the first twenty weeks: pregnancy two

Hellooooo everyone!

Wow, it’s been a hot minute since I wrote a blog post and for that I apologize. As I’m sure you’ve seen on my Insta, we had some exciting news to share a few weeks back that has had me a tad preoccupied. That’s right– baby two is on the way, due early October!

We found out on January 25, but I feel like I knew even before that. I had basically the exact same symptoms as I had with my first daughter, so I took a test, thinking it would be too early to get a positive (I was one whole week late before I got a positive with Ivy), but low-and-behold, those two little lines popped up well before the three minutes were up. I was stunned, as we hadn’t been trying that long. We were definitely blessed to conceive so quickly.

We had already been planning a date night that evening (shout out to Community Taven), so while at dinner when the waiter asked if we would like any drinks, I said, “no, but I think my husband needs ones!” Tom looked at me quizzically and then I said, “we’re celebrating.” He instantly knew what I meant.

Since then, life has been a roller coaster of a ride. As if being pregnant wasn’t a struggle enough sometimes, doing it with an almost-toddler adds a whole new level of struggle. I took a blog hiatus in my first trimester because, honestly, I was just too tired and sick to have the slightest desire to write, plus we had not shared out good news yet and that was all I wanted to share with you!

Now, I didn’t intend to wait soooo long after our announcement to get this post up, but life happens and it is what it is. After about 14 weeks, I started getting some energy back and was much less sick. On Easter, when I was about 16 weeks, we decided to share the news with the world. We had gotten some testing done at about 10 weeks, so we already knew the gender and had chosen a name, so we decided to do one big reveal!

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I am now almost 22 weeks with little miss Isla Sofia Jane. This name was one that we had thought about for our first daughter, but when we decided on Ivy, I knew one day I would come back to it. Isla, pronounced EYE-LA, is of British origin and was a name my husband and I both had fallen in love with. Our first daughter was given two middles names, so we decided to keep that tradition and chose Sofia and Jane for Isla, both very meaningful family names. Sofia is the middle name of my little sister and stepmom and Jane is the middle name of my maternal grandmother. All ladies I hope that Isla will someday gain wisdom and learn wonderful qualities from. Jane also happens to be the name of my favorite author, Jane Austen (Ivy and Jane Austen share a birthday) so it just worked perfectly.

I feel like this pregnancy is going exceedingly faster than my first, probably because I still have Ivy keeping me on my toes and I also recently got a promotion at work so all the training and learning has been making the time fly! We had our twenty-week ultrasound a couple of weeks ago and everything looks perfect. Being a type 1 diabetic, both of my pregnancy’s have been considered “high risk” though I am very well-controlled and have had no complications. We see a team of doctors about once a month so Isla and I are well-watched and checked regularly. (More later on the journey of being a pregnant T1D). I have been experiencing a few Braxton Hicks recently, but like I said, I’m feeling good for the most part!

Right out the gate, I was really too sick to even want food, but now that my cravings have been set free, there is no stopping them! My biggest, and oddest, craving has been Blue Raspberry Misty slush turned into a float with vanilla ice cream in the middle (basically a Misty Freeze, not blended) from DQ. I make my poor husband go get me one before bedtime at least twice a week… if not more. I have also been craving crispy brussel sprouts, lemon favored foods like dressings and cupcakes (NOT lemonade), and McDonald’s cheeseburgers. Otherwise than that, I just want random carby foods, and could drink a Pink Drink from Starbucks every day.

I have put on a little extra weight as can be expected…so I have started wearing maternity bottoms, my favs being a pair of distressed maternity jeans from Madewell (pictured above), but am wearing my normal tops for the most part. I went to my first big event of this pregnancy last weekend, my beautiful cousin’s wedding, and was, unfortunately, having a hard time fitting in any of my formal clothes, but was able to purchase the most beautiful dress from a local maternity wear designer Tiff.Marie Maternity. I felt so beautiful and confident, things that are sometimes had to come by during pregnancy, in that dress. If you are looking for some fun, cute pieces, definitely check her out! You’ll even see me featured on her site in my dress!

Well, that is probably enough of an update for now. Please comment on the post if you have any specific questions about what I’ve been up to or pregnancy two!

I promise, I’ll write again soon. Have a beautiful weekend all you lovely people.

the windy city mama, xx