It’s Simply Lindsay: Announcement!

I’ll be periodically updating you at various points with my progress, so I’ll give a little update of the first 12 weeks.

12 week bump-date

I decided to stop breastfeeding Ginny at 15 months, and the next month, I was pregnant. I didn’t realize I was pregnant but was feeling absolutely awful – I took an ovulation and pregnancy test at the same time (both the little litmus test strips) and put one in front, one in back so I wouldn’t mix them up.

Maybe TMI warning: See, I wasn’t sure if I was even ovulating since I had no signs of it since having Ginny, and I wasn’t sure if my fertility had come back yet.

Well, one test was positive and one test was negative, but I mixed up which was which. I was thrilled to think I had a positive ovulation test, when in reality, I was pregnant at the time. Woops, silly me.

I decided to make a doctor’s appointment because my sickness was really scaring me. I had my appointment on a Monday, and on a whim on Sunday night, I took a pregnancy test and found out I was, in fact, pregnant! What a wonderful relief. Getting a positive pregnancy test is, to me, such a strange experience – you find out something hugely life-changing is happening inside of you from a little stick, yet all I have to show for it is horrible, violent sickness. It’s completely hard to process, and I would say with Ginny, I was in pleasant denial for a veryyyy long time. It’s such a great thing to process and really let sink in – has anyone else experienced this?

Due date

Justin and I knew we wanted to grow our family, and this timing feels perfect. In fact, oddly enough out of all the days in the year, our new baby’s due date is January 21, Ginny’s birthday! While my doc said only 5% of people actually go on their due date, it’s still such a crazy coincidence.

I know people have joked that Ginny will just have another reason to dislike her baby sibling – first, taking her from her position as only child and THEN having to share a birthday!?

But I know my Ginny girl – she is obsessed with her babies; she sees a “baby” (anyone from newborn to age 10), yells BABY and gives kisses. She will love her new sister or brother and be thrilled to share their special birthday month, week, or maybe even day, despite what she may say (per the video below).

In her defense, ‘no’ is one of her favorite words and she doesn’t know ‘yes.’

In sickness and in health

In case you don’t know me, let me preface by stating that I love pregnancy. Unfortunately, my pregnancies seem to test the limits of the ‘in sickness and in health’ portion of my wedding vows. Poor Justin has his hands full, and while I detest being a complainer, he and my family are the ones taking the brunt of my sickness.

If you’re not pregnant, don’t let my experience scare you away! I know the sickness will subside enough for me to enjoy this most special part of my life. Most girls I know never had to deal with these symptoms to this extent, and everyone is different.

Whenever I watch TV shows or movies, usually a 24 type of show, I always wonder, as people are being tortured, how they don’t just die. How can they endure that torture?? How do you keep breathing after constant agony?

Well, that’s the first trimester for me.

Okay okay no, I’m being dramatic, but for me, the first trimester has been trying, and I do often wonder how people just have it in them to keep living in constant anguish. Without being a complainer, I do want to document this honestly (so I remember for future family planning hehe). I do have 24/7 sickness, pain, exhaustion, and often all three. Luckily, I’m a teacher and have the summer off, and luckily I have the BEST family to help me out. My mom, sister, dad, brothers, Gram, and of course, Justin, have helped me immensely.

Some days, I get sick after everything I eat and drink and even the moments in between. On good days, it’s just two or three times a day. On some days, I cry as I’m hugging the toilet, wondering when it will end. On good days, I have a hearty appetite for all things bad for me.

It bothers me that I can’t keep up my healthy eating habits and workouts. Even though I get sick often, my body is clinging onto all the disgusting food I’m feeding it – carbs, carbs, more carbs, soda, and Sausage Biscuits with Egg. I feel disgusting, inside and out. I’m looking forward to balancing out so I can get back to being my normal self. In the meantime, while I’m thrilled to be pregnant, I feel very out of my skin. Physically, I don’t look or feel my best; I don’t look or feel myself. Mentally, I try to remember I’m pregnant and not just a sick blob, I make secret baby name lists, and envision my next precious little bundle. Socially, I feel isolated sometimes. I can’t just go out and do things, even simple things, like meeting my niece and nephew at the park. Some days I can, most days it’s hard. It’s humbling and it also stinks to have to rely so much on my family for help and support.

Lasting thoughts

While these bumpdates are mostly for me to document and remember my experiences, if you’re interested in reading and keeping up, by all means, keep coming back! I do want to be honest in my posts but fear sounding like a whining complainer, so please know that’s not what I’m doing. Anyone who knows me knows I’m kind of obsessed with being pregnant, despite my challenges.

I’m glad to have you here and would love to connect with you by hearing your own stories, experiences, fears, questions, and more, so please leave your thoughts below.