I'm pregnant...again!!!

Holy Moly you guys...So I totally knew it was likely to happen again and we are super excited but its still a little surreal to actually say I have 6 kids! 6 kids!! Wow!!!!!!! (I am hoping all the exclamation points are getting my point across ha!)

I have so been wanting to talk about how I am feeling and why I've had such a hard time keeping up with things the last few weeks but I have been so utterly and completely exhausted I couldn't even muster the energy to say anything in a way that was somewhat creative and I just couldn't just come out and say it! And the thing is I didn't even know I was pregnant until I started feeling so dang awful! So this is where it get interesting...

So many of you may not know my history of my pregnancies and how crazy I become in the third trimester when I am gigantic and ready to pop. You can read through my birth stories to get a feel here, here, here, and here (I haven't written my 2nd birth story yet). In short, my babies like to take a long to bake or they just get real cozy in my womb so almost all have been born right at or just before or after 42 weeks. And its like clockwork so you would think that I would just come to terms with that being the case and would be prepared for it...BUT I also usually start having prodromal labor 4 to 10 weeks BEFORE the babe actually comes!!! Its pretty crazy and every time I hold on to hope that maybe just maybe this baby will love me more and will arrive a bit sooner, but no.

So to try and help myself, for my last pregnancy, I decided to not figure out my due date. I had a general idea of when baby would come just by counting 9 months and adding some extra change from when I presumably conceived. While I thoroughly LOVED not knowing how far along I was (I would love to go further into why in another post) in the end it didn't help much with the end of pregnancy. Since I didn't know when that 42 week mark was exactly I prematurely expected babe to come when I started showing any sign and my deep desire to just be done definitely clouded my judgement yet again. Although, I didn't have any prodromal labor the last time!! (Which is super cool because it is something I prayed about early on in my pregnancy and the Lord totally blessed me! I also didn't have SPD last time either which I also prayed for!!)

My husband and I really questioned if our last baby would be our last or not. When it started getting close to the time I usually get pregnant we really prayed about what the Lord would like for us and we both felt at peace that the Lord has a couple more children for our family. So we began not trying to make anything happen either way which was a whole lot of fun if you know what I mean! Every single time we have ever stopped trying not to have a baby we get pregnant the very first cycle. So when a couple cycles past and I wasn't pregnant I was a bit surprised but not disappointed. We trusted in His timing. Turns out He paved the perfect way for me to start up this new endeavor of being a birth film maker and photographer! Each month I would wonder what He had in His plans, here He was blessing this business and giving me clients and new friends! I knew if I became pregnant it might put a damper on things but I still trusted Him.

I got to a point where I just stopped caring about my cycles anymore. I wasn't paying attention to ovulation or even when my period was going to start. I just didn't even think about it. So one day I woke up and started our day like normal. Just a couple hours in and I could hardly keep my eyes open, I mean I was falling asleep while trying to give my daughter a math lesson. And it was like that all.day.long. Keep in mind this is well into all the covid drama so I wondered if I was possibly getting sick. I jokingly told my hubby he should get a pregnancy test but I say that every month so he just laughed and didn't get one. That whole week I went to bed at 8pm and I was counting the hours to bedtime in the early afternoon. After I couple of days of this I just knew I was pregnant. I couldn't remember when my last period was...which was awesome but by that point I realized I was definitely past the time of expecting it.

I am normally so in tune with my body that I remember those details even without trying. But for some reason I really wasn't this time. I have a general idea of when it was but nothing perfect or definitive. My hubby had a theory that if I didn't take a test then I wouldn't get as sick as I usually do...his theory backfired. It was because I was so sick I knew exactly what was happening. So I haven't taken a pregnancy test, I don't know my cycle dates so I can't accurately determine my guess date even if I wanted to AND I don't get ultrasounds either. My best guess is that baby will come the end of December or beginning of January, meaning my "due date" is roughly mid December.

One thing I loved so much about not knowing the due date last time was that I had to really listen to my body and baby during pregnancy instead of relying on an app to tell me what was happening that week. I sat and paid more attention to all the little signs and symptoms and it made me feel so much more bonded to my little one. So I am really excited to have something similar this go around. My prediction based on how I am feeling currently is that I am transitioning between trimesters. I am not quite to my normal energy levels yet but I am not laying down all day exhausted anymore and my all day nausea has been drastically reduced to a minimal feeling about 30 minutes in the evening.

I am so grateful for this babe that is rapidly changing inside of me and I can't wait to share more of my journey! I will of course be sharing on IG and FB but if you'd like to follow along with all the super real life details you can follow my personal IG here.