittany Dixon says
WOW, what an incredibly special moment!! I think it’s amazing when parents wait. I’m sure you will never forget that moment <3
Laura @ Mommy Run Fast says
What a journey! I’m so glad you’re through the worst of the nausea and feeling good. And wow, such willpower to not open that letter for a week! Can’t wait to hear. 🙂
Bethany says
I planned to wait and do a gender reveal party, but the night before the ultrasound I was just too excited and declared to my husband that I absolutely had to find out in that ultrasound room and couldn’t possibly wait a day longer. So we did. haha!
Emily says
Hi Brittany! Love your blog 🙂 Have been following it for quite some time! My husband and I just had our first baby (a girl!) November 11th 🙂 We did a gender reveal party with close friends and Skyped our family in (since they are not close). It was one of the best moments…I highly recommend doing a little gathering with a cake or balloons. It is so much fun! Congrats on the new addition!!!
Brittany Dixon says
Hi Emily- thanks for the sweet words!! I love seeing pictures of gender reveal parties- they’re adorable! I think our’s will just be a special night out with just David and me, but I know I’ll be ready to shout it from the rooftop and share with family right afterwards 🙂
Verna says
Not a chance I would leave it in the envelope for a second! Haha! I love knowing! I love giving the baby a name and calling it by name and buying clothes, even just a few things. I love telling the bigger kids they’re having a baby brother (or sister). It’s almost physically painful for me to have to wait until 20 weeks. I’m such a baby about it. Haha.
Ali says
I can’t believe the temptation to open that envelope hasn’t gotten the best of you yet!! I wasn’t going to find out until the 20 week ultrasound, and I REALLY wanted to know, so we went to one of those ultrasound places and found out at week 14. It sounds totally ridiculous now, but at the time, I wanted nothing more. We didn’t do anything exciting for it. Are you going to?
Brittany Dixon says
We are hoping to make it a special date night, just like we did with Hailey. I have great memories from that night we found out she was a girl 🙂 However you find out, it’s certainly a special moment though!
Lauren says
I am 18 weeks. This is my first pregnancy, and oh lord, the all day nausea was super tough. I had no idea what to expect, and I, too, called my mom a few times in tears about how sick I felt all day. My stress at work also picked up with some big projects and I was exhausted and when I got home at night, couldn’t stand the smell of anything so I couldnt eat very well and felt so guilty! I am feeling SO much better now. Hardly any nausea at all – it kinda wore off day by day starting around 15 weeks. Now I feel pretty awesome, have so much more energy and generally feel my normal happy, plus with little movements, which is truly amazing! Good luck!
Danica @ It's Progression says
First of all, thank you so much for sharing this pregnancy journey with us – it’s so much fun to read!
And second, how have you not opened that envelope yet?!??? 😉
Heather says
We had the doctor write it down and put it in an envelope. We were going to wait for my husband’s birthday since it was only a week away to open it, but as we were sitting on the couch that night we just couldn’t take it, so we grabbed the envelope and opened it right then.
Erika says
We did not find out and I wouldn’t the next time either. Seeing the look and surprise on my husband’s face when he actually saw that it was a boy (he was 100% sure it was a girl) was priceless.
Brittany Dixon says
I can only imagine what an incredible moment that was! Such a special surprise at the end of a long pregnancy. What a wonderful way to find out! 🙂
Debbie says
I love that you’re sharing all of this with us. I’m only a week or so behind you in pregnancy, so a lot of this is familiar! I’ve been pretty lucky in that I haven’t been sick, but I can only imagine. We’re planning on doing a gender reveal party. Our families live in another part of the state, and we’ll have a lot of them in town for the holidays, so that is the plan. My hubby is less than thrilled about waiting, but I know the friends & fam will appreciate it so much! I’m honestly going to take the envelope STRAIGHT to my friend who’s coordinating the party for us so that it is NOT in our house. I know my hubby would track it down and open it. He is NOT patient haha. I’m in the process of putting my own blog together because I have so much going on my head about this I feel I need to get it all out. I’ve had so many people asking me what I’m doing (I’m in fitness) with classes & such that I almost feel like if I can get it all out in the blog and share it maybe it will help (and I’ll have to repeat myself less, maybe haha) someone else on the same journey. Love love love your blog!! Thanks again for sharing <3
Maria says
Please don’t apologize for the baby heavy posts – I love them! Also, I firmly believe in (and enjoy following) bloggers writing whatever is on their mind and if you have baby on the mind, please write about it 🙂
I love the idea of making a special date night to celebrate the reveal of your baby’s sex. It just seems so simple, so intimate, and a great memory for you and your husband. I’ve always said that I wanted to not know until the actual delivery day, but the Type A in me would hate myself for not knowing.
Ashley says
Don’t apologize for the baby posts! I love all of your posts about baby, meal planning, exercise and whatever else is happening! You have SERIOUS will power.
I am 23 weeks and we aren’t finding out (which is crazy hard) and b/c I did some testing the gender dna results were in my ECare from the Dr….I had to disable that so I wouldn’t peek .It is fun not knowing and dreaming.
I think baby #2 for you is BLUE. Hope you don’t mind me guessing. Hailey will be an awesome big sis! Yayyyy! Congratulations again!
Brittany Dixon says
Oh I love that you’re waiting! It’s going to be SUCH an incredible day for you! 🙂 We have the results because of DNA testing, too,which is how we got them early 🙂
Karen says
Wow, you have some good will-power to not look at it. It would be hard for me. I think if we end up having another one, we’d find out because if it wasn’t a girl, I’d donate all of Keely’s old clothes. I am still considering having one once Keely is around 3 or 4 years old but Bob is perfectly happy with just her but then again, so am I. Can’t wait to hear if it’s a girl or boy.
Elizabeth @ my neon running shoes says
I’m super impressed at your will power! I’m having a 4d done tomorrow to see if we can see at 14 weeks… Yep I’m crazy! The gender reveal party isn’t until December 14 tho!
Brittany Dixon says
Ahhh! Tomorrow?! You must be SO excited!! Good luck!
Monica says
I’m a long time reader but haven’t commented before. I felt that I had to comment because I went through something so similar! When I was 13 weeks pregnant, I also had an ultrasound and blood work done. The doctor called me a few days later to say the blood work was concerning (very high hCG levels) and I had a high chance of the baby having abnormal chromosomes. I went in the next day for additional blood test that would tell us for sure. Oh my gosh that week waiting for the results was the worst week of my life- I could barely function. It broke my heart but I just felt empty when I thought about the future. Thankfully we found out the baby was fine and I remember right then and there nothing else mattered. I could have cared less about the gender but we found out we were having a boy. I’m a little sad that we didn’t get to experience finding out the gender in a more traditional way (ultrasound) but we still did a reveal cake for our families. My baby boy is now 3 months old!
Brittany Dixon says
I’m SO relieved to hear that all turned out ok for you. I had higher than normal HCG too. The wait is indescribable; I’m sorry you had to go through it. I’m sure it’s all a blue now that your sweet baby boy is here with you! <3
Maria says
Your kid and my kid could be twins. I went to bed 8:30-9 every night during the first trimester and I cannot get enough of tomatoes! I eat cherry tomatoes by the handfuls! So glad to hear the results were positive, how incredibly stress that must have been.
Angie says
We didn’t find out with our first, who’s 14 months and we are hoping to try again soon in about 6 months. My husband and I were just talking about whether or not we’d find out. I said no and my husband said he’d probably want to know. I liked not knowing and once our son was born the grandparents bought us a ton of blue, sports stuff, and overalls so it all worked out! It’s nice to focus on the surprise during labor.
Caitlin says
i didn’t realize you were pregnant again. i know i’m late to the game but congrats and so glad all turned out fine!