Mullog: Connor vs. Chloe

I thought it would be interesting to write down the differences between my two pregnancies so I can share it with my kids one day. I figured now would be a good time while it's still fresh in my brain.

Connor

This sweet little boy was a total surprise! When Cary and I first moved here, we had not even been married a year. Before we moved, we decided that we wanted to wait about three years to start having kids so that we could have a few years to ourselves and so Cary could get two or three years of school behind him. Well, as usual, God had other plans. In October of 2008, we went to the Outer Banks with some good friends of ours. They left their girls at home and it was just the four of us for three days. It was awesome. Little did we know it would be our last trip alone. I was approaching that time of month when we left and figured I would start while we were gone or when we got back. When nothing happened I, of course, got suspicious, and scared. After waiting a week, I finally decided to take a test. Yep, it was positive. I wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry, or scream. So I did all three. I was excited, nervous, and wondering what Cary was going to say. It was a whirlwind of emotions. I waited three days and took another test just to be sure. So we made a doctor appointment and thus the journey began.

Here are some highlights from my pregnancy with Connor

-I was four weeks when I found out.

-I was seven weeks at my first ultrasound

-I started having "all day" sickness around week six and it ended around week ten. It was right before we went to my mom's for Thanksgiving. I was so grateful that I could eat again! Whoever started calling it morning sickness really had no idea!

-Cary did not want to know the sex of the baby, but I just had to know. I am a planner and I wanted to know pink or blue.

-I didn't really have any specific cravings, other than tacos, but my sweet tooth grew into a three headed monster. Cary and I had recently changed our diet and cut out a lot of sugar. We didn't drink our tea as sweet and we really cut back on desserts and such. However, with Connor I wanted something sweet ALL THE TIME!

-My only real aversion was to milk. I could not just drink plain milk. Even the thought of it made me feel nauseated. I could drink chocolate milk and I was ok with it in my cereal, but once the cereal was gone, any left over milk went to Cary or down the drain.

-I didn't feel Connor move until about 22 or 23 weeks. I know he was moving long before that and I just wasn't sure what it was supposed to feel like.

-I found out first hand what real labor pain feels like. My water never broke, but I was seven and half centimeters dilated when I got to the hospital.Thankfully, they were still able to give me an epidural.

-Connor was due June 23, 2009 so I mostly went through the winter and spring with him. It was just starting to get really hot when I had him.

-Connor was six days early. Born June 17, 2009 and was delivered vaginally

-I didn't have any problems with his pregnancy. During my second trimester, other than having a bump, sometimes I didn't even feel like I was pregnant.

-This one is hard to admit, but I gained 43 pounds with Connor. I lost all but ten pounds of that by the time I got pregnant again.

Chloe

This pregnancy was totally planned. We decided that three years between our kids was a good gap and we figured Connor would be potty trained by that time and we wouldn't have to be buying and changing two sets of diapers. We decided we would start trying around January of 2012 and hopefully be pregnant by May or June so I would not have to go through the summer pregnant. I have many mom friends who have done it and I just refused to be one of them. Cary wanted to start trying during the summer of 2011, but I was just not ready. I wanted another child, but the thought of having two scared me. After a couple months of praying and letting God have control, which is really hard for this control freak, we started trying at the end of August 2011. I knew this could potentially mean having a summer pregnancy, but we were both ready and there was no need to put it off. We were hoping to be pregnant by November/December so that when we went to my mom's for Christmas, we could share. No such luck. Funny enough though, I was pregnant, I just didn't know it yet and my brother and his wife announced that they were pregnant!! Can you just imagine if we had both announced it? My mom would've been hysterical!! In a good way though. Again, I knew I was supposed to be starting soon and figured I would while we were gone. When we got home and still nothing, I only waited three days and I just couldn't wait any longer. I took the test and didn't even have to wait two minutes. It started changing the second I peed on it! Here we go with journey number two!

Here are some highlights from my pregnancy with Chloe

-I was six weeks when I found out.

-My 'all day" sickness started at seven weeks and ended at week 18. Much longer than with Connor.

-My first ultrasound was at week nine.

-I started having pelvic girdle pain during my first trimester. I thought it was sciatica at first, but the symptoms were not matching up completely. I just stumbled upon pelvic girdle pain by accident when reading up on sciatica. The symptoms are almost identical, except for a few. With sciatica, you get shooting pains down your legs, and numbness in one or both legs. I was not experiencing any of that. I just had a constant sharp pain on my left side in my hip and butt. Sometimes it hurt so bad that I could barely walk. Sciatica usually doesn't come up until the third trimester, although it can begin sooner. Pelvic girdle pain can start in the first trimester and go all the way until the end, which was the case with me. I did not have any issues with this with Connor, except for the couple times he sat right on my sciatic nerve and my left leg gave out.

-My second trimester was not as great this time around. Mostly because I was almost halfway through it before my nausea finally subsided. Thankfully, it was right before Easter so I could enjoy a yummy Easter dinner!

-Cary and I both wanted to find out the sex this time. Mostly because we needed to know if we would need anything. If it was another boy we were set. If it was a girl, we would need clothes. We did have some gender neutral things that we could use for Chloe, but mostly we had to get all new clothes. Thankfully, my mom is still working at a thrift shop in Gatlinburg and since she has to sort through most of the stuff that comes in and she gets a discount, she was able get us most of what we need for really cheap. They have clothes come in all the time that still have the tags on them! She brought over two big bags when they came over for Connor's birthday.

-I had some specific cravings with Chloe. One night I wanted rocky road ice cream and waffles to eat together. My three headed sweet tooth monster reared it ugly head again. I also craved tacos again. I love Mexican food anyway, but for some reason when I'm pregnant, I want it all the time.

-My only aversion was to pork. I love a good pork loin with some apples and potatoes, but my nausea set in right after we had a pork meal and just the smell of Cary eating the leftovers made me want to throw up. So needless to say, I didn't have any more pork after that. It's funny how different my aversions were. After Connor, it was a long time before I could drink plain milk again, but with Chloe I craved milk. Especially in my third trimester. We were going through about two and half gallons a week because I drank so much.

-I felt Chloe move right around 18/19 weeks. Since I knew what it felt like, it made it a lot easier to know when it was her moving and not gas or something else.

-Chloe was due September 14, 2012. so I got the summer pregnancy that I really didn't want. However, compared to some of the other summers I have gone through here not being pregnant, I was pretty lucky. We really only had about 2-3 weeks of really hot weather. June didn't really get hot until the end. I was not looking forward to July or August, but for most part they were not so bad. Granted, I was still hot 95% of the time.

-Chloe was four days early. Born September 10, 2012 and was delivered via c-section.

-This pregnancy was much harder on me than the first. Not only did I have the pelvic girdle pain, which was very painful, I was sick much longer, and I had Braxton-Hicks this time around. They started around week 28 and they got more intense as my pregnancy progressed.

-I did a lot better with my weight with Chloe. I only gained 30 pounds. It was still a little more than I wanted to gain, but it is much less than with Connor and it will be easier to loose.

Here are a few comparison pictures

My first ultrasound with Connor