18 Weeks :: Baby Number Two

Kimono c/o PinkBlush

In true second child fashion, sweet baby number two hasn't gotten a single bumpdate yet! I've been looking back at my bumpdates with Rowan and its been so fun to compare and see the big differences in pregnancies.

Gender: Boy! We still can't decide on a first name but we have a short list so I guess that's progress?

Symptoms + Differences this time around: Oh pregnancy symptoms... SO glam! I'm writing this out mostly for my records... you know... for a few years from now when I get baby fever again? ha!

The first trimester was so, so different with this pregnancy than my first. More nausea and food aversions (I basically ate pasta and toast for 3 months) and so much fatigue. It was a struggle to keep my eyes open most days. Thankfully the nausea subsided around 14 weeks and I'm just now starting to see an increase in my energy level. This happened to coincide with a phase where Rowan loved to force feed me his leftovers... so yeah that was fun!

I've also had a lot of dizziness, to the point that things have started to go black twice and I've luckily come to before completely passing out. I've had my iron and thyroid levels checked and all is well, so we're chalking that up to another fun pregnancy symptom!

The most problematic symptom this time around has been my diastasis recti. I was having so much pain and soreness in my midline, especially around my belly button... to the point that I didn't want to lean against it! That was when my OB informed me that my abs basically didn't come back together correctly after my first pregnancy. It will likely get worse this pregnancy as I get bigger, and in any future pregnancies. She said I will either need surgery to correct it later on or I can live with it, but getting rid of that "pouch" of fat in my lower abs will be near impossible. Lovely.

Weight Gain: +8 lbs. This is the same as last pregnancy at this point, but I'm being a lot more careful about what I eat this time around because of my diastasis recti and my fear of turning into a whale in my third trimester again.

Maternity Clothes: Started wearing maternity shorts around 12 weeks and haven't looked back. Second baby bellies = overactive uterus. Will share some of my favorite summer maternity staples tomorrow but this kimono from PinkBlush has been on repeat. It easily dresses up a plain tank and its perfect for our breezy Charleston summers!

Movement: Started feeling those little kicks around 15.5 weeks!! That is a few weeks earlier than with Rowan and I somehow forgot how much I love it.

Nursery Progress: I picked out some fabrics and paint samples, but still a long way to go! We need to switch Rowan into his big boy room before we can do anything else in the nursery. We'll be keeping the same crib, rocker, and possibly the dresser but I want to change the paint color, bedding, and most of the little details to make it feel different than big brother's original nursery.

Big Brother: Has been so sweet and will randomly walk up to me, lift my shirt and kiss my belly. He told his teachers about his baby brother before we mentioned anything to them! Also loves to talk to him and still thinks he has a baby dinosaur in his own belly. A blue dinosaur to be exact.

Looking forward to: Our next ultrasound, sharing some nursery inspiration, and deciding on a first name... mama wants to start monogramming!

Mamas- anyone else deal with diastasis recti during your pregnancies? I don't know anyone who has despite my OB saying its super common!

18 Weeks with Rowan