I still can't believe there even IS a baby number 2 on the way for the Lunds! To say this was a surprise, is a severe understatement. I'll start off with this: David and I were not trying for a second baby! Our plan was always to start when Penelope was a year, which is only 1 month away, but we were caught off guard regardless!
Brace yourself. This is an insane story.
I have been weaning Penny for a few months, gradually cutting down on feedings, totally based on her lead and what I was able to produce. I knew that when you stop breastfeeding, you can gain some weight thanks to no longer burning those calories. I had been completely down to my pre-baby weight and size. But as I started to wean, I started to gain, mainly in my belly. I 100% attributed this to the weaning. The time came where I was completely done and I started working out, but I kept gaining weight. I figured my middle school metabolism finally became that of a normal 20-something (queue the tears as I came to terms with the fact that I could no longer eat ice cream for dinner) and that I just needed to eat healthy, and add working out to my new daily routine. UGH.
I became incredibly self conscious of my "pooch" as I would call it. I wore flowy tops, held myself in (you know, the good ol' belly suck-in!) and refused to look too closely at myself in the mirror sans-suck. I knew it would only make me more self conscious and insecure. I told myself that I was working on it, eating healthier, and introducing evening work-outs to my routine and that it would come off eventually, but no need to beat myself up over it in the meantime. Also, Penny is just shy of 11 months right now, and I have yet to get my first post-pregnancy period. I knew there is a wide range of "normal" for when this would return, and I truly didn't think twice about it. Lastly, I was feeling completely normal. As with my pregnancy with Penny, I had no morning sickness, wasn't overly tired, my boobs didn't hurt, etc. I felt completely like myself, minus my "pooch."
Jumping back a little bit: my friend Rachel, who has been one of my dearest friends since middle school called me a few months ago to ask me if I was pregnant. I assured her I wasn't! Though she called it when I was pregnant with Penny before I even knew myself. I should have taken a test that day!
Then about 1 week before we found out about this pregnancy, my dear friend Meghan called and asked if I was pregnant. I, again, assured her that I wasn't anywhere near pregnant!.
Lastly, I got a text from a friend I hadn't seen in over a year:
You can't see my full response, but it was pretty much just laughing at how silly that was to me. The thought of being pregnant was so foreign to me. It had nothing to do with feeling unready and being in denial, because we were so close to start trying regardless, I was just so certain we were not pregnant that it seemed so silly to me. But this was the third person who reached out to me about a pregnancy, and David and I both thought it was too much not to just check it out, really just so we could let the three of them know that we were NOT pregnant, with even more proof than before. So I grabbed a test at Walgreens with a few other things we needed, and headed home. I head right to the bathroom, and told David before I shut the door "you know its going to be negative, right?" and his response was "oh yeah, I know!"
Well, you guys.
I couldn't believe it. I mean, my jaw was dragging around on the floor the rest of the day. I was in complete, and utter shock. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was thrilled! But HOW? WHEN? We were both blown away. Completely, incomprehensibly, 100% blown away. We spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how far along I was. I finally did what I had been dreading, I took a real good hard look at my belly, completely relaxed, sans flowy top, to try to get a realistic idea of how far along I was.
I knew immediately that I was pretty far along. I tried my best to pinpoint my best guess, both considering that you typically start showing earlier in your second pregnancy than first, but that I also had been eating healthy/dieting, and working out pretty regularly which could counter that somewhat. After taking a good, hard look at myself in the mirror, I made my best guess:
4-5 months.
I KNOW! So many "HOW did I not know?" questions ran through my head. But I had no morning sickness, wasn't ever overly tired, and had logical responses for any other potential indictors. We had no idea. But we were over the moon excited.
I called my doctor from my previous pregnancy Monday morning and they scheduled me for an ultrasound and doctors appointment Wednesday morning. Talk about a long wait! I tried my best not to let my mind wander and think about until then. But Wednesday finally came, and we headed to the ultrasound appointment:
"20 weeks...you're five months along! And I can definitely tell you the gender!"
Brace yourself. This is an insane story.
I have been weaning Penny for a few months, gradually cutting down on feedings, totally based on her lead and what I was able to produce. I knew that when you stop breastfeeding, you can gain some weight thanks to no longer burning those calories. I had been completely down to my pre-baby weight and size. But as I started to wean, I started to gain, mainly in my belly. I 100% attributed this to the weaning. The time came where I was completely done and I started working out, but I kept gaining weight. I figured my middle school metabolism finally became that of a normal 20-something (queue the tears as I came to terms with the fact that I could no longer eat ice cream for dinner) and that I just needed to eat healthy, and add working out to my new daily routine. UGH.
I became incredibly self conscious of my "pooch" as I would call it. I wore flowy tops, held myself in (you know, the good ol' belly suck-in!) and refused to look too closely at myself in the mirror sans-suck. I knew it would only make me more self conscious and insecure. I told myself that I was working on it, eating healthier, and introducing evening work-outs to my routine and that it would come off eventually, but no need to beat myself up over it in the meantime. Also, Penny is just shy of 11 months right now, and I have yet to get my first post-pregnancy period. I knew there is a wide range of "normal" for when this would return, and I truly didn't think twice about it. Lastly, I was feeling completely normal. As with my pregnancy with Penny, I had no morning sickness, wasn't overly tired, my boobs didn't hurt, etc. I felt completely like myself, minus my "pooch."
Jumping back a little bit: my friend Rachel, who has been one of my dearest friends since middle school called me a few months ago to ask me if I was pregnant. I assured her I wasn't! Though she called it when I was pregnant with Penny before I even knew myself. I should have taken a test that day!
Then about 1 week before we found out about this pregnancy, my dear friend Meghan called and asked if I was pregnant. I, again, assured her that I wasn't anywhere near pregnant!.
Lastly, I got a text from a friend I hadn't seen in over a year:
You can't see my full response, but it was pretty much just laughing at how silly that was to me. The thought of being pregnant was so foreign to me. It had nothing to do with feeling unready and being in denial, because we were so close to start trying regardless, I was just so certain we were not pregnant that it seemed so silly to me. But this was the third person who reached out to me about a pregnancy, and David and I both thought it was too much not to just check it out, really just so we could let the three of them know that we were NOT pregnant, with even more proof than before. So I grabbed a test at Walgreens with a few other things we needed, and headed home. I head right to the bathroom, and told David before I shut the door "you know its going to be negative, right?" and his response was "oh yeah, I know!"
Well, you guys.
I couldn't believe it. I mean, my jaw was dragging around on the floor the rest of the day. I was in complete, and utter shock. I mean, don't get me wrong, I was thrilled! But HOW? WHEN? We were both blown away. Completely, incomprehensibly, 100% blown away. We spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how far along I was. I finally did what I had been dreading, I took a real good hard look at my belly, completely relaxed, sans flowy top, to try to get a realistic idea of how far along I was.
I knew immediately that I was pretty far along. I tried my best to pinpoint my best guess, both considering that you typically start showing earlier in your second pregnancy than first, but that I also had been eating healthy/dieting, and working out pretty regularly which could counter that somewhat. After taking a good, hard look at myself in the mirror, I made my best guess:
4-5 months.
I KNOW! So many "HOW did I not know?" questions ran through my head. But I had no morning sickness, wasn't ever overly tired, and had logical responses for any other potential indictors. We had no idea. But we were over the moon excited.
I called my doctor from my previous pregnancy Monday morning and they scheduled me for an ultrasound and doctors appointment Wednesday morning. Talk about a long wait! I tried my best not to let my mind wander and think about until then. But Wednesday finally came, and we headed to the ultrasound appointment:
"20 weeks...you're five months along! And I can definitely tell you the gender!"
This is BLOWING MY MIND! It has always been so crazy for me to think that with never getting a period (coinciding with breastfeeding) that this could happen -- I can't believe you made it to TWENTY weeks and could even find out the gender! Such a shock but so amazing!!!
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