Pregnant with #2!

The day after my last post, I found out I was pregnant!  I was not expecting it - it was only our second month trying, and we weren't even using any medications this time!  Quite different than ttc with #1.  When I mentioned to my doc how much easier it was getting pregnant the second time, he referenced that common saying, once you've been pregnant, your body knows what to do, or something like that.

 I will share with everyone that the main thing that helped me get pregnant so easily - is eating meat.  I really believe it.  The entire time we ttc'd for #1, I was vegetarian.  The month we got pregnant with #1, I had started eating meat that month.  I've been eating meat ever since.  It changed my cycles so that they are regular and normal.  I had thought they were before, at least for me, but now it is even more so.  Yes, changing my diet actually changed the length of my cycles, and also the day I ovulated.  When I was vegetarian, I ovulated on CD 24.  As a meat eater, I ovulate on CD 15.

I am now 14 weeks along.  Things are going well, and this pregnancy is exactly like my first one, same symptoms at the same times.  Psychologically, it feels different being pregnant with your second.  We feel much more casual and confidant about things, we know what to expect, it is like we are pros already.  Of course, having a toddler at home really changes the dynamics.  I can't rest like I would want, and so I am back to napping when she naps.  So I'm really not getting much done these days.  Also, since she has started daycare a few days a week (I'm working part-time now, yay!), she is "immune building."  The pediatrician put it best, "7-10 days of illness, followed by 3-5 days of wellness."  Yup!!  So, she and I have been sick fairly continuously for the past 3 months.  Because she is about 2 days ahead of me, so as she gets well, I'm on the tail end of my illness, and as I'm getting well, she is getting sick again.  Yup.  That hasn't been fun.  There were weeks I never saw the sun.  One highlight (tongue-in-cheek, here), was when we both had the stomach flu, either rotavirus or norovirus, and we both were violently vomiting in the car during a recent road trip (my poor husband).  Something we never want to experience again.  At least we didn't have the flu this year, we both had our flu shots.  I thought I was having some different pregnancy symptoms this time around, and had told the doctor that in this pregnancy, unlike my first one, I am ravenously hungry all the time, and also freezing cold all the time.  He shot me down when he said, "dear, that's not the pregnancy, that's you."  He went on to explain that since I am "running after a toddler all day," that is my body requiring the calories to keep up with her.

We told our families by putting a t-shirt on our daughter which read, "I'm going to be a big sister."  Some family members immediately got it, and others were much slower.  If we have another girl, we wouldn't have to do much except pick out a name and decorate the nursery.  If we have a boy, we would do the above, and also get boy clothes.  Prep is much easier with my second since I've already done all the research, selected neutral baby gear, etc.  They will be almost exactly 3 years apart.

The only other significant thing, is that my 2.5 year old daughter is already big-time bonded with "baby #2."  My husband and I cautiously understand anything can happen, but she does not know that and has not held back at all.  She talks to my belly every day, shows it things, kisses, pets, cuddles, hugs, you name it.  It is immensely cute and melts my heart.  I understand what "multiplying joy" means now.  Not only was I joyful about being pregnant, but my daughter is joyful too, and when I see and share in her joy, it makes me even happier.