When I was pregnant with Cam I recapped my first, second, and third trimesters but in stereotypical form, I couldn’t quite find the time to post during my pregnancy with Kenna. However with pictures from my phone as reminders of the nine months, I’ve jotted down a bit about each trimester to look back on. 🙂
First trimester
I found out I was pregnant on St. Patrick’s Day, days before Cam’s 4th birthday. I didn’t get my period that morning so l took a test in the afternoon, since we were trying for baby #2. Like finding out I was pregnant with Cam, it felt so sweet and special to know I had a little one starting to grow instead me.
My in-laws arrived shortly after to celebrate Cam’s birthday. Mike and I decided we weren’t going to tell anyone about the pregnancy until we had our first scan; which meant I had to hide being pregnant from Mike’s parents! I obviously wasn’t drinking, which I don’t think raised too many questions since our family knew we were trying for a second baby. But I was sure that passing on hot tubbing at the airbnb we were staying at for Cam’s bday would give me away. I stuck to the excuse that I forgot my bathing suit (although if I wasn’t pregnant and that had happened, I probably would have just gone in with a sports bra and shorts or something, so I’m sure it was suspicious… ha).
As far as symptoms go, I happily didn’t have any morning sickness but did have this terrible taste in my mouth constantly. I was, as expected, extremely tired and slept like 9-10 hours a night in those early weeks. I also had breast soreness and a heightened sense of smell. All pretty much exactly how I felt when I was pregnant 4 years earlier with Cam. But unfortunately I also experienced something new this time around…
5 weeks in I started spotting. I will never forget the feeling of seeing that streak of blood for the first time. I was worried to the point of feeling like I had to throw up but all I could do was wait and hope the spotting would eventually stop. Luckily, eventually, it did. I remember taking Cam to Kids Day at my work and going all day without any blood. What a relief. …Kind of. I didn’t bleed anymore during my pregnancy but I’m not exaggerating when I say every single time I peed for the next 7 months, I was scared of seeing blood when I wiped. Every Sunday was a relief as it was another week we’d successfully made it. Particularly in the first trimester when I was, I think, the most desperate to make it to the next trimester.
Towards the end of my first trimester we had a family pool party. I felt like I was already showing so had to figure out how to hide my little bump in a bathing suit. Basically I just got in the pool as quickly as possible. I think everyone there had an idea that I was pregnant!
I had a work off-site the last week of my first trimester, which is usually a time for cocktails with colleagues after long hours of meetings. Of course it was mocktails for me! I was in Encinitas at the beautiful Alila for 3 days and while there, I got the test results on if we were having a boy or a girl. It was so hard to sit on them until I was back home with Mike! I flew back late so we ended up opening the email the next morning and reading the results together in bed. No trendy cake and champagne glass cut through for us! But it was so special – and exciting!! – finding out we were having a girl right there in bed.
That same morning we had our 12 week scan. Before every scan I would get really worried that something was wrong so it was nerve wracking for me. Happily our baby girl was healthy and thriving. We have the sweetest video of this scan with her jumping and squirming all around. I must have watched it 100 times that afternoon on our drive up to Tahoe to celebrate our anniversary!
We love celebrating our anniversary in Tahoe – a special place to us for many reasons; one being it’s where Cam learned to walk in 2021 and also, now, where we told him he was having a little sister!!!
We slowly started sharing our special news with the rest of our family, cautiously hopeful now that we’d made it to the second trimester.
Second trimester
We went camping early on in the second trimester. It was nice to be able to tell people I was pregnant instead of making up excuses why I wasn’t drinking. I also started telling people at work, which was a relief because of the already-mentioned baby bump I had! I was getting to a point where finding anything to wear that kind of hid it was getting hard.
Notably we also went to Disneyland early on in my second trimester! Ah, I loved this trip and Cam was the perfect age to go while pregnant because he still rode relatively low key rides. Planning this vacation seemed like it was edging on outrageous – one single day in Disney!? – but it was definitely a highlight of our summer and I’m so happy we did it.
Another highlight that I hope to always remember was one June afternoon when I picked up Cam early from school because my work was slow. We spent some time in the backyard in the “hot” tub; reduced to a kid and pregnant friendly 97 degrees. And then went inside for crafts when it randomly started to rain big juicy drops. A summer rain in California is rare. I think some power knew it was a special afternoon for us and decided to give us some freak weather to remember it all.
I did a lot of yoga, just like when I was pregnant with Cam, during this pregnancy but for some reason couldn’t manage to walk as much. I had to reduce my daily mile walk to only a few blocks. I would just get so tired. I also started to get the most painful leg cramps in the middle of the night, something I hadn’t experienced while being pregnant with Cam.
We were able to travel to Canada to spend time with Mike’s family around 20 weeks. I posted about our trip but still hadn’t mentioned our pregnancy online so was strategic about the pictures shared. 🙂
We took weekly bump pics with Cam but I only snapped a few bathroom ones the second time around. If I’m being real, this was more about being nervous and scared something bad was looming than it was about time. It’s weird how we do that, right? How superstitious we can get about things like it might actually have any impact of the outcome… Anyways. I’m glad I do have a few mirror bump photos to show of this pregnancy.
In August we took a trip to Sonoma to celebrate Cam finishing preschool! The next week he started TK and I remember how incredibly hot the next few weeks were. Not very comfortable for a very pregnant lady!
The day before I entered the third trimester, we celebrated Mike’s 40th birthday with a Hawaiian themed bocce bash. The bump was in full display while we partied with friends and family. It felt so good to be so close to the final chapter of my pregnancy – only a few more months to meeting her!
Third trimester
Around the third trimester I started having the most intense lower back pain. It was this pinching feeling that was almost constant. Ugh. I really capitalized on my pregnancy pampering at this point and had Mike give me nightly massages! Yoga also helped a bit but it was harder to move everyday with my expanding belly.
Mike took a boys trip to Vegas mid September, leaving me and Cam to adventure just the two of us one weekend. One of my best friends came over for a sleepover one of the nights, complete with coffees (for us) and pastries the next morning (ah, looking back it seems almost too easy to get out of the house with only one kid ha). Then, despite the heat, Cam and I spent the afternoon at Happy Hallow. We came home for dinner and a movie together. It was special time to spend together given how soon we were about to become a family of four!
For a last trip just the 3 of us, we took Cam to Legoland and had a blast in Southern CA for the weekend! I am looking forward to Kenna being older and taking them both there (as well as Disneyland).
The women in my family threw me a nice brunch baby sprinkle in early October. We were down to the final weeks before my due date at this point! Suddenly it was Halloween and then we were in November, the month baby would arrive (also when I celebrated my 35th birthday)!
In early November, on a whim, we took a morning trip to our favorite beach. Now that we have our little Kenna, still under 3 months, and it is very logistical to even go get a cup of coffee, I am glad we were able to get down to the sea for a last splash for a while!
The last ~2 weeks before my due date, I started picking up Cam from school vs. sending him to extended care and taking him on little dates. I will absolutely always treasure these times we had together however, looking back, I think it may have added to the abrupt shift Cam must have felt not being the only child anymore… Suddenly we went from extra time with mommy to essentially all shared time with me. If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t give up the extra time together but I would have talked with him more about how this was a special time before some big changes in our family.
As I set my maternity OOO, Mike and I were also able to get some extra time together, going to lunch everyday the week before Kenna arrived.
We’re now 7 weeks postpartum (another post on that coming …eventually) and slowly getting into some kind of swing around here. I missed my baby bump for the first time the other day which is a weird mix of emotions. I first felt Kenna move around 14 weeks and felt her flutter around every day for the rest of my pregnancy. She was such an active baby in the belly, always moving and twirling. I loved feeling her groove in there.
My second pregnancy was a bit harder but aside from the early spotting (which was very scary!), it was joyous. How beautiful to grow a little baby. I feel incredibly happy to have our Kenna girl earthside.
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