Well the time has certainly gone by quickly. I remember when I was pregnant with Lilia and Marissa and the time being pregnant seemed to go on forever! I worked as a hair stylist and was on my feet and I just seemed to always be swollen and struggle with carpal tunnel syndrome.
This time around has been a lot different. The first trimester went painfully slow as it always seems to for mamas who have had a miscarriage. But moving my family to a new country has certainly made the second trimester pass quickly. We arrived when I was 16 weeks pregnant and now I am already almost in my third trimester!
This time around I forget I am pregnant, I don’t know if it’s the fact I am homeschooling a 7 and 8, parenting a very strong willed and spirited 3 year old, all while being in school myself to learn a new language…or it could also have something to do with my weight. I was a lot tinier to start with my first pregnancies so by this stage I was definitly “showing
but I started this pregnancy close to what I weight 9 months pregnant with the girls. My belly has been stretched and the years of foster parenting and eating my emotions has certainly put a toll on my now mid-thirties body. You can definitly see the bump by now but it’s not as prominent with the softer beginning.
Which in some ways is good I’ve lost about 7 lbs since being pregnant where last time around I had already gained 15-20 lbs by now. My body is like don’t worry we got all the extra he needs already!
I am not going to lie, at first the prospect of having a baby in Nicaragua seemed a little scary. I hesitated should we wait to move until after we have had the baby… but ultimately God gave me peace and a gentle nudging that this was his plan for me all along even though it wasn’t ours!
I found a Dr who came highly recommended by other expat women and am so thankful he speaks English.. getting by with my Spanish at the grocery store is one thing but having a baby and not being able to communicate with your health care provider is a whole other thing.
I’ve had 2 appointments with him now, soon to have one more and although very different to what I am used to in Canada under the care of a midwife, I feel like I am in good hands.
I am worried about a more medical approach because I believe in a more natural birthing approach and that our bodies are designed to give birth.. but I am praying that things progress naturally and quickly like they did with my daughters and I won’t have the need for unnecessary medical intervention.
As far as symptoms in the 2nd trimester I just get hungrier earlier than I normally would and like to eat first thing when prior I did intermittent fasting and ate my first meal at lunch. I am not overly tired but boy was I ever tired in the first trimester. Tired like I had never experienced before. I could barely stay awake for more than 4 hours at a time and just felt awful. Nauseous and depleted every single day. I was so thankful my husband was home during this time because I could not be a good mom to the girls when I was feeling so sick.
When I was pregnant with Lilia and Marissa, the morning sickness slowly eased off with Lilia around 13 weeks and with Marissa around 15 weeks. I was also not overly tired with them but again – early/mid twenties when I was pregnant, I totally think my age and general tiredness as a mom played into effect of why I was so tired this time. This time it was a dramatic stop at 12.5 weeks. One day I just woke up wanting coffee, and could eat normally again! The tiredness seemed to go just as quickly and I have been feeling so great the second trimester.
Making the move to Nicaragua has certainly helped this. I sleep way better here, than I ever did in Canada. I was lucky to get 5 hours a night and usually less as I foster 10 little ones over the past 5 years and was always up in the night feeding a baby or helping a child through trauma responses.
God has really gifted me this time to take care of myself better and I think it is a combination of the heat and the early start to every morning but by 9pm I am usually asleep and will sleep til 5am usually.
I am interested to see what the third trimester will hold. It is the peak of Nicaragua summer as I get closer and closer to my due date and I am sure the heat is going to have an effect on me, Right now we have a pool and the ocean near by to keep cool but we will see what the next house brings.
I am already anxious to start nesting and we are so ready to be settled into our actual home. I want to get the girls rooms set up and of course the nursery! And the school room and to make a plan for that – I am due right at the end of our school year so I think we will take most of the summer off. For this first homeschool year we choose a year round school year with Fridays as an off or easy day and a time to have breaks whenever needed but I think we will still have the majority of our curriculum completed by the end of June so we can have a traditional summer break while we are in nthe nnewborn stage.
We will be moving a minimum of 6 weeks before my due date but I am hoping we can work something out to move sooner than that. As nice as it is to live near the ocean, we are so far from everything here and we know it’s temporary! Ready to be in our forever home!
We are so excited that it is the boy, the girls are all thrilled with having a baby brother and I know he is going to get loved on and spoiled so much!