Teeming with #2 - Week 16 update!

As you might have seen on my FB page the other day, this mama's been busy "cooking up another one"! Little Bean #2 is due on December 2nd, 2012!

Here's a nice closeup of the kiddo from our dating ultrasound on June 5th (13 1/2 weeks along):

And here are a couple belly shots - 13 weeks:

(...yup, I know the sticker says 12, but early on I had my dates wrong! Ooops!)

And 16 weeks.:

(I look HUGE here! Must've been extra bloated that morning as it's now a week later and I'm not nearly as big!)

I have to say the first trimey of this pregnancy hit me a li'l harder than when I was expecting with S. For several weeks there I was SUPER tired, and had a lot of weird food-related symptoms. Huge cravings for certain foods combined with totally feeling turned off other foods - including those I usually love! For example, I got really grossed out by the idea of one of my favourite salads - spinach with chopped almonds, feta and balsamic vinagrette. Cravings were generally for carbs and rich, fatty foods like dim sum. (MMMMmmMMM!) Probably makes sense; I weighed about 10 pounds less at the beginning of this pregnancy than last time, so my body's been telling me to gain some damn weight! Once into about week 13-14, cravings began to ease but not my overall appetite! I'm still eating like a horse and have put on about 10 pounds overall.

The tiredness thing really sucked. All of my available energy was going to caring for Starryn and work, so when the evening rolled around I'd basically be useless, either crashing super-early or couching out infront of the TV. Blogging? Out of the question on most days! Managing to post once every two weeks was about all I could muster. I'm very appreciative of my review/giveaway sponsors who have been very patient and understanding through all this! Now that I have some of my energy back, I should be able to get back to more regular blogging. *fingers crossed*!

(On a related note, if you're wondering how I managed to review The DivaCup so recently, well, let's just say the testing period wasn't so recent! I used it during my final period back in March, and then boom - positive preggo test! It just took my exhausted self 2 months to do the writeup, lol. :)

Another sucky thing? Hubby ended up selling our Chili Peppers tickets because I felt too crappy to go myself, and he couldn't find someone else to go with at the last minute. Boooo! (But we did see Dave Matthews earlier this month, w00t!)

Other physical symptoms from the first trimey - overactive bladder, super-vivid dreams and some general nausea (but thankfully just a few appointments with Johnny himself). Oh yeah, and a few awful headaches. Strangely, my boobs didn't start getting big & sore until the last few weeks. I spotted just a tad during weeks 5-7, but it didn't really concern me as it happened last time around as well.

All in all, though it was challenging at times, I'm sure my 1st trim symptoms were nothing to write home about compared to the stories I've heard from many other women!

Emotionally, I've been pretty level so far in general, though I have had a few completely out-of-the-blue crying spells. Good ol' hormones!

In terms of prenatal care, I'm going with the St. Jacobs Midwives this time around. I've been hearing Amazing Things about them, and so far I haven't been disappointed. I was initially assigned to Stephanie Gingerich who is AWESOME, but then a few weeks back (when I realized I'd miscalculated the first day of my last period by a week), they reassigned me to Katie, a new midwife who I will be meeting at my next appt, since Steph will be on vacation on my revised estimated due date.

I'm sooooo happy to be taking the midwife route for this pregnancy! Don't get me wrong - I did have a generally positive experience with my OBGYN last time, but the philosophy and standard of care offered by midwives just resonates so much more soundly with me. Midwives place greater emphasis on birth being a natural, healthy event (as opposed to a "medical situation") and foster informed choice for the mother, which I *heart*! For example, I was 9 days overdue with S. Thankfully I went into labour on my own, otherwise I was scheduled for an induction the very next day - something I really wanted to avoid, but I felt powerless against going the OBGYN route. I asked my midwife specifically about this, and she reassured me that while induction might be recommended at a certain point, it certainly wouldn't be forced, and more gentle methods would be suggested first prior to resorting to the more aggressive approaches (cervidil & pitocin, specifically) that the hospital regularly administers. We're also considering a home birth; I pretty much burst into tears every time I watch a video or read a story of a home birth as it's such a gentle, loving way to bring a new life into the world!

So what else? Well, next midwife appointment is on July 12th, then we're off for a week of cottage-y g00dness, then back to find out whether S will have a brother or sister on July 25th! (Yup, I'll share. ;)

How many of my readers are pregnant right now? How far along? How are things going for you?