On Monday, this pregnancy concluded week seventeen. I have gained only two pounds, but I look like I’ve put on twelve and given my sudden rediscovery of The Irrepressible Pregnant Hunger, I’m sure that I’m well on my way to doing just that. I am roughly the size I was around twenty-one weeks (here is the evidence) when I was pregnant with Charlotte.
Charlotte and I set up the tripod together for this and she clicked the button. She is very proud.
This pregnancy has differed very significantly from anything I have experienced previously, especially when it comes to food. Last week my parents came by and we had steak and roast vegetables for dinner – and I literally ate steak leftovers at every meal for the next two days even though I typically feel that having steak once a year is more than enough, thank you very much.
In another example, one of the mothers in my playgroup brought tofurkey and guacamole sandwich fixings to share with the group. I had never even tasted tofurkey before, but I was so completely enamored of the flavor that I spent the next week eating tofurkey and guacamole sandwiches. Oh, and cherries! Cherries recently came into season for some of the farther-flung growers who sell at our local farmer’s market and I’ve been eating about half a pound a day for three weeks.
And don’t even get my husband started on what he calls “The Magical Bean And Cheese Burrito” craving because THAT is the story that never ends. Suffice to say that the man has spent many an hour cooking beans and pressing tortillas for me. Oh, and that at this rate the kid’s going to pop out farting like nobody’s business.
There are only a handful of tales from my pregnancy with Charlotte that Donald and my relatives love to laugh about three years later: the time I thought there was a dead body in my trunk, the time I started bawling over brownies, and the time Donald caught me nine months pregnant on a spindly stool in the pantry sneaking chocolate chips out of the bag for, um, no good reason. (I didn’t write about that because I didn’t think it was noteworthy, but it sure gets alot of playtime from my husband so I guess I was wrong.) Nobody ever really mentions the love affair I had with strawberry popsicles, thank goodness, but for the record: I singlehandedly kept popsicle-makers in business in 2009.
That said, The Magical Bean And Cheese Burrito is already making a bid to be the sort of family lore that comes back to haunt me fifty years from now with regards to this pregnancy.
Last week, Charlotte and I went to the midwife. My blood results were in so we talked about that (Surprise! I’m still Rh-!) and then we listened to the baby’s heartbeat and took my blood pressure and all of that. My blood pressure is notoriously low – so low that it is not uncommon for nurses or doctors to take my blood pressure, then take it again, then take it again, then check their machine, then take it again, then look at me in astonishment and ask how it’s possible that I’m standing.
And I’m like, well, there are these nifty newfangled inventions called legs. And you know what’s cool? Mine even swing back and forth and enable me to do this thing called walking. Isn’t that just the bee’s knees?!
No, but really, my blood pressure is always low. Toward the end of my pregnancy with Charlotte, I actually reached the point where my blood pressure reached the bottom end of the normal spectrum and I thought my OB was going to have a party right there he was so excited.
Obviously, this has not changed in the last three years and I still have the blood pressure of the walking dead. Since I do not have any of the problems typically associated with low blood pressure - dizziness, fatigue, organ failure, etc. - it’s really not a matter of concern for me at this point. Even so, I think that every time I switch care providers I need to maybe just walk in the door and immediately make an announcement. “Attention! Attention! Do not panic! Your machine is not broken! I am just some sort of freak of nature zombie hybrid. Oh and also, I’m your 10:30. Nice to meet you.”
ANYHOW, the point is that the bambino is growing. And so am I. And so is Charlotte, although you cannot really tell from the photographs here. And we have finally settled upon a top-secret set of four names – two for each sex, to be ultimately determined upon birth. And life is good.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am hungry enough to eat a small elephant. Good-bye.
** Charlotte is two years and ten months old. I am seventeen weeks pregnant.
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Great to hear that life is good Sarah! I’m happy to see you guys healthy and well! Lovely pictures! Wonderful update!!!
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Ah the pregnancy blogging is in full affect. I can’t believe I’ve been reading since you just found out about char. Insanity I tell you!!!!
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My blood pressure is always insanely low. Consistently double digits, and Brian and the nurses always marvel that I am actually alive. And then there was the one.time. when I was pregnant with Hannah that my BP was something like 124/79 and the nurse kind of freaked out because it was so abnormal. Turns out I had just run up the stairs to the office because we were late for our appointment. :)
I love your pictures!! We just got Hannah a little-kid camera (read: unbreakable) and she ADORES taking pictures of everything. :)
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You look beautiful friend :) Glad you have an appetite! I love little Charlotte in these photos! So happy!
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GAH! I totally get and respect the whole keeping names secret thing, esp. when you are keeping options and you have a blog and people have their opinions, but I’m just so curious!! Can’t wait to hear. Will you be sharing the sex? Will you be finding out?
I can’t wait to hear your birth story! I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but I just had my little miss Violet on Thursday, so that’s where my mind is right now. Went with midwives at a birth center and it was amazing. Are you doing birth center or homebirth? I’m assuming no hospital due to the midwives? I’m sure you will get to all this in time, if it’s stuff you are going to share, but I’m curious!
So glad you are feeling better, looking fantastic, and eating eating eating.
Love your pictures so much. :)
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Yay for growing baby and mama. We just found out we’re expecting our second and are very excited!
Weird you mention your BP, mine was low at my first appointment too.Charlotte looks adorable as always!
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Great photos.
We practically have the same due date. I’m in my 18th week, too.
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Carlyn - I remember when you started every comment by explaining how to pronounce your name =)
Kristin - We’re not going to find out what the sex of the baby is. We’re having a full anatomical ultrasound in two weeks to see if there are any glaringly obvious health concerns that would require a NICU, in which case we’ll change our birthing place of choice to the hospital. Right now we’re planning on the birth center with a midwife - and my birth partners are my two buddies from kindergarten and a super crunchy momma friend of mine whose husband grew up with my husband. I hope Charlotte will be interested enough to be in the room too, but we’ll see - she might just play dolls in the other room lol. I’d love to hear about the birth of your Violet! CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Animom - Woot! How exciting!! Congratulations!
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I have low blood pressure, too. Lowest reading with my most recent pregnancy: 80/40. Although I was sick at the time. But still…I know the feeling!
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Oh Sarah, how I thank you for not finding out the sex of this child! I so long for the now “old fashioned” way of having a baby. You renew my faith in ways I don’t think I can even explain, but suffice it to say that I believe the old ways are the best ways. I believe the period where it’s not a “he” or a “she” is vital to the unconditional love of a parent for a child, when it’s just your baby and that is all that matters.
Also, it makes labor much more bearable if you are still waiting for the surprise at the end.
My blood pressure is always low, too. I console myself with the fact that other people don’t see “sparkles” every time they stand up fast. lol
Glad you are feeling better!! -
“ I hope Charlotte will be interested enough to be in the room too, “
A friend of mine had her baby at home. Her two boys were there. The youngest, about 4 if I remember, spent the whole time hiding in the laundry basket.
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Gretchen - Your comment must have snuck in when I was commenting earlier =) Congratulations! How exciting!
Momiss - I can’t take all the credit for this; Donald and I balance each other out =) Every time one of us wants to know, the other doesn’t. Since we don’t prepare a nursery or buy new things for the baby, we don’t need to know so it’s easier for us than I think it is for alot of people. I also sort of think that the reason my labor went so quickly was because I was dying to know. Obviously, that’s probably not really true because my mom went quick every time she birthed too, but I’m allowed my delusions, right? =)
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Mitzie - EEP! If she was going to be spend the whole time hiding in the laundry basket, I’d send her to go play outside with my mom or something! I don’t want to scar her for life! If she’s interested, I think it would be kind of cool for her to see, but if she wants out, out she goes!
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Lmao. Yeah i think you got it by now lol.
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Thanks! :)
Also, the title of this post reminded me of the book it’s from..Leo’s Tree. Need to borrow it from the library again. Haven’t read it with my kiddo in a while. -
You look fantastic and your sweet girl is getting so big. If you loved Tofurky, I recommend trying their Italian “sausage” too… but serve it with a side of tums. :)
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When I was pregnant, I drank all of the orange juice, everywhere. Really, I’m pretty sure Florida ran out at some point. And at the end, I really craved foods with gravy. We joke it’s why our son was almost 10 lbs when he was born.
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When I was pregnant with my son all I craved was meat, so maybe it is a boy this time?
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Thank you, Sara =) I think the Tofurky craving has run it’s course, but if it comes back I’ll definitely give the “sausage” a try!
LOL Megan, maybe, who knows? I was sooooo surprised when my blood results came back non-anemic. I thought for sure the only reason I could possibly be so into meat after spending my entire life not really that big on meat was because I needed more iron. And it would explain the fatigue! And! And! But nope, I have more than enough iron to go around and I seem to be getting plenty of protein too. So. It’s just weird.
By Jordan Schilleci on May 30, 2012
You make me giggle! Love you.
<3xojo