Comparative Pregnancy Musings

I wasn’t sure what to expect from either pregnancy—other than a baby, of course. My two pregnancies had some differences yet were fairly similar. Smells bothered me a lot with the first; in particular, beer smelled awful (and I usually love beer!) yet didn’t bother me at all during the second. I noticed that my sense of smell was heightened during the second pregnancy but nothing was particularly vomit-inducing. Fortunately, I didn’t really have much for morning sickness either time around. Though I was certainly huge both times; I started out at around the same weight and gained a little over 60lbs with Izaak whereas did a little better at about 45lbs with Maddox (5lbs of that was fluid retention packed on during the last week). I consumed a ridiculous quantity of milkshakes during Izaak’s pregnancy (hello, 60 lb weight gain!) but learned my lesson and tried to stay away from them for Maddox’s. I did give in to my craving for mushroom pizza a couple of times during Maddox’s stay in the womb yet I don’t think I had any inkling towards that while carrying Izaak. My ankles and feet were terribly swollen with Izaak, I didn’t have much of an issue with it while pregnant with Maddox. I carried Maddox a lot lower than Izaak; I didn’t get much for stretch marks until the very end of the first pregnancy but feel like I’m a mess from newly added stretch marks across my belly that were acquired towards the end of the latest pregnancy. There goes my swimsuit modeling career… Ha!

Breastfeeding. Ugh. I really wanted this to work out for both children and sadly, powdered formula ended up being the answer for both babies. I did give it a fierce try for a couple months each and both kiddos did get some of mother’s milk. Besides having some latch issues, my milk production sucked and I had big, hungry babies that needed sustenance!! Rather than beating myself up over this snafu, I choose to just be grateful for what I was able to provide them and give a big shout-out to science and technology for picking up the slack. Izaak tolerated a generic brand of “gentle” formula pretty well but we’ve found that Maddox does much better with the name-brand gentle formula. A $26 tub of formula lasts him about 4-5 days… if I could produce milk instead, believe me - I would!

I’m so very appreciative of my ability to make babies (with a little help from Joe, of course) and carry them to term and I know that creating a new life is really a miraculous capacity not afforded to everyone. I’m also definitely not implying that it wasn’t absolutely and completely worth it but it’s still no secret that I really didn’t enjoy being pregnant. I tried to have a good attitude about it but felt exhausted and crappy most of the time and I strongly detested the attention I received from casual acquaintances and random strangers about how gigantic I was. It’s a means to a very desirable end but 40 weeks can sure feel like a loooong time! My cognitive abilities felt like they’d been dulled (in fact, I’m not sure I’m ever going to quite recover!) and felt achy and uncomfortable during the majority of the time for both. I was convinced that Izaak’s toes were jammed in my ribs for the last couple months of his stay in my womb (ouch) and wow did I have some heartburn, especially with the last one. In general, I felt grumpy, frumpy, and slow! I also felt stressed about trying to make sure I wasn’t too stressed and trying to make sure that I was eating only the right things and not taking any meds that could potentially cause any issues. I had some particularly awful sinus problems during my pregnancy with Maddox and pretty much the only slight relief I could muster was from using a kid’s formula of saline nose spray (grape scented!). After too much time spent on the internet and reading people’s sad stories of pregnancies gone wrong; I was a little scared about miscarriage and/or birth defects especially given my practically geriatric maternal age for the second pregnancy (I was 33 while pregnant with Izaak and 37 with Maddox). So, essentially, I’m thrilled for my beautiful babes and glad to be done with all that goes along with pregnancy!