I’m joining the quarantine babies club and so happy to announce that we’re expecting Baby Badau 2.0!
We’ve actually been planning to be pregnant again for a while now, but as I now know full well, you really can’t plan these things – much to my type-A personality’s chagrin. Life just works out exactly how it is supposed to, and I’m all for that and learning to enjoy the ride.
This year has been somewhat of a blessing in disguise. I had taken a slightly extended mat leave, and combined with the vacation days I had accumulated, I was able to stay at home with Lincoln until he was 15 months old. Most women in Canada take a 12 month leave. When Lincoln turned 12 months old, I felt that he was still too little for me to leave him. 15 months turned out to be perfect…he did not miss me at all while I was at work. At. All. *sniff sniff*
I was back in the office at the beginning of January in a less than ideal work situation, and only 2.5 months later, we were all forced to work from home due to the pandemic. Yay, more time with Lincoln!
Less than 2 weeks working from home, I landed a new position at my company. The same month I started in my new group is when we got pregnant. I’m currently still working from home, and expect that I will not be going back physically to the office before my next mat leave begins! So, things really worked out just as they were meant to. I feel so blessed to have this extra time at home with Lincoln, and making sure to cherish it as much as possible. Even though he has driven me completely bat-shit crazy a handful of times. š
I’m currently 20 weeks pregnant, and here are a couple of random updates about this pregnancy so far:
Feeling Physically: meh, not great. I had really strong nausea starting from 4 weeks and it’s still going, albeit less frequent now. Also, the level of fatigue with this pregnancy is a bit insane. There have been many afternoons where I would curl up on the couch and have the deepest sleep for the rest of the day. All while Lincoln toddles around and plays with the pots and pans on his own. And the best mom award goes to…
Mental Health Status: it’s been a mix of mid-level normalcy to crashing lows. I don’t know if it’s this whole covid-19 thing, or the hormones from this pregnancy are just really strong, but I will admit that my emotions have been hard to manage. I am really quick to trigger, easily tear up and more on the side of blah as opposed to happiness. Very different from my first pregnancy where I was so happy all the time and nothing could bring me down!
Wearing: last pregnancy I was looking all cute in my 4″ heels and business clothes hopping from meeting to meeting downtown. No maternity wear for this lady! This pregnancy? Huge contrast. I’m in lots of sweat pants and shirts, t-shirts. Also just spending a lot of time in my underwear. Why not? I can, so I will!
Fitness: non-existent. I was cast in ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ and booked to sing a handful of concerts and shows during the entire course of my first pregnancy. I was dancing to upbeat disco music and jumping and belting out techno hits on stage from 5 weeks to 30 weeks pregnant! No question, this kept me in excellent health throughout that pregnancy.
This year, all my shows were cancelled or postponed to 2021, so there has been no external push for me to get moving. I keep telling myself I need to get up off my ass and get into a workout routine…but nah. Don’t feel like it #noregrats. I have taken a few one-hour walks around the neighbourhood (like 3?). I’m sure that counts for something.
Eating: the nausea was so strong during the first trimester that I was mostly eating bland carbs. Cheese sauce noodles, buttered toast…bring it on! I don’t have any cravings, but I guess you could say I have preferences. I don’t lose sleep over downing an entire 8″ cake (true story), and if I feel like a McD’s burger, you bet your ass I’m driving out of my way to go get one. I am not watching what I eat. Moreso just going with the flow and whatever my body feels like it needs at any given time.
Some things I have gravitated to include grapefruit, oranges, caesar salads, Big Macs, plums, nectarines, fettucine noodles, cake, any sweet baked good, Hawaiian pizza (WTF!?), fruit juices, pineapple. Lots of citrus fruits and baked items! Is there an old wives’ tale for that? Oh and I’ve been wanting to down a nice cold beer often.
Body Image: so with no fitness regimen and me eating whatever I want, it’s GOT to lead to the question of weight gain! Surprisingly, I have not gained excessive weight. But I believe that “excessive” is in the eye of the beholder.
I am the same weight minus about 3lbs as I was during my last pregnancy at this exact some time. Caveat though…I started this pregnancy 10lbs lighter than when I started the last pregnancy. HAHA! Oh well, we’ll deal with it later.
Vitamins & Other Prenatal Support: on top of the daily medication to manage my sub-clinical hypothyroidism, I take prenatal vitamins every breakfast and lunch. I also do a teaspoon of fatty omega-3 in the morning. Due to the nausea, my naturopath has me taking ginger supplements whenever I feel like I am going to be sick. It’s helped a lot! For the past 3 weeks, I’ve been experiencing crazy heartburn and leg cramps are starting up. So my naturopath gave me a calcium-magnesium supplement to take right before bed. This supplement is my favourite because it really makes a WORLD of a difference! And it tastes nice.
In addition to the supplements, I’ve been going for regular acupuncture treatments. I’ve also booked an appointment with my pelvic floor specialist to check up on things and make sure my pelvic floor is strong and up to the task of delivery when the time comes. I cannot stress enough how important taking care of your pelvic floor is ladies!
Anyways, thanks for reading this far. We will be hosting our gender reveal tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to sharing those results with everyone!
