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| Baby Agbai 2.0 - 8 weeks and 3 days |
I wanted to answer the most frequently asked questions about Baby Agbai 2.0 so here we go . . .
1) When are you due? June 16 - but as I learned my lesson the first time around this date means nothing to me. I'll just hope to have the baby at some point in June!
2) Exactly how far along are you? As of this post I'm 16 weeks and 4 days
3) Do you know the gender/will you find out/will you share? I don't know the gender yet but will definitely find out (I'm too much of a Type A planner not to!) and I'm debating whether or not to share
4) Does Nia understand about the baby? Nia knew something was up as she saw my belly growing even before we told her at Thanksgiving. She would say, "Mommy, your tummy is HUGE like mine!" (she still has her Pooh Bear tummy!). She speaks to the baby every day, kisses my belly and professes her continued love for him/her!
5) How did you tell your family? We told my parents, grandma and Nia at Thanksgiving (my sisters found out before as they spend more time around me and it was harder to hide!). Nia had this shirt on when we arrived and my mom even said, "What a cute shirt!" without reading it and after 15 minutes Mr. Lovebird finally blurted out: "READ THE SHIRT!" My brother wasn't around for the holidays, but I shared with him over the phone last month. My in-laws were told the week before at my father-in-law's chieftaincy - we showed my father-in-law the ultrasound then the rest of our family there:
6) Did you suddenly have a change of heart about #2? No, I always knew I wanted more than one logically, but emotionally I knew just one is more my speed. Once certain conditions started to fall into place such as the ones I wrote about in this post, I knew I was ready for #2. Nia starting school had a lot to do with it too - I'm excited that she'll have time with her sibling this summer, but I'll then be able to have one-on-one time with the baby as I did with Nia. I can multitask at certain things, but I know myself well enough to know one little person at a time at home is best for me! To that point, I'm very enthusiastic about the age spacing - I knew from my research (and personal experience as the eldest of 4 siblings whom I'm 8, 10 and 12 years older than) that once a child hits 5 years old and another comes along the older child operates as more of an only child and the bond isn't as strong as when the siblings are closer in age. That's not saying there's anything wrong with being an only child or having wider spacing - I just wanted to optimize the closeness of the bond without getting to the 5 year mark!
7) How are you feeling/what's different this time around? This time around the first trimester was much more challenging than with Nia. Thankfully I never threw up, but I did have nausea every day of my first trimester and it just wasn't "morning" sickness. Now into my second trimester I'm feeling better although occasionally still have morning sickness. I'm slightly anemic and have headaches a lot too but now that I'm just now getting normalized nausea-wise I really don't want to mess it up by taking iron pills although my dr. advises it (and I did the entire pregnancy with Nia). Regarding tiredness I was more tired with Nia and although I do get tired I power through because I have more commitments this pregnancy than with Nia. So rather than just take a nap as I did when I was pregnant with Nia I'm usually out the apartment or working on a deadline that prevents me from doing so. I power through the tiredness! I also started showing much quicker which is to be expected with subsequent pregnancies (right now I look like I'm 20-24 weeks - you can see that stage here from my first pregnancy). Despite looking larger in my belly, I gained weight much faster with Nia and this time not so much - the morning sickness probably has something to do with it. Another difference is looking back to my early second trimester updates, last time around I slept worse and was uncomfortable tossing and turning all night, but this time around I'm sleeping much better.
8) How are you going to document this pregnancy on the blog? I'm thinking a monthly pregnancy check-in to start and a few pregnancy-centric posts here and there, but as I stated with Nia I still feel the same about not being dominated by mommy editorial only.
9) What are you going to do differently this time around? The biggest difference is that I will have a midwife (I'm switching from my traditional dr. at the halfway mark as she no longer delivers babies) and birth at a location that will let me have more freedom with the type of birth I want to have. I'm not anti-epidural as I originally was my first pregnancy - once I felt the difference between no-epi and epi it made me a believer! What I definitely won't do is have a non-medically necessary induction or have Pitocin - I want this baby to come on it's own time as long as it's safe to do so. I believe going the route of a midwife will give me a better chance at this goal.
10) Is Mr. Lovebird excited/does he want a boy? Yes, he is thrilled as we all are (especially Nia!), and he confirms he's just happy to have a healthy baby - gender doesn't matter. This pretty much sums up how we both feel:
