Baby #3: First Trimester!

In case you are reading this and haven't heard, we are expecting baby number 3 this spring! You can see our little "announcement" post here. We feel so blessed and thankful for all of the kind words and encouragement we've received! We can't wait to add another little one to our family!

A Little Background...

I'm going to back the story up a little bit and give a bit of background information. Sorry if this is TMI in advance haha! Since having Brynn, my youngest, my cycles were not regular like they had been in the past and I was experiencing night sweats, crazy emotional mood swings that were not typical of myself, constant fatigue and headaches. I felt like something was off but didn't know what it could be. I had mentioned this to one of my good friends and she said that sounds exactly like what she had before and suggested it could be a progesterone imbalance. Of course I googled this and sure enough, it seemed as though most of my symptoms aligned with this. She gave me the name of her reflexologist and I booked an appointment for the following week. God was so good by nudging me to get more information and ask questions about my health. Since having kids, I worry more about their health and wellbeing, and this just showed me how important it is to take care of ourselves, our health both physically and emotionally! In short, I saw the reflexologist and she was incredible. She listened and asked appropriate questions and without me mentioning progesterone she told me point blank that I have a glaring progesterone imbalance. She was so helpful and full of knowledge as she specializes in women's health, fertility and maternity care! She also suggested some foods to help with my hormone imbalance and I did some more research into how diet can affect hormones and it really is astonishing! My chiropractors office had also just been doing a seminar about hormone imbalance and they gave me some info as well! It was seriously so cool how everything happened all at once and I am so thankful God puts people there for a reason!

Back to the story... about a month later I thought I would take a pregnancy test. I didn't really know where my cycle was at because I had a miscarriage the month prior and everything was off. (I had been temperature charting which was also so eyeopening and informative!) Well... the test came back positive!! Of course I took a few more tests over the course of the next week, all confirming that we would be having another baby!

13 weeks!

Symptoms/Solutions

I didn't really have any symptoms until 7 weeks where I felt bouts of nausea. At 8 weeks nausea kicked in full force but it was unlike my other pregnancies. It came in the afternoon and lasted until nighttime. It has just begun to ease up which is so nice! As weird as this sounds, nausea always makes me feel at ease and reassured that everything is ok with baby, even though it can be uncomfortable feeling sick a lot. Riley had noticed I was sick quite a bit and asked a few times why I was sick or nauseas. He was so sweet and would say he felt so bad that I was sick. He would pray for me and was generous with his cuddles.

Some things that have helped with the nausea are peppermint tea, peppermint gum, really peppermint anything hah! I would diffuse peppermint and put a little bit of peppermint essential oil on my wrist and under my nose to smell and that would relieve nausea for awhile! Also, carbs - toast, bagels, crackers, you know...the good stuff! haha!

The only other symptom I've had is insomnia. From about weeks 8-10 it was like a little alarm would go off in my head and I'd be up at 3am. It's so crazy what pregnancy hormones can do to you haha!

Oh and one last thing I've been experiencing is super dry skin on my face, especially around my mouth. If anyone has any recommendations for this I'd love to hear them! I use the Body Shop Drops of Youth day cream and night cream and it has been amazing, but doesn't target the really dry spots.

Love this guy so much! Can't wait to see him be a dad to baby #3!

Cravings/What I've Been Eating

This may sound totally bizarre but with each of my pregnancies I've craved ketchup chips at the beginning and then once I have them I don't want to even look at them again. I've been eating a lot of carbs as I said before.. It has helped with the nausea and is so appealing, unlike meat and veggies. I have a lot of smoothies to get my greens and veggies in. Now that the nausea is settling down I'm able to eat most foods again. I haven't had too many consistent cravings beside spicy food.

Exercise

When I was feeling good I was doing the BBG Sweat workouts 3 times a week, but then nausea kicked in and it came to a halt. For weeks 8-11 I tried to get in at least one workout a week along with walks. Getting outside and the fresh air eased the nausea a bit as well. The last few weeks I've been going to yoga once a week, and home workouts (fitness blender on youtube is great, jillian michaels, modified BBG workouts). The kids try and do workouts alongside me which is really cute and motivating! I'm not being super strict with workouts, but just trying to do as much as I can, and with 2 little kids, it means sometimes only getting in 15 minutes and then waiting until after they go to bed to get in a bit more or doing it outside while they are playing! Flexibility is key I'm finding!

Will We Find Out?

We are going to leave the gender a surprise this time! We have had a surprise with our first child and with our second we had found out! Both were great, I personally love a surprise and Scott likes finding out haha! So far, Riley thinks its a boy and Brynn says girl so we will see. I'm sure they will love him/her no matter what!

Full Lap reading bedtime stories...not sure where the third will fit on my lap haha!

Thanks for reading friends and I hope you all have a great rest of your week!

Love,

Lindsay

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